Couple years ago on Black Friday, I work in a fuel station for reference, all of the credit/debit transactions both indoors and outdoors at the pumps decided to fuck up. The only thing that would still accept credit cards was the ATM. Angry customers piled into our store demanding we rectify the situation. I calmly explained that we were, until further notice, a cash or gift card only establishment for the next whenever. People did not take this news well. This was before the economic crash so everyone and their God-for-damned dog payed with plastic. I explained that the ATM still worked, so if you really really needed gas, the only option was the ATM. And it wasn't just us. All of the retailers in the area had this problem. It was like a revert to the fucking dark ages and nobody had a clue what to do.
Now, this raised some important questions. #1 being; why in the name of the aforementioned fuck did you not fill up your fucking car before Black Fucking Friday, the biggest retail holiday in the history of ever, with #2 being; why do you not have any cash in your wallet whatsoever.
Neither of these questions have easy answers because people are fucking idiots an alarming percentage of the time.
Like the proverbial mob crying for justice, some nameless cur in the background called out "if we gotta use the ATM, you gotta refund us the charge." I was not buying it, but a crowd of unruly parents seized upon this idea like zealous crusaders and began demanding we acquiesce this outrageous request. The PIC agreed, God Damn them, and therefore I had to refund all of these fucking idiot people a dollar fucking fifty for using our ATM, a dollar fucking fifty that should have been charged to them for being unprepared numbskulls who refuse to carry cash on the busiest retail day of the year.
In 9 hours I will be clocking on to deal with this bullshit once again.
If I don't end up beating some fuckshit to death with the crowbar I use to check the vapor recovery caps I'll be Goddamned.
See I know that some retailers have shit business practises, either in general or on the day because there're new people recieving training or there's been issues or... whatever
So I don't begrudge anyone for asking if something's "in the back" etc., because for all I know they've had a lot of experience with places where things will be in the back, because the store in question hates their money and so doesn't get things out in good time
But what drives me to murderous rage is those bastards who don't believe you when you tell them there's nothing in back because there is absolutely no reason to do that to a customer except to spite them so why they'd believe that, I don't know.
But now you want to spite them because they've proved themselves to be terrible people
So you follow them home and break into their house and set fire to them while they sleep, I'm sure we can all relate to that
One time at work
we took so much money
the money wouldn't fit in the cash drawers
or the mini-safe things you put the notes in
we had to close the store for like half an hour to fix it
one time i turned off the till accidentally, then shut the drawer with the only key inside it
the till service company was gone for the weekend and the customers were hot and heavy. i had to run around for a solution while the only other dude scribbled down all transactions and got change from petty cash. eventually i asked a locksmith, who wouldn't be able to open it but suggested that some tills have a little trigger way underneath to release the drawer
cashiers and thieves take note: your old-school calculator till probably has a handy to find button underneath it which will pop open the drawer and all your moneys
bsjezz on
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Larlarconsecutive normal brunchesModerator, ClubPAmod
I am so glad I only ever worked retail for 2 weeks as a work experience kid.
Although if I'd done it for a longer term it probably would have been character building, right now I'd probably deal with situations like what you guys are talking about by curling up in a ball and sucking my thumb.
The only place I Ever ask "Can you check the back?" is at Borders, because sometimes a book I'm looking for is, indeed, in the back.
But I only ask if they have reason to think whatever I'm after is in stock, and there's no sign of it on the shelves.
I kinda did that at Barnes and Noble a couple weeks ago. Knew the book I was looking for, but it wasn't anywhere on the shelves. So I went back up to work, loaded up the Barnes and Noble website on my laptop, and it said the book was available for pickup. So I reserved it there, did some more work until the notification email arrived, then went back downstairs and they had it sitting aside behind the register.
Could have asked at the desk and stood around waiting while they went to check the back, but this way was more fun. Cost's the same either way.
The thing is, the chances of getting a wii on launch day or whatever are pretty miniscule.
Therefore if you are wandering around trying to find one you are wasting hours of your time on terrible odds, so you might as well double your terrible odds by asking them to check down the back of the staff room sofa for wii's (or lamps with "genie" written on them).
So what if the odds are fucking tiny, the dude clearly knows that, as he's been traipsing round all day on a fools errand. He's probably off to buy some lottery tickets later. Don't be hatin on him.
I, like Pony, hate the Wii because I also worked retail (at Wal-Mart) during the holiday season where everyone wanted one of those fuckers and were shocked, shocked when we sold out of them. Like they thought they were going to get lucky after the store was open 2 hours and we would still have one. They would get pissy when I insisted that Kung-Fu Panda was not out on DVD yet because it was still in fucking theaters.
Man I am so glad to not be working retail anymore.
This comic rings true. However if you were a hot chick with a Rack I would legitimately put my self in danger to find that copy of Grey's Anatomy season 1.
It's pathetic I know but man those were the rudest tits.
King Riptor on
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
I worked the customer service desk like four days after the Wii came out and there was a dude who called every two hours to ask if our shipment of Wiis came in. Every time, I told him that there is no shipment of Wiis, we aren't getting any today, or tomorrow, or this week so far as I know. If Nintendo decides to ship us more before Christmas, we'll know about 2 days in advance.
After like the third time he called during my shift, he was was like "listen, okay, fine, but when you get them can you hold one and call me?" and I told him we can't do that, and he had a giant shouting freak-out and demanded to talk to my manager.
Jesus christ, buddy, we're barely a full department store, we're mostly a grocery store that happens to have an electronics section as a side thing, we aren't some kind of high-end place that's going to reserve your shit for you.
Pony on
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
edited November 2009
I asked for assassin's creed last thursday or whenever it came out.
Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
edited November 2009
i feel like such a shit-heel whenever the wii is brought up, because i told my mom about how much i wanted one and she drove around for THREE HOURS trying to find one, only to come home in tears because she couldn't give me the christmas present i wanted and she'd always tried to give my brothers and i good christmases and she felt like a failure and we got one in like fucking february and i never play it.
bad form. could you not be even the slightest bit grateful? go to your room!
bsjezz on
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
edited November 2009
i was grateful! :< i thank my mom every christmas for trying so hard to make my brothers and i happy as kids and make sure we had good birthdays and christmases! i make a goddamn POINT of pulling her aside and thanking her!
Do the manufacturers get any benefit out of the sold-out-in-hours rush? You'd think, ideally, they'd want to set the per-unit price so that available demand drops to the point where they sell out, but just barely. You know, that supply-and-demand curve they put up on the wall in every microeconomics course. Price it too low, and they fall off the shelves instantly, and then the price shoots up, but only for the secondhand eBayers who got theirs and want to make their own profit.
Yeah, there are good reasons they can't list it at $X and then a little later go, "Did I say the list price would be $X? Actually, I meant $X plus a bit more." But if it sells out for cheap and then everyone else starts resorting to price-inflated auctions to get them, how does that benefit the original seller? Or are those situations just a case of making a mistake when estimating demand?
But what if I've walked into the store at that magical time when the last of x has just walked off the shelves and before anyone has bothered to restock?
it's just the 'check the back' terminology that makes it so offensive.
'do you have any of <insert product>' is fine! a completely expected question in a shopping context, even if the shelf is empty
but when someone explicitly asks you to check the back, it's at once presenting a snide kind of superiority over the useless retailer who knows nothing but when their ten minute break is, while demonstrating a gaping ignorance about how the majority of stores operate
bsjezz on
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GumpyThere is alwaysa greater powerRegistered Userregular
One of the reasons I started applying for retail work is I've never done customer service stuff before (only done variants of office-y admin/tech stuff). It would seem like I got one of the better retail jobs out there with this job. For one thing, I'm actually interested in what we stock.
I am asked quite a lot whether or not items are in "the back" at my store. We keep a pretty good stock so the answer is almost-always "no". I've been conditioned to cringe at the sound of eastern-European accents because by large majority, they are the voices I hear ask if I can lower the price of an item (most of the time, repeatedly over the course of an hour), check in the back for clearance-shelf shoes in other sizes or fetch shoes for them for 45 minutes until they decide to put one pair on hold and never return for them.
Mostly, though, when I tell someone that we don't have a size or a style they believe me and accept my apology and find something else.
My favorite was I was working at ToysRUs either the Christmas that the Wii or WiiFit came out, and one guy got lucky and came in when we got some in an afternoon FedEx shipment or some shit. He had me call my manager over so he could complain that I wouldn't supply his eBay store with 18 or so Wii(Fit)s and had to then promptly leave the store with none.
I did have a customer become flabbergasted when she asked to borrow my cell phone to call her sister when she had left hers in the car.
Her car is 200ft. away at best and it wasn't raining outside or anything.
I didn't even think she was serious. I laughed a little in response and politely said "Sorry ma'am, I don't think I can give you my personal cell phone to call your sister but we have a land-line at the cashier's desk if it's a local call."
After I walked away she did it to one of my co-workers. He told me she said some pretty insulting things about my customer-service before being turned down a second time and being told where the land-line was yet again.
The Black HunterThe key is a minimum of compromise, and a simple,unimpeachable reason to existRegistered Userregular
edited November 2009
Thankfully I work at a Cafe, so if the customer complains it's either an "I'll get my manager" who inevitably responds with a well worded "nope" or if they just haven't gotten their meal on time I'm basically "Yeah no worries" then I just get them what they ordered and everyone feels pretty darn good
At Kantankeris: no that is a lie, no customer could think you owe them that much
So do you tell them they are wrong or what? The point of that saying is that they should think they are right whether they are or not. It's about customer satisfaction, not customer correctness.
So do you tell them they are wrong or what? The point of that saying is that they should think they are right whether they are or not. It's about customer satisfaction, not customer correctness.
No it's about giving retail handjobs to fucking assholes that consider you a form of Fungus.
More often than not the customer is not right. They are however loud fuckheads that act like toddlers to get what they want
King Riptor on
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
Posts
Now, this raised some important questions. #1 being; why in the name of the aforementioned fuck did you not fill up your fucking car before Black Fucking Friday, the biggest retail holiday in the history of ever, with #2 being; why do you not have any cash in your wallet whatsoever.
Neither of these questions have easy answers because people are fucking idiots an alarming percentage of the time.
Like the proverbial mob crying for justice, some nameless cur in the background called out "if we gotta use the ATM, you gotta refund us the charge." I was not buying it, but a crowd of unruly parents seized upon this idea like zealous crusaders and began demanding we acquiesce this outrageous request. The PIC agreed, God Damn them, and therefore I had to refund all of these fucking idiot people a dollar fucking fifty for using our ATM, a dollar fucking fifty that should have been charged to them for being unprepared numbskulls who refuse to carry cash on the busiest retail day of the year.
In 9 hours I will be clocking on to deal with this bullshit once again.
If I don't end up beating some fuckshit to death with the crowbar I use to check the vapor recovery caps I'll be Goddamned.
So I don't begrudge anyone for asking if something's "in the back" etc., because for all I know they've had a lot of experience with places where things will be in the back, because the store in question hates their money and so doesn't get things out in good time
But what drives me to murderous rage is those bastards who don't believe you when you tell them there's nothing in back because there is absolutely no reason to do that to a customer except to spite them so why they'd believe that, I don't know.
But now you want to spite them because they've proved themselves to be terrible people
So you follow them home and break into their house and set fire to them while they sleep, I'm sure we can all relate to that
...right?
we took so much money
the money wouldn't fit in the cash drawers
or the mini-safe things you put the notes in
we had to close the store for like half an hour to fix it
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Its actually a prybar, it has a real nice handle on the thing, good heft and balance to boot.
It tempts me every time I pick it up.
one time i turned off the till accidentally, then shut the drawer with the only key inside it
the till service company was gone for the weekend and the customers were hot and heavy. i had to run around for a solution while the only other dude scribbled down all transactions and got change from petty cash. eventually i asked a locksmith, who wouldn't be able to open it but suggested that some tills have a little trigger way underneath to release the drawer
cashiers and thieves take note: your old-school calculator till probably has a handy to find button underneath it which will pop open the drawer and all your moneys
This is the best comic you have ever made.
Love,
some dude
Although if I'd done it for a longer term it probably would have been character building, right now I'd probably deal with situations like what you guys are talking about by curling up in a ball and sucking my thumb.
Could have asked at the desk and stood around waiting while they went to check the back, but this way was more fun. Cost's the same either way.
short hours, worthwhile pay, no responsibility
i can slack off in the off-time, get some anger out on the bulky orders when they come in and shoot the shit with worthy artists about technical tools
plus it's a small enough workplace that i know enough about the whole business i'm confident i could run one some day
Therefore if you are wandering around trying to find one you are wasting hours of your time on terrible odds, so you might as well double your terrible odds by asking them to check down the back of the staff room sofa for wii's (or lamps with "genie" written on them).
So what if the odds are fucking tiny, the dude clearly knows that, as he's been traipsing round all day on a fools errand. He's probably off to buy some lottery tickets later. Don't be hatin on him.
I, like Pony, hate the Wii because I also worked retail (at Wal-Mart) during the holiday season where everyone wanted one of those fuckers and were shocked, shocked when we sold out of them. Like they thought they were going to get lucky after the store was open 2 hours and we would still have one. They would get pissy when I insisted that Kung-Fu Panda was not out on DVD yet because it was still in fucking theaters.
Man I am so glad to not be working retail anymore.
It's pathetic I know but man those were the rudest tits.
After like the third time he called during my shift, he was was like "listen, okay, fine, but when you get them can you hold one and call me?" and I told him we can't do that, and he had a giant shouting freak-out and demanded to talk to my manager.
Jesus christ, buddy, we're barely a full department store, we're mostly a grocery store that happens to have an electronics section as a side thing, we aren't some kind of high-end place that's going to reserve your shit for you.
It wasn't on the shelf.
It was out the back!
Occasionally it is!
Satans..... hints.....
shit, i don't even know where it is.
it's not my fault the wii sucks alright?
Yeah, there are good reasons they can't list it at $X and then a little later go, "Did I say the list price would be $X? Actually, I meant $X plus a bit more." But if it sells out for cheap and then everyone else starts resorting to price-inflated auctions to get them, how does that benefit the original seller? Or are those situations just a case of making a mistake when estimating demand?
Why
I'd be a fool not to ask
But if you press the issue, we will descend upon you like land piranha and we will strip the flesh from your bones
I just want to visually inspect all of your stock, break open a few boxes
can I borrow your box cutter?
and look over your shipping roster. Isn't the customer always right?
'do you have any of <insert product>' is fine! a completely expected question in a shopping context, even if the shelf is empty
but when someone explicitly asks you to check the back, it's at once presenting a snide kind of superiority over the useless retailer who knows nothing but when their ten minute break is, while demonstrating a gaping ignorance about how the majority of stores operate
I feel so lucky
I mean, when I go into a business I try to be as civil as possible, cuz it is me who wants something from them, not reversed.
Mostly, though, when I tell someone that we don't have a size or a style they believe me and accept my apology and find something else.
PSN: Lqmpley | Steam: TheOne(AndOnly)
fuck anyone who actually thinks this
no, the customer is very often wrong
Her car is 200ft. away at best and it wasn't raining outside or anything.
I didn't even think she was serious. I laughed a little in response and politely said "Sorry ma'am, I don't think I can give you my personal cell phone to call your sister but we have a land-line at the cashier's desk if it's a local call."
After I walked away she did it to one of my co-workers. He told me she said some pretty insulting things about my customer-service before being turned down a second time and being told where the land-line was yet again.
At Kantankeris: no that is a lie, no customer could think you owe them that much
So do you tell them they are wrong or what? The point of that saying is that they should think they are right whether they are or not. It's about customer satisfaction, not customer correctness.
No it's about giving retail handjobs to fucking assholes that consider you a form of Fungus.
More often than not the customer is not right. They are however loud fuckheads that act like toddlers to get what they want