Passive Suckiness

[pbmods]

I noticed a lot of threads about customers that are *actively* sucky. But I wanted to create a thread dedicated to some of the more passive activities in which customers love to engage themselves to no end other than to completely cheese us off. Here are my favorites:

- They use the bathroom and make a mess, do not flush, back up the toilet (and don't bother to plunge), etc., etc., etc. Ew.^50

- They hide product on the shelf where it doesn't belong, often *behind* other product (usually product that won't sell out until the next revision or reset), or better yet, stuffed between store fixtures. And always either on the other side of the store, or else right next to where it goes. Extra credit for hiding perishables.

- They spill and/or break something and *don't tell anybody*. Bonus points for glass bottles full of hot sauce.

- They steal stuff.

- They leave shopping carts and baskets (empty or otherwise) for you to find.

- They treat stacks of empty baskets as a receptacle for unwanted items (Makes you wonder - could stores reduce shrink by setting out 'unwanted product' carts? Or would sorting through the garbage that customers would also dump on them make it not worth the effort?).

- (An oldie but a goodie) They leave garbage, unwanted receipts and product on your counter. Special bonus points: they leave it in front of store fixtures so you can't see it until you're leaving to go on break/clock out.

That's all I can think of for now. What other passive suckinesses have you dealt with?

[MadMike]

- They spill and/or break something and *don't tell anybody*. Bonus points for glass bottles full of hot sauce.

Couldn't be any worse than broken jars of honey. It makes a sticky, glass-filled mess that's damn near impossible to clean up. You have to get the water really hot to loosen it up, and even then it's still a bitch.

[CanadaGirl]

I hate messes that customers make. I had an 8 hour shift today, and at around the 3rd or 4th hour, I noticed a giant mess of spaghetti down one of the aisles in the food section. Didn't really think anything of it at the time because I was busy moving an end to a different area of the store, and figured one of the stock boys would see it and clean it up. Guess not! I came back around that area 10 minutes before I was off, saw the mess that had been sitting there for a good 4 or 5 hours, and cleaned it up myself. :|

There is also a weird blue footprint by the bathroom fixtures. No idea what it is...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

It used to drive me banana-eating crazy when people, upon being asked "when do you need it", would answer "as soon as possible."

That tells me NOTHING. What if "as soon as possible" is next month sometime? If you need by a certain time, then you damn well better tell me what certain time that is, or you ain't gonna get it by then, Bonehead.

Arrgh!

And if you say that and I ask you again, and you SAY it again, I'm going to see to it your job is dragged into the next geological age.Say what you mean!

Oh, and while I'm on a roll...do not tell me to use my imagination, either. I guar-on-tee you will not like my imagination. You have an idea of what you want, we both know it. Please share that with me and we will both save a lot of time and aggravation. Don't tell me to use my imagination, and then come back in here and complain that that's not what you had in mind. If you had it in mind, and didn't tell me, then you are an IDIOT.



Oh. Ahem. Got a little carried away there. Pet peeves.

[Crow The Robot]

...around the 3rd or 4th hour, I noticed a giant mess of spaghetti down one of the aisles
...the mess that had been sitting there for a good 4 or 5 hours, and cleaned it up myself.

Awww. CG you and I should get together I had to clean up baby oil and V_* that some %$#%^ customer spilled.
Which prings me to another point people who enter through the cart door, erm, i am trying to get carts in the store, to do my JOB, and yet these asshats just walk right through. One chick even pushed me and said snottily "excuse me"


*EDIT- excessive quoting

[chainedbarista]

they allow their kids to make a mess or render some item unsellable, then say nothing or if we see it, do nothing.

people who whine, bitch, piss and moan about ashtrays, then don't bother to use one when we get it for them.

people who want 'extra' when what they really mean is the WHOLE DAMNED BOTTLE.

rude little spawn that interrupt me, demand freebies, then go get mommy to chew me out if i'm too busy making drinks for PAYING customers.

[Twotall]

-When they conclude they don't want an item they've picked up, they simply place it on any nearby shelf/freezer. In my grocery store, I've seen cartons of milk and bottles of beer in the deep freezers, bags of frozen carrots tucked in with the fresh carrots, et.al. Just because some idiot couldn't be bothered to walk ten meters back.

-When they don't understand how a technical thingie works, they call a helpdesk immmediately, instead of Reading The Friggin' Manual. "How do I turn this on?" "With the switch labelled 'on', sir".

-When troubleshooting technical difficulties, they can't be bothered to do the simplest thing, like unplugging a power cord. Instead, they insist we "send a man over" to do it (They always ask for a man, the concept of female technicians is lost on them).

[One-Fang]

They borrow the loaner laptop and bring it back in "this computer is locked" mode. If we don't notice before it's loaned out again, the next person has to bring it back in.

They don't wait 30 seconds. Seriously, if something hasn't happened yet, give it another 30 seconds before calling. You know what? Do that again. Make it 60. Half the time, it happens!

They don't bother to tell you something isn't working, so that nobody knows until the crucial must-be-done-right-now job gets to that and suddenly it matters that it isn't working and you've got 10 seconds to fix it.

[Craftstoreslave]

They leave a dirty, used diaper out on the streetlight in the parking lot.

[Jester]

--walks in with a lit cigarette or cigar and asks, "Can I smoke in here?" And then when I tell them no (state law), just stand there and look at me, with their peace pipe still smoldering.

--walks out of the emergency exit, which is marked EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY in big red and white letters, setting of a migraine-inducing alarm, and not even looking back half the time. At my old restaurant, this happened several times a DAY.

--ME: I'll be with you in just a moment. [serving another customer]
SC: I just need a Bud, three shots of tequila, a mint julep, and five Jager bombs.
ME: I'll be with you in a moment, sir. [as I am still serving another customer]

--Kids. Cheerios. Floor. 'Nuff said.

[JustaCashier]

They leave a dirty, used diaper out on the streetlight in the parking lot.

Or in the middle of a parking stall, OR cleverly balanced overhead on a fire sprinkler pipe in a Parking Garage.

The first one happened to me at one of the locations I worked at as I was doing my morning drive through to check for any messes that a broom and long handled dustpan couldn't handle. Only a minimal amount of lights were left on during off hours, so as I spotted what I thought was just a big wad of paper, or something, I hopped out of my car to grab it and toss it into a nearby garbage can. I bent down and was thisclose to touching the damn thing when I realized what it was.

The second incident, I held the long handled dust pan up to the sprinkler pipe, and gingerly worked the diaper into it with the broom, all the time hoping it didn't miss, and explode all over the floor.

[pbmods]

Ooh, ooh. And my new favorite:

They put stuff back on the shelf facing the wrong way.

I don't get this. Customers will put stuff back where it belongs (small comfort), but they will put it backwards on the shelf so that the back side is facing out.

There's gotta be some kind of basic psychology behind this because I'll sometimes catch myself doing this. I FIX IT, of course, but then I'm not a "real" customer 'cuz I work there, too.

I guess it's not enough that customers can't put stuff back where they found it; now they have to mess it up even when they do manage to find the right spot.

[XCashier]

Oh, and while I'm on a roll...do not tell me to use my imagination, either. I guar-on-tee you will not like my imagination. You have an idea of what you want, we both know it. Please share that with me and we will both save a lot of time and aggravation. Don't tell me to use my imagination, and then come back in here and complain that that's not what you had in mind.

"Well, you told me to use my imagination, so I came up with a dragon and a harpy fighting to the death over an exploding volcano, isn't it cool!...What do you mean, that's not a good image for a nursery school?"

Yes, I'm evil.

[Lace Neil Singer]

--walks in with a lit cigarette or cigar and asks, "Can I smoke in here?" And then when I tell them no (state law), just stand there and look at me, with their peace pipe still smoldering.

I remember reading here somewhere about a notice that said "If we see you smoking in here, we'll assume that you're on fire and act accordingly."

[CritterGirl]

Or my favorite little reply to that, which I read somewhere on an amusing bumper sticker website...

"Of course you can smoke. Burst into flames for all I care."

What a nice suprise it would be if somebody actually did that...

I guess I should consider my store lucky. There's enough employees who get so stressed and have to have a smoke break often enough that we actually have a cigarette drop-container right outside our front door.