Amnesia at the Photo Counter
•Tuesday- Toward the beginning of my shift, an older woman came in to pick up her pictures. She told me her last name and I checked the bin for her pictures, nothing out of the ordinary. I checked the bin where her pictures should have been- nothing. I looked in all the other bins and around the photo lab- still nothing. I told her I didn't see anything and she started to get a little huffy with me. She told her story: She was trying to use the Kodak Picture Maker and was unhappy with the quality of her print (one of the photos on the 8x10 came out the right size but two did not). An employee offered to redo the picture for her but, since the customer was in a rush to get to work, the employee needed to keep the customer's original photos at the store and the customer would have to come back for her originals and the redone photo at another time. The employee allowed the customer to take the unsatisfactory print home with her. This took place on either Thursday or Friday between 2 and 3 in the afternoon, according to the customer. She described the employee as "a tall, white female with short, light hair." I went through, with the customer, every unclaimed picture we had in the lab and also all of our waste prints from the last few weeks (a total of a few hundred pictures) in case hers got mixed in with them. Nothing came up. The whole time she was saying "That girl that helped me was an airhead. I knew I shouldn't have left my pictures with her," and she made comments implying that we were incompetent for losing her photos. I got her work number and offered to do everything I could to locate her photos.
I called her later in my shift to update her with the progress I had made. One of the managers checked the security tapes from Thursday and Friday and couldn't find anything on it. The customer then told me she might've come in on Saturday. I asked the only employee that matched her description if she helped anyone with photos and she said no. I told her she could talk to a girl working the morning shift in the photo lab the next day in case she was the employee that helped her.
•Wednesday- When I walked in the door at 2pm, the customer was standing at the photo counter talking to the girl who worked the morning shift. This was not the girl that helped her. This time when the customer came in, she brought back the print she was not satisfied with. It was in an envelope from another drug store. Before I came in, the girl working asked if maybe she had originally gone to that other store instead. The customer replied, "I'm not senile! I know what store I went to!" I also asked if she had gone there and she said it was just an old envelope she kept her pictures in. She also had some more information for me- she told me she was also helped by the "sassy black girl" that works at my store. Since the "sassy black girl" wasn't working, my last option was to look at the tape from Saturday to see if I could find anything.
After finding nothing on the tape, I figured I'd walk down to the other drug store and see if they knew anything about this lady's pictures. As soon as I started telling an employee about this customer, he knew exactly who I was talking about. The employee described her perfectly and even knew where she worked. He told me she had done the exact same thing at his store (tried to make a print, had to leave her original pictures, etc.) and he also had to tear apart his photo lab looking for her photos. Another employee knew the customer's last name and told me she had, in fact, come in that day to pick up pictures.
Since I still had the customer's number, I figured I'd give her a call to let her know I'd solved the mystery of her missing pictures. When I talked to her on the phone, she acted like the nicest customer in the world. She told me she finally figured out that she had gone to the other store instead and she meant to call to tell me. She commended me for my thorough work and she even apologized for bad-mouthing my imaginary employee.
I still can't figure out if she was a wannabe scam artist, an extremely forgetful person, or just a plain old nutjob.
I called her later in my shift to update her with the progress I had made. One of the managers checked the security tapes from Thursday and Friday and couldn't find anything on it. The customer then told me she might've come in on Saturday. I asked the only employee that matched her description if she helped anyone with photos and she said no. I told her she could talk to a girl working the morning shift in the photo lab the next day in case she was the employee that helped her.
•Wednesday- When I walked in the door at 2pm, the customer was standing at the photo counter talking to the girl who worked the morning shift. This was not the girl that helped her. This time when the customer came in, she brought back the print she was not satisfied with. It was in an envelope from another drug store. Before I came in, the girl working asked if maybe she had originally gone to that other store instead. The customer replied, "I'm not senile! I know what store I went to!" I also asked if she had gone there and she said it was just an old envelope she kept her pictures in. She also had some more information for me- she told me she was also helped by the "sassy black girl" that works at my store. Since the "sassy black girl" wasn't working, my last option was to look at the tape from Saturday to see if I could find anything.
After finding nothing on the tape, I figured I'd walk down to the other drug store and see if they knew anything about this lady's pictures. As soon as I started telling an employee about this customer, he knew exactly who I was talking about. The employee described her perfectly and even knew where she worked. He told me she had done the exact same thing at his store (tried to make a print, had to leave her original pictures, etc.) and he also had to tear apart his photo lab looking for her photos. Another employee knew the customer's last name and told me she had, in fact, come in that day to pick up pictures.
Since I still had the customer's number, I figured I'd give her a call to let her know I'd solved the mystery of her missing pictures. When I talked to her on the phone, she acted like the nicest customer in the world. She told me she finally figured out that she had gone to the other store instead and she meant to call to tell me. She commended me for my thorough work and she even apologized for bad-mouthing my imaginary employee.
I still can't figure out if she was a wannabe scam artist, an extremely forgetful person, or just a plain old nutjob.