Argh my semi gripe for today, kinda related back to customer service. Actually this particular incident didn’t annoy me too much but it made me think whether the person was sane or not. So I went to the shops looking for that book I mentioned yesterday. I look in the bigger bookstore – say Store X and in the catalogue it says it’s a special order book. So I ask the guy at the counter, ‘If a book’s special order does that mean you can order it in for purchase?’ and he’s like ‘oh we’d have to check’ and I’m like ‘ok’. Now he checks and he tells me they’ve ordered 3 copies of the book but they don’t know when it’ll come in, so I’ll have to keep coming in to check in person. Also told me that if I ordered it, it’ll take alot longer. Now I don’t know what’s more inconvenient, ordering it and waiting a bit longer for it, or coming in every few days to see if I can find 1 of the 3 copies they ordered. Now I’m guessing because they only ordered 3 it’s not that mainstream (which it isn’t, apparently it’s the english translation version), which some may say would be good if they actually managed to sell the copies… So then I trapezed of to Store Y which I very rarely go to these days as it is *alot* smaller and does not stock much at all. I went to the sales person and asked them about the book, and they told me their on order but they haven’t arrived yet and if I gave them my details they’ll ring me when it comes in. Now what does one do in such a situation? It’s pretty obvious isn’t it. Sorry Store X, you’ve just lost a potential sale – actually make that a definitie sale…