I worked retail throughout college. One of my most memorable stories us when I rang up a lady who had bought a ton of toys for her grandkids, maybe $300-400 worth. Her credit card got declined and I had to call the card issuer. When I did, the issuer told me to hold the card and not return it to the woman. Apparently she was an authorized user on the account, but her husband revoked her privileges without telling her!
The woman was pissed, but she luckily she didn't take it out on me too badly. I've always wondered how her (and her husband's!) evening went at home after that.
My funny story is the son who was trying to determine what size sweater to buy his mom. He didn't know if she was a S, M, or L, but was able to tell me her bra size to help figure it out. Wtf!
I once had a customer go off on me after I finished checking her out and told her to have a nice day. She was screaming at me that I didn't know what kind of day she was having and I couldn't tell her what to do. Basically that I didn't know her LYFE! I just kind of stared at her dumbfounded until she left. Luckily my next customer that had observed the crazy immediately said to me, "Don't worry, I'll have a nice day" and it made me start laughing.
Post by thebreakfastclub on Dec 19, 2015 21:40:26 GMT -5
I almost forgot my favorite return story. This lady had her return denied because the item was years old. She screamed at me and was so horrible that other customers were in shock.
I needed her ID as part of the return, but I was on camera handing it right back. I know this because she attempted to fly home the next day, didn't have her ID, and was stuck. She called to accuse me of losing it.
I worked in retail for 12 years. One year at Macy's and 11 between two jewelry stores. Ugh. I can't even begin to talk about the awful customers. This was my first year not working in retail and it was GLORIOUS.
Post by cabbagecabbage on Dec 19, 2015 21:47:20 GMT -5
My one retail experience was in a high end wine shop.
One woman wanted us to source a very specific bottle that cost about $1,000 for a gift which is something we would do. My boss tracked one down after a few weeks but she called every single day bitching about the "holdup" as if we were making it ourselves instead of scouring the earth.
A week later, she had not picked up the bottle and called asking for a refund. She had changed her mind. She flipped her shit when she was told it was non refundable as a special order. I think we ended up giving her a store credit minus shipping charges. Then she reamed us on yelp.
Now my husband is a manager in a grocery store and he has seen everything. People return rotten seafood they left in their car. They will order a $80 roast and a small bag of lunch meat and stack them and ring the lunch meat barcode across self checkout. It got so bad that he would have to go stand and watch the self checkout lanes after wrapping up big meat orders.
Post by noodleskooze on Dec 19, 2015 21:48:13 GMT -5
Ugh people.
As a customer, I always try to be extra nice and patient this time of year. Sometimes I'm even tempted to compliment workers on how well they handle this season, but I don't want too sound patronizing.
I had a man come in few weeks ago with his two kids. The boy was shy and the dad said to him, about me "maybe she can be your girlfriend. I'd like her to be my girlfriend for Christmas". Then He said I could come to his house to fold his laundry.
He was in again today looking for a present for mom.
I'm growing older but not up. My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck, let the winds of time blow over my head. I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead.
I actually only have one truly terrible story from my 4 years working at Williams Sonoma for the Christmas season. It is my favorite! I was a very fast cashier but my line was probably 30 people long. Keep in mind that this is the smallest store in the district, probably only about 500 sq ft. Anyway, only 3 or our 4 registers were open, the one beside mine being closed.
Anyway, this guy decides to stand in front of the closed register and just wait. After about 5 minutes he raises his voice at me "Are you going to help me?! I've been waiting here for 10 minutes and no one has checked me out!" I told him that I would be happy to help him after I had helped the people who had actually waited in line. He then told me that I shouldn't be working with people and I was terrible at customer service. I patiently told him that I had been working with people for 4 years and I had never had complaint from the NICE customers..."
I don't understand it. I'd rather die than be rude to a retail worker. Or any worker who's just tying to do their damn job.
One of my favorite stories was when I worked at Walmart and this lady came to the service desk demanding that we replace her pants and underwear that she peed in because the bathroom was closed for cleaning. She was wearing them as she stood there yelling. Just pissed her pants and marched straight to the service desk without passing Go.
I worked at Yankee Candle for several years and people would have full blown meltdowns/tantrums if we were out of whatever they were looking for.
Or there was this one time a lady showed up after we had been closed for like 40 minutes and shook the gate DEMANDING we let her in so she could exchange some candles. She freaked out when I was like nope we're closed, then stood there and called corporate to complain.
Post by Doggy Mommy on Dec 19, 2015 23:24:34 GMT -5
I worked at Victoria's Secret in college (just in the stock room but I heard all the stories). People tried to have sex in the changing rooms allllll the time. Like, several times a week sales associates had to ask men to leave the dressing rooms. They would clean up with merchandise. There was a huge bin filled with soiled merchandise that everyone knew not to touch. There were lots of using the dressing rooms like a toilet incidents too.
Today I was at a store and asked for a couple boxes. The poor kid ringing me up looked terrified and his voice shook as he told me they were charging 50 cents per box and it goes to charity. I just smiled and said "that's fine I'll take 3" but I bet a lot of people yell at him about it.
I'm growing older but not up. My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck, let the winds of time blow over my head. I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead.
Post by tacosforlife on Dec 19, 2015 23:39:49 GMT -5
I have enough trouble pooping in a public restroom due to poop shame. I don't think my bowels would ever unclench enough to let me poop in a fitting room.
The worst for me was having to tell people when their cards were declined. Omg. Omg. People get so embarrassed and then they ream you out like you're the one who did it intentionally.
Yessss!!!! I worked at a grocery store in my teens and this is so true.
The worst for me was having to tell people when their cards were declined. Omg. Omg. People get so embarrassed and then they ream you out like you're the one who did it intentionally.
Yessss!!!! I worked at a grocery store in my teens and this is so true.
I always blame it on the banks. "You know, one time the bank closed my account because of fraudulent charges on my card before I even noticed them. Maybe call the bank and make sure no one is trying to use your account!" That seems to give them something to stave off any embarrassment.
Post by laceylaplante on Dec 20, 2015 0:03:31 GMT -5
I was an assistant manager at a Claire's for about a year. The only thing worse than the chaos leading up to the holidays, was the 4ish weeks afterward when you had kids shopping for themselves with gift cards and having to do 10 times more ear piercings than usual.
I never had the $50 worth of merchandise rule. There are so, so many shoplifting stories from working there. The worst were the 2 employees that got caught stealing.
There was one time that a lady insisted that an item was $1 when it was actually $5. It was very clearly just put in the wrong spot by another shopper, as there was a whole peg of them in the $5 rack. This lady flipped her shit on me when I wouldn't change the price and called me every name in the book. I called security to have her removed, and in the 10 minutes it took them to show up, she knocked over 3 entire towers and pulled a bunch of merchandise off of a wall. She was gone by the time security showed up. I put in my notice a few weeks later.
When I worked at a grocery store a man and woman came through my line with two carts full of groceries. The store was bag your own, but they weren't bagging. I asked the woman if she wanted help bagging since both belts were getting pretty full when all of a sudden a green pepper hit me in the head. The man was at the end of the line throwing produce at me and screaming that things were getting smashed. A manager rushed over to see what the screaming was about and offered to bag. The man told him to keep his hands off his groceries and kept throwing things. I told the manager he could finish the transaction and walked away.
I worked at Yankee Candle for several years and people would have full blown meltdowns/tantrums if we were out of whatever they were looking for.
Or there was this one time a lady showed up after we had been closed for like 40 minutes and shook the gate DEMANDING we let her in so she could exchange some candles. She freaked out when I was like nope we're closed, then stood there and called corporate to complain.
Your story reminded me of this video. lol
Omg lol at this video. I need a background story on how this was made. Did the narrator know they were making a reenactment? Because that's hilarious! She's like ranch dressing with a video camera and YouTube account.
I worked retail grocery for a long time. The customers with returns were usually the craziest. One claimed her chicken was bad, itwas supposed to be a ham. Another tried to return $100 of expired canned goods.
The declined cards seemed to have a script. Everyone had "$700 in my account."
There were also those that were upset it was crowded on Sunday afternoon but it was the ONLY time they could shop. I find that pretty unlikely as we were open 18 hours a day seven days a week. There was also one customer who told me it was illegal for us to close for Easter.
Omg lol at this video. I need a background story on how this was made. Did the narrator know they were making a reenactment? Because that's hilarious! She's like ranch dressing with a video camera and YouTube account.
Here's the original video. The reenactment one is my favorite though. The smile the girl gives and when she smells the candle makes me laugh tears.
Dh told a woman merry Christmas the other day and she got pissed and snarled "I think you mean happy holidays." Before dh could say anything a guy in line behind her replied "nope, he said merry Christmas; pretty sure that's what he meant."
We both agreed that had he said happy holidays she probably would have gotten mad that he hadn't said merry christmas.
OMG, the declined cards were so awful. At my store we had a rule that if a card was declined we were supposed to push for another card hard, or cash, and if they didn't have either we weren't supposed to let them write a check without manager approval. It was so awkward having to call a manager over after the person's card was declined and they whipped out a checkbook.
It was usually something like, "Manager to check stand 5" and then I stood there like this for a few minutes:
Then the manager doesn't know WTF is going on, and they always came up all chipper on the outside, furious on the inside:
And after waiting for an extra 10 minutes the customer was all:
Dh told a woman merry Christmas the other day and she got pissed and snarled "I think you mean happy holidays." Before dh could say anything a guy in line behind her replied "nope, he said merry Christmas; pretty sure that's what he meant."
We both agreed that had he said happy holidays she probably would have gotten mad that he hadn't said merry christmas.
Who are these people that actually get pissed when people say one or the other? I don't think I've ever seen this scenario play out in real life, just by assholes on social media.
That was my response, "there's really a person in the world who got mad about this?" It's so stupid.