Do you ever encounter an outright slug at work, and take your work stress home?

This is common. Believe it or not, if this had been somebody that looked disheveled and desperately poor making this demand for free ice cream, management might have called police. But obviously these were well to do yuppies, who get away with demanding things they don’t pay for all the time without being accused of stealing.

Unfortunately with these types of crap jobs, the boss will tell you one thing, and then when the customers get mad the boss will flake on you. In my experience the same boss that will jump your butt for not measuring the right amount of ice cream (or not holding up a line to do a price check on an item, or whatever) is the same boss that will not back you up when the customers ask to speak to management.

I worked at a large chain store as a cashier before I went to college. I was only 18. I was caught not doing price checks and severely reprimanded. My boss had threatened to fire me if I kept just ringing things up for whatever people said the item costed and even said I could be charged with a crime for helping them “steal”. He scared me so from then on every item without a price tag or upc was price checked.

People would remove price tags, come to my register, and “swear to Jesus” the item was only 4 bucks or whatever. When I first started working, rather than call and have someone go check the price, I’d just put in whatever they said and be done with it. I felt bad about holding up the line, and I really didn’t care. Well after I was threatened with being fired or worse being held responsible for it, I got scared and did price checks as ordered!

Then a customer got mad at me for “calling him a liar” by doing a price check on an item he insisted was 2 dollars, he said he was a Minister and I was calling him a liar. His face turned purple and he started taking cans out of his cart and throwing them at me, screaming “are you calling me a liar? I said it was two dollars!”. I ducked behind the counter to dodge the missiles. A manager came and dismissed me from my register and made me sign out for the day. I overheard him apologizing PROFUSELY to the angry “Man of God” for my insinuating he would dare lie about the price of an item. I didn’t know he was a minister for one, and for another he sure didn’t act like one. I was caught between thinking I was going to be fired or charged with assisting in the ongoing scamming if I didn’t do price checks every time, and later found myself not only attacked physically, but nearly fired for doing a price check. The manager gave him the item for 2 dollars, and I checked later. It was 34 dollars.

In these crap jobs you CANNOT WIN. Get that degree and get out of there. lol.

The sad thing is I have lived in both wealthy and poor communities. A large segment of our society would NEVER get away with this behavior. Apparently being upper class and white allows people to get away with things more, because if he had been a minority or poor person he would have been charged with a crime. Now that I think about it, the management of my store seemed to want me to participate in some form of discrimination against only some customers but not others, and since I am not predjudiced I assumed the rules apply to everyone.

When you think about it, there is a silent code going on between everyone that those of us that don’t think that way don’t pick up on. You are supposed to just magically know what kind of people they want you to be tough on and what kind of people you should make exceptions for. These “special” customers know they are entitled to special treatment, and management knows. Some employees just don’t get it because we treat everyone equally.

@escapedone7 wow you’ve been through it man, it’s terrible isn’t it? lol But I gotta admit you got me beat, and damn, my condolences, people can be bad to each other sometimes. Sincerely, Thanks for the well written response, I almost thought I was the only one who ever dealt with that on here…lol. Here’s to that degree!!!! no kidding…lol

You totally did the right thing. Don’t stress out over it so much. As long as you used a calm tone and wasn’t telling the customer off or anything. Some customers are just that way and it’s how they get things done.

My first job was at Blockbuster and there was a policy there. I’m not really sure who started it the customers or management, because I heard it from both of them. If the customer didn’t like the movie, they could bring it back and get their money back. Quite a few people came in really upset and would get even madder at me because I couldn’t decide whether or not to give them the free rental.
I even had this one woman come in because I’d saved a VHS of Band of Brothers, which she told me she wanted, and and was really mad at me because she said she wanted the dvd. She asked for my name and the manager. I was 17, I was scared like hell I’d lose my job. My manager was really cool afterwards, because she’d seen people like that before. Retail sucks, that’s the basic moral of my story.

I’m taking a customer service class as part of my degree. It’s super easy, but you learn how to deal with the craziest people.

Unfortunately this type of situation happens often throughout life. It probably won’t be the last time. I’ve had my fair share of bad experiences, similar to this, when working at mcdonalds for 2 years. Worst job ever, by the way. And @escapedone7 is right…the boss will try and make sure you do something the “right” way but as soon as there’s a customer complaint, it’s suddenly all turned around on you. So here’s my advice, finish college and find a good career. But along the way, keep your head held high and remember, you won’t have that crappy job forever.

There are people like this all over. Here is a link to a website designed for those of us who are not like this. It explains a bit about their collective psychology, and how to deal with them. The site is called How not to be an idiot.

I had a man reach across the counter and swat me on the nose because I answered the ringing phone while his receipt was printing. Lucky for me, he was paying for something he didn’t get to walk out of the office with. He was paying for lodging in the only motel around for 100 miles. Me, with my bright red nose, was able to call the cops on him and have him removed from the premises. He was so pissed he wouldn’t take his money back, my boss gave it to me. I was mad until I spent the money. :o)