Douchiest customer EVER.

[Shkspr]

(telephone rings)

Me: Thanks for calling ________. This is _______. What can I do for you today?

Customer on phone: Oh, I'm so glad you answered; you've always been such a good help to me. I can't remember who wrote that book series, the (blah blah blah)???

Me: Oh, yeah, that'd be the Blackbird Sisters mysteries, by Nancy Martin. I can pull them to the front for you if you're not sure which book you need.

Customer on Phone: Oh, that's sweet, but you don't need to do that. I'll just see what they've got here at Barnes and Noble. Thank you SO much!

(click)

And now Amazon's got an iPhone app that will let you scan shit in the retail stores you're standing in and order from them instead. Fuckers.

[WSUCougar]

Used you like a condom, she did.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Used you like a condom, she did.

Indeed.

Next time that lady called, I'd be tempted to say "I can't remember quite off the top of my head, but if you'll come on down, I'll be happy to try to help you figure out what it was."

She either comes in (and she probably wouldn't be returning to B&N after getting your help), or she gives up. Either way, you win in that you put an end to future douche behavior from her.

[Tasan]

I check Fry's prices on my phone at newegg.com all the time. I see nothing wrong with that. Be competitive. Now calling and asking, and then saying you'll just buy it at another store, yeah thats a douchebag.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

And now Amazon's got an iPhone app that will let you scan shit in the retail stores you're standing in and order from them instead. Fuckers.

That's genius.

[gstelmack]

This is such old news. I worked at an Amiga store back in college somewhere around '89/'90 and the death-knell for the store was all the folks who would come in asking questions and getting recommendations, then buying mail-order to save a few bucks. Of course the mail-order place is cheaper, they didn't have to spend time with you helping decide what to buy!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Tacky.

Funny though.

[Subby]

I have considered doing that with running shoes - going into the store, getting fitted, trying them out, then buying on-line.

Too high on the douche-meter though. Plus, you are paying for the service you get from the store. If you make use of the service but then go to another retailer, that's tantamount to stealing.

Ok, not really...but it's pretty lame.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Subby

I have considered doing that with running shoes - going into the store, getting fitted, trying them out, then buying on-line.

Too high on the douche-meter though. Plus, you are paying for the service you get from the store. If you make use of the service but then go to another retailer, that's tantamount to stealing.

Ok, not really...but it's pretty lame.

But it was ok to do the same with all those sex toys you bought???

[Hurst2112]

About 8-9 years ago, there was this dude who used to go around stores (best buy in particular...according to the Dateline feature) with a laptop and check prices of items. He would make a database and then post it online for people to compare or something. It was a nerdy thing and he would walk around the stores with the laptop propped up in front of him on a table-type thing.

He got booted from several BB stores and was told to not shop at any again. I don't know if they took him to court or what but basically, they frowned on his bargain shopping with a computer.

Guess they can do what they want. It's their property.

[SportsDino]

High level of douchery. I make it a point to never buy again from places that have given me deliberately bad service (this even includes Best Buy, which at the current rate will be the only electronics store left in existence in ten years, boooo).

Competitive shopping is one thing, like the Amazon app doesn't really bother me... although to me I'd just search the online store and not waste my time walking.

Eventually everything but discount stores are going to fold because no one sees the value, just the price tag. Then the world collapses in a giant whine of 'where has all the good service gone'... which is soon surpassed by the stampede of feet running over people on their way to save 10 bucks on a hundred dollar purchase.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Similar things happened at the campus bookstore at Harvard. They tried to claim that the ISBN numbers for the books for each class was somehow their "intellectual property." They were feeling threatened by the fact that their racket of prices 30% over amazon was being threatened.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519615

[PackerFanatic]

Everyone knows that books from a university bookstore are going to be way overpricing compared to used (or even some new) ones you could find elsewhere.

That is why text rental is the shit.

[SportsDino]

You shouldn't have to go to a store to get ISDN numbers, they could have done all the same research from the comfort of their dorm rooms. Not that they did anything wrong really, textbook stores are the devil, screw em!

Heck, profs these days should just put the ISDN on the syllabus. The whole changing editions every two years or so is bogus anyway.

[samifan24]

I currently work at the other major book retailer. We have nasty customers announce "well I'm going to Barnes & Noble!" and storm off all the time. We're only to happy to let them go.

Your customer was bad but I've had a lot worse. If that's the worst you experience this holiday season, you're in good shape, believe me!

[Barkeep49]

As a librarian we get things like this ALL the time. But of course we're designed to be a public service.

[Anthony]

i was in BB this past monday checking out some laptops that i saw online for their cyber monday deals. i asked the clerk "i know this is cyber monday and these are specifically online deals, but i'm here now - can you just give me the online price?", she inquired to her superior and answered "no". i replied "can i go home, buy it online and pick it up here at least?" and she again inquired and came back with "no". i said "ok, thanks anyway". i went home, went online and bought the laptop straight from Dell, got a laptop with slightly better specs along with a laptop bag for a tad under what BB was going to charge me for the laptop alone AND i got free shipping. i win.

yes, it's nice to have silly games with your "online only!" prices, but let's not pretend your competitor - Circuit City - isn't about to go under and would've LOVED to have someone walk in prepared to drop nearly $600. i'm very fickle. i want what i want when i want it - if you give me a moment's pause or give me a reason to leave your store without purchasing then i start to find excuses as to why i don't need to buy from your store or why i don't need that particular item anyway. first rule of business is to make it easy for your customers to pay for your goods. i was going to also purchase a digital camera from BB as well, but since i was online i saw their competitor is selling the same camera for less so i'll just go there. BB loses both times. that's capitalism for you.

we're officially in a recession. it's not wise to turn away customers with $600 who - if they stop to think about it - may realize it's best to just not spend that much money and buy something cheaper and put the rest in savings.

[Barkeep49]

To follow-up on TPFKAHA I got a camcorder recently and got it cheaper than what Best Buy was offering even on Black Friday. Made me smile knowing I'd had it for 3 months and STILL got it cheaper.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by SportsDino

You shouldn't have to go to a store to get ISDN numbers, they could have done all the same research from the comfort of their dorm rooms. Not that they did anything wrong really, textbook stores are the devil, screw em!

Heck, profs these days should just put the ISDN on the syllabus. The whole changing editions every two years or so is bogus anyway.

Professors typically don't distribute their syllabi until classes start, by which time it is too late to reasonably order online. They do, however, give the bookstore the ISDN numbers of books they are using. So the only way to find out what books you need is from the bookstore.

[SportsDino]

Ah true, in which case what the kids did was a public service in my opinion, they should get medals. Profs need to learn to put crap on the internet. I don't know of too many other multi-thousand dollar products that are so haphazardly run!

Best Buy is on my 'never shop again list' over 20 bucks. They make it a policy to annoy and try to soak their customers, so rather than thousands I've spent there before, they get to sit their with no revenue and thinking they are clever with their stupid policies. If everyone was as easily ticked off as me the store would go out of business probably, but unfortunately, we are sheep!

[rowech]

Originally Posted by SportsDino

Ah true, in which case what the kids did was a public service in my opinion, they should get medals. Profs need to learn to put crap on the internet. I don't know of too many other multi-thousand dollar products that are so haphazardly run!

Best Buy is on my 'never shop again list' over 20 bucks. They make it a policy to annoy and try to soak their customers, so rather than thousands I've spent there before, they get to sit their with no revenue and thinking they are clever with their stupid policies. If everyone was as easily ticked off as me the store would go out of business probably, but unfortunately, we are sheep!

Best Buy has been on our not buy list and now Circuit City is as well. We had a $35 coupon with no expiration date on it. Went in to buy a $650 TV. They gave us a fit about when the coupon expired and we told them it came in a mailer and that it didn't have a date on it. Their response? How do we know you didn't just make this. I said do some research on it. They tell me it expired the day after Thanksgiving. I tell them it doesn't matter when they say it expired, without the date on it, it's still good. If they accept it they get a $615 sale, otherwise, I'm going to HHGregg to buy the same TV at the same price. Manager says he can't accept it and that I need to do what I need to do. Told him it was unbeleivable and it's no wonder they're filing for Chapter 11 given the fact they passed up a $615 sale over $35.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by Anthony

i was in BB this past monday checking out some laptops that i saw online for their cyber monday deals. i asked the clerk "i know this is cyber monday and these are specifically online deals, but i'm here now - can you just give me the online price?", she inquired to her superior and answered "no". i replied "can i go home, buy it online and pick it up here at least?" and she again inquired and came back with "no". i said "ok, thanks anyway". i went home, went online and bought the laptop straight from Dell, got a laptop with slightly better specs along with a laptop bag for a tad under what BB was going to charge me for the laptop alone AND i got free shipping. i win.

yes, it's nice to have silly games with your "online only!" prices, but let's not pretend your competitor - Circuit City - isn't about to go under and would've LOVED to have someone walk in prepared to drop nearly $600. i'm very fickle. i want what i want when i want it - if you give me a moment's pause or give me a reason to leave your store without purchasing then i start to find excuses as to why i don't need to buy from your store or why i don't need that particular item anyway. first rule of business is to make it easy for your customers to pay for your goods. i was going to also purchase a digital camera from BB as well, but since i was online i saw their competitor is selling the same camera for less so i'll just go there. BB loses both times. that's capitalism for you.

we're officially in a recession. it's not wise to turn away customers with $600 who - if they stop to think about it - may realize it's best to just not spend that much money and buy something cheaper and put the rest in savings.

this is a fantastic post

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by rowech

Best Buy has been on our not buy list and now Circuit City is as well. We had a $35 coupon with no expiration date on it. Went in to buy a $650 TV. They gave us a fit about when the coupon expired and we told them it came in a mailer and that it didn't have a date on it. Their response? How do we know you didn't just make this. I said do some research on it. They tell me it expired the day after Thanksgiving. I tell them it doesn't matter when they say it expired, without the date on it, it's still good. If they accept it they get a $615 sale, otherwise, I'm going to HHGregg to buy the same TV at the same price. Manager says he can't accept it and that I need to do what I need to do. Told him it was unbeleivable and it's no wonder they're filing for Chapter 11 given the fact they passed up a $615 sale over $35.

you mean you were gonna buy the same tv for $650, or the same tv for $615? i'm assuming you mean you were threatening to buy the same tv for $650. if that's the case then i can see where the manager was coming from, that's not really a good proposition. "i'm supposed to honor this coupon that my information suggests is no longer valid?". so its not the fact that you didn't want to pay $650, you just wanted a store to accept a possibly expired coupon OR you go to another store to spend that $650, which from their standpoint (since its a business) you're asking them to basically sell you something for less than what other stores are charging. if they would've did that then i could see why they'd be filing for Chapter 11.

what you should've done is what i did to pay less for a reclining couch i got for my wife's bday. i walk into the store with $600 and ONLY wanting to spend $600, not a cent more (for budget reasons i didn't have more to spend). i walk up to a salesperson and pick out a couch for $599 and say "i don't have any more than $600 to spend on this, if i give you cash will you not charge me tax?" and he replies "everyone must pay tax". so i claim "if you charge me a lesser price so with the tax it comes out to no more than $600 i'll take this right now" and he said "i can do that" and i said "ring it up".

bing. bang. boom.

point is if you wanted to spend less than $650 then maybe you should've played the game a little differently. maybe offer if they accept the coupon and charge you $615 you'd agree to buy an extended warranty (which is what they make commission off of). or agree to buy it for $650 but no tax. a coupon with no expiration date doesn't mean you can hold it forever and 20 years from now walk in and demand they take it.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

this is a fantastic post

thank you. i was feeling really good about myself as i clicked the "checkout" button on Dell's website and i was saying to myself "wow, i came out ahead in this!".

[rowech]

Originally Posted by Anthony

you mean you were gonna buy the same tv for $650, or the same tv for $615? i'm assuming you mean you were threatening to buy the same tv for $650. if that's the case then i can see where the manager was coming from, that's not really a good proposition. "i'm supposed to honor this coupon that my information suggests is no longer valid?". so its not the fact that you didn't want to pay $650, you just wanted a store to accept a possibly expired coupon OR you go to another store to spend that $650, which from their standpoint (since its a business) you're asking them to basically sell you something for less than what other stores are charging. if they would've did that then i could see why they'd be filing for Chapter 11.

what you should've done is what i did to pay less for a reclining couch i got for my wife's bday. i walk into the store with $600 and ONLY wanting to spend $600, not a cent more (for budget reasons i didn't have more to spend). i walk up to a salesperson and pick out a couch for $599 and say "i don't have any more than $600 to spend on this, if i give you cash will you not charge me tax?" and he replies "everyone must pay tax". so i claim "if you charge me a lesser price so with the tax it comes out to no more than $600 i'll take this right now" and he said "i can do that" and i said "ring it up".

bing. bang. boom.

point is if you wanted to spend less than $650 then maybe you should've played the game a little differently. maybe offer if they accept the coupon and charge you $615 you'd agree to buy an extended warranty (which is what they make commission off of). or agree to buy it for $650 but no tax. a coupon with no expiration date doesn't mean you can hold it forever and 20 years from now walk in and demand they take it.

The bottom line though is the coupon had no expiration date, nor did it ever have an expiration date. They couldn't find anything on it so they made up this crap about it expiring after Christmas. Not to mention the crap where they start insinuating about us producing the coupon on our own computer, etc.

Either way, I ended up getting the TV for $600 off of Amazon so it worked out better for us in the long run.

I guess I think about running a business differently. $615 in my pocket is better than $650 in my competitor's.

[CraigSca]

Who pays sales tax? Pffft...luddites.

[Draft Dodger]

a couple years ago, one night we started getting a bunch of really similar calls, with different customers asking a bunch of inane questions. We compared notes and found they all had phone numbers from the same area code - the location of one of our competitors. I don't know for sure what was going on, but my theory is that they were a training group and were seeing how we did things (no clue if we were an example of the right way or wrong way to act on the phone). Anyway, I kept a couple of the incoming phone numbers (cell phones) and called them...frequently, often at odd hours (I was working some overnights back then).

[Draft Dodger]

and we definitely get the guys at the stores on a cell phone trying to find a better price than what they are looking at. To me, it's rude and lazy and I'm not tremendously helpful in those situations.

still, the one that still really burns me is the time a guy called and was asking questions and then was like "hold on a second" - the next thing I heard was the guy placing an order at a drive thru window. suffice to say, I was not on the line when he got back.

[JeeberD]

At least you didn't have your favorite college's biggest rivals basketball team come in. Talk about frustration! I wanted to talk so much shit, but alas...their $350 tab was kinda nice.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Anthony

point is if you wanted to spend less than $650 then maybe you should've played the game a little differently. maybe offer if they accept the coupon and charge you $615 you'd agree to buy an extended warranty (which is what they make commission off of). or agree to buy it for $650 but no tax. a coupon with no expiration date doesn't mean you can hold it forever and 20 years from now walk in and demand they take it.

Buying an extended warranty from a company that might be going out of business is a terrible idea. Also, it was a legitimate coupon from their business. It is their fault that they didn't print an expiration date on it. It's not like he tried to come in 20 years later. He apparently went in within a few weeks of it expiring when he had no chance to know that it was going to expire. Therefore, it is their responsibility to honor it.

[Crim]

Originally Posted by Anthony

i was in BB this past monday checking out some laptops that i saw online for their cyber monday deals. i asked the clerk "i know this is cyber monday and these are specifically online deals, but i'm here now - can you just give me the online price?", she inquired to her superior and answered "no". i replied "can i go home, buy it online and pick it up here at least?" and she again inquired and came back with "no". i said "ok, thanks anyway". i went home, went online and bought the laptop straight from Dell, got a laptop with slightly better specs along with a laptop bag for a tad under what BB was going to charge me for the laptop alone AND i got free shipping. i win.

yes, it's nice to have silly games with your "online only!" prices, but let's not pretend your competitor - Circuit City - isn't about to go under and would've LOVED to have someone walk in prepared to drop nearly $600. i'm very fickle. i want what i want when i want it - if you give me a moment's pause or give me a reason to leave your store without purchasing then i start to find excuses as to why i don't need to buy from your store or why i don't need that particular item anyway. first rule of business is to make it easy for your customers to pay for your goods. i was going to also purchase a digital camera from BB as well, but since i was online i saw their competitor is selling the same camera for less so i'll just go there. BB loses both times. that's capitalism for you.

we're officially in a recession. it's not wise to turn away customers with $600 who - if they stop to think about it - may realize it's best to just not spend that much money and buy something cheaper and put the rest in savings.

I endorse this post.

[Crim]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

At least you didn't have your favorite college's biggest rivals basketball team come in. Talk about frustration! I wanted to talk so much shit, but alas...their $350 tab was kinda nice.

Your team has a big rivalry?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by SportsDino

High level of douchery. I make it a point to never buy again from places that have given me deliberately bad service (this even includes Best Buy, which at the current rate will be the only electronics store left in existence in ten years, boooo).

Competitive shopping is one thing, like the Amazon app doesn't really bother me... although to me I'd just search the online store and not waste my time walking.

Eventually everything but discount stores are going to fold because no one sees the value, just the price tag. Then the world collapses in a giant whine of 'where has all the good service gone'... which is soon surpassed by the stampede of feet running over people on their way to save 10 bucks on a hundred dollar purchase.

Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Best Buy says F@#$ You to average customers.
A post I had made a while ago about the same idea on a bigger scale- BB and Ulimate Electronics. People want to bitch incessantly about how horrible service has become in this country and then bitch about how Circuit City/Comp USA/{insert dead electronics store here} always charged a few bucks more than Best Buy so why would they ever go there.

Oh, and can we now have this thread devolve into everyone's one bad customer service story with the pimply faced manager that is the reason why Retailer X/Y/Z is the devil rather than discussing the larger issues here with retail policy?

SI

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Anthony

you mean you were gonna buy the same tv for $650, or the same tv for $615? i'm assuming you mean you were threatening to buy the same tv for $650. if that's the case then i can see where the manager was coming from, that's not really a good proposition. "i'm supposed to honor this coupon that my information suggests is no longer valid?". so its not the fact that you didn't want to pay $650, you just wanted a store to accept a possibly expired coupon OR you go to another store to spend that $650, which from their standpoint (since its a business) you're asking them to basically sell you something for less than what other stores are charging. if they would've did that then i could see why they'd be filing for Chapter 11.

what you should've done is what i did to pay less for a reclining couch i got for my wife's bday. i walk into the store with $600 and ONLY wanting to spend $600, not a cent more (for budget reasons i didn't have more to spend). i walk up to a salesperson and pick out a couch for $599 and say "i don't have any more than $600 to spend on this, if i give you cash will you not charge me tax?" and he replies "everyone must pay tax". so i claim "if you charge me a lesser price so with the tax it comes out to no more than $600 i'll take this right now" and he said "i can do that" and i said "ring it up".

bing. bang. boom.

point is if you wanted to spend less than $650 then maybe you should've played the game a little differently. maybe offer if they accept the coupon and charge you $615 you'd agree to buy an extended warranty (which is what they make commission off of). or agree to buy it for $650 but no tax. a coupon with no expiration date doesn't mean you can hold it forever and 20 years from now walk in and demand they take it.

actually in some states (depending on state laws) it can mean exactly that.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Crim

Your team has a big rivalry?

Yeah, NMSWho...