How Rude!

[Nikkiah Wintermoon]

Ok. I need to rant. I apologize in advance for this, but my nerves are shot from stress and if I don't get this off my chest I will simply pop someone's head like a huge zit!

I work in retail at the moment. Long ago, I worked in retail but I quit and it's been ... hm ... its been .... *counts on fingers* .... 11 years since I worked in retail. My other jobs have been nice desk jobs, away from the general public. Working in retail again only reminds me of why it is I quit all those years ago.

The general public is utterly rude and uberly disgusting. Just to point out the things that grate on my nerves and make me bite my tongue so I don't get fired for saying something ...

Number one pet peeve about the general public = Jeebus! Women, women women! Pay attention. When using the public ladies room in whatever establishment you're frequenting. .. DO NOT leave your used sanitary napkins/tampons on the back of the friggen toilet seat if there isn't a little trash box screwed to the stall!! Is it really all that hard to wrap it up in toilet paper and toss it away in the garbage can or in the lil trash screwed to the wall of another stall!? :x :x :x :x

(Sorry for grossing y'all out with that one)

2. The shopping cart. Ok, where I work, the cart corral is RIGHT BY THE EXIT DOORS! Do you think the customers ever return the cart? NO! They leave the thing either in front of the person who is next in line, in the aisle so no one can walk or they shove it past the corral. Like its just oh-so-hard for the customer to take those 2 extra steps past the exit doors to return the cart to its proper place. I swear, I am this close to just snapping at the next bimbo who leaves their cart out for someone else to return.

3. When rummaging through items on the shelves, hanging from their lil hangers and all that other jazz .. if you pick it up - PUT IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME. Don't just toss it down somewhere else. Do the shoppers think that the lil 'cleaning fairy' comes through the store and puts everything back in its proper place? NO! If that were the case, I wouldn't be at work several nights a week until ten o'clock at night cleaning up after the lazy tards!

4. Ok, back to the bathroom thing. This goes for men too, so pay attention. If your tummy isn't feeling quite right ... please don't miss the stupid toilet! Seriously, its not this itty bitty hole the size of a soup can that you're doing your #1 or #2 business into. It is large enough to catch everything you're dumping in there. Its really gross to go in and find that someone (especially a woman) has missed the target completely!

(Uh, no I don't clean the bathroom at work. Come to think of it, after this past week, I doubt I'll ever use a public bathroom again!)

5. When standing in line, wait your friggen turn. Don't go throwing your items for purchase up on the counter before there's enough room to accomodate them. Its really rude to rush the person ahead of you and its not wise to tick off the cashier. Granted, the cashier can't say all that much without the potential of losing his/her job, but still .. you want friendly customer service, BACK OFF!

6. Pay close attention to this one, folks. Contrary to popular public belief - The customer is not always right. So, before going off all half-cocked on the cashier, read the ads posted in the fliers, papers and on display carefully. I had some snotty {enter explitive here} ho-bag cop one of those attitudes of "Lets take it outside" over a sale that ended the week prior.

Customer: "Those are half off."

Me: "I'm sorry ma'am, but that sale ended on December 6th."

Customer: "Come on, I'll show you the sign posted."

Me: "Alrighty then."

*walk all the way to the other side of the store. look at the sign. point to the part on the ad in bold lettering: "Sale good thru December 6, 2003."*

Customer: "Well. That sign is deceiving, I want it at half off."

Me: "You know lady, I can't do that. The ad is not deceiving. I'm sorry if you didn't read it correctly, but I cannot give you half off on the item. Do you want it or not?"

Customer: "Ugh, I don't want it then."

Mind you, the item's normal price was a whole $2.49! So, because she couldn't read the ad completely (and yes, it was easily entirely visible), I had to make my other customers wait as we traipsed around the stupid store and back.

Now mind you, I'm real friendly with my customers and very helpful, but this time of year it seems as if everyone turns into Mr. Scrooge and instead of "Tis the season to be jolly" it becomes "Tis the season to be a grouchy {enter explitive here}"

Most retail stores have a policy that states if an item you purchase goes on sale within 14 days from the date on your receipt, you can bring in the item and the receipt and get a refund of the sale price.

I think it's pretty ignorant for someone to come in 21 days after the purchase and argue with the manager over a refund. I think its rather stupid of the manager to buckle and give in to the customer. I had that happen last week. Because the manager didnt stick to the policy, I had to refund the guy over $150! I see that as nothing but thievery from the store on his part. The policy is posted at the register where its easily seen. Its not like the jerk didn't know the policy. Heh, I did however, only issue him store credit :) But still ...

Ok, I think I'm done ranting about the public now.

Wow, that felt so good to get it off my chest :) Thanks for letting me do that.

Oh, so this rant doesn't end on a sour note: I did have 1 customer who actually thanked me for coming in to work. He also told me he really appreciated that I was there. So, that does make it worthwhile but its few and far between that people hear that these days.

(Oopsies! Sorry, I changed it to {enter explitive here} :) )

[Dasquian Belargic]

5. When standing in line, wait your friggen turn.

Thank God for the Great British invention, The Queue.

(PS. 'censoring' out your own swearing/trying to avoid the filter will get you a thwap from the mods)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'm guessing you work at Target, K-Mart or Wal*Mart. You poor thing. I work in retail, but in a higher end outlet store and we don't have public restrooms, which is EXCELLENT. We get customers who've left (read: stormed out) because we don't have public restrooms, but we didn't want their business anyway! HA!

:p Tis the season to be one card short of a full deck, have a wallet full of cash, a chip on your shoulder, and an attitude towards sale items that would make Scrooge blush. Honestly.

Also, Dasquian, a queue is the same thing as a line, just a different name silly. :p

[Dasquian Belargic]

Also, Dasquian, a queue is the same thing as a line, just a different name silly.

I wasn't debating that :p I'm just saying, we Brits invented it (as far as I know), so good for us :D

[Nikkiah Wintermoon]

Close, I work at Hobby Lobby >.<

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Hobby Lobby?

Midwestern state perhaps? I think those are only in the middle of the U.S. My mom in Oklahoma loves that place...we don't have any here in Oregon. :p
Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
I wasn't debating that :p I'm just saying, we Brits invented it (as far as I know), so good for us :D

Well, jolly good then. :mneh

[Nikkiah Wintermoon]

Yup. I'm in Iowa. Go Hawkeyes :)

[Morgan Evanar]

Working retail sucks. Working lower end retail SUCKS MORE.

[Nikkiah Wintermoon]

Uh huh! I thought of a few more things that really suck about working retail and dealing with the general public ...

I love this one:

Customer inquiring about an item that is marked 90% off:

"Can you tell me how much this is?"

Me: *flip over said item and point at the price.* Move the decimal to the left by one and that is the price you'll pay.

Customer: "Can't you scan it?"

Me: *again, point to the price on the bottom and repeat, with the addition* "No. We don't have scanners. We enter everything manually. In the event you don't feel like paying a whole buck forty nine for this item, I'd have to do an overring; which involves a manager coming over and me having to fill out paperwork. Do you want the item or not?"

Customer: "Well, how much is it that I have to pay?"

Me, thinking: *You idiot! You pay ten percent! How friggen hard is it to move the stupid decimal point over one place!?*

My verbal response accompanied with a dry look: "A dollar forty nine, ma'am. Again, do you want the item or not?"

I think I want my cozy lil' desk job back after all >.<

[Daen C'allyx]

Kudos to you for more or less enduring it :). I think I would have taken a stapler to myself already. Or, preferably, the customer.

:D

[Ceres Duvall]

Sounds like where I work. Everyone is CONSTANTLY asking about coupons too. That bugs me cuz we dont carry the coupons in the store. When I tell them that they beg for me to give it to them anyways. Sometimes the manager gives in which ticks me off cuz if we gave into everyone that did that, I'd be out of a job.

Another thing that ticks me off. The door to the bathroom is locked so we have a key hanging on the wall. No one seems to see the key even though there's a bright orange arrow next to it that says "KEY!" and a sign on the door that says you need a key. So they always come looking for one of us and begs us to open the door.

Another thing that bugs me. We don't memorize the prices of everything in the store. Everytime I'm stocking something, someone comes and asks "How much is this?" I look at the item and if it doesnt have a price tag on it I tell them "I don't know off the top oc my head. You'll have to ask at the front." But they'll keep bugging me about other crap too even though they know for a fact that I don't know. Not everything is priced and has to be scanned in order to find out. No one can get that through their heads.

And no one reads everything on the coupon. It doesnt count on sale items yet they beg me to take the coupon sale off of the original price of the item. I can't do that. Why? Cuz I dont know the original price. The computer automatically scans it on sale.

*works at Rag Shop*

[Sorreessa Tarrineezi]

geez, I'll be glad when I'm out of retail, I had a lady report me all the way to corporate office because she thought I was talking down to her....

I tell her she has a small fee of $4.08 for a movie and tell her what movie and what time we got it in. All goes well, we charge her card for that and a few movies she got and when it's all done, she then decides to change her mind and asks me what video it was again. I tell her again and she says she never rented that movie. I look at our little history thing and see she rented two other movies at that same time which I tell her. She again claims she never rented those videos even though when I told her about the fee, she mentioned one of the titles there. I calmly point out when all three were rented at the same time and she glares at me and says she didn't again. So for we go over it again then all of a sudden she insists I'm talking down to her, note I have a little of the Cali girl bit in my voice but I kept my tone even and calm. She demands her money back since I'm talking down to her, my manager says we can't since it was a credit card and only the store mod can do it. Meanwhile, she then sends me away so the customer will calm. I can hear her yelling at my boss for about another minute before storming out only to return a few moments later demanding a refund again which she doesn't get so she comes after me since I'm putting away videos.

"You can't talk to me like I'm an idiot!"

I ignore her and go about my business, she yells it again and,

"Look at me dammit!"

I look up and calmly say "I'm not going to talk to you if you're going to yell at me," and go about my business again.

She storms out again then later calls my boss to inform her I was reported, weeee! And did anything come of it? Nope, she picked the wrong week, employee appreciation week and besides corporate looks at the account later and would see my boss's note and I'm in the clear...stupid lady....

[Hunk]

Uggggh, I'm a firm believer that everyone, in their teens should have to work a retail job and/or a food service job so when they move on to another career, they know what it's like to be on the other side of the counter and hopefully show the other person a little respect.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Argh don't give my mother ideas >_<

[Seteth Morters]

Well, i've worked in possibly the most degrading conditions in the Western world [except the sex industry].

Door-to-door sales anyone?

...and I still think that most people who work behind a counter need to be euthanised.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Door to door. You're like a pseodo-Jehova's witness then. No one wants to see you, you don't want to see them. How awful.

[Ceres Duvall]

I am always nice to door to door salesmen cuz I pity them. Unfortunately I still dont like it when they come to bug me. >.< I'll listen to what they have to say for a few minutes then tell them I'm not interested in the nicest way possible.

[Nikkiah Wintermoon]

Door-to-door people suck. End of story. There's a sign stuck to my door that clearly says "NO SOLICITATION" and its obvious these door-to-door people (Jehova's witnesses included) cannot read.

Although, I did decide to have fun with one of those people. I told them that my (ex)mother-in-law was in desperate need of saving and that they'd better get right over there. Went on and on about all the ways she needed to be saved then gave them her address. :)

That night, there was some stupid family get together and Woo! You should have heard her ranting about the visitor at her door that day. I nearly pee'd my pants, I was laughing so hard.

That was definitely funnier than the time I told one of those witness people that I worship Satan and that I think they should give me their home address so I can come over and bug them about religion for a while; get them to see the 'light' - so to speak :D

[Garrett Blade]

I work in a supermarket. As much as I hate customers, its great to make fun of their stupidity.

One day, we never had a milk delivery, and so there was no milk until the next day. The supervisor, Neil, printed off about ten flyers explaining the situation and stuck them up all over the milk chiller cabinet (refridgerator) so you couldn't miss them. Plus, the chiller was empty - void of any milk whatsoever.

So bearing this in mind: empty chiller, plus flyers all over it, imagine our joy when customers still asked us if we had any milk. :p

I took it upon myself to have a long hard look up and down the milk chiller, scratch my head in confusion, look again, then say to the customer "No, to be honest I don't think we''ve got any. Sorry." :D

[Tear]

Ah canvassing, I feel your pain. This summer i was looking for a job and saw this want add something like "Make 15-20 dollars an hour! Work your own hours! Meet new and fun people!"

So i was like heyyy...right on. Better then power washing rotting dead barnacles off hulls of huge fishing boats (passed job that i worked at for 2 years)

So i go interview the guy n hes like "Alright! you can start tonight"

So i meet everyone else on the team. Which was probably the only good thing about the job was the other guys and especially girls (GrrRr.) my age doing the same thing. They were fun.

Canvassing however was not. The leader guy of the whole operation was the typical salesman. Goes to houses when people are eating dinner. Goes to houses that says no solisitation. Anything that says dont knock on the door, he did. He also told us to do the same.

I didnt though but even though every house you knock on and have a buncha papers in your hands people look at you with such disgust or pity like "awh damn..shouldnt have answered the door now im stuck here. Hurry stop talking so i can slam this door shut."

Not that i blame them i hate sales people too. So i gave free coupons away and quit after my second day. I couldnt take that job i would rather scrub fishy boats :p

[Wei Wu Wei]

I worked bagging groceries at Kroger. (that's a grocery store for those who aren't familiar).

The worst part about it was this one cashier who liked to order me around. He eventually got tired of it cause he didn't talk to me much after that. I've seen some customers give the cashiers hell, though.

This one old guy got mad when he tried to buy alcohol and the cashier asked for ID. The cashier explained very nicely that it was a law, and they were required by law to check for ID. Then the manager showed up and told him the exact same thing.

So the old guy takes out his wallet, flashes his driver's license, pays for his alcohol and storms out. Funny thing is, he would have been there for a much smaller amount of time if he had just gone ahead and taken the 20 seconds to show the cashier his ID in the first place. Man, that ticked me off.

[Ky Shin Wei]

*looks at all the horror stories about working retail*


That's why I HATE people.


And hopefully I'll never have a job in retail, because there'd be alot of dead....a-holes.

[Daen C'allyx]

Everybody is stupid sometimes. I get my hackles up sometimes too, but for the most part I've never really seen the point in getting worked up.

Actually I've never really seen the point in getting up to work either, so I can't really sympathise. :\

[Okashi Zutto]

Originally posted by Daen C'allyx
Actually I've never really seen the point in getting up to work either, so I can't really sympathise. :\

:lol

In fact, reading some of these thing about door-to-door reminds me of the time I answered the door and a bunch of religious (Not Jehova's but pretty close) people wanted to try to convert our household.

*Thumping at screen door, I'm the only one to hear it, and I'm currently in a nightgown and towel on my head, I answer the door, but stay on the porch not letting them inside the house*

Me- Hi.

Them- *funny looks, but 'trying' to hide them* We were just wondering if you'd be interested...

Me- No, actually I'm not.

Them- Oh well, please take some of our books and read about the word of God.

Me- Ok, thanks, bye, and have a good day.

*I enter the house then tell my brother*

Me- Some Jehova witnesses, but they gave me some paphelets, so now the dogs have something to pee on.

[Daen C'allyx]

Ew.

o_O

Your dogs pee inside?

[Ky Shin Wei]

Paper Trained, Silly Daen.

They're small dogs (Peekinese and a Shitzulapzu *I think*) and we sometimes ferget to take them out, so they pee on paper and we clean it up.

[Daen C'allyx]

:rolleyes

Those aren't dogs, those are shark bait.

[Ky Shin Wei]

Originally posted by Daen C'allyx
:rolleyes

Those aren't dogs, those are shark bait.

Thank god we don't live near a large salty body of water, eh?

[Marcus Telcontar]

Originally posted by Ky Shin Wei
Paper Trained, Silly Daen.

They're small dogs (Peekinese and a Shitzulapzu *I think*) and we sometimes ferget to take them out, so they pee on paper and we clean it up.


I HATE toy dogs with a passion. Noisy, messy, yappy dumb things. On my paper round, if I see one of those things yapping their tiny head off at me, I give them a swift kick up the bum. Daen's description owns.

[Ryla Relvinian]

Ugh, I so feel your pain, Nikkiah. I work in a Starbucks that is inside of a Safeway, so technically I'm a safeway employee. Anyway, we get the rudest customers... they push people in line, put their stuff up on my small counter while someone else is ordering, and then (oh JOY of joys) change their order after I've already made it and have three people waiting in line and I'm working alone.

Worst of all is the kids: Not all the time, mind you, but there are just enough unsupervised kids running around that they break the candy we have displayed and mess everything up. I mean, can't hold it too much against them, because kids will be kids, but their parents need to invest heavily in a leash or something.

[ReaperFett]

Wow, you have Safeway too :)

[Jarek T'chort]

Safeway is an american company.

[Nikkiah Wintermoon]

Ryla, the same here. I flat out told a woman that she really should invest in a few leashes and muzzles for her kids :) I have kids of my own, but I guarantee that they never run around unsupervised, never act up in public. If they ever even think about acting up in public, home we go. I don't care where we are, I take them and leave. And I never take my children out to eat at restaraunts. :)

[Charley]

Having worked in the retail and service sectors before (Lowes, Carmike Cinemas, etc), I can say that the customer is no more rude than the retail worker at times. Yes, you can feel good by villifying them and such, but there are saints and sinners on both sides of the check-out line.

[Ceres Duvall]

Thats another thing that bugs me at work. Kids. I love them but we get some brats in there. And the parents do nothing about it! SOme kids have picked up candy, opened it, and started eating, and the parents pretend not to notice and when I mention it they get all pissy. Some actually tell their kids to put it back. >.<

But retails a lot better than fast food.... Ugh.... We've had to call the cops on some customers when I worked at Wendys not too long ago cuz they wouldnt remove their car from the drive thru cuz we supposedly got something wrong even though we didnt.