"Alternative" Customers

[admin]

I have met a couple of very different customers this week, and thought I'd share the experience with you all.

So to the first one. I heard a mans voice say "excuse me can you give me some help" and turned around with my usual firendly smile to offer help. I was faced with a guy dressed in a frock, wig, make up, nails the lot done. He was obviously a trans-sexual or cross dresser. Now I must put at this point that I am an open minded individual, and hold nothing against anyone who wants to be different, but this was a bit of a shock! My problem was that to be honest I wanted to laugh, well I didn't want to, but I nearly did if you see what I mean. I kept my professional head on, and answered his questions. He was very polite and thanked me for my help. The point is just keep professional at all times, and put away any laughing type of thoughts. It wasn't the fact that he was dressed as a woman that made me want to laugh, but he looked like one of the guys from the bounty ad on TV (the wipes not the chocolate bar), so wasn't a very convincing woman. This is the second guy dressed as a woman I have ever met, so I feel I did ok and will be better prepared next time!

The second person said to me "I suffer from gastric reflux, and wonder if you can give me any advice on how I can help myself". This seemed a sensible reasonable request from a normal intelligent woman. I went through all the usual stuff, like food/alcohol/smoking etc etc etc to which she kept replying "done that!". She then started telling me about her "condition". She had a big grin on her face and said to me "the acid comes up through my stomach, goes up the front of my face, runs around my eyes and back down into my lungs!". What can you say to that! It's impossible! She then went on to list all the Dr's she was under, including a lung surgeon, stomach surgeon etc etc etc When she left I wondered if she had Munchausen syndrome? She definitely liked being ill ! But she didn't seem ill.