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Perhaps you need a small child at home, yourself, to deal with such customers, rather than your wife dealing with them directly!

"...what!? Is this the oboe? Looks pretty big! It's a bassoon!? Wow! ... Now which key? This one? This one? What about this note? I know when I use that one my uncle bloke always yells at me and makes me sit in the 'time-out' chair... "

Bloke, you're not alone.

At the store I'm working, we are constantly harassed by people wanting directions. Not being from the area myself, one of the main tasks in getting acclimated to my new position was learning how to give directions to the store from everywhere I will give them the fact that we're in the school business, so most of our customers only access us through their school, but why can't they use the internet to find their route???

bloke wrote:The last people that did this to us merely had to follow the incredible simply route laid out below:

- Go north for a bit on the 10-lane main drag, Hwy 177 ("Germantown Road").
- Turn east on Hwy 193 ("Macon Road") and go east forever until they got to our place.

Perhaps you needed to put in some of those "country-fied" land marks like:

Past where the barn burned down back in 1985....

Turn Right once you pass where old man Johnson used to plant his cotton....

If ya get to the state line, for gosh sake turn 'round cause ya went too far...

Bloke,
Maybe she was just afraid to talk on the cell phone while driving. The safety first folks are continuously hammering that home. I am an insurance agent. A couple of years ago I called a client on his cell phone. He was in heavy traffic and refused to talk to me, said he would pull over and call me back. I didn't hear from him for a long time. When he finally called it was to report an accident. The fool had cut in front of a semi in his haste to get off the interstate and got run over. She is probably lucky the kid didn't direct her into the path of an oncoming train.

Strikes me that if you want someones business you should be willing to give them directions.

I guess it sucks that she used her kid instead of talking to you on the phone herself, but better you and or your wife be a little flustered than this lady and her kid die in a wreck.

the elephant wrote: If you want to purchase something at a store it is not the shop owner's responsibility to get you there. It is the shop owner's responsibility to run the shop.

Hmmmm.....

Makes ya wonder why advertising is a multi-billion dollar biz.

Come on. If you want business, it is up to you, Mr. Business Owner, to get them there...or they will go to the other Mr. Business owner who is willing to. Unless you think business is sitting alone in your shop with a host of unsold wares there is absolutely no choice.

Was Joe's client brain-dead, rude, un-prepared, or whatever other deroratory adjective you want to use?...OF COURSE...but if you run a business that caters in any way to the general public you better freakin' get used to it.

Some folks need to learn how to wipe their own butts.

Sure they do, but as successful as my business was (and it was), I never turned away a customer because they were stupid. Their money was as good as anybody's.

If that doesn't work for you...get out of any business dealing with the general public. Deal only with schools, institutions, or whatever. BUT, I am willing to bet you will still find a certain percentage of morons. It is part of the game.

I can relate story after story of idiot customers from my years in the campground industry. One lady stuck her finger in my face and said "Do you know you have OAK TREES? Their g*dd*m acorns are falling on my Lexus and what are you going to do about it?" I told her that our campground was indeed wooded, with many beautiful oaks and that I was not about to do a thing. It was part of camping.

Others complained of skunks and racoons. I gave them the same answer. Still another tried to sue because he was stung by a bee while hiking outdoors on the campground. It was thrown out of court.

Ultimately, however, all their money spent just fine and has left me able to live my life comfortably and in the fashion I choose. What is more, each time one of them called me to ask how to get there I cheerfully told them. I was glad for their patronage. Even the stupid ones.

My point. There are plenty of idiots out there. As one Tubenetter's sigature points out "Half of all people are below average." If you are going to do business with the public...get used to it.

I think everybody is right!

...in an ideal world.

Ideally, Bloke should be able to run his shop without having to give directions to anybody.

Ideally, every customer will look up directions to where they were going beforehand.

Ideally, mapquest wil actually give right goddam directions!

But that's not how it is. Some people will get their directions before hand and get to Bloke's place just fine and dandy. Other will get directions and get lots anyways. And then others will rely on directions from Bloke. If Bloke wants to business, then he should give them directions and help them get there.

That doesn't mean he has to like it! Especially when some punk kid is calling you every 5 minutes to ask for directions he already has and is going the correct direction.

I think the real question is, why is that kid using a cell phone? Doesn't his mother know that'll give him cancer or something...

One would think you'd have no trouble finding the pond stocked with basses. I'd think that the necks sticking out of the water would be quite a sight.

I know. when I'm hanging out with my friends their parents won't stop calling. Mine can't, so HA.

Or just put it on vibrate when in the company of others and check to see if you missed a called from resident hottie later. Otherwise, if its your folks or someone in your crew, just hit them up later.