The Vent and Rant Thread

[4691mls]

I hope your extra busy day won't be too extra stressful.

I doubt we'll have large-scale shutdowns again in the US outside of the large crowded cities like New York. Probably some government officials will keep telling everyone to get vaccinated and wear masks, while others will keep fighting mask mandates even as hospitals overflow.

[Rumpelteazer]

It was an exhausting day. Luckily no shouters or meltdown, that's a small win. But it was busy and a lot of customers were of the difficult kind.

There's just been a press conference and, as usual, the prime minister was rather vague. Yes, non-essential stores have to close until at least January 14. But click/call & collect is allowed "like earlier this year". However, he doesn't explicitly state the rules. Are we allowed to let customers in to pick up their order or only have pick ups at the door? Earlier this year there had to be at least 4 hours between placing the order and picking it up and you had to make an appointment for a specific time slot so it wouldn't get too busy in front of the store. And between what hours are people allowed to pick up their order in stores.

The click/call & collect wasn't a huge success for us earlier this year. We never had more than a dozen customers a day, often much less. And with often there you would have the last customer shortly before official closing time but before that you wouldn't have a customer for hours. So you spend most of your day twiddling your thumbs. So I'm trying to convince my father to only be open for call-in orders and pick-ups between 10am and 2pm. Then you can do chores if there aren't any calls or pick-ups and then have the afternoon off. Not sure if he's going to go for it.

For now we assume customers aren't allowed in the store, so we'll set up the table in the entry way (that blocks the door and we have a nice long table so customers keep at a distance). My father does want to have people pick up their order at a set time, so it doesn't get too busy in front of the store.

Hopefully more detailed rules will be published shortly. And hopefully stores are allowed to open properly again mid-January, though I'm not getting my hopes up.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

It was an exhausting day. Luckily no shouters or meltdown, that's a small win. But it was busy and a lot of customers were of the difficult kind.

There's just been a press conference and, as usual, the prime minister was rather vague. Yes, non-essential stores have to close until at least January 14. But click/call & collect is allowed "like earlier this year". However, he doesn't explicitly state the rules. Are we allowed to let customers in to pick up their order or only have pick ups at the door? Earlier this year there had to be at least 4 hours between placing the order and picking it up and you had to make an appointment for a specific time slot so it wouldn't get too busy in front of the store. And between what hours are people allowed to pick up their order in stores.

The click/call & collect wasn't a huge success for us earlier this year. We never had more than a dozen customers a day, often much less. And with often there you would have the last customer shortly before official closing time but before that you wouldn't have a customer for hours. So you spend most of your day twiddling your thumbs. So I'm trying to convince my father to only be open for call-in orders and pick-ups between 10am and 2pm. Then you can do chores if there aren't any calls or pick-ups and then have the afternoon off. Not sure if he's going to go for it.

For now we assume customers aren't allowed in the store, so we'll set up the table in the entry way (that blocks the door and we have a nice long table so customers keep at a distance). My father does want to have people pick up their order at a set time, so it doesn't get too busy in front of the store.

Hopefully more detailed rules will be published shortly. And hopefully stores are allowed to open properly again mid-January, though I'm not getting my hopes up.

Well, if you're doing to do click, call and collect, assuming I understand all that readily enough, I'd say be open for not more than 3 hours, total, for pickups. It's nuts to sit there all day waiting on X orders, if you specifically know that you've only sold, say, 10 items. Sit there all day for that? Hell no. Make them show up between 10-1, or the like. If it were me, I think I'd do mornings, say 8-11 at most and take the rest of the day off.

You're not obligated to utterly inconvenience yourself. After all, all these people are also going to be home, full-time, pretty much, right? Due to such a complete shutdown? So they can show up to pick up what they ordered within a reasonable window.

(Hell, if it was me, I think I'd get an appointment app and let them use that. Set it up in 15 minute intervals, and have them effectively walk-thru or drive-thru. "Here you go, Mrs. Hansen, see you next time!" and badda-boom, that's it. Why drive yourselves nuts, and sit there all cursed day?)



Hitch

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, if you're doing to do click, call and collect, assuming I understand all that readily enough, I'd say be open for not more than 3 hours, total, for pickups. It's nuts to sit there all day waiting on X orders, if you specifically know that you've only sold, say, 10 items. Sit there all day for that? Hell no. Make them show up between 10-1, or the like. If it were me, I think I'd do mornings, say 8-11 at most and take the rest of the day off.

You're not obligated to utterly inconvenience yourself. After all, all these people are also going to be home, full-time, pretty much, right? Due to such a complete shutdown? So they can show up to pick up what they ordered within a reasonable window.

(Hell, if it was me, I think I'd get an appointment app and let them use that. Set it up in 15 minute intervals, and have them effectively walk-thru or drive-thru. "Here you go, Mrs. Hansen, see you next time!" and badda-boom, that's it. Why drive yourselves nuts, and sit there all cursed day?)



Hitch

Not everybody is at home, only those who can't go work because their sector is closed (shops, cafés, restaurants, entertainment, etc) and people that are able to work from home. There are still enough people who have to go into work. But the next two week a lot of people have extra days off.

If it was up to me we could do 9 to 12. But my father isn't a morning person and the usual opening time of 10am is often a rush for him to get ready. So 10 to 1 or 2 seems more realistic. But we'll have to wait and see how he feels after a night's sleep. Yesterday I got the impression he might be up to having people pick up their orders in the morning, but he wanted to take orders all day. Which would mean either staying downstairs until 5 or 6pm or having to go down when a customer calls to see if what they want is in stock, set it aside for them and note down their details.

I would love to have an app, but we don't even have a website, besides our Facebook page. And my father isn't at home with apps.

Tomorrow we have to call all the customers who have an appointment for consulting hour. My father was thinking of offering them the option to come bring their broken item and instead of waiting for the repair having them pick it up the next day. Maybe even ask for a small fee (up until now they only had to pay for materials used).

Does it suck that we have to close. Sure. Do I mind it. Nope. I can understand the reasons behind it and it's nice that for the first time the government is anticipating what is probably going to happen and not react after the fact. Also I'm now responsible for organizing our own Christmas festivities and I was not looking forward to it whilst working more than full time the next two weeks. I now have more time to prepare and that's nice.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Maybe there's some reason the manufacturers don't want us to use the tap feature so they make it difficult to find...

I used the tap thing yesterday in a store and still had to put in my pin number. Whats the use of tap.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I wish my stores would put those stickers on.


Edited to add that I've never seen a machine like the one in your picture.

I wonder if that is a transit fare card?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Not everybody is at home, only those who can't go work because their sector is closed (shops, cafés, restaurants, entertainment, etc) and people that are able to work from home. There are still enough people who have to go into work. But the next two week a lot of people have extra days off.

If it was up to me we could do 9 to 12. But my father isn't a morning person and the usual opening time of 10am is often a rush for him to get ready. So 10 to 1 or 2 seems more realistic. But we'll have to wait and see how he feels after a night's sleep. Yesterday I got the impression he might be up to having people pick up their orders in the morning, but he wanted to take orders all day. Which would mean either staying downstairs until 5 or 6pm or having to go down when a customer calls to see if what they want is in stock, set it aside for them and note down their details.

I would love to have an app, but we don't even have a website, besides our Facebook page. And my father isn't at home with apps.

Tomorrow we have to call all the customers who have an appointment for consulting hour. My father was thinking of offering them the option to come bring their broken item and instead of waiting for the repair having them pick it up the next day. Maybe even ask for a small fee (up until now they only had to pay for materials used).

Does it suck that we have to close. Sure. Do I mind it. Nope. I can understand the reasons behind it and it's nice that for the first time the government is anticipating what is probably going to happen and not react after the fact. Also I'm now responsible for organizing our own Christmas festivities and I was not looking forward to it whilst working more than full time the next two weeks. I now have more time to prepare and that's nice.

Well--and be advised, I am NOT affiliated--you can do something like BookLikeABoss, which is relatively cheap and, does NOT need its own website. You can run it right from their site, with your own custom URL. You can book anything--phone appointments, F2F meetings, you name it. You can block out times as not available, set your meeting durations...

It's just an idea. You could link to it from your Facebook page and you could tell people to use the "appointment app" from your FB page on your voicemail.

Just an idea.I've used BLAB (yes, really!) and it's easy. You can customize it to look great, or bare-bones, etc. I'm sure that other schedulers are also good, but I snagged this one through some AppSumo offering or the like and anybody, really, can use and deploy it. I'm sure that you, Rumple, could have it ready in a day.

Just tryin' to help here.

Hitch

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I used the tap thing yesterday in a store and still had to put in my pin number. What's the use of tap.

Your card provider probably set a limit on tap-only purchases, mine is set at $100. I can change it but I don't often spend more than that in a single purchase.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I wonder if that is a transit fare card?

Yep, Opal cards are the equivalent of the NYC MTA Metrocard, except it uses near field tap on/off rather than mag stripe swipe. If your phone or watch has an e-wallet you can tap on/off with it.

Dunno why its called Opal, maybe because they're mined at Lightning Ridge.

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I used the tap thing yesterday in a store and still had to put in my pin number. Whats the use of tap.

You Americans are weird. The only time I was asked for a PIN after a tap, I also had to insert my card since I was over the $400 tap limit.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I wonder if that is a transit fare card?

Given that the OP referred to it as his "Opal travel card"? Sounds like an equivalent to our Compass card.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You Americans are weird. The only time I was asked for a PIN after a tap, I also had to insert my card since I was over the $400 tap limit.

I wasn't aware that the prompt for a PIN (no swiping here) was triggered by the amount being over a limit until a lady at the supermarket told me as I muttered profanities at the machine when I couldn't remember my PIN.

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I wasn't aware that the prompt for a PIN (no swiping here) was triggered by the amount being over a limit until a lady at the supermarket told me as I muttered profanities at the machine when I couldn't remember my PIN.

I remember swiping. Isn't that an archaic leftover from non-chipped cards?

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I remember swiping. Isn't that an archaic leftover from non-chipped cards?

Machines here generally still have the swipe option. Don't know if that's in case anyone has an d card, or if they just haven't gotten new machines in a long time

[cromag]

Stores in my area have readers that have the insert and possibly tap options for chip-equipped cards (typically credit and debit cards) and a strip reader for other cards (typically store loyalty cards).