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I generally like my job. I generally like the customers who come in, because they're generally nice people, except when they decide to be complete dicks. I generally like helping customers and talking to them and getting to know them in as much capacity as my job allows. I don't like, however, when customers harass other customers or make the atmosphere of my workplace uncomfortable for them.
Tonight! I bring you two instances:
Why teenage boys suck
Today, the store was really not that busy. This being Indiana and there being a Colts game, I'm really damn impressed that we had as many shoppers in the store as we had today. Indiana is Colts Country. If the Colts are playing and you're a business, don't expect much sales. The Colts are srs bsns.
That said, we surprisingly had a large number of teenagers coming through. I guess they were relishing their last day of freedom or something, but, really, teenagers are probably the worst customers because they really don't buy anything. They'll enter a store in herds and will generally stand around, talking until the store bores one of them, and then they'll leave for another store. Plus, teenagers are the ones to really watch out for as far as loss prevention goes, because (sorry to stereotype) one or another will get a bright idea in their head that stealing our merchandise will somehow make them cool. (Except for that part where when they get caught, they don't look cool; they look really stupid, especially when mall security is escorting them out)
Three teenagers walk into my store and - like most teenagers who breeze through - settle themselves in the back where the anime is. One of them is sitting on the ground, the others are standing there, and they're being loud and annoying. I've developed a switch/selective hearing, where I can just tune out the noise they make as I go around helping customers - real customers.
One of these customers, after I ask if she needs assistance, asks me politely if I could talk to the three teenage boys, because their language is raunchy and offending her. Now, I'm all for freedom of speech, and asking people to censor that speech generally makes me nervous, but people have a right to complain about speech that offends them, and as a representative of my store, I have to ensure good customer service, which includes the atmosphere of the store.
So, I go up to the boys, see if they're finding everything alright. They respond (jokingly?) that they're just hanging out and stealing our stuff. I then tell them that there's been a complaint from another customer about their language, and (my words) if they could "keep it PG, that would be cool."
Now, I'm not being confrontational about this. If you know me, you know that being assertive and authoritative are not my strongest points. The tone I used with them was fairly relaxed and casual, and I didn't speak down to them at all (because teenagers really hate it when you speak down to them). They apologized, and I told them "Thank you" to give them some positive reinforcement for complying with the other customer's request, and they left. As they left, they were being as loud and raunchy as they had been previously.
Fuckers.
Mother, your kid's a fucking moron; stop harassing my customers.
(I'm not creative with these titles, guys)
A mother and her two teenage children are browsing around. While they browse, I go around, asking if they need assistance with anything, to which the mother replies, "No."
While I'm checking some other customers out, I hear this woman start to kick up a fuss. Apparently, her son had misplaced his bag of video games (which - she iterated about 50 times at various points in this store - cost her $75). So, they're searching through the store, the kid's freaking out and crying (no, really), and the mom's becoming more irate.
At my register is another mother and her two boys (one of which holds a bag from the only video game retailer in the mall). As I ringing up the mother, the first mom comes up and demands to look in the boy's bag, more or less accusing him of stealing her son's games. The boy complies, the first mom finds out that - hey-ho! - she was wrong, and proceeds to stand at my register and complain very loudly that somebody took her son's bag, after he had set it down. Mom #2 turns around and gives her a very confused look, only now realizing that the Mom #1 had been talking to her children. We finish the transaction quickly so they can get the hell out of Dodge.
Now, our third key manager comes up and asks if there's something that she could do for Mom #1, who goes into a length explanation about what happened, and asks if she could see footage from our security cameras. Third Key tells her that we don't have cameras (our corporate offices don't really want to drop the money on it for us, IDK), which only pisses Mom #1 off. She goes into this lengthy tirade about how "basically anybody could come in and steal things." Third Key offers to call security and even helps her search the store - or at least the areas where Mom #1 says her son had been in.
I stay on register the whole time, because the store is otherwise not busy, but people need to check out. A family unit approaches my register to check out, and tells me that Mom #1 had quite rudely demanded to search their daughter's bag (again, from the same video game retailer), and that the daughter had refused (which was entirely in her right). The mother in this family unit (Mom #3) throws her purse on the counter and tells me to look through it. I explain to her that we don't really do that in our store (unless the customer gives us reason to believe that we should peek into their bags or purses), but I comply, and announce that it's empty.
Family unit lingers at my register because Mom #1 is at the entrance of the store, waiting for Security and is growing more and more panicked and irate (scary). They (very quietly) tell me that they don't appreciate this woman's behavior, and I (very quietly) tell them that I'm sorry that they had to go through this and that our store doesn't condone such behavior. They leave when Mom #1 is distracted.
Security finally arrives, and the woman explains what happens. At one point, she points to Third Key and says that she was going around the store, helping customers when the bag disappeared. I (stupidly) correct her, and tell her that I didn't notice her son's bag while I was helping people; Third Key's a nice manager, and she wasn't back there, so she wouldn't have seen anything. Of course, neither did I, but I can say that with about 75% certainty.
Mom #1 goes onto claim that there was somebody standing beside her (there wasn't, btw - that much I remember), and that that person must have stolen her son's bag. Then, she accuses me of not paying attention while somebody stole the bag, and brings up the point about our store having no cameras, and how anybody can steal anything from here. I calmly tell her that our security system protects against theft of our merchandise (most of the time), but merchandise from another store has already been deactivated, so it wouldn't protect against that. This takes some of the wind from her sails, but she still insists that people can come in here and steal other people's purchases. She then goes on to claim that the family unit whose daughter refused to open her bag for her was probably the culprits and gives Security a description of them.
Security takes her away (thank god), and we go on with our day.
About fifteen minutes later, our Assistant Manager finds the bag in the science fiction/horror section, which was not checked for one reason or another. We call Security, who sends someone down to retrieve it, and (a few minutes later), the woman returns and sobbingly thanks the security guard. She comes back into our store to pick up some items that she had been wanting to purchase, and while she's a lot more civil to me and thankful for the return of her son's games (we told her that a good Samaritan had turned it in, just to restore her faith in humanity), she doesn't even apologize to us.
And that was my day.
At least the Colts won their game.
Tonight! I bring you two instances:
Why teenage boys suck
Today, the store was really not that busy. This being Indiana and there being a Colts game, I'm really damn impressed that we had as many shoppers in the store as we had today. Indiana is Colts Country. If the Colts are playing and you're a business, don't expect much sales. The Colts are srs bsns.
That said, we surprisingly had a large number of teenagers coming through. I guess they were relishing their last day of freedom or something, but, really, teenagers are probably the worst customers because they really don't buy anything. They'll enter a store in herds and will generally stand around, talking until the store bores one of them, and then they'll leave for another store. Plus, teenagers are the ones to really watch out for as far as loss prevention goes, because (sorry to stereotype) one or another will get a bright idea in their head that stealing our merchandise will somehow make them cool. (Except for that part where when they get caught, they don't look cool; they look really stupid, especially when mall security is escorting them out)
Three teenagers walk into my store and - like most teenagers who breeze through - settle themselves in the back where the anime is. One of them is sitting on the ground, the others are standing there, and they're being loud and annoying. I've developed a switch/selective hearing, where I can just tune out the noise they make as I go around helping customers - real customers.
One of these customers, after I ask if she needs assistance, asks me politely if I could talk to the three teenage boys, because their language is raunchy and offending her. Now, I'm all for freedom of speech, and asking people to censor that speech generally makes me nervous, but people have a right to complain about speech that offends them, and as a representative of my store, I have to ensure good customer service, which includes the atmosphere of the store.
So, I go up to the boys, see if they're finding everything alright. They respond (jokingly?) that they're just hanging out and stealing our stuff. I then tell them that there's been a complaint from another customer about their language, and (my words) if they could "keep it PG, that would be cool."
Now, I'm not being confrontational about this. If you know me, you know that being assertive and authoritative are not my strongest points. The tone I used with them was fairly relaxed and casual, and I didn't speak down to them at all (because teenagers really hate it when you speak down to them). They apologized, and I told them "Thank you" to give them some positive reinforcement for complying with the other customer's request, and they left. As they left, they were being as loud and raunchy as they had been previously.
Fuckers.
Mother, your kid's a fucking moron; stop harassing my customers.
(I'm not creative with these titles, guys)
A mother and her two teenage children are browsing around. While they browse, I go around, asking if they need assistance with anything, to which the mother replies, "No."
While I'm checking some other customers out, I hear this woman start to kick up a fuss. Apparently, her son had misplaced his bag of video games (which - she iterated about 50 times at various points in this store - cost her $75). So, they're searching through the store, the kid's freaking out and crying (no, really), and the mom's becoming more irate.
At my register is another mother and her two boys (one of which holds a bag from the only video game retailer in the mall). As I ringing up the mother, the first mom comes up and demands to look in the boy's bag, more or less accusing him of stealing her son's games. The boy complies, the first mom finds out that - hey-ho! - she was wrong, and proceeds to stand at my register and complain very loudly that somebody took her son's bag, after he had set it down. Mom #2 turns around and gives her a very confused look, only now realizing that the Mom #1 had been talking to her children. We finish the transaction quickly so they can get the hell out of Dodge.
Now, our third key manager comes up and asks if there's something that she could do for Mom #1, who goes into a length explanation about what happened, and asks if she could see footage from our security cameras. Third Key tells her that we don't have cameras (our corporate offices don't really want to drop the money on it for us, IDK), which only pisses Mom #1 off. She goes into this lengthy tirade about how "basically anybody could come in and steal things." Third Key offers to call security and even helps her search the store - or at least the areas where Mom #1 says her son had been in.
I stay on register the whole time, because the store is otherwise not busy, but people need to check out. A family unit approaches my register to check out, and tells me that Mom #1 had quite rudely demanded to search their daughter's bag (again, from the same video game retailer), and that the daughter had refused (which was entirely in her right). The mother in this family unit (Mom #3) throws her purse on the counter and tells me to look through it. I explain to her that we don't really do that in our store (unless the customer gives us reason to believe that we should peek into their bags or purses), but I comply, and announce that it's empty.
Family unit lingers at my register because Mom #1 is at the entrance of the store, waiting for Security and is growing more and more panicked and irate (scary). They (very quietly) tell me that they don't appreciate this woman's behavior, and I (very quietly) tell them that I'm sorry that they had to go through this and that our store doesn't condone such behavior. They leave when Mom #1 is distracted.
Security finally arrives, and the woman explains what happens. At one point, she points to Third Key and says that she was going around the store, helping customers when the bag disappeared. I (stupidly) correct her, and tell her that I didn't notice her son's bag while I was helping people; Third Key's a nice manager, and she wasn't back there, so she wouldn't have seen anything. Of course, neither did I, but I can say that with about 75% certainty.
Mom #1 goes onto claim that there was somebody standing beside her (there wasn't, btw - that much I remember), and that that person must have stolen her son's bag. Then, she accuses me of not paying attention while somebody stole the bag, and brings up the point about our store having no cameras, and how anybody can steal anything from here. I calmly tell her that our security system protects against theft of our merchandise (most of the time), but merchandise from another store has already been deactivated, so it wouldn't protect against that. This takes some of the wind from her sails, but she still insists that people can come in here and steal other people's purchases. She then goes on to claim that the family unit whose daughter refused to open her bag for her was probably the culprits and gives Security a description of them.
Security takes her away (thank god), and we go on with our day.
About fifteen minutes later, our Assistant Manager finds the bag in the science fiction/horror section, which was not checked for one reason or another. We call Security, who sends someone down to retrieve it, and (a few minutes later), the woman returns and sobbingly thanks the security guard. She comes back into our store to pick up some items that she had been wanting to purchase, and while she's a lot more civil to me and thankful for the return of her son's games (we told her that a good Samaritan had turned it in, just to restore her faith in humanity), she doesn't even apologize to us.
And that was my day.
At least the Colts won their game.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-03 03:23 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-01-03 04:40 am (UTC)From: