The customer who just wouldn't leave.

[bookishfreak]

Seriously...I had a customer who came in at eleven, she was still there when I left at three!!! She basically spent a half and hour wandering down each and every aisle. She comes up to me and treats me to a fifteen minute long ramble about how she needed a skin cream with a sunscreen in it. (While I was on a stool trying to face the top shelf because she knocked everything over) She asked me (literally) twelve different times which one I recomended...I recomended one, and she selects the one next to it. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I put every single person at every register and the managers on high alert. She is a known thief, and over the course of the day, she tried to scam me and three of my coworkers. We've had another customer stay in our store for nine straight hours! What on earth are they freakin doing?!?

Has this happend to any of you? The customer that just WON'T LEAVE?!?!

[blas]

I can honestly say the Cling-On customers at the gas station were the worst....there is really no reason to spend an hour, or two hours, at a gas station. Really. No. Reason.

What were they doing? Playing scratch off tickets.

[AnaKhouri]

We have non-customers that won't leave. People who come into take up space and use the free WiFi and never buy anything. And we can't kick them out! There is one guy who has been there all last week for my entire shift playing on the net (there's NOTHING on the Internet worth 9 hours of your time!) and it looks like he's going to pull a repeat this week. :( It annoys the hell out of me.

[Andara Bledin]

(there's NOTHING on the Internet worth 9 hours of your time!)
You are totally going to have to speak for yourself on that one.

^-.-^

[Velfarre2001]

(there's NOTHING on the Internet worth 9 hours of your time!

BURN THE BLASPHEMER AT THE STAKE!!!!!!!

On topic, as night security at a private building I don't have to worry about being accomodating to loiterers

[jerkface11]

People who come into take up space and use the free WiFi and never buy anything. And we can't kick them out!

You mean you allow loitering?

[EmilyRose1982]

Yeah I have squatters, as I call them, that come into my coffee shop all the time to take advantage of the free WiFi. I just ignore them if they don't buy anything, but you better believe if they bring in outside food, they get the boot.

Also, if these squatters are the only ones in the store, I go ahead and vacuum for the night, since they aren't technically customers, heheh.

More on topic to customers who just won't leave--that drives me insane when I'm closing the store and tell people they have to get out (in a polite way). I'm not allowed to lock the doors with customers still inside, since they wouldn't be able to get out. There's always a few assholes who pretend I don't exist and keep putzing around on their computers or chatting with their friends. Sigh.

That's when I pull out my keys and jingle them, heheh. It hasn't come to this yet, but if I ever do get people who flat out refuse to leave when I'm trying to close the store, I get to call the police. :D And our town cops love our coffee!

[Jetfire]

For the WiFiSquatters, couldn't you 'accidentally' reboot the router every so often throuhg the day to descourage them? Or at the very least when you're closing up, shut down the router early on to encourage them to move on.

[LillFilly]

I have a lot of 'Mall Walkers' where I work. They walk. For. HOURS. And chat on the benches. The majority never buy anything. We also have a few 'interesting' characters who stay from opening till close just talking with employees; some of them don't like being alone I think.

Funny, they're technically 'loitering.' But we never do anything about it. If a group of kids were to do the same, they'd be kicked-out. Double standard I think.

[excuse me??]

The "regular" mall walkers where I use to work, would treat mall employees just like their next door neighbors.

One fellow named Buddy would always say Hi, and mabe chat for a minute or two, he would never interfer with our work or with paying customers.

Another Couple, for years, walked the mall.... kind of a sad story, when his wife passed away... I wonder if he ever remarried one of the other mall walkers.

[blas]

The greater majority of the "Mall Walkers" at my local mall are a bunch of stupid Yuppie soccer moms and dads.

My very first opening shift at the Deb shop, I asked my manager as we opened the gate to the store "Why are there people walking around here when we still don't open for another half hour?"

She answered "They are Mall Walkers. They get here as soon as the main doors open, some of them will walk around until noon, sometimes even later."

[draftermatt]

Heh, we had a customer come down the other day to discuss a contract situation.

They got here at 11 AM and were still here when I left at 3:30 PM.

Now you may think, sure but contracts can take a while to hammer out and you'd be right.

But when I walked into the owner's office at 3:15 they were discussing baseball. And then the owner of the company says "so do we have this thing figured out yet"

So they drove down from NY (4 hours) to discuss random crap for 4 hours to then get into the contract situation.

For the record it's still not resolved.

[tphillip]

there's NOTHING on the Internet worth 9 hours of your time!
The Evercrack and WoW crowd would like to have a chat with you. In a dark alley. Away from the security cameras. :D

Seriously. When those two MMORPG groups don't get their daily fix they make smokers going through nicotine withdrawal look calm, cool, and collected.

[PepperElf]

my mom use to walk in the local mall in our hometown. she pointed out that a lot of elderly would do that cos... it was someplace they could get a long walk in without having to worry about crappy weather etc. (not to mention relative safety)

[Andara Bledin]

Seriously. When those two MMORPG groups don't get their daily fix they make smokers going through nicotine withdrawal look calm, cool, and collected.
Actually, the MySpacers and other social network types tend to be scarrier. But only slightly. :p

^-.-^

[aurelemsrealm]

I will be the first to admit that occasionally, I will linger in places with free wi-fi or places like the games stores, but that's it. I usually only stay a couple of hours at most, but that's all.

I can honestly say the Cling-On customers at the gas station were the worst....there is really no reason to spend an hour, or two hours, at a gas station. Really. No. Reason.

What were they doing? Playing scratch off tickets.

Oh yes, every convenience store clerk loves the cling-on customers. We have one ("Charlie") who is not too bad, though. He is entertaining, and will help keep the coffee made up if I get too busy to mess with it. In "Charlie's" case, I just think to myself that I hope to have better things to do in my retirement. He has a very mischievious sense of humor, and loves to stir up political debates.

Then, we had "Eddie," who was a self-proclaimed ladies man. He could get obnoxious about checking out all the teenage girls and women. He always bragged about "going over the mountain" with this woman or that woman. It was funny that "Charlie" would aggravate "Eddie" to his face about going over the mountain, and then make jokes about "Eddie going over the mountain" when he wasn't there. Together, "Charlie" and "Eddie" were a sort of Odd Couple/Grumpy Old Men type of duo. "Eddie" stopped coming in, though, after he hit on a woman in the parking lot, then her boyfriend came after him. The woman and her boyfriend were regular customers, so I knew them somewhat from their visits. The only reason "Eddie" didn't get his ass kicked was that the assistant manager was able to calm him down. Shortly afterward, "Eddie" suddenly developed health problems and quit coming to visit.

There's "Ralph," who is the annoying lottery addict. You just have to ignore "Ralph" sometimes when other customers are waiting in line because he likes to hover around the lottery tickets. If we don't have his chosen tickets, he starts mouthing off asking if we are going out of the lottery business. I always tell him that I hope so. Then, he bitches and moans that he can't win before he sinks another $60 or $80 into the lottery. Then, I remind him that it's not a retirement fund. Eventually, "Ralph" loses interest once he thinks he's lost enough for the day, and leaves to play lottery elsewhere. I think that's all he does all day is go from place to place playing lottery.

We have a few others who will come in and hang out if the manager, assistant manager, or I are working. They repeatedly tell me they don't like most of the other clerks.

[blas]

Haha, the "lotto whores" at my gas station did the same thing, that's why I called them whores. They'd go from store to store all live long day.

Wow, what a sad life they must lead.

[Mordecai]

The Evercrack and WoW crowd would like to have a chat with you. In a dark alley. Away from the security cameras. :D



"Evercrack?" That is so 2002. :p

[tamezin]

We've had another customer stay in our store for nine straight hours! What on earth are they freakin doing?!?

Has this happend to any of you? The customer that just WON'T LEAVE?!?!

That is a little excessive, but when I was sans transportation, I would hang out in various shopping areas while waiting for a ride.

[aurelemsrealm]

Haha, the "lotto whores" at my gas station did the same thing, that's why I called them whores. They'd go from store to store all live long day.

Wow, what a sad life they must lead.

I call them cardboard crack addicts.

[AnaKhouri]

Haha! Laptop Guy got kicked out today. I complained to one of the managers and she said she'd had it with him too. Victory for Zim! :D

And generally management won't kick out the WiFi freeloaders because they *might* buy something, but after almost two weeks and the guy hasn't spent a dime at the store...even they start getting annoyed.

One of my co-workers walked behind him the other day, several times in the space of his shift, just to see what he was doing. He was IM'ing people. For 9 hours a day. If there's nothing worth 9 hours on the Internet (and I stand by that statement! :lol:), then this guy could not possibly have had anything worth saying for 9 hours.

[aurelemsrealm]

Wow! Nine hours IMing people? My brain would have long since went numb way before that.

[Andara Bledin]

I used to do a lot of IMing. I'd have, on average, about a dozen conversations going, and talked to about 80 people daily, and about 120 weekly.

^-.-^

[Kinoo]

I work for a company that has "Adult Stores" and it's quite common to have customers browsing the shelves (we've got at least a couple of thousand titles in stock at any time) for 2/3/4 hours.
The worst ones come with their lists (not sure which are worse - the handwritten or colour coded spreadsheets)
And a couple of out-of-town regulars have been known to phone ahead & keep the person unfortunate enough to answer on the phone for a couple of hours tracking down DVDs to put on hold & then spend up to 9 (yes that is NINE) hours in the store.

[Geek King]

If there's nothing worth 9 hours on the Internet (and I stand by that statement! :lol:), ...

I have nights of WoW and FFXI from when I was on the 8am-8pm nightshift that say you're wrong. The Brits and Aussies are on during those times, and most of them were a hoot to game with! :lol: