Please! I am sick and tired of getting rude obnoxious customers. We are trained and told a smile and a pleasant greeting goes along way. Well a day doesn’t go by when some nasty person calls you stupid, or steps in your way intentionally like you don’t exist. It isn’t just me, we all sit around in the break room and share our daily encounters. Would anyone out there want his or her wife or daughter treated like a second-class citizen?
I am frequently at the customer service desk; there is where the real fun begins. There are people, who come in and look for miss-marked items, come to the desk, get their lovely little bounty and then return the item because they didn’t want it anyways, that’s a classy group of people.
Or the other group, the ones with no receipt, no bag and things small enough to fit into their pockets, how do you handle that? Oh, and the one’s that didn’t get all their items. A very nasty woman came up to the desk with her receipt and said she didn’t get a ham she had paid for. She always does that type of “scam” to us, almost weekly.
So I asked to see her receipt, picked up the phone, and called security, gave the bar-code number on the receipt and they went back and reviewed the tape, sure enough, it showed the cashier spin the carousel and the nasty woman did get all her purchases. I told her she was mistaken the tape shows other wise. She hasn’t been back.
SICK AND TIRED OF RUDE PEOPLE
Dear ‘Sick and Tired’,
I can totally relate to your frustration. I am sick and tired of rude store clerks! I must say that most of the customer service clerks have been pretty nice to me. I can’t say the same thing about night-stockers.
Just the other night my son and I were shopping at Wal-mart. I’m certain the night stock people would blame it on us for being late-night shoppers, but I don’t do well in crowds, so I try to shop late in the evening. While I prefer to shop in the dead of night (around 2 or 3 a.m.) our local Wal-mart is only open until 11:00 p.m. Of course the stockers must begin work at 9 or 10 p.m.
They act like you have no business shopping and are interfering with their job when you attempt to shop that late. I had one man the other night with his little hand-cart almost run my son and I over; not once, not twice but three times. If it wasn’t intentional, it was a good act.
I think a little good-will and kindness can go a long way, no matter which side of the counter we are on.
I must say, it wasn’t too long ago when I accidentally left some items I had purchased at our local Wal-mart. I was relieved and overjoyed that they had a neat little book with the items logged in, along with the cashier number and aisle where I had made my purchase. I was politely informed that the items I had left had been logged in by the cashier and that I could go replace them and be on my way.
I had my receipt in hand and had been expecting a scene and a resistant customer service clerk. It was a pleasant surprise to have a very professional transaction that went both quickly and smoothly.
I am sorry that you have to deal with people who treat you badly and those that try to scam you. Those people are out there. I once heard from a woman who had figured out how to get top quality wall paint at discount prices. I was appauled when the woman told me how she would have her paint custom mixed – at least three gallons (to ensure there would be at least one left), then leave the paint behind in the store. She would then go back a day or two later only to find it on the clearance rack and purchase it at a greatly reduced price.
Stores are up against people like this all the time and it hits the rest of us in the pocketbook. Honest shoppers are the ones who end up paying in the end – that is if the store manages to stay in business. It won’t surprise me at all when we have to start paying for specially mixed paint at the counter, before it’s mixed.
It’s a shame a handful of people will spoil it for everyone else.
My husband and I shop at a nearby Wal-Mart, in New Castle, DE. Some of the associates there don’t seem very nice or friendly, and the last time I made a return, there was a policy I was not aware of concerning the item’s I was returning.
But instead of being helpful and telling me in a nice way about the policy, the associate talked down to me, sounding as if she were reprimanding me for my error, making me feel embarrassed to be there. She repeated I shouldn’t do it again at least 4 or 5 times (a bit loudly too, so other customers could hear I suppose) as if scolding a child. I never felt so terrible.
When I first walked up to the counter, I was in a cheerful mood, chatting and joking with my husband about various things while waiting in line to be helped. I greeted the associate with nothing but a smile and open friendliness. During the course of the whole affair, however, I found myself feeling disrespected, humiliated, and was very upset by the time I walked away from the customer service department. I never want to return to that store unless there is a great effort made to improve the way customers are treated and helped, but I sincerely doubt it.
When you’re a customer in a store, I believe that you should be treated in a decent way whether you’re in the right or wrong, but I find that’s not true in many stores, esp some Wal-Mart’s I’ve been to. Just give me a little respect and treat me nicely, and I will remain a loyal customer. Otherwise, I’ll find somewhere better to shop.
Marie