Guy said I called him a tagger

[Rocko]

Now a few months back, my store started limiting the sales on spray paint: you must be 18, there is a 3 can limit, and no sales after 8pm. We had to do this because of all the wannabe gangsters in the area tagging everything up. So basically, the majority of the people who have legit reasons for buying spray paint have to suffer because of the few. Now most people are fine with this policy, but I still get bitched at every now and then by someone who wants 12 cans but can't take them. And that brings me to today's story.

It was today a typically busy Sunday. It was 45 minutes before I was to clock out and enjoy the rest of my day. I hear a page that someone needs help in Hardware, which is right by Sporting Goods, and head over there because as usual, the Hardware associate is up at the front registers. A few people need spray paint, and I help them accordingly. After I finish up with them I go to put the keys to the paint cabinet away when HE shows up.

After spending almost four years in retail, I can tell when a customer is going to be a problem. He was a white guy in his 30's to 40's, and he walked up real fast like he was on a mission. It started off with him asking for help with the spray paint, no problem there, then he says...

Me: Me
DB: Douche Bag

DB: Home Depot and Lowe's suck so I figured I'd try you guys
Me: (knowing this is going downhill just by the simple fact that wasn't said in a light-hearted tone, but rather angrily) Yeah I get that a lot
DB: Yeah I need six cans of this

He holds out the lid to a particular can of spray paint, which I suddenly hope we are out of stock of. Sure enough, it isn't

Me: I'm sorry sir but there is a 3 can limit on spray paint
DB: Look i was just at the (store a few miles away, a legit story) Walmart and I cleaned them out. I took eight cans. They didn't say anything about a limit.
Me: That's because we had to start a limit because we were getting a lot of taggers over here.
DB: But I'm not some punk. I'm not going to be tagging anything up. Here I'll give you my driver's license to prove it. Now let me get six cans
Me: Look I understand sir, but it's store policy. There's a three can limit per ID.
DB: Look I'm gonna buy these, and then I'm gonna take them to my car and come back and buy 3 more.
Me: That's fine. (Well, not really. We're not supposed to let people do that but this guy wasn't taking no for an answer)

He takes his paint and leaves, and one of my friends comes over and I tell him about it. Then one of the Assistant Mangares shows up, one of the nice ones fortunately. She is holding the same color of paint that the douche bag just bought. She tells me:

AM: Rocko, what did you say to that guy?

Thinking that she means that I said it was fine to buy three more cans, I defend myself saying that there was no way that guy was backing down. Then she tells me that she just got bitched at by the guy because I supposedly called him a tagger. Yep because I wouldn't violate store policy and give the guy what he wanted, he complained to management, in front of the entire customer service desk. If it had been one of the bitchy managers he talked to, I could have gotten in big trouble for that. But she said it was fine and don't worry about it, I'm not in trouble for it.

Fucking cock stain, I hope he gets buzzed off of the fumes and falls into a woodchipper.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

You should never wish that...

...unless you add "in front of a camera." to it.

Seriously it is a problem that if you uphold a rule in place to combat a problem and you inform a customer of that rule, the bitchy ones complain to the management and claim that you called them that.

On a funnier note, I was on the same side of the ruling as the customer. I came into our local lowes to get 2 cases of black spray paint. I was told that I couldn't pick it up because of the problems with graffiti. I looked right at the clerk and said "Do you really think that Frank Perdue of Perdue Farms Incorporated is going to use these cans of paint to spraypaint the name of his girlfriend on every watertower and overpass in Maryland and Delaware?" and handed him my purchase order showing him that we were in their system as contractors and thus got contractor pricing.

Still had to get a manager. The clerk was nice about it, said that he thought for sure that the rule was for everyone but he would go and check. We got it straightened out and I got my paint.

M

[tollbaby]

"Do you really think that Frank Perdue of Perdue Farms Incorporated is going to use these cans of paint to spraypaint the name of his girlfriend on every watertower and overpass in Maryland and Delaware?"

Well, you never know. Shifty fellow, that Frank Perdue

[trunks2k]

How is him showing you his drivers license supposed to prove that he's not a tagger?

[MystyGlyttyr]

Don't these people know how to do ANYTHING?

If you're told there's a limit, you DON'T MAKE A FUSS. You quietly accept, buy your paint, talk a 10-minute walk around the block, then go back in and buy the next batch. Repeat as needed, changing your shirt once or twice if you're really worried about being recognized. Come on, dude, if you kick up a fuss, they're gonna remember you, if you're quiet and well-behaved, no one will remember you and you can do what you want! Who's teaching these stupid guys these days??

...not that I've ever done anything criminal and not that I'm a mastermind at it and CERTAINLY not that I've figured this out through experience. *coughcough*

[Primer]

heck, and I worry about trying to buy too much sudafed at a time!

[AFpheonix]

One has to wonder....what on earth does he need that much spray paint for?

[Imogene]

You have to be 18? Can't be older?

[Argabarga]

One has to wonder....what on earth does he need that much spray paint for?

Took me about that much to repaint my old hay truck, those rattle cans run dry after you do about one body panel in 2 coats....

I really should buy a compressed air paint gun

[protege]

Took me about that much to repaint my old hay truck, those rattle cans run dry after you do about one body panel in 2 coats....

That's the only reason I can think of as to why he'd need that much paint. Maybe he's painting up demolition derby car, or something where the finish quality isn't that important. Aerosol cans are, IMHO, inferior to a proper spray job at a bodyshop. The exception to that is on models--if you prepare the surface and polish out, it can rival (or even beat) the best airbrush job.

[Rocko]

It wasn't normal spray paint he was buying, it was textured paint. When that stuff dries, it looks like stucco, crappy stucco. I figure he needed to paint outdoor furniture or something like that, so he would need a lot. He's still a dick though.

[CrazedClerk]

Minor thread hijack here.

We have a "1 per customer" limit on Nintendo Wii systems. Some people get around this by bringing someone in with them (in some cases a young child) and handing them some cash to buy a second system. Since it's technically two separate customers, we can't refuse service even though it's rather obvious what these people are doing.

All we were told was "1 per customer" with no other conditions or restrictions given. It's up to the manager to make decisions on exactly how to enforce the policy. If I were running the place I think I'd take a harder line on this policy. It's difficult when we get six Wiis in and a single person buys 2 of them.

But I can see how spray paint would be tough. It's a shame because it does have many legitimate uses.

[karma_gypsy]

Aerosol cans are, IMHO, inferior to a proper spray job at a bodyshop. The exception to that is on models--if you prepare the surface and polish out, it can rival (or even beat) the best airbrush job.

Actually my hubby did a rattle can job on his motorcycle (a dirtbike, mind you). Although he had spent years in a machine shop and working with paint, he did an awesome job. He bought higher quality spray cans, but you could never really tell the difference between those and a sprayer job. He also did a vehicle that way and he says it turned out really nice (although he didn't put an overcoat over it and it faded quickly).


As for the original post . . . I take it Lowe's and Home Depot didn't have the same color he wanted? He couldn't buy three cans at one place and three cans at another? Or maybe he threw the same tissy fit at Home Depot & Lowe's and they just threw him out . . .

[Getoutofmylobby]

Maybe gangs are running out of colors to tag stuff with so they're turning to textured spraypaint.

The Stucco Mob might be bad mofos, but watch out for those sandstone gangs, i hear they are the worst.

[Argabarga]

Yep, the secret is in the details, that old truck, I did in two-tone paint from Krylon Cans, but I primered the whole thing first, then put on the paint, then used rubbing compound and rags to buff it smooth...

The paint job still looked good when the rest of the truck was thrown away...