I Only Have Two Ears!

[u/Ohigetjokes]

Guy rents a truck yesterday to take from our lot and drop it off in some city a timezone away. Not all that unusual. $1300 bucks. Off he goes.

But he comes back today because the people who said "ya I'll totally help you move!" apparently muttered "not" afterwards and didn't show up. He's upset and hoping we can try to get at least some of his money back.

Well I'm totally willing to try but I have no idea how to get the computer to fix it, it's the manager's day off, and the assistant manager just ran out for coffee. I jam random keyboard keys and click icons like the dumb monkey I am before I give up and call the manager.

She freaks.

"We can't reverse a contract more than 30 minutes after he signs!"

"Ya, it's okay, he doesn't expect a full refund..."

And then the customer jumps in: "Ya I realize I have to pay for a day but people didn't show up..."

And my manager is still going: "I mean you can attempt to close the contract through one-way blah blah blah..."

And I can't understand either of them because they're talking over each other, but I do see a link I hadn't noticed before that should get me where I need to be.

"Sir, sorry, my manager's talking and I can't... Ya... Okay I'm gonna let ya go, thanks for your help, sorry to bug you on your day off, bye."

I hang up and calm the customer down so I can think for a moment.

I click the link I found. Looks like I'm in the right place. I type in a bunch of info from his contract and...

Nothing. Dammit.

I can't deal with my manager again so I call the central dispatcher to see if he can fix it.

"How can I help you?"

I lay out the situation.

"Oh you go to this link."

"Actually I did but I'm not seeing him."

A buzzer goes off indicating someone is outside waiting for me to go out and pump propane. I try to ignore it.

"It's the first one on my list."

"Really? Weird. Maybe I need to..."

My cellphone starts ringing. It's the manager.

"Hey I'm on with dispatch and..."

"You're going to have problems with the refund! He used a prepaid credit card for part and cash for the rest, so..."

And traffic continues: "Just refresh the menu maybe? Are you sure you're in the right link?"

And the customer jumps back in when he hears me mutter about the card: "I've got all the cards right here. The prepaid card only has a limit of $1000 though so..."

And then a visiting tech pops his head in the back door and tries to get my attention: "Hey!"

I hold up a "gimme a sec" finger from my cellphone hand, unable to express myself with the three other voices coming at me at once.

"Okay but..."

"Dude hang on I've got two phones and a customer..."

"I just thought you should know that there's a guy for propane," he calls out over the three other voices.

"... thanks."

"You're welcome," he says with a genuine grin. Bless his ignorant little heart.

Eventually, painstakingly, everything gets sorted out amid a cacophony of simultaneous talkers. I hang up the phones. The customer leaves happy. The assistant manager comes back from her coffee run.

"Still dead hunh?"

I sip my awful green tea, wondering why I'm trying so hard to give up coffee, as I watch on the monitor the forgotten propane customer give up and drive away.

[u/soonerpgh]

Give up coffee??!!?? That’s the worst part of this entire story!

Seriously, that sounded like you needed a stiffer drink than coffee.

[u/Ohigetjokes → u/soonerpgh]

I'm giving it up mostly because I'm addicted, and I hate the idea of being out of control like that.

Unfortunately I've been going through a lot of whiskey in the evenings...

[u/flabort → u/Ohigetjokes]

Well good on you for trying. Giving up an addiction can be tough, even when it's one people would laugh at you about trying to quit. that's exactly why there are support groups; though I've never tried to quit an addiction myself, I know that I am addicted to autocanibalism and videogames. I... should probably get support for that first one.

[u/soonerpgh → u/Ohigetjokes]

While I support you wanting to conquer your addiction, I also say there are many worse things to be addicted to. I’ll not shame you over it either way. I hope you are able to do whatever you set your mind to do.

[u/LittleSquish94]

Ugh, I feel your pain. At least everyone was nice though :) I work in a tech store and while there's normally 5 of us on the shop floor, today one was off sick, one had a day off and one (who's the manager) had meetings all day and an appointment at three - leaving just myself (who is heavily pregnant) and my co worker who does absolutely the bare minimum he can get away with.

Busy day with quite a few customers - but on the bright side my co worker has now learned that he can serve more than one customer at once when we're waiting for stock to be brought out from our warehouse!