TalesFromRetail

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The original was posted on /r/talesfromretail by /u/InfiniteCalendar1 on 2023-07-22 19:09:02.

I work at a popular retail chain in the mall. Yesterday we had multiple people call out so we were a bit understaffed for the evening. When this happened it was only me and one of my managers ringing up customers as the other associate working upstairs (where the registers are) was on break, and most of the other associates who were ringing had already left. It was a Friday so as you could imagine it was pretty busy, so it was hard to cut down the line with just the two of us ringing.

At one point a customer in the middle of the line starts clapping saying “let’s go! The line needs to get going” and the customer my manager is ringing tells him “sir, that’s uncalled for”, and he responds “you need to calm down”. My manager responded to him by saying “there’s only two of us ringing, and we’re doing the best we can.” The customer I was helping was sympathetic towards my manager and I as she was saying he’s the one who needs to calm down as he was causing a scene and there’s only two of us ringing. I really appreciated the customers who sympathized with us, as customers who get it are the best.

The customer who caused a scene was rung up by my manager and I heard him say he was just joking when he was clapping and trying to rush the line but no one was laughing except for him. Apparently he also told my manager “this is the slowest [store name]”. I remember after my manager dealt with that customer she vented to another manager who was covering downstairs about what happened and she made it clear she didn’t appreciate him trying to rush us, and that it wasn’t funny. I agreed with my manager and I told her she should’ve handed him an application to work here if he’s going to tell us how to run our store. I can admit the line was moving slow, but unfortunately when there’s only two of us ringing, it’s going to take a bit to get the line down. I remember a former coworker came in yesterday too, and she fell out of line because it was getting too long. If you can’t wait a bit to be rung up, just fall out of line rather than giving the people on the register crap.

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The original was posted on /r/talesfromretail by /u/Rhewin on 2023-07-22 16:46:09.

Working in large appliances, it's very common for people to ask questions about a product at home that's broken. In some cases, we can give some basic answers. Your dryer is drying anymore? Make sure the vent filter is clear, and clean out the vent hose behind the dryer. If that doesn't work, your heating element or thermostat may need replacing. Anything more complex and you'll need to have an actual technician look at it. We sell them, but that doesn't mean we're trained to service them.

The biggest one was refrigerator water dispensers and ice makers. Those suckers will break if you sneeze wrong, and there's a million things that could cause it. I cannot possibly guess or even point you in the right direction. And that's where our story begins.

A customer (C) comes in with a stroller and tells me her ice maker won't make ice. She'd like to know why it stopped working.

Me: "Unfortunately there are a lot of things that could make an ice maker fail, so it's a bit hard to guess. It could be anything from an electrical issue to the water line being frozen."

C: "The water line isn't frozen. I checked it, and it is fine."

Me: "Ok. Really, your best bet is to have a technician look at it. I wouldn't be able to say."

C: "But why would it stop working like that?"

Me: "... I really can't say. There are so many reasons that it can happen. I can get you our service number if you would like."

C: "I just need you to tell me what it could be."

Me: "Quite honestly I'm not a technician. I don't even know all of the ways it could break. I don't want to mislead you"

C: "But you should be able to get me in the right direction. The water line isn't frozen and there is definitely ice in the ice maker itself. It's not dumping it out even though there's ice ready to go. Why is that?"

I try my best attempt at astral projection to have a look at the customer's ice maker, but at this point I could only make it a few miles, and their house was just outside my psychic radius.

Me: "Ma'am, like I've said, it's really impossible for me to guess. It could be a bad motor, a bad timer, the control panel could be fried, or parts could be stuck."

At this point a coworker (CW) comes over. He was a 35-year vet in appliances.

CW: "You know, I had a problem like that a few months ago on my fridge. I called service out, and the technician got everything I needed."

C just ignores CW.

C: "So how do I know which part it is?"

Me: "I can't tell you because I don't know. I don't want to tell you it could be a certain part, you go buy the part, and then it doesn't work but is non-refundable. You could very well just need a new ice maker, but I don't want you to go buy one and it not fix the issue. You need to call a technician out."

The lady rolls her eyes and begins to turn the stroller away. She is visibly annoyed.

In a very sarcastic tone, she asks, "so, you're going to pay for my trip fee right?"

I was admittedly annoyed at this point, so I was a tad passive aggressive back.

Me: "I'm sorry... I'm just trying to answer the question that you asked me."

She called back over as she walked away.

C: "Yeah, well, I wish I had talked to anyone but you!"

You would me, my dear lady.

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The original was posted on /r/talesfromretail by /u/urlocalmustardfarmer on 2023-07-22 03:14:18.

So, Its midday and I’m walking up to the return/help desk where I work at. I notice my coworker is having an issue helping this customer, so naturally I step in to help. I ask what the issue is and she then explains how her order that she picked up was missing an item. I say okay, let me check- I search up her order information… I see that the item she was talking about was out of stock. I then explain to her that the item was not available so it got canceled but she would be getting a refund for it, usually takes 3-5 business days and I tell her that. She angrily says I want my money now! she couldn’t believe that her refund would take a couple days and not be instantly back into her bank account. All I could do was explain that she wasn’t going to be “paying” for the item that she didn’t get because it would be refunded in due time- she now has the impression that I’m stupid because I can’t give her the money back right away. But she realizes there isn’t anything more to do so she moves on to her next issue.

She tells me that there was a promotion on two dresses she purchased at another store location, which was buy one get one free. She has her receipt in hand, pointing at two OTHER dresses she purchased which had gotten that BOGO deal. So I tell her that I’ll look into it. I then scan the dresses with my device… okay so I’m not seeing that buy one get one deal. “What do you mean?” she says. “Its RIGHT here”, while she points at her receipt (which did show the BOGO but that was for the other two dresses that were apart of that deal not the two she had in front of me). Her approach was very rude and not friendly so I’m sort of panicking but also I know that her dresses don’t qualify for that deal so I’m not going to give it to her. I then asked something along the lines of “it was buy one get one right?” she thought it was the dumbest question ever, she said to me “dont ask me Im just a customer”. I really don’t know why I asked that-but she ends up walking away and says “you shouldn’t ask questions like that, makes it seem like you dont know what you’re doing”.

It looked as if she walked out the store. Nope. Shes talking to my manager, minutes pass and my manager comes towards me and asks what happened- I tried my best to explain without crying, but seconds after I explained to him. I leaned over onto a cart and started crying. I went outside to take a breather and walked back in once I was calm, my manager then lets me know what I did was correct but he did give her the bogo because of the way she was acting.