Tales from the retail world...

[Syrch]

Originally posted by: Exterous
Having worked in almost ever department in my store for so long they made me an assit. manager. However, sometimes I fill in for other salespeople and when I do I wear my non-manager nametag (If i don't I never get to help anyone because someone always needs to speak to the manager)
Anyway, this customer comes with her computer to have it serviced. I start the work order and inform her of our usual fee.
Customer: No, this is still under warrenty
Me: Oh, well then you'll want to contact the manufactuer - Let me get your their number
Customer: Oh I already did and they told me to bring it into you
Me: Oh, is the problem not something they cover?
Customer: It is and they said you are liscensed to do warrenty work for them
Me: Huh. Well I'm sorry they told you that but we don't do warrenty work for anyone
Customer: Thats not what they said.
Me: I understand that but we haven't ever done warrenty work
Customer: *agitated* But they said you did. I just want you to work on my computer.
Me: If you want us to work on it its the $$$ fee.
Customer *mad* "I want to speak to your manager now becuase you are refusing to help me."
Me: *looks at current name tag* <<senior repair technician>> *reaches in pocket and replaces that nametag with <<manager>> "I'm sorry ma'am but we still don't do warrenty work for them
Customer: Well, this is just the absolute worst customer service I have ever had. I can't believe you won't help me
Me: I am more than willing to help you, but you would have to pay $$$
Customer: But the person from <company> said you do warrenty work
Me: *sigh* Well, fortunately they do not work for us and cannot tell us what we do and do not do. We do not do warrenty work and have never done warrenty work. I cannot help whatever miss information someone outside of our corperation gave you I am sorry you do not understand that

HAHAHHA I cant' tell you how many times i've done that. I always kept my name badges in my truck so i didn't forget where i put them. I had my Senor Sales Rep, supervisor and manager badge. I did what you did and was wearing my sales rep badge the customer wanted to talk to my supervisor so I said hold on, went to the truck got the supervisor badge and asked how i could help them. THey were pissed and asked for the manager (this one i had in my pocket) and did what you did. They kinda just walked out.

Oh and reason for this is they wanted the 300 Mail in Rebate done instantly at the register....

 

[MaverickBP]

And here comes another one...needless to say my new job gets me hundreds of stories.

First day on the job:

CU: I can't seem to get my printer to print
ME: Ok so is your printer plugged in and turned on?
CU: No...it's still across the room sealed in the box you guys shipped it in...

I sh!t you not... Without saying a single word I took my headset off and just walked out of the room. My boss tried to ask me what was up and I just gave him this look like "You have GOT to be kidding me!" and went out for a smoke.

 

[amddude]

Bump

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: jbourne77
Aside from the OP constantly jerking himself off over how brilliant he was to create this thread, this was fun.

Never used the word "brilliant". Just showed my amazement on how far this thread has come...and is still going. By other people's reactions i'm assuming i'm right.

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: Garet Jax

Originally posted by: So
[
No, I'd say you are an ass. If you don't like the wait, but the retail staff is honestly doing their best (If they're ignoring you and picking their nose, it's one thing) then STFU. If you think the store is understaffed, take it up with the manager, not the salesdrone. He has to deal with pissed off people all day, and constantly there are too many people in line.

God, whatever happened to common courtesy?

Ironic you say that. Common courtesy is not making your customers wait too long in line.

No doubt she was rude, but so was he (as well as management, employees and owners) for not having enough staff to serve the seasonal rush. They are not doing their best because if they were then they would take it to management to try to get more staff to handle the rush. If management refused then at least the employee could say:

"Maam, I totally understand your concern. I have tried to rectify the situation - maybe it will make a difference coming from a customer. Please talk to the manager."

Instead he refused to serve her and caused his company to lose a customer. He is an ass.

I come back on here to find out a thread I figured was dead well over a year ago is revived and people are talking about me. Guess now I can defend myself.

We had 3 managers, 3 specialists (Basically team leaders...I being one of them), and 3 cashiers in order to combat this rush of people. 1 Cash register was actually on wheels and rolled out to help deal with the onslaught of over 200 people in electronics. If you've ever been to Target and have seen their electronics area, you can imagine how crowded the place was and how many extra people we pulled to help this issue. Sure we could've open up the cages and let people have free reign but that's exactly what would've happened. I turned away a lady wanting a $15 game because she didn't like us protecting ourselves against thousands of dollars in loss. Was I right? No and yes. I see your point but also mine and will leave it at that.

 

[Snakexor]

a couple came in and asked where our invisible speaker wire was.

/thread

 

[dlock13]

Originally posted by: Syrch

5. I had a guy come into to the store. I was reworking the DVD section of the store. I was sitting on the floor with towers of DVDS surrounding me and in regular clothes (not the store uniform as this was a "special project". This guy comes up to me and DEMANDS my help. I look up at this guy that is looking into my "fortress" of dvd's and say. Sir if you give me a moment to finish this I will be right with you. He yelled. NO! I DEMAND YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW! I looked at him and calmly said "Sir, I am surrounded by DVD's Let me put this stack on the shelf as it will take me 60 seconds and I will be right with you. He then pushes all the dvds on top of me and calls me a a$$hole. I then got up glared right into his eyes, walked passed him towards the general managers office. About 15 feet later something hit me in the head. I look down and there are 5 dvd's at my feet. I yelled for security and continued towards the GM's office (no idea how I didn't turn around and kill the guy). He gets into the GM's office the cops are called and he spend 6 months in jail and is never allowed at another CompUSA. The whole thing was on tape. Oh and i got to go home after that...had a major headache!

I have more but I will save room for others

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. One of the funniest stories I have ever heard.

 

[Jeff7]

I can't say I have any excellent stories right now, but one memorable one was when a couple was looking at night light bulbs, saw the 4 watt bulbs, looked around some more, and asked me if we had any zero watt bulbs in stock. I had to explain to them why a zero watt bulb would be of little use.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: Journer
i worked at a target couple years back....

one day in grocery section....girl pukes on floor...janitor cleans it up and puts one of those large fans to help dry things up a bit quicker...co-worker comes by to see the damage..smells the lingering oder...pukes and of corse, he is behind the fan...100s of boxes were covered in puke as well as the janitor...i have never laughed so hard in my life

hahahahahahaha this one makes me ROFL :laugh:

 

[Sensai]

bump for holiday season.. there has to be more crazy stories nowadays!

 

[Al Neri]

 

[RaistlinZ]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
I can't say I have any excellent stories right now, but one memorable one was when a couple was looking at night light bulbs, saw the 4 watt bulbs, looked around some more, and asked me if we had any zero watt bulbs in stock. I had to explain to them why a zero watt bulb would be of little use.

LOL

 

[chrisms]

I used to work at a pizza place. In the bathroom one day I found a gigantic turd in the urinal. To this day it amazes me how someone had the guts to squat over the urinal, while at any moment the door could've swung open for the entire restaurant to see.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Any more retail stories?

 

[weirdichi]

I was helping this customer with some questions about electronics and we were just chatting and when he left, I smelled something awful. I was thinking, "Man.. that guy stunk!" Then I looked down and saw that I was waddling in a ball of poop on the carpeted floor. It wasn't a big 'ole glob, just two round balls of poop next to the one that I was waddling in for the past 15 minutes. I gasped for clean air and almost threw up. It was all over the underside of my shoes and I was wondering how in the world shiet could even end up in the middle of the aisle of the electronics department, let alone stuck all over the underside of my shoes. We sprayed some cleaning stuff on it and I went to wash my shoes in the janitor's room. What a day.

 

[mynamewastaken]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: MaverickBP

Originally posted by: Keyvan

Originally posted by: dbot
Oh man, i have too many to count when i worked at bestbuy.

One time, my coworker was helping this guy who was being a total prick. So the guy i was working with was new and he asked if i could mention the warranty to the guy since he really didnt know all the facts about it yet.

So i go to the guy who is buying a $1200 digital camera and ask him if he wants the PSP. He goes, "no and I don't want to hear another word about it ok." And kinda being caught off guard because i asked him politely i said, "Ok sir, its just my job to ask you, I was making sure"

Then he replies with, "Well I just said I dont want it so just be quiet."

I was like, WTF. So i decide to play with the guy since he's gonna be a prick. "Ok sir, because its a $1200 camera.. you sure??"

He then gets even more ticked and says, "Listen you say another word and im leaving, so YOU go stand over THERE." Pointing to another department.

I reply with a nice and polite, "well actually sir this is my department and you would be mad if you came here for help and I was somewhere else so I think I'll stay right here."

LOL, the guy says "Fine, im outta here." Leaves and on the way out, tells a manager what happened. Manager comes to me and says, "did you hastle this guy about warranties?" I say, "No, but i did kinda push him when he was rude. And every morning meeting you guys tell us to push these down the customers throat so i was just doing what you tell me." End of conversation, manager walks away LOL.

eh, that happens far too often imo. I worked at future [sweat] shop until a month ago (which is owned by best buy btw)
and besides, your manager was probably happy that the customer walked away because they'd rather sell that camera to someone else so as to keep their numbers pretty.
my guess your manager only asked you in case the customer was watching him

the best is when we get people like that come back for service and be all like "WTFFF do you mean I have to call the manufacturer for the warranty?"

service plans 9/10 suck...but that guy shouldve been slapped either way

why should he be slapped?

He stated NO very clearly yet the op kept going on about. Once the customer says no then drop it.

I hate getting pesterd to buy a tthe damn thing. most times its not worht it. Its just pure profit for the store.

When i say NO i mean NO. I don't need to be asked 3 times if i want it. I do need to be reminded that i am buying a $1200 object (well thanks sparky! thought it was $1.20).

Perhaps you work for verizon?

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats
Ah the joys of managing a Blockbuster Store, where to begin...


Just this past week, someone threatened to kill me if I didn't credit off a game that his son never returned. I've never heard so much profanity in my entire life rounded up into a single conversation. The game was in the drop box the next day.

----

A couple months ago, a black guy called me a racist because I told him he needed a license/card in order to rent. "I guess you don't see a lot of black people around here, do you?", he said.

---

I told a kid who came in without a card or ID that he couldn't rent without one or the other. He came back with his father who launched a verbal tirade towards me. I told him if he couldn't keep his mouth in check, he'd have to leave. Then he asked me if I wanted to take the matter outside. I told him if he didn't leave that instant, I was going to call the cops.

----

Some guy tried to sneak into the store after close, via the exit door. I told him to get the hell out, but he kept asking my employee to let him rent. I told him not to ask him, it's not his call. Finally he left, but not before threatening to break my legs

-----

Pretty much on a weekly basis I get threatened one way or another. I always love the "I'll have your job!" comments, or "I'm never coming back!" Guess what? They're back in a week or two. People who cause such scenes at a VIDEO STORE need to be t-boned by a mack truck. People think retail is such an easy task, but most people don't know the half of it.

i always envisioned that working at, or managing a blockbuster store must suck it hard.

sounds like im not too far off

 

[erp]

After two days, I read this all, and only recently relised this had been going for... "quite a while".

And then there was no more! So I guess one can't keep giving without taking.

--

While doing a stint at a major australian supermarket for a very low wage as a junior (got me a Sun Micro Ultra 10 and a nice suit amongst other things...) I had not only heard but seen a lot of crap, much along the lines of what many people have posted before.

Crap like a guy stuffing $60 worth of prawns down his pants or some white trash taunting the duty manager saying that he couldn't touch him because he was working. The duty manager when balistic, ripped his shirt off and said "I'm no longer at work! you want a piece of me." Naturally, the guy shat himself and ran off.

More of what I personally experienced.

One time, when I was on register in the afternoon, I heard that a couple (with a dog) had walked into the store, picked up a DVD/VHS player combo and walked out of the store (without paying) like it was the most normal thing in the world. So three of the staff (including a friend, who was also a duty manager) casually followed these people. They walked straght to the nearest pawn shop with their newly aquired player (from the supermarket.). The staff then called up the police, who called up the pawn shop and asked them to keep talking to the thieves. Cops come and the people claim that they bought the DVD player from a near by compeditor. The compeditor hasn't even heard of the DVD player they are supposedly selling.

Another time I heard that someone had thrown up in one of the aisles. I laughed because some poor grocery guy would have to clean it up. and then the next aisle there was vomit. and so on. Eventually this woman confesses it's her child. And starts to place the vomit into plastic bags. The same transperent plastic bags that one would put their fruit and vegetables in to. She goes past my register every few minutes with these bags. Eventually the staff members wisen up and I also put two and two together. The child is actually a baby. And I do not think that a small baby could throw up more than it's own body mass. Eventually after spending 2 hours in the store, she comes to my register and while unloading stuff from her trolly is still holding a bag full of vomit, appologing for the baby throwing up. At this point, with a transperant bag of vomit swishing around, I am trying really hard not to throw up. Eventually I put through her small amount of items. A rock mellon (the bag was all sticky) and some other produce items, as well as a half consumed bottle of sprite. I tell her the cost (something like $7) and she says that she has to go out to the car, to get the money. Obviously she didn't come back. My supervisor comes to me and askes if she purchased a bottle of coke. I told him it was only a bottle of sprite. I then asked him what to do with the mercendice since i could not, in my right mind put it back with the vegetables. Oh, and I also decided that I would not sleep that night unless I used the nastiest chemicals in the deli to clean my hands.

I think i've said too much. Especially for a first post.

 

[m1ldslide1]

It wasn't retail, but I used to work at a troubledesk for a City government handling calls for broken phone sets and the like. An elderly gentleman calls from Florida (about 25 states away) demanding to know why people from my company keep harassing him. I explain that we're a municipal government and would have no reason to call him. He says they're from (company with same name as my bureau) and that's us and he's had to tell us twice to stop calling him and now he's mad as hell. I try to tell him again what we are, and he says he looked up our company name on the interweb and I need to stop lying to him. I open up google and punch in our name, tell him that there are over 3 million results or something and that we're not the right one. He still persists, much to my disbelief. I'm now pissed as this has gone on several minutes and he's essentially calling me a liar, and with no potential employment repurcussions say "SIR THIS IS THE GOVERNMENT AND WE HAVE NOTHING TO SELL YOU". That seemed to satisfy him enough to get off the phone with a "we'll see about that", and he called back an hour later to apologize after tracking down the right company.

Not that spectacular of a story, but its kind of a funny sentence to come out of my mouth while under duress. Just dripping with irony.

 

[Viperoni]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1
"SIR THIS IS THE GOVERNMENT AND WE HAVE NOTHING TO SELL YOU".

GREATEST EVAR! :beer:

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: chrisms
I used to work at a pizza place. In the bathroom one day I found a gigantic turd in the urinal. To this day it amazes me how someone had the guts to squat over the urinal, while at any moment the door could've swung open for the entire restaurant to see.

OMFG. I saw the exact same thing at a Pizza Hut when I had my like 8th Birthday Party. I walk into the bathroom, and there's this huge turd lying right there. Being 8 and immature, I had to show all my friends (well, the male ones).

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: bwnv
My wife used to work in travel industry. Caller booking vacation in Hawaii, leaving from San Francisco, CA. Geography obviously not callers strong point.
caller: Does that flight make any stops?
wife: can I put you on hold?
caller: sure
wife: hits hold button and busts out LOL for a minute. regains composure and gets back on line...
wife: no ma'am no stops
caller: thank you .. hangs up

SFO > Hawaii = 2500 miles of ocean


Then, one time I was moonlighting at T-R-US, did a bit of everything, including putting crap together like bikes. Manager comes up to me and asks if I can fix a bike really fast.
me: what happened?
mgr: kid bought a bike, tried it out in parking lot and the seat got loose and he fell. got pretty scrapped up.
me: looks @ bike... it's gonna need a new seat
mgr: ok...and make sure everything is as tight as can be, handlebars, everything

now, this is a small 10 speed, like what you'd get for a kid about 9 or 10, so I'm thinking whoever put it together just didn't bother to tighten it up right. Anyway about 15 minutes later I'm done with the bike. Everything was torqued to the max, so I knew it would hold together ok.

me:all done with the bike
mgr: ok, the kid and his mom are outside

so we take the bike out back. OMGWTF this kid is about 5'6" and probably 220 lbs although he did only look 12 or 13 years old. all I could think of was how some moron could sell baby huey this small of a bike?

It's not uncommon to fly from SFO to LAX and then from LAX to Hawaii, I've done it before.

 

[ric1287]

worked at worstbuy for a year or so, this is always my favorite story:

Lady comes up to me asking where we keep the Apple computers. I tell her that we do not carry any in our store. She then calls me a liar, and that she was here a couple weeks ago and saw them. I tell her that in the 6 months i have been in this dept., we have not had a single apple computer.

 

[theGlove]

Originally posted by: ntdz

Originally posted by: bwnv
My wife used to work in travel industry. Caller booking vacation in Hawaii, leaving from San Francisco, CA. Geography obviously not callers strong point.
caller: Does that flight make any stops?
wife: can I put you on hold?
caller: sure
wife: hits hold button and busts out LOL for a minute. regains composure and gets back on line...
wife: no ma'am no stops
caller: thank you .. hangs up

SFO > Hawaii = 2500 miles of ocean


Then, one time I was moonlighting at T-R-US, did a bit of everything, including putting crap together like bikes. Manager comes up to me and asks if I can fix a bike really fast.
me: what happened?
mgr: kid bought a bike, tried it out in parking lot and the seat got loose and he fell. got pretty scrapped up.
me: looks @ bike... it's gonna need a new seat
mgr: ok...and make sure everything is as tight as can be, handlebars, everything

now, this is a small 10 speed, like what you'd get for a kid about 9 or 10, so I'm thinking whoever put it together just didn't bother to tighten it up right. Anyway about 15 minutes later I'm done with the bike. Everything was torqued to the max, so I knew it would hold together ok.

me:all done with the bike
mgr: ok, the kid and his mom are outside

so we take the bike out back. OMGWTF this kid is about 5'6" and probably 220 lbs although he did only look 12 or 13 years old. all I could think of was how some moron could sell baby huey this small of a bike?

It's not uncommon to fly from SFO to LAX and then from LAX to Hawaii, I've done it before.

not only that, some airlines automatically go to their main hub no matter what on all flights. so if their main hub is in denver, you could go from san fran to denver to hawaii...

 

[RebelDog]

At a national Mexican-themed restaurant that I used to wait tables at:
Food runner of Hispanic descent brings order of shrimp fajitas to a table full of country jack@sses.
Redneck man: "Arrreeee deeez here shrimps from Mex-eeeee-co?"
Hispanic foodrunner: "No, they are from Mississippi."