As a cashier or any type of retail employee, rude customers are unavoidable. After transferring store locations from my home town to my college city, I realized that no matter where I go, rude people will follow you everywhere.
I am going to tell you some first-hand encounters that I had to deal with during the last two years of my retail experience. These are perfect examples of how NOT to treat a customer service employee.
The first story only happened a few weeks ago.
At my store, if the cashier scans your loyalty card before you load on coupons, they will not show up on the computer. Therefore, if you do send them to your card after I scan everything, I will have to void the entire transaction and start over, which is absolutely no problem. However, this person, let’s call her Jane Doe, decided that after I rung out her entire basket that she wanted to go out to her car and grab her phone to see if she had any coupons. Again, not a big deal, I understand that everyone wants to save money when they can.
But Jane Doe had a different agenda. Let me backtrack a bit. Before she even made her way to my counter, she repeatedly yelled at one of my coworkers because of our lack of shampoo selection and our overprices.
After rudely leaving me stranded with all her items, she returned and shoved her phone in my face. Oh wait, it gets better. I began to explain to her that I already scanned her loyalty card and that any coupons on this new card will not be processed, continually apologizing for any confusion and trying my best to explain the situation. She then proceeded to interrupt me numerous times until finally yelling, “I’m just ASKING you to scan my card!” So, as any nervous nineteen-year-old college girl would, I put my head down and scanned her card. After telling her the total, she stopped and this is how the rest of our exchange went:
“Who worked here last night?” she asked.
Being that this was my first night at the new store, I didn’t know and looked to my manager for help. “I’m sorry, I’m not too sure I just started…” When she interrupted me again.
“You know what? I don’t like your attitude and the way you are speaking to me. You have bad customer service and I’ll come back when someone DIFFERENT is here.” And pushed all her already bagged items towards me, some falling off the counter.
My cheeks still redden from that conversation because I felt not only embarrassed but also attacked. Honestly, I pride myself on being friendly to every customer who I encounter because I too understand that everyone has bad days. Therefore, having someone use me as a personal punching bag and telling me that I am not doing my job correctly was offensive and straight up rude.
My second story is one that really puts the icing on the cake. Let me paint the scene for you. This woman was buying a lipstick for $9.99. She had a $2 manufacturer coupon and another coupon that was designated for our store. Now, similarly to the last story, I have zero control over how the computers process things and especially how they sort out each coupon. However, I know that at my store in particular, it doesn’t matter what coupon I scan first, the manufacturer one is always taken off before the others. After scanning everything, her total came to about $3.50. A sufficiently lower amount than the original cost but apparently not lower enough for this woman.
“That CANNOT be right,” she huffs.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Let’s go through it manually and I can try to see what’s wrong.” After walking her through the whole transaction and explaining to her that “the manufacturer coupon always comes off first.”
She looks at me, lips pursed, eyes narrowed and hands on hips, “Says who?” while she proceeded to roll her eyes at me.
Who speaks to not only a retail worker but another person like that? Just because you are the customer does NOT mean you are always right.
As a longtime customer service worker, I understand that couponing and price tags are confusing at times and it is my job to make things clearer to the customers. However, no matter how bad your day was or how frustrated you get, treating the person that is just trying to help you is not the right thing to do. Behind every name badge is a person who is also just trying to live their life and get through the day. So, next time you decide to be an asshole to the person behind the counter, check yourself at the sliding doors because no one deserves to be treated with anything less than respect.
