When I worked in retail, a fellow floor saleswoman was attacked by an old dude because she sold the last of a certain model DVD player. He grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground, and was trying to kick her when all the loss prevention guys (and several customers) jumped on him and subdued him.
Because of all the commotion, customers were racing to the front to see what happened. After all, you could here the female employee screaming for help throughout the store.
The manager-on-duty used the intercom to tell the rest of the customers that a particular asshole customer assaulted a female employee, and that her register would have to be temporarily closed to get the situation under control. And oh, by the way, the asshole who attacked her is being detained at the front of the store until the police arrive.
I took my whole 15 minute break drinking a soda and watching every customer out the door look at this mean old guy with contempt, with several making what they thought of him quite clear.
Although, I guess this never really happened because Stinkpalm won’t believe it. :rolleyes:
By the way, she didn’t even normally work the registers in the front - normally she is in the video department. She was just covering a lunch for a friend at the register.
Guin, you say customers couldn’t possibly complain about the staff being too nice? Oh, they do… I once had a customer bitch to my manager about me because I was too friendly
Of course, my manager and I had laughs aplenty over this one afterwards. The guy obviously woke up in a foul mood that morning, and found my smile and greeting somewhat irritating. But that was the first time I had ever heard someone complain about the salespeople not being rude enough!
BTW, the sugary-sweet tactic works a treat with customers who are just itching to start an argument. By not taking the bait, you can piss them off while making yourself look whiter-than-white. Put on a big smile, raise your voice an octave or two and watch their faces darken
Guin, you say customers couldn’t possibly complain about the staff being too nice? Oh, they do… I once had a customer bitch to my manager about me because I was too friendly
Of course, my manager and I had laughs aplenty over this one afterwards. The guy obviously woke up in a foul mood that morning, and found my smile and greeting somewhat irritating. But that was the first time I had ever heard someone complain about the salespeople not being rude enough!
BTW, the sugary-sweet tactic works a treat with customers who are just itching to start an argument. By not taking the bait, you can piss them off while making yourself look whiter-than-white. Put on a big smile, raise your voice an octave or two and watch their faces darken
Bit of a different angle - my SO gives up two or three nights a week to answer phones for a charity. How would you handle asking someone to stop masturbating down the phone at you? There’s customer service and there’s…
Can I add a customer rant in here, or are we done with that?
I had a bad day at work yesterday. It was truck day, teh day where the truck comes in at 4am and the rest of the day is spent unpacking totes and stowing things where ever we can. (Tiny store, huge volume of sales, as much stock as we can pack in and many headaches in general.)
I was given aisle 4 yeatserday, while the two lazy girls were put in aisle 5. I finished 4, went to help out the girl in 1. By the time we had finished 1, the girls in 5 decided to go to lunch. So my friend and I were asked to clean up aisle 5. (The girls who were gievn aisle 5 don’t understand how to totally empty a tote, then put it away, then get a new one. They open totes and strew things all over.)
We finish cleaning up ater them and I open my first fresh tote. A woman comes up to me and asks “Where is my xxxx? You were supposed to set it aside for me.”
WTF?
I say “I’m sorry, I wasn’t told about you. If you have a moment I’ll see if I can find it though.” She huffs. I look at the shelf, its empty. “It hasn’t been put away yet, but I can look through totes for it.” (Note, the answer the manager will give at this point is “Come back tomorrow, it hasn’t been unloaded yet.”) I open several totes, dig through them and find her thing.
The bitch goes to the manager and complains about me. Because obviously, I hadn’t unloaded enough totes in that aisle to find her shit, nor was I psychic and had it for her. All my fault.
Some days its not worth the trouble to beat the shit out of someone.
Reminds me of a story a friend told me recently. He works in one of the area’s underground Safeways, the one in Rosslyn. There was this customer who was in full-bitch mode and kept bugging him every few minutes to ask where something is. Here’s the kicker: every time she aksed for help finding somthing the object desired was always right where she had asked a previous question. Her last question was about chicken; she asked her first question in the deli aisle!
Another handy feature of remaining calm and composed is that really insane freak-out customers have to calm down in order to understand what you are saying. So when they are being bastards the “nicness” will make them want to rip their hair out. If they are over-the-top, roaming at the mouth mad, they have to calm down a bit in order to understand you.
I’ve worked in retail, and I work in the entertainment industry where really big egos can flip out in hissy fits of the most grand proportions. Remaining pleasant is a good “fuck you” because it deflates them (they want you to get agitated too and if you don’t then they don’t feel they have the power), you technically aren’t doing anything wrong, and to an extent they need to calm down in order to communicate with you so you can still be in a strong mediation position (once you stoop to their level, you lose credibility and aren’t as tactically strong).
In retail, I’ve had people thrown out. Nicely. (And oo, does it ever make them crazy when you kick them out politely… mwah-ha-ha-ha!!)
Half the time, what I want to do is bludgeon them to death with a shoe. But I’ve found it more productive and less stressful for other customers to remain calm rather than play out an ugly scene.
Go for it, fair warning though I may have stolen it from somewhere. Not sure, but it sounds too good to be me, and I’m PMSing so I hate myself. But anyway, you’re welcome to it.
I think I made a personal record today, I got called a bitch 20 mins into my shift.
Full story: I was cashiering, waiting on a line. Guy comes in talking on his cell phone, loudly, and stands back behind the line (8-10 feet from the counter). This is semi normal so I tune it out and focus on taking care of the people in line. He stomps up and says “I said cigars bitch!”
I go blank, and chalk it up to my daily dose of surrealism and figure out that he has a question about three seconds later. “Oh, Aisle one” I stutter and get back to the people in line. He gets in line, unwraps his box of cigars, drops the wrapping on the floor, his cigars on the counter and pulls out a wad of cash. I ask if he has ID. (We got yelled at recently because another area store just busted for selling to people who look under 27. I need ID.) He says “No”, and then continues to complain to his friend on the phone about me. I put the cigars under the counter and say “Next please”
He bitches, I call a manager, and the manager sells him the cigars. Whatever. Today sucks. I’m hoping all will be healed by peach sorbet.
Arrgh. I work in retail [the worst kind - Fast Food ] and I constantly have rude people coming into work. They call us names, treat us like shit, complain about things that are beyond a mere cashier’s control…
A crackhead woman came into work a few days ago [and she really was a crackhead] and ordered some food. Then she said that she didn’t have enough money to pay for it, so I told her an alternative she could buy for a cheaper price. So she then throws her credit card at me and yells “I’ll buy it with the credit, you bitch!”… so I did as she asked and was glad when she left the store.
Oh, and I’m another worker who uses the insanely sweet and happy method of getting back at customers. Makes me feel much better when I see then shuffle out of the store, pissed off.
] and I constantly have rude people coming into work. They call us names, treat us like shit, complain about things that are beyond a mere cashier’s control…