Yes we are closed

[csdrone]

It was about a quarter after closing time. We were cleaning up and getting ready to leave and a customer drives up. The sign saying closed was ignored by said customer and I politely told her "Sorry we are closed now." Her reply was a masterpiece of SC: "But you are open till (closing)." My reply: "We WERE open until (closing) and it is now 10 after closing." She tried to argue that it was before (closing) to no avail. My comment to my coworker was "I wish I could alter time and space and I surely would not be here" We got a good laugh out of the customer's cluelessness. So I decided to start a thread about this oh so SC tantrum inducing subject:

Rules about closing:

1. If there is a closed sign, red arrow, locked door or any other indication that the business is closed, they are closed and there is nothing you can do. Banging on doors, demanding we stop closing to serve you will not fly. Our systems and corp security people get very excited if we violate policy. We like our jobs.

2. If you are going to any business with a cash drawer (that would be any retail establishment), they will NOT have tills open very long after closing. It is a security risk. In addition, the systems will default to the next day and they cannot be overridden.

3. Do NOT argue about the time more than 5 minutes after the posted closing time. There are these neato things called computers and they tell everyone what time closing was done at. We did not close early to make you mad: we closed on time. YOU were 10-20 minutes late.

4. When we have closed and locked our building and are leaving, we cannot look something up for you: come back the next day.

Anyone want to add closing rules for SC's?

[South Texan]

5. If you chose to wait until the last possible minute to try to get to the store before it closed, it is NOT the employees' fault that you arrived after the closing time. Crying, screaming or getting angry while declaring that the employees have ruined your child's Christmas/vacation/birthday/Bar Mitzvah is not going to get the store opened again so you can buy a trinket/battery/ice cream/booze. You need to accept that you blew it all on your own.

[Ciarrai]

Do not use the excuse of getting medication for your baby to get into the door after closing, and then wander around the rest of the store doing your shopping. Get in and then promptly get out.

[Becks]

Do not try to say that you're only "getting one thing" while you're trying to wrangle a cart out of line.

[pbmods]

8. We heard (and ignored) you the first time. Stop banging on the damn window!

[SongsOfDragons]

Do not use the excuse of getting medication for your baby to get into the door after closing, and then wander around the rest of the store doing your shopping. Get in and then promptly get out.

I had to do that once, only it was for me and not a child. The pharmacy was closing early and I had to RUN from school to get there - I was ten minutes too late, but after a bit of an 'AW Shite,' moment, they realised I kinda needed my drugs to stay on top of my brain...so someone went in the back way to retrieve my prescription ans I was eternally grateful.

Even though they were lamotrigiene, that crap stuff actually made my fits *WORSE*...the doctors put me on it cause the stuff I was taking (and have swapped back onto it now) doubles the risk of giving unborn babies spina bifida...

[Lace Neil Singer]

9. The sign is up on my till. No, I will not stay longer to serve you; I have been here far too long already and I'm going home. Find another till; this one is closed.

10. Yes, I am fully aware that it is Christmas Eve/New Year's Eve today; however, it is also Sunday and UK Sunday Trading Laws state very clearly that 4pm is when we have to close. Crying, screaming, swearing and begging will not make us change our minds; it's the law, and it applies to everyone, and everyone includes you. Both Christmas and New Year's Eve are at the same date every year; so it's entirely your own fault for not coming over earlier. We opened at 10; you've had all day.

[DesignFox]

Reminds me of a woman who came up to my counter after closing to pick up photos. Now, I had to wait for the system to run down before I could actually walk out of the studio. I had no customers basically all day, so at precisely 7 pm (closing time) I hit run down, and was sitting waiting for it to complete. Bitch walks up and demands I deliver her photos. I had my closed sign up and politely informed her that I could not deliver photos because the system was running down. She proceeded to demand said photos using every excuse in the book. When I refused, she got really snotty and said..."Well, it is 6:58 by MY WATCH. you HAVE to serve me!" I replied... "well, it is 7:02 by mine, and we are closed. Have a nice night!" She stormed off in a huff.

SO- rules for SCs-

*read the sign- if it says I am closed, go away, I am not going to serve you.

*when the gate comes down- leave. we are closing/closed

*If you ask me what time we close, and I say 9:30, do not proceed to pester us until 9:45-10 at night. GO HOME. WE ARE CLOSED.

* Normally, if we have music playing and it mysteriously shuts off, that is your 10 min, "we are closing" warning. we are politely trying to tell you to get the F out of the store and go home!

* If you have to ask if it is "too late to do X, Y, Z" it is probably closing time and you should just go home. Don't be an ass and ask me if you can come in simply because you know I cannot say no to you.

* you see the employees cleaning. you know we are closing but are taking your sweet time anyway. Don't be an uber-asshole and leave a trail of unwanted product/garbage behind you so that we have to clean up all over again.

I'm in a super bitter mood tonight. I'm sure I'll think of more later.

[JustaCashier]

Along the same line as Design Fox's last item, When we give the "Store is now closed" announce over the P.A. please do as requested and bring your purchases up to the registers right away.

Do not continue casually browse.

If you are at the desk of one of the Departments, waiting for a product to be prepared/located/ordered, please do not waste the Clerk's time with small talk, unneccesary questions etc.

If you call after we just closed, and we answer the phone "*Store Name* security", please do not bombard us with questions other than store hours. Don't ask us to check a price, do a stock check, find out if a Special Order is ready etc.
The status of any of those will not change by the time you call back, first thing, next morning.

Mike

[Department stores *sigh*]

if the store has been open for 90 consecutive hours during the christmas season dont whine at 5 minutes after closing on xmas eve. we wanna go home. go away

[Drakstern]

The times listed on the store hours are not 'give or take'.

They are the times. If it says midnight, it is midnight.

[csdrone]

A couple from yesterday:

If the lights are off and nobody is home, the business is closed. Even if you see employees, we cannot change time and space and make it 20-40 minutes earlier.

If you listen to the friendly employee, you will find out there ARE sister stores with extended hours. Arguing with the employee will not make them go back inside just for you. As Gord says "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency for me." Or something similar.

Lastly, we are not closing just to make you sad: we are following a model made by pointy headed bosses somewhere out of town.

[AmericanZero8503]

I have told this to customers at several jobs before:

"We close at 8 PM, not around 8 PM"

I always get the lady who is like "BUT IT'S ONLY 10 AFTER, MY FRIEND NNNEEEEEDDDSS TO PAY THIS BILL!"

Well this desk has been open 12 hours today. She had plenty of time to pay her bill. One guy tried to argue that his clock was correct and mine was off.

"But my clock says it's only 8 now!"
"Well my clock says 5 after, sorry"

Then I give them a complete lie:
"Well we have to shut down because all the registers are scheduled to shut off at close, and then we can't do any transactions. Sorry."

[Enjis]

My hubby and I have stopped at fast food places that are 15 minutes before their closing time...by the clocks IN THEIR STORES, and have had to use the drive thru because the doors were locked. (We only wanted carry out anyways, so it was not a big deal, but still...)

Now, I understand wanting to close early...but at my place of business (a large department store) we do NOT close out every register before closing time. We may close a few of them, if we can, but some of them stay open in every department, at least 10 minutes after store close.

If your posted hours say 'open till 10 PM', please stay open till 10 PM. (And if I come in at 1 minute before closing, I deserve to be sneered at.)

[AFpheonix]

If, perchance we can't get a staff pharmacist in and we have to close for a few hours, please don't whine at me. Lord knows, we're open the rest of the 24 hours per day, I think you'll live.

Likewise when you call me when you're normal pharmacy closes at the same time it's been closing for however long (amazingly, it's the same time most every other non-24 hour pharmacy closes), please don't whine at me about that, either. I know that the hours are posted at the front door of the store, by the out-window, in the drive-through window, and are available as an option on the phone tree. You have really no excuse.