SCs who don't get that you are actually a person

[matty]

I once worked selling seafood in a supermarket. I was serving a customer one day, who wanted to buy some prawns (many of you would call them shrimp, but this is not the topic here )

These prawns can "spike" you, and this is what happened while I was serving this customer. Now, I didn't exactly suffer a major injury, but I did briefly go to the sink to check that my hand was okay, and to wash off the bleeding. When I return, literally a few moments later, this SC says "Are you right now?", and she wasn't expressing her concern.

Her tone of voice and body language made clear that she was implying "You've kept me waiting too long, I want to get my purchase now."

Now, sure I can understand SCs not giving a !@#$%%^ about employees, but, hold on here, did she actually want my blood on her food???

Any similar stories that people have about SCs completely and utterly forgetting that retail and customer service employees are actually human too?

[Fawn]

mm bloody prawn

[Boozy]

I keep a bottle of water at the till to sip on between customers. Sometimes we're so busy (one customer after another for an hour or so) that I need to gulp some back while I'm waiting for a customer to enter their PIN on the debit machine.

I had a man tell me that I shouldn't do that, it was rude, and water should be reserved for breaks.

Water, for cripes' sake.

[Zeeko]

I had a soldering iron slide across the counter when the cord snagged on my mobile phone holster burning a nice deep hole in my palm.

The customer actually laughed at me until I turned to face him with the devil himself in my eyes and told him to politely fuck off.

[crazylegs]

I've mentioned this a couple of times in the past but I'm a little taller than average (relevant to the story)

My last Christmas at the Chemists and signs saying three for the price of two were put up, I was walking along the top floor (where the ceiling is lower) and I caught my head on one enough to knock the sign from the ceiling (they were attached with magnets, normally sufficient as long as you don't go around headbutting them)

Result, sign comes down and clocks me on the head, I turn to the customer stood next to me and ensure they aren't hurt to which he said "aren't you going to apologise, that could have hit me on the head"

At this point I blinked stated that it *did* hit me on the head and I promptly walked off to the back shop and left him to it (carrying the now downed sign)

[chainedbarista]

big man with an issue over water; apparently this rocket scientist doesn't realise that we can't always take a magical break when the mood moves us.

i have to grab it on the go most of the time; i don't particularly like the idea of my face meeting the floor and waking up to find someone sticking an iv line in my arm.

drink your water with a great big grin boozy! it's not rude, just you taking care of your health, and him being an asstard.

[smileyeagle1021]

i've had people complain because I mute the phone when i sneeze or cough... but then they'd complain if I didn't mute the phone when i sneeze or cough... so basically they are upset over the fact that i am indeed human, working in a city with some of the dirtiest air in the country (doctors are saying breathing salt lake air during an inversion is equivalent to smoking 5 cigs a day).

[gunsage]

Kinda reminds me of one situation where I was working security at the bus terminal (I think I may have mentioned this one before, but ah well). We had a very simple policy regarding unloading the bags...

Stand behind the yellow line. Wait until all bags are unloaded. Wait until the baggers give you the okay. One at a time, come get your bags.

Simple, right? Apparently not for the pricks that are in such a rush to put themselves in danger! I varied between absolute bastard and uber-laidback as a security officer and this position demanded the first. Asshole #1 gets impatient, jumps over a barrier, and starts heading toward his bag. I SEE A BUS COMING! I rush over and toss him back behind the barrier...bus narrowly missing him. Does he thank me? Does he at least SHUT UP AND WAIT?

Nope, he proceeds to assault me verbally for the next several minutes while I give him a look like hell itself is coming to swallow him. He locked eyes with me at first, then couldn't, then eventually calmed down to a whimper. I took a breath and said "I know not the state of your peripherals, but you just about got run over buddy" as I pointed at the bus, now inches from the barrier he had jumped over. He stared at me blankly, apparently unaware of how close he came to being roadmeat. Sigh.

[MadMike]

I had a man tell me that I shouldn't do that, it was rude, and water should be reserved for breaks.

I know you couldn't really do this, but the perfect response would be to shut off the register, tell him, "OK, I'm taking my break now!", and walk away.

[Jadedcarguy]

We put up signs today stating we are closed Christmas Day. People have already bitched about it. One womans reasoning was that she's Jehovahs Witness and doesn't celebrate it. Well, we're not, and we do!

Come on people. It's friggin' Christmas! Get over it.

[rerant]

At my work if you're buying a bed you need a mid-beam. It's essential to the construction of the bed, unless it's a twin size.
People often mistakenly pick up two mid-beams, since they fit inside one another really easily and they think that the two together = one.
Well a man and his daughter had taken two and I was trying to ask them to remove the unneeded one from the cart and leave it with the other left behind items.
Well the ignored me so I went to move it myself and one slipped from my hand and my thumb was caught between the two and the metal sliced my thumb up pretty bad.
It started bleeding instantly and since I have a pretty bad blood phobia my first reaction was not customer service, so I walked away from my cash, went to get a napkin to wrap my thumb in and called a supervisor for an alcohol swab and a few bandages.

All of that took about three minutes, since I was trying not to pass out or vomit, and the customer behind the ones who had the mid-beam said, "You want to quit fooling around and serve us?"

My response: "I'm sorry, there's blood pouring out of my hand from a fresh cut. Would you like to see it?"

[Kyree]

I keep a bottle of water at the till to sip on between customers. Sometimes we're so busy (one customer after another for an hour or so) that I need to gulp some back while I'm waiting for a customer to enter their PIN on the debit machine.

I had a man tell me that I shouldn't do that, it was rude, and water should be reserved for breaks.

Water, for cripes' sake.

The cashiers at my job are not, in any circumstances, allowed to have any beverage at their register, not even water.

[jrh215]

When I worked in the photo lab, I used to hate when people would drop off those disposable waterproof cameras because it was a total bitch to open them up to get the film out. One day, a customer dropped one of these cameras off for developing. Being an idiot, I was attempting to cut away some of the rubber casing using my pocket knife; I basically manipulated the knife in such a way that when I applied force to it, I caused the blade to fold backward into my thumb. It cut me like a hot knife through butter, literally splitting the top of my thumb apart down to the fingernail. I instictively threw my hand back when I cut it, slinging blood all over the place; it was really bleeding badly. I wrapped hand in a paper towel and proceeded to the pharmacy where we kept some basic first aid supplies.

I standing at our pharmacy window waiting for someone to see if they had any gauze (because a band-aid wasn't going to be cutting it for me). The paper towel I had my thumb wrapped in was literally SOAKED through with blood and I couldn't get it to stop. I was actually thinking I would have to go to a med-stop in a moment to get stitches or something because I had literally cut the top of my thumb in two.

I was amazed (at the time, that is, since I had yet to fully develop my present total disdain for the general public) that at least three people walked up to me while I was standing there with a bloody rag wrapped around my hand and begin asking me for help to find their shitty, tacky items around the store. I made a point to stick my bloody stump in their faces as I was pointing to an area of the store and saying, "Yeah, look over on the bottom shelf on aisle 6...."

[TruthHurts]

I was cleaning a room at my last job when the guest came in and demanded I leave so she could change. Perturbed by her tone I quickly yanked the plug to the vacuum out of the wall and some how managed to smack myself in the head with it.

Temporarily dazed I am surprised to hear the guest snap "You didn't hurt yourself that bad, hurry up." The memory still infuriates me when I think about it.

[Imogene]

Old story, working at Chesterfield, one Friday, I had just come back from break, bringing a snickerdoodle along as an after-lunch treat, which I was allowed to nibble on periodically. Just as I got a hunk of it in my mouth, a woman comes striding right up to me, so I gave her the 'Just a minute' finger while I chewed and choked down the chunk in my throat.
Woman immediately went to super bitch. "Don't they give you breaks to eat?"
*blink, blink* "I just returned from one, a fifteen minute one, hardly enough time to eat my entire meal and the cookie, so I brought it back to munch on as I got peckish."
"That's disgusting!"
"Um...?"
I rang woman up, and she left, leaving me out of words.

I know, it's not as bad as slicing your thumb open.

Or how about the mother daughter combo who laughed when I managed to implode one of our metal bins by leaning on it, not realizing it came apart? Wasn't just everyday laughter, either. Oh, no, it went on for a good five minutes, both Mom & Daughter thinking it was the most hilarious thing ever.