Wherein Unreasonable Requests are Made

[Faye]

This is my first post Hi everyone!

This story is from a previous job (I'll get around to the current job stories eventually!) I worked at a discount clothing place. This is the type of store that sells better and best brand lines that are overstock/out of season/etc for abut half price.

I was working the register this day as the back up cashier. This man came through my line with a large amount of work clothing. I got to the last item, a pair of sweatpants clearanced at an "as is" (meaning that it is marked down for being damaged) price of $2. The pants had a small tear in the knee area.

The man immediately pointed out the hole and this conversation followed:

SC - These pants have a hole. Can I have them for free?
Me - Um, no sir. They are marked down to $2 for the hole.
SC - I should get them for free.
Me - I can't do that. I can't even offer you a discount because they have already been discounted for the damage.
SC - Who can give me a discount? I want to talk to a manager!

I call over my spineless manager (M) who I know will roll over and make me look like a fool like he always did. He asked the customer how he could help.

SC, at this point, has apparently lost his previous ability to speak English. He begins pointing and speaking in broken sentences.

SC - These pants... hole.. I take them?
M - Excuse me?
SC - Pants ... hole... you give them to me?
M - Oh, no. We can't do that. I'll give you a dollar off. Would $1 be ok?
SC - *Smiling and nodding as though he doesn't quite get it*

Manager leaves. SC regains his mastery of the English language.

SC - Was that the big manager? The top?
Me - Yes.
SC - He should have given me the pants.
Me - I'm sorry sir -
SC - You will give me the pants?
Me - No. They are $1. Are you buying them or not?

After a bit of grumbling, I hustled the guy out so that I could get my line moving again. He eventually bought the pants.

Oh, the grand total of his entire purchase? Close to $200 in best brand work clothes that were not in any sort of clearance. Yeah, those $1 pants were going to break him...

[Teskeria]

When he went into the broken English bit, you should have pulled "Manager! I think we may need to call him an ambulance! He may be having a stroke! He spoke perfect unbroken English just a minute ago!!!"
Yeah the manager would probably have rolled anyway. But Old Spineless couldn't have convinced himself that time that he wasn't being conned. and the guy just may have 'regained' his command of English at the though of having to pay for an ambulance run.


(Edit: and yes I do know the difference between Aphasia and the SC's little game)

[Sheldonrs]

Kind of ironic that an A-Hole wanted free pants because of A hole.

[Red_Dazes]

Hmmm ... sounds alot like MY discount store.... except when I call managers to deal with SCs like that I usually call them up on the phone and say
"Psycho Bitch? Yeah this is Red. I have a Gent here with a pair of sweat pants, they are marked down to $2. Sold as Is. but they have a hole in the knee. The Gent was wondering if we can mark them down further? No? Oh okay. Thanks."

I have to say in my 2 years I have never had a customer give me that smug "Told ya so" look when I use that tactic. Cause even if they demand to see a manager after wards... the manager has already said NO and feel compelled to stick to their guns. Lest they have to deal with me cranky. :P

[Caffienated_Caramel]

to Customer Suck Faye. There's snacks on the left, beverages on the right and of course the brain bleach.

[Meegz]

Maybe its me, but even though I make minimal money a.k.a enough money for bills, I won't argue with the cashier if I'm being sold something for a DOLLAR or even like 2 dollars. I try to be frugal but its always the people with 500K income (we get those when they sign up for a credit card) that want to purchase crape for like 90% off.

But maybe thats why I'm not saving that awesome money I should have

[OfficeSlug]

Wait.

So the pants were $2.
He got them for $1.

Half off.

And he's still complaining??

*sigh*
*mumbles about ingrates*

[Jester]

Ya know what, if the pants are so horrible because of that hole, why would you even want to buy them? Oh, that's right. He didn't want to buy them. He wanted them given to him. Personally, I'd rather pay a little more for something that isn't damaged. That being said, if I were going to buy a pair of sweatpants that had a small hole in the knee, I would think $2 would be an absolutely fair price to pay for them.

Note to your Spineless Manager: Fuck off, asswipe. Grow a pair.

[Faye]

Thanks Caffienated_Caramel

Jester - Yeah, he was, by far, the worst manager I've ever had. He thought nothing of treating employees like crap in order to impress a customer. I really don't care if the manager wants to bend a policy for a customer, but at least acknowledge that I was right!

[Imogene]

Had a customer once at the Art store, who made me call my manager twice during her transaction, and, in the first call, the manager just flat out said, "Take $x off everything..." which I relayed to the customer, and I then got to the item that was less than $x... so, I changed it to half off. When the customer caught that, I pointed out that $x off would mean we were giving her mney to take it off our hands, and I'm sure my manager would not approve that, had she known. She made me call my manager again, who agreed with me (after the customer left, at least...) if I remember correctly.