Where's the Clasps?

Had a customer in the store before we opened today.
More than one, actually.

In any case.
I'd noticed my coworker trying to help them a few minutes earlier, but hadn't thought much of it.
Until that customer came to stand in line behind another early customer. 
(Seriously don't you people read hours on the doors??) 

And when it was her turn.
She placed one of those guinea pig combo food/hay feeders onto the counter. 

Where she then explained that it says on the label *pointing to the label* that the combo feeder should come with clasps. But both this one and the other one on the shelf didn't have them. 

So I was thinking that she was just wanting a discount on it, which we can do, I just needed to double check with a manager on how much we'd take off the price. 

Only, in the continuing conversation while waiting for the manager to come up to the front. 

I managed to establish that she wasn't looking to buy it at a discount.
No, she was looking for us to give her the clasps that were supposed to come with the combo feeder.

Apparently she believed that we had extras in the back. 
Or maybe even that we were purposely keeping the separate.
As she offered to pay for the clasps separately and such.

Only....the problem?
We don't carry parts.
We don't carry pieces to things. 

We just get the items sent to us.
It's not like there's a factory in the back of the store where we can just open a drawer, pull out the parts and bring them up front.

Nope.
Everything is sent in to us.
So if it's sent in incomplete....there's nothing we can do to fix the product.

We can discount it. But that's about it.

It took a couple repeats of telling the customer "I don't have extra parts in the back, the best I can do is discount it for you." 
Before they comprehended what I was trying to say.
Like I get that the picture on the internet says it comes with clasps.
I get that on the tag it says it comes with clasps.

But I don't have any clasps in the store. *shrugs*
It doesn't matter how many times you explain it to me, I can only give the same answer. *exhales*

She ended up leaving without buying anything. :/

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wrong Shipment

So a unique thing about work (Idk if other pet stores do this or not actually so it may not be unique) is that when it comes to our rodents -hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, chinchillas etc. 

Each store location will only carry one gender. 
So one store will only carry boy rodents. (mine) 
And another will only carry girl rodents. (our sister store up the way) 
Etc.

So that we can make sure that no breeding happens within our stores and that customers can be certain of which gender they bought. 

However....
Mistakes do happen on occasion.

Where our supplier accidentally sends the wrong gender to the store. 

Which is what happened to one of our sister stores in the next valley over.
They carry only females, 

But apparently, when their animal shipment was delivered a couple of days ago....
They ended up with some males.
Which they can't sell in their store because they only carry girls. 

And even though they had closer stores in their valley than us....
For some reason they called us....

Having not handled the call directly (my manager took it) I can only guess that a) they'd tried the other stores in their valley first and then called us. 
Or b) because they know that our store gets animals before theirs (as the supplier moves south to north in their deliveries) they figured they'd check in with our store first and see if we'd ended up accidentally getting females. 

We hadn't. We'd gotten boys. 

But thankfully we can do a store to store transfer -meaning they go into the system and transfer the inventory of an item (or animals in this case) from their store into our store. 

So apparently sometime today...or maybe tomorrow...
We're going to end up with 12 more hamsters. 
Of the Longhaired and Shorthaired Syrian variety. 

Which I don't mind much. ^^;; lol. I love the Syrians.
:S I just hope we can sell enough of the rodents this weekend that we can bring the new arrivals out onto the floor sooner rather than later. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Hunting We Shall Go

They came up to me just as I was heading to the registers to try and help third cashier for a sudden rush of customers that were waiting in line. 
-Why do people all head up to the front of store to checkout at the same time?? It's so weird.

In any case.
I was waylaid by a gentleman holding a collar, who was trying to find a similar collar...but in a larger size.
As he was holding the small. 
And needed the medium size.
But couldn't find it on the pegs. It was just small and large hanging there.

So I followed him to the aisle, to double check. 
Which yep. No Medium Sized collar there. The slot was empty. 
I could have just said "We're out of stock sorry come back later."

But I'm usually the type to try and be helpful. 
So I was like "hold on let me grab a scan gun and check our onhands." 

Which I was really hoping that the scanner would show Zeroes so I wouldn't have to try and find the collar.

Because that can be quite the needle in a haystack sort of search. :S 

Unfortunately for me.
The scanner showed me that we supposedly had Two Medium sized collars of that variety in stock. 

Which meant....searching time.

As it's entirely possible that our inventory was inaccurate. 
-As things break, get lost, and/or stolen all the time.
So sometimes the system thinks we have products we don't actually have. 

And knowing that my stocking manager was still there, I asked him over the radio if he'd seen any of those particular collars recently. 
-Since he tends to see the dog stock much more frequently than I do because I'm usually over by the fish and such. I don't usually deal with stocking cat/dog things. 

And the manager was like "Oh!! I saw some. They're on a U-boat in a box in Receiving." 

So I told the customer and his family that I was going to go search in the back and see if I could find them.

Which upon finding the boxes indicated in the back....I discovered that while the collar type was correct...the size was wrong. I found small and large but again, no Mediums. :S 

I checked in with the manager again, double checking I had the right box. Which I did. 
He'd thought the mediums were there, but nope. 

So he was like "Double check the last time we received them."
Which I did. "Yesterday" came my response.

So he was like 'Oh! Then they're probably in these boxes off the truck we haven't worked yet." 

So I went to go find him and help him search through the boxes, but got briefly waylaid by the same family, who'd now meandered to the back of the store to look at dog beds and were like "Are you still looking? Did you find it?" 

Which. Yes I was and No I hadn't yet but I was going to go check one other location. 

And just before I reached my manager he was like "Found them! They were right on top" Which yay for not having to dig through a mound of collars lol. 

So I was successfully able to bring the collar the customers needed to them. 

Yaaaaay for being successful. ^^;; lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wrong Store

I wonder if other retail stores ever have the problem of customers coming into the store thinking it's another store.

Like do people come into Old Navy and think it's Ross? Or like Go into Walmart and think it's Target??

Probably yes in all honesty.

I'm sure there are people that have done that.

But like....I still don't quite understand how people can confuse my store with our competitor's. 

I mean...both of the stores have "Pet" in the name.

But like....they have completely different names. 

Yet customers seem to think both stores....are the same. 

Which I suppose they could be technically....as I think both stores are owned by the same parent company....

But the products within the stores themselves?

Not always the same.

You come into my store...we have different brand names than the competitor's....

So while there is some crossover between products....

It's not every product.

In any case.

I had a woman come into the store today.

And told me that she'd been looking on our website for sand, and saw that we had a particular bag of aquarium sand that she wanted to get.

So she'd come into our store to buy it....and couldn't find it.

Upon glancing at the picture she showed me on her phone....I didn't recognize the brand. 

So I was like...."well maybe it's online only? Or isn't carried in our store itself."

So I showed her some other brands and such of the sand, but she wasn't happy with the price as the brand online was less expensive. 

Still, I was doing my best to help her out, showing her bags of sand, double checking prices. 

But she was still insistent on wanting the bag that she saw online.

So I looked at the picture again...

and saw a very important tidbit that I hadn't noticed before because the customer had said she was looking on our website.

But no.

She was looking at our competitor's. 

And when I pointed it out to her she was like "So?" 

Like it was obvious that the website was 'ours.' 

So I had to be like "No, this is the competitor's website. You're not in that store. You're in ours. So you won't find that brand of sand in our store because we don't carry it." 

I don't know if she ended up buying the bag of sand I found for her in the end....

Last I heard she was going to 'check out some filters" and decide after that....

*shrugs* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Job?

So this morning I was cleaning out the small pet cages, and was in the middle of cleaning the large Chinchilla cage, when a gentleman walked by and asked me. "How did you get this job?" 

To which, me, in my distracted state of focus on cleaning the cage, figured he was talking about my job in general. Like...how did I get to work at a pet store? 

So I was like "I applied for it."

To which he seemed a little surprised but was like "Oh, that's cool. Seems like fun!"

"Yep! It is!" Was my response, because I do have a lot of fun at work. ^^;; lol. 

It was only long after the customer had left the store and I was finishing up with the last of the cages....

That I realized the customer was probably asking me how I had ended up stuck being the one cleaning the cages... ^^;; heh.

Which in retrospect makes a lot more sense. lol. ^^;; 

....but like my answer would still be basically the same in any case lol.
As part of my job description is that I clean cages. 
So in a sense, I applied to clean cages. haha. ^^;; 

Ah well.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Searching for Bugs

I've always wondered about the people who come into the store and go straight to the registers to ask for assistance at the fish wall/cricket podium....when I was already standing there.

Like...I keep thinking that they should at least look first before asking for help.
Because like....9/10 times I'm there. And like the 10th time I'm not there it's because I'd wandered away like 30 seconds before to go get a drink of water in the back of the store and I'm heading right back.

-As it's always irritating to me that I literally had 'just left' the fish wall when I hear the call for help. Like I literally had JUST LEFT be PATIENT!

Well today.
I was standing towards the front of the store, on the edge of our fish decoration aisle, halfway watching the display fish in the display tanks swimming around, waiting for my coworker to clock in so I could go home.

When I watched a guy walk into the store....and head straight to the register without looking around at all. 

He's going to need crickets. Was my thought, watching him go to stand in the line.
-Which thankfully for him the cashier was just finishing up with the other customer there. 

And I saw her look up and meet my eyes as she asked into the radio if I would be able to help the gentleman with crickets. 

To which I was like. "Well....yah?" 

*shakes head* lol Like if he'd turned left instead of right and walked to the fish I would have been right there asking him if he needed assistance and I was obviously standing there not doing anything. *shakes head* 

But it became clear to me why people would beeline straight for the registers and not walk over to the cricket podium first. 

It's because they don't know where it is. 

The registers they at least know the location of.
But if the person has never been in the store before, there is no clear way to know where the crickets would be located. :S

So I had a moment of clarity there.

But yah in the end. I helped the guy grab the crickets and mealworms he needed. ^^;; So all's well. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

GET DOWN

A customer nearly gave me a heart attack today.

You see, we have this one really tall ladder (on wheels) that we use to reach the midsteel of our well...steel shelving units we have in the store.

-Which have three main layers.
The bottom layer where store product is located.
A mid layer about eight feet off the ground so you can't reach it from the floor. 
and a top layer like 12 feet or higher off the ground where we store all the big things like extra tanks and such.

And this tall ladder, we use to reach that middle section, where we keep lighter overstock products, like the smaller 2 gallon fish tanks, extra decorations, extra bird/hamster cages etc etc.

But also our overstock smaller cat scratchers.

Which seriously has been causing me issues for the past couple weeks, as people see those cat scratchers and think that it's actually on the 'shelf' for them to purchase, and they get quite frustrated because a) they can't reach them and b) they can't see a price for them.....
Because they don't realize we have an aisle that holds those cat scratchers down where they can reach them. 

*exhales* The problems with having product out of sight of similar product. 
-As you can't see the smaller cat scratchers where the larger cat scratchers and the over stock ones are. 
So people assume that the ones high up out of reach are the only ones that we have....

*shakes head*

In any case.

I happened to look over to this section....
To see an older grandparent age couple standing by the tall trees.

The woman, looking up to the smaller ones.
And the man?

He was on the ladder grabbing down some of the smaller cat scratchers. 

*cue near heart attack* 

Because a) we don't allow customers on the ladders because 1. They can get hurt if they fall and 2. we don't want to be sued because they got hurt. 
But I was also panicking because b) the dude was grandparent age!
Like. "Help I've fallen and I can't get up." old. 
Like. "I fell and broke my hip." old.

:S :S :S :S 
And all I could picture was him misjudging a step as he tried to get back down and see him falling hard to the floor and AHHHH!!!

So I was like "Sir! You can't be up there!"
Get down before you die dude!!! AHHHHH

Which thankfully he got down off the ladder just fine,
And I was able to help them find the product they needed, and get them their prices....

But ahh....

We really need to reorganize the store a bit better so people stop trying to reach those extra trees. *exhales* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Escape

It's kinda disconcerting to come into work in the morning and see an empty bird cage by the manager's office.
Specifically if said bird cage had been used to house a bird that we had taken to the vet yesterday to get checked out.
Why was it going to the vet? Because it had shaky wing movements apparently....personally I thought the bird was fine, but since we were going to the vet anyways to take a different animal there, we figured we'd just take the bird to be on the safe side.

Good news?
Bird was fine. Maybe having some excessive molting. But like...nothing unusual or to be concerned about. *shakes head*

The Bad News?

Well...apparently....somehow or another....
As my manager was returning from the vet....
He had the bird cage in an 'awkward position' and like....somehow....
The door of the bird cage ended up sliding open. 
Which O.o How?

But Somehow....
The bird got out of the cage....

And flew away. 
Outside.

*exhales*

The manager had let the bird loose outside. 

Oops.

Have to say that's a first.
I mean, like we've had birds get loose in the store before.
But having one get loose outside?
Nope.
Hasn't happened.

The poor manager felt so bad. Y_Y
And was hoping that the bird would come into the store the next day. 
Nope.

Bird's long gone probably lol.

At least it had been deemed healthy.... ^^;; 

-Sarnic Dirchi

What Exactly Is "It?"

Gotta love it when customers feel like they have to give you a whole background story before telling you what they actually came into the store to look for.

So I'd helped this customer out a little bit, earlier in the store.
She'd come in looking for Turtle Docks, to which I directed her to them, and then later, I had also helped her grab some goldfish for her turtle. 

And I'd thought she had left by that point.
but no. 
A little bit later she comes up to me and was like: "Hey, I found this thing online and it said you carried it in the store, but I can't find it, so do you actually have it?" 

Which...that was quite literally what she said. So I was like "...what are you looking for?" Because I had no idea what 'it' was. 
She'd come in looking for a Turtle Dock. Had bought goldfish....
So I could only assume that she was looking for an item relating to the turtles.
Which ended up being correct. 

She had found the floating turtle docks, and had one in hand....but like it wasn't what she was looking for, she'd had a specific 'turtle related dock type item' in mind.

But did she tell me exactly what she'd seen online?

Nope. 

The customer launched into this whole background story. "I have two turtles, each in their separate tanks, and I wanted to be able to connect them, and I found this thing online that would help with that, but I can't find it, and it's not this floating dock thing but similar." All the while she was gesturing with the handshapes as if she were describing a hide. Like a large log or rock decoration which could double as both a ramp to get the turtle out of the water, but also work as a place for the turtle to hide under. 
Which didn't make sense with her words. of 'connecting the two' tanks together.....as she wanted the turtle to be able to climb up this item and use it to get into the other tank.

So I was like....just standing there, listening to her blabber on waiting for her to say something like: "I need a ramp, I need a hide, I need a rock with a hole in it." Something like that that would give me a better idea of what she was looking for.
Because I had absolutely no idea what this "item online was" as she had yet to tell me. 

Until she finally said something like "It's similar to these floating docks, but longer and there were suction cups on one side."

And that's when the lightbulb clicked. 
Like Oh!

She was probably talking about one of our rock ramp decorations that are long and narrow and have suction cups on one end.
I hadn't ever really thought of turtles using them, but we'd used that particular decoration before in the past in our bearded dragon tanks to give them a place to bask in that was easy to climb up. 

So I turned to the shelves behind me and grabbed the ramp and was like "Is this what you were looking for?"

Yes. yes it was. 

lol. *shakes head*
Honestly.
She could have said "I'm looking for a ramp. That's long....it has suction cups on the end." And I would have gotten the item to her much quicker. 
No need for extra info. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Why Empty?

So I have this habit of imagining scenarios at work that likely won't happen, but you know...just in case they do happen, I plan out how I'm going to react and such. 
Not that I'll end up reacting how I planned to react. But it's the thought that counts.

And one of those scenarios I'd been thinking on on occasion.

Is having a customer complain that we're ill treating our animals because they came into the store and saw the cages without food/water/or hides, and didn't realize that it was because we were cleaning the cages that there was nothing in there. 

Well. 
Today I was cleaning out the hamster cages. 
And had just pushed the cart full of food/water/hides/wheels back to said cages to put them back.
But I paused to check in on a customer that was standing nearby, just to make sure that they didn't need help or had any questions.

And the customer was like "Oh I do have a question!"
To which I was like "Okay?"
"Why do your hamster cages have no water in them?" they asked. "That's just sad." 

.... lol *shakes head*
Yah. The scenario happened.
I had a customer legitimately ask me why the cages were empty.

Which I can only guess either a) they hadn't been into the store before and hadn't seen the cages with stuff in them....or b) they hadn't paid attention before now and c) didn't realize that the cages were in the middle of cleaning.

So I just gestured to my cart and was like "It's because I was cleaning their cages, you can see I have their food and water right here." 

And the customer was like. O.o "Oh...I didn't see the cart there." Which of course they hadn't...lol I'd just pushed it there. *shakes head*

But yah....I got to explain to a customer that the cages had no food or water because I was cleaning them.
Which I'd been waiting for that moment for years now really. 
Because my mind gets paranoid like that on scenarios, preparing to defend myself and my actions and such. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Transition

There I was.

Stuck in the middle of helping customers decide on which fishtank/stand combo they were wanting as well as what type of filter to use for their new tank.

Which was....alright.

If I wasn't supposed to have been clocking out right then.

And I could see no easy way of disengaging.

And figured that I was in this for the long haul.

When my manager asked me over the radio if I wanted him to come take over so I could leave.

Which YES. Please. 

So I continued speaking with the customers until I noticed my manager standing nearby.

And I ended up bringing him into the conversation basically by asking him what his opinion on different canister filters were.

And once he'd drawn their attention away from me.

I left so I could go clock out.

^^;; lol it felt amazing to slyly switch between the two of us so that I could go home. 

As it felt like a seamless transition really. 

So woot. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fix It

So we have a new cashier at work.
Who has been having issues doing returns. 

Like when she tries to type in the UPCs for the product and such.
It ends up erroring out on her.

So she's often like "THIS ISN'T WORKING HOW DO I GET IT TO WORK?!" 

Only....when I come over and type in the UPC....

it works just fine for me. lol.

It's gotten rather amusing to the point where she's like "Oh, Sarnic has the magic touch with this. She comes over and it works for her." 

^^;; 

Lol I suppose it's true in a sense.
Or else it's just that I've dealt with returns more often than she has at this point. haha. 

But it is fun to be able to 'fix the things' when others are like 'it's not working!' 

-Sarnic Dirchi

It Broke

It's kinda annoying....when things break in the department, but nobody speaks up to take responsibility for the thing because they're afraid they're going to get in trouble.
Because like...it's not like they're going to get in trouble.
We just want to know how it broke.
Mostly so we can work out how to avoid having it happen again. 

In this case.
I came into work to see one of the ten gallon tanks we use to isolate sick animals in....
Shattered. 

Not like dropped it shattered.
But like "Hey I threw something against this or dropped something on it sort of shattered.

You could see the hole of the impact point and the fracture lines leading away from the hole that was left in the glass.

And I'm like. O.o How? 
What happened?!

How could this tank...that's been in the store longer than I've been working there....
Get broken? 

*exhales*
I dunno.
Because no one is fessing up to it. >.> 
*shakes head* 

Coworkers....please try to be more careful okay??

-Sarnic Dirchi

Mind the Gap

I feel like it's a week of death.
I mean...it's just the oddest trend.
That basically everyday so far.
I've answered the phone at work, only to have a customer on the other side tell me that their animal died. 

Like...It's weird.
How is it that so many animals in a row are being sold...only to die within our guaranteed period? 

*shakes head*
I halfway wonder if it's the changing weather that's an influence.
How the increases in temperatures might be part of the causation for people's pets to die...

*exhales*

In any case.

I had a customer call the store this morning.
To tell me that she'd bought a Parakeet with her daughter for her birthday on Saturday.
She'd bought everything that the bird needed, double checked that the cage was right and such with an associate....

Only to have the bird try to squeeze through the bars in an attempt to escape, get stuck...and die. 

O_o

And the woman was rather upset about it.
Because like she'd said, she'd thought she'd gotten everything right.
But apparently the bars in the bird cage were too wide. 
And she was just mad that she'd got sold that cage if it wasn't correct for the bird. 

Which....I really sincerely hope that I wasn't the associate who was helping them.
Like I remember helping a woman/daughter duo...but it was like on Tuesday. And I know it was on Tuesday because we'd just barely brought out new parakeets onto the floor. 

And knowing that customers don't always remember dates correctly...I am now partially paranoid that I am the associate she was talking about. 

*shakes head*

But like...it's not like I look too closely at cages when people are buying birds. Mostly I just look to makes sure that they are purchasing a bird cage....

So....end of story is that the customer was planning to bring bird and cage back.
So she could get a new bird, and exchange out the cage for one with smaller gaps between the bars.

Thankfully, my shift ended before she showed up.

As I really didn't want to have to deal with her if I was the one that had helped her out.....

Hopefully she and her daughter like the new bird....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Misunderstanding

Gotta love those moments where you misunderstand a person.

So I have a new cashier, who ends up speaking rather quietly into the mic because the placement of said mic on their clothing is rather far from their mouth so it makes hearing what they're saying....rather difficult.

Especially in my department where I have a lot of background noise from the animals and their cages and especially the fish filters happening.

So I can't always pick up what this coworker (and a few others) is saying.

And I heard them request something up front.

The managers weren't responding at the time.

So I went to see if it was anything I could help with.

And what I thought my coworker had said when they repeated their need again to me, 

Is that the customer they were helping was in need of product that only a manager could get (because some items we keep locked up to prevent theft from happening) 

So I left to go find the managers as they weren't answering on their radios. 

I found the manager, got keys from them, returned to the cashier and was like: "Okay what do you need sir?"

And the customer was confused.

And my coworker was like "NO, no I just need help with backup!" 

Which by that point the line had extended to be like 12 people long, which :S 

I hate it when the store is dead and suddenly everyone is wanting to check out at the same time.

So I apologized,

Immediately jumped up over to register 2 to help the next guest and called for backup for register three,

So that we could get through the line quickly. 

*shakes head*

Not sure how I heard the need for a key.

But I do need to see if I can convince my coworkers to wear their mics higher up on their shirts so we can hear them easier. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

You Got The Proof?

I had a customer call the store today.
With some sad news.

That the hamster they had bought a couple of days ago....had ended up dying. 

Not good. It's never fun to get those sorts of calls.

And she was wanting to know what she needed to bring into the store so she could get her money back (or get another hamster) 

So I was like "The Receipt, the Paperwork, and the Hamster itself"

Because we need proof of purchase and proof that the hamster is in fact dead. 

Which...I may need to go over the fact that my coworkers need to verbalize our return policy to customers and not expect them to just read it as I've been getting more calls than normal where people don't know about our return policy or how it works. *exhales* Yay for training new people. 

In any case.
The woman on the phone was like "You need the body? Really? What if the kids wanted to bury it?" 

Unfortunately....we can't give it back to the customer. If you return the animal you return ownership of the creature to us. So if it dies...and it's returned...the hamster is our property if you bring it back. Which means we can't just turn around and give it back to the customer to go bury. 

Bad luck in this particular case is....
That the people had already buried the hamster. 
*shakes head*

So the woman was like "Surely a photo is okay? If I show you a picture of the hamster?" 

Nope. There's no easy way to prove that that is the hamster that died. I have to have physical proof which means. Yep. Gotta have the corpse.

Not sure what the woman ended up doing....If she was actually going to go dig the hamster back up to bring it back to us....or if she would just cut her loses and not get her money back for that hamster....as she hadn't made a firm decision yet when she hung up and I left before she came in. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Look

People are weird. 
And people who end up being customers in my store....can get even weirder. 

*shakes head*

It was a tall gentleman who walked into our store, coming up to me and my coworker as we were...well not doing much because the storm had made the store basically empty.

And the customer decided to greet us with the following statement. "I have a Question." 

Which....pretty common to be greeted that way. Customers often have questions since it is a pet store.

But he continued with "How can you guys stand to work here...."

Which I was preparing my usual "I love my job, it's because we enjoy working with animals, etc" spiel. Or you know preparing him to finish the sentence with "With so many adorable animals!" or something.

Only for him to end with "when your building is so ugly?" 

O_o 
Huh? 

"The outside of your building, it's sooo ugly, it looks like baby poop. I could never work here." 

O_o 

Which....
*shakes head*
Like....how can I tell the customer that the building actually looks better?
Because last year we finally had it repainted. 
And they painted it a pretty cream and brown color. 

As opposed to the white and blue look it had before. 

It's actually a nice color combination, one I often see in newer buildings, especially in the southern half of my state. It's a color set that often is related to deserts in my mind, and I quite like being in the desert. 

So like....I like that color.

*shakes head*
And really? What an odd question. Like I don't think people usually take into account of what the building looks like when they apply to work places.
Most people work in places because they're trying to get a job doing something they like...or you know earn money. They don't really care where the work is so long as there's work.

Really...so weird. Such a weird thing to be greeted with. 
*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Sad Returns

It always throws me off when customers call the store to say that their animal died.
Like fish. Fish I can understand.

But when it's the other animals...like the birds and the hamsters or more often the Reptiles.....
I get so...confused?

Because like, I see those creatures basically every single day.
And usually notice when things aren't going well with them.

So like...when a customer tells me that their new pet died within our guaranteed return period...
It's weird.
I automatically wonder what the customer did to kill the creature. 
(Though I don't say so to the customer.) 

Because like....it was fine when it left the store...why did it die so quickly when it came into your care?

Really more often than not it's not the customer's fault at all.
Some animals just like to...well die. 

This morning I had a customer all to say that the Tortoise they'd bought like a week ago...had been found dead. 

Which O.o I'm pretty sure we had that tortoise in our store for like two or three weeks....and It seemed like he'd been eating fine.
So it was confusing to have the customer call and say he was dead.
Because like. O.o 
Huh? 

*shakes head*
I wonder if he wasn't warm enough or something....

In any case.
The customer was calling to see if they could return the tortoise because they had read about the policy. (which alarm bells...if they had to read it that means that the customer wasn't told it, and my associates are supposed to be telling every customer about the return policy if they're purchasing a pet) 
Which they can. Because it was within the timeframe specified.
And we happened to have a tortoise in the store (we'd got it in a couple of days ago) 

So they came into the store a couple of hours later and exchanged out the tortoise, and my manager was sure to spend some time with him to be sure that they were taking adequate care of their tortoise. 

So hopefully *fingers crossed* this one lives a lot lot lot longer. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

An Odd Complaint

People will literally complain about anything.

So at my work, we allow dogs to come into the store so you can shop with your pet since...well it is a pet store. 
(We allow other animals as well.) 

But the main thing is that on our doors when you walk in we have a sign that says vaccinated and LEASHED animals welcome.

Or you know....otherwise contained.
If you have your dog in the store, we want it to either a) be on a leash. 
Or b) be in some kind of confinement whether it's in a carrier, in one of the shopping carts, in your arms...
basically we just don't want the dog to be able to wander free. 

Which writing this out, it is weird that people think that they can just walk into the store and set their dog down and let it wander willy nilly without there being consequences...that's just weird.

But basically.
If your dog is on the floor, we want them on a leash, that way if something happens, you have a way to control your dog quickly.
That may be as simple as stopping them from marking their territory, or a bit more drastic as quickly getting your dog away from another dog. (in case one is more aggressive than the other)

But this customer...
Went online and reviewed our store....and complained about us having a policy of dogs needing leashes. 

Why? 
Because of that policy.
The customer thought that they should be allowed to have their dog off leash in our store...because their dog was 'well trained and very obedient' and yadda yadda yadda.

Which great.
It's great that your dog is trained to stay by you.

But you also have to remember that other people's dogs....Aren't.
There are dogs that come into the store that could possibly hurt your other dog.

Like...you might think your dog is well trained....
But other dogs are not. Other dogs don't heed their owners when off leash.

So we make a policy of having all the dogs leashed, in order to keep everyone and their pets safe. 

Because if one person doesn't have a leash....
More people won't want their dogs leashed.
And then it will just become an unsafe environment for everyone. 

*shakes head*
Sorry customer. This isn't a dog park.
If you want your dog off leash. It's not going to be at the store.

-Sarnic Dirchi

AAAAH

I was in counting mode.
Focused on doing the animal counts and fish counts (because we usually count the fish on a different day from the rest of the animals) done. 
And I was nearing the end of counting all the fish.
When from behind me I hear a loud scream.
The sort of scream of "I just got seriously hurt." Followed by a loud slam. 

I usually don't jump, 
But due to my focus on counting.
The scream did make me jump, and I turned around to see what was wrong.
Only to discover that  a child had lifted up the lid of our cricket bin to see what was inside of it.
And had apparently freaked out at seeing all the crickets scuttling around inside. 

*exhales*
Not a reason to scream.
But now maybe they know better to not open random things? 

-Sarnic Dirchi