On Tape

I think I was caught on video at work today. O.o
As a family wanted a couple of birds (oh joy my favorite thing to catch.)

And while I was in the enclosure catching said birds.
The father brought up his camera.
And was doing something with it.
I'd hope it was just taking pictures.
But my guess is that he was taking video of me trying to catch the birds.
Showing the moment that the birds became theirs or whatever.

lol. Lucky me, I managed to catch the first bird right off the bat.
So no entertainment that way for the camera.
Unfortunately for me, the second bird took longer. Which meant more opportunity to get videoed.

Hopefully it ended up well....
hopefully it doesn't end up somewhere on the internet. lol.

*shakes head* I'll probably never know.
Perhaps it was already deleted.

In any case.
Birds were caught.
My hand was only a little injured (they didn't draw blood this time.)
And the family went home happy.
Yay for them. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Snapped

I broke a lid today while I was cleaning out the reptile cages.

It was the lid that went on top of our Chameleon cage.

Not something that you'd think about being able to break.

Sure, snap off if it's on a hinge or something.

But break into three pieces? Not likely.

That's exactly what happened.

The lid was made with hard white plastic with one clear plastic piece screwed into the center.

We use them mostly for tanks that need a higher humidity as it holds the moisture in a bit better.

The lid was probably really old in any case. It could have been original to the store for all I know.

In any case.

I had pulled out the cage, and taken off the lid to move it out of the way so I could clean out the cage.

I placed the lid on top of some of the decorations on a cart I had there for that purpose.

Only...I hadn't placed the lid in a stable enough condition.

Because it slid off the decorations and onto the floor.

I didn't think it would be a fall that was hard enough to break the lid.

Apparently it was.

I'm guessing the lid fell down at just the right angle, to hit a weak spot, and snapped it into three pieces. Y_Y

Oops.

Thankfully, we have extra lids. So it wasn't like I'd just shortened us a cage.

But ugh....breaking things is never fun.

Even if it's on accident.

-Sarnic Dirchi

10 Lil Fishies

My favorite customers showed up at work today. :)
The couple that bought the 125 gallon tank on Black Friday -same as me-

I'd actually been expecting them to show up over the weekend on Friday or Saturday.
As the gentleman had told me they were going to bring in their grandchildren to pick out fish for their tank sometime during the weekend.

But apparently that didn't work out, due to schedules and such.
Which was why they showed up today.
With ten of their thirteen grandchildren in tow. lol
Which was a rather adorable sight to see all the kids of different ages.

To see them soo excited to pick out a fish that they could call their own and have in their grandparent's tank.

It's rather lucky that they decided to show up today....
As...technically I was supposed to work today.
But I'd switched shifts with a coworker so that today was supposed to be my day off, while tomorrow I would work my coworker's shift.
However, my coworker ended up sleeping through their alarm, so I ended up getting called in to cover the shift that I should have been working in the first place. lol.

I'm guessing this is part of the reason why.
So I could help my favorite customers pick out their fish and ensure that they would get fish that would get along with each other.

To say it was a bit chaotic is a little bit of an understatement.
Keeping track of 10 kids and making sure that each one had picked out a fish.
Not to mention that we also had to pause with each fish caught so that the child could have their picture taken with the fish and the tag saying what kind of fish it was.

But it was fun.
Not stressful at all.
They'd come when it was slow.
So I wasn't worried about making other customers wait.
And the kids were so excited, and grateful that it made it all worth it. :)

lol definitely glad I had work today. ^^
Hopefully their fish do well as well....

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Same Question

There are days when the phones at work like to continuously ring.
Like, there are so many customers calling us that once we hang up on one conversation with one customer, the phone is already ringing with another call from a different customer.

Today was one of those days.

The phone rang, and this time around I was actually in a position to answer it.
-As the last three or four times I'd been busy with other customers in the store so hadn't been able to pick up.
So I picked up the phone.

and a guy on the other end was like: "Do you have any pet mice?"
I carry them yes, but I'd actually sold out, so I didn't have any on hand. So my response was. "Sorry, we're out."
"Okay then." He said hanging up.
The line went dead.
But my phone did not.
It was already ringing again.
So I picked it up.
And it was a girl on the line this time.
Her question?
"Do you have any pet mice?"

O.o
Huh....it's like I just had this conversation....so weird. lol.
So I told her the same response that I'd told the gentleman 15 seconds earlier. "No, we're out."
"Okay then." And she hung up.

And guess what?
Yah.
The phone rang again.
This time a male.
...but thankfully, no questions about mice. lol. It was a question on if we had any kittens....which we did not.

In any case.
It's not uncommon for me to answer the same question multiple times in a row.
It happens quite frequently to be honest. lol. It's like suddenly everyone is thinking at the same time: "I wonder if Starsmet has (object) let's call and find out!"

But I am curious...
If the two customers who called about the mice....
Actually knew each other.

Like was it a tag-team where they were a couple and were calling multiple pet stores in search of pet mice? Did it so happen that they accidentally called the same store right after the other?

Or were they two people who had no idea who the other was, and on their own called with the same question, without knowing someone else had just called and asked the same thing?

Or was it a situation of: "They told me no." "Well maybe its because you're a guy, here let me call them again to make sure.....oh they told me no too."

*shakes head*
I probably will never know.
but at least both people know that we don't have mice currently. lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

On The Horizon

It's always good to avoid angry customers.
Hence why I work in the mornings. Angry customers don't usually come until evening.

However, this morning.
Basically at the crack of opening.
We got a call from our sister store. Asking if we had any Guinea Pigs left.

We had one.
As unfortunately, the 18 guinea pigs we were supposed to get in this week....didn't happen. We got in a big fat ZERO, leaving us with just like 5 guinea pigs to sell.
And people clamoring for said Guinea Pigs.

*shakes head*

In any case.
We had one Guinea Pig left a white one with red eyes.
-Not surprising as those ones are always the last to sell.

The reason why our sister store was asking though....
Was because apparently a customer currently at their store, had been promised that they would be bringing out fresh guinea pigs today.
Only, when he got there.
At the crack of opening.

There were no guinea pigs to sell.

Either due to them not receiving them, or they sold through them the day before....something.

And the customer was furious that he waited until the last minute to get a guinea pig and the sister store couldn't provide.

So we agreed to hold our single guinea pig for him so he could come get it.

It's never fun to deal with angry customers.
And I wasn't looking forward to dealing with this one. Though hopefully he would be in a better mood when he finally showed up to the store.

However.
An hour passed.
And then two.

....with no sign of the Customer.

So I had the manager call our Sister Store back.
And they'd apparently forgotten to call us back saying that the customer had decided to go to another store further north instead.

Which meant, no angry customer due to show up at any moment.
Yay!!

I like it when I avoid angry people. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Live Match

So I was helping out a customer who was interested in adopting one of our cats in the store.

-As we're in the middle of the 'we want a kitty for Christmas!' craze.

Which more often than not, heading over to the adoption center involves like 10 minutes of standing around staring at the customer as they snuggle with the kitty they wanted to hold...and usually ends up with no adoption happening.

In any case.

The customer asked me as she was snuggling a kitty....

If we price matched with other stores when it came to our cats.

O.o

Now. I'm often asked about price matching products in our store with other stores.

But live animals?

I can say that if customers have asked me this question before....it's only happened a couple of times.

Most of the time people don't think about price matching live animals.

Or well....they don't think about the fact that the prices could change in the store if its discovered that the same creature is less expensive in another location.

I think most people assume our prices on the animals are set.

As often when people see an animal -particularly our reptiles- on sale, they want to know why it's being discounted. aka -it's sick, it's too old, it's mean. etc. -

When in reality. The animal is just on sale like other products in our store go on sale.

So it's odd to be asked about price matching animals.

But especially the cats.

Because we don't 'sell' cats.

We 'adopt' out cats.

My store has nothing to do with deciding the prices on the cats that come into our store. That's all up to the adoption agency.

All I can usually depend on is that kittens will cost more than older cats.

And depending on if the cat is microchipped or not...the microchipped cat will cost more than one that doesn't have the chip.

So the fact that the customer wanted to try and price match the cat....

Was really odd.

Like it broke my mind for a second as I stuttered to explain why we didn't.

-Mainly the fact that the Adoption group sets the prices and we have no control over it.

Plus. It would be rather lame to price match a cat when they may not be comparable at all. The Age, the Breed, the Vaccinations already given, If they've been fixed or not. Microchipped or not. Etc.

So weird.

I can understand trying to find the best deal possible....

Just not with cats.

*shakes head*

Customers are weird.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Sure I Can Help You

I had a customer approach me today.
With various questions about our different types of frogs.
As they were planning to buy one as the last one they had died.
So I spent like 10 or 15 minutes talking about the various types of frogs and what kind of cage set ups they would need etc. Helping them to come to a decision about what they wanted to get.

It ended up being an off and on process with them, as I would leave them, and they would come back to ask more questions, a cycle that repeated multiple times.

To which the customer was like "I bet you're getting tired of getting interrupted."

lol I was in the middle of attempting to clean the reptile cages.
But I've had long experience with Thursdays and cleaning the reptiles.
Once the store opens, it's almost a guarantee that I'll have a long interruption that delays me in my task.
So I've kinda just come to terms with it and just roll with it when it happens.
I told the customer as much. "Nah, it's kinda typical for Thursdays for this to happen. I'm used to it."

lol.
But its always interesting to note when customers seem to be worried that they're taking up my time.
Which, granted...if I'm super busy with customers, it's rather tedious to get stuck with a customer who keeps asking questions, especially when I can sense the other customers nearby getting impatient with waiting.

But over all.
I don't always mind when I spend time with customers.
Sure if I'm way behind with my own tasks then its hard to not want to break away quickly.
Yet, it's kinda my job to help customers who have questions about animals.
So. Spending time with customers and helping them come to a decision and make a choice on what they're going to buy, is what I should be doing once the store opens lol.
Any other tasks I need to do, are what I do when there aren't customers around. lol

So yah. Job 1. To help customers. Job 2. Do tasks that keep the dept looking nice.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Day Early

It wasn't surprising that I had to play 'catch up' at work today.
I mean, being gone for multiple days in a row?
Definitely a set up for something to go wrong while I'm gone and me have to hurry and try and fix it when I get back.
Also taking into account that it's the week before Christmas?
It just means that Chaos is to be expected lol.

And that chaos included a newbie opener....which means things get done slower.
But also...surprise shipments.

So.
Every day at work we have certain cleaning tasks that need to be done. Some remain the same, others vary by the day.
Yesterday the morning task was to clean up the 'over flow' area for our pets.
Where we stick the new pets for observance and any pets we can't fit out onto the floor.

Since we're already cleaning back there, we also take the time to prepare the room for the animals that will be arriving in a couple of days.
We used to do it the day before.
But due to sometimes inconsistent shipping days (usually thanks to Holidays) they sometimes show up early.
So, we prepare early.

Or... I guess I prepare early.

Since I'm usually the one in charge of the cleaning tasks.
And since I wasn't there to remind my coworker about prepping....

They didn't end up preparing fresh cages for the animals we were expecting to come in this week.

And I had no idea when I would have time to do said prepping with everything else I already had to do.

I was hoping that the shipment would make its usual delivery on the morrow. Since Christmas is on Sunday... I was hoping it wouldn't effect this week's shipment that much.

But I wasn't at all surprised to see the delivery guy show up today.

Which...if my coworker had been on top of things yesterday....wouldn't have been an issue.
but today since we were unprepared. I had to scramble to get the cages ready so that we could quickly move the animals into their temporary cages until we can put them out onto the floor.

Talk about stress in the morning lol.
Thankfully it all worked out.
Still....maybe I need to have my coworkers do a bit more of the opening cleaning tasks in the future so they don't forget certain steps....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Read The Bag

I never understand the people who expect you to tell them everything.

Perhaps its just because I tend to try and figure things out for myself first before asking for help.

But honestly...

How hard is it for you to actually look at the package and read what it says?

-Granted I understand people can't always see clearly enough to read.  Far Sighted or Near Sighted and all that fun eye stuff.

So, the situation was that I had a woman come up to me in the store, asking cat questions.

Which I have basic knowledge of things there, but since it's not my dept I only know so much.

Which conversation ended up with "where are the treats?"

To which I mentally roll my eyes at. Because honestly that's why we have signs hanging from the ceiling for. To tell you where things are.

But I lead the customer to the cat treats.
To which they said "I want ones that are salmon flavored"

And the proceeded to talk about one of their cats who liked 'soft' treats. And which treats were soft. To which I dutifully pointed out the treats that were soft that were salmon flavored. Only for her to exclaim "Oh! No, I can't feed this cat soft treats!"

>.< As it turns out the cat she was talking about wasn't the cat she was getting the treats for. No the one that needed the treats that was feral needed the hard treats. Again in Salmon Flavor.

Which was not made clear at all in that conversation that proceeded that revelation. *rolls eyes*

And the entire time...

They weren't really looking at the treats. Just relying on me to do the leg work and to find which ones were salmon flavored and hard. *sighs*

I was glad to finally find what she wanted and to get away from her.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Why Are You Here?

I honestly don't know what it is about Thursdays.
But for some reason, if customers are planning to show up early to my work...they end up showing up on Thursdays.
Sure, I get my fair few of early customers on the other days of the week.
But Thursdays are the most popular day for sure.

Which, due to the holiday hours, isn't as bothersome as it was in the past. Because they are technically walking in when we are open currently. Though next month I'll get the enjoyable job of telling them that we're still closed if they walk in.

In any case.
Today was no different from any other Thursday really.
Except that we don't always have a cashier at the register during the 'special holiday' extra hours we're open in the morning.
And with me being the closest one to said registers as my department is right across the way, and I was right there cleaning cages...

I ended up helping waaaaay too many people too early in the morning for my liking.
Of course I never like it when something causes me to be delayed in my tasks that I need to get done in the morning.

At least the customers were nice enough. That's one benefit to morning customers. They tend to trend towards the nice side instead of the angry belligerent side.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Current Favorite

He came back today.
My current favorite customer.

It's the gentleman who came in on Black Friday and bought the same 125 gallon sized tank that I did.
And proceeded to buy every single decoration within the tank that we had on display since he liked how I'd decorated it so much. lol.

Definitely a feel good moment that.
...Until I realized I would need to pick a different decorating theme if I didn't want to copy his tank.... lol.

In any case.
It's always fun to see him because he's soo...energetic in his new rediscovered passion of fish.
He had a tank when he was younger and has always wanted one, and his wife said he could have one once they moved into the new place, didn't matter the size.

lol Pretty sure he's a kid in the candy store right now with everything.

And it's always good to see him and his wife.
As they come into the store with smiles on their faces and are super happy to see me when they do.

lol.
Today his concern was how he'd set up the filters and heaters in his tank. To make sure he was doing that properly, as well as asking questions about testing his water and how many fish he could add into the tank the first time.

Always an enjoyable encounter.
As it's not often that I have someone with a similar passion to talk to at work. lol.
And his enthusiasm over his new venture is rather catching.
I always have a spring to my step after talking with him. :D

-Sarnic Dirchi

Light Bulb Moment

It's always a feel good moment when a spark of creativity works out.

You see,

We had a few fish tank lights out in the store.

But no replacements for them....mostly because they were display tanks and we don't always carry the parts needed to replace them when they break.

However, with an important visitor coming to work today.

We wanted everything to look "bright and shiny"

Which meant.

Lights needed to be on.

So, with the suggestion of my manager.

I jimmy-rigged lights into place.

Which was basically taking smaller light sets that could hide within the hoods of the burnt out lights, and placing them within the hood to make it appear like the light was working....even though it wasn't. Just a temporary fix.

However it seems to have done the job.

Though I don't know what our DM thought of it as I left just as the DM arrived.

Yay for finally avoiding a visit. It feels like I'm present every single time the DM drops by, so it's nice to not have to be there and have others deal with them.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Visitor Preparation

It's that time of year again.
Where my managers go into super hyper paranoid mode.

Why?
Because we have a high and mighty visitor coming on the morrow.

Which results in a spur of frantic activity. Cleaning, organizing, more cleaning.
Doing whatever we can to make the store look 'perfect' when our visitors come.

Which means that the managers end up having us go up and beyond the simple cleaning duties.
It's scrub this.
Scrub that.
Double scrub this and that.

Honestly. It's really over board.
The sort of overboard I go into when I'd get over paranoid about cleaning checks.
"Oh no! A tiny spec of a spot! If I don't clean this I'm going to fail!!"

Managers are being the same way.

Like, there's a space on top of our fish tanks holding the fish, that is hidden from view from the customers by a flap. If the flap wasn't there the lights would be visible to everyone.
Well...the managers had us scrubbing that hidden area. Getting rid of the dust on top, and scrubbing below that too to get rid of any gunk on the other side. *exhales*

Which meant a good portion of my shift was spent with my hand in the water, scrubbing this and that.
While everyone else was busy cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, organizing, throwing away.

I won't be surprised if my arm is super sore tomorrow.

And honestly... it seems like wasted effort.
I doubt the high and mighty is going to look that closely.
But if it makes the managers feel better.
Then I'll go along with it. I'll clean and make the department 'extra shiny'

Hopefully we pass with flying colors because of it. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

It Should Fit!

There was this older gentleman in the store today.
One that I recognized mostly because I'd seen him earlier in the week...or was it last week? It was a crazy Monday that I saw him,
and I remembered him because my manager spent forever talking with him, and was trying to find a certain filter for this guy, but the only one we had left....the box looked a bit like it had been used. But we sold it to the guy anyways...

Only for him to bring it back, stating that it had in fact been used, and to buy a brand new one.
Only to return, and exchange that one for a different one basically the next day.

I don't know how often he came into the store.

But I never got the chance to speak with him, he either spoke with someone else or with my manager.

Today though, I had the 'opportunity' to help him.

I discovered that he'd bought one a corner tank that we sell.
And that he'd purchased the largest filter, only to find out that it didn't fit within the space provided between tank edge and glass lid.
So he'd come back to get the different 'newer' version. For the same result.
Came back and got a size down...to find that the smaller size wasn't wide enough to fit over the lip of the tank.
So he came back.
Frustrated.

Because obviously he wanted to set up the tank, but couldn't due to filter problems.
And this gentleman couldn't understand it.

Because the filter he bought, was of the same brand that the tank was.

And he thought that if the company made both products. Then the company should ensure that the product of one would fit to the product of another.
Which makes sense.
Why make a filter if it doesn't fit on the tanks you sell?
*shrugs* Who knows.

-Answer...they were thinking said filter would be used on smaller tanks not larger ones. lol.

In any case.
I ended up showing him a couple other filters.
Which he started off picking another large filter.
To which I was like "That one isn't going to fit, as the box is the same size as this other filter you bought in the box that also didn't fit."
"How do you know?! It could be padding or a lot of stuff on the side."
.....I know because usually filters are the size of the box. *rolls eyes* But I humored him. Took said product out of the box. -surprise, it was the size of the box- and put it on our display tank to show that indeed....it still wouldn't fit.

Eventually I got him talked over to a slightly smaller filter of yet another brand.
And he was so surprised that the filter actually fit on the tank when the other one hadn't. lol.
*shakes head*

But I believe he was relieved as well. To finally have a filter that would fit on his tank and not cause a ruckus with the trickling water sound.
Yay.

So he left a happy customer.

Though my heart nearly stopped when I saw him walk back into the store a few hours later.
HAD IT NOT WORKED?!?!

No.
No it had worked. :)
He was just in to buy fish.
lol. I hadn't expected him to come back so quickly after he'd set up his filter...but I guess he'd gotten impatient. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Bulbs

It's always the little questions that mess me up.

It's the questions that question my actions when I'm doing things that mess me up actually.

Especially when it's put to me by a manager.

So.

For the last two months (not much of an exaggeration)

I've been bugging the managers to order more light bulbs for our reptiles.

Particularly the Heat bulbs for them.

as I'd run out, and I had light bulbs going out all over the place.

Which meant reptiles were going without their heat.

Finally.

Finally.

I got the manager into such a position in which they finally ordered me the lightbulbs I desperately needed.

And today.

A handful of them came in.

So as quickly as possible, I set out to replace the lightbulbs I could with that amount. (only about half of them)

And the manager who ordered the lightbulbs walked by as I was in the middle of that.

He paused to check out what I was doing.

And happened to be observant enough to notice.

That the size of the light bulb I was taking out wasn't the same size as the light bulb I was putting in.

-As we have four possible lights I could put in.

Smaller White. Smaller Red. Larger White. Larger Red.

Out of the ones I'd ordered.

Only the Smaller White -the daytime heat bulbs-

Had come in.

But 3 of the 5 bulbs I needed to change were Larger White.

So obviously his question was. "Why aren't you replacing it with the same size?"

Obvious answer was I had no other light bulbs since the others hadn't arrived yet. And some heat was better than no heat.

Easy answer. I mean the smaller bulbs are meant for the more tropical environments. The tanks of reptiles that need temperatures in the 80s-90s and not the 90s-100s. Also smaller bulb for smaller tank. Larger bulb for larger tank.

Of course... answering that "Some heat is better than none" opened the flood gates of other questions.

Mostly along the lines of "How do you know which size bulb to put in which tank? What happens if more bulbs come in tomorrow on your day off? How will anyone know what to do?!"

With me already being sleep deprived, stressed, and with a headache.

It wasn't a good combination of questions to throw at me.

How do you explain something you already know?

It's like trying to explain the color red to a blind person.

How do you do that?

Okay, not so difficult.

The answers would be: "The desert reptiles need the larger bulbs, the larger tanks need the larger bulbs, the tropical reptiles need the smaller bulbs, smaller tanks need smaller bulbs."

"We have guides listed here" *points to small card holders*

"They can switch out the lightbulbs by that."

But it didn't come out quite that elegant for reasons stated above.

I struggle to explain things when I figure people already should know them and the fact that they don't them throws me off.

Thankfully the manager got distracted and basically decided "Okay, if we get bulbs in tomorrow we'll just wait for you to come in on Saturday and have you change them then."

Yah....that works too. *shakes head*

Note to self.

Work on explaining things better.

Teach my coworkers what bulbs go with what tanks of reptiles....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Price Check

I had jumped on the register to back-up my coworker.
When a woman came through my line, with a fussy toddler in arms.
One that was insistent that the dog treats at the register were food for him.

In any case,
As the woman tried to handle her child, she pulled out a couple of cat beds and asked me to compare the prices of them, because she wanted the one that cost less.

I shrugged it off and didn't think much of it, as the cat beds easily get moved around and out of place. So I scanned them and told her which one cost less.

She then proceeded to do the same thing for three cat toys.

...Which are less likely to be moved around.
And it's doubtful those got placed in the wrong locations as cat people tend to put things back as compared to the people who wander down the dog toy aisle.

Still. I told her the prices of the three toys.
And she picked the one she liked the price of most.

And went on her way.

Leaving me to put away the unwanted cat bed and toys.

Which I did.
I placed the toys and bed back noting as I did so.
That the prices were clearly shown right by the items.

So again I have to wonder....
Why the woman went through the trouble of bringing up the items when she could have just compared the prices right there in the aisle and picked what cost less.

It would have been easier.
Though with the toddler in arms....perhaps coming up to the register was easier, just pick what looks good, bring them up to the register and have the cashier tell them prices so they can decide then.

*shrugs*
Who knows.
People think in interesting ways.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bigger Bag

It's not fun to consistently disappoint customers.
Yet, some days. There's no way to help it.
After all. If the customer is looking for a product we don't have on the shelf.....then there's not much I can do to make them happy if it's not somewhere in the back.

Today's trend though.
Was large bags of food.
Cat food, Dog Food.

Two or Three times today, I had a customer come up to me and tell me that they couldn't find a larger bag of the brand they wanted on the shelf and were wondering if I could look in the back for them.

This is always a bit tricky on truck days.
Because we technically get our trucks in a day before we work it.
-Due to our trucks no longer coming at a set time, it's easier to just bring the stockers in the next day when we know the shipment will already be there.
So for all I know...
The product that I'm looking for could be in a series of boxes or on pallets that I can't see....

That doesn't stop me from checking the overflow area of our back area. Where the extra bags of food are stored. As the stockers don't always get the chance to refill the shelves when needed.

In any case.
Even checking as best as I could through our shipment.

I failed again and again to find what the customer was looking for.

Which definitely is frustrating for the customer.
But also frustrating for me because I don't like not being able to make people happy.
-I mean if they're being a jerk about it, then it's just karma biting them back when I can't find something,
Generally though, I am there to help customers get what they want.
And being unable to help.
Is frustrating.

Especially if I can't help with a similar problem multiple times.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Invasion

There are multiple battles that go on within a pet store.

One of the major opponents within my department, that involves a never ending war is our Snails.

They're a vicious enemy, these pest snails that lurk within our tank system.
We do what we can to get rid of them. Use Chemicals, pull them out, squish them, switch out rocks and decorations, bleach decorations.

And still they return.
Because honestly they probably have a whole hive within the tubes where we can't reach. Where they're safe. Where they can multiply beneath our noses.
Until one day.

They attack.
Swarming through the tanks. Appearing in the gravel, all along the walls.

Causing mass hysteria and panic.

Okay...
That may be a slight exaggeration. Slight.

But basically.
Every now and then, we go from barely seeing any snails....to seeing a ton of them.
Full on mass Invasion.

And the past couple of weeks have been one of the worst onslaughts of the pest snails ever really.

Today, they were out in force. Covering the walls.

And unfortunately, caused a couple of our customers to complain about them.
After all, we're not supposed to have snails in the tanks. >.<

My guess, is that it's the cold water.
As our water in the tanks has been colder than normal, and we discovered why today.
For some reason, all our heaters had been turned off.
But now, we got them working again.

But with the cold water, the snails have grown more bold.

And so I had to detour other tasks in order to set to work on my own plan of attack.
Which basically was hand picking every single one of those snails out that I could see.
Well...at least getting all the ones that were visible on the walls off.

I basically spent two hours doing that.
And got a good cup full of snails for my efforts.

Though I forsee me and my coworkers having to be in major attack mode for the next few days or weeks to get the invasive forces under control again.

But what was funny.
Is that when I was almost done with my first sweep through our multitude of tanks.
The Head Manager saw me.
Pulling snails out.
With bare hands.

And for the oddest reason he pulled out a laytex glove and was like "Wear this!!"
O.o
Why would I wear a glove that would only fill with cold water? It would just mean that I had cold soggy glove around my hand.
But apparently Head Manager wanted me to wear it so I wouldn't be touching those 'dirty snails' directly.

To which I was like: O.o
.....I mean the snails are pests.
But it's not like they'll cause chemical burns or anything. *shakes head*
Why would I need to protect myself from them?
I mean, I've been pulling snails out of tanks for four years now.
Never wore gloves before.
lol.

Such weird logic my manager has.
I'm sure there's a sound basis behind it.
But not one that I understand at the moment. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not Comprehending

Some of the more frustrating customers I have to deal with are the ones who don't listen.

It may be that I'm talking too fast for them to wrap their minds around what I'm saying.
But it's frustrating to be talking and then have to repeat what you said earlier again.
and again.
and again.
and again.
and again.

To no apparent effect.

It's like being caught in short term memory loss with these particular customers. (even though they shouldn't have that problem.)

The ones who don't listen.....or better yet. The ones who can't comprehend what I'm saying.

Those are slightly worse.
Because obviously how I'm saying what I'm saying isn't computing to them.
And I have no idea how to change what I'm saying to a structure that they can easily understand.

Honestly, I halfway think they don't want to understand. That they purposely choose to not listen to see what they can get away with. *rolls eyes* Which you'd think once I repeat the same thing over and over again....they'd get the hint.

So.
I probably should get to the actual story shouldn't I?

It all comes down to our fish.
Where most of the communication troubles seem to happen I feel like.

You see.
We have three separate walls of fish.
Mostly because we're a bigger older store and therefore have more fish. lol.

And those three walls of fish hold four different types of communities of fish.
Goldfish.
Cichlids.
Semi-Aggressive
And Tropical Community (mellow)

And it's recommended that you don't mix the communities as fish can pick on and kill each other if you do.

Unsurprisingly.
Customers want to try and mix the different fish together.

So to try and help out the customers, we've color coded the different fish communities.
So if I say "All the Green tags will go together."
That literally means. "All the fish that have green tags will go together."
I literally point at these color tags to show them the difference between Green and Blue and Red and Orange etc.

I also tend to point out which fish will go together.
So I'll say. "This entire wall is Green so you can pick from it." It shouldn't be too hard to understand? Right? Right.

Wrong.

So. Actual story this time.
I had a family come in. Parents and child.
Who'd just gotten a tank set up.
And had come to buy fish.
Yay.

The mother was looking at our Cichlids. Which are the "We will eat other fish" aggressive fish.
Thinking she'd get one.
But I told her "They'll eat other fish." Which quickly dissuaded her from the idea.
And the husband was like. "I want fish that school! Which ones do that!"
So I moved our ladder as it's easier to create a defined 'wall' when saying which fish go together. And told them. "Okay, everything to the right of this ladder is a schooling fish and will go together."

Which was basically one entire wall of fish, plus a small section of the second wall.

Simple right?
If the fish is to the right of the ladder. It will go with the fish.
It should be obvious that the fish to the left of the ladder won't go with the ones on the right of the ladder? Right? There's enough info there to connect the dots. Right?

Ha.
Apparently not.
So I further clarified. "If you see these green tags. It means the fish will go together."

Apparently....
They were caught up in the word "Schooling"
As they thought all the fish would school together.
No. I further explained. (as I'd already explained it before...)
That the fish would only school if they were the same family.
So Platys with Platys. Tetras with Tetras. Mollies with Mollies.

That took a while to get through to them.
And then they seemed to not understand that when I said "the whole wall"
I actually meant the "Whole wall"
They got stuck looking at just platys and mollies.
When there were a bunch of other fish that they were completely ignoring.

I never got them to see the rest of that wall.
But I did get through to them schooling fish and what to buy to make the fish happy.
So there was progress there.

I probably would have put the incident behind me.
If the next customers in line hadn't basically ended up making me go through the same act.

Once more.
"Everything from this point." Gestures to ladder "On" gestures to the wall "Will go together."
"You have to stick within the same colored tags." I later add in.

This set of customers a mother with two children.
Struggled with that.
The child in charge of picking the fish kept wandering to the other colors.
To which I had to explain more than once that those fish wouldn't do well with the others.....
*shakes head*

And they couldn't remember what colors they'd picked either.
"Did we go with blue or green?" "Were they blue or green?" "We picked blue right?"
Me: "No you picked green."
"Ah"

At least this group managed to see the entire wall....
At least they stuck to one color.

But oh.
It was so frustrating that I had to repeat the same thing over and over again.
So.
Very.
Frustrating.

To the point I began to wonder if I was speaking a different language.
Because honestly....how hard can it be to pick a fish within the same family?

Hard apparently.
My guess it's like a 'kid in the candy store' sort of syndrome.
So many choices means that the brain is too caught up in the possibilities to listen to instructions to help narrow down the choices.

Yah...its probably something like that....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Clearly Missing

I saved someone's life today.

Figuratively.
I suppose.

Our store had barely opened this morning when I got a call from a customer.

-Which has become quite annoying over the past couple of days as the phone for my department inexplicably somehow became broken between two of my shifts.
Which meant that we have to use another phone, and the other phone happens to be the phone that takes ALL the calls. So I end up answering a lot of questions away from my dept.
Very annoying.
At least I can help with most of them.

In any case.
Back to the story.
The customer on the phone was calling because they'd left something behind.
Not uncommon, one wrong moment of distraction and things get left in carts, at the counter, on the floor.
So we just move the product to the side and wait for the customer to realize and come back..

This is what I automatically assumed was happening when the customer started talking about a bag they'd left in their cart yesterday.

As they said Plastic Baggie.
And what else do you put in plastic baggies besides things you just bought from our store?

That wasn't the case though.
No, it was a Ziploc bag.
And this Ziploc bag....basically acted as the customer's wallet.
IDs. Credit Cards, Receipts. Random other products....

And they'd all been left in the cart when the customer went to leave.

Thankfully the Cashier had noticed.
Grabbed the bag before anyone else did,
And had a manager lock it up until the customer came back for it.

Only they never did.
It took the customer somewhere between 18-24 hours to call the store.
Asking if they'd left their bag there.

O.o I mean, I can see how people wouldn't realize for that long....but that's rather long.
Again, thankfully the Cashier had seen and had locked it up.

Only, I was unaware of all this when I took the call.
So I glanced around the registers, around the carts. Asked the managers on duty. Checked the area we keep lost items at, checked the offices.

And found nothing.
And told the customer that sorry, we didn't have it.
:( They were disappointed and hung up.

But it didn't feel right.
So I made a mental note of the number so I could find it again.
-As the number shows up on the phone.

I mentioned it to the cashier.
Who remembered the incident as they had been the one to find the item.
I had figured that the customer had left their stuff later in the day, towards closing.
But no, it had been in the morning at some point.

A quick call to the manager who'd been on duty told us where to look.
Only....it wasn't there.

O.o
Had someone else taken it?
Had it been thrown away since there were a ton of receipts in said bag?

No.
After a long long search of entering the room multiple times with different managers.
I finally found the baggy.
It had fallen in a box and been covered up.
Who knows how it fell three feet away....
But I found it!

So I was able to call the customer about ten minutes after I'd hung up with them.
and tell them that I had found their bag.

To which they were extremely relieved to avoid the hassle of having to cancel all their credit cards and get new IDs and such.

They said they were going to be right in....
So I hope that the customer go their 'wallet.'

All in all.
A pretty productive day I'd say. :D

-Sarnic Dirchi

Communication

I was scrubbing tanks when I heard the boy's voice.
"THEY HAVE FISHIES?!" He yelled out in utter delight.
I heard the pitter patter of his feet as he darted back to the entrance. "MOM THEY HAVE FISHIES!!"
I heard the feet again. Pitter patter and looked up just in time to see the boy press his face against the case of our display tank.
And start roaring at the tank.
lol

What is it with kids and making loud noises at fish??
Honestly I'm not sure why they do it.
Perhaps they know something I don't.

But it didn't stop with the fishies.
I could hear him rawring, growling and making other noises that sounded like "bangbangbangbang" all the way up and down the store.

So I can only assume he was trying to terrorize all the other animals in the store as well.
Or communicate....

Who knows.
What I do know, was that it was amusing to listen to as I worked. lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

How Many?

It's always amusing when a customer comes up to me and asks me. "Can I get some crickets?"
And then they wait....as if expecting me to magically just bag up the number they need.

It's so strange really.
I always have to ask them "How many, what size?"
It's not like I can read minds.
Yet still, customers do it. Just ask for crickets but don't specify the type or number.

Maybe one of these days I'll just randomly pick a size and bag a number and hand it to them....just to see their reaction. lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Moving Slow

There is a reason why we don't sell the fish from our display fish tanks.

I mean, we can sell the fish there.
But we try not to and discourage people from wanting those fish by saying that they're not for sale.

Why don't we sell the fish from our tanks?
1. They're impossible to catch quickly as the display tanks have more decorations and an awkward reach for catching fish.
2. The fish are older, so there's no guarantee that the fish will do well if moved to a new spot.
3. Fish are annoying to catch in display tanks.

So guess what I had to do today?
Yah.

I had a customer insist that I catch one of the glofish from the display tanks.
Stating that one of the managers had said that she could have that fish.
(later found out it was a misunderstanding on her part.)
Why did she want that particular glofish?
From what I could gather it was because it was larger than the fish in the tanks that we had for sale.

And even though I explained that this fish was older, and it might not do well.
Said customer was insistent that I catch that fish.

So I did.

Very.
Very.
Veeerrryyyy
Slowly.

I was in no hurry to catch the fish.
As I didn't want to catch the fish in the first place.
So my net wasn't as quick.
And it helped that the fish was super good at disappearing within the tank and hiding in the decorations.

I mean, if I had moved quickly I could have caught the fish as soon as I stuck my net in the tank.
I didn't.
Because I was annoyed.
Annoyed at this customer because they wouldn't take no for an answer.
Annoyed that this customer was insistent on this fish when she'd already returned the same type of fish twice. Dead.

So I moved slowly.
Taking my time.
Replacing decorations as I displaced them to catch the fish.

Commenting every now and then that the fish on our wall were much easier to catch.

I have to give that customer some credit.
She was patient.
I must have taken at least 10 if not 15 minutes trying to catch that fish.

All the while hoping that she would get impatient and change her mind.
But no.
Her mind was set.
She wasn't leaving without that fish.

So I wasted her time.
But she did get the fish in the end.

Hopefully she doesn't expect more of them in the future. >.<
I don't sell fish from the display tanks.
The only reason I did now was I thought the manager had given permission.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A New Passion

In our store we have tanks with stands set up for customers to see and buy.
-Just the tanks and stands with lights, no fish or water or anything.

A year or so ago, we were told to set up the lights, and then later that we should decorate the tanks with ornaments inside so that customers could see potential possibilities of how they could decorate their own tanks once they got it home.

I actually find it quite fun to decorate those tanks as it allows me to play with potential ideas for my own tank. :)

So it's unsurprising that when I planned to get the 125 gallon tank, that when we had the opportunity to decorate it, I took advantage and tried a few different decorating ideas. And left one of the set ups within the tank since it needed to be decorated anyways.

In any case.
Today, Black Friday, I had an older gentleman come into the store.
One who'd just moved into a new house, and had gotten permission from his wife to fulfill his childhood dream of getting a fish tank again. He could even get a large fish tank so long as it fit on the wall. lol.
But since he hasn't had a fishtank himself since he was a child, he wanted to make sure he wasn't getting in over his head. So I spent the next couple of hours off and on talking to the gentleman about the different tank sizes, and filters and basically everything about the tank. lol. He decided to go a head and get the 125 gallon tank, since I'd just gotten one as well and he trusted that I would know what I was doing. heh.
It was surprising though, that he and his wife decided to go ahead and buy all the decorations within the tank that I'd placed there. ()_() They had a couple of adjustments, switched out a couple of ornaments, but basically bought everything I'd placed in there. lol. Which was totally surprising, but some customers do it.
However, now I'm in a hard spot as....It would feel weird to buy those decorations as well for my own large fish tank. Heh. Sooo I guess it's back to the drawing board for me. Which is fine, I was still playing with other ideas for decorations for my own tank.

I'm just glad that I was able to help the customer out.
I hope it works well for him. ^^

-Sarnic Dirchi

Which Bag?

It's amusing when customers thing that we know more than we do at work.

Especially when it comes to dog/cat food.

You wouldn't believe how often people are like. "I'm looking for the food with red x shapes in it."

"Uh....do you have a brand name?"

"No, it's the food with the red x's in it!!"

Sorry dear customer....

But I can't help you there.

Unless a bag of food gets a hole in it and spills across the floor, I never actually see what the food INSIDE the bag looks like.

All I have to go off of is what is pictured on the outside if the food is pictured.

I can guide you to brand names, to pictures and such easily enough once I can narrow down the possibilities.

But if I get a customer in, like I had today.

Who just shows me a plastic baggy full of dog food....

There's not much I can do to help you know which one you buy.

Especially when you already know the brand of food, but you can't remember the Flavor of food you buy.

I doubt the dog would care if you give them chicken flavor or beef flavored. So long as its the same brand of food I doubt most dogs would care.

And honestly...different flavors don't always have different colors.

And since I don't see the kibble that often...I wouldn't be able to say for sure which flavor went to which bag.

Ah.

The thoughts customers get in their heads sometimes. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Picture Perfect

It's not uncommon to encounter customers taking pictures of the animals we have in the store.
Often it's kids doing school projects and the like.
But occasionally I encounter adults also taking pictures of the animals within the store.

Today was one of those days.
I was walking by our reptile section when I noticed a gentleman with his camera basically pressed against the glass of the cage, taking pictures of our bearded dragons.
Knowing that the reflection of the glass could cause havoc with actually having a good picture, I paused in my task and offered to open up that cage for him so he could get a better close up view.
To which he refused, because he wanted the bearded dragons in their 'natural' environment.
...Okay.

So, I asked him if I could show him any of the other animals.
-As most of them tend to hide during the day because they're stubborn like that.

To which after some coaxing.
He said he wanted to get a picture of our Milksnake.
Ha.
Ha.

I tried. That's what I can say.
Milksnake is pretty difficult to get to hold still. They're quick little buggers and when you disturb them they go crazy.
So to compensate for my failure with the milksnake, I offered to show him the Ball Pythons as they don't move as quickly -but can still be stubborn when they don't want their picture taken- and the gentleman proceeded to take pictures to his heart's content before thanking me and leaving.

Only to return later in the day, apologetically, asking if he could take more pictures of some different snakes as the ones he took before ended up out of focus. (hate it when that happens.)
He'd again caught me at a slow moment in the store where there weren't really customers to help and I was looking for a distraction.
So I willingly helped him out by spending ten or so minutes moving snakes around to try and get them have their heads visible to the camera and still be in their 'natural' environment.

lol Hopefully he succeeded this time around. :) I'm guessing he did since I didn't see him again, but that doesn't mean he didn't return again after my shift was over....

-Sarnic Dirchi