The Day the Salesman Snapped
My wife and I needed some furniture for our new house so we went couch shopping a couple of months ago. Now that we are in our 30s, we are looking for pieces that are a little better quality and will last longer so we went to a “nicer” store.
Before our visit she had gone in with her folks to scout the place out and had been helped by a very nice salesman. This time when we walked in, that salesperson was not around and we were approached by someone very pushy and quite unfriendly.
We politely told him we did not need any help as we were just looking.
As we made our way around the store it was clear that this new rep was keeping a close eye out. He came over to offer his assistance once again at which point I told him that we would not be needing his help today and continued shopping.
After about 30 minutes the wife and I had narrowed our search to a particular couch. As I was testing it out, my wife happened to see the salesman who had helped her and her folks.
She walked across the store where he was just finishing with a customer and asked if he could help us. He recognized my wife and told her he would be over there in 1 minute to give us a hand.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the second salesperson comes up to my wife and says “What do you think you are doing?” My wife was surprised so she asked him what he meant.
He said “You are supposed to be my customers. I haven’t taken any others since you walked in, so how dare you talk to another rep?” Well at this point I got up from the couch and walked over asking who he thinks he’s talking to.
He began arguing and telling me that I was supposed to be his commission and that I was cheating him out of money. At this point I just about lost it and thankfully the nice salesperson came, took me by the arm and defused the situation.
Needless to say that the manager and I had a nice long chat. The rest of the staff could not believe what he said to us and we could see them arguing with him at the other end of the store.
I think he was just a bad salesperson who saw everyone else get sales, and that was the day he snapped.