Grooming Error

It's definitely a week for odd phone calls at work. 

This morning, half an hour before the main store opened, a customer called demanding to speak to a manager.

Which it has to be something quite upsetting to call before the store opens.
Like...who's awake at this hour? (you know besides us workers) 

So the customer had to either be someone upset from last night.
Or else it was someone having issues with grooming as they're open a couple of hours before the main store.

It was an issue with grooming.

Apparently the customer had called like a week ago because she wanted to get her cat groomed.
And she's apparently been to our sister store before, but its been like a year or so. 
But our system had no record of her.
Which is odd because it shouldn't matter which store of ours you go to, all stores should have access to customer grooming records. 

In any case.
Because they had no record.
(Maybe in an update they lost it?)
She went through the whole process again giving all the necessary information and making sure that she'd have the rabies vaccination and such up to date.

Only.
She called this morning....idk why? Maybe to double check the time her appointment was.
Only to find out that she still wasn't in our system. That they had no scheduled appointment for her today.
Even more importantly.
Our Cat Groomer....does not work today. So there would have been no reason to schedule an appointment today because no one would be there to groom the kitty. 

So understandably the customer was upset.
Didn't like the attitude the groomers took with her.
Upset at the whole situation.

So my manager did what he could to assuage her. Offering a free groom and such and promising he'd look into the situation.

-Because it's really odd that they'd put her in the system and yet not have her in the system.

Though he was wondering if this customer was trying to scam us.
As it's quite common apparently (sadly) for grooming customers to try and get a free groom out of us. 

But it was the fact that she had put all her information in the system that had us both confused.

So I was like "Maybe she accidentally called our competitor?" 

I mean, people mix up our stores all the time.
They will be in our store and tell people on the phone that they're in our competitor's. *shakes head* 

So, I suggested to the manager that he call our competitor.
(as they've called us before to check in when customers are complaining on things) 
And see if their grooming department had her scheduled with them.

The result?

They did.
She'd somehow managed to call and schedule an appointment with our competitor without realizing it.

Which she was confused about as well when my manager called her back to explain the situation because "I don't even like them!"

Needless to say, she was a bit embarrassed that she went off on us when we hadn't been at fault.

Though I do hope she was able to have a good experience with the other store getting her cat groomed.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi