Sick of stores lieing to me as a cutomer, anyone else?

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Ok, a few weeks back there was a book I wanted to buy. But they did not have it at my local Barnes and Noble. They said they could order it and they checked and I was told it was in the warehouse. I put the order in. They told me it would take 7-10 business days. I still did not get a call saying it was in as of yesterday. Been three weeks.
So today after work I took a ride over to the Barnes and Noble and asked what was up. I was told: "well it really was not in the warehouse, they have to find it. Its just the way the system works" The atitude of the store manager was like "oh well, no big deal" I ask "if it was not in the warehouse, why was i told it was?" Her atitude was one of indifference. I told her to cancel the order and i will order someplace else. I also asked the manager if they normally mislead the customer like this. She said thats the way they do things. I told her that I will make it my lifes work to make sure that she, and the person that mislead me when the order was placed would get fired and I will make sure I tell everyone I talk to not to shop at Barnes and Noble.

Anyone else getting sick and tired of being mislead by stores? What can we do about this?

Yes, I cannot stand it when they do that in stores. They do it just about everywhere that I notice though. Everyone acts like they know what is going on all of the time, when really no one knows what is going on you always come to find out. I wish they would just get their crap together or that everyone would quit trying to be a manager or boss of some sort just to tell you the wrong stuff all of the time. It is very very frustrating... and the worst part is it doesn't matter where you go! Someone is always trying to take charge and you always find out later (sometimes within minutes, sometimes weeks) that they had absolutely no clue what they were talking about. I think it's an ego thing. I would much rather have someone just tell me flat out "I have no clue what you are talking about-let me go ask somebody who might know." But they don't. They just start talking...

that has happened to sister,she ordered a new bed from argos a long while back to go into the guest room in her new house,she said she had ordered it well intime so that her boyfriends parents who drove all the way from Norwich could use it,but it didnt come,they kept telling her it was in the warehouse when it wasn't.
she is still waiting for it now.

I had a lot of trouble at restaurants like McDonalds and Burger King. I can only eat hamburgers if they are completely plain, and I always ordered them as such. And yet it seems that they managed to screw it up every single time. It got to the point that I would open the burger before even leaving the counter, because most of the time I would just hand it right back to them. You'd think that it would be easier to remember "plain" than "triple whopper with bacon, lettuce, and no ketchup", but somehow they just could not grasp the concept of a plain hamburger. I eventually found out that the cash register has no button for "plain"; they have to order a cheeseburger and then subtract the cheese. Exactly how does that make sense? Eventually I stopped eating fast food altogether. Wasn't very healthy anyway.

Maybe it's just the Aspie in me but when i'm working in shops, as i have for most of this decade so far, i'm very honest and tell people what's going on.
If I can't get something for a customer then I'll let them know why, and then tell them how long it will take to sort everything out. If i don't know how to do something i don't try doing it, i apologise, then let the customer know that i need help and call a supervisor over.
I work in a film rental store and the way we all work in my store is that we try to match people up with films they enjoy. If someone asks me for a film review I give them an honest opinion. When someone wants a recommendation I gauge their tastes and recommend accordingly. Oh, and in the days before chip and pin when people signed for goods I always, Always, checked to see that the signature matched. It used to drive me mad when i bought stuff and the person serving didn't check signatures, I had a go at a lot of staff in different stores for that. Maybe thoughtful service is purely an Aspie thing, i don't know!

Anyway, whilst I completely sympathise with the above posters for the poor customer service they have recieved I have to spin it around and say that as a shop worker customers can be completely stupid sometimes. (This is not aimed at anyone on this board, just some pondscum i've had to deal with in the past.)

A customer handed me a film and asked me for my opinion on it. I told him it wasn't very good and he'd have a better time picking something else. He replied to this by pretty much telling me off for not 'selling' it to him and said i wasn't very good at my job.
Seriously, how am I supposed to please an idiot like that? If i don't recommend it he's angry, and if he takes it he's not going to enjoy it. Why ask for my opinion if you're going to tell me off for it, what a tool.

Another customer went nuts at me when he returned a film box but forgot to put the dvd inside. The guy came into the store, dropped off the box and disappeared before i could tell him the box was empty. Later on he got home and found the dvd, then came back to the store telling me it was my fault he'd had to drive through bad traffic to give back the dvd.
How the hell was it my fault that he didn't put the dvd back in the box? My logic can be a little off sometimes but I still can't work that one out. Am I really responsible for taking a dvd out of his player, or perhaps just responsible for checking the box isn't empty before i leave the house to return the item to the shop? If he'd have phoned me up from his home to say he still had the disk i'd have let him bring it back the next day when traffic would be quieter and i wouldn't have even charged him for it being late. Instead of that I got a load of abuse and subsequently banned said customer for life.
This incident actually had me really worried as he tried to have me reported and fired, but when i phoned up my manager and told him about everything he almost collapsed laughing about it all and told me not to worry.

Anyway, sorry to have gone off on one, and possibly hijacked the thread, just needed to get that stuff off my chest. I have a lot more examples of customers like those i detailed above, but they can wait for another time.

Hopefully the next time you shop anywhere the staff will be properly trained and give you good service.

One last thing. Even though I have worked in shops for years I still flinch badly every time the phone goes and i'm the only one free to answer, and approaching certain types of customers still gives me the creeps, but after a lot of practice it does get easier.

HECK YEAH! Just TODAY I called about ordering a "sacrificial anode" for my hot water heater. Hear that? *****SACRIFICIAL*****! They tried to mislead me, but I wanted DETAILS! So they connected me with their "expert". HE said it would be a waste of money to order a new one, and they don't do anything. SO, I acted like an idiot and said "Then WHY do they put them in?" GET THIS! He said it was so they could give it a long warranty to sell it. BTW The warranty is VOID if you remove it!! !! !

For those that don't know, they found out in like the civil war that there is a galvanic scale. By paying attention to it, they can prevent corrosion, and even run it in reverse! For example, you can effectively get a rod to ABSORB gold, instead of leaching its own metal, and that is called electroplating! It is called sacrificial, because metal leaches from IT instead of the tank! It SACRIFICES itself to save the tank!

Anyway, he said hot water heaters generally only last about 10 years. I asked what happened when they wore out! He said they would "start to leak".

BTW The anodes generally cost LESS than $40! SO, I determined he is right! It IS a waste of money! I should probably DO IT MYSELF!

ALSO, part of my job is doing technical interviews. MOST people know incredibly little, but LIE!