Why won’t they take my money?

[fbhjr]

My hard drive on my laptop died again. Last time it happened, there were only 2 days left on the warrantee, and that was a year ago, so no chance now.
When I had it repaired last year, before I found out it was free, the guy at the Apple store said “you’re probably better off buying a bigger hard drive for less money then we’d give you”.
This advice was not forgotten.

So, I was at Best Buy this morning when they opened. I walked right to the computer department, picked up the hard drive I wanted walked to the Apple section and tried to get a new copy of the operating system. They were locked up in a cabinet with a guy standing in front of it.

“Hi, can I get one of those?” I asked, pointing at the software box in the case.
“I’m helping someone else,” he said.
I looked around. No one else in sight. The store had been open less than three minutes.
I looked at him. He looked around in a way that gave me the distinct impression he was thinking “this excuse only works when there are customers in the store…”
He turned and walked to the back of the department.

I looked for another sales person. None were in the computer department.
Just as I was about to put down the hard drive and walk out, a sales guy came into the department, unlocked a different case, and took an item out for a customer. As he started to walk away I went over to him.
“Hi, can you open this case too?” I asked, pointing at my software.
“Sure,” he said.
He opened it, grabbed my box and handed it to me.
Sales man one showed up again and glowered at me and the other sales guy.
“You should have asked someone to get it for you,” sales guy 2 said.
“Yeah,” I said looking at sales guy 1. “I should have asked someone.”
“Is this all you’re getting?” Sales guy 2 asked.
“That and this hard drive,” I said.
“Let me ring that up for you,” he said.
Sales guy 1 gave a very clear “don’t steal my commission from me” look to guy 2.
Guy 2 smiled and rang my stuff up.

It wasn’t a huge sale. But, if guy 1 wanted it, all he needed to do was unlock a cabinet 3 feet from where he had been standing. At no time did any customer he “was already helping” appear.

Sales guy 2 was nice enough to give me a customer survey with my receipt.
I have filled it out as honestly as possible, which is not flattering to the computer department there….

Now I've just got to get it installed and loaded, the try and rebuild the data from the 6.9 days between my last weekly backup and when it crashed.
It's only got things like info on 2 Phoenix jobs and one job interview for me.
Pisser.

Comments

[saeble.livejournal.com]

dude...

grow a pair

seriously

sorry to be blunt but you deal with people like this by being direct, don't take shit like this

"Thanks Guy 2, earlier, Guy 1 was decidedly unhelpful. I hope he lifts his game, otherwise I'm sure that someone else will happily do his job better than he is currently."

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I think giving guy 2 the commission was good enough to get my point across. Guy 1 certainly didn't like that.

[saeble.livejournal.com]

true

but turkeys like that should not go unpunished

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Agreed. But, as I said, when I checked out I got a random corporate HQ satisfaction survey. So, that jumps above his manager, which I'm OK with.

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

Having done retail for soooo long I would go to his store manager, then HQ just to be a bitch. But then I've always said I can be your best or worst customer, its all on the clerk.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of the "Silent Revenge" approach that you took.

That Sales Person 1 is a total Dick. You can't make sales and commissions if you piss off and deny your customers. Um...DUH?

Glad you got what you were after anyway, that of course is the moral of the story... Good luck with the computer reconstruction.

Natural Consequenses.

[gilden.livejournal.com]

Yup, Sales guy #1 will do poorly.

Wouldn't be worth my time or effort to get into a pissin' contest with a skunk, either.