REASONS YOU SHOULD BE FIRED

[STEELMAN]

I was wondering what great reasons to be fired some of you may have. I delivered a pizza to a guy once and he asked if I had some crushed red pepper. I told him sorry but I didn't. After I left he called the manager and told him that he wanted me fired. When the manager told him that he couldn't because it is not a requirement that we carry peppers, he said, Well I just get bad service then. Do these people even think about what they are saying? What if he got his way and that was my only source of income. I guess I should starve because he forgot to ask for peppers when he placed his order.

[Triscuitty]

Oh, my job was "threatened" multiple times because I had the nerve to ask people for their ID for their alcohol/cigarette purchase. Or because I wouldn't let them pay for that beer/cigarettes with their food stamps.

[Sheldonrs]

My mouth tends to work faster than my brain so whenever someone threatened to get me fired my auto-response was always "If someone like you can get me fired, the jobs not worth having". It hasn't happened in a long time and fortunately, it was at jobs where the bosses backed the employees.

[bainsidhe]

Or because I wouldn't let them pay for that beer/cigarettes with their food stamps.

Around here you can use your card to purchase cigs or alcohol There is a "cash" function on the cards that allows you to put it towards something other than food. Now some people try to get cash back and then buy alcohol on a separate transaction. Others swipe the card and use it TOWARDS their smoky/liquidy treats. I've always wondered if our state has a way to know if/when someone does that.

Now before this thread devolves into incoherant ranting about the less fortunate, let me say the vast majority of people using the cash feature on their cards really are buying things like cleaning supplies or clothes for their kids.

And back on topic, I've had an occasional customer tell management that I should be fired (along with my coworkers, natch) because we wouldn't let the EW get their way. Marking something for an outrageously low price when it clearly isn't on sale, for example.

[STEELMAN]

It just boggles my mind that people actually call management and try to have people fired for piddly stuff like this.

[Bright_Star]

That some people think you ought to be fired just on their say so boggles my mind. How self important do you think you have to be to threaten to fire somebody?

[Triscuitty]

Around here you can use your card to purchase cigs or alcohol There is a "cash" function on the cards that allows you to put it towards something other than food. Now some people try to get cash back and then buy alcohol on a separate transaction. Others swipe the card and use it TOWARDS their smoky/liquidy treats. I've always wondered if our state has a way to know if/when someone does that.

Yeah, our state's foodstamp program has the same thing, benefits food only, and "cash" for non-food. Typically when someone handed me a food card for beer/cigarettes I'd try to run it as "cash" without even asking, then when the system tells me they don't HAVE cash on the card, is when they get pissy and threaten my job.

Adding to that, people would get mad at me when their credit/debit cards got declined. Like it's MY fault you drained your bank account/maxed out your credit card and now can't use it?

[Whyme]

SC's have sworn to get me fired for :

1. Asking them for ID with their alcohol purchase (store policy).

2. Refusing a return on items XX years old with no warranty. Sorry, buddy, but coffeemakers do eventually fail after 8 years. It's an appliance, they all eventually die.

3. Refusing to cash a paycheck when customer had no ID (one time the manager decided to cash it anyway to get customer to shut up )

4. Refusing to agree with customer that the self checks shouldn't have a Spanish speaking option.

5. A man who thought was I accusing him of stealing. All I said was "excuse me, sir? I think you forgot about the beer can in your pocket." as he was leaving my register and I saw it sticking out of his pocket.

For some reason I feel I'm missing a few, but those stand out to me. Probably because most of them still happen quite frequently. All except #4 I followed store policy on. It amuses me that customers want to call corporate to complain about me following the company's posted rules. I'm convinced I work in a "special" area of town.

[bainsidhe]

Adding to that, people would get mad at me when their credit/debit cards got declined. Like it's MY fault you drained your bank account/maxed out your credit card and now can't use it?

That's a whole 'nother rant right there. Until I started retail, I would've been sympathetic to the above reaction. Now I've grown cynical and angry. What really gets me though, is the multitude of people whose card gets declined, they blink and then just pull out another card. I mean, it happens constantly so I really worry about our country's increasing personal debt

[Forensic Waitress]

There were two retail shops in the city within close proximity of each other. This women came to the wrong one, my one. When informed that we did not have a hold that she was looking for she threatened to have us all fired for not doing our job properly. We rang the other store to see if they had what she was looking for. We were informed that she had called half an hour earlier and that her hold was there. She stuttered and still said that our manager would be informed of our terrible service. We got a good chuckle out of it.

[StevieJD]

I liked bosses that stood up for me.

Hopefully you know the type.

Let's see. Pizza delivered. Did his job. Thankyou for calling, I will be sure to nominate him for employee of the month and give him a raise.

It just leaves the SC kinda of speechless.

[Lingering Grin]

That's a whole 'nother rant right there. Until I started retail, I would've been sympathetic to the above reaction. Now I've grown cynical and angry. What really gets me though, is the multitude of people whose card gets declined, they blink and then just pull out another card. I mean, it happens constantly so I really worry about our country's increasing personal debt

I've done that, but it wasn't because I didn't HAVE the money, it was because the card was scratched as hell. So, if I went someplace, I'd try to use my debit card, if it said declined I'd just pull out my credit card so I wouldn't have to stand there and try to get the debit card to read for 10 minutes.

[edible_hat]

5. A man who thought was I accusing him of stealing. All I said was "excuse me, sir? I think you forgot about the beer can in your pocket." as he was leaving my register and I saw it sticking out of his pocket.

Sounds more like a man who got pissed off that you caught him stealing to me.

I once had a drunk teenager making threats at me after we caught him shoplifting. Two days later he came back with his parents who made him apologize.

[luckythegiraffe]

Years ago, when I was working overnight shifts at a McDonald's, I had a very irate woman carefully write down my first name and announce that she was going to have my job for this. I don't recall exactly why, I know it was irrational and related to me having an "attitude" with her. I do recall telling her, "Oh no, I'll never find another crappy minimum wage job!" and shutting the window with more force than was strictly necessary. Never heard anything else about it, so either she didn't call or the manager did not tell me about it if she did.

[aurelemsrealm]

It's been my experience when customers have threatened to complain on me over stupid crap that I never hear anything except maybe laughter from higher up about it later. In fact, there were a couple of occasions on which I was rewarded as a result of the call.

The most common stupid complaint was about carding for beer or cigarette purchases REGARDLESS OF AGE. We get less complaints on that topic now that the policy has been amended to just beer regardless of age, and cigarettes at the clerk's discretion. Another common stupid complaint was when our company temporarily decided to require customers to prepay for gas after a rash of drive-offs when the price jumped way above normal for a bit last year.

For one of my more bizarre issues at work..... I even had a guy try to complain, "but he wasn't mad (his words)," that I called police on him "unnecessarily (again, his words)" when he drove off with gas and was caught by them down the road. I ended up getting a $10 gift card from management over that incident. He claimed that he intended to come pay for it later. His sister had been manager of the store when I was first hired a couple of years ago. She since left the company to work as a manager for another local c-store chain. So, he told police that he knew me, and figured I would understand. Yeah, of course I knew him, and that's why I called police. Funny side note was that his sister, our former store manager, apparently bitched him out big time when she heard about it because he frequently borrows her car while she's working. She was apparently quite furious with him over his little stunt, and threatened his life if he pulled a stunt like that while driving her car. To make a long story short, he's a worthless mooch who'd steal anything that's not bolted down. Everyone who knows him knows that. His sister had to constantly pay for his "purchases" when she was store manager at my store.