Cell phone store suck (I'm so very tempted to write a complaint letter...)

[Cazzi]

I rarely dress up... but don't tend to shop in upscale places much either, but..

Due to advance booking and a rail discount card I've got a very good deal on first class rail travel next week, saving almost £200 on the less than 2 hour journey to London & back

I'm so tempted to dig out my scruffiest clothes, to go with the backpack I normally travel with (easier than one of those dinky cases on wheels on the Tube) & slouch on the train just to annoy the "I never travel anywhere unless its first class" snobs

But, being me, I won't

[Chromatix]

I am seriously considering buying a 30-day all-line rail ticket over here, just so that I can see the country without spending an absolute fortune. Probably not first-class though.

[draco664]

If you've been with the one phone company for that long, call them up and ask if they have any deals for you. Phone companies often trot out pretty sweet deals if they think a long term customer is about to walk. (You may not be about to leave, but they don't need to know that)

[MrSmiley]

Back in the warmer months, I had been pricing out a computer. Unfortunately all the computer stores in the city I used to swear by have either shut down or shifted to business-oriented models (e.g. selling service contracts and IT support to small business rather than focusing on individual systems). Because of that, my first choice for buying a new system is a small store that I haven't had much experience with.

I visited their store about 3 different times while doing other errands, on some days being closer to "just buy the damn thing" thinking than I should have been. I had questions for the salesmen before I was willing to plunk down $1200-2000 based on the photocopied information about their computer specs. During those three trips, I probably spent about 3 hours in the shop. Not once did I get the help I was looking for. Though to be fair, there were plenty of other customers for a small business during most of those times. Even so, I waited, and tried to flag someone down... and got nowhere.

I don't think I looked "scruffier" than I usually do (and get helped at other stores). Though I think in at least one of those cases I was wearing my backpack. Maybe that flagged me as "poor highschool kid". Although since I'm pushing 30, that just makes me flattered.

Ended up buying the computer system from 2 provinces over online. I mean if I'm not going to get any human interaction, I might as well buy from a shop that comes recommended from people I know and has a better deal, even if it has to be shipped.

[wagegoth]

The area where I work is one of the wealthiest in the world (part of Silicon Valley). Everyone wears jeans. Store owners there know that the guy in the flip flops and baggy shorts could be the owner of a start-up with great funding or the tech officer of a major corporation.

But if you go across the Bay up to the nouveau riche hills, you will run into attitude. People there flaunt what they have (even if it's all on credit), and the store employees expect shoppers dressed nicely, if casually. I have been ignored so many times while shopping over there, that I won't even go any more.

[underemployeed]

My brother used to live in Flordia and wanted to buy a BMW. so when he went in he was ignored by 3 salesmen, even asked to get out of a vechile he was looking at so the guy could mvoe it for another customer. He called back and got the owner trying to found out the nearest dealership that wasn't owned by him because of the crappy treatment he got. Owner wanted him to come in and he would personaly take care of my brother. which he replied, well how many more of your employees are gonna ignore me for my lack of a suit before I get to you?

Along with owning an upsacle pizza joint and getting off work where his $100 shirt, and $150 pants not to mention watch and accesories may have look dingy and got crappy service at a resturant because he looked poor. The guy was lucky enough to get a good tip still because my brother wanted to prove the waiter he was wrong about the group of people that came in,

Me however, when I walk into a resterant with my gf and have a 2 for 1 coupon and order water becasue I'm driving and shouldnt' be drinking and trying to quit drinking pop after spending $1000 on having my wisdom tooth with a cavity removed. Well when I make crap for wages and you give me crappy service your tip is going to suck. Especially if you don't give me any of your time. When the yuppie couple behind me talking on blue tooth for half his meal got seated after me and got food before me. Your tip will suck. Especially when you get pissed I ask for a refill on water. When I use a coupon I for half off. i still tip on the full bill and usually at that point I go to at least 20%. however, when Im broke dont' expect $7 for 30 min of work when It takes me twice that time to make it,

[DemoDiva]

I work in a cell phone place, and if that shop is anything like ours, it probably wasn't intentional. Things can get very flurried and confused, and if someone is waiting patiently, that patience may be taken advantage of to avoid the potential suckery of those who are waving their arms and tapping their foot and being dicks.

And yeah, you have to wait, because it takes a while to deal with each customer. Lots of paperwork and records on the computer and copying and crap needs to be done.

But, really? I seriously don't think anybody would have judged you by your clothes. We get all sorts. Most people walk into the shop because they want to buy or are considering buying, not because they like the lights and beeping. If it's busy and you feel like you've been waiting too long, go and come back later when it's quieter. I know it's a pain in the ass, but so is working there when everybody wants your attention, and everybody wants to be first, and everybody just has "one quick question" that turns into an hour long sign up.

Advice, also -- I know it feels awkward to just stand at the counter where the register is, but if you just stay put there, you will not be missed. If that shop is anything like ours, all the consultants are thinking is, "Crap! She's been waiting for so long! How can I hurry this up?"

Someone should have acknowledged you, at least. In our store, it's policy to say "Won't be a moment," if you pass someone while you're helping someone else. But when I'm doing ten things at once and I am still learning the new system, which actually just crashed 15 minutes before you came in, and now we've got to re-enter all the previous orders, and those fucking kids are coming in to text on the display phones again and we have to keep an eye on them because a bunch of kids ripped off two phones last fortnight, and oh, god, she's waiting, why won't this order page just load, so I can send it to provisioning and get this cow out of here, but wait, did I remember to get the DOB off that last guy? Oh, crap, I don't think I did, I have to get that when I have ten seconds to make a phone call, and how long has it been? I thought that someone would have helped that group by now! Who came in first? Where's EFM right now, this is ridiculous...

It is hard work, just like every other retail job, and it gets really busy, and we get lots of people who want basic services which actually don't give us commissions. We can spend an hour and a half consolidating someone's account to give them the best deal and get zero commissions on it. We're not just zoning in on the "big money".

Okay, sorry. /end rant

Just wanted to put that out there.

[Pagan]

With the car dealers ignoring people who have lots o' money to spend, but don't necessarily look it:

One time, many moons ago, Dr. Roy Nakyama's (whom we have to thank for many of the lovely varieties of chile we have to eat) wife went into a local car dealer wearing, I believe, a sweatshirt and jeans. Got roundly ignored by the salesmen. She had cash in hand. Guess what dealership didn't make a sale that day!

If it's busy and you feel like you've been waiting too long, go and come back later when it's quieter.

But that's difficult for people who don't drive and have a bus to catch.

[Exaspera]

With the car dealers ignoring people who have lots o' money to spend, but don't necessarily look it:

One time, many moons ago, Dr. Roy Nakyama's (whom we have to thank for many of the lovely varieties of chile we have to eat) wife went into a local car dealer wearing, I believe, a sweatshirt and jeans. Got roundly ignored by the salesmen. She had cash in hand. Guess what dealership didn't make a sale that day!

I think this happened to Grace Slick in a Rolls dealership once. But that may be an Urban Myth.

A friend of ours owns 13 Jaguars, ALL in garages at his house. Went into the Jag dealer here to order parts and was told to use the back entrance as he was in the middle of working on one of them and was dirty.

We had our Jag Club Xmas party at his house 2 years ago. Was like being in Versailles.

[Magpie]

With the car dealers ignoring people who have lots o' money to spend, but don't necessarily look it:

One time, many moons ago, Dr. Roy Nakyama's (whom we have to thank for many of the lovely varieties of chile we have to eat) wife went into a local car dealer wearing, I believe, a sweatshirt and jeans. Got roundly ignored by the salesmen. She had cash in hand. Guess what dealership didn't make a sale that day!

Conservative Mennonites around here (dress like the Old Order ones, but are willing to buy things like cars) went to the dealer. Dealer makes the "plain folk, obviously poor" assumption and manages to convey that he'd be happier if said people went elsewhere. So the man went to another dealer to pay cash for three trucks using the money he had gotten from his injection moulding business. (I know, the dealer doesn't make a lot of money off someone paying cash, but they also take no risk).

[tollbaby]

I'm a big girl, kinda hard to miss!

This. I get ignored all the time in stores while pretty, skinny customers who came in after me are waited on hand and foot. Drives me crazy. Happened just the other day at a shoe store. Young, cute salesman ignores me completely while I'm waiting to ask him a question (I had said excuse me, he said he was finishing something up with the register and he'd be right with me). A young 18 or so year old girl, cute as a button and wearing hot pants, bounces up to the cash, asks a question and he takes off with her to find her the shoes she wants!

I don't care what the circumstance was... if she had been in earlier and was just coming back, he should have said something to me, but in any case, I didn't wait to find out what the reason was, I walked out of the store. *GRRRRR* I am working VERY hard to lose weight (my facebook friends see me whining every night about the treadmill being my evil overlord), and it really burns my ass to be discriminated against due to my weight.

Sorry, pet peeve... I got a little ranty *blush*

[PepperElf]

and here i thought that full cash was something they like.
cos one guy had told me he got the car he wanted for less than flat rate (even though he had a lot of bells & whistles on it) because he paid in cash

and slightly off topic, but the reports of famous or rich people being ignored for not having the "right" look reminds me of a story someone told me. (not sure if it's true though).... that a stage production of The King and I was underway and a dark skinned man with a good head of hair decided to audition for the part of the King. The director turned him down and said he just wasn't "a Yul Brenner type". Apparently the director later found out that... yeah, it was Yul Brenner (he just hadn't shaved his head recently).



as for people ignoring you when you shop... that doesn't happen to me much. but i did have shipmates who reported it happening to them in the middle east for some stores. they had to have men speak for them instead. (well jewelry stores at least)

[Whiskey]

Only to get ignored for "better" looking customers

I can't tell you how often this happens to me. I'm not known for my flashy dress-up nature. A white t-shirt, a bandana over my head and a pair of jeans is good for me (female). Naturally, I look less than.. profitable. One thing I'm known for in my happy circle of friends is my spending. If I see something I really want, I'll drop money on it no problem. I have zero issue with spending a grand in a store in a single session just because.

I've been ignored at Macys, in their perfume dept, while they kept helping the older crowd instead of me. I went to "purfume corner", which is a little store that sells EVERYTHING, and spent about four hundred dollars on perfume because I was bored. And I love cute perfume bottles :3

I'm often ignored at the MAC counter (makeup) because I dont really wear make up out. I own a good $600+ worth of makeup from them, and have a tendency to drop by and pick up a hundred or so of more stuff. I used to have a regular girl I'd shop with because she gave me the time of day. She got every commission and if she wasn't there I'd leave and try again. She doesn't work near me anymore

My friend, who looks exceptionally poor, went to go find a ring to represent her lost fiancée. She went to three stores before a sales person would pay attention to her. She spent over three grand in that one hour she was in the store.

I don't shop at best buy for a reason. The employees (at my local) are extremely sexist. I build computers for fun/for friends so I'm relatively decent working around them. I needed a, albeit, fairly rare part but I thought they might have it. When I called down to see if it was carried I was told (in the nicest, sweetest tone ) that not only did they not carry the part, but it didn't even exist. When I asked, if it doesnt exist then why is it on Walmart.com, Amazon.com and Target.com?, he sputtered that they just don't carry it and hung up on me.

So far, friends have financed me to build a couple grand worth of computers. I just buy online now.

[Chromatix]

I dress like a geek. Fortunately, that doesn't give me any trouble in computer shops.

[smileyeagle1021]

With the car dealers ignoring people who have lots o' money to spend, but don't necessarily look it:

One time, many moons ago, Dr. Roy Nakyama's (whom we have to thank for many of the lovely varieties of chile we have to eat) wife went into a local car dealer wearing, I believe, a sweatshirt and jeans. Got roundly ignored by the salesmen. She had cash in hand. Guess what dealership didn't make a sale that day!

I was talking to a manager at a dealership in Utah while I was waiting for my car to be repaired... he was telling me about how he started out as a sales person in a now out of business dealership that sold relatively high end cars. A guy came in a really crappy beat up truck and dirty clothes and every sales person but him ignored the guy. He went over to talk to the guy who asked to test drive the most expensive car on the lot... well they go on the test drive, the guy says he'll take it. They go back to the office, the guy unlocks his truck and hands over a cashiers check for $30k (the car had an MSRP of like 31500 or something like that) and said "will this cover it", oh and deliver to this address and wrote down his address... it turned out that guy owned a huge farm of some sort and he was driving the beat up truck and dirty clothes because he had told his wife that he had to go into fix something and no one else could be reached because he didn't want her to know that he was going to buy her a car for his birthday. Later that week he showed up to buy 5 new trucks and insisted on using the same sales guy. In just over a week that manager made something like $2,500 in commission, and this was back in the 80s.