Going Down

You gotta love the impatient customers.

At the crack of the store opening, I had a woman come in.

She needed 60 of our small goldfish.

Which isn't uncommon for people to need large amounts of goldfish.

The feeders are often used to feed Turtles who love to eat them like candy from what customers tell me.

Thankfully, we'd gotten in a large shipment of goldfish.

So I was able to easily catch the fish.

The customer had disappeared while I gathered supplies, to go check out something else. And I was just finishing counting out my first netful of fish.

When she came back and said. "You know what...give me forty instead."

*shakes head*

Only like thirty seconds had passed.

But apparently, she was in enough of a hurry that she didn't want to stick around to have me count out thirty more fish.

So strange. Usually people change their minds and want more fish not less...but whatever. It only meant that I was able to finish counting sooner and bag her fish quicker and have her leave quicker.

Still, I wonder.

What was she in a hurry for that she cut down on the number of fish she originally wanted?

-Sarnic Dirchi

Boy or Girl?

There are times when I really don't understand customers.

So. For some reason, today was a day to get birds.
It felt like every fifth customer I encountered wanted me to catch them a bird.
And considering that this is my least favorite thing to do -since I will more than likely end up getting bitten....I'm not a fan of 'bird days' at all.
I like it when I can go a couple of weeks or so without having to catch any of the birds for people.

In any case.
I had customers come into the store. A father and his two daughters.
And they were carrying a box.

I recognized the father and one of the daughters.
As a few days ago...I think it was last Saturday? It was recent whatever the case.
Because the daughter took forever deciding on which birds she wanted to buy from us.
Literally they sat in front of that cage for probably 45 minutes attempting to decide because I'd helped them, helped other customers, went and came back from lunch... *shakes head*
Thankfully I didn't end up catching the birds for them as they decided and got help from my coworker just as I was coming back from lunch.

But seeing the box in their hands today.
:S Not the best of signs.

A box means a return.
A box usually means something died.

But to my surprise.

It wasn't quite that.

They'd brought both birds back.
So that they could be told what genders the parakeets were.
The girl was confident the blue one she'd gotten was a boy.
But the green parakeet....they weren't sure on.

She wanted to have two boys.
So if the green was a girl, they'd be getting a different bird.
If the green was a boy, they'd be heading out on their merry way.

So I took the box, to check on the birds.
And confirmed the blue was a boy.
And the green....was a girl.

*sighs*
Which meant I would now be required to catch another parakeet for the girl so she could exchange out the girl for a boy.

Only.
Somewhere in the middle of me checking genders....
Things had changed.

As I assumed they'd want another green that was a male.
But no.
They now wanted to return the Blue bird instead of the green bird and get another female instead of another male.

O.o
...Did I miss something?
Like a conversation with a coworker or another customer?
*shrugs* Who knows.
All I know is that they now wanted a girl.

And thankfully we had a blue parakeet that was a girl.
So I was able to quickly catch that one and exchange it out for the customers.

Here's hoping that they don't change their minds again and come back wanting males....

-Sarnic Dirchi

On the Carpet

It's not always easy dealing with customers who expect you to be the encyclopedia of answers to their problems.

I had a customer come up to me, with a problem with her dog.
In that her dog is peeing all over her bedroom carpet, and she was looking for solutions to make the dog stop.

The background of the dog, was that it came from a home where the owner let the dogs go wherever they wanted and never made an effort to clean up after them.
:S yikes.
And when the woman got the dog, she'd gotten the dog to the point of nearly being potty trained.....

But then life happened,
and the customer switched to working longer days where she's gone 11 hours a day.

Which means she's not home as much as she used to be.
Leaving the dog free to it's own devices really.

And when she started working the longer shifts.
The dog started peeing in the rooms again.

The woman got it contained down to one room. As she shuts the dog up in that room.
But the dog isn't going on the puppy pads. Instead it's choosing to go on the carpet because that's what the dog was used to before moving in with the current owner.

To me...the solution would be to lock the dog up.
Put it in a crate so it can't pee all over.

But the customer was against that.
So I brought up other solutions.
Only to have her shoot them down one at a time for various reasons.

I suggested locking the dog in a room that doesn't have carpet.
Like a bathroom so it's easier to clean.

Or in the kitchen in a play pen type of contraption. So the dog is on hardwood floors but contained to a certain area.

*shakes head*

I dunno if any of dozen of solutions I offered will actually be tried.
It ended up being a frustrating twenty minutes for sure. Since the customer didn't take any of my suggestions today....

But I hope that she gets a solution for her doggie sooner rather than later.
Because I know how irritating it is to deal with smelly carpets.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Blue Mollies

Last week, I was talking with a customer about fish.
I don't remember exactly what I was doing for the customer...I mean I was standing at the cricket podium, but if I was bagging crickets or fish...I really can't say.

In any case.
We were talking about fish.
And it got around to the point where she mentioned that she had these cool mollies that were a bluish black shade.
I was surprised to have her say that they were mollies. as I hadn't seen them before in the store.
(Though I probably had when I was younger)
So I was thinking she was talking about Platys or Guppies.
but no they were mollies.

I thought they sounded really cool, as blue fish are always cool. :) lol.
And she said that she was breeding them.
Or at least that she had a ton of babies in her tank.
So I asked her how much she was selling them for.
and she told me she was just giving them away.

So I told her that I would be willing to take 3 or 4 of them if she wanted to give some to me, so long as they were males -as I didn't want to breed fish in my 125 gallon tank. I don't need the drama. lol.

To which she agreed and said she'd bring them by the next time she would come into the store.

Which....could possibly be never lol.
But I told her when I worked.
And figured I'd see her later this week. Probably on the weekend.

But to my surprise.
She came into the store today about lunch time.
And had brought me the fish!! :D

Heh...unfortunately one of the four tricked her, as she thought they were all boys but one was a girl.
Still. I accepted them all, as I didn't want to make her take back one of the fish.

I was grateful she went through the effort to bring me some fishies. ^^
And they are adorable! A nice shimmery blue. :)

I only ended up taking the three males home though. :S
Again, one female in a tank full of males...wouldn't be good for her.
So I placed the female molly in our display tank where it probably wouldn't be noticed.

But ah!

I need to talk to customer more often about their fish.
because who knows what other cool fish I may come by if I do. ^^ lol

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Silthering Things

I was in the middle of vacuuming our fish tanks,
When I looked up and noticed a woman standing nearby, looking at her phone.
So I asked her if she needed any help.

To which she responded. "Do you have any non aggressive snakes?"

The question threw me for a loop....as we don't sell aggressive snakes.
Sure some of them can get a bit feisty and can bite, but in general they're not considered aggressive. Especially since right now we only have Ball Pythons and they are rather mellow. (unless they're cranky from being hungry)

So I told her. "All our snakes our mellow."

To which she responded. "No, I was told one of your snakes was aggressive."

...but they aren't....
I had time to think.

Before she pointed. "Here, I think it was this one!"

And where was she pointing?

Towards one of our fish tanks.
That contained peacock eels.

Which are in fact, semi aggressive.

But are not.... snakes.

They're eels.

I mean, I can see how people could call them snakes.
Since they look like them. Having no limbs and such.

But I haven't yet had people actually call them snakes.
They call them eels.
or loaches.

But not snakes.

So it's no wonder I was confused at what the woman wanted.
Because if you say snake...I'm going to think the reptile.
I'm not going to think of our aquatic looking ones.

Though it now makes sense as to why she was standing by the fish wall....and not by our reptile enclosure. *shakes head*

So I was able to help her from there.
Showing her the 'non aggressive snake' she was looking for.
The black kuhili loach

Unfortunately for her.
I didn't have any in stock.
So she has to wait until we get more in.
Hopefully on our next fish shipment.

-Sarnic Dirchi

3 Years Later

It was in the middle of the day. Where I'd found a brief lull in the holiday shoppers to do some work.

When I got a phone call.

And on the other end.

Was a customer.

"Hey....so we adopted a cat from you like three years ago...."

Now automatically I'm thinking that they want to return the cat. Because why else would they bring up the fact that they adopted a cat from us?

Unfortunately we don't accept returns on the cats we adopt out. People have to go through the adoption group if they have any issues.

However, that wasn't this guy's problem.

"And when we adopted him." he continued. "We were told that he'd been fixed. However, six months later...we discovered he wasn't."

O.o

Well...okay....I had no idea where his explanation was going from there.

I do know that threeish years ago, the cats weren't always fixed. It became a policy after a year or so of me working there, that the adoption groups had to have their cats and dogs fixed before they could adopt them out. As we're trying to lessen the homeless pets problem. And there's no easier way for homeless pets to skyrocket than for pet owners to neglect to get their pets fixed.

Back when I first started, there usually was a voucher included where the new owners could take their new pet to a specific vet and have the procedure done without cost to the new pet parents.

So it's possible that the guy could have gotten such a voucher, but didn't pay attention to it as they assumed the cat was already fixed? Or the person who adopted the cat out thought that the cat had been fixed when it hadn't....

Who knows.

In any case the customer continued with. "it wasn't really an issue for us then, so we let it slide."

...... if you realized that the cat wasn't fixed.....why didn't you contact us or the adoption group at that point in time? Why did you let your cat remain unaltered if he needed to be neutered. >.<

Why are you NOW calling me TWO and a HALF years AFTER you discovered that the cat wasn't fixed?

"But now." he said. "We have a couple new animals in our house, and our cat is marking all over the place. So we were wondering if you would still honor that original promise that the cat was fixed and fix him for us."

Aka. We made a mistake not fixing him then, so can you fix him for us for free now?

>.<

Uh.

No?

You should have taken responsibility back in the beginning and gotten him fixed then before it became an issue.

As I've been told that once a cat starts marking their territory....fixing them doesn't always solve that problem. *shakes head*

In any case.

There was nothing I or my work could do for them.

My work just provides a location for adoption groups to adopt out their cats.

We don't do any of the shots/vaccinations/spaying/neutering etc.

It's all on the adoption group. They're in charge of that. So if they said they fixed a cat...and they hadn't....then the customer would need to go to them to solve the issue.

But with three years now passed??

Who knows what the adoption group would say.

The customer wanted to know if we had records of adoptions going back three years as they couldn't find the paperwork that told them which adoption group they adopted the cat from.

Again... No.

We don't keep records that long in the store.

Honestly....I'm not feeling that bad for them.

They should have acted when the problem was first discovered.

*shakes head*

Customers.

Customers.

Customers.

*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

 

Unleashed

There's a part of me that often wonders, while I'm talking to customers....
on if I'm accidentally releasing a 'monster' into the world.
Or at least upon the work.

We get them every now and then.
People who become super obsessive/paranoid about their new pet.
To the point where they come into the store almost daily for various reasons.

lol...surprisingly most of these monster customers end up being released when it comes to fish.

Some monster customers are benign.
Just constantly buying new decorations to redecorate their tanks, or buying more tanks so they can have more fish.

Others are horrible.
Constantly changing their mind, returning things, repurchasing things, exchanging things. Whether it be fish, filters, tanks...etc....You see them walk in and you wonder "Oh no. What's got them unhappy now?!"

I'm not quite sure what customer this one today will become.
It was a gentleman who had owned fish tanks in the past.
And was just getting back into them.

He dithered for like an hour it felt like, on whether or not he wanted to get the 60 gallon fish tank that's currently on a really good sale because of the holiday weekend.
He was thinking of doing Salt Water...
but since I had little experience with that....
We went to fresh water.
And between Canister filters and over the back filters.
And between what types of fish to get.
What types of gravel to get.
If he actually had a place for the 60 gallon tank....

Thankfully, I managed to convince him to buy the 60 gallon at least.
Even if he's still unsure about what else to get.
One step forward will hopefully result in more steps forward.

And hopefully he won't become a monster customer.
Constantly badgering us with questions, concerns, and dead fish. :S

Guess we'll have to see. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not Flying

This morning while I was cleaning cages, like I usually do in the morning,
Our small animal delivery guy came in.
As usual.
So I took him to the back room so we could place the animals in their temporary cages for observation until I could bring them out onto the floor to sell.
It's also the time for me to look at the animals and ensure that they appear healthy.
If I see anything not deemed 'normal' I have the ability to refuse to take that animal.
Usually it's hamsters or guinea pigs who are sick or injured.

But today.
After the guy had finished placing the birds into their temporary cage.
I noticed that one of the parakeets wasn't acting right.

In the simple fact that he wasn't flying around the cage like parakeets tend to do when they first arrive...or at any time really. They tend to be spazzy and fly around the cage.
But this particular parakeet didn't fly. It kept it's wings firmly tucked by its sides. It didn't attempt to fly at all. I could easily catch it.
It didn't attempt to fly away.
I held it in my hands and it perched there.
And didn't attempt to fly away.

Visually the bird looked normal enough.
The feathers on its belly were damp -possibly from the water jellies within the container. So the bird had a ragged look...which made it difficult to tell if it was healthy.

I tried to examine the wings.
And something was wrong with them, as the bird tried to bite me when I spread out the wings.
But I couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the wings. Were they malformed slightly?
Hard to tell.

All I knew...was that the bird didn't like its wings being spread, and wouldn't fly away.

So in the end, I ended up not accepting the bird. :(

Hopefully it feels better soon.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Hold the Dog

I don't often venture into the vet side of the store.

Usually only if I have an injured animal that needs to be looked at.

So it was a surprise to see one of the vet techs coming out to the main part of the store.

He laid eyes on me, and asked if I was busy.

I wasn't at that time, it was slow without any customers. So I said I wasn't.

He needed some help.

As he needed to get some sort of sample from one of the doggies in the back. Draw blood or something.

But he was currently the only one there.

And the dog itself was feisty. Making it difficult to juggle the pup and the needle.

So he needed a hand.

Wondering if I was about to be seriously injured by a dog.

I followed him into the back.

Thankfully, he chose to place a muzzle on the pup so I had no risk of being bitten. Yay. :) lol

In any case all I had to do was hold the pup for ten seconds to keep him from wriggling too much.

So it all went smoothly. Yay!

lol. And once again, I get a brief taste of what it would be like to be a vet tech. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Unexpected Wetness

We got in our reptile shipment today at work.
It was a small one. Just four reptiles.
One of them being a Ball Python.
Which was good news for us, because we've basically been out of snakes for over a month now.
Our shipper is having a hard time keeping up with the demand.
Honestly I won't be surprised if the snake has already been sold when I come into work tomorrow.

In any case.
When I pulled him out of his carrying container.
I noted that he was super chill to the touch.
And so, I decided, since my hands were warm,
To let him hang out a bit and get some heat from me so that he wasn't so cold.

Surprisingly for being cold the little guy was active.
And I soon found out why.

>.<
Because he then proceeded to pee on me.

Gee...
Thanks Snake.
Thanks.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Prank Calls

I'm never going to understand it.
I've decided.
I'm never going to understand why people want to make prank phone calls to a pet store.
I mean, what's the point?
Just to say that you can?
Just to waste our time?

Who knows.

*shakes head*

I had to deal with another prank call.
Honestly, if I see the number on our phones show up as 'anonymous' I really should expect it to be a call to not take seriously.
Especially when the speaker sounds like a child. With them speaking in a high pitched voice.

Only, children do sound like that.
So it's hard to tell for sure if the call is a prank...until you get further into it.

Like this one.
Where the 'customer' said that they'd come back from being gone for a few days to find their fish floating upside down and they wanted to know if that was normal for a fish.

"It depends...." I said, already knowing from that simple statement that this was a call meant to waste my time. After all....logically one would assume that there would be a parent near when it was noticed that the fish had died. So it wouldn't make sense for them to have their child call the pet store in order to have a worker there, who can't see the fish over the phone, confirm that it's dead.
"On whether or not the fish is still swimming."
"It's not."
"Oh, well it's dead."

And the phone call ended soon after that point. Thankfully because I wasn't in the mood to deal with 'fake consoling' a 'fake customer' who had nothing better to do with their time. *shakes head*

Honestly.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Overflowing

There I was, in the middle of helping to back up at the registers.
When my manager comes up to me,
Saying that he needs my help.
"With what?" I ask.
"With the fish system." was his response.

Okay.... I had no idea why he would need my help.
I mean, like ten minutes earlier we'd both been back there to check the system and make sure that the heaters were working (as they like to randomly flip their switches and turn themselves off) and I'd left the manager to treat the system (to keep the fish from getting sick.)

I seriously doubted that he needed help with that.
So why we both needed to go back there again....
Was beyond me.

It quickly became clear though, why he hadn't said more in front of customers.

Because the part of the system that filters the Feeder Golfish tanks....
Was leaking.

One of the vertical tubes above the main sump had water overflowing the top.
O.o

Huh.
That's....not something that I'd seen happen before.

But it made sense as to why the manager came to me.
It's because I'm the one with the most experience with the system in the store.
So if something goes wrong.
I would have an idea of how to fix it.

lol.
Unfortunately...I had no idea how to fix it.

Thankfully, we were able to figure it out in the end without majorly flooding the store.

It turns out we had to adjust one of the many random knobs along the tubes.
So that instead of being completely vertical it's now diagonal, limiting, I guess the amount of water being accessed to the tube.
It seems to have kept the tube from overflowing....
So hopefully that's the issue,
And that my coworker's don't come in tomorrow to find the store completely flooded. :S

-Sarnic Dirchi

Animal Entertainment

There's not many reasons why people buy crickets.

Most of the time, the crickets are used as a food source for some sort of reptile.
Occasionally for fish as well.
Or by people looking to do 'fear factor' or 'school projects.'

But today, the customer was different.
He asked for a half a dozen crickets.
And so I assumed that he had a reptile to feed, or since he was buying fish stuff, that he probably had fish that liked to eat crickets.
But when I asked him...

He said that the crickets were actually for his cat.

O.o
Yah. That's right.
His cat.
O.o

Thankfully he went on to explain further that he gives the crickets to his cat to play with. Usually he dumps the crickets in the bathtub where the can't get out, and the cat plays with them....
Though I don't know if the cat eats them, or just plays with them til she gets bored or they die....

Still.
It was definitely an unexpected response.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bullying

There are times when I wonder why people would even think to call a pet store with the questions they have.
Out of all the places they could call...a pet store.

I suppose, it makes sense in some cases.
Like today.
When I had a customer call just after the store opened for the day.
With a question about the fish she'd bought yesterday.

As she had a Tetra that had been by itself for a while because the people didn't know that the Tetras were a schooling fish. And when they found out they decided to get this fish some buddies.

I believe it was three others.

Only in the new group of tetras that they bought.
The littlest one was being a bit of a bully. Constantly chasing the other fish around the tank and causing mayhem.
But this new group was also causing trouble...in that they wouldn't let the other tetra school with them. They would chase the original one away whenever it tried to join them.

So the customer basically wanted to know what to do.

Uhh.....

It's one of those problems....where there probably isn't a real answer.

It's not like I can say "Do a quarter water change and add in 10ml of water condition and lessen the amount of time your lights are on."

Because this is about the fish themselves. Their personalities.
And when it comes to personalities with fish....what works for one fish won't work for another.

So I ended up suggesting a couple of different options for her to try out.
One was to rearrange some of the decorations in the tank, to basically 'mix up ' the territories.
Another was to catch the little bully fish and bring it back to the store (since they can do that)
To see if that would solve the problem.
Or else come and get another tetra anyways to bring the total number of tetras in the tank up to five.

As I noticed with my own tank that the schooling fish don't seem to like fours.
I had four danios and one was always left out.
But three of them would be together just fine.
And five of my own rosy tetras...they prefer to school in twos and threes.

So I suggested adding in another tetra just to give the old tetra a buddy.

The customer could have ended up doing all three options above lol.
From the way they spoke they definitely were planning to bring the tetra back to the store to get a different one.
Who knows if the customer ended up buying other fish....but hey.

I did what I could to help them solve their fish problems. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Two At Once

It's normal for me to deal with multiple customers in a row having the same questions or needs. It's a trend that I'm used to dealing with as odd as they are.

But it's not often that I end up dealing with two customers needing similar things at the same time.

I had been called to the fish wall to help a customer.
Which was interesting only in the fact that I was already AT the fish wall and there were no customers in sight.
*shakes head*
The customers who go straight to the register to request aid without looking around first bug me as if they would have looked a bit, they would have seen me right there.

In any case.

A woman approached me with questions about the betta fish. As she was wanting to get one and needed answers about them.

Only for like two seconds later another woman to come around the corner, also needing help with betta fish. Though her situation was a bit more complicated in the fact that apparently, a family member had bought a betta fish a couple days ago, only for the mother of that house to not approve having a fish as a pet. So it was given to this lady (grandmother?) to keep.
However, the fish that the people had bought, the woman thought that it wasn't healthy. The tail fin was more ragged than she believed it should be. Personally the tail was a bit lopsided, but otherwise looked alright.
It could have been an easy exchange. If she'd had a receipt.
But she didn't.
So it made the who process more complicated in exchanging out the fish. Even more so as she wanted to get a betta that looked exactly like the one she was returning so the grandchild wouldn't realize that she'd switched out the betta fish when she came to visit.
*exhales*

So I ended up talking to both customers at once.
-As they would interrupt each other with questions. -or at least the second lady would interrupt the first one.

All in all it made for a bit of an odd 15 minutes as I helped them both out.
Still in the end it worked out.
And they both left happy with their fish.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Inheritance

I really enjoy helping customers.
Despite my complaints about having to help customers.
I actually do like it.

I like it when I'm able to teach them, and to see the light of understanding in their eyes.
To have them express their gratitude for me taking the time to tell them things that they wouldn't have known otherwise that would help them make their new endeavor with whatever pet they're going for, be a bit more successful.

It just puts a spring in my step afterwards.
To feel like I actually was helpful.

lol.
Like today, when I had a woman come up to me.
-After having to wait for like 15 minutes for me to finish up with a couple other customers-
To ask me questions about a Leopard Gecko she'd inherited.

I love the sorts of customers that want to 'do it right'
They don't really mind the money being spent on the animal, they just want to make sure that they're taking proper care of the animal and the animal is getting all that it needs to survive.

This customer was that sort of customer.
Who had gone online and done research before coming into the store to ask questions and get advice on things.

I think I ended up spending like 30 minutes just talking to her about different things relating to the care, making sure she understood and such.

lol Kinda surprised I was able to talk to her for so long without being interrupted by other customers actually.

But in the end.
I was able to help her find the food she needed, give suggestions on care and just basically help her feel more confident that she and her husband can take care of their new pet. ^^

Yay for helping.

-Sarnic Dirchi

To ReDecorate

So there is this semi-regular customer who comes into our store.

I'd seen her multiple times and interacted with her before.
But we started interacting more often after she too bought a 125 gallon fish tank, and set out to decorate it.

lol. She can be a handful on occasion as she has very particular wants/needs about her tank.
Usually involving decorations but occasionally fish.

Today was really no different.
The only difference was that she came in on a Saturday.
And decided to be particular...
When we were crazy busy.
So it was a bit tense, multitasking between trying to help her as she decided on a new theme for her tanks. (she changes it every two or three months it feels like) and was trying to get just the right 'shade of green' and the right 'plant look' for her new motif.
Which I can understand, you don't want to have 'clashing colors' when decorating.

But it was rather....annoying. Just because I'd be like. "How about this one?"
And she'd be like "No."
"This one?"
"No."
"This one?"
"No."

And then when I finally found plants that she thought could work. -most of which were being used as decorations in our tank/stands for sell....I ended up playing a bit of ring around the rosie with the decoraitons as I'd put some back, only for her to change her mind and want the out again....only to change her mind....

Not to mention the fish she wanted as she didn't know if she wanted larger fish or smaller fish, or had me put back fish when she decided they ended up not working after all.

lol. To say she was a handful is an understatement.
As she refused to work with any of my other coworkers because "I know what she needs best."
So As she decided on things, I'd break away to help other customers nearby, and then come check in on her.
All in all I probably spent like an hour or so helping her out today.

Stressful. So very stressful.
But at least she ended up leaving happy.... I think.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Product Complaints

So there's a frustrating thing at work.
Where a few months ago we were given 'orders' by higher ups to not write off anything in the store.
Meaning...if we had inventory discrepancies where our inventory says we have a product but there's none on the shelf....
We can't take the steps to fix it.

Which is frustrating because if our inventory thinks that we have a product when we don't...it means that we're not going to get anymore of that product in.
And if customers are trying to buy said product....and fail time and time again to find it when they come into the store....

Well it basically ends up frustrating for all sides.
As I really want to help customers find what they want.
And if I can't help them find the product.....
*exhales*

It's not like I can tell them. "Sorry, our inventory says we have three of these, but we last got them in in October so obviously they were either stolen or we didn't have them in the first place, but unfortunately I can't correct the inventory so we can get the product back on the shelf because we were told we can't make those adjustments, so until we're told we can fix our inventories again...you're out of luck."

Yah, pretty sure that wouldn't go over well.
*shakes head*
So I've resorted to saying something along the lines of: "It looks like we're temporary out of stock on these, and I don't know when our supplier will be able to send us more. There may be a shortage."

Still doesn't mean the customer is happy...but at least they have a reason as to why they can't find their item.

*exhales*
I had a customer today that wasn't happy. It was a 20 minute lecture of not happy.
Because for the past 3-4 months (so they said) this customer has come into the store to buy certain flavors of a certain brand of cat food.
And we used to always have that item in stock to where they could get four or five cases of the food easily.
But recently. Not so much. Customer came in for those cases....and left with one can.

To them, this was unacceptable. They easily spend $100 in the store on cat food when they come, and they don't want to see us losing business, but their cats are particularly picky and so will only eat certain flavors of certain brands... etc etc.

I can understand the frustration.
Honestly, I'm hoping that the customer is just having bad luck and is coming in after other customers have grabbed their flavors, leaving us constantly short stocked for this customer.
I'm hoping that it's not an inventory issue. Because if it is....there's not much I can do to fix it.
And with cat cans....inventory is easily to mess up.
If the cashiers accidentally only ring up one can when they should have rung up 24....it's easy to get off.

Hopefully we'll get the issues sorted out soon.
I mean, our inventory will become accurate in a month or so when we have to do our yearly 'inventory count' of everything in the store to start us back at 'square one' basically.
But I really want us to fix the issue before that point. So that I can make customers happy again, and not have to listen to complaints about it without being able to do anything.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Short-er-Long Shift

Note to self.
You should never announce aloud to others that you're getting off earlier than usual from work because the manager's gave you a short shift.

That's just asking the Hour Gods to draw their attention to you, and then have them draw your manager's attention to you and then...you end up staying longer at work.

*exhales*

So.
I was supposed to get off from work early today.
A rare occurrence really because I tend to work 8hr shifts.
So to have a shift where I actually leave an hour or so early...
They're always my favorite. ^^ Because I get to go and do other things I don't usually get to do.

And today, was supposed to be one of those days.
But I made the fatal mistake.

Of telling a coworker something along the lines of. "If all goes well, I'll get off at this time."

Totally predicted to myself that I wouldn't be getting off early.
It's just been one of those weeks you know? Where you can feel that things aren't going to go your way.

And true to form.
Like half an hour before I was supposed to be off.
I made the fatal mistake of walking past the manager.
Not that I said or did anything besides walk past him.
But he noticed me.

And asked if I would be able to stay a little longer.
Until I would usually get off when I worked an 8 hour shift.
That way, my replacement coworker -the manager of my dept- could be out on the floor while the manager who asked me to stay could be locked away in the office working on the schedule...as I think he had to redo next week's one?

In any case.
I agreed to.
Because why not.

lol. I basically just got extra hours.
Because I stayed the extra time.
And helped out my Dept Manager in doing some of his tasks.
But I'm not sure if the Manager who asked me to stay actually got his goal accomplished....
*shakes head*

I guess if his goal was to make sure that there would always be someone besides my manager in the dept to help out in case my manager was called away...then I guess that goal was met.

At least it wasn't a longer shift than I was used to already.
And who knows...lol maybe they'll make me cut out early on another shift because I stayed longer today. :)
One can hope.

-Sarnic Dirchi