oh and to give you an idea of any time before any holiday.. here is what happened at work YESTERDAY. worse than christmas, i tell you.
it was very, very odd, and i had to make a list of every odd thing that happened so i could remember them all.
first off, we have these pens that we sell. theyre up at the registers, so every assholew pickes them up and looks at them "oooh ahh! " the pen is clear and the hadle is filled with water, with this little see through... thing in it. like a goldfish, or a dolphin.. or a heart. and theyre so stupid loooking and i tried one out and i didnt even hold it by the water part, so its defective to me. anyway everyone was obsessing about these stupid pens. the worst part is that the pens are $9.95..NINE NINETY FUCKING FIVE!!! and some people actually bought them.
now, not only was it hectic at work yesterday, it was really packed. the line never seemed to end, nor the requests for gift wrapping, which usually ended in " how come you guys dont have any VALENTINES DAY PAPER?! " wha wha wha, youre getting someone else to wrap a gift for you, and they HAVE to do it, because youre too lazy. so shut the fuck up.
and then there was a guy making a racial issue out of our selection of valentines day cards, saying they were only for " one kind of person. " i didnt know they HAD holiday cards that said " hey youre black! have a good holiday! " or " HAPPY BLACK VALENTINES DAY! " fuck man, we dont have race related holiday cards. how could we! we suck. [ i really had NO idea that holiday cards could come race specific. ]
then i had a dude who wanted to return a book without a receipt [ do - able ] except that he didnt have any ID with him which is required. so i told him we couldnt take his book back, and just like i expected, he asked to talk to the same manager that told me that we couldnt take the book back on the phone. but then another manager person was there so i just asked her since she was close and she let him do it " but just this once. " i really hate it when managers let customers get away with anything, they really shouldnt. especially when i just said the opposite. humbug.
since it was so crowded and busy, the line was pretty long most of the day. at one point this lady walked into the front door and right up to the line near my register ] she, like many others, must not have realized that the line extended much far back than where she cared to look. ] and when she did finally realize how busy we were, she threw her hands up and yelled " I ONLY HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO WAIT@!!!@ I CANT WAIT IN THIS LINE !!11 ILL HAVE TO COME BACK LATER!! THIS IS REDICULOUS! " i really wanted to laugh in her face, bu she probably would have punched me. bah. rediculous indeed. its funny how the oldest people seem to forget theyre old and act like children.
then later that evening, we had a dude with alzheimers come into the store looking for cabaret, and claiming he had put it on hold. i was able to avoid contact with him until right at the end, when i had to ring him up. i rung the dvd through and told him his total, and he asked for a recepeit from there on. i told him hed have to pay before the recepit would print, and he called me a liar. then he called me a liar over the price of the dvd, which was marked as $14.99 but then the tax came and that upset him a lot. he didnt understand why the price on the dvd was different than the price in the computer. i tried to explain it to him and he just called me a liar loudly and walked away. whatever, the man was sick. just.. whatever.
[Edited on Feb 14, 2004 by Polly]
I've worked many of horrible retail jobs in my day, and I've come to the following conclusion..... 1) Retail is the ABSOLUTE WORST JOB TO HAVE, and 2) CUSTOMERS SUCK! Well 95% of them do anyway. There are far and few curteous ones.
The last retail job I had was a dream though. I was head manager of a small NJ chain video store. When I became manager, I decided to be the one guy who would refuse to let snobby, whiny, impatient customers have their way. The area my store was in was full of wealthy, high class snots who are use to being told "YES! How much more can I kiss your ass?!" I honestly think in the 1 year I was there, I must've pointed at the door to about 50 or so customers saying "Get the fuck out of my store. If you want your ass kissed, Blockbuster is only 3 miles down the road." They'd pull up in a $60,000 Jaguar, and then complain about a $4.00 late fee. Or they'd let their spoiled kids knock stuff off the shelves, never thinking that they should clean up after their brats. A few times I refused to rent movies to them until they picked up the mess their kids made. Hey.... someone had to teach them!
Everytime nowadays I observe a customer being rude to an undeserving employee, I take the initiative to point out what idiots they are, since most employees are too scared of being fired to fend for themselves.
My boss was always so cool, he'd call me away from the customer to find out what I had told them before resolving the dispute. 9 out of 10 times he'd back me up.
SteveNeurotic said:
I've worked many of horrible retail jobs in my day, and I've come to the following conclusion..... 1) Retail is the ABSOLUTE WORST JOB TO HAVE, and 2) CUSTOMERS SUCK! Well 95% of them do anyway. There are far and few curteous ones.
The last retail job I had was a dream though. I was head manager of a small NJ chain video store. When I became manager, I decided to be the one guy who would refuse to let snobby, whiny, impatient customers have their way. The area my store was in was full of wealthy, high class snots who are use to being told "YES! How much more can I kiss your ass?!" I honestly think in the 1 year I was there, I must've pointed at the door to about 50 or so customers saying "Get the fuck out of my store. If you want your ass kissed, Blockbuster is only 3 miles down the road." They'd pull up in a $60,000 Jaguar, and then complain about a $4.00 late fee. Or they'd let their spoiled kids knock stuff off the shelves, never thinking that they should clean up after their brats. A few times I refused to rent movies to them until they picked up the mess their kids made. Hey.... someone had to teach them!
Everytime nowadays I observe a customer being rude to an undeserving employee, I take the initiative to point out what idiots they are, since most employees are too scared of being fired to fend for themselves.
and we all thank you for that. i have grown pretty tired of trying to please stupid people, sometimes i border on being outright and obviously rude but sometimes i pull back my talons and give people a second chance. but then i had a lady yesterday try to convince me to take back a book that we dont carry [ the hugest no no of them all ] and i practically spewed the venom. oh well. people are definitely stupid if they think you can " add to the inventory and make the store carry the book. "
SteveNeurotic
Charlotte, NC
January 2004
FEB 15, 2004 01:12 AM