Whinge of the Week: Customers

[Dravin]

Okay blame it on Pam, she started it:

I work in retail and I'm surprised the majority of the time if I even get a hello. Most customers are too busy on their cell phones to get any kind of a response at all. But that is an entirely different subject.

That one gets me, even more fun when there is a huge line behind them and they get annoyed at you for talking with them.

Me: Do you want cheese?

Them: *annoyed* Uh-hum.

Me: What kind?

Them: *Pissed* Cheddar.

Me: Toasted?

Them: *Enraged* Yes, can't you see I'm on the phone?!

My only consolation is I think the people behind them wanted to hit them as badly as I did because instead of the exchange taking the 5-10 seconds it should have its taken 5 times as long or longer.

I think the only one that annoys me more is people who don't read signs, you can have a giant lime green background with black letters with flashing lights around the edges with huge arrows and pointing figures and people will still ask, "Do you take credit?" when they've been sitting in line and failing to notice the 3 different signs the approximate size of billboards stating, "Cash Only Please." Its even more fun when it's gotten to the point that the employee has included it into their greeting, "Welcome to Greasy Spoon home of the McHeart Attack, how can I help you? And cash only please."

Only thing worse is when its you. Luckily I manage to avoid that most of the time.

[Wingnut]

I was at Baskin-Robbins the other night, and there was a sign taped to each cash register, and a few times along each ice cream case that said "Effective immediatelyl if you are on your cell phone, we will skip you and help the next customer in line, until you are finished" or something to that effect. I thought it was great.

[Dravin]

I was at Baskin-Robbins the other night, and there was a sign taped to each cash register, and a few times along each ice cream case that said "Effective immediatelyl if you are on your cell phone, we will skip you and help the next customer in line, until you are finished" or something to that effect. I thought it was great.

I would have loved being able to do that, probably could have gotten away with it at the Contract Post Office back in Fairbanks but not when I was working at Subway.

[pam]

At the credit union I bank at, there is a sign on the drive up window.."We will be happy to help you once you are done with your cell phone conversation."

[pam]

But I get really upset when customers come to the register on their cell phone and act like I am the one interrupting their phone conversation. They make no effort at even acknowledging that I am trying to assist them. There are times that as they are getting to walk out the door I yell out "You're welcome and come again." I get the dirtiest looks.

[pam]

Or the ones that apologize for being on their cell phones because it's a business call. well, we used to do business back in the day all the time without cell phones. It's called a pay phone or an office phone.

[pam]

Okay Dravin, now I'm putting the blame on you. This is not a subject you want to get me started on. hahaha

[Dravin]

You probably have more experience than I do. If my sisters were here they could probably contribute (Fred Meyers and a Contract Post Office).

The one I worked with at the CPO ran into all sorts, such as the lady who threw an honest to goodness hop up and down screaming temper tantrum because her package wasn't there and kept at it until she noticed the other customers looking at her like she'd grown another head.

I don't have anything juicy, I think people are less inclined to explode at some 6' 4" (and at the time 320lb) guy then a woman. Though I did have one customer having troubles over the following:

Her: Hey I was just at the North Pole Office and they sent me over here (our contract Post Office at a different location).

Me: Oh, Okay, name?

*looks around and can't find it*

Me: I'm afraid we don't have it, I can check with the North Pole Office to see if they have it.

Her: They sent me here, but whatever.

Me: *calls* Yeah, they have it, just run over and you can pick it up.

Them: They told me to come here to pick it up!

*Random back and forth*

Her: The guy in line told me to come here!

Me: The clerk told you to come here? (getting ready to apologize)

Them: No, I was waiting in line behind a guy and he told me to pick it up here!

Me: *Dumfounded*

Yep, she was pissed off at me and the North Pole Office because some random guy in line had given her bad information. Its worth it though when the customer behind them tells them to get a grip and stop pestering the poor man behind the counter for something he has no control over.

[Seanette]

I would love to see it happen that a cashier skips over the "customer" who's busy with a phone call (and probably yelling so loudly you'd think the other person could hear without the phone) and help someone who's actually ready to do business.

I've been stunned a few times when it was the cashier on the phone! (Yes, that got a complaint letter to the management.)

I've done enough call center (tech support, health insurance) to have my faith in humanity rather shaken.

[Honor]

I don't have anything juicy, I think people are less inclined to explode at some 6' 4" (and at the time 320lb) guy then a woman.

I dunno Dravin, I'd still be a little worried about exploding at some 320 lb, 6'4 woman...

Although... come to think of it, I've never really had anybody blow up at me and i'm 6' (but slightly less than 320). I never made the connection!

[Just_A_Guy]

I dunno Dravin, I'd still be a little worried about exploding at some 320 lb, 6'4 woman...

Holy crap!

(Oh, wait. That's "exploding at some 320 lb, 6'4 woman". I guess I'd be worried about that, too . . .)

[Mirium]

I get frustrated when the person in front of me is a friend of the cashier and they spend too much time catching up with each other instead of getting the job done!

[ploomf]

I used to work as a customer care agent for a phone and internet company. Geez some of the customers I had. The unpleasant and rude ones I could handle, it was the insane ones that threw me. I had a woman tell me she was calling the police on me and if I listened closely I could hear the sirens that were now coming to get me. Or there was the woman who called in at 8:00 on a Saturday night and demanded that we send a tech out to her house right then because, get this, SHE had forgotten to make an appointment to have a phone jack installed and now her husband was mad at her and if I didn't get a tech out there right now she would put her husband on the line and in her own words, boy would I be sorry then. Or the old man who threatened to find out where I lived and come and dump a load of rotten potatoes on my front lawn. The worst of them though was Mary Gracie. Everyone in my department had gotten a call from her at one time or another and the poor supervisors would have fights about whose turn it was to take her call this time. We all cheered when we found out that our company finally got a court order barring her from ever calling us again. Ah yes good memories, working there was only slightly more fun than having a root canal.

[Guest]

I used to spend some time telemarketing Medicare Supplemental Insurance plans late at night (I was single and thought making the extra cash was better than watching TV in my tiny apartment). I had SEVERAL grandpas/grandmas trying to hook me up with their sons/grandsons!

ME: Good evening Mr. Doe, I would like to tell you about our new Medicare Supplemental Plan.

Mr. Doe: Oh, hi, yeah, I guess I need it. You sound like a nice girl, are you single?

ME: Er, yes, but...

Mr. Doe: I have a grandson you should meet. He's in med school and he has a girlfriend now, but we don't like her...

[Seanette]

I once had a caller (think this was in my tech support days) tell me he'd love to take me out to dinner. I thanked him and explained that my husband probably wouldn't approve. The caller laughed and told me he didn't think his wife really would either.

[Mahone]

I used to spend some time telemarketing Medicare Supplemental Insurance plans late at night (I was single and thought making the extra cash was better than watching TV in my tiny apartment). I had SEVERAL grandpas/grandmas trying to hook me up with their sons/grandsons!

ME: Good evening Mr. Doe, I would like to tell you about our new Medicare Supplemental Plan.

Mr. Doe: Oh, hi, yeah, I guess I need it. You sound like a nice girl, are you single?

ME: Er, yes, but...

Mr. Doe: I have a grandson you should meet. He's in med school and he has a girlfriend now, but we don't like her...

Lol, it's one of many tricks to get telemarketers to hang up and not bother you again. The latter part doesn't usually work, but quite easy to get them to hang up

[beefche]

I used to spend some time telemarketing Medicare Supplemental Insurance plans late at night (I was single and thought making the extra cash was better than watching TV in my tiny apartment). I had SEVERAL grandpas/grandmas trying to hook me up with their sons/grandsons!

ME: Good evening Mr. Doe, I would like to tell you about our new Medicare Supplemental Plan.

Mr. Doe: Oh, hi, yeah, I guess I need it. You sound like a nice girl, are you single?

ME: Er, yes, but...

Mr. Doe: I have a grandson you should meet. He's in med school and he has a girlfriend now, but we don't like her...

I have GOT to get one of those telemarketing jobs.....

[pam]

I used to spend some time telemarketing Medicare Supplemental Insurance plans late at night (I was single and thought making the extra cash was better than watching TV in my tiny apartment). I had SEVERAL grandpas/grandmas trying to hook me up with their sons/grandsons!

ME: Good evening Mr. Doe, I would like to tell you about our new Medicare Supplemental Plan.

Mr. Doe: Oh, hi, yeah, I guess I need it. You sound like a nice girl, are you single?

ME: Er, yes, but...

Mr. Doe: I have a grandson you should meet. He's in med school and he has a girlfriend now, but we don't like her...

Wow you actually called John Doe to discuss Medicare supplements? I knew he was getting up there but didn't think he was quite THAT old.

[Mahone]

I've worked (in a voluntary capacity) behind a reception desk before in an accommodation type place. My main gripe was those customers who took no notice of the opening hours next to the office door and assumed that because I was actually in the office, I must have just forgotten to unlock the door. Every morning we had to arrive an hour early to add up all the figures and float from the previous day, which wasn't a difficult task, however there was no room for error at all (not even a penny out), otherwise it would mess things up for finance department.

During this time the office would remain locked until opening time. However most mornings it was guaranteed that a customer would knock on the door expecting us to unlock it just to serve him/her. This was a very difficult task as 1. we had to drop everything in the middle of calculations and 2. the tills were in a different mode to what was needed to serve customers due to the morning process. Most of the time we told them to come back later, but sometimes they were so persistant that they needed to served right there and then as they were late that they would get the cleaning staff to open the office door which left us which no option but to serve them as the cleaning staff had effectively given them permission to come in.

I do wonder sometimes how their lack of planning equated to my emergency. After all, the opening hours of the office were clearly specified next to the door.

@Seanette I think we could exchange some amusing experiences in the IT support area

[Dravin]

I do wonder sometimes how their lack of planning equated to my emergency. After all, the opening hours of the office were clearly specified next to the door.

)

The basis of one of my better liked sayings:

"A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."

I had a similar thing while filling the P.O. Boxes, people would shout through the boxes or knock on the wooden pull down blocking off the front counter and ask me to take or hand out a package, they generally accepted, "Sorry, we're not open yet." I'd also get the reverse at the end of the day, the wooden pull down would be in position (think of something like those metal lattice some stores use like in malls but just made of plywood) at the end of the day but they generally would accept, "Sorry, we're closed."

What they didn't really like is we'd get a rush at the end of the day and it's be 20 minutes after closing but people would just keep piling into the line and I'd eventually just have to say," Sorry, this is the last customer for the day I've got to close up shop." That always got me looks to warm the cockles of my heart. :)

[Wingnut]

I've worked (in a voluntary capacity) behind a reception desk before in an accommodation type place. My main gripe was those customers who took no notice of the opening hours next to the office door and assumed that because I was actually in the office, I must have just forgotten to unlock the door. Every morning we had to arrive an hour early to add up all the figures and float from the previous day, which wasn't a difficult task, however there was no room for error at all (not even a penny out), otherwise it would mess things up for finance department.

During this time the office would remain locked until opening time. However most mornings it was guaranteed that a customer would knock on the door expecting us to unlock it just to serve him/her. This was a very difficult task as 1. we had to drop everything in the middle of calculations and 2. the tills were in a different mode to what was needed to serve customers due to the morning process. Most of the time we told them to come back later, but sometimes they were so persistant that they needed to served right there and then as they were late that they would get the cleaning staff to open the office door which left us which no option but to serve them as the cleaning staff had effectively given them permission to come in.

I do wonder sometimes how their lack of planning equated to my emergency. After all, the opening hours of the office were clearly specified next to the door.

@Seanette I think we could exchange some amusing experiences in the IT support area

Sounds like you needed to fire or re-train your cleaning staff.

I had a similar problem when I used to work at a doctor's office. We had one doctor who wrote scripts for a lot of narcotics, despite the fact that we were not a pain clinic. So we had a lot of patients who had to come in and pick up their scripts that couldn't be phoned/faxed into a pharmacy, such as Oxycodone, Oxycontin, Percocet, and Methadone. The office closed at 5:00 (and believe you me, we never locked the doors late...we were anxious by the end of the day to get them locked!), but people would consistently show up after that, trying to pick up their scripts. And they would get angry, knowing they were going to go through withdrawals overnight, because they couldn't be responsible enough to get there in time to pick up whatever it was they were addicted to. (I don't say that as a general judgment on all people who take narcotics, just on the patients at that office, and it's neither inaccurate nor unfair in reference to them.)

[Seanette]

Know what you mean, Wingnut. One of my health insurance call center stints was in Medicare prescription coverage, and I always cringed when the prescription came up as Vicodin or anything similar, because I knew I was going to have an angrily yelling caller berating me for having to follow Federal law and not just snap my fingers and give them the drugs they were demanding. The language was usually something else, too.

Funny how the people who were calling about their prescriptions for heart meds, insulin, etc., were generally polite (even if they were worried, they had the sense to realize going off on the person who could help them was probably not productive). It was always the ones on addictive narcotics who threw tantrums, blaming me personally, if their doctor hadn't gotten the paperwork straight.

[talisyn]

I have one from the customer's perspective

I had to take my brother to the Boise VA after a long night at work so I already was a grump. After he got all his stuff done we went to a truck stop to get gas. I pushed all the buttons, put the nozzle in the gas tank, and nothing. Pushed all the buttons again, still nothing. After about 5 minutes of this I noticed the cashier trying to get my attention so I went inside and paid up, telling the cashier how nice it would be if there was a sign that said 'pre-pay' out there. She very nicely said there should be one under the digital readout, so I went back to fill up and sure enough, in HUGE letters, at eye-level no less, was a pre-pay please sign. I make sure to now go to a truck stop that doesn't make you prepay because I don't think I could handle any more humiliation

My only saving grace I think was I was very polite when I made an idiot of myself.

[Seanette]

I usually just make a joke about it when I pull something like that (which is far from uncommon, I can be quite a ditz). I figure you have to have a sense of humor to make it through life sanely, especially if you're also keeping the Word of Wisdom.

[Tarnished]

When I was a dog groomer I ran into a few "winning" customers. There were the people who would bring in a dog that tried to bite me and then got mad at me when I told them that I refused to groom their dog as I was afraid it would bite me (this was after they had tried and failed to get a muzzle on the dog).

Or the owners who would bring their dog in and the dog would be a solid mat and then the owner would get mad when I told them I was not willing to brush the mat out as it would cause the dog too much pain.

Then there were the owners who would bring in female dogs that were pregnant and about ready to give birth to puppies and insist that we groom their dogs (even though it was against the rules).

The worst was the man who walked in one day and his pants fell right off. I didn't know quite what to do, so I looked somewhere else and asked if I could help him. He eventually pulled his pants back up, but he left them down for most of his time in the shop. He was rather old.

Then there was a case of someone we thought were customers but turned out they weren't. We were visiting Salt Lake recently and stopped at a Sconecutters. While we sat and ate we became aware of a couple that were fighting loudly at another table. They didn't seem to notice anyone else in the restaurant and so we sat back and watched them. The young man was quiet and calm and trying to get his point across to the young woman who was sitting across from him, but she was screaming and yelling at him like they were home alone. From their argument we learned all sorts of things about their relationship, such as that they were no longer together, and that they were fighting over rent as they had lived together. The workers at the restaurant came out and asked them to be a little quieter as there were other customers there. After awhile the girl finally got extremely upset and got up and walked away, right into the back area of the shop. It was then that we realized that she worked there.

Before we left she came back out and began arguing with the boy again. We finally finished our food and walked out and as we passed the couple the girl said to us, "Sorry for yelling." And I said, "Oh, no problem." I was tempted but did not add, "That was possibly the most entertainment I have seen at a fast food restaurant."