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This is not really a sucky customer story, but still does involve what I would consider to be general sucktitude. Before I get into the actual story, here is a little background information. There is this one family that lives near the store. I don't know how they are all related or tied together, but I know they at least travel in a pack when they visit the store. It's common to see these people several times a shift buying assorted junk. I have no particular problems with them although they can become whiney and annoying on occasion. Even then, I can generally block out all their nonsense with no problem. So, they are not among my favorite customers, but I can tolerate them. My usual thought when I spot them is that I could certainly find better things to do with my time and money than frequent the neighborhood convenience store to buy junk food, cigarettes, beer, or other assorted junk when I have time and money to spare. The other thing I know about this family is that they are distantly related to my manager. There are one or two of them that she will talk to when they visit, but she has mentioned that the rest of them get on her nerves because they always want something.
So, one of the guys from this group comes in to buy some prepaid cell phone minutes and some other junk. I punch in the options for the cell phone minutes since that machine tends to run slow, then proceed to ring up his other stuff while waiting on the activation code to print out so I can scan it into the register. As I'm going about the task at hand, he starts telling me the sob story about how he's buying the cell phone minutes for his girlfriend, and that she never appreciates anything he does for her. Having seen this family of customers in my time working at the store, I'm not really surprised. My opinion of her is that she is a freeloader who only befriends someone so long as she can use them to her advantage. She's just someone that I would not choose to associate with outside of the customer-clerk setting. That's my honest opinion of most of this family based on what I've seen of them in my time working at the store. The guy continues whining and complaining about how this girl never appreciates him or the things he does for her, but I can't bring myself to sympathize with him so much as pity him because he's married to another woman. It's that type of pity you feel for people who get themselves into stupid situations that could be avoided if they just used a little common sense.
The guy then tells me that he "guesses" he brought it on himself since he's married and cheating on his wife with her. Well, duh, that's one of the smartest things I've ever heard anyone in that family say. I already knew about it because my manager has mentioned it since she knows them. Also, one of the girlfriend's sisters (who is one of the few members of that family who doesn't annoy me) was complaining about them because they were driving her nuts by acting stupid since he's married and having an affair with her sister.
Okay, so what do you say when someone you barely know confesses some mess of a life like that to you? I didn't say much of anything. It's not my business, and I don't really care. I only know about it because others have told me. I since just disregarded it as irrelevant to me until last night when I saw this guy with a woman who I'm guessing might be his wife.
So, flash forward to last night, my wife and I are grocery shopping at one of the local Wal-Marts. We are heading out to the car with our cart of groceries. There is a woman walking ahead of us pushing one cart in front of her and pulling another cart behind her. She manages to drag the cart she was pulling off to the side, and leaves it. She pushes the one cart out. We hear muffled yelling coming from outside the door somewhere. The woman now walks backward into the store dragging the cart she was pushing, and grabs the other cart to pull it outside. My wife and I exchange puzzled looks and shrug as we watch this woman figure out what she is doing. We can hear muffled yelling from outside the door, but since it's night, we can't see. The woman finally gets her carts outside. We walk out the doors. She is wrangling the carts to a van parked in the fire lane, and some man is yelling at her from inside the van, "What is it with you?"
He pops out of the side passenger door, and guess who it is. I recognized him, and just roll my eyes as my wife and I keep walking out to our car. My wife utters a chuckle that is mostly puzzlement, "Wow... that was something."
I just shake my head, "Yeah, I recognize that guy, and if it's what I think it is, that's one of those long stories. To make it short, one of my many retarded customers at work."
"Oh...." She understands that it's not a good story.
So, on the way to the car, I tell her about the customer's confession incident I mentioned above, and explained that the guy in the van was the guy I mentioned.
I also told her it made me glad that we have the dynamic we have in our marriage when I think of unstable people like that. She just laughed in agreement.
Sorry if this story is confusing since there is a backstory and a time jump. There are times that I really wonder about people, especially when dealing with some customers and coworkers. I seem to know a lot of people who put themselves in the middle of a bunch of needless drama, and then whine and complain about it. I have one coworker who constantly complains about her boyfriend having drug problems and blowing all of their combined money on his habit. She even said she had him thrown in jail once because he hit her during one of their many arguments. After that she said she was done with him for good. As soon as he was released from jail, she got back together with him. Once again, she constantly complains about him, but yet it seems that she is willing to stay with him. It's her business if she wants to stay with him. However, if she really feels that he is the no good low life that she always says he is, why did she go back to him? I just don't understand why people stay in such miserable situations. Anytime I felt that someone was being a drain on me, I simply got away from them and told them to stay away from me. That was always the end of it for me because I did whatever I felt was necessary to make my point clear that I was done with it. I just don't get it.
So, one of the guys from this group comes in to buy some prepaid cell phone minutes and some other junk. I punch in the options for the cell phone minutes since that machine tends to run slow, then proceed to ring up his other stuff while waiting on the activation code to print out so I can scan it into the register. As I'm going about the task at hand, he starts telling me the sob story about how he's buying the cell phone minutes for his girlfriend, and that she never appreciates anything he does for her. Having seen this family of customers in my time working at the store, I'm not really surprised. My opinion of her is that she is a freeloader who only befriends someone so long as she can use them to her advantage. She's just someone that I would not choose to associate with outside of the customer-clerk setting. That's my honest opinion of most of this family based on what I've seen of them in my time working at the store. The guy continues whining and complaining about how this girl never appreciates him or the things he does for her, but I can't bring myself to sympathize with him so much as pity him because he's married to another woman. It's that type of pity you feel for people who get themselves into stupid situations that could be avoided if they just used a little common sense.
The guy then tells me that he "guesses" he brought it on himself since he's married and cheating on his wife with her. Well, duh, that's one of the smartest things I've ever heard anyone in that family say. I already knew about it because my manager has mentioned it since she knows them. Also, one of the girlfriend's sisters (who is one of the few members of that family who doesn't annoy me) was complaining about them because they were driving her nuts by acting stupid since he's married and having an affair with her sister.
Okay, so what do you say when someone you barely know confesses some mess of a life like that to you? I didn't say much of anything. It's not my business, and I don't really care. I only know about it because others have told me. I since just disregarded it as irrelevant to me until last night when I saw this guy with a woman who I'm guessing might be his wife.
So, flash forward to last night, my wife and I are grocery shopping at one of the local Wal-Marts. We are heading out to the car with our cart of groceries. There is a woman walking ahead of us pushing one cart in front of her and pulling another cart behind her. She manages to drag the cart she was pulling off to the side, and leaves it. She pushes the one cart out. We hear muffled yelling coming from outside the door somewhere. The woman now walks backward into the store dragging the cart she was pushing, and grabs the other cart to pull it outside. My wife and I exchange puzzled looks and shrug as we watch this woman figure out what she is doing. We can hear muffled yelling from outside the door, but since it's night, we can't see. The woman finally gets her carts outside. We walk out the doors. She is wrangling the carts to a van parked in the fire lane, and some man is yelling at her from inside the van, "What is it with you?"
He pops out of the side passenger door, and guess who it is. I recognized him, and just roll my eyes as my wife and I keep walking out to our car. My wife utters a chuckle that is mostly puzzlement, "Wow... that was something."
I just shake my head, "Yeah, I recognize that guy, and if it's what I think it is, that's one of those long stories. To make it short, one of my many retarded customers at work."
"Oh...." She understands that it's not a good story.
So, on the way to the car, I tell her about the customer's confession incident I mentioned above, and explained that the guy in the van was the guy I mentioned.
I also told her it made me glad that we have the dynamic we have in our marriage when I think of unstable people like that. She just laughed in agreement.
Sorry if this story is confusing since there is a backstory and a time jump. There are times that I really wonder about people, especially when dealing with some customers and coworkers. I seem to know a lot of people who put themselves in the middle of a bunch of needless drama, and then whine and complain about it. I have one coworker who constantly complains about her boyfriend having drug problems and blowing all of their combined money on his habit. She even said she had him thrown in jail once because he hit her during one of their many arguments. After that she said she was done with him for good. As soon as he was released from jail, she got back together with him. Once again, she constantly complains about him, but yet it seems that she is willing to stay with him. It's her business if she wants to stay with him. However, if she really feels that he is the no good low life that she always says he is, why did she go back to him? I just don't understand why people stay in such miserable situations. Anytime I felt that someone was being a drain on me, I simply got away from them and told them to stay away from me. That was always the end of it for me because I did whatever I felt was necessary to make my point clear that I was done with it. I just don't get it.
). i would have broken up with him sooner but i thought being in a crappy relationship was better than being alone but after that alone looked pretty damn good. i ended up moving a month later. he was still wanting to get back together. i never told him i moved, so i told him to stop by my house and we'll chat. i wish i could have seen the look on his dumbass face when the new tenants opened the door. 
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