Open Another Freakin' Line!

[LadyAndreca]

Complain to their corporate offices.

I've mentioned the exact same problem to my own District Manager many times and all i got in return was being screamed at for not handling those situations properly.

Customer complaints are taken much more seriously.

Don't mention which store it was though because all that will happen is that the complaint will filter back down and the poor people working there will simply be punished.

The corporate jerks need to know that it's a problem with their set up, not with the employees.

Customer: "There's never any cashiers here! I want to complain!!"

Me: *pleading* "Please. Do it. There's a customer satisfaction survey on your receipt. Tell corporate what you just told me. They listen when customers complain. Maybe I'll get some help around here."

My survey completion numbers were very high for a while... Amazingly, it worked, too. Aside from unusually high numbers of callouts, we had more cashiers available in January than in December.

[XCashier]

Then again, everyone could just be really unreliable, and the cashier knew there wasn't a point in calling anyone up to help, as they wouldn't come.

True, but if the cashier calls someone and that someone doesn't come, the customers see this and know that the cashier tried. Then the blame is off her shoulders and onto management's.

[Broomjockey]

True, but if the cashier calls someone and that someone doesn't come, the customers see this and know that the cashier tried. Then the blame is off her shoulders and onto management's.

1. You assume that the customers pay attention to what the cashier does when the customer isn't at the till. Experience should tell us they don't pay attention to the cashier even when they're *at* the register.

2. You assume that people could understand any page the cashier gave. I can't understand 3/4 of the pages I hear in stores, so even if the cashier did page for help, a customer might never realize that's what it actually was.

3. You assume they'd blame the right person.

[XCashier]

Well, it usually works for me. The customers see me take the microphone and call for a second cashier, and no one comes, they usually say, "Well, at least you tried" or something similar.

That's all I'm saying. Make the call even if you know there's no one to back you up, so it'll look like you're trying. To the customer, appearance is everything.

[Kogarashi]

And then there's the store I worked at where the cashiers weren't allowed to make pages, even if the phone was right there and we knew the correct format and everything. Nooo, we had to ask a CSM. And no using the blinking light, either. We had to use the register to send it to the pager the CSMs never seemed to pay attention to.

And then I'd get yelled at by the CSM for blinking the light for them after more than half an hour of waiting for them to answer the pager, or for using the phone to call the fitting room to ask them to make the page (since I would've gotten written up for actually making a page, but the fitting room was allowed).

[Jay 2K Winger]

True, but if the cashier calls someone and that someone doesn't come, the customers see this and know that the cashier tried. Then the blame is off her shoulders and onto management's.

I can't even do this at the wholesale club. The registers don't have phones at them (the phones at the store are hooked up to the PA), and if the cashiers flick their registers' lights to blink-mode, that's all that happens. No tone rings out or anything to let the FLS or MOD know that they need help.

We're also not supposed to leave our registers to do the following:
~ go to the phone to page someone
~ go to the computer to look up at SKU
~ go get an empty cart to load the customers' items into
~ go summon a manager/FLS who is nearby but not responding to the blinking light.

That's what the rules state. Of course, in practice, we do that when necessary, unless the district manager or corporate or auditors are around.

And there have been cases where I HAVE asked the MOD if they could call a cashier back to the front-line to take some of the heavy customer load, and have been told "No" because said cashier is busy doing re-shops or something similar.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I had to run to the swamp yesterday to pick up a couple frying pans. By the time I arrived at the two open checkouts, the lines were backing up into girls already. I saw a couple people decide to skip the lines and head straight to the service desk to check out.

They did call for backup cashiers, because at the clearance swamp we value your time. Nobody came up to open a register. There just wasn't anybody available to do so. That's just what happens when staff is cut to the bone and it gets unexpectedly busy.

Last weekend was nuts. I'm so glad I only had to work one hour of it.

[Lace Neil Singer]

99.999% of the time more lanes can't be opened. That's probably why they didn't bother calling for backup.

Even in a case where other employees may be seen around the store they may not be able to work a cash register for various reasons.

It's a sucky situation.

At the supermarket, they actually have a maximum number of cashiers for different times of the day. In the early morning and late evening, they can only have about five tills open. In fact recently, there has been just one or two checkouts open on Wednesday and Saturday nights. This is due to scheduling snafus where for some reason, no-one at all is scheduled to work those shifts, and they have too many people working Friday and Monday. *face palm*