| Garden of Olives |
[12 Oct 2008|09:22am] |
Last night was one of the longest shifts I've ever worked. It started out with a table of seven snotty, rude people about my age. When I asked questions, they actually ignored me and glared at me and it took me like five minutes to get their orders out of them. I asked them if they wanted a salad refill and one went "Whatever." When I walked away I heard someone ask "What'd she say?" and another say "Like I know. I wasn't listening to her." When they left? They left me a total of SIX dollars.
Luckily I had enough nice tables to make up for these gems, but one of my co-worker's was not so fortunate.
Today is the last day of the Never Ending Pasta Bowl, so it should be interesting. But last night my friend had a table with two ladies who she believed to be totally drunk. They were both older, I'd say in their late forties to early fifties, and while she was taking their order she was asking what sauce they wanted. They answered, but didn't specify a pasta, so she asked "What kind of pasta can I get you?" and one of the ladies said, "Bitch!" right to her face. And not in a joking kind of way. I mean really? You call your server a bitch because they ask you what kind of food you want in a restaurant? The rest of the night they were completely obnoxious and rude and condescending to her as well and even while my other coworkers and I were in the back room by these customers counting down our checks they were acting like idiots.
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| The Consumerist vs The Idjit EB |
[11 Oct 2008|02:48pm] |
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The Consumerist posted a story of a horrible customer. Who acknowledged being a jerk. I couldn't even bring myself to wade through that pile of crap's correspondence with the poor people on the other end of his abuse. Just figured some would find it a happy balance that The Consumerist does agree there're limits on what's reasonable as a customer.
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[11 Oct 2008|12:37pm] |
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A little History: I am a cashier at a small pharmacy/corner store. We have accounts here, where you can put things on and pay the account later, though usually there is a limit to how much you can put on it. We also USED to do "held" transactions for specific regulars who were in good standing with us, which merely hold them for a day or so and people paid them later. However, we don't do this anymore because people abused it, though sometimes Chris (owner) will agree to do it. Anyway, on to the suck...
A regular, I'll call "Tony" comes up with some ice cream, 2 chocolate bars, 2 cans of pop and wants a pack of cigarettes. I get his cigs, and he says he wants it held. "Cassy" (not her real name), my senior, told him no. He then claims that Chris said he could Yesterday, and again Cassy says no. Tony then gets irate because it is an EMERGENCY (Since when is ice cream, chocolate, pop or cigarettes an emergency purchase?) and said for us to call Chris. Cassy Refuses. So he goes and harasses the pharmacist for about 15 minutes until she calls and since Chris doesn't like to be bothered, he agrees to it. Both Cassy and I are mad, but we do it and he stays for awhile since he is waiting for a cab and watches people use there debit cards. And I mean WATCH - I like to turn my head and look in another direction because I want to give them privacy, but he's seriously watching and if they turn or move their hand so he can't see, he moves so he can watch them! Eventually he leaves and Cassy and I both call him a jerk and continue on our day.
Oh, and to the regular who owes us 178.63 AND was CAUGHT on Camera yesterday stealing, guess what?! Your banned. You -and only you- (your boyfriend who is 20 to 30 years younger than you who loaded up his back pack and then moved all the stock up so we don't notice, is not allowed in here) are allowed to come in and go directly to the cashier to pay your account off, which we have been waiting for some time, your limit was only supposed to be 60 dollars, and you keep lying to us when you will pay with lame excuses... I would do it soon before it ends up going to collections or court. I would also like to say, you took advantage of me when I was new and I really hope I am the one to tell you and your boyfriend they can leave before I call the police, because it would be so sweet!
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| Dialogues |
[11 Oct 2008|08:27am] |
( Dialogues )
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| More of a WTF?/LOL! than a customer suck |
[11 Oct 2008|06:56am] |
Clarification: I work at OfficeMax. It's an office supply store. This part is crucial to the second LOL
Yesterday, I had a woman come in who wanted to know if she could buy a chair now and then return it after Christmas if she didn't like it. She claimed it was a gift, but she also claimed that it'd take a while for her to figure out if she liked it or not. I was all "Uh...no, our return policy is 30 days." She looked all hopeful, though, as if I'd be all "Oh, what the hell! You seem like a nice person! Of course you can lend us $171 for 90 days and then take it back!" She had to have the no confirmed again.
That one totally made me happy for the rest of my day, simply because of the lols it provided me and my coworkers. Seriously, why do you inform employees up front that you're going to return something?!
I, personally, am more of a hard ass about returns than my bosses are at times. We get customers who bought a phone 6 months ago, it broke, and now they want to return it. My bosses will let them return it for store credit. I'm all "Dude, we have to sell insurance policies for these phones, and we're never going to sell one to these people if we let them return electronics that break after the 14 day grace period! They're just going to learn all they have to do is return it." It's nuts.
Although, I did learn today that I can automatically refuse to do a return from over 30 days ago. I'm totally going to start doing that.
The next WTF/LOL I have is a customer who called in, asking if we sold electric razors. I had to clarify that he was asking for the kind you shave your face with. I told him he we did not, he thanked me and went on his merry way. But I was all "Seriously?! Who calls an office supply store and asks for personal hygiene products? Why would an office supply store *carry* electric razors?!" My dad suggested that the guy probably just thought of it as an electronic, not as personal hygiene, but I was still rather floored that someone would think an office supply store would carry something like that. Yes, we carry games (which is kind of WTF for anoffice supply store, but whatever), but since when did personal hygiene become an office product?
I have had a couple of people come into our store and ask us if we carried deodorant before. I'm just rather confused at the logic being used. "Office supply store! Surely they have personal hygiene products!" Can anyone here explain it to me?
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| Division of Labor |
[10 Oct 2008|09:14pm] |
As in many retail stores, my bookstore has a fairly strict division of labor. And this is for obvious reasons, retail entails selling product, and to do so, one must have someone at the register. Ideally? *at all times* And of course, other tasks must be done, and folks are assigned to accomplish them. There is one thing in every retail establishment I've ever been involved in, though.
If you are assigned at register, you are tied to that register. Chained even. Some places you sign for a till, others you sign in per transaction, but *register is king* you move away from your beeping machine god with its laser scanner eyes at your extreme peril. If you have to use the restroom, you must get a stand-in, and god forbid you have a heart attack, either improvise a defibrulator MacGuyver style out of the theft protection deactivator gear, or think ahead and call for back-up well ahead of time.
So I guess this is my retail perspective when I wonder why customers can't understand this simple fact? Where I work has an information desk, with a large sign that says 'information desk' visible clearly from the register area. And most customers, when asking 'info' questions at the register, take my explanation, "I'd love to help you find that book, but I can't leave my register. If you go back to the info desk right there, ___ will be happy to walk you right to where that book is" satisfys them. A quick radio, "___ are you there? Sending someone back" completes the assistance.
Well so we approach the badness. Today we were not busy. Dead. Tumbleweeds in the stacks, but a haughty customer does come up to me at the register (which, naturally is nearest to the door) on a beeline. She has me dead in her sights from the moment she crosses the threshold. Lets call her Haughty McBusinessSuit, even though that's a lot of esses.
HMcBS: I NEED <rattles off a particular business title that I know we likely have , but is in a subsection of business that is hard to direct her to>
Me: Well, I don't have a computer here at the register, and I can't leave the front here to walk you over to it, but I think I remember that title, and we probably have it. If you walk back to the info desk there, ___ can take you right to it.
HMcBS: I don't have time for that! Go get it, I'll wait here.
Me: Well, I can't leave my register, <getting on the radio: um ___ you available to check a book and bring it up to me at reg?>
HMcBS: What are you doing?
Me: Asking about your book.
HMcBS: I asked you to get it, are you going to?
Me: I'm trying to right now.
HMcBS: I don't have time for this <storms out>
Now I know what it is like to shop on your lunch break, mayhaps you have a couple of free minutes to find something you need, and if it isn't within that time frame, hey, you have to go. But I HAVE to be at register. I can't leave. I'm not blowing you off when I suggest you go to where, oh, you can actually be helped.
This underlines the fact that most people don't really understand that there is a division of labor in a retail store. Christmas time I have a lot of people try to pay for things at the information desk (easily dealt with, oh, sorry I don't have a register here), but sometimes they get upset (there is a line up front!). But the worst are the people that want me to help them at the register.
At POS taking in money is key, when I'm stationed there, well, I can't leave. And when we're busy I can't take the time to answer a ton of questions (is this in paperback, will it be on sale thursday?) when a line is forming.
There are very few individuals in retail, I've found, that prefer the register to the other jobs that make up our work day. If you find one that does, I'd suggest for all sups and managers, NEVER FIRE THEM.
Best wishes for a happy and suck free Saturday.
Fox
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| Relayed FTW moment |
[10 Oct 2008|12:18pm] |
Now this is not something I witnessed so I'm relaying an experience my boyfriend had at the grocery store the other day.
( Get out of my way! )
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| "Do you work here?" ... "Unfortunately" |
[09 Oct 2008|11:24pm] |
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Nothing is worse than customers during bogo.
Not only do you have to greet every douche bag that comes into your store (that make you feel like you're talking to a wall)but no matter how many times you explain "When you buy one item, your second item of equal or lesser value is half price", they don't effing get it!! EVER!!
And THEN when you ask them for the 80 millionth time at the till if they want a second item for half price, they seem shocked at the promotion. Are you effing blind?? there's bright pink signs EVERYWHERE saying "BUY ONE GET ONE HALF PRICE ON EVERYTHING". Seriously!
Another one that gets me, is that when the hell that is bogo ends, you get bitched at because the sale isn't on anymore. Like it's my fault, dickheads, I only work here.
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| thats bunz |
[09 Oct 2008|12:22pm] |
ok, so near fourth of july one year...a woman comes through my line with two carts full of food. one being mostly hamburger and hot dog buns. i ring her up, all is good, transaction complete. she asks me a question where the answer is OBVIOUS to anyone that breathes.. "if i don't use them all, can i return them for a refund?".. i wanted to ask "are you freakin serious?", but instead i replied "im sorry ma'am, but you cannot return them just because you didn't use them."
cue to OVER a week later. she comes in with a cart half full of hamburger and hot dog buns and tries to RETURN THEM. she came up to me (she might not remember me)and asked to return them, i told her she couldn't because there was no way we could sell them especially some were just starting to get mold spots. she yells at me "but i didn't USE THEM!!!!" i was as nice as i could "ma'am im the one who rang you out over a week ago and told you that you couldn't return them just because you didn't use them."
she gets huffy and stalks off. she even had her receipt with her. i see a manager coming up a little bit later and talks to her. she points at me and is yelling at the manager and one arm waving around and another clutching to the cart like someone might steal her precious,now molding, buns.
i speak to the manager after the woman leaves (without the bunz), and he gave her the refund! it was like $38!!! wtf!? he says "that woman was crazy,i wanted her out." yea, so was he for giving her a refund.
i guess i'll just save all my reciepts, and whatever food i don't use after it expires, i'll just put on my crazy face and return!
what kind of message are we sending customers? "ohh if you get crazy we'll give you what you want just to shut you up", if everyone did that, NO business would make money... in fact they'd ALL go in severe debt, and people would resort to having to do things for themselves like the amish.
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| They say. |
[09 Oct 2008|08:02am] |
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That the customer is always right, well that statement bugs the crap out of me.
Especally when the damn customer thinks that the tax that has been PROGRAMMED into the register is wrong and they try to argue with you.
How in the hell are you going to explain that.. that is just what the tax is.. I'm sorry that you don't like it, you don't have to shop here.
Oh.. and the other day was the Day of the Lingering Customers that wouldn't fucking leave.
Just get your stuff and get the hell out of my sight.
God I'm dreading Halloween. I'm dressing up and I just KNOW i'll get comments from all of the nasty old men that buy tools.
I'm going as Harley Quinn... yeah...
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| 8-) |
[09 Oct 2008|09:08pm] |
I work in a newsagency. In the shopping center I work in, there is one jewelery shop where the staff are pure idiots. All holier-than-thou, etc.
Apparently, they're all grotesquely unintelligent and devoid of the powers of observation and common sense.
One woman comes in and asks for something along the lines of liquid chalk, without really knowing at all what she's after [every retailer's delight!] so I,not thinking there was any problem, sold her some and then when it "wrecks her blackboard", comes back and abuses us because she's an idiot and didn't actually bother to find anything out.
We also have a pretty black and white policy on refunds [NO, unless things get out of hand as you'll see]. I pointed this out to another dim-witted woman who came in and she was very unhappy about that, but proceeded to buy and pay for a journal book...lo and behold, she actually discovers what she wants after ASKING me [why, God, why] and demands a refund ["I HAVE to have my money back."] no manager so I'm resigned to doing it to avoid the shitstorm I can see brewing in her wrinkles.
I really hate this new culture where customers act like apes and are above the rules retailers set out to cover their own arses. People say customer service is going down the drain, it's hard to be civil when somebody's calling you an idiot because they stuck a knife in a toaster.
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| The customer is always WRONG |
[08 Oct 2008|05:59pm] |
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This one made me loopy.
I was running register this morning when a lady comes up, buying a few things, and proceeds to write a check.
No problem except the check is dated for tomorrow.
Which happens a lot, people writing the wrong date, and usually they go "Oh duh" and correct it and bore me with comments on how time is flying.
This lady says to me, "No its the 9th"
Let the fun begin.
Her friend agreed with her that it was the 9th so that didn't help my case.
I showed her that the register computer said it was the 8th and my watch said it was the 8th. I asked a nearby co-worker the date and she said, "I dunno, its on your register".
The woman, (Being somewhere 80 and 2000 years old) gave me the old person talking down to the young person voice, "Honey, its the 9th."
I finally said it was the 8th over and over again that she finally at least changed her check but I am not sure she was totally convinced.
I honestly don't know how much it would screw up the processing of the check if it was dated the 9th on one side by the customer and dated the 8th on the back by our register but really its the principle of the thing.
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| no words, well....here's some |
[08 Oct 2008|05:40pm] |
I got a call today from a lady saying her paper wouldn't feed through her printer, it kept getting jammed. Told her we didn't deal with printers, just computers. She then asks if she can come up and have me print off a copy of a receipt she needs. I say sure.
What transpires STILL has me going, "WTF?!?!"
She sets down her big purse, and a big zip lock bag full of receipts and a roll of blank receipt paper and says, "I need these printed to these" and points to the roll of receipt paper.
Boggled, I say, "we don't have a machine that can print that."
She walks over to our copier and says, "I think I can get it through here, let me see your tape."
She then proceeds to TAPE an empty sheet of receipt paper to a regular sheet of paper and attempt to put it in so when she copied the receipt, it would be perfectly copied on this blank sheet of receipt paper.
I then noted a white out pen in her zip lock baggie and suddenly went from, "Why does she need it printed on that?" to "OMG SHE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DOING THAT!" (basically she was editing her receipts and trying to re-copy them for other means...)
I'll admit that the whole five years I've been here, nothing like this has ever happened. Nothing even remotely similar, so my brain shut down and I walked down stairs and told the owner what she was attempting to do.
He told her in no uncertain terms that this could "break" our copier and she was to stop immediately and take this else where.
He left me up there with her and as she packed up everything, she stood beside my desk staring me down as I checked out another customer.
I looked over and said, "Yes Ma'am?"
She says, "I think I owe you some money...."
I tell her since she only managed to get 4 copies it'd only be 40 cents. She digs out a quarter, a dime and 4 pennies and tosses them on my desk. For some reason writes down my name, and says, "Lordy, i'm sure glad he told me that, i'd hate to have messed up his machine. I wonder if that's what's wrong with my printer?!?!"
all I could say was, "yes ma'am. I think that's EXACTLY what's wrong with your printer."
Now I just pray she doesn't start using my name for fraudulent purposes :/
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[08 Oct 2008|01:37pm] |
Two things.
One, I am a person, not a dog. If you are trying to get my attention because my back is turned or I don't happen to be looking in your direction because I'm busy helping another customer, a simple "Excuse me" will suffice. It is NOT okay to snap your fingers at me, whistle, or yell "HEY. YOU. YEAH, YOU." Seriously, I'm tired of it. How can you *possibly* be so rude?
Second, when I take an extra five minutes to step aside and gift wrap your CD, (when we're EXTREMELY busy and with a non-stop huge line no less), and when I do a pretty DAMN GOOD JOB IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF, it is NOT cool to look at your wrapped CD as if I just handed you a steaming pile of dog shit and say, "Hmph, well. I guess beggars can't be choosers." Kiss my ass. Next time I'm going to rip off the wrapping paper, tear you off another piece, hand you the roll of tape, and tell you to do it your fucking self.
Grrrr.
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| Toilet Weirdness... |
[07 Oct 2008|01:39pm] |
Background: I'm asian, and I've been back to mainland China where the toilets are literally holes in the ground with your butt hovering above them. There are two approaches to said toilet - the "squat and hover" and the standing pee. (The standing pee requires practice for females, you have to learn how to hold your "flaps" in a manner so you don't squirt pee all over yourself.)
The Western style toilet, raised above the ground gets one more annoying approach - the "feet on toilet seat squad and hover". Seriously. The worse thing is usually shoeprints that have been soaked in urine and whatever was on the floor. Now, this is becoming a bit rarer - as individuals learn it's something that annoys the hell out of the next person who uses it.
So, I'm eating in the food court of our local mall, preparing to do battle with an empty cupboard. I'm finishing a Taco Bell volcano taco, when I feel the need to use the washroom. (I was fighting off the vestiges of the stomach flu.) I make a dash for the washroom, and sit down.
*squish*
It was wet...and slimy.
I look at the seat and see two very visible shoe print marks. In grey.
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| Racist much? |
[06 Oct 2008|10:35pm] |
A few days ago (I've been too tired/busy to post since then) I had the most racist customer that I've ever encountered.
( Gangbanger thug??? Really??? )It's sad that people are still such bigots.
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| New Employment! |
[06 Oct 2008|08:50pm] |
A new job - same old crap! ^-^
I have a new job - I work at one of those middle man postal places/mailbox rental/stationary store where if you ship with us you pay double than going to the Post office, UPS or Fedex and why? because you're an idiot for failing to have common sense that of course we're the middle man and our rates are higher.
So everytime I get this stupid scenario
Me: that'll be $15.48 for regular mail"
Customer: *gasp* why is it sooo expensive"
We get those people who come in with a 50lb box, it's going far and we they get their total they freak
worse are the customers who want overnight but don't seem to realize the cost of overnight. These are the people who want to pay only $10 and skip home.
At least it's well better than my last job working in a sushi restaurant and cleaning soy sauce tables
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| Just a little annoying |
[06 Oct 2008|08:27pm] |
I have acrylic nails. Last time I got a fill I had them painted purple. I like that color. I think it is pretty.
I work for Fedex Office. My uniform is dark blue and purple.
I have had a least 3 customers point out that my nails "match my uniform." One customer said "Oh, how clever, your nails match your work shirt."
Yeah, because when I get my nails done, I do so to accesorize my ever-so-stylish Kinko's polo-shirt. Ugh. I am never getting purple again now. In fact, I think I should get Orange nails next time just so it completely clashes with my uniform. I wonder if I would get the same comments if I dyed my hair purple.
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| What's that smell? |
[05 Oct 2008|10:41pm] |
Had a customer trade some games in today. A horrible scent spread as soon as he opened his bag. He looks at his game, then at me, rubs the game on his pants for a bit and then hands it to me "How much can I get for these games?"
I look at him for a second and ask "What's that smell?" he looks at his games, "I'm not sure." I look at him, then his games "Dude, your games smell really bad for some reason."
He turns to his uncle who's looking at him..
And asks..
"Did you find Rats in the car, too?"
D:
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