I work retail, so I'm just going to drop a few short stories, because I am bored at my non retail job.
1) A woman was in last night and wanted to return pants she said she still had the tags for and everything. Ok no problem. My coworker looked at them and they didn't have the tags on the, they had clearly been washed, and they water spots on the legs like she had been walking out in the rain. No you cannot return those.
2) We had a customer once who stayed and shopped until 9:30 (we close at 9). It's not like she didn't realize we were closed. Our gates were shut and she kept leaving the fitting room to get new things to try on, meaning she could see the damn gate.
3) We had a skirt on sale once. We only had 1 left and it was a size 10. A woman came in and was disappointed that we didn't have it in the 2 that she needed. On her way out she said to me "I wish I was a size 10. Haha no not really!". Thanks bitch. I'm quite clearly about a size 10, and I manage to make it through life at this size.
4) A customer came in looking for a specific item one day. We didn't have any left. She came in the next day and we had one that had been returned. She started screaming at my coworker (who had told her the night before we didn't have it). She called her a liar to say there weren't any left. We told her it was a return, but she insisted that we were just hiding it from her the night before.
I had someone return shorts with mustard stains that reeked of cigarette smoke. I had to take them back because we had a policy that we returned anything with a receipt. Crazy.
I also used to bust people who tried to write bad checks/use stolen credit cards. Yes, I noticed when two women wanted to buy a bunch of men's clothing in different sizes and say it was for the same person. I asked them for their form of payment and ID before I took all that shit off the hangers and folded it. Surprise, surprise, no ID! Uhm, no.
I also had a guy give me his ID and the DL# had been burned out with a cigarette (he was trying to use a stolen check). When I asked him what happened, he said his kid was playing with a lighter and did it! OMG.
“Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make it so, right in the middle of it lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce.” - Natalie Goldberg
Post by flamingeaux on Sept 6, 2013 8:53:42 GMT -5
If I say "Would you like White, Yellow, Chocolate, or Marble Cake?" Don't respond with "Red Velvet" If we had red velvet available in that size, I would have offered it to you!
Also no I do not remember what kind of cake you had last month. We've done at least 500 cakes since then.
Post by sunshineluv on Sept 6, 2013 8:53:51 GMT -5
I can't remember the details because it has been ten years since I worked at Gap, but I hated the most when people were returning obviously stolen clothes. Like several of the same exact shirt, where they had shoplifted a stack of them at some point. It only happened a few times, but they were cool as cucumbers and there was nothing I could do.
Um yes. I worked for Wilson's Leather in a NH mall. I answered the phone one late shift to a guy that was asking all sorts of questions like "What would go with leather pants?" and so on and so forth until he asked me "So, do you think stockings go with a leather skirt? What about heels? I'm wearing both right now" Click. He was known to the staff as "Skirt Guy" and used to crank the new team members.
Post by juliagoulia on Sept 6, 2013 9:01:11 GMT -5
I don't work retail, but insurance claim stories are equally ridiculous, obnoxious, and fascinating.
This week I had a car that had a deer impact on the Rt front corner. There was also damage to the back edge of the LT front fender and door. What does the customer say? "Oh, the deer got up after it hit the passenger side- it must have flown over and hit the driver's side, too." Without touching the hood. Or windshield. Or roof. Freaking magical flying deer.
I have a friend who worked in retail in a department store, and she would tell me really terrible horror stories about the things left in fitting rooms. Like human feces.
When I first worked there a few years ago, a woman was with a 2 year old or so, and said she needed to change him in our fitting room. I don't want any moms getting on my case here, so I'll say that we often have customers breastfeed in our fitting rooms, no problem, but that is not the same as changing your sons shitty diaper. People try on clothes in there.
And also, we are right next to the food court, where there is a great baby changing station. She said she would never shop with us again is we didn't open a fitting room for her right now.
When I worked in retail, we had a guy who would come in, get women's underwear, try them on in the men's fitting room and jerk off. Always a pleasent clean up.
Oh boy. I have one or two. When I worked at a big box store, we would have people with service animals occasionally come in. One lady had two really big, white rats. One she kept in her purse, one she let sit on her shoulder that had a leash on. She would just walk around the store and talk to the rats. I suppose they must have been service animals because the store kept letting her bring them in.
At another job we caught a guy masturbating to pictures he had taken of the wait staff on his phone.
I also had a customer when I worked at Nordstroms throw coffee at me and call me a fashion challenged, uneducated cunt because a skirt she wanted only came in red.
Yup. I will never work retail again if I can help it.
I worked at Old Navy in college. One day I was in the women's department and a guy came in looking for some stuff to buy his girlfriend for her birthday or whatever. I spent maybe half an hour showing him some of our new stuff, telling him what was popular, and trying to figure out what size she was. He bought a few things for her, then came back and asked me out. ?!?!?! Dude. No.
We also used to have people try to return stuff that had clearly been worn multiple times (pit stains, faded, shrunken)....yuck. No.
I don't work retail but I work for a company that provides engineering services and it goes through several stages. I'll contact the customer three times over 2 months asking permission to proceed with the next stage and asking for required documents (usually by email in the same thread so you can see previous emails). No response. OK so I clear that job off my desk. They will come back six months later all pissed "why hasn't this been done? Rawrrrrrrrrr!". I'm sorry sir I can't hear your temper tantrum over the sound of my eyeballs rolling as hard as possible.
Or "I replied but I can't find it in my outbox...but I KNOW I replied." Yah, uh huh. Sure ya did. With those magical telepathy emails.
Post by game blouses on Sept 6, 2013 9:17:22 GMT -5
Not me but my sister. She worked at a busy movie theater in the concession stand, and they ran out of red icee. A guy said he would wait for them to make more. When they did (like 5 min later), my sister gave him one free of charge. He threw it on her and stormed off.
The manager not only gave the guy free movie passes for his inconvenience, he made my sister wear the icee shirt until the rush was over.
Not me but my sister. She worked at a busy movie theater in the concession stand, and they ran out of red icee. A guy said he would wait for them to make more. When they did (like 5 min later), my sister gave him one free of charge. He threw it on her and stormed off.
The manager not only gave the guy free movie passes for his inconvenience, he made my sister wear the icee shirt until the rush was over.
W.T.F. I would have quit. I don't think I would be able to contain my rage. What a dick manager, aside from the asshole customer. Jesus.
I had a lady come in with her newborn baby. She was returning a maternity puffy vest. "It's never been worn!" Her face turned the brightest shade of red when I emptied a bunch of tissues and receipts from the pockets.
There was an evening where we had to evacuate the store for a tornado that had touched down nearby and send all the customers into the mall to take cover. It was thirty minutes til closing. People were pissed. "What about my stuff! I spent all this time shopping! You have to ring me up! I'm going to get you fired!"
And then there were the pervs... jizz, pee, poop... I've seen it all.
I once had a guy pee his pants while I was checking him out. He just stood there and I could hear the pee hit the floor. Of course he walked off like nothing and I had to clean it up.
I also had a girl threaten to shank me for carding her. She was a regular but never came in on my shift so how the fuck was I supposed to know who she was?
When I worked at Walmart a lady came up to the service desk and demanded that we reimburse her for the pants and underwear she had ruined while waiting for the bathrooms to be cleaned. She could have at least gone home first. No need to see her wearing the evidence.
My best retail stories are from the pharmacy though. We had an old guy who would wear skin tight pants and ask for help getting his insurance cards out of his front pocket. One of the male pharmacists offered to help him, but of course old guy wanted someone with young, small hands to do it.
Then there was the shoulder guy. He would show up at pharmacies all over the city in a ratty tank top with some story about how he had fiberglass particles in his arms from removing insulation. He had done some internet research and it said that rubbing the shoulders vigorously would help to remove the particles, and might there be a young lady who could help him with that? I floated around different stores and must have seen him at least 6 times.
You'd also be amazed at how many people will bring in the undissolved capsule or tablet coatings that they find in their stool to show the "druggist". Sometimes they would put it in a clear plastic baggie so you could just glance, but others thought it made more sense to put it in an amber vial and dump it onto the counter.
I used to work at Payless Shoes in high school and our store carried up to a ladies size 12. I can't tell you how many times I caught men prancing around in heels in the back of the store. I even had a few regulars that wanted me to call them when red or purple pumps came in.
We also had tons of shoes stolen. People would just leave their old shoes in the box and walk out in their new ones. This was before they upgraded stores with security cameras so we would just write them off.
Oh also, in the days after Christmas last year (when the stores are obviously crazy), I was working cash and had a line up and all sorts of people everywhere. I'm focused on the customer I'm serving, that's pretty much it. I start to ring someone up and some women behind/around the one I'm serving started complaining loudly about how the woman cut in line, so why am I helping her. I said that I was really sorry but I didn't realize who was next in line (because there wasn't really a 'line'). They yell, "She's not even paying attention the line!", drop the clothes they were going to buy on the floor, and leave. I get that it's frustrating to be cut in front of, but when people are milling about and I'm very busy, I just can't be the line police. Speak up for your damn selves and just, excuse me I was next.
Not me but my sister. She worked at a busy movie theater in the concession stand, and they ran out of red icee. A guy said he would wait for them to make more. When they did (like 5 min later), my sister gave him one free of charge. He threw it on her and stormed off.
The manager not only gave the guy free movie passes for his inconvenience, he made my sister wear the icee shirt until the rush was over.
I'm thinking there must be more to this story because that doesn't sound right.
Post by vanillacourage on Sept 6, 2013 9:55:06 GMT -5
My SIL managed a Hallmark store at the mall. They had a floor display of coffee mugs, like this one but about 5 feet tall. They had a guy who would come in every week or two and make a game out of peeing in as many of the cups as he could. They were angled just right that he could whip it out and get about an inch of pee in each one by peeing up and down in a straight line.
When I worked in retail, we had a guy who would come in, get women's underwear, try them on in the men's fitting room and jerk off. Always a pleasent clean up.
1 - one time I was on fitting rooms/go backs. I kept knocking on the handicapped door and there was someone in there for like 40 minutes. After knocking multiple times (because I thought they were gone) I finally gave up and didn't go back and check on it for another 20. No one answered so I opened the door to see clothes everywhere. I rolled my eyes but no big deal. Until I saw a bottle of pepsi on the floor, filled with a yellow substance.
I got my boss and they were like uhh is that piss? I had to get gloves, a paper shopping bag and dispose of it. It was warm. So I guess the guy had to pee and I kept interrupting his flow?
2 - We had "leather" jackets (they had they the alarm thing on them and we had just got them in so they were full price) This guy comes in at like 8:30 when it was dead in the store and asked to try it on so I unlocked them and she took it to the fitting room with a few other items. He comes up to buy the jacket only. It rings up as a $9 clearance graphic tee. I obviously knew he switched the tags but I wasn't able to call him out (thanks to "we can never call a liar a liar policy) I was all "hmm weird, our system must be messed up, it's not ringing up correctly, let me call my manager over" I look up and he looked like a deer in headlights. After the manager apologized profusely for the mistake and the fact that we couldn't honor that price mistake he left to go grab some more cash and he'd be back in 20 minutes.
He probably would have got away with it if he had more than one item and it was crazy busy in the store.
I used to work retail. I'm sure I have stories but can't remember them.
However, I have a two good ones from working in the food industry. We have huge brunches. So, there's a lot of food out, buffet style.
This past Thanksgiving we watched a girl (older, 20ish?) pick her nose then flick it on the cheese tray. She then sneezed. On the same cheese tray. We took it away (obviously).
Two weeks ago, we had a brunch buffet for about 40 people. We have fruit sauces out for desserts (raspberry, blueberry, etc). In stead of asking which was which (even though they had labels) she stuck her finger in and licked her finger. And then would put the licked finger in the next sauce....
Post by hilwithonelary on Sept 6, 2013 10:11:30 GMT -5
We had someone ask for a refund of their Advair inhaler. They accused us of giving a previously used one because it was empty. We never take back medication unless it was an error (in that case, it's destroyed, not dispensed again), and the lot # on the inhaler didn't match the lot # on the box. They bitched enough my manager just gave them a refund even though it was clear they just put their old inhaler in their new box.
We also had lots of people bang on the metal shutter and yell at us before we were officially open.
I can't tell you how many times I've been yelled at because someone's copay is too high. The pharmacy has no control over your copay, people!
A few weeks ago, I dealt with this cranky man for half an hour because I wouldn't fill his testosterone injection because it was out of refills. He kept telling me that his nurse told him "I'm good for a year." Sorry, the law limits you to 5 refills for controlled substances. I had called for a refill request. I had no control over when they would call back. Did he really think if he complained enough that I'd break the law for him?
OHH we had a family that we had and they would bring in things from like 8 seasons ago, every six months or so they would come in with receipts, tags and ratty clothes.
It was so annoying because they knew our policy that if they didn't have a tag we could call a number give a description and they could give us the SKU # they would come in with stuff that was still in the system for like .45 cents but we'd have to give them the $15 for the shirt.
They would then go and buy a bunch of other new things and spend like $5 over the previous stuff. I think someone asked if they'd like us to laminate the receipt for them before they left.
Technically they were well within policy and not doing ANYTHING wrong, but it always took FOREVER to figure everything out.
I don't work retail, but insurance claim stories are equally ridiculous, obnoxious, and fascinating.
This week I had a car that had a deer impact on the Rt front corner. There was also damage to the back edge of the LT front fender and door. What does the customer say? "Oh, the deer got up after it hit the passenger side- it must have flown over and hit the driver's side, too." Without touching the hood. Or windshield. Or roof. Freaking magical flying deer.
We had a guy turn in a claim because someone had broken in to his home in the middle of the night and threatened his life. Since our insured had a gun, he shot at the intruder and the intruder left, but of course now his home had bullet holes in it.
Turns out the insured was on a bunch of drugs and shot his house up. No intruder.
I worked the return desk/customer service (and a bunch of other departments too and register) at Kohls until last year. We have a very generous return policy. One time I had a lady spill out a whole bag of stuff onto the counter that had been in her car for a few months (it was relatively current stuff, not years old or anything) and with the clothes came a whole shit ton of those really tiny ants. UGHHHHH. It was so awkward, she was totally pretending not to notice, and my manager who was doing something else behind the desk at the time was flipping out but trying not to show it. We put everything in the damage bin afterward.