August 04, 2004

All I Need

All I need out of this day is a chance to kick the Hollywood Video guy, hereafter referred to as 'Tom'...

So, I walk up to the counter and 'Tom' is standing behind it. He takes my card and asks for my phone number, because God forbid anybody carry around a card. So I say my number and he promptly asks me if I am Melissa (my step sister), to which I respond no. Then he tells me I am not on that account... and I tell him which account it is under (too many people here have had account there - lemme just say) and he says I am not on the account so I can't check out the DVD.

I tell him to just call them (my parents), I mean I have the freakin right phone number, but no, they can't do that either. Apparently the phone is too technologically advanced for them to be trained in (oh and I was the only person in line, so that wasn't the problem). Fine, I take my two Hollywood cards out of my wallet and give them to him, telling him they are both my cards. One being my parents, which again he won't accept (comeon - he looked dumb enough to fall for it), and the other being from Minnesota, which he just hands back to me. He tells me my parents need to come in and add me to the account.

So I ask 'can't I open up a new account'... oh, yes I can... smarty-pants me had to suggest it though because that, again, is too far advanced thinking for a video clerk apparently. So as he is processing my account I say 'The Hollywood Video chain should really consolidate all their accounts, because now I have about seven of them.'
To which 'genuis IQ level' Tom replies 'They are consolidated'
'Wait, so you don't accept my card even though they ARE consolidated?' I ask.
'You have a card?'
'Yeah, I handed it to you.' I pull it out and give it to him again.
'Oh well you should've told me that before.'
'I did'
'Well next time just tell me'
('I DID!' I scream in my head, as I calmly insist) 'I did.'
'Oh, ok, well I'll update it then.'
'Thanks' (as I add 'dumbass' in my head)

Sidenote: Advice to anyone who works in customer service - 'the customer is always right'... REMEMBER THAT. I do, and all I want is for someone to say that it is their fault the missed the card. When I am working at Evil Coffee Corp I am definetly the wrong one, not the customer. I've made drinks the way the customer ordered it, and they ordered it incorrectly - and then all I say is 'I'm sorry, I'll remake it'...

Maybe I should add that I want to kick Nadia too, the crying Fred Meyer clerk who checked me out earlier today. Do you really need to cry while ringing me out? I've never cried, with one exception, and that was another customer's fault and all the other customers had just seen it happen. I don't know what do with a crying clerk, please go home if you are having that much of a problem. I can't describe the agony I experienced as I tried to decide if I should meet her eyes or talk to her at all as she checked me out. It's hard to feel sympathy when you don't know the person at all.

I know this may seem insensitive, and it is, but sometimes I just need to vent.

Posted by 10lees at August 4, 2004 06:51 PM