As many of you who follow this blog know, I work in retail. I have worked in retail since 2007, so it will be ten years this year since I took up a position on the ‘front lines’, so to speak. When dealing with customers face-to-face, you are exposing yourself to a wide range of interesting, frustrating and down right weird situations. Sometimes these are of your own making – I am human, and I make mistakes.
Meerkats don’t make mistakes.
True, but then, you live in a hole.
Equally, there are times when the customer is wrong, and I have ranted at great length at how the old adage ‘the customer is always right’ is completely wrong. It is one of the most damaging, ignorant and wholly stupid attitudes to hold in the retail (or any other business) sector. At the end of the day, a customer can be spectacularly wrong, and in this case, that very much applies.
If you buy something such as a tile, wallpaper, or any kind of covering for the floor or wall, and then, over a year later, need more of it (in this instance, because your fitters cocked up), you cannot be surprised to learn that the exact style you had before may not be available. Batches change. These companies don’t store these things indefinitely on the odd chance a customer might come back for that exact same pattern years later.
So admittedly there was more than a batch change at work here. The tile appears to have been completely redesigned, and the colour is noticeably different (whether intentionally or due to an error). I get that the customer is frustrated. However, having a go at me, blaming me for ordering the wrong thing (no I didn’t), isn’t making me inclined to sympathise with you or help you. I’m more likely to shelve your issue in favour of other things (such as pleasant customers).
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