Two Customer Interaction Scenarios

[Rageaholic]

Had to do a book report on this book "Getting More" by Stuart Diamond. It was on negotiation and how one can use negotiation tactics to "Get More". Naturally, this involves some customer service examples, but there were two that stood out.

1. A student of his paying a traffic ticket at the DMV. They wouldn't accept checks in person, but the ticket had a mailing address where you could mail checks personally, which happened to be at the DMV. He asked the desk clerk a series of questions about where he could mail checks and found out that the checks that are accepted are dropped off at a desk... 6 feet away from the desk clerk he was talking to. After asking some snarky questions about what would happen if he dropped the check at the desk 6 feet away by hand, he was able to convince the clerk to let him pay by check.

2. Another student of his at Mcdonalds, 5 minutes before closing time. His fries were soggy and he wanted fresh fries. Clerk refused on the principle that they were closing in five minutes. Customer held the clerk to the "Freshness guarantee", which apparently says that all their is fresh during all business hours. He pointed out that this was during business hours and that his food was not fresh. Like the DMV example, he got his way.

What I'm wondering is if any of these customers were sucky.

The first one, I'm a little torn on. I applaud him for challenging such a bullshit rule, but at the same time, he could have just mailed the check. I'd say suck on both sides.

I thought the second one was a straight up McDouchebag. One of those PITA "rules" people who holds everyone to some specific standard. He may have gotten his way, but I bet he earned a lot of dirty looks, especially if he kept the employees working overtime.

But that's just my two cents.

[Sleepwalker]

Probably was, but not inherently so. Some people can do a hard sell and leave everyone with a smile, but most people trying will come across as douchy users.

[Ginger Tea]

The first tale reminds me of a scene in Gotcha a 1980's film staring a young Dr Green from ER (least I think his name was Green, the one that died (stopped watching way before that so maybe many more died so ...))

He is at the border of East and West Germany looking to get an entrance visa, there was a bit of a too and fro, cant recall how long and if it was done for mild comedic effect or not, I think the following pay off was.
"Next Window" she says
He goes to the next window and the same woman is there to greet him
"Yes what do you want?" she says as if the entire conversation he had with her seconds ago meant nothing.

I don't know too much about American business postal deliveries, but as the UK has a letter box instead of the "he could have just posted it" bit, well you could just pop it in an envelop and put it in the letter box on the way out (some businesses it's gonna fall right onto the floor so would be a bit of a bad idea, others have a tray or enclosed box, so postal deliveries don't get under feet or can't be intercepted by Joe public should the post be late.

[Mr Hero]

I would have done the same thing in the first story. It's a bullshit rule and we are right to challenge nonsense like this. It's possible to be firm without being sucky.

[wolfie]

I can imagine the DMV procedure for mailed cheques including the step of checking the postmark date on the envelope against the due date for the fine. If he drops off his cheque rather than mailing it, there won't be a postmark date, so someone in "robot mode" would reject the cheque because it can't be processed properly. He'd only find out about it (unless he checks his bank statements and notices that the cheque wasn't cashed) when his unpaid fine became overdue and the next step of collections happened.

[s_stabeler]

I can imagine the DMV procedure for mailed cheques including the step of checking the postmark date on the envelope against the due date for the fine. If he drops off his cheque rather than mailing it, there won't be a postmark date, so someone in "robot mode" would reject the cheque because it can't be processed properly. He'd only find out about it (unless he checks his bank statements and notices that the cheque wasn't cashed) when his unpaid fine became overdue and the next step of collections happened.

the way it usually works is the postmark only matters if the check is otherwise late- the postmark being evidence you got the check in the mail before the due date,

[HYHYBT]

Unless he was lying about the fries being bad, that they were about to close is a sorry excuse. If necessary, say they're flat unavailable and refund the price, but don't expect people to take bad ones.