What really grinds your gears?

[Kim Brody]

How about those regulars who insist that they get discounts cause they are regulars. One woman tried to get a free Mentos from me because she couldn't find $2 in her wallet. Her reason for why she deserved free Mentos "I'm a regular here and my throat is really dry, do I have to pay?"
... Uhh yeah because everyone else does. Also I have never seen you before in my life! Even if I have, I doubt I'd recognised you.

[Ceir]

When I am on chat I have found that we have one person who contacts us several times a day. Upon the chat connecting he will find out our first names, and invariably if it is a female's name he will drop the chat. On a team of four of us there is only one male, and we alternate our chat days so our male team member is not on chat every day. Good luck buddy.

Had a dude like that one one of the helpdesks I worked on - if he got a woman on the phone, he hung up on them. We eventually got him banhammered.

[MoonCat]

--Guy who places 5 or 6 ads at time--in person down in the lobby--then complains because it takes so long for the sales rep to mark each one paid and email the receipt down to the folks in the lobby to give to him. Get a prepaid Visa or Mastercard, twit!
--Guy who runs in to pay for his ad, throws the money (always too much) at the counter person and runs out without waiting for his receipt. He also wants to make changes to the ad all the time, making it larger and more elaborate, BUT he doesn't want to pay any more. Not happening.
-- Two different customers who place remembrance things for loved ones who've passed on. These two women are EXTREMELY anal about punctuation (which they don't even get right half the time but THEY WANT WHAT THEY WANT!!) and make you read back every single word as well as the punctuation marks, several times. It takes 20 to 30 minutes to finish ONE transation with either of these two customers. And, of course, they also complain about the cost, never mind that they are the ones who wrote a novella to be printed in the paper.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Smapti,

The margarine folks might be running a deep fryer with it. High temperature boiling oil at about half the cost of peanut oil.

[Plankton78]

They don't pay in small change, but we have a family that comes in once every 1-2 weeks or so and buys all the Imperial margarine on our shelf and nothing else. Keep in mind, that's about 16-17 cases of it. I don't know what they do with it, and we've tried to explain to them in the past they can put in a special order for it, but they don't speak very good English so it's hard to get them to understand.

It's especially aggravating because they have a habit of coming in and clearing off the shelf just after we finished stocking and facing that aisle at the end of the graveyard shift - meaning there's now a huge gaping hole in the shelf, and so we have to go back and fill it again before we can go home for the day.

16-17 things of butter! Geesh. How high are their medical bills! Why in the world do you need that much butter! Course, Pasta Lady is buying like 24/26 cans of Spaghetti Os every three days... Hmmm. These are the important questions in life!

[Racket_Man]

Ahh. Regular customers. The blood line of the company. Those that come every other day and drive you crazy with their insane habits.
Now. I have a question....do you ever get those insane and irritating regulars?

let's see....................

The serial complainers
The serial scammers
The serial stiffers
and any combination of the above 3.

For the first 2 we have enough customer records that have the phase "MANAGER on Duty MUST check this order before leaving the store" as part of their record that it is no longer a joke.

EVERY single driver knows the addresses by heart---- HMMMMI wonder why???? Phone number may change frequently, but for the most part, addresses do not.

But then again my company just keeps on catering to these people just to keep their business (or non revenue money wasting orders).

[TattooedMommie]

I have three regulars that make me cringe when I see them walk in. Because I just know they will come to my line...

First is "J", old but not elderly, I'd say closer to 60 than 70. She pays with her EBT card, every week, and every week it's the same fiasco. She swipes it backward. Then upside down, 4 or 5 tries before getting it right. Then the same conversation ensues, every week..
J: "What do I press now?? Do I press EDT?"
Me: "Press EBT."
J: "EDT?"
Me: "EBT"
J presses..."Debit" Every Freakin Week!
It's gotten to the point that the cashier next to me will automatically turn around and do it for her, to save me the trip around the register.

Then there's "L", another old lady, this one pushing elderly. L apparently LOVES a certain brand of individual ice-cream cups. When we have them in stock, she will buy ALL of them...24 to a case and she scoops them all up (pardon the pun) A day or two later, she comes back in and wants to know why we don't have anymore. Lady, you bought them ALL, we dont have a magical ice-cream making factory that replenishes our stock every night. Another truck will be in tomorrow, and if you're lucky, you will have diabetes before the weekend.
One big thing about L that really grinds my gears is that when she's asking for the ice cream, she licks her lips constantly, in a "yummy-yummy-ice-cream!" kinda way that is cute among toddlers, but stomach-turning when it's a 75 year old with smeared red lipstick. And she cries. When told we are out of them, she tears up, sniffles, pouts, and continues the lip-licking. I'm not heartless, but nothing about her display draws any pity from me. And it happens at least once or twice a week.

Lastly my favorite insane old lady, "A"...another 70ish year old weekly shopper. Who talks CONSTANTLY. To her groceries. Baby-talk. Not kidding.
"Oh there you are, you silly little can of tuna fish!"
"Oh and these are my bananers, I just love my bananers, yum yum"
" Did I buy a tomato? Oh there you are, little tomato, hiding behind those big bad frozen waffles! You get up there on the counter or I will spank your little rump. Yes I will!" (these are actual quotes, by the way...)

No joke. She talks to herself, to her groceries, to passer-bys, to employees, to the wheels of her cart, to the magazines, to the conveyor belt. Non-stop ramble, in that baby-talk sing-song voice. She has special bags for each item (and once called me an "idiot" because I put something in the 'wrong' bag LOL) And once the items are scanned and bagged, out comes the big book of coupons. One by one, page by page, she talks to each coupon. "Oh, Stouffers pizza, did I buy one of you today?" and then digs through each bag to see if she did or didn't buy the item. In the end, she usually has 3 or 4 valid coupons. Then out comes the checkbook, and digging through her giant purse "Where are you, little pen? You bad pen, you better come out of there right now..oh there you are!" Proceed to the slow-ass check writing referred to in this thread... When I finally hand her the receipt, I get farewell-speech "Oh, thank you, my sweetie, honey, dearie-pie. I'm going to go sit in the deli area and wait for my ride to come get me, my goodness, he's late today, or maybe I'm just done early, oh my goodness, maybe I'll get a soda to sip on while I wait, I do just love soda......" trailing off as she leaves the area...
To complete a transaction with this woman literally takes a good half-hour. I've had people complain about her, ask me how I put up with it, etc.

[XCashier]

We've got a repeat offender at our store. "A" comes in almost every week and is the finickiest, cheapest person ever.

She will ask the price of each and every piece of fabric (despite the price being written on the bolt label!), hems and haws about whether she wants it or not, then finally decides on it.

She gets much worse at the cash register. She asks prices on everything (again! Doesn't she read the shelf tags?!), flips out if something comes up on sale and there wasn't a sign because she can't use a coupon on it.

Oh yes, the coupons. She always has a million of our store coupons. One time she handed me the "40% off" ones first, then the "50% off" ones, then when the transaction was finished and she stood there, going over her receipt with a fine toothed comb, then started screaming at me because the 50s didn't come off the highest priced items! Now, the coupons automatically come off the highest-priced regular-priced items, but they come off in the order the coupons are scanned, that's just the way the computer's programmed, so you need to give us the higher-value coupons first. And she knew this! I had to call a manager over to untangle the mess because I didn't know how to do it.

And yes, every transaction she does go over it line by line, to make sure that we aren't ripping her off, because we're such evil thieves. We have to ask her several times to move over so she isn't blocking the register for the next customer.

I wonder if these irritating customers realize just how irritating they are? The way they behave, it really makes you wonder.

[crazylegs]

The people who abuse the 999 system - most recently someone who rang up, got an ambulance and only wanted ibuprofen.

Anyone who calls me an ambulance driver

People who go upstairs when they're very unwell. Bonus points if you have excessive amounts of furniture on their hall/stairs/landing or if the stairs have a narrow tread or the stairway is very narrow.

[EricKei]

L apparently LOVES a certain brand of individual ice-cream cups.

I would LOVE to have seen her reaction to the old K&B talking ice cream freezers (long-defunct drugstore chain back home, and yes, they really did this).

" Did I buy a tomato? Oh there you are, little tomato, hiding behind those big bad frozen waffles! You get up there on the counter or I will spank your little rump. Yes I will!" (these are actual quotes, by the way...)

Boy, do I ever have the thread for you!

[Plankton78]

After my 14 hour shift, I'll share a new annoyance really grinding all my gears lately. Enjoy my picture!

--3---2--l
---------1. _______ :::::::::

Okay. It's a really bad picture but I'm awful at describing things. This is easier.
The numbers are the registers, the only three we have. Registers 3 & 2 are small counter tops. Register one is the conveyor belt ending at a wall. You must turn a corner from reg. 2 to get to reg. 1 belt but you can clearly see behind all registers. The straight bottom black line is the doors and the colons belong to our buggy area. From reg. 1 to buggy area is 7 1/2 ft.

Now I'll shut up and get to it. Light is on at reg. 1. I am standing at reg. 1 writing notes. Every dang day, some dumb regular will get up to reg. 3 and start unloading a fully buggy on the counter. Erm... I'll say, I can get you down here. [Bonus pts. if I say it more than twice.]

They'll look up, scoop their groceries back in the buggy and move down to reg. 2. Funny thing, reg. 2 is broken. We have a beautiful sign saying PLEASE USE NEXT REGISTER! We also keep our newspapers on that register, blocking the counter top. Customer will then reach over the newspaper to put groceries on counter. [Bonus pts. if you complain about our messy registers. Triple pts. if you shove all the newspapers forward and off the counter. You win if you put the groceries in the adjoined empty bagging area and spin them around to me.]

No.... I'll get you on the first one.... THIS IS THE FIRST ONE!!.... Ummm... Turn the corner and come to register one.....
Pissed off customer will now throw groceries on belt and huff and puff and whine about how confusing the registers are set..... How was *I* suppose to know WHICH register!! You're a bleeping three day regular. You know how this bleep works. Are you kidding me right now!!
Oh ya. Do you have *brand* of cigarettes? [Cigarette case is being reg. 3. Glass, easy to see inside.] Grrrrr..... Customer will pitch fit if you don't have, wrong size, wrong brand, too light feeling, ask for ID.... Oh my...... Mmmmmmm.......

Customer will be too rough on pin pad. Pin pad will freeze and restart itself..... THIS BE TAKING TOO LONG.....Finally get payment done and customer will gather groceries and leave buggy at that black dot next to 1..... Blocking my bagging area..... Instead of moving 7 1/2 ft to buggy area.......


THESE ARE STUPID REGULARS AND EVERY FIFTH CUSTOMER DID THIS TO ME TODAY.

I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.

[siskaren]

Lastly my favorite insane old lady, "A"...another 70ish year old weekly shopper. Who talks CONSTANTLY. To her groceries. Baby-talk. Not kidding.
"Oh there you are, you silly little can of tuna fish!"
"Oh and these are my bananers, I just love my bananers, yum yum"
" Did I buy a tomato? Oh there you are, little tomato, hiding behind those big bad frozen waffles! You get up there on the counter or I will spank your little rump. Yes I will!" (these are actual quotes, by the way...)

Oh, god, just reading that makes me want to

[KellyHabersham]

This particular customer hasn't been in for awhile, but this thread reminded me of her - she was an older woman who would come in with her granddaughter (I think), and would often ask for help using one of the computers in the children's area. This in itself wasn't sucky, but she was the type who needed to be hand-held/walked through everything, and preferred to approach whomever was shelving in that area, instead of going to the reference desk like she was supposed to.

[notalwaysright]

The Witch: Super mean lady who buys silky fabric which is hard to cut straight. She insists you kind of fluff the fabric like when you put sheets on a bed. If you don't do that perfectly (or even if you do...) she tells you that you don't know what you're doing, that you're incompetent, stupid, slow, and any number other things. If I call her number I don't even try to help her. I just say I'll get a manager, and walk away. She expects this, most of us can't deal with her.

Pattern Lady: Not sucky since her son has gotten too old to drag in with her, but still annoying. Comes in about an hour before closing and looks through the pattern books until right before we close. Then she buys a bunch of patterns, and returns a bunch. She almost never buys fabric. We've gotten curious over time and asked why... She claims to make clothes for people, and says she shows her customers a few patterns and lets them choose which to make. I don't get it, since you can look patterns up online easily... Anyway, she reminds me of a 50s housewife. Always perfect makeup and lipstick and hair. Sometimes she even wears pearls. And of course when her son was little, she let him destroy the store.

Not one person but honorable mention: Table hogs. Those customers who insist on spreading their stuff out over the cutting counter. They tend to do this even while waiting, so that when another cutter comes to backup they have to get them to move everything. When I try to stop them from setting their stuff down they whine about how heavy the fabric is. When I suggest a cart they roll their eyes and sigh really big as they stomp off. Really lovely SCs will put their stuff down and leave. After a while someone moves the fabric, and the customer pops back up to angrily say "My fabric was here!"

[Plankton78]

Not one person but honorable mention: Table hogs. Those customers who insist on spreading their stuff out over the cutting counter. They tend to do this even while waiting, so that when another cutter comes to backup they have to get them to move everything. When I try to stop them from setting their stuff down they whine about how heavy the fabric is. When I suggest a cart they roll their eyes and sigh really big as they stomp off. Really lovely SCs will put their stuff down and leave. After a while someone moves the fabric, and the customer pops back up to angrily say "My fabric was here!"

I know exactly what you mean. Customers do that at my store too. They get an arm full of groceries and just dump it on the counter and walk off. Um...it's not just annoying but rude. Here at dollar (not dollar) store, we have spent a butt load of money on shiny buggies and plastic baskets. Use one moron and stop holding up my line! Geesh. And if you're say something, you're rude and pushy. Ugh.