From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 92 Fang Lei's Work

At his workstation, Boss Gu introduced Fang Lei to the team leader of the customer service department, saying, "Xiao Zhang, our colleague has a bit of a health issue, could you please look after him?"

"Fang Lei, from now on he'll be your mentor. If you don't understand anything at work, just ask him. Don't be afraid to ask questions, Xiao Zhang is a very nice person."

Boss Gu had given prior instructions regarding the disabled colleague, so Xiao Zhang wasn't surprised.

Xiao Zhang said, "From now on, you'll work for me, and I'll put you in charge of after-sales service, okay?"

Fang Lei quickly replied, "Okay, okay, I'll listen to whatever the teacher says."

Next, Xiao Zhang gave Fang Lei a training session, covering topics such as product information, how to handle customer complaints, and how to uncover customers' true needs.

Everyone in the company took good care of him. The boss quickly made improvements to the company's steps, spending several thousand dollars to hire workers to remove part of the steps and create a sloping surface.

Furthermore, a height-adjustable desk was specially provided for Fang Lei at his workstation to make his work more convenient.

During meals, everyone took good care of him, and someone would save food for him.

A week later, Fang Lei completed his basic training and began working officially.

He quickly received his first order. The system automatically notified him, and he replied, "This is customer service representative Xiao Fang. How can I help you?"

The customer asked, "Why were there only 18 bags of bread in your bread box? You gave me two bags short. This isn't the first time I've bought anything from you. This is unfair."

Fang Lei quickly searched his memory for a solution. He soon found one and said, "I'm so sorry, dear. Since we pack everything manually here, the packing worker probably forgot to put two packages in the box. How about this, I'll give you a 5 yuan red envelope as a refund?"

This customer wasn't too difficult to deal with. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "Okay, then transfer the money to my Alipay account."

"Please give me a good review, my dear," Fang Lei added.

After dealing with this customer, a second customer soon arrived.

He posted a picture showing a box with its packaging torn open, revealing that about four or five loaves of bread were missing.

The buyer angrily said, "What are you doing? Why did my package arrive like this? The packaging inside was torn open, and several loaves of bread are missing. Did your workers steal the bread?"

This question stumped Fang Lei. There was no such situation in the lesson plan that Teacher Zhang had given him, and he didn't know how to handle it, so he called Teacher Zhang over.

Teacher Zhang was also somewhat bewildered by this case, because there were three possibilities: First, it was indeed a problem with their packing workers who deliberately caused trouble; second, it was the buyer causing trouble, perhaps the bread was opened and they took such pictures to demand compensation; third, there was a problem when the package was delivered to the courier station, since courier stations have a high turnover rate and it's normal to encounter all sorts of strange and unusual people.

Xiao Zhang kept in mind Boss Gu's instructions, preferring to suffer a loss himself rather than upset the customer. He also checked and found that this customer was a repeat customer for the third time, had excellent credit, and had purchased over 100 items on Taobao, all with positive reviews, making it highly unlikely that the customer was a professional negative reviewer.

So he instructed Fang Lei to reply: "Honey, I'm sorry, we'll check the surveillance footage right away. Could you please send us a picture of the tracking number? Consider this box of bread a gift from us. If you provide your delivery address, we'll send you another box of bread. Is that alright?"

The customer thought for a moment and said, "That's more like it. I'll click 'confirm' when your new bread arrives."

Fang Lei sent a crying emoji, saying, "Thank you for understanding, dear."

At this point, Fang Lei's work was completely on track.

A month later, it was payday.

A long queue formed in front of the finance office. Fang Lei, in a wheelchair, was at the end of the line. One by one, the people in front of him left with red envelopes containing their wages. Although he already knew roughly how much his salary would be, Fang Lei was still filled with excitement. This was the first time he had earned money through his own labor since becoming disabled; it meant he was finally useful.

Gradually, the line at the front shortened, and finally it was Fang Lei's turn. When Fang Lei arrived at the finance office, the finance staff came out personally, handed him the envelope with both hands, and said, "Xiao Fang, this is your salary. Please check it carefully to see if there are any mistakes."

Fang Lei took a deep breath, opened the envelope, took out the red banknotes and counted them. There were nine banknotes in total, one more than he had expected.

He looked at the finance staff, who smiled and said, "This is an outstanding employee award. You've done a great job this month, so this is a special reward for you."

"Thank you," Fang Lei said.

"Hey, you can't say that," the finance staff said seriously. "This is rightfully yours, what are you thanking me for?"

After get off work, Fang Lei pushed his small wheelchair slowly home.

He clutched the envelope in his pocket tightly, thinking for a moment that he needed to buy some gifts for his parents and some things for the colleague who had taken care of him. So he approached the security guard at the booth and said, "Uncle, do you have a moment later?"

"Yes, I'm leaving get off work soon, what's up?"

He explained his thoughts, saying, "Uncle, I want to go to the supermarket later to buy some things for my parents and surprise them, but it's inconvenient for me to go alone."

The security guard smiled and said, "Okay, that's perfect, I need to go to the supermarket anyway."

The two went to the supermarket together, and Fang Lei looked at the 900 yuan in his hand again and again. It really wasn't much, so he had to be careful with his money.

In the end, he chose to buy a single rose, because his father didn't understand romance, and his mother had probably never received a rose in her entire life. Besides that, he also bought some practical items like rice and oil, because they were useful.

He then bought some chocolates to bring to his colleagues the next day. His colleagues had helped him a lot, and he wanted to give them something sweet as a token of his gratitude.

After buying everything, Fang Lei packed it all into a large shopping bag. He then hugged the bag to his arms and had the security guard push his wheelchair back home.

The security guard pointed to his legs and said, "Isn't this putting too much pressure on you?"

Fang Lei shook his head and said, "No, no, Uncle will have to trouble you again today."

"Oh, it's nothing. You're just being too polite, kid. Besides, didn't you buy me a pack of Yuxi cigarettes?"

After some time, the security guard escorted Fang Lei home.

At the door of his house, Fang Lei said, "Thank you, Uncle. You can go back now. I want to give my mom a surprise."

The security guard said, "Okay, I'll be going now."

After the security guard left, Fang Lei rummaged through his shopping bag and pulled out the beautifully packaged roses.

These roses weren't cheap; one stem cost eight yuan, and it even had a ribbon tied in a bow. However, when Fang Lei took it out, he didn't hold it properly, and the flower fell to the ground. A gust of wind blew by, carrying the rose away. The flower tumbled on the ground, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Fang Lei was dumbfounded. He wasn't sad, because he could earn money now; he could buy over 100, no, nearly 110 of these flowers a month. He just found it interesting.

Just then, the front door opened, and Fang Lei's mother, startled to see him standing there blankly, exclaimed, "You silly child, why didn't you knock before coming home?"

Fang Lei replied with a smile, "Mom, I got paid today and bought a lot of things. Look."

The mother quickly removed the shopping bags from her son's legs, saying, "Hey, don't break your legs."

Fang Lei said, "Mom, I just bought you a rose. It cost eight yuan."

The mother exclaimed in surprise, "So expensive? Eight yuan? Is it made of gold? And what about the flowers?"

Fang Lei shrugged and said, "It was blown away by the wind. I had just taken it out when it fell to the ground, and then the wind blew it around and around until it disappeared."

Fang Lei took out the envelope containing the money, rolled it up into a swirl, and said, "Mom, just imagine it, imagine there's a rose inside."

……

P.S.: Five chapters will be released tomorrow. Please subscribe to this post.