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Last month our area was hit by the remains of Ike, with sustained high winds and gusts up to 85mph. Naturally, we were also hit by massive power outages. Our store was one of the few groceries in the area that was open, and we were operating on our backup generators which only powered the lights and registers (no power for the coolers and freezers for over 7 hours). Of course one of our most popular items was ice, which we sold out of rather quickly.
I was working at the Service Desk when this woman, who we have since dubbed the Evil Ice Queen, came up to the desk. She had a full blown attitude when she arrived and it only got worse.
SC: "do I understand that your store is completely out of ice?"
Me: "yes ma'am. Everyone' power is out and we sold out of ice a couple of hours ago. I'm not sure when Home City will bring us more ice."
SC:"Well, what about the ice under your seafood display?"
Me: "Ma'am, we can't sell that..it is considered contaminated."
SC: "No, you have to get that ice from somewhere." (yeah, if we had an icemaker it wouldn't have been making ice because our power was off!)
I started to pick up the phone to call the Grocery manager, but SC interrupted.
SC: "who is in charge of the store today?"
Me: "Karen is the store director and Jennifer is the Store Director in Charge>"
SC:"I want to speak to Karen!"
so I pick up the phone and call Karen, who is out on the Grocery floor with all the other management dealing with all the perishables that have to be thrown away because of being without power. She says she will be right up and I relay that info to the customer.
SC:" Can you tell me what direction she will be coming from?"
Me: "Our power just came back up 5 minutes ago and she is over in grocery dealing with the perishables."
SC: "No, tell me where her office is located, because I am sure that is where she is!"
Me: "Ma'am, her office is in the back in an area that is not accessible to customers, but I assure you that she is not there. She is out on the floor in grocery."
SC: "I said tell me where her office door is located...I'm sure that is where she is!"
so I pointed toward the back and tell her again that she can't go to Karen's office and that she isn't there anyway. She blows up!
SC: "You had better just adjust your attitude, Miss Nancy, because I am telling you right now that by God come Monday morning I AM reporting your butt and I will have your job!"
Me: "Ma'am, you need to calm down."
She goes stomping off toward the grocery side doors, and when I went past a few minutes later looking for a utility worker I see her talking to Jennifer, very irate. About 15 minutes later Jennifer calls me into the office and asks me if I told the customer that she needed to watch her butt! I told her the whole conversation and she said I should have called her instead of trying to handle the situation myself. I told her that at the point that it got nasty Karen had already been called so I didn't see the point in calling her too. Jennifer knew this woman and that she had a history of being abusive to the employees. She was upset because the bitch was going to go to corporate about it.
When I went out later to change out the gas station tills I find out that Karen had told the bitch to go out and get all the ice she wanted from the gas station for free! SC had been hateful to the three people out there too.
This all happened on Sunday...well on Thursday I was at the desk again and Jennifer came up and said, "Your little buddy is on the way up here...do me a favor and just switch places with Patty (who was Service Coordinator that night) and get out of sight. If she sees you again she will just go off on you and I don't want you to have to go thru that." So I went around the corner into the office, but not before Her Majesty had seen me.
Well, she proceeded to go off on Jennifer about me still working there, and Jennifer came in the office and asked me if I had called the woman "a butt". (interesting how it had gone from me supposedly telling her that she needed to watch her butt to just calling her a butt.). I told her no and she said she believed me and that I wouldn't get in trouble even if I had, because she was a butt!
Well, then SC tells Patty that she wants a money order, so Patty scans it into the register and tells her the amount. SC pulls out her debit card and swipes it thru the MSR. Patty tells her it is cash only and the bitch screams that she has "always used her debit card to get money orders". Not at our store...I have worked there 3 1/2 years and it has always been cash only for money orders and Western Union. Patty hits the payment key just to show her that it is cash only, which locks up the register (the only one of 3 at the Service Desk that we can cash payroll checks on) so it has to be rebooted. She finally leaves after 15-20 minutes and I go back out to help Patty get the lines down.
The customer behind her says that she doesn't understand how anyone could be so nasty. At first she thought maybe she didn't have a man and wasn't getting any, but then she saw the wedding band on her left hand.
Turns out this was Patty's 2nd encounter with this woman...the first time she came up complaining about something not ringing up right on her receipt, and Patty tried to look at the receipt but the bitch wouldn't let go and the receipt tore slightly. The woman went crazy and accused Patty of trying to rip up her receipt. She has threatened to have our other Team Leader's job, Patty's job, my job, accused Ron, our 2nd shift manager, of not showing compassion. She is a nutcase who gets off on threatening other people.
After the money order incident, Jennifer, Ron and Bridgette (GM manager who witnessed the whole thing) went to Karen and asked her to please ask the woman not to shop there anymore since she is so abusive to the employees. I haven't seen her in a few weeks so hopefully that means that Karen did so.
Postcript: I was putting on some lotion at bedtime and it said, "Melts away stress". I asked my husband if he thought if I poured it over the Evil Ice Queen's head she would melt away like the Wicked Witch of the West. Don' t you wish we could?
I was working at the Service Desk when this woman, who we have since dubbed the Evil Ice Queen, came up to the desk. She had a full blown attitude when she arrived and it only got worse.
SC: "do I understand that your store is completely out of ice?"
Me: "yes ma'am. Everyone' power is out and we sold out of ice a couple of hours ago. I'm not sure when Home City will bring us more ice."
SC:"Well, what about the ice under your seafood display?"
Me: "Ma'am, we can't sell that..it is considered contaminated."
SC: "No, you have to get that ice from somewhere." (yeah, if we had an icemaker it wouldn't have been making ice because our power was off!)
I started to pick up the phone to call the Grocery manager, but SC interrupted.
SC: "who is in charge of the store today?"
Me: "Karen is the store director and Jennifer is the Store Director in Charge>"
SC:"I want to speak to Karen!"
so I pick up the phone and call Karen, who is out on the Grocery floor with all the other management dealing with all the perishables that have to be thrown away because of being without power. She says she will be right up and I relay that info to the customer.
SC:" Can you tell me what direction she will be coming from?"
Me: "Our power just came back up 5 minutes ago and she is over in grocery dealing with the perishables."
SC: "No, tell me where her office is located, because I am sure that is where she is!"
Me: "Ma'am, her office is in the back in an area that is not accessible to customers, but I assure you that she is not there. She is out on the floor in grocery."
SC: "I said tell me where her office door is located...I'm sure that is where she is!"
so I pointed toward the back and tell her again that she can't go to Karen's office and that she isn't there anyway. She blows up!
SC: "You had better just adjust your attitude, Miss Nancy, because I am telling you right now that by God come Monday morning I AM reporting your butt and I will have your job!"
Me: "Ma'am, you need to calm down."
She goes stomping off toward the grocery side doors, and when I went past a few minutes later looking for a utility worker I see her talking to Jennifer, very irate. About 15 minutes later Jennifer calls me into the office and asks me if I told the customer that she needed to watch her butt! I told her the whole conversation and she said I should have called her instead of trying to handle the situation myself. I told her that at the point that it got nasty Karen had already been called so I didn't see the point in calling her too. Jennifer knew this woman and that she had a history of being abusive to the employees. She was upset because the bitch was going to go to corporate about it.
When I went out later to change out the gas station tills I find out that Karen had told the bitch to go out and get all the ice she wanted from the gas station for free! SC had been hateful to the three people out there too.
This all happened on Sunday...well on Thursday I was at the desk again and Jennifer came up and said, "Your little buddy is on the way up here...do me a favor and just switch places with Patty (who was Service Coordinator that night) and get out of sight. If she sees you again she will just go off on you and I don't want you to have to go thru that." So I went around the corner into the office, but not before Her Majesty had seen me.
Well, she proceeded to go off on Jennifer about me still working there, and Jennifer came in the office and asked me if I had called the woman "a butt". (interesting how it had gone from me supposedly telling her that she needed to watch her butt to just calling her a butt.). I told her no and she said she believed me and that I wouldn't get in trouble even if I had, because she was a butt!
Well, then SC tells Patty that she wants a money order, so Patty scans it into the register and tells her the amount. SC pulls out her debit card and swipes it thru the MSR. Patty tells her it is cash only and the bitch screams that she has "always used her debit card to get money orders". Not at our store...I have worked there 3 1/2 years and it has always been cash only for money orders and Western Union. Patty hits the payment key just to show her that it is cash only, which locks up the register (the only one of 3 at the Service Desk that we can cash payroll checks on) so it has to be rebooted. She finally leaves after 15-20 minutes and I go back out to help Patty get the lines down.
The customer behind her says that she doesn't understand how anyone could be so nasty. At first she thought maybe she didn't have a man and wasn't getting any, but then she saw the wedding band on her left hand.
Turns out this was Patty's 2nd encounter with this woman...the first time she came up complaining about something not ringing up right on her receipt, and Patty tried to look at the receipt but the bitch wouldn't let go and the receipt tore slightly. The woman went crazy and accused Patty of trying to rip up her receipt. She has threatened to have our other Team Leader's job, Patty's job, my job, accused Ron, our 2nd shift manager, of not showing compassion. She is a nutcase who gets off on threatening other people.
After the money order incident, Jennifer, Ron and Bridgette (GM manager who witnessed the whole thing) went to Karen and asked her to please ask the woman not to shop there anymore since she is so abusive to the employees. I haven't seen her in a few weeks so hopefully that means that Karen did so.
Postcript: I was putting on some lotion at bedtime and it said, "Melts away stress". I asked my husband if he thought if I poured it over the Evil Ice Queen's head she would melt away like the Wicked Witch of the West. Don' t you wish we could?
"The shift starts at 7 am and you cannot have a break because of all the customers that'll be here, and you cannot leave until 5 pm; make sure all of your duties are finished, and if a customer comes into your line when you're leaving, you'll have to work over to make sure the customer is properly taken care of...after all, the customer is always right." 
is all I can say.
rb
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