I currently work in retail with a large plant nursery. I find that boredom is rarely found in this business. This is one of my favorite stories so far.
It was late summer.
The other Supervisor and I were getting to run the store by ourselves (a weekly occurrence) and had finally found 5 minutes to try to discuss where we were going to put the newly arrived plants (all 5000 of them!) We had had several attempts at this for an hour and were just beginning to discuss which tables to tear down, build, what to move, all that fun stuff that managers do... When an extremely panicked voice crackled over the intercom! One of our cashiers wanted us up at the front immediately. Because she is dramatic and panics easily (often unnecessarily) I volunteered to go and see what the matter was, so that the other supervisor could stay in the back and manage the yard. Usually it's not a big deal when we get called to the front: customer wants a discount on a damaged pot, return requires a manager's pass-code, etc. However, this time something HUGE had happened.
Whenever customers need to return something, and they do not have their receipt, we have more paperwork to deal with. Not only that, but our computers get finicky. The problem with this return was: 2 cashiers worked on it and there was miscommunication and terror and panic. This resulted in me spending most of the day on the phone.
A lady only needed to return a couple of plants. It should have been quick. One cashier started the transaction. She scanned the first item and $8.99 appeared on the screen. Then she needed to press enter so that the computer would allow her to scan the next, but instead of checking the screen and doing so, she scanned the next plant. The computer read the beginning numbers of the barcode: 4077. But it didn't just read them, it added them to the original price of 8.99, which was now: $89940.77. This is when it went further downhill. If she had checked the screen, she could have noticed the problem and just voided the transaction. That did not happen. Distracted, she answered the phone.
While on the phone, she told the second cashier to just swipe the customer's card. The second cashier, assuming that the first one (who has worked here for years) knew what she was doing, hit the total button and swiped the customer's card. Only then, when the receipt printed did she notice the numbers. By then the problem could no longer be avoided and I arrived on /was vigorously hailed to the scene. That customer was not only getting money back for her plants, but also a whopping $97,000+ extra! The sweet little computer added tax to the return...over $7000 worth! The total damage: $97,360.88 (oh yes, I have that number memorized)!
Ok. So when I arrived, it took about 5 minutes for me to understand what they had done. When I did, I tried returning the return...which you can't do. After realizing that I was going to need to call a bank and headquarters and KWI (our computer system managers), I had the good sense to do the customer's real return so that that would be taken care of and we could just void the other. She was panicking...I don't know why...she had just "Won $97,000!" for a few hours...
After getting her phone number in case anything else happened, I sent her on her way. I then began my deluge of phone calls. First, headquarters: I was patched through and told: call KWI for this one. Ok, second, I called KWI: after 20 minutes of working on the register with the technician he said my two options were: charge the woman $97,360.88 back on the same card to void it, OR call the bank. Ok, since I didn't know our bank's number, I called headquarters: they agree that I should try charging the woman's card.
To charge the woman's card, I had to get ahold of her and ask for her credit card number over the phone. This was a very sticky conversation as I tried to reassure her that she wasn't going to be missing money from her bank. I tried charging her card but the computer wouldn't let me charge anybody that much. sigh* I placed my third call to headquarters: they didn't know the bank number, and told me that it should be posted somewhere in the store.
By now I've told one of those two cashiers to take my lunch break because I am obviously not going anywhere anytime soon.
I searched the office thoroughly for a phone number and am beginning to realize that I might not be able to solve this problem. My yardman questions me about what is going on and why I've run past him several times in the last hour (the office is in the back of the store, the registers are in the front, and it is NOT a tiny store.) Just as I am telling him it is "un grande problema," the General Manager rounds a group of trees. I had forgotten that he would be visiting and it hadn't occurred to me to call him and tell him what was going on. After I told him about the problem, he quickly called the president and vice president of the company and a few of the big wigs up in Dallas.
In the middle of my conversation with the GM about what had happened and who had done it, he got a phone call from his boss about our store’s sales numbers. One of the men up in Dallas saw that our sales were suddenly a negative for many thousands of dollars. He couldn’t believe his eyes and wanted my GM to tell him what was going on! (We have a marvelous online tool that allows us to see how all the other stores in our company are doing in sales. It updates every 15-30 minutes, and the competitiveness in me LOVES it! We often are first or second in sales every day.)
Anyway, after several hours and a meeting with my GM, the problem was solved and I finally got to disappear for an hour for lunch…by then it was 4pm. I was starving, but calm. I actually thought the whole process was entertaining, but only because I knew all along that we would be able to cancel that transaction. It’s only a matter of having the right phone numbers. That poor woman won’t be getting her $100,000 return. But she has the pleasure, should she choose, to share that fun story for the rest of her life! And she didn’t have to pay to be a part of a game show like thousands of people do, in fact, it’s a unique story. One I’ll always remember!
It was late summer.
The other Supervisor and I were getting to run the store by ourselves (a weekly occurrence) and had finally found 5 minutes to try to discuss where we were going to put the newly arrived plants (all 5000 of them!) We had had several attempts at this for an hour and were just beginning to discuss which tables to tear down, build, what to move, all that fun stuff that managers do... When an extremely panicked voice crackled over the intercom! One of our cashiers wanted us up at the front immediately. Because she is dramatic and panics easily (often unnecessarily) I volunteered to go and see what the matter was, so that the other supervisor could stay in the back and manage the yard. Usually it's not a big deal when we get called to the front: customer wants a discount on a damaged pot, return requires a manager's pass-code, etc. However, this time something HUGE had happened.
Whenever customers need to return something, and they do not have their receipt, we have more paperwork to deal with. Not only that, but our computers get finicky. The problem with this return was: 2 cashiers worked on it and there was miscommunication and terror and panic. This resulted in me spending most of the day on the phone.
A lady only needed to return a couple of plants. It should have been quick. One cashier started the transaction. She scanned the first item and $8.99 appeared on the screen. Then she needed to press enter so that the computer would allow her to scan the next, but instead of checking the screen and doing so, she scanned the next plant. The computer read the beginning numbers of the barcode: 4077. But it didn't just read them, it added them to the original price of 8.99, which was now: $89940.77. This is when it went further downhill. If she had checked the screen, she could have noticed the problem and just voided the transaction. That did not happen. Distracted, she answered the phone.
While on the phone, she told the second cashier to just swipe the customer's card. The second cashier, assuming that the first one (who has worked here for years) knew what she was doing, hit the total button and swiped the customer's card. Only then, when the receipt printed did she notice the numbers. By then the problem could no longer be avoided and I arrived on /was vigorously hailed to the scene. That customer was not only getting money back for her plants, but also a whopping $97,000+ extra! The sweet little computer added tax to the return...over $7000 worth! The total damage: $97,360.88 (oh yes, I have that number memorized)!
Ok. So when I arrived, it took about 5 minutes for me to understand what they had done. When I did, I tried returning the return...which you can't do. After realizing that I was going to need to call a bank and headquarters and KWI (our computer system managers), I had the good sense to do the customer's real return so that that would be taken care of and we could just void the other. She was panicking...I don't know why...she had just "Won $97,000!" for a few hours...
After getting her phone number in case anything else happened, I sent her on her way. I then began my deluge of phone calls. First, headquarters: I was patched through and told: call KWI for this one. Ok, second, I called KWI: after 20 minutes of working on the register with the technician he said my two options were: charge the woman $97,360.88 back on the same card to void it, OR call the bank. Ok, since I didn't know our bank's number, I called headquarters: they agree that I should try charging the woman's card.
To charge the woman's card, I had to get ahold of her and ask for her credit card number over the phone. This was a very sticky conversation as I tried to reassure her that she wasn't going to be missing money from her bank. I tried charging her card but the computer wouldn't let me charge anybody that much. sigh* I placed my third call to headquarters: they didn't know the bank number, and told me that it should be posted somewhere in the store.
By now I've told one of those two cashiers to take my lunch break because I am obviously not going anywhere anytime soon.
I searched the office thoroughly for a phone number and am beginning to realize that I might not be able to solve this problem. My yardman questions me about what is going on and why I've run past him several times in the last hour (the office is in the back of the store, the registers are in the front, and it is NOT a tiny store.) Just as I am telling him it is "un grande problema," the General Manager rounds a group of trees. I had forgotten that he would be visiting and it hadn't occurred to me to call him and tell him what was going on. After I told him about the problem, he quickly called the president and vice president of the company and a few of the big wigs up in Dallas.
In the middle of my conversation with the GM about what had happened and who had done it, he got a phone call from his boss about our store’s sales numbers. One of the men up in Dallas saw that our sales were suddenly a negative for many thousands of dollars. He couldn’t believe his eyes and wanted my GM to tell him what was going on! (We have a marvelous online tool that allows us to see how all the other stores in our company are doing in sales. It updates every 15-30 minutes, and the competitiveness in me LOVES it! We often are first or second in sales every day.)
Anyway, after several hours and a meeting with my GM, the problem was solved and I finally got to disappear for an hour for lunch…by then it was 4pm. I was starving, but calm. I actually thought the whole process was entertaining, but only because I knew all along that we would be able to cancel that transaction. It’s only a matter of having the right phone numbers. That poor woman won’t be getting her $100,000 return. But she has the pleasure, should she choose, to share that fun story for the rest of her life! And she didn’t have to pay to be a part of a game show like thousands of people do, in fact, it’s a unique story. One I’ll always remember!
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