So I keep trying to get this guy, who I shall refer to as K, to sign up on here, because he seems to get all the worst customers. But since he hasn't I'm posting some of this for him. I was witness to the following three incidents in the past week.
Caught Us Red-Handed
Any time someone manages to quote our scan-right policy to me, they're abusing it. Nobody who knows the actual wording of that policy can manage to twist the wording this way. Anyway, here's the setup. We sell eight different varieties of tomatoes (not counting the ones that come packaged). Green, Roma, and Heirloom tomatoes all have a pretty distinct appearance, and it's rare for anyone to mix those up. However, the ones rung up under 3151 (Kroger slicer), 4664 (on-the-vine), 4798 (brand-name hydroponic), 4799 (Kroger hydroponic), and 4800 (brand-name slicer) all look pretty much identical, with the exception of 4664 (OTV) which, obviously, come still on the vine.
You cannot comprehend how much it saddens me that I just listed all of those from memory.
Anyway, customer comes up with two vineless tomatoes in a bag. As the only ones we have in stock right now are On-The-Vine and 4799s, K rings them up at the latter. The customer stops him.
SC: Hey, those are the wrong price.
Me: (Bagging for K, checks the sticker on one) Yeah, these are OTV, they're just missing the vines.
K: Oh, sorry sir, I'll fix that for you.
SC: Now I know your policy, and if you ring something up the wrong price I get a second one for free.
Me: That is technically the policy, but-
SC: Now do you want to go get me my two free tomatoes or should I get them myself?
K: But I fixed the price already.
SC: Well yeah, you fixed it after I pointed it out. They always fix it after you point it out.
So then he called a supervisor over, the whole exchange was basically repeated except he started saying we weren't letting him talk and kept interrupting him. Finally, the supervisor just gave him the two tomatoes to get him to quit blocking the lane.
If I'd thought about it at the time (and could get a word in), I'd have told him that the price guarantee applied to an item being rung up at the wrong price, not to an entirely different item being rung up at the proper price. Nevermind he caused the confusion himself by pulling them off the vines anyway.
Poorly trained!
This one I didn't participate in, just got to watch part of. Apparently, someone in the deli cut this guy's loaf of sourdough wrong, and wound up putting it in two separate bags for him. I'm not sure how this came about, but whatever. Anyway, K is once again on register, and, seeing two loaves of bread in separate bags, rings up two loaves of bread.
Cue SC shouting at him for double-charging.
K: Sorry, I saw two loaves and thought-
SC: You should know! If you don't know how your own store works, you are poorly trained!
K: I'm sorry sir, I don't know-
SC: It does not matter! The man back there cannot cut bread, he is poorly trained! You cannot ring up items, you are poorly trained! Where is a manager! I want to speak to a manager about this!
So he winds up getting a supervisor who's known for honestly just not caring all that much about what customers say. He rants at her for a while about how we should be better trained, then is set off again when K asks him if a package of blueberries was his, since we were bagging and K is very forgetful. Not being sure where an item came from also means we are poorly trained.
Anger Management
This one happened just last night, and while I admit I could have done more to help, I was tired and just didn't think of it, plus the attitude was so far out of line it's not even funny. So K was again on register and I was officially SCO but bagging for him at the same time. It was about five minutes to the end of both our shifts, so we were going to get one last person. Except, light out or not, people will keep getting in line so long as you keep standing there.
So after the one easy order, we had a larger one, with for complicated WIC vouchers. I decided to stick it out with K since I had an override and he didn't. It wound up keeping us 20 minutes late, but I don't even really consider that one sucky. She just didn't speak English well (turns out she was from Argentina) and neither she nor her (English-speaking) husband really understood how the vouchers worked, as it was their first time using them. The SC showed up about halfway through the order, with a fully loaded cart.
K: Sir, would you mind moving to the self checkout?
SC: You know what? I'm pretty damn tired, so I think I would mind, very much.
I can't really convey the tone of voice he used with writing, so instead, think back to Samuel L Jackson's "say what again" scene from Pulp Fiction. Right about the point where he's daring Brett to say "what" one more time. That's about the level of sheer rage in this man's voice.
So I try an make a joking comment, lighten the mood and maybe score some sympathy.
Me: It's fine, we'll take you. Just asking because our shifts ended about ten minutes ago.
SC: (Absolute I-ought-to rip-your-head-off furious glare at me) Well you know what, I can leave this cart RIGHT HERE and walk out RIGHT NOW, or you can TAKE ME. NOW WHICH ONE IS IT GONNA BE, SON?!
And yes, he's getting louder and louder the whole time.
Me: (A pause to make sure he isn't about to murder us both) I never said we wouldn't take you.
J: (Night crew cashier, finally comes over to a lane) I can get you on seven, sir.
SC: Thank you. (Goes down to that lane, slams his cart full, force into the counter) Wouldn't want those two to miss their GOD DAMN BREAKS!
J: They're actually supposed to be going home.
SC: I don't give a damn! If they're here they ought to take customers!
He then goes to get a buggy to put his groceries into as he bags them. Except the nearest buggy has a stack of hand-baskets in it, waiting to go outside. So he just picks up the stack and slams it down on the floor so hard he shatters the bottom ones. Bits of plastic wound up all the way down to the other end of the checkouts. Then he slams that cart into place just as hard as the first one and proceeds to bag his order by slamming everything he picked up, sat down, or moved before finally stomping out.
And the best part? J informed us that he's a regular, and that these tantrums are a normal occurrence. Then she chewed me out for refusing to take a customer when I was on the clock (nevermind I was 10-15 minutes past my shift by then), and told me to expect to hear from the store manager because that SC would call in and make complaints if everyone wasn't perfect to him.
Of course, if I do get spoken to, I'm just going to tell him that even if I was on a lane I wouldn't have taken that man after that display because I would have been honestly afraid for my safety.
Caught Us Red-Handed
Any time someone manages to quote our scan-right policy to me, they're abusing it. Nobody who knows the actual wording of that policy can manage to twist the wording this way. Anyway, here's the setup. We sell eight different varieties of tomatoes (not counting the ones that come packaged). Green, Roma, and Heirloom tomatoes all have a pretty distinct appearance, and it's rare for anyone to mix those up. However, the ones rung up under 3151 (Kroger slicer), 4664 (on-the-vine), 4798 (brand-name hydroponic), 4799 (Kroger hydroponic), and 4800 (brand-name slicer) all look pretty much identical, with the exception of 4664 (OTV) which, obviously, come still on the vine.
You cannot comprehend how much it saddens me that I just listed all of those from memory.
Anyway, customer comes up with two vineless tomatoes in a bag. As the only ones we have in stock right now are On-The-Vine and 4799s, K rings them up at the latter. The customer stops him.
SC: Hey, those are the wrong price.
Me: (Bagging for K, checks the sticker on one) Yeah, these are OTV, they're just missing the vines.
K: Oh, sorry sir, I'll fix that for you.
SC: Now I know your policy, and if you ring something up the wrong price I get a second one for free.
Me: That is technically the policy, but-
SC: Now do you want to go get me my two free tomatoes or should I get them myself?
K: But I fixed the price already.
SC: Well yeah, you fixed it after I pointed it out. They always fix it after you point it out.
So then he called a supervisor over, the whole exchange was basically repeated except he started saying we weren't letting him talk and kept interrupting him. Finally, the supervisor just gave him the two tomatoes to get him to quit blocking the lane.
If I'd thought about it at the time (and could get a word in), I'd have told him that the price guarantee applied to an item being rung up at the wrong price, not to an entirely different item being rung up at the proper price. Nevermind he caused the confusion himself by pulling them off the vines anyway.
Poorly trained!
This one I didn't participate in, just got to watch part of. Apparently, someone in the deli cut this guy's loaf of sourdough wrong, and wound up putting it in two separate bags for him. I'm not sure how this came about, but whatever. Anyway, K is once again on register, and, seeing two loaves of bread in separate bags, rings up two loaves of bread.
Cue SC shouting at him for double-charging.
K: Sorry, I saw two loaves and thought-
SC: You should know! If you don't know how your own store works, you are poorly trained!
K: I'm sorry sir, I don't know-
SC: It does not matter! The man back there cannot cut bread, he is poorly trained! You cannot ring up items, you are poorly trained! Where is a manager! I want to speak to a manager about this!
So he winds up getting a supervisor who's known for honestly just not caring all that much about what customers say. He rants at her for a while about how we should be better trained, then is set off again when K asks him if a package of blueberries was his, since we were bagging and K is very forgetful. Not being sure where an item came from also means we are poorly trained.
Anger Management
This one happened just last night, and while I admit I could have done more to help, I was tired and just didn't think of it, plus the attitude was so far out of line it's not even funny. So K was again on register and I was officially SCO but bagging for him at the same time. It was about five minutes to the end of both our shifts, so we were going to get one last person. Except, light out or not, people will keep getting in line so long as you keep standing there.
So after the one easy order, we had a larger one, with for complicated WIC vouchers. I decided to stick it out with K since I had an override and he didn't. It wound up keeping us 20 minutes late, but I don't even really consider that one sucky. She just didn't speak English well (turns out she was from Argentina) and neither she nor her (English-speaking) husband really understood how the vouchers worked, as it was their first time using them. The SC showed up about halfway through the order, with a fully loaded cart.
K: Sir, would you mind moving to the self checkout?
SC: You know what? I'm pretty damn tired, so I think I would mind, very much.
I can't really convey the tone of voice he used with writing, so instead, think back to Samuel L Jackson's "say what again" scene from Pulp Fiction. Right about the point where he's daring Brett to say "what" one more time. That's about the level of sheer rage in this man's voice.
So I try an make a joking comment, lighten the mood and maybe score some sympathy.
Me: It's fine, we'll take you. Just asking because our shifts ended about ten minutes ago.
SC: (Absolute I-ought-to rip-your-head-off furious glare at me) Well you know what, I can leave this cart RIGHT HERE and walk out RIGHT NOW, or you can TAKE ME. NOW WHICH ONE IS IT GONNA BE, SON?!
And yes, he's getting louder and louder the whole time.
Me: (A pause to make sure he isn't about to murder us both) I never said we wouldn't take you.
J: (Night crew cashier, finally comes over to a lane) I can get you on seven, sir.
SC: Thank you. (Goes down to that lane, slams his cart full, force into the counter) Wouldn't want those two to miss their GOD DAMN BREAKS!
J: They're actually supposed to be going home.
SC: I don't give a damn! If they're here they ought to take customers!
He then goes to get a buggy to put his groceries into as he bags them. Except the nearest buggy has a stack of hand-baskets in it, waiting to go outside. So he just picks up the stack and slams it down on the floor so hard he shatters the bottom ones. Bits of plastic wound up all the way down to the other end of the checkouts. Then he slams that cart into place just as hard as the first one and proceeds to bag his order by slamming everything he picked up, sat down, or moved before finally stomping out.
And the best part? J informed us that he's a regular, and that these tantrums are a normal occurrence. Then she chewed me out for refusing to take a customer when I was on the clock (nevermind I was 10-15 minutes past my shift by then), and told me to expect to hear from the store manager because that SC would call in and make complaints if everyone wasn't perfect to him.
Of course, if I do get spoken to, I'm just going to tell him that even if I was on a lane I wouldn't have taken that man after that display because I would have been honestly afraid for my safety.
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