DoIT Tech Store blues

- category: observation/memoir -

Phew, finally settled down in my new apartment in Chicago just this weekend. Of course, that's a story for another post. But now, I would like to share the highlights of my experience working at DoIT Tech Store of University of Wisconsin - Madison. I resigned a week before I started moving my things to Chicago, so that was about three weeks ago.

I actually did not realize how much fun I had working there until I had to say good bye to everyone at Tech Store counter, Showroom people, Logistics, and even Help Desk. I felt loved by so many people I barely know, and I am forever grateful for that. All the fun, craziness, the Cantaloop song, my co-workers, oh man, it was so hard to leave them. But live moves on, and I will bring the memories with me always. Love you, guys.

In that accord, I would like to share some hilarious (and sometimes redundantly ridiculous) highlights from working at DoIT Tech Store. Here goes:

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Scene 1 : The super awesome card swipe

(a group of Korean students came to me. One of them was ready to pay for an item on his hand. He put the item on the table in front of me.)

Me : Are you all set? Allright, can I see your ID?
Student : Oh, sure. (got it from his jeans pocket and gave it to me).
Me : (flicked and swiped it on my keyboard to bring up his information on the monitor. Computer gave a beeping sound.)
Student : Woah! Awesome!!
Me : ...

* Until now, I really could not understand why he said that. Was my card flicking that awesome, or was it something else? I guess I just need to keep guessing....hmm...

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Scene 2 : Restocking fee?

(A customer came to return a headphone that's been ripped from its packaging. My supervisor always told me to ask the product manager for restock fee whenever there's an opened package return. So I went to the product manager.)

Me : Excuse me, how much is the restocking fee for this?
Product Manager : (seeing it was a rather cheap headphone) Huff....I don't know, five, or ten, or....I don't know, just let them return it. It's not that worth it anyway! (laugh)

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Scene 3 : Do you uh, iPod?

Customer : Hey, how is it going? Do you have iPods?
Steve (my co-worker) : Yeahsureintheshowroomifyouwannalookatthemotherwiseit'sintheglasscaserightoverthere.
Customer : Huh? What did you say?
Katrina (also a co-worker) : (laughed) Steve!!
Me : (laugh real hard) You talked too fast!
Steve : No, I didn't.
Katrina : Yes you did!
Customer : So where's the iPod again?
Steve : Oh, it's in the glass case over there.

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Scene 4 : The cool feedback

One of the feedback forms for the Tech Store reads as follows:

"The tech store people was very knowledgable about their products and professional. They always keep their cool even when dealing with difficult customers."

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Scene 5 : Excuse me...

One day, a customer came to me and said, "Excuse me, do you sell sound box here?"
"Sound box?" I replied confusedly, thought something along the line of DJ sound box, real cool stuff.
"Yeah, you know, the box that produce sounds? Sound box?" The customer insisted.
"......Do you mean, speakers?"
"YEAH, that's the one!"

* On a side note, the customer was a completely adorable fella. He was rather clueless with English, and that explained the sound box thing. But his attitude was great, and although he eventually did not get to buy the speakers he wanted, he still left us on a positive note. A really nice guy, I tell you.