Out-Of-Work Borders Employees Deliver an Honest Farewell

[Frostbite3789]

And that's why I get my books online; because I know that shop assistants are just a bunch of condescending, judgmental pricks who have a nice facade on.

You've never worked in retail. Have you?

Edit: Apparently everyone had the same idea I did. But it was hard to read your post and not respond in such a manner. It's the same in every store. Unless you're a crummy customer, they aren't going to talk about you.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

"It never bothered us when you threatened to shop at Barnes & Noble. We'd rather you do if you're putting up a stink."

...and apparently that is exactly what they did and why you are now unemployed and the company you worked for is out of business.

This is the result of viewing customers as the enemy. Customers pay the bills of your employer and are the reason you get a paycheck.

I worked in retail and in fast food, customers can be demanding but in the end, they are the only reason the store opens every day. It isn't to give the employees a place to hang out.

Ever wonder why customer service sucks these days? It's this anti-customer attitude that shows through no matter how hard the clerks try to hide it.

Oh and about the kids running around, yeah it's annoying and yeah kids are a bit out of control these days (that another topic) but that huge kids section is there because kids make alot of money for the store. You think Wal Mart has a huge toy section to brighten up the store? You think McDonalds has the Happy Meal for diversity? No, it's because kids products bring in alot of money. It sucks to have to pick the books up and rearrange them again no doubt but then again, would you be at work at all if you could just wish away all that sucks in life?

*grins evilly*

No, but life wouldn't be fun if we couldn't complain, now would it?

You laugh at those workers for their foolish choice of jobs, they laugh at you for your ignorance.

 

[CosmicCommander]

-Snip-

-Snip-

Alright, my statement was hyperbole, just to clarify. Not good to type, in retrospect; I am polite to people in public, and I never cause a fuss at the store- I do know these guys are people, and I do try to be as nice as possible.

I have a pathological fear of open spaces and strangers- and that leads to me exacerbating incidents like the one I mentioned.

I am in no position to pass judgement on the guys, and although that irrational belief does run in me, I do objectively know that they're just normal people who have a shit job.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

That was awesome and so damn true!

I briefly worked in retail, it was an extra summer job and I needed the money, and dear God did it suck! I was so glad when I quit that place when school was back in session, so I'm pretty sure they showed restraint when they made that. Props to those people that made that poster, and God speed you saints!

 

[Sansha]

Wow,reading that list made me realize how shitty it must be to work in retail.
Well I just hope these guys find new jobs soon,hopefully not in retail.

I work in retail. I love my job. But everything on this list is true to every retailer, no matter what they sell.

Idiots are a daily occurrence, and what keeps us sane is how much we're laughing about just how fuckin' stupid these people are almost as soon as they leave.

The customer is not always right. The customer is usually wrong and retarded.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Ouch. This makes me glad I've yet to work in retail. But I likely will this comming November.

*Shutter*

 

[Amakaze]

The problem is that a shift in attitude while working retail is almost inevitable. Even the laziest people I know went to work on the first day with the goal to do a good job. They made an effort to be friendly, they made an effort to do good work.

The problem comes in that there are very view customers who actively make a good impression...and I wouldn't expect them to. Most of them are doing what I do. Exchange a few pleasantries, ask a question if I need to, buy what I want to buy, and get out.

The problem is, that's a null customer. Neither good or bad, and easily forgettable.

Add in the well meaning ones who are so uninformed about what they want they no one can help them, the customers who deliberately make a stink for no reason because they know they can get special treatment that way, the customers who blame the employees for corporate decisions, the customers who don't abide by the basics of hygiene and make you deal with disgusting things that are certainly not part of your job description, the (surprisingly numerous) ones who think its perfectly alright to cut their kids loose in a store for an hour or two so they can 'get their energy out' (and usually buy nothing, of course, stretching the definition of 'customer'), the customers who are willing to lie to your face in order to save a few bucks, the thieves (whether the sort that walks out with items down their pants or those that just try to claim discounts/returns/rewards they know they're not entitled to), the fact that all these types of people are far more numerous than you would ever have imagined all serve to break down that attitude fairly quickly.

In almost every business, the person who deals with the customer takes the most crap and makes the smallest amount of money.

Of course we don't mean it when we smile, the last guy just punched us in the face.

 

[jabrwock]

My favorite is "I spend so much money here!" or "I'm a regular!" as if the amount of money you spend makes you inherently superior. As soon as they say that, you know they're lying. Last one who tried it on us then demanded to speak to a specific salesman because "He'll fix this up right away and show you!"

The salesman he named left the company two years ago.

Nothing is more satisfying (or more infuriating to the customer) than when you can call them on their BS like that.

"I come in here all the time!" "Funny, I WORK here all the time and I'VE never seen you before today."

"I'm friends with the boss, I'll have you fired!" "Great, can you let him know that when we go for drinks later? I've been meaning to ask for some time off..."

"I talked to , and he said you have to give me a free meal." "Really? (yelling to the back office) Hey ! Did you talk to some guy about a free meal?" "Nope." "..."

(from fast food service)
"My food was cold!" "You mean the food that sat on the ledge in drive thru during a -40 degree blizzard while you made me count two large handfuls of change for a $20 meal?"

(in drive thru) "I can't accept this credit card." "Why not?" "Without some ID I doubt your name is Debbie, and besides, the signature doesn't match. "That's because I'm drunk!" "Ok, either way I'm calling the police."

 

[Byere]

The number-one reason why retail jobs suck isn't the lousy hours, the crappy pay or the clueless management. It's the customers. Some of them are warm rays of sunshine, but a great many others are rude, snarky irritants who are completely obvious to anything but their own selfish, superficial needs.

A-F***ING-MEN!!!!

Just got out of a 6 year job in my local Co-op (a big chain store in England that, in my case, sells food and other groceries). My gawd, most customers just look down at you like you're lower than dirt! Well done on these people for expressing themselves so greatly! I'd have loved to do something like this. Unfortunately, aside not having the balls to get away with something like that, I live around the same area as the store, so I'm pretty well known. Hell, I still shop there. So I figured I'd just slink away and avoid telling people till the last day I was there (including most of the staff) that I was leaving. Certainly saved me the hassle of it all!

All I can note is that favoured saying of mine:

"The customer is NOT always right, in fact they are most often wrong."

 

[jabrwock]

Ever wonder why customer service sucks these days? It's this anti-customer attitude that shows through no matter how hard the clerks try to hide it.

Bull pucky. It's a reciprocating cycle. The retail staff don't want to be there, but it's the only job they can find. And the customers know this, and treat them like the minimum wage slaves they see them as. Both sides need to grow up and treat each other with respect.

As I was fond of saying to the rudest of the rude customers... "I'm not actually paid enough to put up with the likes of you."

 

[Carbonyl]

My mother used to work at the Forestry Center here in Oregon when she was in college, the center had a talking tree with eyes and moving lips inside of the atrium that they had made by Disney so it could spout facts. Everyday at least five people would ask her how they got the tree to grow inside a building. They also asked how we dye Crater Lake blue every year, my mother told them it was food dye, because they wouldn't believe her when she said it was natural. I weep for our future as a species.

 

[Cpu46]

Kudos to them! I would be perfectly content with working retail if there were less customers like that. I work in a grocery store as a service clerk (bagging and pushing carts). Everyone working at the store bends the rules more than we should for the customers and we still get a lot of flack. It's usually the checkers and supervisors that get most of it but the baggers are not exempt.

Spoiler: Rant list

-Service Clerk does NOT mean personal shopper. I can help you find an item or two but I can not run around the entire store for a half hour fetching items for you.

-Yes, there is a discrepancy in the pricing of this product, the guys working inventory made a mistake, we are giving it to you for the lower price, STOP FREAKING COMPLAINING ABOUT IT!

-I am a bagger, no I do not stock the shelves nor can I run back and get a product that is not on the shelves. I can however run up to the front and have them page someone who can, or at least I could if you would stop complaining.

-I'm so sorry that you forgot you ID. No, we can not sell you this 24 pack of beer. No, calling the manager out will not change that but we will anyways. You probably shouldn't have driven here in the first place.

-Using a 50 dollar bill to purchase a gallon of milk is understandable but we all know that the checker gave you the correct change. We saw you pocket that 20.

-Yes, we lock both the entrances and exits to the pharmacy side of the store at 10pm. No I will not unlock the doors simply because you are parked on that side.

-STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE I AM THE ANTICHRIST WHEN I INTERRUPT THE CONVERSATION YOU WERE HAVING IN THE CART BAY BY PUSHING MORE CARTS INTO THE STORE! ITS MY JOB, YOU ARE IN THE WAY, AND I AM NOT GOING TO POSTPONE IT AND WAIT FOR YOU TO FINSIH TALKING ABOUT YOUR LIFE STORY TO SOMEONE!!!!

-Oh you have one of those fancy small cars. Thats fine and all but please stop parking in front of the cart corrals. I know it fits in the space and I know that there are no open spots in the front few rows but that means that I have to work harder to keep carts in the story because you just blocked up to 20 of them.

-Stop trying to get carts in the cart corrals from halfway across the parking lot, its people like you that make the company come up with stupid rules limiting the number of carts we can push to protect cars when 9 times out of 10 it is another customer that causes the damage.

-If I am not on the clock then I can not do anything other than point you in the right direction. Even if I still have my uniform on and am walking through the store. No amount of whining or name calling can change that, Sorry.

 

[jajujo]

Out-Of-Work Borders Employees Deliver an Honest Farewell

It's the customers. Some of them are warm rays of sunshine, but a great many others are rude, snarky irritants who are completely obvious to anything but their own selfish, superficial needs.

Shouldn't that be oblivious?

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Considering my mom, who is the lone clerk of our family store talking about how most customers are, I can agree with this list.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Customer "I'm looking for a game"
Me "What Sort of game?"
Customer "i don't know"

My favorite is "Remember me?" About half of them get pissed off when I say "Sorry, no." On a busy day I see dozens of people. It's an effort to recall the ones I see again the same day, never mind the ones who expect me to not only remember them, but pick up the conversation thread from last time they were in. A coworker had one like that today.

Customer: "Here it is!" (Puts box down.)
Technician: "Okay, what's the issue with it?"
Customer: "You remember!"
Technician: "Uh.... Sorry, I don't."
Customer: "Come on! I was just talking to you about this in May!"

Customer was annoyed that he had to 'repeat himself' and replay the conversation he had in May, when he apparently came in for warranty service on something but didn't bring the actual broken thing with him. My coworker explained possibilities but (no doubt) told him we can't FIX what we don't HAVE. So now, in September, he wants us to pick up where we left off in May.

The only thing that would've made it a 'perfect' incident was if the guy complained about us not being able to fix it right away, because it's something important to him or something he needs for this evening.

"I talked to , and he said you have to give me a free meal." "Really? (yelling to the back office) Hey ! Did you talk to some guy about a free meal?" "Nope." "..."

We had one like that but he waited until his corporate sales rep went on vacation. The poor regular sales rep who got stuck serving him said the guy spent a literal hour repeating the phrase "Kevin promised me (object) for free!" with damnear every object in the store.

Oh, this is just hilarious, someone who swore in August she'd never come back here when I refused to give her free stuff just called in to try wheedle some free stuff out of us!

 

[Scrimshaw13]

Borders was one of the best jobs and the worst jobs I've ever had. Mainly for the reasons cited. They are all true.

 

[Epona]

"It never bothered us when you threatened to shop at Barnes & Noble. We'd rather you do if you're putting up a stink."

...and apparently that is exactly what they did and why you are now unemployed and the company you worked for is out of business.

This is the result of viewing customers as the enemy. Customers pay the bills of your employer and are the reason you get a paycheck.

I worked in retail and in fast food, customers can be demanding but in the end, they are the only reason the store opens every day. It isn't to give the employees a place to hang out.

Ever wonder why customer service sucks these days? It's this anti-customer attitude that shows through no matter how hard the clerks try to hide it.

Oh and about the kids running around, yeah it's annoying and yeah kids are a bit out of control these days (that another topic) but that huge kids section is there because kids make alot of money for the store. You think Wal Mart has a huge toy section to brighten up the store? You think McDonalds has the Happy Meal for diversity? No, it's because kids products bring in alot of money. It sucks to have to pick the books up and rearrange them again no doubt but then again, would you be at work at all if you could just wish away all that sucks in life?

*grins evilly*

No, but life wouldn't be fun if we couldn't complain, now would it?

You laugh at those workers for their foolish choice of jobs, they laugh at you for your ignorance.

Sure we complained in private when some customers were assholes. I dare say that 20 years ago (when I was working in retail and fast food) a public show of contempt for customers in general would not have been met with encouragement like we are seeing here.

Simply saying "the customer is not always right" would have been met by management with a warning. See, it doesn't matter if it's factual because we all know it isn't. It's all about the attitude you portray. These days customers expect rudeness from clerks and so are prepared to return it and the slightest hint of said rudeness. The difference between the rudeness of the customer and the rudeness of the clerk is the direction that the money flows.

I think I now understand why so many posters here call gamers "entitled" and approve of publishers treating gamers as criminals. You see the damage this type of attitude does? It's self defeating because we are all customers somewhere.

 

[JMeganSnow]

What matters is that you do the best you can to make the lives of your customers better.

Spoken by someone who's *never* had to deal with actual customers as a floor-level employee. Now, I will say probably upwards of 99% of customers are, if not pleasant and nice, at least not actively unpleasant. But the thing is, the ONE total imbecile is always, *always* the kind of person who will manufacture some personal slight out of nothing and then try to get you fired over it. And your boss is always the kind of ass-licking sycophant (they wouldn't get promoted if they weren't) without the good sense to ignore the obvious psychopath.

The only way you could make the lives of these people better is if you were some kind of combination of telepath, Sherlock Holmes, and psych ward nurse.

The proper way to deal with this type of customer, is to be (tactfully) unpleasant and obstructive to them in return. When they declare "I'm never shopping here again!" you win.

Note: I'm serious about 99%+ of customers being good or at least decent customers. I'm not bothered by silly stuff like people requesting every. single. ingredient. in their salad on the side, or if they have a derp moment when they're asking me where is something that's 2 feet away. I don't even mind when people give me religious tracts or ask me to count out every part of their change 3 times because they have OCD. Or they need me to hold their cat while they get out their wallet. (All of which I have done.) I try to have a reasonable amount of patience when every. stinking. person. can't be arsed to actually LOOK at the credit-card reader to figure out which way to put the card through, and then acts like it's the *manufacturer's* fault that they're not paying attention. It gets on my nerves, but I deal with it.

But when you try to get me to lie to your kids so you don't have to take responsibility for telling them they can't have something, forget it. When you expect me to go along with your incredibly crude and obvious attempts to steal, forget it. When you tear open sealed boxes so you can smell the perfume, forget it. When you watch me walk past, enter the back of the store, and I come out not wearing my uniform/nametag any more with my coat on and THEN you expect me to help you, FUCK OFF. You had your chance to talk to me when I was still on the clock. It is ILLEGAL (yes, read that, ILLEGAL) for me to work when I'm not on the clock. The company policy manual requires IMMEDIATE TERMINATION of employees who work when they're not on the clock. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. Yes, it's a stupid, unenforceable law when your job is something like "straighten these shelves" and "talk to people". If I go shopping after work and move a few things on a shelf, am I technically breaking the law? I dunno. I any case, you can find someone else to answer your inane question about paint. I'm going home.

 

[ffs-dontcare]

Damn straight. I could work up a similar list for Mobil. And I have.

The only reason I took this job is because apart from manual labour, it's the only job I could find in this town. And I'm not going back to manual labour.

Three years ago I would've never imagined myself saying this but my advice to younger job seekers is to avoid retail unless it's a niche kind of store that you would in all likelihood really enjoy working in, like an EB Games or a Vagabonds.

Although, I will say that I'm lucky with my job because:
- The good customers we get are awesome and sympathize with us when idiots walk in three seconds after them and give us crap.
- The pay is good in my opinion.
- My co-workers are awesome and we get along really well.
- My manager is essentially a cashier in a manager's body, as in she completely understands and sympathizes with us when customers try to give us crap instead of just turning her nose up and blithely telling us "the customer is always right".

Spoiler: Rant List

- Once my shift is over, I don't have to do anything work-related. If I do, be extremely grateful that I'm taking some of my own personal time to help you out. This is usually the case but if you are rude to me from the outset, I'm not going to bother.
- We are a self-serve site. If you have arthritis or don't know how to pump your own fuel, that's fine. I will do it for you. But everyone else can and should pump their own fuel.
- On that note, I will not abandon a queue of five people just to pump your fuel for you. You can wait or go elsewhere. Some of these people are in a hurry.
- When you "threaten" to shop somewhere else, I honestly could not care less because I know for a fact I did nothing other than my job.
- If the truck stop pumps out back aren't letting your Mobilcard swipe for some reason, you will have to leave your Mobilcard with me before I turn it on. If you don't like it, too bad. No Mobilcard, no fuel. Don't fight it, because you'll just look suspicious as hell.
- Drunkenness and mental illness are both no excuse for shitty behaviour.
- There is a "Pumps Are On Prepay" sign strategically placed right where you will look when you step up to the pump. Literally 99% of my customers ignore this sign. Chances are, you'll be one of them. But don't expect me to be in a hurry to come out and turn it on for you because I'll just get on the intercom and tell you to pay first. I don't care if you've come here from your home country for the Rugby World Cup, you are not special.
- On that note, if I'm not in the store when you arrive, don't ***** at me through the intercom about it. My job as a graveyarder is not to stand behind the counter for eight hours with my thumb up my ass. My job as a graveyarder is to clean and restock. That includes going out back to the rear of the building to restock the fridges and sort out other stuff.
- I will not know if you are there if you don't use the doorbell. I know for a fact the doorbell works. Furthermore, there is a sign strategically placed on the night pay window right where your eyes will travel. This sign says "Please use bell on door". It could not get any more straight-forward than that.
- Be patient. It takes like 30 seconds or so for me to come out from the end of the fridge to the counter. And if you get frustrated and walk away, turning back and yelling verbal abuse won't matter because in all likelihood I won't hear it.
- Don't try to guilt-trip me by saying "oh, so you don't trust me then?" when I tell you the pumps are on prepay. Of course I don't trust you. I don't trust strangers.
- Telling me you're in a hurry to get to work won't change things. It's not my fault you got up so late. I have to do my job at a reasonable pace that allows me to work fast enough while not making mistakes such as pressing the wrong buttons. Also, I'm not allowed to physically run.
- The FSTs at the pumps are for Mobilcards only, not EFTPOS cards. There is a clearly written, straight-forward label on each one. Each label is (say it with me...) strategically placed right where you will see it. Stop coming up to me and telling me your EFTPOS card won't work with the FST because it couldn't be any clearer.
- If you don't know how to use the coffee machine, that's fine. That's why we took the liberty of putting simple instructions right next to the coffee machine. So stop asking me how to use the damn thing! Look with your eyes, not with your mouth. It's right there, you blind fool! Right there!
- Most basic of all, if you expect common courtesy from me, I expect it from you. Don't be a hypocrite. I'm a nice person and I'm always up for a friendly chat, but if you come to me and instantly throw crap my way, I will consider you beneath me and provide you with the minimum of service before moving onto a more deserving customer who isn't standing there glaring at me and swearing his/her head off. Some Escapists are going to disagree with me on this, but I don't care. I don't reward bad behaviour.