customers can be...UGH stories

[pbear19]

Originally posted by SoCalGirl

Oh, one more thing. Loss of use and admin fees are NOT covered by your insurance. Do not swear at me when I tell you that.

Hey SoCalGirl! Are you an insurance adjuster? And yeah, we can be slow sometimes, because it can be like pulling teeth to get some of our branches to stop renting the cars long enough to put them in the shop. Especially this time of year! Oh, and I certainly hope it's not the rental car employees that are cursing at you!! Please pm me if it is, and if it turns out to be someone in my company I will do my best to remedy the situation.

[S_A_I]

Oh no! I start work at a retail place in the mall on Saturday! Ahh - I'm scared, now!

[AlphaSigLana]

I have more trouble with bosses than customers!!!! ANd why is it whenever you need a manager(you need them to fix the register or override something) they are never around?
I worked as a camp counselor and I ended up not being able to stand some parents bc their kids didn't know how to pick up their stuff, if they lost it the parents expected us to know where it is--excuse me we ask the kids a hundred times if that is their waterbottle they all say no!!! I can't stand the fact that parents let their kids do whatever they want. YEs there is a late fee-- camp is from 7:30-5 if you pay for extended day otherwise it is 9-3. Parents would bring their kids early or leave them late and end up paying more in late fees then if they signed their child up for extended day!!!! UGH!!!
During the school yr I worked for a local newspaper. People would call and threaten me bc they didn't have their paper first of all I'm not a carrier, second many of these people hadn't paid and that is why they didn't get a paper. People would always say," I was told the paper was free." UGH!!!!
sometimes I had to go drive and give people their paper and of course it was always the worst part of town!

[Excelsior301]

I think the worst job I had was working in the gift shops at Six Flags in NJ. People would ask me how long the wait for a certain ride was, complain to me when a certain ride was closed, ask me how much food from a certain stand was, etc. Just a whole bunch of crazy questions that I really didn't have the answer to since I only worked in certain gift shops, and that's all I was trained on. It wouldn't have been so bad if people wouldn't jump down your throat if you didn't know the answers to their questions.

[SoCalGirl]

Pbear,

Yup I'm an insurance adjuster. Don't worry though, it's not the rental companies that are swearing at me. They completely understand!

When I get claims with rental cars; I get so annoyed. Cause I know I'm going to have to make ten calls before someone finally tells the loss control department. I always immediately call the rental location; if anyone bothered to get the info. The rental agents never want to take my info. I have to force it on them!

It gets to the point where I call them and just ask "Did ya'll want to get paid or not?!" I have seriously had to ask. :shakes head in disbelief:

[Kevin]

This happened a couple of months ago but after 7 years in the electronics retail business this has to be the single stupidest couple of people I've ever met.. This may be a little long but it's kind of funny... So read on if you'd like some cheap entertainment..

The store was set to close at 8PM and it was now 7:55PM. A couple in their mid-30's walked in the door. Of course last minute rushes are not uncommon -- but as often as it happens -- folks coming in when they KNOW I'm trying to close it's always aggravating.

The couple was dressed in humble clothing, torn t-shirts and old, dirty jeans. They smelled like they hadn't bathed in awhile... They reaked of stale cigarette smoke. The kind that makes you gag.

The gentleman had a question involving a TV and a video game console he wished to hook up to it. It took me around 5 minutes to establish exactly what he needed. He thought there was some adapter to take composite cables and plug them DIRECTLY into an RF connector with some kind of splitter/combiner or something (translation: RF connector is that screw-on connector on the back of your TV that you plug your cable into... Composite are those yellow, red and white connectors that are also known as A/V or Audio/Video jacks -- long story short this device does not exist!)

So I explained to him what he needed... An RF Modulator... This device takes the raw audio/video information that the console puts out and then inserts it onto your TV's channel 3 or 4.

No lie... this took 10 minutes to explain.. He'd repeat back to me what I just said and then say he didn't explain it... Then I'd repeat it back to him... It's like beating your head on a brick wall. He then proceeded to try and explain this to his wife.. I actually walked away while he was repeating something back to me so that I could go and lock the door.

5 minutes later I had actually pulled the product off the shelf, told him that he either gets this or the thing will never work and actually made some headway in getting him to understand.

He then thanks me for his time and tells me that he'll have to think about it!

Here's something I've always wondered... People think NOTHING of spending $20 on a meal... But when it's a $20 part to get their $150 product to work it's like pulling teeth.

He's of course very thankful and to show his thanks and reward me he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a melted peppermint. He tried to place it in my hand.

At first I refused (no telling where that thing had been, I didn't want to touch it)... But he insisted. His argument was that the peppermint wasn't from him... you see it's "From the Lord".

Normally this would have been hilarious to me... But I was rather frustrated and it was now 10 minutes past closing time and I just wanted him the hell out of there... So I thanked him and let them out of the store.

I promptly tossed the peppermint in the trash and tried to get the hell out of dodge.

__________

Now I'm not normally a squeemish person... I just cannot tolerate stupidity and poor hygeine. I felt really sorry for the kids that they brought with them I think with the sole intention of decimating our toys section.

[GeekyPenguin]

Seeing as though it's time for the busiest shopping season of the year, this needs to come back!

[Lil' Hannah]

Ahh, this thread has made me so glad that I'm not in retail anymore. I worked at a camping store that had a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all of its products, even if they had been used. That return policy was the bane of my existance. People would return tents YEARS after they've bought them and used them many times, and would just say "I'm not happy with the rain fly" or whatever and we'd have to take it back. Once I had a guy try to return a parka that was a few years old because he gained weight and it didn't fit him anymore. Ridiculous. Oooh, another good one was when a customer tried to get a free repair done on his "North Face" jacket, which was returned to us by TNF with a note saying it was a fake jacket. The customer got pissed off at me for it! I'm sure it was my fault that you bought a fake jacket.

[ZTAngel]

I worked at Bloomingdale's where anything can be returned. Even if it's been worn and it's without it's tags and receipt, it can be returned. Hell, we've returned things that weren't even ours just because the customer complained so much.

A week after her husband past away, a woman returned 50+ shoes of his. Her husband kept his shoes in the original boxes when he wasn't wearing them. He also kept the receipts. This woman brings back all the shoes with the receipts. Some of these shoes had been bought close to 30 years ago! Guess what? We took them back.

Bloomingdale's has even taken back soiled underwear. Ew.....

I just don't get people. I would never have the NERVE to return some of the things people return. People will come in with a shirt that's about 3 years old and has been through the wash 20+ times. People will say, "It fell apart." Well, that's what happens to clothing when they get old and have been through the wash/dry cycle too many times. But, Bloomie's takes it back.

Women would buy a handbag for a special occasion and return it the next day. Cheap, Cheap, Cheap.

[Lil' Hannah]

I think it's bad Karma too.

[aephi alum]

I've never worked in retail or food service (and after reading this thread, I never will if I can help it! ) but I've observed some good stories (or, rather... bad stories).

At school, we used to refer to what ZTAngel describes as "Lechmere-ing." There was a store near campus called Lechmere (I think they may have been a chain?) that had a 30-day, no-questions-asked return policy. People would buy big-screen TVs a few days before the Super Bowl and return them the day after. Hmmm... (They are now out of business. I wonder why. )

I used to have a job that required weekly travel, and you should see some of the stuff I witnessed on the airlines. People really do not treat flight attendants well. For instance, I was in a bulkhead row, and the woman sitting next to me had a handbag. Since there are no seats in front of you, all your baggage has to go in the overhead bin - handbags included. This woman did not want to part with her precious bag. Got into a huge argument with the flight attendant. Finally she was told the plane wasn't taking off unless she put her bag up, so she complied. She then proceeded to ignore the flight attendants for the entire flight.

[mu_agd]

Originally posted by aephi alum

There was a store near campus called Lechmere (I think they may have been a chain?) that had a 30-day, no-questions-asked return policy.

they had the best cd prices! i was so sad when they closed, for that reason alone!

[smiley21]

since i work at starbucks, i have stupid customer stories oozing out my ears.

my favorites:

i called out an iced coffee to be picked up at the bar, someone came up to me and asked if it was their hot chocolate. wtf??

i have been cussed out several times cause we dont serve coke

[AlphaGamDiva]

ok, last year i worked at lowe's.....don't ask me why other than the money was pretty decent for a retail job.....anyway.

i worked the cust. service desk and had to answer the phone and all that. well, when you call lowe's, you get a recording that says the store hours and if you need directions to the store to "press 1" for an automated thing. well, i don't know how many ppl would ring through to me asking for freaking directions. which would, of course, piss me off. so i'd always give them the wrong directions....ppl would come from tn to our lowe's b/c the taxes weren't as high (yeah, hello GAS, ya idiots ), and i'd tell them directions as if they were coming from louisville. bwahaha.....i tried to be so evil.

then there was the old man with the pregnant belly putting on some ear protection and dancing around in the middle of the aisle (topless no less) screaming, "i don't hear the music"......riiiiiiiight.

now i just deal with ppl who give me money for their bill saying, "you keep the change, honey, that's all for you!" and i open the book and think, "gee, thanks. .15......hawaii here i come.......b*tch."

[MareImbrium]

I work for an accounting company and we often do payroll for some of our clients. Two incidents happened back to back of each other all on the same day.

One of our clients called saying that the wrong name was printed on a paycheck. But the name was COMPLETELY different! How could anyone make a mistake like that? He wanted me to void the check and mail it. I talked with my coworker about it so that she would know what I was doing. She got a weird feeling about the situation so she called the manager. The manager already wrote the guy a new check even when he told me to mail him a new one!

Then while she was talking, the phone rang and it was another one of our clients. One of the employees didn't work there anymore but we somehow issued a check to him. Then according to our records, we never received a W-4. The boss insisted she sent it last week but refaxed it when I requested it. The name was totally different yet again! It's no wonder the check wasn't issued because he had a name he preferred to be called by but legally his name was something else. Arrrrrgh.