Retail Madness, or I'm slowly going insane.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Three months I’ve been working in retail. I’m starting to feel it.

A few nights ago we had a couple show up right around closing time…well, not closing time for the store but closing time for the day shift workers. They want to pick up a piece of furniture they’ve already bought and want to know if we have any plastic we can wrap it up in. My co-worker and I politely inform them we do not have any plastic. After a brief discussion, one of the couple slams their receipt down on the counter and says “We want a refund.”

Of course, our store policy is no refunds. We politely inform the couple of this. They start to get angry, saying they weren’t informed of this and demanding to speak to our manager. While we try to explain that it’s all over the store posted on signs, they continually interrupt us, saying “Excuse me?” “What?” and still demanding we “better get somebody they can talk to.” Eventually they read the signs that are posted, out-loud in a very sarcastic manner so much you could hear their eyes rolling.

Finally a manager comes out and talks to them. He explains to them that we do not have any plastic, but he might be able to wrangle up a few comforters/blankets to wrap the furniture in. The customers reply with:

“Well good. You see, we brought a pick-up truck and the bed is covered in oil.”

…

:smack:

Another incident. An older lady comes up to my register and after paying for her items, asks if she can speak to a manger. I get my manager and the old lady asks in a very snippy tone: “Are employees allowed to hold items for other employees or themselves?” To which my manager replies yes, and the old lady says “oh okay” and grumbles off a bit.

Later inquiry reveals that earlier, the lady had seen something behind the counter and had asked an employee if she could see it. The employee replied “I’m sorry, my manager told me to hold that for somebody else.” To which the lady jabbed her finger at the employee and said “You’re a fucking liar.”

The manager had actually told that employee to hold the item for another customer. She wasn’t holding it for herself.

:rolleyes:

When I first started working, there was a scuffle between two ladies. One lady was at the counter trying to buy a purse, and the other lady came up yelling that the first lady had taken the purse out of her basket and was trying to steal it from her. The lady checking out vehemently denied it. A shouting match ensued for about five minutes until the manager came out and said he was going to check the security cameras. The first lady promptly skedaddled out of the building and left the purse behind…turns out after looking at the footage, yup, the lady stole the purse right off the other woman’s cart.

But the best part is? Two hours later, one of the employees went over to check the purses…and the much-sought-after-purse had been put back. The second woman didn’t even buy it after all the fuss she made. :o

2

No, there wasn’t. There might have been one lady involved though.

3

It’s all in the wording. I find it better to tell the customer that the item is not for sale at this time. There is no reason for explaination, and if the customer asks you merely indicate that the manager set it back there and specifically indicated that it was not to be sold (chances are the customer will assume it is faulty somehow) and you do not know the reason. If the customer is persistant & wants the manager then by all means get them.

I’ve seen all sorts of crazy crap from customers and employees alike - especially while doing a stint in management! :eek:

Crazy, I tell ya, crazy!

4

customerssuck.com

5

We got an order recently and a customer chose First Class US Mail shipping. We state that the shipping time is 5 days to 2 weeks, because it really is from our experience. His comment on the order was “96% of first class mail is delivered the next day. I expect to receive my order sooner than ‘5 days to 2 weeks.’”

I don’t know where he gets that statistic from, maybe it’s for mail going to the same city? We weren’t gonna argue with him anyway. We wrote him an e-mail: Your order has been shipped today by First Class Mail, after that it’s up to the post office." :rolleyes:
Also, we’ve noticed that when we state that Priority Mail takes “2 to 4 business days”, people see “2 business days.”

6

Cashier money woes:

Honestly, if your card says “Deficient funds,” polishing it on your shirt will not put money magically into your account. If you try to write a check after this, I will not accept it. Neither will my manager.

“Call card center” means that perhaps you have hit your credit limit, or made several large purchases in a short time and the card issuer suspects fraud. I don’t know. As a cashier, I legally cannot call your card company.

If you want to write a $1.3k check, my manager is going to call the bank before we accept it. Don’t act all offended, it is just policy.

When I check your fifties and hundreds with the counterfeit pen, saying “I just made it this morning!” is neither witty nor original. Also, you can’t have my counterfeit pen.

Don’t give my $15 in rolls of dimes. For all I know, they’re filled with pennies or shortchanged, and I can’t open and count the rolls with that line behind you.

If you write a check and then return a bunch of merchandise, I’m not going to give you cash back. That’s just a scam waiting to happen. I will give you store credit, and you can come back in 10 days and get cash.

I am not taking a check without ID. Honestly, who doesn’t carry their ID, especially if they plan on paying with check? If you have to drive home and come back to complete your purchase, you have issues.

I have more, but I’m done for now.

7

There’s a furniture store around my part of town where if you try to pick up your stuff with a pickup truck they’ll refuse to help you load it.

8

also notalwaysright.com

9

Do not buy a tripod from my store and then try to return it a week later at the end of your vacation. :rolleyes:

10

I’m a lifer. None of this is that bad.

When you’ve seen an old lady chuck a glass jar of roasted peanuts at a cashier because the cashier wouldn’t let her cut into line… (“YOU DON’T KNOW WHO I AM!!” ‘Ma’am these other people are in line ahead of you.’ FLING

90% of people are just shopping.Normal people. You get what you give.
2% are far too nice. 5% are just assholes generally.

Three percent are seriously so crazy/ on drugs/drunk that you can’t believe what they’ll do.

One guy (in my retail life) threw a dead snake at a cashier. Because…and I quote–He thought it would be funny.

11

Sigh… I’ve picked up my fair share of clothes out of the dressing room that had piss on them…

12

We will help a customer put merchandise in their vehicle but we will not secure it for them. If they want to tie it down they can buy some rope (aisle 15) and tie it down themselves. It’s a liability issue for us, as it probably is with the furniture store.

I had a customer come in looking for a product our website said we carried in stock. For whatever reason we did not carry the item. I apologized to the customer and told him that I could order the product for him. He insisted–no, DEMANDED–that I change the website RIGHT FUCKING NOW. If I didn’t change the website he would call the state’s attorney because this was bait and switch. Of course I couldn’t change the website, but I told him that I would inform the appropriate person of the mistake. He told me I was a worthless piece of shit and that he was going to shop our competitor for now own.

A few days later I saw him in our store and asked him if he needed any help. He told me in great detail how I should go fornicate with myself. The store manager happened to be at the end of the aisle and now that poor S.O.B. has no choice but to shop our competitor.

13

Ugh…what should your fair share be?

14

That’s a good thing, ain’t it?:confused:

15

Try to explain to people that there is no Express Mail Overnight Guaranteed to the outer islands in Hawaii and they will argue with you that post office in Chicago said there was.:mad:

16

Hmm… good point. There is no fair share.

17

I wanna work for your manager.

18

Not so much that, but it’s more that they are concerned about damage to the furniture being transported in an open vehicle. (ETA, maybe that’s what you mean by liability issue)
Here’s they’re website explaining the policy
http://steinhafels.com/customerservice/delivery_pickup.aspx#pickup
Lynn You’d like working for me as well. I have a rule, the first time I hear a swear word they get a simple “Sir, Please don’t swear at me” The second time they swear they are asked to leave (if it’s a phone call then I simply tell them I’m going to hang up, and do so). If they do not leave or continue to swear I yell to someone in the back room “Hey John…Go call 911 and tell them we need an officer here right away.” What’s really strange is that, I’d say, more then 50% of the people, probably closer to 75% will actually wait for the police to show up, they so sure they’re right they think I’ll get in trouble.

ETA2. BTW it’s a small town were the police tend not to have a lot going on and are always more then happy to come and diffuse a situation for us.

19

Applause!! Hooray for your manager! I started working retail at Sears many years ago. I hated the cooperate attitude that allowed asshole completely unreasonable customers to be verbally abusive and get away with it. The district manager would rarely back up the manager which meant the manager would rarely back up the staff. The same was true at Circuit City. I loved the change when I went to work for a smaller independent business and became part of management. Customers who get verbally abusive have a very small window to change their tune or hit the bricks. If they’re mad and can express it without being raving obscene lunatics I’ll try to help. If not we are done talking.

Once while trying to do a return exchange for a customer who wanted to upgrade without paying any extra {they thought they had a good reason} I patiently tried to work things out explaining why they had to pay more if they wanted more. The wife made some comment about the original salesperson being a liar.
“If you accuse my salesperson of lying again we are done talking and you’re leaving the store understand?” Gosh that felt good.

Once a customer calling from the parking lot after we closed wanted to know why he couldn’t come in a look around.
“It’s because we’re closed sir and the only customers left are ones finishing paying for their items.”
He made some racial comment about the customers still in the store and I had the pleasure of telling him we didn’t want his business and he was never welcome in the store.

The good news is that most customers are fine but a small percentage can make you crazy. Some customers are more demanding than others but that’s okay if they stay polite. There’s no rational explanation for why some people are retail wingnuts. Stay professional and get rid of them. Some customers will never be satisfied and it’s okay to choose not to do business with someone who is a constant pain in the ass. I figure most of the people they may badmouth us to know how they are.

20

I am so glad I don’t work in retail anymore. I do, however, still work in customer, or rather “visitor” services, at a local science center. And I’ve had some real characters. For example, a couple of weeks ago, I had a man come in and hand me a membership card. I asked for his ID, which he didn’t have. So I told him he’d have to verify the address in the system-which he was unable to do correctly. He then told me it belonged to a friend, and I politely explained that we do not allow people to loan out their memberships. He looked disappointed, but he went back into the gift shop.

About maybe ten minutes later, his wife comes stomping up the desk, and starts lecturing me about how I upset her husband, because he had just lost his job, and how their friend was only trying to save them some money, and blah blah blah. And I felt bad, but as I said, that was policy, and I could not change the rules. I asked her if she’d like to speak to my manager, but instead she just ripped the receipt out of my hand and said, “No, I don’t want to speak to anyone-I just want to get away from you!” At that point, my coworker (whom I’ll call T) and I were just standing back from the desk, looking completely shocked. I had to go and sit in the back and calm down-before I lost my OWN temper.
To be fair, I think it was more that she was frustrated by her situation, and simply needed to vent-and I just happened to be a handy target. Still, I called down another manager, just in case she came back (she didn’t).

And along those lines, there was one guy who told us, when I said he couldn’t use his mother-in-law’s membership, that he’d donated almost a half a million dollars over the years, and now we were going to lose his money. (We’re always getting people claiming to be trustees, having built the place, blah blah blah-the last time the guy claimed to be a Mellon. Um, dude? We’re a Carnegie museum. We have no affiliation with the Mellon family and/or corporation.)

THEN there was the time I had a woman call me a psycho bitch because I told her she had to throw her gum away before she proceeded onto the exhibit floors. She proceeded to call me a psycho bitch. (Uh…okay)