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Rageaholic at cashwrap - kinda long vent
I manage a department in a retail store that sells clothing and lifestyle goods. We have a 50% redlined housewares sale going on right now. Was up in the office doing payroll when my associate paged me and asked if we could extend the 50% off to a customer who picked up a full price book in the sale section.
We have two policies - one is to just do it to avoid a complaint (I forgot about this one, d'oh, bc we are on a college campus and most customers just ask to try to get a deal), the other is to do a max discount of 40% on full price items.
I told my associate to extend a 40% discount and got a page a few minutes later asking if I could come downstairs. Neglected to ask which book it was.
The dbag ripped into me before I got to the cashwrap saying that it was ridic to piss off a customer over a dollar. I apologized for upsetting him and extended the 50% off, to which he replied he didn't want to buy it at all on principle. Then he proceeded to tell me verbatim that it's bs that I didn't want to "get off my ass" to give him the 50% off in the first place (I told him it usually had to be a manager that would have to ring out a special circumstance - kind of true).
Anyway, he said he'd been a loyal customer for a decade and that we'd just lost a potential 20k in sales bc he'd never shop there again (we're a major corporation with 160+ stores open worldwide). And after we told him that the item was actually not on sale (no redline sticker, ringing up at full price) and may have been misplaced, he said it was obviously on sale because it was the last one (we have our book selection split on two floors & the rest of that program was on the bottom floor).
Then he asked for my manager's info and threatened to complain to my DM. And on his way out he said something like "That's bullshit but otherwise you are great associates" - wtf? Or maybe "Shitty management, great associates".
He did this all in front of his seven year old kid.
Here's the kicker - the book was 9.95 (would have just taken the hit had I known it was that low) and was entitled "Insults Every Man Should Know' (geared towards adults), which he was buying for his 7 yr old kid.
So here's what I'm wondering:
1.) If he's shopped here, he knows that we redline EVERYTHING on sale - if it's not redlined, it's not on sale.
2.) Did he not develop a relationship / rapport with our store and associates in that decade+?? Mutual respect even? Tolerance?
3.) Poor kid.
I made a mistake, apologized for it, and tried to correct it but it seems the dude just wanted to unleash rage on someone today. Like livid, red-faced, irrational rage.
Anyone else experience something similar? Did it lead to a write-up? Is this a rite of passage for new management (I'm less than a year old)?
On a corporate level, is this a totally negligable incident? Is there sympathy for mgmt?
And of course, in the grand scheme of things, this is not even a drop in the bucket of life.
We have two policies - one is to just do it to avoid a complaint (I forgot about this one, d'oh, bc we are on a college campus and most customers just ask to try to get a deal), the other is to do a max discount of 40% on full price items.
I told my associate to extend a 40% discount and got a page a few minutes later asking if I could come downstairs. Neglected to ask which book it was.
The dbag ripped into me before I got to the cashwrap saying that it was ridic to piss off a customer over a dollar. I apologized for upsetting him and extended the 50% off, to which he replied he didn't want to buy it at all on principle. Then he proceeded to tell me verbatim that it's bs that I didn't want to "get off my ass" to give him the 50% off in the first place (I told him it usually had to be a manager that would have to ring out a special circumstance - kind of true).
Anyway, he said he'd been a loyal customer for a decade and that we'd just lost a potential 20k in sales bc he'd never shop there again (we're a major corporation with 160+ stores open worldwide). And after we told him that the item was actually not on sale (no redline sticker, ringing up at full price) and may have been misplaced, he said it was obviously on sale because it was the last one (we have our book selection split on two floors & the rest of that program was on the bottom floor).
Then he asked for my manager's info and threatened to complain to my DM. And on his way out he said something like "That's bullshit but otherwise you are great associates" - wtf? Or maybe "Shitty management, great associates".
He did this all in front of his seven year old kid.
Here's the kicker - the book was 9.95 (would have just taken the hit had I known it was that low) and was entitled "Insults Every Man Should Know' (geared towards adults), which he was buying for his 7 yr old kid.
So here's what I'm wondering:
1.) If he's shopped here, he knows that we redline EVERYTHING on sale - if it's not redlined, it's not on sale.
2.) Did he not develop a relationship / rapport with our store and associates in that decade+?? Mutual respect even? Tolerance?
3.) Poor kid.
I made a mistake, apologized for it, and tried to correct it but it seems the dude just wanted to unleash rage on someone today. Like livid, red-faced, irrational rage.
Anyone else experience something similar? Did it lead to a write-up? Is this a rite of passage for new management (I'm less than a year old)?
On a corporate level, is this a totally negligable incident? Is there sympathy for mgmt?
And of course, in the grand scheme of things, this is not even a drop in the bucket of life.
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