Sheila
Gold Member
- 5,350
I've dealt with some negative people in my past, but man did I have a challenge on Sunday!
Backtracking a bit ... I worked a booth on Saturday & had someone approach me & ask if I was the consultant for the Sunday show. She wanted to order, but was not willing to attend the show because of a particular guest. I thought "how bad could she be?" Well, I guarantee that within 5 min's of her arrival, I knew she had to be the one the customer mentioned.
She said she was pregnant, but I'd have never guessed it. She must still be very early in the pregnancy.
She complained about the crack in the couch cushions where she was sitting. The host apologized.
When I announced that this was an interactive show, she grumbled that she didn't want to get up & work. I explained that if she couldn't go home & repeat what we did, then she didn't learn anything & what was the point of attending (in a nice joking tone of course). So she got up & followed the crowd.
She was chopping lettuce & said "I don't see the difference between these and the ones that I bought at the BX" (BX stands for "Base Exchange" - it's kind of like the old style Wal-Mart without food crossed with a JC Penny). Of course I explained how the knives at the BX are good, but PC makes good, better & best & what she was holding was "best", then elaborated on how the knives are made.
She fussed about the fact that we were making the meat for the Taco Ring in the microwave and how it would taste nasty. I explained that because the steam stays in the pot, people who don't know it was cooked in the microwave would NEVER guess that it was.
The host's microwave was a very low wattage, and the Chocolate Velvet Cake with Strawberries didn't finish cooking on a tiny section of one side. We didn't realize it until it had cooled & we lifted off the fluted stone. About 1/4 of the cake just kind of melted down the plate like a molten cake would do. She then fussed that since she was pregnant and the cake had eggs which didn't finish cooking ... she couldn't have any. I brought it to her attention that the opposite side of the cake was just fine. All the other guests laughed and were fine with it. Even after it was decorated, they were all "ooohing" and "aaahing". (I refrained from commenting when I saw Debbie Downer cutting herself a huge slice of the cake! LOL)
When I asked the guests how they liked the Taco Ring, everyone was giving positive feedback. I asked "Would you have ever guessed that the meat was done in the microwave if you had not seen it done?" Everyone was in agreement that NO, they'd have never guessed it. Add a 3 second pause ... then you hear Debbie Downer say "well, ACTUALLY, it is a little dry." Then she went on to elaborate how her taco meat is always nice & juicy (meaning "runny"). I saw other guests scowling at her. I explained that we put the cheese IN the taco meat to absorb any extra moisture so that no juice would run off the stone and into the bottom of the oven.
While I was trying to go over the host specials, she kicked the host's cat for trying to sit on her foot!
That became a HUGE distraction with the host trying to get the cat away from her.
But when it was all said and done, 2 of the 9 guests booked shows.
I did catch a couple of guests whispering complaints about her in the kitchen. Then after she had left, the host was apologizing for inviting her. I've since received an e-mail from the host apologizing yet again. I'm a retired police dispatcher. I'm accustomed to dealing with people on the WORST day of their life (no one ever calls 911 unless they are the victim of something). I've been screamed at and cussed at too many times to count. I did feel bad for everyone who was trying to have a good time, but thankfully I don't take those types of personalities too seriously.
Oh yes, we are all military here, so everyone gets paid at the same time. As a group, they all decided to wait until payday to submit the show. They would rather have the extra $ to spend than to get their products a week sooner. Of course Debbie Downer had to complain about how she was trying to get ERD orders (where the military pays for an Early Return of Dependants) - so she can have her baby in the states and made a HUGE deal about needing her order shipped to the states. Then she goes on to make a huge deal that even though she was paying by check and not credit card like the other guests, that I needed to hold her check until payday before making a deposit.
Luckily, she uses the same bank that I use. They process the check on the spot & then my deposit is considered "cash", I don't have to worry about her check bouncing. If there are insufficient funds, they will just hand it back to me & tell me to try again later. That's at least SOMETHING positive about having to make a 2nd trip to the bank. So after it's all said & done & I'm finished with her order & have moved on and talking to the two ladies who were booking a show, Debbie Downer interrupted me in mid sentence to announce that she'd forgotten to use the stateside address & had put her military address. I offered to let her change it, add tax & re-write her check. She refused & decided to just leave it with the military address. It's a 4 week shipping and (as I've said) the guests voted to wait a week to submit the show for payday. So now they are looking at waiting 5 weeks for their products. Something tells me I'll be dealing with Debbie Downer again before her products arrive. I'm sure she'll call in 2-3 weeks complaining that they have not yet arrived.
The show is currently at $729.45 and the host is not done collecting outside orders. So with good show sales & 2 bookings I think the headache will have all been worth it in the end. :thumbup:
Backtracking a bit ... I worked a booth on Saturday & had someone approach me & ask if I was the consultant for the Sunday show. She wanted to order, but was not willing to attend the show because of a particular guest. I thought "how bad could she be?" Well, I guarantee that within 5 min's of her arrival, I knew she had to be the one the customer mentioned.
She said she was pregnant, but I'd have never guessed it. She must still be very early in the pregnancy.
She complained about the crack in the couch cushions where she was sitting. The host apologized.
When I announced that this was an interactive show, she grumbled that she didn't want to get up & work. I explained that if she couldn't go home & repeat what we did, then she didn't learn anything & what was the point of attending (in a nice joking tone of course). So she got up & followed the crowd.
She was chopping lettuce & said "I don't see the difference between these and the ones that I bought at the BX" (BX stands for "Base Exchange" - it's kind of like the old style Wal-Mart without food crossed with a JC Penny). Of course I explained how the knives at the BX are good, but PC makes good, better & best & what she was holding was "best", then elaborated on how the knives are made.
She fussed about the fact that we were making the meat for the Taco Ring in the microwave and how it would taste nasty. I explained that because the steam stays in the pot, people who don't know it was cooked in the microwave would NEVER guess that it was.
The host's microwave was a very low wattage, and the Chocolate Velvet Cake with Strawberries didn't finish cooking on a tiny section of one side. We didn't realize it until it had cooled & we lifted off the fluted stone. About 1/4 of the cake just kind of melted down the plate like a molten cake would do. She then fussed that since she was pregnant and the cake had eggs which didn't finish cooking ... she couldn't have any. I brought it to her attention that the opposite side of the cake was just fine. All the other guests laughed and were fine with it. Even after it was decorated, they were all "ooohing" and "aaahing". (I refrained from commenting when I saw Debbie Downer cutting herself a huge slice of the cake! LOL)
When I asked the guests how they liked the Taco Ring, everyone was giving positive feedback. I asked "Would you have ever guessed that the meat was done in the microwave if you had not seen it done?" Everyone was in agreement that NO, they'd have never guessed it. Add a 3 second pause ... then you hear Debbie Downer say "well, ACTUALLY, it is a little dry." Then she went on to elaborate how her taco meat is always nice & juicy (meaning "runny"). I saw other guests scowling at her. I explained that we put the cheese IN the taco meat to absorb any extra moisture so that no juice would run off the stone and into the bottom of the oven.
While I was trying to go over the host specials, she kicked the host's cat for trying to sit on her foot!
That became a HUGE distraction with the host trying to get the cat away from her.But when it was all said and done, 2 of the 9 guests booked shows.
I did catch a couple of guests whispering complaints about her in the kitchen. Then after she had left, the host was apologizing for inviting her. I've since received an e-mail from the host apologizing yet again. I'm a retired police dispatcher. I'm accustomed to dealing with people on the WORST day of their life (no one ever calls 911 unless they are the victim of something). I've been screamed at and cussed at too many times to count. I did feel bad for everyone who was trying to have a good time, but thankfully I don't take those types of personalities too seriously.
Oh yes, we are all military here, so everyone gets paid at the same time. As a group, they all decided to wait until payday to submit the show. They would rather have the extra $ to spend than to get their products a week sooner. Of course Debbie Downer had to complain about how she was trying to get ERD orders (where the military pays for an Early Return of Dependants) - so she can have her baby in the states and made a HUGE deal about needing her order shipped to the states. Then she goes on to make a huge deal that even though she was paying by check and not credit card like the other guests, that I needed to hold her check until payday before making a deposit.
Luckily, she uses the same bank that I use. They process the check on the spot & then my deposit is considered "cash", I don't have to worry about her check bouncing. If there are insufficient funds, they will just hand it back to me & tell me to try again later. That's at least SOMETHING positive about having to make a 2nd trip to the bank. So after it's all said & done & I'm finished with her order & have moved on and talking to the two ladies who were booking a show, Debbie Downer interrupted me in mid sentence to announce that she'd forgotten to use the stateside address & had put her military address. I offered to let her change it, add tax & re-write her check. She refused & decided to just leave it with the military address. It's a 4 week shipping and (as I've said) the guests voted to wait a week to submit the show for payday. So now they are looking at waiting 5 weeks for their products. Something tells me I'll be dealing with Debbie Downer again before her products arrive. I'm sure she'll call in 2-3 weeks complaining that they have not yet arrived. The show is currently at $729.45 and the host is not done collecting outside orders. So with good show sales & 2 bookings I think the headache will have all been worth it in the end. :thumbup:
