One of our regulars was a royal pain in the rear. Not only was this regular known by the cops in several counties around us, but said regular was a little crazy anyway. Luckily, [Regular] hasn’t been back to us for about a year, but this was one of the more serious things that happened in our store.
Our store has preorders available. We put the order into our system as a preorder, the person gives us the money for the product, and once the product arrives, we look up the person in our system, make sure they’ve paid, and give them the product. Preorders can be made up to three months in advance. Basically: give us money in advance, the product comes in, we hold it for you, and you come in and pick it up. Simple.
Not for [Regular].
[Regular] came in and was told by one of our counter guys that a new product was available for preorder. The product was slightly cheaper than MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price). Great! [Regular] wanted to preorder the product.
[Counter Guy] put the preorder into the system, took [Regular]’s money, and handed him his receipt. We generally tell customers to hang onto their receipts, because heaven forbid something happens to our system between the purchase and when the item comes in. [Counter Guy] told [Regular] to hang onto the receipt and wished him well.
[Regular] then looked at the receipt, at the counter guy, and at the counter, and asked:
Regular: “So, where’s my box?”
[Counter Guy] then had to explain how preorders work, how you pay up front (generally less than MSRP or the market price), and then you have to wait for the item to arrive.
Counter Guy: “But you’ve already got one preordered, and therefore, you don’t have to pay extra for it, and there’s one put aside just for you!”
[Regular]… didn’t understand. He wanted his box. He wanted the product. Never mind that we didn’t have the product and wouldn’t have it for another month or so; he wanted the product NOW. [Regular] got mad and SLAMMED his fist onto the counter. The manager was called, [Regular] yelled, and there was a scene.
Eventually, it boiled down to my coworker having to refund the money, apologize, and send [Regular] on his way.
The worst part is that [Regular] was back after the product released — and he bought it then, paying extra for it and missing out on the promotional items that came with it.
There are other stories, but this one really drove us crazy.
Visiting relatives can be crazy without evil gifts! Check out these 10 Times Visiting Relatives Had Hilarious Results to see what we mean!
