No means no

[AnubisOne]

My first entry in a while, as I forgot about this site.

I was going through a couple of old journals this past week, and was reminded of the following customer.

One day, a customer came through my till with her two daughters with a heap of shopping. One item was a box of cereal, that wouldn't scan. An error message came up on the till stating that the cereal wasn't authorised to be sold.

I contacted the service desk, and found out that that brand had been taken off the shelves (I can't remember why), and that obviously one box had been missed. I was told not to sell it to the customer.

So I apologised, and explained the situation to the customer. Part of the conversation went something like this:

Customer: "Well, my daughter will be MOST upset if I don't buy her favourite cereal. Are you sure you can't sell it to me?"

Me: "I'm sorry, but this item has been taken off the shelves. I don't know why this box was left on the shelf, but I can't sell it to you."

Customer: "Come on, it's not as if anyone'll know. You can sell it to me"

This went on for three or four minutes...

[pbmods]

"Ma'am, it is against federal law for me to sell you a product that has been recalled by the manufacturer. If I sell this to you, I am opening up myself and my employer to severe fines and penalties. I could lose my job, and my employer could lose its retail license."

Etc., etc., etc. The fun part about blaming it on the law is that then it is out of your hands (and when it comes to legal issues, customers usually understand... 'cause then THEY can get in trouble, too), and customers rarely if ever get serious about trying to change the law.

Incidentally, I have no idea which law prohibits the sale of recalled items, but the line works really well!

[friendofjimmyk]

Sometimes the laws don't matter! I mean, you can through the legal issue at some SCs and they still will insist that you are capable of doing what they want you just don't want to.

Ran into this a lot in restaurants when it came to the health codes. Some people would amaze me at the crap they'd try to get away with that violated the code.

WE SERVE FOOD! YOU CANNOT BRING YOUR DOG IN HERE IF IT'S NOT A SERVICE DOG! or YOU CANNOT BRING IN YOUR OWN FOOD! any number of things.

[Becks]

Customer: "Well, my daughter will be MOST upset if I don't buy her favourite cereal. Are you sure you can't sell it to me?"

I'd be willing to bet that the mother would be much more upset than the daughter.

[Jester]

The fun part about blaming it on the law is that then it is out of your hands (and when it comes to legal issues, customers usually understand... 'cause then THEY can get in trouble, too), and customers rarely if ever get serious about trying to change the law.

I can tell you from my experience, mostly in the area of ID's for alcohol, that SC's could give two shits about the law. They often act insulted by me for following the law. They also often utter one of the following, or a varation thereof:

"Come on, who'll know? I won't tell anyone." [generally by people who don't have ID becasue they are not, in fact, of age]

"No one else has carded me here before."

"I never get carded, so I never bother with my ID anymore."

With foreigners: "No one else in town has had a problem with this ID."

"Is it really that big a deal?"

"But I get served here all the time."

"Are you serious?"

"But I'm [fill in their age]!"

"But I'm with him/her, and they're [fill in other party's age]!"

"This is my mom. She'll vouch for me!"

Blah blah blah fucking blah. This may be the worst part for me about the food service industry. To be honest, I actually hate the laws I work under regarding ID for alcohol, as I think they are ridiculously strict and draconian, but I STILL have to work under them, and that is something that a lot of people just don't seem to understand or care about.

[bakircioglu]

I deal with that for these drawstring bags and refunds.

Drawstring bags are for footwear only (trainers, shoes etc.) not T-Shirts or Trousers. No, I will not give you a string bag. No, you can ask all you want, i'll stop listening to you after about 3 times of asking, take your money and give you your receipt. No, I will not swap your bag after it mysteriously "broke", even though I know, you didn't buy anything in my store. I watched you for 5 minutes, harass a member of staff and destroy the displays........Get Out

Ah, so you've worn these outside and they are dirty? Sorry. No Refunds of Exchanges. Hang on, you spend loads in here? Hmm.....Well, i've never seen you before. Yes, I have been working here 2 years. No, I'm not doing it this once because I can't re-sell these. By the way, there is no legal requirement to exchange/refund anything if you decide the size is now wrong or you decide you don't like them. I'm putting my job on the line so you can get a bigger size. Don't swear at me, if you swear again, I will eject you from the store. What was that? Sports shop to Clothes shop, can I have some assistance here?

If I say no, you ain't changing my decision!

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

You know, if a product that either I or my family used got pulled off the shelves my first thought would be "Gee, there must be something wrong with [product] and I should look for something else."

Considering that the decision for a recall is based on a comparason between the costs of potential lawsuite vs the cost repair/replacement...anything that gets recalled or pulled is pretty much a given for being unsafe.