full moon?

[Kristine]

Ok I had to check is it a full moon??? Yep full this past week.

It's been THAT kind of day??!!

My last customer gets a prize. Lady comes in the store, chattering up a storm (first hint) Dressed kind of different - jeans pulled up to her knees and ruffly socks - think little girl foufou) (2nd hint) just stopping to look at all our pretty things, she's cooing at the hellebore, petting the plush (3rd hint) looking at the jewelry, etc. She was just a cutie She brings a 4" kalanchoe to the counter to buy then asks us if we have any of those plants with sparkly leaves. She proceeds to point at a green pothos on the counter and states it looks like this type but has silvery leaves. So I show her a marble queen pothos -no- golden -no- They have sparkly, glittery leaves, she states So I asked her is she meant the plant had glitter sprinkled on the leaves for sparkles. NO! They have sparkly glittery LEAVES it's not on the leaves but in the leaves. They GROW like that.

Oh, sorry we don't have any, but if you can me a name of one I will ask my grower ok? (says me)
and off she goes. My driver is watching this transaction and as soon as she left just he just bursts out laughing. He's new to this biz. Told him it had to be a full moon.

 

[DFlorist]

We've had that kind of day today as well. It's been non stop. And as the day goes on I feel like the people are getting worse. From ladies counting the exact number of flowers in a picture, to no one knowing the full address of where they want the flowers delivered.. And thats just the beginning...

 

[Palms]

I have a weird day today, felt terrible all day. Yep the moon has got to have something to do with it... the job would be so much easier sometimes without those customer creatures!!

 

[Spookyflowers]

That and answering the phone and it is a dumb recording saying your business has been selected for some credit thing. Anyone know how to stop those kind of things?

 

[anytimeflowers]

Full moon.....so THAT'S what it is.

I turned into a werewolf a couple hours ago, I mean, totally ice-queen WITCH!!! I feel bad now, sorta, but.......

This woman comes in, says she's been here a few times, talked about the vending machine because she has one. Tells me she's a florist down in southern MN. And then she proceeds to BOMBARD me with every question imaginable, how do you do this, how do you that, and finally I asked her where her shop is. "Oh, I'm actually a hairdresser, but I love doing flowers, I did 54 deliveries for Valentines, mostly roses.....what vase did you use for roses this year".

I started thinking sheesh lady, pay up your tuition and you can ask anything you want. I feel bad, because I truly do enjoy helping people get started in this business, but I just felt is was totally wrong of her to come in and take up an hour of my time un-invited.

I finally said I couldn't chat anymore, too much to get done. (I thought she would leave, but no.......)

I had to tell her she had to go, I can't stand getting forced into being a witch. (I would spell it with a B but I don't know what would happen during a full moon)

 

[concord]

I should have known it was a full moon , too. This whole week has been crazy. Most annoying have been the number of requests for specific delivery times and 3 out of 5 were not home when we arrived on time. The best one was the guy who called just as my driver was returning from one of the only successful timed deliveries. He thought she hadn't received the flowers because she hasn't called , "are you sure they were delivered? " She only had the flowers for 10 minutes and he was already checking! She barely had time to read the card! Then he had to get a detailed description of who answered the door. The good news is, it's been a great week money wise. A new Flower of the Month Club order, a last minute party, funeral work , custom silk orders, and a lot of walk in.

 

[Rhonda]

hmm... a Winter Carnival at a high school town over - still taking orders today (one wanted a ring or arm cuff and when asked about measuring "like that's gonna happen!" was the answer HELLO????

 

[CHR]

The full moon was last weekend on Sunday. We had so many wacky calls and customers on Thurs/Fri last week , I checked.

But you're right, the moon's affect seems to have extended over a week:

1) a family in the store for about an hour to purchase 2 sympathy arrangements - just trying to explore all their options. Plus their 4 follow-up phone calls.

2) a woman asking to see all of our centerpiece ideas for a 'birthday party', but the flowers needed to be all white. (You know how the advice sites tell brides NOT to say the flowers are a wedding or we'll make them pay more?) Turns out the date is Mother's Day Saturday, she also needs a white rose bouquet for the 'birthday girl' and her budget per table is $10. Yes, $10. "I want to see samples." :faint:

3) Large silk job for a major company. I ask the contact if we should include any specific flowers or work on a color range. The client says they don't need anything specific, just use their color palette. The designs are finished for an 8 AM installation tomorrow morning and the client calls to say we should include 'this specific flower' ----- today.

I could go on, but you guys live it, too. The great news is that we were able to stay on schedule for our weddings and events prep and I got to walk out the door at a decent hour.

 

[BOSS]

That and answering the phone and it is a dumb recording saying your business has been selected for some credit thing. Anyone know how to stop those kind of things?

We've found that if you listen to the whole recording at the end there is usually an opt out option (#2) to be removed from their list.

We used to just hang up, but after a couple months of listening, then selecting to be removed we have reduced the number of call we get dramatically.

 

[Kristine]

We've found that if you listen to the whole recording at the end there is usually an opt out option (#2) to be removed from their list.

We used to just hang up, but after a couple months of listening, then selecting to be removed we have reduced the number of call we get dramatically.

same here try #2 although yesterdays recording that we can get unsecured bookoo bucks with no credit check the promt was #2 for a human and #4 to get removed. they are getting sneakier......

 

[master J]

....just saw this thread, LOL, weird, yesterday we had at least 4 wacko customers, absolutely bizzarre! There is something in the air!

 

[Spookyflowers]

Thanks guess I'll just have to wait and listen to all of the message and hit the right number.

 

[Golferdude]

Same here a full moon: Had a funeral family in and went through the whole shop broke a bird house then asked for a discount on it.
and my sales person could not get them to order. They were here for over onr hour....Came back the next moring and wanted us to make up several arrangements that they could put in there own
containers I asked if they could bring in the containers, they cound not it would be a hassle for they, asked what size they say similer to that one BUT use our sale bundles to fill the order. I said I could BUT the labor charge would be 20.00 to 40.00 dollars depending on the size. They said WELL we will just go to the other guy.... I said Thanks and I hope everything goes OK
Wierd Weird Wierd family
Golferdude

 

[anytimeflowers]

same here try #2 although yesterdays recording that we can get unsecured bookoo bucks with no credit check the promt was #2 for a human and #4 to get removed. they are getting sneakier......

The one for National Geographic only gives you one option, press whatever if you want to hear more. Well, I don't want to hear more but that is the only option they give. Luckily, their campaign seems to have died down, it would dial me at least three times a day, (caller ID, gotta love it, don't pick up on toll free either, they don't want to buy from me).

 

[DFlorist]

Just had a crazy customer come in to the shop. He left me shaking and in tears.

It is an older couple. They had come in yesterday to order a funeral arrangement (came in around 12, to get it there for a 2:00 visitation). The lady that took the order said they gave a her a hard time, asking the prices of the arrangements numerous times, trying to get her to slip up, and say a lower price.

Our sympathy book is made up of all of our own pictures taken throughout the years. By now all of the staff knows what each arrangement is worth. But just in case, I have a sheet made up with the prices written down.

She said the first warning that this couple was trouble was that the man counted the exact number of flowers in that arrangement while she was away from the order counter.

It was explained to the couple that the arragement could not be there right at 2 because we are a part of a delivery pool. And our afternoon pickup is at 1:30. So the arrangement would get there around 3... This isn't really relevant to my story right now though..

Fast forward to this morning. The couple comes in right at 9:00. And they look pissed. He explained to me that the lady that helped them said that the chosen arrangment in the picture was 75 (our base price) and that their arrangement would be a lot bigger. I know this is not true because this whole page has arrangement that are between 125 and 150 (Cathy had even explained to me what had happened when they were ordering, because she could sense trouble). AND we have a hard copy of the prices.

He starts screaming at me, and his wife chimed in as well. Meanwhile I'm trying to calmly explain to them that they probably mixed up the pages. He then brings out his list of the flowers that he wrote down telling me that there is 3 roses missing. I then explain to him that there is 3 less roses, but there was 4 extra glads, 6 extra carns, 4 extra spider mums, more regular mums.. and so on. The arrangment was quite large. And well worth the 150 that they ended up spending.

Fast forward another 10 minutes, and he is still screaming at me, and by this time I'm in tears. I had offered him his money back, which he refused. I offered to replace it, he refused. I asked him what he wanted to do, and he didn't say anything. He just kept saying that I'm a crook.

At this point I was just begging him to leave the store.. The icing on top of the cake is that while he was leaving, he said that he's going to take me to court... I wonder if this is actually going to happen. I hope not..

Wow, what a great start to the day. UGH

AND while this is happening, their 4 or 5 year old grandson is with them... terrible.

Sorry for the long post, had to get it out. I'm so frustrated.

 

[emilymoonflower]

Oh Natalie,
What a horrible start to your day! They sound like real winners!
Take a deep breath and think this through. Do you have a paper record of their order? Do you keep records of what goes in each arrangement?
Do you photograph your arrangements before they leave the store?
You can easily prove the value of the arrangement if it ever comes to that, which it probably WON'T.
He refused your offer of a refund or replacement so either he took his grief out on you or the guy is a regular s**t disturber and gets his jollies by
intimidating people. Put him out of your mind; if he returns, call the police and have him thrown out of your store! you don't have to take that kind of abuse from a customer.
Emily

 

[anytimeflowers]

Oh Natalie, honey. I'm so sorry, that's more than a full moon kook, though.

I know this is easy for me to say, because I was not there experiencing it. 20 years ago, I might have reacted with tears, too. That old SOB, even though people DO react in irregular ways during times of grief, once he saw the tears, he should have toned down.

He did not want you to make it better, he has issues that you cannot possibly help him with.

....and no, he's not going to sue you. Can imagine the judge now....talking to him....." ....so, you stood there and COUNTED ALL OF THE FLOWERS DURING THE FUNERAL? hmmmm...."

It's all good, honey! As Paula would say, tell him to sod off.

 

[master J]

Forget it Natalie, just think about all the raves and compliments you get throughout the year, don't let the miserable old crabby bastard get to you

Unfortunately, I need to listen to my own advice too, I get soooo many compliments and take them for granted, but one little complaint eats me up for days!

 

[DFlorist]

Aw thanks. I've calmed down now.

I plan on going to the funeral home later to take a picture of it. We take pictures of about 80% of th arrangements that leave the shop, but I just didn't have enough time with this one.

Normally I would never react with tears to this type of situation. But this was something someone should neverrrr experience. I've seen some crazy customers, but this one was by far the worst.

I guess this is a lesson learned that if someone is being extremely diffifult while ordering, and are writing down the number of flowers in the arragement, its a complaint waiting to happen.

Life goes on, and the shop will survive without this customer...

 

[OB1]

Like you, I can become very hurt when people are mean spirited. I'm sorry to hear about your stupid experience.

I have a friend who, when really agitated by a mean customer simply replies with "Now, you are not being very nice."

A long long time ago I experienced something similar to you. On Christmas eve, a recipient of ours came home to find his flowers had been left with a neighbour, and called in a mad fury to say that that was a breach of contract...that we had been contracted to deliver to his residence, not to the neighbour, and we were incompetent, and he could break a leg going to the neighbour's house, and he would take us to court, and we would not last another month once his lawyers got through with us, that we would be sorry etc. etc. etc. Nothing would calm this asshole down, even an offer to go pick up and re-deliver the flowers, on Christmas Eve no less! No matter how much I tried to reason with him, it got worse until I became very upset, and began to tear up.

And then I remembered my friend.

I said to him, really really calmly, "Now, you're not being very nice are you? We have done everything to serve you, to the very best of our abilities. In return, you are being very mean to me. I'm sorry, I will not discuss this with you any further until you calm down, and remember your manners." Then I hung up.
I fretted about it all through Christmas, but sure enough, came back to work to find an apology on the answering machine.
His name and address is posted in the shop. We will not accept an order, or deliver an order to him again.
But, if nothing else, at least he learned that there is one woman who will not be bullied.
Oh, and don't worry about a lawsuit. This is Canada, and it would cost him way to much to even think about it. He's just a jerk.