We advertised this new Acer laptop in our weekly circular. It's nothing special, 14 in screen, 256MB RAM, 40gb HDD, 1.5GHz Celeron, but the allure of it that the price was $480 flat. No rebates, no bullshit. And the fact the thing looks pretty spiffy. For people that are casual computer users, this is an awesome value. We recieved 40 of laptops last morning(and 30 of one laptop is friggin insane, we usually have no more 10) just in time for the sale. Like the XBOX360, people were lined up outside the store before the store opened. 10AM, people rushed in and bought the laptops. First come, first serve.
Now, if you're a regular shopper at a store like this, you'd have enough common sense to realize that a laptop on sale for less than $500 will not last past it's first day, hence why we recieved a whopping 40 of then. We were fresh out of the laptops by 11:30 that morning, an hour and a half after we opened. Fortunately, people that diddnt/couldnt arrive at the store on time(People in this town are pretty intelligent when it comes to shopping[wealthy], many of them are smart shoppers) had enough common sense to realize they wouldnt get the laptop until we restock later this week. They were nice enough to call first, were not upset, and understanding of the situation.
Except for one jackass.
A middle-aged guy came in at 8PM, pushed his way through the crowd in the camera department rather rudely, and saw me in the laptop aisle, and started yelling "Hey!! Give me this laptop!!!" while shoving the circular in my face and jabbing the picture with his finger. Me and the other associates were with other customers, so I had to ask him to wait. He wouldnt have it. He whined and said "Forget this schmuck, I'm buying something". The woman I was helping became furious, blasted on him, and put the ass in his place. I finsiehd up with her litterally 4 min later, and flagged the guy down. He went back to jabbing the circular. Since I already knew, I had to tell him we were out of stock, and he would have to wait until we recieved more of the laptop(and also the 6 closest stores were out), which would at best be Tuesday or Wednesday. He instantly accused me and the store of a deliberate bait and switch, and demanded to speak to the manager. I let him know he'd recieve the the same response, so I called my manager. One thing about my manager, he dosent buckle down to anyone. He's by-the-book, and wont take garbage from anyone.
He came over, and told him the same news. We're out of stock, and we will be recieving more later in the week for the same price. He threw his circular at him, cussed insanely, and spouted out
"HOW CAN YOU ADVERTISE SOMETHING YOU DONT HAVE?!?!?! I'M CALLING THE BBB, THIS IS ILLEGAL!!!"
Being out of stock on an item is not illegal. You missed out.
Now, someone this guy's age should have some common sense. We advertised the laptop, it was a closeout sale, we HAD the laptops here ready for sale, and we simply ran out. I explained this to him and the fact that we had THIRTY ready to go today, and that he was just untimely and he'd have to wait. He wouldnt take it, and demanded he get one of the laptops, or he would not leave the store and threatened to interfere with us until he did. My manager had to explain the entire concept three times before shouting "We cant make a laptop appear out of thin air. We had them, we sold out, you'll have to wait till Tuesday. Sorry, I'm sorry, but theres nothing else I can say." He still wouldnt have it. He then demanded to get a $1500 Toshiba laptop as compensation for the same price. Incredible.
We then asked him to leave the store, and call Circuit City's main number if he had any more disputes, as he was interrupting and disturbing other customers(who ere getting pissed with this guy). He then punched the display model(which amazingly diddnt break), called me a "theiving n*igger" then the manager a "balding a*shole sp*c", tore our name tags off, and stormed out of the store, pushing us and other customers(including an old lady with a cane who had to be at least 80) aside. He was harassing the store with phone calls the next morning for quite a while, some of them threats. Over a laptop he'd would have been able to get today without any trouble.
And we were being polite with this guy.
