Saturday, August 9, 2008

Messing with my tranquility

My training has been up and down, but mostly up. This morning I ran the Edmond hills. Two friends and I did 14 miles hard. I finished, felt good and returned home to my grand daughter greeting me at the door. Later we ran together. She is 5 and we ran about 2/10 of a mile. It was hot, but she enjoyed it. The day is still going well. I had a headlight out on my car. I also had to pick someone up at the airport. I figured I had time to buy the headlight, fix it, and continue on to the airport. I go to O'Reilly Auto parts and find the part. Price, $10.83. I hand the guy $21.00 because I don't want a bunch of bills in change. He hands me 17 cents in change. I immediately tell him I gave him a twenty. He says "I've got to count my drawer." Keep in mind, the store is crowded, there are people waiting, and the one other guy is helping someone with a big parts order. I'm pissed, but don't say anything thinking this shouldn't take long. Twenty minutes later the guy still isn't back. So I did what I hated to do, I got loud. I asked why it took twenty minutes to get my change. The guy comes back and says he hasn't finished counting. I say "so you're calling me a liar?" He says "no." I say "then why do you need to count the drawer?" He says "I want to see if I have ten dollars too much." I say "then you're calling me a liar?" You see where this is going. He goes back to the back to finish counting. I ask for a manager. None here the other guy says. I ask him why they are working so hard to cheat me. I get loud again and there are now about 8 people waiting in line for only one clerk. After 30 minutes, the guy comes back to shut me up, he's still not through counting, and says here take the ten dollars and get out. I tell him he's a jerk and I'll never be back. He says "good, get the f*ck out." See, this is how people get shot over nothing. Messing with my tranquility. I will be writing a letter to the home office, but I don't understand this kind of "customer service." Over the years I have probably spent over a thousand dollars there. Not another penny more, and for what? Ten dollars?

Any way I vowed that I would not carry that attitude to the airport. So I never said anything to the person I picked up and my day is going fine now, and I plan to run trails in the morning.

7 comments:

Willie said...

Good for you! I don't get it, what's wrong with this world when a kid can't count and doesn't remember what he was just handed. Screw the bastards, auto part stores suck anyway.

I asked my wife to go pick up a tie rod end once and she got laughed at because the idiot behind the counter didn't think she knew what she was talking about. Oh he got an earful from my Mechanical Engineer wife!

You handled it beautifully and much better than most. Way to not let it ruin your day.

Aaron Hamby said...

Dude.....that sucks....totally sucks....one D**K head doesn't exemplify the Oklahoma spirit....boy that chaps me the more I think about it.....

You did good to not let it jack with your vibe.....your energy is a positive one and his is obviously flatlined.....

DawnB said...

I could understand your frustration but it could happen. Especially if it was a young kid he took the money without looking closly at the bills and you did say the store was crowd and busy he probally was counting his draw because if he his short it may come out of his pay..I know it sounds like i'm making up excuses.

Reese said...

Sorry Dawn, but I've got to disagree with you. Even if his drawer didn't show $10.00 extra, how do I know he counted it fairly? Once he put that bill in the drawer, he agreed with me. The customer is always right. When you argue with a customer, you're hurting your business. He should have left the bill out of the drawer until he made my change. Once the disagreement happened, the correct response was to just give me the change. Any other response and the company loses. Over 10 people saw the way that company treated me, and none of them came away with a postive experience.

DawnB said...

now I really feel bad for making excuses.

Reese said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Reese said...

You expressed an opinion. I have no problem with that, and always enjoy reading your take on things.