I’m opening this discussion inspired by this thread which seems filled with nothing by whinning and complaining from people who, gasp!, are asked questions by customers. I didn’t want to piss all over someone else’s thread by posting there so here it goes.
Jesus H Christ! You people are pathetic! So the customer asked you if you have price matching, you poor baby. Being subjected to questions about your store’s policy. Boo-fucking-hoo. Guess what? If I’ve never been in your store and I don’t know what is your store’s policy regarding price matching, I’m gonna ask you. Why? Oh, I don’t know, I guess because as an employee of the store you sure as hell have a better chance of knowing that information than I will. And since the store is already paying you to deal with customers like me, I’m gonna avoid putting anymore mileage on my magical asshole of divination and put the question to you instead. So cut the condescending crap, if you don’t price match say so, end of discussion.
If I continue to pester you about it, deal with me in whatever fashion your employeer has deemed appropriate, ask me to leave, pass me on to your manager, or simply stare at me and let some drool roll of your chin. But quit fucking whinning and bitching about how poor you has to deal with assholes all day. Guess what bud, it’s called retail, doesn’t take a whole lot of skills and training, which is why it pays for shit, and why you can get the job. Not happy with the situation? Get a job that, here’s a clue, does not involve dealing with customers!
Now I’m gonna pussify this rant by saying that no, the customer is not always right. Many the times the customer is an all out asshole who deserves to be bitch slapped and told to get the fuck out, but you know what, many time so is the store’s employee. To paraphrase Paul The Cute Beatle, “The shit you take is equal to the shit you give.”
You’re off base on the price-matching thing. The guy was trying to scam the store. Here’s the deal:
1 - Poster’s store has the lower price
2 - That store and Home Depot both have “will beat competitor’s price by 10%” deals
3 - Customer tells poster, “Anyway, since you have a pricematch policy, and Home Depot will sell it to me for 10% lower than $49.99, then you have to beat them by 10%. So I want to you pricematch me now so I don’t have to fool around any longer.”
4 - I can just about guarantee you that pricematching is for the shelf price, not a pricematched price that another store gives. And what would stop the customer from going to Home Depot and demanding two pricematches from them, too?
Translation - it wasn’t a freaking question, and moreover, the customer was trying to pull a fast one. You might want to read more closely next time, especially if you’re going to single out something as example of how posters are being assholes.
I’m not going to pile on you but pile on with you. I agree 100%. Employees are there to help customers and answer questions. If you don’t like it, find a new job.
Of course, this assume the customer starts the interaction in a civilized way.
Never mind. I figured out what you meant (the book price comparisons), I’m the asshole I guess. The Home Depot example stuck in my head, I saw the other pricing whines as being just gripes about price.
Mea culpa. Though I’d rather have them whine here than treat customers like crap.
Well, that was fun. Some people deal with assholes, which makes them angry. You read about it, and somehow this causes you to spew more vitriol than the people who had to deal with the assholes in the first place. At what level of abstraction does your head explode?
Oh, and bayonete1976, what ever you do, stay far away from the forums at customerssuck. You think people were being babies here, some of those people post the same petty complaints day after day for months.
Actually there’s not a whole lot of abstraction involved, I’d say more along the lines of recursive ranting. That being said, I’m not that pissed off about it, as a Cuban male I’m in a constant state of “empingue”, so what passes for angry here is really a mild rebuke, it just sound worse in English, such an angry language.
If you don’t like bad customer service, shop somewhere where they care enough to try to attract employees that care. Retail employees are essentially an expendable labor source, with are rarely stay in a single job for more than three months. These people are in the job beacause there arn’t any other jobs out there. This is the bottom of the barrel. I’m sure they’d love to move on to a job where they don’t have to deal with assholes for pennies. And if you don’t like that, I’m afraid that is your problem.
Anyway, the big problem isn’t when customers act like customers. It is when customers try to pull something over on you. Unless you’ve worked retail, you don’t know how low seemingly upstanding people will go to try to get something for nothing. It’s embarrasing for humanity. They arn’t acting in good faith. And I have a problem with that. You wouldn’t act that way towards your brother, your kid’s teacher, your lawyer, even your plumber, so why is it okay to harrass and demean clerks? It’s not ok. Every human relationship- even when one of those humans is getting paid- calls for a certain amount of respect.
Good Lord, before this degrades into a “You only say that because you’ve never blah blah blah” whine. Let me ask you this, if I posted here a long list, well not so long 7 all told, list of retail establishments where I’ve worked, how in the ever living hell would that change what I said? Would you have any way of verifying that I’m telling the truth? My guess is that, unless like me you happen to have a magical asshole of divination, the answer is no. So take the rant for what it is and move on with your life.
I love it, rant about a whole slew of people posts, but get all huffy when they reply, telling them to “move on with their lives.”
Why don’t you do the same, sparky?
It matters because more often than not, the people that have never actually worked in customer service have no freakin’ idea of the amount of shit customer service reps have to put up with on a regular basis. They also have no idea why something that may seem entirely reasonable for someone outside of customer service could be construed to someone presently or at one time in customer service as an annoying or assholish thing to do.
Just another reason why the world would be a better place if everyone were required to spend a minimum of 1 month in customer service.
Well lezlers basically said what I was, and am, going to.
I don’t remember seeing, in the linked thread, many examples of people getting pissed when a customer politely asks things like:
-“Excuse me kind sir, but do you match prices with your local competition?”
OR
-“Pardon me ma’am, but do you accept competitor’s coupons”
Mostly, people were ranting about customers who come in and put on some stupid surprised act at the price as they tell you about how Store X has it cheaper with the expectation that this lowly retail worker being paid by the hour is going to start bartering with you.
Big difference, the latter being certainly rant-worthy IMHO.
Sorry, Bayonet, but this is a goofy and essentially insupportable OP. Any complaint could be considered ridiculous with this logic.
“So you hate your parents? Don’t talk to 'em!”
“So your boss is a jerk? Quit!”
“So you hate your neighbor? Move!”
And I could go on and on and on but I hope you’re canny enough to get my point. Bitching about something is sometimes the only way to deal with it and remain sane; “just stop dealing with X” is not always a viable option. Get over yourself.
Here’s the thing: anybody who’s ever worked with the public, in any capacity, is aware that a lot of people are assholes. A lot of people are stupid. A lot of people don’t pay attention to the obvious. A lot of people are just fucking annoying, in a thousand little ways that add up to a big huge total at the end of a long day.
And if you can’t empathize with a little ranting and raving about it, why the hell should we empathize with you?