I would like everyone's opinion on this story. Plus you get to play a cop

Personally I don't go into a business 5 min to close, and try to avoid 10 min like the plague, since I understand employees want to go home, but if somebody decides to come in before you lock the door, you just have to live with it.

 

Picking up your pet is a little different than just wanting to buy a new pair of jeans.

 

I find fault with the customer for showing up right before 5 pm and I also find fault with the vet for being too strict on the 5 pm rules. If people working at the vet cannot exercise common sense and loosely adhere to the rule with a +/- 5 minute buffer for the sake of the customers they serve, then I as customer would not do business with them again even if I had been going to the vet for years. Vets are already crooks in how they mark up their medicines and such. Then, they want to pull this crap, too. No way.

Going to the vet should be as painless possible and it is their job to make it a comfortable experience...not create problems with the customer over some stupid rule where two different clocks come down to the vet going with their clock. Are you kidding me? There would have to be a very good reason for them to pull that...especially if I had been sinking hundreds of dollars over the years spent on vet visits. They lost a customer and lost that customer's money going forward. Does that make it worth it? I doubt it. The negative reviews and word of mouth will probably cost them more customers as well.

 

In the situation described in the op the store clock was wrong. An operating business should not make this mistake especially when penalties are involved.

 

Whatever happened to customer is always right?

 

While I don't doubt that sentiment is common among retailers (or people who do shift work in general), the counter-point is that that manager's attitude is horrible to people who have limited time to run errands. I'm in med school and I've definitely had to leave work early and haul ass to complete an errand only to barely make it at closing time or not at all.

In my field we don't get to say "oh you're bleeding but its after hours, go home and come back tomorrow". People b**** about how surly doctors can be but often they're no better themselves.

 

To be fair, it was only wrong "according to the customer". Perhaps the manager looked at her own phone and the time matched what the office clock said? The account is clearly told with a pro-customer point of view and if it is accurate then the manager was very short sighted in getting one $25 fee at the cost of losing a customer and any friends of that customer, plus this bad word of mouth. But it is also possible that if we heard the story from the manager's point of view things would be seen completely different. If it was 5:05 and that time matched the manager's phone time, and her computer time, and the customer was rude, disrespectful, or threatening then perhaps calling the police to resolve the issue looks more reasonable.

 

She extra dyke.

 

Legally, no. The cop is no position to tell the vet to waive the fee and in no position to tell the customer to pay the fee. Once he found out what the dispute was about, he should have simply left.

Business-wise, yes everyone agrees it was a terrible decision. Even if the store clock was right, no fee should be charged for being 5 minutes late. Calling the cops just adds insult to injury.

As for Ras not wanting to get his friend fired -- the dude deserves to be fired. Don't blame the manager for taking a reasonable course of action.

 

Reminds me of a time I went to a UPS store to ship something important. I got there at 8:50PM (on the dot) and they closed at 9. The guy behind the counter was waiting on someone and told me "Sorry sir, we're closed". I told him look at the clock, he said sorry, closed. So I picked up a business card immediately emailed the manager (the hilarious part was the email was timestamped 8:58PM because I lived next door and got home in time to write it before the store was supposed to even be closed), she got back to me within seconds and apologized. Said it would never happen again, and gave me a lifetime discount for 10% off all of my shipping at that store. Good customer service goes a long way.

Now, if I had shown up to a retail store to "browse" or a restaurant to eat with 10 minutes til closing, then yeah, I'd be a douche... but this pet pickup stuff couldn't have taken all that long. No reason to be a hard ass over a few seconds/dollars.

 

I can't believe in today's economy there are still people like this knuckle head manager and the invisible vet/owner. My staff goes out of their way to help our patients even if it means staying late an extra 1/2 hour, they know they will be handsomely rewarded at the end of the year. My staff has been with me for years and I have very little turnovers.

I know customers/patients etc.... can be dicks, but look at the alternative, you will not be in business without them!

 

Sadly there is too much shift-work in this country that dis-incentivizes going the extra mile.

 

I'll bet all this fussing made the animal feel really good.

 

The manager is right, but at the same time the manager is an idiot.

 

As others have said, if you are a cop, there's really nothing you can do relating to the $25 fee. All you can do is try to mediate so they don't assault eachother. That being said as a COP, you uphold the authority of the store owner in his own store.

 

You realize most cell phones have the same time bc of towers which generally also coincides with the time on your cable box and computer. Again, an operating business should use the right local time.

 

fix'd

 

I can't believe people actually take their pets to the vet. They're animals for Christ's sake! In fact, the idea of people owning other living creatures is sort of disturbing...

 

Who is a more attractive woman, the customer or the manager? I can't answer this question without that important information.

 

Synchronize your watch to time on their clock or at least note the time difference.

But this seems like a judge's or collection agent's problem.