Tweet
I just got a new job at a very nice dollar store. It's a real dollar store as in everything's a dollar or two for a dollar, not like some dollar stores that sell cheap and trashy merch for a few dollars. It's also a chain that's doing very well.
I got the job pretty easily. I was in a shopping center, saw a now-hiring sign, asked for an application, got the interview right away, aced it, and brought my documentation at the end of the week. Boom. I'm a cashier now and I love it, and everybody there is great.
I was working the closing shift last night, and a woman comes in a little after nine. She and the current manager (I have three, and he's the friendliest so I'll call him Friendly Frenlderson) chatted away because apparently she's in here all the time.
Then she came to my till to check out. I rang her up, asked her how she was doing, in my friendliest customer service voice. She was chatting with someone else so I didn't press it. After I bagged the last of her stuff she already had a $20 bill on the counter. I took it and she immediately said, "No, not that."
"What do you want me to do?" I asked.
She reacted like I'd just said, "Shut up, bitch, and just pay for your damn chips so you can eat them and be a fatass." I mean, like I had been the rudest little turd imaginable. "What do you mean, what do you want me to do?"
"Well, if you don't want to pay with the--"
"I can't believe you would say that! How can you be so rude? You don't belong in customer service, I can tell you that."
I mumble some sort of apology, but I don't want to say anything that could be misunderstood. She slaps two dimes and two pennies on the counter and says, "here!"
Her change from the twenty comes out to something dollars and seventy-six cents. I take the 76, then the 22 she gave me. Normally people give me enough change to add up to a dollar, but you may recognize 76+22 as equaling 98, and I can't really do anything with it. I hand her the bills and the change.
"You gave me the wrong change!" she snarls.
"What's wrong with it?" I ask.
"Look at it!"
I show her her receipt. "I gave you [something] dollars, and seventy-six cents exactly."
"There's too much here!"
"Well, there's also the twenty-two cents you gave me."
"You were supposed to take it!"
I'm not angry or upset or anything, just baffled. "And... do what with it?" I ask genuinely, not trying to mock her. I'm just not great being put on the spot like this. I couldn't have traded out the change for a quarter, let alone given her a bill. What was I supposed to do with it?
She storms over to Friendly Friendlerson and says, "I don't care that she's new, you have got to fire her. She has the worst customer service I have ever received. I mean, did you hear her?"
"I'll take care of it," says Friendly Friendlerson.
Satisfied, she gives me a glare and flounces out. I take care of the next and last person in line, and then go to check that Friendly Friendlerson had actually witnessed the event.
As soon as he sees me, he says, "Don't worry about her. She's in here all the time trying to get people fired because she wants a job here. I see you working hard all the time and you have some of the best customer service I've ever seen. And you didn't get mad or engage her like [several other workers] would have. You did fine."
And I have to laugh, because of how easy it was for me to get the job. I literally just walked in and was hired. She must suck big time if they won't hire her.
But I'm really pleased with how I handled everything. I wasn't mad, and I didn't cry. I was just completely baffled and at a loss for words as to what set her off. No matter what I said, though, it would have set her off because she was looking for something to be upset about. And while the things I said could be interpreted as sarcastic, especially in writing right now, you have to believe me when I say I have had years of both social skills training and acting lessons, so my voice was as natural and friendly as possible. Not even overly friendly like retail workers use as code for "go f*** yourself." You know the one I mean.
Thanks for letting me share. She really sucked, but I'm glad that I had that experience so I could learn from it. If, God forbid, someone worse comes in, I'll be a little stronger for it because of this.
I got the job pretty easily. I was in a shopping center, saw a now-hiring sign, asked for an application, got the interview right away, aced it, and brought my documentation at the end of the week. Boom. I'm a cashier now and I love it, and everybody there is great.
I was working the closing shift last night, and a woman comes in a little after nine. She and the current manager (I have three, and he's the friendliest so I'll call him Friendly Frenlderson) chatted away because apparently she's in here all the time.
Then she came to my till to check out. I rang her up, asked her how she was doing, in my friendliest customer service voice. She was chatting with someone else so I didn't press it. After I bagged the last of her stuff she already had a $20 bill on the counter. I took it and she immediately said, "No, not that."
"What do you want me to do?" I asked.
She reacted like I'd just said, "Shut up, bitch, and just pay for your damn chips so you can eat them and be a fatass." I mean, like I had been the rudest little turd imaginable. "What do you mean, what do you want me to do?"
"Well, if you don't want to pay with the--"
"I can't believe you would say that! How can you be so rude? You don't belong in customer service, I can tell you that."
I mumble some sort of apology, but I don't want to say anything that could be misunderstood. She slaps two dimes and two pennies on the counter and says, "here!"
Her change from the twenty comes out to something dollars and seventy-six cents. I take the 76, then the 22 she gave me. Normally people give me enough change to add up to a dollar, but you may recognize 76+22 as equaling 98, and I can't really do anything with it. I hand her the bills and the change.
"You gave me the wrong change!" she snarls.
"What's wrong with it?" I ask.
"Look at it!"
I show her her receipt. "I gave you [something] dollars, and seventy-six cents exactly."
"There's too much here!"
"Well, there's also the twenty-two cents you gave me."
"You were supposed to take it!"
I'm not angry or upset or anything, just baffled. "And... do what with it?" I ask genuinely, not trying to mock her. I'm just not great being put on the spot like this. I couldn't have traded out the change for a quarter, let alone given her a bill. What was I supposed to do with it?
She storms over to Friendly Friendlerson and says, "I don't care that she's new, you have got to fire her. She has the worst customer service I have ever received. I mean, did you hear her?"
"I'll take care of it," says Friendly Friendlerson.
Satisfied, she gives me a glare and flounces out. I take care of the next and last person in line, and then go to check that Friendly Friendlerson had actually witnessed the event.
As soon as he sees me, he says, "Don't worry about her. She's in here all the time trying to get people fired because she wants a job here. I see you working hard all the time and you have some of the best customer service I've ever seen. And you didn't get mad or engage her like [several other workers] would have. You did fine."
And I have to laugh, because of how easy it was for me to get the job. I literally just walked in and was hired. She must suck big time if they won't hire her.
But I'm really pleased with how I handled everything. I wasn't mad, and I didn't cry. I was just completely baffled and at a loss for words as to what set her off. No matter what I said, though, it would have set her off because she was looking for something to be upset about. And while the things I said could be interpreted as sarcastic, especially in writing right now, you have to believe me when I say I have had years of both social skills training and acting lessons, so my voice was as natural and friendly as possible. Not even overly friendly like retail workers use as code for "go f*** yourself." You know the one I mean.
Thanks for letting me share. She really sucked, but I'm glad that I had that experience so I could learn from it. If, God forbid, someone worse comes in, I'll be a little stronger for it because of this.
on your new job.
Comment