Customer Called Police on Coworker

[purplecat41877]

The other day, after I left, some customers came in when the store was closing. The closing bagger told the customers that the store was closing and they ignored him. Later on, one customer got offended when the bagger told her that she needed to leave since the store was closed and the customer ended up calling the police. She accused the bagger of doing things he wouldn't do. The bagger got to tell his side of the story to the police and it turned out that customer was a crazy lady. The bagger is supposed to have a meeting about it this morning.

[draftermatt]

Let me guess, he'll get fired for making a "customer" leave.

I hope it doesn't turn out that way though.

[karma_gypsy]

Let me guess, he'll get fired for making a "customer" leave.

I hope it doesn't turn out that way though.

Unfortunately, it may. Although she is touched in the head, hopefully he'll get to keep his job. Let's just hope crazy lady doesn't come back in!

I never like it when people come in last minute, granted most are just there to wander, but we've got to put away jewelry and firearms and can't do this until all customers are out of the store. Well, we have two doors the customer can exit/enter, we usually lock the front door and then customers can exit (but not enter) through the side door. I just walk up to them and tell them the front door is being locked because we are closing and they can exit through the side door.

Usually they're just like, "oh! sorry!" and scurry out the side door. I have had a few though that'll just ignore us and keep looking (have a whole crew waitin on this one person). Usually we send in the co-worker who's not afraid to be an ass (yet still charismatic at the same time) to basically get them to leave.

[powerboy]

At my current job, only once, did I have to tell someone that we were closing. All I did was, because the register is off, I said, that It will take anywhere between 5 - 15 minutes to turn the register on. And that is because I have to call the Alarm company, and this other BS, that I made up. Hell, I was tired that day.

[DesignFox]

Bottom line is- you just can't be THAT nice.

At my very first retail job, I worked in a portrait studio that was in a bigger store. So only one person ran the studio (unless it was christmas or a busy weekend, then there would be 2 people). I learned that you pretty much HAVE to kick people out when you are ready to close. When I first started I was super nice, always helped everyone even if it was close to my break/closing time. I did anything for people. After awhile I realized that all my niceness got me was taken advantage of. I didn't get lunch breaks and half the time ended up leaving 1-2 hours past my scheduled shift.
You just can't be nice- people take it way too far- you stay for one person 5 mins past close, someone else walks up...and it just keeps going! After about a month or two of being shat on, I just started kicking people out. One chick came up to my register at 7:02 (we closed at 7) and asked me if she could pick up her photos. I explained to her that I had already shut my system down and was just waiting for end of day to finish running (we could not deliver photos without running it through the system anyway, which I also explained). She tried to argue with me that her watch said it was 6:58 so I had to give her her pictures. I looked her square in the eye and with no hesitation blurted, "Well, it's 7:02 by my clock, and that means I'm closed!" She stalked off in a huff. I never liked being like that...but I never liked staying til 9 pm when I should have gone home at 7- only for the customer to be totally ungrateful and take advantage of me over and over again, either.

[hecubus]

At the video store, we used to get a lot of people who wanted to come in and browse at closing time. I would usually just lie and tell them that the computers automatically shut down at midnight, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Believe it or not, most people bought the story.

[Pagan]

Yeah, we use the BS line that our registers shut down at 11:15pm!

[AFpheonix]

On the other hand, though, I had a patient come from another store that decided to shut down a few minutes early and skedaddled by 10:03 by the clock on my computer (which is the same as the clock on theirs, by the way).
I will grant, she shouldn't have been refilling a maintenance med at 10 to close, but because they were running fast, they told her it was too close to close to do, and told her to come clear down to us. Normally, this isn't an issue, because I can pull things over from other stores with no problem. However this lady's file was corrupted and I couldn't get into the dang thing.
So, I called the other store with 3 minutes to go before 10, no one answered in the pharmacy. I hung up and called the front end to see if I could catch any of them (you'd think that the pharmacist would be checking in narc keys and the tech should be counting down tills), but they had already scooted! Honestly, they could have even called us for the patient and made sure it got over safely before they left, or gee, even whipped it out really fast. But then, this is consistently a problem store, I hate floating over there, because the techs on staff there are consistently lazy.
We went ahead and created a new profile for the lady and gave her 2 pills to get her by until she could go over there to get the rest of it (we couldn't even see the script, so hopefully the patient remembered what she was getting correctly so we didn't give her the wrong stuff), and put in a ticket with the help desk to rebuild her original file... oh, how I love our database sometimes....

[heather124]

I always give people the heads up 5 minutes before closing that we are closing. Most of them will hurry and and leave in the next 2-3 minutes. Every so often there's someone that won't and again, at closing time, I'll tell them that we're closed and they'll say ok and keep looking! My coworker gets annoyed sometimes and he'll just start turning off of the lights in the store until they get the hint and leave. I always use the computers as an excuse and tell then that they automatically shut off at our closing time, or I'll say if the store's alarm isn't turned on within 10 minutes of our closing time that the police get sent out to check it out, no one has ever questioned me

[Imogene]

Weirdest time I've ever tried to close the store, I was going around, warning the handful of customers that the store would be closing in five minutes. One of the guys I walked up to had his back to me while he browsed the Television section. I told him, "I'm sorry, sir, but we're going to be closing in five minutes."

The guy squats down and places his hands on his head, suddenly saying (loudly, mind), "I don't want to close! I don't want to close!" repeat.
I look up to see the store manager coming over, and gesture helplessly at the guy, then walk away from it.
If I remember correctly, we closed just about on time, so, SM must've talked the guy down.

[CrazedClerk]

I like working in a small store for this reason. At closing time I will lock the door and kill the TWO open signs we have (but not drop the security gates), regardless of if any customers are in the store. The customers present can finish up their shopping but I won't allow anyone else in. I have my coworker ring them through while I stand by the door and let them out (relocking it every time) and thank them for their business.

[Bliss]

Weirdest time I've ever tried to close the store, I was going around, warning the handful of customers that the store would be closing in five minutes. One of the guys I walked up to had his back to me while he browsed the Television section. I told him, "I'm sorry, sir, but we're going to be closing in five minutes."

The guy squats down and places his hands on his head, suddenly saying (loudly, mind), "I don't want to close! I don't want to close!" repeat.

It sounds to me like the guy suffers from a retail version of shell shock, you possibly took him back to the old traumatizing days in which he had to do the closing on a store like yours and he was refusing to deal with it...

[Tria]

It sounds to me like the guy suffers from a retail version of shell shock, you possibly took him back to the old traumatizing days in which he had to do the closing on a store like yours and he was refusing to deal with it...

Okay, stop reading my mind!

[Lace Neil Singer]

At the garden centre pet unit, my bs line for getting customers out of the pet unit so I could cash up and tidy up was "I've just put the animals to bed." No-one ever queried it, they just left; even tho it doesn't make sense! XD

[DesignFox]

I wish that studio I first worked in had a closing gate. But it was just wide open. My only indication that I was closed was a small time clock that says "Will be back at" and then you flip the little hands to the time you re-open. No one ever paid attention to it- I would be helping my last customer of the night and flip the sign around so everyone would realize that after that last person, I was done. It NEVER worked.