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....
This is why I hate buffets.
Me too...
And don't get me started on Chocolate fountains. They're fountains of festering bacteria IMO. All those children putting their fingers in... ICK!
I had a boss who wanted me to use the left over chocolate in desserts. After hundreds had used it. And after it had been out on the buffet for four hours. I refused.
Post by verycontrary247 on Sept 6, 2013 10:54:30 GMT -5
I work in a retail candle store. We have these irate ladies come in all the time to bitch about how we discontinued their favorite scent like 15 years ago and nothing will ever compare blah blah... The best part is when we are actually carrying that scent and then they are like "Oh" and still don't buy anything.
Then there is the people who abuse the "love it" guarantee and bring in candles that have been burned all the way down because "they didn't like the scent." Well surely you should've noticed that before burning said candle for 140 hours? But we have to do the exchange >.<
The customers who would throw fits when I refused to return worn bathing suits. But I only wore it ONE time! You suck at life, I hope you die, I'm going to get you fired and you are a (whatever bad name you can think of)
One lady bought over 1,000 dollars in swimsuits, cover ups and sandles. Went on her trip and tried to return it all. No tags on anything, reeked of chlorine and shoes worn. Her excuse was that she had to take the tags off for customs, she had the biggest meltdown I'd ever seen. My stapler was on the side of the register and she threw it at my head, she missed thank The Lord. I picked up all her items and tossed them out the front door. She left saying I damaged her stuff. I called the Police on her. Psycho.
When I worked at a restaurant, one of the customers was not happy with their meal. He asked to speak to the manager, who was in the bathroom. Instead of waiting for the manager to come out, he went in there to complain.
I worked retail for a long time in high school and college. In college, the place I worked required us to greet each customer, hand them a shopping basket and tell them the deals of the day. I did this to everyone, all the time. A woman and her two daughters came in one time as I was helping someone else. Once I was finished with that customer, I grabbed a basket, walked over to the lady and her daughters and started greeting them. She gave me a vile look and said "I know why you're over here, saying this. And I DON'T appreciate it. Racism in 2005 is a damn shame! I'm not stealing shit from this store!", and I seriously was floored. I got really upset. I was just doing what I was supposed to do!
Oh and this one time, an older lady walked in and I greeted her. She looked at me, smiled, and said "Did you know that Jesus is your savior and king, and the only way to the Father is through Him?". Um, yes? I'm sure she meant well so I just kind of smiled and started to back away. Lol.
Spending 30 minutes at a time on hold with an insurance company trying to get something approved, only to find out that Mr. Smith does not have a policy with that company. "Oh, well it must be x company then. Call them!" JUST CARRY YOUR DAMN INSURANCE CARD.
Every now and then we'd have someone call pretending to be a nurse to okay refills on controlled substances. When you work at a small town pharmacy, you get to know the nurses pretty well, so this was usually easy to catch. Especially when the person is trying to okay refills for a med which requires a written prescription every time.
Post by waitstopdont on Sept 6, 2013 11:17:47 GMT -5
I worked retail for a clothing store. Many stories to tell, but the most memorable would be the Reese's Peanut butter cup wrapper. The candy was replaced by a large crap. Gag! Could never look at the candy the same way
I don't think I've ever encountered a bad experience...I worked in a record store in the mall, mid-90s.
The only thing I remember is when Jagged Little Pill came out. We got countless people coming in saying...."I'm looking for this song...it's a girl singing about going down in a theater? She sounds really angry."
I used to work at a craft store in high school, and we had some plastic tubs in an aisle that held paint brushes. Someone emptied the tub and peed in it, then mixed in a bunch of different colors of paint with some brushes. Of course, this tub was held against the wall, so the pee art just flowed out all over the floor.
Same craft store, different day - some lady had to poop and my co-worker was directing her to the bathroom. Instead, she started walking the opposite way, pulled her pants down and pooped on the floor.
And then, I worked at an outlet mall in a Calvin Klein store. Nothing gross there, but we had men's dress shirts that had approximately 1 million pins and tissue paper. Nothing sucked worse than cleaning those pins and paper out of the fitting rooms at the end of the night!
I worked at Wal-Mart, so I'm sure there's plenty. My bartending days stick out to me more, though. I remember one girl who started crying when I wouldn't serve her because she had no ID. When I pointed out that she wasn't getting any maturity points for crying over the whole matter, she called me a heartless bitch. Lol, yes, now I want to risk being fined and losing my job to serve you.
There was a customer who ran a big scam with the $10 off rewards, so if you're wondering why Kohls changed policies on coupons and stuff that's probably why.
I was not involved with this and only heard about it from LP after the fact, but a woman was apprehended shoplifting perfume (and other things too). She took the tester bottle off the shelf and stuffed it up her bum.
Yeah most grocery stores I've been to won't accept Internet coupons for more than maybe $3 off or so. People were making fake coupons that would scan just like real ones.
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.
Unfortunately, I've seen this a few times. And LOL @ druggist.
We've also had the ladies who come and lift their shirts to show us the rash under their breasts. "What is this!?"
I love pharmacy stories.
My favorites are the people who buy syringes and they are ALWAYS for their grandma. What sweet people they are, taking care of grandma like that.
It was always their "aunt" when I worked at the Kroghetto pharmacy.
I think I've told this story before, but one such precious nephew bled all over my counter, left with his syringes, then came back in and THREW the fucking bag of syringes at my face.
I worked at a bank for two years, and have been convinced ever since that if people act really crazy about anything in life, it is their money.
Off the top of my head, in my time there we had: a customer who would openly sneeze on the counter and then act like they did not just leave a snot shower behind; a husband and wife who owned a McDonald's franchise and who would leave it to their employees to count/draw up the deposits, who would then steal several hundreds of dollars every week, and the husband and wife would accuse us of miscounting/mishandling until a manager finally pulled them aside and explained that perhaps their employees were the problem; a business owner who would purposely disorganize his money (we asked business owners to please categorize and/or face their money to expedite the counting process) and stand there smirking while we sorted it; a local worker whose payroll check was declined due to insufficient business funds (we had to do this a lot, and it always sucked) who then jumped half over the counter to scream in the teller's face that she was a "racist white bitch"; a woman who, no matter how many times we told her what to do, would hand us cash with no deposit slip to be deposited - she eventually walked up with a bunch and threw them at a teller and told her to "learn something!"; a man who had a huge diarrhea explosion in the bathroom and flooded the toilet, then left like nothing happened as shit water was oozing out from under the bathroom door; and a mother and son duo with a crazy dynamic - we're pretty sure the mother was forcing the son to sign over his disability checks to her every week, but we couldn't do anything about it because he was always there to give consent. She also had MAJOR rage issues... she once hit a car in the drive-through because "they were taking too long", and would SCREAM at us once she got up to the microphone or window if she felt she'd had to wait too long.
Because of this, I am the most awesome, nice, understanding, patient customer any retail store could ever have. I would never, ever put someone through some of the crap I went through. God damn entitled ass pricks out there.
Because of this, I am the most awesome, nice, understanding, patient customer any retail store could ever have. I would never, ever put someone through some of the crap I went through. God damn entitled ass pricks out there.
Ugh yes. My friend and go shopping and she'll pick up a shirt off a table, look, then put it down in a heap. I'm all "Nooooo someone has already folded that 800 times today, don't make a mess asshole". Then I fold it.
I do not expect customers to do my work, but don't tear through the store like a tornado leaving piles of clothes in your wake.
I can't remember any bad customers when I worked in retail/customer service. What does stand out is when I was housekeeping and people would answer the door completely nude. Ladies more often than men. Or I would knock, call housekeeping, knock again, and walk in on a dude just jerkin it on the edge of the bed. It's almost like they wanted to get caught? Or thought maybe I would come on in and give them a hand with it? Idk, it was gross.
People are also huge assholes. I'll never forget the guy who went fishing one day and left his fish guts/fish head just chillin on the edge of the bathtub for god knows how long. That smelled awesome...
I haaaaaaated working retail. I worked for three summers at Pottery Barn in a very upscale suburb in the Twin Cities (Galleria in Edina for those in the know.) We had a lot of rich snooty people that got really bent out of shape about stupid things. Ohmygaaaaaaawd that pillow doesn't match perfectly! Blah blah.
My poor sister worked holiday at Williams Sonoma one Christmas and barely had ANY training when they put her on cash wrap. She got flustered and returned an espresso machine that they didn't even SELL there! She was "demoted" to copper pot polishing the rest of her stint there.
I worked at a bakery in college and people got super weird about their cookies. Too many chocolate chips! Not enough chocolate chips! Just eat your darn cookie weirdo!
I admire those who do retail...it's a thankless job!
Ohhh, yes. I know this area. I can only imagine the clientele there. Ugh.
Post by shostakovich on Sept 6, 2013 12:49:40 GMT -5
I worked at a Bath & Body Works for a summer during college. Mostly my biggest problem was going home with migraines at the end of the day, because that store is a giant smell-splosion. But, I worked the floor most days, greeting people and helping them (kind of harassing them, actually - this was laid out in the employee policy ). I also had to do hand massages at the sink on the floor, to demo this new sugar scrub stuff we were pushing. I did it for this guy one day, who was there "picking something up for his wife." He then came in every day for the next two weeks and asked for me specifically to give him a hand massage. One day he asked one of my co-workers at the register what my schedule was for the coming weeks, and my manager overheard and basically told him to get lost.
I also worked at a record store in LA, adjacent to Fox Studios. Sometimes we'd get celebrities in there, which was fun, but I always felt like a total doofus having to ask for their IDs when they paid via credit card. Working that job also taught me that Tiffany Amber Thiessen is kind of a bitch. She came into the store one day and essentially ordered me around like her personal assistant for TWO HOURS, and complained to my manager as she left because I couldn't find some obscure putamayo-type CD that she'd heard about on NPR. We all called her Bitchany Amber Thiessen after that, because we were obviously hilarious.
Post by simplyinpenguin on Sept 6, 2013 18:47:09 GMT -5
Mine's not retail but it involves the food industry.
I've had customers have sex in the public bathroom (ewwww) and leave their used condoms on the floor. I've had customers where they would patiently wait until I finished cleaning the bathroom and then proceed to shit everywhere and smear their fecal matter on the walls. (I would just close down the bathroom at that point as I am not touching that and then touching food).
I've had half-eaten sandwiches thrown at me. One guy didn't like the price of a small soup and threw it at me (and missed).
One time, about 8 years ago, I made a sandwich for a customer. He left and then came back 20 minutes later screaming how he haaaaated his sandwich and demanded that I make a new one. He had one bite left of his sandwich. I asked him if he hated it so much, why did he eat 99% of it? He claimed that he tried to "choke it down" because he was so hungry, but it still tasted terrible. Manager comes over, hears his sob story, then turns to me and says "why you have to be a bitch?" in front of the customer. Gee, if a man was dealing with this customer, he would've been high-fived for his aggressiveness of deterring a thief. I just get called a bitch. Yeah I walked out of there that night and got another job the next day. Ahhh the long gone days of a good economy...
I had a customer come in the other day to return a tub of butter he bought. The reason was because he couldn't handle the fact that the one he bought was in a square container instead of a round one.
I worked for Build A Bear in an affluent area. Rich people's kids are such pricks. I had a little girl tell me to get to work because she wasn't paying me to stand around. 'Scuse me?
Lurking from April 2012, but I've worked retail full time for over ten years. I think the most recent WTF standout was the woman who let her son pee in a ziplock in the fitting room. I could clearly tell what was going on, and when they left, the ziplock was sitting on the bench. I told her she needed to take that with her, and she said it wasn't hers. Ummm, yes. Yes it is. We argued for a second, and she huffs back in and grabs the bag, and leaves it at our register. Just. Eww.
I haaaaaaated working retail. I worked for three summers at Pottery Barn in a very upscale suburb in the Twin Cities (Galleria in Edina for those in the know.) We had a lot of rich snooty people that got really bent out of shape about stupid things. Ohmygaaaaaaawd that pillow doesn't match perfectly! Blah blah.
I admire those who do retail...it's a thankless job!
I used to live in Edina until last year. I totally didn't fit in. I used to tell people that we lived in the ghetto of Edina. Lol.
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.
Similar story from a friend of mine.
She returned a pair of yoga pants from a repeat customer, who shopped enough to be recognized by sight, but didn't realize until after the customer had left that there was dried sperm that ran all down the crotch of the pants.
The customer continued to shop as normal after that. WTMF?!