Current Events > Retail Workers: What little things do customers do that just annoys you?

(+) Yeah! (+)

1. Throwing cash/change on the counter instead of placing it into your outstretched hand.
- This one is so irritating. I'm literally holding my hand out and open and you actively dodged it to throw your money on the counter underneath it. What the fuck? You actually put in extra effort to be an ass. I've done this back to customers a couple times. They always react with this really shocked face, and I say "I'm sorry, I just figured you might have some aversion to germs or something since you avoided my hand when you gave me your cash, so I didn't want to offend you." Two of them apologized to me, one just walked out. I consider it 3 wins. :-P

2. Setting items on the counter as far away as physically possible from you so you literally have to lean over the counter to reach it.
- Seriously, our counter is already wider than it really needs to be to begin with. When you place it on the far corner opposite me, you're just being an inconsiderate ass. I usually just leave it closer to my side of the counter in response so they then have to lean over to grab it too. Nobody's said anything about this one yet. I think it's subtle enough that they just don't notice, but it's one of those simple pleasures for me.

3. Not paying attention to the prompts when using a credit/debit card.
- This is just sheer stupidity at its finest. Our card reader has 3 prompts. First it asks if you want cash back, then to verify the amount, and then Yes/No for Debit/Credit. I've actually had someone fail at this 4 times in a single transaction. First he said Yes to cash back, then when it asked the amount he said he didn't want cash back. So I restarted and he hit No to cash back, and then immediately hit No to verify the amount and cancelled the transaction. I explained what he did, reset it, and he did the same thing again. The fourth attempt I walked him through step-by-step, and he hit Yes to Debit on the last question, then when asked for a PIN he said he wanted to run it as Credit. Then why the flying fuck did you say Yes for Debit when I explicitly told you to hit NO FOR CREDIT. -_- Fifth time's the charm, I guess.
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Only #1. Everything else is forgivable.
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Leaving product that they decided they no longer want wherever they please
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#3

Turbam posted...

Leaving product that they decided they no longer want wherever they please

This is very annoying too, but I work in a small convenience store so it doesn't happen often. I get people not wanting to walk half-way across Wal-Mart to put something back. Nobody really has a problem walking half-way across a gas station. :-P
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Aristoph posted...

Turbam posted...

Leaving product that they decided they no longer want wherever they please

This is very annoying too, but I work in a small convenience store so it doesn't happen often. I get people not wanting to walk half-way across Wal-Mart to put something back. Nobody really has a problem walking half-way across a gas station. :-P

Man, I have seen ice cream left right outside the freezer door.
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Buy stuff
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I'm not in retail, but #3 still bugs the hell out of me when I'm waiting in line behind someone doing that. The worst one was when someone messed up the pad thing like 30 times because they were swiping with a chip card, even though the person swore up, down, and six ways sideways that it was NOT a chip card because "chips are evil and hackers steal the chips" or whatever. They wouldn't let the cashier anywhere near the card so he couldn't see what they were doing wrong. Had to call over a manager after like 10 minutes. He doesn't even ask, he just takes the card, puts it in the chip slot, and it works perfectly. He was there all of about 15 seconds doing something the cashier could have done if the idiot had just let him see their card for a second.

I work at Walmart in the toy department.

- Customers coming in the department just to fuck around. Literally. They'll pick up a laser sword and/or foam sword and just go to town, sometimes knocking things over in the process, but even if they're not, they're still being loud, obnoxious and distracting. What's even worse than that is when they'll take skateboards off the shelf and ride them up and down every aisle, or do the same with a bike, or take a Ripstik out of its box and ride it all over the place. I've had people absolutely refuse to stop and just give me a smartass look/remark when I try to get them to stop. I've also witnessed customers bouncing the inflatable balls up so high that they'll knock ceiling tiles off to the floor, or even bust a light attached to the ceiling. Irritating beyond belief. Don't do this in retail stores, people; you're distracting us from our work and making it harder and it's annoying as shit.

Haven't worked in retail in a while, but when I did always hated when the customers wanted to bag their groceries themselves, but also insisted on watching every item be scanned to make sure the sales are right. Really slowed everything down.
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no, odds are he would nuke all the conservative states because if there is one think trump loves its fucking over those who voted for him
though his cultists would accept it as divine judgement
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Exist.
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Asking for returns on items that have been clearly heavily used.
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yusiko posted...

no, odds are he would nuke all the conservative states because if there is one think trump loves its fucking over those who voted for him
though his cultists would accept it as divine judgement

wrong topic?
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yusiko posted...

no, odds are he would nuke all the conservative states because if there is one think trump loves its fucking over those who voted for him
though his cultists would accept it as divine judgement

Wrong topic?
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yusiko posted...

no, odds are he would nuke all the conservative states because if there is one think trump loves its fucking over those who voted for him
though his cultists would accept it as divine judgement

lmfao

Oh yeah, another one that ties me in a knot is when customers knock over/place items down onto the floor and just leave them there. Stop being a lazy piece of shit and pick it up, and if you don't feel like putting it back in the right place, at LEAST have the decency to put it in a random spot on a nearby shelf. Sometimes I'll see a customer lay an item down literally right below its designated location and STILL leave it there. What the hell people. Show some damn courtesy.

Customers deciding they don't want their frozen food and so they lay it down in a random spot to let it thaw out and ruin also grinds my gears.

wrong topic.......now i feel like an ass (which was kind of the point of the post to begin with)
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This is why I'll never work in retail.
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Aristoph posted...

Turbam posted...

Leaving product that they decided they no longer want wherever they please

This is very annoying too, but I work in a small convenience store so it doesn't happen often. I get people not wanting to walk half-way across Wal-Mart to put something back. Nobody really has a problem walking half-way across a gas station. :-P

There's plenty of people who just put stuff down in random places in the aisle they got it from though, too lazy to just put it back. Those fucking Hot Wheels people are the worst, taking down at least 30% of the cars looking for a rare one or whatever and just leaving them on the counter in the space of other products.
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Another one for me. This one is admittedly not the customer's fault, but my coworkers and I have taken to calling cigarettes "beacons."

As in, "hey man, is it alright if I go light a beacon?" Because every single time you step outside for a smoke there's about a 95% chance someone is going to pull in before you've taken 2 drags. >_<
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Best way to avoid that is to just quit smoking.
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When they open up a box to see what is inside of it. Then grabbing a different box because they don't want to pay for an open container.
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Many years ago I worked as a grocery store cashier, and one of the biggest peeves/annoyances was customers complaining directly to me about things wayyyyy outside me control. It's one thing to say "Wow the prices are kind of high", it's entirely another to say "Why did YOU make the carrots so expensive?"

I swear bad customers must just be an American thing.

I worked as a cashier 2 years and I rarely ever experienced stupid/douchey customers.
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Customers not putting perishable food back so it goes to waste.

When I have my vest off and have my stuff in a bag when I'm heading to the break room and have a customer ask me to help them. I am clearly on break and am not suppose to be bothered.

When customers want to return something and have to spend several minutes to locate the receipt. Seriously, why couldn't they locate their receipt while waiting in line? I have other customers I have to help.
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I used to stock shelves overnight at a grocery store. It pissed me off when customers would place refrigerated items on the shelf in room temperature.
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after the transaction is done, a customer buying a second, much cheaper item and lowering my average sale because it was one of the metrics you were judged on.
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Turbam posted...

Leaving product that they decided they no longer want wherever they please

This is half the struggle working in a large clothing retailer. I can't even call it an annoyance because its so much more visceral than that.

The two little things that come to mind are haggling at the register for discounts. Most workers (even commissioned ones) are usually willing to give whatever discounts are available but people want to haggle like this is a negotiation. The second thing is, we are glad to help you find items/put together a look/whatever, but you got to put in a minimal amount of effort into it. Agressive ignorance is a pet peeve of mine. Example:

"I need some jeans."
"Sure, what kind of fit are you looking for?"
" I dunno, just regular jeans."
"Ok... what color are you looking for?"
"I said regular jeans [not a color]"
*Shows them regular straight fit, stonewash [traditional, lightish blue denim] jeans*
"These are old man jeans, I want regular ones... I'll just look around."
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Aristoph posted...

1. Throwing cash/change on the counter instead of placing it into your outstretched hand.
- This one is so irritating. I'm literally holding my hand out and open and you actively dodged it to throw your money on the counter underneath it. What the fuck? You actually put in extra effort to be an ass. I've done this back to customers a couple times. They always react with this really shocked face, and I say "I'm sorry, I just figured you might have some aversion to germs or something since you avoided my hand when you gave me your cash, so I didn't want to offend you." Two of them apologized to me, one just walked out. I consider it 3 wins. :-P

2. Setting items on the counter as far away as physically possible from you so you literally have to lean over the counter to reach it.
- Seriously, our counter is already wider than it really needs to be to begin with. When you place it on the far corner opposite me, you're just being an inconsiderate ass. I usually just leave it closer to my side of the counter in response so they then have to lean over to grab it too. Nobody's said anything about this one yet. I think it's subtle enough that they just don't notice, but it's one of those simple pleasures for me.

3. Not paying attention to the prompts when using a credit/debit card.
- This is just sheer stupidity at its finest. Our card reader has 3 prompts. First it asks if you want cash back, then to verify the amount, and then Yes/No for Debit/Credit. I've actually had someone fail at this 4 times in a single transaction. First he said Yes to cash back, then when it asked the amount he said he didn't want cash back. So I restarted and he hit No to cash back, and then immediately hit No to verify the amount and cancelled the transaction. I explained what he did, reset it, and he did the same thing again. The fourth attempt I walked him through step-by-step, and he hit Yes to Debit on the last question, then when asked for a PIN he said he wanted to run it as Credit. Then why the flying fuck did you say Yes for Debit when I explicitly told you to hit NO FOR CREDIT. -_- Fifth time's the charm, I guess.

You work at a Walmart, don't you?
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I hate shopping at clothing stores because I am trrrible at folding clothes so I feel bad when I look at some shirts or something and the stand looks like a mess

Also I worked at a gas station and whenever someone started talking about electronic interfetterence I wanted to die
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In fairness, I have screwed up as many as three times at the card machine.

The thing threw me a total curveball. Or rather, it didn't. I had been putting in my pin at the gas pumps for like a decade, then suddenly they all started asking for my zip code instead. Then this one still asked for my pin, but I wasn't paying attention and gave it my zip code three times. Locked down my card.

In extra fairness, card machines are getting ridiculous. Some of them want you to swipe, others want you to insert, others want you to swipe for credit or insert for debit, some want the other way around, some want your pin, some want your zip code, some ask you if you want to donate to the human fund, some ask if you want cash back...

It's kind of a nightmare for someone with ADD or a steong basal ganglia.
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PolishCockatiel posted...

I used to stock shelves overnight at a grocery store. It pissed me off when customers would place refrigerated items on the shelf in room temperature.

yup. i used to work at walmart during summers at college. find meat in like the toys section. i get laziness with non-refrigerated stuff. but don't be lazy with stuff that has to be cold or it will go bad. that is so fucking wasteful.
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Steal
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When customers with small children hand me a slobbered all over piece of candy to ring up because little Jimmy needed to have it RIGHT NOW

Fuck those parents
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I work retail pharmacy



"I need to get a prescription filled."

Standard procedure blah blah blah

Customer: "It should only be like 5 minutes right?"

Me: "Uh, no. We're running about 30-35 minutes."

C: "THAT LONG ??? ALL YOU DO IS PUT PILLS IN A BOTTLE. GIVE ME THAT DAMN PRESCRIPTION. I'LL JUST GO TO CVS!"

Happens two or three times a day.

Not to mention a ton of other shit
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DezCaughtIt posted...

C: "THAT LONG ??? ALL YOU DO IS PUT PILLS IN A BOTTLE. GIVE ME THAT DAMN PRESCRIPTION. I'LL JUST GO TO CVS!"

And then CVS takes like 3 hours. Lol.

EyeWontBeFooled posted...

You work at a Walmart, don't you?

24-hour gas station. I work night shift.
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*picks up shirt off rack...hanger still in...holds shirt up to inspect it...hanger still in...drapes shirt over the rack...hanger still in*

like why? it takes as much effort to do that as it does to hang it back up the right way....and its not like you took it off the hanger so the oh so troubling effort of putting the hanger back in isn't an issue. I hate this as a shopper too.

DevsBro posted...

In fairness, I have screwed up as many as three times at the card machine.

The thing threw me a total curveball. Or rather, it didn't. I had been putting in my pin at the gas pumps for like a decade, then suddenly they all started asking for my zip code instead. Then this one still asked for my pin, but I wasn't paying attention and gave it my zip code three times. Locked down my card.

In extra fairness, card machines are getting ridiculous. Some of them want you to swipe, others want you to insert, others want you to swipe for credit or insert for debit, some want the other way around, some want your pin, some want your zip code, some ask you if you want to donate to the human fund, some ask if you want cash back...

It's kind of a nightmare for someone with ADD or a steong basal ganglia.

Can't you just use contactless?
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Mikablu posted...

DezCaughtIt posted...

C: "THAT LONG ??? ALL YOU DO IS PUT PILLS IN A BOTTLE. GIVE ME THAT DAMN PRESCRIPTION. I'LL JUST GO TO CVS!"

And then CVS takes like 3 hours. Lol.

Seriously. 30 minutes is really generous for a new prescription.

Obviously if it's an emergency I can push it out pretty quick, but come on. Not everything's instant
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Guarantee the person complaining about getting their prescription was abusing whatever drug it was
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People talking on the phone while in line at checkout or in a restaurant.
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trying to get help when I'm clearly already helping another customer.
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Just in general getting mad when we don't know where things are

bitch there are 99,000 things in this store and the stupid managers move their locations every few weeks.
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Super Slash posted...

What's even worse than that is when they'll take skateboards off the shelf and ride them up and down every aisle

What the fuck

Sorry I wanna try it before I buy it. Any decent skate shop is fine with you doing this. If you're gonna work for a store that sells skateboards at all, you're gonna have to realize that they need to be tested, especially at Walmart.
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*stands at clearly unmanned register*
"HELLO!....DOES ANYONE WORK HERE!?"

....yea...just turn the fuck around and walk a few feet in the other direction to find someone....

Asking a question only to not actually want an answer but to go on about how their feelings on the subject are more valid than my actual experience with the product. Don't waste my time validating your preconceived opinion when I actually have people in the store who need help. Granted this also has the opposite happen quite a bit where someone actually needs information and listens but when I get the "I know it all" people I just roll my eyes and try to not call them an idiot out loud.
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Unquestionable posted...

Asking a question only to not actually want an answer but to go on about how their feelings on the subject are more valid than my actual experience with the product. Don't waste my time validating your preconceived opinion when I actually have people in the store who need help. Granted this also has the opposite happen quite a bit where someone actually needs information and listens but when I get the "I know it all" people I just roll my eyes and try to not call them an idiot out loud.

more so, asking a question multiple times expecting a different answer..

Customer: "do you guys carry this thing?"
Me: "No I'm sorry, we don't have that"
Customer: "you don't?"
Me: "No....but i can see if i can find it at another loca...."
Customer: "its not in any other area of the store?"
-_-