One time i was at my lfs and overheard a conversation with this lady who had a 10 gal tank and she wanted to get a clown knife..... the employee strongly warned her against it and pointed her over to the zebra danios....... so she didn't get the clown knife, she got an oscar! LOL
Will it never end? More lame customer moves.
- Thread starter ewurm
- Start date
The amount of customer that you get who say that they have a big tank wghen asked with arms outstretched and it turns out to be like 2 or 3' long.
Bogwoodbruce;2063800; said:
indeed.. many people think their 30 gallons are MASSIVE
the whole misconception that fish = bowl is mostly what drives it..
also the fact that people don't consider fish 'equal' to things like hampsters, cats, and dogs.. and that they don't care to go beyond cartoonish portrayal of them sitting happily in a cup of water..
and of course the common misconceptions and the fact that any given member of the general public know's next to nothing on a given subject
personally.
my favorite was the guy on Yahoo answers wanting to keep seals in his backyard pond,, and asked''do they have to have sex to have babies?''
someone then lectured him about how seals are saltwater FISH and cannot be in fresh''
my favorite was the guy on Yahoo answers wanting to keep seals in his backyard pond,, and asked''do they have to have sex to have babies?''
someone then lectured him about how seals are saltwater FISH and cannot be in fresh''
On sunday i was serving a customer who had a tank with some cats, plecos, neons, gouramis and bits like that who wanted a bichir and pair of angel fish and i said the bichir would eat there neons, i asked how big there tank was and they said its relly big, about 75 litre, i had to ask them not to get any more fish a its overstocked as it was.
They kept insisting that there tank was really big and i said no 75 litre isnt big at all in the grand scheme of tank.
(not exagerated)
They kept insisting that there tank was really big and i said no 75 litre isnt big at all in the grand scheme of tank.
(not exagerated)
Like WOLF3101 said, they exist in every retail setting. I got out of auto repair because the shop wants you to just sell parts and the customer expects it fixed right the first time no matter what (oh yeah and I want it done 2 hours ago). Diagnosing a car correctly can take time (especially for electronics problems) and don't always require a lot of parts. Got sick of customers who didn't want to spend the money to fix it right and shops that don't pay for you to truly find the problem (just throw a part at it).
I had another lame customer move down at my store. There are three stores within our company (Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic). This lady comes in with Gap giftcards and she wants to use them at my store, which is not a Gap. I explain that while some giftcards are usable at all three stores, many are not so the best I could do for her would be to try the cards out. She gets all pissy and says it doesn't make sense and yadda yadda. I tell her that while we are owned by the same company, that we are our own branch and if she bought the cards at Gap that we were not getting paid for the merchandise. She goes on a tirade about the company being full of liars. So, I get pissed and say this: "Well, Kraft Foods is mostly owned by the company that owns Marlboro cigarettes. If you have a Kraft Foods gift card, should you be able to buy cigarettes with it?" Of course she replies "no," then pauses and her jaw drops. She finally lets me test the giftcards and they work. All that could have been avoided if she hadn't been so bent on screaming at me.
Then we were at Walmart the other day to fix my sister's tire, so of course I go to the fish department. I see a guy with his girlfriend and they're looking at tiny tiger barbs. They wanted like eight of them. I had to interject, just couldn't help it. I asked what size tank they had and they said it was just a fishbowl. Yeah. I told them that they couldn't even have one goldfish and they wouldn't believe me. So, I just told them I was a marine biology student and that I guaranteed anything they put in that bowl would die and the fishbowls should be illegal. The girl got this horrified look on her face and was all "let's just get some guppies." They did ask me what they would need for the guppies, and I showed them a tiny heater, some food, and other things but they didn't take any of it.
Granted not all shops are like this. A close friend of our family owns a shop and he won't charge just to look at a car. But, if he has to take off even the radiator cap or pull the dipstick, he'll charge you a full hour of work. I think that's ridiculous. I know mechanics can't work for free, but there has to be a happy medium somewhere.
Then we were at Walmart the other day to fix my sister's tire, so of course I go to the fish department. I see a guy with his girlfriend and they're looking at tiny tiger barbs. They wanted like eight of them. I had to interject, just couldn't help it. I asked what size tank they had and they said it was just a fishbowl. Yeah. I told them that they couldn't even have one goldfish and they wouldn't believe me. So, I just told them I was a marine biology student and that I guaranteed anything they put in that bowl would die and the fishbowls should be illegal. The girl got this horrified look on her face and was all "let's just get some guppies." They did ask me what they would need for the guppies, and I showed them a tiny heater, some food, and other things but they didn't take any of it.
Part of the reason you see so many rude customers in the auto repair field is sadly that there are many mechanics who take advantage of customers, and everyone knows it. Diagnosing a car takes time, but when some shops charge upward of $45 per hour, it runs up into a lot of money fast and the real problem hasn't even been seen to at that point.ryverrat;2066870; said:
Granted not all shops are like this. A close friend of our family owns a shop and he won't charge just to look at a car. But, if he has to take off even the radiator cap or pull the dipstick, he'll charge you a full hour of work. I think that's ridiculous. I know mechanics can't work for free, but there has to be a happy medium somewhere.
Just to mention the after sales service centres and larger places where the mechanics themselves have limited public contact, but they have an expectation put on them by their employer.>:(;2067034; said:
Not sure whether this would be making him rich. Am tempted to say that a person has to draw a line somewhere, but it depends on knowing how well he does out of this practice.
LOL, just saw Elmo on the box with a goldfish in a 1G with a half G in it.
I worked as a mechanic for Honda for 12 years, I got out of it 8 years ago and they were charing $72 an hour>:(;2067034; said:
The charging system is called "Flat Rate" the customer pays a set figure no matter how much time it takes - if it takes 15 minutes or 3 hours you pay one hour. When it comes to troubleshooting a car sometimes it can take DAYS to find the problem. I'm not trying to say all mechanics are honest but certianly not all are crooks. Alot of is is preception by the customer that they are being rob and that comes from people not understanding the way Flat Rate works. When the mechanic says it will be 1 hour to troubelshoot your problem, he doesn't know how long it's goint to take, he may lift the hood and find it right away or it make take a while. Flate Rate isn't just about time, it's about knowledge, all mechanics are not created equal. If one mechanic fixes it in 5 minutes and another takes 50 minutes; you are paying for the knowledge of the first guy and the time of the second guy.
When my neighbors wanted me to work on their cars I'd tell them it's free until dirt gets on my hands. At that point most would just ask my opinion on their problem and I never mind giving them advise or assisting. The really annoying ones were the poeple in my apartment building that would park in front of my sliding door, lift the hood and constantely turn and look at my apartment expecting me to run out and ask if I can help
