store in one of those satellite shopping parks and she is in Customer Services. One of those spotty youths (although she is generally not spotty) who stand there and are supposed to help you with your refunds or problems with your product, but clearly know nothing about anything.Each of these weekend mornings I have had to defrost the ice-cube known as our car and deliver said daughter on time. And once up and frozen I'm not inclined to go back to bed.... so yesterday morning I came back and took son shopping for some winter woolies. Last night daughter commented her wonder that people are out shopping at 9am. Well, I now know. Those shoppers are the parents of all the spotty youths and having just delivered them decide to make best use of the time.
Original Comments:
Hey Doris...hot tip to give your daughter. When customer asks her to tell him/her about the product there on the shelf, suggest that she does more than just read out the point of sale card that's sitting right next to the item in full view! You know the one - the bullet points telling you the 3/4/5 'key' things...but which tell you nothing...that you've already read when you approach the assistant!
Currys and Dixons have this down to a fine art - the belief that the chief difficulty their customers have is with reading.
;-)
Seriously though - good for her. Hope she enjoys it.
Sunday, November 20, 2005 12:26:00 PM
Ha-ha! You are sooooo right :-) I'll see if I can broach that one with her.
Form the sounds of it (and she hasn't stopped yapping about it since she started - which is a nice side-effect from the usual grunting teen) it seems she is bringing in some of her vast knowledge of various equipment from computers and their various operating systems to mobile phones.
And even for one guy who was having trouble with a charger she did at least apologise to him for having to ask the obvious such as had he switched on the power!
On the other hand, she has already adopted a worrying tendancy to preserve the company's assets by doubting some returns which left one woman fleeing the store in tears. I'm not sure I could do that.
All very surprising stuff from a girl who although with excellent confidence in some areas in other areas couldn't make a telephone enquiry or ask a shop assistant a question!
Sunday, November 20, 2005 12:47:00 PM
You have reminded me about the time when youngest son broke the town teenager curfew, so we received a call in the darkness from the police station saying that a parent had to come pick him up.
His dad decided that his punishment would be no driving for two weeks, which seemed reasonable considering that his trouble was for being out in the car too long.
The next day, when his friend wanted to come over and didn't have a ride, our son comes into the kitchen and asks if I would go get the other guy. I said I had stuff on the stove, I didn't want to be going out just then. But I said he could use my car, parked in the driveway with a full tank of fuel.
Um, no, he was not to be driving.
So, who was getting the punishment? This mother, who heaved a huge sigh of relief when he passed his driving test.
I marched downstairs to my Mister's office and said that I didn't like the punishment of no driving for breaking curfew. So then dad said I should figure out what's fair.
I sent the son off to fetch his friend, then said he would be doing something else about being out too late.
What I set him to doing was cleaning the bathroom, a chore he especially cannot stand.
He plays the guitar and wants to keep the callouses on the pads of his fingers.
Cleaning the shower and sink means having his hands in water for awhile. Even with gloves, he says doing such tasks are not good for being with his instrument.
We've been fairly lucky with the sons and their jobs. They usually ride their bicycles or even walk. Sometimes there is sharing of the car, but very few needs for a chauffeur.
I can see that you do want to make use of the early time for getting a few errands done, especially after thawing out the car.
Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:14:00 PM
You made me smile with this, remembering the hell I put my mother through getting her to take me to my first ever job :).
Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:43:00 PM
Doris,
Enjoyed reading about your daughter's rite of passage. My daughter worked at a sea shell shop in Pismo Beach, CA just before going off to college this fall. When I was visiting, she asked me to stop by where she worked so that we could go and get something to eat after. While waiting for her shift to end, a customer came into the store and started looking at the display of conk shells. After a few minutes, the customer picked up a couple of the shells and then looked at my daughter. "What's the difference between the $20 shell and the $40 dollar one?" he asked. My daughter answered very matter of factly, "The sound of the ocean." He purchased the $40 dollar shell. As always, I enjoy your posts, and never have a disappointing visit.
Scot
Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:52:00 PM
Mrsdof, I think I need to take up the guitar. Your son's got a brilliant excuse. Maybe I could say I don't want to ruin my typing callouses. I hate cleaning the bathroom.
Doris! What's the definition of "spotty"? :)
And I thought things would get easier once the boy child finally mastered potty training. Not really, huh? Aw, well. I'll sleep when I'm dead, I guess.
Monday, November 21, 2005 6:39:00 AM
I worked a lot of customer service jobs when I was a teen and I was neither spotty, nor unknowing of our products.
We sold ultra high end clothing and accesories. I knew every thing from designer bios to stitching types used for of each seam of every single piece we sold.
I coveted all of them despearately, so took to using minor technical details to choose which one to blow my hard earned money on.
I had a very non nonsense mom. If I was old enough to have a job, I was old enough to figure out how to get there despite not having a licence.
I became very familiar with the buses and taxicabs rather quickly. :D
Monday, November 21, 2005 4:56:00 PM
It was great to read all your stories. They tickled me when I read them on the email, but I'm afraid I'm a bit wiped out to respond properly.
Big hugs all round :-) Group hug ;-)
Monday, November 21, 2005 7:28:00 PM