Thanks to all the Customers Suck members...

[mrsdeb]

...for helping me be a better customer.

I don't work in retail, never have, and it's been a real eye-opener reading what sort of jerk customers you have to deal with. I used to think, "They're making that up! That NEVER happened!" but the more I keep my eyes and ears open when out in the world, the more I actually see that sort of thing going on.

Yesterday I was at the grocery store - unloaded my entire cart behind a guy who was halfway through his order - when he went to pay, he screwed up his PIN. He bitched. Decided to run his card as credit - it wasn't signed, and he didn't have an ID. He bitched more. Decided to walk out to his car and see if his ID was in there. (Who doesn't carry their ID and their bank card in the same place? It wasn't like he didn't have pockets for his wallet.) He strolled away nonchalantly.

The cashier turned to me with the most...upset...look on her face and started apologizing profusely. Turned on her flashing light and the manager rushed over. And all I could think of was, is she really expecting me to snap and bitch? Over something that's not her fault at all? "Don't worry," I said, "I don't have anywhere to be for four hours, and it's air conditioned in here. I don't mind waiting."

Honestly, the looks of relief were almost comical. So we chatted about the weather and Bike Week and our husbands and such like for a few minutes.

The guy came back and thrust his ID at her with a snarl and I thought, "Really? For something that was your own fault, you're giving her a hard time?"

And I was out of there maybe 10 minutes later than I had originally thought. No big deal in the grand scheme of things.

So - this is to thank all of you for your stories. They've really helped me learn to interact in a way that hopefully makes your jobs easier.

Back to lurking now.

[drews]

here here mrsdeb, I have been lurking for a long time and this site has opened my eyes. It is amazing how mean and stupid people can be...

[thehuckster]

People used to find my stories dubious as well. One thing to note is the vast majority of customers are reasonable, but when you're dealing with hundreds of them per day, the law of averages comes into play and that 0.1% of SCs will come in to make your life miserable. I averaged about one really story-telling quality SC a week working part time at CVS back in the day.

I also distinguished between SCs and "normal customers". SCs will make your life hell until you either give them what they want, however unreasonable it is, or threaten to call security. They will make a scene, bitch, scream, insult you personally, threaten you with violence, and do everything to make some people think that customer was having a bath-salts trip.

Normal customers can be "sucky" but IMO comes with the job. They are the ones who might spend extra time looking for spare change so they don't dare get a nickel back (They'll often repeat "I hate change!" over and over again as they search their entire purse and pockets for that extra dime) and don't care about the line of people behind them. There are also the common customers who don't notice you just spent 15 minutes straightening out a table of clothes and proceeds to demolish it to look for their size. Plus, there's the "normal customer" who thinks the back of your store leads to Narnia and you can find anything they are looking for, even if we stopped stocking it 6 months ago and have long since cleared them out.

Those normal customers, in many ways, are SCs, but because they don't yell and scream at you they don't invoke the same emotional trauma as the 0.1% SCs who make a public display out of their anger and frustration, and drag everyone around them down to their state of mind.

I think the biggest thing that truly makes an SC an SC is they don't care that it's not your fault. Computer glitches, time constraints, corporate decisions, and limitations in the laws of physics all could explain the reason we can't do what they want, but they'll still proceed to ream you for it. That was the biggest source of frustration for me. If I personally made a terrible mistake through negligence and inconvenienced you through my own fault, then by all means express your anger, but if I scan something and it's the wrong price, or if I can't accept an expired coupon, or if something is out of stock, making me feel miserable for it doesn't solve the problem one bit. It just makes you a complete asshole.

[Food Lady]

mrsdeb, your post made me cry because I appreciate customers like you. Please don't lurk; post sightings and let us know you're around. And I'm amazed at someone who's never worked retail, if only 'cause I've done service industry for 20 years.