Some Customers!!

[Jessika]

So as you all may or may not know, I work at PetCo right now. Before I left in April we had an incident where a ferrett was stolen on my shift while I was on register (within sight of the small animal area). I didn't get in trouble of course, since I wasn't the only one working that night, but I still felt horrible and that I could have paid more attention, you know? Especially since there are LOCKS on the cages!! After the incident we were told that NO ONE was to hold ferrets, and we were to ONLY bring the ferrets out of their cages for customers seriously considering purchasing one.

A month later, or later the same month I was cleaning the ferrett cages and of course the cages have to be open to clean them... it was later at night near closing time so we did not have a lot of customers. I turn to scoop some food and turn back and a customer had walked up, stuck their hand into the cage and picked up a ferrett!! I nearly freaked out, said "Ma'am put the ferrett down please!" and she was like, "Oh its ok, I know Terri (the MOD that night) and she's cool with me" and I said, "It doesn't matter, if she wants to come out here now and let you hold one that's fine, but you can not hold one now, especially without permission!" She got angry and huffed off.. and later complained to the guy on register that they "needed to get new employees because the current ones were very rude" LOL I talked to Terri about it and told her about the girl, and apparently she USED to work at the other location but was fired for stealing. HMM...


Now fast forward to yesterday. It has been almost a year since that happened but the managers are still cautious about opening the ferret cages during store hours unless you're cleaning them for obvious reasons. A family came in and crowded around the small animal section... then later one of the girls came up to me and asked if she could hold a ferrett. I asked her if she was 18, she was not. I asked if her mother was with her, she said she was. I then asked if they were considering buying a ferrett, because otherwise I wasn't allowed to let them hold one. She said no, and walked over to her mom. At the time time I had a customer who wanted to buy some mice, so I walk over to small animals and overhear the mother say, "Well how do they KNOW who is considering buying a ferrett and who isn't???" so I say, "well ma'am, if a customer was considering purchasing a ferrett they would be asking and looking at supplies, asking about care, and other miscellany stuff." I wanted to add, "Not just ooh-ing and ahh-ing and saying how cute they are" but didn't. So she said, "WELL then, I guess we will have to go ELSEWHERE to purchase OUR ferret!!"

This made me laugh for a number of reasons. I KNOW she was not going to buy one for the simple fact that they walked in, saw the small animal section, said "awwwww how cute!! Ferrets!! mom can we have one??" and she said NO!! Its just ARGH!! And the rest of her visit there she was very cold and rude to me! I asked someone else to ring her out because I was angry and didn't want to say something to her that I would later regret!!

Was I WRONG?? Did I say anything WRONG?? I was doing as I was told and I don't know if it seems like it but I did say everything as polite as possible, even if I wanted to get rude I couldn't.

[CagneyDog]

Some people You didn't say anything wrong.

[moosmom]

You were absolutely correct in how you handled the situation. Don't feel bad about it. It was that lady's problem. Let her go elsewhere. People like that you don't need!!

[Jessika]

Yeah thanks guys. It just.. really ticks me off how they think they can walk all over you. And they honestly think that by "taking their business elsewhere" they're hurting PetCo at all? Sorry but a $200 purchase that was "taken elsewhere" isn't going to make PetCo go bankrupt

[captain]

You were not wrong.
Good for you ..... you said it diplomatically.

[crazy_caique]

You didn't do anything wrong.I would have done the same thing.happy your back on.

[kuhio98]

Why doesn't your employer put a sign up saying that no one is allowed to hold the ferrets? Then, you can simply point to the sign and tell them that it is the store policy. That way they can't accuse you of being rude and unhelpful.

[BC_MoM]

Wow. I totally would have lost my cool with her. And probably my job.

[Jessika]

Why doesn't your employer put a sign up saying that no one is allowed to hold the ferrets? Then, you can simply point to the sign and tell them that it is the store policy. That way they can't accuse you of being rude and unhelpful.

You know, I'm not sure why. Its a good suggestion. I suggested the same thing about the sweater rack because customers think its OK to open every single sweater and then just throw the sweaters on top of the rack and throw the bags on the floor Or just throw them on the floor altogether. ARGH!

[Allecto]

Well, I don't think you were wrong exactly, but I am a store manager for one of my jobs that is paying for school, and I wouldn't be thrilled if one of my customer service reps handled her that way. The things I would ask my CSRs to avoid:

1) She was speaking to her daughter, asking her daughter (not you) how you knew she didn't want a ferret. I would for sure not be happy if my CSR stopped helping another customer (the mice person) to jump into the mother and daughter's conversation to be defensive. If you hadn't done that, I doubt she would have made a scene. She probably would have just been a little ticked that you weren't using the ferret to babysit her daughter while she shopped, and gone about her shopping.

2) I would have been unhappy with my CSR for further escalating the problem by giving the customer a laundry list of how they should be behaving and what they were doing wrong. You should simply have explained to her that her daughter was not old enough to hold a ferret on her own, and her daughter had said she was not planning on buying a ferret. Giving her a little lesson in how customers should behave just made her more defensive and upset. The rules should be calmly and politely explained, and then you can offer to go ask a manager if it is ok to allow the ferret to be handled.


That said, I HATE customers like that, and I fully realize that sometimes there is just not a gosh darned thing you can possibly do to make them happy, but it sounds like you handled it ok. I'll stop playing manager now .

[Miss Z]

I think that you handled the situation professionally and politely. It's the customers' fault if they're rude, not yours. People like that seriously annoy me

[Laura's Babies]

I think a sign on the cage is called for and that takes the burden off your shoulders of having to explaine anything to anybody. I find signs get great results (usually).

Some people, no matter what, are going to complain about anything and everything and others, by nature are just plain rude. I asked a co-worker one time "Did you have a nice week end?", and he jumped all over me for asking him about his personal business and how his week end went was NOT my business.. Unfortunally, there are people like that in this world.

[Jessika]

2) I would have been unhappy with my CSR for further escalating the problem by giving the customer a laundry list of how they should be behaving and what they were doing wrong. You should simply have explained to her that her daughter was not old enough to hold a ferret on her own, and her daughter had said she was not planning on buying a ferret. Giving her a little lesson in how customers should behave just made her more defensive and upset. The rules should be calmly and politely explained, and then you can offer to go ask a manager if it is ok to allow the ferret to be handled..

I didn't do that?? I never told her how to act or what she did wrong?? But I do agree. Now looking back on the episode.. what a week later now?, its in the past. I guess it just really frustrated me because of the fact that I have had customers just.. walk up and reach into the ferrett cage and pick up ferretts without even asking the second I turn to scoop more food or what have you and just argh. You're entirely right, I probably should have kept my mouth shut, but what's done is done and she wasn't the only customer who's reacted in that way about that situation (not that it justifies anything) and just ARGH sometimes for the ferretts sake (and my sanity) I wish we didn't even have them in the store lol Nobody ever asks to hold the chinchillas (they aren't allowed to, anyway, because of their delicate rib cages).