Retail Stupidity

[Annie-Xmas]

I wish I had that luxury. All I can do is call the aisle worker, who is going to push some buttons on their device, look at the screen and say “We’re out.”

One of our hard and fast rules “Do not give any price information over the phone.” Yet recently I had to repeat “I cannot give prices over the phone” five times to a stupide person who could not seem to comprehend that statement.

And I had this phone exchange once:

Do you ship to Ohio?
No, I’m sorry, we do not ship items.
What about to Vermont?

[RealityChuck]

@filmore

I put coupons on the belt because I need to go to the credit card machine and start bagging groceries after unloading on the belt. If I lose a coupon, no biggie. If I didn’t put the coupon the belt, chances are I would forget or be too busy to apply it at the end.

Here’s an idea that would solve that problem: Make the customer dividers be trays instead of thin strips. You know how they have those strips you can put between your groceries and another customer? If that was a wide tray instead of thin strip, people could put bills, coupons, and coins in it without risk of it going under the lip at the end of the conveyor belt.

Even easier: Put your coupons on top of another item being checked. So you set down a box of cookies and put the coupons on that. Cashiers always see it.

[Baker]

@teela_brown

I’ve been asked to answer survey questions after a transactions, but never asked to answer them as a condition to letting me complete a transaction. I think the first time a company tried to force me into this would be the last time I shopped there.

Ditto.

At the chain where I grocery shop you can go online when home with the reciept, and fill out a survey. You can do this once every seven days, and get fifty points for filling it out, plus a point per dollar of purchases. One hundred points gets 10 cents off per gallon of gas at the station. So i fill those surveys out, because it usually saves me thirty or forty cents per gallon.

[Zyada]

@Broomstick

I forget if it was Office Max or Office Depot (doesn’t matter now since they’ve merged anyway) but my spouse and I walked in to buy some copier paper and were subjected to a lengthy questionnaire wanting things like our address, phone number, e-mail, etc. Walked out in the middle of the transaction on that one.

I’m convinced that this is at least 50% of the reason Radio Shack went out of business

[Slash1972]

@Annie-Xmas

I wish I had that luxury. All I can do is call the aisle worker, who is going to push some buttons on their device, look at the screen and say “We’re out.”

I’m cool with this. Because I know Target doesn’t put all the desks they have for sale out on the shelf. They usually put one of each color/type. Same with TVs or other large items.

[Skywatcher]

@Annie-Xmas

I wish I had that luxury. All I can do is call the aisle worker, who is going to push some buttons on their device, look at the screen and say “We’re out.”

One of our hard and fast rules “Do not give any price information over the phone.” Yet recently I had to repeat “I cannot give prices over the phone” five times to a stupide person who could not seem to comprehend that statement.

Not retail but customer service related to my current job, in a different division from where I am now. Caller had previously sent in some documents and discovered an error in them; he wanted me to make a correction over the phone. Thing is, that division requires all submissions, including corrections, to be in writing.

He refused to accept the fact that we needed a paper trail and I couldn’t make a correction based on a phone call. He eventually got tired of hearing that he had to make a written submission and hung up, then called my supervisor and claimed I had hung up on him! He could have spent less time sending a fax than he spent on the phone with us.

[Chefguy]

@Biotop

I feel for people who are so lonely they are easily scammed. Our store has Western Union and gift card services and there have been dozens of times we have stopped scams from going through because we know the questions to ask. It’s not just Kroger checkers who are lonely and easily deceived. It is often the elderly. It is often people who have limited social skills. Sometimes it is just a regular person who has been somehow tricked. These people are victims and those that take advantage of them are Scum.

I am sure you were exaggerating for effect, but trying to help others not be scammed is to my way of thinking the decent thing to do. Just because someone is stupid does not mean they deserve what they get. Both sides on the retail exchange are people just trying to get by in the world. That’s good to remember.

As do I, but that’s probably a topic for a different thread. I, probably like a percentage of people that rapidly approaches 100%, just want to buy my bag of chips, perhaps exchange a pleasantry, and head home. Someone’s story about what is almost guaranteed to be a scam is just depressing to me, knowing that there is no person on the planet that can talk him out of his plans.

[thorny_locust]

@Annie-Xmas

One of our hard and fast rules “Do not give any price information over the phone.” Yet recently I had to repeat “I cannot give prices over the phone” five times to a stupide person who could not seem to comprehend that statement.

I’m not going to ask you five times, but I’m curious so I’m going to ask once: why do they forbid you to give out price information? Do they think this will force people to come in to the store? I’d think it would be more likely to cause customers to spend their travel time going somewhere else that would answer the question.

[Slash1972]

@thorny_locust

I’m not going to ask you five times, but I’m curious so I’m going to ask once: why do they forbid you to give out price information? Do they think this will force people to come in to the store? I’d think it would be more likely to cause customers to spend their travel time going somewhere else that would answer the question.

I was curious about this too, but it would prevent customers coming in and saying “They told me on the phone that it was 3 for $1!!!” or something similar.

[Llama_Llogophile]

@Broomstick

WHY does anyone put money on a moving conveyor belt? What makes sense about that?

Because counter space seems to be disappearing at all kinds of stores.

I’ve been noticing this more and more. I carry a knapsack around with me a lot, and frequently there is no place at all to put it down and take out my money. This goes for supermarkets (often there’s a small platform about half the size of a license plate by the computer dingus that you stick your card in) and mom & pop stores with counters. I suppose they see that as prime space to display wares, because frequently there’s little to no space available to even put down my man purse. One of these days I’m going to be annoyed enough to abandon my transaction because there’s simply no way for me to conduct one.

[thorny_locust]

@Slash1972

I was curious about this too, but it would prevent customers coming in and saying “They told me on the phone that it was 3 for $1!!!” or something similar.

Unfortunately, I don’t think it would.

Presuming that nobody at the store actually told them the item was 3 for $1, if the customer says that happened, then the customer is lying. Why would they be less likely to lie if the clerk didn’t tell them any price than if the clerk told them the right one?

[Slash1972]

@thorny_locust

Unfortunately, I don’t think it would.

Presuming that nobody at the store actually told them the item was 3 for $1, if the customer says that happened, then the customer is lying. Why would they be less likely to lie if the clerk didn’t tell them any price than if the clerk told them the right one?

Well, it seems harder to lie about what the clerk told them over the phone if the policy is “Don’t tell them over the phone”

But yeah, customers lie all the time, so they’d probably still try it.

[JcWoman]

I try to be more charitable toward my customers than calling them stupid, but I’ve noticed that they contact me for what I consider an odd reason a lot. My shop is online, and it has a pretty typical checkout process:

1. enter your shipping address
2. select your preferred shipping speed/carrier (which also shows shipping costs)
3. enter your billing address and credit card info
4. click the purchase button

What people do is email me asking me for a shipping estimate. They’ll say something like “how much do you charge to ship to NY” or Canada or wherever. I explain to them the above and that they can see the shipping options and pick whichever one they want, and if they don’t like any of them they can bail out without harm.

It makes me wonder if there are other online shops that collect the billing info first which is making people nervous about being “caught” before they know what the shipping will be.

[Broomstick]

@Slash1972

What do you do if the ID doesn’t have their address on it?

For that particular transaction? We will not process the transaction.

There are other transactions where an address is not required.

[Zyada]

@Annie-Xmas

One of our hard and fast rules “Do not give any price information over the phone.” Yet recently I had to repeat “I cannot give prices over the phone” five times to a stupide person who could not seem to comprehend that statement.

Can you change up what you say, like “The company forbids me to give prices over the phone”? Granted, there are people that are just stupid, and people who think if they ask often enough that you will change what you are saying…

[Slash1972]

@Broomstick

For that particular transaction? We will not process the transaction.

There are other transactions where an address is not required.

So in your store, I can’t use a credit card and show you my retired military ID or my passport?

[Broomstick]

Depends on the nature of the transaction.

For most, but not all, credit card transactions we do not require an ID.

For some we do, and if we ask for it your ID better match up with you and any other information we may need has to be up to date. Note I did not specify what form of ID is required. If your military ID or passport has the information we need and it is up to date and accurate then yes, you can use it.

This most commonly comes up when someone wants to use the option where they do not have their physical credit card on them. They can still use their line of credit, but that one requires their name, address, etc. all match up with what is currently on the system. If it doesn’t you will not be able to make a credit card purchase at that time.

[Slash1972]

@Broomstick

This most commonly comes up when someone wants to use the option where they do not have their physical credit card on them. They can still use their line of credit, but that one requires their name, address, etc. all match up with what is currently on the system. If it doesn’t you will not be able to make a credit card purchase at that time.

But that’s just it. My address isn’t on my military ID, nor on my passport. So you wouldn’t accept them for the “line-of-credit without the physical credit card” transaction?

[Broomstick]

Correct. Those ID’s would not have all the information we require for that particular transaction.

[Wheelz]

@Broomstick

Dear customer: Whether or not those clothing items just rung up are on sale or not, they are ringing up full price. Unfortunately, I do not have the authority or the ability to alter the total by nearly $200 and calling someone in the department will not change that. Calling a manager will not change that. The only way to get a price adjustment that large is to go to customer service. No, calling the Store Director will not change it, either - yes, she can authorize it, but the register will not process it. The transaction has to be transferred to customer service to do this.

So if a store manager verifies that the price is ringing up incorrectly, they are not able to override it to the correct price? That is indeed retail stupidity, but by no means on the part of the customer.