“Are you sure?”: Tales of retail hell.

You’re ill. You’ve never taken any medical based classes in your life. You go to the doctor. When he’s worked out the problem and told you the diagnosis, do you ever say “Are you sure?” No, you wouldn’t.

There seems to be a… rash… of customers at the moment who seem to doubt the advice I give them, despite seeming completely clueless about the topic they wish to discuss. Case in point:

Customer: “Do you have Call of Duty 6?”
Me: “There is no Call of Duty 6. What you’re after is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. People think it’s number 6 because it’s 2 after number 4, but in reality there are more than 10 Call of Duty games.”
Customer: “Are you sure?”

What should follow is, “Yes, I’m sure. I’ve been playing video games since I was very young, I own the vast majority of gaming consoles, it is my main hobby. I am a huge geek and work as a manager in a video game shop. I think I know what the fuck I am talking about.”

This coincides with another theory about my customers that I had recently. Whenever a customer has a problem with a product or a question about something, I get the sense that they call some sort of family meeting. They then sit down around a table and think “Right then, I have a problem with my wireless network adaptor for my 360. Even though I know about it, I’m not going to go to the shop with it. Instead, I’m going to get you to go mum. Basically it’s not working, now go, go forth and ask”.

So the mum shows up at the shop and says ”This isn’t working, but I don’t know anything about it, so when you tell me what I need to do I’ll just keep nodding and saying yes but not actually take any of it in. But then, after you’ve told me what the problem is and how to fix it, I’ll then ask you if you’re sure, like all of a sudden I know what I’m talking about.”

Frustration.

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One response to this post.

  1. I feel your pain. People with insufficient information, demanding instant solutions do my nut in.

    “I have a printer, it’s grey and about this big. I want ink.”

    Get out.

    Reply

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