Almost scammed, and other "adventures"

[Lace Neil Singer]

The thing that most parents like that don't realize is that children that age see jobs like ours as fascinating. They've never had to work in one, so how would they know your job is so terrible, as Mom seems to think?

Quoted for truth. When I worked in the pet centre, a lot of kids thought my job the coolest thing ever, as I got to be around animals all the time. I had kids saying stuff like, "Do you get to cuddle the rabbits any time you want?" XD

Seriously, I've said it once and I'll say it again: I DON'T CONTROL THE GAS PRICES!

Don't be silly, of course you do! All us petrol station workers spend our entire time raising petrol prices and giggling insanely after we do it.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Ugh, I hate to defend the manager, but I know large stores are split up in departments. When I was working at Wal-Mart, though I was not a manager, I did know the names of everyone working in MY department. I did not however know the names of the people who worked in EVERY department.

So I'm thinking it was one of three things:

1) The "manager" you dealt with was someone not from the laptop department but who the SCs complained to and so just assumed you worked there
2) Turnover is high at the store and the manager is prone to lose track of who's working there at any particular time.
3) The manager was just a dumbass.

[mattm04]

While it is possible for said manager to not know the names/faces of every employee IF it is a huge store and they are new, when wearing a uniform form another Company and arguing with the customer then makes them a idiot.

I would have been tempted to pay along and see if they bring you to the office and try to look up you information in the computer. Which woudl most likely be met with why are you not telling me your real name you dumb employee.

[Hyena Dandy]

I hate the "If you don't raise your grades, you'll end up working here" bit. I hate pretentiousness, and I hate elitism, and that's got both. I get good grades at school. Its especially bad for me, since I'm regularly mistaken for being around 28 or so, so people assume I've been doing nothing my whole life.

Its just offensive.



But continuing onwards. Seriously? Did you explain to him you don't actually work there?

[bloodrose]

I started explaining to them that I really didn't work there when they decided they wanted to speak to the manager. At that point I just gave up and walked away. But as I was still shopping for the latest shiny gadgets, a person who looked like a manager came up to me and started asking me why I didn't help out the couple with the laptop.

Really? I mean you don't even know the people who you employ? And the fact that the name of a gas station was on my shirt didn't tip you off to the fact that I didn't work there? I ended up putting down all my shiny gadgets and just walking out, and the whole time the manager kept saying how he would fire me if I didn't listen to him..

I'm sorry to laugh at your pain but that is seriously the funniest thing I've read all day and I'm a comedy buff.

[XCashier]

Don't end up like me?

This lady just really pissed me off today. She came in to pay for her gas but it seemed she was having a bit of a quarrel with her son. I didn't really care to listen but I did hear this: "If you don't raise your marks you'll end up like this guy. Now you don't want that do you?!"

We're in the worst recession since The Great Depression, everyone knows that. There are people with Master's Degrees working at McDonalds and 7-11, and those are just the ones who were able to get a job. How the sam hill would she know you didn't get top grades and have a degree?!

[MadMike]

Do you know that the price of gas in Hamilton is 5 cents cheaper per litre?

I love these customers who think the lowly clerks have any control over the prices, or even care if the customer takes his business elsewhere. I seemed to get that all the time at the home improvements store. Most of them weren't sucky about it, just mentioned it in polite conversation while I was helping them, but seriously, what did they expect me to do?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Why, wave a magic wand and say, "Cuz of you being sooo speshul, I've put the prices down!" XD

[alowlypotato]

"If you don't raise your marks you'll end up like this guy. Now you don't want that do you?!"

I hate, hate, hate, hate haaaaaaatttteeeeee people like her! First of all, it's douchey to assume you know someone's exact personal situation. There are so many reasons why someone would be working as a clerk, and the vast majority aren't "this person's a screw-up." Second, it seems like half the time, the person they're insulting turns out to be either a high school or college student who's trying the fuck to be responsible. Third, I have a sinking suspicion that most of these people had their hands held as they were growing up, and that mommy and daddy paid their way through everything. Because, well, if that wasn't the case, then they might actually understand.

Blarrrrrrrrrrrgh!

[cinema guy]

Then you need to put in a complaint to corporate, extrapolate and exaggerate the 100's and 1000's that you had planned on spending there, but never will now because of your treatment. Then you will get lots of pretty coupons for new shiny things. (see I have learned lots and lots from this site)

While extrapolation and exageration would in fact make you a SC, there are times when a complaint is warranted. Whether this is such a time is up to the OP. Personally, I would.

[EvilEmpryss]

So it first started out with me helping a couple who seemed lost trying to figure out what the specs of the laptops they were looking at really meant. They were really thankfull and finally chose a laptop. Now this is where things started to go downhill....

Well, from someone who has made that stupid mistake (you could feel the heat coming off my face from ten paces!) I want to say "Thank you." I swear that some of the advice I've gotten from other customers has been more helpful than what the people working there were giving me (but that's a post for another site).

But I never berated a fellow shopper for not working at the store!

[Utter_iMADNESS]

A bit of an update:

Well I went back to the electronics store today just to see how things ended up

Turns out the manager wasn't there when I went but one of the employees working there recognised me and came up and talked to me. He was pretty cool about the whole incident and also found it extremely funny.

Turns out that this manager is pretty much a failure. He's apparently worked there for less than a month yet he was so bad that he was being transfered to another smaller store (why he's not being fired is beyond me) so he was pretty much running around like a headless chicken.

Now I'm just wondering what happened to that couple...

[wolfie]

Nope. I've met the type. They think the only way anyone would go out of their way to be helpful is if they were being paid to do so.

On occasion, when shopping at the "Orange" home improvement store, I've answered technical questions for other customers. Generally, it was when there was a lineup to talk to one of the employees (understaffed, as usual), I had a question about product availability, and the people I was helping were ahead of me in line. Of course, once I answered their question, they'd pick up the appropriate product and head to the cash desk, shortening the line in front of me.

[LadyAndreca]

On occasion, when shopping at the "Orange" home improvement store, I've answered technical questions for other customers. Generally, it was when there was a lineup to talk to one of the employees (understaffed, as usual), I had a question about product availability, and the people I was helping were ahead of me in line. Of course, once I answered their question, they'd pick up the appropriate product and head to the cash desk, shortening the line in front of me.

I see that constantly at the "Orange Apron" I work at. Just today I had some contractors checking out a large order of electrical equipment, only to have a man behind them very politely ask them if they were electricians and then for some advice on how to install a light in his shower. And the other day a nasty situation was defused by another contractor--a lady was frustrated was to tears because she needed help badly but our ONE plumbing associate was swamped (I swear everyone in the county needed to replace or repair their showers on Monday), but a few words from a professional plumber had her so confident she had what she needed and could install it herself that when she checked out she actually called me a darling for trying to find someone to help her.

The things with the kids... *sigh*

When I was in fourth grade, I had a teacher that used me in an example like that. "Someday YOU'RE going to be working in a drive-through at McD's, and LadyA is going to come driving through in a Porche, and you're going to wish you'd worked hard and behaved and gotten grades like hers!" That stuck with me--for YEARS I was terrified that I'd be the McD's person. (That may actually be the basis for my refusal to work fast food, come to think of it. The only excuse I could ever put into words was "I'm afraid of getting hurt in the kitchen". I've always gone for retail instead.) When I got to be a teen I realized that...some people LIKED working at McD's. Some people LIKED being cashiers and did it their whole lives. Some people didn't have a choice because it was the only job they could get. And people like me liked jobs that were flexible around their classes.

I do try to discourage very little kids from wanting to rush into jobs too early, though. My favorite when working at the Bullseye was to tell them we needed someone to fold all the clothes in the store. I've never met a kid who LIKED folding clothes.