Tweet
First of all, Hi, newbie here who recently stumbled on the site, and have thus fallen in love with the forums. 
Now, I WAS going to go on about some of the general customer types I get working at a college bookstore, but tonight was hell. So, yes, I'm sharing the joys from tonight.
Now, we're in the middle of summer sessions, so it's a shorter turnaround time, and as a result, we've shortened the return dates. We're not going to give people a month to return books, when the classes themselves only last a month. Now, we've had people come in past the refund date (this last friday) and attempt to return books. We can't give them their money, but we offer to exchange it for the correct book if they have it. If they don't they can sell the textbooks back because we buy books back year round.
Here's hoping I've set the stage so far. On to tonight!
Episode 1
So, I had a gentlemen come in, saying he wanted to sell some books back. I agree to help him, go through the process, and upon first glance at the books, I see they look to be water damaged. I don't know how bad they are, so I have to look through them to see if they have any resell value. I'm thumbing through them and that's when I see the stains.
And the smell...
Someone (or something?) had urinated on the books. On all four of them.
After doing the "icky stinky shudder dance" I inform the guy we can't take his books back. They're too damaged. He starts screaming at me that I'm a liar, they're not damaged and I'm gonna take his G**D*** books and give him some F****** money because he did everything he was supposed to.
Manager came and talked to the guy while I ran to the bathroom to scrub my hands. And arms. And face for good measure. I don't know how Manager got him out of the store, but he did. And I Lysoled all of the counters, and febreezed the area for good measure. I swore I could still smell those books.
Episode 2
After the incident at the textbook counter, I had to cover the registers for the rest of the night until we closed. Now, we also offer, as an auxiliary service, an old copy machine for people to make copies on. They make their copies, we count them, and they pay at the registers when they're done. About 2 hours before we're supposed to close, a guy comes in, says he needs some copies and I direct him to the machine.
After making his copies, he tries to walk out without paying. I managed to get the copies before he does, and inform him, he has to pay. That's the policy. I had his copies in hand, and he was arguing with me, and I told him if he couldn't pay, we'd follow procedure and shred them at the end of the day.
Guy then proceeds to get in my face, rambling about how I didn't know how a woman should treat a real man, and he deserved better treatment. Not only that he was a customer, and my customer service sucked. Now, I had to give him his S**t and let him go. (This was a local bum, mind you, who reeked, didn't know what hygiene meant, and had hit me up for money in the Wendy's parking lot earlier today, without realizing it, by the way.)
While he's ranting, I've discreetly called my manager up to the registers because I don't get paid enough to deal with this kind of psycho BS. Manager comes up, opens his mouth to ask what's going on, while Guy is still babbling about my needing to learn how to treat real men.
The rant hits its peak with him screaming "NOW AIN'T I A REAL MAN, B*TCH?!" As he proceeds to drop trow and flash his dangly bits at me.
Ye gods, the image is STILL seared into my brain!!
Manager instructs me to call police, and informs Guy he's not allowed in the store again. Ever. Police come, take my statement, say they'll drive around the neighborhood and ask for a description to go by. I describe what he's wearing and mention he's probably easily identified by the face he didn't take time to tuck everything back in before he stormed out.
Petty of me, but I hope he got caught in his zipper.
All together now. I love retail.
No, really.
Anyone have any tequila. Mental floss? Anything!?!
Now, I WAS going to go on about some of the general customer types I get working at a college bookstore, but tonight was hell. So, yes, I'm sharing the joys from tonight.
Now, we're in the middle of summer sessions, so it's a shorter turnaround time, and as a result, we've shortened the return dates. We're not going to give people a month to return books, when the classes themselves only last a month. Now, we've had people come in past the refund date (this last friday) and attempt to return books. We can't give them their money, but we offer to exchange it for the correct book if they have it. If they don't they can sell the textbooks back because we buy books back year round.
Here's hoping I've set the stage so far. On to tonight!
Episode 1
So, I had a gentlemen come in, saying he wanted to sell some books back. I agree to help him, go through the process, and upon first glance at the books, I see they look to be water damaged. I don't know how bad they are, so I have to look through them to see if they have any resell value. I'm thumbing through them and that's when I see the stains.
And the smell...
Someone (or something?) had urinated on the books. On all four of them.
After doing the "icky stinky shudder dance" I inform the guy we can't take his books back. They're too damaged. He starts screaming at me that I'm a liar, they're not damaged and I'm gonna take his G**D*** books and give him some F****** money because he did everything he was supposed to.
Manager came and talked to the guy while I ran to the bathroom to scrub my hands. And arms. And face for good measure. I don't know how Manager got him out of the store, but he did. And I Lysoled all of the counters, and febreezed the area for good measure. I swore I could still smell those books.
Episode 2
After the incident at the textbook counter, I had to cover the registers for the rest of the night until we closed. Now, we also offer, as an auxiliary service, an old copy machine for people to make copies on. They make their copies, we count them, and they pay at the registers when they're done. About 2 hours before we're supposed to close, a guy comes in, says he needs some copies and I direct him to the machine.
After making his copies, he tries to walk out without paying. I managed to get the copies before he does, and inform him, he has to pay. That's the policy. I had his copies in hand, and he was arguing with me, and I told him if he couldn't pay, we'd follow procedure and shred them at the end of the day.
Guy then proceeds to get in my face, rambling about how I didn't know how a woman should treat a real man, and he deserved better treatment. Not only that he was a customer, and my customer service sucked. Now, I had to give him his S**t and let him go. (This was a local bum, mind you, who reeked, didn't know what hygiene meant, and had hit me up for money in the Wendy's parking lot earlier today, without realizing it, by the way.)
While he's ranting, I've discreetly called my manager up to the registers because I don't get paid enough to deal with this kind of psycho BS. Manager comes up, opens his mouth to ask what's going on, while Guy is still babbling about my needing to learn how to treat real men.
The rant hits its peak with him screaming "NOW AIN'T I A REAL MAN, B*TCH?!" As he proceeds to drop trow and flash his dangly bits at me.
Ye gods, the image is STILL seared into my brain!!
Manager instructs me to call police, and informs Guy he's not allowed in the store again. Ever. Police come, take my statement, say they'll drive around the neighborhood and ask for a description to go by. I describe what he's wearing and mention he's probably easily identified by the face he didn't take time to tuck everything back in before he stormed out.
Petty of me, but I hope he got caught in his zipper.
All together now. I love retail.
No, really.
Anyone have any tequila. Mental floss? Anything!?!
Welcome to Customers Suck! 
Comment