Why your retail service sucks- my first retail employee rant

The BBQ Pit
1

I 've never ranted here before (at home, sure). I hardly ever even start threads, even.

So I can only hope somebody else agrees I have a good reason. (Because I’m vunerable : > )

So my SO is driving me to work. like he usually does. He doesn’t usually park, but today he wants to come in and buy something (bookstore). So he’s waiting for somebody to pull out, pantiently, while they’re going through a difficult K curve, and just as they get clear, some asshole (althought I hesitate to deride the useful and always responsible orifice by association) swerves around us and into the space.

I don’t normally get bothered by this kind of thing. SO is usually the driver, and usually, when he gets pissed off I kind of think he’s overreacting. But this was just so obnoxious. It really was. So, on my way in (SO is still looking for another parking space) I tap on his window and gesture to what he just left behind him and say something about what was he thinking cutting us off like that. And give him an annoyed look. OK, a VERY annnoyed look. Note- no profanity, no insults. No obscene hand gestures.

I go on to work. End of story. Should be.This is not a rant about stupid drivers.

Couple hour later, I get summumed by L. (yellow running dog of M. our manager) to M.'s office. Stupid reckless driver has CALLED UP and complained that someone he discovered was an employee has harrassed him in the parking lot. He was scared. He didn’t know if he should come back to the store. So we had a TALK. An uncomfortable, degrading, deeply humliating talk, the point of which is I am a representative of Barnes and Noble and I have degraded it’s good name because it BELIEVES in bad driving when it’s done by customers, and what was I thing\king employees aren’t even suppoes to park where a customer is thinking about parking.

This is the point. This is my rant: some inconsiderate jerk calls up. And the customer is always right. A threat of lack of business (no matter if it’s bullshit) is always the most important thing.

It’s not that they brought up the phone call to me. It’s not that they wanted to talk to me about it. A complaint is a complaint.They have to address it.

It’s the utter humorlessness. It’s the compleat inability for either one of them to say at any point, this guy was kind of a jerk. We know you (they should!) we know you don’t fly off the handle at just anything. Just, ya know, cool it, you’re at work. Anything. Anything at all that said any asshole customer did not in all possible ways trump a Trusted Employee. Anything at all that said Trusted Employee does not equal Piece of Shit…

I swear, anything at all.

They keep me there till they get what they want. I act contrite and beg forgiveness for besmerching the B&N name. I hate myself for it. But, fuck, unfortuantly I kind of like my job otherwise.

And…ya know…I’m a good employee. Because despite myself, I like people (note, I said people, not customers). I like helping them find books and music and whatever them come in looking for. And I’m pretty knowledgable, and can usually give them some kind of advice. So, I’m a pretty useful bookstore employee. But after five minutes with those two, after knowing my manager won’t ever back me up no matter what a customer does…I feel like tripping people on their way in. I feel like an idiot for doing anything that might be considered good customer service, since everything I do is- what?- a reflection of B&N, and B&N thinks I’m a piece of shit.

I don’t do it. Of course not. But they make it hard.

2

That sucks, but the second I read that you confronted the guy, I thought “Uh, oh- WARNING! WARNING! DANGER WILL ROBINSON!”

Here’s the bottom line. The vast majority of retail type places treat you like a bad child if someone complains. When I worked at a big grocery chain, we were basically told this hypothetical situation:

Shopper is a regular buyer and spends some amount (say $150) a week on groceries. That’s $7,800 a year, not counting holidays. That’s just 1 person. You piss them off? You’re outta there, no matter if they are the creepiest, most idiotic, jerkiest customer out there. The customers represent $$ coming in and you represent $$ coming out- the company can easily replace you, but not the customers. What if disgruntled customer tells another regular customer and they stop shopping there? (And so on)

For the record also, I don’t think you were wrong, but the company will probably never handle a disciplinary action by saying “Yeah, the customer was an ass. Try to think of another solution next time”. If this bugs you (as it bugs the ever loving shit out of me), you gotta get out of retail before you end up with ulcers.

Zette

3

betenoir, it does sound like you were in the right on this one, but you have to hear my parking lot/employee story.

I was in a Target parking lot, I’d found a space nice and close to the doors (rare for me), but was waiting for the woman to pull out. No one else was in sight, but careful driver that I am, I had my turn signal on, which of course is the universal signal for “This Spot is Mine”, right?.
She pulled out, towards me, so I had to wait till she was completely out of my way before pulling in. Just as she was pulling out of my way, some girl whipped around the corner of the lane, into the spot. She jumped out of her car and started walking off. I yelled, “Hey!”, but she turned, and yelled, “Fuck you!” at me. Then I realized she was wearing tan pants and a red shirt. She ran off into the employee entrance.
Fuck me? FUCK ME?!?
I don’t think so, sweetie!

I found another spot to park and walked in and asked to see the manager. I explained what happened, and told him what the girl looked like. He knew who she was right away, found her, made her move her car to the employee’s parking area (off to the side) made her apologize to me AND gave me a $25 gift card for the trouble.
Whenever I tell this story, people are amazed that she wasn’t fired. I didn’t want her to lose her job, I just wanted her to get in a little trouble. She was clearly in the wrong.

4

While it is very important to keep your customers happy, there was absolutely no need to dress down betenoir in a private manager-employee meeting. The manager should have found out the situation, maybe made a suggestion to you about not acting pissed off towards customers (or potential customers) and left it there. There is no reason to degrade or humiliate you.

I used to work at Radio Shack, and my manager stuck up for me on more than one occasion. For instance, early in my tenure there, a lady and her son came in because they wanted to hook up their TV to their stereo, or some such thing. They didn’t have the slightest idea what they wanted or how any of their equipment worked. I did my best, from the limited information they had (an owners manual) to figure out what options we had to solve their problem.

Since it took a bit longer than she wanted, she started to get rude and asked for the manager. I got the manager and started to to explain what they wanted, and she just cut me off and started on him. He knew that I wasn’t an idiot, and that I was trying my best to help out this customer, so he told her that there was no need to be rude, and she could leave. Did we lose some business? Sure, but I was a good worker for them, and good, responsible workers don’t just drop off of trees.

5

I think betenoir is bringing up an interesting point; at what point did she stop being a human being and become an employee? As a human being, she had a right to tell a bad driver that he had done something inconsiderate; I will concede that as an employee, she needs to consider how she is representing the company. Did she stop being a human being when she put on the uniform or nametag (if she has one)? When she entered the store parking lot? When she crossed the threshold of the store? Does she lose her human rights when she crosses the threshold of the store (a lot of managers answer this question a resounding “yes” by the way they treat their employees) into employee territory?

6

This is why I like where I work. My managers really don’t give a shit about what employees do when they’re off the clock. They also stand up for the employees when confronted by dumbass asshole customers, because we don’t have any sort of “the customer is always right” rule (rules like this I absolutely abhore).

7

In the original post, betenoir said her SO was parking. Is he an employee of B&N? I’m assuming no. Does he buy books from B&N? If so, does he buy a lot of books? Is B&N pissing off one customer to suit another (possible) customer? And just because he is betenoir’s SO doesn’t mean he’s an employee by affiliation, with all the lack of consideration that seems to entail. (And anyway, I’ve always considered management of B&N to be somewhat ignorant on the whole. Who the hell else would categorize Foxfire in the Animal section?

8

betenoir: Get your ass outta B&N and into a public library.

I’ve handled plenty of similar situations, and I’m perfectly within my rights to tell a patron (not “customer”) to get fucked if they’re even the slightest bit rude to me. I mean, we try to give everybody a pleasant customer service experience, but it’s generally accepted by the administration and management that people who flip out when they don’t get the perfect cocksuck from the library employees are probably the same ones who steal books, anyway.

Sometimes I love working in the public sector.

9

Just the other day I was getting ready to head to the local bookstore. I had cirled the lot for a while, looking for a spot, but there just wasn’t one to be found. I got stuck behind this idiot who was just sitting there. It looked like they were just parked there, so when a car did pull out I went around them and parked in the newly vacated spot. I had waited for them to take the spot, but they didn’t move.

Then, out of nowhere, this bitch (although I hate to denegrate dogs by using the term for this bookstore staff) comes over and bangs on my window. Of course I just sat there, hoping she would go away. It looked like she was pointing at her bf, saying that if I dared get out he and his buddies were going to kick the shit out of me. I could see she was from the bookstore I was going to go into, and given that I was about to pay by credit card, I was afraid she and her thug bf would get my name and address and find me. Road rage and all that. Damn she looked pissed.

10

Hmm… no comment on that last one, but:

Tapping on the car windows of strangers is probably a bad idea. (a) they could be crazy, (b) they could have a gun, and © they could haul off and shoot you. All that needs to happen is for factors (a) and (b) to converge - a common enough occurrance, I bet - and © becomes a real possibility.

Not that your anger wasn’t entirely justified. But making a point isn’t worth risking your life. IMHO.

11

That would annoy the shit out of me.

I worked for 4 years as a dancer at a topless club. “The customer is always right” was very much NOT a rule there. In fact, it was sort of the opposite. I was dancing for a guy once and he put his face in my ass when my back was to him. So I turned around and slugged him in the face, demanded my money, and walked away.

He jumped up and found the manager. The manager called me over. “This man says you hit him” “Yes, I did. He put his face on my ass when I was dancing for him. He touched me.”

The manager had the bouncers kick the guy out. Heh. Then the manager asked me if the guy had paid for his dance. I said yes, but if the guy hadn’t paid, the manager would have paid me.

Another time, I guy smacked my ass (hard, too! it hurt!) and from out of nowhere, like lightning, two bouncers had him by the arms and dragged him out of his chair (backwards, the chair fell over) and into the parking lot. Heh. Another guy was kicked out for calling me ugly and making me cry. Our managers took good care of us, and the bouncers were like a pack of very large, very protective big brothers.

12

In the proverbial ideal world, here’s what would have happened:

MANAGER: Some guy called up and said you were harassing him in the parking lot. What happened?

BETENOIR: (tells story)

MANAGER: What a prick. Consider yourself chewed out. Next time you see him, let me know. I’ll make sure the alarm goes off when he leaves so we have to kick his ass.

13

Well, first of all, what masonite said.

But I understand your frustration in the manager’s office. I used to work at a theme park. My tenure there was, in the main, pleasant, but the “leads” (managers) did seem to have a desire to not only get you to toe the line, which I don’t mind, but to break you down, which I do mind.

We were supposed to conduct ourselves at all times when we were “onstage”; that is, wherever the “guests” (park visitors) could see us. One day, I was on break, sitting in a spot that I thought was backstage, but actually wasn’t, and smoking. A lead saw me, and started in on “You’re supposed to conduct yourself when you’re onstage and if a guest sees you smoking you represent the park and you’re not supposed to there are places where you can…” :mad: ! A simple “Go backstage for that” or “You’re not supposed to smoke onstage”, or something to that effect, would suffice! I already got the brainwashing at orientation, for crimeny sake! I hate being lectured. Hate it hate it hate it. If you want me to do/not do something, just say so, and keep it short and sweet. It’s really not the rules that I mind, it’s the being dominated.

14

I forgot to add (and this is very important, reoch) - don’t let the bastards grind you down.

15

was B&N paying you for your time in the parking lot? if not, fuck them!

the last job i had was a big company with lots of meaningless middle-management dweebs. one day, i overheard this one exceptionlly worthless dickhead talking about how some one passed him on the road leaving the building and was speeding (!):eek: and how he thought (would have been the first time!) he should “talk to him” and how “it reflected poorly on the company”.

we’re talking about public roads here! how would anyone know who the hell this “reckless speeder” worked for? (no uniforms or anything) fuck you, Don, you worthless fat gout-ridden puss-tumbler, (just kidding-- his name is Ron!) when you log out and your ass is off the property, you are on your own time and don’t reflect on anyone but yourself!

what a freakin’ joke!

16

Okay, my previous post was a joke.

But… the part about “fuck em when you aren’t working”, well… feel free to take that attitude, but if I’m not mistaken, you can get fired for actions you take even when not on the clock.

Just ask John Rocker and the trouble he found himself in after his now famous interview. If I recall, he could be let go and/or fined for what he said. Is a B&N employee in the same vein as Rocker? Lots of arguments for and agains, I would imagine. But then again when you wear the uniform you are associated with the organization, especially if you are headed into work.

THAT IS NOT TO SAY I AGREE WITH WHAT HAPPENED. Personally, I think what she did was absolutely correct and the manager should have said, “consider yourself warned, but between you and me, the guy is a jerk.”

My point is that I believe you can be fired for actions while not on the clock. Free speech means the gov’t can’t do anything to you.

17

It’s true, retail sucks. It shouldn’t have to suck, but with an absurd rule such as “the customer is ALWAYS right (even if they are not a customer but a whiny jackass punk as in your scenario),” it will always be a lose-lose situation for the employee. As such, I pretty much have very little respect for retail managers – and yes, I have done retail work before so I feel I am fully justified with this comment.

Recently, I was forced into retail due to the terrible job market here in the SF Bay Area. Women’s clothing no less. Coldwater Creek. I never did experience what happened to you but I made a promise to myself that if such ever did happen, i would not grovel to keep my job. Fuck that. It just isn’t worth it, but that’s just me, and I do understand about loving your job despite the fact that your manager is a gutless wonder.

Coldwater Creek is rather insane about customer service. For example, in training, we were told to always honor a return – REGARDLESS of where it came from. That’s right, if a customer tries to return a Beatles’ CD, we have to take it. Even give money back if it is under $50. It’s absurd. It’s immoral. It rewards lying and hyopcrasy. That’s retail for you. And remember, retail sucks… unless you’re selling high-class European cars and make something like 20% off of each $200,000 purchase…in that case, heck, even I’d kiss a little ass. :slight_smile: It would be worth it then, but that will never be the reality for most of us.

There’s no doubt in my mind that your manager was out of line. He/she should have backed you up. Retail sucks. :mad:

18

That’s it. I’m never going to Barnes and Nobel again! And I’m going to tell your manager that it was his treatment of you that lost him a customer, damnit!

[sub]Huh, what’s that? . . . What do you mean that’s not a good idea? . . . Oh. . . . OHHH!!![/sub]

Uhhh, never mind!
:wink:

19

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: Seems like a good idea to me.
Thanks, shelbo.

And thanks, everybody for your comments. A lot to be said for getting some perspectives on you personal traumas. Pit rants work!

i’d say more but it’s three am.

but thanks

20

apollo9:

I don’t get it. Why would a company that has such a liberal return policy make your job harder? Seems like it would make a return job a whole heck of a lot easier. No hassles about purchase dates, when damaged or even if you sell the stupid thing! Just accept and smile. Wow! Sounds ideal. If people are taking advantage of the store, so what? You aren’t out anything.