Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 10
I’m looking around an ex-display furniture shop. It’s a little independent store so I am able to haggle a price on a sofa set and quickly decide to buy it. The store assistant brings over the payment terminal and a large “sold” sign, and I pay.
He puts the sign on the sofa and goes off to arrange delivery. While he is gone, a couple starts looking at the sofa. The woman removes the sold sign and starts pushing on the cushions, checking the bounce.
Me: “Er, it’s sold, sorry.”
The man looks at me and half-smiles; I’m not sure if he heard or not. But she sits down and sort of bounces on the sofa and she puts her boots on the footstool.
Me: “Excuse me. It’s sold; could you not?”
They look at me almost in disgust, and the woman makes a show-worthy pantomime of relaxing on the sofa. I realise many people before them have probably sat there, but come on. Have some respect. Before I can react, the sales assistant comes back.
Sales Assistant: “Hey, you, stupid people. Can you not read? ‘Sold’ means ‘not yours.’ Get off.”
The other man says something defensively that I cannot hear; the woman remains sat.
Sales Assistant: “No, you come here, you bother my customers, you waste my time. Go away.”
The couple rushes out with red faces, her shouting something about losing a sale.
Sales Assistant: *To me* “I’m sorry. I’ll get it cleaned and put to one side for you. Go to the woman there; she’ll set up the delivery for you.”
The woman on the counter told me that this couple comes in and pretends to be interested in some random item, even agreeing on a price before leaving again. They have even been hanging around actual customers and pretend to want the items they were interested in before changing their minds. The store assistant is actually the owner and I imagine he is sick of these people losing his company money.
Related:
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 9
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 8
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 7
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 6
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 5
Question of the Week
Have you ever served a bad customer who got what they deserved?
