Working Retail: Stories of the Underpaid - General

[QUOTE=Mort and Charon;32292409]Change the name. I mean SubShop2000 is incredibly lame, even for a POS terminal.[/QUOTE] It was made in the days when attaching "2000" to everything made it modern. The year 2000. The new POS system has a much more interesting name, it's called "NewPOS". [QUOTE=Chaotic Lord;32292506]free sammiches.[/QUOTE] We get free subway twice a week, this is how most new Subway products are tested.

[QUOTE=bobsmit;32292575]It was made in the days when attaching "2000" to everything made it modern. The year 2000. The new POS system has a much more interesting name, it's called "NewPOS". We get free subway twice a week, this is how most new Subway products are tested.[/QUOTE] NewPOS isn't much better. And Subway is the slowest "fast food" I've ever been to I swear it takes 20 minutes for them to make a simple sub sometimes .

[QUOTE=bobsmit;32292575]We get free subway twice a week, this is how most new Subway products are tested.[/QUOTE] But you're an employee. I just want free food.

[url]http://www.customerssuck.com/board/[/url] To anyone who likes to read these kind of things, heres a whole forum for it.

If I got into this kind of work I'd probably get fired for swearing at a dumb customer.

[QUOTE=JumpinJackFlash;32285931]I worked at the dreaded People's Socialist Republic of Wal-Martistan, and it fucking sucked. I finally got fired for several things, one of which was reaming a customer a new asshole and I was entirely right for doing so. Never working retail again, I'm too much of an angry person for it. One particular day it was pretty much typical weather in Minnesota. Sunny one minute, downpour the next with a slight chance of biblical plague. I arrived at 9:45 AM, punched in at 10:00 AM and started my shift by "zoning" which really means making shit look pretty. I had heard the storm rolling in and being Minnesotan I knew in my sleep it was going to storm, but the out of state assholes apparently aren't gifted like we are. People came in, soggy and wet bitching the whole way while the locals were like "wow a bit rainy, don'tcha know?" Anyway, it was getting towards the middle of the day (4 PM) when the power (finally) went out and we had to start ushering people out of the store. Of course Wal-Marts are supposed to be open 24/7 and people are getting antsy and angry, while this one confused old man is sort of hobbling towards the exit. Well because of the water, he slips and falls then struggles to stand back up. Of course I wander over to him to go help, but not before this total bitch STEPS OVER HIM and says aloud "oh hahaha what a fucking dumbass" or something. I knew she at least called him a dumbass but holy SHIT I was pissed. I hurry closer and help the old guy up, he thanks me and finally I get to leave about fifteen minutes later. Still fuming about that whole mess, I got into my car and started the drive home. Of course the roads were awful but really nobody was in the ditch, but some people had pulled over. Used to driving in shit conditions, I just went onward until I saw this ridiculous foreign car in the ditch some ways and I stop to see if they're alright. GUESS WHO'S THE DRIVER! That's fucking right, the same broad who stepped over the old man and I step out to greet her. She opened up with a long list of complaints, how it sucked here, small towns are shit, that whole thing and I just smiled and let her go on and on. The following conversation and the best part of my day happened next: "Well, sounds like you've got all sorts of issues. You call somebody to pick you up?" "Yeah, they'll be here but than-*" "GOOD! Good. I love living here, you know, these shitty small towns, the smelly animals, the weather, all of it is home to me. I also love how I can tell if somebody isn't from here, because they're not arrogant, sanctimonious cocksuckers like you! They also don't step over old men who fall down in Wal-Mart and remark about how they're a 'dumbass' and keep on walking. You know, I can't wait for the weekend to be over so you and your kind get the FUCK out of my woods." I got in, slammed my door and sped off. I was angry, but it kind of felt good to tell her off but I did feel [I]slightly[/I] bad for leaving her there.[/QUOTE] Don't feel bad for leaving her there. She didn't feel bad about leaving the old man there. [editline]14th September 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=garychencool;32286956]A Genuine Cents Of Change Coffee Shop | Vancouver, BC, Canada | Coffee Shop, Criminals (At this coffee shop, do not accept $100 bills because all $20 are automatically dropped into a safe and we cannot make adequate change. It’s a particularly busy day with a rather long line, and a customer approaches.) Customer: “I want a medium americano.” *hands me $100 bill* Me: “I’m sorry, but I don’t have enough change to accept that bill. Do you happen to have anything smaller?” Customer: “No, this is all I have. I don’t have anything smaller.” Me: “Well then, today is your lucky day. Your drink is on me today!” (Note: I am trying to get the line moving and we’re allowed to give an arbitrary number of free drinks away a day if we think it’ll make the customer happy.) Customer: “No, just take the money, please. I don’t want the free drink. Just get the change from the safe.” Me: “I can’t do that, but your free drink will be up on the counter quickly.” Customer: “I don’t want the free drink!” *storms out without drink* (My manager, who had been eavesdropping on the entire exchange, approaches me after the customer leaves.) Manager: “Well, that bill was obviously counterfeit. Good for you for not accepting it!” Okay, from reading other posts, this is a really funny thread.[/QUOTE] Why the fuck would you not want a free drink

The best ones, are people who think that you are magically sitting on stockpiles of items in the back room. Let me assure you, in a grocery store, you try to keep the lowest amount of back-stock. There is not always, "more in the back."

This is probably the funniest thread this month. anyways, you know when you need to take a number when it came to stores, clinics and hosipitals? Well this dumb bitch went to this blood clinic that I volunteered at. It was Saturday morning and. She came raging to the desk as she was pissed of that she didn't get service after waiting since 8a.m. And that people came and go as she waited outside of the clinic since it was packed. She was complaining on how everyone got in front of her. She kept on raging on how she's busy and some stupid shit I didnt care to listen about. this is when it makes her fully the dumbass. I asked her if she had a number ticket which everyone else had, she said that she though she didn't need a fucking ticket. I told her that there was a huge ass sign saying, 'please take a number and a seat" on the desk, all around the clinic and two at the door in large black and red font. Then she demanded to get serivce right away because she didn't know that you needed a number. I pointed out the several large signs that not enough people read. She kept on yelling at me specifically and I just wanted to explode on her about how much of a dumbass she was but I wouldn't get my hours. So this arguement with this bitch lasted for a good five minutes before the doctor (and my supervisor) explained to her what she needs to do in a louder tone than mine. Then she finally pissed off saying the last thing to me, "you fucking asian cunt ass fucker, go back to fucking china and go fuck yourself you retarded cunt!! No one wants yof here!! get a life!! all of you teenagers are such dumb fucks!!!!!!" while sticking her middle finger at me. After she left, my supervisor asked if I was okay, after looking back at him, I broke into laughter followed by probably everyone in the clinic. I wonder if anyone recorded it on their cell phone or something. The clinic doesn't have cameras. At lunch, my supervisor treated me to lunch and talked about that silly, retarded bitch. there were probably five or so patients that raged when they didn't get service because they didn't get a number in the summer time when I worked. Man, it was funny but this one was the funniest.

[QUOTE=bobsmit;32292150]If anyone in here works at a Subway, I work with the team developing new POS terminals, so if you have any recommendations or complaints about SubShop 2000, I'd be glad to take them.[/QUOTE] Do you do the Radioshack POS systems too? Please fucking christ make the 'Fetch On Hand Count' take less than five minutes per item. [editline]14th September 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=CrispexOps;32293469]The best ones, are people who think that you are magically sitting on stockpiles of items in the back room. Let me assure you, in a grocery store, you try to keep the lowest amount of back-stock. There is not always, "more in the back."[/QUOTE] I love it when customers ask me to check the back room after I've just done an inventory count on the register. I mean come on. If the computer says we have 0, we have 0. No I will not go to the back room to look. I'm there 80% of the day. I know exactly what's in there. No, what you want is not.

[QUOTE=Otsegolation;32281398]You're working wage jobs because you have no game and no hustle. Therefore, someone gets to decide how much your time is worth.[/QUOTE] Or maybe because they are a minor and can only get minimum wage jobs.

Or because the economy is fucked and that's all there is.

[QUOTE=Ven Kaeo;32293601]I love it when customers ask me to check the back room after I've just done an inventory count on the register. I mean come on. If the computer says we have 0, we have 0. No I will not go to the back room to look. I'm there 80% of the day. I know exactly what's in there. No, what you want is not.[/QUOTE] I'd be the guy who goes to "check" anyways, just to make the customer happy. And by check I mean walk into the back room, grab a soda or something, drink it, then come back out and say there are none.

I never "check." I go back to the back room, grab a drink, and that's it. I don't even look at the stock we have in the back.

That's exactly what I just said :v:

Damn straight.

[QUOTE=Chaotic Lord;32293893]That's exactly what I just said :v:[/QUOTE] Heh, I didn't realize that. I browse the forums in-between game rounds, so I never quite know who just posted. Too right though, too right.

"Just because they serve you, doesn't mean they like you. And just because they smile and act polite doesn't mean they aren't planning to destroy you."

[QUOTE=CrispexOps;32294008]Heh, I didn't realize that. I browse the forums in-between game rounds, so I never quite know who just posted. Too right though, too right.[/QUOTE] Glad I'm not the only one who would do that.

Never had anything bad happen to me before, but a colleague of mine nearly got in a fight after a customer through a teddy at him. On the other hand, I get £160 on Friday from Tax Rebate. Success.

[QUOTE=Ven Kaeo;32293601]Do you do the Radioshack POS systems too? Please fucking christ make the 'Fetch On Hand Count' take less than five minutes per item. [/QUOTE] Subway has several in-house development teams that handle the brand's various software needs. Still, there's probably a way you can get in contact with the team that supports it, you'd be surprised how receptive software engineers are to criticisms and complaints. Since they aren't testing in a real store with real inventory and the constant changes that happen, they probably haven't caught that if it's a fixable issue.

[QUOTE=BigOwl;32287110]Me: Pizza Shop, how can I help you? Her:(With the most annoying voice I had ever heard, I seriously thought I was being pranked at first) Yeaaaaah, I need to order a pizza. Me: Okay will that be for Pick up or delivery Her: Take out Me: Okay Pick up- Her: NO! I want it be delivered! Gosh! Me: Okay sorry, my mistake what would you like on that pie and what size? Her: Ummm, I want a Medium pie with uhhh Me: I'm sorry but we only serve small and large, the small being 12 inches and the large being 16 inches. Her: Oh...well how big is the small? Me: It's 12 inches, pretty comparable to your typical dominoes medium pie. Her:...Hold on lemme talk to my husband (This is a pain in the ass because whenever some asshole makes their dumb broad order she has to go back and ask him a million different questions when we don't have something they want specifically, and thus, keeping other people from making orders and slowing us down and for some reason only satan could know this only happens on really fucking busy days.) Her: Okay well take a large. The 12 inch. Me: Ma'am, (There's a vain bulging in my forehead at this point)The small pie is 12 inches and the large is 16. Her: Oh well I mean the 16 inch. Me: Okay what would you like on the pizza? Her: Oh shoot hold on lemme ask (This takes ANOTHER five minutes of me hearing them faintly arguing) Her: Okay I want...cheese...and sauce...but put the sauce under the cheese. Me: *facepalm* Yes, of course we put that on all of our pizza's unless otherwise specified. Her: Oh okay...that's kind of weird. Why would you put toppings on a pizza someone didn't ask for. My brain at this point explodes and I feel the relief of warm thick blood exiting my ear canals and drenching the phone in a crimson orgasm as I spend another 5 minutes explaining to her why the standard pizza consists of sauce, dough, and cheese. The jelly of my eyes have begun to boil at this point and the plastic casing of the phone would have been crushed in my anger grip by this point if my hands had not been lubricated from the now drying cherry delight. Her: Oh... okay well lemme just call back later then. I sat the phone down calmly, gazing at it's tiny LCD display showing how long the call took. Almost twenty minutes. I took a deep breath and sighed as my need to stay alive decreased a little more in that little moment and knowing there were probably people worse than this...It broke my heart to think of. Later the same woman called and I ended up having to explain to her why more slices doesn't equal more pizza. I began therapy that next Tuesday and promptly shot myself in my bathroom August 23rd 2009 at 4:23 in the afternoon. It was a sunny day.[/QUOTE] i fucking lmao'd

[QUOTE=Haxxer;32294046]"Just because they serve you, doesn't mean they like you. And just because they smile and act polite doesn't mean they aren't planning to destroy you."[/QUOTE] This. Also whoever the fuck came up with "The customer is always right" needs to be fucking shot. The customer is, in fact, not always right. Generally the customer is FUCKING WRONG. But because this bullshit saying has been spread around so much, no. WE, the people who's job it is to KNOW WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS TO KNOW, are wrong. Always. What's that? You put together circuits and are telling me a resistor resists current? No. You're wrong. I read up on it online. Resisters store power. Huh? That's a capacitor? No. Capacitors emit light. For a guy who works at Radioshack you don't know much about electronics. [img]http://gameradvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/scaled.png[/img]

[QUOTE=CrispexOps;32293865]I never "check." I go back to the back room, grab a drink, and that's it. I don't even look at the stock we have in the back.[/QUOTE] Unless it's a certain item that you are told to look out back for by supervisors, the customer can deal with it not being out front until you re-stock the shelves. Working in a small corner shop doesn't grant me this benefit though, they can see into our stock room easily :v:

[QUOTE=Ven Kaeo;32294128]Also whoever the fuck came up with "[B]The customer is always right"[/B] needs to be fucking shot.[/QUOTE] Thats why our local walmart doesn't beleive the customer is always right, but the customer must [I][B]Win[/B][/I] (or [I]think[/I] they won)

[QUOTE=Ven Kaeo;32294128]This. Also whoever the fuck came up with "The customer is always right" needs to be fucking shot. The customer is, in fact, not always right. Generally the customer is FUCKING WRONG. But because this bullshit saying has been spread around so much, no. WE, the people who's job it is to KNOW WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS TO KNOW, are wrong. Always. What's that? You put together circuits and are telling me a resistor resists current? No. You're wrong. I read up on it online. Resisters store power. Huh? That's a capacitor? No. Capacitors emit light. For a guy who works at Radioshack you don't know much about electronics. [img]http://gameradvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/scaled.png[/img][/QUOTE] The customer is always right, but rarely correct. I don't work in retail, but I work in an arcade, I wear a green t-shirt have a name bag and have a card on my waist, and sometimes I'm carrying tools or boxes round with me, most weeks I at least get a couple of people asking me if I work there, despite my shirt even saying my employer on the front. The other day some teenager girl asked me if I worked there, I just replied no. :v: I got a fair few interesting stories, I'll post them after work tomorrow. (8:30AM start :( )

[QUOTE=bobsmit;32292150]If anyone in here works at a Subway, I work with the team developing new POS terminals, so if you have any recommendations or complaints about SubShop 2000, I'd be glad to take them.[/QUOTE] Put the pieces of cheese on the sandwich so they're like this. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/sT0si.png[/IMG] Seriously, it just makes the sandwich SO MUCH better. Even if it's not related to what you're doing there, Subway needs to start doing that.

My dad was buying a can of compressed air. Due to policy, they have to ask if you're 18. Cashier: "Sir, are you 18? *laughs*" Dad: "Nope" Casheir: "Wha..?.....Oh, I see what you did there!"

[QUOTE=Ven Kaeo;32293601]I love it when customers ask me to check the back room after I've just done an inventory count on the register. I mean come on. If the computer says we have 0, we have 0. No I will not go to the back room to look. I'm there 80% of the day. I know exactly what's in there. No, what you want is not.[/QUOTE] Where I work if the count is less than 10 and it's a item that isn't fucking massive I say 9/10 we don't have it, big ass store and shit gets lost/stolen all the time. I love people that can't read/listen, we sell chain, rope carpeting ect ect by the measurement, and the prices can be like $2 a foot for some stuff, it's on the labels the associates as far as I know tell the customer this and yet I've still had people with 20 foot rolls wanting it for five bucks, and it just doesn't work that way.

[QUOTE=TheWhiteFox1;32294666]Put the pieces of cheese on the sandwich so they're like this. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/sT0si.png[/IMG] Seriously, it just makes the sandwich SO MUCH better. Even if it's not related to what you're doing there, Subway needs to start doing that.[/QUOTE] There was actually quite a bit of talk about this last year, they call it cheese tessellation. Some of the people I eat lunch with work in franchisee training, and I remember hearing that the brand would start requiring tessellated cheese some time last summer. [URL="http://consumerist.com/2010/05/subway-to-start-tessellating-cheese-july-1.html"]Here's an article about it[/URL]

I'm kind of jealous, I worked in a KMart (big box store like Wal-Mart, sort of) and had no hilarious experiences. Well, I sort of have a couple, I guess. Once, I was watering the flowers up front and a lady came up to me and asked how much the petunias were. I said that all the other petunias nearby were $2.49, and that, as a matter of fact, all the flowers in that section were $2.49, but being the old cheapskate that she was, she didn't believe me and asked if I could find out for sure. I told her she could go inside to the service desk for a price check, and she went and did that. Go figure, right as I was done watering, she came out and said "You were right, they were $2.49" and walked away. Another time, I was covering my friend's break in electronics, and this Hispanic guy came up with a flashlight asking if it had a bulb and what kind of batteries they were. Now, I only mention his heritage because I could not understand every other word that came out of his mouth. He was either very drunk, as evidenced by his swaying demeanor, or could not speak English well, or both. I try explaining to him it's an LED flashlight and you can't really see the bulb, but that just confuses him to the point where I just sigh and tell him it comes with a bulb already in it. Then, he proceeds to point to the back and mumble a few unintelligible words, and I manage to make out he's asking what kind of batteries they take. I read the back and see in very fine print that they take 2 D batteries, so I tell him "This flashlight uses 2 D batteries". He responds with "T-oo DEE battrees?" and I say yes, and he asks something else about them, so I point to where he can find them, and return to my business. He sort of wanders away, and my friend gets back. Now, at this point I have to get carts at the front, so I do that for about 15 minutes. As I'm walking by the cash registers with a line of carts, one of the cashiers calls me over... with the guy I had just helped buying the flash light and batteries. She asks me both the questions I answered previously, and I explained to her that I already answered them. She then told to get a price check, because he said it should've been something like 4.99 (what?). So, I run to the other end of the store, get the correct price of around 20 bucks, and come back. Apparently, he didn't care enough about the price and just left. I hated that job, it was so boring. [editline]14th September 2011[/editline] Oh, then there's the whole stock issue. Them: Can you check the back for this? Me: I'm sorry, we don't carry those in the back, what's on the floor is all we have (it was some godforsakenly large couch that I'm glad we didn't have, because I would've had to carry it out) Them: Could you please check anyway? Me: Uh, I suppose, but I can almost guarantee we won't have it. Them: Alright So, I go and check, sure enough we don't have it. They then ask me to get my manager to ask when the next shipment comes in... which he wouldn't have the answer to, but they again wouldn't take no for an answer. I really don't like pushy customers.