Bullseye

Whenever a customer comes in and asks for a specific manager, it can mean one of several things – either they’re doing something specific with regards to a community function and need something from that person’s area of the store – or they talked to them over the phone and got told “ask for me when you come in.”

The problem with this last approach is that said person is not always there and available when said customer wants to do their thing. And it’s not like coming up and saying “Maria said I could do this” is some sort of magic talisman. We really don't believe you. No matter who you are.

So this well-dressed suburban soccer mom rolled in Saturday. Apparently she’d talked on the phone with some assistant manager.

I asked a supervisor to track him down. She waited 20 minutes and then they told her he was on lunch. She said she’d come back later. All this drama started at 10 a.m.

At 11:30 a.m., she rolled back. I tried calling the operator to get him on the phone. No dice. I yelled for another supervisor and they started trying to find him again. Finally, around noon, and after she’d been waiting another half-hour, he apparently hollers over the radio – “Just go ahead and do it.”

To this woman’s credit, she was VERY patient throughout this entire ordeal. Then, when she gets up to the counter, I find out why. She’s asking for a WHOPPER. And I DON'T mean the kind with two all-beef patties, special sauce and sesame seed bun!

What she wants to do is return – SANS RECEIPT a Sony PSP that she was carrying around in her purse IN A ZIPLOC BAG!

Oooo-kaaaay. Whatever. I could tell this one was getting a giant “APPROVED BY XXXX” in big writing on the return slip.

But this one’s not over yet!

I start pressing buttons on my register. When it asks me for the serial number of the PSP, I scan the unit and the following pops out of my register.

THIS ITEM IS NON-RETURNABLE
ITEM WAS SOLD ON XX/XX/2007
RETURN PERIOD EXPIRED ON: XX/XX/2007
ITEM WAS SOLD BY: Target Stores
SEE WARRANTY SYSTEM FOR REPAIR
CUSTOMER MAY CONTACT MANUFACTURER AT 800-345-7669 FOR ADDITIONAL OPTIONS.

Yes. Yes. Yes. After all this sturm und drang, the item in question came from Target.

I inform the suburban soccer mom of this, and that I can’t return said PSP.

She goes, presumably talking about her son, “The little b******. He said he got it at Wal-Mart.” She stuffs it in her purse and rolls out. Lovely.