Well, I was EXTREMELY busy today, I mean it was the kind of business where you know you're not going to get it all done but you work frantically anyway.
So Patricia (the electronics woman) calls me over there and guess what! It's her break time. I get to stand there and watch "Waterworld" again (again with no sound).
After a loooong time of me just standing there, a bunch of customers come swarming into the department and they had me! It's amazing how they don't even wait until I can help them...all three of them were diving in at once trying to get me to help them!
So I'm running frantically around electronics trying to help these people. One guy wants to look at a watch from the case, and another guy wants a TV, and ANOTHER guy wants a smaller LCD 8 inch that's in the OTHER showcase.
So I get the guy his watch, and then I find the TV in the boxes for the other guy...and then I know nothing about the LCD, so I run to the pager. Well, it had been about 30 minutes so I paged Patricia. When she answered, I just asked her about the 8 inch, and she told me where they were (in the showcase). So I showed the customer where it was, and he asked if we had any in stock sale (the one in the case is just on display; the ones we sell we keep in the back).
So I paged Patricia again and asked what I was supposed to do to get the customer the LCD (remember, I'm doing my best but I don't know anything about electronics). She sighs and says she'll get it from the security room and be right there. Now I looked at my watch and it was definitely past 30 minutes, so her break was over anyway.
So while she's heading back up there, the other guy is grabbing his TV in the box (we had those stocked actually in the department), so I have to help him, and then the watch guy comes back and says that wasn't the watch he wanted!!! So I tell him I'll be right back, and help the TV guy, and then come back to the watch guy...and he says he'll take it anyway.
So I'm ready to shoot myself at this point.
So just as Patricia's showing up with the LCD, I get paged that a customer needs assistance in MY department (and I was the only one working there tonight)....
Ahhhh, the wondrous world of working retail... You are giving me some serious flashbacks here!!!
Patricia sounds like a real winner. Can you be conveniently unavailable when she pages you next time? I'd have a little chat with her about how your day went and that you can't cover for her until she changes her tune. If she goes into Denial Land, I'd talk to your manager about her little games.