Customer Service & Retail Stories

A place to tell stories and vent about your customers and coworkers.

[csretailstories]

The past two days

The past two days I have been at another store helping out.  Today (10/23/16), I was the main person doing the online shopping.  First, bad choice, I am REALLY slow, and with the technology we use, I still don’t know where everything is.  I had like 15+ orders today.  Thankfully the accountant stepped in and helped along with another cashier that knows how to do it.  But fuck them, for not having enough help on a Sunday.  They only had two cashiers and the front end manager.  The store manager was shopping orders by hand to help.  It was crazy fucking busy.

Nothing else really happened today that would warrant a rant.  But I really hate that store.

[csretailstories]

September 20th

Today was an okay day.  I was getting the store ready for the day.  Everything that I needed to get done, got done except for a few things.  I was supposed to order change, which I couldn’t do because I didn’t have any of the passwords or IDs.  Then the CS Clerk decided to skip my lunch because fuck me.  So I finished my office stuff and leaves.  Shes a fucking moron.  Her reason for not asking the person who leaves at ONE PM if they wanted to take their meal was “Your always busy, or you have to wait”.  So she decided to send the guy that leaves at THREE PM at noon to take his lunch.  FUCK HER.

Also there is a online shopper clerk that never shows up on time and decided that he would be an HOUR AND A FUCKING HALF LATE decided he wanted to leave on time too.  Like WHAT THE ACTUAL  FUCK.  Hes an idiot.

This store is a fucking shit storm.  I’m not sure if I told you all but my store manager decided to take a fucking ax to my department’s schedule because my department manager was too busy to do it.  Like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING HELL.  WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU FUCKING ARE.  You dont get to fucking decide to cut the fucking hours.  Its your fault and when you start complaining that there are not enough people to cover the front end and your sitting your fat fake ass on self checkout because there are only three cashiers including the front end managers and no bagger.  There is NO WAY IN FUCKING HELL i will be getting carts because you decided to take your fucking Edward scissor hands to the schedule.  And I WILL BE THE FIRST FUCKING ONE TO TELL YOU WHY THERE IS NO FUCKING HELP.  Fucking Dumb ass, bitch, motherfucker.

[csretailstories]

Wednesday October 12th

So today was the start of what can be a terrible week.  I get to work and my manager starts sending people home early.  What my stupid store manager did was gave the ENTIRE store hours to schedule for a 440K week instead of a 400K week.  I now have to cut so many hours because my fucking store manager cant get the sales right for the week :/.  

Another manager sent home the only bagger we had till four o’clock in the afternoon because we needed to cut hours.  Not five minutes later he asked where our bagger was.  My reply was really?!? You just sent him home, we don’t get another one for a while.  He was sent home around 2pm.  The closing bagger doesn’t show up till 4:30 or 5pm.  Like what the actual fuck.  Then he says there are carts in the back, is someone free to grab them.  We had lines everywhere and he didn’t want to help on the front end.  And he didn’t even bring the carts up himself, lazy fuck.

[csretailstories]

Thursday October 13th

So today I had to get up at 4:30 am to take an hour drive to get to work by six.  This means I was opening the store in accounting making sure the store is ready and everything is balanced for the day.  It actually went pretty well I balanced the office and got it ready for the current day before 11:30, which is really good for me, I usually do that around 1 (the point I get an angry call from corporate is 2pm).  I take my meal break and everything is actually done on time, for the most part.  I did leave about thirty minutes late (unacceptable to my managers...oh well).

I wasn’t bothered by any of my managers, which was a nice change for once.

[csretailstories]

Sunday October 16th

So today was the start of a three day double coupon event.  I was in accounting today as well.  I get in and start getting the store ready for the day, and around 7am i walk out of the office to grab some reports and put some stuff out and there are lines down the isles, my overnight cashier is trying to go home, the overnight manager is on register my seven o’clock cashier is on register and my opening day manager is on register.  Fun times.  So I work as fast as I can to put the rest of the tills out so that the cashiers when they come in can jump on and help relieve the lines.  

We have a Starbucks at the location that I am working at.  I go to rebuild the till and its all messed up.  No cash, the redeems are off like 250$, which will mess the till up and make me write up all the cashiers their that day.  A bit later in the day around 11am, the opening front end manager (yes I am a manager but I’m setting the store up so I don’t really count as a manager that early in the morning.)  I tell her that I am way off and have to write up a bunch of people and she pulls out some slips from Starbucks from the previous day and it makes my day.  I didn’t have to write up anyone and the register was practically even.

All the while this is going on, I’m being called out of the office to help with disgruntled customers complaining about coupons not doubling or something of the such.

I had one customer who is a pain in the ass.  She came up to get a raincheck for a few items, fine I knew we were out, that’s okay.  Then she goes to checkout about an hour later and some of her coupons don’t double.  I go over and take a look at the coupons.  Two of the coupons say that they don’t double right on top of the coupon, very obviously there.  Then she says take the items off and the coupons, I start taking the coupons off and address the coupons that didn’t double but should have.  I finally get it all sorted out and everything and start to void the box of ice cream that she got with a coupon that didn’t double.  Then she got confused about why we are taking the box of ice cream off and then she gets angry.  After all said and done she goes to the customer service desk to figure out why her bill looks wrong.  She was getting testy with the clerk helping her.  I didn’t get to hear what was wrong because I was busy with my own stuff.

I somehow manage to do everything that I needed to do before I left.  Granted I did leave an hour late because it was super busy.

[csretailstories]

My time away

My time away was busy, haven’t had the time to post, but I want to try to start posting again.  This blog helped me with the stress from work.  I plan to go back to school and work full time, yay more stress!

In the time since I have been gone a lot has happened.  I moved out of my parents house and got an apartment with a two other people that I work with.

Starting tomorrow I will restart my postings about my days and trials at work.

I will still answer questions if anyone has any for me, but if you ask about where I work you will not be answered or get a very sarcastic answer.

[csretailstories]

I was working a busy Saturday night shift and had about six things I was doing at once when a customer banged on the table at me to get my attention, "yes sir, can I help you" "Ayy it's my mates birthday come and sit on his knee and take a picture, come on don't be a prude come and sit on him I'll give you a tip" Wow I didn't realize waitress was spelt p.r.o.s.t.I.t.u t.e why do people think a waitress is their own personal sex slave, after that one of them flicked their number at my head telling me it was mine to call and walked out with all their mates laughing oh what a time to be alive

[csretailstories]

It's been busy

So it's been hell week....I mean coupon week. Wait I think that's the same thing, anyway I've been busy with a shit load of customers who try to weasel their way around my companies coupon policy and its so fucking annoying. I had this one person yell at me because I would write a rain check for the quantity on her coupon. Ma'ma we have limits on our rain checks anyway, there's no way in hell in going to break it for some stupid coupon just because you would have been able to get the correct amount of product on the shelf. I think this week is the only week most of the stores will uphold any and all policies that the company has in place. I'm SOOOOOO thankful that I haven't had any "can you write a rain check for the price of the item with the coupon" requests, it's the dumbest request I have ever heard. or the request of "can I get a rain check for this item" when asked if its on sale they say "no but I have this coupon". First shut the fuck up, we can only write rain checks for sale items and prices. And the second thing is that by writing a rain check for a product that isn't on sale would be stealing and I could go to jail and you could go to jail. I don't think you want that. Let's see, there was a group of kids that were playing around and knocked over a soda spilling it half way down the isle, no joke. I had to put up three wet floor signs because it was so spread out. This was also part of our "dinner" rush. (Dinner is in quotes because we haven't really had a dinner rush since the start of summer really). All the kids did was laugh and they didn't even apologize for spilling it. It took a good twenty minutes to clean up with a mop and bucket. We (my store) got rid of like four people all within about a month and a half since I got there. They were lazy as fuck, called out almost every shift, most of the time never even called. And one guy didn't even give a two week notice one day he just said today will be my last day and told my boss. She asked for a written note and went into one of the offices and did a little celebratory dance. This kid was always messing up, not coming to work, when he did show up he was late and he left early without saying anything. OMG. There is this girl that just got promoted, and in my opinion shouldn't have gotten the job. She can't think for herself, is always asking questions she knows the answer to, and looking at me like I'm an idiot when I tell her the answer. And she's lost two of her override cards. I also have a manger that is so lopsided that I never know what I'm going to get when I see him when he works. One day he will be all buddy buddy and the next without warning yell at me about overtime that I can't fix. Maybe if you stop cutting so many hours I would get out on time or even early. But he doesn't want to help and wonders around "doing his job". He literally cMe up to me on my last day before the end of our week and asked me to cut four hours. Ya not going to happen, especially on my last day before a day off and the end of our pay period. In other news: I have started looking at new jobs, I just can't take being customer service my whole life, I'm getting pretty stressed out with the customers and I think it might be starting to show. I applied to be come part of my areas police department. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, never really had the guts to do it until now. And when I say guts, I mean like the motivation and I have to train extra hard to meet the physical requirements. The other thing that is putting me off is that I will have to be tazed with a stun gun and pepper sprayed so that I can testify in court that I know the pain and injuries that are caused by those self defense items. I will still be writing about my experiances once I get the job. I will be changing the name of this blog or may be starting a new blog about being law enforcement. I still have a while to decide and will keep everyone updated. Some of the physical requirements are as follows: 1.5 mile run/walk/jog under 15 minutes 30-45 sit-ups between 1-3 minutes (depends on which department I work with) 17+ push-ups in 1 minute or less OR in one department, if I read it right a max push-ups of 18, no time limit, just 18 push ups. Some departments require a vertical jump and a standing long jump. If anyone has any questions or tips for helping me train for the possible new job, I would really appreciate it. Also if you have any stories that you want to share or submit I will totally post them for you or share your customer/worker story.

[fuck-customers]

if only there was a sign

Customer, who can only pay with cash or just asked the machine for cashback: Well how was I supposed to know it doesn’t accept cash/can’t do cashback?

[csretailstories]

All the fucking time!!

[fuck-customers]

I’ve always wanted a show where they just went to a store and picked like 5 of the worst customers they observed and the cashiers they harassed and have them switch (not revealing the switch). So they put those awful customers behind a register for a week and then sometime toward the end of the week the cashier they harassed will come in and treat them exactly how they treated the cashier. That show would be guaranteed tears and the would kill ratings wise. I would watch every episode.

[gasstationdiaries]

[hownottobeajerk]

I would watch the shit out of this

[csretailstories]

Let's make this happen please???

[csretailstories]

June the 16th of the year 2016

So today was actually pretty calm in the way of customers, the store wasn't as busy as it should have been but I got 16k steps in, most of those being at work yay Fitbit!! Tomorrow will probably be another story though, if we have no crazy customers then we will get a CRAP ton tomorrow. There was one customer, and it is our fault in the way it was handled and in the way he handled it, but he orders two subs online and when he comes to the store to pick up, the machine that holds the orders is broken, which means that none of the orders can be seen which means that none can be made. There was NO line at the sub counter and the employee that was helping them originally offered to make him the subs, but the customer refused and demanded a manager, they sent them to me, and he rants about his order and about how it's not ready. I try to get his order from him but he refuses to give it to me. And I forgot to mention, the only place the online sub orders are is the tablet that is not working. So I can't look it up like he's telling me do. So I call my manager, there's always one assistant and one store manager there at all times, to talk to the customer while I went back to see if I could pull up the orders anywhere other than the broken tablet. We ended up giving him both subs, and some cookies for free due to the inconvience of him having to wait. He was so pissed off because the machine that had all the order information on it was broken, how would we know if you placed an order and how do you expect us to call you if we can't access the machine???? Like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!

[csretailstories]

June the 14th of the year 2016

So today I had a customer come in due to a recall that was issued company and customer wide. He comes in with a bag of like 4 or five possibly contaminated items. I go through each item and check the upcs to the ones that have been recalled. So he asks a question that I don't have the answer to due to the fact that the company doesn't even have an answer and if the company had an answer I would have had it too. I tell the customer that all I know about the recall was that it was contaminated. He got angry because I should know what each recalled product was being recalled for and how it would effect his family if they started getting sick. Like WHAT THE FUCK, I'm not a goddamned Doctor I have no idea what "Contaminated with micro-organisms" means and I don't know what the fuck it will do to you, if it's even dangerous, all that I'm told is that it's been recalled due to the fact it's been contaminated. Like holy shit I'm not going to spend 20-45mins on the phone with each company that issued a recall to get every goddamned side affect and signs of possible illness just because you don't want to call the fucking pharmacy company that issued the recall in the first fucking place. Like what the actual fuck!!!!! I'm not expected to know if there is even a recall, my managers handle it all, all I know is I'm supposed to return it using a special code so we get credit from the company who sold us the product. It's fucking rediculas. Fortunately that was the most memorable customer of the night. Although I did work like eleven hours today, it was horrible. Anyway, just had to write that out because that guy was fucking annoying as hell and was a major pain in my ass. I hate customers like that, we will not know everything but if we arnt too busy, atleast I will, I will call the company and spend the time with you and figure it out, but if your going to be a fucking ass about it and start yelling at me because I don't know the specifics of a recall that I don't even have and corporate doesn't even give me, then I'm going to make you call on your own goddamend time and I'm deffinatly not going to spend time and call each company just so I can answer the "how will I know if i got this sickness" questions that only 1 in 500 people will ask, it's not worth my time and effort, if more people srarted asking me then I may but until then your on your own fucking self.

[csretailstories]

Work

I forgot to mention stuff in my last post. Me and my fellow front end managers are all having a friendly competition on who has the most steps at the end of the day each day, I just bought a Fitbit so that I could participate in said competition, and hopefully it will actually help me lose weight which is something i kinda what to do anyway, just never really had the motivation. I take at least two walks with my dog and move a lot at work, and at least I think I eat pretty healthy, salad with every dinner if not just a salad, not many sugary drinks, no dessert after dinner, that kind of stuff.

[csretailstories]

Sorry

So so sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been crazy busy with work. I'm at a new store now and I passed my certification walk so now I am 100% an assistant manager, yay!! But every week since I got to my new store I have had over time, which is good and bad, at least the managers are not saying anything about it. Speaking about managers, my store manager sent out threading emails to all the heads of each department because we did really bad on what the grocery industry calls a mystery shop. A mystery shop is when a person comes into your store and pretends to need help, or actually does need help, and will rate the associate interaction when they leave the store. We failed miserably on our last one and the store manager decided the threaten everyone and then threaten the managers on their private email. They all replied back something along the lines of what the fuck. My immediate supervisor got a second email saying that she didn't send anyone to a class all new hires have to go to for some job training. She responded back something along the lines of "fuck you each department head should be in charge of scheduling their own employees, and you cut so many hours on the front end (cashiers, baggers, customer service) that there was no time to do anything that was asked." I will say this before I start my next section: I FUCKING HATE COUPONERS Now if your a couponer and your reading this I'm sorry but there are a few people who ruin coupons for EVERYONE, and piss everyone off. I had one of those people around 8:30 yesterday. The customer comes up to the customer service desk and starts complaining that a coupon didn't double. I show her that it did double but it only doubled .05 cents. And I told her without being there for the transaction I don't know what the coupon applied the doubling to, so I couldn't fix it. I ended up giving her the 70 cents but she didn't understand that I can't tell what the computer did with the coupon. And now that I'm thinking about it, she got 4 yogurts for 2$, the coupon was .75, that means that one yogurt would have been .50. I hate coupons and couponers they fucking drive me crazy. Another disclaimer: I HATE WIC TRANSACTIONS Fucking annoying as hell, I had a customer come in and tell me that an apple juice that isn't scanning should be part of the WIC, but the system is saying no. I look at the book, which I have done a MILLION times before, but do out of dramatics, go find the apple juice page and it says store brand IF POSSIBLE! THEN IT LISTS all the brands that are okay for that kind of juice, NOWHERE does it say that my stores brand is okay to purchase using a WIC check. I told the customer that and she said she's been coming here every month, I haven't seen her, and gets the store brand apple juice, I try to explain to her that my stores brand doesn't meet the WIC requirements for nutrition and grab her the correct one, all the while she's bitching and complaining. I FUCKING HATE WIC SO MUCH. Also if you use food-stamps also known as EBT, please don't roll up in your god damned Mercedes Benz with three apple watches for each god damned arm, and expensive clothes. Food stamps are for people who actually NEED ASSISTANCE WITH FOOD, not for people who like buying nice shit but don't have enough money to buy groceries, it's fucking annoying as hell while I'm working 13+hrs a day and can't even afford a car. Just makes me want to scream at them and walk out the door. One of the good things about being customer service is that I have the inside information when it comes to people getting fired. There are two people at my job location that are about to get fired for not showing up even though they will walk into work, go to the Starbucks in the store and then leave. Like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK! It's not that fucking hard to show up for a shift that is less than 5 hrs, god damn these people.

[csretailstories]

So.....

So I haven’t written in a while, sorry about that, I have been really busy with training for my new job (Assistant Customer Service Manager), and the store I am at is WAY to busy, I get home and pass out.  I am almost done my training and I am sitting at a hotel near the regional offices.  I have seven more classes here at the regional office then a bunch of paper work, a bunch of tests, and one giant test with what we call a front end specialist.  I graduate, and get a new store (hopefully one that I like more, and closer to home).

I had so many customer complaints and stupid customers, it hard to pick the good stories.

I had a customer yell at me because of where the product was stocked on the shelf.  I can’t control that, like seriously, I can’t do anything about it.  I even tell them that and they still yell at me like it will take me all but hours to move the items around.  I cant move product on the shelves or we get fined, corporate has to send down an order saying that such and such product has to be moved and that will take months.

I had three customers back to back who brought in VERY expensive cheese, and olive oil/Vinegar.  All three of them claimed that they called and said that someone said it was okay to bring it back.  I try doing a no receipt refund, doesn’t work, ALL three of them say that they weren’t sure if a store card was used.  I go into the the system and try to look up their transaction, no joy, I even went back a whole week, nothing.  Then they explain that they went to a different location, and I had to explain all three customers that they had to go back to the other location to return it due to the fact that we are not able to look up receipts from other stores.  Now there is a way, but we have to call corporate, and I didn’t want to spend the time trying to call them.  (I know, I know, i’m in Customer service, I should do anything in my power to try to help the customer, except I think that all three customers were trying to return stolen goods).  So I sent them back to the store that they bought the goods from.

If I remember anything else from my time while I wasn’t posting, I will try to post it.  Again, sorry, but I have been really busy

[csretailstories]

Missing a few days

Okay, sorry about the sporadic writings, its hard when i work five-seven days in a row.  

The other night we had a full power outage, no back up generator, no emergency power, 9pm.  I had a customer yell at one of my associates about not being able to let her in to shop.  We have a full power outage, we cant let you in to shop for frozen, grocery, cold, produce items.  WE don’t want you to sue us because you got hurt shopping in the complete darkness.  Needless to say, me and my other front end staff got most of what needed to be done while we had no power.  Also one of my coworkers got stuck in the elevator, the company called, I told the representative that we were with out power and that we had some one stuck.  Her response was “Okay thanks for letting me know, bye!”

That was the most eventful day I have had in a while, this coming up week I will be working about 9 days in a row without a day off.  Well i technically get a day off but I have to go to training which is like an hour drive and about a 4 hour class then another hour drive to get home.  Its going to be hell.

[csretailstories]

Hey guys

Hey, sorry I haven't been here for a little while. I have been really busy with work. Today I had a customer come up to me and started yelling and cussing at me about some cottage cheese. I wasn't able to catch all of it, because she was ranting really fast, cussing me out, and everything else she could do. I caught something about kosher. To appease her I wrote down the item she was talking about and when she walked away, she started yelling at my cashier, and I called my manager up and she started yelling at him. Holy shit, she was horrible. I had a customer the other night trying to steal coupons out of the Sunday paper. My coworker went near her, to do something at the desk and she started yelling at him saying I'm not stealing those coupons. People are fucking stupid at my new store. I hate my new store, it's crazy busy, no time for homework, no time to talk to anyone, both socially and work related. My customer service manager is nice and both of my equals are nice. Every customer at that store is crazy. I can't wait till I finish training.