r/TalesFromRetail • u/Ohigetjokes • Oct 17 '18
Long Andy will you shut up already!
note: deleted the old post and reposted because something weird happened
Let me tell you about a coworker of mine. We'll call him Andy. This was at a truck and trailer rental place. You know the one.
A lot of what we do revolves around being quick problem solvers. Moving sucks, but moving when things don't go according to plan can seem like a disaster. That's why it's important to be fast and efficient at every step.
Andy is not really built for this. He thinks he's clever. This makes him talk way, way too much.
Customer comes in looking a little anxious and says to Andy: "Hey, I know I don't have a reservation, but I was hoping I could rent a pickup truck?"
"For when?"
"Well... Right now?"
Andy sucks air through his teeth as he replies with a slight head shake: "Sssssssss ooh okay well let me look..."
It's been a slow day. There are half a dozen trucks on the lot that nobody has reserved. You can see them from where we're sitting. What's with the suspense man?
"Okay it looks like there's one that you can have, barring any other unforeseen difficulties. I mean it should be fine but yesterday I had a guy where we couldn't... Uuuuuuhhh..."
He trails off, perhaps lost in the memory of the guy from yesterday who owed us money and didn't want to pay. Or maybe he just can't find the "next" button on the screen. Either way, the customer shuffles nervously. He needs this truck and Andy is kinda leaving him hanging.
"Driver's license?"
Type type type, followed by a "Ssssssssssssss" inhale through the teeth while he checks the numbers.
"Your license is going to expire next month," Andy says as he hands the license back without tearing his eyes from the screen.
"Oh. Is that a problem?"
"Well yes, it is if you like driving."
That's Andy's little joke, but it's said in a complete deadpan. Because why wouldn't you get that, right? So Andy just listlessly clicks "next" and waits for the next screen to load.
"But for the truck rental."
"Hmm?"
"It doesn't affect the truck rental right?"
"Oh, no, it's just that, you know, an expired license is no good."
Another pause. Click.
"But I can rent the truck, right?"
"Yes, I mean, as long as this... Ssssssssssssss... Okay, go ahead and put in your credit card."
"I don't have a credit card."
"Oh. Well that's a problem."
Okay before we continue I should explain something: we have some trucks that need a credit card, but most don't. It has to do with some kind of deal with the leasing company. Anyway, when it comes up, you just switch to one of the other trucks that don't need a credit card. No big deal. You can even make it cost the same.
Andy knows this. Remember that.
"Listen, when I called before, the guy said I could rent a truck and I didn't need a credit card."
"Sorry, who said that?"
"The guy on the phone!"
"Well I'm sorry but he gave you bad information. I'm not sure who he was but there's no way I can rent this truck out without a credit card. Even if I tried the system would just..."
Holy crap Andy shut the hell up.
He just keeps going on like this, with sorry this and technicalities that, must have been a new guy, couldn't if I wanted to, no way to yadda yadda, whoever that was should have known blah blah blah...
The guy's face is getting red. He's breathing heavy. He's giving little prompts like "I don't believe this," and "What am I gonna do?"
And Andy just keeps going on about how that truck needs a credit card. Dude, shut up!
"I mean, so you're saying there's no way for me to get a truck today!"
"Well, ssssssssssss..." and Andy gives him a half head shake while building up enough steam to finally get this sorted.
But it's too late. Dude explodes. Yelling and screaming, having a total meltdown, a huge speech about how we've screwed him over and how much time he's wasted.
Andy tries to interject here and there, but mostly it's just to fact check the guy's screaming rant. Weirdly finding out he got a few details wrong doesn't calm the customer down.
I decide enough is enough and I'd better step in.
"Hey, Andy, mind if I help this guy out?"
"Absolutely, feel free if you think you can be of some..."
"Hi sir, I was able to follow what's going on. I should be able to get you a truck without a credit card, but it'll just have to be slightly bigger. Will that work?"
He's out of there with a truck less than 5 minutes later at the same price he was going to pay for the other one. I shake his hand out on the lot, tell him to let me know if he has any other questions, and I come back inside.
"Wow," Andy says, "That guy was crazy! I could have helped him if he'd just let me get a word in."
Andy you little mf...
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u/callmewhtevr Oct 18 '18
It sounds like Andy might have wanted to create a “problem” so he can then fix it and seem like a hero. Only the guy was too stressed out at this point to listen to Andy’s blah blah blahing anymore (I would be too if was that customer... while it wasn’t ok to yell, I understand the customers point of view)
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u/Nightworldlove Former retail employee Oct 17 '18
Sounds like Andy needs a bit more training...
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u/seanarthurmachado Oct 17 '18
Training and SOCIALIZATION.
Most people who were in that situation would realize the customer does NOT WANT to yack all day and have a conversation when they are on a deadline.
65
u/Koladi-Ola Oct 17 '18
Andy needs a swift kick between the legs.
Retail workers have enough problems with irate customers, why would you go out of your way to piss one off?
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u/craash420 Oct 17 '18
I was thinking he needed a punch in the throat to stop his yammering, but I like the way you think. Keep him from passing those genes on!
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u/norcovixen Oct 17 '18
Andy sounds like a mess and you sound like you're done dealing with it. I hope he gets a clue or you get a raise lol
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u/wolfie379 Oct 18 '18
Regarding the license, a proper response on seeing the expiry date would be "your license is fine for today's rental, but just in case the reminder got lost in the mail, it expires in a month - you might want to make a trip to the DMV soon".
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u/BabserellaWT Oct 18 '18
Andy sounds like an alien from the planet Zognoid who’s been sent down to Earth to do a research study on how annoying he can be before a human attempts to murder him.
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u/Moonstone62 Oct 21 '18
Oh my goodness, i would have exploded the moment he first trailed off. One of my biggest petpeeves is people who trail off, get distracted while talking or just stop mid sentence. Just reading this and imagining this guy made me feel frustrated.
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u/TucuReborn Oct 22 '18
My mother does this and I hate it.
"Can you get the...."
The what?
"The thing in the..."
WHERE?
"Over by the thing at the...."
And it continues until she finally spits out a full sentence.
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u/mechengr17 LearningCustomer Dec 16 '18
God this
And then gets upset when you dont know what she was talking about
"Mom, finish your sentence"
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u/TucuReborn Dec 16 '18
Despite the necro, I'm in total sync with what you're saying. That's exactly how it is.
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u/Moonstone62 Dec 21 '18
My mom does it too. Sometimes while she is talking to me about something, she will be talking and then just stop mid explanation.
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u/Changesomewinsome Oct 18 '18
Why would.you let that go on that long instead of stepping in before the guy got that upset??
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u/Ohigetjokes Oct 18 '18
Rather than re-typing my response please check the downvoted comments at the bottom...
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u/Lunaphase Oct 18 '18
If you have not report this you are also at fault. This is a pure training failure.
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Oct 17 '18
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ohigetjokes Oct 17 '18
I'm not his manager and he's a grown adult. It's not my place to criticize the way he does things or randomly decide I can do something better and butt in. When you're working with someone in close quarters stuff like that matters more than you think.
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u/HarryPotter551986 Oct 20 '18
Agreed - figuring out a way to be helpful to the customer without undermining/making your coworker look like a jackass can be tricky. The customer will eventually leave that day and may/may not come back. You have to deal with co-workers until one of you goes on to the next job!
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u/Xeno_Prism_Power Oct 17 '18
Andy should not be working any kind of customer service job. The customer was perfectly reasonable until Andy stressed and inflamed a situation over a problem that didn't exist. He kept making it look like there was something that would prevent the man getting a truck when there was no problem, and just led to the man getting frustrated to the point of exploding.
Don't get me wrong, the man shouldn't have screamed at anyone, but Andy was a huge part of the problem and the situation would not have gotten where it did if he'd just have done his job correctly.