BuT iT's OnLy FiVe MiNuTeS

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mari79

New member
I must be the meanest, most heartless groomer in the world...

Anyway, I take a phone call and it's a woman calling to say she'd be five minutes late to her appointment. Mind you, she's calling at her scheduled appointment time. Now she wasn't my client, but her groomer was jam packed with dogs today. I'm talking 15 or so dogs on her schedule. So I tell her to hold for a second while I speak with her groomer. Tell my coworker her 12 is gonna be late and she tells me to tell her reschedule. I'm more than happy to, seeing as no call/no show, call when I'm supposed to be there, or blatantly late clients is the bane of my existence.

So I let her know that unfortunately, she would have to reschedule as she is late for her appointment and her groomer had an absolutely packed schedule. Well, this was obviously not what she wanted to hear.

"But, my appointment is at 12"

"Yes, I understand, but you are technically late for your appointment and your groomer is fully booked up for today"

"But I confirmed my appointment and made it yesterday, I-I'm in the parking lot right now. I don't understand why I have to reschedule, I want to speak with -groomers name-. I'm here for my appointment"

Me, losing my patience, "again, you are not physically here for your appointment, there for you're late. You're welcome to discuss this with your groomer when you walk into the store. Ok, thank you, buh bye".

I informed my manager of the situation and she agreed to handle it. About 10 minutes after I hung up (oh gee, sure is a long time to turn your car off and walk in the store), she walks up and opens the door to announce herself while I'm helping another customer. We only allow one family/customer at a time in the check in cuz of covid.

"Hi, I'm here for my appointment with (let's just call her...Julie)"

"Hi, yes, I'll just have you wait outside on the line and I'll be right with you"

"Yeah, but I'm here for my appointment, with Julie at 12"

Not being the best customer service representative tone, "yep, I'm helping this gentleman right now, so can I please have you wait outside? Thank you"

She huffs and waits outside while I grab my manager. She wanted me there in case this lady tried to lie about anything and I was fine with that. So she gets called in, do the whole back and forth about why she's being rescheduled. In my mind I'm thinking "what part of you being late do you not understand??". As she's explaining herself, she had the AUDACITY to say "it's only five minutes, it's not a big deal you know? That's what I was trying to tell HER" as she points at me.

At this point because I was getting heated, I decided to go in the back before I Spartan kicked her through the glass door. What really got me at the end of all this, was that JULIE STILL TOOK HER DOG IN. I...I had no words.
I asked my manager why she doesn't just turn people like that away and her response was "well, people like that turn into complaints". Plus she said the lady even joked with her, saying "oh, well I was actually 10 minutes late, teehee" and getting on me for her being late. Ugh

Maybe I'm just too impatient of a person to understand why these people get rewarded for their behavior. Any other day I wouldn't have seen a problem with this lady being "5" minutes late (she was actually 15 minutes, but you get the gist). Just the fact that this groomer had such a large volume of dogs, made me think she would want EVERYONE to be on time.

I really am just the biggest meanie McMeanie groomer
 
@mari79 Personally I would have allowed five minutes, but having been told by the person actually grooming the dog that they weren't ok with five minutes, I would have done exactly what you did. It wasn't up to you to make the decision, it was up to the groomer, and you followed what you were told to do. Julie made you look stupid by then taking the dog when it was because of her that you were saying you couldn't
 
@rickt65 That's my thought too. She was already overbooked with dogs, so turning someone away for being late isn't a problem. I just don't understand why she caved
 
@mari79 I wish my receptionists would even ask me, they Check In dogs that are 30 minutes late on a 1hr appointment, they’re not groomers but a late appointment (even by 5 minutes) can set me back half an hour for the rest of my dogs that day
 
@ljmaxalot We don't have a receptionist, though I wish we did. I always make it a point to tell new people that they should ask us about a client that calls to be late. So far our new girl will come in and ask us how we want to deal with our late customer if they call/show up late
 
@mari79 I hate it when my coworkers make me stand up for them against their customers, but then immediately cave like a spineless coward when dealing directly with these same clients. Then they complain about how behind they are!! Like come on dude I don't wanna hear it, you just made me look like a time nazi.
 
@skyrue I honestly have no issues with being a time Nazi. The way I see it, if a customer is giving me a courtesy call ahead of their appointment, that's absolutely fine with me. I don't mean call at the time you're supposed to be here either. You were told what time to be there, agreed and then for some reason are just leaving when you're supposed to be walking into my check in. I start being mean when you show up 20 minutes late and expect me to still take you in. I hate the ones that come in late and then want they're dog done in a rush.

Not sure about anyone else, but I allow at least a 10 minute grace period for them to show up, 15 if I'm in a really good mood and being particularly slow. I just don't understand people
 
@mari79 I'm fine with 5 minutes.

Anything after 10 you get a free pass IF I'm not busy.

But if you keep doing it, then no. I'm not taking you 15 min late because all that teaches people is that it's okay to do that because their dog will still get groomed.
 
@mari79 I also would have allowed 5 minutes but it was obvious that she wasn’t actually going to be only 5 minutes late (they never are lol). People who get away with being late will do it over and over again. If someone complains you can always reply to the complaint nicely explaining that she was late and you cannot take late appointments, as it puts all the other appointments behind. level minded customers would understand. Sooo i would also be very annoyed that your manager took them in anyway lol.
 
@cglil In my experience, when they call at their appointment time and say "I'll just be five minutes!" It usually means more because they're JUST leaving their house. It's more believable if it's a couple minutes or so before their appointment and they say that.

In that scenario, for my customers, I'll give them ten minutes from the time I hang up or however long they said, not usually more than 15 minutes. If they come in later than that, sorry but you'll have to reschedule
 
@mari79 This person will continue to take advantage because yall let her get away with it. I openly admit I am a bitch and don’t let people walk over me. You get 1 free pass after that I am done with you. Groomers get numerous calls a day from new people…you don’t have to put up with the likes of her:
 
@mari79 Honestly if you start turning away every late client you might notice a dip in your paycheck. How many times in your personal life is a friend late to a hangout? To me its more often that not. Some people have lives that they haven't figured out how to be punctual in, we are all trying.

I suppose I wonder how much it really hurts you and why. Obviously you get upset as a reaction, but whats the emotion behind it? Fear? If you're worried about it effecting your workload, just reaffirm that you didn't do anything wrong, do the best you can to get the work done now with the time you have. If you don't get that last 5 minutes of brushing in, the pet parent is probably happier with that rather than nothing at all.

Tl;dr adults are late alot, keep your chin up and do your best to be a calm and rational person king Leonidas.
Edit: some spelling
 
@annalee Dude I panic and apologize profusely if I'm THREE minutes late for an appointment. It's possible and expected for adults to be punctual. I don't see why clients don't pay our schedule the same respect as they would anyone else who requires appointments.
 
@annalee It's not really fear or anything. If we're looking for an emotion, it's mostly anger and annoyance. It's not that hard to be cordial and I will bend over backwards for clients that actually respect my time and don't jerk me around. This, on the other hand, I find disrespectful and then now I have to rush because you made me fall behind? No.

It wasn't even my dog to begin with. I was just the messenger for another groomer. Say it was my dog and I did as you said and didn't do that last 5 minutes of brushing. Do you really think this client would've been happy they're dog isn't brushed out? I've had too many experiences where I have done all I can for say even a stressed out dog and gotten chewed out because it's not "perfect".

At the end of the day, this is a business and I provide a service. If you don't have the courtesy to be a decent human and client, then they can be referred somewhere else that will better accommodate them. The principle is more important to me than the coin. Not too mention if you're making your groomer feel rushed, that's a situation where accidents could happen
 
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