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Maybe a topic; Dumb questions asked.

Dave Hawksford

Dave Hawksford

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In hunting the dumbest questions asked is , did you catch it?

I just curious , what are some of the questions asked that you just kind of roll your eyes to dealing in wood working.

I once had a customer tell me she didn't like the table because it didn't look like walnut after I finished it and the table was oak. She said : why doesn't this look like walnut , I still see the grain ?
I just told her to take her table and go.
 
until you stand behind the counter of a pharmacy, you aint see no dumber questions, but hey, people are nervous when it comes to their health.


the worst offender of dumb questions, are the customer(past customers) who come in , ask me to recommend something, I discuss it with them, I try to pinpoint the exact symptoms, I know their medical history, I know what meds they are on, and after talking I know what to give them. then they come up to me after they get it and say, is it safe? and my answer, only because they deserve it, is oh yeah, some of my best friends took this may they rest in peace.

and thats that. it usually takes a few seconds for that to sink in then they laugh.

how about dispensing suppositories wrapped in heavy foil, and the patient asks me if they should remove the foil first. or lozenges, and they tell me what a hard time they had swallowing it, should they have taken off the wrapper?

or when they asked for a price on condoms, Id say 6.99, then theyd ask tax? and Id respond, oh no, that would hurt too much.

I could go on and on....but I think i got my point across
 
Many years ago when I first got into health insurance I was attending a health fair and a women come up to me and wanted information on dental insurance has a waiting period of between 6 months to a year for major restorative. She got rather indignant and asked "what kind of insurance is that" I asked her if she bought car insurance did she expect the insurance company to pay to fix a dented fender that occurred before you have insurance. She walked away mumbling.
 
Years ago my van ran out of gas on a freeway north of San Diego. After coasting downhill for a couple of miles, I pulled into a gas station, pushing the van the last few hundred feet. The attendant came out and helped me push it the last little bit. He asked "Did you run out of gas?" I said "No, just taking the van for a walk." :rofl:
 
Somewhere in Chris Stott's book he relates a story about an encounter he had at a craft fair. He frequented many craft shows to make his living at turning boxes.

Chris is a smoker and he would have to go outside the venue to smoke. On this occasion he was standing near the entrance having a smoke when he happened to overhear two ladies. The first one said, "Let's go in and see what they have for sale." Her friend said, "No, it is not worth the time; it is just things that people made themselves.":(

I have limited experience selling at craft fairs and it has been my observation that most people do not differentiate between a quality piece of work and one that was slapped together. Oh there would be the occasional customer who did make the distinction but most were just looking for something cheap to give as a gift.

It is a hard job to be in the business of selling fine work to people who don't appreciate the difference between wood sanded with 80 grit and wood sanded with 800 grit.

I have always tried to live by the adage that I will do the best work I can and let the closets fill up with the results.
 
Dad bought and sold ponies when I was little, horses when I got older. I rode and trained some rough stock. A lady calls and wants a gentle pony for her kid. We brushed and curried the ponies we had and saddled each one. Then I took a lap or two around our corral so dad knew how each pony worked. Got to the last one (he had just come in that morning) saddled up and rode off and buck, that little pony would kick up and buck, nothing hard to ride, made dad and me laugh. Anyway, guess what pony she bought! The movie Black Stallion sold more half broke ponies and horses and probably got a bunch of people hurt. It is a fallacy that the horse falls in love with you and is instantly trained. Well a couple of weeks later she let me have it in the line in our town's little grocery store. Even though she was in the wrong, I only said that she saw that pony buck and she bought it anyway. The store's owner raced trotting ponies at our town's track and knew dad and me, he stood up for me.
 
My son and a friend of his were in Lowes buying a 60 gallon 3 hp vertical tank air compressor, and they were wheeling it through the check-out on a hand truck. The cashier rang it up and then asked "When that thing runs out of air, do you have to bring it back?" My son said that he turned and looked at his friend for a moment, who was looking back at him with the same blank look, and then my son was polite enough to show her the power plug and say "no, you plug it in and it fills itself up". How did she get a job in Lowes with that little knowledge of what she is selling?

Charley
 
Some year ago on a road trip from California to Texas and back, catching most of the more southern states for my Daughter's list of states she wanted to visit, we pulled into a gas station in Kansas.... I was driving an Alfa Rome Alfetta with the name Alfa Romeo in 4" high letters across the back ..... the young man fueling the vehicle had evidently never seen one and while standing at the back end pumping gas into the tank asked "Who makes it?". He then looked at the speedometer that had a range of 0 to 150 mph... said "Bet that will out run a Chevrolet".
 
i think i have a really good one. nowadays, in paint stores, and departments, they will usually have a scanning device, much like a gun, to get the formula to match a color. they usually work pretty good. mary, a friend of ours, ran one of the 2 family paint stores (her husband ran the other), and did good business with paint schemes for the nearby older mansions. she would get requests to match the darndest things. one of which was a melted, blue freeze pop, and couldn't come up with a name for the paint. i told her, one look at that electric blue color, and it was obvious, romulan ale blue! another day, she was telling me about this lady who came in the store the day before, and said, i'm thinking of a color, can you match it? well, mary put the scanner to the woman's head, and pulled the trigger. she then said that she could not match the color she was thinking of. the lady then realized what she had said, and both had a good laugh.
 
I was at the grocery store one day, had a very studious looking young man for the checkout clerk. He noticed I was wearing a Harvard sweatshirt.
He asked me if I went to Harvard.
I said “No, my wife did.”
He replied “It must be hard to get in to Harvard.” To which I replied “Not really, she walked right into the campus bookstore and got me the shirt.”
I left with a half torn receipt as he ripped it out of the register before it was finished printing. :D
 
Dave Hawksford said:
Rennie I was so frustrated with this lady, on her 1st visit she said ; I want to see it look like walnut, never factored into the finishing that she didn't like Oak just the color.
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My experience in business over the years, it seems the harder you try to please certain clients the harder they will kick you in the teeth. There is no understanding some people and no pleasing others.
 
Frank Fusco said:
My experience in business over the years, it seems the harder you try to please certain clients the harder they will kick you in the teeth. There is no understanding some people and no pleasing others.
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Frank In the 40 years of this very few have been unwilling to learn about what it takes to do thing right. Maybe a hand full at the most. For me I don't remember the bad unless they were so unreasonableness I like the fact I remember the good.
 
There are always those who should win the Darwin Award. Even though in my online descriptions I always try to give the most accurate dimensions I can, you always have someone who will ask how big is it. Duh!?! Makes my brain hurt. Even though I do a fair amount through Amazon, I have learned to never give a review. If you do, be prepared. Through their Marketplace you will get some of the most ridiculous questions. I had bought some jersey sweat shorts and accidentally gave a review. Within the week some dimwit told me he was fit and was 5'10" tall. He wanted me to tell him what size to buy. Jeeezzzz!
 
I don't remember how old I was, had to be less than 8. Was a Saturday (that was a day dad would take me to the station ((he owned a MOBIL gas station)). Back story, a guy that traded with dad needed a new set of tires, he worked at the steel mills and had lot of kids, more than 10 eventually. Dad eventually sold them to him on payments. Well, he got the tires and never came back. Grandpa stopped by the station that day and told dad about this guy having a beauty of a buggy and pony hitched up right then. We three got in the truck and drove over to the guy's house. Dad backed in the drive and we got out and the guy starts telling dad all about the pony, harness and wagon. Gets all done and dad starts taking the harness off of the pony buy leaving it attached to the shafts. Guy asks what he is doing, dad says based on your prices, the harness and wagon are worth what you owe me for the tires. Pay for them and you can have your stuff back. Loaded wagon and harness into the pickup after telling all the kids to get out of the wagon and drove to the station. That guy never paid for the tires and when mom and dad's house burnt down, it was one of the possessions lost. Never forget the old man being nice to those kids and telling them to get out of that wagon. Dad always said to pay for what you need before you buy what you want.
 
On a camping trip in new england many years ago we pulled into a campground with our pop-up in tow and drove up to the office. The campground owner met us at the drive and waved us through. She gave us the spot number and said to just come up to the office to sign in once we got settled. I asked her if she had a store inside as we needed a few things. She replied that it depends on what you need. Oh, I said, just basic staples.

Without giving it a thought she replied, "We don't have any of those here, you'll have to go into town."

Maybe next time I need bread and milk I should just say so. :ROFLMAO:
 
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