I was in Lowe’s recently having keys copied. I was standing next to a man who was fighting with the girl behind the counter and then insisted on speaking to a manager.
As best as I could understand, he was upset that a certain item was in stock in North Carolina but not at the store where we were (San Bruno, CA). This Lowe’s just didn’t have it, and people kept explaining that to him. He also had three coupons that were not supposed to be used together, and he kept swearing that other Lowe’s have taken his multiple coupons before. The manager said that was wrong, and just because someone else did something wrong didn’t mean he was going to do something wrong.
The man was being somewhat dramatic, and finally said to the manager, “Well, you lost my business.” I expected the man to turn around and leave. But he didn’t. He kept fighting with the manager. And every other sentence was, “You’ve lost my business!” Which quickly lost it’s meaning.
I was an inch from saying something to the man, but I figured I’d say it here. When a store has lost your business, you say that once, and then you leave. If you really don’t intend to be a customer there, then save you and everybody else time, aggravation, and conflict by just leaving. If the people can’t do what you want and the manager can’t do what you want, and you’ve decided that this means you will ever shop there again, then say that once and leave. Stop bickering.
The guy tried to escalate it by saying he was going to make sure other people stopped shopping there too. Nobody cares, sir. Your friends probably know you are overdramatic and create unnecessary conflict, and they will probably keep shopping at Lowe’s. If the manager couldn’t help you the first 200 times you demanded something, and he still couldn’t help you after your 5th announcement that they lost your business, the manager is probably NOT going to be able to suddenly help you because you are now going to tell some friends how bad the San Bruno Lowe’s is.
Which it’s not. I thought everybody was lovely, and dealt with him as best as they could. I thought what he asked for what unreasonable.
If you want to create drama, then you do what he did. If you are serious that a store lost your business, you say that once and you leave.
