Customer Service

[Skarloth]

Customer Service Customer service is the provision of service or aid to customers before, during and after a purchase. Chapter one: A new Job. Tanma rolled over in bed as an alarm clock next to him blared, signaling the start of a not-so beautiful day. Tanma punched the clock, attempting to get it to stop its noise, but it appeared previous button mashing prevented the machine from stopping the noise. “You wanna play that way?” Tanma found himself saying, yawning afterwards. He ripped his bedding off of himself in anger, and tossed his legs over the side of the bed to get into a sitting position. He then glared at the alarm clock next to him, blaring and yelling; Tanma reached over, and picked the machine up, yanking its cord out of the wall, and effectively ending the horrible noise. Yes, today was going to be a very peaceful one. ~~~ Tanma walked down the sidewalk of a street named Makuta, cars populated the road, so walking there was not an option. Sadly, mobs or people populated the sidewalks, so walking was very little of an option there. Tanma, already angry from his event with the alarm clock, and the toaster, and the sink, broke free from the mob, and ran into the road. Thankfully, the traffic on the road was so packed; he had to squeeze between cars to get through. As the traffic slowly inched forward, Tanma ran down the open middle of the road, making his way towards his destination; Brickmart. “Okay… just a few more blocks, and I should be there,” the green Matoran said to himself, slipping out of the traffic-plagued road, and back onto a clearer sidewalk. Tanma could see the building in sight, his job interview awaited; he quickly ran the questions on the entry form through his mind, coming up with answers for each question over and over again. “Okay, you can do this, Tanma,” the Matoran told himself. ~~~ “You’re hired. Baggage boy,” the Matoran (who seemed rather annoyed) behind the counter said. Tanma was confused, he looked at the Matoran, “What? But, I didn’t even fill out the application yet! I haven’t even met the manager, or gotten myself familiarized with the store even,” the Matoran of light complained. “Alright, kid, since I’m a nice person, and I care about people,” the Matoran behind the counter said in his usual low tone of voice, “I’m going to explain to you how things work here, and it can all be explained in one, simple word; dysfunctional.” Tanma’s face remained contorted with confusion, “Dys… functional?” he asked, and the other Matoran nodded, “That’s what this place is, and currently, your pay is seven widgets an hour. Darn that minimum wage, we would cut pay so hard if that didn’t exist,” the Matoran said, leaving Tanma shocked, and still confused. “Well what are you waiting for, a raise? Go get to work, baggage boy,” the Matoran (who will now be named Henry) said with what Tanma guessed was a laugh. Tanma was given (or thrown, is more the word) his work cloths, which consisted of nothing more than a blue store apron, with a badge that read ‘Worker’. Tanma sighed for the third time that day, as he put on the apron, and walked over one of the seven bagging areas (number seven to be exact). With a dull mindset, and slow pace, the depressed Matoran began to bag groceries that came his way. ~~~ Tanma continued to bag food products, including the occasional toy or DVD that was mixed in with said food. He picked up a loaf of bread lazily, stuffing it into a bag neatly, followed by another, and then other light food products such as hot dog buns and other foods that were packaged in bags of plastic. The Toa operating the cash register next to him poked Tanma, causing the Matoran to react. Tanma started, turning to look at the Toa who poked him, “What was that for?” he asked the rather short black Toa. “Heh, you’re new here, don’t mind me, I just had to make sure you weren’t some kind of drone from the Order or something,” the Toa said with a slight smile. But, wait, what? How did this Toa know about the Order of Mata Nui? Tanma shrugged the thought off as he spoke to the Toa, “Well, I’m not, but please don’t poke me anymore,” he said, turning back to his job. As he carried on, the black Toa waited until a low point in activity struck the store, fewer customers came to their lane, and the Toa was able to talk to his new baggage boy for once. “I’m Lyke,” the Toa said, extending his hand to shake Tanma’s. The Matoran shook Lyke’s hand, “I’m Tanma,” he said, looking around the store for any coming customers. Lyke spoke again when none arrived, “I think you’ll like it here, even if it is a little out of shape,” the Toa said, turning to a customer. Tanma shrugged, “Maybe…” he said, as he began to bag the customer’s items. ~~~ Tanma rubbed his eyes, yawning as he did so, he turned to Lyke, “I’m going home now, my shift is long over anyway,” he said, and Lyke nodded, “A’ight, see you tomorrow, Tanma.” The green Matoran stumbled over to where he was apparently ‘hired’, speaking to Henry, “I’m going home now…” he said, handing in his work ‘clothing’. Henry half nodded, paying more attention to a screen than Tanma, the green Matoran then left the store, walking back towards his apartment. It was a letdown to him, he had been expecting better from the store, better staff, cleaner store, he would have liked to become a stocker or maybe even one of the people who unloaded the goods from the trucks; but instead, he had been left to be a baggage boy. The green Matoran of light went back home, tired, and disheartened by his experience at Brickmart. He doubted the next day at work would be any better. -End Word Count - 991 Alrighty then, this is kind of a test of sorts, just to see what you all think of the idea. I know its short, and I know there isn’t much to it, but consider this a prologue. The next chapter won’t be as boring, I promise. -Skar

[Voltex]

It was pretty good. Could use a little more comedy, but other than that I think you've got a really good idea. -ibrow

[Zeppelin]

Seemed pretty interesting. It had its funny moments and all, but nothing that was too laugh out loud. Of course this is only the first chapter so it's okay. For some reason, I really like the setting and the characters so far, so I guess you're doing good there.

[Rarity]

I liked it even though it had almost no jokes. Just add more comedy into it, and you'll have yourself a winner.

[Skarloth]

@Everyone: Yes, definitely, the next chapter will be funnier. I'm glad this got seen, and not thrown to the back of the forum pages. XP -Skar

[MT Zehvor]

It's definitely got potential. Can't say much more than what's already been said. -MT

[Skarloth]

Customer ServiceChapter Two: Meet the ManagerThe caped being strode down a long hallway, his cape billowing behind him in a menacing fashion; he stared down all that passed him with piercing red eyes that spoke death and pain.He came upon the end of the hallway, in front of him a black door with a white handle; the being reached out, and grabbed hold of the handle, twisting it, and pushing the door open slowly. Without any hesitation, the being walked into the room, and closed the door behind him.“Finally, no more annoyances,” the being said as he walked onward, but before he got three steps forward, he felt a tight strain around his neck, which then turned into a force, and that force pulled him back, hard enough to make him fall on his back.The Skakdi wrestled and fought with the cape, believing it to be possessed or otherwise controlled by some evil source. He managed to rip the cape off of himself, and he scrambled up to his feet, breathing rapidly as he stared at the cape that lay on the floor.“That’ll teach you! Never mess with the Vezon!” the arrogant Skakdi said, as he began to stomp on the cape, ruffling it and mashing it, but doing little damage to the fabric. He failed to notice how the cape was caught in the door as he turned to walk over to his large and grandiose desk.The Skakdi sat down in his large black chair, smoke and fog billowing around the rather deadly looking room. “Now then, what to do…? Hrm, maybe I can boss around a few of me employees, or at least give them a hard time. Yeeeaaahhh… that seems like the most obvious choice right now,” Vezon said, standing up from his chair, and walking over to the door once again.Sadly, the door opened on him, and bashed into his jaw as somebody entered the room. Vezon was once again thrown to the ground by a force, and this time he went down with a broken tooth. He put both of his hands over his mouth, and kicked around the floor in a mad frenzy of pain. The person standing in the doorway was Raanu, who only sighed as he looked down upon his Assistant Manager. “Believe me, if there was anyone else to take the position…” Raanu said, holding his hand lightly over his face.Vezon stood up abruptly, saluting to the small Agori before him. “Sir, Assistant Manager Vezon reporting for duty, Sir!” the Skakdi said, it a tone of seriousness. Raanu glanced up in an annoyed way at Vezon, “Yes, yes, Vezon, just get back to work. There’s a problem with two customers on aisle seven, and I need you to go handle it,” Raanu said, hanging himself mentally for even THINKING about sending Vezon to solve a problem. But there just wasn’t anyone else.Vezon saluted once again, “Aye, aye, Cap’n!” the Skakdi said, running out of the room as fast as he could. Raanu watched in horror as the overly hyper Vezon rushed off to help customers in need. “What have I done?” he asked himself, leaving the darkened room to go to his own office.~~~Tanma placed an open bag inside one already open, and began to place canned goods inside said bag, stacking them neatly even though they would be knocked over when they were taken out of the cart, and placed inside the customer’s vehicle. He carefully placed the bag full of stacked canned goods inside the cart, quickly filling bags and placing other, lighter items around the canned goods.Lyke was curious about how Tanma operated, and after the customer left, he spoke to the Matoran, “I’ve noticed how much care you take in doing your work… why? There’s nothing special about placing bagged goods into a cart,” the Toa of darkness said, scanning items of the next customer, and passing them onto Tanma.“I don’t know, I just can’t help myself, call me obsessed all you want, but I like to organize things; even groceries,” the green Matoran said, once again organizing the cart of the customer as if limb and life were on the line. Lyke simply laughed it off, he figured that Tanma would grow out of this caring spree of his in a few days time; but there wasn’t anything wrong with a hard worker.“Well whatever your reasons are, you need to get it done quickly, since the line’s building up over here,” Lyke said, glancing over at the line of customers, in which five carts were already parked, blocking the path in front of the counters, and slowly backing up into an aisle. Tanma hurried up with his bagging techniques, and quickly loaded two carts, sending them on their way, and making the line shorter.“Why are you all coming to this lane? The lanes next to us are clear!” Lyke said to the customers, who realized their mistake and quickly changed counters. Lyke sighed, “Some people can be so ignorant sometimes,” he said, and Tanma half nodded, more interested in what he was bagging than what Lyke was saying to him.As Lyke turned to scan the next few items, a silver and black being rushed by, squeezing himself through the line to get to the aisles. Lyke sighed as he watched this, “That’s Vezon, our moron Assistant Manager,” Lyke said, turning back to the customer’s items.Tanma, however, was trying to get a better view of the fool, Vezon, who ran off down an aisle, out of sight. Tanma then went back to bagging food, with style.~~~The Toa of fire tugged on the box of cereal, while the Toa of water also tugged on it, “IT’S MINE, BRAKAS,” the Toa of fire shouted, prompting a hard tug from the Toa of water. “I HAD IT FIRST,” the Toa of water bellowed, causing the Toa of fire to yank hard on the box, nearly tearing it in the process.That was when Vezon walked in. “Never fear, Vezon the Piraka is here!” he shouted, and, given what Piraka translated to in Matoran, it didn’t produce the effect Vezon wanted. The two Toa glanced at Vezon for a confused second, and then resumed their fight over the box of cereal.Vezon, realizing he did not capture their full attention, frowned, and began to come up with a way to get their attention. Light bulb! He would take a shopping kart down to the end of the aisle, run until he got up to speed with it, hop inside the kart, and then just as he rushed by the two Toa, he would hop out, and nab their attention!He got the kart, he got to the end of the aisle, and as he ran, pushing the kart, he slowly got up to the speed he wanted, and then he hopped inside the kart, standing tall as he went flying down the aisle toward the two Toa.A few flaws in his plan showed their selves, and ripped his grand plan in two. First, the kart drifted right, leading the Skakdi slowly toward the large steel wall of food; second, he began to lose his balance, causing him to throw the kart further off its intended course.Not surprisingly, the Skakdi veered far off his original course, flying just barely past the two bickering Toa, and into the food rack; the kart doubled over, throwing Vezon out and onto the ground, and then crushing him, effectively trapping the insane being while upside down.This time, his act caught the attention of the two Toa, and oddly, both walked (with the box in hand) over to Vezon and his kart prison. With his limbs sprawled about, he was unable to move, and half able to talk, “Heeeeeh, heeeeeeeeh, haiiop!” Vezon shouted, causing both Toa to exchange a glance, and raise their eyebrows.“Haiiop me!” he said again, which only prompted the two Toa to walk away with the box of cereal still in hand. As Vezon awaited his release, an employee walked around him, ignoring the scene. Vezon scowled, turning his head sideways, “HEY YOU, HELP ME UP!” he shouted, glaring at the Toa. The Toa turned, and looked down at Vezon, and laughed, walking away down the aisle. Vezon’s face almost literally turned red with rage, and he began to thrash around in his kart prison, escape far from his grasp.Vezon waited impatiently for someone to rescue him from his shopping kart prison, and heard (via the store P.A), “Cleanup on aisle seven, cleanup on aisle seven.” Vezon looked up at the number of the aisle he was on; Seven. He sighed in relief, someone was coming to rescue him, but he growled at being referred to as a mess.-EndWord Count - 1,482The next chapter will pick up where this one left off, sort of. Sorry for it being so late, but moving is a hassle. :/-Skar

[Skarloth]

So yeah, I don't have any ideas to keep this going, and its lacking response very badly.Maybe I can make this work some other time down the line (or circle), but for now this will remain discontinued.However, I'm pleased to announce that I'm bringing The Toa Mizore back from the grave. :)And send questions to Ask Vezon and friends, I want to keep that going.And check out The Tunnel as well, in the Epics forum! :DI love shameless advertisement. :3-Skar