A Customer Who Refuses To Be Addressed

I’m a manager at a furniture store. One of my workers has been with a customer for the last half an hour, going over some items that she wants, and arranging delivery. I’ve been called over to assist.

Me: “How can I help?”

My worker looks at me with a frantic look in his eyes.

Worker: “The customer would like to discuss… delivery, with you.”

This is odd. This worker has been here for over five years and processed hundreds of orders. He shouldn’t need my help, so something is up.

Customer: “I want my order delivered to my address. Pay attention, it’s 4 Strait Street—”

Me: “Wait a moment, ma’am, let me get a pen to write this—”

Customer: “—no! You will not write this down! You will pay attention and you will remember it!”

I look over at my worker, who is giving me a “you get it now?” look.

Me: “Ma’am, I need to be able to write down your address so that we can deliver your furniture.”

Customer: “No! I don’t want my address written down anywhere! My personal information will not be out there on a database somewhere! You will remember my address and only communicate it orally to those who need to know. Never written down!”

Me: “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but that’s impossible. Even if everyone involved did memorize your address, what would we put on the invoice?”

Customer: “I have a PO Box for that.”

Me: “Ma’am, we will not be doing it this way. Our system needs to have the delivery address recorded, even if it’s different from the invoice address.”

Customer: “No! No one will be writing my address down!”

Me: “Then I’m afraid we won’t be able to continue here, ma’am. Please do come back if you change your mind.”

The customer storms out with a ‘hmph’ and I shake my head at yet another crazy customer story to add to my collection.

I found out from another manager that she came in the next day with the same demand, but that manager was able to put the order through.

Me: “Wait, so you agreed to her demand of not writing down her address?”

Manager: “I didn’t write it down. I typed it. That’s my loophole if she complains.”