Walking into the store when they are fully busy doesn’t happen a lot for me. I know when the peaks are, and I avoid them like the plague. I’ll show up at ten till nine if I have to, just to avoid a crowd. Unfortunately, a few days ago, that didn’t pan out. I walked in to Typhoon Sales and the customers were stocking up. As the front counter clerks were dealing with wave after wave of customers…I’ll skip a WWII reference here…I darted to the back. My old friend The Beard was juggling phones and looked like he could use a hand. Since I had a few minutes, I waited for an open line, took over a phone and tried to bleed down some of the calls for him.
That was a mistake. The first phone call I’ve taken for the store in nearly three years, and I get this: “Hi, I’ve got a 2008 Saturn Astra that is making a kind of tick-tick noise at idle. It goes away if I turn the air conditioning off, or if I drive it between 40-60 miles an hour. Could this be the reason why my check engine light is on?”
I could’ve slammed the phone into the wall. It would be my luck that I’d get this treatment. I don’t have a firm grasp on what the most annoying thing about being a counter-clerk is, but over-the-phone diagnostics has to be in the top three on that list. Apparently, because we all wear matching color shirts and shill parts with the greatest of ease (and the help of a 25-year-old catalog system on computer), we should be able to, simply by a solid description, perfectly diagnose the issue that your Cash 4 Clunkers refugee is currently having.
The proper response is to inform the customer that their assessment and description of the problem is too vague to give a proper direction for hunting down the issue. You can offer to check the check-engine light if your store allows it, as long as you remind them that the reader isn’t the final word, either, or you could suggest a shop local to them that isn’t going to fleece them seven ways from Sunday. Did I do that? Nope. You see, the Store Manager from the sister store in town is now running the show where I used to work. When I was an employee, I thought the guy was just a step above personal itching in the desirability factor. He’s gotten better over the years, and he’s certainly improved on his people skills, but I might still have had an issue or two to pay him back for.
“Tell you what, sir. Bring it down here and ask for (NAME REDACTED). I’ll be sure to help you out!”
i get this all the time at the shop where i work. folks expect you to diagnose what their problem is over the phone,for nothing,of course.never mind that you have paying customers work to do. i also love the folks who are experts because they found the answer online (thanks,youtube!),and how much would you charge to apply said fix?–and don’t get me started on people who babble on and on about ” it’s been a good old car,only got 14 bazillion miles on it,etc…”—-i don’t care,and i don’t have time to shoot the breeze with a disembodied voice on the phone,i’ve got paying customers cars to fix!