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My store is a Western Union location, and a few years ago, when I was a front end supervisor, an older man came in while I was on duty wanting to send money to his 'girlfriend' in the Philippines. When I asked him for the name of the person he was sending the money to, he handed me his phone; this is common with hard to pronounce or spell names. Whoever it was sent him pictures of multiple stores in our area that were also Western Union locations along with a constant stream of messages like 'you can send the money here, baby' and 'did you send the money, baby?' Nothing at all suspicious that, right?
Needless to say, my Spidey-sense started to tingle, along with my scam avoidance training, and I came to the conclusion that my customer had fallen prey to the dreaded romance scam, especially after he told me he was sending her the money so she could come and visit him. Yeah, no. I declined to proceed with the transaction. Afterwards, I told my manager, and the incident was reported to our asset protection department, and that was the end of it.
Or so I thought.
Recently, the same guy began coming in and purchasing $500 Apple gift cards, even being will to spend enough to buy 10 at one time. This also raised concerns about him being scammed, so he was asked about what the cards were for, and wouldn't you know, the story changed with every purchase. They were for his girlfriend, fiancée, sister, and even an orphanage. After comparing notes, management, which now includes me, decided to selling him gift cards.
As the low man on the totem pole, I was tasked with being the face of this refusal. When I told him that we would not be selling him a gift card because we thought he was being scammed, I got the 'I'll trade somewhere else' spiel, and he left. He tried it again about a week later, and after another refusal, coupled with his second threat shop elsewhere, I got an added 'piss on you' bonus for my trouble.
So you can imagine my great surprise when, of course, I saw him coming in to the store this past Saturday for at least the second time since our last encounter. I smiled and gave him a cheery wave. Happy Easter, friend!
Bonus Easter weekend suckage
We have 6 packs of 1/2 litre bottles of Coke and Pepsi products on sale BOGO free. A customer came in on Saturday morning saying her 12 packs of Coke and Sprite were rung up incorrectly, so I check the shelf tags, and they are price printed on the receipt. Telling her this, she tells me that she got the items from a display in produce, so over we go to check the display signage. The 6 packs and the 12 packs are next to one another each with a correct sign. She declined the offer to switch out the soda and up got a refund because she knew where she could get them cheaper.
Later that evening, when all hell was breaking loose, and we were short a person, another customer came in saying that their Pepsi was rung up wrong. So we both go to the shelf, and again, the price tag matches her receipt. She got 8 packs of 12 ounce bottles. Again, I point out the actual BOGO items, and she tells me that 'it's in the ad'. Okay, let's get an ad, and flipping it to the Pepsi items, sure enough, the item in the flyer was the item marked BOGO, not what she bought. Unhappily, she left.
And to all those calling to 'see if y'all are open', go to hell! We close one day a year and Easter ain't it. If we were closed, there would be signage on the doors, not that it would do any good seeing as you won't read them. (In 2012, my town was hit by a derecho, and the store and town was without power for a time. We had large signs on the doors saying we were closed because we had no electricity; as I'm sure you are all aware that was a completely useless waste of time as person after person knocked on the door with 'are you open?' Yes, were open. Were just sitting here in the dark, with the doors locked for fun.)
A brain burp confession
Also on Saturday, I had my own moment of foolishness. A customer called and asked my coworker if we had rhubarb in our produce department and I was asked to inquire to see if we did. I was standing in the office doorway with a view of the produce department, and I saw an abundance of what looked like rhubarb so I said we did. This was relayed to the customer who said she would be right over.
The problem was that what I thought was rhubarb were the stems of beets. We don't carry rhubarb, as I discovered to my embarrassment, when I did check.
The customer was kind enough to forgive me, and got some other needed items so her trip wasn't completely wasted.
But lesson learned.
Rhubarb 
Beet Stems
Needless to say, my Spidey-sense started to tingle, along with my scam avoidance training, and I came to the conclusion that my customer had fallen prey to the dreaded romance scam, especially after he told me he was sending her the money so she could come and visit him. Yeah, no. I declined to proceed with the transaction. Afterwards, I told my manager, and the incident was reported to our asset protection department, and that was the end of it.
Or so I thought.
Recently, the same guy began coming in and purchasing $500 Apple gift cards, even being will to spend enough to buy 10 at one time. This also raised concerns about him being scammed, so he was asked about what the cards were for, and wouldn't you know, the story changed with every purchase. They were for his girlfriend, fiancée, sister, and even an orphanage. After comparing notes, management, which now includes me, decided to selling him gift cards.
As the low man on the totem pole, I was tasked with being the face of this refusal. When I told him that we would not be selling him a gift card because we thought he was being scammed, I got the 'I'll trade somewhere else' spiel, and he left. He tried it again about a week later, and after another refusal, coupled with his second threat shop elsewhere, I got an added 'piss on you' bonus for my trouble.
So you can imagine my great surprise when, of course, I saw him coming in to the store this past Saturday for at least the second time since our last encounter. I smiled and gave him a cheery wave. Happy Easter, friend!
Bonus Easter weekend suckage
We have 6 packs of 1/2 litre bottles of Coke and Pepsi products on sale BOGO free. A customer came in on Saturday morning saying her 12 packs of Coke and Sprite were rung up incorrectly, so I check the shelf tags, and they are price printed on the receipt. Telling her this, she tells me that she got the items from a display in produce, so over we go to check the display signage. The 6 packs and the 12 packs are next to one another each with a correct sign. She declined the offer to switch out the soda and up got a refund because she knew where she could get them cheaper.
Later that evening, when all hell was breaking loose, and we were short a person, another customer came in saying that their Pepsi was rung up wrong. So we both go to the shelf, and again, the price tag matches her receipt. She got 8 packs of 12 ounce bottles. Again, I point out the actual BOGO items, and she tells me that 'it's in the ad'. Okay, let's get an ad, and flipping it to the Pepsi items, sure enough, the item in the flyer was the item marked BOGO, not what she bought. Unhappily, she left.
And to all those calling to 'see if y'all are open', go to hell! We close one day a year and Easter ain't it. If we were closed, there would be signage on the doors, not that it would do any good seeing as you won't read them. (In 2012, my town was hit by a derecho, and the store and town was without power for a time. We had large signs on the doors saying we were closed because we had no electricity; as I'm sure you are all aware that was a completely useless waste of time as person after person knocked on the door with 'are you open?' Yes, were open. Were just sitting here in the dark, with the doors locked for fun.)
A brain burp confession
Also on Saturday, I had my own moment of foolishness. A customer called and asked my coworker if we had rhubarb in our produce department and I was asked to inquire to see if we did. I was standing in the office doorway with a view of the produce department, and I saw an abundance of what looked like rhubarb so I said we did. This was relayed to the customer who said she would be right over.
The problem was that what I thought was rhubarb were the stems of beets. We don't carry rhubarb, as I discovered to my embarrassment, when I did check.
The customer was kind enough to forgive me, and got some other needed items so her trip wasn't completely wasted.
But lesson learned.