"you're all stupid and I shouldn't have to wait!"

[fireheart]

OK, saturdays are BUSY at work. Enough to keep us pretty much flat-out. So I had two rounds of suck today.

Round One: "Don't tell me crap!"

Guy comes up to my checkout. All is normal, he seems friendly, up until I ask to check his bag. Now the rule as far as the law goes is that if we check bags, they MUST be over A4 size. In my case, that automatically equals backpacks, laptop bags, messenger bags and big handbags, as well as green bags.

I ask to check it. Guy throws it to me and tells me to open it. Now we're not allowed to do that. So I tell him this and get my manager down. Manager takes him up to the service desk to show him the rule that yes, it is a condition of entry. I had my phone ready to call security if we needed it. The guy didn't get violent, but he came back to me, told me not to tell him crap and left.

My response to him would've been "Well sir, if you don't like the fact that you have to play by OUR rules, then you can go take it up with parliament because they're the ones who set the rule and that's what we all have to live by!" (he had a very thick Jamaican/African-American accent)

Round two: I have a bad leg so I shouldn't have to wait.

This is somewhat short and mildly sucky on my part, but i had just gotten back from break and relieved the coworker, who proceeded to save the transaction so I could bring it up and continue on my username rather than his and he could do someone else's break. I get on and find about $30 of cold products-milk, yoghurt etc. on the conveyor belt behind me.

THis is not good.

Continue on. Lady gets annoyed that how dare I charge her $7 for sweet potato! (about $4 a kilo) I take it off, no no she wants it, I put it on. She SCREAMS and accuses me of double-charging her. She then leaves, calling me stupid and all that. My response "See you next week!"
She has a bitch at my manager and at the store manager, calling me stupid and all that and saying that I was rude and made her wait because she had a bad leg and didn't want to wait for too long because it huuuurts and all.

OK, three things here to think about:

1) If you have a bad leg that's causing you pain, why not send someone else in to finish the shopping? (the rule is as far as I know that if you are using someone else's DEBIT card and you KNOW the PIN, it is at the cashier's discretion, but if it's a credit card, it needs to be the cardholder themselves. From what I saw, she would've paid cash)
2) For someone with leg pain who didn't want to wait too long, she managed to walk quite well. (she managed to walk as far as the liquor store before walking back over to us without limping or otherwise showing any form of pain.)
3) What I'd heard from my coworkers earlier was that she didn't want to wait while we were dealing with another problem. Understandable, but you gotta understand that in a supermarket, shit happens.

And an extra thing to think about: many of us are on our feet for hours on end, only maybe being able to sit down for 1-2 hours at most. You want leg pain, we'll give you leg pain!

[Broomjockey]

2) For someone with leg pain who didn't want to wait too long, she managed to walk quite well. (she managed to walk as far as the liquor store before walking back over to us without limping or otherwise showing any form of pain.)

while the lady was undeniably sucky, I can shed some light on this particular point. If I stand around, I'll get leg pain. If I walk a little, it basically "stretches it out." Makes it go away for a while. If I walk a really long distance, it goes again. So seeing someone for a few minutes may not be enough to tell if they have issues.

[fireheart]

I had the feeling that she was just being generally sucky. And for the record, neither manager caved into these two. First guy demanded a refund-didn't get it, second lady didn't even bother buying anything and I didn't get a log for either because yes, I was doing my job.

[Broomjockey]

And for the record, neither manager caved into these two. First guy demanded a refund-didn't get it,

I thought I felt a disturbance in the Force. That's awesome

[fireheart]

I my managers

They may cave in on certain things (i.e. if a customer wants a discount on a damaged item then we WILL give it to them), but they don't shit around when it comes to store security.

I had a feeling he may have been stealing as well, the way he kicked up a fuss. It's almost standard across the state that bag checking is a condition of entry. If they refuse, they can be forced to not only leave, but be banned from the store (trespassing)

[Jester]

And an extra thing to think about: many of us are on our feet for hours on end, only maybe being able to sit down for 1-2 hours at most.

As one who has worked primarily in bars and restaurants, I have a question: What is this "sitting down" thing you speak of?

if a customer wants a discount on a damaged item then we WILL give it to them

I wouldn't call that caving. I would call that understandable and even justifiable.

[fireheart]

Jester, I was referring to the items that were already reduced being reduced even further. That's the sucky part.

And I think I actually picked up the "see you next week!" part from here....good to see that CS.com is actually teaching me something

[radx]

About the checking bags..

You guys should go visit Paris one of these days. I went into one of their computer stores. I had to:

1) Let this big dude at the door look through my bags for every single thing I had.
2) Give my laptop to the big dude so he could write down the serial # on a piece of paper and then put a sticker on my laptop.
3) Leave my bag at a container where you enter the store. On thing I was permited to bring in was my laptop.

When leaving the store I had to:

1) Get my stuff from the container
2) Show my laptop again and the sticker and wait for the guy to check my serial again.
3) sigh a bit and be on my merry way.

I was going there with my laptop to see if I could buy some new memories for it, duh.. Little did I know it was going to be so troublesome. But then again if you've been to Paris I guess you're a bit used to the security all around. Like if you enter McD they have guards, two of them, at every exit. And then even have guards that moves around in side McD. No wonder stuff is expensive!

Up here in the north we dont have guards at all and I never heard of anyone getting pickpocketed or anything like that

[Samaliel]

You guys should go visit Paris one of these days. I went into one of their computer stores. I had to:

1) Let this big dude at the door look through my bags for every single thing I had.
2) Give my laptop to the big dude so he could write down the serial # on a piece of paper and then put a sticker on my laptop.
3) Leave my bag at a container where you enter the store. On thing I was permited to bring in was my laptop.

Yup, standard procedure in major computer stores (I'm guessing Surcouf, or maybe Fnac). They don't want to risk someone switching a cheap / defective item for an expensive / functioning one.

A few weeks ago, my brother had bought an LCD monitor in "Chain Store" Location A, at the end of the morning. We met in the early afternoon, and he didn't have time to go and drop his monitor at our house, but he wanted me to help me on some computer parts shopping.

After that, I decided I needed an external hard drive. So we go to "Chain Store" Location B (outside of Paris). They didn't even carry that particular monitor at Location B, but they still had to issue him a "circulation bill", that they checked upon our exiting.

Like if you enter McD they have guards, two of them, at every exit. And then even have guards that moves around in side McD. No wonder stuff is expensive!

Not every McD has security agents, but some of them have, mostly to eject people who choose to behave in a disorderly fashion. Then again, it seems that each McD, or possibly each agent, has their own definition of what constitutes disorderly conduct. But some locations have a history of being vandalized or employees being assaulted, so I can't blame them for wanting to be on the safe side.

[radx]

Yup, it was Surcouf and yeah, I understand why they have the security around. I actually meet my wife in Paris.. She's not french though, she just lived in Paris for seven years but now lives with me in the north. I still visit Paris on a regular basis though. I have a friend who runs his own bar at eh.. Me and french words.. Well i'm gonna give it a try.. place de clichy?

He tells me plenty of entertaining stories about how the french do their business. Like that you have to call an expensive PAY number when you call customer service. Like this time when he got invoiced an incorrect amount on his phone bill. He had to spend more money getting it fixed than what he got back. That is some crazy stuff. Up here in the north every single customer service number is free.

Sorry to hear about your friends monitor. I hope you managed to get it sorted eventually?