Which type of register customer is the worst?

[Quickdraw]

^ Exactly. You can tell immediately which ones are abusing the system a lot of the time...and these are the same ones who make everyone else frown on welfare, because it's easier to remember the bad ones than the good ones.

It must be hard to be someone who genuinely is using welfare because they need it, because of all these abusers out there who are making them look bad as well.

[Demolition Man]

All of them.... especially the people who throw things at you. However I do love being the asshole in return and plopping their change/card/etc on the counter back. And getting a dirty look afterwards.

[Pagan]

Then there's the ones I've been getting the last few days. We've got some clearance racks where the clothes are already 50% off. There's another little sign on top that says they're an extra 50% off. You would not believe how many people I've gotten that can't figure it out!

Look folks, it's not rocket surgery. You got something that was $100 and it's 50% off, makes it $50. Now it's $50 with another 50% off, makes it $25! And I'm the one that has been known to add 2 and 2 and get 5 with a calculator!

[theredbaron47]

Let's not forget one of my favorites: the elderly customers (more often than not elderly, but could be anyone) who have to stay put after their transaction is done and tell you their life's story, completely oblivious to the fact that I have 8 other people waiting to be rung up. Bonus points if they get mad at you for not paying attention.

They are usually sucky by virtue of the fact that they are so ignorant that I have many better things to do at my job, but some of them are rather polite and "normal", if you know what I mean. The normal, non-sucky ones are the ones who I find very pleasurable to shoot the shit with, if I have free time in which to do so. Bat-shit-crazy people tend to scare me into pretending I need to do something else and can't talk to them anymore.

Along with these people are the ones who do the same thing over the telephone:

Me: <standard greeting>
(C)ustomer: <normal, relevant question>
Me: <answers their question>
C: <launches into irrelevant tirade about what they need said product for, taking no less than 10 minutes before I can finally get them off the line to either tend to other things needing taken care of, or do nothing at all [whichever comes first]>

Seriously, I wish these people would make more friends. Or see a therapist or whatever it takes.

**DISCLAIMER: Remember, these ones can either be sucky or non-sucky. By and large, they are sucky, and will always be sucky. But I have known a handful to be very pleasant.**

[Sableonblonde]

I voted for the "Throw the payment at you" SC. Although my issue is actually the opposite - they don't throw it at me, they set it down as far away as possible so that I have to bend and contort myself into a human pretzel to reach it. I am not sure why this is, but seriously, less than 5% of my customers actually hold their bills out to me. EVERYONE plunks their money down on the counter, and half the time I have to reach all the way over the counter to retrieve the money. I have NEVER in my LIFE set money down on the counter. Wherever I go, fast food restaurant, department store...I hold the money in my hand until the cashier is ready to accept my payment and then I stretch my arm out as far as need be so that the cashier needn't even reach over the register. I can't even PICTURE MYSELF going to, say, McDonalds, ordering and then just setting my money down on the counter directly in front of myself and expecting the cashier to reach over the register.

Sometimes I pretend I don't see the money sitting there, and I just repeat the total. Sometimes this will prompt people to pick the money up and actually hand it to me. Usually they just motion to the pile of money sitting half a foot away on the far end of the counter or else they nudge it closer to me. Well, thanks. Asshole. I REALLY, REALLY want to start just putting people's change down on the counter. But I have a feeling that if I do that then it'll just start trouble. But I am so tempted. So, so tempted.

This is FAST becomming one of my biggest issues at work. I realize this isn't exactly the same as throwing the money, but it was the closest choice. Also, what the HELL is wrong with people who give you folded or crumpled up bills?!?! What do they think, we just pick the money up and toss it into the register? Like the register is the equivalent of a trash bin and you can just lob things into it, creating a wily-nily pile of cash? I never worked on a register until this year yet I somehow always understood how a register worked and I never would have dreamed of handed over a bill that is crumpled into a ball or folded over so many times the dollar bill is the size of my fingernail.

[Quickdraw]

I've encountered old people who want to tell me their life stories, sure...but even worse than them are the old people who get their receipts, and have to stand in front of the other people in line while they give it a thorough examination, just in case there's a price discrepancy they should complain about.

And have you ever had one of those anal customers who reaches over without your permission, and turns your monitor closer to their direction, so they can watch the prices even more closely? God those are annoying.

[aurelemsrealm]

I voted for the "Throw the payment at you" SC. Although my issue is actually the opposite - they don't throw it at me, they set it down as far away as possible so that I have to bend and contort myself into a human pretzel to reach it. .... Also, what the HELL is wrong with people who give you folded or crumpled up bills?!?! ..... I never would have dreamed of handed over a bill that is crumpled into a ball or folded over so many times the dollar bill is the size of my fingernail.

I don't bother contorting myself to reach the customer's money. I just stand there and look at them until they get a clue if it's not within a reasonable reach. Plus, I usually have their merchandise sitting on my side of the counter by the time I have it rung up and bagged. If I have to reach for the money, they're going to have to reach for the merchandise. I don't bother scooting their merchandise back across the counter until they have given me the payment.

If they just throw the money on the counter, I intentionally place their change at the end of my reach where they'll have to pick it up. I've also done the "accidental" drop so that change scatters all over the counter if I suspect they are just being buttmunches. ("Sorry about that, I seem to keep dropping everything today." *smirk*) I don't care if their feathers get ruffled because I choose not to placate their egos. I'm not there to make them feel better by being the whipping boy. I'm there to earn my paycheck, and I'm technically still doing my job. I'm only as helpful as they are human.

As for sorting out unruly messes handed to me by some thoughtless moron of a customer, I just take my time sorting it and counting it to my own satisfaction. Some customers have the mistaken impression that telling me what they have "counted" will somehow speed the process along. It doesn't. When it comes to money, I don't trust anything told to me. Yes, I insist on recounting it. If you don't like it, you can go elsewhere. You know where the door is, so feel free to leave the same way you entered. Hope the rest of your day goes just as well.

And have you ever had one of those anal customers who reaches over without your permission, and turns your monitor closer to their direction, so they can watch the prices even more closely? God those are annoying.

We have a customer monitor on our registers, so they can see for themselves on that screen. Reaching for my monitor would probably result in cracked knuckles. A customer tried to reach into a coworker's drawer one day, and my coworker slammed the customer's hand in the drawer. Also, I did on one occasion smack a customer's hand with the stapler for trying to pull a lottery ticket off the dispenser when he thought I wasn't looking.