It was only this morning that I was thinking of how normal trade has been lately... all of my customers have been really good and have ultimately given me nothing to write about. How boring! And then all of a sudden... I copped a doosie!..... It's a familiar story, too.
A woman returned a pile of movies with a disgruntled look on her face. She placed the dvds on my counter and told me she was angry. She explained that one of the discs was "scratched to buggery" and that not only does she expect compensation, she wanted to watch me throw it in the bin. I explained to her that we have the fantastic facility to repair faulty discs and that unless it was cracked or snapped, I would be able to make things good again. And so I opened the case to inspect the disc and found... THIS. Keeping a straight face was near impossible but you would have been impressed with my composure. "Oh" I said. "This isn't a problem, its just got a bit of muck on it. I can remove this with a simple wipe, no worries". Now I have no idea what was going through her head at this point but rather than seizing the opportunity I had just given her to save face she, instead, chose to continue. "Its beyond repair" she said. Again I explained that it was fine and that the disc had somehow found its way onto the floor (or somewhere a bit dirty) but reassured her once more that its not a problem. And so she tried one more time to convince me that I had a damaged disc, however, her position (and mood) was easily subdued when I concluded with "How about I delete the $15 late fee? This is almost week late but I understand that you weren't happy with the quality.". She smiled, said thank you... and left. lol
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![]() I've spent the past 5 days riddled with the flu and today was my first day back at the shop. Its fair to say that I'm not completely recovered... i've got a residual cough and I'm still kind of scattered and not quite "with it". Getting out of bed was difficult this morning but I pulled myself up and got my ass to work. Unfortunately my morning routine was bungled by a random bloke... one of those "WTF" customers that any video store geek will instantly recognise. Before I even had time for that crucial first cup of coffee some guy wanders up to my counter. Far too cocky for this time of day, without even looking at a single movie he asks "so whats good?". Here we go. My eyes wanted to roll to the back of my head and my chest wanted desperately to exhale an almighty sigh... but alas Im a nice guy. I've never seen this guy in my life. I have NO IDEA what kind of movie's he's into or what he hates. He hasn't even bothered with a dialogue to allow me time to gauge him. And so I started with the As and worked my way to the Zs. I recommended at least 20 films to this guy... titles including Hitchcock, The Hobbit, Wreck it Ralph, Savages and even fucking Pitch Perfect. All the while he just kept nodding, giving me no indication as to whether I was on the right path. It was like a goddamn lucky dip and by the time I had exhausted myself and was murderous for that coffee... he finally made his selection. ![]() I had an interesting conversation with a customer last week. The new adaptation of Les Misérables was was released recently and as was the case back with the 98 version we get the occasional simpleton pronouncing it phonetically.. ie Lez Miz-ra-bles. So a guy came in and asked me for Lez Mizrables and I pointed him in the right direction. He started up a conversation about the film and kept referring to it as Lez Mizrables. I happily talked about the film and subtly pronounced it correctly whenever I mentioned the title, hoping that he would cotton-on (he didn't). After 10 minutes of listening to his ocker accent I discretely said to him "just so you know, its pronounced Les Misérables. It's a French title". He kind of scoffed at the idea and laughed it off by saying "yeah well I'm an Aussie, not a Frog" to which I concluded the discussion by pointing out that if he wanted to use it's "Aussie Name" then the English translation was The Miserable.... ditch the Les mate! ![]() Just a little story I though I'd share with you today. It put a huge smile on my face and it might do the same for you. A mother and her 3 year old boy paid me a visit this morning looking to hire a few kids movies. After 15 minutes they made their selection and came to the counter. The little boy, CUTE AS ANYTHING, stretched up and handed me the movies. He was such a well mannered little tyke and told me how much he loves Monsters Vs Aliens. He knew all of their names and said to me "I wuv vis moofie soo much!". I let him come behind the counter so he could give me a high-five and before they left the mother told me that even though they have all of these movies pirated at home, the kid insists on watching legitimate copies... and then the kid blew me away by interrupting his mum and saying proudly to me "the dvds have pictures on the covers so that I can see all of the monsters and the plastic stops the moofies from being wrecked because daddy bwings home yucky pirated moofies that don't have pictures and are wrecked". This from a 3 YEAR OLD! Well said, young man... well said! |
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