It’s All In The Delivery (Demands)

(A customer has left some of their shopping at the store and calls regarding it.)

Me: “Good afternoon, this is [Store] [Location]. [My Name] speaking. How may I help you?”

Customer: “I was there earlier and the checkout chick didn’t give me some of my shopping.”

Me: “I apologise for the mistake. If you tell me what the items were, I can hold them here at the service desk so you can pick them u—”

Customer: “I need you to deliver them to me.”

Me: “Um. I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t do that.”

Customer: “Why the h*** not?”

Me: “We have a delivery truck, but that requires an extra fee you would need to pay for—”

Customer: “I didn’t say ‘truck.’ I told YOU to deliver it.”

Me: “You want me, personally, to deliver your shopping to you?”

Customer: “Yes. I’m just down the road in [Suburb a good half-hour from the store], so you can just drive down and give them to me.”

Me: *taking a breath to compose myself* “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t do that. Delivery is restricted to the truck. And either you are asking me to leave my shift right now and deliver them to you or drive down in my own time for your shopping.”

Customer: “The b*** at the checkout left my shopping on the counter. That’s the store’s fault so someone should get me my shopping.”

Me: *losing my patience* “As I said before, ma’am; there’s restrictions. I can leave a message for the supervising staff member for when you can pick it up to hold your shopping here for you but no one is going to deliver you your food.”

Customer: “It’s got my dinner for tonight in it. What am I meant to have for dinner then, huh?!”

Me: “If you need it tonight, you’ll need to pick it up. The store closes at midnight, so you still have plenty of time to come here and collect it. I can offer you a discount voucher for the inconvenience, but no one is delivering you your food.”

(At this point, my department manager had returned from the office and is giving me a concerned look while going over the roster.)

Customer: “You are the nastiest little s*** I’ve ever talked to; I want to talk to your manager!”

Me: “Not a problem; just one moment, please.”

(Trying not to crush the phone, I hand it over to my manager and return to restocking the cigarettes. About five minutes later, my manager hangs up the phone, looking like she wasn’t able to process the stupidity on the other end of the phone.)

Me: “Did she insist on me delivering it or did she ask you to as well?”

Manager: “You, still. Said she’d have us both fired if it’s not delivered to her tonight but I just told her we can’t do that. Then she hung up.”

(The woman showed up the next morning, during my shift of course, acting like the conversation never happened and pretending that the girl on the phone had ‘screamed at her for no reason’. When she realised I was that girl on the phone, she promptly collected her shopping and left. Haven’t seen her since.)