amancalledpony's blog post - The Art of Customer Service

I was on an interview call today when I noticed the earpiece for my phone was kind of humming. I guess it was worse on the other end as I had to disconnect it and go to speaker mode. Now this earpiece is a dinosauer. A corded double earbud type that I got with a Blackberry years ago. I used this since I lost my last bluetooth about 2 years ago. So time for a new one.
I headed over to a major west coast discount electronics store, the place where your best buys always are. I found a bluetooth that looked ok to me. Plus it was under $20. However when I checked out it rang up at double. The woman behind the counter said it must have been in the wrong spot on the shelf. I told her I checked the model number with the price sticker and it was correct. She got a bit pissed when I always do that here since things often are in the wrong spot. She copped an attitude while telling me "maybe I could find one in my price rang. Or prove it was incorrectly priced in the system".
Back to phone department I go with headset in had. Muttering fucking bitch they can override right there and a few other adjective heavy phrases about the checkout clerk.
I looked at the price sticker on the shelf. I was correct. But I knew I was. Then I saw it, AHHHHH this price is the sale price. Good through 1/24/13. About now my thought is to take the price sticker out of its holder, go to same checkout lady and shove the sticker up her ass. Before that could happen the sales help for the phones magically appeared. It was a bit unnerving as he bore a strong resemblance to Harry Potter. Well I asked if they would honour the shelf price. He said no problem. We went over to his computer. Plan was he would override the price, I could go checkout and be on my merry way. Except he couldn't override it from his terminal. "We need to do this from the customer service desk" he announced to no one then briskly took off.
I was almost in a trot to keep up. I do not walk slow. But clearly Harry Potter has special speed. He does the price adjustment then announces, again to no one, "Manger approval is all that's needed". Then I could be on to the checkouts and my merry way.
The manager appeared as magically as Harry. "I thought you would need me". By now it is getting kind of spooky. Manager looks at the transaction then says "I can't do this approval. I can only approve up to 30% discount". (opposed to the 50% my item had). He tells me I need to checkout, pay full price then come back over and he will refund the difference. All I can do now is smile.
Back to checkouts muttering more adjectives and wondering if I will ever be on my merry way.
I was hoping for the same clerk but not that lucky. I told the clerk I went to what happened. He called bullshit. Confirmed what I already knew. The first checkout person should have taken care of it. "They can override at the register. The checkout managers have higher authority than the floor managers". I said since the guy in customer service knows what is going on, I will do his way. Checkout dude thought it was really stupid but agreed with me. I happily pay full price knowing the store gets hit with a transaction fee on the refund.
Back to customer service while laughing under my breath at the stupidity of the whole sceaniro. CS guy had the transaction ready only needing the sales receipt and my phone number. 30 seconds later I am signing the refund and heading for the exits.
Finally I am on my merry way...............