Rant: Holiday Customers

jimmyneyugn

jimmyneyugn

ohai.
O.G.
Feb 6, 2006
3,011
61
#1
Goodness I just have to get this off my chest.. Disclaimer: "You" is in reference to the general customer.. mainly the ones that enter my store. "We", "Us", "I" are in reference to myself and sales associates.

Now it's about 3 full days of shopping left before the big day, and everyone is freaking out and buying like crazy. My store is running out of stock on key gift items, and overstocked on little non-dominant items that still make great (especially last minute) gifts.

However, that's not good enough for our customers.. I'm getting pretty good at saying, "No." "Sorry." "Out of stock." "Sold out." and "Sold out completely in Southern California. Try the website."

Of course.. that's perfectly unacceptable to customers.. but customers could be a little more forgiving.. don't get mad at us for your procrastination.. don't yell at us because you waited til the last minute.. don't say, "you're SUPPOSED to have it in stock!!" because WE DID UNTIL PEOPLE BOUGHT THEM ALL... don't demand us to look again, when we tell you, "No, sold completely out." Don't look at us like we're the idiot, when we tell you there are no more.. don't look at us like we're stupid when you're the one that doesn't comprehend the words, "SOLD OUT".

i'm so sooooo over the customers getting pissy and pmsy at me.. ladies are actually very forgiving.. but the guys.. omggggggggggggg.. can i b!tchslap you? you're such a turd for A) waiting until the last 3-4 days to find something decent, B) expecting the mall to have things in stock 3-4 days before Xmas, C) expecting the mall to look and act like Home Depot. We don't keep this stuff all year long, and we all have plans to get rid of it BEFORE XMAS. If it's gone, it's gone! Stop asking for more!

For our store, we've stopped recieving shipment of holiday items last Monday.. everything coming in has been bath towels, textiles, bedding, and more bath.. in preparation for our bath sale event.. I personally, would rather make everything Spring already if I could! And in fact, it will be Spring by the time January 2nd rolls around.. that's our deadline for our Spring set..

For the love of holiday gods.. customers should BY NOW.. know that if you're out shopping last minute, you better have gift A, substitute B, substitute C, and substitute D, and lastly, last resort gift E all in your head or on a piece of paper.. I helped a customer earlier today (Wednesday), and she had a list with pictures of our products, and I kept saying, "No Sorry, Sold Out." on her list for one gift.. and we went through about 6 alternatives until we concluded on a hurricane candleholder set. SIX! That's smart shopping, albeit cutting it WAY too close.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.. that felt good to let it all out.
 
#2
ITA with you!!
I worked retail while I was going to university and I absolutely dreaded working around christmas. I couldn't believe how many times I had to politely put customers in their place for being rude to me just because they left shopping to the very last day.

I work at a store that sold accessories for kids and teenagers so just to list a few this is what I got:
- "what do you mean they don't come with a certificate of authenticity..it should"...sorry sir they're CZ studs they don't come with authenticity certificates
- lady to daughter (in spanish..I don't look like a spanish speaking person so people assume that they can say whatever in front of others) "see sweetie this is why stupid people get stuck in jobs like these because they have no expectations and drop out of school, she's probably hiding the stuff in the back"; my reply in spanish "excuse me I speak spanish and I heard everything you said, unfortunately you have given a very poor example to your daughter judging people for their job, I will be graduating in two years from univeristy with a bachelor's of engineering, also please let me remind you that Toronto is known for being the most multicultural city in the world, so you are not the only spanish speaking person here." She just mumbled sorry and literally ran out of the store, her daughter came back to apologize the next day.
 
#3
i know that your description is how it is at most stores, particularly in and around large cities, but i've been really pleasantly surprised with our customers this holiday season. i work at best buy in a college town - we serve mainly a rural population, although the town itself has about 100,000 people, plus the school community - the surrounding area is full of small-town, country people. we, circuit city, and walmart are basically their only choices for electronics.

the store, of course, has been ungodly busy in the past weeks, particularly the past few days, but people have been so appreciative of the help we're able to give them and so understanding about us being out of stock on things, having to wait to ask questions or check out, etc. i have not been yelled at, cussed at, had eyes rolled at me, anything. mostly, people are just so happy if you can find them a CD that's been misplaced or help them pick some nonviolent videogames for their little grandkids. i've been hugged by customers. sure there are people that aren't that friendly, but by and large, people have been great. when i was hired at the store, our then-GM told us that it was a lot different than working retail in Atlanta because the quality of character in the customers was such that if you gave them too much change, they would come back and return the extra money, and he was right. so even though it hasn't been fun, because christmas at a retail store never is, i've been pleasantly surprised with how warm and fuzzy the customers make me feel for just doing my job.
 
#4
Phwww......man! That sounds frustrating! Glad you got it off your chest. Hopefully, it can only get better for you now. It certainly sounds like it couldn't get any worse, that's for sure.
 
#5
Let it all out !! :smile: I know how frustrating it can be, and customers have no right to act that way! Being *****y or demanding will not change the fact that you are out of stock! I hope that the rest of your holidays get much better!
 
#6
ROFL Poor thing! I start shopping for Christmas gifts pretty much December 26th every year. :smile: I'm just obsessive that way. I don't think I need to buy one thing...oh yes, one thing...a gift card. But thanks to Safeway I can just get one when I go grocery shopping.

You are totally correct that these guys should have started earlier and they have NO right to treat you and your staff poorly. It's so hard to plan for inventory ahead of time. What will be popular and what won't? Keep your chin up! It's almost over. :smile:
 
#7
I agree with you...people who wait till the last minute are deserving of finding their items "sold out". My husband sent me to Target LAST WEEK to get a digital camera. It was the first day it was on sale & I went to 3 Targets in our area. All sold out. It was a chaotic madhouse. I told him I'm not going near a shopping establishment till the holidays are completely over. And I wanted to kill him for sending me into that mess! LOL Mind you, I've been done with my Christmas shopping for over a month. Next time he's on his own!

I had to laugh at your "You're such a turd...":roflmfao:
 
#9
I admit I like to shop the sales on Black Friday with my mom, but I try to avoid the mall once it gets really close to x-mas. I had an interview this morning across the street from the mall, and I didn't even pop in afterwards for 10 minutes!

However, I do have one issue with the "sold out" thing. My school bookstore only has one law school sweatshirt design, so when I saw some friends wearing them during orientation I stopped by to get one. I was told they were sold out, and that the bookstore wouldn't be getting more in for 4 months. OK, I thanked the SA and left. Fastforward 3-4 weeks, and more of my friends are rockin' their new sweatshirts. Apparently the bookstore *did* get more stock, so I go back. Sold out again. Are you getting any more? End of January. Fine. I asked for the guy to check with the manager and he too said January. I left my name and asked them to call me if they got any in early. OK, thank you.

First week of December one of my friends walks in with a different new sweatshirt, and I mentioned how I was frustrated that the bookstore isn't getting any more law school sweatshirts until the next semester. She looked at me like I was crazy and said they had a whole bunch in stock the day before! I went over right after our review session and - wow! S-XL in both colors, so I bought one of each. (Ended having to return one because it was cut incorrectly, and they were already all sold out again when I brought it back 4 days later). Nobody ever called me.

I have no problem with things being sold out, I just don't like being repeatedly told the wrong info about when new stock will come in, and not being called back. If anything I'm surprised that they didn't lie the other way ("oh, we'll have more next week.. check back" and it never comes in) rather than telling me they arent getting more for 4 months.
 
#10
^ Blue_Green: ITA that's very frustrating.. I get that too.. it's so annoying. However, for holiday items.. it's very common to be sold out and never recieve another shipment until NEXT holiday season.. It's not like our company carries fireplace screens year-round.. you don't need a new fireplace screen in the summer.. lol. or summer totes & beach towels... you don't need them in the winter (some people do - depending where you live, but that's why you buy them in accordance to the general weather and all that jazz)..
 
#11
RenataM said:
ITA with you!!
I worked retail while I was going to university and I absolutely dreaded working around christmas. I couldn't believe how many times I had to politely put customers in their place for being rude to me just because they left shopping to the very last day.

I work at a store that sold accessories for kids and teenagers so just to list a few this is what I got:
- "what do you mean they don't come with a certificate of authenticity..it should"...sorry sir they're CZ studs they don't come with authenticity certificates
- lady to daughter (in spanish..I don't look like a spanish speaking person so people assume that they can say whatever in front of others) "see sweetie this is why stupid people get stuck in jobs like these because they have no expectations and drop out of school, she's probably hiding the stuff in the back"; my reply in spanish "excuse me I speak spanish and I heard everything you said, unfortunately you have given a very poor example to your daughter judging people for their job, I will be graduating in two years from univeristy with a bachelor's of engineering, also please let me remind you that Toronto is known for being the most multicultural city in the world, so you are not the only spanish speaking person here." She just mumbled sorry and literally ran out of the store, her daughter came back to apologize the next day.
Click to expand...


You ROCK!!! Good for you, letting her know that her comments were not acceptable. LOL I would have PAID to see the look on her face!!
 
#13
i used to work at a large retail store, so i understand the frustration you are going through. just hang in there and hopefully you're working on commission so you can get a nice check this month :smile:

it's also pretty frustrating being a customer around this time of year. i went shopping last night and almost got trampled to death. i understand some of us are in a rush to buy last minute gifts, but is it really necessary to push people out of your way or steal parking spots? as much as i love the mall, i won't be going back until after the holidays...
 
#14
Oh man, my heart goes out to you for having to deal with all that sh*t. My BF is in retail management (wireless industry) and you can imagine the crap he has to deal with. That's another post ;) .

We are dealing with frayed nerves around here as we got hit with a major storm and power outages which started late last week and are only getting slowly fixed now. That means 4-5 days of missed shopping days (nothing online either, no power!) that are getting crammed into an already busy time now. Even grocery stores are scrambling to restock for the holidays because all the perishable stuff (meat, dairy, etc) had to get tossed because it went bad after days with no refrigeration.

Anyway, hope you felt better about the rant and I loved how you got back at biotch in Spanish. You rock, frozen!! :jammin:
 
#15
I haven't really gotten that, but I did have a couple that got pissy with me for taking too long ringing up their ornaments!

(I should've known they were going to be like that . . . especially the wife . . . she had this 'question everything the associate does' attitude.)


So I'm ringing in the ornaments. There's about twelve of them and they're on sale. On top of that they had a coupon and it was easier to just scan them in individually than to scan them up together.

I get them all bagged and go to finish ringing them up. The guy gives me an HBC card and I swipe it. It tells me to call for authorization. The registers are being VERY tempermental, so I override it. (Every time I did a return it would always ask me for authorization, which I overrided.) This time it actually wanted an authorization code. I couldn't go back so they could pay another way and calling for the code would take too long.

(The quickest way would be to void out the transaction and do it again. I suggested that at first and the lady actually had THE GALL to say, "No, just do your job." Then she went on and on about how she worked in retail in her own business and transactions never took this long.)


We went back and forth on all of this and finally another associate convinced them that it would be faster to ring them up on another register and then void out the other one later. They said they wanted her to do it, not me, because it would be faster. (Then she looked at me and said, "Go on the floor." I think she knew I REALLY wanted to say something.)

Later on, she told me they just wanted to pay the total on their Visa and get out of there, not understanding that they can't just do that because it wouldn't let her get off the Authorization screen without entering a code or voiding it.
 
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