A Typical Evening in Customer Service

The scene- there is a sale on Folgers Coffee, and naturally after a few days we have run out...

Customer: Where's the coffee?
Me: We ran out pretty quickly the sale started a few days ago. I can write you a rain-cheque if you like.
Customer (indignantly): Well, how long is that going to take?
Me: I really can't say. Usually we keep stuff like that stocked so maybe a week. We can have them call you when it comes in-
Customer: -That isn't going to get me a cup of coffee tomorrow morning, is it?

FREEZE!!

What I said:

"No I'm sorry, but there are other brands in the store, or you may be able to locate it at the Supermarket here in the mall"

What I PROBABLY could've gotten away with saying but didn't have the guts to:

"Here's a buck twenty-five, get yourself some damn Tim Hortons"

What I wanted to say drenched in sarcasm:

"Oh I'm sorry, you need the coffee TOMORROW? In that case I'll go to the back and grind some beans! If you need cream I can stop by the dairy farm on the way back."


ANYWAYS!

I got most of this out of my system at Dooly's this evening, bless Jenny and Steph's patient souls, but today was the sort of day when there was no right side of the bed to begin with.

I worked both at the Jade and Zellers back to back, which is usually not as bad when Zellers is the second. However despite my genius plan to avoid forgetting my uniform for the second job by packing it my back-pack the night before I managed to foil myself by getting half way downtown and realizing that I didn't have my back-pack on. So I missed the 9:45 Paris LoEllen (because let's face it if you don't arrive at the Sudbury transit terminal 45 minutes before work starts, then you shouldn't expect to get there on time), but came up with an alternate plan. I would ride Regent University at 10, get off on Paris street and run up Paris street to the Four Corners. For those with no knowledge of Sudbury geography, it's a good hike. This actually worked relatively well until I ran through a huge freezing puddle and DRENCHED my feet throroughly. I would have spent nearly 12 hours working on my feet in soaking wet socks and shoes, had I not come up with the unsurpassably ridiculous plan of wearing my mittens on my feet all day.
The Jade was the usual Jade. I got reprimanded for doing stupid things like offering to cut up a customer's brithday cake and serve it at their table. This apparently qualifies as a "waste of time" because the customer can cut their own cake. I should be spending my time doing more valuable things like chopping cabbage until it is razor thin ("No, no finer finer!"), because if there's one thing that will keep people coming to the Jade for special occasions with large groups it's imperfect cole-slaw.
Things did not get much better at Zellers.
It seems like everytime I get a nice Manager, idiot employees take advantage of them and treat them like crap until they break them. I had been noticing for a few days that my really super nice manager at Zellers seemed strung-out. Staff have been stealing, back-stabbing, faking sick to get out of work and bitching about the job non-stop. The big Z brought in a new Customer Service Manager to straighten things out (this could be a story in and of itself). The boss I like (the Store Manager) looked deflated and tired. I was saddened by this and had worked up some courage to ask him if I could help out in anyway (despite feeling that I was stepping over my boundaries) tonight. I got in and found out that he quit yesterday because he just couldn't take it anymore.
I hope that the change will help him and that he will have success elsewhere. I don't know him that well, but he seems like a really nice guy and he took the time each shift I was there to tell me that I was doing a good job and to thank me for helping out with extra stuff.
The entire thing leaves me with a pretty unpleasant feeling about the store and the atmosphere is getting really intense. While it's nowhere near as bad as the restaurant, at least at the Jade the customers are usually nice.
I think I need a hug from Zeddy the Teddy.

That's enough for now. Time to get some rest so that I can start a fresh new day of being yelled at by jerks! Being a 20-something rocks!