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Very long time lurker, first time poster.
I have been at my current place of employment for about two years, in the position I'm currently in for a little more than one year... basically, I moved from cashier to customer service.
I work in a grocery store that's very well known in the southeast of the US. We pride ourselves on the quality customer service we provide people with. We have people to bag your groceries to your specifications, and those people will then take you outside and load your cart. And they aren't allowed to take tips.
When it's busy, people don't wait in line for more than five minutes (of course, there are exceptions if there are problems, but we tend to rectify the situation rather quickly). I do my own shopping, and have waited half an hour in line at a different store in my area, so I consider a measly five minutes to stand in line in a clean, air-conditioned, comfortable environment surrounded by magazines quite the luxury.
Perfect, no? Well, if that were the case, I wouldn't be here.
Moar checkers!
Old hag walks in a line. One customer is paying for her groceries and leaving, another customer has the belt about 2/3 full of food. Old hag unloads her items, glares at me as I'm walking by (I was supervising, when I should avoid getting a till unless I absolutely have to) and says to her friends loudly (very loudly, considering the front end is quite spacious, especially for me to hear it over that and the noise) "They need to get some more checkers out here!"
Note that by the time she had actually put all of her things on the belt, the previous transaction was nearly finished, just half a dozen or so items left to scan. She continued to give me an evil glare while she waited about two minutes in the line.
Alright, let me pull one from my rear.
Our Customer Service counter has two souped up versions of a regular register (basically the same thing, plus more buttons, like for check cashing and refunds), a lotto register, and a computer that can only be used for Western Union. This is all in small area, so if we get about 7 people for the lottery and a few others, it can look like we're absolutely packed when really, it might take about 90 seconds to completely get through the 7 people in line for lotto, while another person handles the other two.
I had a few winners at the same time. One, was a man who had a problem with Western Union (More on this later) who required a lot of my time on the phone, which included a lot of waiting. I called up the sup for the night, who is fairly new at this, to help me out. I hadn't noticed the line of people growing while I was on the phone, and I hear this,
"They should really get another register up here!"
She annoyed me for a few reasons. First, by saying something like this, it's only adding to the annoyance of other customers by somebody stating the obvious, and being obnoxious. Second, she was in a motorized scooter, with a 24-pack of Bud in the cart. That wouldn't have bothered me, except she was using the situation to her advantage, as someone allowed her to go first, but then excessively and loudly thanking everyone around her, saying, "I got hit by a semi, and you all are so nice! My wrists are broken!"
I sort of told her off, by saying, "Ma'am, we currently have somebody on this register, who is currently at lunch. We can't access it," and turning away. It seemed like she was a compulsive liar, because you can't move the damned motorized scooter without moving your wrists. And her makeup was perfect. Hm...
Really. Just wait. I'd love to send you people to Soviet Russia.
I wonder what the hell these people are thinking. I hate hearing this over and over again, but everybody knows the economy has suffered. Our hours would have been cut (everybody's) but our managers skillfully cut certain shifts so we could keep them. Yeah, it puts a strain on us, and sometimes we don't have as many people as we would like, but 9 times out of 10 it's enough to a decent enough job and keeps the roof over our heads. I don't like it either, but let's cope with it together, alright?
As promised.
Okay, Western Union guy. He had sent money about three weeks ago to somebody in Haiti. I think I was the one that sent it, really. Comes back to tell me that the guy can't get it, and he lost the paperwork, so I can't check for any mistakes on our part. I really can't do anything, because it's in Haiti (fewer options than sending to most places, it's kind of hard to explain) and it takes some effort to reach somebody on the phone who can help.
Now, he told me at first that the guy was unable to pick it up, and continued to lead me to believe that the people at their station couldn't find the transaction. Either of which could be due to something such as a misspelled name. I look it up, and it hasn't been paid out. I am completely baffled by this, and thus spent about 15 minutes on the phone, royally pissing off the two people I handled, since i was talking to a rep.
The guy was kind of embarrassed when I asked him to clarify further so the person on the phone could do something, and said his friend literally could not find the station. Luckily, they gave me the address and phone number to the nearest, and hopefully all is well.
I apologize for the length, I tend to be very thorough when I talk about things.
I have been at my current place of employment for about two years, in the position I'm currently in for a little more than one year... basically, I moved from cashier to customer service.
I work in a grocery store that's very well known in the southeast of the US. We pride ourselves on the quality customer service we provide people with. We have people to bag your groceries to your specifications, and those people will then take you outside and load your cart. And they aren't allowed to take tips.
When it's busy, people don't wait in line for more than five minutes (of course, there are exceptions if there are problems, but we tend to rectify the situation rather quickly). I do my own shopping, and have waited half an hour in line at a different store in my area, so I consider a measly five minutes to stand in line in a clean, air-conditioned, comfortable environment surrounded by magazines quite the luxury.
Perfect, no? Well, if that were the case, I wouldn't be here.
Moar checkers!
Old hag walks in a line. One customer is paying for her groceries and leaving, another customer has the belt about 2/3 full of food. Old hag unloads her items, glares at me as I'm walking by (I was supervising, when I should avoid getting a till unless I absolutely have to) and says to her friends loudly (very loudly, considering the front end is quite spacious, especially for me to hear it over that and the noise) "They need to get some more checkers out here!"
Note that by the time she had actually put all of her things on the belt, the previous transaction was nearly finished, just half a dozen or so items left to scan. She continued to give me an evil glare while she waited about two minutes in the line.
Alright, let me pull one from my rear.
Our Customer Service counter has two souped up versions of a regular register (basically the same thing, plus more buttons, like for check cashing and refunds), a lotto register, and a computer that can only be used for Western Union. This is all in small area, so if we get about 7 people for the lottery and a few others, it can look like we're absolutely packed when really, it might take about 90 seconds to completely get through the 7 people in line for lotto, while another person handles the other two.
I had a few winners at the same time. One, was a man who had a problem with Western Union (More on this later) who required a lot of my time on the phone, which included a lot of waiting. I called up the sup for the night, who is fairly new at this, to help me out. I hadn't noticed the line of people growing while I was on the phone, and I hear this,
"They should really get another register up here!"
She annoyed me for a few reasons. First, by saying something like this, it's only adding to the annoyance of other customers by somebody stating the obvious, and being obnoxious. Second, she was in a motorized scooter, with a 24-pack of Bud in the cart. That wouldn't have bothered me, except she was using the situation to her advantage, as someone allowed her to go first, but then excessively and loudly thanking everyone around her, saying, "I got hit by a semi, and you all are so nice! My wrists are broken!"
I sort of told her off, by saying, "Ma'am, we currently have somebody on this register, who is currently at lunch. We can't access it," and turning away. It seemed like she was a compulsive liar, because you can't move the damned motorized scooter without moving your wrists. And her makeup was perfect. Hm...
Really. Just wait. I'd love to send you people to Soviet Russia.
I wonder what the hell these people are thinking. I hate hearing this over and over again, but everybody knows the economy has suffered. Our hours would have been cut (everybody's) but our managers skillfully cut certain shifts so we could keep them. Yeah, it puts a strain on us, and sometimes we don't have as many people as we would like, but 9 times out of 10 it's enough to a decent enough job and keeps the roof over our heads. I don't like it either, but let's cope with it together, alright?
As promised.
Okay, Western Union guy. He had sent money about three weeks ago to somebody in Haiti. I think I was the one that sent it, really. Comes back to tell me that the guy can't get it, and he lost the paperwork, so I can't check for any mistakes on our part. I really can't do anything, because it's in Haiti (fewer options than sending to most places, it's kind of hard to explain) and it takes some effort to reach somebody on the phone who can help.
Now, he told me at first that the guy was unable to pick it up, and continued to lead me to believe that the people at their station couldn't find the transaction. Either of which could be due to something such as a misspelled name. I look it up, and it hasn't been paid out. I am completely baffled by this, and thus spent about 15 minutes on the phone, royally pissing off the two people I handled, since i was talking to a rep.
The guy was kind of embarrassed when I asked him to clarify further so the person on the phone could do something, and said his friend literally could not find the station. Luckily, they gave me the address and phone number to the nearest, and hopefully all is well.I apologize for the length, I tend to be very thorough when I talk about things.
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