I'm sorry you're going to have to wait!

[CrazedClerk]

Ok so I work in a small store, occasionally I will be the only employee on duty. Perhaps I am dealing with a complex request from a customer at the front of the line and it will take some time to get through it all.

Inevitably someone in my line of 3 or 4 people that has been waiting will be rude with me when they finally get served.

It's NOT my fault if YOU are in a hurry because you did such a crappy job of scheduling your day. I do not make people wait on purpose, I do my job as efficiently as I can and sometimes efficiency takes TIME.

I've even had several people demand I give them a DISCOUNT because I've made them wait too long! ("I think you owe me something for the incovenience"). Ok first 5 minutes is really not that long, secondly there's no reason you deserve a discount because you weren't first in line. I'd love to see how these people behave in a Wal-Mart line.

We live in a society of wait times people, deal with it!

And another thing...

Anyone who works in a video or music or video game store will appreciate this.

I sell video games. At my particular store, we get our shipments during the day so on the day a game is supposed to be released, we typically do not have it in stock right at opening. We do with street date items that usually arrive a few days before, but in most cases, we get the shipment the day of.

Inevitably I get people calling me every TWENTY, count 'em, TWENTY minutes asking me if Game X is in yet. Firstly you could've preordered Game X (since we can preorder most any new release that comes out) and not had to worry about this. Second, I don't mind people calling occasionally to see if a game is in but how about once every HOUR or so??

Imagine if you will a day when several big games are out (this happens routinely during holiday season) and I get multiple impatient people calling to see if it's in yet. I can't waste every minute of my on the job time on the phnoe, then nothing else would get done.

[Dark Psion]

I've even had several people demand I give them a DISCOUNT because I've made them wait too long! ("I think you owe me something for the incovenience"). Ok first 5 minutes is really not that long, secondly there's no reason you deserve a discount because you weren't first in line. I'd love to see how these people behave in a Wal-Mart line.

My answer would be; "OK, I will give you a discount but with one catch. If at anytime during this transaction you inconvience me, you give me twice the discount,.....in cash!"

[One-Fang]

New signage:

Dear customers

We have an optional 'Bonus Scheme' you may choose to participate in.

In it, we give a discount for any 'inconvenience' you've suffered here, including but not limited to: wait times, having to find your item, you not having your wallet ready at the checkout, another customer screaming and yelling, etc.

However, we also have a penalty system, whereby we may charge you for such inconveniences to us as: listening to your never ending stories, explaining anything more than once, you swearing at us, demands you make, insulting the staff, etc.

If you wish to participate in the Bonus Scheme, please state so as soon as possible during your transaction so that the operator can assess both your discount and your penalty.

[stormtreader]

"You qualify for...no bonus"
"What! Moan moan moan.."
"Ding! £10 penalty for moaning"

I like this system, the house always wins

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I hear ya. I was working a Saturday morning (that's a particularly grueling shift) once when this uptight young guy came in and started huffing and foot-tapping and glaring because he was in a hurry (just like all the other hundreds of customers we'd had that morning, and every morning.) and didn't really leave himself enough time to get his job done.

What kills me is that at Kinko's, they can SEE you working. They can SEE the other jobs being done, can SEE the machines jamming and the phone ringing and the sweat flying. It's not like they can honestly think you are back there with your thumb up your butt. So when this clueless, self-important yabbo brought his attitude up to the counter for me and said, "Took you long enough" when I tried to take his order, I saw red.

I put down my pen, drew myself up, looked him square in the face, and said very sternly, "Listen, you can easily see that nobody's screwing off back here. And you can also see that there's just two of us back here and that I dont' have a lot of time to waste. Now give me your order and we'll have you out of here as soon as humanely possible. Okay?"

Guy actually backed down. He didnt' apologize, but he did calm down and ease off some.

[Zombi]

I remember one time when I was working at one of the cash-only tills. On those two tills, there's no room to put the next customer's stuff through if another customer is still there, putting their change in their wallet and arranging their bags, and whatnot. I had one woman come through and complain at me about not putting her stuff through fast enough.
Me: "I'm sorry, but there's not enough room here for two people's things. It's just easier to wait until she's finished."
Her: "Well not when you've got ten minutes to get to work, it isn't!"

I didn't say anything to her, just put her stuff through and got her the hell out. My workplace is not the sort of place you just drop into on your way home because you forgot the milk - it's in an out-of-the-way location, and most people make a special trip out there because everything's really cheap. Also, it's always hellishly busy. Always. So I don't know why she came before work, because you haven't got a hope in hell of getting in and out quickly. You can see that as soon as you walk into the place - some days, we even have people queuing up to get in.
Bah.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I think my favorite quote from customer who was in a hurry (Is there ever any other kind?) has got to be:

"Can I get it right now, or do I have to wait a second?"

Hm. Since I can't have it materialize instantly in front of you, I guess you will have to 'wait a second.' "

[AFpheonix]

I had a moron yesterday that was mad that she had to wait for us to refill 2 scripts that had sat on the shelf ready to go for a week, and since she didn't bother to pick them up, had been stored back onto her file. I told her it would take about 20 minutes to refill them.
"Oh c'mon, you had them ready before, can't you do it any faster? I have to be somewhere!"
She then proceeded to sit in the freaking drive thru and not move. Yep, have to be somewhere, can't possibly go wherever that is and come back later....
Oops, well, you just garaunteed that it will take me 20 minutes on the dot to get that done, now. Whoops....If she'd been more polite, I might have gotten it done rather quickly. I swear, retail has kind of turned me into a bitch.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I hate it when people say, "Hurry up, my parking's about to run out!" Then I go slower, hoping that they'll get a ticket. I'm twisted and evil, from working in retail.

[dragonflygrrl]

I feel your pain. I'm the only person in my store every single morning, and it never fails that I get a whole bunch of people, all of whom want something complicated done with their plan, none of whom want to wait. I just tell them sweetly, "I'm sorry, if I try to do both at the same time, I will mess something up. Then you really will be here all day!" The usually back down then. I actually used a line I read on here the other day when lady asked me if she could be next since she "only had one little thing" she needed. I smiled and said, "I don't have a problem with it, but you'll need to clear that with the people in front of you." After glancing she shut up and sat down. So thanks, whoever posted that!

[pbmods]

My manager pulled me aside at the end of the day today to talk to me. Apparently, she had been getting complaints from customers in the neighboring office buildings because I "take too long" to enter their order.

Apparently, they just want to be "in and out" and their memories are so worthless to them that they want to spend as little as possible on them.

I did not realize that taking the extra ten seconds to ask if the customers want their pictures on a CD and/or white borders on their prints (you know... to help make them SPECIAL) causes people to come back late from their lunch breaks.

Of course, in response to these complaints, I have reorganized our ordering counter to make it easier and faster to order our photo value packages. The value packages, naturally, all have upsells in them....

[ArenaBoy]

I hate impatient people. I was helping a customer out at a game one time, during the entire ordeal a guy is honking his horn at me, when I am done with him, the horn honker is still honking and add that noise with a bad headache I had that day, I lost it and told him that he could see that I was helping someone else and that he needed to learn some paitence.

[Jester]

"Can I get it right now, or do I have to wait a second?"

Hm. Since I can't have it materialize instantly in front of you, I guess you will have to 'wait a second.' "

I can't count the number of times people have asked me how longer their FOOD was going to be just moments after they have ordered it. But now I have a way to deal with them and the people who do this:

SC: "We'd like an order of chicken wings right away."
ME: "I'm sorry, but we ARE going to have to cook them first."
SC: "Um...oh...yeah...guess so, huh?"

More often than not, they do laugh.

Then there are the people with kids who keep whining "when is my food going to be here?!?!?!" and their parents don't have the intelligence/parenting skills/decency to tell their kids that it takes time to cook food, and so I up having to tell Junior that little fact of life. Thanks, folks!

[draftermatt]

Then there are the people with kids who keep whining "when is my food going to be here?!?!?!" and their parents don't have the intelligence/parenting skills/decency to tell their kids that it takes time to cook food, and so I up having to tell Junior that little fact of life. Thanks, folks!

Most kids are probably aware of that, they are just impatient. And when they get hungry they think they are starving to death.

[Thrifty]

I hate when the cashier has one person in line, is finishing up sale and a person gets behind them. Good luck for the customer right only have to wait 30 seconds or so and will be checked out. They see me standing behind the register area picking up hangers etc. and ask if I'm on the other register and look absolutely crestfallen when I tell them no, only that register is open right now.