Dear Abby, you've never worked in retail, have you?

[Pixilated]

Second letter down

MOD EDIT: Letter is from a retail worker grousing about people not respecting posted business hours, and Dear Abby chastising the letter-writer for not remembering proper customer service.

[fma_fanatic]

How long before someone calls her on her answer?

[PepperElf]

yeah. "remind" a customer. apparently she's never seen the EWsaurus that some of those people turn into when you tell them "no".

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

The letter in question is for the Feb. 4 Dear Abby so if you follow the link in OP, you'll have to click back a page to see the right one.

[Moirae]

lol. Yeah well, I sent the dear abby people a nasty email. I bet it won't be printed, but wow are they ever ignorant. What right do they have to talk about customer service when it's obvious they have never done it a day in their lives?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Not to mention the fact that we, the retail drones, will get FUCK ALL for bending the rules for a customer. I never let a customer in after closing time for the simple reason that I don't work for free and I won't get paid if I work past my quitting time. Maybe Abby ought to try working in retail before she shoots her mouth off about "good customer service".

[BookstoreEscapee]

If you really wanna get your blood pressure up, read the comments on the Yahoo page.

[Dave1982]

<MOD HAT>

The letter in question is for the Feb. 4 Dear Abby so if you follow the link in OP, you'll have to click back a page to see the right one.

I fixed it. It would be better to use the report button for these sorts of things, that way they can be fixed. Thankfully, another member *did* report it.

</MOD HAT>

I've never been a fan of Dear Abby but this response was especially foolish. Clearly "Abby" wasn't thinking when she wrote this.

[lordlundar]

Not the first time she's done this. She does believe that retail/service workers aren't living people.

[KatherineB]

Not to mention the fact that we, the retail drones, will get FUCK ALL for bending the rules for a customer. I never let a customer in after closing time for the simple reason that I don't work for free and I won't get paid if I work past my quitting time. Maybe Abby ought to try working in retail before she shoots her mouth off about "good customer service".

While I agree wholeheartedly with your argument, I'm surprised it didn't occur to Abby (who clearly doesn't care at all about the retail drones) the possible insurance problems a store has if someone is injured inside it during times when customers are not meant to be there.

[Pixilated]

There are also places that must set their alarm systems at a specific time after the closing hour -- I believe the famous coffee chain is one of them. How is the employee supposed to explain to the boss that they didn't set the alarm (possibly causing a different alarm to go off, resulting in a lot of emergency personnel showing up) because a couple of customers didn't want to leave?

Yeah, I don't like this Dear Abby. Her mom was a much more practical person, IIRC. I don't remember if it was Dear Abby or Dear Ann Landers, but I do remember at least one of them used to print letters that critiqued their responses. I've never seen this one do that.

[BookstoreEscapee]

There are also places that must set their alarm systems at a specific time after the closing hour

Yeah, B&N has to set the alarm by a certain time; not sure how long after closing it is but we were generally scheduled for half an hour after the store closed, and there was some window of time after that before it had to be set. They had to notify the alarm company of things like inventory or carpet cleaning when people would be working overnight, and if something unexpected came up and people ended up staying late they would have to call and let them know.


A lot of the Yahoo comments seem to be assuming that all retail establishments are locally-owned small businesses; they don't think of the fact that most retail workers don't have any control over things like closing times and overtime pay (or lack thereof).

[Food Lady]

There are also places that must set their alarm systems at a specific time after the closing hour -- I believe the famous coffee chain is one of them. How is the employee supposed to explain to the boss that they didn't set the alarm (possibly causing a different alarm to go off, resulting in a lot of emergency personnel showing up) because a couple of customers didn't want to leave?

Yeah, I don't like this Dear Abby. Her mom was a much more practical person, IIRC. I don't remember if it was Dear Abby or Dear Ann Landers, but I do remember at least one of them used to print letters that critiqued their responses. I've never seen this one do that.

It was Ann. She and Abby are sisters, IIRC. I like Ann because she was humble enough to say she'd given bad advice.

[Lace Neil Singer]

To my mind, only good customers deserve good customer service. A customer who tries to get in after closing time or who won't leave is not a good customer.

[dalesys]

John Prine on Dear Abby, v1.0