As you know I work at The Real Canadian SuperStore at the Customer Service counter. I've found that Customer Service can be quite entertaining.  There have been a number of stories that I have told Doug and Barbara .  Doug suggested I write down a few for this week's weekly letter.

There is a rule at the SuperStore that if the shelf price is different (less) than the price charged, the customer gets the item free or $10 off if the price is more than $10.  When folks question the price, they come up to Customer Service, we get a price checker to verify what they're saying and then do the necessary paperwork. Well,  last week a couple came up to the counter and said the honey they had bought should have been $7.59 and not the $7.99 that was charged.   I verified the price and told them they would be getting their item free.  They started arguing with me, "No - all they wanted was the 40 cents difference, I did not have to give them the item free".  We went back and forth a few times before I convinced them it was the law and that is was okay to take the money. "But how do you stay in business?" Well, we try NOT to make this mistake. Their response was so different than some of the customers who I feel can't wait to run up and tell me,"You know I get that for free now!"

Another one of the duties we do is to collect the various coupons our customers give the cashiers.  On Friday, I went to gather the coupons. As I am coming up from behind the cashiers, I try to give them a heads up so I don't spook them when I reach around for the bin. For some reason on Friday I decided to sing  a bit of Hello Dolly  To my surprise the cashier joined in and we did a brief duet.  I had to go to the next lane, but the customers said - Hey you guys were good!  You should take this on the road.

Another day, a customer came in with a jar of salsa.  He said he wanted to return it so I asked what the problem was.  He just said - "try to open it"  So I did  and the lid just went round and round and round and would not come off.  So I said - yup go ahead and get another jar.  As he left - he laughed and said - "Have fun trying to open that!" This isn't the first time I've seen strange manufacturing defects in the stuff we sell.

We have a procedure that if something is left behind in a cart or on lane that has been paid for, we write it down in our "LEFT BEHIND" binder.  Now - the item has to be turned in for us to do that so if a customer left the item in their cart/buggy and another customer takes the item we have no record.  So one day an elderly lady comes in and said she had left an item in her cart the day before. So I checked in our LEFT BEHIND binder but unfortunately nothing was turned in so I said, "Sorry but as nothing was turned in there not anything I could do."  She looked at me and said  "So you are telling me that I am responsible for taking things out of my cart?  Now what could I say to that? That we should have little elves out there to make sure she got everything?

We've had several cases where people came in to get a refund for something they bought that was bad or did not ring up at the right price, but did not bring either the product or the receipt. Then they were unhappy that we wouldn't give them a refund. Yikes! Dealing with the public is really strange sometimes.

So I think that is enough for now - hope everyone had a good fourth of July.  Take care and until next week.

Marsh and Doug

Here are some pictures of the deer in our front yard.