Working in Customer Service

So I'm talking with Andrea Papp today. She works at Superstore as a Customer Service Representative. How are you?

I'm very well thank you. Yeah? I haven't seen you in a long time. Um hmm.

What have you been up to?

Well, I've recently had another job presented to me and I've accepted a position working with the Federal Government, and I work there for the majority of the week, but one day a week I keep working at Superstore and I work in the Electronics Department there. And what I do is I sell people video games, I sell cameras, I help them with their photo-finishing, and I generally just assist people in any way I can, if they have any questions, if they have any concerns about the service or the products, if they have questions about different movies that we have, televisions, and other electronic items.

Wel,l you've told me that you have some interesting stories to tell me about past customers that you've helped. Yes I do.

So, do you want to tell us a couple of stories?

Okay. Well there's this one customer who comes in every so often. His name is John. And he is a very, very large intimidating fellow. And he's very, very funny though, and has always been very polite and very kind to me. And he's generally very polite to the people around him. However, one day a few months ago, I was opening the store on Saturday morning, so this was at about 8:00 am, and I had a line-up in front of me of people who wanted to buy assorted things, movies, pictures, other electronic devices, and there was a little bit of a mix-up with who was next, and there was this one gentleman who wanted to go first and insisted that he was first, even though I knew and everybody else knew that he was not. He was supposed to be at the back of the line, and he didn't seem to be in a hurry, and his situation did not seem to be pressing at all, and so he was just being very, very impatient. And just causing a scene.

Essentially, yes.

OK .

Causing a scene and being generally very unpleasant to everyone at this early hour of the morning.

So John, who I was talking to, he was supposed to be next, and he stepped up to the counter, and this other gentleman who wanted to go first, what he did is he caused a scene, insisted that he was next, and was making life very, very unpleasant for the rest of us, John turned to him and said "Hey you, shut up! Go to the back of the line, leave me alone!" And it actually worked. The fellow turned around and he left. And I was very, very impressed because generally you don't tend to get people who stand up for you and you don't tend to see a lot of people who will actually turn around and tell someone what they are supposed to do. And so I was very impressed, and actually I found the entire situation very funny. So I just started to laugh, John smiles at me, and we talked for a little bit about how his daughters are doing, and how his trip was, he recently went to the United States and then came back. And he said, "Hope you have a good day. I'll see you later." And so then he left.

So despite his tough exterior he was actually a really nice guy.

He's a very, very nice gentleman. You just have to look beyond the gruff voice and the large size, and all of his tattoos and earrings, and he's a very, very nice man. And I guess the moral of the story is, "You can't judge a book by its cover". Absolutely.

Are there any other stories that come to mind?

Yes.

There's this one fellow who comes in and he usually spends about $2,000 a month with us. He's a very good customer. He's a very nice man. He's a doctor and actually he's known my grandparents for quite a few years. And he usually drops off about 200 rolls of film at a time.

Wow.

Yes.

Is it for work or?

Actually he just came back from doing a documentary in eastern Europe, and

Oh.

Yeah. He was there for five months and took pictures of the people and the places and different situations, and they're doing a photo he and his friends are doing a photo documentary about post-Communist countries. So he went to Bulgaria, Russia, the Ukraine, Estonia - all the former Soviet Union countries - and when he came back he had to develop all of his film.

But he likes to travel a lot, and he goes to Vancouver Island, and he likes to go to the United States, and into the interior of BC. And recently he went to the Salt Lake City Olympic Games and had a lot of pictures from there. When those pictures were absolutely wonderful.

Did he get pictures of any of the athletes?

Yes he did. He got pictures of quite a few athletes. A lot of downhill skiers. I don't remember their names, but it was just wonderful. I actually think, I think he got to meet quite a few of them. So he had a wonderful time and he was great enough to share his stories with me and to show me his photos. But unfortunately, what happened to him one day, is he had quite a few items to pay for and he presented me with a hundred dollar bill.

Right.

Unfortunately that bill was counterfeit.

Oh.

Yes.

And you don't tend to get very many counterfeit hundred dollar bills. Counterfeit money isn't that common, although you do see it sometimes, and we're trained to identify counterfeit bills, and you can tell by the colour of the bill, the texture, the sharpness of the printing on the bill. What you're supposed to be able to do is see the little word "Canada" in the background. And this bill was the wrong colour. Hundred dollar bills are supposed to be brown. This one was orange, and there were no dots. There's supposed to be dots on it. The hologram was essentially not there.

So it was a very poor copy.

Very, very poor copy. And I felt absolutely terrible telling him that this bill was a fake.

Right.

And he was so embarrassed.

The poor man flushed bright red, said I'm sorry, and fortunately for him he had other money to pay for it, but he had received the bill from someone as a gift. And I'm not sure if this was a bad joke or if the person actually thought that this was a real bill, because the poor man had absolutely no idea that it was, that it was fake. And I was really, really embarrassed too. I flushed bright red, and, and I said I'm sorry we just can't accept this. But the lucky thing is that most banks will take back counterfeit money. All you need to do is present it to them and say "I received this, can you please exchange it for a new one". Some of them will, some of them will not, it really depends on the bank. But usually the Canadian Mint will take fake bills back and give you real ones and they'll just take the fake ones out of circulation. And it might also have to do with the relationship that the bank has with the customer

Yes.

If there is a long-standing relationship, they might be more apt to exchange it for them.

Um hmm.

So, what happened in the end?

Well, what happened in the end was that he brought out another hundred dollar bill, this man is a doctor, you remember, he's quite well off, so he brought out another hundred dollar bill and he paid for his items and everything turned out well, but he felt really, really bad and I felt really, really bad. Fortunately, though, he still comes back. He's a very nice man, he's a great customer, he's, ah, just an absolute joy to deal with, a joy to talk to, he always has wonderful travel stories, and ah, we're happy to see him, we're happy to see him, you know, as often as we can. You're very lucky person to have a job in which you can meet so many interesting people. Absolutely, yes I am.

It's really good seeing you again. Thank you, you too.

And thank you for your time!

No problem, anytime.