Working retail

[kuda]

I have some horrible days doing returns in retail. Every once in awhile I have a guest who makes it better. Today a guest asked me if I had any stories of people just being crazy. Of course I do. During Christmas our store manager said we could not hold anything for any reason. Woman called demanding we hold an item that you use to slip under the door knob to prevent anyone from opening the door. I tried to explain that currently we were not holding anything. We had ten of the item she wanted. She then started screaming at me over the phone. Her son broke into her house so the lock on the door wouldn't lock. She had to pick up a dead dog on the road by her house to take to the vet. She didn't want to have to rush to the store to buy that item. I explained she could place an order online and pick it up or use the service where you place an order and a shopper would bring it to your home for a fee. Nope, we had to hold it for her because she was too busy to do any of those. She was what we call a special snowflake. My guest busted out laughing after hearing that. Made my day.

Comments

[debris4spike]

I worked in a shop back in the 70's/80's while I was at college. But working with the general public is something I have always done ... and can certainly be "interesting"!

[kuda]

You have the added issues of dealing with illness in your clients. Mine are just demanding,but you deal with sadness and pain. Mine just feel entitled.

[debris4spike]

Sadly true ... which does hlp me (most of the time) to keep calm

[silverusagi]

People are crazy. In my (retail adjacent) experience at holding things, half the time the people don't even come to pick it up even if it is on hold.

[kuda]

We have online orders that people place through our online service. We put a hold on their form of payment and keep the items for three days. If they don't pick up the items in three days, online cancels the order and refunds the payment. Christmas a man comes two weeks after placing an order. Of course, it was cancelled and refunded. "You've ruined my Christmas!" Nope, you were sent a reminder and a notice of cancellation. We were totally out of the products he wanted by then. Merry Christmas.