Today's Customer Gripes

[Kogarashi]

...though one customer was actually from earlier this week. Luckily, though, the majority of my customers in the past week or so have been forgettable or angels.

Yes, there is a difference

Lady comes through my line. I ring up her items; she pulls out a card (one I recognize as a bank card due to its distinctive colors, though it's one of those bank cards with a Visa/MC logo on it). She swipes it, then stands there for a bit staring as the machine goes straight to the PIN screen (it being a bank/debit card). I know what's on the screen despite not seeing it, because the machine didn't beep (misread card), nor did it bring up the Credit indicator on my screen (actual CC only, not debit).

Then she looks up at me.

"This is a credit card."

I manage to refrain from rolling my eyes or making a retort. "If you want to run it as credit..." I say, carefully enunciating my phrasing, as there's a difference between her card being a CC and it being run as a CC. That difference being whether the PINpad sends you to the PIN screen or tells the cashier it's credit.

What I wanted to say: "No, ma'am, it's debit. Or a bank card. That's why it went right to the PIN screen, because the machine actually recognizes that your card is not credit-only. Telling me it's credit won't make it so."

Flyer Lady

Today was crazy in the store. I got there at opening (7am), and we started to get a decent enough flow of customers that we had to have three registers open (not counting the SCOs). Usually, we don't have to open the third (sometimes even the second) until about 9am. By 2pm, an hour before the end of my shift, the store is veritably slammed. All but three registers open (two being broken/poorly placed, the third being unstaffed due to not enough cashiers), and lines at least three deep at every single open register and the SCOs. Noise was rampant, tempers were high. Despite this, most customers managed to keep their cool.

I get back from my last break about this time, and get sent to do a price check for another cashier, because all four of our CSMs (wow, four at once!) were busy rushing around. They were especially taking care of the birdseed trail some loving customer had dragged from our pet department (far end of the store) all the way to the front registers.

So I get to my fellow cashier. I find myself facing two "ladies" and a gigantic jug of Tide. I ask what the problem is. Flyer Lady (FL), who hadn't actually earned that nickname yet, tells me the jug rang up at $17-something, and should be $11-something. Okay, fair enough, it was probably sitting in the wrong spot on the shelf, or an old sign got left behind the last time prices changed. I go to check.

All the gigantic jugs of Tide are, indeed, $17-change. I see a pair of signs for $11-change underneath a gaping empty spot on the shelving and figure that, despite the twelve signs for the jugs and the prominent placing of several jugs over each one of these, the two women pulled their particular Tide jug from the $11 slot and pulled the usual SC stunt of not reading signs carefully. So I go back to the register to relate this information.

Not good enough.

Me: Ma'am, the large jugs are actually $17. There's a sign for $11.96, but it's for a different Tide bottle and we appear to be out of that product.
FL: But it said $11 in the flyer. Don't you have any flyers anywhere in this store?
Me-thinking: (Buh? No, we don't have any flyers, and the shelves would've been re-signed for a flyer price anyway, lady. All twelve slots! Stop BSing me because you didn't grab the right product or decided you'd get the pricier size for more!)
Me: No, ma'am, we don't. I'm sorry.
FL: Well, I'll just have to bring the flyer back and get a refund then! ::takes her jug and leaves::
Me-thinking: (Yeah, good luck with that! Twit.)

[friendofjimmyk]

The thing is, she probably got in her car, completely convinced that the flyer she read will vindicate her and she will come back on the wings of a dove to shove the flyer and her receipt in the face of the customer service sesk in order to get her 5 bucks and some change back. She was probably basking in glory the entire way home and then...

...if she can read....

...her bubble bursts because she realizes there will be no ride on the dove, no money back and no gloating to said retail person over her tiny, but ever so important victory over the system!

That is the precise point I would like to see the look on her face.

[AFpheonix]

Ah, but perhaps the return desk will get to see that look on her face, as the triumphant turns into the sorry, as they point out that the parameters of the sale item do not match the actual item purchased.

[Kogarashi]

One can only hope.

However, as I am not a customer service cashier (and don't have much chance currently of being trained as such), I shan't be the one to see the look on her face. I doubt I'd even recognize her should she come back in, at least until she whips out that flyer ready to earn her just reward.

But I do believe that if there is an item in the flyer that is a jug of Tide for $11-whatever, it's the one that was already signed as such on the shelf (and sold out). Ain't no way the Household Chemicals department manager would've left a good twelve sale slots unsigned and unchanged in the system if they were actually on sale.

[huckster]

I just had a customer claim that we have a commercial stating a product is on sale for 6.99. We have a current flyer showing the product on sale for 8.99. I explained to her that this is the first I had heard of the commercial, but we could not honor the 6.99 price. I explained that we could honor a print ad or even a receipt from a competitor, but that wasn't good enough. She proceeds to rant about how she has seen this commercial dozens of times and asks if I watch tv because "I should have seen it". She wants corporates number so she can "give them shit" about it. We have never run a commercial advertising product prices. If we did, the company would have changed the price to accomodate the error. I would have changed the price if she wasn't such a bitch and knew how to treat people. What sucks even more is that if she does call corp. they will probably make us send her a gift card and I have to see her again. But, she knows that and will more than likely pull this stunt again so she can get more free stuff.

[Tria]

That is the precise point I would like to see the look on her face.

I'd rather see her face when she realizes she spent more than that on gas....

[Dark Psion]

We had a strange one last week, a guy came in with a sale flyer for December!

It later turned out that he works for UPS and a box of flyers on its way to a store got busted open and he grabed one.

I think they told him we would see him in about 30 days.

[Kogarashi]

And today at work, one of these mystery flyers showed up!

1 point in customer's favor: the picture of the product on the back page of the flyer does indeed look like one of the giant jugs of Tide.

Points in our favor: the volume listed on the ad is 230 fl. oz., but the jug the lady had was 300 fl. oz. Also, the flyer dates are for the 5th through the 11th, so I would not have had to honor the flyer at all on Saturday (the 4th) if I didn't want to.

But indeed, as I had to explain to another customer today who brought up the 300 oz. thinking it was the 230 oz., when the flyers come out the department managers do change the shelf signs to match the sale, and the registers update it as well. And we were out of the sale jugs. At least today's customer didn't throw a fit over it.

So to Flyer Lady from Saturday: No refund for you!

Related to the post about the commercial ad, I have similar trouble (though I'm in the shoes of the customer here) with our in-store Subway restaurant. Wal-Mart has music playing over the PA system that is basically a Wal-Mart specific radio station. Most of the songs you would hear on a handful of different radio stations (country, soft rock, pop, etc.), interspersed with advertisements for products in the store. Interspersed among all this are a series of Subway ads for meal deals, which actually take over the PA system itself so no one else in the store can make a page until the ad finishes (not really annoying, but it's worth mentioning that due to this, the ad is loud and clear and never cut off by an associate making a page). You can especially hear pages clearly in the Subway itself.

One of the ads on the radio is that you can get any regular 6-inch value meal (6-inch sub, drink, chips or cookies) for $3.99. Any of the regular 6-inch subs is covered by this, regardless of its usual price. This is very good, because it means that with my I-work-in-this-Wal-Mart discount (all Subway and Wal-Mart employees at this location get one if you show your name badge), I can get lunch for $3.98.

Only once have I gone in there and mentioned this ad and actually gotten a Subway employee who knew what I was talking about. None of the signs in the restaurant advertise the radio ad specials (they also have 2, 3, and 4 12-inch sub specials on the radio, though not as combo meals), and the one or two specials advertised in the restaurant aren't advertised on the radio. So I have to explain several times that no, I'm not talking about the sign that says I can get the 6-inch sub-of-the-day for $2.99, and no, I'm not talking about the radio in my car, I'm talking about the radio in the store. I usually end up with the deal, but only after extensive explanation on my part and much shrugging on the employees' part.

One of these days, I'm going to fill out a comment card about that....

[purplecat41877]

Yesterday, my one of the checkers called me over for an override and the whole order got cancelled. The checker thought that she just cancelled the last item but apparently not.

I explained to the customer that the order would have to be rerung. The customer complained that she didn't have time to wait and that she'd been waiting in line for 20 minutes. It was really busy then so the 20 minute wait part was possible. The checker rang up the total from the voided receipt, the customer paid, and I ended up refunding the drawer.

A few seconds later, the customer decided to play the lottery. I guess that meant that she was just in a hurry to get out of the checkout and not in a hurry in general.