Do you even realize what you're arguing with me about?

[Imogene]

Before I even tell this one, yes, I sucked too. I would imagine it was more from being thrown headfirst into the Christmas Rush, an hour early, having no normal size bags, and tons upon tons of insanely angry people for some reason.

A group of people come through my line, two different transactions. First one goes through just fine. Second transaction, the girl does the "Not sure if I want to buy this" dance, and suddenly moves to put some random item on a coworker's register.
SG1: Sucky Guy
SG2: Sucky Girl
RJ: "Actually, if you'd hand that to me, so we keep her register clear...?"
SG1: "What the hell did you just say?"
RJ: *blink* "I have a returns basket down here behind my till, and we really should keep the counters clear."
SG1: "Do you talk to all your customers like that?"
RJ: "No..."
SG1: "So, why would you now?"
RJ: "I really don't know." I know he was angling for the race card, and that's about it, it had nothing to do with it, I was just tired of seeing customers drop random crap on other registers, particularly with how packed the counters can get. Meanwhile, I was almost done ringing up SG2, and gave her her total.
SG2: "Oh hell no, I don't want it now."
SG1: *muttering* "If I'd talked to customers like that, and I worked for *here*, I'd be out of a job." No, he wasn't talking to me, he was talking to someone else with them. I was more intent on getting FES H to come over to do a void.
SG1: "In fact..." *tosses the bag of stuff he'd just bought on my counter* "Return my stuff, now."
RJ: "You'll have to wait for me to get a keyholder over here."
Finally, H comes over, does the void, and the return, and I hand SG2 the return info slip, which absolutely must be filled out or there's no return.
SG2 looks like she's about to rebel, and mutters to the like, but relents, just to get the money back.
SG1: "We're going to *art store across the street*!"
RJ: Great, you realize your little crusade was about whether or not you should be allowed to trash the store, right? You were standing right in front of me, and could've just as easily handed me the item you didn't want, and it would've been taken care of, no problem. Plus, you now have to stand in line again. Not to mention find everything you bought here. Oh, man, two customers lost out of two hundred.
Again, I admit I was sucky too.

[Saydrah]

I see no suck on your part here.

Asking a customer to kindly allow you to clean up after them is not suck.

However, your wording could have been improved- "Oh, Ma'am, if you don't want that item, I'd be glad to put it back for you- if you could please hand it to me, I have a returns basket over here, and my coworker doesn't have one behind her register."

....Yesh, retail SUCKS.

[blas]

No, you weren't sucky.

You caught a customer trying to "hide" unwanted items. They always get defensive and angry over that. You explained why you needed the said unwanted items. They threw a fit and were fishing to get you riled up.

They spouted off about what they'd do in your situation. If they were in your situation, they'd be pissed of as well when they caught idiot customers trying to hide shit that they didn't want.

[Imogene]

I might've used a slightly more abrasive tone than I usually do, which is where I think my suck came in. The tension from thirty customers in as many minutes got to me, and it all just broke out.

[bainsidhe]

Unless you used a snarky little piss-voice, your suck factor was nonexistant. Something to do with the busy holiday season - people don't focus on cheer and goodwill towards their fellow man/woman, but instead focus on being tired, financially over-extended, and damn impatient. I'm finding that a lot of customers who are grumpy are simply looking for an outlet to purge their grumpiness. Too bad they feel employees are the perfect target. Jerks.

[Seshat]

The only fault I see in you is saying 'No' to 'Do you talk to all of your customers like that?'.

Unless you used a particularly snarky voice, I'd recommend saying 'Actually, I do. I always offer to take things they don't want, and get them put away so someone else can buy them.'

[Bagga]

"Do you talk to all of your customers like that?"

"No. Sometimes I use a fake Italian accent, other times I speak in a highpitchedgabblewithoutpausingforbreath, and sometimes, but only rarely, I speak to the customer in the way that he deserves. Now gimme that item, you jackass, and get the hell out of my store"

[Boozy]

I love it when a cashier is kind enough to take my unwanted items out of my hands. It means I don't have to walk it all the way back to the section I found it.

I was in a department store a few years ago and took a few items into the dressing rooms. Nothing looked good. I left the dressing room and handed my stuff to the attendant. She refused to take them and said "Couldn't you just bring them back to where you found them?"

The whole thing left me slightly confused, because I assumed she'd want to take them herself. Can you really trust the average shopper to put these things back exactly where they found them? I had to wander the clothing section for a few minutes to figure out where I grabbed everything from, and I'm still not certain I put everything back on the right racks. And the t-shirt I refolded looked like crap.

I guess she must have had too much to do that day. She's just lucky it was me, because I'll bet a lot of people would have just dumped their clothes into whatever section was convenient on the way out.

[Miffed]

You actually should have said "Yes I do kindly offer to everyone to take unwanted items " to his question.

[mymaskofsanity]

You were totally justified.
100%

I have a similar story,

Here at the beer store there are several sizes of canned beer.
950ml can for $3.50. ( multiply that by 2 thats 1900ml for 7 bucks)
6 pack of same beer 355ml cans $7.95 ( 2130ml for 8 bucks )

It probably works of to almost the exact same amount of beer if you added it all up, divided it or whatever.

But this Sc like many others thinks the 950's are a better deal for some reason, than getting an easy to carry 6, 12 or 24 pack.

So when grabbing 8 of the 950ml's from the fridge ( I only ever carry 4 because they're big and awkward )

He obviously drops 3 of them on the way to the counter, the counter that is 4 feet away from the fridge.

beer sprays, damaged cans.

My reply of " why don't you just make 2 trips next time? " brought upon rage like I'd never seen before.
" Don't talk to me like a child !!!!! "

honestly if you werent as stupid as a child I wouldnt have to.

Common sense must offend people, pardon me while I mop up the mess you just made.

Oh, you're not going to pay for that either/

its cool, thats what write offs are for.

[greensinestro]

No, you did not suck at all. You were being polite and asking a customer in a nice way to move their items to a more formidible area. Why do people like this cop an attitude when they are politely spoken to? I remember a lady who dealt with someone like this on the phone, and she told her, "Maam, I'm sorry, but I don't understand." All hell broke loose with "If I talked to my customers that way" bullshit.