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Had a real fuckin' charmer today.
Comes to my checkout with a woman, holding 5 metres of rolled up, clear plastic tubing. Tubing does not come with a price tag/sticker/barcode/EAN code etc, it is instead it is one of a number of hateful items that is listed on the Online Catalogue. The cashier has to select the (grainy) picture of the right item, which also has some of the basic details (size, type etc- but NEVER the price!!!), select the item, put in the quantity, and there, you can sell it. Rope is usually quite easy, chains are a bit harder, tubing is relatively easy as there are only a few types. To be sure, I usually put the item on the measuring strip embedded on the desk to compare the size.
Well, to make sure I had the right tubing, I laid it down to measure the width- it was about 5mm, and the second smallest size was 5mm. So I select that, put in 5 metres, and we're all good right?
Nope. Immediately, the bastard kicks off. He isn't even polite about it. "That's not right, its meant to be 98p a metre, not £1.08!"
I said to him, I had just measured it, and he said I was wrong (completely rudely of course, and with a very aggressive manner, but I'll be honest, I can't remember everything he said word for word). Now, the catalogue CAN be a massive pain in the arse sometimes, and can cause confusion for people who have never used anything like it before, and admittedly even confusing for cashiers, so I turned the screen towards him, and demonstrated what I had done. I had looked at the relevant sizes, measured the tubing, and selected the size accordingly.
"Here," I said, lying it down on the strip again. "See, its 5mm."
"No its not!" he snapped. "Its 3mm!"
"The measurement refers to the hole!" the woman butted in.
This seemed highly irregular to me. I mean, this how I measure chain links and rope lengths, and no one has ever told me that the measurement of the tubing would be the hole. I've been doing it this way for months and it has never come up as an issue before.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" the man snapped.
Oh, good, now I have no desire to help you, you condescending, elitist bastard.
I bit my tongue, barely restrained a scowl (probably failed) and somehow, whimpering bunny took a back seat when bunny-with-a-back-bone came forward and said firmly "I have done this before."
He still wasn't happy, saying he wanted to have it checked, and I said he was more than welcome to go back to do so. He made a few more comments about me being crap at my job, how pathetic it was to work in a hardware store and not know the products etc, and went off. I voided the transaction and the woman, who I gathered was only passive when on her own, slunk into a corner silenly while I carried on serving NICE people.
Some minutes later, while I was standing in front of my till, the Prick came back. I put on the "customer service" face again, having calmed down in his absence, and said greeted him again, can't remember exactly what I said. As he approached, I recall thinking he looked a bit put-out, grumpy, like perhaps I had been right all along, and he was annoyed. As I was going back around to my still again to continue serving him, he growled at me "I demand to see a manager."
I paused for a second, surprised, and said "Oh...well, whats the problem, it maybe something I-"
"No, I want a manager, right now!"
No shouting. But his tone was absolutely dripping with contempt and he just spoke to me like I was fucking dirt on his shoe- I knew this wasn't good (but at this point, I assumed he wanted to cop because I had been right and perhaps he'd misread some signs or something and wanted to chew a manager out for "incorrect" signage
). I couldn't see my supervisor, so I went to a senior colleague and asked what I should do. I made a point of saying quietly "and he's getting pretty shitty with me." We spotted the Hardware manager (HM) nearby, and as its his department, we decided he was a good choice.
I went over to him and asked "Can I borrow you for a moment?" and explained what was going on. Instantly I felt bad, he said "Oh no," and I remembered he's not well and has a bad throat.
But he came over anyway, and HM greeted the Prick and asked him what was wrong.
This was what the Prick was waiting for. He launched into a tirade about ME, what a bad worker I was, how useless I was, etc, how I was wrong, how I clearly need to be retrained (and totally missing out that I'm still wearing a "New To Orange Aprons" badge...sure its nearly 6 months now, but I'm milking this
) blah blah. I tell you what, its really something to hear someone talking about you like this, right in front of you, like you're just a defective product or something, and not a person. What a cunt.
Well, we finally get onto my horrendous, terrible fucking mistake; measuring the tubing. At first HM actually said I was right. The Prick has somehow gotten a bit of other tubing to compare to his 5m length, but was refusing to actually hand them over, and being very aggressive towards HM. Being as he put HM's back up instantly, the way he had with me, HM was hardly being sympathetic towards him. He tried to gently take the length from the Prick, only for the Prick to react overly defensively, like HM had tried to snatch it, when all he was doing was trying to measure it. HM is sick, and has a scratchy throat, and a low tolerance for bullshit at the moment, so inevitably, his tone started to get a bit crappy. However, he popped over to speak with some of his team (I presume) saying he'd be right back.
As soon as HM was gone, the Prick starts demanding to me who the store manager is. Now, truthfully, our store manager left last week. We are "between" managers. So I said that. He snapped "What does that mean?" and the woman said "they don't have a manager." He then snaps "Who do you answer to?" Not a simple question- technically, I answer to the Front End supervisors, as I am not in a department, but I just said "the managers."
"And who does HE [HM] answer to?"
I can already see this going around in circles if I try to be exact >.< To get him to stop with this endless barrage of pointless questions (and stop him talking to ME- lets face it, I don't want to help this bastard now!) I have to be unhelpful. "Well...he's the manager for the Hardware Department."
*cold glare*
"That's why I bought him over. Tubing comes under the Hardware Department."
Huffing noises, rolling eyes, pissed off expressions
And then came the muttering and ranting. This store is shit. The staff are pathetic. We don't know anything about our products etc. Terrible customer services. Oh, now the woman is all egging the Prick on, inflating his ego; "Yes, he was very rude, wasn't he! He tried to snatch it off you! Can't believe he's a manager. Yes, the staff need to be retrained, and the customer service...whatever happened to 'customer is always right'?!"
Fuckers.
Meanwhile, I stood there, trying to look neutral, something that was difficult being as he had just basically slagged me off, and was now slagging off HM, who is a good manager really. I'm sure I was continuing to piss them off also- I suffer from anxiety, and being as I was trying to control my anger, it was turning into nervousness...I had my Rescue Remedy spray bottle in my hand. When I can't use it, I click its lid on and off, similar to how you'd click a pen or a ciggy. The noise must have been annoying
HM comes back, and admits that he and I were both mistaken...to which the Prick is still not satisfied, and says how I had said he was wrong. HM said, clearly struggling to keep calm "Well, I am sorry, but we're all just human here, Rabbit may have made a mistake, but it was a simple one, and it happens." (He did look at me as he said it, and his expression did not indicate any annoyance towards me, thankfully. Prick rants a bit more, and then HM says "Hang on...did she charge you?"
I butted in- I'm glad I did, I have a feeling the Prick might have been about to lie. "No I didn't," I said. "I voided the transaction when the customer went to double check the tubing. I haven't charged them."
HM looked rather annoyed by this. "Well, sir," he continues, "she may have made a mistake, but she didn't charge you, and in all honesty, it was only 10 pence difference!" I think at this point he was trying to hint subtly that a difference of 10p was not an excuse for the way this man was talking to us. He just kept slagging us both off, and HM even admitted he had been mistaken, to which the Prick then came out with this;
"You don't even know all of your products! I bet I know about everything in here!"
HM then sarcastically snapped "Well then, you should get a job in here then!"
The Prick threatened that maybe he should, and HM left. The Prick then glared at me as if to say "Well serve me then." I clicked my spray for a moment, trying to decide. In all honesty, I had already decided I wanted to exercise my right to refuse service. In my head, I could hear the voice saying "I suggest you find another cashier to serve you, sir, because I am exercising my right to refuse to serve you." But as he glared at me, I realised I would be causing more trouble than it was worth. Everything had apparently concluded- HM and the Prick had both said what they wanted to say (although I'm certain the Prick and his Bitch will be making a complaint), and I also felt, being as HM had backed me up, by perpetuating this, I wouldn't be doing fair by him, and just causing more trouble for us.
So, stonily, I served him, silently promising "One more comment. Just one more. And I'm finishing this."
Thankfully, I think something in my expression may have said this, and the Prick said not a word. He took his reciept and he left. HM came back shortly after saying "Wow, what a prick! Are you alright?" Nearby colleagues had wondered what had happened- despite his sore throat and quiet voice, it was obvious HM had been getting pissed off!
Ok, so I was mistaken. Fair enough. But you don't come to my checkout, talking down to me like I'm some kinda retard, or scumbag. You have an issue with me, try taking it up with me to see if I can do something about it, instead of having a big bitch fit and belittling me. If you're being such a fuckface that a usually good-natured manager is getting shitty with you, you are clearly being a fuckface!
You can't expect a staff member to know EVERYTHING in the store, let alone a cashier. And while some may think HM was in the wrong, well, he admitted he shouldn't have made his closing comment, but the Prick was so rude and aggressive from the get-go...if you're feeling sick and intolerant and you have to listen to that shit, you'd have a short fuse too!
Comes to my checkout with a woman, holding 5 metres of rolled up, clear plastic tubing. Tubing does not come with a price tag/sticker/barcode/EAN code etc, it is instead it is one of a number of hateful items that is listed on the Online Catalogue. The cashier has to select the (grainy) picture of the right item, which also has some of the basic details (size, type etc- but NEVER the price!!!), select the item, put in the quantity, and there, you can sell it. Rope is usually quite easy, chains are a bit harder, tubing is relatively easy as there are only a few types. To be sure, I usually put the item on the measuring strip embedded on the desk to compare the size.
Well, to make sure I had the right tubing, I laid it down to measure the width- it was about 5mm, and the second smallest size was 5mm. So I select that, put in 5 metres, and we're all good right?
Nope. Immediately, the bastard kicks off. He isn't even polite about it. "That's not right, its meant to be 98p a metre, not £1.08!"
I said to him, I had just measured it, and he said I was wrong (completely rudely of course, and with a very aggressive manner, but I'll be honest, I can't remember everything he said word for word). Now, the catalogue CAN be a massive pain in the arse sometimes, and can cause confusion for people who have never used anything like it before, and admittedly even confusing for cashiers, so I turned the screen towards him, and demonstrated what I had done. I had looked at the relevant sizes, measured the tubing, and selected the size accordingly.
"Here," I said, lying it down on the strip again. "See, its 5mm."
"No its not!" he snapped. "Its 3mm!"
"The measurement refers to the hole!" the woman butted in.
This seemed highly irregular to me. I mean, this how I measure chain links and rope lengths, and no one has ever told me that the measurement of the tubing would be the hole. I've been doing it this way for months and it has never come up as an issue before.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" the man snapped.
Oh, good, now I have no desire to help you, you condescending, elitist bastard.
I bit my tongue, barely restrained a scowl (probably failed) and somehow, whimpering bunny took a back seat when bunny-with-a-back-bone came forward and said firmly "I have done this before."
He still wasn't happy, saying he wanted to have it checked, and I said he was more than welcome to go back to do so. He made a few more comments about me being crap at my job, how pathetic it was to work in a hardware store and not know the products etc, and went off. I voided the transaction and the woman, who I gathered was only passive when on her own, slunk into a corner silenly while I carried on serving NICE people.
Some minutes later, while I was standing in front of my till, the Prick came back. I put on the "customer service" face again, having calmed down in his absence, and said greeted him again, can't remember exactly what I said. As he approached, I recall thinking he looked a bit put-out, grumpy, like perhaps I had been right all along, and he was annoyed. As I was going back around to my still again to continue serving him, he growled at me "I demand to see a manager."
I paused for a second, surprised, and said "Oh...well, whats the problem, it maybe something I-"
"No, I want a manager, right now!"
No shouting. But his tone was absolutely dripping with contempt and he just spoke to me like I was fucking dirt on his shoe- I knew this wasn't good (but at this point, I assumed he wanted to cop because I had been right and perhaps he'd misread some signs or something and wanted to chew a manager out for "incorrect" signage
). I couldn't see my supervisor, so I went to a senior colleague and asked what I should do. I made a point of saying quietly "and he's getting pretty shitty with me." We spotted the Hardware manager (HM) nearby, and as its his department, we decided he was a good choice. I went over to him and asked "Can I borrow you for a moment?" and explained what was going on. Instantly I felt bad, he said "Oh no," and I remembered he's not well and has a bad throat.
But he came over anyway, and HM greeted the Prick and asked him what was wrong.
This was what the Prick was waiting for. He launched into a tirade about ME, what a bad worker I was, how useless I was, etc, how I was wrong, how I clearly need to be retrained (and totally missing out that I'm still wearing a "New To Orange Aprons" badge...sure its nearly 6 months now, but I'm milking this
) blah blah. I tell you what, its really something to hear someone talking about you like this, right in front of you, like you're just a defective product or something, and not a person. What a cunt.Well, we finally get onto my horrendous, terrible fucking mistake; measuring the tubing. At first HM actually said I was right. The Prick has somehow gotten a bit of other tubing to compare to his 5m length, but was refusing to actually hand them over, and being very aggressive towards HM. Being as he put HM's back up instantly, the way he had with me, HM was hardly being sympathetic towards him. He tried to gently take the length from the Prick, only for the Prick to react overly defensively, like HM had tried to snatch it, when all he was doing was trying to measure it. HM is sick, and has a scratchy throat, and a low tolerance for bullshit at the moment, so inevitably, his tone started to get a bit crappy. However, he popped over to speak with some of his team (I presume) saying he'd be right back.
As soon as HM was gone, the Prick starts demanding to me who the store manager is. Now, truthfully, our store manager left last week. We are "between" managers. So I said that. He snapped "What does that mean?" and the woman said "they don't have a manager." He then snaps "Who do you answer to?" Not a simple question- technically, I answer to the Front End supervisors, as I am not in a department, but I just said "the managers."
"And who does HE [HM] answer to?"
I can already see this going around in circles if I try to be exact >.< To get him to stop with this endless barrage of pointless questions (and stop him talking to ME- lets face it, I don't want to help this bastard now!) I have to be unhelpful. "Well...he's the manager for the Hardware Department."
*cold glare*
"That's why I bought him over. Tubing comes under the Hardware Department."
Huffing noises, rolling eyes, pissed off expressions
And then came the muttering and ranting. This store is shit. The staff are pathetic. We don't know anything about our products etc. Terrible customer services. Oh, now the woman is all egging the Prick on, inflating his ego; "Yes, he was very rude, wasn't he! He tried to snatch it off you! Can't believe he's a manager. Yes, the staff need to be retrained, and the customer service...whatever happened to 'customer is always right'?!"
Fuckers.
Meanwhile, I stood there, trying to look neutral, something that was difficult being as he had just basically slagged me off, and was now slagging off HM, who is a good manager really. I'm sure I was continuing to piss them off also- I suffer from anxiety, and being as I was trying to control my anger, it was turning into nervousness...I had my Rescue Remedy spray bottle in my hand. When I can't use it, I click its lid on and off, similar to how you'd click a pen or a ciggy. The noise must have been annoying
HM comes back, and admits that he and I were both mistaken...to which the Prick is still not satisfied, and says how I had said he was wrong. HM said, clearly struggling to keep calm "Well, I am sorry, but we're all just human here, Rabbit may have made a mistake, but it was a simple one, and it happens." (He did look at me as he said it, and his expression did not indicate any annoyance towards me, thankfully. Prick rants a bit more, and then HM says "Hang on...did she charge you?"
I butted in- I'm glad I did, I have a feeling the Prick might have been about to lie. "No I didn't," I said. "I voided the transaction when the customer went to double check the tubing. I haven't charged them."
HM looked rather annoyed by this. "Well, sir," he continues, "she may have made a mistake, but she didn't charge you, and in all honesty, it was only 10 pence difference!" I think at this point he was trying to hint subtly that a difference of 10p was not an excuse for the way this man was talking to us. He just kept slagging us both off, and HM even admitted he had been mistaken, to which the Prick then came out with this;
"You don't even know all of your products! I bet I know about everything in here!"
HM then sarcastically snapped "Well then, you should get a job in here then!"
The Prick threatened that maybe he should, and HM left. The Prick then glared at me as if to say "Well serve me then." I clicked my spray for a moment, trying to decide. In all honesty, I had already decided I wanted to exercise my right to refuse service. In my head, I could hear the voice saying "I suggest you find another cashier to serve you, sir, because I am exercising my right to refuse to serve you." But as he glared at me, I realised I would be causing more trouble than it was worth. Everything had apparently concluded- HM and the Prick had both said what they wanted to say (although I'm certain the Prick and his Bitch will be making a complaint), and I also felt, being as HM had backed me up, by perpetuating this, I wouldn't be doing fair by him, and just causing more trouble for us.
So, stonily, I served him, silently promising "One more comment. Just one more. And I'm finishing this."
Thankfully, I think something in my expression may have said this, and the Prick said not a word. He took his reciept and he left. HM came back shortly after saying "Wow, what a prick! Are you alright?" Nearby colleagues had wondered what had happened- despite his sore throat and quiet voice, it was obvious HM had been getting pissed off!
Ok, so I was mistaken. Fair enough. But you don't come to my checkout, talking down to me like I'm some kinda retard, or scumbag. You have an issue with me, try taking it up with me to see if I can do something about it, instead of having a big bitch fit and belittling me. If you're being such a fuckface that a usually good-natured manager is getting shitty with you, you are clearly being a fuckface!
You can't expect a staff member to know EVERYTHING in the store, let alone a cashier. And while some may think HM was in the wrong, well, he admitted he shouldn't have made his closing comment, but the Prick was so rude and aggressive from the get-go...if you're feeling sick and intolerant and you have to listen to that shit, you'd have a short fuse too!
To prevent this exact scenario, I always make sure to write down the correct shelf SKU for the bulk item I'm buying. Saves the cashier a long walk or interminable wait for someone from the department to price check. Most cut items are supposed to get an employee-written slip detailing SKU and quantity anyway.
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