Glitched

So Black Friday was basically a week ago.
And we had the problems of our online order system being on the fritz.

Where we could only intermittently get into the system to try and pick people's orders so they could come get it later without having to fight the crowds.

And occasionally the system would kick us out.
Or not allow us access.
Or freeze...

Which....we managed to pick all the orders in the end.
So it didn't seem like much of an issue once all was said and done. (besides how long it took) 

But in the past couple of days I've gotten multiple calls from customers.
Who had 'ordered something online a week ago.' but had never received a confirmation email. 

But when I would go into our system to see if their order had been picked. 
It would be there under the "Come get me!" section. 
I would then double check that this was actually true by going to go find the customer's order in person to make sure we actually had it set aside for them.
Which we did.

And because I've had to answer this type of phone call at least a half dozen times....
I'm pretty confident in saying that the system glitched in sending out confirmation emails.

Soooo hopefully we can get it all sorted out...and if people don't come get their stuff, call them so they can come get their stuff.....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Silent Assistance

I had a woman call me over to the reptile aisle because she needed help finding something.

However, when I got there. I was like "What can I help you with."

And she, while looking at the shelves, started to say. "Well, I can't fi---"

and she trailed off. "Maybe?" she muttered, looking at the products.

I stood there, waiting for her to tell me what she was needing help finding.

Only she never told me. lol.

She ended up picking up the product off the shelf without needing me to show her.

I guess my presence was enough to help her find it?? 

lol but then she was like. "I also have a question."

To which I was half expecting her to trail off again or else answer her own question.

She did neither.

She wanted to know if we had any small baggies used for holding carbon.

Which we did.

So I happily showed them to her.

And she happily went on her way. 

Yay. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Walk Away

There was a father and son duo that came into work today.
Looking to buy more betta fish because theirs had died.
But they were also looking to add in some neon tetras, and some algae eaters into their tank as well.

To which I tried to get a general idea of what size their tank was so I could recommend the right sort of fish for them.
But I could only get a vague "it's small" answer out of them.
Who knows if it was a gallon or five gallons. 
But apparently 'small' was a good enough answer. >.< 

So knowing that it was small, I tried to recommend some snails to them as they usually do a good job of keeping the smaller tanks.

Only to be met with the response of: "We tried those, they died." 

And the father basically ignored me after that point.
Saying. "Alright, son, you pick out two bettas one for you and one for soandso and then we'll grab four neons and two algae eaters." 

Which. The son could easily pick out bettas. 
Which he did. 
He picked out a $4 betta....and a $15 betta.
And I warned him. "That's $15" and he was like. "I'll ask my dad if it's okay."

But the main thing was the father hadn't ever said directly to me. "We need four neons and two algae eaters." 

He just was talking to his son.
And then walked off.
To who knows where.

So me, being the good person I am.
Fished out his fish.
Four neons. And two otos (as they stay small) 
And bagged them up in one bag.
Handed them to the son.

And sent him on his merry way. 

Only for the father to be like. ()_() You put them all in one bag?!?!

-Because apparently those fish needed to be divided out.
Which he hadn't told me.
Because he walked away.

So I took matters into my own hands and just put them into one bag. 
And he was like. "Could you divide them out?" 
To which I gave him a neutral look, waiting for him to tell me how he wanted them divided.
Because he was like. "We don't have a net!! How are we going to get them out of the bag?" 

"We sell nets for $5" was my response.
Which apparently seemed to satisfy him as he didn't wait around to tell me how to divide the fish. Instead he was like "Okay, we'll figure something out."

The man definitely wasn't a patient fellow that's for sure. *shakes head* 

I do wonder if he even realized his son bought a $15 betta fish, or if he just assumed the price was form other things they bought?

I wasn't about to point it out to him....mostly because I was curious to see if he'd notice.

He either didn't. Or he didn't care. *shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Weight?

I had a customer call today, looking for a particular dog crate that he'd found online.
Because he wanted to know how heavy it was.
Which...they don't exactly put the weight of the cage on the box....
Just the dimensions of the dog, and the size of dog most likely to need such a large cage.

But he was insistent. He wanted to know how much this cage weighed.
And I was like. "Well I can barely lift it so it's probably going to need two people with it in the box.

And he was like: Is that sixty pounds? thirty pounds? What? 

Honestly I didn't know.
it was heavier than a bag of dog food, cat litter. But not as heavy as lifting one of the giant fishtanks... *exhales* 

He ended up deciding it would probably be around 60lbs and was wondering if his wife would be able to move it around.
Which...sure.
Once it's all put together and out of the box, it should be rather easy to scoot around and clean it and such...
It's just when everything is piled on top of each other that it gets heavier. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Pinhead

Had a gentlema come into the store today looking to buy a pinhead cricket.

Which is like the tiniest cricket ever. One that can fit on the top of a pin. (hence the name) 

Only often our crickets at emuch larger than that. The 'smalls' tend to be about 3/8s of an inch when they come in, though occasionally we do get in crickets that tiny.

(and they're a nightmare to try and catch) 

So the guy was looking for a tiny cricket.

And I showed him the prebagged ones we already had so he'd have a general iea of the size we usually carry. (which were on the larger size this time around) 

And he was like "is it 14 cents a bag?" 

"No, it's 14 cents per cricket" was my response. 

And apparently...the guy didn't realize that we had a whole bin of crickets that I could grab from.

As he started looking through the bags of crickets I'd already prebagged looking to see if there was a pinhead one within one of them that I could then grab out for him. 

(I think he was feeding a tiny spider.) 

I watched do this for a little bit, as at first I thought he was just looking for a bag of the smaller quantities of crickets.

When I realized he actually just wanted one.

I was like "I do have this entire bin here where I can just grab one cricket out for you.

Which he took with some surprise lol. 

But was grateful he was like "Okay, get me the tiniest one you can see." 

Which surprisingly I did manage to find him a little pinhead cricket.

I caught it.

Put in the bag and bagged it up for him.

And had to double check like three times that the cricket was in there because it was so tiny.

Gave it to him.

And he went on his merry way.

So at least I was able to help him out. :) woot. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Online Mishap

Whelp. 
Black Friday.

Always an...interesting experience to say the least.
Especially when it comes to online orders.

Which is a rather new thing for us. 
We only started it last year.
So you can imagine that there are...well kinks to work out.

Like the fact that the servers kept crashing/goingdown/malfunctioning.

So people who ordered stuff online the night before to get their things....
Were rather confused when morning came...and there were no order confirmations waiting for them.

Because we were struggling to access our system. And when we could...we'd only manage to do one or two before the system would fail again. *exhales* 
So it made for a rather slow process. 
*shakes head* 

Which means...that a lot of people were calling, 
Wanting to know where their orders were.

I don't know how many times I had to explain over the phone that our system was down, but we were working on picking them as quickly as we could. 
I honestly don't know if they ever got the system back up and running.

I know it was completely down around lunch time...
But after that point...not sure. 

However.
I do have to say that my favorite phone call customer was a woman who called, with the concern that she hadn't received her order yet.

However, she was really understanding. Wanting to know how we were holding up. Reassuring me that she knew it wasn't our fault and that we can't control everything in the store, and she was perfectly fine waiting a couple of days to get her order. 

Which was so gratifying.
Seriously. It's great to deal with customers on Black Friday in a Pet Store.
Because 98% of the time.
They're really understanding.
Most of them are rather laid back.
Most of them don't get frustrated.

And I'm so grateful for it.
It's crazy busy lol. But at least it's a good crazy busy. 

And I really just like it when the customers know that sometimes...things happen that are beyond our control. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Two or One?

I had a young customer who came into the store today to get a guinea pig that he'd saved his money up for. 

And they were having trouble deciding on a guinea pig, as the ones on the floor were all unique looking and energetic. 

So I suggested that they get two. 
So they'd have less of a decision to make, but also because Guinea Pigs love to have a buddy to be with.

But...yes, admittedly, I suggested that they get two because I currently have 45 guinea pigs in the store and I really want to lessen those numbers as much as I can. 
-Hopefully Black Friday will decrease that by half. *fingers crossed*

Still, they were like "Yes!" but they first had to see how much what they already got came up to.

Because again, it was the son who'd saved his money for a guinea pig. (with the mother going to pay for the rest) 
So they went to the check out with a single guinea pig as well as the cage and everything else they needed for him.

Left.

And apparently sat in the parking lot feeling guilty that they hadn't bought a second guinea pig,
As they came back like five minutes later and picked out a second one. ^^

I hope they have fun with their new pets!! :D 

-Sarnic Dirchi