The Customer Drama

There are days where I do wonder if 'playing nice' was the best option to have taken. 

Like I'm not one for conflict and if I get caught up in something I tend to try and be the peacemaker and try and make everyone happy. 

But sometimes I wonder if it's 'worth it' to make 'everyone' happy.

So towards the end of my shift we had three customers come into the store.

A mother and her two grown up daughters, where at least one daughter had kids of her own.

As she had come up from a couple of hours away looking for a 'shark-like fish' and a fish tank to put it in so she could give the shark to her son for Christmas.

And my coworker was the one who interacted with them first. And informed them that the 10 gallon tank they'd picked out for the sharks would be too small for their fish.

At some point during this conversation the customers said that they would be getting a bigger tank. And told my coworker that it would be 'down the line' aka a year or two from my coworker's understanding. 

Apparently the customers didn't like being told "No." and hadn't 'ever been told they can't buy something before.' and so were kinda making a bigger deal of it.

And as they were looking at fish and tanks and such, my coworker approached me seeking advice on what to do.

And they explained the situation to me as they were preparing to grab some feeder goldfish for the second grown daughter for her turtle.

And we'd been keeping our voices down low...but something about our demeanor waved a flag in front of the mother's eyes as the group had walked by to go down a different aisle to look at tanks there.

And she practically whirled on us and was like "Are you seriously talking smack about us right now?! In front of us! My daughter is looking for a bigger tank! But if you're going to treat us like that then we can go to your competitor. There's one around here isn't there? We can go there! You can't talk about us like that!" 

Which my original gut instinct was to be 'helpful' and be like "Oh yes, the competitor's store is another ten minutes down the road, here's the directions. Bye." 

But the next instinct was to try and figure out the situation as I couldn't quite see why the mother was being so aggressive to us. Or well more particularly to my coworker.

As I told the woman that they'd been asking me for advice on the situation and was updating me on it.

And the customer was like "Well you should have come to us and approached us if there was a problem! Not gossip about it!"

Like...how could I know there was a problem if my coworker doesn't tell me there's a problem. I was being told of the situation and if needed would have stepped in and talked to the customers themselves if needed. 

And it was frustrating because the mother called the daughters over to explain their side of the story and they were like "We're going to be getting a bigger tank next week." as apparently the one daughter was giving her 40 gallon tank to the other daughter (aka her sister) then. 

Which wasn't what my coworker had been told and she tried to say so, but the customers were adamant that they'd explained it would be next week they'd be getting the tank.

*exhales*

The situation was rather aggressive with the daughters too. Especially when they couldn't understand 'why they couldn't put other fish in with the sharks when there were 'other fish' in with the sharks in our tanks already'

Which they seemed to mellow out when I asked for clarification on what they meant as they had used the word 'integrated' and such.

I ended up clarifying the situation and helping the customers figure out what they really wanted and what tank they wanted to get and how to decide which fish to get etc.

But my coworker was soo....idk upset? Which they had a right to be because the customers basically just called them a liar and said that they'd misunderstood what they meant...

When I'm pretty sure the customers were just making things up to make my coworker look bad.

And my coworker was upset that they caused 'trouble' and had to get me involved.

And I was like don't be. I want my coworkers happy and if I have to deal with the stupid customers who have to be difficult I will be, but I don't like seeing my coworkers hurting.

Especially when they're so upset that they're shaking so hard that they end up spilling goldfish all over the cart.

Which seeing that happen also seemed to chill out the customers as well as they were okay with me leaving them to go help my associate and such and were a bit nicer -at least to me- afterwards and more understanding.

At least the daughters were.

The mother just had this uppity attitude the entire time and I barley interacted with her after that point.

But it sucks as it took like an hour to get them happy with their fish and their tank and send them on their way.

And in the meantime I'd sent my coworker on their lunch to get them off the floor--but got stuck helping a bunch of customers so I couldn't check in on them for another twenty minutes to see how they were handling things.

And like...it sucks. Because my coworker ended up bursting into tears because of how the situation had spiraled out of control and they didn't like that they'd caused so much trouble and such.

It took a lot to calm them down. 

And I'm just irritated that the customers thought it was okay to be such beasts and lie about what my coworker had heard and that the customers listened to me when I told them the exact same thing my coworker had told them but hadn't listened to my coworker in the first place. *exhales*

>_<

Like....I can only hope that they don't come back. 

And I can only wonder how their whole fish buying experience will go. As we recommend not buying fish the same day that you set up a tank -but I didn't bring this up because I could tell the customers wouldn't like that answer having driven 'so far' to get here. 
And like...I didn't tell them about our return policy with the fish either. So if the fish die...I hope they don't think to call the store at all, or at least choose to go to a different store.

We'll see I suppose.

But hey, if they get mad they'll have to get mad at me because I was the one who helped them out through the rest of the transaction and caught their fish for them. And I was perfectly helpful and nice to them (even if I wanted to punch the mother in her uppity face) so they have nothing against me.

We'll see. 

I hope they never come back.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

No Pranks?

 You know...for it being April Fools day....I really expected to get a few customers in the store looking to buy animals for pranks and such.

And yet, it didn't appear that that happened today.

Like I kept an eye out for the people interested in buying Feeder Goldfish or Mice because those tend to be your typical 'prank' animals people go for.

But everyone I talked to had legitimate reasons for buying the animals they were buying.

So if anyone was getting an animal for an april fools thing...they were clever enough to have a different reason ready for wanting to purchase it....

Or people just didn't do it this year.

I'm hoping it's the latter.

As animals lives shouldn't be put at risk just to prank a person.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Chocolate "Chip" Shake

So there's this place that I occasionally like to go to get shakes from called Arctic Circle. 

And currently my favorite one to get is a Chocolate Chip shake.

I like it because they take...idk the word for it. But the 'Chocolate Topper shell." where it's liquid chocolate until you pour it onto something cold and then it hardens into a shell.

And usually they pour in a bunch of that chocolate stuff into the vanilla icecream and mix it in until the 'chocolate chips' are swirled all throughout the vanilla.

It's my favorite.

I love it.

And I decided, after a long day at work, that I wanted to go ahead and get one today.

And I should have suspected that something was gonna go wrong when I told the person manning the drive thru that I wanted a "Chocolate Chip shake."

And they were like "A Chocolate shake?"

"No, A Chocolate Chip shake."

"So that was a Chocolate shake?"

"No. Chocolate. CHIP."

"Oh. Chocolate Chip! Okay!" 

Like...something has to go wrong if it takes that many repetitions for them to hear the 'chip' part of 'chocolate chip'

*exhales* But I didn't really think much of it beyond the fact that the person was having a hard time hearing me.

Until I got to the window to get my food and shake.

And they hand me a 'Chocolate Chip' shake.

But not the chocolate chip shake that I had described up above. lol.

No. They'd poured a bunch of actual chocolate chips into the shake and mixed it in with the vanilla ice cream. *shakes head* lol

It was rather amusing, disappointing as I much prefer the other version, but amusing none the less.

And it tells me that there's at least one new person working in the store, if not two or three as nobody caught the 'mistake' of the chocolate chip shake.

*shakes head* lol

I wasn't about to make a scene though because at that point I was starving and just wanted to eat my food and go home.

Besides I did technically get what I asked for lol.

And it seems to be something that happens quite often there, as I asked my brother if he'd had that happen often when he'd worked at a different A.C. and he said that it happened alot.

*shakes head*

Gotta love those misunderstandings lol.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Full Moon Rising

 You know...it's pretty common knowledge that the full moon brings out the crazy people.

But I'm pretty sure it also tends to bring out the anti-maskers too. 

Like...I know the full moon was a couple of days ago.....

But today has just been...well beastly because of the anti-maskers.

Like we always have at least two or three that feel that they don't have to wear a mask.

And a good three or four dozen people that just 'forgot' to put one on but are willing to go grab one.

But today?

We had a good...I don't know...dozen people in the store who wanted nothing to do with wearing masks.

Like it was dramatic increase.

Especially because at least half of them decided to cause scenes about it.

One guy 'danced' his way out of the store after saying that wearing a mask was 'silly'

While another lady ended up calling our store to complain that one of our workers had "chased after her screaming at her to wear a mask"

-We heard no screaming btw. *rolls eyes* customers love to lie and be overly dramatic. 

And this evening we had a good dozen people come into the store right before close not wearing masks.

Like...I get it that our state mask mandate is ending in less than two weeks.

But our STORE POLICY is still in effect. And that Policy states that in order to be in the store you have to be wearing a mask.

It's been this way since JULY.

And it's crazy how people act like it's something that we 'just started doing' or else "should stop doing"

I'm pretty sure it's gonna get worse because people who have been vaccinated are now under the impression that they don't need to wear the masks.

And like...having the vaccine doesn't mean you'll never get it again. You could still catch the virus and experience a more mild case of it.  You could be a carrier of it and not show symptoms but pass it onto others who haven't yet been vaccinated. 

There's a lot we still don't know.

But like. You should at least respect a store's policy to require a mask be worn indoors. 

Like I don't expect us to get rid of the policy until the summer at the earliest.

Which in a way sucks because all of us are already mentally drained over having to constantly play babysitter over people who can't read signs and follow directions.

*exhales*

Yah....full moon brings out the crazies.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Early Morning Pricing

 It's rather bad timing on my part to get a migraine the night before I have to an early shift at work. *exhales* As it means I end up spending most of if not all of my shift as a zombie just trying to survive the day.

The migraine ended up being a rather bad one in the fact that it would wake me up every couple of hours during the night because my muscles were so tense it was making my head pound harder than a hammer on an anvil. 

It wasn't bad enough to make me nauseous which I suppose is a slight blessing. 

But it was bad enough that I actually kept my heatpack warmed up and on my shoulder to try and ease the ache there for the first couple hours of my shift as I was wandering around putting up price tags and such. 

As that's the reason why I had an earlier shift than normal.

As I usually get scheduled the 'early shift' on the days when we have new sales start in the store.

And since the 1st of April is this week...they started the 'new month' sale today.

It makes me wish that there was a way to like...have the sales be all electronically installed. Like instead of putting stickers up and taking them down only to put the same sale stickers back up with a different end date on them....the shelves would just alter their prices every month to show what's on sale and what's not on sale.

-Yes I can see how it would glitch and wouldn't work, but it would be so much easier than constantly taking down and putting back up sales-

At least it was simple work, so I didn't have to interact with customers as much as I was focused on getting all our prices up and such. Which is good when I've had a migraine and little sleep. Not having to think is always great. 

And hey...I managed to get all the sales up. So yay me. :D

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Family Time

It's been a while since my family has had an extended family party.

I think it was back in...October? Where we had a group meet up to celebrate my grandma's birthday.

But otherwise...haven't really interacted with anyone beyond immediate family for the past year.

And if it wasn't for the fact that my Dad wanted to introduce his fiancee to everyone together (after meeting with people individually throughout the week) I don't think we'd have had a family get together until this summer at the earliest.

In any case.

It was another opportunity to interact with and chat with his fiancee but also to see family that we haven't seen in a while.

Was I stressed?

Just a bit lol.

Crowds make me nervous and having a bunch of people around in an environment that wasn't work related is quite the stressor to me because I'm not used to it and there's that paranoia about accidentally catching or giving the virus at these types of events.

But overall it was a good experience.

I didn't visit with as many of the extended family as I wanted to.

But it was nice to get out and do something more 'normal' after a year of mostly just traveling between home and work.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Rough Handling?

 So we have this policy.

One that's been in effect for...oh a year now.

Where we don't allow customers to handle any of the animals in the store unless they're planning to buy that animal that day.

The main reason for this is because we can't really social distance (stay 6 feet away) if we have to open the cage and then hand the animal to the customer, so we are doing what we can to minimize the chances of being exposed to people who could potentially be carrying the virus.

Overall it's been a great because it minimizes our interactions with the customers who 'just want to hold' a pet and allows us to be more productive elsewhere.

But occasionally you get in that customer that's like "Well how do I know I want it unless I handle it?"

Which yes, sound logic, but still...

Today was one of those days. 

Where this lady came in wanting to hold a bearded dragon.

And I was like "We don't allow handling unless you're planning to purchase the bearded dragon today"

And the customer was like "Well how can I know if I want one unless I hold one and see their personality?"

Which yah I get it.

So I went ahead and allowed the customer to have their way and I opened the cage and picked up the bearded dragon that she pointed to and placed it in her hand while making sure to keep a slight grip on the tail of the bearded dragon to a) keep it from running away and b) be holding onto a part of it if the customer decides to freak out and try and throw it. 

And the customer was like "Where did the bearded dragon come from, how old is it, etc."

And like...we get the animals from specific breeders that work with our company...but I don't know who they are or where they're located or anything. And usually the bearded dragons are around 3-4 months old when they come in like most creatures are.

And the customer was like "Well...I think I might go with a breeder instead because you handled the bearded dragon a little rough when picking it up and that's nothing against you it tends to be typical in pet stores, but yah." 

....Like how can I not be slightly offended by it?

Like....I know how to handle a bearded dragon. I've been working in my store for 8 years.

And I hardly was 'rough' when I picked it up.

I picked it up.

Like...reached in, grabbed it around the middle, lifted it up, placed it on the customer's hand.

There was nothing 'rough' about it. *shakes head* 

It's not like I treated the dragon like it was fine china about to shatter if it I looked at the him wrong.

But it wasn't like I was being 'rough' with it either.

I don't even know what she meant by rough. Gah.

But it bugged me for the rest of the day. That statement. "You handled him a little rough."

Like....WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

No idea.

But it shows that the customer is rather particular/picky and probably will be one of those helicopter parents that worries over every little thing their bearded dragon does that they think 'isn't normal'

It would be interesting to discover if she actually went with a breeder or not though....

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi