#lying customers

[reservelife]

When a passenger thinks their drink is taking too long and tattles to the other FA that you “never” brought their drink

[rantaboutretail]

Lying to the cashier

Every now and then you get customers who try to lie to you about what the price sticker on the shelf said, and it’s kind of hilarious because I don’t know what the hell they think they’re going to accomplish.

The other night I rang in these two women who had a lamp with no tag and no UPC anywhere. They said it was the only one left down there and that it was $11.97. I page the appropriate department but no one gets back to me.

Now this is the thing about me: I believe most people are honest and I’m not generally a suspicious person. Maybe that’s naive of me, but whatever. So at this point I’m assuming that what they said is correct and that this is the only lamp of its kind left on the shelf and I’m trying to figure out how I can get a UPC for this item so they can still get it. I go up to the customer service desk because they have a “gun” up there that they can use to look up items and find the UPC. But another employee had taken it (of course. It’s too much to ask that our store be half-decently organized).

So at this point the only choice I have is to go down to the department and see if by some chance there are any other lamps. I do this. I find a row of these lamps and the price sticker says $30.98. So I bring one of them back, explain I found the lamps, but that the price on the shelf is $30.98, and then I do an item inquiry to make sure, and yep that’s the price it’s in the system for. So of course they don’t take the lamp and one of them says they found it by a price sticker that said $11.97. They pay for their stuff and then dash off.

Now it’s possible that some other customer ripped the tag off that lamp and put it back in the wrong spot, but it doesn’t seem overly likely to me. The thing is, had it actually been the last one on the shelf I wouldn’t have been able to sell it to them if I couldn’t get someone in the department or someone on the desk to get me a UPC. Which would have been poor customer service (though not my fault) but I can’t just ring an item through for the price that the customer thinks it is or claims it is. Why bother wasting your time and the cashier’s time to try to scam the store out of money when it’s not even going to work? There are rules and procedures that need to be followed that aren’t going to be bent or broken just because you’ve told a lie, even if the cashier believes that lie.

Last weekend I rang in a lady who started off the transaction by complaining to me about the employee (J) working in cosmetics. She was polite about this but it made me uncomfortable. At this point I didn’t know who was in cosmetics, but regardless it’s going to be someone I’ve chatted with on breaks and stuff, it’s a coworker. I don’t want to hear complaints about people I work with, it’s not my job to handle those kinds of complaints. I told her that there wasn’t really anything I could do, but she could go up to customer service and express her concerns there. Even that made me uncomfortable because I feel like I’m encouraging a customer to go report a coworker to management, but I didn't have any other options. She said that was fine, she was just letting me know in case I heard any other complaints about this employee. OK. Whatever.

One of the items she had was a hockey net and it rang in for $29.96 or something. “That’s supposed to be $19.97,” she said. “That’s what it says on the shelf.”

So I page sports. R is down in sports and tells me that yes, it’s $29.96, the item above it on the shelf is $19.97. “Is that also a hockey item?” I ask. I asked this because sometimes when a customer reads the wrong price sticker I offer to go get them the other item in case it’s similar enough to what they wanted that they might decide to buy that instead. R says yes but that he’s already dealt with this lady, so I know he means that he’s already told her how much the hockey net is, and that she’s now lying.

Anyway I get off the phone with R and explain to the lady that it is $29.96. Then she says she doesn’t have time for this, she’s in a hurry (funny, she had all kinds of time to complain to me at length about J in cosmetics), and that she’ll take the net anyway. So finally I ring her through and she’s out of my life. Then J comes up to me and tells me that she started to ring this lady in at cosmetics and the woman tried the same shit with her, tried to say the net was $19.97 and when J explained she would have to page the department the woman got mad and said, “Oh, I’ll just take it up front. They’ll give it to me there.” Hahaha, NO. J wanted to know what shit the customer said about her, so I told her, and J was livid. She said it was all lies. I mean, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know for sure, but this woman clearly lied about the price of the net, so I’m more inclined to believe J. Not only did this customer make it her make-work project to try to get that item for less than what it was, she handled not getting what she wanted by telling a bunch of malicious lies about the first person who wouldn’t give in to her. I’m surprised she didn’t get mad at me too, but maybe she realized I had figured out she was lying and that made her nervous. This type of would-be scammer is a lot more nerve-wracking, because you don’t know what they’re capable of when they don’t get what they want. But fortunately the managers at my work know what we employees are like and have enough experience with customers to gauge when they’re talking out of their asses, so it’s not likely any of us would get in trouble if a customer decides to lie about us.

[rooren-san]

If you can not turn in a rental book on time, don't fucking rent!

And don't come in complaining to me because you had to work and couldn't make it during our hours, that is not my fucking problem. Our hours do not change. And as for someone telling you that our "system was down", you are a lying little shit because I was the only one here and I KNOW I didn't talk to you nor tell anyone anything of the sort.

[retailhorrorz-blog]

Customer: I am so sorry I left my 50% off coupon at home can you honor it

Me: I'm sorry we actually do not have any coupons out at the moment

Customer: Well I know i had it and you're going to give me my fifty percent off

Me: Ma'am i'm sorry The highest percentage we give is thirty percent off and that doesn't start for two weeks

Customer: well I'll just go somewhere else where I know my coupons will be honored

Me: Have a nice day!!