Impatient customer

[snugglegirl05]

This incident happened yesterday.

I was waiting for the bagger to finish bagging the groceries for a customer of mine who had just paid for her groceries when the customer behind her asked me if I could scan her rewards card.

The problem with that is when you scan it the clock starts running, which means that I have to also scan her groceries while the bagger is still bagging my previous customer's groceries.

So I told the customer that, and she said "I am in a hurry." So I looked at the bagger and told her "you will have to ask her because she is still bagging the other customer's groceries."

I could tell by the look on her face that she was not happy. Oh well.

So once she was finished bagging the previous customer's groceries, I scanned her rewards card and began scanning her small order of groceries.

She told the bagger that she was in a hurry. The bagger apologized.

She still was not happy when she left. Oh well.

If she complains about this, I wonder what she would say as well as what her response will be.

[Pixelated]

"Then maybe you should go shopping when you're NOT in a hurry."

Or, you know, insist that the store's management change the entire electronics system around so people like you can get your rewards card scanned whenever you feel like it ... heck, right in the middle of the cashier's checking out another customer's goods! Because, of course, you're "in a hurry."

Unless somebody's robbing the place and the getaway car's waiting out front, they can't be in all that much of a hurry.

[Slave to the Phone]

Shopping for anything always takes longer than most people think. This is because in their minds they just went into the store, grabbed a few things, then stood in a long line to be rung out because their cashier is just wasting time getting someone else's groceries taken care of.

They forget the time it took to park their car and walk into the store. If they are in a grocery store, they forget that those things are HUGE and designed to make one walk around seeing other things while getting a few non-related items.

And, they forget about the time that it took them to choose just the right flavor of cat food after reading the ingredients, they forget the time it took for them to pick between the store brand and they while they do remember all those people who blocked them in the aisle, they forget that every time they had to walk around, stop or say excuse me/move carts takes precious seconds from their "I'm only going to get a few things, it will only take 10 minutes" stopwatch in their mind that started from the time they turned into the parking lot.

Gosh, do I maybe sound jaded and like someone who has lost hope for humanity? If so, maybe that's because working CS will do that to you.

[EricKei]

"Say, lady, you DO realize that you'll still have to wait for her to bag all of the prior customers' stuff first, right? We want to make sure your items don't get confused, and end up in someone else's basket."

[CyberLurch]

"Say, lady, you DO realize that you'll still have to wait for her to bag all of the prior customers' stuff first, right? We want to make sure your items don't get confused, and end up in someone else's basket."

Your mistake here is assuming the customer will yield to logic and reason. Those concepts are alien and utterly irrelevant to a customer. In fact, saying this will only aggravate the customer more. "How DARE you expect me to listen to reason!? WHERE'S YOUR MANAGER?!!!!?? I'm going to spend another hour here making a gigantic deal out of this minor inconvenience even though I'm in a hurry!"

[EricKei]

Heh. Really more a combination of incredulity and delaying to buy the bagger some time. In such a situation, I'd love to just pass any stuff she pushed forward over the scanner and let the bagger give it to the prior customer, while having SC still pay for it anyway. One can dream, can't one?