Funny Work Stories...Part 1
So the Thursday I am at work and a guy comes in who is upset because he claims to have come into my store and made a payment that didn't get applied to his account...I would be upset to, so I sympathize with him and try to help him out, here is how the story goes:
I asked him for his receipt of payment (a natural first question), to which he pulls it out of his wallet (and the paper looks damp from sweat...gross huh?) and there is something odd about the receipt he gives me...There is nothing on it! Nothing, nada, zip zilch...To which I reply, 'Huh, there is nothing on here...You would think there would at least be something, a smear, a partial letter, a black hue on the paper, something'. He says, 'I know, the ink disappeared from the dampness'. Before you go crazy, let me just say that this does happen...to some extent, and what I mean by that is our receipt can fade a little, sometimes I have a hard time reading it...But his receipt he claims in only from the end of May. While it could fade fast, and it could be enhanced by the dampness (reasonable) it would be hard to go to a completely empty paper.
He then tells me he made the payment sometime after May 12th and before June 1st, probably around the 24th. Ok, sounds good...so I ask him 'How much did you pay?' He says '$181 and change plus the five dollar fee, so $186 or $187 because I remember telling the guy to go ahead and put the change on the account'. So I search our computer system for the amounts that he says and I find nothing. There is only one instance of a payment between $186.00 and 187.99 in the date range given and it was on another account. So we pull up that account and the transaction was for purchases NOT paying a bill. So in our entire company no one processed a payment for that amount in his time frame. I asked the guy if he used a check or credit or something were he could prove his payment some other way and he said it was a cash payment. I asked him if he was sure about the amount because I wasn't finding any transactions like that and he said yes. I asked him if he was sure it was our store because there are other Sprint stores in the area whose transactions we can't see, he said yes it was our store.
I really wanted to see anything on the receipt at all because if we posted the transaction to a different account (which happens every great while) then we could pull up the transaction that way. There was nothing it was blank. So I pull up the notes on his account...The only humans to touch his account during the time frame he gave me were customer service reps, no one in our store did (which would be likely if the payment posted to the wrong account). Unfortunately without an account number or the right time frame or the right amount it is impossible to find the transaction.
So I tell the guy, 'Listen, something your telling me is not adding up, you either didn't pay here (hence the amount not showing up in our system), or you have the wrong amount (hence it not showing up in our system) or didn't pay during the time frame you gave me (hence the amount not showing up in our computer) or it wasn't paid, because at this point there is no evidence that it was paid. He then precedes to ask me, 'Are you telling me I made a payment for $186-7 and you aren't going to help me find it?'. To which I respond, 'No sir, that's not what I am saying, I just spent the last 20 minutes trying to find your payment. What I am saying is that if you could show me proof, like a receipt...with writing...or a check or credit statement, or we could find the right amount in the time frame you gave us, then we could correct the mistake, but at this point I have shown you everything, every step of the way and it's not here'. Then I asked him if he was sure on ALL details and he said yes (that WAS his opportunity...oops). Then he begins to change and get very upset, he calls my manger the goofy guy over there in the corner, he precedes to talk about how he had to travel over 30 miles to get here and he works from 6:30 to midnight everyday (Huh, he doesn't eat?) and that we are going to fix it and someone is going to find his money. He also tells me that tomorrow he is coming in and my manager, me and him are all going to sit down in a room and figure out what to do about this (I am? Because he said so?). He also tells me to tell my boss that it needs to be fixed in the morning or we are going to have to call the cops because he is going to go off on someone (can you say PHYSCO?)
So anyway, he didn't come in today...and I think he truly does think he made the payment...But he didn't. Allot of times I think that if someone is trying to pull a fast one they start to get defensive the more you push, but he got more aggressive, since he truly thinks he did. Sometimes though people put money aside for things and think they are going to use it for something and they may even go out to get it but then something will happen and the money is gone but what happened doesn't keep in their memory and they still think they used the money for it's intended use. At some point they are usually bolted back to reality when something happens (much to late to go back to a store and apologize) but it becomes a learning lesson and they move on...and seriously, this guy needs to move on. I think this explains what happened to the guy, I think that he thinks he made the payment, but he didn't. Anyway that was an interesting story. Especially since I would tell him 'If you had a receipt...' and he would say 'I do have a receipt, it's just blank'....It was hard to keep a straight face :)
Moral of the story, when you are out in public be conscious of what you say and do, because you may sound as ridiculous as that guy. More stories to come later.
Good Night.
P.S. A big shout out goes to my bro in law Mateo for helping set up the software that I will build my website with.
I asked him for his receipt of payment (a natural first question), to which he pulls it out of his wallet (and the paper looks damp from sweat...gross huh?) and there is something odd about the receipt he gives me...There is nothing on it! Nothing, nada, zip zilch...To which I reply, 'Huh, there is nothing on here...You would think there would at least be something, a smear, a partial letter, a black hue on the paper, something'. He says, 'I know, the ink disappeared from the dampness'. Before you go crazy, let me just say that this does happen...to some extent, and what I mean by that is our receipt can fade a little, sometimes I have a hard time reading it...But his receipt he claims in only from the end of May. While it could fade fast, and it could be enhanced by the dampness (reasonable) it would be hard to go to a completely empty paper.
He then tells me he made the payment sometime after May 12th and before June 1st, probably around the 24th. Ok, sounds good...so I ask him 'How much did you pay?' He says '$181 and change plus the five dollar fee, so $186 or $187 because I remember telling the guy to go ahead and put the change on the account'. So I search our computer system for the amounts that he says and I find nothing. There is only one instance of a payment between $186.00 and 187.99 in the date range given and it was on another account. So we pull up that account and the transaction was for purchases NOT paying a bill. So in our entire company no one processed a payment for that amount in his time frame. I asked the guy if he used a check or credit or something were he could prove his payment some other way and he said it was a cash payment. I asked him if he was sure about the amount because I wasn't finding any transactions like that and he said yes. I asked him if he was sure it was our store because there are other Sprint stores in the area whose transactions we can't see, he said yes it was our store.
I really wanted to see anything on the receipt at all because if we posted the transaction to a different account (which happens every great while) then we could pull up the transaction that way. There was nothing it was blank. So I pull up the notes on his account...The only humans to touch his account during the time frame he gave me were customer service reps, no one in our store did (which would be likely if the payment posted to the wrong account). Unfortunately without an account number or the right time frame or the right amount it is impossible to find the transaction.
So I tell the guy, 'Listen, something your telling me is not adding up, you either didn't pay here (hence the amount not showing up in our system), or you have the wrong amount (hence it not showing up in our system) or didn't pay during the time frame you gave me (hence the amount not showing up in our computer) or it wasn't paid, because at this point there is no evidence that it was paid. He then precedes to ask me, 'Are you telling me I made a payment for $186-7 and you aren't going to help me find it?'. To which I respond, 'No sir, that's not what I am saying, I just spent the last 20 minutes trying to find your payment. What I am saying is that if you could show me proof, like a receipt...with writing...or a check or credit statement, or we could find the right amount in the time frame you gave us, then we could correct the mistake, but at this point I have shown you everything, every step of the way and it's not here'. Then I asked him if he was sure on ALL details and he said yes (that WAS his opportunity...oops). Then he begins to change and get very upset, he calls my manger the goofy guy over there in the corner, he precedes to talk about how he had to travel over 30 miles to get here and he works from 6:30 to midnight everyday (Huh, he doesn't eat?) and that we are going to fix it and someone is going to find his money. He also tells me that tomorrow he is coming in and my manager, me and him are all going to sit down in a room and figure out what to do about this (I am? Because he said so?). He also tells me to tell my boss that it needs to be fixed in the morning or we are going to have to call the cops because he is going to go off on someone (can you say PHYSCO?)
So anyway, he didn't come in today...and I think he truly does think he made the payment...But he didn't. Allot of times I think that if someone is trying to pull a fast one they start to get defensive the more you push, but he got more aggressive, since he truly thinks he did. Sometimes though people put money aside for things and think they are going to use it for something and they may even go out to get it but then something will happen and the money is gone but what happened doesn't keep in their memory and they still think they used the money for it's intended use. At some point they are usually bolted back to reality when something happens (much to late to go back to a store and apologize) but it becomes a learning lesson and they move on...and seriously, this guy needs to move on. I think this explains what happened to the guy, I think that he thinks he made the payment, but he didn't. Anyway that was an interesting story. Especially since I would tell him 'If you had a receipt...' and he would say 'I do have a receipt, it's just blank'....It was hard to keep a straight face :)
Moral of the story, when you are out in public be conscious of what you say and do, because you may sound as ridiculous as that guy. More stories to come later.
Good Night.
P.S. A big shout out goes to my bro in law Mateo for helping set up the software that I will build my website with.
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