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The old thread (http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...87&pagenumber=1) AN UPDATE: There is news regarding one of the peskiest situations from this thread and the prior retail thread. I found out a couple days ago that Wendell, as of two months ago, has been fired. But, you ask, who is this Wendell person? I posted:Now, in my last post in the thread, I did not mention my coworker, Wendell the rear end. I made a whole thread a while back describing his incompetent coworker antics, but I can't find it right now due to search being down. Anyway, I'll just go over the basics and highlight a few developments that have occurred since then. I think I've got the storyline a bit more streamlined now -- before, I was just spouting random incidents. Many other stories followed. I am posting them all below, so that anyone who's interested in catching up (or rereading them, getting angry all over again, and then experiencing a rush of joy knowing he's finally been axed, which is what I did) can do so. I warn you, this is LONG. ************************************************************* More on Wendell, the bane of my existence described in one of my previous posts. Seeing how rapidly this thread is probably going to devolve into race-baiting, I'm gonna try and stick with complaints beyond the fact that he loves playing the race card. Wendell wears the most horrible cologne I have ever smelled. Describing it in words is beyond me. You know how some medicines leave an aftertaste in your mouth? His cologne has an after-SMELL. It's somehow distinct from the initial smell, and it lingers. Oh gently caress, does it linger. In the stockroom, you can basically trace his path by following the intensity of the aftersmell through the aisles. He smokes menthols, but you'd never know it unless you happened to see them lying next to his wallet, because whatever the hell he douses himself with every morning overwhelms every other smell in the vicinity. I am seriously contemplating filing a complaint with HR pleading "allergies" to it. Wendell is fifty-five. Wendell has a daughter that is thirty-five. All well and good until he announced to us that he was loving a thirty year old female customer he'd picked up while selling her shoes. He described her in lurid detail, like she was some kind of sex goddess. When she finally returned to the store one day, well, the phrase "ghetto hambeast" does her justice. Their lovemaking was a mental image those of us privileged to view will not soon forget. Also, he hasn't mentioned her lately, and I think she may seriously have been using him for his employee discount on the shoes, and possibly for free meals on their dates. Wendell is a greedy little bastard. He refuses to perform any task, even those explicitly outlined in his job description, that will not directly net him a commission. Examples include cleaning up after himself, opening/closing registers, arriving punctually, processing returns, accepting credit payments at the register, ringing holds for other associates, giving customers directions to other stores or departments, answering the desk phone, treating other associates with respect (we'll get to that), and treating management with respect (already outlined in my other post). An example from just the other day of how Wendell treats his colleagues. One of my coworkers announced that on her lunch break, she was going to get McDonald's drive-thru food. Wendell rushed over and asked if she'd get him some food, and he gave her money to cover it. She came back twenty minutes later (which is pretty much the minimum time it would take to get the restaurant, order, and get back from our store). Immediately, Wendell stormed into the stockroom, bitched her out for "taking too long" and making him wait while he was hungry, grabbed his food and booked it for the break room. He did not say thank you. When Wendell came back, he was scowling at her still, and he accused her of "dipping into" his order of French fries. I'd seen her hand him the fries, and it was obviously a full order of them. Plus, she had her own fries and no reason to eat his. She was offended by this and denied it. He sighed/scoffed, shook his head violently, stormed away, and didn't talk to her for the rest of the shift. A minor incident, to be sure, but factor in that something similar is bound to happen every single time he works with other people, whether it's with someone who does him a favor by ringing a hold under his number (I didn't ASK you to, you could have just gotten me), picking up after him (You should NOT have put away those Coach shoes, they might be coming back!), helping his customer out while he's preoccupied with all the others he's snatched up (You bitch, I don't care if you let me take credit for the sale, you're stealing my customers.), bringing him a cup of coffee (I SAID I didn't want any cream in this). Yeah, so basically, race-carding aside, he's just an unpleasant rear end in a top hat who pisses off employees and customers alike. ************************************************************* Now, to clarify, this is a commissioned department, and "stealing" a customer that another commissioned associate was already in the middle of working with is a major no-no, because you're essentially stealing the money they would have earned from the sale. The general rule is that once you bring a pair of shoes out to a customer, another associate cannot wait on them and ring the sale, unless for some reason you are unable to finish working with them or give the customer to another person. Certain workers have a problem following these rules. Particularly Wendell. First, I was assisting my coworker Jennifer with a sale so she could take a quick restroom break without abandoning her customer. She'd already brought the customer shoes and made some suggestions, and all I did was get her another pair and make small talk about her outfit for a few minutes as Jennifer's placeholder. Now, since I don't earn commission (I only do stock in shoes, and I ring/sell in the other departments I work in), I typically give up any customers who ask me for stuff to the first available commissioned employee. Wendell saw me talking to this woman and decided to swoop in and grab the customer. As I saw him make off to the stockroom with her sample shoes to get sizes, I dashed after him, stopped him, and told him that that was Jennifer's customer, and I was covering for her until she got back. He immediately went on the over-defensive and insisted, "Oh, no, I didn't know that, I would never have done that if I knew." I took the shoes from him and waited on the customer for a few more minutes until Jennifer was back, and then I went off to pick up the mess of shoes all over the salesfloor. And then, five minutes later, while Jennifer was away for less than TWO MINUTES to ring up her only other customer, Wendell went over, brought this woman a pair of shoes, and got the end sale. No excuses, he knew that was not his customer. Jennifer confronted him, and he denied knowing, AGAIN. She told him she knew this wasn't true, because I had told her about the incident while she'd been gone. He freaked out and said she was lying. At least he couldn't call her racist like he normally would have, since Jennifer's black, too. That night, Wendell was also REALLY desperate to leave early. He had a clever excuse about how his bad back was acting up (the way he flew up the stockroom stairs every time a customer sent him to get a really expensive item contradicted this), but he'd also been on his cell phone between every customer assuring his buddies that he'd be out of here by eight to go party. He was scheduled until closing at ten. Our department manager was off that night, and in this case, in order to leave your shift early for any reason, you have to call in another on-duty manager to ask permission, or else it counts the same as a no-call, no-show absence. He ended up calling in an assistant manager from another department, Amber, to ask permission at eight. It was a resounding no. So he had to stay, and he was muttering about how loving awful it was. He took about three breaks in the next hour or so (ducking off to watch a hockey game), and left a half hour early anyway. And today, he literally picked up EVERY CUSTOMER on the floor, and left the other associates with nothing to do. Every time a new person entered the department, he'd drop what he was doing, run to them, introduce himself, and insist upon bringing them a shoe, to hog all the sales. This naturally resulted in him being unable to provide good service to all of them, because nobody can wait on ten customers well (at least in this setting) at the same time. This poor older woman who he'd picked up fifteen minutes before still couldn't get his attention for long enough to have him get her a second size. She went up to Rob, another employee, explained the situation, and Rob agreed that Wendell was unable to serve her properly, and took over the sale. Well, Wendell flipped his lid on Rob in the stockroom, reaming him out about "professional courtesy" and how lovely it was for him to steal Wendell's hard-earned customer. Rob shot back, since he's a pretty outspoken guy who has a slight temper of his own (though he's generally a cool person, and rarely have I seen him genuinely angry at work), that Wendell was being a selfish pig who was monopolizing the customers and failing to meet their needs. As soon as Wendell finished up his sales, he WALKED OUT. Two hours before his shift was scheduled to end. He didn't even tell anyone he was leaving, we eventually figured it out when no one could find him. Because he was so upset at Rob for calling him on his crap. He's done this before, too, so I doubt it will be the final nail in the coffin that gets him fired. He'll have a great story during his next shift to tell HR about how Rob is a terrible racist who won't let the black man have a client at work. I'm seriously fed up with him at this point, but I don't actually want to quit yet. I like many aspects of the job, but I hate him with a passion, as do all my coworkers. I'm sorely tempted to schedule another meeting with the HR boss (I already had one, she called me in, and a few others separately, to give my opinion on Wendell, since they'd been getting so many complaints about him) and tell her that I'm considering whether or not to keep this job in the fall, and he's pretty much the biggest reason I have to quit. She emphasized creating a productive, comfortable, pleasant work environment in our last meeting, and I can safely say Wendell ruins this for just about everyone. I have a job in the fall lined up TA'ing a course on campus, which is weekdays only, so I could continue working at the store on Saturdays like last semester. But this time around, I don't NEED to for the money, since I'll actually earn more from my other job. I would like to stay for some reasons -- I like the employee discount, most of the employees and managers, and the fact that I'll have as many hours as I want during winter and summer vacations when my TA job is gone. However, I want to tell her, I can't rationalize staying when I have a coworker who makes work hell and nobody can fix the situation. I don't know how well this will work. On the one hand, I know enough to realize that my department managers and most of my coworkers will fight for me to stay, since Wendell gives them nothing but trouble. I also have seniority over him, since I've been there a year longer. My monthly reviews are always above average. Plus, they never have any trouble filling the commissioned jobs, which pay well. Unfortunately though, I lack a race card, which makes this plan flawed. Therefore, if I did this, I wouldn't guarantee that I'll quit if he's not gotten rid of, I'd just say I might and he's a big factor. ************************************************************* There are clocking reports demonstrating his tardiness, absences, and early departures. My department managers have pushed to have him fired. HR balks every time. Like I've said before in this thread, they just don't want the negative publicity that a mere accusation could cause, even if its without legal merit. If it were my choice, I'd do things differently. Wendell has clashed with both black hourly employees (such as Jennifer of my last story) and black managers (the ASM who told him he couldn't go home early in my last story). All employees black and white are united in their hatred of him and his childish behavior. It's plenty obvious to everyone that the store and its administration are not being "racist." Being 55 years old, I'm sure Wendell has memories of a time when companies weren't so eager to prevent minorities from being treated as inferiors. Even though I know he was born in this state, which is not some backward Deep-South redneck locale, I know he probably grew up with some level of racial prejudice that I will never understand. Therefore, I could understand how, even now, if he were in a white-majority workplace that treated him in an even slightly unfair way, he could leap to conclusions. But that's simply not the case. Our employees in the department are divided almost perfectly 50/50 between black and white individuals, and the store also employs black managers, plus some of other minority races. He is not being outnumbered. He's not even technically a "minority" within the little world that is our store. And yet he is the ONLY one currently employed here who sees racism where there is none. And of course, he completely devalues the struggles of anyone who's actually BEEN discriminated against for race or gender or disability or whatever other reason, and in the long run is probably prolonging negative prejudices against minority groups because of the way he exploits his racial status. He really seems like he knows what he's doing here, too. He toes the line. The only time he ever came CLOSE to crossing it was when he yelled at my manager for racism, and then he played that off as genuine indignation over being discriminated against. He doesn't steal from the registers or physically harm anyone. He does only what he knows HR can justify overlooking in the name of tolerance. ************************************************************* And of course, I was on the front line to deal with Wendell's incompetence today. Apparently he was very blatantly ignoring any customer wielding a cheap shoe and a coupon, and bending over backwards to kiss the taints of anyone who even looked at a designer item. One lady who he'd brought a pair of flip-flops bitched me out after waiting fifteen minutes in my register's line while he refused to ring her on his in favor of bumping his favorite spendy customers to thefront. I managed to diffuse the situation by giving her a knowing smile, and writing his name on the receipt, while detailing our customer feedback webpage and how she should absolutely voice her opinions there. I think she decided I wasn't evil, because she calmed down and let me finish the transaction without a fuss, but then said LOUDLY right before walking away, "THAT MAN is the most horribly rude salesperson I have EVER encountered." I smiled. Man, I picked a bad day to have off from work yesterday, apparently. My manager and I were both in early today, a bit before eight, and I asked her how the sale had gone yesterday. She said sales were great, but that they had some trouble since they were one man down -- Wendell left a little over an hour into his shift. He made a big scene claiming he had diarrhea. Said this in front of customers to make his point. Neither of us were sure whether he might have been telling the truth. Tons of customers that day, and normally he likes that. But, he also was getting fed up with the coupons and bargain-hunters the day before. At any rate, he wasn't making GBS threads himself today. ************************************************************* My department manager was on vacation this week, so our brand-new assistant manager was on the floor. Already, after seeing her answer a question from one of his customers, Wendell screamed at her to stop trying to steal his commission. Managers do not make commission. She told him off briefly, but yet again, he's gotten away with berating his superiors for no good reason. He also spent over an hour in the stockroom on his cellphone calling various friends and giving them directions to meet him at a club downtown. Then, he left twenty minutes early without permission, after trying to leave an hour and a half early and being told to stay. This man is fifty-five now. A fifty-five year old child. ************************************************************* A few random Wendell updates: he announced the other day that he takes home $800 a week, showed off paystubs to prove it. So much money that he's getting a new apartment this summer! And I still live with my mom because even working full time there I can't afford my own place. I'm non-commission, and he steals everyone's sales. He makes at least 3x as much as me. ************************************************************* Update on wendell from the front lines. He stole a millionth customer from Carly, another longtime associate. Apparently, the customer directly stated that she was waited on and he persisted and attempted to ring the sale. Carly confronted him to no avail, and she snapped, started shouting and crying in the stockroom for the managers to help her. Manager called wendell and the H.R. Lady back, and of course he denied everything. And threw a major league tantrum. And of course H.R. Continued to lack balls and just wanted to talk it out yet again. So Carly, still sobbing, walked out. They talked to Wendell a bit, but now he's back on the floor selling like nothing happened, and telling anyone who will listen that Carly is crazy and he's in the right. I told my manager I was fed up with how H.R lady handled this and I wanted to speak with her ASAP, so she's off tracking her down to set up a time. Probably today or tomorrow. I'm going to say he's creating a hostile work environment and that I will quit unless this is resolved promptly. My coworker told me she actually managed to get a lovely employee fired years ago with a similar approach -- AND he was a minority. Any very fast suggestions would be great. Edit: she's gone for the day. I'm meeting with her monday. Suggestions please! ************************************************************* Wendell update. For those following, I dug up my company handbook, and am currently highlighting every rule he's broken, all of which the handbook states justify immediate termination. There are a lot. I'm also making notes of the exact ways in which he has violated them, just in case there is any confusion. Then, I'm going to look up some hostile work environment legal stuff to print up. Keep the contributions coming, and thanks to everyone who wished me luck. The meeting is Monday morning, so there's still some time if anyone's got brilliant suggestions. ************************************************************* I've consulted with basically every employee in the department at this point -- even managers. I'm past anonymity, which was the case last time I spoke to HR. They've all contributed their feelings on the matter. A few even took down my phone number so they can call me if they forgot to mention anything or if they need an update or someone to vent to while I'm not working. I'm essentially going as more than myself, I'm a representative of the department. Hopefully that holds some water. And the vast majority of what they told me I witnessed myself, at least in part or as a generality (for example, I can vouch for the fact that he has a tendency to steal holds/sales, even if I didn't see one particular incident). I have my annotated and highlighted copy of the associate handbook ready, as well as supplemental policy materials from the company intranet. And, for the benefit of goon review, here is an abridged list of what I will bring up. Some of the issues (i.e. swearing) weren't things I'd have attacked personally even after witnessing, but many of my coworkers, especially those who are older/religious, took objection to them, so I will add them. Additionally, I've tried to work in as many HR buzzwords as I can stomach, just for sound byte quality. If you have suggestions as to what I should emphasize/de-emphasize, shoot. All are against policy. -He steals sales and holds from other commissioned employees, leading to frequent conflicts, which often occur on the floor in front of customers. This causes undue stress to everyone involved and creates a hostile work environment. He will persist in attempting to wait on customers already being served by other associates after the associate has confronted him in a non-hostile manner. He will lie to managers who confront him about this. This is what happened today, when Carly broke down and HR sided with Wendell. -He pesters customers who tell him repeatedly they are just looking, to the point that they will tell him to "Go Away" -He blatantly favors customers who select expensive items and ignores those who don't, sometimes even making snarky comments about how he "won't make anything" from the sale. -He's not a "team player" and makes no effort to communicate with other associates to avoid conflicts over customers and other issues, to help out fellow associates, or do things for the common good of the department. -He frequently has no calls-no shows in excess of policy, and calls off more frequently than anyone in the department. He will claim to associates that he wants to go out with friends, then turn around and tell the manager that his mother is ill. -He leaves early on nearly every shift, by twenty minutes or more, leaving us shortstaffed at closing. He often does not tell management, or disregards their orders to stay until his shift is over. -He abuses the hold policy, hiding items he wants to save for his customers under the counter or in the wrong locations in the stockroom, instead of using the designated hold tickets and hold shelves -- the store has a strict 24-hour hold policy, and hiding items in the wrong places is against policy. -He is careless when repackaging shoes, often mismating them and selling two different sizes or colors together, inconveniencing customers who notice later and have to come back for an exchange and forcing us to damage out the mismated pairs that cannot be corrected due to the proper mates being sold. -He has a short temper and curses often, making others feel threatened and uncomfortable. During one incident, when he miscounted his drawer due to his rush to leave early, he griped loudly about "this poo poo" and how they were "trying to put more goddamned hours on me" while violently throwing items against the counter. He also curses angrily in the stockroom when customers displease him, on a near-daily basis. -He is blatantly disrespectful toward management and often insubordinate. On multiple occasions, within earshot of other associates, he screamed at one or both of the department managers that they were "racist" for making simple requests of him (i.e., help everyone clean up). -He never cleans up after himself, leaving the floor cluttered with shoes and hazardous to customers and employees who could trip over merchandise and be injured. -He refuses to wait on customers requiring a non-commissioned service, such as an account payment, directions to another department, or even just to ring up something that will net him a small commission, like a pair of earrings from the neighboring accessories department. -He spends time each shift on company time in the stockroom on his cell phone with friends for non-emergency calls, often discussing plans for the evening. Often, he will state to them that he intends to leave his shift early, having "sold enough" for the day. -Against policy, he took customers into the employees-only stockroom to look at shoes, instead of bringing the shoes onto the sales floor. -He discusses his sexual exploits in the stockroom to some employees and within earshot of others, expressing sentiments like the fact that he "can't ever get enough sex" or the fact that he's had sexual encounters with customers twenty years his junior outside the store, after waiting on them. -He used to behave in a sexually inappropriate manner toward a female associate who has since quit for unrelated reasons. Although she expressed no objections I am aware of, it made an uncomfortable and awkward situation for everyone who witnessed it. His antics included singing a rendition of the Kelis song "Milkshake" while following her up the stockroom stairs and leering at her backside. I'll edit this if I missed anything, which I probably did. ************************************************************* A Wendell Update Well, I had a half-hour meeting with the HR lady this morning, brought along my handbook, and all the cleaned up notes from what I posted here. She all but admitted that there was reason to believe Wendell was going to sue the store and fight over any kind of termination and so, rather than the way it usually works, some kind of regional director/HR manager above her has to give approval of all the evidence. She also said that a lot of what I had presented to her, such as the specific incident when he threw the contents of a register against the counter and cursed everyone out, had already been reported, and he'd been called in and reprimanded. HR Lady seems to believe that the incident Saturday was Wendell's fault to begin with. However, since I only witnessed the part that occurred in the stockroom she needs another witness who was out on the floor to witness the fact that the customer and/or Carly had told Wendell that the customer was already being helped. There WAS a witness, and I know which employee it was, but she told both me and HR that she "didn't want to get involved." This confuses everyone, because she's Carly's friend outside of work, and I don't think they're speaking right now. The witness called off today, as well, and was not at work yesterday. Carly's pre-scheduled vacation started today, so I don't know yet whether she's planning to come back. So, HR lady told me to write up a more detailed list of complaints, with as many exact dates and potential witnesses listed as possible, which I will do and bring to her this week. She says that I do have some new ones that she wants to "look into." I will also be calling the corporate employee complaint line to discuss the Wendell issues, going over her useless head. I told HR Lady I was going to quit if things didn't improve by the end of the summer, and she gave me the usual BS about being a 'valued employee' and that I shouldn't quit over this. I told her this was a hostile workplace and that if she didn't fix it, I'd have no choice. That SEEMED to get to her on some level. Also, she said what she needs more of is for employees in the department to come to her and lodge complaints on their own -- not when she calls them down for interviews to verify the managerial complaints about Wendell. I know a few people who'd be willing to do that, and I'm going to talk to them. Just to note, when I was waiting outside her office to speak with her, my manager was in there bitching her out for not doing poo poo when Wendell leaves early, and my manager seems to have won the fight, because I heard HR lady concede that he "does not write his own schedule" and then they fiddled with the clocking reports. Feedback, suggestions? ************************************************************* Generally, firing at my store tends to be a slow process regardless of race, which just exaggerates the existing procedure. The handbook claims termination is justified when any number of different rules are broken, but in reality, I've only seen people fired on the spot for stealing money from the register or merchandise from the store. In those cases, black or white, you get escorted out by security on the spot, and details get worked out later. A procedure I think is totally cool, I just wish they'd extend it to other offenses. For other offenses that don't have a DIRECT monetary cost to the store or conclusive evidence independent of human testimony (i.e., a shorted drawer and video footage), they tend to let the evidence pile up for an arbitrary period until they decide enough is enough...IF they ever decide that. There was a similar case two of my coworkers keep mentioning that happened years before I started in the department -- a black guy was working there, pulling similar crap to what Wendell does, and what finally got him fired was an associate ratting him out for giving "discounts" -- manually lowering the prices of shoes -- as an incentive for customers to buy from him. Now, you can hide this for a while, because we do have a bit of slack and are allowed to take off 5-10% without a manager's permission to compensate a customer for bad service or for a damaged item. I like this policy, and I've used it before -- I'm pretty calm and collected with lovely customers, and it allows me to have some sense of authority over the situation and to mediate conflict without crying to a manager, who's probably busy. Sometimes, when other associates who get more flustered with bitchy customers don't think on their feet and do this, I'll come in (at their request), mollify the shopper, magnanimously offer a small discount, apologize for the delay, and tell them to have a wonderful day and thank them for shopping. I call it "playing manager" -- I never actually claim to be a manager, but I'm sure some people have interpreted my behavior that way. My managers know about my "playing manager" game, and they don't mind at all. However, if you do it every day in situations where you're not "playing manager" to solve a conflict, or with deeper discounts on high-end items, they start looking into it. The registers don't automatically cap the price adjustments you can manually make in most cases, but beyond a small percentage you have to ask permission. This is what got the other guy fired -- not only did a very angry associate who disliked his other Wendell-like behavior report him, there was a electronic trail of his transactions to back it up. I lack this with Wendell, because his misbehavior tends not to have a paper trail, aside from the leaving early and calling off, which my direct manager already reams HR out for ignoring, as I witnessed today. He does do things that cost other associates money -- he takes their hold items, things they put on hold for customers that are supposed to be rung up in reserve mode with their ID number to credit them for the sale -- and he rings them up as though he was the one who had the sale, and gets the commission. With a couple pairs of nice shoes, this is easily taking $20 out of another employee's pocket. However, the way our holds work, there's no way to verify electronically that he actually sells the holds, its just our word against his. Additionally, he does careless things like miscounting the drawers, mismatching the shoes he puts away and sells, doesn't clean up (boxes left on the floor are boxes that can be stolen), and drives away customers with his obnoxiousness. These things, however, do not count for an automatic firing. ************************************************************* I called the associate hotline to report the issues that HR has yet to follow up on, specifically the hostility stemming from the stealing of customers/sales/holds and the swearing and short-tempered outbursts, some of which I noted had been documented in the store but not acted on properly. Its a third party company running the hotline that anonymously takes down information and reports to the regional management and store, and they gave me a follow-up date two weeks from now when I can call back and learn what, if any, action has been taken. At that point, if none has been taken, I'll be looking into how I can report directly to the regional/district HR managers. ************************************************************* I (pretty much) put in my two weeks' notice today. I am back from England, and I went to work this morning. Wendell is, to nobody's surprise, still working. There was, according to one of my favorite coworkers, the usual drama while I was gone for three weeks. Several times, including the day before his week-long scheduled vacation was to begin, he left an hour or more early. My manager finally got fed up with him and told him to go down to the HR office instead of bickering with him, because she didn't want to deal with his excuses any longer. He screamed at the HR boss for a while to convince her that he was "sick" and then he went home. That was over a week ago, and there don't seem to have been any repercussions. I pulled my department manager aside this morning and I said that I no longer intended to stay on for weekends during the school year - effective August 15th, I am leaving my current position. I told her I would like to come back for my Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks if possible, but only under the condition that I'd be placed at the jewelry counters (which she also manages), where there are no Wendells, only nice older ladies who like me. I worked there for a while last Christmas, and I genuinely enjoyed it. A few cranky customers, but mostly panicked male shoppers seeking gifts for females. She needs to get permission from the HR boss to switch me over to seasonal and is going to let me know in the next couple weeks how that works out. HR may request an exit interview or something similar since I'm leaving the position I've held for several years for reasons I made pretty drat clear to her last time we spoke. I'm open to suggestions for how to discuss matters with her this time. Bonus fun fact: In September, the CEO of the entire corporation that owns us is making a store visit where I work. How can I make HR Lady nervous (without outright threatening it and getting canned on the spot) that I will say something to him about our store's racial politics that reflects badly upon her? ************************************************************* Another retail pet peeve: I try to quit, and they don't let me. I told my manager I wanted to work school breaks ONLY from now on, and no more shoe department. Otherwise, I would give my notice, go back to school, and worry about a holiday job later. She comes back today and says that if I do that, I'd have to wait for an available seasonal position after I quit, reapply, interview with the lovely HR lady, and hope to be rehired into a department I like. HOWEVER, she says, she can just keep me on as a contingent if I just work ONE Saturday shift a month, and then I can have whatever other hours I want on holidays. Grrr... ************************************************************* Wendell was an hour late for work yesterday. Of course, my manager reported him, and HR put it in their file, and nothing more came of it. He claimed he didn't think he needed to be there until eleven, and nobody believed him. He spent a good hour getting there telling anyone who would listen this shrill, repetitive story of how he got Monday's and Wednesday's shifts mixed up, and he thought he was actually getting to work early. Obnoxious as hell. And my new manager, who's still getting used to the special accommodations HR makes for Wendell, asked me why the hell everyone's so afraid of him. I told her it was my observation that he accused anyone who questioned him of racial discrimination. She flipped out, said, "Oh, so because I'm Puerto Rican, I have to come to work on time? This is bullshit." And then she went to complain to HR. And nothing came of it, again. ************************************************************* One reason I can't stand retail? As soon as they hire a good person who I really get along with, he quits because he can't stand the place. We got a new guy toward the end of the summer who's a few years older than me, and we've been good buddies, and it really makes the job more pleasant. But he's on commission sales, and he can't make any money with Wendell around, and Wendell in general makes the place more unpleasant than an average sales floor. (For those of you who weren't following the thread fifty pages back, Wendell is the obnoxious sales-hog who offends customers and employees alike, and who cries racism every time a move is made to discipline or fire him). This weekend was the last one I'll be working with the new guy. For those who followed the earlier Wendell stories, my friend talked about nothing but him in the exit interview, HR Lady did MORE investigative interviews with the whole department, documented everything...and nothing ever happened. Also, the customer who thought it was acceptable to return shoes smeared with dog poo can go rot. ************************************************************* So, apparently, my department has acquired a female counterpart to the horrifying race-baiter, Wendell. I will call her Roberta. Her second week as a salesperson, a white employee asked her to pick up some of her customers' shoeboxes that were blocking an aisle and tripping people. She immediately screamed at him, and then went to go tell management that the whole workplace was racist. She also flirts with Wendell incessantly, and he flirts back, and this is disgusting to watch - they're both about the same age and divorced, and now we all have to witness what is apparently a mutual attraction. She MAY be seasonal though, I am not sure, so this may only be a temporary addition to the problem. Additionally, we have a bunch of new seasonal stockroom people, many of whom are also black. One of them became pretty close friends with a gay white salesperson, and often they buy each other candy and little presents. It's very sweet. Last time she bought him some candy, and he left it sitting a shelf in the back next to his personal effects. He came back five minutes later to find Wendell eating the last of the candy. Wendell then went off on the woman for being a "white-lover" and buying this other guy presents instead of him - he was not joking, and pretty clearly jealous and resentful. Now, apparently, this woman's real boyfriend outside of work is white, so she and Wendell got in a big to-do about this. How he is still not fired, I will never know. ************************************************************* Another Black Friday casualty reporting... Started work at 2pm, and contrary to my expectations was NOT in the stockroom for the majority of my shift, but out on the floor, selling and ringing. Let me list some of the highlights of my day: -I lost count of how many welfare hambeasts fought me on the issue of using a "morning special" coupon after 1pm. -Had a woman attempt to return a shoe that was falling apart at every seam, with no box, no tags, and no receipt. I recognized it from a year ago. She said she bought it last month and wanted her money back. I told her no, and the growing line behind her persuaded her to bow to my authority on the issue. -No, you can't use ANY of the coupons on the clearance shoes. No, not that one either. Not even that one. And yes, that shoe you found on the clearance rack DOES count as a clearance shoe. -That coupon says "for a single purchase." That means you don't get it back after you check out. -I see that microscopic scuff on the shoe. I offered you 5% off for it. If the initial 80% discount plus my offer are not sufficient reason for you to buy the shoe, then don't buy the shoe. -Had one woman come to the counter to check out, carrying the receipt that went with a gift card - all gift cards get little receipts with them stating the amount and the date of purchase. The RECEIPT is not considered a valid tender when paying for merchandise, the gift card is. She was very peeved that we could not accept her receipt as payment. She then proceeded to scream at the very pregnant and exhausted manager who tried to help her by calling round to the department that issued the gift card originally. -And Wendell. He was scheduled for the same shift as me, the late shift. Our busiest shift on Black Friday is the early shift. Therefore, he had a harder time getting an obscenely large commission today than the early people. This scheduling was racist. Having two black people on the opening team this morning was irrelevant. He was not there, so it was racist. -Things I found/saw on the store's floor: soiled diapers, opened packets of ketchup and mustard, used tissues, fecal matter (in the bathroom, thankfully - kind of), exploded inktags, leaking discarded cups of coffee and soda, large chunks of mall pretzel, baby vomit. -Another woman changed her baby's poo poo-filled diaper in one of the shoe department's chairs. The public breast-feeding debate, in my opinion, is just a distraction from this far more important issue - women who will rip lovely diapers off of a baby when a bathroom with a change-station is twenty feet away. There's probably more, but I can't really make myself recall it all right now. ************************************************************* Today, the Saturday before Christmas, my department had two calloffs, leaving me to be the only non-commissioned associate available for eight hours, and in charge of recovery, getting sizes, and filling the clearance rack. But that's not what pissed me off the most. My department manager is an incredibly sweet lady. She goes out of her way this stressful time of year, every year, to do nice things for her employees. This usually occurs the Saturday before Christmas, as most everyone is working that day. This year, she was scheduled for the closing shift, 3-midnight, and managers are paid hourly, albeit more than regular associates. She came in at 9 in morning with a massive spread of bagels from Panera and coffee for all the morning associates, completely out of her own pocket and off the clock. This afternoon, she spent about forty bucks on pizza and soda for the afternoon associates. Also, as a token of appreciation for a year of hard work, she bought everyone in the department (think 15-20 people) a ten dollar gift card and a little decorative trinket. I'd say she spent at least $300, if not more, overall. And what did she get in return? Here's a quick list: Wendell tried to reject his gift, because he "don't celebrate Christmas, as a Muslim" - she assured him for about five minutes that it was a THANK YOU gift for the end of the year, and indeed, there was nothing outright holiday related about the gift or its wrapping. Eventually he accepted it, without a thank you. Two commissioned saleswomen got into a fight in front of a customer, as they had each brought her a shoe and wanted full credit for the sale. The customer called my manager, who smoothed things over, but the customer still shouted that she was going to report the incident to HR. The customer was rightly pissed in this case, and I would report the incident too. Another customer came in claiming she'd left her credit card inside a box of boots she'd returned earlier that day. My manager sent me back to check inside all the size 8.5 boxes of that boot for the card, and it was nowhere to be found. It was probably never in the box in the first place, as that seems a highly unlikely place to leave a card. My manager went out, apologized, and said the card was not there. What did the woman do? Shoved past my manager into the employees' only stockroom, tore through every single box of that boot, left a massive mess, and my manager nearly had to call security to get her out. And then, the woman accused my manager of racism, for no reason. So many customers rearranged shoe tags to get lower prices, that my manager wound up throwing in the towel and saying that associates should just change the price up to $20. And, since everyone else supposed to be helping in back called off, my manager did my job in addition to her own for an hour, so I could have my dinner break. And then, she gave me a huge hug when I left and thanked me profusely - for staying a whole three minutes late to help her take out some trash bags. In short, what a loving thankless job she has - and she's not even one of us peons. To the few people who posted in this thread about how retail workers should get an education, get a real job, be thankful for what employment we can get - I just want to say that I do appreciate many aspects of my job, as well as the fact that I still have one in this economy. Customers can be hell, and even "mature adults" need to vent about life sometimes, hence the purpose of this thread - but I know compared to some retail wage slaves, I have it good, and what steam I do let off here keeps me sane. PurePerfection fucked around with this message at Oct 23, 2009 around 04:06 |
| # ? Dec 20, 2008 08:17 |
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| # ? Feb 09, 2010 16:35 |
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I find it a bit depressing that the last thread was that huge, there really is a lot to complain about in retail. This is excellent for entertainment value though, Its good to know i am not the only one suffering at the hands of hambeasts.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 08:29 |
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PurePerfection posted:
I read these threads specifically in the hopes that Wendell will get his comeuppance. Not yet, eh.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 08:32 |
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I lost track of the old thread, but I was really, REALLY hoping that Wendell would be fired and ideally run over by a truck by now  .
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 08:34 |
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You can't get out of retail. Even if you get into some other type of business, it will fail and you will have to work retail. Eventually, the entire nation will be nothing but working some place serving people, and then you go somewhere and they serve you. And the fifty years later someone will come to the realization that you can just serve yourself and all jobs are abolished and we will live in Star Trek SOCIALIST paradise.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 08:35 |
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I work retail as a Service Department Manager in a major west-coast electronics chain. Had these 2 interactions this week. Customer purchased a TV with a warranty. The warranty explicitly states "1 time bulb replacement". The lamps on these TVs have a limited life and are considered consumables meaning that they will die eventually and you will need to replace it. They are not covered by the warranty, but we'll float you a one-time replacement on the bulb. Customer calls up and tells me his bulb is out. I look up his previous history, and he's already had his one-time bulb replacement. In fact, we also gave him a second one a year later. So his one-time bulb has already got him 2, and he's looking for a third. Told him that he wouldn't be getting a 3rd bulb, and he's not too happy.  Sorry Sir, I cannot give you a third bulb. What do you mean? You gave me another one last time! Well consider that a gift then, your contract explicitly states 1 bulb. We've done 2 already so you got a bonus. I'm not going to a pay for a 3rd bulb for no reason. Well that's not fair! How is this supposed to make me happy? Well, if you buy a new bulb that might make you happy as your TV will now be functional. What's that supposed to mean? You aren't helping me out at all here! Well, in this situation we already have. Twice, sir. I don't want to have to bring you guys down to small claims just to get my bulb here. No problemo sir, make sure you tell the judge we've already went above and beyond our obligations under the contract.In a similar vein, another customer came in to return a laptop. He forgot to bring the manual, warranty card, registration, etc. All the paperwork the new owner might need. He drove home to get the paperwork, then has the nerve to ask us to reimburse him for HIS time and HIS gas he said we wasted. For trying to return an incomplete item. 
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 08:52 |
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Was Taters posted:I read these threads specifically in the hopes that Wendell will get his comeuppance. This is why I go to work everyday, too. Well, and money.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 09:01 |
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A couple frat tards browsing yesterday at 10 after 5. We close at 5. Sorry guys, we're closed now. *looks over at me slowly like I'd just told him his grandmother had a dick*... Seriously? Yep. Like closed closed? Yep. Completely closed? You got it. (the lights and music had been shut off at 5, so it wasn't hard to tell we were done for the day) So we can't buy anything? At 9am tomorrow, you can buy whatever you like. But not now? I have to set the alarm now. If you're not out in 30 seconds it will go off. *sighs, walks out slowly*
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 09:10 |
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I know I read about something like this once but I saw this happen at Best Buy the other day. The woman in front of me at the return lane was loudly complaining about the iPod she had just purchased. She was being loud enough that I could hear that she was angry but not exactly what was going on. When she finished her return she turned and stormed off so I asked the clerk what had happened. "Oh not much. She was pretty pissed off when she found out that iPods didn't come preloaded with music."
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 09:17 |
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Possibly the best moments are when i show up wearing a white polo shirt and black pants and no matter where I go (Target, Best Buy, GameStop) people always ask me for assistance as if I work there. I'm a very kind Samaritan and help them out, the best moment I had was when I escorted this nice lady to a cashier and said "Oh Kevin there will assist you, thanks for shopping with us today" and "Kevin" gave me the look of death. brief e/n story: I love reverse-pranking, rather it's taking a survey and saying how great my service was or calling up a radio station and asking them to play *insert song played yesterday at the exact same time* so that's why I always follow through with the whole 'yes i do work here' I am not like Jim Carey in "Yes Man" where I say yes to everything. I have no clear desire to work retail, only because it will be boring hearing the same questions asked over and over and be told to work on days that don't fit with your schedule. Not to mention the buzz words like "quota" and "register".
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 09:29 |
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Awesome, a new thread! I'm too tired to write out any stories, but can I just sent some of my hate to how people just say, "No." when they see something priced incorrectly? And usually like I've insulted him. Like, "Uh, no." I just want to hit them. Just talk to me like a normal person and I'll lower the price. Even though you're wrong, if it's a price difference of less than $10 it's our policy to just change it. It's not worth the money to go through the trouble of price-checking an item. Also, to the lady who snapped at me, "Oh, I'm great, how are you?" and to the lady who yelled in my goddamned ear at the electronics register (where I was close enough to reach out and slap her) about how she wasn't being helped when we were obviously all very busy with dozens of other people and it didn't sound like you'd actually asked anyone directly for help, go to hell, please, I hate you.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 09:36 |
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TelevisedInsanity posted:brief e/n story: I love reverse-pranking, rather it's taking a survey and saying how great my service was or calling up a radio station and asking them to play *insert song played yesterday at the exact same time* so that's why I always follow through with the whole 'yes i do work here' I am not like Jim Carey in "Yes Man" where I say yes to everything. Holy poo poo dude you're wacky!!! My story was when I showed up to work and the new store manager just gave me to a woman who had completely exasperated my coworker because she apparently hated anything electronic and thought the store was full of morons. I was helping her figure out how to use her printer to blow up pictures and cards, and while I really just needed a minute or two to figure out everything she demanded to know what I was doing every step of the way while I was basically hitting random buttons until I figured out what worked. I don't know what got me through it because she was aggressively annoying and apparently loathed the whole system but I had just gotten there and I just laughed inwardly at how much she hated the world. Rudiger fucked around with this message at Dec 20, 2008 around 09:40 |
| # ? Dec 20, 2008 09:37 |
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Unfortunately i'm still working retail. Dude brought his dog into the store today, which I didn't completely mind it's just something you don't see very often. I HATE when people ignore you on purpose, when I ask "how are you" and the various other questions It wouldn't kill to act like a decent human being and stop pretending i'm a vending machine.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 12:18 |
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Did we really need another thread for all the people who live shallow, empty lives? Get a college degree and quit working lovely jobs.Yoghurt posted:give it about another 3-6mths of economic crisis and this thread will be "Reasons I desire a retail job" Exactly. A job is a job. If a lovely retail job is the best you can do, deal with it like a mature adult. Rabid Koala fucked around with this message at Dec 20, 2008 around 13:07 |
| # ? Dec 20, 2008 12:24 |
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give it about another 3-6mths of economic crisis and this thread will be "Reasons I desire a retail job"
Somebody fucked around with this message at Apr 13, 2009 around 13:52 |
| # ? Dec 20, 2008 13:00 |
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Koala posted:Did we really need another thread for all the people who live shallow, empty lives? Get a college degree and quit working lovely jobs. This argument happened in the other thread. A lot. Most people in the thread are working retail are working their way through college so they can eventually have a great job. At the end of the day, if you can't let off steam about the people that treat you the same as the rug they wiped their feet on, you'll slowly go mad. You had to be that guy and bring it to the new thread, eh? I haven't worked retail in many years (I was fortunate enough to score a student employment office job at my school during my second year), so I can't remember a lot of stories anymore. I spent my summer before college working at a craft store, where many customers whine if they can't get their 70% off of a $0.59 item. I once had a woman come through with all of these decorations for some kind of formal event. Over the next week, she started returning all of the items. We aren't a rental shop, you don't use something and just bring it back. I brought it up to my manager once she had come back in 2-3 times (this customer was a crafty lass, she split it all up so as not to return a whole receipt at once) and the manager still let it slide. Then there was the woman that brought in a huge bag of items, all costing <$1. She wanted to return all of them, and had at least 10 receipts to go with them. Some of the items had been purchased YEARS before, and we hadn't carried for a long time. I tell her we can't make returns that old, blah blah, call the manager. It's the same manager for rent-a-decoration woman above. She bends over backwards for anyone and tells her we'll take everything back. I cringe, since this will require manual entry for all items since our registers were from the 80s or something and weren't networked to any central system that may have the items. Fortunately, my manager told me that she would take care of the returns so I could continue ringing other customers. I still had to sort through all 100+ items in the end, though  My other retail job was at Starbucks. I spent most of my time in a really small store where most of the customers were pretty chill. My first store was near a very prestigious, expensive university, and this exchange occurred:  Yes, I'd like a tall black eye, please. I'm sorry, what was that order? Um, a tall black eye? It's a coffee with two shots of espresso. Oh! I'm sorry, I'm new and I haven't heard of that before.*Starts to put order into computer" Yes, it originated in the smaller coffee shops of Seattle... (blah blah giving me an education on its history, all while looking extremely satisfied that he was able to give this lowly barista KNOWLEDGE) Well, now I know! Your total is $x.xx You're charging me after all of that? I was the one that informed you about this! The company should have done it and  At this point, my manager came over. He didn't take crap from anyone, told him his total again, and Mr. Smug just threw the money down on the counter and went off to the side to wait for his coffee. I think we got a pretty decent tip from the change he left behind. The second store I worked in was the one mentioned earlier, with the chill customers. There are only three things that stick out to me from there: The woman that lived in government housing nearby, that always wandered the store for about 5 minutes before coming to the espresso area and asking for a cup of ice water. She was kind of fun. The other government housing woman that once tried to pay for her drink with money stored in a sock... that she pulled out from either her pants or underwear. We gave her her drink on the house that day. My lazy-rear end coworker. I didn't mind him for the most part. He called out sick a lot, but was never penalized. There was one day I was opening along with another shift supervisor, and a few hours in to the shift he called out sick for his afternoon-closing shift (we closed early, around 7). The shift super called around to everyone else, who couldn't come in. Finally, I was badgered in to taking over for him. Fortunately, they offered me time and a half for my extra hours, and the next day off. So I called back the sick guy, told him I'd work, then proceeded to work a 13 hour shift. I didn't totally mind, since I loved the rest of the staff there. The kicker, though? Whenever I asked him to cover a shift for me in exchange for what I did, he was never "available." Jerk Edit: Holy crap, I wrote more than I thought.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 13:13 |
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slow dive posted:Awesome, a new thread! This is my pet hate. Almost everytime I ask a customer if they want to have their drinks in the shop or takeaway they say "No. I will have it here." in that annoyed tone. So instead of listening and responding to my question properly most people treat me like I was kicked by a horse in the brain. Fair call really... Whateva, it still makes my eye twitch everytime.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 13:24 |
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From the last page of the last thread;Fil5000 posted:I just remembered (thanks to Gloomiebat's mention of H&M) something really stupid that was related to a fellow retail worker but not one at the same store. If the fire alarm goes off in our store (which it does, a lot, the building above us is a gentlemans' club (I poo poo you not) and they set off the alarm at least once a month) we have to evacuate about 5 shops on the same block, including GAP which is next door and shares a fire escape. Their manager once started yelling at one of our managers because 'it's always your alarm that goes off and we're losing money by having to shut the store for the half hour it takes to get the alarm sorted.' etc,. To which another of my managers interrupted telling her to shut the gently caress up, how dare she speak to her member of staff like that and do you really think we're not losing money as well because of this you moron? (paraphrased). One thing I do like about my job is that our managers take no poo poo from anyone, if a customer is being a prick they never just let them have their way for an easy life, and if a member of staff doesn't pull their weight or is being a douche (doesn't really happen a lot in my store, we've got a really good team compared to some other places I've heard about) they get that poo poo sorted out asap. edit: typo
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 13:29 |
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Koala posted:Did we really need another thread for all the people who live shallow, empty lives? Get a college degree and quit working lovely jobs. Get a degree and get a better job you sub-human slobs! But hey don't bother complaining if you get hosed in the rear end by the economy either! Just shut up and get me my Triple Mocha Machiatto and my 10% discount peon!  Even before the economy went to poo poo I worked retail with folks who were way overqualified to be there, because sometimes life just doesn't work out he way it's supposed to.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 13:53 |
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 I'm gonna help this customer. I don't think that's a good idea. I'll take care of it. No. I got it. You did it wrong. Naw, it's okay. Really. You did it wrong... *to me* He did this wrong. I'm so sorry about that. *to him* Come here and let me show you what you did wrong..... Now, do it right. it's okay. No. Do it correctly. I don't need to do that. She's okay with how it is. No I'm not. No, she's not. Do it right. It's okay the way it is. It is not. Do it correctly. Naw, it's okay. DO IT RIGHT AND GET THE gently caress OUT OF THE LAB RIGHT NOW! ........ GO!I should not have to resort to yelling at my coworkers to get them to do their job. This poor lady had been in 8 - yes, 8 - times already to have her gift made. He purposely did it wrong then refused to do it right. Had I not been in the middle of my own task, I would have just done it all myself. In hindsight, I should have. This guy is like my Wendell. Thankfully, he'll be getting fired after the holidays for sure.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 14:06 |
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This happened Wednesday, but happens too often (the entire exchange) for me to have any faith in humanity. I'm looking for a book. Yes ma'am. Do you happen to know the title of the book? (blank stare) Do you happen to know the author of the book? uh Do you know any of the words in the title? No, but it's red. Do you know what the book is about? If you google red book, it should come up! We don't have the internet. Do you know anything about the book? But you've got computers right there! Why won't you help me!
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 15:21 |
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Celluloid posted:
Where do you work? I worked at Toys R Us two years ago. For my contribution, it was always parents who got mad that I ruined their Christmas. Me Customer.Do you have this game that doesn't exist? Do you have Starfox Assault? Sure we do, right here. No, I need it for Playstation 2. It's not out for Playstation 2. WHAAAT?? It's made by Nintendo, so it's only going to be released for Nintendo systems. BUT NINTENDO MAKES PLAYSTATIONS!etc. Do you have this game that doesn't exist? 2 Do you have War III? War III? I don't think I've ever heard of that game. My 5-year-old went over to a friend's house and played it there, and then he wrote it on his wish list. Hmm. I don't think I've seen it in stock. Let me go check the back room. Nope, I'm sorry. WELL WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW??Too Late Do you have this [accessory pack for the PSP that went on sale a week ago]? No, I'm sorry, we're sold out. WELL WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW??Selling Wiis Do you have any Wiis in? No, I'm sorry, we're sold out. Can you check the back? I can, but I'm positive we're out (checks back) Yep, we're all sold out. When are you getting in more shipments? Management doesn't tell us, but you're free to call us anytime to see if we have any Wiis in stock. So, when are you getting in more shipments? Thursday? I don't know. But, when? I don't know. When are you getting them, though?etc. Really Violent Dads Toys R Us, this is ih8ualot, how can I help you? Is this Toys R Us? Yes.:phone: I need [unintelligible] I'm sorry, can you repeat that?:phone: I SAID I NEED [unintelligible] One more time.:phone: SONIC! S-O-N-I-C SONIC. Oh, yes, we have it.:phone: Ok, I'm coming in. :byodood: OK, WHERE'S IH8UALOT?? Right here.:byodood: OK, WHERE'S SONIC?? :) Right here. :byodood: GOD, JUST LEMME PAY FOR THE GAME AND GET AWAY FROM YOU IDIOTS. It was scary that he was being so violent about such a bad game. I hope your son enjoyed it, you douche.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 15:48 |
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ih8ualot posted:Do you have this game that doesn't exist? Reminds me of this time I was in Game Universe (local independent game shop), I heard a mother promise her child a Nintendo PlayStation 360 for their birthday. My inner nerd was horrified. And sad for the child.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 16:24 |
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This [random Xbox game] will work on my 360. Uhm, off the top of my head, I don't know I'm afraid. Well, you should. I'm afraid I don't, sir. There is a list online you co-- No, you are selling me this game, YOU should tell me it will work. It's a very long list, sir, I don't have it memorised. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Fine, give me [Xbox 360 games] instead. Of course, sir! *transaction* YOU have to put this back. *throws offending Xbox game at me*
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 16:33 |
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Kilonum posted:Reminds me of this time I was in Game Universe (local independent game shop), I heard a mother promise her child a Nintendo PlayStation 360 for their birthday. My inner nerd was horrified. And sad for the child. Probably one of those really bratty spoilt little shits, and the mother was actually promising a Wii, PS3 and an Xbox for his birthday.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 16:43 |
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I work at a family owned Clothing Retail store that sells pretty overpriced Skater clothes (Hurley, Element, Billabong etc...) and I usually excel at hitting my sales goals and being a good employee, but ever since my manager had to hire a bunch of seasonal people I've been struggling to hit my goals. Mostly I think it's because the seasonal help are all stoner dumbasses that don't understand sales. Yesterday I was helping this sharp dressed fellow get hoodies for his circle of friends for a good 40 minutes. He picked a good 8, which brings his total to about 700 bucks which at our store is a "Stargazer" which is an award of a sale of 500 or more. When you get 5 of those gazers you get one hundred dollars and I was at 4 before the sale. Anyways I had helped this guy for a good forty minutes when I brought him to the cash and started ringing him through. As I was ringing through the hoodies and folding them his girlfriend comes through the door and one of the seasonal employees says "Sup girl" to her then walks away. The girl picks up a T-shirt really quickly and the guy says he'll pay for it. At that point the other sales-associate comes up and demands the whole sale for himself loudly in front of the customer. I tell him that I'll discuss it with him as soon as I'm done. At that point he tells the customer that I snaked his sale and that the customer was a "dirty loving rat" for going along with it. At that point the customer leaves because no one wants to be sworn at for buying 700 bucks worth of merchandise from a store. The worst part was my co-worker didn't give a poo poo at all, and acted like he did nothing wrong. gently caress, I work with him today too. Edit: He also calls me Brah all the time.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 16:48 |
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I got an insane discussion with a middle-aged lady walking past me the other day. Me Customer *stops, turns and looks at me* Can I help you? Are you the one that smells good? I... could be? What do you have on? ...deodorant... Oh, well you smell good. *walks off abruptly*And of course, the insanity of returns haunts my nightmares. Had a customer return extra strength cling wrap because it was "too clingy", and another customer return single-ply toilet paper because "it didn't work." 
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 16:53 |
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I used to work at a Turkey Hill (like a 7-11, wawa, gas station type place). We had signs all over that said not to leave the pump running and unattended. People would constantly ignore it. The one day, one of our regulars comes in to get a coffee while letting his pickup fill. This guy is really nice, but really high strung and argumentative. me: Randy, you have to shut the pump off if you're not standing there.  Why? It shuts off on its own.me: Not always, it doesn't, and if you get gas all over I have to call the fire department. Well, in the RARE event that happens, call them then. *stupid laugh*me: Randy, I understand its annoying, but not only will we have to close and lose business for two hours because you wanted a cup of coffee 12 seconds sooner, but they'll bill you for it, not us. what do you mean they'll bill me????me: The last time that happened, they billed the guy the cost of the cleanup. I'm sorry, I don't know why, but it would just be easier if you didn't leave it running like that. B-But its the store's pump! This is horseshit! Argh, why do I even come here! *throws coffee money on the counter and storms out* I turned to wait on the next guy when I heard a loud clank and bang. The guy had forgot to remove the pump, started driving, ripped it off, and managed to spill a few gallons in the process. I braced myself, figuring he'd come in screaming bloody murder. Instead he walks in, calm as can be and says: Welp, guess I'll get another coffee while we wait. Give me a loving lottery ticket so I can win some money to pay for this poo poo.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 16:54 |
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PurePerfection posted:
This is why people followed the old thread.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 17:05 |
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Wendell
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I work at my colleges student center and in order to get past the front desk to use the gym you have to show a student ID. simple concept right? make sense? holy poo poo its impossible for some people to get. "cmon dude, you see me everyday. you KNOW I'm a student here" yes I do, but I'm also on camera from 3 angles. usually telling them about the cameras gets them to go with it. its just really annoying and I don't believe we actually had to call security on one student MULTIPLE times because of this. Its just a student ID, its not a hard concept.
Moon Man fucked around with this message at Dec 20, 2008 around 17:23 |
| # ? Dec 20, 2008 17:21 |
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I worked in a cookie store while in grad school, and for the most part customers were decent, though we'd get complete loons in every so often. The incident that sticks out in my mind the most isn't that terrible a customer story, but rather a terrible parenting story. It was around Christmas time, and we baked sugar, chocolate chip, and peanut butter cookies with seasonally-colored M&Ms on them (red and green for Christmas). One day a lady and her son who was maybe 5 or 6 came in and asked for a sugar M&M cookie, so I grabbed one from the display, put it in a little bag, rang her up, handed her kid the cookie, and got back to whatever chores I was working on. A moment later, I hear the woman behind me trying to calm her shrieking child and when I turned around she handed me his cookie back. She snapped, "It has too many red M&Ms, can't you find one with an equal number of green and red M&Ms?" So I took the cookie back, threw it away, and had to sort through a bunch of cookies to find one with a better red-to-green M&M ratio. She didn't even say thank you. I know it's not a horror story like the other ones I've read in here, but that just stuck with me for some reason. I learned a lot about parenting by observing the people with children in the store. Oh yeah, and another time I saw a little kid (maybe 3 or 4) reaching for the glass shield that covers our display, and his dad just grabbed his arm and BELTED HIM in the chest. Really, wouldn't a "stop that!" suffice? I don't mind cleaning off finger prints at the end of the day, I'd rather do that than see a kid get hit.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 17:22 |
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GGnextMatt posted:At that point he tells the customer that I snaked his sale and that the customer was a "dirty loving rat" for going along with it. At that point the customer leaves because no one wants to be sworn at for buying 700 bucks worth of merchandise from a store. The worst part was my co-worker didn't give a poo poo at all, and acted like he did nothing wrong. Did you tell your MANAGER? I hope you didn't take his poo poo.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 17:25 |
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ElanoreMcMantis posted:So what happened after?
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 17:28 |
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I work at a men's big and tall clothing store. What frustrates me is when the company forces you to be the bad guy for their misdoings. Before black friday a purposefully misleading flyer went out to anyone who has ever given us their address advertising a really good sale on the wednesday before thanksgiving, and of course the friday after (buy one get one free on most things), and within the same frames, advertising lesser sales (but still decent, just reduced prices) on that saturday and sunday. Well of course no one reads a goddamn thing even though it is plain english, and just about 70% of the foot traffic through the door assumed it was buy one get one free at the sat+sun sale prices all weekend. Most people understoond once you show them the flyer, shrug it off as part of the business and move on, but of course, those who dont understand are morally offended. I had to save my coworker from talking to a young black woman who, despite being shown the plain english wording, insisted that we did not give her husband the sale prices because they were black and we were discriminating against them. This despite the fact that on the day in question she never even came in, sent her husband alone, and the husband admitted that right after my coworker told him he couldn't have the sale price, an old white couple walked up behind him with the same problem and she told the white couple the same thing. This woman continues to insist that she was reading the flyer correctly and we had wronged them. And so this nice young woman's only response was to stand at the counter demanding the store manager even after being informed that the store manager wasn't going to be working at all that day. If that's not victimizing yourself I don't know what is. Another gentleman on the day-of black Friday informed us that, because literally every single item in the store was not on sale, which no ad had ever even hinted, that we had somehow put out false advertising and he was planning to, you guessed it, sue the company. Still haven't heard from his lawyers. A few times a year when its a little slow we get to put up a wall sized poster in the front window that says "Savings up to 50-75% off" which is reffering to our 2-3 meager clearance racks and not the whole store full of full-priced over-priced merchandise. How do you think that ends? And seriously, don't come into my store before closing. I care not about your stupid needs. And if you have to come in right before closing, know what you want. Looky-loo's will be choked and thrown from a bridge.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 17:50 |
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Kilonum posted:Reminds me of this time I was in Game Universe (local independent game shop), I heard a mother promise her child a Nintendo PlayStation 360 for their birthday. My inner nerd was horrified. And sad for the child. Framingham MA goon? and GOD I hope you missed an "or" in that sentence somewhere. I work in a Swiss chocolate shop. People do not understand that Swiss chocolate is not Hershey. It is not Swiss Miss. It is most certainly not Russel Stover. There is a noticeable taste difference, and as such there is a noticeable price difference. Still, our bars are $3.50-$4.50, buy 4 get a fifth for free, so I think we're reasonable. I had to deal with an older woman who wanted to know why the tin ornament gifts with 10 truffles inside was more than $5. really? i also can't stand the people who come in and ask for a product we don't carry, then get irate when i tell them we don't carry it. We have not had amaretto truffles in FIVE GODDAMN YEARS. NO, you did not get them last year at Christmas. NO, we cannot special order them. Shut the hell up and get the gently caress out of my store.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 17:57 |
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HClChicken posted:So what happened after? The fire department comes and puts these cloths down to soak it up, and then usually a powder. They block the sewer drain right by the store to be sure it doesn't leak down into the sewers, and then bill the guy. I think he said it was like $160 dollars or something close to that. He stayed by his truck after that.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 18:04 |
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Duraduke posted:Another gentleman on the day-of black Friday informed us that, because literally every single item in the store was not on sale, which no ad had ever even hinted, that we had somehow put out false advertising and he was planning to, you guessed it, sue the company. Still haven't heard from his lawyers. Most of the times you would explain that and they would back off.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 18:09 |
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waffle iron
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As somebody who's been working in retail for 3 horrible years now, I have too many horror stories to tell. Frankly one day I got sick and tired of it and thought 'you know what, I'm going to try something new' so I just started speaking in an Australian accent. I started reading up on Australian slang, came up with a plausible and interesting back story if the need arises to explain myself and generally reading about Australia related regional factoids to try act the part. I progressively got better at it the more I worked on it thanks to things like Youtube and such. The thing that happens most with people when I open by big yob is surprise, generally when a person comes into a hypermarket in the middle of the suburbs to buy toys or a duvet cover or shower curtains they don't expect somebody to come half-way around the world to stock shelves. Its this initial bewilderment that usually dissipates any bad mood or anything the customer has and by the time they find the aisle with the paper towels or the coffee makers they're usually smiling back at me. I've noticed a sharp decline of customer being crappy to me but the only downside is that now I have to occasionally pay attention to international cricket incase one of the many Indian families who shops at my store suddenly starts talking to me about it.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 18:13 |
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Lobstermagnet posted:As somebody who's been working in retail for 3 horrible years now, I have too many horror stories to tell. Frankly one day I got sick and tired of it and thought 'you know what, I'm going to try something new' so I just started speaking in an Australian accent. When I worked at the hotel call center (inbound calls for reservations), one of my coworkers did the same thing. He'd alter between Australian, German (think Au-nold here) and Southern twang. Hearing him explain how the hotel was real fancy cause der toilets were made the work load so much better. I don't know if he ever lost any customers from that, but until we were all outsourced, he kept it up. I remember distinctly hearing him explain about the Yanks and their odd hours with tea and crumpets in a thick British accent on a slow day. Best part was he was booking a family into a hotel in Paris, and there were a lot of anti-French frog comments tossed in.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 18:21 |
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I'm currently working in a call centre for a mail-order catalogue shop. All of our business is conducted over the phone or internet and goods are sent out by post. So far I have had 3 separate people refusing to give me an address, and asking why we needed that information.
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| # ? Dec 20, 2008 18:58 |
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