The Customer's Always Right

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-01-14 07:27pm

Dalton wrote:Hah, I hear some horror stories here in the college computar lab. Most of them involve a floppy meeting a zip drive.

You should also see people flip out during finals when they find out the disk they've used for 2 years is trashed...I mean, they're 35 cents a pop. Stop economizing on crap media!

lol

Two months after I got laid off by the state of California, someone tried to use the wrong media to perform a back up.

Falkenhorst · Post by **Falkenhorst** » 2003-01-15 02:42am

The trouble is with working in retail is that you quickly begin to withdraw into your own little world. Your conscious mind keeps asking "Paper or Plastic" while your imagination wanders and you think about all kinds of shit except being there. When pushing carts in subzero temperatures, my feet and legs go numb from cold but I quit caring and go over the details of fanfics I've read in my mind. It's sort of like seeing everything happen through a thick pane of glass, like being trapped inside yourself and watching everything happen around you.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-01-15 02:50am

I know what you mean, Falkenhorst. I go through the motions, and get everything right, but my mind doesn't think about any of it...sometimes it can mess me up. Like sometimes I'll suddenly realize that I'm in the middle of a transaction, and I don't remember initiating it...so I start wondering if I did all the things I was supposed to do. And very frequently I tell the customer the wrong thing...like when they come up to the counter, I'll say, "Did you want a bag for that?" and they'll just look at me like I'm insane.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-01-15 02:57am

Yeah, when you start wondering if your Dante or Holden, or sometimes I wonder whose Jay and Whose Silent Bob.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-01-15 03:40am

I wish I were more like Randall. He's got the right outlook.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-01-15 03:57am

Just as long as no one volunteers to be "Caitlain Brea"

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-01-15 04:09am

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2003-01-15 04:48am

Falkenhorst wrote:The trouble is with working in retail is that you quickly begin to withdraw into your own little world. Your conscious mind keeps asking "Paper or Plastic" while your imagination wanders and you think about all kinds of shit except being there. When pushing carts in subzero temperatures, my feet and legs go numb from cold but I quit caring and go over the details of fanfics I've read in my mind. It's sort of like seeing everything happen through a thick pane of glass, like being trapped inside yourself and watching everything happen around you.

Ever go on a maniacal homicidal rampage on your customers, all in your mind of course. I do this on a regular basis, usually right after some bastard kid decides to try and be a juggler with a dozen jumbo eggs.......
Check out this link to see what I mean : http://www.theonion.com/onion3850/twelve_customers.html

I have also mentally grudge-fucked at least one pretty female customer a night since I started working there, occasionally while helping them find something...........I know, Im ill, but it makes the shift go quicker.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-01-15 04:59am

I'm just thankful that for all the Dante, Randels, and Holdens out here we have no Travis Bikles.....

Ok, if someone annouces they took a nice girl to a porno movie, I take that back.....

DocHorror · Post by **DocHorror** » 2003-01-15 07:20am

Examples of stupid people Iv seen while working in a supermarket...

1. People trying to walk out an exit door...
2. Im standing by the wine section, cutting open boxes of wine to stack on the shelves & a customer comes up & asks if we sell wine here...
3. Customers who drop things, break them & then fuck off without telling anyone
4. Im putting pallets of stock out on display, these plallets are big & heavy, it takes a good bit off effort to start them moving & to stop them. Iv seen customer walk towards me & expect me to get out of their way. or they try & dart infront of me & risk getting crushed against a wall
5. People who are too lazy to look on the shelves for items & just want me to do their shopping for them.

Theres more but im too tired to think...

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2003-01-16 11:05pm

There are really two different questions being answered (and asked) here.

Is the custmore always right?

Nope, a lot of people are stupid or just not smart enough to figure things out without help BUT

Should you treat the customer as if they ae wrong?

NEVER. NEVER EVER EVER EVER unless you are a supervisor or a manager correct a customer. The expense for pissing an idiot off is too great. Generally speaking supervisory level personnel have enough experience (and they have the job title) neccessarry to deflect a customer's stupidity away but if you don't aceed to their wishes the cost to the company is big.

The average customer, when mad, will tell at least 5 people who will in turn tell another 3-7 people. Thus for one irate customer you now have 9-13 irate customers all of whom will either decrease spending at your store or stop shopping entirely. The cost in supervisory-level associate time, advertising dollars, and incentives is more than 25 times (on average) the cost of just making them happy and getting them out of the store.

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2003-01-16 11:56pm

I put in some time working for Animal Control: the callers were the rudest and most clueless bunch you could possibly imagine. The calls would usually boil down to one of three things:

1) neighborhood crank who doesn't like animals and would call if a neighbor's dog barked *once* to complain about "excessive barking"

2) one neighbor doesn't like another neighbor who happens to own a pet, and is using Animal Control to harass that neighbor

3) neighborhood asshole who's been warned by us over and over again about letting their pit bull run around chasing people and crapping all over, and is calling to bitch us out and tell us "we don't have the right to regulate their dog"

maybe 1 call in 5 was what we'd consider legitimate (and that's a generous estimate.) You get through it by laughing about the really astoundingly stupid calls, like the woman who called me swearing up and down that there was a rabid chipmunk on her porch trying to get in the house or the guy who wanted to give us an alligator that was getting too big for him to handle. I still have the Wanted poster I made for the "Demon Rabbit of Reisterstown," that some yuppie scum found in her basement and was convinced was going to kill her. Ya... dangerous animals, those rabbits.

I put in 3 years in retail: I really, really can't stand these sorts of people. They're the ones who say "this is so inconvenient" as if that was the most terrible crime in the world. Arguing with a moron like that gets you nowhere: I'd usually try and tell them what I would normally do, and make it sound like I was doing them a special favor. If that didn't work, there's always handing them off to a higher manager (district managers in particular are there for this purpose.)