Tales from the retail world...

[Insomniak]

100% true tidbit from work yesterday:


Some hick (I live in the south) comes into the store looking for a new phone. So I take her back to our phone section and begin answering questions and proffering features. Upon inspecting the feature list on one particular box, lady says:

"It's says it has musical ring tones. What are those?"

God as my witness, I had no idea what to say.

 

[dman]

My scariest moment in retail was back in the 90's. Others will have had similar circumstances, but, it was my fist time dealing with the situation:

I was working at Service Merchandise and there was a nasty hurricane headed for S.FL. We hadn't had a bad storm come to our area in some time (I think this was Hurricane Andrew timeframe, it'd been years and years since a storm had really threatened us). Anyway, as it got closer people decided they *really* did need to stock up on supplies and remembered we carried some of those things.

Well, I was there to open the store with a bunch of other employee's. I think we normally opened at 10a but on that day there was a crowd gathered outside at 9:30a. Our manager decided she would be nice and let them in early. I'd never seen a swarm of people hit the store like that. There was a mad dash for batteries and camping supplies and if you were in the path of the crowd you were going to be in trouble. I was waiting for fights to break out but outside of the panic'd "Where are the batteries" chants and possibly a few shouts, everyone was fairly civilized. We had enough stock on hand to handle that intial crowd... had we been in short supply though it would have been worse, I'm sure.

Anytime I read about those people getting trampled at stores when something is in short supply (like at xmas time) though, I flash back to that memory. Scary stuff.

On the other side of the fence, now that I don't work in retail I try and remain patient with the minimum wage workers who really don't care that I'm the customer. However, sometimes I still get annoyed. Like when my wife sent me to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy a Table Leaf Protector. I searched high and low and couldn't find them. I asked a stock clerk who pointed me back to where I'd looked earlier and I searched again. I found another stock girl in that area and asked her, who proclaimed they had no such item.

Had I not received explicit instructions from Mrs.Dman to go there and get one, I may have believed her, but Mrs Dman is always right and so I continued to search and eventually did find them. I then went back over to the clerk and politely showed her the item matching the exact description that I had told her with the same title. I then told her, on the 1:1000000 chance someone else ever asked where they were, where I had found them. I was hoping she'd apologize for her mistake and say thanks, well, sorta, she said she was sorry but had no idea what I was talking about. And clearly that means they don't have them.

Well, I can't say I was surprised. Been there, done that. At least I would pretend to look first, and have idle conversations with other coworkers on the oddball requests like that.

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: dman
My scariest moment in retail was back in the 90's. Others will have had similar circumstances, but, it was my fist time dealing with the situation:

I was working at Service Merchandise and there was a nasty hurricane headed for S.FL. We hadn't had a bad storm come to our area in some time (I think this was Hurricane Andrew timeframe, it'd been years and years since a storm had really threatened us). Anyway, as it got closer people decided they *really* did need to stock up on supplies and remembered we carried some of those things.

Well, I was there to open the store with a bunch of other employee's. I think we normally opened at 10a but on that day there was a crowd gathered outside at 9:30a. Our manager decided she would be nice and let them in early. I'd never seen a swarm of people hit the store like that. There was a mad dash for batteries and camping supplies and if you were in the path of the crowd you were going to be in trouble. I was waiting for fights to break out but outside of the panic'd "Where are the batteries" chants and possibly a few shouts, everyone was fairly civilized. We had enough stock on hand to handle that intial crowd... had we been in short supply though it would have been worse, I'm sure.

Anytime I read about those people getting trampled at stores when something is in short supply (like at xmas time) though, I flash back to that memory. Scary stuff.

On the other side of the fence, now that I don't work in retail I try and remain patient with the minimum wage workers who really don't care that I'm the customer. However, sometimes I still get annoyed. Like when my wife sent me to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy a Table Leaf Protector. I searched high and low and couldn't find them. I asked a stock clerk who pointed me back to where I'd looked earlier and I searched again. I found another stock girl in that area and asked her, who proclaimed they had no such item.

Had I not received explicit instructions from Mrs.Dman to go there and get one, I may have believed her, but Mrs Dman is always right and so I continued to search and eventually did find them. I then went back over to the clerk and politely showed her the item matching the exact description that I had told her with the same title. I then told her, on the 1:1000000 chance someone else ever asked where they were, where I had found them. I was hoping she'd apologize for her mistake and say thanks, well, sorta, she said she was sorry but had no idea what I was talking about. And clearly that means they don't have them.

Well, I can't say I was surprised. Been there, done that. At least I would pretend to look first, and have idle conversations with other coworkers on the oddball requests like that.

they dont know and dont care...normal retail experience lol

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

Originally posted by: Jamie571
- I fed this little black stray cat out back all the time. I basically took care of the little guy for about 9 months at work. One day I went out back to throw away some trash and I couldn't find him, he was always there following me. A couple of other employees ask me where my cat was. I knew something was up becasued they never asked about him. The next day I had to dispose of used grease from the friers. When I went out back to empty it into the container, there was my cat dead in the used grease.

:| Stupid fvckers, I wouldn't drowned them in that grease :|

Seriously. What a couple of sadistic fvcks.

 

[Viperoni]

Indeed people can't read.

Store I work at has 2 doors, one is the main entrance door, and the other one is a permanently locked one with metal bars covering the opening, identical to the metal bars that go across the whole-store-front-window.
Our closed sign is up, and many people would try the main door, and then try the permanenetly locked one. The permanently locked one has a "please use other door" sign on it as well.
Whenever we'd get people that would come out of their cars and try to open the door, we'd be like "OHHHHHH He tried to open the door and it was LOCKED!!!! that's gotta hurt", all kinda of funny-if-you're-there stuff like that.

One time, we got one guy doing the door after the store's closed, to let customers that are currently inside the store out. Guy pulls up, and asks if we're closed. Coworker says "yeah, we closed at *, just like the sign says" and points at the sign. Guy gives him the finger.


Had a guy bring the map on the back of our flyer to my attention. Apparently it was incorrectly drawn..... you shouldn't have to turn the flyer around to look at the map if you're not coming from the south. My arguement that our store is always on the north east side of the intersection of *** streets, regardless of how you're looking at the map, apparently didn't convince him. Neither did the fact that we had at at least 20k different people make it to our store in the last 3 years without difficulty.



One lady expected a $20 wireless card for her laptop enable her to get the internet on the bus, in a coffee shop, in her internet-less home, etc.

 

[Viperoni]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

Originally posted by: Jamie571
- I fed this little black stray cat out back all the time. I basically took care of the little guy for about 9 months at work. One day I went out back to throw away some trash and I couldn't find him, he was always there following me. A couple of other employees ask me where my cat was. I knew something was up becasued they never asked about him. The next day I had to dispose of used grease from the friers. When I went out back to empty it into the container, there was my cat dead in the used grease.

:| Stupid fvckers, I wouldn't drowned them in that grease :|

Seriously. What a couple of sadistic fvcks.

I have a barrel at the corner of my shed which catches water coming from the shed's gutter. There's usually some water in it, and I usually empty it once it reaches halfway (IE: couple rainfalls).

I go there one day, and there's a squirrel floating in it.

Stupid squirrel must have fallen off the shed and into the bucket, or just plain gotten into the bucket.

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: Viperoni




One lady expected a $20 wireless card for her laptop enable her to get the internet on the bus, in a coffee shop, in her internet-less home, etc.

eh not too far fetched if she wasnt properly informed before

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: Viperoni

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

Originally posted by: Jamie571
- I fed this little black stray cat out back all the time. I basically took care of the little guy for about 9 months at work. One day I went out back to throw away some trash and I couldn't find him, he was always there following me. A couple of other employees ask me where my cat was. I knew something was up becasued they never asked about him. The next day I had to dispose of used grease from the friers. When I went out back to empty it into the container, there was my cat dead in the used grease.

:| Stupid fvckers, I wouldn't drowned them in that grease :|

Seriously. What a couple of sadistic fvcks.

I have a barrel at the corner of my shed which catches water coming from the shed's gutter. There's usually some water in it, and I usually empty it once it reaches halfway (IE: couple rainfalls).

I go there one day, and there's a squirrel floating in it.

Stupid squirrel must have fallen off the shed and into the bucket, or just plain gotten into the bucket.

wtf? i know this is off topic forum but geez...

actually it was still funny lol..in a sadistic fashion

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Viperoni

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

Originally posted by: Jamie571
- I fed this little black stray cat out back all the time. I basically took care of the little guy for about 9 months at work. One day I went out back to throw away some trash and I couldn't find him, he was always there following me. A couple of other employees ask me where my cat was. I knew something was up becasued they never asked about him. The next day I had to dispose of used grease from the friers. When I went out back to empty it into the container, there was my cat dead in the used grease.

:| Stupid fvckers, I wouldn't drowned them in that grease :|

Seriously. What a couple of sadistic fvcks.

I have a barrel at the corner of my shed which catches water coming from the shed's gutter. There's usually some water in it, and I usually empty it once it reaches halfway (IE: couple rainfalls).

I go there one day, and there's a squirrel floating in it.

Stupid squirrel must have fallen off the shed and into the bucket, or just plain gotten into the bucket.

Would have made for a good Owned pic

 

[MaverickBP]

bump because this thread is more important than jackson

 

[So]

:thumbsup:

 

[Firus]

Originally posted by: slag

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: slag

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: slag

Originally posted by: Black88GTA
I used to work at Advance Auto Parts.

Retard: uh, my car won't start.
Me: What's it doing? Not turning over, making noises, completely dead?
Retard: It just won't start.
Me: Uh..OK, what kind of car is it?
Retard: Uh, I don't know. It's black and has two doors.
Me:...
Me: I can't even begin to help if I don't know what you drive...
Retard: WULL THIS'Z A PARTS STORE, I'N IT? THAT'S YUR FCKIN JOB, ASSHOLE! LEMME TALK TO YOUR MANAGER RIGHT NOW!" and on, and on, etc.
First off....it's obvously NOT my job to diagnose a car's problems. You PAY a MECHANIC by the HOUR for that. I will do it if it's something obvious, or offer suggestions..but wow. Anyway, the manager is in the back, and comes out...the guy gives him the same sh!t.

I used to get tons of those.

..."what kind of car is it?"
" 's a Dodge."
"Dodge what? truck, car, what year??
"JEEZUS CHRAHST YEW MORON, IT'S A DODGE PICKUP TRUCK! WHY U NEED TO KNOW ALLA THAT?"

I swear, trying to get people to tell you WHAT THEY DRIVE is like pulling teeth. Some people are morons of the highest degree.

And don't even get me started on when I was a porter at a Chevy dealership. OMG.

And on the flip side as a customer, I love it when I ask for an auto part for my car *96 maxima* which has exactly 1 USA engine configuration. They never fail to ask me the stupid questions like "se, gxe or gle" manual or automatic, etc. This is after I tell them I am looking for an oil filter, fuel filter, etc, something related to the ENGINE and has nothing to do with the transmission on the car or the trim level.

Hell, one time (yesterday) I had a guy ask me if it was 4wd or 2wd.

Because they don't own and have never looked at your damn car. They know it is a nissan and they are trying to find the dmamn thing in a looup table for a part number. HTH would they know that there was only one engine config? I can understand if you're talking to a mechanic, but you're talking to a 16yr old hs student at an auto parts store.

no, i always steer clear of the 16 yr olds. I always talk to the older guys who i have seen there for the past couple years.

Try again.

1. We're talking retail, they're MOSTLY 16year olds, even at auto parts stores.
2. see #1. Even the old dudes aren't mechanics and may not have been working there for long, aren't expected to know much about cars, they just need $ and are paid to sell sh!t.
3. See #1 & #2.

Excuses excuses. Whatever happened to having a little pride in your work? I worked 8 years in retail in high school and college and always learned about the products I sold, whether it was in electronics, hardware, sporting goods, etc.

Your excuses are just that, excuses. The freaking computer screen tells you all you need to know about the car. You mean to tell me I'm the first person in the world who asked them for a part on a 4th gen maxima? Give me a break. Even my 4 yr old with the attention span of a gnat would remember after 2 or 3 people came in with a 4th gen maxima that it only has 1 engine configuration. Its baffling, really, how these people remember how to drive their car, how to tie their shoes, etc.

I see you've tried to get some paint mixed at Home Depot before. This guy is the perfect example of your "Customer is always right" type customer.

I love it! Thank you for your side of the story. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[MaverickBP]

lol

 

[So]

Now that that little drama is over, back to funny stories.

 

[sonoma1993]

i remember when i was working for super kmart few years back. one day when i was working up at checkouts. Id had this customer come through my line. she was this big fat lady, she stunk so bad. Id had to turn my head and tried to stand back as far as possible for i wouldnt puke. The cashier that was next lane over could even smell the lady.

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
i remember when i was working for super kmart few years back. one day when i was working up at checkouts. Id had this customer come through my line. she was this big fat lady, she stunk so bad. Id had to turn my head and tried to stand back as far as possible for i wouldnt puke. The cashier that was next lane over could even smell the lady.

i believe "so" said funny...

 

[So]

Originally posted by: MaverickBP

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
i remember when i was working for super kmart few years back. one day when i was working up at checkouts. Id had this customer come through my line. she was this big fat lady, she stunk so bad. Id had to turn my head and tried to stand back as far as possible for i wouldnt puke. The cashier that was next lane over could even smell the lady.

i believe "so" said funny...

 

[franksta]

Work at the same office supply store I mentioned earlier we had some work done on our air conditioner unit. They finally get the thing running and as soon as it starts up a HUGE swarm of june bugs come flying through the vents into the store. I'm walking through the store making sure things are straight when I spot a co-worker helping a customer. All of a sudden the co-worker screams like a little girl and bolts in the other direction. I find out later the customer got hit square between the eyes by one of the june bugs.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: Viperoni

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

Originally posted by: Jamie571
- I fed this little black stray cat out back all the time. I basically took care of the little guy for about 9 months at work. One day I went out back to throw away some trash and I couldn't find him, he was always there following me. A couple of other employees ask me where my cat was. I knew something was up becasued they never asked about him. The next day I had to dispose of used grease from the friers. When I went out back to empty it into the container, there was my cat dead in the used grease.

:| Stupid fvckers, I wouldn't drowned them in that grease :|

Seriously. What a couple of sadistic fvcks.

I have a barrel at the corner of my shed which catches water coming from the shed's gutter. There's usually some water in it, and I usually empty it once it reaches halfway (IE: couple rainfalls).

I go there one day, and there's a squirrel floating in it.

Stupid squirrel must have fallen off the shed and into the bucket, or just plain gotten into the bucket.

Would have made for a good Owned pic

Man that's one dumbass squirrel

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: franksta
Work at the same office supply store I mentioned earlier we had some work done on our air conditioner unit. They finally get the thing running and as soon as it starts up a HUGE swarm of june bugs come flying through the vents into the store. I'm walking through the store making sure things are straight when I spot a co-worker helping a customer. All of a sudden the co-worker screams like a little girl and bolts in the other direction. I find out later the customer got hit square between the eyes by one of the june bugs.

my eye still hurts BASTARD!!!

 

[effee]

Some people expect the world from customer service, they forget that we're human too.

I don't exactly work in retail but do customer service (airline rep) from time to time. We start work at 2pm and end at 1230am.

Well there was this once our aircraft had a fuel leak while on the ground, it wasnt the 'drip drip drip' kinda leak, the fuel was literally gushing out, the best part was that we were standing around the cargo hold supervising loading when the leak happened and there was a strong wind blowing, plus it was raining. Needless to say we all got drenched in jet fuel (it feels like sand hitting you) before we realised what was happening and got the hell out of there.

Now this was a fully loaded 747 with over 300 passengers, so we had to take 300 of them off the flight, arrange last minute hotel accomodation, transportation etc. And the next flight out was in the morning so all of them had to stay the night. We had many pissed off passengers, but we endured it till everyone had gone off to their hotel.

***Fast forward around 13 hours later*** Its around 1pm the next day

We've been working throughout the night, doing rebookings, hotel lists, calling staff back etc. We're all exhausted because we've had worked over 24 hours straight. This passenger from the previous night's flight comes in, obviously unsatisfied, asks to be put on an earlier flight on another airline,however there are no more seats on that flight, so he has to take the later one 4 hours later which is ours. He's not happy, but there's nothing we can do.

As he turns to leave he says
Him : What terrible service, your airline messed up and now you can't fix it. I'm never flying with you again. And I am going to write in to complain about the atrocious treatment i've been given here. (bear in mind we've been very polite and professional the whole time)


Me: Sir, I've been working over 24 hours. Splashed with jet fueled, drenched in rain, have 300 unhappy people on our hands, i havent slept since 2pm yesterday. I'd like to get you a flight out as soon as possible, rest assured the feeling is mutual, i dont like seeing you here. But there's no room on the flight, so if you want to go, you'll have to walk to Frankfurt.

That guy took down my name, but i didnt care and just walked off

 

[MartyMcFly3]

I left this job (and retail, most likely) shortly after THIS happened.

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: effee
Some people expect the world from customer service, they forget that we're human too.

I don't exactly work in retail but do customer service (airline rep) from time to time. We start work at 2pm and end at 1230am.

Well there was this once our aircraft had a fuel leak while on the ground, it wasnt the 'drip drip drip' kinda leak, the fuel was literally gushing out, the best part was that we were standing around the cargo hold supervising loading when the leak happened and there was a strong wind blowing, plus it was raining. Needless to say we all got drenched in jet fuel (it feels like sand hitting you) before we realised what was happening and got the hell out of there.

Now this was a fully loaded 747 with over 300 passengers, so we had to take 300 of them off the flight, arrange last minute hotel accomodation, transportation etc. And the next flight out was in the morning so all of them had to stay the night. We had many pissed off passengers, but we endured it till everyone had gone off to their hotel.

***Fast forward around 13 hours later*** Its around 1pm the next day

We've been working throughout the night, doing rebookings, hotel lists, calling staff back etc. We're all exhausted because we've had worked over 24 hours straight. This passenger from the previous night's flight comes in, obviously unsatisfied, asks to be put on an earlier flight on another airline,however there are no more seats on that flight, so he has to take the later one 4 hours later which is ours. He's not happy, but there's nothing we can do.

As he turns to leave he says
Him : What terrible service, your airline messed up and now you can't fix it. I'm never flying with you again. And I am going to write in to complain about the atrocious treatment i've been given here. (bear in mind we've been very polite and professional the whole time)


Me: Sir, I've been working over 24 hours. Splashed with jet fueled, drenched in rain, have 300 unhappy people on our hands, i havent slept since 2pm yesterday. I'd like to get you a flight out as soon as possible, rest assured the feeling is mutual, i dont like seeing you here. But there's no room on the flight, so if you want to go, you'll have to walk to Frankfurt.

That guy took down my name, but i didnt care and just walked off

heh my names FREDERICKO HERNANDEZ RAMIREZ GONZALEZ!!!

the third...

 

[David Brent]

Originally posted by: Jamie571
- I fed this little black stray cat out back all the time. I basically took care of the little guy for about 9 months at work. One day I went out back to throw away some trash and I couldn't find him, he was always there following me. A couple of other employees ask me where my cat was. I knew something was up becasued they never asked about him. The next day I had to dispose of used grease from the friers. When I went out back to empty it into the container, there was my cat dead in the used grease.

omg that's sad!!

 

[effee]

what did you do to the coworkers?