Customers

Yesterday an interesting thing happened. A customer came in and dropped off a machine for me to look at, I wasn't too thrilled because it dealt with printer software, and it was a very old machine. The customer seemed fine leaving it for me to get around to because we were busy so I put it away. Almost immediately it slowed down so I decided to take a look at it, quickly discovering more work needed to be done. I was feeling bored so I dove in and got it up and running again. I called, let them know it was ready to pick up, and they came in right away. I explained what I did, said the hard drive was probably on its way out, and handed over their computer. As I expected they asked me what the bill came to and I told them not to worry about it, that it wasn't a big deal. Usually I'll do this because I'm lazy, but I think I somehow hope that they'll see my gratuity as an excuse to show a little gratuity towards me with a small recompense compared to the large fee our store would charge them. Well this is rare to say the least, in fact today was the first time it happened. The gentleman said something about not believing in a free lunch, and asked his wife to offer me a tip, she reached in and grabbed a 5er. This was cool, it really wasn't a big deal, I didn't exert too much effort into fixing his machine and you know, everything helps! Well today an even more unexpected thing happened, the customer called me up and immediately asked "honestly how much time did you spend on fixing my computer"? Now this concerned me, because this has happened before, and every time it's an irate customer that feels they've been shorthanded. Well this guy never ceases to surprise me. I covered myself with a basic answer saying I'd only spent half an hour to an hour, thus allowing me an out if he said I didn't do a very good job. Well he then proceeds to ask me what our hourly rate is, still leery I told him $95 an hour for the trained technician labor, and $50 for in-store service. He then begins to tell me that he feels that I deserve more recompense for my time, he said that if they had been carrying more cash they would have given me a larger amount, and that he's going to send a check to me. This knocked me off my feet, finally, a customer who understands what it's about. I don't even care about the money  it's the idea that a customer would see the situation for what it is, and value my services enough to honor them in that way. Very cool experience, and it almost combats the whole swarm of crummy experiences this economy is rearing on the retail environment. Customers thinking that in this economy retail stores are out to get them, trying to cheat them out of their hard earned money more, because we're doomed or something. It's experiences like this that make me keep my job, keep on keeping on, doing services and being rewarded.