Customer Service Thread

I asked a manager and it turns out they wash great off of tile/tub, not so great off grout.

 

When I'm the manager on duty but because I'm read as female customers are checking what I tell them with my less senior male coworkers :/

 

hey random man who ordered a book from us that I distinctly remember packing and sending, are you seriously demanding a refund because the book hasn't turned up after eight days? Eight December days?

 

Ha. so this is going to be a fun couple months at work. we just had a shift lead quit. shortly after that, another shift lead quit. We have a one of our two managers who's looking for another job. Another shift lead is thinking about quitting.
Which would bring us down to one shift lead, one manager, and three other employees.

 

least favourite part of work: when the boss insist that we, the lab, have to fix the fuckups of doctors, nurses and out of house people because 'it's our job' like it's not these other people's jobs to actually listen to what we say, or read the manual.

 

Related to earlier post, because i'm still salty: when the doc calls and i tell him we need the written consent form of the patient for a DNA testing thing and he bring me a written consent form, properly signed, i did naturally assume that it was the right one, smacked a barcode onto it so that it was 100% connectable to the patient and send it to HQ.
turns out today that it wasn't the right form and the HQ lab people apparently just saw that, wrote down 'consent form missing' and didn't like call us or anything. And this is somehow my fault now because i hadn't divined that this wasn't the correct written consent form that i had asked the doctor for. URGH.

 

i work at a liquor store and middle aged women love telling me about how little they drink or how healthy their relationship to alcohol is and its the weirdest shit
oh its not for me! its just a gift!
i dont want a lot, its just for a recipe!
i dont drink!
this bottle will last me all year!

i had this one woman who went on this long ramble about how her and her family drank from childhood but just in moderation and it was healthy because all of them have a healthy relationship to alcohol and none of them are alcoholics and really it was healthy and she just wants to find this random liqueur so she can mix up tje cocktail of her childhood

 

so i work at my friend's bakery rn which means our Retail Hell Season hasn't been quite as bad as when i worked at jc penney last year, but good fucking christ am i tired of entitled middle aged white ladies acting like i personally murdered their children because we ran out of a certain kind of bread or whatever. like i just went into the back and ate it all real quick to spite them. lady, it's december, and we have upwards of 20 gift basket orders a day, like we're gonna run out of some shit eventually. you can call and place an order? oh, oh no, you're just gonna keep yelling at me about it, okay, that's cool, that is definitely a productive solution to this problem. (thankfully i wasn't on register as much today, but i felt so bad for my coworker who was getting absolutely shat on by everyone who came in this morning. we had to summon our Token White Guy at one point to get one lady to finally shut up.)

also, ALSO, our store policy is if you want more than 4 of any one kind of bread/sweet you have to call and place an order, so we can actually... have enough??? to sell to people??? and you would not believe how many grown ass adults throw fucking baby tantrums over this fact. i had one lady (who was apparently a regular and has done this before) try and buy like 12 cookies, and i was like... no. and she was all huffy about it while i was ringing up four cookies for her, so i pull on my customer service voice like "yeah, i'm sorry for the inconvenience!! but you know, you can always call ahead and place an order so we can make sure to bake enough for you," and she just glares at me and goes, "i'm from out of town, so that would be a long distance call." and i'm like...okay... and then i take her phone number for our rewards and of course it's a local phone number, and she just looks at me and goes, "well that's my cell phone!!" and i'm just like... lady... you don't actually have to lie, i don't give a fuck, but i'm still not giving you 12 cookies.

people, man.

 

I worked at a bakery one december. Oh man, the entitled old ladies. Also, who the hell uses checks anymore? My favorite, tho. My favorite customer was one man one day who ordered one thing, and then i said "can i get you anything else today?" You know, like youre required to do when you work retail. He said yes and ordered one more single thing. Repeat this exact exchange five times before i changed up the script and asked "will that be all?" Yes, that would be all, and he slammed his money down on the counter and left in a fucking huff as if him taking half a bloody hour to order six things was my fault somehow.

 

Wtf.

I had s customer earlier today who said she had called in a refill for her prescription on our automated system, but when I checked I didn’t see a record of us doing anything with the prescription since August. I explained this to her and she was upset, but she also thought I was saying the doctor hadn’t authorized refills for her medication. Which isn’t what I said, and also wasn’t true. I explained again, it has refills, her request just hadn’t gone through for some reason. She then got upset because she was going to have to go another week without her medication. I’m like ma’am. Ma’am we can have this ready in fifteen minutes. She said she can’t wait fifteen minutes, she’s very upset about this, this is the pharmacy she has to use with her insurance, etc. and I’m like ma’am, I’m sorry, repeatedly, we can have this ready in ten minutes. And she leaves, upset that she has to go a week without her medication.

I hadn’t even worked on the day she said she called in the refill. And fifteen minutes wasn’t good enough. And an old lady is going without her medication and it’s my fault. And that’s how my Monday started.

 

that's not your fault. 15 minutes is not unreasonable, she could have absolutely gotten her medication that day and not had to wait a week. you offered to expedite the process, even! you tried really hard to rectify the situation for her.

it sounds like she was more interested in being wronged and having something to complain about than getting the medication. whatever the case, it's not your fault.

 

I don’t think you understand, it’s my fault because it’s my fault and I said so.

Mental issues are... not fun.

But thank you, I know you’re right and I appreciate it.

 

When I'm the manager on duty and customers turn to one of my cis dude coworkers to confirm the things I tell them :|

Like dude that guy is a part time seasonal sales assistant, not a secret manager, fuck directly off

 

Had a customer yell at me over the phone because she bought watercolor paper from us and was angry that we don't sell frames in that exact size. I mean i absolutely have control over what 2 different manufacturing companies do, you're right, lady.

 

This seems to be an ongoing problem. Question- do you have something about your uniform that indicates you’re a manager?

 

No, we just wear business professional, no nametags or other markers. They're just assuming that I'm the more junior employee based on percieved gender and sometimes age. I try and be the most formally dressed one there when I'm going to be in charge which helps a little but not completely.

The worst is when I tell them I'm the manager on duty and they do it anyway, which is what happened this time. It was actually pretty funny because my coworker was like "I'm not sure, you'd have to ask seth" and the customer made a sour face.

 

I think part of the problem is that it's a very conservative business in the old money part of town. I know of at least two customers that changed stores to avoid me and my obvious queerness. (joke's on them, I've worked at every store and there is no escape)

edit: spelling

 

Okay, in that case the customers are just jerks. Sadly I don’t have a way to help with that. Unless you have rights to kick them out of the store or something. Having the other employees refer customers back to you is a start but not a solution if they’re doing this even when they already know you’re the manager.

 

yeah it's just one of those things that I can't do anything about but grin and bear it unfortunately