One of these bands is coming to my city in November, and there are some shows going on this weekend that they wanted to make sure the venue had materials for, since they are groups this band has played with in the past, thus they share common fans. They didn't get things shipped in time to make it to the venue for the weeekend, so they called me and asked if they could internet an order to the Kinko's of my choice. By placing an internet order they were able to put it in my name but pay for it themselves thus eliminating the need to hang on to receipts and be reimbursed later etc. and so on. My job? Pick up materials. Take what I wanted for throwing up around the city. Deliver the rest to the club manager.
The order was supposed to contain handbills (four to a sheet of standard paper) and 11 x 17's. They told me the numbers for each but I didn't bother to write them down because since the order was placed already I didn't think I'd need to know. I called them about an hour before my order was due to be ready just to verify that I could pick them up at any time after that. The person on the other end asked me right away if my name was Shelly, and informed me that the order was ready.
A couple of hours later, I go to said Kinko's. I had spoken with a female on the phone, but the only person currently in the store was a male. I give him my full name for the order, and he stares at me blankly. He asks what the order was supposed to contain. I tell him handbills and 11x17 tour posters. He asks what a handbill is. Now, I don't expect everyone to know what a handbill is, but if you work for a company that pretty much does printing, printing, and more printing, I absolutely do not understand how you don't know what a handbill is.
Mind you, this entire time he's made no motion to actually go look through any processed orders to see if mine is one of them. He then asks if it was possibly under a company name. It wasn't, and I know this because the band member I had spoken with earlier forwarded me the email confirmation, stating it was in my name. However I say, well you could try [band name]. Suddenly he recgonizes my order, I suppose because [band name] was all over the printed materials. Still not understanding why he didn't bother to check any of the orders until now, but at least we've finally gotten somewhere.
He hands me an 8x7 box. I open it, to find that the handbills are not cut. I mention this, and he, once again When I ask for the rest of my order (the 11 x 17's), he has no idea what I'm talking about. So now, knowing that the *correct* order had already been charged to the band, I spend the next 10 minutes trying to track down my contact to verify how many of each item we were supposed to have. In the mean time, the lone Kinko's employee wandered back and fiddled with a machine, as there was nobody else in the store. I finally verify that it was supposed to be 250 handbill sheets (making 1000 handbills) and 100 11 x 17's.
While I was on the phone, I started absently flipping through the handbill sheets in front of me, as it was something to play with. I happened to catch one that one side was very faded out as if the machine was running out of toner, thus rendering two of the handbills completely useless. This caused me to flip through the entire stack, where I found no less than 30 sheets that were like this. So, as I'm still talking to my contact, I'm also pulling the bad sheets out of the stack and setting them on the counter. I get off of the phone having gotten all of the information I needed. Being the only person in the store, I wait. And wait. And then I wait some more. Lone Kinko's employee continues to fiddle with something in the back. I finally say "excuse me", and he lets out a loud sigh before trudging his way back up to speak with me. I let him know what the order was supposed to contain. He leafs through some things, and what to you know, he finds the order.
He runs off my 11 x 17's, and I remind him that the handbills were supposed to be cut, and that I will need the bad copies replaced. At this point he has gotten absolutely huffy with me, for requesting things that were PART OF AN ORDER THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN PAID FOR! GRR!
Overall, what should have been a 2 minute trip to Kinko's considering the order should have been finished and paid for, was nearly a 25 minute ordeal. That in itself would have even been ok since it *was* righted, if the clerk didn't have an absolute snarky as hell attitude the entire time. This is not the first problem I've had with this particular Kinko's, and although it has been awhile since my last visit, I think the last problematic visit was the same employee. I'm almost positive of it.
Arghrmph!