Not on the ball

This is actually about something else that happened on Wednesday, but I forgot about it when I was making that post. So here it is. I think this deserves its own post anyway.

So on Wednesday, in between leaving the college and going to work, I mentioned I had lunch with Dad - we went to Arby's (where, incidentally, I actually got a job several months before getting my job at Shop Rite, but I quit before my first day because they wanted me to shave my beard clean off), got a couple of roast beef sandwiches, and ate in the plaza parking lot. Now, I don't recall if I've mentioned this or not, but for the past couple of weeks, Colo and I have been trying to track down a Wii system - we want to buy one before Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes out on March 9th. So since there's a Gamestop in this plaza, and since we've also been trying to find some good new Gamecube controllers, I figured I'd stop in and kill two birds with one stone.

I set my sandwich aside and walked into a different world – a world where customer service did not exist, ringing phones were a mystic enigma, and a man with a hand scanner could do as he pleased by virtue only of said hand scanner.

There were three or four other customers walking around the store, and a single employee – the guy with the hand scanner – was crawling around the walls scanning every game on the shelves one by one, apparently taking inventory. The phone was ringing. It kept ringing for about five minutes. Nobody picked it up. Apparantly Handscanny (as we’ll call him throughout the rest of this story) was the only employee in the store. I walked over to where the Gamecube controllers were, checked them out, and then did my best to look interested in something. As Handscanny skittered past, he asked if I needed anything, I asked if they had any Wiis in stock, he said no, and I walked out, slightly dazed by the egregious lapse in phone-answering that I had just witnessed taking place at what was supposed to be a business establishment.

I called Colo about the controllers I had seen up for sale, since they looked like basically what we were looking for, and he agreed that I should go back in and buy four of them. I walked back into the Gamestop.

Now there was only one other customer in the store with me, who appeared to be basically just browsing. I picked up four of the controllers, walked to the checkout desk, and set them down. Then I waited. Handscanny was now crawling about the lower shelves, apparently paying no attention to the world outside of his handscanning sphere. The phone was ringing again. It went on for another five minutes while I stood there uncomfortably and fought the urge to pick it up myself, then finally stopped. A moment later it started up again, and went on for its third five-minute shift. During this, Handscanny turned to me long enough to tell me he would be right with me, and then went back to handscanning. A couple minutes later (the phone still ringing), he finally stood up and walked around behind the desk to answer the damn phone. As he passed, I heard the single stupidest thing I’ve ever heard any employee of any business utter in front of a customer:

“Christ, you’d think when you don’t pick it up they wouldn’t call back!”

I swear to God, those were his exact words. It was all I could do to stop myself from replying sharply with something to the effect of “and you’d think when they CALLED, you’d PICK IT UP, you jackass!”

As he finished up the call and finally took my purchase, whining about what a stupid question the customer on the phone had just asked him, all I could think about was how quickly I would fire this guy if I owned this store.

Now, I’m sure that taking inventory was something that was part of this guy’s job and something that he needed to do, but if you’re the only guy on shift and you’ve got customers, you need to get your priorities straight. Answering the goddamn phone is more important than taking inventory. A customer WAITING TO BUY SOMETHING for about ten minutes is more important than taking inventory. If there had been any other Gamestop employees in the store to see this guy’s behavior, or if I myself had decided to call and complain about him, his ass would have been canned so fast he would have been left wondering where his precious barcode just went. And I’ll tell you for sure I’m not going to bother calling that store if I’m ever looking to buy something.

Whoever decided to leave him in charge of the store made a BIG mistake.