This site will cover everything from incidents which happen during my day-job for a well known large UK photo retailer to my lecture notes from courses in digital photography.
Here's an example of something which happened at work recently:
A customer came in for a Pentax 360 flashgun (£199).
There was a long queue, a common occurrence in our shop.
When it was his turn he told me the item had been put aside earlier in the day.
I knew there was a flash in the drawer so took it out, put in batteries and tested it.
At the same time explaining that I always did this when selling an item to be sure it worked.
He gave me £100 in vouchers and £100 in cash and I began to put the sale through the till.
"Now then," he said, "Before you finish that let me tell you about your firm's appalling customer service."
"Earlier today I phoned, but was on the phone for three minutes unanswered before ringing off.
"I tried again and the wait was six minutes before I gave up.
"At the third attempt I got through after two minutes!"
"As you can see we only have three assistants on duty today and there's a big queue," I told him, "It has been suggested that we have an answerphone but the problem is that we would never have the time to make a response," I added.
During this conversation phones were ringing all the time in the background.
Rather than finish off his sale I picked up one of these phones.
It was a customer wanting something put aside.
I hurried off to find it leaving Mr Angry seething.
When I returned he demanded I finished off his sale.
"Sorry," I said, "I have to finish dealing with this caller now."
"You think you've taught me a lesson, don't you," he shouted, "Well, you have made a big mistake, by the end of the week I'll see that you are out of a job, I have your name, this will go further."
Seething with anger I finished off his sale despite being tempted to tell him to sling his hook.
Sometimes I am sure I am not cut-out for the retail life.....
