There's this girl I used to work with at the EPA who once told me stories where her sister went into Burlington Coat Factory, saw a pair of shoes she wanted sitting in the 35% off rack, took it to the register and didn't get the discount. She made a fuss, requested the number for their corporate office. She stood there in line and called the number, found out it was bogus, yelled at them and demanded the real number, and then they gave her the discount. This story was told years ago, but whenever I psych myself up to talk to a manager, I think about my old coworker's sister and try to draw in the power of a black woman. I feel like black women stand up for themselves the most out of every other race. So I always try to be more like them when it comes to situations like this.
A couple of months ago during the big egg scare, I had gone into the grocery store to buy a carton of eggs because mine had expired a month earlier. I went to the egg section, which was completely covered in flyers notifying customers that the eggs the store carried were completely safe. I opened up a carton to check for any cracked ones, bought them and left. As I was putting them away in the fridge, I looked at the expiry date to see how long they'd keep for and took a double take. The eggs I just bought had already expired. Two months ago. Back in college, there had been an incident where I had bought moldy bagels and I never made it back to the store even though I had called the store to inquire what I should do with them. It was just a couple of bucks, but it was the principle of it that still irks me even to this day. So when this egg thing happened, I remembered that and was determined to make something happen. I drove back to the store (which was only half a mile) and asked to speak to a manager. As he approached, I took a deep breath, tried to draw in the power of a black woman and started my speech. I started out by saying I was a frequent customer, that with the big egg scare, this was pretty uncool . I said that I don't usually check expiration dates on perishables because I expected things to be fresh, and that if I had to start doing that out of necessity because of incidents like this, I would start going to other stores for my groceries. I said that I drove allll the way home, and then had to turn around and drive alllll the way back. Ok, I fudged that last bit about the inconvenience of it all. But I finished by asking if there was anything they could do to show me I was a valued customer. They ended up giving me a $20 gift card and a new carton of eggs. Score.
Recently, I went to the movie theatre and noticed that all the previews before the feature film seemed cut off at the top. Sometimes the projector lens is slightly off kilter but it usually gets righted before the movie starts. This time it didn't. It was pretty obvious because there was a black bar at the bottom of the screen, and a bunch of headless actors walking around on the screen. I leaned to my friend and whispered that I was going to demand my money back. I was partly joking but mostly serious. The movie I'd gone to watch was not supposed to be a comedy, and this was seriously preventing me from becoming absorbed in the movie. It's like when someone gets botoxed up, I can never hear what they're saying. I just stare at their lips mesmerized. Anyway, pretty soon someone else gets up and brings the problem to an employee's attention and everyone breathes a sigh of relief once it gets corrected. The movie's quite good and by the end of it, the good acting assuages my previous determination and I wonder if I'm actually going to go through with it. Plus, I'm with a bunch of friends who don't seem to care as much about the situation to bring it up and I'm a bit self-conscious too. I don't want to seem like I'm the type to gripe about every little mishap. Or maybe it's too late. But this seemed like a valid thing to bring up, and the worst thing they could say was no. Well, a couple people in the party go to the restroom and I see my opportunity to slip away to the customer service counter before I'm missed. Alas, the rest of the group is too observant and tag along which ends up providing great moral support. I think I learned in high school psychology that one individual is less likely to disagree when faced with a group of individuals who all agree about the same thing. I psych myself up, think about how I want to tackle this particular consumer-manager interaction, and decide on the charm/humor route. Smile a lot, talk about headless actors, and ask if there was anything they could do. We all end up getting a free movie pass, even the friends who had split to use the restroom- since they had returned right when the manager was handing them out. I wrapped up the conversation with a little small talk (I don't even remember what it was about since my brain was already mentally done with the confrontation), said thanks, wished the man a good night, and led the group out. It was awesome. I think I'm going to use the pass on HP 7.2 - July 15th, 2011 is the date to wait for!
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