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A warning: Superbuyers
So I worked for the place known for the orange aprons a few months ago (only for a month-they switched my employment from permanent part-time to temp without telling me. I understand why they switched it-Due to California's legislation, big box retailers have to hire X amount of people each year. However, since people who are hired tend to stick around longer than that, that means that they have to get rid of a lot of people, so what they do is they hire a whole slew of people to keep up with the quota, then switch them to temporary employment and terminate all of them, except one or two if they actually have room) and I had to deal with a lot of situations-the Hispanic family that brought up a bunch of stuff that they had clearly removed from the packaging themselves and demanding discounts for the 'used' items (the supervisor, being wise to this tactic, merely went and got them brand new ones still in the packaging, saying we couldn't give discounts on new items for no reason, and that we very rarely have anything used), pretending not to speak English and then speaking it just fine as they're leaving, after finally having paid for what little they did actually decide to purchase, the guy who almost dropped a huge piece of lumber on my head since he insisted on carrying it himself, the ones who put lumber in regular carts instead of getting a lumber cart, nearly hurting themselves and a lot of other people which of course wasn't THEIR fault, it was clearly the fault of the store for having let them put lumber in the wrong cart!...and a lot of other stupidity. One of the most irritating things I ever encountered, however, were the 'super buyers'.
Some idiots decided that, since they evidently shop here a lot and spend a lot of money here (working in construction, I suppose) that they have earned the title 'super buyers' and are thus worthy of substantial discounts on anything they buy. I fell for it once the first week I worked there-I was going to call a manager, but one of my co-workers who had been there a lot longer than me said that it was okay, just punch in the discount for them, they're legitimate. So, I did. I was rather confused at the fact that the so-called "Super Buyers" had no card or any kind of identification marking them as such, nor had I been informed of "Super Buyers" during training-but if my co-worker who was above me said it was cool, I wasn't going to argue. I should have. I really should have. A twenty percent discount on a substantial amount of lumber and construction supplies ended up being a pretty hefty sum. After they'd left a manager came by to check on me and asked how I was doing, if there were any questions I had so far, ect. (Gotta give them props on this, they did try to take care of me) and I explained what had happened and asked why I hadn't heard of super buyers before. The expression on his face quickly went from cheerful to exasperated-evidently, these same guys had pulled this before.
He explained to me that there was no such thing as super buyers, that it was just a self-given title a bunch of EW yokels had given themselves and insisted on being treated like royalty at the store for, trying to get things at discounts they didn't deserve. When he asked me who had okayed it, I explained that a coworker had told me it was okay, so I just did what I was told. He ended up talking to us both, telling us to never fall for that again. My coworker genuinely hadn't known about it and was almost in tears, and was worried that I would get in trouble for her mistake. The manager assured us that we weren't in trouble, since this had been done to almost every newbie at least once, but warned us to always call a manager in the future if they tried it again.
Sure enough, the same EW's showed up in my line again with a huge cartload, demanding their 20% off. I told them that I needed to check with a manager. They once again tried the "Oh, it's okay, we're Super Buyers. You don't need to call the manager." Angry with what they'd been pulling, and evidently never having been confronted with before, I looked them straight in the eye and said firmly that for a discount that big on that much merchandise, I would have to get a manager's approval. I picked up the phone to page for a manager, and they quickly changed their minds, saying they were in a hurry and didn't have time to wait for a manager, just ring it up at normal price, no need to worry about the discount this time since they simply didn't have the time to wait.
After they left I called up the manager and let him know that they'd pulled the same thing-but now we had their information, as they'd used a company account card to pay, connected to their boss's name and number, with their names in the system for that particular card.
I'm sure my manager had some choice words for their boss.
Some idiots decided that, since they evidently shop here a lot and spend a lot of money here (working in construction, I suppose) that they have earned the title 'super buyers' and are thus worthy of substantial discounts on anything they buy. I fell for it once the first week I worked there-I was going to call a manager, but one of my co-workers who had been there a lot longer than me said that it was okay, just punch in the discount for them, they're legitimate. So, I did. I was rather confused at the fact that the so-called "Super Buyers" had no card or any kind of identification marking them as such, nor had I been informed of "Super Buyers" during training-but if my co-worker who was above me said it was cool, I wasn't going to argue. I should have. I really should have. A twenty percent discount on a substantial amount of lumber and construction supplies ended up being a pretty hefty sum. After they'd left a manager came by to check on me and asked how I was doing, if there were any questions I had so far, ect. (Gotta give them props on this, they did try to take care of me) and I explained what had happened and asked why I hadn't heard of super buyers before. The expression on his face quickly went from cheerful to exasperated-evidently, these same guys had pulled this before.
He explained to me that there was no such thing as super buyers, that it was just a self-given title a bunch of EW yokels had given themselves and insisted on being treated like royalty at the store for, trying to get things at discounts they didn't deserve. When he asked me who had okayed it, I explained that a coworker had told me it was okay, so I just did what I was told. He ended up talking to us both, telling us to never fall for that again. My coworker genuinely hadn't known about it and was almost in tears, and was worried that I would get in trouble for her mistake. The manager assured us that we weren't in trouble, since this had been done to almost every newbie at least once, but warned us to always call a manager in the future if they tried it again.
Sure enough, the same EW's showed up in my line again with a huge cartload, demanding their 20% off. I told them that I needed to check with a manager. They once again tried the "Oh, it's okay, we're Super Buyers. You don't need to call the manager." Angry with what they'd been pulling, and evidently never having been confronted with before, I looked them straight in the eye and said firmly that for a discount that big on that much merchandise, I would have to get a manager's approval. I picked up the phone to page for a manager, and they quickly changed their minds, saying they were in a hurry and didn't have time to wait for a manager, just ring it up at normal price, no need to worry about the discount this time since they simply didn't have the time to wait.
After they left I called up the manager and let him know that they'd pulled the same thing-but now we had their information, as they'd used a company account card to pay, connected to their boss's name and number, with their names in the system for that particular card.
I'm sure my manager had some choice words for their boss.
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