They haunt your every step...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Ever been approached by SC even when you aren't at work who thought that even though you weren't on the clock or even on the premises of your job that you might be overjoyed to listen to them bitch?

Had a couple incidents like that. My husband, a friend, and I (all of us Kinko's workers at the time) were at the fair one year EATING SUPPER when this stupid cow who was one of my husband's customers came over and started bitching about the order he was working on for her. If I were the crabby old broad then that I am now, she'd have ended up wearing a french fried onion as a hat. But no, we just ignored her, then glared at her, then finally asked her to move along.

I went into a Pet Supply house after work one evening and the manager, who was running the register, turned out to be one of my SC's. Here I am, HER CUSTOMER, and she's bitching to me how Kinko's charges too much for business cards as she's ringing me up. I just sighed deeply and said, "You know, I'm not at work right now. I just wanna get my stuff and go home. So could you please just ring me up?" Needless to say, I avoided that place like the plague after that, as did everyone I worked with.

[Acolyte]

The game store I frequent is full of people who know stuff about computers, and a lot more who think they do. As such, I've probably poked around the computers of about half the customers there.
Anyways, as I was talking with one of the employees and browsing the Warhammer section, one of said people come up to us. I remembered him-he'd been almost impossible to get ahold of when we needed to tell him that his HD had died, and to bring in his CDs, and tried several different things to get away without paying. He'd also insisted that we do everything we could to save the old HD, since he didn't want to buy a new one.* However, since the HD was dead, and we'd spent hours trying to save the old one, he racked up a helluva bill-about $300 for a hard-drive swap and system setup.
Anyways, as I was talking, he comes up and butts right in.
'How can you guys charge so much for repairing computers?!'
I looked at him over top of a Codex.
'Maybe because it's a service, and we're trying to run a business?'
'Yeah, but, $75 an hour! That's stupid!'
'Ok. First, you find a cheaper place. Second, you're the one who insisted I spend 2 hours trying to save your HD. That's $150 to save a $60 HD.'
'How was I supposed to know how expensive the time was?'
'It's on no less then 4 different signs in the store!'
'Yeah, but I could have done what you did!'
'Then why didn't you?'
'Because I didn't think you guys ran such a shitty business.'
At this point, the employee were trading *WTF?* glances, and we were both fed up.
'Do I look like I either care or can change the prices? Go away!'
'No! I'm not leaving until I get a refund!'
'Then you're gonna die of starvation in a few days, assuming the owner doesn't throw you out.'
He kinda mouthed something, then muttered something about never coming back, and left. 'Bout time.

[Enjis]

'I'll never come here again' is always such a stupid thing to say...
What in the world makes SCs think we WANT them to come back?

[Think Blue]

I've had clients come up to me at dinner. Me and my gf went out for a special dinner at a nice restaurant, and one of the guys who had just ordered a big big shipment from us came up to us and said hi.I thought that would be the end of it, but no the bas*ard sat down and actually started asking me questions and demanded to know when it would be done.
I was so mad because he obviously didnt care that I was off the clock and trying to have a nice moment with my gf. No I am on the clock 24/7 to that as*hole, thank god his wife actually had some sense and told him to leave us alone. she said something like
wife:honey leave them alone, they are trying to have a nice dinner
As*goblin:but I'm buying stuff from him, I have a right to know
Wife:but not now.

[Kiwi]

Alot of my family members brought stuff from my craft shop (and were sucky customers to i might add)

but at family dinners they bitched and moaned and complain and rant and whine about the store, how dirty and run down it is, how long it takes to get served, how rude the staff was to them blah blah blah blah blah

I got so sick of explaining and trying to defend it that I just ended up getting all defensive and upset about it.... crying and yelling at your roast chicken is a good way to send a messege.... dont talk about peoples work at the dinner table ITS RUDE

not to mention the fact I had enough sucky customers at work, i didnt need them at home!! Nor did I give a flying monkey crap about the store...or how annoying it was to shop there

[pbmods]

Way back when I thought I (personally) could make a living off of web design, I took on a client who, while I don't think he was necessarily selfish, I'm pretty sure that he just didn't have a clue that there were other people in this world besides himself.

He would call me on Saturday nights when I was on dates with my girlfriend and, without saying hi or being polite at all, demand to know how "our" project was coming along.

Halfway through the project, everything got fouled up, of course. He had previously been getting web hosting for free as a favor from one of his clients (he does tax stuff), and when I took on the project to redesign his website, the web hosting became my responsibility. Ok, no problem... until the domain registration expired and I found out that the previous owners had turned on registrar-lock. Long story short, register.com now owns the domain, and there is no way to get it back.

Not that my SC can understand this. Or at least, that's the impression that I get because he never emails me back, and when he calls me, he doesn't say anything different.

One day, I'm out shopping with my girlfriend at my old neighborhood Walgreens, and who do I see there but cheap fat bastard himself (he only shops at that one Walgreens, and he only buys the sale items, ever; he's also a fat bastard; but moving on...). He *IGNORES* my girlfriend, doesn't even say hi and wants to know what's going on with "our" website.

I tell him quite firmly that I had been trying to correspond with him for the past month and *never* received any replies. I also reminded him that I sent him an invoice, to which he replied, "I don't believe I have anything from you that's unpaid. Could you resend it?"

Uh-huh. You do taxes for a living. My invoice wasn't lost; you just didn't want to pay me.

So now he's spent $1500 on a website that nobody will ever see, and I don't feel sorry in the least. My only regret is that I totally could've gotten twice as much money out of him as I did.

[1756GR2]

Had a customer come sit with me at dinner in a restaurant because the display on her phone wasn't bright enough. (Like the owner.) She got her table, close to mine, and kept talking across the aisle to me about it, despite my polite explanation that this isn't my store, I'm not working, bring it in tomorrow and we'll have a look at it.

My son and I were walking one day just for the pure joy of walking around town, passing through a fairly empty parking lot when he grabbed my arm and pulled me off the macadam into the plantings. "Mom, LOOK OUT!" One of my least favorite SC's nearly slid his car into us, then hopped out and thrust his phone in my face screaming something about it not working right. "YOU need to fix this!!" (Right here? I should take the screws out with my fingernails??) My son had had his fill of my SC's calling my cell at home at night (they put our cell numbers on our business cards even though the company doesn't pay anything toward our bills) and otherwise thinking they were entitled to more of my time than they pay for, so he stepped up to his full 6'2" 185 lbs. to tell the guy that I obviously wasn't working today, bring it in when I am. (I love my kids!)

[protege]

I went into a Pet Supply house after work one evening and the manager, who was running the register, turned out to be one of my SC's. Here I am, HER CUSTOMER, and she's bitching to me how Kinko's charges too much for business cards as she's ringing me up.

At that point, I would have had a little "chat" with her manager. There's no call for that crap. I also would have said something like "if you don't like what Kinko's charges...then don't go there!"

[theredbaron47]

Quote:
Originally Posted by RecoveringKinkoid
I went into a Pet Supply house after work one evening and the manager, who was running the register, turned out to be one of my SC's. Here I am, HER CUSTOMER, and she's bitching to me how Kinko's charges too much for business cards as she's ringing me up.


At that point, I would have had a little "chat" with her manager. There's no call for that crap. I also would have said something like "if you don't like what Kinko's charges...then don't go there!"

This begs an interesting question: would you be in the right to go off on the manager complaining to you, her CUSTOMER, about the place you work at, even though you are off-duty?

Personally, I would have gotten very nasty with her, and told her to not bother me while off-duty, and remind her of the fact that I am her customer at the moment.

[chainedbarista]

i think she has the right; this is a form of harrassment. the sc chose to take it up at an inappropriate time, which just happens to be when the sc is at work. this is rather unprofessional of her (the equivalent of 'going off' on a customer) and should be reported. there's a time and place for things, and when a worker is off duty, they are OFF DUTY. they owe the customer nothing, period.

[bars.of.a.rhyme]

'I'll never come here again' is always such a stupid thing to say...
What in the world makes SCs think we WANT them to come back?

That's why the best response to "I'm never coming here again" is "Is that a promise?"

I had a customer once leave to get her receipt from her house, and as she was leaving she said "I'll see you again to talk about this." It took all my willpower not to say "Not if I see you first."

[Margrave]

I've only talked to a retail person (can't come up with a better word at the moment, sorry) about their job while they were off duty once, and I think I had a good excuse. Yes, it was his day off, but he was in the store where he worked.

[Noelegy]

Ever been approached by SC even when you aren't at work who thought that even though you weren't on the clock or even on the premises of your job that you might be overjoyed to listen to them bitch?

Why yes. Yes, I have.

In 2005, my husband and I were attending a very informal family wedding, held at the couple's home. Both the bride and groom had been married before. She was in her 60s and he in his 70s, so they both had kids and stepkids and other assorted family members attending.

I've mentioned that I work for a major diagnostic laboratory company, as does my husband. I work in Billing, and my husband works in IT. One of these peripheral relatives was asking what we did for a living. We replied that we both worked for [Company].

This guy went off on a . Started telling us all about how our company had screwed up his bill for some labwork, and kept up this rant long after I'd already said, "I'm sorry, that shouldn't have happened, at that point it should have been between the billing department and your insurance company, YOU shouldn't have had to be involved at all." To be fair, it DID sound like our company had screwed up somewhere, but this guy was from Pennsylvania and he was acting as though I was personally responsible, even though I'd already told him I only worked with Pacific Northwest clients and never, ever contact patients directly.

To make matters worse, he went on to say that he told everyone he knew not to use our company, because we'd only screw up their billing. My husband finally got in a word edgewise, and asked Mr. SC what HE did for a living. Turned out he was a commercial airline pilot. My hubby said he wished he'd had the wit to make up a bogus story on the spot about how HE had a bad experience once on an airplane, and told everyone he knew don't ever take X Airline, because they'll only lose your luggage.

It was bizarre. It started out as a friendly conversation, and left us feeling as though we'd been chewed up and regurgitated on the nice living room furniture.

That leads to one of my quibbles with the work I do. People hear that I work for [Company] laboratory billing, and I instantly turn into an expert (or whipping girl) to help solve all the problems they're having with THEIR labwork bill. People don't understand that this company employs 35,000 people all over the United States, Mexico, and the UK. And we're not all in one big room!

[friendofjimmyk]

wife:honey leave them alone, they are trying to have a nice dinner
As*goblin:but I'm buying stuff from him, I have a right to know
Wife:but not now.

Yeah! Bonus points for the wife not being a tool too!