Excellent Customer Service Part 2

The first rule of working in a store (and probably the most important rule after don't steal anything and give the right amount of change back) is the customer should always be happy. Not that the customer is always right, because they're most likely did not read a sign correctly or are flat out lying. Here's an example of someone who I know was lying.

Once upon a time, it was Friday and I was working in the store by myself. It was around lunch time so the other person working with me was either on lunch or doing someone else's lunch. Our store is right next to a restaurant so we get a decent size crowd of people in around lunch time. That day there were some camp groups in the store among the families there. Now, I don't always remember customers especially on busy days such as this one, but when someone sticks out, they really stick out to me. This day it was a woman who spent about $100 using her sister-in-law's membership coupon which I allowed her to use even though her sister-in-law wanted to use it also for her $80 purchase. Well, Rule #1, make them happy, so of course you can use that coupon too! When she was at the counter buying her t-shirts and various souvenirs, her 7 year old son, maybe 8 year old, but not super old son noticed a glass sea turtle that we keep in a case under the counter because, well, it's glass and breakable, because, now maybe this isn't a well known fact but glass breaks. He really wants this sea turtle which by the way is kinda heavy. I'll state this one more time: The 7 possibly 8 year old boy wants this heavy, glass sea turtle. Mom tells him no and sends him away. When he is out of earshot, she tells me that she will get it for him and save it for Christmas. I get it out of the case, trying to be all sneaky so he can't see me and catch on. I wrap it up in 6 or 7 pieces of tissue paper and tape the tissue paper down. I like to tape the tissue paper so the breakable item won't slip out during the day in case they're going to be carrying it around for a while. I put the sea turtle in her bag, making sure to cushion the area around it with t-shirts. I give her the bag and that's the last I see of her.

Her sister-in-law comes up with her large purchase a little while later. She says, "You're holding a sea turtle for my sister-in-law. I'll put it in my bag so my nephew won't see it." Wait, what? This was never discussed. I tell her that I put it in Woman #1's bag already. When she leaves, I see her and Woman #1 looking through their bags outside. Obviously, they know where the sea turtle is and how much wrapping is around it. Please note this for later.

The next Monday, I'm working in the store again. It's slower today and I have someone in the store with me this time. As luck would have it, sister-in-law comes back that day. She comes up to me and tells me this tale:

"I was here on Friday with my sister-in-law and she bought this sea turtle for my nephew. When we got home, we saw that it was only wrapped in like one piece of tissue and it had broken. We were going to glue it back together but the pieces are to small. My nephew was really upset. I called and was told to bring it back in to exchange. I tried to do it at the front store but they said you're the only store that has them."

"Yes, of course we can do that!" is what I said. What I was thinking was "LIAR! LIAR!"

Let's review the facts:

1. She was supposedly saving it for Christmas. Why would nephew be sad if he had not received the gift yet? Maybe she changed her mind and was going to give it to him early. It's very possible. However, I believe sad nephew was added for dramatic effect.
2. One piece of tissue? Again, dramatic effect. She could have chosen the words "wrapped poorly" or "not in a box" which I could not dispute. It was not in a box and depending on your definition of poorly, maybe I did wrap it poorly (I did not though). Her one piece of tissue claim was more ridiculous when she pulled out said broken sea turtle to reveal it in more tissue. She promptly said, "We put more tissue around it." Oh, yes, of course. You put more tissue around it for fear that the sea turtle that you were returning that is unsellable would not be broken further. Well, that is completely logical. Also, I admire how you worked hard to make sure that every piece was creased the exact same way as the original piece and that you put a piece of tape on the outer sheet of tissue stuck it to another piece of tissue and then ripped it to give it the illusion that it had been wrapped up better than you claim.
3. Both Woman #1 and her sister-in-law looked through the bag to locate the sea turtle before they had left the vicinity of the store. If the wrapping job had been that horrible, they could have asked me to redo it.
4. No matter how much tissue you put on it, if glass hits something hard enough, it's going to break.
5. Children are clumsy especially with heavy glass objects. If she had given it to her son right away, I'm betting he dropped it.

No matter what the facts show, she wants another sea turtle and I'm going to give it to her. Why? Because then she'll be happy and maybe come back and spend lots of money again. It just really irritates me that she lied to my face. I knew she was lying and I think she knew I knew. Anyway, I found one of these boxes that we never use. They need to be folded up and they're kinda big so anything that can fit in them probably has its own box. So I took the box, taped the bottom so it wouldn't fall out, shoved about 20 pieces of tissue in the bottom to cushion the sea turtle, wrapped the new turtle in probably 15 pieces of tissue, put more tissue on the top of the box, and then taped down the lid. There was no way I was going to let this woman come back again with a story about how it was not wrapped up enough. I hate you and your children/nephews that you use in your lies.