Unfiltered Story #250550

(We are not really a walk-in store. Most our sales are either by phone or email. This one is by phone.)

Me: “Thank you for calling [Store]. This is [Name]; how may I direct your call?”

Customer: “Yes, we need to place an order.”

Me: “Sure, I can help with that. Have you ordered with us before?”

Customer: “Yes. Nickels [rest of Company name].”

(You have to have an account to order through us. It’s no big deal if you don’t; it just means giving the information you would give anyway to have an order placed to ship and our system assigns a customer number to the info so we can group your orders together and easily reference them if need be. If someone already has an account, then I can search for them via company name, billing name, address, etc. When dealing with companies, usually their company name is easiest to search with. I type in “nickels” to try and find my current customer. Nothing comes up.)

Me: “I’m sorry – was that ‘Nickels’ like the coin, like money?”

Customer: “Yes.”

(I try again. Unsurprisingly, nothing comes up.)

Me: “I’m sorry; nothing is coming up. Could you spell that for me?”

Customer: “N-I-C-H-O-L-S”

Me: “Ah, there you are! Thank you. What can I order for you today?”

(I know I should have guessed Nichols after Nickels didn’t work, but seriously!? The company starts with ‘Nichols’ and you said yes when I asked “Nickels like the coin?”!? What!?)