Workplace Retail Hell - Stories of current and former retail employees

#886
Omg I love this thread! I used to work at CVS as a cashier over a year ago and I HATED it - mostly because my coworkers were lazy and there was absolutely ZERO morale at work which made the workplace much, much worse (as if retail wasn't hell enough already). I hated the stupid questions they made us ask, and the way the majority of customers were honestly quite stupid.

We'd have the same customers come in everyday and they would always have the same questions about how coupons work (though the coupon system at CVS is really dumb), what time we open, where the shampoo/soap/whatever they were looking for was located (despite them coming in every. single. day.). I know those things come with the job but I'm sure you can already tell I am no people-person and I was never, ever fit for retail. I don't know how I lasted 11 months, lol!

I have a story about what I saw happen to my supervisor. She was this nasty, jealous, and incredibly over-critical woman despite how many faults of her own she had. She was bitter in many ways. Anyway, we had this very small section near the facial cleansers and moisturizers where we sold perfume. All perfumes were locked in a glass case, so in order for the customer to purchase a perfume, they had to press this red "help" button for someone to open the glass case for them. Anyway, there was only one set of keys for the perfume case and only the manager/supervisor on duty was allowed to carry it. Alright, so one day this man in a suit came in, was looking at perfumes, and pressed the help button. My supervisor walked up to help him, only to inform him that the keys were lost. And yes, they were in fact lost. I forgot to mention she always has this attitude when she talks. I wasn't up close, but I was close enough to see her tell him that. So with her slight attitude, she informed him the keys were lost, and he went BALLISTIC. This fully grown, seemingly mature man in a suit started yelling at the top of his lungs, saying "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE NO KEYS! I AM ON MY WAY TO AN EVENT, AND I WANT TO WEAR MY POLO PERFUME, AND YOU EXPECT ME TO GO TO THIS EVENT WITH NO PERFUME??? YOU SHOULD BE FIRED!" and he stormed off. She was left standing there looking like she was fuming inside, but she managed to keep her cool. I don't think anyone deserves to be treated like that when they haven't exactly done anything wrong, but I'm not gonna lie, it was slightly satisfying seeing that happen to her because she really was such a dick to me in my time there.

Also, while working at that hell hole, the district manager was a condescending, bald, rude, middle-aged man. He had no respect for any of the employees at the store, and he particularly rubbed me the wrong way as he was inspecting the counters at the cash register with my manager, and he said to my manager "Joe, please teach this young lady how to clean." It was very under-handed and condescending in the way it was said, especially since I was standing right there in front of him and I did clean up to the manager's standards. I kept my mouth shut so as to not say anything out of line though.

Oh, I also had someone call me a ***** once! She yelled "*****" as she was walking out the door because I had called someone to ring up the person behind her because she was trying to find a card that wouldn't be declined so she could pay for her little purchase. Honestly, don't these people know how much money they are spending? How do you go up to pay for something and NOT know how much money you have? I always keep track of my spending. Then again, she was sporting a fake, wannabe Celine bag - must want to keep up appearances I suppose. It gave me quite a chuckle I must say, this girl must've been a good five years older than me (I was 19 at the time). Some people never grow up...

I'm SOOO happy to be out of retail. I am very content in my professional job at the moment, where people treat me with respect and I have my individuality to an extent.
 
#887
I don't have a retail horror story since I've never worked at one but here's one I've got from a recent travel.

Went to the Netherlands for a business trip and was on our way back to the hotel when we pass by a KFC. We've already had dinner but I have a very light one since I hadn't quite adjusted to the timezone yet (to which I find out that I will never do as long as I'm in Europe, lol) I wanted to buy some food for when I got hungry in the middle of the night/very early morning when my stomach was still sticking to my normal timezone.

I duck in, the line's long, and the cashiers look dead-tired. I can't speak a lick of Dutch, but the way two of these men up ahead were lifting their feet and making these obnoxious sounds, I could tell that they weren't happy about the sticky floors and proceeded to talk with the cashier for a long, long time about this, thus holding up the line a bit more.

Yes, the floor was sticky, but I knew I had no right to prima donna even when I was wearing a pair of my favorite Pradas because I was inside a fast food chain.

Like I said, I know zero Dutch and I know that I may be inconveniencing the cashier by talking in English, so I smile, heavily pile on the "Please"s and "Thank you"s, and I manage to wring a smile and a laugh from him when I find out that they don't have gravy, just mayo or ketchup.

Back at the hotel around the early morning, I open my bag of goodies and I find out that the dude had slipped an extra piece of chicken which surprised me so much I had to dig out the receipt and check. Guess he just appreciated having one less *****y person to deal with.
 
#888
ah, the surprises in the changing rooms...
i used to work for a luxury brand that had a concession in a department a store and i had this young woman come in, try a pair of shoes and before my and my colleague's eyes proceeds to jog in the spot with said shoes on, for one second we thought she was having a seizure ( is retail after all) but nope, she them takes them off and says she will take them but she wants a NEW pair as she wanted pristine, never used shoes!
we took the shoes to the back, polished them, put them in a new box and sold them to her

another one, xmas sale, is a jungle out there! it is like a helicopter full of supplies landed in a disaster area. it was two days past the boxing day sale so most average shoe sizes are gone, mostly is 4 and 10s left, customer grabs a size 10 and demands i produce immediately her size: 5 1/2, explained than, in that style, that is what i have left, there are no transfers between stores but there is a pair, literally, across the road. customer demands again i get her the shoes "from the back" as she "knows" i have them (WTF?), by then i was hot, tired and was about to finish a 12 hour shift so my answer was that i was sorry but the sweatshop was closed so there was no way we could produce them for her...last i heard she complained about the southafrican SA who was serving her, we are still trying to find out who that mysterious and cheeky southafrican SA was...
 
#889
OlgaMUA said:
That's also why I don't put too much stock into reviews, because when you really read it you'll know that it's just twisted to make it look like the customer is completely innocent and 100% victim
___________________

me neither... sometimes I will look to see what other reviews that person has posted.. and if they mostly negative, then I know that particular person just can't be pleased no matter where they go and their reviews no longer mean a thing.

Salespeople can influence a buyer.. and guess what? that's what they are there to do!!! they are SALESpeople :smile:
Some are nice about it and some are pushy.. but they are all SALESpeople (I used to be one.. so this isn't meant to be negative.. it's just what IS) :smile:

No one can "force" or "make" anyone do anything.. I never once put my hand in someone's wallet, pulled out their credit card, and said "I INSIST you buy this!"

absurd
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I do this too, especially if they are the one lone ranger in a silo of great/good reviews.

Notwithstanding, I have plenty of past retail experience up my sleeve and learned a long time ago to take most things with a grain of salt.
 
#890
coconutsboston said:
I do this too, especially if they are the one lone ranger in a silo of great/good reviews.



Notwithstanding, I have plenty of past retail experience up my sleeve and learned a long time ago to take most things with a grain of salt.
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I have been on both sides and yes i felt my first lv experience i ended up buying a 35 instead of the 30 speedy i saved for. Basically she said the 30 was so common( i was so common) buy the 35 i think you should and bring so inexperienced i did buy the 35 when everyone said 30 suits your height better 5ft- but oh you have the 35-
 
#894
The above post about the shoes just reminded me of an incident when I was working in a large homewares store. It was a huge factory outlet, self serve kind of place. We had tables outside and two ladies were looking at bath mats. They were rolled up and tied with ribbon. This lady unrolled one to look at which Of course is fine, then put it on the dirty ground outside the store, took her shoes off and walked on it. It was a quiet day and I was watching her from the register with another SA! She threw the mat back on the table and took a new rolled up one to purchase. As the store was so large, I waited until her and her friend were at the back looking at something else and then ran out the front and grabbed the mat. I rolled it back up under the counter and put it into a store bag under the register. When she came to purchase I pretended that I was bagging the mat she had but really gave her the one she stood all over!!
 
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#895
I work part time online retail CS. The one I get most is people asking for (demanding) discounts that do not exist, or asking to use an expired discount or for us to make an exception & extend it for them. Then they get angry & announce they're going to a competing retailer to shop. I mean, these are not negotiable garage sale prices. I have noticed that the holidays tend to bring out the worst in retail customers. I have learned that I could never, ever work actual physical retail. I'd be in jail for sure. :lol:

oscarlilytc said:
The above post about the shoes just reminded me of an incident when I was working in a large homewares store. It was a huge factory outlet, self serve kind of place. We had tables outside and two ladies were looking at bath mats. They were rolled up and tied with ribbon. This lady unrolled one to look at which Of course is fine, then put it on the dirty ground outside the store, took her shoes off and walked on it. It was a quiet day and I was watching her from the register with another SA! She threw the mat back on the table and took a new rolled up one to purchase. As the store was so large, I waited until her and her friend were at the back looking at something else and then ran out the front and grabbed the mat. I rolled it back up under the counter and put it into a store bag under the register. When she came to purchase I pretended that I was bagging the mat she had but really gave her the one she stood all over!!
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:roflmfao:
 
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#896
I use to work for a VERY well known online travel website. I only dealt with very severe cases/escalations... "severe" = "bat **** crazy people". Usually they would scream at the CSR and demand a manager- and they would end up with me.

These were most common complaints (and common as in several times a week).
1. When someone booked a vacation package there was a space to put "special requests" that would go to the hotel (and it was pretty specific that this was a HOTEL special request). A special request for a hotel would be something like "high floor, handicap accessible or close to an elevator". People would request "celebrating anniversary" "I'm travelling because it's my sister's aunt's brother's birthday" and REQUEST an upgrade to first class seats on the flight. Naturally, your chances of being upgraded to 1st class on ANY flight are slim to none these days for a just cuz "your special" reason. Since these remarks ONLY went to the hotel (which are no way related to the airline) people would call and yell and scream that they sat in economy and didn't get upgraded and would demand a full refund because WE "ruined" their trip. SMH.

2. For pretty much any NON english speaking country people would come back (or call us from destination) and demand we change the hotel (free of charge) or refund their money because ENGLISH was not widely understood at the hotel. Italy, Dominican Republic, France ummm yaa not everyone will speak English there! Isn't that the point of travelling?

3. During snowstorms... omg disaster. We would know let's say both Chicago airports are closed due to a snowstorm. The customer would call and say "it's not that bad- I see planes here- book me on a flight" ...literally the airport would be closed. Yet somehow I was to charter a flight and get them to their destination (free of charge of course).

4. Only 25% of our customers would buy insurance (cancellation). No matter what you booked on the website it offered you insurance and you specifically had to DECLINE insurance. It even would send you a notice/email after you booked saying "hey! you didn't buy insurance you can still purchase it". I would sit there for hours listening to people DEMAND their $ back because they didn't buy insurance and called every name in the book because I simply refused to press the "refund" button (it doesn't work like that but okay).
4a) Better yet... someone would book a vacation package on the website and fill in all their information (full passport info) home address and ofcourse CC information. Then call back a few days later (or after their trip) and say that it was fraud and it wasn't them. When the credit card companies would file charge backs we would show them all the info the customer imputed. We would even verify with the airline or hotel that they checked in- the client would say "but it wasn't me!". The credit card companies would have a laugh with us- I don't know what the outcome was with those people since they wouldn't disclose that to us.

5. Customers would call from their destination and demand refunds because it was raining ... too crowded (Rome in August? Yes, it will be crowded), too hot, too cold. We never did weather guarantees.

6. When someone got sick on their trip (you name it- cold, flu, kids catching chicken pox, stomach ailments) then naturally it was our fault and the customer would scream and yell and demand a full refund. Good times listening to TMI descriptions of their illnesses.

...I could go on but I'm sure you get it.
 
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#897
MissLianne said:
I use to work for a VERY well known online travel website. I only dealt with very severe cases/escalations... "severe" = "bat **** crazy people". Usually they would scream at the CSR and demand a manager- and they would end up with me.

These were most common complaints (and common as in several times a week).
1. When someone booked a vacation package there was a space to put "special requests" that would go to the hotel (and it was pretty specific that this was a HOTEL special request). A special request for a hotel would be something like "high floor, handicap accessible or close to an elevator". People would request "celebrating anniversary" "I'm travelling because it's my sister's aunt's brother's birthday" and REQUEST an upgrade to first class seats on the flight. Naturally, your chances of being upgraded to 1st class on ANY flight are slim to none these days for a just cuz "your special" reason. Since these remarks ONLY went to the hotel (which are no way related to the airline) people would call and yell and scream that they sat in economy and didn't get upgraded and would demand a full refund because WE "ruined" their trip. SMH.

2. For pretty much any NON english speaking country people would come back (or call us from destination) and demand we change the hotel (free of charge) or refund their money because ENGLISH was not widely understood at the hotel. Italy, Dominican Republic, France ummm yaa not everyone will speak English there! Isn't that the point of travelling?

3. During snowstorms... omg disaster. We would know let's say both Chicago airports are closed due to a snowstorm. The customer would call and say "it's not that bad- I see planes here- book me on a flight" ...literally the airport would be closed. Yet somehow I was to charter a flight and get them to their destination (free of charge of course).

4. Only 25% of our customers would buy insurance (cancellation). No matter what you booked on the website it offered you insurance and you specifically had to DECLINE insurance. It even would send you a notice/email after you booked saying "hey! you didn't buy insurance you can still purchase it". I would sit there for hours listening to people DEMAND their $ back because they didn't buy insurance and called every name in the book because I simply refused to press the "refund" button (it doesn't work like that but okay).
4a) Better yet... someone would book a vacation package on the website and fill in all their information (full passport info) home address and ofcourse CC information. Then call back a few days later (or after their trip) and say that it was fraud and it wasn't them. When the credit card companies would file charge backs we would show them all the info the customer imputed. We would even verify with the airline or hotel that they checked in- the client would say "but it wasn't me!". The credit card companies would have a laugh with us- I don't know what the outcome was with those people since they wouldn't disclose that to us.

5. Customers would call from their destination and demand refunds because it was raining ... too crowded (Rome in August? Yes, it will be crowded), too hot, too cold. We never did weather guarantees.

6. When someone got sick on their trip (you name it- cold, flu, kids catching chicken pox, stomach ailments) then naturally it was our fault and the customer would scream and yell and demand a full refund. Good times listening to TMI descriptions of their illnesses.

...I could go on but I'm sure you get it.
Click to expand...


Goodness, I'm sorry you had to deal with this. But I'm sure you had a good chuckle afterwards [emoji4]
 
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