The Day Of The Disgruntled

Today was a pretty relaxed day. I only worked six hours, I felt much more confident running the cash register, and--to my surprise--there were no major organizational tasks to complete (well, I should say that no such tasks were assigned, there are more things that need organizing around that place than you would believe). I was even sharp enough to realize that there had been three DVDS of the sixth seasons of The Simpsons placed in the tenth season box when a woman was trying to buy the tenth season. The woman was very annoyed about the entire mix up and showed no appreciation for me saving her having to discover the mistake the hard way when she got home and tried to watch the DVDs, but that didn't matter. I felt really good about myself for providing such excellent customer service, but, at the same time, I was also a little ashamed for possessing such nerdy trivia.

In what may seem contradictory to my previous statement about having such an easy day, today also seemed to be the day of disgruntled customers. Perhaps that says something about my state of mind or the type of person I am: that I can have a great day at work even though several customers were raising a stink. Granted, the stinks were over ridiculous things. As I just mentioned, there was the woman who was angry because of The Simpson DVD mix up. There was also this one guy who was returning something and was very mad that he couldn't get cash back. He kept insisting that he was told he could receive cash back, but there is no way anyone told him that because we only offer in-store credit or an exchange for a different item and we tell them this at the time of their purchases. There was also a woman who called on the phone and was very upset that the price at which the store buys DVDs from customers went from $1.50 down to $1.00. Another woman was frustrated because she was unsure about what type of items we buy from customers, and yet another woman turned to me and started to complain because she had only received three yellow Mike and Ikes for a quarter from our candy coin machine and she thought it was a rip off. I just smiled at her and laughed a little and told her she must not have very good luck to get three yellows. I thought my joking comment would have lightened the mood, but she glared even more harshly and then turned and walked away. A moment later I heard her complain to her husband that the candy was stale. I admit that overhearing this gave me satisfaction. It's too bad the man who swore at me over the phone yesterday for not being able to appraise his PS3 was not aware that all the angry people were supposed to harass me and my co-workers today and not yesterday. Really, none of this bothered me. It's impossible to make everyone happy, but their unhappiness gives me something entertaining to catch my attention.

Yesterday, a boxed set of two Larry The Cable Guy pint glasses was priced at $2.99 and placed out on display. I didn't expect them to remain in the store for more than twenty-four hours, and I was right. Imagine that. God bless our clientele.