SCs and their attempts to get you in trouble

[Cufflinks]

Yes, Yes, and Yes.

Many different times this has happened:

One time a customer came in and asked to speak with the owner, I told him he wasn't in but I'd leave a message.

He came in the next day, a little miffed, and said that he hadn't received a call, and I told him again that he hadn't come in, but I will add to the message that it is more urgent, and that he had come in twice. As he left in a huff, he paused, then said that he shouldn't blame me for him not being there. (Ok thanks)

In comes the owner the next day, of course I give him the message, he looks at it does some other things, then leaves early. (He should have been in here, I was getting tired of covering for him, but that doesn't matter)

Then the next day comes, I get a call, obviously the guy is irate at this moment, and I understand, but I tell him that I have given him the messages and he will be in later today. Then before the call ends he throws in "Make damn sure, that you don't forget and he calls me today" then hangs up. (what an asshole)

Ok, I take it.

Owner comes in and I tell him what has happened.

He calls the guy back finishes his deal and tells him to come pick it up.

So the guy comes in, gives me the look, then nicely goes to the owner to look at his ring.

To my shock and awe, the owner stops and says "look, I don't want you giving my help a hard time, I didn't call you back and that is my problem, so leave him out of it"

Wow, thanks. It feels good when you get backed up.

Later he told me, "that's bullshit, I hate it when people want to be pricks to the workers who have no control, you shouldn't have to deal with that, it's just punk. The guys a coward, if he has a problem with me, HE can deal with me"

[Kogarashi]

Well, this is the closest I've got.

While cashiering at Wal-Mart, I've gotten a lot of difficult-to-bag orders. This one lady came through my line with a cake from the bakery in a cardboard box that took up the entire bottom of one shopping cart. She also had another cart's worth of purchases, some purchases piled around and under her cake, and three or four children (all important).

Well, she wants me to ring up her cake first, so I do, and set it carefully in the bottom of a cart so it won't tip. I then proceed through the rest of her purchase. Next is one of those tall, thin 12-packs of toilet paper (or perhaps it was a tall, thin 6-pack of paper towel; either way). I ring it up and settle it carefully in the cart with the cake, leaning against the box's corner for support--the toilet paper was light enough not to cause a problem there. I then proceed to ring up other purchases and nestle them where I can and where they won't damage things. Her oldest child, a teenage girl, comes up and leans her folded arms across the top of the toilet paper package, which didn't quite register in my mind at the time.

I finished the transaction, and then the lady noticed that the toilet paper package had been pushed down and squished the box into the cake. The teenage daughter is off somewhere else, not even trying to look innocent because she was quite clueless as to what she'd done. I apologized profusely (after all, it was at least half my fault), explained what had happened, and sent her to customer service for a replacement cake or refund.

A CSM came up to me later asking me for my side of the story, which I related. She then said, "Ok, I know it's not completely your fault, but just be careful how you bag stuff in the future. I told that lady I'd have a talk with you, so consider yourself talked to." The CSM then walked off with a reassuring smile, and nothing went on record.

I wanted to say to the customer, "Look, Lady, I reloaded your carts just fine. Your daughter leaned on the package and squished it, not me."

[TruthHurts]

This happened a few years ago when I was working drive-thru. We had a family decide that they were so important they cut in front of another car. I told them they had to get in line like everyone else they argued that they knew what they wanted so why wait behind the other cars. I told them no dice and they went into the dining room to get my name and corporate's number. I told the manager what had happened and she told them that they were not pemitted to cut in front of other cars. Obviously they were intent on getting me in trouble so the father tells my boss I swore at him. I denied it but his family was standing there insisting that it was true. My manager stuck up for me and told them to get lost, thankfully they never showed up again.

[ZumZum]

I used to work for an upscale women's clothing store. I was pregnant during this episode. We closed at 9pm. We had two women in the fitting room, one was a pain in the butt regular, the other was one I didn't recognize.

I politely went back at 8:58pm and said, "Ladies, we will be closing soon, please let us know if there is anything we can help with". The regular just grunted at me. The other apologized, asked for another top in her size. Tried it on, bought it and left.

The regular shopped around for another 15 minutes. Bought some things and left.

A few weeks later I get a phone call from my DM. Do you recognize the name, "Bertha Williams"? Yes, I do (pain in the butt regular). Well she called corporate complaining about you. She claims you went to her and said, "We close in 2 minutes, could you hurry it up".

What????

She also complained that I looked dirty and disheveled!! I was hugely pregnant with twins!! Maternity clothes are not all that flattering (unless you want to shop at Pea in the Pod!!)

Fortunately my DM didn't believe it. Funny thing is, Bertha gave my name to corporate.
I went on maternity leave not that long after and was gone for about 14 weeks.

I get back and she is in the store one day. I decide to be the bigger person and help her. She is as nice as anything. The kicker??? When she was leaving she asked me what my name was! LOL

[Format C]

At the end of March of this year, which was the end of the winter quarter where I tutor, a student who had procrastinated on her paper (it was due that night, the third from last day of the end of the quarter) wondered why Microsoft Word kept pushing her paper one line down. Her instructor needed it typeset exactly as she had presented the version earlier in the day. I couldn't place my finger on it and the student was getting ill-tempered with me. I figured a complaint was drawing nigh, so I covered my ass by informing the frost desk of a possible complaint. The student complained about me to the front desk and the director of the department stepped in. The student then turned her wrath to the director. The director then asked me for the student's name and ID and reported the student to campus safety for her behavior. The director also pulled me aside and made very clear that because of the student's behavior, the complaint against me will be dismissed. w00t! The director and one of the supervisors also took a mental note of my record and re-affirmed that the complaint was invalid.

[SonOfSpam]

Back when I was selling rugs I had a wonderful encounter with a woman I will simply refer to as the "Rug Bitch". I was working near the 8X10 Olefin rugs when Rug Bitch comes by and needs help, I was busy handling 2 other families at the time and I asked her if she could wait a minute since the other guy was on his break. Rub Bitch made an annoyed grunt and reluctantly agreed. While I was helping the other people get situated the other guy got back and I handed Rug Bitch off to him, this caused Rug Bitch to make another annoyed grunt but I ignored it and moved on, forgetting about Rug Bitch for the time being. Two days later Rug Bitch is back and bitchier than ever, it turned out that the rug she bought had had a small rip in the side. Instead of being civil and talking it over quietly with my manager Rug Bitch decided to slam it down on the cashier's counter and start bitching at the top of her voice. Rug Bitch alleged that it had been my and my friends fault for selling her a bad rug (even though it was an easy fix) and that we should have paid more attention to her and her needs. I told Rug Bitch I was sorry (not convincingly) and said that she should have checked more carefully for tears before she bought it, and that there was a discount available for damaged merchandise. Rug Bitch scoffed at me and said, "Well, you're an idiot, what do you know?" to me right in front of my head manager, Mike. I gave Rug Bitch an evil glare, threw up my hands and walked away, refusing to sink down to her level by telling her to fuck off. According to my friend Kyle, Rug Bitch had just grabbed the rug, bought it, and walked out of the store in less than 2 minutes, not even bothering to ask any questions or anything. Later that day the owner of the store came to me and asked me what had happened, I told him about Rug Bitch and all her bullshit. Apparently Rug Bitch had filed a complaint against me and Mike, telling the owner we had called her a bitch and demanded she leave the store. The owner, Bob, didn't believe her, he knew me and Mike and he knew we'd never curse out a customer no matter how much they deserved it. Me and Mike laughed about it later, after the compaint was dismissed (everyone who saw it backed us up) and we were never bothered by the Rub Bitch again.

[huckster]

I had a customer ask me to call him when an order came in that was to contain an item that he wanted. Generally, this delivery came on Thursdays and was explained to him.
It didn't come on Thursday. I left for vacation Friday afternoon.
When I came back I had a letter from corporate with a customer complaint.
I promptly called the man explaining that I was sorry for not contacting him that the delivery was late and that I was heading out of town at that time. When the driver did come there were language issues and unfortunately some things fell throught the cracks. He agreed to the discounted rate for his troubles and would come to the store immediately to pick up his items.
Then he came in the store. And tried to pick me up.
He was my only corporate complaint (ever within 8 years) and he tried to take me to dinner. I never felt more angered or cheap. He was nasty and socially inept. How was that to be a turn on. Some people will never start to learn until they move out of their mothers basement. he was well into his 40's, it was gross, I was only 20.

[One-Fang]

I had a student at the teacher's college try to get me in trouble. We charged for printing, and he found that his entire $60 or so balance had disappeared in one day, and he hadn't used it. Of course, he blamed us. I explained that he's responsible for all activity on his account, our system does not randomly remove print credit, and suggested that perhaps he had not fully logged out of the system before walking away, so that someone was able to use his account?

Not good enough. He wrote a very unhappy letter to the CEO, complaining about the system. I got dragged through the mud, as well as my supervisor and manager.

After some more checking of where and when, we are able to ascertain that the printing happened a couple of hours after he'd used a lab, on exactly the same machine. I re-suggested that he had simply hit "log off" and walked off without checking, thereby perhaps not noticing an error message that popped up sometimes, preventing the logoff and allowing anyone following to click "No" and remain logged in.

He admitted that yes, after all, that was entirely possible. That he did frequently do just that, and that perhaps after all it was all his own fault.

At least he did send another letter to the CEO explaining the problem.

--------------

More recently, government job, one of our clerical staff was working on a Very Important Document (yes really, not just her own impression, this was MEGA critical to the organisation). She was having all kinds of weird problems with it, which we mostly attributed to it being corrupted or very odd user behaviour (entirely possible with her).

She says it's working perfectly when another person works on it (on their computer, not hers). It doesn't work normally when she uses the other person's computer, so whatever problem is probably login-bound.

I restress here the critical importance of the particular document. It cannot be understated. We have exhausted other avenues now. The document does not behave the way she wants (instead it does what online help tells me it's supposed to do - I suspect the story that it 'works' on the other computer is a lie), it cannot simply be 'fixed' because it's actually doing what it's supposed to, it must be out 'yesterday', and the other person isn't available to work on it.

So, having run out of all options, I ask if it's possible to get the other user's password to just work on this today and make those changes, just because that's the only way we're going to get this document to work.

Now yes, sharing login passwords is forbidden. But I stress just once more the critical importance of getting this document out. I reiterate that all other potential solutions were exhausted, and that, indeed, the document was only behaving in the manner in which it was supposed to, so there was nothing I could do to 'fix' it. I took this as a hugely exceptional situation, and therefore queried the usually forbidden solution of sharing password.

She told my boss and I got hauled in. Fortunately, he did what many others have done on this thread so far. He asked my side of it and then said "Well, I'm supposed to speak to you, so consider yourself spoken to."

[WHShit]

I was called into the office a few week ago because a customer lied to my boss about me. She said that she had asked me if I had a book in and I siad "I don't know" and then walked away.

My boss did not believe it after I expressed total shock. WHY would anyone do that to a customer? I would never say that! I always say "I'm not sure, let me go check for you". That is my saying. Always!

I think I know who it was too...this woman came down and said "I need this" and handed me a list of school books she needed. I told her that I would need to go get the other books lady as I know nothing about education books in this country. She said "nevermind" and snatched the papers from me. I don't know if it was her, but she's the only one I can think of.

Grrrrrr

[WhiteSeaStar]

I used to work in an independently-owned dance/gymnastics/swimwear store. It was a complete nightmare. The owner/manager (which is never a good idea, btw, no one who owns a store should be solely responsible for running it) was a bit out-there. She would say things like; "I am completely logical, my whole life is based on logic." Therefore, if you disagreed with her, you must have been irrational. *yeah, right* Aaanyway, the torture I endured there is a subject for a multitudes of other threads. This thread is about DanceHands.

We had a regular customer who taught dance and was also a massage therapist (hence the nickname DanceHands). Once she came in and we literally talked for an hour, all three of us, CrazyBoss, DanceHands, and I. I felt as if we had a rapport. One day I was working alone, just a few days before I was to take a trip to Philly to see my idol in concert for the first time. DanceHands came in and I was friendly and polite. There was a special order waiting for her, so I pulled it out, bagged it, and rang it up. She asked if I was getting vacation, and I said that I was heading to see Madonna and I felt so lucky to have tickets, because so many of her shows were sold out. There was a small glitch in processing the transaction, which I quickly righted and sent her on her way with a smile. The whole thing took slightly more than five minutes, but less than ten.

A few days later, my boss took me aside and said that DanceHands had told her that I was "completely spun" over seeing the concert and that I "wouldn't stop talking about it". She made it sound as if I was totally off my rocker, graceless, incompetent and yammering about Madonna constantly. I was so insulted. I hadn't thought DanceHands was someone who would badmouth me at the smallest opportunity. If I ever see her again, I will tell her exactly what I think of her.

I ended up being fired because of a similar incident: a StageMom came in wanting me to fit her daughter for ballet slippers from a tracing of her foot. I had no experience in fitting shoes that way, and I was all alone in the store. A good fit is essential in dancewear - badly fitting equipment earns a student the annoyance of the teacher at best, and serious injury at the worst. I didn't feel confident that I could fit the slipper properly, and I also knew that if I sold her the wrong size and they didn't realize it was a bad fit until after the first class, my boss would not accept the slippers back, because there were absolutely no returns on worn merchandise (and just ten minutes of wear can make a pair unsaleable). I politely explained that I could not ensure a good fit based on a tracing, that it could be problematic to return ill-fitting but worn shoes, and asked her to return with her daughter, or to come back when the boss would be in (I gave her an exact date and time). I was later told that she had gone to the dance studio and told all the other StageParents that I had been "extremely unhelpful" and "not to come into the store when I am working there".
All because I had discouraged her from buying a pair of unreturnable thirty-dollar shoes that may or may not have fit.

Boss concluded from this that I was "chasing away customers like crazy". She said; "I have cut and cut and cut your hours, I don't know what else to do," the translation of which is; "I didn't have the guts to actually fire you, so take the hint". I left there crying, which was fitting, since that job made me cry more than anything ever has.

[Lehk]

I re-suggested that he had simply hit "log off" and walked off without checking, thereby perhaps not noticing an error message that popped up sometimes, preventing the logoff and allowing anyone following to click "No" and remain logged in.

whoever designed THAT piece of software should be fired yesterday. a log out function should *immediately* discard authenitcation info and, if necessary, allow the user to log back in to address an error.

[Gurndigarn]

I used to work in an independently-owned dance/gymnastics/swimwear store. It was a complete nightmare. The owner/manager (which is never a good idea, btw, no one who owns a store should be solely responsible for running it)

I'll disagree with this. Owners should be running stores. That way, if they come up with a lot of nutty ideas, they get hit in the wallet. And good ideas benifit them directly.

My best job was at an owner-run junkyard.

[WhiteSeaStar]

Solely. I said solely responsible. An owner's presence can be helpful and beneficial, but when there is absolutely no one else who ever takes the reins, that way lies madness.

I am comparing that experience to a restaurant where I worked where the owners were often there, but had hired a trusted manager so that they didn't have to be there ALL. THE. TIME. It was one of the best workplaces I'd ever had.

Sometimes I wonder if she was naturally a crazymaking control freak, or if the fact that the store was her livelihood and it was resting entirely on her shoulders and no-one else's made her into a crazymaking control freak.

[Canarr]

WhiteSeaStar, if you feel like it I wouldn't mind to read a few more of your stories from the dance store.

[Gurndigarn]

Solely. I said solely responsible. An owner's presence can be helpful and beneficial, but when there is absolutely no one else who ever takes the reins, that way lies madness.

I'll still disagree. I've worked for owner/managers before, and I've worked for corporations also. Some of the locations I deal with now are solo endeavors, some are solo owners with managers, and others are corporations.

There's a wide spread in each situation. Just like there are good managers, there are also good owners. And I've seen situations where the owner shows up some of the time, but gets managers for the day-to-day stuff, where the situations deteriorates badly.