The stench of mediocrity.

I had my first really "Great" set of customers two nights ago:

One was a woman who wanted to send a bottle of wine to her son in Arizona (a state in which it is illegal to ship any sort of alcohol through the mail). She was very appreciative until we started talking shipping. I got out the bottle box and told her it wasn't legal, but I would SEE what I could do for her. She had me look up on UPS how much the package would be to send, and then got very rude when I rang up the box. "You mean the box wasn't included in the shipping estimate??", she said. "No, we are a wine store, not a UPS store" I replied. When I asked for her credit card information so I could set up payment with UPS she looked at me like I was trying to con her and got all bitchy because it was going to cost her fifty bucks to ship wine, AND she had to use her credit card for part of it.

At the same time, I was trying to help a woman with champagne. Her friend who took her to New York only drinks "the finest of wines", so she wanted to buy her some bubbly. I don;t care for it, so all I really know is what we sell. When I informed her of this, she got all upset and had to use our phone to have her husband look up point ratings for champagne.... for a half hour. I grabbed over six bottles for her, and piled them up on the counter, which she was already crowding with the phone. While talking with her husband, two other patrons I was checking out at the time suggested the first bottle I had pointed to and said it was the best we had for the price. She decided on something totally different, and when I wished her a good evening she replied "You know, I came in here for help... Thanks a lot" and walked out.

First off... why is it my job to break the law for my customers? Where do you get off trying to be suspicious of someone at a reputable business that you are ASKING to break the law when they tell you how things are done.

Secondly, If someone is honest with you about the sources of information, and still genuinely tries to help out, how does it become o.k. to be rude and indignant with them?

Some people need to fist themselves.
-R