I’ve shopped at stores where I’ve had bad experiences with store policies. As an example, I’ve gone to a store specifically because there was an extremely good coupon that provided a buy one, get one free sort of deal. When I went to the register they couldn’t honor it because it didn’t apply at that store. There was absolutely nothing on the coupon that said it only applied at certain locations, it wasn’t expired, and what I was trying to purchase was exactly what was on the coupon. But that particular store for whatever reason wouldn’t honor it.
I said never mind on my purchase then, my whole point in going to the store was because of that deal. I was extremely pissed off because it was a bait-and-switch. I was lured in with bullshit. However, I didn’t take it out on the cashier, it wasn’t their call. I didn’t raise a stink, I didn’t take up the cashier’s time to delay the people in line behind me. I put the stuff back and left the store. I think that’s what an adult should do, not act like a spoiled kid taking it out on the person in front of them.
I did put in a complaint at the store’s web site, I’m sure it went nowhere but that’s all I could do. I also never shopped there again. That store lost my business, so there were consequences for what it’s worth. But I didn’t take it out on the employee and demand that the employee unilaterally honor the coupon, something beyond that employee’s power.
I could have demanded to see the manager, and then it’s not the employee’s problem (aside from the time it takes them to get a supervisor and explain the situation). But at that point I am investing far more time than it’s worth for a purchase that I don’t even want anymore; I don’t want to give them my money.
I said I did not want to join and she continually refused to ring me up until I gave her my phone number and filled out the card. When I told her I was in a hurry and didn’t have time for this she insisted it wouldn’t take long and loudly told me to fill out the card and give her my phone number. I then reiterated that I was not interested and firmly but politely said I needed to complete the sale and leave. That’s when she finally rang me up and started talking about me to her coworker.
I was quite polite to this pushy woman and only got volatile here (we are in the Pit, aren’t we?).
If she had just said ok after my first refusal we wouldn’t be here.
I’m curious: What would you have called the cashier if they had been male? Would you have used some male-specific term insulting to his entire gender, or would a male cashier have gotten a gender-neutral term? Or maybe men and women alike get called by a name that insulting to all women, and words that insult all men are never used?
Nope, you don’t need my info, you want my info; there’s a difference. Any store that requires it is f’ed up & deserves the fate of “the Shack”. I don’t agree with his tone but his comments are spot on. Once refused, that should have ended it.
No means no. I don’t have an issue with an employee asking one time, but once refused that should end it. If a cashier can’t figure that out, sadly, they’re already above their Peter Principle level.
For reference, I’m in the same neck of the woods and have never heard the term.
If the store owner is your enemy and therefor the cashier is also your enemy, maybe you should shop elsewhere. I certainly wouldn’t want to shop in a place owned by and fully staffed by people I consider to be my enemy. And the language you use when referring to them, suggests you have very little respect for them. By continuing to go to these same places, ISTM, you have no one to blame but yourself for how angry you’re getting
Clearly the store had a rule that required it.
Imagine if a customer did the exact same thing to one of your employees because of a rule that you put in place. I’ve had customers tear my employees a new asshole for things like not unlocking the door after closing time because they ‘just need some milk’ or not giving them a refund when they don’t have a receipt or the product.
I’m not saying that this is the case, but I’ve dealt with plenty of customers that, had you read the words that they said, it may have seemed perfectly innocent and nice, but their attitude and utter contempt for the employees trying to help them very clearly comes though in their tone of voice, their expressions, their body language etc.
I think even having the mindset that a cashier is somehow your enemy says a lot.
You keep telling us how polite you were, but generally cashiers don’t bad mouth polite customers (and certainly not while they’re within earshot).
I don’t mind the membership card stuff. It gets me money off some items and earns me gas points. What I really object to is when businesses push their credit cards on you, like Sears used to do. “If you apply for a card today, you’ll save 40% on today’s purchase.” Translation: “We’ll give you a discount today in order to bet that you won’t pay off your card each month at 23% APR.” It’s a sales tactic that’s specifically aimed at lower income folks or those already up to their eyeballs in debt. I have two credit cards, one of which is only used if the other one gets compromised.
Really? You live in the same general area I do and you really believe that there is a chain hardware store that requires it’s customers to be part of their rewards program or else they are not allowed to shop there. And if you decline to join they won’t sell you anything. You really believe that?
Or is it more plausible that cashier was just over zealous and didn’t like to be told no and got shitty and loud over it?
You do get cashiers like that sometimes, but mostly it’s the store management that breathes down the cashiers’ necks to push whatever promotions they are pushing. The cashiers have “quotas” they have to meet, and they may forced to compete with other cashiers to do the most upselling.
One can read endless stories like these at Not Always Right (dot) com
No. That is the whole point of loyalty cards - stores are not allowed to track you by your c/c and banks do not give stores your personal information. That’s why the loyalty card was invented.
As to the substantive issue, pkbites is being his usual obnoxious self, but I agree with his basic point. The only circumstance I would not have said “Bye” when told they could not put through a sale without my info is if I was in a screaming hurry and couldn’t afford to walk.
As to the idea that service staff are absolutely sacrosanct when asked by their boss to be assholes, no. I will not be abusive but I will be abrupt with a person in a service role who is being obnoxious with a smile on their face. “But my boss told me to” is not an excuse.
And which causes cashiers to do things like lie about not being able to put a sale through. They may be able to; they may not. It could be either.
This. Modern cash registers are computers, and computers are programmable. Stores will have infinite variations on details of how their registers should work, and there can be no “one size fits all” cash register software. Thus, just as browsers and other apps can be modified in the field with “add-on modules”, so can cash registers.
Story time!
I used to work for a company that made a cash register app software. A large part of my job was writing custom add-on modules for our customers. I must assume that ALL major cash register apps are similarly customizable – they would have to be!
A standard feature of our app (and I assume all serious register apps) is to restrict tobacco and booze sales according to the customer’s age. The register may ask the cashier to enter the customer’s age (or maybe birthday), and will NOT allow tobacco or booze to be rung up if the customer is under-age (and in at least some states, also if the cashier is under-age).
So. One liquor store wanted to be really really strict about this because selling to a minor will get them in such deep shit. So they asked us to write an add-on to swipe their driver license and extract the birthdate from that. I wrote the module to do that.
So they installed it at their store. So almost immediately, customers noticed that the cashiers were not only demanding to see their driver license, but were swiping it through the mag stripe reader. The word got around the community in no time, and there was a mini riot outside their store, with the local news media covering the story.
So they took that add-on out, and that was the last we ever heard of it.
I’ve given up using the rewards card at the Mobil station. It was a convenient stop to get a quick cup of coffee on my way to work. The retail drones behind the register have to ask every time do you have a rewards card? They never asked if I wanted one until one day I asked about it and said sign me up. Id pull it out for a $1.50 coffee and hand it over, they’d scan then slap it on the counter. That seemed rude. When I realized I’d have to buy 20 cups of coffee to get my one cup free as a reward, it wasn’t worth the hassle or the micro aggressions. Last time I used it I directed them to toss it away.
Now I use their self serve kiosk and get in and out much quicker.
Huh. I do wonder what the big difference is in having to be “carded” and showing them their license and scanning having them the license into the software. I would think the privacy issues would be about the same, the cashier could easily put in your name or driver’s license ID nearly as easily as the scanner could.
I guess I get how it could seem emotionally different. But I wonder if there are any substantial differences.
