A Mood 180

First time doing one of these, so please bear with me. The dialogue is paraphrased.

I’ve recently been a temp at a call center for a flower delivery business. There are two kinds of orders. The first kind is a Florist Order, where an actual florist that’s associated with us is assigned a delivery, so if something goes wrong, we can work with the customer and the florist in order to find a solution. These are usually pricier, but are easier to manage. The other is a Courier Order, where a standard courier delivers the item instead. This option includes free delivery and can deliver items such as gift hampers as well. For this, we’re looking at the former.

So I get a call from a customer. They give me their order number, I find the order and confirm the needed details. Standard stuff thus far. I notice that the order was for a wedding and was in a few days, so I expect it to be either something like changing the delivery date to push it back or adjusting the delivery priority (Standard, Morning, Afternoon or 2 Hour Timeslot delivery). Given the occasion I get a bit more cheerful, especially since this is the day after Valentine’s Day and I’ve been mostly dealing with complaints that day. I congratulate them and ask what they need me to do.

Imagine my surprise when they say “I need to cancel my order.“

I say that we can arrange cancellation, but I need to speak to the florist first, and getting the cancellation confirmed is usually easier when we have a reason.

“Well we’re not going to be having the wedding anymore.“

Dreading the answer, I follow up with “May I ask why the wedding’s been cancelled?“

At this point one of my co-workers, who is sat next to me and has heard what I’ve been saying while they’ve been handling some notes after their call ended, starts grinning. We’re both expecting some sort of affair or break-up to have happened. I look at them, my expression basically reading ‘Here we go.’

Customer: “Well my other half is in hospital and they’re terminally ill. We’ve just found out that they’re not going to have improved enough to leave the hospital, so we can’t have a wedding.“

At this point, my expression shatters. It’s at this point I notice that the order may have been marked for the wedding, but it’s one of the smaller orders. Something that can be arranged quickly. My heart sinks.

Me: “I-I’m sorry to hear that.“

My co-worker’s smile vanishes.

Me: “Alright, I’ll get onto the florist and let them know.“

When explaining the situation to the florist, I simply state that the wedding’s been cancelled due to health reasons. the florist agrees to the cancellation and I finalize it for the customer within a minute or so from the florist picking up the phone. I also didn’t have anything to end the call with since I normally say ‘Have a nice day’.

So yeah, that call I was expecting to be the high-point of the day, wound up being one of the more depressing ones, if not the most depressing of the week.