Customer Service Thread

So, sometime last month I think, last time there was a big amount of snow at least, a lady came up to the walk up window at like 7am asking if she could use our phone (we don't have a lobby or a dining area, we just have a walk up window and a drive thru), she says it's an emergency and her cell is dead, something about needing to call work. We're not supposed to let customers use the store phone, but there's plenty of snow and I had seen her cross the rather wide road to get over here, so I think hey she's having car trouble due to the weather and maybe she's stuck? We make an exception and let her use the phone. She calls two people, I think the first was to get the number she actually needed to call? Anyway, she has the phone for like 5 minutes (a very long time for me to make sure I am in that area to keep an eye on her/the phone. It doesn't sound like it's actually an emergency but I also wasn't paying attention so whatever.

Yesterday, this same lady came back asking to use the phone to call her work because her phone is dead, again it's around 7am. Yesterday it was cold but sunny, no snow, and I saw her car in the parking lot. I told her we aren't supposed to let customers use the store phone (I didn't say this, but also that day my manager was going to be using the phone to get a machine fixed) and I can't let her use it.

As you might guess, she wasn't happy about this. She acted like she couldn't grasp that "store phone = Not For Customers" and looked so hurt. The way she was acting I was actually surprised she didn't ask to use my personal cell phone, it was that kind of entitlement.

Once it was clear her sad bird noises weren't going to work, she walked off saying something to the effect of "this isn't a good way to treat your customers!"

I closed the window as she was out of earshot and muttered, "Well you're not a customer anyway, so buzz off."



I mentioned this to my manager later and apparently this lady has come by several times before and been told no.

In summary: Get a car charger, dumbass.

 

I customer today spent his entire visit aggressively hitting on me. He asked for my phone number, asked if I wanted a sugar daddy, invited me to come back to the fitting room with him, the whole nine. He also told a couple of pretty racist jokes, definitely not the worst I've heard, but still not ok. I'm still angry about it, especially because just like every time this shit happens I was completely at a loss.

On the positive side, his behavior finally spurred my boss to call a managers meeting to draw up an action plan for dealing with inappropriate customers so that we can all present a unified front. Corporate is very much a fan of "the customer's always right" and wants us to put up with this kind of thing, but we've all decided we can't let that dictate policy for us as a store. We don't get paid enough to put up with this nonsense.

 

Wow, that's creepy and shitty. I'm sorry that happened, but I'm glad your boss has your back in the future.

 

I was really impressed by how horrified he was. He's pretty young and has mostly worked with cis dudes, so I think the realities of The Retail Experience for people who are perceived as female are just now starting to dawn on him.

He was also really good about getting me business cards with my preferred name instead of my birth name on them, and had a very respectful pronouns discussion with me the first day I worked with him. I'm pretty lucky, even if upper management is... less good.

 

I have been intermittently helping out with our Credit Bureau Reporting department lately because they are so behind. There is no direct contact with the customers, but I end up reading a lot of indignant form letters, so I figure it still "counts" for this thread

Tips for anyone sending in a dispute for things on their credit report:

• Repeatedly yelling "not mine!!" does not work. If all the personal info matches yours, we will tell the bureau that.
• So you included a police report to back up the "not mine!!" That's great! However, if I read it and the description of the complaint is that you did not receive the items you ordered from [Company] I will laugh at you and not even send it to the Fraud department.
• On the subject of not contradicting yourself, saying you were never late, and then later saying you have "no knowledge" of the account doesn't look good.
  
• I understand that trying to write a letter on your own for something like this is intimidating. I don't have any issues with form letters as a thing. Heck, I've used them myself for many issues. Please, just make sure when you fill in the blanks you are putting things in the correct section. When I see people using the fact that a listed bankruptcy does not have an account number as proof that info is incomplete and needs to be removed, I tend to assume you just plugged each creditor into a randomly chosen complaint.
• If you have sent in the complaint multiple times and the response continues to be that it is valid info, just contact us. We will let you know what you need to do to prove it was fraud. Really. We'd rather do that than have to respond to 3 disputes a month for however long you keep trying.
• Please be specific about what is wrong. "Information is incorrect" is about as helpful as telling someone that your computer "doesn't work."
• Before claiming something should be removed because the account is closed/2 years old/etc, check the actual rules for how long things stay on the reports.
• Equifax tends to round dates down to the nearest month. This is not our fault, so please stop complaining that the dates are wrong. Yell at them if you feel the need.
  
• Honestly, I could complain about choices in form letters for hours, but I doubt anyone really want to hear about how annoying some of the things are.

 

So, uh... I had a customer the other day that was so out of line that the next two customers apologized to me for me having to deal with that? And I kinda temporarily shut down.

Anyways, our checkout line you're supposed to go snake around where they have the candy and shit. But there's also a clear cut to register one. That clear cut is supposed to be for handicapped people or people who aren't getting anything and just need to the exit. It's not marked, but it's not hard to comprehend, you know? But sometimes people go there on accident and if there's no line, we'll take them. If there is a line, you just point out to them where the line is so they can go join it. Anyways, this lady is in the wrong spot and I'm just "Uh, ma'am? The line is that way" and then she starts going off on me. Well she's been waiting here already and there's someone else behind her (so she's justified I guess) and our store is messy and poorly laid out and do you think I'm stupid? Don't talk to me like you think I'm stupid! (well now I think you're stupid since you seem to have a complex about it and are unable to admit you goofed...) But yeah, I didn't have a shitty tone or anything, just the typical "this is awkward, please go to the back of that line" standard bullshit. Anyways, she just is going off on me and I check out her shit since she's being so aggressive and came up to the desk to bitch at me instead of going to the line. I'm just kinda shut down at this point and not responding while she berates me. Then she pays for her stuff and starts storming off and her receipt hasn't printed yet so I call after her "uh, do you want your receipt?" and she literally tells me to shove it. I just... quietly throw the receipt in the trash and call the next person up.

The person behind her in the not regular line? I was giving her a pass because she was carrying a baby under 3 months old. Like fuck, I'll check you out from the handicap lane because you're carrying a tiny babu against your chest. Then the next person from the regular line? An old lady using the electric scooter our store has for customers with mobility problems. So yeah, even though she knows she can use the priority lane, this old lady snakes through the regular line instead of cutting off other people. And she was fine with the lady with the baby going first. And both of these people tell me how sorry they are about that first lady's behavior. At least since they were nice to me I could start coming out of shut down mode...

 

Yesterday I had a lady tell me I shouldn't refer to anything but God as awesome?
Glad there was a line so she didn't stick around at my register for too long.

 

Capitalism is bullshit and it's making my job more annoying.

 

Customer, we asked for black and white lineart, you sent me a 50x50 full color jpg with nigh-invisible outlines and more artifacts than the entire run of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff. No, I can't just "edit it to outlines" so it won't look like shit on your glass thing, that's not how Photoshop works, that's not how ANY of this works.

 

Tfw a couple shops through the store together, comes up to the counter together, use the same rewards card, share coupons, but do separate transactions to get around the "limit X of this coupon per household" limit. Like. Guys. I don't care if you say you're from separate households. I know you're lying to me. I just can't do anything about it. If you're gonna try to scam us, be more subtle about it.

 

that awkward moment when the customer-supplied verbiage is so hecked up grammar-wise you can't even tell what the hell they were trying to say, much less figure out how to unheck it IF they'll let you (which half the time they won't), so you end up running a plaque covered in word salad

[EDIT: mfw I fix one single solitary REALLY obvious spelling error and the customer yells at me to do it exactly the way they wrote it

]

 

The one day I'm scheduled extra prep time is naturally the one day night crew actually did their fucking jobs so I don't need the extra prep time :|

 

One of the closers keeps not taking the trash out at night. This has happened 3 or 4 times now. I am wondering if the manager has actually spoken to her about it at this point, because it's ridiculous.

Also, I got called into work early yesterday morning without knowing why. Turns out my manager had to go to another (bigger) store because their manager called out sick. I got to our store and the guy she sent over to cover (she was the only one working at the time) is completely unfamiliar with our store and there's a line 4 cars deep. It was crazy. Also, the guy was as dumb as a brick and did not understand the concept of sweeping the whole store. Yes, the whole store, the whole thing, all of the dirt, oh fuck it just give me the broom. I can't mop until the floor has been swept, and I kept thinking he would finish sweeping, but no. I practically worked the whole shift myself. He was pleasant with the customers, though, which was nice???

 

Coworker takes order and then goes on vacation, customer suddenly decides he wants it early if possible, manager obliges him because we're finally ahead of schedule for the first time since Xmas.

Open up the art to frame it and it's old as balls. Like some official handwritten document literally dated *1698*. I'm p sure it's real and my other coworker is like "why did [coworker 1] say we could mount this with tape!?" And manager is like "hell no were not doing that."

She calls the customer and apparently he tells her that it's not insured and he's never had it appraised and he's "pretty sure it has no real value". Meanwhile I can feel my historian brother spontaneously breaking out in hives an entire state away.

...so we're putting tape on the back, apparently, since there's no other way for us to mount it on mat board??? My soul hurts.



I'm p sure the History Police are going to come arrest us all at any moment.

 

Did you like. Scan it first, to preserve it?

 

We don't have any ability to do that. We're just a framing department in a craft store.

Also I think it's some kind of...contract or trade agreement? It's got wax seals hanging off parchment strips at the bottom so it can't really be put behind a mat traditionally. It's hard to describe.

Basically, if the customer owns the piece and that's what they want, we have to do it. At least our glass has UV filtering...

 

The closer didn't take out the trash... again...

My assistant manager got bitched out by a customer today... Normally shes civil with unreasonable customers and then vents to us later, but this really affected her. She got all quiet for a while and was just kind of down. I know it's been a really stressful week for her and stuff...


Would it be weird to get her a card? I was thinking like a sympathy/support card or a blank card & writing "when life gives you lemons, throw them at bitchy customers" (the customer in question was complaining about lemons... why do we attract lemon flameouts?!) It would be like a dollar store card, nothing fancy.


Would that be weird?

 

I think that would be fine.

 

Customer: We have some artwork we want on our awards. It has to be this exact image and it has to fill the entire bottom of the piece. [about 4" wide]

Me: OK, just send the biggest, clearest image you have, preferably grayscale.

Customer: *sends this exact thing at this exact resolution:*



Me: ...*goes to liquor store next door, drinks it*

[upd8: ahahahahaha shit it gets better. Just out of curiosity I reverse image searched that. IT IS LITERALLY THE AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS LOGO. I'm not going to divulge the name of the company that placed this order but I CAN tell y'all that it was most definitely not American Eagle Outfitters, nor any parent or subsidiary thereof. They're getting clipart of an eagle in a similar pose and if they complain they're getting the "why we can't just use any old art we find on the Intarwebs [spoiler: because we don't want to get fucking sued]" talk.]

 

It says coupon pricing will be applied at checkout. It says it right there, on the screen.