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YOU started the rudeness game...

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  • #1

    YOU started the rudeness game...

    The online-pickup room is right next to the service desk, but I have put up signs directing customers that I cannot help with such issues and that the service desk is to the left (BIG-ass arrow on the sign).

    An SC is standing in "my" doorway, right in front of my big "DO NOT BLOCK THIS AREA" and "Working, please do not disturb" signs. I was way behind on this order due to the deli being stupid and losing a prep list--when I finally got the items I was literally racing the pickup location-tracking to get everything finalized before the customer arrived. I can see SC in my peripheral vision but do not want to give her any indication I'm playing her game. She can see what I'm doing, and she's making me a bit twitchy with her staring.

    SC: "So are you gonna help me or are you gonna be rude?"
    Me: *not turning around, if she said simply said "excuse me" I might have been willing to play* "I'm sorry I can't help you but I'm working on something right now, if you need help the service desk is to the left."
    SC: "You're being rude! I want your name!" (I removed my name tag as soon as I noticed her)
    One of the newbie cashiers chooses that moment to ask me something (that I can't help with anyway), using my real name. Fuuuu---
    SC: "So your name is [name]. Thank you. I want your manager!"
    Newbie "dutifully" pages C. Unfortunately the way the desk is set up, any prepping of invoices requires me to move closer to the "doorway", so I busy myself with reorganizing the packed bags in the cooler and organizing the staging cart for the next order. SC is blocking my path to the dry staging area so I literally cannot do my job while she is there, and I don't want to engage with her any further.

    When C shows up I'm in the middle of calling another customer about an issue. C herds SC away from me and closer to the service desk, and the only part of the exchange that I can hear is C say "She works in that area only and cannot help customers." At least he's essentially giving me the go-ahead to ignore SCs if I'm in my "office".

    I was supposed to get a specifically-branded store shirt that would minimize SC interactions, but that has yet to materialize. Maybe I can ask my old manager at another store if he can score me one...I did get some "STOP Ignore Me, I'm Working" service dog patches and am trying to figure out if I could get away with putting one on the back of my regular work shirt.
    "I am quite confident that I do exist."
    "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor
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  • #2
    You could wear a vest with a huge biohazard symbol on it with a skull in the middle along with the words "DANGER! STAY BACK!" while holding a huge cleaver in your hand and you would still get people walking up behind you, tapping you on the shoulder. You know it. I know it.
    "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
    "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
    "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
    "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
    "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
    "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
    Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
    "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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    • #3
      Even if you had a bad day and couldn't stop coughing while wearing that, and masked, the shoppers would still come up to you and make demands.

      As for reading the signs, most of these people can't read signs. Much in the same way they can't read sales ads or store promotions to find out exactly how they're supposed to work.
      Customers should always be served . . . to the nearest great white.

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      • #4
        You could be lying on the ground with a barrel of something with the biohazard symbol pouring over you and the cleaver embedded in your skull and there would still be customers making demands of you and complaining how you were refusing to help them...
        The Copyright Monster has made me tell you that my avatar is courtesy of the wonderful Alice XZ.And you don't want to annoy the Copyright Monster.

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        • #5
          That I don't doubt. C interrogated me today about why I wasn't carrying the cordless phone on me...for less than two minutes while I was using the restroom. I do not and will not consider answering a store phone in the restroom. That's just gross and unprofessional..granted, so are some of our SCs but I refuse to stoop to their level.
          "I am quite confident that I do exist."
          "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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          • #6
            Quoth Dreamstalker View Post
            That I don't doubt. C interrogated me today about why I wasn't carrying the cordless phone on me...for less than two minutes while I was using the restroom. I do not and will not consider answering a store phone in the restroom. That's just gross and unprofessional..granted, so are some of our SCs but I refuse to stoop to their level.
            The solution to that is to carry the phone in the restroom and make sure the customers hear everything that goes on in there. Then they can complain to C, who will tell you not to do that.

            In an ideal world, that is.
            "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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            • #7
              If need be, sound effects can be improvised to truly bring the point home to the customer...
              “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
              One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
              The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

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              • #8
                I know that simple and nessicary changes to the floorplan aren't going to happen, but ...
                Where I live and work, passing through a closed door that says Employees Only on it if you are not an employee is Criminal Trespassing, so such a door between you and the customers would solver a lot of your problems: fewer customers and for those that do come in call Security to have them removed.

                In the meantime, just document the issue every time a customer enters your workspace and interferes with your work

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                • #9
                  Quoth Dreamstalker View Post
                  I was supposed to get a specifically-branded store shirt that would minimize SC interactions, but that has yet to materialize. Maybe I can ask my old manager at another store if he can score me one...I did get some "STOP Ignore Me, I'm Working" service dog patches and am trying to figure out if I could get away with putting one on the back of my regular work shirt.
                  Put them on your masks. I customized a number of my masks with iron-on patches over the last 18 months.

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                  • #10
                    The space has to be open, to let us get in and out with carts as well as for emergency access. I might see if I can get away with some sort of retractable barrier (clips to each side of the entry). Every other store has the pickup rooms out of the public's way.
                    "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                    "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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                    • #11
                      Yes

                      Quoth Ironclad Alibi View Post
                      The solution to that is to carry the phone in the restroom and make sure the customers hear everything that goes on in there. Then they can complain to C, who will tell you not to do that.

                      In an ideal world, that is.
                      That is what I did when a relative insisted on talking to me when I said I was on my way to the washroom, I held the phone low.

                      Every pee, water pop, and gas discharge was very clear. That relative never called me back.

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                      • #12
                        Oh, vengeful snicker of glee! That is brilliant.

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                        • #13
                          Quoth earl colby pottinger View Post
                          That is what I did when a relative insisted on talking to me when I said I was on my way to the washroom, I held the phone low...
                          Here's the theme song, by a friend of mine (NSFW): Bodily Functions - Walt Gregory
                          I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                          Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                          Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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