ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE WORKED RETAIL: What's your WORST customer horror story?
88876
When I was working retail, I had a lot of run-of-the-mill rude customers, but the strangest one was definitely when I was working in a party store.  A woman came in with a fifty dollar gift certificate--from another store.  When she came to the counter to try to redeem it, I handed it back and said, "Ma'am, we're not Party Palace.  This is an FCO store."  She became upset (to put it mildly), wanted to know how I was so stupid that I didn't know the name of the store I worked at, thought that I was in league with the management to "defraud" her, was going to get me fired...after a while of listening to her yell, I told her if she didn't know the name of the store she was in she could walk outside and look at sign...I watched her from the window, and you should have seen the look on her face when she realized she was wrong!  She just drove off then, no apologies or anything.\n\nThe worst one I've witnessed was when a man reached over the counter, literally picked up one of my coworkers by the shirt collar, and shook him, because he said he was "being queer to him."  The poor boy was very effiminate acting, but that's not grounds for assualt.
960436
I was your typical naïve college girl until I had a rude awakening one night a couple of years ago. I used to work at a cute antique consignment shop until it was robbed by a couple of Mexicans. First, these 2 guys did a smash and grab on the display cases. Then they threatened me with their baseball bats to open the cash register. After they took the jewelry and cash they bound and gagged me even though I did nothing to stop them from robbing the place. It was the most terrifying thing to happen to me. The most chilling thing was how casual they did this as if viciously robbing a person was like getting groceries. Some of these people coming over here are some of the most ruthless criminals in the world. Anyways, they got caught but they were only deported back to Mexico so I’m sure they’re back here somewhere. I quit my job at the antique shop shortly afterwards…better to be safe than sorry.\n\nBTW, I'm half Hispanic so please don't say that I'm racist!!
518505
Latest trend in friendliness at clothing stores?  Depends on the store.  At A.E., there always seems to be someone at the door to greet you and there are lots of employees hanging around to help.  They're not too bad.\nI've been in some where they're playing the rap music so stinking loud that you couldn't think, the girls at the cash registers were on their cell phones while ringing you up (I HATE that... get off the stupid phone!!!!!), the sales associates were all busy talking with each other about their dates last night!!!  You could have a heart attack in the store and they wouldn't notice.  \nI don't buy anything in stores like that.  And if I'm at the checkout and they're rude or on the phone or talking to each other, I've left my stuff and walked out.\nThen.... I called the store and spoke to the manager (hopefully it's an adult!!!) and told them about my lousy experience in their store.
742106
I have been a cashier in a supermarket, a clothing store, and at a coffee shop. By far the most evil of customers tends to be at the supermarkets. \nI will say that people tend to be impatient (especially here in the Northeast), and they do not understand the problems that can occur while making a transaction. However, since cashiering tends to be minimum wage, the quality of employees are hires are worthless, and sometimes they deserve to get yelled at.\nI recently starting working at a coffee shop again, and a customer yelled at one of my co-workers, stating for her to "hurry the fuck up, I'm late for work". Like it was our fault for her being late.
300777
I have never worked in a restaurant, but I once saw this woman being totally rude to the waitress from the moment she sat down.  She did things like snapping her fingers and pointing, blew smoke in her face on purpose, made all kinds of demands, and I saw the waitress "accidentally" trip and spill a tray full of water glasses on her.  I cracked up!
387121
I was living in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. Met awesome sexy beautiful woman. Was super eager to get together with her. My fly was stuck. I reefed it down then pulled up. Eeeeeeeeeeek! Blood was pulsating out of me. She was freaked(as was I ). No stitches. A superficial wound.It was still awful when they untangled me at the hospital.\nThe worst part was everyone in the building knew what happened.Including her man.\nHer boyfriend broke my nose and shattered my right orbital bone. Which I think was a lot worse, almost.
740167
hmmmm....\n1) some retail staff are being trained to 'hard sell' their products, as they have a daily target to meet.\n2) when products are lost, the retail staff have to compensate for it.\n\nhence they tend to be over- vigilant towards their customers.\n\nhowever, i believe that this 'trend', that you highlighted, is outdated. usually, every retail store has its training program on 'good customer service'.\nadmittedly, some customers prefer to be left alone while they browse around. so, it takes practice for the retail staff to 'analyse' what type of service their indivdual customers prefer.\n\nas for me, the training i include for my staff is to always greet the customers, & stand aside, & be watchful of the customers, in case they need assistance. if the customers are chatty, then continue with the conversations. otherwise, stand aside & observe.
548822
I worked at a nursery that only had a port-a-potty outside and my "office" was a broken down old trailer. I was the only female. My boss was a young guy with problems, but he treated me very well. BTW, I hate port-a-potties with a passion!
617084
Yes. Bad experiences.
285504
Have you ever had a job like that before? What experience do you have? How do you deal with unruly customers? How do you handle complaints?
627282
YES! I also hate that recorded voice things. My husband always yells at them and says stupid stuff instead of what he really needs to say. Which he doesnt seem to understand that doing this just prolongs his torture since the voice keeps asking him to repeat that. I would pay more to not have to deal with this if I could. But sadly I live in one of those places that sometimes one company is your only option for somethings. I hate Dell the most, when I bought a computer from them they made me talk to the voice and ran a credit check on me before anyone would even speak to me. And then when my order got messed up and I tried to call them to inform them. I had the same thing all over again. I had to let them run my credit just to talk to them about the computer I had already bought. America's business's are going to hell in a handbasket I think for most part. Nobody cares about the customers anymore. They just care about ways they can save money by having less employees and how they can charge us more to spite it.
1187614
I actually used to like the new job I have.  The pay sucks and no benefits but the work was pleasant enough and the coworkers nice.  HOwever I have a manager from Hell and everyone hates her and alot of them are quitting.   I dread the days I have to work with her as it only takes a few minutes for her to make me look stupid.  I am relatively new and always ask  before I take on a project that I am usure of and it seems to tick her off.  So I know what you mean.   Before I used to work for a discount department store and I hated working every weekend.
875483
Yeah.  I worked at 2 call centers.  One lasted about 6 months and the other about a month.  It wasn't so bad, i was 17 but you have to have a lot of patience and be able to "bite your tongue" when you get rude people.  It sucks but it's a paycheck.  The best kind is "inbound" calls... that's where people call you and you don't interrupt their dinner.  You still sell things... you just don't call them at their house.
371275
That's a great idea.  I wonder how many potential employees are being stabbed in the back every day and have no idea it's happening.  I found out the hard way when a great job offer was rescinded, and the woman who had "hired" me told me not to come to work after all.  With a little pressure, she told me the truth, and I have the names of several former co-workers who did me in.
247962
I have two favorites:\n1.I switched the "N" key and the "M" key on a co-worker's computer.  He couldn't get logged on and kept trying until the system locked him out. I said maybe you just can't type. He said "I CAN type!" He was really mad. When he left his office I switched the keys back. He never did find out:)\n2.someone taped a opened can (empty but still had the juice)of sardines under a desk. After a few days it smelled really bad! "Roger" (the desk owner) came to change his shoes every morning;  he would bend down to get his shoes from under his desk and say "wow, my feet really stink". I would try not to smile and pass him a bottle of sneaker freshener. This went on for a week or two. He almost made a doctor's appointment because he really thought his feet had something wrong that made them stink. Man, that was funny!
118507
To be honest, most low-income people don't know the whole story about Wal-Mart. However, a lot of them have worked there, along with myself, and most of us will tell you that company is scum. Their low prices are designed to do nothing but monopolize an entire region's shopping. My manager even told us his aim was to eliminate the rival grocery store. This chain should go to court for predatory pricing. The supermarkets Wal-Mart have are extremely basic, and I prefer the local rival Meijer over it anyday. The good news is that there are stores like Sav-A-Lot and Aldi that you can shop at instead of Wal-Mart. I had the worst employment experience ever in my life at Wal-Mart, management did nothing but spy on employees with their billion and one cameras and harass us for even talking with the coworkers in our department and customers! This store has some weird religious agenda too that supercedes profits...they pay $1 extra an hour on Sundays for employees working that day, even though they screw them everywhere else. Weird place, never work or shop there.
587568
worst experiences\n1) When I was in Turkey, ended up inadvertently in shady place and was forced to give credit card. and god saved me, my creadit limit left was only US$200; which was however instantly withdrawn by the user.\n2) Again in Holland, my briefcase was stolen and credit card was lost. The user immidiately mad  international phone calls. I got reimbursement as I had lodged comlaint to bank as well as Police immidiately\n3) WHile I was out on tour my Credit card company charged annual charge and because I did not know this. They kept on adding interest, penaulty, services charges and I ended up paying 10 times the original bill.\n\nI now have no credit card anymore as against 5 earlier and returned all my cards.