You know, it seems that when I think I've got certain "demons" in my life under control, situations arise that allow that devilish nature of mine to bubble to the surface in a flasht. I remember being in grade school and junior high having these people in my life that could make my blood boil. It wouldn't take long for something they said to set me off and I'd lash out with words that were hurtful to them in order to try and ease my own pain.
I've grown up a lot since then and over the years have learned how to control my words and I work hard at being able to smooth over a situation that has the potential to be real thorn in my side. I do pretty well most of the time, but tonight, I realized that sinful nature of wanting to say hurtful words because I've been hurt is still there. I wonder if that ever really goes away?
I received a phone call tonight from a customer. He called Dennis' cell phone, but Dennis was outside grilling burgers so I answered it. The man on the other end said, "Hi. I am looking for Dennis, but if you're his wife I'll talk to you" and then proceeded (without allowing me to even acknowledge whether or not I was his wife or if I had time to speak) to tell me of a situation regarding a personal belonging of his that one of our guys was replacing a battery in and our employee had broken a small piece of plastic in it and wanted to know what I was going to do about it because he wasn't leaving until he had an answer, he'd been done wrong before, he is a consultant and if it was his business he'd make it right, blah, blah, blah. This went on for about 5 minutes before he even took a breath. At this point all I had said was, "Hello".
After he had finished his speech, I asked him what store he was in because we owned 3 of them. He told me he was in C/S and was standing in the store as we spoke. I assured this customer that if he left his broken product my husband or I would look at it to see what we could do. He went on a rampage and assured me he would not leave his product and that I owed him a new one. (I forgot to mention, this product had been worked on in a Batteries Plus store of another owner previously so we knew it wasn't brand new). I again requested that the man leave the product so I could take a look at it on Monday. He again refused and asked if we had a store in Houston. I told him we had one in Katy and then he insisted I meet him in Katy this coming week after HE got off of work because he made $1300 an hour and wasn't missing work to take care of this.
In my brain, I'm thinking there is no way on this planet that I am meeting a total stranger after hours and have to drive an hour and a half to do it when he is standing in a store of mine 10 minutes away. I assured him I was not driving to Katy to meet him because that was not going to work with my schedule next week and again asked him to leave it in the College Station store, because we lived here, so we could handle it locally. He told me not to lecture him about tight schedules because he had a daughter with cancer and I had no idea what his schedule was like.
Now, I'm sorry about his daughter. It saddens me that anyone has to walk through cancer. But, I still wasn't driving an hour and a half when he was currently 10 minutes away and he lives in Bryan. (I didn't tell him this, but I
had committed to VBS every night next week, am opening a new store 2
hours away, have 3 kids at home, and am still trying to do my job up
here in C/S. He wouldn't have cared even if I had told him, but I wasn't lying when I said it wouldn't work with my schedule.) Anyway, when he realized I wasn't going to buy him a brand new product to replace his very used old product nor was I going to drive to meet him, he said, "I have a JD and I'm not afraid to use it." I said, "You are not going to threaten me!" Although I had no idea what a JD was! He said, "I didn't threaten you." At this point, I told him I was finished talking to him and he would have to talk with my husband. I went and got Dennis to take over before I drove to the store and took the guy down with those aforementioned words that were about to boil over.
(On a side note, the employee helping this guy never denied breaking his product. He fully owned it and said we'd take care of it. It wasn't like he was trying to hide something or get out of something. He was honest and had integrity through the whole thing. Totally was proud of him.)
Dennis got on the phone and the guy talked his ear off again for about 5 minutes without taking a breath. When Dennis had a turn to talk, he finally got the guy to agree to leave the stupid product so we could either fix it, send it off to be fixed, or replace it with a refurb. At this point my blood pressure was through the roof, I was shaking, and crying. That old nature of wanting to say words that were hateful and hurtful was so high up in my throat I almost let them loose. I'm glad I didn't, but boy did I want to. It was one of those moments where you've had just enough time to process that you think of all these great comebacks to what was said.
Later, as I was going over everything in my brain for about the 14th time, I decided to look up what a JD was on the internet to see what he had really threatened me with. Did you know it means Juris Doctor (ie - law degree). So, basically he threatened to sue me for not fixing his old product that was worth about $65. Seriously, he makes $1300 an hour and is going to sue me for $65. Some things just don't compute in my brain. This guy was on some weird ego trip. The fact that he had to mention how much he made, what his degree was in, and give me a sob story to try and guilt me into doing what he thought was right is just pathetic. I am a reasonable person and if we screw up, I'm all about making it right. That's how we roll.
Anyway, Dennis said when the dude comes to pick up his product, Dennis will be there to assure everything is good and the customer is happy. Once he's happy, Dennis will assure him he better never threaten me or any of our employees.
It takes all kinds to make the world go round. This kind can stay away from my team and out of my store. That kind isn't welcome.
