Category: Salesmen

I get most frustrated by people who are in the sales/retail/services business. This is usually caused by them doing what they are told, but not having enough of a brain to think on their own. You should enjoy some of these stories.

Bummed out by a pen

A couple of months back my wife washed my favorite ball point pen. Not only did she wash it, but I place the full blame of the incident on her. We have an unwritten rule in our house that whoever throws the item of clothing in the dirty clothes basket is responsible for checking the pockets for any items.Parker pen refill

This is a pen that I have not used a whole lot through the years, but it was given to me by my Grandfather several years ago. It is a simple Parker pen.

As a result of the washing, the ink oozed out the end of the ink stick. I went to Office Depot to get a refill. They were out, but I was assured that they would have more “next week.” That is the Mexican way of saying: “We don’t have any right now and we may or may not have ordered more, but if you come back next week you can find out if there are any.” In other words, the salesmen has no idea, but you can check next week and you will know about as much as the salesman does.

I checked back “next week” every so often through the last couple of months. Finally last Tuesday they had them in stock again. I plopped down my $3.50 and bought one. I thought it was a little steep on the price, but I had my sentimental (if not terribly expensive) pen back.

Sunday I announced to my wife that I had misplaced my pen and that I would appreciate her being on the look out for it. Yesterday she found it…as she was pulling the clothes out of the washing machine. Argh!

This time, however, it was my fault. I contemplated having a good cry right then and there. But, I was relieved to open the pen and find that the ink was not escaping. Tragedy averted; or so I thought. This morning I went to use the pen and it felt gummy when I clicked it open. I pulled it apart and the ink was oozing out again. Sigh.

I have it cleaned up right now, but am not hopeful that it will stop the bleeding. I just can’t convince myself that it is worth spending more money on at this time since I am currently carrying two other pens on a regular basis. I guess I will clean it well and put it in the drawer for future use.

NBC won’t let me watch the Olympic trials

You can’t watch! Go away!This afternoon I got very excited to find out that NBC was going to be doing a full coverage webcast of the US Olympic Marathon Trials tomorrow morning. I have already scheduled to get up at 5:30 so I can watch the start. I went to the website to make sure that everything was ready to go. Though there is no current coverage, the site seemed to work just fine at the time.

That was this afternoon. Now, as I get ready to go to bed, I wanted to give everything one more check. When I went to the page from which the video will be streaming, I am met with a message that says:

Content Not Available:
Geo-blocked. This event is only available to viewers within the U.S. … If you are outside of the United States you are not allowed to view this content.

If you would like to view the marathon online from a location outside the United States, please go to wcsn.com

[Emphasis mine]

I am “not allowed to view this content”? Why does your location matter? This is the Internet for crying out loud! Are we limited by imaginary borders?

Their alternate website is only showing the NYC Marathon on Sunday. According to their event schedule they will not have Trials coverage.

I happen to know a way around this. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up going through a proxy server in the US. That will hide the fact that I am outside of US borders.

Putting aside that it is totally idiotic to not allow people outside of the US to view the content, this is another example of where trying to stop people from doing what they want only hurts less knowledgeable people. There is nothing stopping me from using a proxy server. There is nothing illegal about using a proxy server. There is no logical reason they should be keeping me from watching this event. Therefore I am going to thwart their stupid scheme to keep me from seeing my country’s top marathoners compete tomorrow. But what about all the other people out there who don’t have the knowledge to do this? They just get to brood at NBC and have to accept that the network is keeping them from content they want.

If they don’t want people to see their coverage, then they should not be in charge of filming the event. This is where big media has an agenda and has no real interest in the viewers. I know I am not the only person outside the US who wants to see this. My suspicion is that the advertisers were not willing to pay the dollar amount that NBC wanted to show it to a world wide audience. They are more concerned about milking the dollar than giving us content.

Arghh!

You gave me too much money

While reading a blog post from Terry I was reminded of an incident that happened earlier this week. He was talking about getting change from a clerk at the fabric store. Ours happened at Sam’s.

We went through the whole ordeal of picking out our items and standing dutifully in line. My wife noticed that it took the cashier a long time to make change for the man in front of us. She said that she has a knack for picking the bright ones.

When it was finally our turn the bill rang up to $268 pesos (about $25). She handed him $318 so that she would get $50 back. He then tried to give her back the extra $18 because “the $300 is enough to cover the bill.” He said this in such a way as to say, “hey, lady, are you too stupid to understand that $300 is more than $268?”

She gave him back the $18 and said that it was so she would get $50 back. He looked at her like she was an alien. He rung the amount up in his register and, what do you know, it said he needed to give her $50. I think he was not at all embarassed but, rather, surprised that the magic worked like that. How did she know that it would say $50?

Companies actually trust people like this to handle money?

Can you really be that clueless?

Today I was looking for a nice quality cotton shirt to iron on my Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon transfers. I wanted to make a shirt that I can wear after the run this weekend.

I went to a store that does embroidery and screen printing for sports teams. Their whole business is team uniforms. I asked the lady if she had any plain white, good quality cotton shirts. All she had in stock were white shirts with colored collars. I asked if she knew where I could get my hands on a good shirt. Her reply was, “I have no idea.”

How can you work in that business and really not know? That told me one of two things about her. Either she was really clueless and does not care about the business or industry in which she works, or she did not want to lose business to another vendor. I have news for her: she has now lost business. I will never go back there. I hate dealing with salesmen that make no effort to help the people who are paying their grocery bills.

Customer Service is not entirely dead

Last night we went to a taco joint that we have not been to in more than a year. We used to go there once every 2 or 3 weeks when we lived on that side of town. It is one of those places we can go and feed the whole family for $10. Out of our bill last night, right at half the cost of the meal was for our soft drinks. Soft drinks are usually expensive at restaurants here.

The waiter not only remembered us, but when we ordered the tacos for our son he remembered that it was to be without onions and that our boy drinks orange Fanta. Since my wife and I usually ordered something different just about every time we went in there, there was no way he could have remembered what we would want. But we were pleased to know that there is someone who still takes pride in learning his customers and what they like.

I am very critical of service industry people who have no interest in serving their clientèle. It is always a pleasure to see someone who cares and takes pride in their work.