Food Service/Retail Woes

[AoE]

I took my write-ups with pride. Me being a "valued" employee allowed me to get away with shit which helps when the other people suck. When you're good at sarcasm, you can be very creative with telling people off with a huge smile on your face with the only thing going through their head is asking themselves "Did he just say what I think he meant?" as opposed to "I'M GOING TO YOUR MANAGER, THIS IS BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE!"

Only really backfires when you deal with really really aggressive people though which isn't that common thankfully. Most people honestly wanna get in and out as fast as you want them in and out when it comes to retail.

[Salodin]

See, theres some retail places that aren't retarded like that. I make it a point to keep giving them my business. I stay away from the places that don't enable their cashiers/managers to handle a problem with out making their employees so annoyed that it starts to rub off on the customers. It's why I shop at Publix and not walmart for groceries, I try to buy online or bestbuy instead of gamestop, etc etc.

[Silenka]

Surprisingly, all the Gamestop employees I've met have been very happy...maybe not with their jobs, but they were very friendly with the customers (esp me) all the time.

[Celeste]

Surprisingly, all the Gamestop employees I've met have been very happy...maybe not with their jobs, but they were very friendly with the customers (esp me) all the time.

It's been hit or miss for me. I've had plenty of nice pleasant experiences at Gamestop. At one point, I had a crazy bitch go off on me for expecting my copy of Twilight Princess for the Gamecube to be in stock when I had pre-ordered it months ahead of time, y'know? Other times, I've managed to have decent conversations with the employees, but that has been hit or miss for me. Meh, nothing notably bad or good.

[Melena]

This stuff as well as the horror stories my wife brings home reminds me why I'm glad I don't work retail anymore. Some of my favorites

1. While working at walmart, this old lady comes in and goes to a couple of cashiers asking for change. It's right when we open and at that time we were only allowed to start with 50 in our till, so good luck breaking a 50. She finally comes to a black cashier, starts to ask, then yells, nevermind, i'd never ask for change from a nigger. Manager kicked her ass out of the store and told her to never come back. Yay for racist elderly people.

2. Working at fry's, customer got pissed we wouldn't repair his printer (physical damage) and he actually threw it into the service department, completely destroying it.

3. When working at EA, had a couple of domestic dispute phone calls. Typically wife would call to try to get husbands game working. Abusive husband would catch her on the phone talking to someone and start beating the shit out of her while on the phone. Always a good time.

Worst I deal with at my current job is the occasional deputy calling asking how to move a file from his/her desktop to there thumb drive. Typically while driving in there patrol car. So I wind up with a deputy talking on a cell phone while driving, while also navigating there laptop. Sometimes on a freeway. Yet god help you if they catch you on a cell phone while driving in ca

[Pharaun]

Surprisingly, all the Gamestop employees I've met have been very happy...maybe not with their jobs, but they were very friendly with the customers (esp me) all the time.

Speaking as a former Gamestop employee, in spite of all the completely retarded and bullshit decisions/policies from Corporate the bottom line was I was still getting paid to sell/talk about something I enjoyed. It's much easier to be friendly when you actually enjoy the main part of your job, it was all the other stuff that drove me crazy.

[Pharaun]

Yay for lag...

[Silenka]

One of my favorite things is when people asked if something they were looking for 'might be in the back'.
Truth:
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/27

Although every once in a while something really would be back there, and it never hurt to look, most of the time the employees were familiar with the stock in the stockroom (having to move it out to the floor all the time), and especially when looking for 'in-demand' stuff around Christmastime...all the stock would HAVE to be out on the floor because obv the store wants to sell as much of it as possible. When the economy started getting shitty, our stockroom would always be almost completely bare due to the company underbuying, and we barely had enough stock to fill the fixtures on the department floor.

Part 1 of that strip, relevant:
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/25

[Cream Soda]

Oh, I guess I'll speak of when I used to work at YaYa's chicken when I was 15. We never spit in meals ore anything, but we were supposed to rotate the sides so that none sat there too long. Cbo and I would always set 1 of each side to the side at the beginning of our shift and serve it to our last customer of the day. The veggies color would run off into the water or the beans would be crusted as fuck. Shit was hilarious.

Also, one time Craig poured some of his drink (w/e it was) into the chicken marinade, but the marinade was like 10 gallons worth and he put in like a small cup full, so didn't rly make a diff.

[Acevalefor]

Sadly that happens when you work a shit job. One of your jobs as a clerk is to be able to handle the problem customers and do whatever it takes to get them gone without a fuss. Can't remember how many times I was berated for calling a supervisor/manager because my customer wouldn't listen to reason. The write-up thing is going way too far though...won't have too many employees after too long, since in my experience, a customer like that came along at least once a day.

I understand needing to enable the employee to fix the issue. But having a blanket policy that says write-up if you can't solve the problem is fucked. How the hell do you deal with the customers like the woman in my story that simply won't understand that you can't buy something that costs X with Y amount of money...Then there's the customers that come in and immediately DEMAND to talk to a manager for something as small as a debit transaction error when all they would have to do is run the card again. There is no making them happy and it's absolute bullshit that the actions of an irate customer can get you fired regardless of your behavior. 3 write-ups in a year means termination. That means if 3 fucktards come into your line and raise hell within a YEAR, you are fucked....no wonder the cashiers don't last 6 months at Fred Meyer.

[Suvhater]

If you ran a grocery store that got a tax credit for each employee you hired this year, would you have a high turnover?

[Shakki]

Oh god, Walmart stories. My boyfriend used to work for them as a Customer Service Manager. One time, a guy came in to return a $400 TV. He claimed he bought it, took it home, and then, when opening the box, found that all that was inside was a rock. Needless to say, he wasn't going to get a refund, so after talking to the employee who helped the guy load the TV, who confirmed that the box weighed as much as an actual TV and not as much as a rock, my boyfriend told him as much. The guy started raging, yelling about how Walmart was ripping him off...He insisted that "Walmart isn't going to take 400 of my dollars and all I get is a rock," to which my boyfriend replied, "You also got a box." Apparently it went downhill from there.

[Pharaun]

Oh god, Walmart stories. My boyfriend used to work for them as a Customer Service Manager. One time, a guy came in to return a $400 TV. He claimed he bought it, took it home, and then, when opening the box, found that all that was inside was a rock. Needless to say, he wasn't going to get a refund, so after talking to the employee who helped the guy load the TV, who confirmed that the box weighed as much as an actual TV and not as much as a rock, my boyfriend told him as much. The guy started raging, yelling about how Walmart was ripping him off...He insisted that "Walmart isn't going to take 400 of my dollars and all I get is a rock," to which my boyfriend replied, "You also got a box." Apparently it went downhill from there.

I had a guy try to pull something similar with a PS2. He came in a bought a brand new PS2 and not even 30 minutes later came back and tried to return it saying it didn't work. He ran into three problems. First, the one he brought back didn't match the serial number of the one I sold him. Second, you could see it was an old system from all the dust and pet hair that was clogging the vents on the front and the fan in the back. Third, I'm not an idiot so I could tell that he was pissed he bought a launch PS2 that died on him and he was trying to scam a new one. Needless to say I told him no and he started yelling and screaming and threatening to call the local TV stations to get them to do an investigation into why we were scamming people, I told him to go right ahead because when they investigated it they would find out that he was trying to scam us, not the other way around.

[tornfleshofsoul]

You guys in the states are lucky with your food prices. Canadian here, Can't really get a steak for under 20$ at a resturaunt, and that's typically a bad cut. If you want something decent you're looking at 25-34$. As for Fast food, I frequent Wendy's and my #6 Spicy Chicken combo comes out to 7.85$. They can't really fuck up that order though, #6, coke, no ice. The machine is right at the cash.

[Salodin]

I actually love when people do that, cause then I explain to them exactly how I know they're trying to pull one on me, and all they can say is "uhhh...umm...uhhh". The look on their face is priceless lol.

[Celeste]

I had a guy try to pull something similar with a PS2. He came in a bought a brand new PS2 and not even 30 minutes later came back and tried to return it saying it didn't work. He ran into three problems. First, the one he brought back didn't match the serial number of the one I sold him. Second, you could see it was an old system from all the dust and pet hair that was clogging the vents on the front and the fan in the back. Third, I'm not an idiot so I could tell that he was pissed he bought a launch PS2 that died on him and he was trying to scam a new one. Needless to say I told him no and he started yelling and screaming and threatening to call the local TV stations to get them to do an investigation into why we were scamming people, I told him to go right ahead because when they investigated it they would find out that he was trying to scam us, not the other way around.

HEY. I BOUGHT THIS 360 FOR $300 AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS BOX OF ROCKS. WHAT SHIT IS YOU WALMART FOLK BE PULLING ALL UP IN MY SHIT, Y'ALLOLLER?

[Cream Soda]

I only do that to Target, since they have a no questions asked policy.

If I have something that breaks, usually go buy an identical item and return the old one.

[BaneTheBrawler]

I'd just like to confirm that people with orders like 70 tacos and 80 chicken nuggets aren't just ordering for themselves. Or, if they are, it's for several days worth of food.

Yes, people do that. It's not particularly healthy, and by the time you finish all the food it's not particularly tasty either, but it beats starving or making your own food that turns out to be shit because you're an awful cook.

[Maaglin]

You people actually read the drive thru menu? When you're eating at shit places, how many times do you need to eat there before you already know what you want?

The only question should be "beef" or "chicken", "soda" or "tea". If you don't already have a good idea of what you want before you pull up, you're part of the problem.

[SephYuyX]

I worked at GameStop/FuncoLand/Babagges (left at the time they bought out EB) from an associate up to a manager when I was 22, and it's really not that bad of a job for HS or early college. Associate life is good, you dont know anything about the company, and you get paid for talking about and playing video games. 3rd key also isnt bad, little more responcibility and a bit of a raise and more freedom. When you his asst. manager though, starts to suck, more work for the same pay, and when you hit manager it's even worse because it's even more work for only a slight increase in pay. Only benfit was that you got to go to two yearly conventions fully paid.

It's funny, I could make some sort of graph that shows the progression of babagess > funcoland > gamestop > eb, the changes of corporate gamestop, and your position within the company. THe discount went from like 45% down to 15%, the freedom/fun went down, etcetc. I worked very closely with my district manager when I was 4rd key and up since he managed from my location, and holy shit how bad the politics are in corporate.

I feel bad for people on this board who are still working at GS after all these years as an associate, or have been a manager and want that "career" job. Good luck with that, because youre just going to get shit on. One of GS policies is to try and get rid of an associate who has been working there for too long, and string along managers as long as possible. GS wants dumb people managing their stores so they wont question their dumb goings-on.