Lesson Two - Customers, Discounts and Toilets

Today was a special discount day for employees at my place of work, where we got 20% additional discount for any purchases we make. There's another one in two weeks and I bought a few games for my XBox 360 and PlayStation 2. Was totally worth it, some really good ones came out and I'm quite happy. I had work at 3pm today and it was pretty busy. It didn't really help that the area manager was around as you always feel like you're under some sort of scrutiny. Most of the work was serving and setting up for the Christmas Sale. I was in charge of marketing and it was very cumbersome because we had to make do with insufficient marketing paraphernalia.
My day just went from bad to worse when a customer called to complain that they had bought the wrong thing. They tried to lay the blame on me, even though they were very sure that the item they purchased was the one they wanted. Who was I to question that? It's common sense, when someone wants to buy something and they ask for it specifically, naturally you assume they know what they're talking about. It really was a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation.
Two lessons to learn here. The first one is:

1. Aggressive and confrontational approaches seldom work in a retail environment.

Aggressive and confrontational attitude will not work in a situation where you demand something from a retailer. Especially with me, especially here. You cannot afford to be aggressive because you will be met with a negative response and could even be asked to leave.

This woman was quite belligerent and definitely was after more than just a refund, almost like she wanted compensation. I had offered a refund, and you'd think most people would be happy with that. I was wrong. She wanted a further discount. Which leads me to my next lesson point:

2. Nothing in life is free.

It can be quite annoying when people constantly ask for me to 'do them a deal' or 'give them a discount because they shop here all the time.' Yeah...Right. If they really did shop there all the time like they claim, then I would know them by name. I know who is a regular and who is not. I know who deserves a discount and who doesn't. Asking for something like that from a total stranger is not only retarded, it's greedy and stingy. What's even more shocking is that there is a whole lot of customers who demand further discount on already discounted items. Seriously, get stuffed. I am not going to do that, it would be unfair to others who work hard and do the right thing. What if the roles were reversed? Would they give me a discount if I asked/demanded? Hah!! I don't think so. Nothing in life is free, customer loyalty and a good and friendly attitude to the employees there is the best way. They will look after you and will not hesitate to make sure they can do things like that for you when they can.

I had a bit more problems with food today. God, that shopping centre has the crappest food I have ever had. I say this because this is the second day in a row where I have bought some food and I have only been made to feel really sick soon after. Today I bought food from the Asian Food place next to the Cafe where the really cute girl works. It was nice, it tasted good. But, it just didn't agree with me afterwards... Maybe it was the food I had at lunch rather than at dinner that made me feel like crap? I don't know. Either way, it was not pleasant. Even now as I type this I have a little bit of a cramp in my stomach. It was so bad at one stage I dashed out of the store and went to the PUBLIC TOILETS!!!! Which brings me to my next point:

3. Avoid, avoid, AVOID Public Toilets where you can.

Think of this as the same principle as the 5 D's in Dodgeball, 'Dodge, duck, dip, dive and...dodge.' Avoid using the public toilets. Someone did number 2's and...well, let's just say Stevie Wonder would have been more successful with his aim than this person. It was EVERYWHERE. I would just hate to have to clean that up. It was foul and disgusting. So I simply washed my face and prayed I wouldn't need to go in there the rest of the night. Thank goodness it was almost closing time anyways. Home toilets are just so much cleaner. I sound like Finch from American Pie. You know? The guy who would go home to take a crap rather than use the ones at school? Yeah it was like that. Gross.

Well, today was kinda crap (no pun intended), so I apologise to you readers if this sounded like a total rant-fest. But hey, when you have to get something off your chest, best to do that rather than bottle it up. In a way it's a lot like shaking a can of Coke, it's gonna blow! And all you'll be left feeling is empty and a little flat afterwards. Hmm, not a bad analogy, can you believe I just came up with that one? Hehe.

Take care of yourselves,

James