So of course this weekend was not fun. More short-staffing, more overworking, and more of being never good enough. And then there's the guests!
Saturday I cashiered and like always, I hated it. People are so rude and stupid. For example, some woman gave me a coupon and when I was done scanning her stuff I used her coupon and set it to the side. She wasn't paying attention during the whole thing, until I tell her the total. She asks if I got the coupon. Yep. "Are you sure?" Unless the piece of paper with a fucking barcode on it isn't a coupon, then yes. So she gets her receipt, and still thinking I'm lying, checks to see that the coupon was on the receipt. Too bad the coupon stealing conspiracy starts NEXT week...
Sunday I was up at Guest Service and boy it was fun... Not really. More rude people as always. One woman comes and throws her bag on the counter and says she wants to do a return, then stares at us. So my co-worker asks if she has the receipt. The woman yells, "Don't get snotty with me!" My co-worker said she wasn't being snotty, and she wasn't, but the woman thought she was attacking her about a receipt. Because we have nothing better to do...
Then this Canadian (and you thought there wouldn't be a story about them this weekend) comes up and wants to know how much credit is available on her Target card. We can't tell, and I tell her this. She gets overly dramatic and asks me, "So you're telling me that I can't check the balance of my Target credit card at a Target store." I again tell her that we don't have access to her account information due to the privacy and security of card members. (Do you really want EVERY Target employee in the nation to have access to your account info? Didn't think so) I also tell her that she can call the number on the back of the card to find out and she can use our phone to call them, and to press 9 before the number. Every question thereafter told me she wasn't listening to a word I said. She asks, "Do you have a phone I could use?" Duh. "What number do I call?" You're an idiot. "Do I have to press anything before I dial?" Why do you even bother getting out of bed in the morning? Of course after she found out she was really nice to supposedly make up for her bitchiness. That's when I give her my 'fuck you' smile and add her to the 'Punch in the Face' list.
Then we're getting a transfer... A Guest Service transfer. Now because I'm very picky about this area, I hate getting transfers because they think they know everything when they just don't. Well, apparently, she told them that in her old store she ONLY works Guest Service, but no way in hell is that going to happen here. First off, she would suck up all the hours. Secondly, I've been barking up that tree my entire time there. It's not going to happen, and it better not, or I'm going on the warpath. We shall see...
Now I have 2 days off, and then I start my string of 7 days in a fucking row. I might as well go on the warpath now.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Thursday, June 07, 2007
And the Bitching Continues
I'm so ready to leave my store. I swear they don't know how to run a business. They are short-staffing us so badly, so our store gets under hours so the execs can get their bonuses. How nice. If I weren't transferring, I would quit. It's not acceptable anymore. I can't go into work without being overly stressed out because I can't handle the amount of work piled on to us. It's stopped being fun. The only thing most people talk about now is how much it sucks. At the beginning, I had great days at work with the occasional bad day. Now it's the other way around. It's almost always a bad day with the occasional good day.
And then you add the asshole guests. I swear, almost everyone yesterday was rude. And it wasn't just me that noticed it, it was all parts of the store.
So after my lunch there was this gallon of milk on the counter at Guest Service and they told me it was going to be exchanged. Ok, whatever. Well, this older couple come up and she's already telling me that she's up there to exchange the milk for a different brand because that was the second one that spoiled before the expiration date. Ok, whatever. I ask for the receipt and she acts like I'm asking for her first born. She doesn't have it. So I ask how she paid for it, and try her credit card and check. No go. She then goes into this tirade about how the person she talked to said we didn't need the receipt, but to just bring in the item. We can do that, but we would have to process it as a no receipt and you're only allowed 2 of those per year, but if you're going to get pissy for me trying to help you, then we can waste one. Then her husband goes into a rant about how we should all know the same things and shouldn't have to do this. He then looks at my nametag, says, "(My name), huh?" and walks over and grabs a comment card. Ok fuck you. I didn't do anything wrong here. So I do the exchange and off they go.
But that's not all folks! Shortly after that this woman comes up with a basketful of groceries and she wants to pay her Target card bill with one check. We can't. Each one has to be separate. Well she starts bitching about how she only has one check left. Oh, since you said that, the button magically appeared! No. She asks if she can write the check for over. No. "Even if it's just $5?" That still classifies as OVER, so no. "Well if I get a late charge, I will be pissed!" Not my problem. It's not Target's or my fault that you only had one check and you decided to but groceries. You made that call, not me. If she was actually thinking (which would've required a miracle), she could have put her groceries on her card, and paid the whole thing, but I wasn't about to help her out. And she was one of those people who want you to argue with them, and usually I just ignore them, but I finally just told her that I don't set the policies or how the system operates. She was quick to leave after that.
Now I have 2 days off, although I could use about 2 weeks off.
And then you add the asshole guests. I swear, almost everyone yesterday was rude. And it wasn't just me that noticed it, it was all parts of the store.
So after my lunch there was this gallon of milk on the counter at Guest Service and they told me it was going to be exchanged. Ok, whatever. Well, this older couple come up and she's already telling me that she's up there to exchange the milk for a different brand because that was the second one that spoiled before the expiration date. Ok, whatever. I ask for the receipt and she acts like I'm asking for her first born. She doesn't have it. So I ask how she paid for it, and try her credit card and check. No go. She then goes into this tirade about how the person she talked to said we didn't need the receipt, but to just bring in the item. We can do that, but we would have to process it as a no receipt and you're only allowed 2 of those per year, but if you're going to get pissy for me trying to help you, then we can waste one. Then her husband goes into a rant about how we should all know the same things and shouldn't have to do this. He then looks at my nametag, says, "(My name), huh?" and walks over and grabs a comment card. Ok fuck you. I didn't do anything wrong here. So I do the exchange and off they go.
But that's not all folks! Shortly after that this woman comes up with a basketful of groceries and she wants to pay her Target card bill with one check. We can't. Each one has to be separate. Well she starts bitching about how she only has one check left. Oh, since you said that, the button magically appeared! No. She asks if she can write the check for over. No. "Even if it's just $5?" That still classifies as OVER, so no. "Well if I get a late charge, I will be pissed!" Not my problem. It's not Target's or my fault that you only had one check and you decided to but groceries. You made that call, not me. If she was actually thinking (which would've required a miracle), she could have put her groceries on her card, and paid the whole thing, but I wasn't about to help her out. And she was one of those people who want you to argue with them, and usually I just ignore them, but I finally just told her that I don't set the policies or how the system operates. She was quick to leave after that.
Now I have 2 days off, although I could use about 2 weeks off.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Burnt Out
Yep, that's me. After a shitty weekend full of rude selfish Canadians, I'm just sick of even *thinking* about being at the store. And it certainly doesn't help that I'm at the end of my 6 day stretch. Today will be day 6 and then I have a whopping 2 days off.
Yesterday was dead, compared to this weekend, and I wasn't about to complain. Plus, I was at Guest Service so I could just stand there. There wasn't really any "bad" guests, but being burnt out, I'd rather not help anyone.
But someone did on of my pet peeves yesterday. I absolutely HATE when someone comes up to do a return and while I do it, they turn around and face the other way. So here I am, talking to your fucking back while I do your return. Show some fucking respect! I should honestly just stop with their return and move to the next person, and if they have anything to say, I'll just say, "Oh, I thought you weren't ready to return yet." But then my ass would get chewed by the 'guest' but I think it would be worth it.
I also hate when people are on their fucking cell phones when I'm trying to talk to them. I've either moved to the next person, or I just stand there and stare at them until they hang up. That's so disrespectful. It also happened when this one guest was talking to someone that was actually in the store and I was trying to talk to her, but to no avail. I was getting sick of trying to get her attention, so I cashed her out and left her cash right there on the counter and moved on to the next person.
I hope tonight is just as dead.
Yesterday was dead, compared to this weekend, and I wasn't about to complain. Plus, I was at Guest Service so I could just stand there. There wasn't really any "bad" guests, but being burnt out, I'd rather not help anyone.
But someone did on of my pet peeves yesterday. I absolutely HATE when someone comes up to do a return and while I do it, they turn around and face the other way. So here I am, talking to your fucking back while I do your return. Show some fucking respect! I should honestly just stop with their return and move to the next person, and if they have anything to say, I'll just say, "Oh, I thought you weren't ready to return yet." But then my ass would get chewed by the 'guest' but I think it would be worth it.
I also hate when people are on their fucking cell phones when I'm trying to talk to them. I've either moved to the next person, or I just stand there and stare at them until they hang up. That's so disrespectful. It also happened when this one guest was talking to someone that was actually in the store and I was trying to talk to her, but to no avail. I was getting sick of trying to get her attention, so I cashed her out and left her cash right there on the counter and moved on to the next person.
I hope tonight is just as dead.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Don't Talk To Me
I feel like shit. There's only so much you can take of being overworked and being treated like shit from people. What don't people understand? I'm a human too and yet I'm treated like garbage. I will never understand how someone can be so rude and hurtful towards someone they don't even know. And I know you're gonna turn my question back on me, but I don't act even 1/4 as rude to me as they do to me. It's just so unfair because customers know we can't defend ourselves. The remainder of my days at my store will be to change that. I don't care anymore. My self worth is more important than a stupid job.
More rude ass Canadians of fucking course. They are a bunch of fucking lazy pigs. I hate them. For example, one said to one of my co-workers who was working with me at Guest Service, "Can we get someone up here with a brain?" If they would have said that to me I honestly would have told them to fuck off and leave the store. How could you say that to someone? Heartless bastards. Castrate Canada.
And then one woman bitched us out and told us that Target doesn't support the troops. Please. Join the current millennium and realize that it was never true. Same thing about Target being a French company. Sorry, but unless Minneapolis, MN has been taken over by France, I don't think so.
We were there until 12:15, a full 2 hours and 15 minutes after close picking up after these slobs. I can't remember a time when it was so bad. I wasn't even done with my Guest Service shit until 11:45 because the head cashier made me take down the signs for the front lanes, plus I still had to do defectives and the adboards. I hate my fucking store.
And to make things better, I cashier 12-5:30 later today. Great. I swear if one of those snotty fuckers cops a 'tude with me, I will tell them off. I'm so close to quitting.
Until next time...
More rude ass Canadians of fucking course. They are a bunch of fucking lazy pigs. I hate them. For example, one said to one of my co-workers who was working with me at Guest Service, "Can we get someone up here with a brain?" If they would have said that to me I honestly would have told them to fuck off and leave the store. How could you say that to someone? Heartless bastards. Castrate Canada.
And then one woman bitched us out and told us that Target doesn't support the troops. Please. Join the current millennium and realize that it was never true. Same thing about Target being a French company. Sorry, but unless Minneapolis, MN has been taken over by France, I don't think so.
We were there until 12:15, a full 2 hours and 15 minutes after close picking up after these slobs. I can't remember a time when it was so bad. I wasn't even done with my Guest Service shit until 11:45 because the head cashier made me take down the signs for the front lanes, plus I still had to do defectives and the adboards. I hate my fucking store.
And to make things better, I cashier 12-5:30 later today. Great. I swear if one of those snotty fuckers cops a 'tude with me, I will tell them off. I'm so close to quitting.
Until next time...
"Long" Weekend
You know it's going to be bad when the radio DJs are complaining about Canadians. I heard them talking about how it's a "long weekend" for the Canadians because they have Monday off for Victoria Day. The radio host says, "Oh great." I burst out laughing because I was thinking the same thing. What's even funnier is when we were in Canada a few years back, we heard on the radio an explanation of a 'long weekend.' It went something like this: "...on the long weekend. What's a long weekend? It's a weekend with an extra day." Haha! Are you serious!? Like do people not know this so they have to put something on the radio to tell people?
So I am working a 6 day stretch and it just so happens to include this long weekend. Great. Friday was my first day in this string and it was horrible.
So I work 9:30-6 as a breaker and my first break was at Food Ave at 9:30. So I go over there and the person who was over there had cut themselves with the scissors so they had to go fill out an accident report. It took forever. She didn't get back until 10:30, and so breaks were LATE. But that didn't stop Karen from coming over and being a bitch. She comes over at about 10:15 and the first thing out of her mouth is, "Were you late today?" No. "Wasn't this your first break?" Yes, but she had to fill out a accident report. Honestly quit being a bitch. Was that the most appropriate thing to say to me first? The girl even told her she'd be filling it out. So that was just the beginning of my day. During this whole thing I had to make breakfast, something which I wasn't trained. The recipe book doesn't tell us how to microwave everything or for how long and so it was basically a guessing game. So I have this order of bacon, toast, sausage, and English muffin from 2 team members. I have no fucking clue and so I'm just guessing as I go. Well these 2 people with which I work with were being complete bitches. They were saying, "Where is she?" and, "Is there someone here who knows what they're doing?" Could you be a little more rude?
Then there was a Canadian explosion. Great. This weekend is going to suck. And of course most of them were rude. For example:
- One asks what the exchange rate is. I tell him that it's 1.18. He starts bitching that on the stock exchange it's 1.11. Before I could say anything, his wife yells at him saying, "I don't care what the exchange is, I'm here to shop." I laughed and figured I didn't need to go further.
- One Canadian is using their debit card and the person behind them has started writing a check. So he asks me if we still accept checks. "Yes" I tell him. "Well they wouldn't allow that in Canada!" and leaves. Ok jackass, good for you.
- My favorite one of the day didn't even happen to me. Chelsey was helping a Canadian sign up for a Target card and the canuck didn't want to give her social 'insurance' number. Fine, whatever. So Chelsey tells her that she would be unable to sign up for the card and wouldn't save the 10%. She starts bitching how she doesn't give out her social because she doesn't want her identity stolen. Chelsey tells her that we use it for almost everything we do, but the canuck still wanted to argue with her. She says, "I don't see why you can't just use my ID." And since Chelsey already told her she just shrugged and gave a 'I already told you look.' And the bitch yelled at her asking if she heard her, to which Chelsey just said yep. And this started a rant about how her social is precious to her and she doesn't give it out and this is why WE have a problem with identity theft in our country. My question is, wouldn't it be easier to steal your identity if they only needed your ID? Your social confirms who you are, but what the fuck ever.
Because my store is ran by total dumbfucks, they decide to cut hours THIS weekend. Nevermind that these next 3 weekends are going to be our busiest, they cut hours now. Who does this? We are so short-staffed with so much that needs to be done that it's similar to putting all your weight onto an egg and expecting it not to break. So this weekend we'll be overworked yet again. They were there until 11:45 last night because it was so bad. They are already expecting us to be there past midnight tonight because there are 8 closers. Eight closers when I'm sure we'll do close to $200,000 in sales!? Yeah fucking right. They've scheduled me 40 hours this week and so I'm coming in an hour late so I can stay until midnight. But I have to leave BEFORE midnight or else I'll hit overtime. And I was told I would be written up if I got overtime. Talk about bullshit.
So everyone is pissed at both the Canadians for making a mess of our store and being rude AND at the management. This should be an interesting weekend. I've already decided I'm going to be an asshole.
So I am working a 6 day stretch and it just so happens to include this long weekend. Great. Friday was my first day in this string and it was horrible.
So I work 9:30-6 as a breaker and my first break was at Food Ave at 9:30. So I go over there and the person who was over there had cut themselves with the scissors so they had to go fill out an accident report. It took forever. She didn't get back until 10:30, and so breaks were LATE. But that didn't stop Karen from coming over and being a bitch. She comes over at about 10:15 and the first thing out of her mouth is, "Were you late today?" No. "Wasn't this your first break?" Yes, but she had to fill out a accident report. Honestly quit being a bitch. Was that the most appropriate thing to say to me first? The girl even told her she'd be filling it out. So that was just the beginning of my day. During this whole thing I had to make breakfast, something which I wasn't trained. The recipe book doesn't tell us how to microwave everything or for how long and so it was basically a guessing game. So I have this order of bacon, toast, sausage, and English muffin from 2 team members. I have no fucking clue and so I'm just guessing as I go. Well these 2 people with which I work with were being complete bitches. They were saying, "Where is she?" and, "Is there someone here who knows what they're doing?" Could you be a little more rude?
Then there was a Canadian explosion. Great. This weekend is going to suck. And of course most of them were rude. For example:
- One asks what the exchange rate is. I tell him that it's 1.18. He starts bitching that on the stock exchange it's 1.11. Before I could say anything, his wife yells at him saying, "I don't care what the exchange is, I'm here to shop." I laughed and figured I didn't need to go further.
- One Canadian is using their debit card and the person behind them has started writing a check. So he asks me if we still accept checks. "Yes" I tell him. "Well they wouldn't allow that in Canada!" and leaves. Ok jackass, good for you.
- My favorite one of the day didn't even happen to me. Chelsey was helping a Canadian sign up for a Target card and the canuck didn't want to give her social 'insurance' number. Fine, whatever. So Chelsey tells her that she would be unable to sign up for the card and wouldn't save the 10%. She starts bitching how she doesn't give out her social because she doesn't want her identity stolen. Chelsey tells her that we use it for almost everything we do, but the canuck still wanted to argue with her. She says, "I don't see why you can't just use my ID." And since Chelsey already told her she just shrugged and gave a 'I already told you look.' And the bitch yelled at her asking if she heard her, to which Chelsey just said yep. And this started a rant about how her social is precious to her and she doesn't give it out and this is why WE have a problem with identity theft in our country. My question is, wouldn't it be easier to steal your identity if they only needed your ID? Your social confirms who you are, but what the fuck ever.
Because my store is ran by total dumbfucks, they decide to cut hours THIS weekend. Nevermind that these next 3 weekends are going to be our busiest, they cut hours now. Who does this? We are so short-staffed with so much that needs to be done that it's similar to putting all your weight onto an egg and expecting it not to break. So this weekend we'll be overworked yet again. They were there until 11:45 last night because it was so bad. They are already expecting us to be there past midnight tonight because there are 8 closers. Eight closers when I'm sure we'll do close to $200,000 in sales!? Yeah fucking right. They've scheduled me 40 hours this week and so I'm coming in an hour late so I can stay until midnight. But I have to leave BEFORE midnight or else I'll hit overtime. And I was told I would be written up if I got overtime. Talk about bullshit.
So everyone is pissed at both the Canadians for making a mess of our store and being rude AND at the management. This should be an interesting weekend. I've already decided I'm going to be an asshole.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Whoa
This weekend was rough. It was busy. People were really rude, more so than normal.
So like my little updater says, there were these 2 total bitches. I'm so glad I didn't help them because I would have argued with them. So one of the women was registered for her baby shower at Target, and already people think they're entitled to everything. Well, she had a lot of stuff that she didn't register for and so we couldn't use the registry/purchase log to do the return, thus throwing us back to the no-receipt policy where she can only do 2 items per year and yadda yadda yadda. Both of the women flipped ass and were completely rude and disrespectful. They were the type of people where they told us to make an exception for them. No, you can't demand an exception, it can only be offered. Well one woman said she used to work at Target a while ago and said we could override the policy and told us we "were going to do it." That was true a while ago, but we've had system updates since then where no one but Refund Authorization can override it, and Refund Authorization follows the policy stricter than we do, so they almost never override. So these 2 bitches (and that doesn't do them justice) went up the management chain and got the same answer. The LOD was up there and they were just trash-talking everyone involved so he repeated what we had said and left. Then they started bitching that a manager should never walk away and more shit. It was painful to listen to. I wanted to punch them in the ovaries.
There was also a Canadian who wanted to pay on her card but she didn't have her number or knew her balance and wanted us to look it up. We can't. We can't look up account numbers or find out the balance due to privacy issues. Do you want every Target employee in America to have access to your information!? Didn't think so. Well, that wasn't the end of it. After we told her that we do not have any access to any of her information she asked us different questions about it. "What if I give you my name? Can I give you my address? Can you look it up with my social?" NO! "What if I wanted to make a purchase?" WE STILL CAN'T! Plus, we need the card to charge on it. I hate when people ask us basically the same question when it's the same answer! We don't have access to your info! We don't say that and then say, oh but we can look up your name. What the fuck people!?
There was another family who didn't get it. This older woman comes in with a digital camera and it's defective, but didn't have a receipt. I was on lunch at the time so another co-worker handled it. It was 74.98 as the lowest sale price. We can't do anything without a receipt, so my co-worker told her to track down the receipt. And whenever we say receipt we mean one that's dated within 90 days, as per our policy. So the woman leaves. She comes back when my co-worker is on lunch and I'm up there, this time she has her receipt BUT it was bought LAST May. So obviously way past 90 days. So I tell her there's nothing we can do but give her a number where she can contact the manufactururer, and she leaves. About an hour or so later she comes back in with her daughter and son-in-law. This time they are freaking out. They are saying we are cheating them out of money and all that bullshit accusation. Your receipt is a year old! We have a 90 day return policy! What don't you understand!? You'll have to go through the manufacturer! I don't get when people expect a store to stand behind what they sell indefinitely. That's not the way things work.
But I got my raise! Thank fucking god! I'm over $9 now!
So like my little updater says, there were these 2 total bitches. I'm so glad I didn't help them because I would have argued with them. So one of the women was registered for her baby shower at Target, and already people think they're entitled to everything. Well, she had a lot of stuff that she didn't register for and so we couldn't use the registry/purchase log to do the return, thus throwing us back to the no-receipt policy where she can only do 2 items per year and yadda yadda yadda. Both of the women flipped ass and were completely rude and disrespectful. They were the type of people where they told us to make an exception for them. No, you can't demand an exception, it can only be offered. Well one woman said she used to work at Target a while ago and said we could override the policy and told us we "were going to do it." That was true a while ago, but we've had system updates since then where no one but Refund Authorization can override it, and Refund Authorization follows the policy stricter than we do, so they almost never override. So these 2 bitches (and that doesn't do them justice) went up the management chain and got the same answer. The LOD was up there and they were just trash-talking everyone involved so he repeated what we had said and left. Then they started bitching that a manager should never walk away and more shit. It was painful to listen to. I wanted to punch them in the ovaries.
There was also a Canadian who wanted to pay on her card but she didn't have her number or knew her balance and wanted us to look it up. We can't. We can't look up account numbers or find out the balance due to privacy issues. Do you want every Target employee in America to have access to your information!? Didn't think so. Well, that wasn't the end of it. After we told her that we do not have any access to any of her information she asked us different questions about it. "What if I give you my name? Can I give you my address? Can you look it up with my social?" NO! "What if I wanted to make a purchase?" WE STILL CAN'T! Plus, we need the card to charge on it. I hate when people ask us basically the same question when it's the same answer! We don't have access to your info! We don't say that and then say, oh but we can look up your name. What the fuck people!?
There was another family who didn't get it. This older woman comes in with a digital camera and it's defective, but didn't have a receipt. I was on lunch at the time so another co-worker handled it. It was 74.98 as the lowest sale price. We can't do anything without a receipt, so my co-worker told her to track down the receipt. And whenever we say receipt we mean one that's dated within 90 days, as per our policy. So the woman leaves. She comes back when my co-worker is on lunch and I'm up there, this time she has her receipt BUT it was bought LAST May. So obviously way past 90 days. So I tell her there's nothing we can do but give her a number where she can contact the manufactururer, and she leaves. About an hour or so later she comes back in with her daughter and son-in-law. This time they are freaking out. They are saying we are cheating them out of money and all that bullshit accusation. Your receipt is a year old! We have a 90 day return policy! What don't you understand!? You'll have to go through the manufacturer! I don't get when people expect a store to stand behind what they sell indefinitely. That's not the way things work.
But I got my raise! Thank fucking god! I'm over $9 now!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Where Am I?
So I haven't updated recently. There's nothing too interesting going on in the world of Target and I'm in the middle of a whole week off from the hellhole! I didn't even ask for this weekend off, but they gave it to me. What I did ask off was next weekend, but of course I work.
I'm nearing the end of this semester and after next Thursday, I'll be done! I'm so excited for this summer because it will be boatloads of fun. A bunch of us Target folk are all about the outside activities because it is only decent weather for about 3 months. We've already gotten in kickball, rollerblading, tennis, and a few parties. It's so much fun because the co-workers at my store are great.
Wonder why I'm such a good mood? Could it have something to do with me not working for a week? No, never. ;)
I'm nearing the end of this semester and after next Thursday, I'll be done! I'm so excited for this summer because it will be boatloads of fun. A bunch of us Target folk are all about the outside activities because it is only decent weather for about 3 months. We've already gotten in kickball, rollerblading, tennis, and a few parties. It's so much fun because the co-workers at my store are great.
Wonder why I'm such a good mood? Could it have something to do with me not working for a week? No, never. ;)
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
One Person Can Change Everything
So now that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, it makes me want to run as fast as possible to get to it. I’m done with my store at the very latest July 31. Every single bitchy person that I encounter makes me think of that day. And I’m glad.
Well, my computer is done being a shitface for the time being so here I am again. Perfect timing too because Doris came in tonight. The ‘buy shitloads of clearance stuff only to return it weeks later’ and has some of her receipts but because she waits until she has bags and bags of shit to return, it would take longer to use the receipts. So we use handy-dandy receipt look-up. I don’t know where I would be without it. Anywho, she comes in at 9:45 with 4 bags of clothing packed full. Fifteen minutes before close and four bags of shit. Her comment, “I thought this would be a good time.” Wrong! The best time would be right away in the morning. So I start doing my receipt look-ups and she doesn’t know which is on what transaction so I end up doing a majority of items by themselves. (Thank fucking god we’re getting our POS update NEXT week! Of course it couldn’t have been this week when I actually needed it) And Doris is just chatting away the reasons why she’s returning them. We’ve all heard it before; they don’t fit your granddaughter. You would think after buying so much clothing for her that she would know the size by now, but no! I see one item doesn’t have the tags or any numbers so I save that until later. I’m doing pretty good, I finish all but that one item in ten minutes. There had to be at least 35 items on 15 different receipt look-ups. So I tell her to go find the same thing and bring it up so I could use the numbers from that to attempt to find it. She comes back and it’s a no go. So like always she flips out about how she paid for it with her credit card and why she even bothers using her credit card because “we told her she could use it to do look-ups.” I tell her, like we always do, that receipt look-up isn’t 100% (but it’s damn close) and it’s always better to have a receipt. We then go through her stack of receipts she has. Not in there. She bitches more about how it should be on the card, and because it’s now after close I tell her she has 2 options: no-receipt return, or find the receipt. So I try to do the no-receipt return. I must’ve forgotten who I was dealing with; she had already used her 2 that Target allows per year. I’m pretty sure she burned those 2 up with me on the same day back when I knew little about her habits. So she bitches more and then I tell her she now has one option: find the receipt! She bitches about how it’s probably with her daughter because she kept some stuff. I give my classic ‘And?’ shrug and just stare at her. She goes on about I ruined her night because she was out $9. I ruined YOUR night!? How about you were ruining mine? How about whenever you come in you are so difficult to help because it’s your own damn fault you don’t have all the receipts?
It’s no wonder the head cashiers have Doris on their ‘Want to Ban’ list. After she said I ruined her night, I was expecting to hear her say she would stop shopping there. Did I hear it? Nope, which only means this will play out again and again. At least I have my light at the end of the tunnel.
I also cashier-trained. One person. They waste my time training on one person. At least group them together so I have a bunch, but one person is pointless. Yet there I am every Wednesday night training and more often then not, it’s one person.
I better get a good fucking raise. I deserve it.
Well, my computer is done being a shitface for the time being so here I am again. Perfect timing too because Doris came in tonight. The ‘buy shitloads of clearance stuff only to return it weeks later’ and has some of her receipts but because she waits until she has bags and bags of shit to return, it would take longer to use the receipts. So we use handy-dandy receipt look-up. I don’t know where I would be without it. Anywho, she comes in at 9:45 with 4 bags of clothing packed full. Fifteen minutes before close and four bags of shit. Her comment, “I thought this would be a good time.” Wrong! The best time would be right away in the morning. So I start doing my receipt look-ups and she doesn’t know which is on what transaction so I end up doing a majority of items by themselves. (Thank fucking god we’re getting our POS update NEXT week! Of course it couldn’t have been this week when I actually needed it) And Doris is just chatting away the reasons why she’s returning them. We’ve all heard it before; they don’t fit your granddaughter. You would think after buying so much clothing for her that she would know the size by now, but no! I see one item doesn’t have the tags or any numbers so I save that until later. I’m doing pretty good, I finish all but that one item in ten minutes. There had to be at least 35 items on 15 different receipt look-ups. So I tell her to go find the same thing and bring it up so I could use the numbers from that to attempt to find it. She comes back and it’s a no go. So like always she flips out about how she paid for it with her credit card and why she even bothers using her credit card because “we told her she could use it to do look-ups.” I tell her, like we always do, that receipt look-up isn’t 100% (but it’s damn close) and it’s always better to have a receipt. We then go through her stack of receipts she has. Not in there. She bitches more about how it should be on the card, and because it’s now after close I tell her she has 2 options: no-receipt return, or find the receipt. So I try to do the no-receipt return. I must’ve forgotten who I was dealing with; she had already used her 2 that Target allows per year. I’m pretty sure she burned those 2 up with me on the same day back when I knew little about her habits. So she bitches more and then I tell her she now has one option: find the receipt! She bitches about how it’s probably with her daughter because she kept some stuff. I give my classic ‘And?’ shrug and just stare at her. She goes on about I ruined her night because she was out $9. I ruined YOUR night!? How about you were ruining mine? How about whenever you come in you are so difficult to help because it’s your own damn fault you don’t have all the receipts?
It’s no wonder the head cashiers have Doris on their ‘Want to Ban’ list. After she said I ruined her night, I was expecting to hear her say she would stop shopping there. Did I hear it? Nope, which only means this will play out again and again. At least I have my light at the end of the tunnel.
I also cashier-trained. One person. They waste my time training on one person. At least group them together so I have a bunch, but one person is pointless. Yet there I am every Wednesday night training and more often then not, it’s one person.
I better get a good fucking raise. I deserve it.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Stupid Computer
Well, my laptop is on the fritz for whatever reason, and so I haven't been able to do my posts as frequently as I'd like. For now, I'll just use my old PC to update this whenever I can.
But anyways, GOOD NEWS! I got into my pharmacy program! So I'll be moving there in August, which means the end of my reign at my current Target. :( I'm leaning towards transferring to a Target with a pharmacy down there, so I could get some pharmacy experience. And also keep my wonderous pay (I should be around $9/hour after my May raise!) and also to have something to fall back upon if need be. It'll definitely be sad leaving all the great (and some not so great) people at my store and I can already see myself tearing up on my last day. It'll be bittersweet for sure.
So my supervisors are already freaking out because two of the best Guest Service people are leaving, myself and Amanda. Amanda will be doing some internship this summer. Well anyways, no one really goes above and beyond at GS except for us, so they want me to be a mentor to someone, which is nice to hear. Everyone up there knows the policies and everything, but some just need to go further with it. I consider myself responsible for the department and I'm kinda a perfectionist so it's very clean and organized. I also know more than anyone in our store about Guest Service and have encountered nearly everything that could happen up there. I just think they need people with initiative to learn in order to be the best in Guest Service, or anywhere for that matter.
So my Canadian rants will definitely slow down as I'm sure I won't be seeing nearly as many as them. THANK GOD! But if I work in the pharmacy, I'm sure to encounter a whole brand new set of guests.
I can't think of any rude/dumb people lately simply because I'm so happy I can see the end of the tunnel that some don't even matter anymore. But I'll definitely still share stories!
I just remembered one! And you thought you would see a post without bitching...
So this guy walks in with a mud-encrusted bike. "I'm from Canada (oh great) and this bike broke the first time my son used it, I just want to do an exchange." Now I don't know if any of you are familiar with Target and their bikes, but it's not fun although it does make sense. So I tell him that we have to let the bike guy come in and try to fix it and if he can't then we can refund his money. He freaks out saying that he's from Canada and won't be back down here and all that good stuff. He asks for a manager. I call the head cashier up. She says the same thing I did, then the LOD came up and told him the same thing we had said. Turns out the bike guy was coming in the next day and that was ok with our lovely Canadian. So I have him fill out his information and he leaves. I notice his last name was O'Toole. Knowing me, I blurt out, "How fitting." My supervisor just laughs. I didn't have the pleasure of dealing with him the next day so I don't know how the situation was handled.
And like every Easter Saturday (yes, the day before Easter Sunday) we always run out of something. This year we ran out of hams and Easter grass. And of course people were bitchy. Why are you waiting until the day before Easter to get Easter shit!? It just doesn't make sense. And now it's all on clearance... oh boy.
Until next time...
But anyways, GOOD NEWS! I got into my pharmacy program! So I'll be moving there in August, which means the end of my reign at my current Target. :( I'm leaning towards transferring to a Target with a pharmacy down there, so I could get some pharmacy experience. And also keep my wonderous pay (I should be around $9/hour after my May raise!) and also to have something to fall back upon if need be. It'll definitely be sad leaving all the great (and some not so great) people at my store and I can already see myself tearing up on my last day. It'll be bittersweet for sure.
So my supervisors are already freaking out because two of the best Guest Service people are leaving, myself and Amanda. Amanda will be doing some internship this summer. Well anyways, no one really goes above and beyond at GS except for us, so they want me to be a mentor to someone, which is nice to hear. Everyone up there knows the policies and everything, but some just need to go further with it. I consider myself responsible for the department and I'm kinda a perfectionist so it's very clean and organized. I also know more than anyone in our store about Guest Service and have encountered nearly everything that could happen up there. I just think they need people with initiative to learn in order to be the best in Guest Service, or anywhere for that matter.
So my Canadian rants will definitely slow down as I'm sure I won't be seeing nearly as many as them. THANK GOD! But if I work in the pharmacy, I'm sure to encounter a whole brand new set of guests.
I can't think of any rude/dumb people lately simply because I'm so happy I can see the end of the tunnel that some don't even matter anymore. But I'll definitely still share stories!
I just remembered one! And you thought you would see a post without bitching...
So this guy walks in with a mud-encrusted bike. "I'm from Canada (oh great) and this bike broke the first time my son used it, I just want to do an exchange." Now I don't know if any of you are familiar with Target and their bikes, but it's not fun although it does make sense. So I tell him that we have to let the bike guy come in and try to fix it and if he can't then we can refund his money. He freaks out saying that he's from Canada and won't be back down here and all that good stuff. He asks for a manager. I call the head cashier up. She says the same thing I did, then the LOD came up and told him the same thing we had said. Turns out the bike guy was coming in the next day and that was ok with our lovely Canadian. So I have him fill out his information and he leaves. I notice his last name was O'Toole. Knowing me, I blurt out, "How fitting." My supervisor just laughs. I didn't have the pleasure of dealing with him the next day so I don't know how the situation was handled.
And like every Easter Saturday (yes, the day before Easter Sunday) we always run out of something. This year we ran out of hams and Easter grass. And of course people were bitchy. Why are you waiting until the day before Easter to get Easter shit!? It just doesn't make sense. And now it's all on clearance... oh boy.
Until next time...
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Rough
It was a rough day yesterday. Well today should be even better, all the Canadians return the stuff they just bought for who knows what reason.
There were a lot of rude people, most of which I didn't have to encounter. But the best part is when I first got up to GS and I was talking to the other GSTMs and I said I'd be the one to get all the bitchy people, the phone rang, and I said "Exhibit A" before I even answered it. I pick it up and this woman tells me about how her daughter put her wedding gifts in a storage place in September and now wants to return them. Since that is way past the 90 days, I told her that the receipts would be expired and that she would have to do the whole no-receipt exchange. She freaks out saying the policy is stupid that we should be able to do it because it is stuff from Target. I tell her we have a 90 return policy and she continues to berate me. She tells me how she's old and didn't read the receipt and didn't know it expired. Nevermind that the return policy is on the back of every receipt. So I get sick of her yelling at me because all she is doing is arguing with me so I pull out the "I can get a supervisor for you to talk to" but no, she still keeps bitching and telling me she's going to come in and talk to a manager. Fine, go right ahead.
What don't people 'get' about 90 days? Who cares if it's from Target, that's not a factor in the return policy! It doesn't say 90 days with a valid receipt but we'll still take it back after that if we still sell it. If 90 isn't reasonable, then what is? 6 months? A year? 5 years? Why does that make sense? When you make a purchase from anywhere, you agree to all their terms, including the return policy. It is your responsibility as a consumer to know about these before you buy something.
My co-workers got much more rude people than I did. One guy asked for a manager and when he came up the guy TOLD him that we have 2 options, refund his money or he would leave his computer with us and we could install his computer game. The manager told him sternly that we wouldn't be doing either. (He had a open computer game, and could only be exchanged for the exact same thing)
I don't understand why anyone would be such an asshole to a complete stranger all over a return policy. What ever happened to acting like an adult?
There were a lot of rude people, most of which I didn't have to encounter. But the best part is when I first got up to GS and I was talking to the other GSTMs and I said I'd be the one to get all the bitchy people, the phone rang, and I said "Exhibit A" before I even answered it. I pick it up and this woman tells me about how her daughter put her wedding gifts in a storage place in September and now wants to return them. Since that is way past the 90 days, I told her that the receipts would be expired and that she would have to do the whole no-receipt exchange. She freaks out saying the policy is stupid that we should be able to do it because it is stuff from Target. I tell her we have a 90 return policy and she continues to berate me. She tells me how she's old and didn't read the receipt and didn't know it expired. Nevermind that the return policy is on the back of every receipt. So I get sick of her yelling at me because all she is doing is arguing with me so I pull out the "I can get a supervisor for you to talk to" but no, she still keeps bitching and telling me she's going to come in and talk to a manager. Fine, go right ahead.
What don't people 'get' about 90 days? Who cares if it's from Target, that's not a factor in the return policy! It doesn't say 90 days with a valid receipt but we'll still take it back after that if we still sell it. If 90 isn't reasonable, then what is? 6 months? A year? 5 years? Why does that make sense? When you make a purchase from anywhere, you agree to all their terms, including the return policy. It is your responsibility as a consumer to know about these before you buy something.
My co-workers got much more rude people than I did. One guy asked for a manager and when he came up the guy TOLD him that we have 2 options, refund his money or he would leave his computer with us and we could install his computer game. The manager told him sternly that we wouldn't be doing either. (He had a open computer game, and could only be exchanged for the exact same thing)
I don't understand why anyone would be such an asshole to a complete stranger all over a return policy. What ever happened to acting like an adult?
Saturday, March 31, 2007
More Fun
Of course it was busy, why the hell wouldn't it be?
I pull into the parking lot at noon on a FRIDAY and it looks like it's a busy Saturday, but this was NOON on a FRIDAY. Well yet again we were on a skeleton crew where even one person calling in sick affects the whole store. One of the cart attendants called in sick, so the LODs actually did some work and brought carts in. 3 salesfloor people called in so the LODs did returns to help. The closers were there until 11:40, a full hour and forty minutes AFTER close. And of course tonight will be worse and of course I close. I have to do the ad and everything, so I'm usually doing my Guest Service business until 11. But I just fucking hate the way they run the store. You know it's Canadian spring break, you know it's going to be REALLY busy, and yet we have no hours to show it. All so the LODs and STL get their bonuses because god forbid they actually care about the employees who got them their bonuses. I feel like the store shouldn't be judged on sales because there is really nothing we can do to control them (besides having MORE people on to help guests) and more on both guest and employee satisfaction.
So onto something else. I was already talking about how the no receipt limit was dropping to $40, then $20, but I didn't know it dropped to $40 TOMORROW! I get to work too so that should be fun. I believe August 1 is when it drops down to $20 but since there is NO communication in our store, I don't know for sure. Yes, change a very important fact about our job, but don't tell us about it. Great business plan.
I suppose I can end the bitter bitchfest here...for now.
I pull into the parking lot at noon on a FRIDAY and it looks like it's a busy Saturday, but this was NOON on a FRIDAY. Well yet again we were on a skeleton crew where even one person calling in sick affects the whole store. One of the cart attendants called in sick, so the LODs actually did some work and brought carts in. 3 salesfloor people called in so the LODs did returns to help. The closers were there until 11:40, a full hour and forty minutes AFTER close. And of course tonight will be worse and of course I close. I have to do the ad and everything, so I'm usually doing my Guest Service business until 11. But I just fucking hate the way they run the store. You know it's Canadian spring break, you know it's going to be REALLY busy, and yet we have no hours to show it. All so the LODs and STL get their bonuses because god forbid they actually care about the employees who got them their bonuses. I feel like the store shouldn't be judged on sales because there is really nothing we can do to control them (besides having MORE people on to help guests) and more on both guest and employee satisfaction.
So onto something else. I was already talking about how the no receipt limit was dropping to $40, then $20, but I didn't know it dropped to $40 TOMORROW! I get to work too so that should be fun. I believe August 1 is when it drops down to $20 but since there is NO communication in our store, I don't know for sure. Yes, change a very important fact about our job, but don't tell us about it. Great business plan.
I suppose I can end the bitter bitchfest here...for now.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
"The Customer Is Always Right" Is Wrong
I found this excellent article "Top 5 reasons why 'The customer is always right' is wrong" and I'll post it here so you can read it. It's available at http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/why-the-customer-is-always-right-results-in-bad-customer-service/. This goes beyond my hatred for some people and focuses more on the business side of things.
When the customer isn’t right - for your business
One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.
She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.
Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s [Kelleher, CEO of Southwest] desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’
In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”
The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to:
Convince customers that they will get good service at this company
Convince employees to give customers good service
Fortunately more and more businesses are abandoning this maxim - ironically because it leads to bad customer service.
Here are the top five reasons why “The customer is always right” is wrong.
1: It makes employees unhappy
Gordon Bethune is a brash Texan (as is Herb Kelleher, coincidentally) who is best known for turning Continental Airlines around “From Worst to First,” a story told in his book of the same title from 1998. He wanted to make sure that both customers and employees liked the way Continental treated them, so he made it very clear that the maxim “the customer is always right” didn’t hold sway at Continental.
In conflicts between employees and unruly customers he would consistently side with his people. Here’s how he puts it:
When we run into customers that we can’t reel back in, our loyalty is with our employees. They have to put up with this stuff every day. Just because you buy a ticket does not give you the right to abuse our employees . . .
We run more than 3 million people through our books every month. One or two of those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks. When it’s a choice between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on?
You can’t treat your employees like serfs. You have to value them . . . If they think that you won’t support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment.
So Bethune trusts his people over unreasonable customers. What I like about this attitude is that it balances employees and customers, where the “always right” maxim squarely favors the customer - which is not a good idea, because, as Bethune says, it causes resentment among employees.
Of course there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service. But trying to solve this by declaring the customer “always right” is counter-productive.
2: It gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage
Using the slogan “The customer is always right” abusive customers can demand just about anything - they’re right by definition, aren’t they? This makes the employees’ job that much harder, when trying to rein them in.
Also, it means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back.
3: Some customers are bad for business
Most businesses think that “the more customers the better”. But some customers are quite simply bad for business.
Danish IT service provider ServiceGruppen proudly tell this story:
One of our service technicians arrived at a customer’s site for a maintenance task, and to his great shock was treated very rudely by the customer.
When he’d finished the task and returned to the office, he told management about his experience. They promptly cancelled the customer’s contract.
Just like Kelleher dismissed the irate lady who kept complaining (but somehow also kept flying on Southwest), ServiceGruppen fired a bad customer. Note that it was not even a matter of a financial calculation - not a question of whether either company would make or lose money on that customer in the long run. It was a simple matter of respect and dignity and of treating their employees right.
4: It results in worse customer service
Rosenbluth International, a corporate travel agency, took it even further. CEO Hal Rosenbluth wrote an excellent book about their approach called Put The Customer Second - Put your people first and watch’em kick butt.
Rosenbluth argues that when you put the employees first, they put the customers first. Put employees first, and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy at work give better customer service because:
They care more about other people, including customers
They have more energy
They are happy, meaning they are more fun to talk to and interact with
They are more motivated
On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that:
Employees are not valued
That treating employees fairly is not important
That employees have no right to respect from customers
That employees have to put up with everything from customers
When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point, real good service is almost impossible - the best customers can hope for is fake good service. You know the kind I mean: corteous on the surface only.
5: Some customers are just plain wrong
Herb Kelleher agrees, as this passage From Nuts! the excellent book about Southwest Airlines shows:
Herb Kelleher […] makes it clear that his employees come first — even if it means dismissing customers. But aren’t customers always right? “No, they are not,” Kelleher snaps. “And I think that’s one of the biggest betrayals of employees a boss can possibly commit. The customer is sometimes wrong. We don’t carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and say, ‘Fly somebody else. Don’t abuse our people.’”
If you still think that the customer is always right, read this story from Bethune’s book “From Worst to First”:
A Continental flight attendant once was offended by a passenger’s child wearing a hat with Nazi and KKK emblems on it. It was pretty offensive stuff, so the attendant went to the kid’s father and asked him to put away the hat. “No,” the guy said. “My kid can wear what he wants, and I don’t care who likes it.”
The flight attendant went into the cockpit and got the first officer, who explained to the passenger the FAA regulation that makes it a crime to interfere with the duties of a crew member. The hat was causing other passengers and the crew discomfort, and that interfered with the flight attendant’s duties. The guy better put away the hat.
He did, but he didn’t like it. He wrote many nasty letters. We made every effort to explain our policy and the federal air regulations, but he wasn’t hearing it. He even showed up in our executive suite to discuss the matter with me. I let him sit out there. I didn’t want to see him and I didn’t want to listen to him. He bought a ticket on our airplane, and that means we’ll take him where he wants to go. But if he’s going to be rude and offensive, he’s welcome to fly another airline.
The fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, that businesses are better of without them, and that managers siding with unreasonable customers over employees is a very bad idea, that results in worse customer service.
So put your people first. And watch them put the customers first.
When the customer isn’t right - for your business
One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.
She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.
Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s [Kelleher, CEO of Southwest] desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’
In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”
The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to:
Convince customers that they will get good service at this company
Convince employees to give customers good service
Fortunately more and more businesses are abandoning this maxim - ironically because it leads to bad customer service.
Here are the top five reasons why “The customer is always right” is wrong.
1: It makes employees unhappy
Gordon Bethune is a brash Texan (as is Herb Kelleher, coincidentally) who is best known for turning Continental Airlines around “From Worst to First,” a story told in his book of the same title from 1998. He wanted to make sure that both customers and employees liked the way Continental treated them, so he made it very clear that the maxim “the customer is always right” didn’t hold sway at Continental.
In conflicts between employees and unruly customers he would consistently side with his people. Here’s how he puts it:
When we run into customers that we can’t reel back in, our loyalty is with our employees. They have to put up with this stuff every day. Just because you buy a ticket does not give you the right to abuse our employees . . .
We run more than 3 million people through our books every month. One or two of those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks. When it’s a choice between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on?
You can’t treat your employees like serfs. You have to value them . . . If they think that you won’t support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment.
So Bethune trusts his people over unreasonable customers. What I like about this attitude is that it balances employees and customers, where the “always right” maxim squarely favors the customer - which is not a good idea, because, as Bethune says, it causes resentment among employees.
Of course there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service. But trying to solve this by declaring the customer “always right” is counter-productive.
2: It gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage
Using the slogan “The customer is always right” abusive customers can demand just about anything - they’re right by definition, aren’t they? This makes the employees’ job that much harder, when trying to rein them in.
Also, it means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back.
3: Some customers are bad for business
Most businesses think that “the more customers the better”. But some customers are quite simply bad for business.
Danish IT service provider ServiceGruppen proudly tell this story:
One of our service technicians arrived at a customer’s site for a maintenance task, and to his great shock was treated very rudely by the customer.
When he’d finished the task and returned to the office, he told management about his experience. They promptly cancelled the customer’s contract.
Just like Kelleher dismissed the irate lady who kept complaining (but somehow also kept flying on Southwest), ServiceGruppen fired a bad customer. Note that it was not even a matter of a financial calculation - not a question of whether either company would make or lose money on that customer in the long run. It was a simple matter of respect and dignity and of treating their employees right.
4: It results in worse customer service
Rosenbluth International, a corporate travel agency, took it even further. CEO Hal Rosenbluth wrote an excellent book about their approach called Put The Customer Second - Put your people first and watch’em kick butt.
Rosenbluth argues that when you put the employees first, they put the customers first. Put employees first, and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy at work give better customer service because:
They care more about other people, including customers
They have more energy
They are happy, meaning they are more fun to talk to and interact with
They are more motivated
On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that:
Employees are not valued
That treating employees fairly is not important
That employees have no right to respect from customers
That employees have to put up with everything from customers
When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point, real good service is almost impossible - the best customers can hope for is fake good service. You know the kind I mean: corteous on the surface only.
5: Some customers are just plain wrong
Herb Kelleher agrees, as this passage From Nuts! the excellent book about Southwest Airlines shows:
Herb Kelleher […] makes it clear that his employees come first — even if it means dismissing customers. But aren’t customers always right? “No, they are not,” Kelleher snaps. “And I think that’s one of the biggest betrayals of employees a boss can possibly commit. The customer is sometimes wrong. We don’t carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and say, ‘Fly somebody else. Don’t abuse our people.’”
If you still think that the customer is always right, read this story from Bethune’s book “From Worst to First”:
A Continental flight attendant once was offended by a passenger’s child wearing a hat with Nazi and KKK emblems on it. It was pretty offensive stuff, so the attendant went to the kid’s father and asked him to put away the hat. “No,” the guy said. “My kid can wear what he wants, and I don’t care who likes it.”
The flight attendant went into the cockpit and got the first officer, who explained to the passenger the FAA regulation that makes it a crime to interfere with the duties of a crew member. The hat was causing other passengers and the crew discomfort, and that interfered with the flight attendant’s duties. The guy better put away the hat.
He did, but he didn’t like it. He wrote many nasty letters. We made every effort to explain our policy and the federal air regulations, but he wasn’t hearing it. He even showed up in our executive suite to discuss the matter with me. I let him sit out there. I didn’t want to see him and I didn’t want to listen to him. He bought a ticket on our airplane, and that means we’ll take him where he wants to go. But if he’s going to be rude and offensive, he’s welcome to fly another airline.
The fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, that businesses are better of without them, and that managers siding with unreasonable customers over employees is a very bad idea, that results in worse customer service.
So put your people first. And watch them put the customers first.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Things Are A Changing
Well, we're right in the middle of Canadian spring break and from what I hear, it's a complete disaster at my store. They've been there for ~2 hours past closing. THAT'S MIDNIGHT! That's completely unacceptable in my book. They KNOW when Canadian spring break is but yet every year, we don't have enough scheduling. I can only describe it as busy like Christmas shopping. It's nuts. But, we only have scheduling for a normal weekday in March. It fucking pisses me off. I'm not looking forward to closing Saturday because it will be BAD. I'm guessing even past midnight. I will not be a happy camper that day.
What I don't get is why Canadians are willing to spend a week in our city. There's barely enough to do here to last a weekend, but it seems like they come into Target EVERYDAY. Why? I have no idea. And another thing, why does the WHOLE country have spring break? I have yet to see college-aged students, it's all middle-aged women who think they're hot and old people. Gross. And it would be a cold day in hell before they'd leave their CANADA shirts/sweatshirts at home. We can tell you're from Canada without the flag plastered over every item on you.
But now to my blog title, Target is changing an aspect of the no receipt policy. For the good you think? Hell no! It's becoming even more limited. When we get our new Point-Of-Sale software, it will only allow us to do items under $40 without a receipt. The whole exchanging thing will stay the same. It used to be items under $100. But that's not all! We'll eventually phase out the $40 limit and replace it with a $20 one! Oh joy! I have no dates when this is happening, but it will be sometime this year. I'm not excited because if we thought people were assholes before, it's only going to get worse. But a way to combat this is to keep ALL of your receipts because within 90 days, you can still return pretty much the world.
I'll be closing tonight, so be sure to watch the ugly pink box in the sideline to hear what it's like at my store in real time. I'm so not looking forward to tonight.
What I don't get is why Canadians are willing to spend a week in our city. There's barely enough to do here to last a weekend, but it seems like they come into Target EVERYDAY. Why? I have no idea. And another thing, why does the WHOLE country have spring break? I have yet to see college-aged students, it's all middle-aged women who think they're hot and old people. Gross. And it would be a cold day in hell before they'd leave their CANADA shirts/sweatshirts at home. We can tell you're from Canada without the flag plastered over every item on you.
But now to my blog title, Target is changing an aspect of the no receipt policy. For the good you think? Hell no! It's becoming even more limited. When we get our new Point-Of-Sale software, it will only allow us to do items under $40 without a receipt. The whole exchanging thing will stay the same. It used to be items under $100. But that's not all! We'll eventually phase out the $40 limit and replace it with a $20 one! Oh joy! I have no dates when this is happening, but it will be sometime this year. I'm not excited because if we thought people were assholes before, it's only going to get worse. But a way to combat this is to keep ALL of your receipts because within 90 days, you can still return pretty much the world.
I'll be closing tonight, so be sure to watch the ugly pink box in the sideline to hear what it's like at my store in real time. I'm so not looking forward to tonight.
Friday, March 23, 2007
How Do You Take A Magnet Off?
Yep that rude people magnet that I have attached to me is really working.
Wednesday, the very first person I help is a bitch. She bought something back in November and so the receipt expired in February. Well because the receipt was expired, we couldn't use it. It was still in our system though, so we could do a no-receipt (because hers was no longer valid) exchange and the item was about $30. So one item from the same department for equal or greater value and blah blah blah. She is one of the many people that ask for a giftcard (again, if it were an option I would have said so) and then demands a manager. The manager comes up and tells her the exact same thing I did. And then of course it always ends with the person screaming that they will never step foot in a Target again. Ok, bye, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. It's always fun when you get a Noreceiptus majorbitchus as your very first person. Things can only get better. Riiiiiiiight, which leads me to...
The scammers. Or Scammeri drunkus. You could smell the beer rolling off these two. So I see them walking from the electronics department with a DVD-VCR combo. Normal nonscammers bring in their stuff in from outside. But because there were no security people there, I couldn't do a thing, and that's what sucked. So they bring their "return" up to me and it comes up as $76.99 as the lowest price. Same no-receipt policy as before, no need to repeat myself. So they grab Guitar Hero II and that's $79.99. So I start to process it and because the DVD/VCR combo has a serial number, and so I type it in, and wow, it can't find it! Meaning it hasn't been purchased! So I tell them that I am unable to return it without a valid receipt. They both go into a fit. From saying "Can we get someone else up here who knows what they're doing?" , "Just let us pay for the difference now, and you can get it to work later." to "We can sell this at a pawn shop." How many more red flags do I need!? So because we weren't able to do the exchange, they walked out with the DVD/VCR combo, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.
Bringing me to today... This I'm really pissed about. So this lady comes up to Guest Service with at least a two foot long receipt. It was dated March 3. She claims she forgot to use her Target Rewards card where she gets 10% off. Had it been the same day, it would have taken 2 minutes tops. But because it was from a previous day, in order for me to get it to work, I would have to type in EVERY SINGLE THING ON THE RECEIPT and refund it, and then once again type in EVERY SINGLE THING ON THE RECEIPT to repurchase it. On a (at least) two foot long receipt totaling ~$350, and of course it was mostly consisting of items under $1. So as I'm typing everything in to return it, the way our system is set up is that if it's a perishable food item, it will make you defect it out. Because nothing was actually being returned, it's going to mess up our inventory, all to please a (soon to be found out later, bitchy) guest. So I finally finish returning it, and give her the cash back. Then I start typing it all back in for the repurchase, but this time I have to make sure she isn't being overcharged for items (because it WAS 20 days ago!) and of course some items are lower than what she purchased them for, and I can't change them up because the computer wouldn't let me, so she's getting even more of a discount. Well, I finally finish and we use her Rewards card and she saves $35 and I take her Rewards card and she pays. Well, then she asks for her discount card back (because it can be used all day) and I was furious enough so I turned to Chelsey, who was up there SOLELY because I had spent 45 MINUTES(!!!!!) helping her when I didn't need to. Chelsey tells her no because it would've been used March 5 and so she couldn't get the benefit of using it two days. She also complained that she didn't want to buy it that day and was going to return everything that day and rebuy everything today, if she could use her discount. Well yes! But since that was not the case, she got pissed and said 'Thanks!' in a bitchy way and walked off.
Are you kidding me!? I spent 45 minutes so you could get a $35 discount and you have the nerve to complain that you can't use it further!? But what really pissed me off is that this bitch's mom walks up and asks her what's taking so long. Thank god I didn't hear her or else I would have went OFF on her. I'm doing you a favor, and since you want it done so badly, you do not deserve to complain. I was about to send her shopping when I started, but then I figured that if I'm going to stand her and do this (TO BE NICE!) then she could stand there with me also. So now after that ordeal, the head cashiers decided that people only have 3 days to come in and fix stuff like this.
Which brings me to this: I'm sick of being nice to people. I would say 90% of the time where I do something nice (that I don't HAVE to do), people still bitch and moan. I can be an asshole. I can be insensitive. But the truth is, I don't have a mean bone in my body unless you constantly press my buttons. All I ask is that I'm treated with respect, but sadly I rarely ever am. You think retail is easy? Try it. By all means, I'll even train you in! And then we'll see how you like being constantly and consistently treated like shit day in and day out. So for all you non-retailers out there: Be respectful! I can honestly say that I have not fully helped someone (compared to how much I could have helped them) simply based on their attitude towards me. You may think that's mean of me, but why do they deserve it? If you can't be nice to me, you don't deserve a thing.
End of rant.
Wednesday, the very first person I help is a bitch. She bought something back in November and so the receipt expired in February. Well because the receipt was expired, we couldn't use it. It was still in our system though, so we could do a no-receipt (because hers was no longer valid) exchange and the item was about $30. So one item from the same department for equal or greater value and blah blah blah. She is one of the many people that ask for a giftcard (again, if it were an option I would have said so) and then demands a manager. The manager comes up and tells her the exact same thing I did. And then of course it always ends with the person screaming that they will never step foot in a Target again. Ok, bye, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. It's always fun when you get a Noreceiptus majorbitchus as your very first person. Things can only get better. Riiiiiiiight, which leads me to...
The scammers. Or Scammeri drunkus. You could smell the beer rolling off these two. So I see them walking from the electronics department with a DVD-VCR combo. Normal nonscammers bring in their stuff in from outside. But because there were no security people there, I couldn't do a thing, and that's what sucked. So they bring their "return" up to me and it comes up as $76.99 as the lowest price. Same no-receipt policy as before, no need to repeat myself. So they grab Guitar Hero II and that's $79.99. So I start to process it and because the DVD/VCR combo has a serial number, and so I type it in, and wow, it can't find it! Meaning it hasn't been purchased! So I tell them that I am unable to return it without a valid receipt. They both go into a fit. From saying "Can we get someone else up here who knows what they're doing?" , "Just let us pay for the difference now, and you can get it to work later." to "We can sell this at a pawn shop." How many more red flags do I need!? So because we weren't able to do the exchange, they walked out with the DVD/VCR combo, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.
Bringing me to today... This I'm really pissed about. So this lady comes up to Guest Service with at least a two foot long receipt. It was dated March 3. She claims she forgot to use her Target Rewards card where she gets 10% off. Had it been the same day, it would have taken 2 minutes tops. But because it was from a previous day, in order for me to get it to work, I would have to type in EVERY SINGLE THING ON THE RECEIPT and refund it, and then once again type in EVERY SINGLE THING ON THE RECEIPT to repurchase it. On a (at least) two foot long receipt totaling ~$350, and of course it was mostly consisting of items under $1. So as I'm typing everything in to return it, the way our system is set up is that if it's a perishable food item, it will make you defect it out. Because nothing was actually being returned, it's going to mess up our inventory, all to please a (soon to be found out later, bitchy) guest. So I finally finish returning it, and give her the cash back. Then I start typing it all back in for the repurchase, but this time I have to make sure she isn't being overcharged for items (because it WAS 20 days ago!) and of course some items are lower than what she purchased them for, and I can't change them up because the computer wouldn't let me, so she's getting even more of a discount. Well, I finally finish and we use her Rewards card and she saves $35 and I take her Rewards card and she pays. Well, then she asks for her discount card back (because it can be used all day) and I was furious enough so I turned to Chelsey, who was up there SOLELY because I had spent 45 MINUTES(!!!!!) helping her when I didn't need to. Chelsey tells her no because it would've been used March 5 and so she couldn't get the benefit of using it two days. She also complained that she didn't want to buy it that day and was going to return everything that day and rebuy everything today, if she could use her discount. Well yes! But since that was not the case, she got pissed and said 'Thanks!' in a bitchy way and walked off.
Are you kidding me!? I spent 45 minutes so you could get a $35 discount and you have the nerve to complain that you can't use it further!? But what really pissed me off is that this bitch's mom walks up and asks her what's taking so long. Thank god I didn't hear her or else I would have went OFF on her. I'm doing you a favor, and since you want it done so badly, you do not deserve to complain. I was about to send her shopping when I started, but then I figured that if I'm going to stand her and do this (TO BE NICE!) then she could stand there with me also. So now after that ordeal, the head cashiers decided that people only have 3 days to come in and fix stuff like this.
Which brings me to this: I'm sick of being nice to people. I would say 90% of the time where I do something nice (that I don't HAVE to do), people still bitch and moan. I can be an asshole. I can be insensitive. But the truth is, I don't have a mean bone in my body unless you constantly press my buttons. All I ask is that I'm treated with respect, but sadly I rarely ever am. You think retail is easy? Try it. By all means, I'll even train you in! And then we'll see how you like being constantly and consistently treated like shit day in and day out. So for all you non-retailers out there: Be respectful! I can honestly say that I have not fully helped someone (compared to how much I could have helped them) simply based on their attitude towards me. You may think that's mean of me, but why do they deserve it? If you can't be nice to me, you don't deserve a thing.
End of rant.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Well, I Asked For It
Yesterday I made a post saying that I wanted today to be just as "fun" as yesterday, and I got the icing on the cake.
So I get a phone call at Guest Service and this lady wants an adjustment. She bought it on 3/3 making it 15 days. Our adjustment policy is 14 days. I tell her this over the phone, and say that I've encountered a few times where it let me adjust it after the fact and that we didn't know until we tried it in the store. I did not guarantee her anything, I just told her we could try it.
So she and her 20-something kid came into the store to try it. It didn't work, just my luck. The lady freaks out in all senses of the word basically bitching at me. She yells that why did I tell her she could do it if she couldn't. I told her I only said she could come in and try it, and that I didn't guarantee her anything. She starts bitching that if it was only 14 days, then why did I say we could try it. Because it sometimes lets us. So I get sick of her bitching at me and call up the head cashier to take care of it. They totally back me up and get the bitch to leave. But not before the son (of the bitch--haha) starts yelling, "FUCK THIS PLACE! FUCK THIS PLACE!" The mom is still arguing with the head cashier and me saying (to me), "If you work up here, you should know the policy." No, bitch, wrong thing to say. I say, "I DO know the policy." I could bet you $1 billion I know more about Guest Service than anyone in our store including the managers. She's also bitching that she had to make a 10-minute trip here. Oh boohoo. And then as they walk off, the woman turns around, "Wal-mart would've done it." Well, you're not in Wal-mart dear! I say as soon as she disappears, "I have a feeling we'll be seeing them again." Not even 30 seconds later she comes back up. Great. She's then asking if she will get cash back if she comes in to exchange it. We get that whole thing figured out and she leaves to get the item. But she said, "We'll be right back, he lives right over there" and points. But I thought it was a 10 minute drive? Hmm...
There were other rude people but she took the cake. And I must've had a rude people magnet on me.
So I get a phone call at Guest Service and this lady wants an adjustment. She bought it on 3/3 making it 15 days. Our adjustment policy is 14 days. I tell her this over the phone, and say that I've encountered a few times where it let me adjust it after the fact and that we didn't know until we tried it in the store. I did not guarantee her anything, I just told her we could try it.
So she and her 20-something kid came into the store to try it. It didn't work, just my luck. The lady freaks out in all senses of the word basically bitching at me. She yells that why did I tell her she could do it if she couldn't. I told her I only said she could come in and try it, and that I didn't guarantee her anything. She starts bitching that if it was only 14 days, then why did I say we could try it. Because it sometimes lets us. So I get sick of her bitching at me and call up the head cashier to take care of it. They totally back me up and get the bitch to leave. But not before the son (of the bitch--haha) starts yelling, "FUCK THIS PLACE! FUCK THIS PLACE!" The mom is still arguing with the head cashier and me saying (to me), "If you work up here, you should know the policy." No, bitch, wrong thing to say. I say, "I DO know the policy." I could bet you $1 billion I know more about Guest Service than anyone in our store including the managers. She's also bitching that she had to make a 10-minute trip here. Oh boohoo. And then as they walk off, the woman turns around, "Wal-mart would've done it." Well, you're not in Wal-mart dear! I say as soon as she disappears, "I have a feeling we'll be seeing them again." Not even 30 seconds later she comes back up. Great. She's then asking if she will get cash back if she comes in to exchange it. We get that whole thing figured out and she leaves to get the item. But she said, "We'll be right back, he lives right over there" and points. But I thought it was a 10 minute drive? Hmm...
There were other rude people but she took the cake. And I must've had a rude people magnet on me.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Back Into The Swing Of Things
Yeah, the nice people had to take this weekend off because we had a lot of rude people.
I experienced a few "fun" people:
This woman lost her keys and was freaking out because of it. I understand, but this lady was a bitch. She comes up and asks me if any keys were turned in. Nope. Then she asks me to page overhead for everyone in the store to check their carts for her keys. Hell no. I tell her that I'm unable to do that because the only thing I'm allowed to do overhead is page someone. She freaks out. "So I'm just SOL then!? I can't check every cart!" I give her this shrug and just tell her I can't make the page for her. I tell her I can call up a supervisor for her to talk to but that's about it. She storms off and just then is when a cashier finds her keys on the lane she was just at. I hope she drops them down into the sewer and can't get them out. Page that bitch.
Then this whole no receipt exchange thing is getting out of control. Some people are just bitchy. One guy had something from infants that was $19.99 and it was a gift so he didn't have a receipt. Here goes the conversation:
Me-"Without a receipt, you'll have to exchange this for one item from infants that is $19.99 or greater."
Asshole-"Can't you give me a giftcard!?" (Did I fucking mention one!?)
M-"Not without a receipt. You'll have to exchange it for another item from infants that's 19.99 or greater."
A-"Then just give me a giftcard to do that."
M-"No, you'll have to do the exchange up here."
So he walks away and bitches to his wife (loudly so I guess I could hear) and they walk off. Oh, too bad it's the end of my shift and I can leave.
There was also this woman who challenged it right as it came out of my mouth, and I'm sick of people treating me like crap so I explained everything so the little sweetheart could understand. She was also bitching that you're only allowed two no receipt returns/exchanges per year to which I corrected her saying, "Target requires a receipt for all returns and exchanges, and they do allow two exceptions per 12 month period." Bitch, if you want to go by the real policy, I'd have no problem. I'm helping YOU out.
Then there was this woman who already used her two but bitched because she was just exchanging and that "it wasn't a return." Exchanging is RETURNING an item and buying another one. Returning is a part of an exchange, but you are technically still returning something to the store.
Here's to hoping that tomorrow is just as fun!
I experienced a few "fun" people:
This woman lost her keys and was freaking out because of it. I understand, but this lady was a bitch. She comes up and asks me if any keys were turned in. Nope. Then she asks me to page overhead for everyone in the store to check their carts for her keys. Hell no. I tell her that I'm unable to do that because the only thing I'm allowed to do overhead is page someone. She freaks out. "So I'm just SOL then!? I can't check every cart!" I give her this shrug and just tell her I can't make the page for her. I tell her I can call up a supervisor for her to talk to but that's about it. She storms off and just then is when a cashier finds her keys on the lane she was just at. I hope she drops them down into the sewer and can't get them out. Page that bitch.
Then this whole no receipt exchange thing is getting out of control. Some people are just bitchy. One guy had something from infants that was $19.99 and it was a gift so he didn't have a receipt. Here goes the conversation:
Me-"Without a receipt, you'll have to exchange this for one item from infants that is $19.99 or greater."
Asshole-"Can't you give me a giftcard!?" (Did I fucking mention one!?)
M-"Not without a receipt. You'll have to exchange it for another item from infants that's 19.99 or greater."
A-"Then just give me a giftcard to do that."
M-"No, you'll have to do the exchange up here."
So he walks away and bitches to his wife (loudly so I guess I could hear) and they walk off. Oh, too bad it's the end of my shift and I can leave.
There was also this woman who challenged it right as it came out of my mouth, and I'm sick of people treating me like crap so I explained everything so the little sweetheart could understand. She was also bitching that you're only allowed two no receipt returns/exchanges per year to which I corrected her saying, "Target requires a receipt for all returns and exchanges, and they do allow two exceptions per 12 month period." Bitch, if you want to go by the real policy, I'd have no problem. I'm helping YOU out.
Then there was this woman who already used her two but bitched because she was just exchanging and that "it wasn't a return." Exchanging is RETURNING an item and buying another one. Returning is a part of an exchange, but you are technically still returning something to the store.
Here's to hoping that tomorrow is just as fun!
Friday, March 16, 2007
"Keep using them"
So no big issues at work today, it was kinda slow with some spurts of activity.
But something happened to my friend back in domestics. So you know about those dumbass shoes with the wheel in them (Heelies or whatever), well you can't use them in the store because it's just like rollerblades and stuff like that. It's not safe! Well, my friend saw them earlier and then heard one of them yell 'wipeout.' So, because she doesn't want to get in trouble for one of the kids using them, she went and told them they couldn't use them in the store. The mother of the kids told them, "Keep using them" and walked off. So she went and told our security person, but they had already left.
But honestly, I get the whole 'Don't tell my kids what to do' shtick, but when you are in a PUBLIC place especially one full of people, you can have some consideration for others. Because who would the mom blame if her kid hurt themself...the store! Because no one has any personal responsibility anymore. If I were my friend, I would have told her to leave right then and there.
But something happened to my friend back in domestics. So you know about those dumbass shoes with the wheel in them (Heelies or whatever), well you can't use them in the store because it's just like rollerblades and stuff like that. It's not safe! Well, my friend saw them earlier and then heard one of them yell 'wipeout.' So, because she doesn't want to get in trouble for one of the kids using them, she went and told them they couldn't use them in the store. The mother of the kids told them, "Keep using them" and walked off. So she went and told our security person, but they had already left.
But honestly, I get the whole 'Don't tell my kids what to do' shtick, but when you are in a PUBLIC place especially one full of people, you can have some consideration for others. Because who would the mom blame if her kid hurt themself...the store! Because no one has any personal responsibility anymore. If I were my friend, I would have told her to leave right then and there.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Coincidence?
So today I was genuinely being nice to people and I didn't have near as many cranky fucks as usual. Maybe there's a correlation? No, it can't be. ;)
Just when you think you've seen and heard everything, something else comes up leaving you dumbfounded. So I'm giving Guest Service a break and this old guy comes up with a gift receipt and hands ONLY the gift receipt to me. He didn't have anything else. So I look at him like 'What the hell am I supposed to do with this?' look and say, "Did you need to return something?" Now I just love when people treat you like YOU are the one that's retarded when it's really them and this is a perfect example. He's a complete asshole and basically gives me the 'You figure it out' look. Apparently he thinks that the gift receipt that was given to him meant that we had his gift at our store. He even points out that both the gift receipt AND our sign says to present the gift receipt to which I say, "That's for returns and exchanges. We don't do anything like that here." He still insinuates that he has a gift sitting at our store that his daughter paid for and his gift receipt is what he needed to pick it up. So I use my handy computer and tell him everything that's on the gift receipt, basically spoiling his gift. He finally 'got it' and realized that maybe his gift, to which I just told him what it was, is in the mail on it's way to him. Some people.
One of these days I may just have to say what I'm thinking to these people.
For example, the people that wait in line and sigh and complain that it's taking forever, and when it's their turn, THAT'S when they start looking for the god damn receipt. How about you look for it while you're bitching about waiting! That's why it takes us so long because we have to wait for people to dig through a year's worth of receipts.
Or to the people on cell phones, come on! The next time someone doesn't get off their phone for my transaction (after all I am a human and deserve some respect) I should just take out my cell phone and call people until they are done. I have ignored people that were on their cell phone at Guest Service and I don't feel the least bit sad about it. You can hang up your fucking phone for 2 minutes. My best example of this is when this one woman comes up and in between her conversation with whomever (could've been the president!) she was telling me her situation. So I begin to tell her the no-receipt exchange policy, she puts up her finger and shushes me. HELL NO, you just didn't do that! I walked to another register and helped the next person in line. How disrespectful. Your ass walked up to me, I'm the priority. I don't mean that in a snotty way, but if you need MY help, you interact with ME, not your cell phone.
Ah, spring break... 5 days off from work. Maybe it will calm me down a bit?
Just when you think you've seen and heard everything, something else comes up leaving you dumbfounded. So I'm giving Guest Service a break and this old guy comes up with a gift receipt and hands ONLY the gift receipt to me. He didn't have anything else. So I look at him like 'What the hell am I supposed to do with this?' look and say, "Did you need to return something?" Now I just love when people treat you like YOU are the one that's retarded when it's really them and this is a perfect example. He's a complete asshole and basically gives me the 'You figure it out' look. Apparently he thinks that the gift receipt that was given to him meant that we had his gift at our store. He even points out that both the gift receipt AND our sign says to present the gift receipt to which I say, "That's for returns and exchanges. We don't do anything like that here." He still insinuates that he has a gift sitting at our store that his daughter paid for and his gift receipt is what he needed to pick it up. So I use my handy computer and tell him everything that's on the gift receipt, basically spoiling his gift. He finally 'got it' and realized that maybe his gift, to which I just told him what it was, is in the mail on it's way to him. Some people.
One of these days I may just have to say what I'm thinking to these people.
For example, the people that wait in line and sigh and complain that it's taking forever, and when it's their turn, THAT'S when they start looking for the god damn receipt. How about you look for it while you're bitching about waiting! That's why it takes us so long because we have to wait for people to dig through a year's worth of receipts.
Or to the people on cell phones, come on! The next time someone doesn't get off their phone for my transaction (after all I am a human and deserve some respect) I should just take out my cell phone and call people until they are done. I have ignored people that were on their cell phone at Guest Service and I don't feel the least bit sad about it. You can hang up your fucking phone for 2 minutes. My best example of this is when this one woman comes up and in between her conversation with whomever (could've been the president!) she was telling me her situation. So I begin to tell her the no-receipt exchange policy, she puts up her finger and shushes me. HELL NO, you just didn't do that! I walked to another register and helped the next person in line. How disrespectful. Your ass walked up to me, I'm the priority. I don't mean that in a snotty way, but if you need MY help, you interact with ME, not your cell phone.
Ah, spring break... 5 days off from work. Maybe it will calm me down a bit?
Monday, March 05, 2007
EXPI(RED)
Oh wow! That's all I can say about the past few days...
Friday I got to leave after only 2 hours because it was still dead in the store. I helped 9 people in my 2 hours that I was at Guest Service. The next person came in, and I got to go home.
Well, the weather changed and it was nice Saturday and Sunday. All the people that weren't in the store for the past week came in. It was nuts. And there were tons of expired receipts, but there wasn't really a backlash against that. Well, less than normal anyways.
But we did have our fair share of Canadians. It's their stupid holiday. We get asked CONSTANTLY if we exchange money. No. Do it before you fucking come here. Well, there was this one who had a $100 Canadian bill and wanted to exchange it for US money. So here goes the conversation:
Canadian: "Can I exchange this?"
Me: "I'm sorry, we don't exchange money up here but you can use it at the tills for payment."
C: "So can I use it at the Starbucks in here?"
Me: "Yes, but they may have to call to for money to have enough to give back to you." (We did just open, and there's not enough in the registers for a fuckin' $100 bill)
C: "So why can't you just exchange it here then!?"
Me: "We don't exchange money."
C: "Well where can I exchange it!?"
Me: "A bank."
C: "They are all closed!"
I just shrug and give her the 'not my problem' look.
C: "This is just silly!"
What's silly is that you Canadians come down here expecting that we are going to take your money. We don't have to. Exchange it BEFORE you come here.
I dread the weekend for this reason...
Friday I got to leave after only 2 hours because it was still dead in the store. I helped 9 people in my 2 hours that I was at Guest Service. The next person came in, and I got to go home.
Well, the weather changed and it was nice Saturday and Sunday. All the people that weren't in the store for the past week came in. It was nuts. And there were tons of expired receipts, but there wasn't really a backlash against that. Well, less than normal anyways.
But we did have our fair share of Canadians. It's their stupid holiday. We get asked CONSTANTLY if we exchange money. No. Do it before you fucking come here. Well, there was this one who had a $100 Canadian bill and wanted to exchange it for US money. So here goes the conversation:
Canadian: "Can I exchange this?"
Me: "I'm sorry, we don't exchange money up here but you can use it at the tills for payment."
C: "So can I use it at the Starbucks in here?"
Me: "Yes, but they may have to call to for money to have enough to give back to you." (We did just open, and there's not enough in the registers for a fuckin' $100 bill)
C: "So why can't you just exchange it here then!?"
Me: "We don't exchange money."
C: "Well where can I exchange it!?"
Me: "A bank."
C: "They are all closed!"
I just shrug and give her the 'not my problem' look.
C: "This is just silly!"
What's silly is that you Canadians come down here expecting that we are going to take your money. We don't have to. Exchange it BEFORE you come here.
I dread the weekend for this reason...
Friday, March 02, 2007
Middle Of A Snow Storm
Yeah, so that's pretty much how this week has been going by, but now we're in the worst part of it.
So last week, the snow that we did have was minimal and it barely covered the ground. Fast forward to this week, where we now have a lovely two feet of snow. And today the winds picked up so it's pretty much a blizzard but not quite.
Sunday was dead. I was scheduled until 7, but they let me go at 5 because there was basically no one in the store. By 5pm, our store hadn't even made $75,000. Yeah, on a Sunday. But much worse was yesterday, when most of the snow was coming down. I think around 4 or so, the store was only at $29,000. Yikes! They were letting people go home and calling people to NOT come in.
Which brings me to today. I work 4:30-9 in Guest Service. The next person doesn't come in until 6:30. I highly doubt I'll be there for my whole shift. There will be no one there HOPEFULLY. I would call someone crazy for driving in from a neighboring town, and I certainly hope this storm keeps the Canadians from coming down, even though it is their "civil holiday." They get the first Monday of every month off for some stupid reason, and they all come down here. Well, if they do decide to come down, would it be wrong to wish for them to end up in a ditch? Yes? Oh well, so be it.
So last week, the snow that we did have was minimal and it barely covered the ground. Fast forward to this week, where we now have a lovely two feet of snow. And today the winds picked up so it's pretty much a blizzard but not quite.
Sunday was dead. I was scheduled until 7, but they let me go at 5 because there was basically no one in the store. By 5pm, our store hadn't even made $75,000. Yeah, on a Sunday. But much worse was yesterday, when most of the snow was coming down. I think around 4 or so, the store was only at $29,000. Yikes! They were letting people go home and calling people to NOT come in.
Which brings me to today. I work 4:30-9 in Guest Service. The next person doesn't come in until 6:30. I highly doubt I'll be there for my whole shift. There will be no one there HOPEFULLY. I would call someone crazy for driving in from a neighboring town, and I certainly hope this storm keeps the Canadians from coming down, even though it is their "civil holiday." They get the first Monday of every month off for some stupid reason, and they all come down here. Well, if they do decide to come down, would it be wrong to wish for them to end up in a ditch? Yes? Oh well, so be it.
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