Tell us some of your nightmare stories in retail

[dionne]

ugh...i used to work at a taco bell and this guy came thru for the second time, and said his soft taco had onions when it wasn't supposed to. i DISTINCTLY remember making his food myself, becuase he had been the only one that was in the store at the particular time he came in. i was flustered when he told me and of course, as has been kfamr had mentioned, i told him we would gladly remake it. and this guy! he straight up says to me, "no you are going to remake it, AND give me my money back" i went back to being flustered and told him as politely as i could that i could not do any such thing. and he says to me, "then get me a manager, you stupid brainless little @#$%!" that was it. i replied to him (still as politely as i could, but with teeth gritted together and my face flushed), that a manager COULDN'T do it either, it was just not something we could do, but i told him for the 6th time that i'd remake it.
he CONTINUED to argue with me, and then before i knew what was going on, he had unwrapped his soft taco, hocked a giant snotty loogie into it, leaned forward and smashed it into my face, grinding it in. i rememebr the taco distinctly falling off of my face and making a huge SPLAT! as it hit the ground, and i broke out into tears. i went to the back where the manager was and she YELLED AT ME! which then resulted me running outside, and going into a massive panic attack, and then the manager fired me for the panic attack. the end.
dionne
PS...AND on top of everything else, i noticed when it was being ground into my face, that the soft taco had NO onions in it.

[kitten645]

I can't begin to imagine working any food service because you really get a cross section of peeps you really don't want to be around.
However I've worked retail for 25 years from high end dept stores to really high end specialty stores and I can assure everyone that just cause they got money don't mean they have manners!!
First few years at Macy's I had the poop in the dressing room. I had the HUGE woman returnin a small bathing suit after five years saying it fell apart! I had the crazy ass women RUNNING into a "one day sale" back when they weren't an every day occurance, RIPPING everything including the wigs off maniquines. People switching tags on designer jeans reading 14.99 like I wouldn't notice.
Then I "moved up in the world" to a super exclusive store as a buyer/executive and had women buying sets of six soaps at $25 and wanting them wrapped individually, which we couldn't/wouldn't do to avoid embarresment on reciepient, givers and our behalf when the reciepient tried to return one sixth of an item after xmas! Crazy people appearing at the gift wrap desk in Dec, three minutes after making their purchase (time is stamped on the reciept) wondering why their 15 gifts aren't ready to go! People appearing in the stock room wanting to "look around"!
I have a good friend who is a comedian and one of his jokes is, "I worked in retail for 2 days and had a revelation...the american public SUCK!" LOL
Harsh as a generalization. Unfortunately the bad ones stick with you more than the good. I always make an effort to compliment anyone who isn't on their cellphone talking to their girlfriends instead of taking my money at the register!
Kitten

[Daisy and Delilah]

I work at the local library and we get some winners in there too-believe me. Especially the smelly ones that come out of the 100 degree heat. Our library is more like a community center/homeless shelter.

However, after reading these stories, I'm standing up and cheering all of you for doing these jobs that I could never do. You're a very special group to endure such torture. dionne: I hate to say what I would have done to that guy--holy cow!! Some people are truly in need of some serious help

[critter crazy]

I spent 3 horrifying years as a department manager at a local Wal-Mart!! Wal-mart itself is great, Its the customers that suck!!! It was during the holiday season and had gone to th sporting goods dept to lend a hand at the register. A woman came over with her stuff placed it on the counte and began to check out. I was ringing up her items and there was a container of Pringles potato chips on the counter, all I did was ask if they were hers. She went nuts, saying that if they were hers she would have said so, that i needed to pay more attention ect...... all i did was say okay, sorry for asking. She once again goes nuts and is now telling me she will be throwing me into the plate glass display if i said one more thing to her!!! I couldnt believe it!! All i did was ask her if the chips were hers, and now she is threatening my life!!!!! upper management came over and escorted the woman out of the store, they came back and said I needed to go home, but they would have someone drive me because she had made numerous threats on my life, while being escorted out of the store! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE??????

[moosmom]

Kfamr,

You know the old saying about the customer always being right. Sucks sometimes.

I'm lucky in that BB&B has a "Pass The Buck" policy. Anytime, no matter what the issue is, there is a problem with a customer or whatever, we are encouraged to pass the buck to management. Makes my job a whole lot easier.

Dionne,

As far as the taco in the face goes, I would've called the cops and pressed charged. No one, and I mean NO ONE has the right to put their hands on you, let alone do what they did. That is considered assault and is punishable by law.

[Roxyluvsme13]

I spent 3 horrifying years as a department manager at a local Wal-Mart!! Wal-mart itself is great, Its the customers that suck!!! It was during the holiday season and had gone to th sporting goods dept to lend a hand at the register. A woman came over with her stuff placed it on the counte and began to check out. I was ringing up her items and there was a container of Pringles potato chips on the counter, all I did was ask if they were hers. She went nuts, saying that if they were hers she would have said so, that i needed to pay more attention ect...... all i did was say okay, sorry for asking. She once again goes nuts and is now telling me she will be throwing me into the plate glass display if i said one more thing to her!!! I couldnt believe it!! All i did was ask her if the chips were hers, and now she is threatening my life!!!!! upper management came over and escorted the woman out of the store, they came back and said I needed to go home, but they would have someone drive me because she had made numerous threats on my life, while being escorted out of the store! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE??????

[dionne]

i think what is wrong with most people is that they are angry at the world....i'd get into bad childhoods, etc. but that'd be more better off for my psych class, lol. no what i think it is, is most people are angry and they feel better if they take it out on someone they DON'T know, i.e. fast food people/retail. then i guess they can go on with their day, and pretend it never happened, yet feel yet a little bit better because they think they succeeded in making someone, however impossible that would be, more miserable than themselves. i would have to say the instance at taco bell with me, the guy defintely succeeded in doing so .....i guess they just think that if they're in a big enough city, HA! like they'll ever see the same person again. but then again, i guess now i have more patience with fast food people, if they mess up on my oder. i would defintely never DREAM of being as rude to someone as that guy was to me.

[Maresche]

I used to work at a bookstore in a fairly large stripmall. We had a children's section and often parents would leave their child there while they browsed in other sections of the store OR other stores in the mall

Once, as we were closing at 6 on Sunday, there was a child left in that section after most of the other customers had left. He didn't know where his mom was and she wasn't in the store. It got to be well after 6 and we called the cops thinking he had been abandoned. Mom comes back around 7:30 demanding to know why we had called the cops and why we were closing early.

I don't know what happened after that from a legal standpoint, but I was told the office made a report.

[moosmom]

I don't know what is wrong with some parents these days. They think that retails stores are comparable to day care. Maresche, I'm glad you called the cops. I would've done the same thing.