As I was walking out of the bathroom at one of the stores I do work for a customer came up to me and asked demandingly-
Dad: "Have you seem my child?"
Me: "Uh, no."
Dad: "You need to help me find her now!"
Me: "Uh - ok. About how tall is she?"
Dad: "What?"
Me (Not knowing anything about what the child looked like): "How tall is she? This tall (gestures with hand) or maybe this tall (moves hand higher)."
-After a slight moment of no response-
"Er...what was she wearing?"
Dad: "You're wasting my time. Find a manager now!"
Me: "Ok. They should be over this way." I start to walk over to where I think I see them
Dad: "Should?! How do you not know where your damn managers are? How the hell are you guys supposed to help me find my kid if you don't even know where your managers are?"
Me: "Well, I've been in this store for a total of 5 minutes, 2 of which were spent in the bathroom. As for your kid - how am I supposed to help you find them if you won't tell me what they look like?"
Fortunately by now we had actually reached a manager. I told the manager that there was a young missing girl in the store and (I shit you not - I could not have planned this better myself) the manager asked me:
Manager: "What was she wearing?"
Me: "I don't know - He wouldn't tell me."
Manager: "How tall is the child?"
Me: "I don't know - he wouldn't tell me."
Dad: "You guys are wasting time - you need to be on the lookout for her!"
Manager: "Well, we really won't know what to look for unless you tell us a bit more about her. But we'll go ahead and get people at the doors to make sure an unattended child doesn't leave." He turns to tell people to go over by the exits. Meanwhile - the dad leaves the area.
Manager (chasing after the dad) "Sir. SIR! We need to know what she looks like!" After finally giving a description of the child to the manager he proceeds to berate the manager about our response to the issue and threatens to sue the store if we don't find her in the next 15 minutes
The manager (after giving the description out) proceeds to tell the dad that we are in no way responsible for him misplacing his child
I was staring, bewildered, at the dad as he wagged his finger in my manager's face saying "You'd better find her." He looked over at me and asked "What are you staring at? Shouldn't you be doing something about this?"
Me: "I'd hide from you if I were your kid too." Not my best moment - but still immensely satisfying.
Dad: "What?!"
The manager shot me a 'you should know better' look but didn't seem too mad. "We should concentrate on finding your daughter" and guided the dad away.
Finally, one of our associates found her. The dad came up - didn't say anything to his daughter - but started demanding to know why the associate "hadn't found his daughter sooner." and being a real jerk to the person who had found her.
As they were walking out he stops by the same manager and starts to go on and on about how good it was that we would be able to come to work tomorrow morning since we still had jobs since we hadn't lost his daughter and that we barely missed having a lawsuit. The manager, a dad in his own right, goes off on the guy after about 7-8 minutes of that.
"We are not responsible for keeping track of your daughter for you and if you are trying to pass the responsibility on us for your negligence I am perfectly willing to call Social Services in to mediate our disagreement as to what your legal duties are in terms of safe guarding your child from harm." he went on for a bit more, but thats one of the only lines i remember. He ended it with "Since you seem determined to be uncivilized to every employee that you interact with at this store I would strongly suggest you find someplace else to shop, although your daughter is still welcome here."
-Seriously - what is with some people? I mean come on! I know my comment was probably not in good taste (I am kinda an ass) but this guy was a real jerk. I feel sorry for the daughter.
Cliffs:
-Went to bathroom
-Guy pissed I don't know where his daughter was
-Wouldn't tell us what she looked like
-We found her - guy berated associate who found her and manager
-Manager berated guy and told him not to come back
Dad: "Have you seem my child?"
Me: "Uh, no."
Dad: "You need to help me find her now!"
Me: "Uh - ok. About how tall is she?"
Dad: "What?"
Me (Not knowing anything about what the child looked like): "How tall is she? This tall (gestures with hand) or maybe this tall (moves hand higher)."
-After a slight moment of no response-
"Er...what was she wearing?"
Dad: "You're wasting my time. Find a manager now!"
Me: "Ok. They should be over this way." I start to walk over to where I think I see them
Dad: "Should?! How do you not know where your damn managers are? How the hell are you guys supposed to help me find my kid if you don't even know where your managers are?"
Me: "Well, I've been in this store for a total of 5 minutes, 2 of which were spent in the bathroom. As for your kid - how am I supposed to help you find them if you won't tell me what they look like?"
Fortunately by now we had actually reached a manager. I told the manager that there was a young missing girl in the store and (I shit you not - I could not have planned this better myself) the manager asked me:
Manager: "What was she wearing?"
Me: "I don't know - He wouldn't tell me."
Manager: "How tall is the child?"
Me: "I don't know - he wouldn't tell me."
Dad: "You guys are wasting time - you need to be on the lookout for her!"
Manager: "Well, we really won't know what to look for unless you tell us a bit more about her. But we'll go ahead and get people at the doors to make sure an unattended child doesn't leave." He turns to tell people to go over by the exits. Meanwhile - the dad leaves the area.
Manager (chasing after the dad) "Sir. SIR! We need to know what she looks like!" After finally giving a description of the child to the manager he proceeds to berate the manager about our response to the issue and threatens to sue the store if we don't find her in the next 15 minutes
The manager (after giving the description out) proceeds to tell the dad that we are in no way responsible for him misplacing his child
I was staring, bewildered, at the dad as he wagged his finger in my manager's face saying "You'd better find her." He looked over at me and asked "What are you staring at? Shouldn't you be doing something about this?"
Me: "I'd hide from you if I were your kid too." Not my best moment - but still immensely satisfying.
Dad: "What?!"
The manager shot me a 'you should know better' look but didn't seem too mad. "We should concentrate on finding your daughter" and guided the dad away.
Finally, one of our associates found her. The dad came up - didn't say anything to his daughter - but started demanding to know why the associate "hadn't found his daughter sooner." and being a real jerk to the person who had found her.
As they were walking out he stops by the same manager and starts to go on and on about how good it was that we would be able to come to work tomorrow morning since we still had jobs since we hadn't lost his daughter and that we barely missed having a lawsuit. The manager, a dad in his own right, goes off on the guy after about 7-8 minutes of that.
"We are not responsible for keeping track of your daughter for you and if you are trying to pass the responsibility on us for your negligence I am perfectly willing to call Social Services in to mediate our disagreement as to what your legal duties are in terms of safe guarding your child from harm." he went on for a bit more, but thats one of the only lines i remember. He ended it with "Since you seem determined to be uncivilized to every employee that you interact with at this store I would strongly suggest you find someplace else to shop, although your daughter is still welcome here."
-Seriously - what is with some people? I mean come on! I know my comment was probably not in good taste (I am kinda an ass) but this guy was a real jerk. I feel sorry for the daughter.
Cliffs:
-Went to bathroom
-Guy pissed I don't know where his daughter was
-Wouldn't tell us what she looked like
-We found her - guy berated associate who found her and manager
-Manager berated guy and told him not to come back
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