Cracked It

You dont have to read this. I am pissed off, the adrenaline is still running and I need to vent.

A man came into my store to return a new release title he had rented. This title was released yesterday and he was the first to rent it. He handed it to me and said, "when I took this disc out of the cover I cracked it". He looked at me with a smug stare. My response was to follow the regular procedure in cases like this (because we get many cracked discs). I told him I would contact FOX and try to get a free exchange to avoid him having to paying a replacement cost. I explained that if the distributor was not willing to do this then I would have to attach a standard replacement fee.

Within the blink of an eye, this guy flipped out. He turned absolutely psychotic on me. He yelled and ranted that there was no way he was going to give us any money. Amongst his hostile assault on my good nature, he raved on and on about how its the store's responsibility and not his. He also protested that my attitude was appalling (all the while he's carrying on like a child) and that we have a lousy way of running business.

Now I am used to copping all kinds of crap from members and customers. Its all part of the job and being that the nature of our business is rental it is always that bit worse for us. But this arsehole really pushed me to the edge. He started getting violent and intimidating, pounding his fist on the counter like a madman and pacing back and forth. 

While he was on his tirade I brought his account up on my screen only to see that all of our staff have previously left memos about this bloke. Things like "this man loses his temper if something doesn’t go his way" etc. With all of this in mind I stood my ground and reinforced that a replacement fee would be attached to his account as he is liable for any damaged rentals and has a responsibility to reimburse us. He lurched over the counter and said "I have no such liability" (he used finger quotation gestures) and I calmly responded with "I’m afraid you do sir. You signed an agreement when you registered an account with us" and i handed him a copy of our terms & agreements.

He stormed out of the store saying that he would tell everyone about our shitty service and that he would contact head office. And so the first thing I did was contact head office. I reported the incident with them as is procedure and they have my complete side of the story. There is no question that this guy is at fault. 

I immediately banned his account and contacted neighbouring stores to put them on the lookout should he try to cause trouble with them. On doing so I discovered that this prick is ALREADY banned from most of their stores for reasons of aggressive behaviour.


Anyway, that’s my story. To many people ONE dvd is nothing but it is our livelihood. It is our means of income and one damaged title effects potential revenue. People who rent things have a respnsibility to make sure they look after the goods. You dont return a rental car smashed and expect to get off scott free, do ya? This guy really pissed me off and pushed all of my buttons. Writing things down is a good therapy for me and I know that some of you love reading my rants. Hope you enjoyed!

(this is an abridged account of what happened. if i were to write down everything this guy did and said I would be here all day. he was a real peice of work)

---