Snobby Store Clerk

[Emrld]

Ok the wonderful Sin City Vegas . . . . .
My Parental Units went to have some fun. (woo hoo 40 years of marriage to each other)
So they are in one of the areas that have fancy stores . . .and they see a tie store . . .so my Dad asks do you have any bright red ties. . . .the clerk proceeds to stand in the center of the doorway and looks down his nose at them and states "We don't have what you are looking for here"
Ok I don't want to be a brat back . . .or come off as high and mighty . . .so I will just leave it as the clerk missed a few simple things that would have told him that they were the type of clients that actually would have paid decent money in the store.

Sorry but you can't always judge a book by its cover in a tourist setting.
Yes, it does chap my hide that my parents were dissrespected like that.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Sounds like the clerk was trying to use Jedi mind tricks to get rid of customers...

[marasbaras]

Jedi mind tricks turn me into an SC.

[tollbaby]

reminds me of that scene in Pretty Woman, "I don't think we have anything that will fit you"... ugh. Snobbish salespeople are the worst. I thought the object was to SELL shit.

[marasbaras]

I remember a time ... long, long ago ... I was 23. I wanted a high quality umbrella, as I lived in Seattle. So, I was at the Bon Marche (since purchased by Macy's) looking at them. There was a really, really nice one ... bent apple-wood handle, very sturdy. I was going to buy it.

Problem was, it was missing its price tag. So, I asked this sales rep how much it cost. He was this impeccably dressed guy in his 30's. He looked at it and just said "oh, you can't afford that". And walked away.

So, I find someone else. The guy gets the umbrella, makes a couple calls to people who I presumed to be managers, and finds gets a new tag printed. $160.

"You want this?" he said, looking at me like I was insane.

"Yeah" (it was THAT nice) and handed him my personal AMEX gold card (at the time, they were hard to get, especially for someone my age).

So, he ran the card, I signed. All was good. I briefly relayed the store to the sales guy who helped me. I didn't remember the first guy's name, but I do remember he was about 6'1", black, and wearing a color of dark purple that only a black man could wear. I mention that for two reasons: first, it clearly identified him to the sales guy. Second, because my school colors were purple and gold ... neither of which looks good on my pasty white skin ... sad for me ... I've always been a bit envious of those who can wear those colors. OK, both purple and gold look like total crap on me.

While I'm at it ... GO HUSKIES!

Back to my story ...

Finally, walked over to the first sales guy who was talking to someone else (never knew if it was a customer or not) ... showed him my AMEX gold, the receipt, the umbrella and said

"I can't afford it, eh?"

... and left.

Footnote: never saw the first sales guy working there after that.

[marasbaras]

oh, geez, I remember another case ... I was going to buy a new computer. I used to wear jeans and tube socks all the time. So, I had $3k in my sock (I was 19, stupid, yeah).

I wanted a nice new IBM PC. WOohoo!

So, I go into the local ComputerLand. I'm looking in the computer section. WOW, _dual_ floppies. I see a older sales guy in the back drinking coffee ... he just looks at me and returns to his newspaper. I see another older sales guy helping some suit with printer ribbons.

Finally, I approach the kid at the register and ask if he can help me. He was really honest and said that he could but that he was really new and didn't know anything about what was sold there yet. So, he couldn't answer any questions. When LazyBum (my name for the guy) got off break or the other guy got done with his customer they could answer questions.

I told him I knew exactly what I wanted and just wanted to pay. He said he could help me with that.

He went in back and got the boxes out. LazyBum notices this and wanders out with his coffee and offers to help fill out the sales slip.

I notice that LazyBum is putting HIS name in the salesman slot on the form. I said "oh, no, it was TheKid". I'm giving this look of death, but there was no way I was going to let LazyBum poach this sale and take TheKid's commission.

Neither of them knew that a friend of mine worked at their head office. I wasn't a secret shopper or anything. I just bought product there because I wanted to support the company where my friend worked.

Somehow, the LazyBum's name got mentioned to the wrong people as a poacher and he found himself looking for another job. (at the time, commissions on computers like that were huge ... he'd tried to basically steal $500 from the new kid)

[CanadaGirl]

the clerk proceeds to stand in the center of the doorway and looks down his nose at them and states "We don't have what you are looking for here"

Lol reminds me of Pretty Woman

[jedifarfy]

I remember a time ... long, long ago ... I was 23. I wanted a high quality umbrella, as I lived in Seattle. So, I was at the Bon Marche (since purchased by Macy's) looking at them.

GAH! What is wrong with the Bon Marches/Macy's of Seattle! I only went into one twice. First time was 8 years ago and I went in I needed new shoes.
Side notes: my friend had just died and I was pretty numb and weak. Otherwise, other words would have occured. Also, we weren't well off financially, so me getting a pair of shoes from a department store was HUGE. My mom believed in quality, and hoped a pair of good shoes would last longer than 2 months (like Payless. I'm really hard on my shoes. :P).

The Bon had this curved display guiding you to the shoes, and they were all Sketchers, probably a dozen or more with several small Sketchers signs. I liked their style and wanted a pair. There were 4 salespeople at the counter talking, and one helping a customer. We wandered around for a few, and finally we pick up some shoes to look at and check their prices, trying to look like we needed help. We'd never shopped there and weren't good at asking for assistance.

One of the saleswomen finally comes over to "help" us. I ask for a certain shoe. She immediately tells me they don't have my size. Ok... how about this one? Nope, nothing. In fact, according to her, they had nothing in my size.

I was upset, and we ended up heading over to Nordstrom and found just what I wanted.

The last time I went to Bon Marche we were completely ignored and just never bothered to step foot in their again.

JF

[flybye023]

When my brother got married my sister and I went to Nordstrom to find a formal dress to wear. We were just wearing jeans and t-shirts, no make-up. We had a hard time finding the right dress in the right color and couldn't seem to get the attention of any salespeople.

Finally, we get this lady's attention and she reluctantly comes over. We ask her if there are any more dresses. She says, "yeah, we might have some in the back".--pause--so we ask if she'll go look and she kinda shrugs, nods, and walks away. We wait. And wait. Aaaannnndd wait some more. She never shows up. Eventually we see her at another checkstand and go over and ask her what she found. Her response? "Oh, you wanted me to go look for a dress?"

Duh, no we just wanted you to wander around the store.

[Retail Associate]

Just up the road from my house there's a locally owned novelty store that is always decorated for every holiday. They do a wonderful job putting up the decorations and it's especially beautiful at Christmas time. The building is very pretty (my nephew was on the crew that built it) and I drive past it regularly but had never gone in.

One day about 3 yrs ago I was driving by and decided I'd go in and see what they had for sale. There were several customers milling about looking at things and 3 sales girls were in the process of approaching each customer to ask them if they needed assistance but none of them said a word to me.

I had found a boxed set of Christmas cards that I wanted to purchase but there was no price on it. Each girl was busy with another customer so I just looked around some more, thinking that eventually one of them would approach and ask me if I needed help.

As they finished with the people they were helping I made eye contact with each of them more than once but not one of them offered assistance. It was pretty obvious that they were just going to ignore me even though they had offered to help everyone else in the store.

It made me so angry that I put down the cards, silently walked out the door and haven't been back since. Nor will I ever go back.

I'm not usually that sensitive but the attitude of those sales girls just rubbed me the wrong way. That was my 'Pretty Woman' experience.

.

[marasbaras]

I had that happen to me once, Retail. I walked past the clerks and dropped the item I had on the floor and kept walking.

[draftermatt]

My parents were looking at Jeep Grand Cherokees in 1995-96. Went to the Jeep dealership where they were told "You don't even deserve to be on my lot" by the salesman who felt slighted by how much they could afford.

I refuse to go there unless it's absolutley necessary.

[redmountaingoldfish]

Once my family and I were staying at a hotel in New York City. The night before we left we noticed that you could rent a car from a limo company to take you to the airport for less than a taxi costs. So we scheduled a car a certain time through the hotel desk.

Next day, we go down to the lobby a little early, and my dad checks in with the lady organizing the limos and taxis. We go stand off to the side. Eventually its past the time we scheduled our car, and the car lady is busy with someone. I point out to my dad that a car has been sitting outside for a couple of minutes, we go out and check, and sure enough its our car. As we're putting our luggage in the trunk the hotel lady runs out looking like we're stealing a car. Before she says anything the driver yells "Its okay, I found them."

Hotel Limo Lady then gives us a serious "WTF are you guys doing in a chartered car" look and runs back inside.

My dad summed up the whole situation "I guess she was expecting someone traveling with Louis Vitton luggage."

[Becks]

I'm afraid to go into Macy's or Bloomingdale's in case they get all snobbish on me.

It hurts my feelings.

[tropicsgoddess]

The Brush Off

The three of us (me, fiancé and his mom) went to Brandsmart to get a camcorder. We weren't dressed up like somebody who would plunk down a nice chunk of dough on something, but we were willing to pay up for a good camcorder. The first salesman we saw brushed past us saying "I'll be with you in a moment" and never came back. But another guy comes up to us and helped us from the get-go. He was great, he was a little hard to understand since he had a bit of a thick accent,but we pretty much got the gist of what he was saying most of the time. He gave us a really good and honest recommendation for a digital camcorder (my fiancé is a techie, so he can spot a bullshitter from a mile away). Needless to say, the salesman that helped us out got a fat commission from the sale he made from us, and the other guy lost out. Moral of the story: just because somebody isn't dressed to the nines doesn't always mean they can't or won't pay the big bucks for quality merchandise.