The Joys of Customer Service

Matt met someone yesterday who was rather nasty. He would like to say that she was charming and say happy, pleasant things about her such as, "that lady sure had a winning and dashing smile!" As it was, her nasty personality matched her physical countenance, which unfortunately, was not a good thing as she reminded Matt vividly of a rather unfortunate and homely version of Tevye's daughter Tzeitel, from 'Fiddler on the Roof.'

As Matt was dusting appliances at work yesterday, a very tall, thin, sultry looking, grump of a woman slipped into the store. She told him her house had burned to the ground so she needed new appliances. Matt promptly felt sorry for the lady and listened while she bemoaned her fate. He was a very sympathetic listener as he began to show her all the different products, and he made sure to gasp in all the right places. Everything he showed her though, she complained about.

Now he realizes that if his house had just burned down and he had lost his Harry Potter books and his houseplant he dubbed 'Bahumut', he might be a bit grumpy too. However her insurance was footing the bill completely, and all she had to do was pick out what she liked. Matt has met a few housewives now, who purposely destroy their appliances just so they can buy new ones. This could have been a fun experience for the lady, but rather, she was truly sour throughout.

After he showed her a great clearance fridge that had been marked down $1,000 all she could do was whine about the small scratch on the bottom of the door (hence the mark-down) and that it should be another 25% more off. Matt told her 'no' in as a polite as way as possible, and they moved on. 2 hours later, they had all her appliances in order and were ringing up at the register. She was receiving an absolute killer of a discount, even though she had been condescending and nasty the whole way through. As Matt was adding the fridge at the end, (she had decided on the floor model) she she smacked her gum obnoxiously and said, "I want 25% more off on that."

 "Um sorry, we already discussed this though, we're not taking any more off because it's already $1000 off."

"If you don't drop the price on that fridge more, I'll walk," she said in a very superior, smug type voice. She put her hands on her hips, daring Matt and tried to give him an intimidating look. At this point he was tired of her attitude and he looked back at her with a quelling look that clearly said 'Really?' He then simply said 'no' and continued on.

She was shocked. "I want to speak with your boss!" So Matt's boss came over, listened to what she had to say and promptly repeated what Matt had told her earlier.

 "Sorry, but we can't drop the price of that fridge for you."

She looked affronted and said in a scandalized voice "Well! I suppose we are through then, I'll just take my business elsewhere!" She then snatched her purse, turned up her nose and stalked out. As he watched her disappear, Matt might have called her something kinda mean under his breath. His boss heard him.

"Matt! You can't say that here!" whoops ;-)

What a waste of time that woman was. Matt is feeling sorry for whatever appliance store is now being graced by her ungrateful presence.