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Saturday was absolutely Sucktastic.
Business Credit Woes
A guy came through my line early in the day with an American Express card. I rang up his purchases (a bunch of cleaning supplies), and he swiped the card. And stopped when he got to the zipcode screen, which is something AmEx does at our store to verify their credit cards. Good idea, I think. Unfortunately, the guy didn't know his zipcode. So he asks me. I just moved to this area about two months ago, and am working two towns over from where I actually live, so I don't know any zipcodes beyond my own. So the customer next to him tells him the local zipcode.
Card is declined. Zipcode is the wrong one. The guy trys it again, and the card is declined again. He doesn't know the other zipcode he could try, and neither do the second customer or I. So I call over a CSM to void the transaction. CSM checks the card, checks the guy's ID, and puts in the zipcode on the guy's ID. Declined.
Then the CSM notices that the AmEx is a business card, with a business name and (presumably) the business owner's name on it. And the business owner's name doesn't match the guy trying to buy cleaning supplies. We have no authorization letter for the guy, so he can't buy stuff here anyway, and we tell him so. I do feel bad, though, since he's probably just a grunt at his place of employment who got sent to Wal-Mart for supplies with the company card.
Mattress Lady
A lady came through my line with a large cartful of merchandise. About three items into me scanning, she says, "I also have two mattresses and two crib frames up at Customer Service."
I looked at her blankly for a moment, and she returned my blank stare. Finally, I said, "Um, I need them over here so I can ring them up."
She immediately looks like I just asked her to pick up the store by hand and move it across the highway. "They're too heavy for me to just pick up and sling over my shoulder," she says.
"Well, I need the barcodes to scan, Ma'am," I reply, and call for a CSM. Lady ends up sending one of the teenage kids with her to go get the items instead of waiting. They finally arrive, and I attempt to scan them. Problem is, my scanning gun was misbehaving and would only work if there was a direct, obstruction-free line between the gun itself and the antenna on the base (and even then, I had to angle it properly). Suffice it to say, the mattresses and crib frames were not in the right position for this.
The lady immediately piped up with, "Then they're free, right?"
I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at her and punched in the barcode numbers by hand instead.
I Don't Like to
Soon after came a lady who didn't have a signature on the back of her credit card. I pointed this out to her, and she said, "I don't like to sign my cards." I suggested she might at least want to write "See ID" on the back if she wasn't going to sign it (I'm not going to argue with a customer over why they should actually sign the card). She, thankfully, seemed willing to listen to reason (though it took her a while to grasp what I meant by "See ID").
It's Illegal....
Not too long later came another customer with an unsigned card. I only really notice these things on purchases over $100, since that's when the register prompts to compare signatures (it occasionally does it for lower amounts). Otherwise, we don't ever touch the customer's card since it's all done through the pinpad.
I asked for ID, of course, and explained to the customer that they might want to sign their card. They responded that they didn't like to. I tried to point out the "Not Valid Unless Signed" on the back of the card, and they argued that they didn't like to sign them for security reasons. I suggested at least writing "See ID" (as I had with the previous lady), and the girl with this customer immediately starts in on a swearing fit complete with attitude about how "this is ******* unbelievable" and that "it's illegal not to ask for ID."
Um...since when? If your signature matches the signature on the back, why should I check ID just on the off chance that your card was stolen, your signature successfully duplicated (or, more likely with this customer, your name written in someone else's handwriting), and you were too stupid to realize by now that your card was gone and report it stolen? And swearing at me is not going to endear me to your cause. In fact, it's going to make me nearly have an emotional breakdown in front of a crowded store full of customers.
Man, I wish I had the authority to refuse an unsigned credit card.
Nice Lady, But Still Not a Fun Transaction
This lady, thankfully, was a breath of fresh air after the swearing card-fit. She came up with a basket full of items, including a five-piece ink cartridge set (color; each cartridge is a different color in the CMYK set). The cartridge rang up at $65. Sounds reasonable enough to me for something that fancy. Unfortunately, the customer said it was on a peg for $20. So I call for a CSM to double-check, especially as this is the second customer that week with that exact cartridge and that exact complaint. Something's fishy.
Well, the CSM goes to check the price, after approving the void off of the receipt (since it was over $50, it required a CSM approval). The customer is patient and understanding. Unfortunately, I thought the CSM had voided the whole transaction and not just the cartridge (what can I say, I was still shaken up from the swearing girl). So I rerang the items by hand (UPC#s on the receipt that printed) and charged the lady a second time. Then I realized what I'd done and apologized profusely and sent the (still!) understanding customer to customer service to get it fixed.
The CSM then came back and told me the cartridges were in fact $65, but that an entire peg-full ended up on a $20 peg and that Electronics was remedying the situation. Made me want to go throw a cartridge at the stocker in charge of that screw-up.
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Add to that:
- at least one Bagging Busybody: the kind who decides the cashier doesn't know what they're doing and just has to rebag everything once they get their meaty hands on it
- at least one Eager Grabber, who reached under the pinpad counter and around three large things of paper towels and toilet paper to grab the bag I was still filling, despite me asking her to wait and not turn the bagging rack on me--which she tried to do first
- at least one guy who had the cojones to say "good girl!" to me like I was some sort of trained monkey when I bagged things just right for him
- several money-grabbers who looked like they didn't want to wait for me to count their change properly
and the icing on the Cake of Suck:
Let's Have a Management Pow-Wow
Half an hour (give or take a few minutes) before shift's end, one of the CSMs came up to me at the self-checkout and asked if I wanted to go home half an hour early. She said it in a tone that sounded like she was joking, so I cornered her about five minutes later (since she ran off right after asking to talk to someone else) to ask if she was sure I wouldn't get yelled at for clocking out half an hour early.
She then asked me if I would actually cover for the door-greeter for half an hour, since the door-greeter was having major breathing issues and the AM (only one, with no SM in the store) was taking his sweet time finding her a replacement. So I agreed, figuring this way I could still clock out on time and not get yelled at. CSM(#1) told me to tell her at ten minutes before shift's end so she could find me a replacement. Fair enough.
About 15 minutes before shift's end, CSM#2 finally shows up from goodness-knows-where (she disappeared about an hour before, leaving CSM#1 the only CSM to be found for cashier errands and other duties). #1 and #2 have a stern discussion over by customer service, before #1 calls for AM to come to the front of the store.
He shows up, and they disappear into the management office. And stay there, holed up, for the next 20 minutes at least. I was starting to get worried, as they weren't responding to pages to call the self-checkout podium so I could tell them I needed to go home. Add to this it had been 2 hours since my last break, and I was starting to get hungry again (and a 6-months-pregnant hungry cashier who's been standing for 8 hours that day is not a happy cashier). It was getting harder to smile at the customers coming into the store.
Finally I thought "screw it" to myself, told the cashier on self-checkout (a very nice young man) that I was going to clock out and go home and to tell that to CSM#1 or AM if they asked, and left.
I get the impression that CSM#2 was getting a talking-to for disappearing for a whole hour+ on a busy day. That doesn't excuse the fact that the only three management-types we had in the store were holed up in the management office without making sure the rest of their duties were covered. Heaven knows how long that "meeting" went on after I left.
---
They're lucky I promised my husband I'd grit my teeth and work there as long as I can before pregnancy or stress forces me to stay home. They're also lucky that even that one day was preferable to the call center I worked at. ::gag::
Business Credit Woes
A guy came through my line early in the day with an American Express card. I rang up his purchases (a bunch of cleaning supplies), and he swiped the card. And stopped when he got to the zipcode screen, which is something AmEx does at our store to verify their credit cards. Good idea, I think. Unfortunately, the guy didn't know his zipcode. So he asks me. I just moved to this area about two months ago, and am working two towns over from where I actually live, so I don't know any zipcodes beyond my own. So the customer next to him tells him the local zipcode.
Card is declined. Zipcode is the wrong one. The guy trys it again, and the card is declined again. He doesn't know the other zipcode he could try, and neither do the second customer or I. So I call over a CSM to void the transaction. CSM checks the card, checks the guy's ID, and puts in the zipcode on the guy's ID. Declined.
Then the CSM notices that the AmEx is a business card, with a business name and (presumably) the business owner's name on it. And the business owner's name doesn't match the guy trying to buy cleaning supplies. We have no authorization letter for the guy, so he can't buy stuff here anyway, and we tell him so. I do feel bad, though, since he's probably just a grunt at his place of employment who got sent to Wal-Mart for supplies with the company card.
Mattress Lady
A lady came through my line with a large cartful of merchandise. About three items into me scanning, she says, "I also have two mattresses and two crib frames up at Customer Service."
I looked at her blankly for a moment, and she returned my blank stare. Finally, I said, "Um, I need them over here so I can ring them up."
She immediately looks like I just asked her to pick up the store by hand and move it across the highway. "They're too heavy for me to just pick up and sling over my shoulder," she says.
"Well, I need the barcodes to scan, Ma'am," I reply, and call for a CSM. Lady ends up sending one of the teenage kids with her to go get the items instead of waiting. They finally arrive, and I attempt to scan them. Problem is, my scanning gun was misbehaving and would only work if there was a direct, obstruction-free line between the gun itself and the antenna on the base (and even then, I had to angle it properly). Suffice it to say, the mattresses and crib frames were not in the right position for this.
The lady immediately piped up with, "Then they're free, right?"
I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at her and punched in the barcode numbers by hand instead.
I Don't Like to
Soon after came a lady who didn't have a signature on the back of her credit card. I pointed this out to her, and she said, "I don't like to sign my cards." I suggested she might at least want to write "See ID" on the back if she wasn't going to sign it (I'm not going to argue with a customer over why they should actually sign the card). She, thankfully, seemed willing to listen to reason (though it took her a while to grasp what I meant by "See ID").
It's Illegal....
Not too long later came another customer with an unsigned card. I only really notice these things on purchases over $100, since that's when the register prompts to compare signatures (it occasionally does it for lower amounts). Otherwise, we don't ever touch the customer's card since it's all done through the pinpad.
I asked for ID, of course, and explained to the customer that they might want to sign their card. They responded that they didn't like to. I tried to point out the "Not Valid Unless Signed" on the back of the card, and they argued that they didn't like to sign them for security reasons. I suggested at least writing "See ID" (as I had with the previous lady), and the girl with this customer immediately starts in on a swearing fit complete with attitude about how "this is ******* unbelievable" and that "it's illegal not to ask for ID."
Um...since when? If your signature matches the signature on the back, why should I check ID just on the off chance that your card was stolen, your signature successfully duplicated (or, more likely with this customer, your name written in someone else's handwriting), and you were too stupid to realize by now that your card was gone and report it stolen? And swearing at me is not going to endear me to your cause. In fact, it's going to make me nearly have an emotional breakdown in front of a crowded store full of customers.
Man, I wish I had the authority to refuse an unsigned credit card.
Nice Lady, But Still Not a Fun Transaction
This lady, thankfully, was a breath of fresh air after the swearing card-fit. She came up with a basket full of items, including a five-piece ink cartridge set (color; each cartridge is a different color in the CMYK set). The cartridge rang up at $65. Sounds reasonable enough to me for something that fancy. Unfortunately, the customer said it was on a peg for $20. So I call for a CSM to double-check, especially as this is the second customer that week with that exact cartridge and that exact complaint. Something's fishy.
Well, the CSM goes to check the price, after approving the void off of the receipt (since it was over $50, it required a CSM approval). The customer is patient and understanding. Unfortunately, I thought the CSM had voided the whole transaction and not just the cartridge (what can I say, I was still shaken up from the swearing girl). So I rerang the items by hand (UPC#s on the receipt that printed) and charged the lady a second time. Then I realized what I'd done and apologized profusely and sent the (still!) understanding customer to customer service to get it fixed.
The CSM then came back and told me the cartridges were in fact $65, but that an entire peg-full ended up on a $20 peg and that Electronics was remedying the situation. Made me want to go throw a cartridge at the stocker in charge of that screw-up.
---
Add to that:
- at least one Bagging Busybody: the kind who decides the cashier doesn't know what they're doing and just has to rebag everything once they get their meaty hands on it
- at least one Eager Grabber, who reached under the pinpad counter and around three large things of paper towels and toilet paper to grab the bag I was still filling, despite me asking her to wait and not turn the bagging rack on me--which she tried to do first
- at least one guy who had the cojones to say "good girl!" to me like I was some sort of trained monkey when I bagged things just right for him
- several money-grabbers who looked like they didn't want to wait for me to count their change properly
and the icing on the Cake of Suck:
Let's Have a Management Pow-Wow
Half an hour (give or take a few minutes) before shift's end, one of the CSMs came up to me at the self-checkout and asked if I wanted to go home half an hour early. She said it in a tone that sounded like she was joking, so I cornered her about five minutes later (since she ran off right after asking to talk to someone else) to ask if she was sure I wouldn't get yelled at for clocking out half an hour early.
She then asked me if I would actually cover for the door-greeter for half an hour, since the door-greeter was having major breathing issues and the AM (only one, with no SM in the store) was taking his sweet time finding her a replacement. So I agreed, figuring this way I could still clock out on time and not get yelled at. CSM(#1) told me to tell her at ten minutes before shift's end so she could find me a replacement. Fair enough.
About 15 minutes before shift's end, CSM#2 finally shows up from goodness-knows-where (she disappeared about an hour before, leaving CSM#1 the only CSM to be found for cashier errands and other duties). #1 and #2 have a stern discussion over by customer service, before #1 calls for AM to come to the front of the store.
He shows up, and they disappear into the management office. And stay there, holed up, for the next 20 minutes at least. I was starting to get worried, as they weren't responding to pages to call the self-checkout podium so I could tell them I needed to go home. Add to this it had been 2 hours since my last break, and I was starting to get hungry again (and a 6-months-pregnant hungry cashier who's been standing for 8 hours that day is not a happy cashier). It was getting harder to smile at the customers coming into the store.
Finally I thought "screw it" to myself, told the cashier on self-checkout (a very nice young man) that I was going to clock out and go home and to tell that to CSM#1 or AM if they asked, and left.
I get the impression that CSM#2 was getting a talking-to for disappearing for a whole hour+ on a busy day. That doesn't excuse the fact that the only three management-types we had in the store were holed up in the management office without making sure the rest of their duties were covered. Heaven knows how long that "meeting" went on after I left.
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They're lucky I promised my husband I'd grit my teeth and work there as long as I can before pregnancy or stress forces me to stay home. They're also lucky that even that one day was preferable to the call center I worked at. ::gag::
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