In This Case, The Customer Is WRONG! (long)

[ralerin]

Ugh, today's asshole.

Background-I'm very short and apparently have a quiet voice. The registers at my Aid of Rite are very tall, surrounded by candy racks nearly as tall as I am. I've taken to waving my hands or waving around one of those LED flashlight things so I can be seen.

Guy came in and was standing at Fs line, looking a bit bored. I called him over, he didn't hear me, I waited. F pointed him down to me and Guy came over, looking a bit miffed.

G: "Well, I'm hard of hearing, no wonder I didn't see you!"

Fair enough, I rang him out. After I closed the drawer, he handed over the $10 and asked for two $5's. I'm not allowed to open my register too much since we get frowned on by the Area LP's and upper management to do so.

Me: "I wish you had asked me that before I closed the register." I open it anyway and give him his change.

G: "Oh, was that so hard? You can't open the register and suddenly you can? That's nice! It's not so much of an inconvenience then!"

Me: *blink* "I'm not allowed to open it, it's not an inconvenience."

G: "Well can I have my tickets, then?" (side note: Aid of Rite has been running a game for the past month, it's similar to Monopoly. Customers get tickets based on how many and what type of things they purchase. Since today's the final day, we're handing out tickets like Halloween candy. 3 of my nice customers got stacks of 100, one got 75, and rude people got 5 or less)

Me: "Ok. *checks his receipt* 2...ok, I can give you that. 1...2..."

G: "Is that all I get?"

Me: "3...4...5. Have a good night."

G walks off, muttering to himself.

Fair enough, I'm walking the store doing sales signs when Sm calls me and manager S2 over to have a talk in the office.

SM: "Did you have a problem with this guy, asked for change? He called and said he wanted to make a complaint, said you were rude to him."

I tell SM what happened and she said "yeah, I thought so. He called and said that you were really rude and he demanded I take down his phone number so you" *points to me* "can personally call him back. I told him no, he got my apology, now it's up to me to discipline her. He hung up. Then he called back, said that I should take down his number now and isn't the customer always right? I said no, and he asked for my name and last name, I told him he wasn't going to get that, then he asked for the DM and that we haven't seen the last of this. If he comes back and starts a scene, call the police."

Turns out that the guy was being a jerk to S2 earlier with a Western Union payment taking overly long and began cursing her out. S2 was not pleased.

About an hour after that talk, guess who comes in? S2 is doing her pickup, I turn white when I recognize who it is, say "Oh fuck." Guy goes right past me without saying a word.

S2: 'That him?"

Me: "yes."

S2: "Breakroom. Now. Stay there."

I whizz past into the breakroom (thankfully R was there, I told him earlier what had happened and he trails S2 and me to be sure) and stay there while Guy buys a case of beer and leaves.

I could have kissed them all-SM, S2 and R.

[depechemodefan]

It's great you have people watching your back (I don't get that at my job). I hope the douchebag doesn't come back and complain you gave him losing tickets on purpose.

G: "Well, I'm hard of hearing, no wonder I didn't see you!"

If you kept your eyes open (or at least make a habit of being aware of your surroundings) maybe you would have seen her, douchebag.

[bainsidhe]

That's why I started not opening my drawer for anyone. If you were purchasing something and the drawer was open, I'd give change. But if the drawer was closed forget it. Otherwise it becomes a question of why I'd give change to one person, but not another and force me to make a judgement call. It was easier to be a bitch to everyone (I was always polite, but was "rude" because I refused to open the drawer). You can never win.

[Kogarashi]

That's why I'm grateful Walmart's registers only open for a purchase. Customer asks for change after my drawer is closed? Tough luck, gotta buy something. And after updates, gotta buy with cash or check, because plastic won't open the drawer anymore.

[mattm04]

That's why I'm grateful Walmart's registers only open for a purchase. Customer asks for change after my drawer is closed? Tough luck, gotta buy something. And after updates, gotta buy with cash or check, because plastic won't open the drawer anymore.

Nice. Wish ours were that way. We still have a no sale that cna be used w/o any limits, though it is logged. Not supposed to give change but some cashiers do and it always causes problems when I say no.

[BookstoreEscapee]

And after updates, gotta buy with cash or check, because plastic won't open the drawer anymore.

Heh, my store's drawers wouldn't open for anything but cash. There's a slot in the front for checks; you slide them in and they go underneath the till.

I was a supervisor so I could open the drawer if needed with a No Sale, but we had to write a reason on the receipt and initial it; "customer wanted change for a 10" wasn't a legit reason (Not that I wouldn't occasionally do it, usually for people who needed small bills to donate to the gift wrappers around the holidays.)

[Kogarashi]

Heh, my store's drawers wouldn't open for anything but cash. There's a slot in the front for checks; you slide them in and they go underneath the till.

Our drawers had that slot, but the till still opened for checks for some reason. Which was odd because the checks were run electronically, so the customer got a voided check back and had to sign a slip much like credit cards. But the till opened for us to put the check slip in, while credit card slips (when printed rather than done on the pinpad) went in the slot or into our register bags with the coupons.

There was a No Sale button on our registers too, but it was disabled. Only a CSM with a key could open the drawer without an attendant purchase, and I'd bet those were logged as well (with cashier and CSM numbers so they'd know who did it).

[XCashier]

G: "Well can I have my tickets, then?"

Me: "Ok. *checks his receipt* 2...ok, I can give you that. 1...2..."

G: "Is that all I get?"

"No, I can offer you a good swift kick in the arse." Dude, get that telephone pole removed from your nether regions!

Glad your managers and coworkers backed you up. So many, sadly, won't back their employees up.

Heh, my store's drawers wouldn't open for anything but cash. There's a slot in the front for checks; you slide them in and they go underneath the till.

Same here, and they didn't teach us how to do No Sales. A manager can do them, and did one for me once when I had a brain burp and forgot to give a customer her change. Fortunately, there's a bank in the same plaza as us, you can see it through our front windows, so if someone wants change, I can (and sometimes have) pointed them to the bank.

[Estil]

Our store does let you open the drawer without a sale, and personally, I PREFER making change without the drawer still being open for a sale. That is, if a customer wants to break a $100 bill or something, I first complete the sale and CLOSE the drawer. Then I will ask the customer how they'd like their change (I won't reopen the drawer without first confirming how exactly they want their change), THEN I open the drawer and make the change. I'm much more comfortable doing it this way and it leaves me a lot less vulnerable to any quick changers (I've been there over 5 years and not once have I had one try to quick change me).

[Pagan]

That's why I started not opening my drawer for anyone. If you were purchasing something and the drawer was open, I'd give change. But if the drawer was closed forget it. Otherwise it becomes a question of why I'd give change to one person, but not another and force me to make a judgement call. It was easier to be a bitch to everyone (I was always polite, but was "rude" because I refused to open the drawer). You can never win.

And that's one way how short change artists can get you.

That's why I'm grateful Walmart's registers only open for a purchase. Customer asks for change after my drawer is closed? Tough luck, gotta buy something. And after updates, gotta buy with cash or check, because plastic won't open the drawer anymore.

Ours don't. Seems like about every other credit/debit/check transaction, the drawer will pop open even if they don't ask for cash back. And we have a "no sale" that we can use. (For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why I was getting bruises on my upper thighs at work. Then it dawned on me that I kind of hip-check the drawer closed. )

BUT, if my drawer doesn't pop open, I WILL NOT "no sale" it. You want change? Go up to the cash center.

[Marmalady]

Am I missing something here? How does being hard of hearing prevent somebody from seeing someone?
I'm a bit hard of hearing in one ear myself but my eyesight is perfect!

[vstorevigilante]

Our drawers aren't even attached or wired in any way to the computer that acts as our till. It's literally a computer with Windows 98 on it, and a POS program. The till can open whenever we want, we have to hit a button on the side (that is spring-loaded, not electronic ) to get it to open during transactions. We are old-school, let me to tell you. Point being, if anyone asked for change, we'd kinda have to provide it. Lame.

[Lace Neil Singer]

That's why I started not opening my drawer for anyone. If you were purchasing something and the drawer was open, I'd give change. But if the drawer was closed forget it. Otherwise it becomes a question of why I'd give change to one person, but not another and force me to make a judgement call. It was easier to be a bitch to everyone (I was always polite, but was "rude" because I refused to open the drawer). You can never win.

At the supermarket, no-one was allowed to open the till to give out change. This was cuz of a till grab that happened when a guy asked a cashier for change; when she opened her till, he lunged at her, knocked her flying and grabbed a handful of notes. So after that, the policy was in place. Most customers were alright with it, but as always there were a few who moaned and bitched about having to go to Customer Services for change.

[Magpie]

Am I missing something here? How does being hard of hearing prevent somebody from seeing someone?
I'm a bit hard of hearing in one ear myself but my eyesight is perfect!

That one actually makes a bit of sense. Her explanation was that she was calling him because she was difficult to see. The phrasing is a bit odd, but I can see it. (pun not intended, but too good to take out).