Regular Suckiness (long)

[Shmuggly]

So here I will attempt to list some of the stupid customers that I get probably 3-4 times daily. Now that its Christmas time, its more like 3-4 times hourly. Plant your butt and grab some cookies, here we go:


The illiterate literate.

SC: - swipes debit card in machine-
SC: It just says 'Could not read, Please swipe again'. What am I supposed to do? (Customer almost always wears that 'deer caught in headlights' look)
Me: Um, just swipe your card again.
SC: Oh ok

Like the description above says, this actually happens quite a lot. Far too much in my opinion. Like, these people are able to read words, but are somehow unable to decipher their meaning. To be fair, our debit machine is sorta picky, but really people, how did you finish school?


The Starers.

SC: - walks up to the counter, comes to a stop, and then just stares at our lottery board-
Me: ......Would you like a scratch ticket?
SC: Yeah (gives me the "of course I did idiot" look)

This particular brand of customer is 50% an elderly person, and the rest of the time any random age. I find this to be particularly rude, especially when the person isn't a regular. If I don't say anything, sometimes they will keep standing and staring. I know, I've tried it. All you have to do is say "I would like a scratch ticket", or even belt out "Scratch ticket!" as some others do. Come on people, manners.


The late signers.

SC: - comes up to the counter after a long wait in line-
SC: Hold on one second, I'm just going to sign my scratch tickets.
SC: - proceeds to pull out their own pen and stand there, signing away-

I'm not sure about anyone else, but the lottery rules for Ontario Canada state that a scratch ticket must be signed before I put it in my checking machine. Its the law. However, when you have your own pen, and you know these rules, why on earth are you waiting until you get to my counter to sign all those things? Its just a huge waste of time for everyone. Sign them when you scratch it or even in line!


The ones who must have cold drinks

Me: - filling the pop cooler, which I do the last hour of every night-
SC: - walks up -
SC: Is this one cold?
Me: Yup.

Ok so this one might take a little bit of explaining. I admit I let this bother me a lot more than I should, but let me explain why this bothers me. I bring out a rather large cart filled with pop to fill both of our pop coolers. I put a cold drink in front of every row of drinks I fill, so that if someone comes along, they can get a cold one. Its very unlikely that more than one person will want a drink since its the last hour of the day. However, putting a cold one in the front seriously reduces my productivity and probably makes me go .25 times slower. I do this for you people, so you can have coldness.
However, I get sort of ticked when people bother me every ten minutes with an "is this one cold?" because its sort of like saying to me "are you doing your job properly?" Imagine if your superviser hovered over you and as you were working they would say "are you slacking yet?" every ten minutes.
I fully admit that I may be blowing this way out of proportion though. Years of customer service have made me bitter, hollow man. Tell me if I am justified in getting annoyed at this, I'm not sure if I am.


Thank you for taking the time to listen to my insane ranting. Have yourselves a great day!

[notlovinit]

I'm sure it would annoy me if I had to deal with it all the time. When I was reading that my first thought was "Can you feel?" How hard is it for them to just touch the bottle and see?

[RealUnimportant]

The illiterate literate.

SC: - swipes debit card in machine-
SC: It just says 'Could not read, Please swipe again'. What am I supposed to do? (Customer almost always wears that 'deer caught in headlights' look)
Me: Um, just swipe your card again.
SC: Oh ok

Like the description above says, this actually happens quite a lot. Far too much in my opinion. Like, these people are able to read words, but are somehow unable to decipher their meaning. To be fair, our debit machine is sorta picky, but really people, how did you finish school?

I get this all. the. time. "What do I do?" Just look at the screen on the machine & follow the instructions. "But it says {blatantly obvious message}." So do what it says. "Should I take my card out now?" I really don't know - what does it say in big, friendly letters right there on the fucking machine?!

[Phantasmagoria]

The ones who must have cold drinks

Me: - filling the pop cooler, which I do the last hour of every night-
SC: - walks up -
SC: Is this one cold?
Me: Yup.

Ok so this one might take a little bit of explaining. I admit I let this bother me a lot more than I should, but let me explain why this bothers me. I bring out a rather large cart filled with pop to fill both of our pop coolers. I put a cold drink in front of every row of drinks I fill, so that if someone comes along, they can get a cold one. Its very unlikely that more than one person will want a drink since its the last hour of the day. However, putting a cold one in the front seriously reduces my productivity and probably makes me go .25 times slower. I do this for you people, so you can have coldness.
However, I get sort of ticked when people bother me every ten minutes with an "is this one cold?" because its sort of like saying to me "are you doing your job properly?" Imagine if your superviser hovered over you and as you were working they would say "are you slacking yet?" every ten minutes.
I fully admit that I may be blowing this way out of proportion though. Years of customer service have made me bitter, hollow man. Tell me if I am justified in getting annoyed at this, I'm not sure if I am.

I had these people the other way round at my retail job, particularly in summer. Sometimes, incomprehensibly, I would be on my own in the shop at busy times (but that's another matter!), and I would be stuck on the till dealing with the deluge of people buying drinks. This would mean I would have to wait for a lull before I could fill up the fridges with drinks again, leading inevitably to gigantic gaps where an entire section had been emptied. For some reason people would stand next to me, watching me refill the whole section, right from the back with new bottles. As soon as I put the last one in, they would grab it and then yell at me the following delightful phrase:

"'Ere! Your fridge aint working!"

I don't know what to say to this without implying they would be easily outwitted by a goldfish

[bainsidhe]

I can be somewhat forgiving about the hot/cold pop thing, if only because I've worked with a LOT of coworkers that never rotated stock. At the end of winter, we'd always have expired pop in the backs of our coolers for that very reason.

[Lace Neil Singer]

The illiterate literate.

SC: - swipes debit card in machine-
SC: It just says 'Could not read, Please swipe again'. What am I supposed to do? (Customer almost always wears that 'deer caught in headlights' look)
Me: Um, just swipe your card again.
SC: Oh ok

Like the description above says, this actually happens quite a lot. Far too much in my opinion. Like, these people are able to read words, but are somehow unable to decipher their meaning. To be fair, our debit machine is sorta picky, but really people, how did you finish school?

Oh god, I feel your pain there. Sometimes where I work, people put their cards in too early; we have to read out the price on the pump before we enter it on the till to make sure it's the correct pump. If a customer puts their card in after I've read out the price, it messes up my entering the price, so they have to remove their card and I have to start again. The following exchanges are common:

Me: Don't put your card in, please.
SC: *puts card in*
Me: -.-

It's as tho instead of speaking English, I lapsed into speaking a foreign language or something.

Or this one:

SC: *puts card in too early* It says, "Remove Card".

So, remove the card! It's hardly rocket science.

[Caractacus_Potts]

I have to admit I might be one of the people who would ask if the soda was cold. I mean if you weren't right there I would just go by touch but it would seem rude to me to ignore you and start putting my hands all over the bottles if you're actually there stocking.

I usually buy soda from vending machines. Less likely to run into one that's just been filled completely and they always seem colder than the store fridges (especially the open faced no door style fridge).

[Lace Neil Singer]

I find that it's usually customers who have stood there watching as you stocked the shelf who ask the immortal question.

Either that, or they reach in, grab one of the bottles they just saw me put out, and bitch, "It's not cold!"

Sorry, but the petrol station does not possess a magic chiller.

[Geek King]

Then there's wierd folk like me, who'd ask for a warm one while you're stocking them.

I had sensitive teeth for awhile, waiting for an appointment to get some issues fixed. I just got used to drinking soda warm. I'd never ask a worker to go out of their way to get me a warm one out of stock, though.

[Lovecats]

I don't know what to say to this without implying they would be easily outwitted by a goldfish

I just love that quote! And I've run across a lot of these.