Repeat screamer

[macromarco]

Hey folks.

Well, I work in a hardware store as a clerk. My usual posts are in the register or in customer service desk. We usually have 2 or 3 employees cust. serv. desk depending on the load of customers at a given time and 1 or 2 in the registers also depending on the load.
The cust. serv. desk and the register are on opposite sides of the entire store, and the store is pretty big, over 3200square feet, so we can't be everywhere at once.

My tale is about a man that makes me want to rip my own head of and beat him to death with it.
A few times a month there is one person that can't be firing on all cylinders who comes inn to ask about the same thing EVERY time he is by the shop.
First time I saw him, I was stuck in the cash register with a long line of customers and he was rambling about and saying, almost screaming nobody was there to help him.
Well, our store is for the most a self-help store, we tell you (in the cust. serv. desk) where to find a said article and you can pick it up there and eather go to the register or come back for more info about it.
This man has a tendency to start screaming every time there isn't anyone free to help him or if he can't get what he wants.
I'm very "lucky" to have a tendency to get easily put off or directly angry if there is someone shouting at me or gets aggressive in the way of talking.
So this man really gets me fired up to the point to where I want to deck him or call the mall sec. guards. But I can't.. He's either got some form of brain damage or he just never learned that it's not nice to scream at people.
He also has a tendency to come just on the day's or times where there is a lot of customers or I'm stressed out as is..

SC: Do you have cameras?
ME: Yes (dig up a list over digital cameras)
SC: No, I want a camera with film, not a digital one (not in so many words)
ME: I'm sorry, we don't have that in stock anymore.
SC: I want to see. ( usually starts getting louder in his tone of voice by this point )
ME: We don't have analog cameras anymore (show him every scrap of paper I can find that has a camera on it) I suggest you try xyz instead.

This is repeated with some changes to what's said, but he ALWAYS asks for a non digital camera.
If we ever don't have time to help him, he fires up the screaming..

Usually I don't have any problem helping the customers and most days are pretty good, but when they do NOT listen to you, or just don't have the brain capacity to understand what your saying, I just want to strangle them.

*Sigh* Long live the clue-bats

[Rapscallion]

I've got every sympathy for people who are 'challenged' (I think that's still acceptable these days, though I don't know who decides these things), but at some point you've got to ban them. You're paid to serve people who want to buy the goods you have. You're not a trained psychologist or counsellor.

Rapscallion

[NateTheChops]

Much the same thing in the drugstore only with cough drops.

A guy asked me where the cough drops were. So I took him to the aisle and physically showed up where a plethora of cough drops were hanging from pegs. Note, the store brand cough drops just says "COUGH DROPS" in big letters.

But he still asked, "Are these cough drops?"

No sir. They're cyanide tablets and as you can see I'm helping myself.

[macromarco]

I don't mind trying to help them, most of them are pretty okay to deal with, it's only this one person and the screaming that "flips the switch" in my head.

[blas]

I never understood why the most difficult repeat SCs always had to show up at the worst of times.

I had quite a few at the gas station. Regular SCs, they were.

Legally deceased lotto whores who would scream at me because they blew their entire SS check on scratch offs and lost, the old lady who didn't know how to put gas in her car, Psycho Window Banger, etc etc etc....

[auntiem]

Oh, I so get what you are saying. I had clients who worked my last nerve just by coming in the door - luckily, my boss knew which ones they were and since they didn't bother her she took care of them (I repayed the favor for a few of her people).
I'm going to guess "head trauma" on this one - I've known a few formerly great guys to have screaming tantrums after a head injury.
Is he always looking for a film camera or was that just an example? 'Cause you can get those throw away ones almost anywhere around here. I live in a small town, but there are at least two stores I know of that carry good quality film cameras still. Maybe find a store that does carry them and send him off to bug them?

[NateTheChops]

The question you really want to ask yourself on days like that is, Who's giving these people my schedule?