Monday was my final day for working for Borders. It was sad, but it was definitely time since our store (along with the company) is simply dying. As Chris says, I'm envied and hated by everyone at work. :P Envied because I got to leave; hated because I left. This week we've had a team from another store come in to help us get through our pallets of books we have sitting in our back warehouse (12 pallets?). Also, there's no incentive for me to transfer to another store too. The company doesn't care, why should I? On top of it, I really don't want to work my first two quarters (probably the year). Everyone recommends you not do that, if you can. I have enough loans to cover me through the years, so I am. Course, that means I am jobless! It feels weird since I'm also on leave from the aquarium too. I'll be going to school full-time and, by the way it sounds, I'll need all that time! I will miss my employee discount (33% off books/CDs, 20% DVDs, 10% mags), the ability to check out books from the store (hardcover and large paperbacks), and keeping up with the latest and newest books (almost every book I own I bought from Borders during my time there). I will also miss my co-workers who I got along with and had fun with. But, for all of that, I don't regret leaving or really miss it. It was definitely time.
For kicks and giggles, I thought I'd relive some of my more "memorable" customers/job requests from the past 5 years.
Customer #1: Adoption Lady - This Asian lady came into work to look up books about infanticide (think genocide, but for infants). First off, I've never been asked that at work before and I told her we didn't have anything in store. Then she started to tell me why she wanted it. Basically, because China has the population issue and only one child thing, there's been a lot of infant killings and all that. She was reading about it. She then asked me for another book, which we had in store. She said it was about these girls being adopted from China. I told her it sounded interesting because I'm adopted - WRONG thing to say! She immediately wanted to know where I was adopted from (I told her) and the next thing I know, I'm getting a lecture about how adopted children have suppressed rage and anger issues. I tried to tell her I don't think this is true and I get an ear full about how she adopted two kids from China (her daughter was found along the road) and she proceeds to tell me all about her two kids and their lives. (I feel like I know her kids problems really well...) She goes back to the anger issue and says, "I think I have some authority in this matter, considering I adopted two kids." I'm standing there thinking, "no." I tried to loose her 3 times too, but she'd find me after I helped a customer. FINALLY I got rid of her because I said, "I really need to work." And she said, "yeah, I have to go." *rolls eyes*
Customer #2: Fence Phone Lady - One of the funniest phone conversations I've had. Went something like this.
Me: Thank you for calling Borders in Sand City. This is Bethany. How may I help you?
Customer: Hi. What kind of borders do you have?
Me: Excuse me?
Customer: I'm looking for some borders for my backyard. Like a small fence.
Me: Uh...you called Borders. We're a bookstore.
Customer: Oh! I'm sorry! I'm new in town and I didn't know.
She must have lived somewhere where Borders didn't exist. :P
Customer #3: Phone Complaint Guy - Working at a bookstore, you get a lot of complaints and some of them are off the wall and some of them are valid. In this case, it was completely stupid and happened my 2nd to last day at work. We were busy and the phone was ringing off the hook (pretty normal these days) and I was walking by a customer to help another customer and paged over our walkie talkies for someone to please answer the phone. The customer I walked by said, "Yeah, that phone is really annoying. Turn it off." I said, "I'm sorry sir, we're really busy." He said, "Well, it has the most annoying ring tone I've ever heard." As I'm walking away from him, I say, "I'm sorry, but the other ring tone option we have is even more annoying than this one, if you can believe it." I heard him mumble something, but I ignored it. Really? A phone ring tone? You're going to complain about that?! Especially when you're reading a book in a retail store, for free. Uh-huh...
Customer #4: Needy Customers - There are some instances where I think I work in a information center rather than a bookstore. Here a few examples:
Interior Designer: This guy comes into work saying he's moving into a new place and wants some ideas on what colors go together. His bedspread is a dark red color and he wanted to know what looked good with it. So I take him to the interior design section and pointed out some books for him (paint books). It's pretty standard that when you get something vague like that, you help the customer find a book that suits them or enough of an idea of what to look for that they can continue to shop on their own. Well, this guy was "helpless." He stood there and let ME flip through the books, asked ME what I thought, and when I told him THIS was a good book, he wouldn't take it! So, basically, I was a 15 minute interior designer. Told the guy which colors looked good together (what books were good also) and he walked out of the store not touching a book. *grumble, grumble*
Legal Advice: We get this phone call from this gentleman and he wants to know what the current bankruptcy law is. I have no clue (am I supposed to know everything?!) and I'm trying to find books that'll help him, but, in the mean time, he's getting mad. I come back saying, "I have no clue" and he asks for the manager. Uh-huh, swell. Luckily, the supervisor who talked to him actually DID know the new bankruptcy law. Can't win them all.
Personal Shopper: We love phone calls that go like this, "Hi, I'm looking for books on gemstones. Do you have any?" We say, "yes, we do. Is there one in particular you're looking for?" "No, but I'm looking for a book with this gem in it, can you go tell me which books have it?" So we go, check them out, get them all, tell them every title and the price and they go, "Great! Can you put <blank # of books> on hold for me? I'll come pick them up later." Honestly, can't YOU come into the store and look at them yourself?!
Personal Reader: Do you realize how many customers come to Borders (a bookstore) and then ask us to look something up or read something because they forgot their reading glasses? Honestly, I can't tell you how often it happens. "Will you, please? I forgot my glasses at home. *small chuckle*"
Customer #5: Need help, but not for books - Funny how it works, but working at Borders, you really have to have a general understanding of just about everything.
Directions: I can't tell you how many times I've had to give directions to people to Best Buy, the Aquarium, one particular building at CSUMB, Carmel, etc. It's amazing. We get a lot of people asking us to give directions on how to get to us (that's fine), but people will stop in our store to specifically ask for directions on how to get somewhere. Luckily for us, we sell maps! Not that we sell that many that way, but it helps.
Where to buy something: If we don't carry something in particular (like a game, globe, video game, dvd, cd, etc), we have to have back-up locations on where customers may find something like that - games: Target, globe: Target, video games: Best Buy, DVD/CD: Borders.com/Amazon.com, on-line, book weights: office supply store, etc.
The Kindle: We sell the Sony e-Reader at work. The Kindle is an exclusive amazon.com product (as they made it). I have to know the difference between the two, the pluses/minuses, about how much the books on-line cost, etc, etc, etc.
Customer #6: Germ Lady: I actually haven't seen her in a year or so, but she used to be a frequent customer at Borders. She has a phobia of germs. So she'd have you take her credit card out of a plastic bag, while she held the bag; she'd have us barely touch the bags/books when we handled them; she'd wipe down any chair she sat in and then leave her wipe in the crack of the chair for us to pick up. Oh yes, she was a joy to have in the store...
Customer #7: Russian Dictionary Guy: He got this name because he was first known for buying and returning Russian Dictionaries. He's since then moved on to other things, but we're pretty sure he was scamming us with the dictionaries at first. Now, we're all VERY wary of him and he STILL frequents the store a lot (I saw him last Sat). He also likes to take advantage of any new cashier. He'll purposefully try and get them to ring him up and then try to confuse them into giving him some discount or whatever. I've caught him a few times trying this and I get to walk over (the employee usually gives a "huh?" to him) and tell him the store policy, once again. He never pushes it when an oldie tells him what's-what too.
Well, I guess for now that's where I will leave it. Maybe I'll reminisce again about Borders another time, but - for now - that'll do. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment