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

(+) Yeah! (+)

EpicMickeyDrew posted...

How old was that last guy TC?

Probably in his 40's, I'd guess. Definitely not old enough to just be a "gramps and technology don't mix" kinda thing.
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Aristoph posted...

EpicMickeyDrew posted...

How old was that last guy TC?

Probably in his 40's, I'd guess. Definitely not old enough to just be a "gramps and technology don't mix" kinda thing.

Another old person needed to be told to hit ok after signing. The fact some customers are allowed to drive to store to torment me with their stupidity is alarming.
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I worked at a cafe for our catering department for a little while, and some of the customers would buy a large coffee drink, and then ask me if they could get two of the smaller sizes instead. I gave them two small size cups and they would look upset because they wanted two mediums.
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Honestly, when it comes to dealing with major stupidity, is it just me or do old ladies lead the clueless charge?
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Crazyman93 posted...

Honestly, when it comes to dealing with major stupidity, is it just me or do old ladies lead the clueless charge?

In my experience, old women are the majority of the stupid customers. But the random middle-aged guy is by far the dumbest individual stupid customer. I don't get as many of them, but when I do get one they just bring it to a whole new level. >_<
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Aristoph posted...

Ahh...gotta love the morons who can't figure out the card reader when you've got literally 10 people behind them in line. -_-

I swear to God, this just happened about 20 minutes ago:

Guy: *brings stuff up to counter, asks for 2 packs of cigarettes, hands me one of his items and won't let go of the second item*
Me: I need to scan that item, sir.
Guy: Huh?
Me: The sandwich in your hand. I need to scan it.
Guy: Oh...
Me: Total is $15.96
Guy: *tries to hand me his credit card*
Me: *points at the card reader he's literally resting his hand on*
Guy: *swipes his card, gets error, machines says "insert chip"*
Guy: *swipes again, then looks at me like I'm an idiot*
Me: You have to use the chip, sir.
Guy: The what?
Me: The chip. You have to insert the card in the slot at the bottom so it can read the chip.
Guy: *puts card in backwards*
Me: Other way around, sir.
Guy: I don't want to use the chip. *swipes card again*
Me: Sir, if you have a chip card you have to use the chip. It won't accept the swipe.
Guy: *puts card in backwards again*
Me: You have to turn it around, sir. The chip needs to go in the reader.
Guy: *finally gets card in right, then immediately pulls it out*
Me: Sir, you need to leave the card in the whole time.
Guy: *puts card right back in*
Me: You need to take it out for a second now so I can reset it.
Guy: *finally puts card back in, then stares at first cash back prompt for genuine 5 seconds, eventually hits yes*
Guy: I don't want cash back. What the fuck would I want cash back for? (yes, he said fuck, and started getting pissed off)
Me: It just asked you if you wanted cash back, sir. You hit yes. You'll have to take the card out so I can reset it again.
Guy: This is bullshit, you need to get the broken swipe fixed.
Me: It's not broken, sir. If your card has a chip you have to use that. The swipe works fine otherwise.
Guy: *puts card in, I literally walk him through the entire process as gently as I can, until the last step*
Me: For credit, press no. For debit, press yes.
Guy: *presses yes*
Guy: I don't need a PIN. This is credit. This thing is fucking stupid!
Me: Sir, you hit yes for debit, so it's asking for a PIN. If you wanted to use credit, you needed to say no on the last option. You'll have to take the card out and let me reset it again. This time, just hit "NO, YES, NO" on the prompts.
*Guy finally gets it right, grabs his bag angrily like it's somehow my fault he's an incompetent moron who can't read or follow instructions, and walks out*

The entire store literally started laughing the moment he left. The customer behind him was making exasperated faces and shit behind his back the entire time. When he stepped up he said "I can't believe you have that kind of patience. I wanted to throttle him. There's no way I could've kept a straight face and stayed calm with a customer like that." XD

I get this a lot but with chinese customers(store is in a asian area) who speak 0% english and we have a staff with no chinese speakers either. Customers behind them will blame me for the customer in front of them not knowing how to use a card after I walk them through it
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Aristoph posted...

Crazyman93 posted...

Honestly, when it comes to dealing with major stupidity, is it just me or do old ladies lead the clueless charge?

In my experience, old women are the majority of the stupid customers. But the random middle-aged guy is by far the dumbest individual stupid customer. I don't get as many of them, but when I do get one they just bring it to a whole new level. >_<

Yeah, the no pin lady and the "I have to hit okay to advance" lady were both far too old to be allowed out of the house without a younger adult.

A more general one is you don't have to bring a bag of mulch in to buy it, that said, know which one you want. And no, telling me the price isn't helpful, especially before I finally said fuck it and printed labels for the book (there have been years where they changed the price so much that having price labels wasn't helpful to us) just so I didn't have to go "Is it this one?" to them. They have no idea what they're buying, but they damn well know how much it costs.
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Oh god, I forgot about this guy... >_<

There's a regular customer (dude is probably in his early 50's, I'd guess) who comes in every single night. He buys like $3 or $4 of gas. Every. Single. Night. I've never seen him buy more than 2 gallons at a time. Which is weird enough to begin with. But the guy just never shuts the fuck up. It gets to the point sometimes that I'm waiting for him to pass out because I never see him take a breath. And it's always about the most inane, pointless, uninteresting things you can imagine. I don't believe I have ever said more than "uh-huh" or "nah" to him. He'll ask you a question, and then immediately cut you off when you go to answer and continue on his ranting about whatever it is. And he will stay here like this for 15 minutes or more. One night he was here for nearly 30 minutes talking and I may have glanced at him twice in that entire time, spending the whole time browsing CE and clearly not caring about what he was saying. -_-

Shut the fuck up and go away, moron. >_<
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Aristoph posted...

Leanaunfurled posted...

7. Customers who are on their phone and treat me like I'm invisible.

I just treat them like they're invisible in response. I'll scan their items and then just look at them until they give me the money for it. I won't speak until they put the phone down and speak to me first.

How I dealt with them was the exact opposite, I force them to talk to me. I would ask questions that I already knew the answer to/didn't have to ask, clarify stuff I already knew, and make sure I talk extra loud so the person on the other end would know the person they're talking to is an asshole.

Crazyman93 posted...

TheVipaGTS posted...

"We will be closing in 15 minutes. Please bring your selections to a register"

That means pay now and get the fuck out before those 15 mins are up. It doesn't mean you have 15 more mins to browse.

Dude, my store was evacuated last week for a fire alarm (false alarm in the vents, by the propane), I was off, my mother was on shift and got an idiot who couldn't comprehend that the only reason we'd tell you to evacuate the store is for a FUCKING LIFE OR DEATH EMERGENCY! No, you can't finish your shopping jackass, the fire department wants everyone OUT NOW!

I worked in a pizza place in a malls food court, and the fire alarm light and speaker was in my store (so it was extra loud). I had some people who come and look at the menu from a distance and the alarm would go off. Lights would flash, and a robotic voice would say something like "emergency, emergency, please make your way to the nearest exit". I would turn off stuff and clear off the counters, and the person at the counter would just stand there. Then they walk to the counter and say "can I have..." and I interrupt them and say "the fire alarm is going off, we have to leave". Most of them say "oh" and walk away, one person said "is that was that is?".....yes, the alarm and the voice telling you to exit the building is the fire alarm, no your can't order something.

As for my own that no one has mentioned yet, I hate when people leave their receipts/straw wrappers on the counter. There is even a little bucket on the counter for receipts and straw wrappers, and we even make sure there's garbage in it so you know what it is. Even if you don't see it, it's a mall, there's literally a garbage can behind you, at least 10 of them are visible from the counter. Even worse is when they leave them on the counter in front of the soda machine, the one place on the counter that I can't see, so every few hours I have to go around front to wipe away the piles of paper that we can't easily grab. I went to McDonalds recently, the guy got his receipt, and then the cashier left to make his stuff, he put the receipt on the counter next to the register and slid it across. Why? Someone in the topic that does this (I know there are because this happens almost every other customer) WHY?!? After you get your food you literally walk by a garbage can to grab a seat or leave the store, so why do you have to leave your wrappers on the counter?
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Aristoph posted...

But the guy just never shuts the fuck up. ... And it's always about the most inane, pointless, uninteresting things you can imagine.

I've got an uncle that does this. One time my sister got so fed up with it she told him "Please, just stop talking." and he seemed kind of hurt and confused by it (even though he was babbling on at a really inappropriate time) so maybe he somehow has no idea how annoying he is. Maybe it's a disorder of some kind, cuz how can you have such a lack of self-awareness?
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Anyone that rudely interrupts me as I'm consulting with another customer concerning a print order automatically gets the kindergarten treatment from me.

Any entitled prick that wants something done faster than the rest of the customers and bitches about turnaround times.

Pretty much all the types of dumbasses that were showcased in that one scene from Clerks, which I guess essentially is /topic.
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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

Years ago when I worked at a gas station one night a woman opened the door and threw a wad of dollar bills at me for gas and walked back out. I honestly couldn't believe it

Another time this older man would always try to start shit with me for no reason other than he was looking for a fight. The first few times I let it go, but once he started to insult me and wouldn't let up I just kinda snapped. I called him some of the worst things I could think of. Luckily there wasn't really anyone else in the store at the time. He said he'd be getting me fired, but when I told my boss about it she just laughed. She knew what kind of person he was

I could go on forever with this types of stories. People suck
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I worked graveyard at a porn store and threw customers out all the time, we had discretion to do so and management always had our back.
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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

I worked graveyard at a porn store and threw customers out all the time, we had discretion to do so and management always had our back.

We do too. I've had to throw a couple people out before. And one is no longer allowed in the store. I caught her stealing, but we're not legally allowed to actually stop anybody from shoplifting (it's not even technically shoplifting until they leave the store with the stuff, at which point we're not allowed to leave the store to go after them). So instead I've had to tell her every time she tries to come back that she's not welcome, will not be served, and ask her to leave. She still denies it, of course, and tries to give some sob story about how I've got the wrong person every time. But I saw her do it. As did 2 other frequent customers who happened to be in the store at the time. And so did the security cameras. Plus she drives a very distinctive car with a massive dent in the passenger's side door. Kinda hard to mistake that, tbh.

Last time she tried to come in was about a month ago. After asking her to leave and getting her usual bullshit response, I said she should just find somewhere else to shop and consider herself lucky that we chose not to involve the police as it would be pretty fucking embarrassing to get arrested over a $2 slushie. She hasn't been back since. XD
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exist... in general
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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

I worked graveyard at a porn store and threw customers out all the time, we had discretion to do so and management always had our back.

That seems like the case at a lot of adult stores. r/TalesFromAdultStores has a lot of stories like that and almost all of them say that management gives the employees permission to throw bad customers out.

I never had to cashier when I worked at Sears but I did maintain the sales floor and dressing rooms.

-My biggest pet peeve would be when I'm in the process of cleaning up a messy table and a customer would come up right next to me and screw up the pile of clothes that I obviously just fixed. The proper etiquette would be to ask me if I noticed a certain size while straightening, which a lot of people would do.

-We would sometimes close our registers in the men's department during the week when it wasn't busy. We put up signs in front of both registers informing the customer to check out in the tools department. It never failed that the customer would just stand up at the register waiting for someone to come over and check them out. I know it's a dick move but I would just watch them and see how long they would stay there before figuring out that the register was closed.

-Customers knocking on the doors before opening even though there is still 10 minutes left. Customers walking in a minute before we are due to close. Customers still shopping and walking around aimlessly even after the 5th closing announcement.

-People who would drive an hour or more because the online site said we had it in stock and then cause a scene when it was actually out of stock when they arrived. If you're driving that far for something then wouldn't you confirm with the store that it's actually in stock and also ask if it could be held?
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I work in backroom and I'm always astonished when we go to pull after lunch how many fuckin people miss the fact that a pallet full of pool salt/water/whatever other heavy shit we can thrown in isn't easy to stop and that you should you know move out the fuckin way.
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I work at Home Depot and these are probably my main few peeves:

1. Customers not reading the large fucking print on the signs on every aisle that tells you what's in them and instead bugging us for questions they could've gotten the answer to themselves if they'd just tip their thick skulls up a few inches and read the signs. Every time I see someone just stand at the end of an aisle staring down it like a special ed kid that got lost, I just think how pathetic they are.

2. Loudly proclaiming that they'll be going somewhere else because they don't like our prices, as if anyone in the store working there besides the managers actually give a shit.
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Turbam posted...

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

Done that at Walmart. If it's busy as hell and you have 3 of 20 some tills manned and every cashier is apparently brand new to the job don't expect me to wait for 45 minutes to pay and definitely don't expect me to walk around putting every item back in its proper spot.
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CanuckCowboy posted...

Done that at Walmart. If it's busy as hell and you have 3 of 20 some tills manned and every cashier is apparently brand new to the job don't expect me to wait for 45 minutes to pay and definitely don't expect me to walk around putting every item back in its proper spot.

Remember kids, it's okay to give people more to do if their company understaffs and overworks them.

People are horrible to retail workers.

ShadowElite86 posted...

It never failed that the customer would just stand up at the register waiting for someone to come over and check them out. I know it's a dick move but I would just watch them and see how long they would stay there before figuring out that the register was closed.

See, at Walmart's garden center you get the special sort of stupid that stands there and expects someone to magically appear, even with the closed sign they'll go "ARE YOU OPEN?!" According to that sign no. Now bugger off.
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gmanthebest posted...

Leaving their shopping cart in the parking lot. Use the corrals, you lazy piece of shit.

Earlier this year we had this crazy 5 minute storm with insane winds and what happened? A cart got blown into someone's car because of it just sitting randomly and left a nice ol dent. Shame people do that, but hopefully those that do have that happen to them so they can see what it feels like to have their car dented because of a lazy asshole.
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How about customers that can't respect times when we should be fucking closed?

I work at a Walmart, but we should all remember that in North America, the NES Classic debuted on NOVEMBER 11th, 2016. There were dozens of people lined up outside the Walmart in the smallish city I live in at 7am in the morning.

They fully expected the store to open earlier than noon on a holiday dedicated to honouring fallen and serving veterans at 11:11am. There were even people in line that wanted nothing to do with the NES Classic.

I could not believe the entitlement of all those people. And the Medicine Hat Walmart received 28 Classics that day! After they were all gone, then we got the garden variety butt-flustered customers that blamed us for all of Nintendo's stock issues.

It was a bad day.
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EyeWontBeFooled posted...

How about customers that can't respect times when we should be fucking closed?

I work at a Walmart, but we should all remember that in North America, the NES Classic debuted on NOVEMBER 11th, 2016. There were dozens of people lined up outside the Walmart in the smallish city I live in at 7am in the morning.

They fully expected the store to open earlier than noon on a holiday dedicated to honouring fallen and serving veterans at 11:11am. There were even people in line that wanted nothing to do with the NES Classic.

I could not believe the entitlement of all those people. And the Medicine Hat Walmart received 28 Classics that day! After they were all gone, then we got the garden variety butt-flustered customers that blamed us for all of Nintendo's stock issues.

It was a bad day.

I work at WEM. People lined up before the mall itself opened. Earliest I heard was 4 am. Mall opens at 6am, EB, Source, and London Drugs open at 10am.
People are fucking ridiculous.
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pegusus123456 posted...

If you get the money right away, I don't care. But digging in every pocket, every wrinkle in your purse, asking your wife/husband/etc if they have a few more pennies to avoid getting a dime back drives me up the wall.

At that point I just used to give it to them to get them the hell out. We had a grace amount that the drawer would be short. And most of the time it would come back because someone didn't want their change.
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Now I feel like I'm an asshole no matter what I do at the store thanks guys
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Price comes out to exactly 20 dollars.

"woah, I'll never do that again!"


Price comes out to 6.66

Oh shit, lemme buy this stick of gum.
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iosifsvoboda posted...

Now I feel like I'm an asshole no matter what I do at the store thanks guys

If you get your shit and get out you're fine. If you politely ask a question, you're fine. Don't be an entitled dick.


Oh, and as far as leaving frozen foods out, I once found some that were HIDDEN behind a back to school PDQ (Cardboard product display, just toss it on the shelf and done.) Popsicles, they were there long enough to be room temperature and dripping. I mean, really? That's just going above and beyond to be an asshole. The only reason I found it, because the back of the PDQ blocked it, was because I was running my hand back there for our weekly raided newspaper.

There was a period where someone, and we assume it was one person, would bring the Sunday paper back to these aisles, strip the coupons out, and leave the paper. So we'd have to claims a newspaper out for being incomplete, since plenty of people actually PAY for the coupons.
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Some stores I'm willing to be courteous inside of, but never Walmart. You'd think the managers hire those types of idiots on purpose.

Which they might.
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Monday posted...

Some stores I'm willing to be courteous inside of, but never Walmart. You'd think the managers hire those types of idiots on purpose.

Which they might.

Really? Because I've had very few issues with my co-workers intelligence level, and I expected the worst.
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Monday posted...

Some stores I'm willing to be courteous inside of, but never Walmart. You'd think the managers hire those types of idiots on purpose.

Which they might.

I meant, isn't it possible they give up caring or attempting to actually help because of people like you?
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Funkydog posted...

Monday posted...

Some stores I'm willing to be courteous inside of, but never Walmart. You'd think the managers hire those types of idiots on purpose.

Which they might.

I meant, isn't it possible they give up caring or attempting to actually help because of people like you?

I think the more realistic scenario is they hire people who don't care about the job in the first place, and are just doing it until they get the job they really want.

Walmart is a terrible company, and has terrible business practices. Why the fuck is the cart pusher high as shit at 3 in the afternoon? At least they have self-checkout these days.
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Monday posted...

I think the more realistic scenario is they hire people who don't care about the job in the first place, and are just doing it until they get the job they really want.

That doesn't give you an excuse to be an asshole. I'm generally a lot less helpful to entitled pricks on principle. You're the sort of person who I'd give a vague gesture to for where something is. Then promptly help another customer and walk with them to make sure they found it.

I don't come to your place of employment and treat you like shit, then leave a giant mess. Don't do it to me.
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They were born.
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NOM posted...

They were born.

You know, that isn't far off the mark with me and crying children. It amazes me that parents don't feel embarrassed about their kids being obnoxious hellions.
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PoopPotato posted...

Price comes out to exactly 20 dollars.

"woah, I'll never do that again!"


Price comes out to 6.66

Oh shit, lemme buy this stick of gum.

XD

I forgot about this. It didn't happen to me but to one of my coworkers. He got some older lady whose purchase came to a total of $6.66. She refused to pay it because "it's the number of the beast." She actually told him he needed to give her a discount. No, she didn't ask him to, she flat out told him that he needed to drop the price. When he said he couldn't do that, she started on some tirade about how she was being treated unjustly, that she should sue the station for religious discrimination, and something about how Christians are being persecuted constantly these days. O_o

I was proud of how he handled it, honestly. When she started heading towards the racist stuff, he cut her off, gave her this huge smile, and said "Ma'am, I can't reduce the price for you because I'm not a manager. But I can get myself a candy bar and let you pay for it if you'd like?" The look on her face was priceless. XD She was so flustered she ended up just walking out without buying anything.
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Thought of another one that I've only seen the after effects of: Customers who leave religous texts all over the place. Seriously, every few months someone leave religious comics intended to teach about a bible verse in parts of the store. The men's toilet and the Health and Beauty section are popular targets. So in addition to doing our jobs, we have to clean up trash.

Actually, throw in people too lazy to throw their damn cups away in actual trash cans too. Or trash in general.
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lderivedx posted...

Remember kids, it's okay to give people more to do if their company understaffs and overworks them.

People are horrible to retail workers

You're right I should volunteer my time to the store who are too cheap to adequately staff.

I worked at Walmart. It sucked but I didn't take it personally when people were dicks.
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Crazyman93 posted...

NOM posted...

They were born.

You know, that isn't far off the mark with me and crying children. It amazes me that parents don't feel embarrassed about their kids being obnoxious hellions.

It's funny because you were likely an obnoxious POS too, just like almost every single fucking kid on the planet.
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IfGodCouldDie posted...

Crazyman93 posted...

NOM posted...

They were born.

You know, that isn't far off the mark with me and crying children. It amazes me that parents don't feel embarrassed about their kids being obnoxious hellions.

It's funny because you were likely an obnoxious POS too, just like almost every single fucking kid on the planet.

I never threw a tantrum because I couldn't get a toy. And I damn sure never crawled on the fucking register belt.
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Crazyman93 posted...

IfGodCouldDie posted...

Crazyman93 posted...

NOM posted...

They were born.

You know, that isn't far off the mark with me and crying children. It amazes me that parents don't feel embarrassed about their kids being obnoxious hellions.

It's funny because you were likely an obnoxious POS too, just like almost every single fucking kid on the planet.

I never threw a tantrum because I couldn't get a toy. And I damn sure never crawled on the fucking register belt.

What ever you say golden child.
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IfGodCouldDie posted...

Crazyman93 posted...

NOM posted...

They were born.

You know, that isn't far off the mark with me and crying children. It amazes me that parents don't feel embarrassed about their kids being obnoxious hellions.

It's funny because you were likely an obnoxious POS too, just like almost every single fucking kid on the planet.

This reminds me of a story my mom told me once. I don't know how young I was, but my mom and I were in line at a checkout. There was another mother there with her kid, and he wanted a candy bar but his mom told him no. He started throwing a tantrum, and after a few more times telling him "no" the mom eventually gave in and let him get the candy bar just to calm him down.

Apparently, I saw this interaction, and the gears began to turn in my head. My mom could tell what I was thinking, so she looked at me with a stern face and said "don't even think about it," so I continue to sit quietly. The other mother looked at my mom, astonished, and asked "how did you do that?"

My mom replied "He's got you trained. You need to be the trainer."
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TrevorBlack79 posted...

IfGodCouldDie posted...

Crazyman93 posted...

NOM posted...

They were born.

You know, that isn't far off the mark with me and crying children. It amazes me that parents don't feel embarrassed about their kids being obnoxious hellions.

It's funny because you were likely an obnoxious POS too, just like almost every single fucking kid on the planet.

This reminds me of a story my mom told me once. I don't know how young I was, but my mom and I were in line at a checkout. There was another mother there with her kid, and he wanted a candy bar but his mom told him no. He started throwing a tantrum, and after a few more times telling him "no" the mom eventually gave in and let him get the candy bar just to calm him down.

Apparently, I saw this interaction, and the gears began to turn in my head. My mom could tell what I was thinking, so she looked at me with a stern face and said "don't even think about it," so I continue to sit quietly. The other mother looked at my mom, astonished, and asked "how did you do that?"

My mom replied "He's got you trained. You need to be the trainer."

Ha ha ha, that's fucking awesome. I guarantee there were times when you were unruly too, every kid has those moments.
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When i worked dairy and frozen theres always dairy stuff that people didnt want in the frozen section or frozen stuff like ice cream in dairy. Its just waste and they were so close. Fuck them.
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VandorLee posted...

When i worked dairy and frozen theres always dairy stuff that people didnt want in the frozen section or frozen stuff like ice cream in dairy. Its just waste and they were so close. Fuck them.

We have a small freezer for small ice cream stuff like ice cream sandwiches, Dove bars, and Ben & Jerry's pints. It's infuriating when customers go over there, open the lid wide, and then sit there for 15 minutes trying to decide which they want.

Hey, moron! The top of the fucking freezer is clear glass! You can see everything inside it without even opening the lid! STOP LETTING ALL THE FUCKING COLD AIR OUT!
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