Sometimes dealing with people on both sides of the cash register is a bit challenging. I haven’t worked retail in a number of years; but I’ve certainly been on the paying side the register. To that end I thought it would be fun to start a positive/negative, good/bad type thread (hopefully keeping this from turning into a hate filled rant about idiot customers or idiot sales people.
I’ll start.
The negative experience: I went to Starbucks and ordered my coffee double cupped and without a lid. (no lid because I find it strangely difficult to drink through those lids without burning myself, and double cup to give support to the cup that is lost with no lid). The Starbucks barista actually told me it was against the law to NOT serve coffee without a lid :rolleyes:. Uh I don’t think so. It’s apparently company policy and I have no problem with that; but that’s just ridiculous. I know that’s not really even a negative as the barista was still a pleasant person.
The good experience: Short & Sweet… I love Chic-Fil-A. Every time I go to a Chic-Fil-A I get awesome competent customer service without fail. They always have more than enough people working there. I never have to wait in line longer than 1 or 2 people; and every time there is a line you can bet that all of the registers are open for business. If they are busy; the take my order and ask me to have a seat, and they’ll send someone out with my order and then get me refills after they drop off my order. Now I suppose this doesn’t apply to all Chic-Fil-As, but on my small sample size of about 4 different ones that I go to semi regularly this seems to be the norm.
Hell: Local convenience store I stopped at around 3 am the other day. The clerk was asleep on the floor. I had a couple things I wanted to pay for, but he was asleep. I considered my options (leaving money, waking the dude up, just taking the stuff) and ended up leaving the stuff on the counter and walking.
Are you sure he was asleep and not hurt or ill? Hate to see on the news the security cam video of the “guy who ignored the clerk who had been knocked out during a robbery”!
Heaven: Hmm…hard for me to pinpoint since people seem to be pretty pleasant at most places. I guess Ann Taylor LOFT. The sales people aren’t pushy and I know my size there (plus they always have some sort of sale or promotion) so I can buy what I want with minimum hassle.
Hell: My local convenience store. I thought about making a thread about this incident actually, but feel like I need to just forget about it. Anyway, I really like a specific brand of protein drink which they used to carry, but stopped, although I would sometimes go in there to get my second favorite drink. This time they were out of both so I left and purchased what I wanted from another store. As I was leaving the second store an employee from the convenience store approached me on the street and asked if I’d stolen the drink from the convenience store. I asked to see his manager, showed the manager the receipt from store number two and pointed out that they don’t even sell the product that I purchased from the other store. The manager tried to tell me that the employee was being responsible and that’s why he approached me on the street. I told him that’s absolutely appalling and not responsible at all. Unfortunately it’s not a chain store so there’s no upper management for me to complain to (the manager claimed he didn’t have a boss and there’s no website for me to verify that) but I left reviews on Yelp and Google about what happened.
Most of the cashiers there are awesome. There are two there that I don’t like. One of them I tolerate because all she does is talk about God/Jesus all the time. On time she pissed me off because I dared buy a SI swimsuit calendar with my 14yo son right there by my side. Her head about exploded and she caused a scene during the process.
This other one though, is a full on bitch that I can not stand. She talks to the mentally disabled baggers they’re pond scum. Which really sticks in my craw as I have a child who is autistic. And when it comes to handling sensitive groceries with care, she couldn’t care less. (She squishes my bread dammit!)
So anyway, I’ve got my cart full of grocers. I have two choices: I can wait line for a cashier I do like, or I can get served immediately with bitch number two. I opted to wait in line.
Right about then a manager type walks by and says to me:
Manager: Sir, we can help you right over here.
Me: I’m fine here
Manager: But we can get you right now over here.
Me: I don’t WANT to go over there.
Manager: Why?
Me: [getting pissed now] BECAUSE I DON’T LIKE THAT LADY!
The really messed up thing about that whole deal was, when I said that last line, the whole store went quite. :o I was a little embarrassed to say the least.
Heaven: the people at the local 7–11s. Just always nice and friendly. A few weeks ago I didn’t have change and the guy said “pay me tomorrow.” (I did.)
Hell: Staples. This week’s upselling is for the Special Olympics. Now, I don’t like upselling, but I understand that it works. I don’t think retailers should be pushing their customers towards charitable donations, but who could be against the Special Olympics? (I’ve even volunteered for them before.) Staples had a mentally disabled man stationed next to the cashier to make the pitch. Employing the disabled is great, but the extra level of manipulation makes me sick, of both me and of him. Now, if he’d been employed doing anything else in the store (at his skill level), that would have been awesome. I assume they wouldn’t have put someone in that position if he couldn’t handle a series of people saying “no thanks,” but I would have liked some reassurance that I wasn’t part of a negative experience for him.