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I need to start with some background info first. Blamco (as I shall call my store from now on; you can only say "pool store" so many times) is having a slight employee crisis.
By employee crisis I mean AM C is royally pissing off some people and cutting hours, and we've had 2 sales reps, 1 cashier, and our only warehouse guy put in their 2-weeks notices. Needless to say, we're very understaffed. We're lucky if both AMs, a sales rep, and a cashier are there on any given day.
More background info: every register has a phone. After 3 rings, if you're at your lane, answer it. More often than not, no one else is there to take the call but Yours Truly.
Now, I'm usually good with the phone. If a customer calls while I'm ringing up the order, I ask if they could hold until I finish and I'll get right back to them and usually I have no problems. If they ask for a manager (who's never in, it's the AMs and they're in back), I tell them that I will try to reach someone but I apologize ahead of time if they are unable to reach you, please call back later.
So last Tuesday I had a customer come in and want to exchange a ladder that they had purchased with their pool as part of a package. The problem was that it was not tall enough to reach the floor of the pool, and she wanted another one to exchange. Now, usually you have to order ladders, we rarely have them in the warehouse unless it's a customer's order. Not good enough for her. Cue the whining and groaning when the phone rings. No AMs around, so I've got to take the call. Fortunately, most of these calls were quick questions, like "Do you have shock/sand/slo-tabs?" or "When do you close today?". The problem was they happened every two seconds. Each time I pick up the receiver, she glares. She demands I go look for a ladder when I can't leave my register anyway, and I tell her I can't do anything but an AM is coming shortly. She hisses.
Finally E approaches and asks her how he can help. They go off to look for a ladder, and I relax. I ring up a few orders, no problems. Ladder-Lady comes back later, and I swear she was some sort of jinx because as soon as she brought the ladder box over the phone rang. I multitask and ring in the ladder while informing the customer on the line that we do not have filter sand (yet again). Call ends. Ladder-Lady swipes her card to pay, phone rings again. The receipt is printing as I finish the call. I ask her to sign it and she snaps "I don't think I should, you can't keep off the damn phone." I explain that it's my job when no one else can take the call and lo and behold, as she finishes signing it rings again, but the lady on the line has a question about a pool pacage we offer. I take the signed receipt from LL and begin to describe the package when the receiver is snatched out of my hand and slammed back down onto the hook. LL screams "STOP YAKKING ON THAT PHONE AND SERVE ME!!!" (mind you, she's paid and gotten her receipt. I'm done.)
E, who is nearby, shouts, "Keep talking to my cashier like that and the only thing you'll be served is a ban!"
She takes her ladder and leaves, and no sooner after she left the lady who had been hung up on called back, asking rather timidly if it was safe to talk to me. Poor thing. I explained what happened and she mutters "What an asswipe." I had to laugh.
By employee crisis I mean AM C is royally pissing off some people and cutting hours, and we've had 2 sales reps, 1 cashier, and our only warehouse guy put in their 2-weeks notices. Needless to say, we're very understaffed. We're lucky if both AMs, a sales rep, and a cashier are there on any given day.
More background info: every register has a phone. After 3 rings, if you're at your lane, answer it. More often than not, no one else is there to take the call but Yours Truly.
Now, I'm usually good with the phone. If a customer calls while I'm ringing up the order, I ask if they could hold until I finish and I'll get right back to them and usually I have no problems. If they ask for a manager (who's never in, it's the AMs and they're in back), I tell them that I will try to reach someone but I apologize ahead of time if they are unable to reach you, please call back later.
So last Tuesday I had a customer come in and want to exchange a ladder that they had purchased with their pool as part of a package. The problem was that it was not tall enough to reach the floor of the pool, and she wanted another one to exchange. Now, usually you have to order ladders, we rarely have them in the warehouse unless it's a customer's order. Not good enough for her. Cue the whining and groaning when the phone rings. No AMs around, so I've got to take the call. Fortunately, most of these calls were quick questions, like "Do you have shock/sand/slo-tabs?" or "When do you close today?". The problem was they happened every two seconds. Each time I pick up the receiver, she glares. She demands I go look for a ladder when I can't leave my register anyway, and I tell her I can't do anything but an AM is coming shortly. She hisses.
Finally E approaches and asks her how he can help. They go off to look for a ladder, and I relax. I ring up a few orders, no problems. Ladder-Lady comes back later, and I swear she was some sort of jinx because as soon as she brought the ladder box over the phone rang. I multitask and ring in the ladder while informing the customer on the line that we do not have filter sand (yet again). Call ends. Ladder-Lady swipes her card to pay, phone rings again. The receipt is printing as I finish the call. I ask her to sign it and she snaps "I don't think I should, you can't keep off the damn phone." I explain that it's my job when no one else can take the call and lo and behold, as she finishes signing it rings again, but the lady on the line has a question about a pool pacage we offer. I take the signed receipt from LL and begin to describe the package when the receiver is snatched out of my hand and slammed back down onto the hook. LL screams "STOP YAKKING ON THAT PHONE AND SERVE ME!!!" (mind you, she's paid and gotten her receipt. I'm done.)
E, who is nearby, shouts, "Keep talking to my cashier like that and the only thing you'll be served is a ban!"
She takes her ladder and leaves, and no sooner after she left the lady who had been hung up on called back, asking rather timidly if it was safe to talk to me. Poor thing. I explained what happened and she mutters "What an asswipe." I had to laugh.
My goodness. A lot of you guys deal w/some belligerent assholes. Never in my work experience have I had a customer accost me/a object/etc. away from me. I don't know what my mouth or hands would do in reaction. 
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