Procrastination Hurts......

[Hon'ya-chan]

I've noticed this as both as a retail worker and a customer.

Why is it people wait until they get to the front of the register to start hauling out crap?

Retail side: I completely HATE IT when I have to redo the transaction because some twit pulls out something that requires me to go back and give them a discount. I especially hate certain Teachers. Some figure out the message and pull out their card beforehand, but not a week goes by when I have my retail life messed up by some snotty Teacher that feels she's automaticlly entitled to a discount because she has to deal with middle school kids going at her with Pencil Shanks and forgets to pull her card out when i'm in the middle of the purchase.

Customer side: On a different slant, I never catch a break when I have a few items, and some windbag with oodles of stuff manages to tie up an entire checkout line because of some little spat or a question or whatever. I even blew up once because this gas-guzzling soccer mom spent 3 minutes looking for her Credit card. All the while I see she has a wad full of $100 bills in her purse.

Pay for your fucking stuff with cash and GET OUT OF THE WAY!! was my unabashed response to this woman.

[Reyneth]

Um, my mom's a teacher.

She doesn't get a discount at all except for one time when it was tax-exempt and she had a $20 gift card.

Want to guess how much she spends on supplies each year that the kids walk away with? Or gets lost or broken? Go on. Higher. No, Higher. Ok, maybe you're close.

Give teachers some respect, why don't you? They spend money in your store and as a whole are usually good customers. Not to mention they have about 50 things going on at once - figuring out how to fit the lesson plans for tomorrow in with the new state curriculum they were given yesterday, remembering what time the sports game they are taking tickets for tonight starts, and stressing about getting all 150 math tests graded before Friday. Not remembering to have their card out is entirely understandable and you're taking it way too personally.

[Rapscallion]

Calm down, please? I find I get a better result with a calmer assessment of the points involved.

Rapscallion

[air914]

Oh I don't think the post was attacking ALL teachers - just a select few with a bad attitude. There are great teachers out there - and then there are those that you just wonder WHY they got into the profession b/c they seem to hate kids, hate their jobs, and hate everything around them......... and somehow they're tenured.......


I think it's annoying when people are searching through their purse or whatever for coupons when they've been standing in a line for 10 minutes or so waiting for the person in front of them to get rung up - WHY not search for your coupons during that wait time?? Or people that just seem to take forever and ever and ever at the checkout.... that's why I use the you-scan (self -checkout) most of the time - not b/c the cashiers are incompetent, but b/c I hate waiting for the stupid customers in front of me to finish or go through their 50+ coupons or whatever. Although sometimes baggers puzzle me putting frozen products in w/ bread (condensation + bread = not good), or putting 10 cans in a bag and not double bagging it (heavy cans + plastic bag = drop all cans on the ground when you go to pick it up). I know they're trying to hurry, and it's not all of them, but there are some I've come across that I just don't get their thinking at all with what things they bag together.....

[georgiab]

All and all the best reponse for this is no matter what your profession may be please have your itiems ready...for the onsideration of others!

[Catwoman2965]

oh i agree 100% - and back in the day when more people paid at the grocery store by check - why, oh why, do you have to wait until its your turn, ALL your stuff has been rung and bagged, to fumble in the giant suitcase you call a purse for your a. checkbook b. store check writing card and c. a pen? Can you not have your act together WHILE the cashier is ringing?

and as an associate, how about the ones who, while you are doing their transaction, wander off to look at more stuff? If its busy, and i have your stuff rung, and you say "oh wait, i want one more of those" and proceed to stop at every item while getting it, i am stuck...the transaction is pending, and i cannot help any one of the other more considerate people in line behind you, simply because you feel the world revolves around you, and only you.

And how about the ones who, AFTER the transaction is done, pull out their reward certs, which means the transaction now has to be voided, since you couldn't be bothered to give them to me FIRST! i hate that....

i will always have my stuff together, or if i don;t if my hands are full, as i get to the register and put my stuff down, i will say, i have a coupon, give me a second to dig it out. But i know where it is in my purse, and that's all it takes...a second.

[justZu]

I think it's annoying when people are searching through their purse or whatever for coupons when they've been standing in a line for 10 minutes or so waiting for the person in front of them to get rung up - WHY not search for your coupons during that wait time?? Or people that just seem to take forever and ever and ever at the checkout....

I was behind a last-minute check writer yesterday. You know, the little old lady that waits until ALLLLLLL of her groceries are rung up and bagged and back in her cart before she cracks open her Giant Purse O'Crap (TM) and begins leisurely searching for her checkbook.
Well, she rummages about for a bit and finally produces the checkbook, then needs to ask the total again and sloooooowly writes the check, caaaaaaarefully tears it out of the book, loooooooooks it over for mistakes and (FINALLY!) hands it to the cashier(who deserves a medal for patience).

AAARGGRHRGAAAAAARGRHRGR!!!!

Thankfully she didn't stand there and scrutinize her receipt, or I might be in a nice padded room at Arkham right now.

[aurelemsrealm]

Not to bash teachers or any other group in particular, I understand from both sides of the counter how frustrating it is to be held up by unprepared customers who waste everyone's time while they hunt for items which should be in hand at the time of purchase.

Among the ones I hate the worst are EBT food stamp cards because they don't pay the sales tax. "Oh yeah, this is on EBT...." or "This is on food stamps, by the way...." GRRR!!!!! WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT FIRST???? Instead, I usually do remind them that it's most helpful to tell me before I ring up the purchase because now I have to void the transaction and start over so that you don't pay tax. Luckily, I've learned some of the regulars who use EBT/food stamps, so I just ask them how they're paying before I scan the first item. I don't think convenience stores should take EBT cards anyway. Let the grocery stores, which are usually cheaper on qualifying items anyway, handle that mess, I say!

Plus, I get really annoyed seeing the ones who could qualify as "welfare trash." Let me clarify before anyone jumps on that comment. I realize that some people really are down on their luck, and such programs are a big boost for them to get back on their feet. That's all well and good if they are trying to better themselves. What drives me berserk about the "welfare trash" types is that you know they don't want to work. They buy what they can on EBT/food stamps so they can blow what little real money they have on frivolous crap like beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets, etc. To top it off, the tax dollars I'm paying in because I work are being used to support those deadbeats that are now at my counter. Usually, you get to learn quickly who is honestly trying to make life work, and who is just the welfare trash type that needs to be cut off. I could go on about that particular rant all day.

I also despise customers who habitually: fail to bring in adequate amounts of money to pay for what they bring to the counter; bring in excessive amounts of change which I have to count; expect to just drop their money on the counter and go despite the presence of a line; "forget" their ID when purchasing age restricted products, then want to complain because they're old enough and shouldn't have to show ID like everyone else...... I can probably think of more given enough time.

[Boozy]

back in the day when more people paid at the grocery store by check - why, oh why, do you have to wait until its your turn, ALL your stuff has been rung and bagged, to fumble in the giant suitcase you call a purse for your a. checkbook b. store check writing card and c. a pen? Can you not have your act together WHILE the cashier is ringing?

Cheques are the worst. I haven't seen one used in a store here in Ontario for years, and I say good riddance!

My mom used to pay by cheque all the time for groceries when I was a kid. She'd have the cheque all written out (payee, date, etc) before even leaving the house. Then all she'd have to do is fill in the amount and sign it real quick, and off we'd go.

I suspect it was less for the cashier's sake than for her own - she always tried to get her shopping done fast, because she'd have four kids with her all threatening to blow a gasket if we didn't get out soon. My poor mom.

[Andara Bledin]

and as an associate, how about the ones who, while you are doing their transaction, wander off to look at more stuff? If its busy, and i have your stuff rung, and you say "oh wait, i want one more of those" and proceed to stop at every item while getting it, i am stuck...the transaction is pending, and i cannot help any one of the other more considerate people in line behind you, simply because you feel the world revolves around you, and only you.

Those people get their order voided, their stuff placed to the side, and get to wait in line all over again, as far as I'm concerned.

And how about the ones who, AFTER the transaction is done, pull out their reward certs, which means the transaction now has to be voided, since you couldn't be bothered to give them to me FIRST! i hate that....

Whenever we'd forget (as in leave it at home) our rewards card for Borders, they'd just tell us how to call to get the rewards credited to our account post-purchase. I think all places should have a post-sale setup for rewards crediting so that everyone who forgets their rewards card or who just can't have the decency to give it to the clerk before the transaction is closed have someplace other than the counter to get it handled instead of wasting the clerks' and other customers' time.

I also despise customers who habitually: fail to bring in adequate amounts of money to pay for what they bring to the counter; bring in excessive amounts of change which I have to count; expect to just drop their money on the counter and go despite the presence of a line; "forget" their ID when purchasing age restricted products, then want to complain because they're old enough and shouldn't have to show ID like everyone else...... I can probably think of more given enough time.

You don't actually have to accept a handful of change. Heck, you aren't actually legally required to accept change at all, if you really don't want to. I think there should be some moritorium on any change payment that contains more than 100 coins. 100 coins is a good handful, but can be counted fairly easily. More than that, and you should be hitting Coinstar or going to the bank.

^-.-^

[Kogarashi]

I got kind of annoyed at the old ladies who'd wait until the very end before digging out the checkbooks and writing out the whole checks too. Espeically since Wal-Mart registers (for the most part) can print the check for the customer, requiring only a signature. I'd get the people who'd pull out the blank check and start writing, and I'd say, "Hey, the register can print that for you if you want. All you have to do is sign it." Some people would go, "Cool," and sign it and hand over the blank check.

All too often, though, I'd get the people who were like, "I don't trust those," and keep filling out the check. Or who would say, "But I've already got this half filled out," and keep filling it out. Or who would say, "Oh, okay," and then keep filling out the check anyway.

I also didn't like the customers who would wait at least until halfway through the transaction (sometimes more) before telling me, "Oh, this is tax-exempt." Which is something that has, has, has to be done at the beginning. Once I scan more than five, maybe ten items, I have to get a CSM to void out the transaction as a whole, unless the customer wants to stand there all day watching me void items one at a time. They don't let the cashiers do transaction-cancelling themselves. And if I void more than $50 worth of merchandise, even if it's only one item, I need to get a CSM to override it. And some of these tax-exempt customers would be in day after day and still do this.

Luckily, EBT/food stamps didn't have to be run in as specifically as that, since the registers were programmed for it. And I didn't get so annoyed at the people searching for their coupons, as I got paid to stand there anyway, so they were really only annoying the customers behind them (most of whom were understanding and realized it wasn't my fault). I'd give the held-up customers an apologetic smile and they responded in kind.

In defense of the lady with cash in her wallet but wanting to pay with credit card, I prefer to use my card. We get reward points with Amazon.com with ours, so anything that can be charged to it is. Plus I find cash harder to keep track of for a budget, and so I don't want to spend it lest I suddenly find myself in the position of the customer with not enough money. Of course, I rarely carry wads of $100s in my wallet, and my credit card is very easy to find (yay for only having one, and a neatly organized wallet).

[blas]

Old ladies and their big old purses of crap are the reason I stopped going to WalGreens for ANYTHING.

My panties got into an unfixable bind when my OBGYN said I had to go to WalGreens to pick up some *unmentionable* stuff for after my procedure. I asked "Do I really have to go to WalGreens?"

No offense to WalGreens. Good stuff.....but that's where ALL the old people and their checkbooks and their big old bags of shit go. And with their AARP cards and Medicare crap where they proceed to scream and throw tantrums at Pharmacy Techs over stuff they have no control over. I just want my damn cervical cream, GET OUT OF MY WAY GRAMMA! Unlike you, I DON'T have all day!

[Cyanocobalamin]

Re: Checks

Sometime last year, Office Depot introduced automatic withdrawl, for when a customer presented a check for payment. Basically the check would be read like usual but then a prompt would appear for the cashier to re-insert it so the register would print "VOID" several times on the front. The funds are removed from the account in the same manner as a debit card.

You would think that the paranoid folks would appreciate that they would be given back their check with name, address, account number... but of course not! (Makes sense = not allowed!) "You don't trust me!" was the usual line spouted. And if that card was gonna get played, then yes, there was often a good reason that particular customer was not trustworthy.

[BookstoreEscapee]

How does the register automatically reading the check info and voiding it equal not trusting the customer? You're not refusing the check...it's just getting processed right away instead of going through the banks to get sent back to you (not that most banks actually send the cancelled checks back anymore anyway).

This thread makes me glad that BN's system allows discounts/tax exempt/whatever to be taken off at any time during the transaction. The cashier has to ask if the customer has a member card and I got in the habit of just asking if they had a discount card to prompt the teachers/corporate discount/etc people to remember them before I finished the transaction.

[Kogarashi]

You would think that the paranoid folks would appreciate that they would be given back their check with name, address, account number... but of course not! (Makes sense = not allowed!) "You don't trust me!" was the usual line spouted. And if that card was gonna get played, then yes, there was often a good reason that particular customer was not trustworthy.

The ones I got just threw a fit because, "Then what good is using a check anymore?" *whine whine whine* Though I'll admit it did feel like a bit of sweet revenge when I could hand the voided check back to the customers who wrote out the whole thing in front of me despite my offer to have the register print it for them. They were usually the ones most annoyed by the concept (or, at least, the ones caught off guard because they didn't know/forgot about that register behavior).