Bad customers...Bad Bad Bad Customers!

[Joey_P]

@Hakuna_Matata

@boytyperanma

At one store we had to open and check every paint can coming back after several times people would buy the paint use or transfer the paint out of the cans then fill them with water and return them.

Damn! So when you opened the can of paint and it was filled with water, what did they say? See that is the part I have a hard time getting my brain around–what if you get called on your bluff? Do they run out of the store? Or claim it was a mistake, seems hard to explain water in a paint can!

Ditto for me, I’m one of those people that tends to be good for fear of getting caught. If I am doing something bad (anything from returning something that I shouldn’t to sneaking out for a smoke when I was younger) I always had a great excuse ready to go… not sure what I would say about a used sink or a paint can full of water though.

I had a friend that worked in a clothing store in a mall. She saw someone go into the dressing room with a sweater and leave the dressing room without it. My friend confronted her on it and said something along the lines of “Excuse me ma’am, maybe you need to go back into the dressing room and make sure you have all your stuff” or something like that. After the woman left, my friend went into the dressing room and found the sweater…dripping with urine. I mentioned it in another thread a few days ago, but it’s the same hear. I can’t stand it when someone does something wrong (like stealing) and then has the nerve to be mad at the person they wronged.

[Ephemera]

@Chimera

There are people who are going to keep demanding to go further and further up the chain until they get the answer they want. Businesses would be better served if they trained their people properly and then allowed those people to say “No, my supervisor doesn’t take calls. This is the answer, period” and then stuck to that answer. (Burns my ass when they call back and someone else gives them a different answer. I’m always very careful to look at what the previous people said and then stand by that answer.)

Before last month, we were fully allowed to tell someone demanding to speak to our supervisor that we *were *the supervisors, that we didn’t have one, or that they just weren’t going to talk to them, even with our actual supervisor sitting right next to us, but then they decided to change the policy for no apparent reason, and none of us likes it; not the agents, not my supervisor, and not the upper management at our office, but since our clients want us to implement the new policy, we have to make the effort.

The most annoying part of it is that we’re otherwise expected to be as autonomous as possible, and only ask for assistance from our corporate contacts or field service team as little as possible. But, if after doing that, we decide the customer has no legitimate cause for service, we’re supposed to immediately pass the buck, and possibly have our decision overriden by someone who doesn’t really understand our job?

It’s ridiculous.

[boytyperanma]

@Hakuna_Matata

@boytyperanma

At one store we had to open and check every paint can coming back after several times people would buy the paint use or transfer the paint out of the cans then fill them with water and return them.

Damn! So when you opened the can of paint and it was filled with water, what did they say? See that is the part I have a hard time getting my brain around–what if you get called on your bluff? Do they run out of the store? Or claim it was a mistake, seems hard to explain water in a paint can!

We had the returns clerks ask for a license for processing certain items. So with the license number recorded already they’d have a guy from the paint department come up to check the return. The ‘customer’ might panic and leave before the paint guy got there or they’d stand their ground and try to deny knowledge of the water in the can/bucket. Either way we usually notified the police and it was prosecuted as fraud.

While they came up with clever ways to try and rob us, thieves in general are not a very smart lot. Many times the police already had warrants out for the same people so the police were more then happy to be notified and pick them up.

Many thieves just run when they get caught. They’d run straight to their car. I simply walked out the door and watched what car they went to. In the 6 years I spent with HD I recorded hundreds of license plate numbers.

[stanger]

I had a friend that worked at Home Depot for a while.

She told me that people would come in and have several gallons of paint specially mixed to a certain color, purchase the paint, then return it using the excuse that the paint turned out the wrong shade.

Paint like this was later sold at a much reduced price to people who just wanted to put a coat of paint on something, or to use it as a base coat, etc.

At this point, the people who originally ordered the special mix paint would come into the store and buy the paint back at the reduced price.

This kind of thing happened on a regular basis.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

I had a guy name-drop me with the general manager of the resort to scam a free room out of me

The owner of the convenience store was around 40 and looked it. Occasionally he’d come around to our store (he owned three stores) and introduce himself to customers.

One day, one of the customers tried to tell me that he was the owner’s son, and that I should just put his purchases on the owner’s account. I happened to know (as this guy didn’t) that the owner had married in his 30s, to a woman in her 20s…and his only child was a girl, and a toddler at that.

[boytyperanma]

@stanger

I had a friend that worked at Home Depot for a while.

She told me that people would come in and have several gallons of paint specially mixed to a certain color, purchase the paint, then return it using the excuse that the paint turned out the wrong shade.

Paint like this was later sold at a much reduced price to people who just wanted to put a coat of paint on something, or to use it as a base coat, etc.

At this point, the people who originally ordered the special mix paint would come into the store and buy the paint back at the reduced price.

This kind of thing happened on a regular basis.

Yep we had that for a while. The two lines of defense where no returns on tinted paint. If for some reason we accepted paint back we would re-dye the paint so it would be no use to the original purchaser before putting in the shelf at reduced price.

[Chimera]

As Computer support tech;

(Usually 50-70 year old women): “My email account isn’t working. I demand that you give me a new computer! This one isn’t working!”

(60 year old woman with 60+ calls in 30 days, all of which were USER ERROR or plain ignorance of how to use a computer): “This thing is a piece of crap. It won’t do what I want it to do. You’re going to replace it right now!” (nope)

(The Paranoid Schitzo): “What is this program on my computer? I didn’t install it! I’m deleting it!” Um, sir, that’s an important part of the OS. “But I didn’t install it!”

(Paranoid Schitzo 2): “People are hacking into my computer through the bluetooth connection! These people keep walking past my house and their phone/headset appears in my bluetooth list! How to I lock them out?”

(My favorite): “This thing keeps popping up saying that I have a virus and should download their security software. Do you think that’s a good brand?”
As Armored Security (Courier);

“I’m not ready with my deposit. Wait out here and I’ll have it for you in about an hour” (a> No, we have 40+ other pickups today, and b> My company charges you $5 a minute after the first seven minutes if you make me wait.)

“This is a special deposit, so I need to you to drive it to this bank 40 miles away right now” (no, we have a route to finish and you didn’t negotiate or pay for exceptions like that)

“I don’t care what my contract with you says. You’re going to do X right now or I’ll take my business elsewhere” (good luck with that)

(only heard once) “You’re not walking in here with guns. Take them off before you enter my business” (nope. good luck with your deposits. Next time pay attention to the “armed” part of our line of business.)

“I need you to go to my bank first and pick up a withdrawal for me. Then come back here and wait for me to fill out a deposit for this other bank. Then go over there and make the deposit, and then bring me back the receipt”. (nope, we’re not your personal bankers or errand boys)
At the cell phone store;

“But I paid for unlimited messages.” yes sir, that’s a monthly charge. “But I didn’t use it, and it says UNLIMITED”, so you still owe me some messages. I’m not paying for it again until I use it!"

“How come you charged me $N this month? My plan is only $39!” Because you used twice the number of minutes you’re allowed on your plan. Do you want to go with this other plan that will cover that? “No, I only want to pay $39. So where’s all this other shit coming from?” You used twice the number of minutes the $39 plan covers and you got charged for those. “But my plan is only $39!!!” Yes, and it only gves you X number of minutes. You’re using twice that. “So why am I being charged more than $39?!?!?” (Because you’re a fucking moron, that’s why. GTFO)

“I’m taking this case. I pay you guys enough money every month, you owe me this case.”

Woman comes into store and let’s her 3 year old go play with the expensive smart phones while she waits. I stop the kid. Second time I warn her that she needs to keep her child away from the phones or she has to leave. She gets pissed. “How am I supposed to buy no damned cell phone if I don’t know if he’s going to break it when I get it home?” Do you want to pay for the one he breaks here? She stomps off.

A couple of people who would just come in and use the ones on the floor that had SIM cards and active accounts on them. When I started making note of them and cutting them off at the door, a couple of them got defensive about it, saying that they didn’t have phones, so they had to come there to use ours. The manager didn’t like me raising any rukus about it until I pointed out the one guy who made the biggest fuss was obviously making drug deals on the store phones.

[Superhal]

I read an article recently about “things found in iPod boxes.” People would remove the iPod, replace it with something heavy, and then re-seal the box with a shrink wrap device. In that article, there was a story about someone who kept the big screen TV and tried to return a box of rocks.

As a teacher, I get a lot of “it’s not my fault I failed” speeches. I have been blamed for:

1. not forcing the student to do their homework.
2. not waking the student up to attend class in the morning.
3. not being “more forceful” in saying how the attendance policy can result in failure.
4. not being fair in that everybody else got an A on the test but that student got an F. That student felt he should get an A because everybody else got one, not the F he deserved for getting all the questions wrong.
5. not being more clear in stating that cut and pasting from Wikipeida is unacceptable.
6. making the test too hard (see #4).
7. not informing the student that leaving school to go to Disneyland for a week would jeopardize his visa status.

[Chimera]

Ah yes, the infamous “but you didn’t tell me, so it doesn’t count” defense.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@Lynn_Bodoni

One day, one of the customers tried to tell me that he was the owner’s son, and that I should just put his purchases on the owner’s account. I happened to know (as this guy didn’t) that the owner had married in his 30s, to a woman in her 20s…and his only child was a girl, and a toddler at that.

My parents operated a small store, and the name was taken from parts of their 2 last names. They both happened to be common first names, but not the names of either of my parents.

I can’t count the number of times I was working in the store, and was told by customers that “I’m a good friend of you mother, and ___ (wrong name) always gives me a 20% discount”. Right – a good friend, but you don’t even know her name? I always said “I’m just a kid – I can’t give any discounts. Come back when Mom’s here.” They did, but didn’t ask her for the discount.

[GHO57]

@Superhal

7. not informing the student that leaving school to go to Disneyland for a week would jeopardize his visa status.

That’s a real thing?
-Former F-1 visa holder.

[bengangmo]

@Chimera

. I’m always very careful to look at what the previous people said and then stand by that answer.)

Even if the original answer was wrong? At times I have trouble making myself understood to the CS person on the other end as they just don’t get my accent. At those times I will hang-up and try a different person later…

[Markxxx]

I disagree with not talking to your supervisor. I can’t tell you the number of times I got service that I needed ASAP 'cause I knew who to talk to.

For instance, my DSL profile reset itself. I was supppose to have 6.0 download and the profile was reading 1.5. After three days I got it straight. Three months later it reset itself, to 6.0 and the clerks wouldn’t let me go up the chain of command till it all options were exhausted.

I recalled I wrote the guy who fixed it the first time, his number down. I called him direct, he said “Oh so sorry, and fixed it in less than a minute.”

I dealt yesterday with Banco Popular who locked me out of my Internet banking. “Sir you tried to do an external transfer and we had to lock you out to verify it.”

I said, “Fine but you did the transfer a month ago, it’s a done deal. I have the money.” She then argued with me there is no way I could’ve had the money. I said “Let me speak with your supervisor.” In three minutes my account was unlocked and sure enough there was an external transfer on my record from June 21st.

Look I worked in customer service, and I know only too well there are scammers, but I don’t want to talk to a clerk that can’t help me.

I say very politely, this is where I am, this is where I want to be, if you can’t get me to that point, I need to speak to someone who can.

Clerks often have no concept of proportionality. For instance, I was the asst controller and I had a rule, if a customer calls with a charge of $10.00 or less, write it off and say you’re sorry. My clerks made $15.00 hour and I can’t have them wasting time researching junk. I say write it off and make a note on the account so if they try it again, we’ll know.

I once had a clerk arguing with a customer who just spent $3,000 on a $5.00 phone call. They were saying how he clearly was lying, and I agreed but I said, for someone to have spent as much as he did, I don’t care about $5.00.

Like I said there’s tons of bad customers out there scamming. But I have learned that a legit customer with a legit grievence, if they are on the level, will always give you a chance to make it right.

[Superhal]

@GHO57

@Superhal

7. not informing the student that leaving school to go to Disneyland for a week would jeopardize his visa status.

That’s a real thing?
-Former F-1 visa holder.

Yes. After 9/11, they were especially strict about attendance. I believe you even need permission from the school to travel inside the US during vacations, but I know you definitely need permission from the school to travel back to your home country.

[enigmatic]

Yeah, working in retail is a real eye opener when it comes to return policies and “this is why we can’t have nice stuff”

And again the frustrating thing is the clueless managers who cave to unreasonable or fraudulent demands and refuse to do anything even when people were caught red handed. There were a few times where someone was caught with trying to sneak extra items through at the checkouts and we were told “it’s an extra sale” :rolleyes:. A lot of these scams would become a lot less common if retailers would grow some balls and actually try to prosecute some of these people.

[cosmosdan]

@enigmatic

Yeah, working in retail is a real eye opener when it comes to return policies and “this is why we can’t have nice stuff”

And again the frustrating thing is the clueless managers who cave to unreasonable or fraudulent demands and refuse to do anything even when people were caught red handed. There were a few times where someone was caught with trying to sneak extra items through at the checkouts and we were told “it’s an extra sale” :rolleyes:. A lot of these scams would become a lot less common if retailers would grow some balls and actually try to prosecute some of these people.

Often it costs more to prosecute than the item is worth. Usually someone has to take of work and go to court. The other sad reality is that the police and the courts don’t want to deal with it. They are busy enough. What I’d like to see more of is people being banned from stores. Don’t come back ever! Even that is hard to enforce in large retail outlets. Employees change frequently and it’s hard for managers to keep track. A walMArt in MAine was successfully sued for detaining the wrong person when they thought they had a chronic shoplifter who had a restraining order.
Petty crooks continue to pull thier crap because there tends to be few real consequences.

[Chimera]

@bengangmo

@Chimera

. I’m always very careful to look at what the previous people said and then stand by that answer.)

Even if the original answer was wrong?

Of course not. If the previous person was wrong, then I make a correction based on Policy. They promised you the moon? Sorry, can’t give it to you. They denied something that is covered in article blah blah blah, “sorry sir, they missed this other document that allows that, please let me cover that for you”.

[Chimera]

@cosmosdan

Often it costs more to prosecute than the item is worth. Usually someone has to take of work and go to court.

And that’s it. A guy skipped out on a $10 bill at a restaurant I was guarding. About an hour later, the moron comes walking back by the front door. The server spots him and I go out to get him. As I’m walking out the door, the stupid fucker tries to rob someone 10 feet from our front door. He sees me and takes off down the street. I call in backup (the mall cops next door have a car), they chase him down and catch him in the drug store down the street and bring him back to the restaurant. Unfortunately, the guy who he’d tried to rob had decided to leave, so we couldn’t get charges that way. The manager of the restaurant didn’t want to waste time having to spend a couple of hours in court over a $10 charge, so we just made the guy pay the bill since he had the money on him. Oh, and in his pocket was a pair of sunglasses that he had shoplifted from the drugstore while trying to hide from the guys chasing him, so they took those from him and returned them to the store, because most likely, the store wasn’t going to press charges either. Then we gave him all around “don’t ever come back here” speeches, which met with astonishment and “But I just live over there. How can I NOT come back here???” :smack:

[tdn]

@boytyperanma

Many thieves just run when they get caught. They’d run straight to their car. I simply walked out the door and watched what car they went to. In the 6 years I spent with HD I recorded hundreds of license plate numbers.

I heard a great story that had happened a few weeks before I was training to be a bank teller.

I guy came in and robbed the bank. His getaway car? A taxi. His destination? His house.

[Kent_Clark]

@Superhal

5. not being more clear in stating that cut and pasting from Wikipeida is unacceptable.

Here’s a story from today’s *New York Times * that explains why students not only disagree with you, but really don’t understand the difference between cutting and pasting and actual writing.

No shame in copy and paste for Internet-age students