Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I am new to retail (2 weeks in, but I am a 30+ year old adult). We have an item of the month that we are supposed to push. Next month's item will be a Snickers Bar, which has nothing to do with our store's primary objective (hardware). I plan to write a note to management that I am a conscientious objector to pushing candy to our customers. Is this a terrible terrible idea?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

A Dapper Man posted:

You were in the right. You only would have had to give it to her at $15.99 if the item was physically marked that way. "I work at blah blah blah and know my rights" is one of the dumbest tricks people try and pull. Mostly because they are never, ever right.

At the store I just started working at, we bend over backwards to please the customers. If the 50% off sign for product X is too close to product Y, we give the discount off product Y. If the customer asks if a product is going on sale soon, and wants to sale price now, we give it to them. If a product was on sale last week but not right now, and they ask, we give them the sale price. It's nuts.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I'm a cashier at a hardware store, and we're donating M&Ms to the Shriner's Children's Hospital to pass out at Halloween. (We also happen to be having a chain wide contest to see which store/cashier can sell the most M&Ms, :ssh:) A customer today gave me a long winded rant about how it's not appropriate to ask for charity, how it becomes repetitious, how he donates to the charities of his choice on his own time, he's going to start shopping at the other hardware store that doesn't ask for charity, blah blah blah. Then he proceeds to buy 2 bags of M&Ms for charity. :confused:

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I'm 3 months into my retail career.

Yesterday, there was a tranny (presumably) on a tricycle inside the store. I literally shuddered and gasped when I saw her/him, because he was so scary looking with his weird makeup and getup. But after the initial horror, I think I kept it together. The tricycle was the weirdest thing, next to the clownish makeup and deranged smile. But she was as charming as could be up close.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

The General posted:

The only time I've a regional manager come in (factory work, not retail thankfully) a few employees got a couple extra days off. I was not one of them :smith: apparently I was good enough for the manager but not good enough not to get laid off a few months later. :argh:

My manager made a special effort to introduce me to the district manager within the 1st month of me working there. And when I met him, I called him Mr. Fancy Pants. I have no idea why I did that.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I'm 3-ish months into my new retail *cough* career *cough*. When I get a complaint, I pass it along to management (that often brushes it off since it's a lame complaint). I also often suggest the customer fills out a feedback form to corporate. Do you veterans think that will backfire on me? I honestly just want my customers to be heard.

And to contribute to the thread's theme...

I've recently learned how to do returns/refunds/exchanges. Today a well-kept homeless person came in with a product we haven't sold for almost 2 years, although it was clearly new in box/clamshell. I could only offer him 2.99 in store credit, since it was obsolete and he had no receipt, and that was the cheapest we ever sold it for. I know he was trying to get money for something he didn't buy, but it was a perfectly good product, and I felt really bad for him. He ended up keeping the item, and asked if he could buy more, but we hadn't had any since April of last year.

This job hasn't broken my soul yet, but I fear it might. The good part is, is that I really love 95% of the people I work with, and 95% of my customers. I'm somewhat ashamed to say it, but I was born for retail (even though I have multiple college degrees, none business/retail related). If only it would pay more, it would be great.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I had my first somewhat yucky experience last night!!!

A homeless dude tried to return a smoke detector to me, without a receipt. The best I could do was give him store credit for the cheapest price we had ever sold it for, which was 2.99. At that point, he wanted to buy more of them since they were so cheap! (we hadn't sold one since April 2009, it was discontinued/obsolete)

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I met a 'banned' customer the other day.

Paul has been banned from our store a number of times, but after a few months I guess we forget about it and let him back in. Paul is an older, lonely man. He comes in just to ask questions, and to tell very dirty jokes to the ladies. He never buys anything. He often stays for the better part of an hour, just wasting the time of our associates with jibber-jabber until we tell him it's time to go.

I've only had to deal with him twice and I was able to brush him off each time, but if he comes in more often while I'm working, I can see how it might break me.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

MaxDuo posted:

1) Some Indian guy came up with two onion choppers, for some reason these things are REALLY popular amongst the Indians... and almost no one else ever buys them. Honestly I can barely remember anyone other than Indians buying them 99% of the time.

Anyway, this man comes up, sets them down on my register, and goes: "Are these on a special for today?"

Me: Uh... no sir, they aren't.
He starts shaking and quivering: "No special?"
Me: No sir.

At this he just started quivering in rage and put them down really hard and STORMED out of the store.

I'm still confused.

I think retail is making me racist. I've found that Indian people always want a deal. I imagine it has something to do with the bartering culture in India. They'll happily wait 5 minutes for a manager's approval of a 10 cent discount.

Edit: Perhaps racist is the wrong term. Maybe retail is turning me into a 'believer of profiling' is a better term. In no way do I think bartering or wanting a discount is bad, or wrong, or limited to certain races/cultures... I've just noticed a trend in many Indian people pursuing it more vigilantly than others.

Meow Cadet fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Nov 29, 2010

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

Weatherman posted:

At Nov 25, 2010 15:34, Meow Cadet posted


At Nov 26, 2010 05:29, six posts later, Meow Cadet posted


Get out now, Meow Cadet -- your brain has already broken!

Yikes! I think you're right!

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
My workplace is going to start requiring that we wear black shirts in January. Since we can wear any black shirt we like, it's not considered a uniform and the company won't pay for it. I didn't care a few months ago when I got hired, but as January looms closer, it makes me sad. I really don't want to wear black every loving day. But since they don't mandate what type on pants/skirts we need to wear, I think I'm going to invest in the most brightest obnoxious pants/skirts I can. I already have a sherbet orange skirt with silver threaded accents burning a hole in my closet.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I now work at a place that sells Xmas lights. People spend $300+ on loving twinkle lights. I can't imagine anyone getting $300 worth of joy out of lights. Far be it for me to tell people how to spend their money, but the wastefulness is kinda getting me down.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
Woo Hoo! Got our Xmas present from corporate today!

A 4" Poinsettia plant that we sell, and could buy for $1.50, except the employees never do because we throw them away by the cartload each day since no one has time to water them all.

I wasn't really expecting anything at all from corporate, but the loving plant we all hate because it's such a pain in the rear end to clean up around the store is kind of an insult.

Oh, and the President's "Thank You" letter was in Comic Sans.

More than one co-worker is seriously thinking of quitting just because of this lame token gift.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
My company won't let us leave the building on our 15 minute breaks, because "what if you got run over by a car on company time." Is this standard procedure? Or is my company just paranoid?

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

ChirpChirpCheep posted:

Yesterday a customer called me "babe." She started to walk away after we finished the transaction and then came back over to apologize- she seemed really embarrassed by it. Apparently I reminded her of her husband so she called me babe without even thinking about it.


I'm a girl. :wtf:

A few weeks ago, my husband told me that I said "Thanks, Love you!" to the bagger at the grocery store. I wasn't even aware of it. I'm just so used to talking to my husband that way.

I am always afraid of saying that at work now when I call another associate, since I pretty much only talk to my husband on the phone and generally end the call with a 'love you.'

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
At my work, we have a small petfood section that no one pays any attention too. Yesterday, we found that 2/3 of the food was expired, and that the entire aisle was infested with maggots. Maggots in all the dry / moist food, nesting between the cans of wet food, in all the pet beds, etc. I cannot believe they just picked the maggots (mostly dead and dusty/moldy) out of the pet beds and put them back up for sale. Ugh.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

Sankis posted:

I don't know what you'd have to do or who you'd have to tell but please tell me you're going to report this :(. That's just horrible.

I know it's "just" pet food, but christ. That's terrible.

The contaminated food was definitely defected out. But the pet beds/cushions/taxis were just cleaned up and put back. And the sealed wet food cans were just wiped down. Nothing got INTO the cans, just nesting around the cans.

It's gross, but I don't think it's really dangerous. I mean, it's just some fly babies.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I think the only reason my store stays in business is because we OWN the building. Sales are dismal, but there are so many empty storefronts in town, might as well keep it up.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

Magikarpal Tunnel posted:

One woman told me she couldn't read. :stare:

I had a woman tell me "I can read, I went to college! I don't care what your policy is, I want my money back!"

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
Assistant Store Manager: "Did you hear? So-and-so broke his ankle"
Me: "OMG, that's terrible!"
Assistant Store Manager: "Oh! It's OK, he didn't break it here..."

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I kinda overheard one of our 'key carriers' (aka manager on duty, sometimes) that he was only making 3 dollars an hour more than I am. I would really expect him to make at least double what I do. Ugh, there really is no future with this company.

And now I'm feeling such guilt over making .25 cents an hour more than most (all?) of my fellow employees of at the same level as me.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

rolleyes posted:

Not much incentive to work 8 hours then, as you get the same amount of pay as working 7.

In California, you must take a 10 minute break for every 4 hours of work, or major part thereof. So, for each 2-4 hour shift, you take a 10 minute PAID break in the middle. (My work gives us 15 minutes, since it takes a minute or two to go to the break room). We are required to say on site for our break. Bathroom breaks are not required to be taken during official break time. (although most of us use the bathroom during official breaks)

Also, in California, we are required to take a lunch hour if we work 5 hours or more. Lunch is UNPAID. I've been told that if I clock out for lunch just a minute past 5 hours, they have to pay me for an extra hour (Overtime? I'm not sure) and that I get put on the poo poo list.

Speaking of overtime, 10ish year ago in California, overtime changed from 40+ hours a week, to 8+ hours a day. So you can't stay late one day to go early the next.

Also, my Manager told me the other day it was illegal to work 7 days straight in a single pay period (Not sure if California law or federal law). But, for us, with a pay period of every 2 weeks, that means you could potentially work 12 days in a row (6 days on each side of the pay period) without getting trouble.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

sunpocket posted:

I work mostly jewelry these days (moved up from cashier), which is pretty decent, so my one day a week of cashier is bullshit.
Today I worked register. We do electronic checks so I tell customers that they don't need to write their checks out if I see them starting to, just because I don't want them to waste their time. Most people laugh and thank me for stopping them, because honestly us and Walmart (and maybe Penneys) are probably the only places in town that run electronic checks.
I was probably there for a half hour before I had a customer who when I informed her about our check policy that she SLAMMED her check book down and whipped out her debit card.
I apologized that I thought she was writing a check and she said that it was "Senseless" the way we run checks.
I've heard mass-murder as senseless. Electronic checks? Not loving senseless.

I had a customer tell me he was disappointed that we moved to electronic checks, because now his wife and he would have to boycott our store. And that if he wanted to use his ATM card he would, and not try and use a check instead.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

Luigi Thirty posted:

Someone got fired from the local grocery store for throwing potatoes in people's carts to boost the lovely produce department numbers. :wtc:
Wait. Are you saying an employee was sneaking potatoes into unsuspecting shoppers carts, just to look better in sales? That's hilarious! (and also sad) I've been tempted to sneak stuff into other's carts as a shopper (not sure why) but as an employee I wouldn't dream of it!

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

SpartanIV posted:

So I had a lady come in today and try to purchase several pay-as-you-go phones but she wanted them tax free because "they were for her business" and she produced this form:


The first thing I noticed is that it says "This permit must be prominently displayed in your place of business." which to me indicated it was not meant to be used in this manner. Second, the name on it was "Mohammad A Mohammad" and I don't remember seeing a business name.

Luckily the store manager was just an aisle away and I called for her help using her name and not indicating she was the store manager. She flat out told the woman no and the woman was like "I do this all the time!" and "I've never had a problem before!" but the store manager knows her poo poo and explained why it wasn't being done. Then the woman was like "I'll just go to guest services, they'll do it for me there" :smug:

After the woman left, the store manager called on the walkie to guest services and told them to deny it. It made me happy :unsmith:

My theory is that she was buying them to sell them at a mall kiosk since they were on sale and she wanted a lot of them. This kind of thing has happened before but we've never had someone try and get them tax free by presenting their business permit.

Hmmm, we have people buy stuff tax free all the time at my store, but no one has ever tried to use a document for proof. All we ask for is a tax exempt ID, and a little paperwork. I know things vary from state to state, but I'm not convinced that your customer was doing anything wrong. At least in my state, you CAN buy things tax free, if you are going to resell them in a place of business.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

Regex posted:

TShields, I took a quick look at it. I was thinking that you might want something a little more eye-catching, due to the lack of bites, so I did something a little more interesting. Let me know what you think.

PDF version: http://www.mediafire.com/?tksae7s2iko2uv2

If you like it, I'll make you a .doc version tomorrow for anyone who asks you for one. Happy to help with changes too - regex.akama at the gmail.

I think this version of TS's resume is a million time better than the old one. However, the periods at the end of non-sentences drive me nuts. I'd also add a few numerical figures, as in, instead of a "team of cashiers, stockers, and salespeople" I'd say "over 40(???) cashiers, stockers, and salespeople" etc. Maybe my guidance is outdated, but the last time I talked to a career center, they basically said numbers are key. I'd try and figure in numbers into the other sales figures too, like "Managed a $150,000 a month location," or "Increased sales by 3%" or whatever.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

Duckman2008 posted:

Bit late to this, but temp agencies, at least around Nashville, have absolutely sucked. I set myself up with 3 of them, one calls back 6 months later saying they have an opening to move boxes in a toy store.
My mother was a temp worker when I was a kid. She called the agency each week to see if anything opened up for her, and to let them know she was available. Even when you are with an agency, you still need to do a little leg work.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

uptown posted:

Here's a happy story to counteract all of your lovely experiences lately.

Yesterday, a woman comes to my till with her ~3 year old son. I do the usual "Hi, did you find everything okay?" schpiel, and she tells me that she did. As I'm ringing in her items and folding them for her, I hear her tell her son, "No, you can't pay with that, it only works at one special store." After I tell her the total however, he hands me a Chapters gift card (I work at H&M) extremely proudly, and his mother asks me if he can pay with his card. I say yes, swipe it, and tell his mom that there's still $50 owing (on an $80 purchase) with a wink. I don't think I've ever seen a kid that goddamn happy before, and I may be PMSing, but it brought a tear to my eye just re-typing the story.

Sometimes, it's not all bad.
I don't understand this at all. Is Chapters a sister-store to H&M or something? Why did using a gift card make you all warm and fuzzy?

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I've been doing customer service for the last 3 months or so, greeting every customer I see, etc. I am finding myself doing this as I am out and about shopping now. I say "Hello, how are you" to any person that remotely makes eye contact with me now. And I've had to stop myself from asking if I can help them with anything, even though I don't work in the store that I'm shopping in at all.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

Ornamented Death posted:

I hate to break it to you, but this really isn't limited to retail environments. I work for an engineering firm and because I don't like to spend my weekends getting hammered on a golf course (I do like golf, I just don't use it as an excuse to drink), I get passed over for a lot of stuff in favor of people that do go out on weekends.

Confirming this to be true. My husband is an engineer too, and he was told specifically to socialize more by his manager, because his manager really wanted to be able to promote him soon.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

silversiren posted:

Today I went to fill out an online application but I stopped when I reached the "Responsibilities/Duties" portion of it. I never know what to put to make it sound professional. I'm a cashier, I ring people up, I take their money, I bag things, but I also block and run go-backs and a bunch of other small things. What is the best way to put all of that? "General cashiering duties"?

Facilitate customer purchases. Complete monetary transactions. Ensure customer satisfaction. Re-shelf vendor products. Enable merchandise relocation. Provide assistance to co-workers in need.

Hope that inspires something for you. Be sure to try and emphasize the customer service aspect of it.

Meow Cadet fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Mar 27, 2011

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I've been thinking more and more about how the lowest paid jobs should be afforded the most perks, and vice versa. Clean the bathroom for minimum wage? Heck no! That's for someone that can afford a mortgage!

I should probably stop this line of thinking.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
Yay! We no longer need to call a Manager to approve price overrides!

Boo! We now need to log the sku, description, price difference, reason, who authorized, transaction number, etc., to do a price override.

So it's easier on the managers, 'easier' on the cashiers, but it takes much longer for the cashiers/customers to complete the transaction.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
Paid/Unpaid break laws vary from state to state, so it's hard to say if what's going on at your theater is illegal or not.

At my retail place, we're loosing a long-time part-timer, and it makes me sad. He's been here almost 10 years, doing 8-12 hours a week. He's realized that it used to be fun to come to work, but things have changed (corporately, and managerially) and now it's not. So he's out of here (plus, now he gets Social Security $$, so he really doesn't need the job, and so many other people do).

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
A store across the street got scammed, so we all got a memo/email/heads-up on what to look out for, and it's all too funny.

At the Togo's (sandwich shop) across the street, they got a phone call from "corporate" asking if they had a new employee, because they had a customer complaint that they were overcharged. The "customer" owed 17.95 but was charged 97.95, so "corporate" instructed the Togo's shop to refund the customer $80, who would be in shortly.

Crazily enough, the Togo's crew fell for it, and gave some random person $80. Then they tried it at a coffee shop 2 blocks down, that did not fall for it, and called the police.

We all chuckled at the tale, and didn't think that any of us would fall for that cockamamie story, but I guess you never know until it happens to you. I still had to sign off on a training memo that I was aware and would not fall for such a scam.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

2508084 posted:

I'm not the only person who wonders if it was actually Togos Corporate and a customer just yelled loudly enough right?
Would corporate really call a low level employee and tell them to give a cash refund to "someone" that walked in? If I answered the phone, I'd immediately transfer them to my manager, and my manager is awesome (I guess I'm lucky in that respect) and she'd tell them to go to hell.

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

spite house posted:

Oh look.



People demanded refunds because the interminable, dull art-house movie they went to see, which was made by a legendary director of interminable, dull art-house movies, was boring.

At least the movie theater is sticking to its guns and also not calling customers "guests".

Haha! My parents told me they just saw that movie, and hated it, and had no idea what was going on or who was who. But they'd never dream of asking for their money back. They just go to movies all the time for the good air conditioning (Palm Springs area).

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
I often work the return desk, and we're going to be in a world of pain starting tomorrow.

California sales tax goes down 1% tomorrow, and apparently, our computers are unable to handle it, returns wise. I haven't seen the memo, but rumor has it that we're supposed to just give refunds with the 'current' sales tax, unless customer notices and raises a stink, then we are to figure out a way to 'cheat the system' to give them the extra percent they lawfully deserve.

What a nightmare it's going to be. And OMG, I can just imagine all the people coming in for price adjustments to save the 1% (we have very entitled customers here).

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

Big Taint posted:

A week ago a woman poo poo her pants in the fitting room, picked it up with a shirt, and stuffed it in the pocket of some shorts, then took it out of the fitting room and hid it on the sales floor behind a fixture, underneath a bunch of other clothes. Nice.

I am never complaining about my customers again.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Meow Cadet
May 2, 2007


friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me
What the gently caress are you supposed to do when an upset customer is in the cashier line, being grumpy about not being helped to find what they were looking for? I (customer service, not a cashier) offered to walk the customer to whatever he was looking for, but he refused to tell us what that was, because it was too late! He already asked 2 people where "it" was, and was led on a wild-goose chase. Why bother to complain, if you won't allow us to try and rectify the situation? I would have loved to help him find what he was looking for, but he wouldn't tell me what it loving was!

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply