Five Days Of Suck Part 2: Pounds Of Pennies, Gallons Of Mouthwash (long, language)

[ralerin]

You may have noticed I retitled my other thread. I've come to terms that it is going to be a week full of suck, shit, piss, blood and lots and lots of tears on my part.

But before we begin.

I may be fired. Over the fucking Lorax.

See, the movie comes out on Tuesday. I didn't know that, I thought it came out yesterday. Customer asked for the movie, I said "sure, here you go", stuffed it in his bag and out he goes, happy as a clam. Manager A FREAKED and started yelling about me about how we could lose our license to sell DVDs, I would be written up and on and on. If I get written up, it's my job. If I get pulled into the office for any reason this week, I am going to quit. Shit. Shit and double shit and triple shit. Crying my eyes out at the moment.

On to the next part of my story.

Pounds Of Pennies And Gallons Of Mouthwash

The register I'm at had over $2 worth of pennies in the penny tray. When I ask why, S3 tells me that there was a woman who bought mouthwash earlier and paid for it with all pennies; oh and if she asks for the bathroom, don't give it to her because she drinks the mouthwash in the bathroom. As soon as she said the words, in walked the woman and upends her purse, pulling out handful after handful of pennies. She stops and stares at me.

"...Are you buying anything?"

"Yes."

"...."

"...."

"Are you buying anything?"

"I'll get it."

She goes and gets the mouthwash and I grudgingly count out the money. She apologizes...but she's not sorry.

"Ladies room."

"No, sorry, someone...er...clogged it up earlier."

"I'll go back there."

Manager S1 fends her off at the backdoor. Lady comes up and starts arguing with me that I don't have any free matches to give her. I tell her to pay up or buck up. She leaves.

Two Hours Later

Lady comes back with another bottle of mouthwash, pulling out handfuls of pennies. This time I grab manager A, who tells the woman that we can't sell it to her. Woman is noticeably drunk, weaving on her feet, stinks of mouthwash and beer. Woman gets angry as manager A voids the sale and brings the bottle back. Woman stuffs the pennies back into her purse. She did not pay for the bottle.

"She stole my stuff!"

"What?"

"I paid for it!"

"No you didn't, we voided the sale."

"Get your damn manager back over here, she stole my stuff! Hey! You! You stole my stuff, gimme my money back!"

"No, we didn't. We voided the sale. Goodbye, have a good night."

Woman leaves.

If she comes back in tomorrow I am going to call the police.

[rose_metal_nz]

Oh wow. Mouthwash lady doesn't sound as sucky as desperately SAD. I feel sorry for anyone affected by her addiction(s), truly I do. Including you of course *hugs*
Sending massive karma your way for the DVD problem, that's terrible, hope it goes OK for you

[bainsidhe]

I hope things work out for you.

And why would someone drink mouthwash? Wouldn't that make you terribly ill?

[Draco]

Why was the movie out where you could sell it if it wasn't actually for sale yet? o.O

[Sandiercy]

The area I work in is well known for its crazy people. We have a few computers in store for internet use and a big pump bottle of hand sanitizer next to them. I cannot count how many times a person would come in, squirt a big handful of the sanitizer into their hand and then walk out of the store and drink the stuff outside!

[TheSHAD0W]

Why was the movie out where you could sell it if it wasn't actually for sale yet? o.O

This. If it wasn't still packed in a cardboard box, taped shut, with a sign on it saying "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL TUESDAY", it wasn't your fault.

[Grendus]

I hope things work out for you.

And why would someone drink mouthwash? Wouldn't that make you terribly ill?

Most mouthwashes contain fluoride, which makes you run a fever and, if my experience eating toothpaste to get out of school is any indication, nauseous. Mouthwash lady may have found a brand that doesn't have fluoride though, if she's drinking the stuff to get drunk she's probably buying the cheapest brand. Which is good, fluoride is toxic in high dosage. Probably not as bad as drinking hand sanitizer though, mouthwash is at least supposed to go into your mouth.

I'm confused about the movie too. Unless they saw the movie behind the counter or something, the DVD shouldn't have even been out if it hadn't been released yet.

[the lawsmeister]

But before we begin.

I may be fired. Over the fucking Lorax.

See, the movie comes out on Tuesday. I didn't know that, I thought it came out yesterday. Customer asked for the movie, I said "sure, here you go", stuffed it in his bag and out he goes, happy as a clam. Manager A FREAKED and started yelling about me about how we could lose our license to sell DVDs, I would be written up and on and on. If I get written up, it's my job. If I get pulled into the office for any reason this week, I am going to quit. Shit. Shit and double shit and triple shit. Crying my eyes out at the moment.

That sucks. Don't beat yourself up too much over this it happens all the time.
I'm surprised that the DVD was out available for you to sell to him in the first place and also that it wasn't blocked from sale in your computer system. I've worked with products like this and we'd get our stores to mark the item as unavailable so even if a copy did make it out onto the floor the system wouldn't let the sale go through.
Most of the time that someone broke street date it was one retailer going in to a competitor to badger them into selling a copy early. They would then send a copy of the receipt the supplier to tattle-tale on them.
Lately I've been hearing that certain stores even pay their staff bonuses if they can get a competitor to break street date. The lengths they'll go to are frankly disgusting. The worst I've heard was someone claiming their brother late stage cancer and really wanted to see a movie before he died and didn't know if he'd be able to hold on the extra couple of days until it was released.

[Reyneth]

Why was the movie out where you could sell it if it wasn't actually for sale yet? o.O

Exactly. When I worked at a bookstore, any book we got in stock ahead of a strict release date was put on a special shelf with a tag noting the first on-sale date. If you weren't properly notified, it was NOT your problem; it was the responsibility of the leadership team at that store to make sure the DVD wasn't sold early.

[Sapphire Silk]

I hope things work out for you.

And why would someone drink mouthwash? Wouldn't that make you terribly ill?

Mouthwash has a high alcohol content. Alcoholics who can't afford liquor or who are trying to hide their alcoholism often drink mouthwash as a substitute.

[Titi]

Exactly. When I worked at a bookstore, any book we got in stock ahead of a strict release date was put on a special shelf with a tag noting the first on-sale date. If you weren't properly notified, it was NOT your problem; it was the responsibility of the leadership team at that store to make sure the DVD wasn't sold early.

This! It is on the manager that you were properly informed. Also I have to ask did you tell the manager about the sale and then they freaked, or did they notice the sale, fail to do anything to stop it and then freak? Because if they watched it happen and did nothing to stop it then it will be worse on the manager.

[Merriweather]

This. If it wasn't still packed in a cardboard box, taped shut, with a sign on it saying "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL TUESDAY", it wasn't your fault.

I agree. You aren't paid enough to be responsible for such things. If a store can lose their ability to sell a company's merchandise over selling something before a specific date, then that's way too heavy a responsibility to attempt to shift down to the cashiers. The larger the consequences, the larger the paycheck of the person truly responsible.

On things like that, it's up to management to set something in place to prevent such things from happening, not make them as easy to sell as any other movie and then blame the cashier when one goes thru their register.

[Moosenogger]

Why were the copies of the movie just laying out where you could grab one? In my store, they tape giant signs in front of the DVDs that say, "DO NOT PUT ON THE FLOOR UNTIL (DATE)!!!" Otherwise, someone would do what you did and sell one without realizing they're technically not available yet.

[Food Lady]

I'm glad my store has it programmed in the system. If I'd scanned that DVD there would've been a message on the screen and an inability to go further until a manager put in numbers to clear it and took the DVD away. Customers can complain all they want; I physically cannot sell it. That goes for age-restricted items, too.

[fireheart]

Mouthwash has a high alcohol content. Alcoholics who can't afford liquor or who are trying to hide their alcoholism often drink mouthwash as a substitute.

Same with vanilla extract/essence.

Also re the street date break thing, there's a tablet on the market in the US that my boyfriend decided to get (the Asus Transformer Infinity, since apparently he cannot touch type ). It isn't available in Australia yet.
Turns out that the release date for the thing would be 2 days AFTER it comes in for us Aussie folks. (the 8th of August )

ANYWAY....we went to JB Hi-Fi (electronics store) the other day to look for a case for his new tablet (which we didn't find, but that's another rant). Guess what we happened to come across on display and all ready for sale?

Yep. The Asus Transformer Infinity.

Boyfriend was somewhat peeved, given that he'd JUST bought it online, but he decided that he wouldn't complain since he got it for cheaper anyway in the US. (and he also managed to locate a tablet case overseas as well >.>)