Tell Me What You Want

2008-05-30 - 11:18 a.m.

Yesterday I went out and about, trying to get things done. After the obligatory trip to the post office (Brin had purchased a new Animal doll for me - thanks again, Brinster!!), I stopped off at a Chinese buffet to see if it was as good as the old New World Buffet was. It wasn't, but it was still quite edible.

I went to Target to pick up cat food, and then I went to the Verizon store to try to get a new phone case/belt clip. The counter was staffed by a very helpful gentleman - too helpful, actually. After learning that they didn't have any cases in stock, he offered to order it for me and have it sent to my home. I agreed, and he started pulling up my info. He noticed that I was eligible for a phone upgrade and promptly tried to sell me one. It took three "not at this time" statements from me to convince him that I didn't want to upgrade that minute, including one that answered his question "may I ask why not".

Then I asked what I should do if, for some odd reason, the case doesn't arrive safely at my abode. His response: "It will." And it did - at ten o'clock this morning I was awakened by a pounding FedEx person.

Now, I've had to do many of the same things at my work. For instance, we have a special golf price on Mondays, so I may tell a customer that they will get a discount if they wait a little bit. If they say no, I accept that and ring them up (the register is programmed to give the lower price at a specific time, so I can't do the discount earlier). I also know to say something like "there shouldn't be a problem, but if there is...".

I have had salespeople telling me what I want and what I need to buy for quite awhile, and it's one of the surest ways to make me want to go somewhere else. I know that they are trained to do that, but sometimes "no" really means "no".

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Yesterday was a bad day for the entertainment industry. Harvey Korman passed away at 81 (as usual Mark Evanier has a fine anecdote here). And for those of you who are fans of the original Star Trek, director Joseph Pevney passed at 96.

So last night I watched Harvey's appearance on The Muppet Show and Joseph's "Amok Time".

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Nancy Pelosi has said she will "step in if necessary" to prevent the fight between Hillary and Obama from reaching the Democratic National Convention.

I bet she could do it, considering the wonderful job she did on lowering gas prices.

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The Project for Excellence in Journalism (described as "left-leaning") has admitted that Obama is treated better in the press than John McCain.

No, really.

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Okay, I'm going to try to get some more sleep.

Be seeing you.

Bob - 2008-06-01 14:15:01 - http://shadowgm.diaryland.com
I guess today's salespeople are told to push, that 'no' means 'maybe,' or that you can hit some kind of guilt threshhold where the consumer will knuckle under just to be nice. I'm sorry, but when I say NO, I mean no, and I will take my business elsewhere if pushed. You're not alone.

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