Workplace Retail Hell - Stories of current and former retail employees

#16
Six year of retail in college...and every year was hell. We caught two teenagers have sex in a fitting room. The parents showed up and wanted me and another SA to be placed under arrest because we walked in on their kids. The fact that they were HAVING SEX IN A FITTING ROOM just didn't seem to be a concern at the time.

I always worked in the home departments with the china, bedding, etc. At one store, my department was right next to the children's dept. The manager there was always on my butt about keeping my area clean. It really ticked me off because I was constantly dusting and ironing the bed displays to keep them looking nice. One day, I left a broom next to a bed while I was helping a customer. She walked up and yelled at me (in front of many customers), "What is this broom doing here? Why did you leave it here?" I couldn't help myself and responded, "Oh, I though that was what you rode in on this morning." She picked up the broom and walked off with it. Another SA said she saw the manager crying in the bathroom a few minutes later. Oh well...don't dish it out if you can't take it.

The holidays were always hell. One year, the store manager wanted us to put out pre-wrapped gifts. I volunteered to do the first round of wrapping, which took almost five hours. I put all the gifts out and went back to the sales floor. A couple hours later, a woman comes in with her three kids, who proceed to play "Xmas day" by unwrapping an entire stack of gifts. I was furious. The woman was smiling and saying how cute it was. I wanted to slap her.
 
#17
I used to work for May Company (long before they were even Kaufman's, much less Macy's) in college. I was a floater, so sometimes I was in women's bridge, where the majority of the swimsuits were kept. Any guesses as to how many blood stained swimsuits I would find in the fitting room? I'm sympathetic to accidents; I really am. But seriously, if you thought you were any where NEAR "that time", would you be trying on swimsuits??????

I also used to work for the Limited. Way back when, return policies were MUCH more lenient--I had people that would literally purchase every item from the new season, then bring it all back at the end of the season when everything was marked down, and DEMAND price adjustments. Oh, and once--this total b*tch came in, first thing on Sunday morning to my store (which was a very low volume store, we had a really high volume store at another mall about 20 minutes away) with a HUGE return from the other, high volume store....and wanted cash. I explained that if I gave her cash, she would clean out my entire register funds and I would have a hard time making change for other customers....I offered a mdse credit if she wanted to come back later and exchange it for cash (when I had more money in the drawer)...I practically begged her for any other option...and that battleaxe insisted on cleaning out my drawer. Another Limited experience....once we had to call security because this woman started beating the sh*t out of her toddler in the fitting room. She had picked him up by one arm and was literally smacking him repeatedly, hard. She knew what was going on and left the store by the time security arrived.

No wonder I'm so bitter. :smile:
 
#19
I've definitely found dirty diapers and used tampons in the fitting rooms :sad: ugh

The holidays are the WORST - people SCREAM at you if you run out of boxes or bags - it's insanity...

There's also the women who try on the sheer shirts with nothing underneath and come out and talk to you with their boobs showing. I'm no prude, but if I'm going to be at a peep show, I'd like to have at least a martini in my hand.
 
#20
Gimmethebag said:
I once had a local STL "celebrity" yell at me because he confused me and my co-worker. I'm in my 20s with long red hair and my co-worker is in her 40s with short dark hair. He was screaming and accusing us of not hemming his pants. We used an original hem. But even if you couldn't "tell" that they were hemmed, um... if they were 4" too long before and then fit perfectly, then guess what... they've obviously been hemmed.

Another "celebrity" famous for her book being featured on Oprah, was also another piece of work. We already made an exception for her and agreed to return pants that she already worn to exchange for a smaller size because she didn't take the advice from the sales staff in the first place. We didn't have the smaller size and so we had to transfer it in even from another store. The SA helping her originally said it would by at least Friday. She came in FIRST thing Friday morning and was 1. rude that we asked her who she was 2. if she had already received a courtesy call that the item was physically in store. Then she started yelling that the pants needed to be here because it's FRIDAY. We firmly told her that we JUST opened and that UPS did not make its Friday delivery yet (very true). So the pants DID come that day, we gave her a courtesy call and the pants stayed on hold for like five days before she came to pick them up. Very rude.

On the positive stories, just yesterday I had a really effin' cute professional trumpet player come in, we chatted about music and he offered me free tickets to the symphony whenever I want to go. I get a lot of offers for free tickets/open bar parties so it's a pretty good work perk!
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Can I have your job?? :biggrin:

Where do you work?? any hints?? :graucho:
 
#21
i worked back in college at the United Colors of Bennetton.

This one woman wanted a nice suit for work. She was sooo nice and everything. Huge purchase. A week later she came back with her husband. He was making her refund everything and they were even fighting in the store at the register!! (I was handling the return). I felt so bad for her. He was saying "what is more important? a down payment on a house or buying this stupid suit? Return it now and lets go!!"

I felt so bad for her.

There was also this other customer who was with a friend being so rude and pompous. Making the other SA's and myself run and get her different sizes (are stock room was on the third floor). Her friend even said "there is nothing in this store but cheap clothing, lets get out of here and head over to CHANEL".

Well when it was time to purchase the item (notice that it was only one while the dressing room looked like Filene's basement), her card was declined 3 times. She had to call the bank and they wouldn't budge. She had to put the items on hold and come back to go to her bank or something. We never saw her again.
 
#22
I worked in retail hell for 7 years... I worked at an antique mall...which really brought the crazies in. I've been gone from there since february so now i think i've completely pushed all those crazies to the back of my mind. but there were always those customers that when you saw them walk through the door you would cringe.

one lady in particular.... she would always bring up items... and then go back and shop (we kept items up front for customers so their hands weren't full as they shopped) - well when she was ready to check out she would have to check over all her stuff (which is usual) and then on EVERY SINGLE ITEM she would argue with me about the price "I could have sworn it said this price when i picked it up...." as if i freaking changed the price on all all the tags as she was out shopping.. what a nut ball... I argued with her all the time (as nicely as i could). thankfully she only came in once in awhile but she was memorable!
 
#23
Jahpson said:
Well when it was time to purchase the item (notice that it was only one while the dressing room looked like Filene's basement), her card was declined 3 times. She had to call the bank and they wouldn't budge. She had to put the items on hold and come back to go to her bank or something. We never saw her again.
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this reminded me of a time when a customer took out a HUGE stack of credit cards and handed me one and said "let's try this one first" :wtf:
 
#25
ILuvShopping said:
I worked in retail hell for 7 years... I worked at an antique mall...which really brought the crazies in. I've been gone from there since february so now i think i've completely pushed all those crazies to the back of my mind. but there were always those customers that when you saw them walk through the door you would cringe.

one lady in particular.... she would always bring up items... and then go back and shop (we kept items up front for customers so their hands weren't full as they shopped) - well when she was ready to check out she would have to check over all her stuff (which is usual) and then on EVERY SINGLE ITEM she would argue with me about the price "I could have sworn it said this price when i picked it up...." as if i freaking changed the price on all all the tags as she was out shopping.. what a nut ball... I argued with her all the time (as nicely as i could). thankfully she only came in once in awhile but she was memorable!
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People like that are con-artists I swear. They will argue with you all day. They would flock toward me because I would just give in but after I got in trouble I would let someone else handle the sale.
 
#26
Oh! This is funny!

At a store I worked at in Chicago, a famous HGTV star (Monica Petersen) came in. We had two normal cashiers and then I was working as a personal shopper, specifically helping the BIG spenders. So I could hop onto a register so that way my client buying a million things wouldn't have to wait.

I had a client that was buying a mountain of clothing. I hopped onto the third register to help her, when this HGTV star budges in because she needs someone to ring 19 identical candle votives on clearance at $1.95. I thought I could just ring one and then just type into the computer "19" and then quickly get my client that was buying $5k worth of stuff. NO... HGTV star demanded EACH votive be specially wrapped in a box, tissue paper and bow. She was doing her Christmas shopping on the cheap and couldn't be bothered to box it herself.

I told her no, as I was NOT stationed to gift wrap and that I needed to finish up with one of my VIP clients. She smugly turned to her friend with her and said, "Oh, SHE doesn't gift wrap."

The moment she left, my client started talking about what a smug, annoying joke she was and thanked me for helping her throughout her shopping experience.
 
#27
I used to work at Accessorize (we went bankrupt in Canada, so I can be open :P).

We used to sell leggings/tights, and our return policy (like any other place that sells tights) was no returns for them, of course for hygienic reasons. This girl comes in with her boyfriend and is looking at the tights, so I go over and ask if they need help. She points to a pair with ties and asks if the ties are on the side or the back. I said they should be on the side, because they appear on the side in the package. The girl appears to FLIP OUT at me and start yelling because she bought a pair the other day and the tie is in the BACK and we obviously don't know our products and we shouldn't be selling things we don't know about. So of course, she asks for a refund. I tell her the return policy, and so her boyfriend ALSO joins in and I'm standing in the store alone with these two people yelling at me over a $15 pair of tights. They said nobody told them the return policy, which I apologized for (we were training a couple of new girls who forgot to tell them) but it's CLEARLY on the bottom of the receipt. All the other customers left because they were yelling so much. I told them to come back in a half hour, because technically only keyholders know how to do returns (of course I knew how, but for "questionable" returns someone has to OK it) and the keyholder was on break. They were SO pissed they'd have to come back and refused to leave without a refund. So I said I would, and immediately they stopped yelling and became so sweet and thankful of me being so helpful/accommodating. WTF?!
 
#29
Jahpson said:
People like that are con-artists I swear. They will argue with you all day. They would flock toward me because I would just give in but after I got in trouble I would let someone else handle the sale.
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at my job there was NO way i could get people something for a price they wanted. (unless it was a huge dollar amount i could call the owner/vendor and place an offer) We were an antique mall that had over 400 vendors and they all priced their stuff on their own. we just rang up the items. Sometimes that was a good thing because the people who thought they could get a $50 item for $2 you could practically laugh in their face (although i would never do that) but sometimes you'd get the most awful customers that would argue with you on prices and act like you owed them that special price when there was nothing you could do!

i am so glad to be out of the place... not only did we have to deal with crazy customers... but crazy vendors as well. since they were renting spaces in our mall they thought we owed them the WORLD. ugh.

my story about retail hygiene - we didnt' have dressing rooms, but we had public bathrooms. many times employees would go back to clean the restrooms (as we did every night) and sometimes people got surprised by brown walls and stuff all over the toliet and floor. one time i was in there cleaning and a lady was in the handicap stall and i could tell she was having a bit of a rough time... it looks like she wasn't wear any pants and her shoes were off (could only see from ankle down). so i decided to give her some space and went back up front for awhile. when i came back in after i knew she had left the restroom the stall was a mess... it appeared as if she tried to clean some of it up herself so stuff was smeared... and her socks and other items were in the trash. sometimes you just have to feel bad for people that have to go through something like that in a public area.

another one...we had this guy come in one night and he was coughing and hacking and looked miserable... he'd go back and forth to the bathrooms (our store was pretty large) and he even told us he wasn't feeling too well. I believe he told one of the employees that he had thrown up in the restroom. and then at one point he ended up taking the WHOLE roll of paper towels that we had in this little seating area for customers and carried it around with him hacking and coughing and possibly puking.... I did not know what to do... thankfully he said he started to feel REALLY terrible and said he had to leave. good bye!!! i think someone went around and started disinfecting everything we thought he had touched.
 
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#30
Yeah.....we also had customers at May Company who would stash stuff on the 75% off clearance rack, show us and say, "Well it's here, you HAVE to give it to me at that price"....an amazing amount of senior citizens used to do that......sigh.......
 
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