I am offended...

Originally posted here, 08/12/04

I work at a computer store in downtown Toronto. I do service and sales. It's essentially glorified retail that pays well, and I don't not look forward to work; sometimes I really enjoy it. We have a great staff, and are as helpful as can be. Our prices may be a bit higher on certain items (think Future Shop prices; we're definitely not an enthusiast store), but we're great when it comes to service; we often go out of our way to help customers beyond the initial purchase at no extra cost.

This past weekend, two sisters came into the store and wanted to purchase a computer. My co-worker helped them initially, walking them through the entire spectrum of our inventory. Before long, one of the sisters began to ask me questions, and I ended-up taking over the sale. They decided on a decent low-end system, capable of running their word processing software and getting them on the Internet. They also indicated that they would be putting their own copy of Windows XP on the computer. They bought it and left, done and done.

An hour or so later, they called the store, complaining that their new computer was not working properly. I tried to walk them through the problem over the phone based on what they had described to me, but it appeared to be more serious than we had thought. I asked them to bring the system back in to the store so that I could have a look at it for them.

When they returned to the store, I noticed a few problems with the system (prepping guy's fault), and I fixed them on the spot - right in front of the sisters - for free. It was nothing too serious: I opened the case and added more RAM, then edited their config.sys file to prevent a problematic DOS audio driver from loading (which was keeping Windows from starting properly). The whole time, the three of us were shooting the breeze, talking about their day at Canada's Wonderland, and all seemed well.

Apparently, however, they came back into the store on Monday and complained about "some brown guy" (my co-worker) who walked away from them when they didn't buy the "turbo-charged" computer, and this guy named Brett (me, Brent) who was very "smug" and "had no idea what he was doing". They said that Brett had made all of their files "read-only" (simply not true), and that they didn't appreciate having to log-in every time they turned-on their computer (standard "Client for Microsoft Networks" login screen, easily disabled). They claimed that they had been sent to the store by their IT friends (and they supposedly have many IT friends), but they were completely unsatisfied and were going to tell all their IT friends how inept we are; they wanted a full refund without paying the restocking fee (10% = ~$23). Even after my manager agreed to the full refund (it was only $23, so he didn't really care either way), they kept on bitching.

I mean, really... I went out of my way to help these people. They walked away from my co-worker, they called me for help (and I helped them, quickly and effectively, and for free), and they got what they came for. I'm not sure that they're in a position to judge my capability as a technician (especially since I fixed the problems that they were unable to fix). I dunno... I'm not gonna go into it any further.

It's just upsetting to hear these things, is all. My manager gave me the benefit of the doubt, and just wanted to hear my side of the story (yeah, he didn't care; he knows I know my stuff; my job's safe), but this never should have come up in the first place. If they weren't happy with their purchase, then return it. They agreed to a 10% restocking fee when they bought it. I can only imagine that they wanted to avoid that whopping $23 fee and decided to attack me and my co-worker to achieve that end. If that's the case, then I'm not only deeply offended, but disgusted as well.

Bleh.