Rude Customers

[cepmom]

Don't get me started on returns!! I once had a lady spit on me because I would not give her cash back, only a gift card, because she did not have a receipt.

yikes!
I've had tons a issues with customers returning things but I've never been spit at!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

When I was working ER and it would be my turn to triage I would get so frustrated with cell phones! People would actually want me to stop my assessment of why they were at the EMERGENCY ROOM so they could answer their cell phone! And the folks who would be on their cell phone (even though there are signs up on all 4 walls saying "NO CELL PHONE USE") and ask the Dr. to wait till they finished their call.

We used to have "business" people who came into the bank and I would tell him "Sir, you're not allowed to be on your phone in here for security reasons (and my sanity!)" and he would look up at me with a disgusted look on his face and say "This is important, sweetheart" and keep talking on his phone. And he said sweetheart with such attitude. Then I would call my manager over and it would be someone she was "friends" with and she would let him stay on his phone. Inconsistency drives me crazy!!

The signs are not for everyone else!! And there's no fine print that says "cell phones are allowed if the call is important". You can live without your cell phone. I promise. I've seen it.

Banks have been robbed by people who are "regulars" or come to the bank everyday. I would like to protect my own life and not have to "trust" someone who "looks" like a "good" guy/girl. The reason banks don't allow cell phones is not for your inconvenience (even though it is very rude). It's for our safety. People can take pictures with camera phones of the inside of the bank or call people (other robbers) to let them know when the bank is least crowded/most vulnerable. It also sometimes messes with our computer systems. We can't pick and choose who looks bad and good as that opens up the bank/credit union to discrimination suits and is ridiculous as it's the ones you never expect, that rob a bank.

I love this thread. Venting feels good.

 

[babiesX2]

[rant]Right now, I'm working part-time while going to school; I'm at a hobby store that, unfortunately, is technologically on a par with the general store from Little House on the Prairie. We've got no UPC scanners, no automation, no nothin'. All of the prices have to be hand-keyed into the register when you check out, and when you get your receipt, there's no detailed info about what you've purchased (because of nothing being scanned in w/ a UPC code), which makes returns an interesting process.

Olson's store
I know what store you are talking about because I shop there and it always amazes me how antiquated the checkout system is!

 

[ericamanda01]

I love this thread! In all my years in retail I have a million stories. But in banking I have the worst customers ever. Something about money brings out the worst in people. But I had a funny one the other day. I work in a retirement area, so most of my customers are well over the age of 65. I had a cute little old lady come in a few weeks ago. I hadn't seen her in there since I started working there 9 months ago. She even told me that she hadn't been in the bank in over a year. But that she was VERY unhappy. She demanded that Scott or Tom, another teller help her her. I explained that Tom was in school and only worked part time and that Scott had been promoted. She said that she had heard that and that was why she was upset. She said that once you were hired at the bank you should stay at your position for as long as you were with the bank to make the customers happy. She didn't like all the new tellers. It was so hard for me to not laugh!

 

[Feralpeg]

Don't get me started on returns!! I once had a lady spit on me because I would not give her cash back, only a gift card, because she did not have a receipt.

That's horrible. My sister is a CM at DTD. She had a woman literally throw money at her face because she would not accept a credit card without a signature and the woman wouldn't sign it or show id.

 

[maxiesmom]

I totally get the toy thing. When toys was one of my departments I had a mother yell at me because I had taken away some toys that her son had been playing with (they were on the ground, I didn't rip them from his hands), and then tells me she always gives her kids toys to play with while she shops! And she would never buy them! Hello, if you want your child to have a toy, bring one from home. No one is going to want that toy after the sound effect is worn out, and your kid has beaten the tar out of it!

Also, and I know this is coming as it is almost back to school time, if you are female, use a female dressing room!!!! I don't care how busy it is, it is not ok for you to go into the mens dressing room!!!! If you don't want to wait in line to try it on, take it home and return it if it doesn't fit. Or shop on a day besides Saturday! And no it is not ok for your boyfriend to go in with you. What is wrong with people that they don't get this?

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

That said, I have to say that 99% of the customers I deal with when I'm out on the floor are delightful and I truly do enjoy talking to them and helping them (I work with jewelry, beading, etc., and most of the people who come into my department are beginners and need a lot of help getting started); it just seems that everything falls apart once people get up to the registers. I'd be ecstatic if I never had to set foot behind the register again.

Don't get me wrong. Mixed in with the rude customers are some absolute angels. I don't want this to come out wrong, but after 5 years at a small store, this is something I noticed. We had a few physically handicapped customers come in pretty regularly. It was store policy to offer baskets to customers, but I also would offer to hold items at the front for them because you could see that it was no easy task for them casually shop around the store. They usually refused help but they were just so genuinly nice about it. (Meanwhile other customers would yell at me that they would have taken a basket when they walked in if they needed it.) They also had upbeat attitudes all the time and were always nice to the employees no matter what. It was a breath of fresh air when they came in.

Another time during a very cold spell in the winter the heat in the store died. Corporate refused to close the store so we had to stay open with no heat. (Yes, I know, really wrong on their part, trust me when I say it's a long story that I hate reliving.) But one customer saw how cold it was and she came back 20 minutes later with a space heater to help keep the cashiers warm. She told us to keep it as long as we need, and she refused any sort of payment or gifts. That woman was a life saver. I had to leave shortly after to go back to college, I really hope the store chipped in and got her something.

Back to rude customers. One time I had a man throw, yes THROW, money at me because he didn't like the price of an item! The money hit me and landed behind the register. No customers were allowed behind the registers, but I was ready to make him come pick it up himself. Its not like he even threw it on the counter and it bounced and hit me, he threw it directly at me! I had to restrain myself from screaming at him.

During the Holidays, my store used to be very, very, busy. There was always a line, but it moved. Even my mom, the most impatience person in the world, didn't mind standing on the line. One time a mother sent her son from the back of the line to the front to see if all the registers were open. He reported back to her that yes they were. She then began yelling "Well they better find another one because I hate waiting! I cannot believe they don't have another register!" To this day, I really wonder where this lady thought I was getting another register from.

 

[LadyyRedd]

When I was right out of HS, I worked at a Discovery Zone. We had a "no outside food" policy. One day a grandmother had brought her grandkids in to play and I noticed that she had a frozen yogurt from a nearby store. I told her that she couldn't have it in there. She said she was not throwing it out. I told her that she could take the kids outside and come back in when she finished. She said no. I said she could leave and I would give her passes to come back another time. She said No, I paid $x.xx for this yogurt and $x.xx to get these kids in here and now you're telling me to throw it out? I should shove it down your throat!

She got really PO'd when I asked her what flavor it was!

Kimya

 

[pezheadmeg]

In all fairness, there are as many bad retail workers as there are customers. I've worked with many of them.

The classic would be the very sweet innocent girl I trained and became friendly with. One day, there were two women who stole roughly $1500 worth of merchandise from ther area in which she was working. She's telling me the story over dinner and ends with

Didn't their parents teach them it was wrong to steal? ​

I'm sure if I had been stadning on the selling floor at the time, I would've gotten a call from the store security manager describing my face and a print out of my face.

 

[mum4jenn]

In all fairness, there are as many bad retail workers as there are customers. I've worked with many of them.

The classic would be the very sweet innocent girl I trained and became friendly with. One day, there were two women who stole roughly $1500 worth of merchandise from ther area in which she was working. She's telling me the story over dinner and ends with

Didn't their parents teach them it was wrong to steal? ​

I'm sure if I had been stadning on the selling floor at the time, I would've gotten a call from the store security manager describing my face and a print out of my face.

But that is NOT what THIS thread is about!!! If you need to complain or vent about service or the workers then start a whole NEW thread!!!

 

[nja33]

This happened to me today--

I was working Customer Service, not my home area, but one that I am trained in. I had a customer without a receipt demand that I give her 24.99 back for an item that, without a receipt, the return register was listing as 12.49. I cannot change the prices in the return register. I cannot give you what today's selling price is. I have no control over return price, no button I can push to magically change it to what you think you paid. And no ma'am, going to a different register will not change anything! Telling me that it is stupid and standing there glaring at me does not help either! Without a receipt we give in-store credit. After telling her that it was like cash and not replaceable if lost, she told me that was stupid too.

Oh I just LOVE those customers. How can we be sure you paid $29.99 for an item? My computer is telling me it was last on sale for $14.99 and that's all I can give you. Once had a woman come in with a receipt that was THREE years old and since we had such a lax policy on our returns I was able to take it back. She had 3 items and only the receipt for one of them. So the other items ended up being in the 10 dollar range. It was my mistake for not explaining the policy before I finished the transaction but she threw a fit especially when she found out the pair of shoes she had (which cost $24.99 according to the box) she would only get them back for $10. I had to repurchase the items since she didn't want the credit then she stormed off to our footwear department. I don't know if she ever just exchanged the shoes or not like she wanted to but I was glad she didn't come back to the registers.

 

[CanBeGrumpy]

Oh, I so feel the OP's pain!! I would like to add this: Please don't assume that cashiers are uneducated!!! I have an engineering degree, and I took a job as a cashier after being a SAHM for 8 years, so that I would have a job I could leave at work (as opposed to always having to bring work home, or stress out about work while at home, etc.)

Also, in spite of me having YEARS of math under my belt, far more than most of my customers, I'm sure, I still got the "deer in the headlights" look when someone would hand me odd-ball amounts of change after I had entered the amount into the register. I was NOT prepared to have to do math, even though I am well-equipped to do so. It took me a minute to figure out what change they wanted! And the pressure of trying to look "smart" by quickly getting their change made it all that much worse!!! So just because someone can't make change in a milisecond does not mean they are stupid or don't understand math.

 

[OK!]

During the Holidays, my store used to be very, very, busy. There was always a line, but it moved. Even my mom, the most impatience person in the world, didn't mind standing on the line. One time a mother sent her son from the back of the line to the front to see if all the registers were open. He reported back to her that yes they were. She then began yelling "Well they better find another one because I hate waiting! I cannot believe they don't have another register!" To this day, I really wonder where this lady thought I was getting another register from.

Gotta love the passive-aggressives, eh? Unfortunately, this kind of thing seems to happen all the time, either with the customers commenting loudly to themselves or other customers in line about having to wait so long to check out (and we're talkin' wait times of absolutely no more than 5 minutes max.) or--and this is my favorite --marching up to the register and demanding, "You need to call another cashier up here!" or "Isn't there anyone else who can ring?!" It's all I can do not to look pointedly at the nine unmanned registers next to me and then back at the complainer; do you SEE another cashier up here to help me right now?

And this one isn't really a vent, but more a matter of confusion for me: Why is it that every day, at least a dozen times a day, I'll have customers stand up by the row of registers and yell to me (while I'm standing at a register), "Which register's open?!" Um, just a guess, but I think I'd probably try the one with a person standing at it.

 

[Disney Doll]

I haven't read thw whole thread. I sympathize with anyone who has to deal witht the public. I am a nurse. take the "public" with all their nastiness, quirks and foibles and then make them sick. That's what I deal with!!!!!!

As far as the "line closed" thing in a store...I have always thought that they needed to put up a physical barrier of some sort at the end of the line. Like a 3 foot x 3 foot board with the words "Register Closed" painted on it, that could be placed to block entrance to the line.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

As far as the "line closed" thing in a store...I have always thought that they needed to put up a physical barrier of some sort at the end of the line. Like a 3 foot x 3 foot board with the words "Register Closed" painted on it, that could be placed to block entrance to the line.

We sometimes pull a display of whatever to the front of the register to block it off, but some people will just walk around it, (especially in the wider asiles for wheelchairs,) or worse yet, just push it aside, like it doesn't have a purpose being there. Once there was a display of flowers blocking off one of the registers, and some guy pushed it aside, and the water went everywhere.

We also have to entrances in our store, but do to security/safety issues, one of them is locked at 10:00 PM. We always make an announcement, and block off the exits with extra shopping carts. Once someone was leaving and started moving the carts out of their way, and then trying to push open the doors. There are also signs on the doors saying there locked at 10:00.

Another story as far as change goes. Once someone wanted cash back on a debit card. He wanted it for $100 even, instead of just a certain amount. I figured it out to be $X amount, but he insisted it was $X amount. At our store, the customer puts in the amount back themselves, so he put in the amount he had figured it out to be. My amount would of been the correct amount, so of course, his total was over $100 even. He got very rude and deffensive, but there was really no reason for that, 1) he had insisted on the amount he was saying, 2) I had told him the correct amount.

Once there was also a lady who had wanted to give me the exact change, well she gave me a dime to much, or something, and when I tried to give it back, she insisted she was right. (The amount due was right in front of me, and I can count change.) So I put in the amount she gave me. . . guess who ended up getting a bunch of change back.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

In all fairness, there are as many bad retail workers as there are customers. I've worked with many of them.

There is a thread on here from a few weeks ago about rude cashiers. To be fair, there are some people I work with I avoid. I posted in that thread about a bagger I can't stand. I'll see if I can find the link.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Here's the thread, Do You Ever Avoid Certain Cashiers? http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1153096

 

[pezheadmeg]

Ooo, I can proababy go forever on that thread. At least the rude customers are ones you don't have to deal with everyday!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Ooo, I can proababy go forever on that thread. At least the rude customers are ones you don't have to deal with everyday!

There are people that have sworn there never going to shop at my store again - one that was arguing about putting his number on a check, and one that was arguing about expired coupons, come to mind. But then I see them again like a week later.

Also, off topic, but is it bad that some customers, not rude ones, but just some customers in general, know me as "the Disney lady." That can only mean they shop there to much, I talk about Disney to much, or both.

 

[LuvN~Travel]

I haven't read thw whole thread. I sympathize with anyone who has to deal witht the public. I am a nurse. take the "public" with all their nastiness, quirks and foibles and then make them sick. That's what I deal with!!!!!!

As far as the "line closed" thing in a store...I have always thought that they needed to put up a physical barrier of some sort at the end of the line. Like a 3 foot x 3 foot board with the words "Register Closed" painted on it, that could be placed to block entrance to the line.

I've decided over the years that even IF a sign was three feet tall, neon colored, and had chasing lights all around it, customers still will NOT see it! I know mine certainly don't read any signs! And, in line at Winn Dixie a little while ago, the same thing happened to the clerk waiting on me. She had the closed sign up and sure enough some kid hopped right in line. Sign, what sign? Where?......
Kim