If you want service, STAY IN LINE!!!

[XCashier]

Fabric shop job's going well, but there have been a few SCs, which is par for the course in any job. Sadly, I don't have a good memory for dialogue, unlike Gravekeeper, Kisa and others, so I'm writing the best I can remember.

The first one yelled at me for five minutes straight about some problem with the website. I suggested multiple times that she contact corporate, but she ignored me and yelled at me for all the stuff wrong with the website. Right, like a nametag-wearing minimum wage employee is the website programmer for a major nationwide corporation headquartered over two thousand miles from her home. Yep, I'll get right on that.

Second SC dumped a heap of fabric on the cutting table, rattled off, "I want x yards of burlap, y" of the pink fabric, z" of the blue, another z" of the green and purple, q" of the red, π" of the orange, be right back!" As she was talking I took the burlap and noticed, oh wonderful, the edge is crooked. Burlap, being the utter pain in the ass it is, can't be placed on the cutting guide and cut straight, you have to snip the selvage, grab one strand, pull it out until there's a path you can cut through, then cut following the weave. It takes a long time, and burlap is nasty and itchy, can give you splinters and always leaves a mess on the table. So while I'm busy with the burlap, she zaps off to somewhere else in the store.

I look up, she's gone, I can't remember every measurement of every bolt she's heaped up on the table, not even the damned burlap. I can't see her from the cutting counter, nor am I about to hunt her down as there is a line of about six people waiting for their fabric to be cut, and my coworkers are already helping others. The next lady (NL) in line has only two fabrics, so I figure I'll cut hers while waiting for the first one to show up. She had an easy order, half a yard of one and a full yard of the other. As I'm finishing the second cut, the SC came back and started yelling, "I only went off to get some needles, but you didn't want to cut my fabric, so I'm leaving!"

NL: You stepped out of line!

SC left with her nose in the air.

Sadly, that is all too common an occurance. People dump their fabric on the table, expect us to remember each of a dozen different measurements, then go peruse the store and expect us to cut their stuff. I should ask my manager what to do when that happens, but really, either get your stuff together before you reach the cutting table or wait until you're done at the cutting table to get the rest. Frankly, if you can't stay in line, I say you don't deserve to be served!

[gremcint]

I used to work in a billing call center and now sell electronics where I have to remember lots of stuff. first thing I learned write stuff down. people would just start saying account numbers at me and model numbers well before I was really ready for it so I just started writing everything down and then typing it in to the system in the special forms, it's just so much easier.

pad and paper just write, purple 3x5 and so on.

[XCashier]

We're supposed to type it into the handhelds as we go. Those things can upload a bit slowly, though. And since 99% of my customers have enough sense and courtesy to wait by the cutting counter while I cut their fabric, I wasn't expecting her to vanish while I was still working on the first bolt.

[bainsidhe]

For something like fabric, I really think the customer should stay put. Nothing so offsetting as walking up to the counter and seeing an employee busily working on something with no customer in sight. In that instance, I'd really expect to be waited on immediately, because I'd have no way of knowing some entitled SC wandered away.

Besides, fabric seems to be a bit subjective. That's probably me being silly, but it's how I feel. I'd want the customer right there telling me how much they want, so if they suddenly change their mind, I could change before the cut was made.

[Laund-o-rama Mama]

Similar things can occur at my work as well. I try to slow them right down and make them tell me any special instructions while visibly recording them. If they get all huffy or say they're in a huge hurry I will firmly but politely tell them that I want to follow their directions 100% and make sure it is RIGHT. Really, would they rather it was done FAST, or RIGHT?

I say good riddance to your SC. What does she think you are, some sort of computer?

[XCashier]

Exactly! When you go to the grocery store, you don't go up to the deli department, say "Two pounds roast beef, one pound ham, half a pound bologna, two pounds pastrami, four pounds cheddar, three pounds munster and half a pound swiss," then walk away and do the rest of your shopping, expecting the meat and cheese to be sitting waiting for you, perfectly done when you're finished. It's the same thing with fabric. You wait patiently until the cutter is finished, then you get what else you need, or you get all of your stuff before you get into the cutting counter line.

[EricKei]

Exactly! When you go to the grocery store, you don't go up to the deli department, say "Two pounds roast beef,... then walk away and do the rest of your shopping, expecting the meat and cheese to be sitting waiting for you, perfectly done when you're finished.

Some people do, sadly. I used to work in a deli. Bonus points if they then say that the thickness is wrong...when they weren't there to WATCH us doing it! If there's nobody else in line and you ASK if it's OK, then yeah, go hit an aisle and then come back for your stuff. Don't ever order and run.

[Librarian]

Exactly! When you go to the grocery store, you don't go up to the deli department, say "Two pounds roast beef, one pound ham, half a pound bologna, two pounds pastrami, four pounds cheddar, three pounds munster and half a pound swiss," then walk away and do the rest of your shopping, expecting the meat and cheese to be sitting waiting for you, perfectly done when you're finished.

slightly OT: one of my favorite stores actually does this! Their meat-department has forms to fill out what you want from them - you pull a number, do the rest of your shopping and when done, the package will be ready for you
if there are problems (such as sold out on one of your items) they'll keep your package apart and you can ask for it at their counter at which point they'll tell you what went wrong and suggest an alternative.

[tropicsgoddess]

Seriously?!!! After she rattled off a ton of different measurements for different fabrics?!!! What an idiot. I wouldn't have done anything either if she didn't stay. Not in line, no service. Some people really can't comprehend any simple concepts.

[Kristev]

Shouldn't she be watching you cut her fabric up? What if you cut it wrong or there's some mistake? If she was watching you, she could stop you in time. But just walking off? She deserves exactly what she got - nothing.

[EricKei]

Obviously I don't do well in retail at all anymore!

I'd say you were doing AWESOME at retail. It's the customers who are doing it all wrong.

[Gizmo]

With fabric I always want to watch it being cut. I want to ensure there are no flaws in the fabric and make sure if there are I always get that little bit more to allow for working around them (either the sales assistant will automatically allow a bit more or I'll ask them "actually can you make that 2.5 instead of 2?").

[Pixilated]

I've had some similar incidents at my supermarket cashier job. People would roll up their buggies and ask if they had to put the pop on the counter. If it's an 18-pack or larger (24-pack), the answer is no, because we have the (10- or 12-digit -- can't recall just ATM) scan numbers written up on our little version of a Rolodex.

So they babble off, "Good, I've got 3 Diet Pepsis, two Cokes, two Diet Cokes, one Fanta and two Orange Crush." Meanwhile, I've almost finished typing in the code for the Diet Pepsis ...

On very rare occasions someone will rush off to get an additional item, but they are usually pretty brisk about it, so no complaints there.

[Spork4pedro]

Ugh...this thread is making me have flashbacks to my days at House of Fabrics. The customers there were CONSTANTLY using our register areas as their personal dump zone and would throw a fit when we moved them off to the side so we could actually work. nevermind the ones that did what the happened in the OP. What is it about fabric that turns otherwise nice, normal people into raging hosebeasts?

I'd want the customer right there telling me how much they want, so if they suddenly change their mind, I could change before the cut was made.

This happens even if the customer is stand there the whole time watching you cut their fabric. They see you cut and go "Oh! I needed 5 yards of that, not 3! and no you can't just cut me another 2 yards. I need it to be all one piece!"

[Shmuggly]

It seems that there are customers that do that sort of thing everywhere. At my convenience store it doesn't happen very often, but sometimes people will just dump a ton of junk food + magazines, or a small pile of lottery tickets to check and then just wander off around the rest of our booth. What I don't like about this is that I'm busy scanning all of these items for a seemingly invisible person, and a line-up of people are all giving me the "Why aren't you serving me" look.