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Thread: Was this guy for real?

  1. #1
    High Roller Phonetek's Avatar
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    Default Was this guy for real?

    In all the years I've dealt with the public I've ran across a lot of people of all types, we all have. Even as a phone man I ran into my share of idiots. In customer service it's expected that you will meet the inappropriately angry people, nice people, complete jerks and stupid people. Last night I met someone who for the first time I actually would have been happy to assault and face the consequences. Luckily I have incredible restraint and am a 100% non-violent. This is BY FAR the stupidest person I've ever met to date.

    So this group of 35 people walk in and pile up at the counter. They had Groupons (of course) for two hours of bowling on one lane for 6 people, shoes included and a free pizza and pitcher of soda. It clearly states those specifics. They had 2 Groupons which obviously doubles that. So I redeem the groupons and assign them lanes. Another lane broke down so I had to run in back so I had my counter person give them shoes and get them started. I get back from fixing the lane and they are all down there bowling already. I notice that all but 4 of the 35 are down standing in a ball in the sette area and on the approach.

    Being curious, I pulled up the roster to see just how many of them were actually bowling so I could ask the others to move to the tables giving the bowlers room. To my shock they had 14 bowlers on each lane!! WHAT!?! So I asked my counter person, how many shoes did you hand out and did you charge them for them? (With a groupon if anyone EXTRA over 6 people they can bowl free they just need to pay for shoe rental) So my counter person says "No, I didn't charge anyone I just handed out the shoes" Okay, so I have to deal with him later for that because he knows better.

    I found the guy who gave me the Groupons and said "Come here dude, we gotta chat." I said "The Groupon only covers 6 people and shoes for 6 people per" He said "The others are just kids" I said "It doesn't matter, it's 6 total people....for the additional you'd have to pay for shoes but they can still bowl" Again he says "They are just kids" I said "Kids count as people" He says "But they are only kids" I said "I understand that but kids are people so if they are bowling you HAVE to pay for shoes" He said "Why? They are kids" I said "Okay, outside of this bowling alley do you consider your kids PEOPLE?" He said "Yes" I said "Then they are still PEOPLE when they walk through the door so, you have to pay for the shoe rental or get them off the lanes" He said, "Okay, I'll delete them then" At this point with my blood pressure already going off the scale I went out for a quick smoke to calm down.

    I come back in a tad calmer and decide to go check to see if he deleted the kids. I pull up the roster and he did in fact delete all the names but when I scrolled down now there is a new person simply named "Kids" on each of the two lanes. I took a second the chew on my lip and then went to the guy and said "Come here dude, it appears there was a breakdown of communication" He said "I deleted the kids" I said "No...you deleted their names and then grouped them together. You are obviously not understanding that 6 people means 6 PEOPLE not 6 names plus 8 people in a group on each lane" He looked at me like I was speaking Klingon and said "Yes, but they are only kids"

    I was literally starting to shake and I could feel the vein popping out of my forehead. I said "Alright dude I'm gonna break this down one final time....I don't care if they are kids, babies, adults senior citizens, short, fat, tall, skinny or eating Armor hot dogs or aliens from Mars, if they are bowling then you pay the shoe rental end of story! The Groupon covers 6 PEOPLE TOTAL PER LANE!! $60 bucks or I shut the lanes off right now and you can all leave! Understand?" He said "Yes, I understand" then hands me his credit card. I said "Okay, NOW they can all bowl, see how easy that was?" Little did I know it wasn't over yet....

    Now his pizza's were done so I bring them to the table and asked him "Okay, what soda do you want for your two free pitchers?" He said "Coke" I said "Both pitchers? He said "Yes" I said "Just to confirm, you want 2 pitchers of Coke?" He said "Yes" I go get the pitchers and set them on the table. A minute later he walks up with one of the full pitchers and says "I'd rather this be Sprite" I said "If you want a pitcher of Sprite that would be $5" He said "No, I want this one to be Sprite" I said "You ordered 2 pitchers of Coke, if you wanted one Coke and one Sprite then you needed to tell me that before you got them delivered to you. I said I double checked with you to confirm you wanted Coke for both pitchers" He said "But I didn't drink it yet so change it to Sprite"

    I said "Listen man, if you went to a restaurant and ordered a steak, they put that steak on the table then you tell them....I'd rather have the lobster instead. They will bring you the lobster but your still paying for the steak! Understand? Hence, you want Sprite then your paying for it! I don't care if you drink the Coke or dump it on the floor, you got what you asked for. You want Sprite then $5! I'm not losing money because you changed your mind" He pays the $5 and I give him Sprite. Think it's over yet? Nope!

    A few minutes later he comes up and says "I need bumpers" I said "Okay, for which bowler?" He said "For my wife" I said "I'm sorry but we can only give bumpers for people 10yrs old and under" He said "It's for my wife" Here we go again! I said "We ONLY...bumpers....for...people...10 yrs old....and under" He said "But it's for my wife" I said "Is your wife 10 or under?" He said "No" I said "Okay then, NO she CANNOT have bumpers, end of story" and he walked back to his lane.

    Again he comes back to the counter and says "I need a smaller ball" I said while pointing to the rack "We have 6lb youth balls right here" He said "No, not lighter balls....smaller ones. They are too big for the kids" I just cringed and said "There are no such thing as SMALLER bowling balls, only lighter or heavier. They are the same size no mater what they weigh. He said "But they are for...." I interrupted him and said "Man, forget it! You can repeat everything as much as you want and nothing is going to change. Now get out of my face and do not come back to this counter again or you can repeat yourself outside in the parking lot cuz I'm about to throw all 35 of you outta here. I've had ENOUGH!" He walked away.

    OMG! How does a man reach adult hood with the intelligence of a strawberry? He was obviously trying to get a bunch of stuff for free and I get that. These other questions though, either he was just trying to be annoying which he succeeded with stellar results or he's really that stupid? My other counter person said "I never seen you get that angry, I really thought you were gonna whack him with a pool cue" LOL Now keep in mind, right now I have been walking on air knowing what my future holds so I'm in a great mood. For this guy to make me want to grab him by the belt look and back of the shirt and want to toss him into a pinsetter was seriously an accomplishment. I can only guess how I would have handled it when life was sucking. He should count his blessings. Good thing I have less than a week left.
    Bowling Center Manager
    Arsenal consists of mainly 15# Motiv balls, I have several now and they are the bomb! Too many to list and carry. Still have a couple Hammer balls and my AMF RPM Swirl (old reliable) & 25+yr old Linds worth a mention
    Currently 535+ Rev Rate @ 19 MPH (This probably needs to be updated, I think I've toned each down a click or two these days. I'm letting the ball do more of the work as I get older.)

  2. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by Phonetek View Post
    In all the years I've dealt with the public I've ran across a lot of people of all types, we all have. Even as a phone man I ran into my share of idiots. In customer service it's expected that you will meet the inappropriately angry people, nice people, complete jerks and stupid people. Last night I met someone who for the first time I actually would have been happy to assault and face the consequences. Luckily I have incredible restraint and am a 100% non-violent. This is BY FAR the stupidest person I've ever met to date.

    So this group of 35 people walk in and pile up at the counter. They had Groupons (of course) for two hours of bowling on one lane for 6 people, shoes included and a free pizza and pitcher of soda. It clearly states those specifics. They had 2 Groupons which obviously doubles that. So I redeem the groupons and assign them lanes. Another lane broke down so I had to run in back so I had my counter person give them shoes and get them started. I get back from fixing the lane and they are all down there bowling already. I notice that all but 4 of the 35 are down standing in a ball in the sette area and on the approach.

    Being curious, I pulled up the roster to see just how many of them were actually bowling so I could ask the others to move to the tables giving the bowlers room. To my shock they had 14 bowlers on each lane!! WHAT!?! So I asked my counter person, how many shoes did you hand out and did you charge them for them? (With a groupon if anyone EXTRA over 6 people they can bowl free they just need to pay for shoe rental) So my counter person says "No, I didn't charge anyone I just handed out the shoes" Okay, so I have to deal with him later for that because he knows better.

    I found the guy who gave me the Groupons and said "Come here dude, we gotta chat." I said "The Groupon only covers 6 people and shoes for 6 people per" He said "The others are just kids" I said "It doesn't matter, it's 6 total people....for the additional you'd have to pay for shoes but they can still bowl" Again he says "They are just kids" I said "Kids count as people" He says "But they are only kids" I said "I understand that but kids are people so if they are bowling you HAVE to pay for shoes" He said "Why? They are kids" I said "Okay, outside of this bowling alley do you consider your kids PEOPLE?" He said "Yes" I said "Then they are still PEOPLE when they walk through the door so, you have to pay for the shoe rental or get them off the lanes" He said, "Okay, I'll delete them then" At this point with my blood pressure already going off the scale I went out for a quick smoke to calm down.

    I come back in a tad calmer and decide to go check to see if he deleted the kids. I pull up the roster and he did in fact delete all the names but when I scrolled down now there is a new person simply named "Kids" on each of the two lanes. I took a second the chew on my lip and then went to the guy and said "Come here dude, it appears there was a breakdown of communication" He said "I deleted the kids" I said "No...you deleted their names and then grouped them together. You are obviously not understanding that 6 people means 6 PEOPLE not 6 names plus 8 people in a group on each lane" He looked at me like I was speaking Klingon and said "Yes, but they are only kids"

    I was literally starting to shake and I could feel the vein popping out of my forehead. I said "Alright dude I'm gonna break this down one final time....I don't care if they are kids, babies, adults senior citizens, short, fat, tall, skinny or eating Armor hot dogs or aliens from Mars, if they are bowling then you pay the shoe rental end of story! The Groupon covers 6 PEOPLE TOTAL PER LANE!! $60 bucks or I shut the lanes off right now and you can all leave! Understand?" He said "Yes, I understand" then hands me his credit card. I said "Okay, NOW they can all bowl, see how easy that was?" Little did I know it wasn't over yet....

    Now his pizza's were done so I bring them to the table and asked him "Okay, what soda do you want for your two free pitchers?" He said "Coke" I said "Both pitchers? He said "Yes" I said "Just to confirm, you want 2 pitchers of Coke?" He said "Yes" I go get the pitchers and set them on the table. A minute later he walks up with one of the full pitchers and says "I'd rather this be Sprite" I said "If you want a pitcher of Sprite that would be $5" He said "No, I want this one to be Sprite" I said "You ordered 2 pitchers of Coke, if you wanted one Coke and one Sprite then you needed to tell me that before you got them delivered to you. I said I double checked with you to confirm you wanted Coke for both pitchers" He said "But I didn't drink it yet so change it to Sprite"

    I said "Listen man, if you went to a restaurant and ordered a steak, they put that steak on the table then you tell them....I'd rather have the lobster instead. They will bring you the lobster but your still paying for the steak! Understand? Hence, you want Sprite then your paying for it! I don't care if you drink the Coke or dump it on the floor, you got what you asked for. You want Sprite then $5! I'm not losing money because you changed your mind" He pays the $5 and I give him Sprite. Think it's over yet? Nope!

    A few minutes later he comes up and says "I need bumpers" I said "Okay, for which bowler?" He said "For my wife" I said "I'm sorry but we can only give bumpers for people 10yrs old and under" He said "It's for my wife" Here we go again! I said "We ONLY...bumpers....for...people...10 yrs old....and under" He said "But it's for my wife" I said "Is your wife 10 or under?" He said "No" I said "Okay then, NO she CANNOT have bumpers, end of story" and he walked back to his lane.

    Again he comes back to the counter and says "I need a smaller ball" I said while pointing to the rack "We have 6lb youth balls right here" He said "No, not lighter balls....smaller ones. They are too big for the kids" I just cringed and said "There are no such thing as SMALLER bowling balls, only lighter or heavier. They are the same size no mater what they weigh. He said "But they are for...." I interrupted him and said "Man, forget it! You can repeat everything as much as you want and nothing is going to change. Now get out of my face and do not come back to this counter again or you can repeat yourself outside in the parking lot cuz I'm about to throw all 35 of you outta here. I've had ENOUGH!" He walked away.

    OMG! How does a man reach adult hood with the intelligence of a strawberry? He was obviously trying to get a bunch of stuff for free and I get that. These other questions though, either he was just trying to be annoying which he succeeded with stellar results or he's really that stupid? My other counter person said "I never seen you get that angry, I really thought you were gonna whack him with a pool cue" LOL Now keep in mind, right now I have been walking on air knowing what my future holds so I'm in a great mood. For this guy to make me want to grab him by the belt look and back of the shirt and want to toss him into a pinsetter was seriously an accomplishment. I can only guess how I would have handled it when life was sucking. He should count his blessings. Good thing I have less than a week left.
    Huh. Yeah, I can see why that guy bothered you. He did seem kind of dumb about the whole size of the bowling ball thing. I think that the rest of it was likely him trying to get one over on you and get something for nothing. I can't really blame him for asking for bumpers for his wife, though. My bowling alley offers bumpers for all ages, and I've never heard of the 10-and-under rule, so if he didn't understand that I can't really blame him. The rest of it I can blame him for, haha.

  3. #3
    High Roller Phonetek's Avatar
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    Our bumpers are the plastic automatic per person ones. It depends on the ones your center has. You hit ours with anything more than a 10lb ball they are likely going to snap. Especially if they use them to play pin ball vs just guiding it back from going in the gutter. I dunno why they are so easily broken but they are. When they do break they are 300 dollar for a 10 ft section to replace. We do have signs posted with our policy too. I mean, we will make exceptions for handicap or elderly of course but a not for a person in good health especially an adult. Now if the dude wasn't such a douche maybe I'd have made an exception, same with the soda. Normally I'd probably have dumped it out and gave him the Sprite no charge. Since he acted the way he did I simply followed company policy to the letter.

    The way he was acting, I wasn't going to do him a single favor. From experience I know that people like that who come in to bowl for free then try to get other things for free, doing anything extra is going to have absolutely zero benefits. They don't understand the concept of tipping for going above and beyond. The best we could hope for is a good review online. I knew after the first go around with him even that was out the window so the heck with it. I just wanted his two hours to be up and send them on their way.
    Bowling Center Manager
    Arsenal consists of mainly 15# Motiv balls, I have several now and they are the bomb! Too many to list and carry. Still have a couple Hammer balls and my AMF RPM Swirl (old reliable) & 25+yr old Linds worth a mention
    Currently 535+ Rev Rate @ 19 MPH (This probably needs to be updated, I think I've toned each down a click or two these days. I'm letting the ball do more of the work as I get older.)

  4. #4

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    I’m sure he can and has given bumpers for older bowlers. The 10 and under is more of a general recommendation, but I wouldn’t give that guy bumpers for an adult either strictly on principal

  5. #5
    High Roller Phonetek's Avatar
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    Elderly people rarely ever ask for bumpers even if I just offer them. I think they are too old school and have to much pride to use them. They'd rather just take the gutter balls. This particular person was in their 30's and healthy enough to pop out a pile of little monsters, she can get a ball down the lane just fine. LOL One thing I was amazed of, they didn't smack the sweep once with a ball. Usually this type of group does it a dozen times. Then again since they had 28 people bowling it took more than enough time for the machine to set up the rack before they could even get to the approach having to climb over everyone.
    Bowling Center Manager
    Arsenal consists of mainly 15# Motiv balls, I have several now and they are the bomb! Too many to list and carry. Still have a couple Hammer balls and my AMF RPM Swirl (old reliable) & 25+yr old Linds worth a mention
    Currently 535+ Rev Rate @ 19 MPH (This probably needs to be updated, I think I've toned each down a click or two these days. I'm letting the ball do more of the work as I get older.)

  6. #6
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    Our center has a written rule on the counter about bumpers. Not sure if it is 10 or 12 years but also for handicap and I think elderly. But of course, I'm sure there are discretionary exceptions
    Arsenal "15# Global Eternity Pi-45x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Xponent-60x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Zen Soul-60x4.5x40" "15# Roto Grip Idol Helios-90 x 2.25 x 45" "15# 900 Global Altered Reality-50x3.625x30" "15# Brunswick Uppercut-80x3.625x35" "15# Brunswick Igniter-70x5.5x35" "15# Raw Hammer Pearl 45x5.75x40" "15# Brunswick T-Zone"
    Rev Rate about 270 @ about 15.5 MPH at the pins* High Game: 290 - High Series: 733. PAP: 5 1/8"x1" up; tilt 20*, rotation 75*. YTD highs - 290-733
    Oh, and LEFTY!!!

  7. #7
    High Roller Phonetek's Avatar
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    Ours don't get broken all that often really. A few times a year. Coincidentally right now we have two that are broke, both happened yesterday before I got into work. One the spring or bracket got busted off so it just stays up instead of going up and down. That happens from the punishment, or just a worn part. The second one is physically broken, most likely a result of horse play. I'm sure the mechanic will have it fixed before my shift tomorrow if not by now.
    Bowling Center Manager
    Arsenal consists of mainly 15# Motiv balls, I have several now and they are the bomb! Too many to list and carry. Still have a couple Hammer balls and my AMF RPM Swirl (old reliable) & 25+yr old Linds worth a mention
    Currently 535+ Rev Rate @ 19 MPH (This probably needs to be updated, I think I've toned each down a click or two these days. I'm letting the ball do more of the work as I get older.)

  8. #8

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    I'm amazed that the bumpers at the alley I go to hold up as good as they do. One time, a completely blind elderly man, dark glasses and everything, was in the lane two lanes down from me. Two people, I am assuming his son and his granddaughter, would walk him up to the lane and put the ball in his hand, and he would throw it without being able to see. It wasn't a house ball, and it sounded like it was 15-16 pounds by the way it slammed into the lane, the bumper, the gutter in the lane next to him, the floor, or even the lane itself next to him. When it hit those bumpers, you could see what a massive beating those bumpers were taking. It even dented them one time, but I have to admit, I was expecting them to literally break. They did not, which I thought was amazing.

    I thought that whole scenario just seemed wrong to me on so many levels. The man did not seem to enjoy himself, he just seemed embarrassed. Who would take an elderly blind man bowling, anyway?
    "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."
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  9. #9

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    Was this a group of entitled millennials with their kids?!?!

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by J Daisy View Post
    I'm amazed that the bumpers at the alley I go to hold up as good as they do. One time, a completely blind elderly man, dark glasses and everything, was in the lane two lanes down from me. Two people, I am assuming his son and his granddaughter, would walk him up to the lane and put the ball in his hand, and he would throw it without being able to see. It wasn't a house ball, and it sounded like it was 15-16 pounds by the way it slammed into the lane, the bumper, the gutter in the lane next to him, the floor, or even the lane itself next to him. When it hit those bumpers, you could see what a massive beating those bumpers were taking. It even dented them one time, but I have to admit, I was expecting them to literally break. They did not, which I thought was amazing.

    I thought that whole scenario just seemed wrong to me on so many levels. The man did not seem to enjoy himself, he just seemed embarrassed. Who would take an elderly blind man bowling, anyway?
    I forget the details but Billf, who was a very prolific poster on this site, wrote about going through a period of being legally blind and bowling to pass the time while his good eye healed. I leave it to you to judge his stories.
    John

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