Food Service/Retail Woes

[Acevalefor]

I have gotten the 'Do you work here?" thing many times. I walk in the store wearing regular shorts and t-shirt which doesn't resemble any uniform of any kind and still get asked if I work there...wtf? Also, when I used to work for a roadside service company, we had orange vests and dickie pants. So, whenever I would stop at Arco to fill up, I would get people demanding that I hurry up and stop standing around while they wait for me. (I live in Oregon which is a no-self-serve state.) They would get downright mean and scream at me when I didn't respond to them. The best part is that my company logo was plastered all over the truck and it matched the logo plastered across the front and back of my uniform. It was quite clear that I didn't work there.

[Surealistic]

i work as a salesman at a third party verizon wireless store, was just told to fuck off by a customer when i asked for his first and last name

mind you it was to purchase a car charger, but in my defense he was pulling out a credit card to pay with

[Denchi]

i work as a salesman at a third party verizon wireless store, was just told to fuck off by a customer when i asked for his first and last name

mind you it was to purchase a car charger, but in my defense he was pulling out a credit card to pay with

In Prescott? I'd imagine there would only be nice old retired people and jolly hippies.

[Silviya]

I worked in a grocery store for over 7 years, I've got all sorts of stories. Here are a couple of my favorites;

I was working in the canned vegetable and fruit aisle and this 80 year old lady walks up to me and asks where the crushed pineapple is located. I show her, and as she reaches for a can it slips out of her hand and falls to the floor. No problem, I pick it up for her and reach to hand it back to her and she goes, "oh no, I don't want that one. It might be crushed." I was just kind of speechless and muttered something like oh ok.

The store I work at is open 24/7 364 days a year. We close on Christmas Eve at 5 and reopen the 26th at 6 am. So at 5 on Xmas Eve we post people at the doors to start telling incoming customers that we're sorry we're closed while we try to herd all the people that were already in the store. So I'm at one of the doors and this guy, his wife, and their two young kids start walking up. I kindly tell them that I'm sorry but the store is closing for the holidays and I can't let anyone else into the store. The guy is like, "oh ok" sounding kinda dejected, but not really upset. As they start walking away one of the little kids turns to the woman and says, "mommy, that man ruined Christmas!" I couldn't help but laugh. My co-workers called me the Grinch for like a month after that.

[FNH]

It had been raining all day and the store and parking lot were packed. A customer walks up to look for a cart and asks if there are any dry carts. Keep in mind that he just saw me push in the only 15 carts from outside where water is falling from the fucking sky.

This bothers the fuck out of me when people freak out because a cart is wet it's just fucking water. Same deal when it rains and people clog the doorways "waiting for it to lighten up or stop" I don't even see why those people worried about getting wet all seem to want to go to the store in the rain.

Also what bugs me is people who like to go to a store at the last minute and hang around forever. Personally after 9pm I check for the stores hours. Also, something that happens where I work that bugs me. We are located about 6 miles from Bryant-Denny Stadium and most if not all of us are interested in the games on Saturdays so we play them through the PA. Now I know not everyone will be interested in it and will come in to shop but I have to wonder about people who come in decked out in Alabama clothing. Makes me wonder why those people aren't at home watching the game. I've even had a guy come up to me (While the game was in a scoring situation) and ask me what the score was....I wanted to cut him. Had people notice that we had a tv in the break room come in to watch the game, even though the sign said "employees only" to which I've asked the to leave or for them to comment as to why there wasn't more TVs around the store. Go the fuck home retard this isn't Buffalo Wild Wings.

Also, had a lady barge into the break room on me while i was texting and eating to ask me if I could call someone for help in a department. I said "suuuure" and went back to what I was doing.

[Yuri-G]

I was at Gamestop the other day and wanted to return a PSP. I had been waiting forever since some dude was trading back a bunch of games. there was a teenage boy and his mom behind me, and after the dude in front of me was FINALLY finished, the guy behind the counter motions me up. his co-worker, who I'm pretty sure was a military wannabe ROTC reject, looks up and says "nah, let those two go first."

so I says to him, I says "well, I've been waiting a long time." and he says "well yeah but that return's gonna take a while." and I says to him, I says "yeah, but that guy selling those games took a long time too. I've been waiting for a while and I just want to get this exchanged, I don't think it will take too long." I forget what he said next but basically that was it, I exchanged my shit and got out of there, my place in line secure. of course he was giving me dirty looks and rolling his eyes the whole time like I was some sort of soul-sucking jerk who wanted nothing more than to make the world bend to my miserable will.

not a very dramatic story but I will never forget it, because I was tired and hungry and cranky as shit and he didn't fucking ask me if I would give up my spot in line. pretty sure I would have, because it would have been the polite thing to do. but given his cocky attitude and the way he treated me it was like "FUCK YOU, I WAS IN LINE MOTHERFUCKER!" except much more polite because I don't yell and swear in public no matter how much I want to.

I've always wondered if those people thought I was a jerk. guess I'll never know. hopefully they understood that I would have gladly given up my spot in line if I had been approached with respect instead of commanded around by some ego-tripping dickhead.

thankfully, that is my worst Gamestop story. I don't shop there anymore, but it's more on principle from that whole coupon debacle a couple months back, not because of any single incident I suffered.

[Furionstormrage]

I've got one I need to include.

There's a guy who comes into one of my stores frequently. He owns a 79 Camaro, I own a 78 Firebird Trans Am (basically the exact same car), have owned it for 16 years, have replaced everything on it at one point or another. I don't claim to be an expert on much, but I know 70's Camaro's and Firebirds intimately. This guy, does not. Sadly, the guys up front always dump this guy on me when I'm there.

My first experience with this guy was wiper arms, which we don't sell to fit those cars. He asked if we sold the wiper arms (the part that bolts to the car). When I told him you have to go to a restoration source (such as Year One or Ames), he asked me, dead serious "You think they have em at Walmart?"

The second time, he wanted to jack up the rear end. He went to buy some blocks, which on those cars will actually lower the car. I told him this, he argued with me, I walked away. Three hours later, he was back, angry that the blocks caused his car to, you guessed it, sit lower.

I now refuse to help this guy.

[Mikus]

Nothing new, but fuck Chase. Incoming rant.

Backstory. Last Sunday I find out bout $1400 in fradulant charges on my chase credit card. I go to make payment, and they say my previous was short therefore my minimum payment is sky high. They say they will work it out and check back in a few days and we'll be ok. Today, I call and my min. payment hasn't changed, but...my credit line has changed, as in they dropped it by $2000 putting me almost at the limit.

The first robot worker on the line says there is nothing he can do and he can only give me a $10 credit for a "late fee" because they were charging me a late fee from the fraud issue. I get a supervisor on the line and she says that she credited my account $25 for the late fee. I point out robot #1 saying it was $10 and I want to know why there is a difference. She does the perfect robot response "I'm sorry there was misinformation but I can't answer why he said that". She says she can't answer why my limit changed but has changed my payment and will put a credit limit person on the phone.

He tells me my limit was dropped because they periodically do soft pulls on their clients credit and they have determined that because my total debt is currently high, they have dropped it. We go over my entire history with Chase and he sees in 5 years I've never been late, paid under minimum payment, or had an over the limit fee. My current credit report has zero lates on any trade line. I have no judgements, etc etc. Yet they have determined I'm too much of a risk to have more open credit. I said, "let me get this straight, no late payments, over the balance, etc etc but I'm a risk now? Six months ago having similar balances across the board I wasn't a risk then, but am now? No lates on all trade lines but I'm a risk now?" He then went into "there is nothing I can do we have made our decision" mode.

With my situation, I totally understand how they view credit and needing to make determinations, but I wasn't calling in for an increase. I've been the definition of a great customer to them, and the thanks I get, for having no missed payments, lates, etc is they lower my limit. I'm calling it now they will increase my interest rate because my balance is right next to the limit.

I'm so sick and fucking tired of dealing with so many businesses that talk to their customers, the ones keeping the lights on, like robots. I have scripts at my job that we use for reference, not to read line by line and never derive from it. Also, to be crystal clear, I've felt like this for a very long time, but I've always tried so hard to not be negative and to focus my energy elsewhere, but I've had it with banks, phone, cable, etc talk to us consumers with so much disrespect. I'm now really starting to just ramble so I'm going to stop, but fuck Chase. I so badly just want to say fuck it and not pay anything to them.

[Qeomash]

It's probably been mentioned before, but this happens far too often. Probably once a day, there will be 1 item that doesn't scan at the register for whatever reason. It was clever maybe the first time when the customer says, "Oh, if it doesn't scan, it must be free." Not every single time it happens. Does every customer really think that's a clever joke?

[Melena]

Mikus, citi is just as bad. Few years ago I took out a loan to pay off some debt as well as my unsecured student loans where the interest kept increasing every 3 months. Was about 10k or so. Well a few months later I get a balance transfer offer from Citi for 0% for a year, and I pay off the last 8500 or so of the loan to my citi card since my interest was only 4.24% Well shortly after my card expires and I get a new one, Citi decides to jack my interest to 14.99% for absolutely no reason. Needless to say I flip my shit and the guy on the phone had the balls to tell me it's due to the economy and the company not making enough money. Wound up keeping the interest the same but they closed my account when the card expired. Thankfully got most of the wedding shit put on the card before it expired, but have way too much on that balance i'm slowly working off. Thankfully it's locked at that 4.24% I do laugh when citi sends me invites for the same card now.

[Azull]

Today, I call and my min. payment hasn't changed, but...my credit line has changed, as in they dropped it by $2000 putting me almost at the limit.

Chase did something similar to me after buying every bank that backed my credit cards. They basically reduced the limit on my 3 cards to just above what was the current balance on each card all in the same month. Im sure it did hell to my credit score as my max limit was cut to about 1/3rd what it was before.

[Acevalefor]

Story About big banks fucking you

This is why i will not borrow money from an institution. They don't care and ultimately, you are the one that gets screwed.

[Surealistic]

In Prescott? I'd imagine there would only be nice old retired people and jolly hippies.

Old people are not nice, bunch of old assholes who can't wrap their minds around using a simple phone, and I think he was one of the "the government is out to get me" hippies

[Silenka]

I was at Gamestop the other day and wanted to return a PSP.

Holy shit, that guy should be fired. That's not how you treat customers. Guy needs to take his white knight complex somewhere where it's allowed, like shitty video game forums. You should have gotten him written up for that, although if he keeps pulling that shit he'll probably eventually be fired anyway. Hell, some of the worst arguments and demands to see managers I've seen were between two customers/a customer and associate who starting going at it about place in line.

Which brings me to lines at retail stores in general: It's completely stupid, but customers almost ALWAYS get up in arms about standing in line - if the line is long and there is only one person working the register, they complain. If the line is short but the person in front of them is taking a long time, they get huffy and either leave or start making demands. Just standing in line puts customers in a terrible mood, despite the fact that it's necessary because associates are not fucking robots and need to take time to do things. Then there's people who bring their kids to stores and while standing in line, the kids start fucking shit up, which always pissed me off. Watch your damn kids, people.

I remember one time, this arab lady was finally ringing up her purchase after standing in line. Her kid just started grabbing candy bars from the Godiva fixture on my register. He would unwrap one and shove it in his mouth. Rather than discipline the kid or take it away from him before he could sully it, the mother just apologized and paid me for it. After which the kid grabbed ANOTHER one and proceeded to unwrap it and put it in his mouth. Again, she did not discipline him, but attempted to keep him away from the candy long enough for me to accept her payment for it. I could not believe how stupid and inane this was, obviously this behavior was causing distress to her (and those candy bars are not fucking cheap), and I wondered if it was a cultural thing that kept her from yelling at or spanking him.

[Mikus]

About banks, they are on a whole other level of asshole then restaurants in my opinion. T. Bell employees just don't care, but employees at banks, especially management, have that holier then thou attitude. I could go on and on but I'm sure most here already know.

Here is irony. I opened my BoA credit card in 2005, my Chase in 2006. Didn't use them all that much. Maybe carried $2k in debt. In 2008, during better times!, I paid them and other debt off. In 2009 I tried using my BoA card and it got denied(embarassing!). I call to ask why and they cancelled my account from inactivity. I said something like "since I don't carry a balance nonstop then I can't keep my card?". They replied yes so I started it back up and kept a balance on it. Same thing happened with one of my mothers credit cards. And her Captial One card did the same thing with cranking up the rate. Said because of "hard economic times". She said, "for us needing to use our cards, not the greedy companies turning record breaking multi million dollar profits every quarter".

Fast forward two years and I need my credit cards to live currently. I haven't even had a 30 day late in 11 years, yet when I do push my credits limits, I'm punished. Right now things are hard as it is so I'll continue to use, but as soon as I can rely strictly on cash I'll be cutting up my cards.

[Silenka]

The stories about credit cards just makes me happy I only use a debit card... but that might change eventually. Kind of scary to get a credit card nowadays.

[Melena]

Even if you pay cash for everything, if you plan on travelling you should have a credit card. Car rentals and Hotels put extra holds on your card if you use debit for incidentals, and it sucks having your cash tied up for crap like that.

[Silenka]

Even if you can technically run your debit card as credit? (Running my card as debit actually incurs an ATM fee). I don't actually know that much about money management/finance, sadly.

[Melena]

Yup, my wife works at a Marriott and if you use a debit card, even if it's run as credit they put a hold on the rate + $50 a day that your there and you get the $50 a day when it's done. Why i'm using my credit card on check in, and when I go to close out, i'll pay with my debit. Been setting aside money for our vacation + all our tips so while everything will be paid in cash, still have to have that credit card to keep my money free.

[Mikus]

Even if you pay cash for everything, if you plan on travelling you should have a credit card. Car rentals and Hotels put extra holds on your card if you use debit for incidentals, and it sucks having your cash tied up for crap like that.

Great point. Also, for younger people you NEED to establish credit asap. So much is run off credit. Obvious things like getting a car, house, etc but now even car insurance, cell phone, cable television etc can be effected by your score. It's so difficult to understand let alone manage. About 14 months ago my Experian was around 760. Pretty good but not quite A+. Not sure what it was before, but two weeks ago my Trans Union checked out at 670. As stated, haven't had a late in 11 years, no judgements, etc. I hate credit all together.