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Feb. 28th, 2012 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spokeSooo. Today was rather horrific, and yet ...not so bad?
The horrific: Customer comes in, gets rung up, does something so that the supervisor with whom I'd had trouble before cannot take it anymore, gets an assistant manager to take over for her. She can't take it anymore, suspends the transaction aaaand all this I found out after the fact.
This? Is where I come in. I get handed the suspended transaction, and this guy gets in line, and I do not like to knock people because of their physical appearance but. Shall we say that personal hygiene was not high on his list of priorities. My allergies have been acting up and my sense of smell is not at its best and I was grateful that the small fan on the register was running.
The first thing he did was try to leave without paying. I called after him, 'Sir, you need to pay for that!' loud enough to alert everyone and he got back in line.
I finally get the transaction back in, added the milk he was apparently trying not to pay for before, and waited for him to pay however.
And waited.
And waited.
While he's adding up numbers in a notebook and muttering to himself and ignoring my polite attempts to point out the total, hint hint this is the bit where you exchange money for goods. Nothing. Eventually he starts trying to tell me the total is wrong, and it really gets crazy.
Over the course of nearly an hour, he alternately insists that:
He has no taxable items.
He knew he had taxable items and never said anything to the contrary.
His total is more than it should be.
His total is less than it should be. (Why would that even be a problem. Why. Generally this gets me a happy customer, dammit.)
That he shops here all the time and he knows how this works.
That I can show him what the taxes are with a button on the register, and will not hear otherwise. (For the record, there is no magical tax button - at least at my job! Taxes are added on by the computer, and they do not show up on suspended slips because they aren't finalized until payment is made. Then they show up on the receipt.)
He asked how long I'd been working there and when I told him eight years, asked if I was sure. If I was sure I wasn't lying to him right now. (I laughed at him at this point, and felt completely comfortable about it, since I had a support manager standing right behind me.)
I cannot even remember everything that was said. I remember that twice the register tried to kick the transaction out, something that I had not previously known it would do. But apparently, if a transaction sits there the way this did, it happens.
The round of management went: CSM
Assistant Manager 1
Support
Cashier coming over and actually wrapping her arm around me for emotional support.
Assistant Manager 1 again.
And again.
Support coming over again, when it tried to kick it out the first time, and offering to cover his shortage if that's the problem.
Assistant Manager 2, livid, who tore into the guy, pointing out several errors in his math on the paper, and that the machine can add up better than he can, then doing the math to show the taxes for him. And the guy actually asks if he's adding or subtraction, and A.M. and I just look in one of those moments of near-telepathy when you realize that there are three people here and only two of them are sentient.
And when he's made it clear that it's pay up or leave empty-handed, I will not discuss this with you, the guy pulls out - a second party check.
Which we can't even take at registers.
At this point, A.M. 2 cancels the transaction and since I have to go and give another cashier her break, I gladly hauled ass. Though as I passed the cashier who came over, I whispered 'freee' under my breath and got a laugh from her.
Afterwards, I found out that A.M.2 threatened ...not exactly to call the police, but told the guy that he was calling someone and that was the only way he'd leave the store. Also that both registers he'd been at had been sprayed down with Febreeze by general demand of everyone on the front end.
The thing was, after I'd calmed down and stopped seeing red - and I was shaking, I was so angry - idk, nothing else seemed so bad? Like that clean feeling you get after a storm.
And, you know, management saw me being controlled and patient and not flipping my shit while dealing with a difficult customer. And I made sure to thank all of them, as I saw them over the rest of the night. So. Net benefit?
I am so glad it's my weekend now.
The horrific: Customer comes in, gets rung up, does something so that the supervisor with whom I'd had trouble before cannot take it anymore, gets an assistant manager to take over for her. She can't take it anymore, suspends the transaction aaaand all this I found out after the fact.
This? Is where I come in. I get handed the suspended transaction, and this guy gets in line, and I do not like to knock people because of their physical appearance but. Shall we say that personal hygiene was not high on his list of priorities. My allergies have been acting up and my sense of smell is not at its best and I was grateful that the small fan on the register was running.
The first thing he did was try to leave without paying. I called after him, 'Sir, you need to pay for that!' loud enough to alert everyone and he got back in line.
I finally get the transaction back in, added the milk he was apparently trying not to pay for before, and waited for him to pay however.
And waited.
And waited.
While he's adding up numbers in a notebook and muttering to himself and ignoring my polite attempts to point out the total, hint hint this is the bit where you exchange money for goods. Nothing. Eventually he starts trying to tell me the total is wrong, and it really gets crazy.
Over the course of nearly an hour, he alternately insists that:
He has no taxable items.
He knew he had taxable items and never said anything to the contrary.
His total is more than it should be.
His total is less than it should be. (Why would that even be a problem. Why. Generally this gets me a happy customer, dammit.)
That he shops here all the time and he knows how this works.
That I can show him what the taxes are with a button on the register, and will not hear otherwise. (For the record, there is no magical tax button - at least at my job! Taxes are added on by the computer, and they do not show up on suspended slips because they aren't finalized until payment is made. Then they show up on the receipt.)
He asked how long I'd been working there and when I told him eight years, asked if I was sure. If I was sure I wasn't lying to him right now. (I laughed at him at this point, and felt completely comfortable about it, since I had a support manager standing right behind me.)
I cannot even remember everything that was said. I remember that twice the register tried to kick the transaction out, something that I had not previously known it would do. But apparently, if a transaction sits there the way this did, it happens.
The round of management went: CSM
Assistant Manager 1
Support
Cashier coming over and actually wrapping her arm around me for emotional support.
Assistant Manager 1 again.
And again.
Support coming over again, when it tried to kick it out the first time, and offering to cover his shortage if that's the problem.
Assistant Manager 2, livid, who tore into the guy, pointing out several errors in his math on the paper, and that the machine can add up better than he can, then doing the math to show the taxes for him. And the guy actually asks if he's adding or subtraction, and A.M. and I just look in one of those moments of near-telepathy when you realize that there are three people here and only two of them are sentient.
And when he's made it clear that it's pay up or leave empty-handed, I will not discuss this with you, the guy pulls out - a second party check.
Which we can't even take at registers.
At this point, A.M. 2 cancels the transaction and since I have to go and give another cashier her break, I gladly hauled ass. Though as I passed the cashier who came over, I whispered 'freee' under my breath and got a laugh from her.
Afterwards, I found out that A.M.2 threatened ...not exactly to call the police, but told the guy that he was calling someone and that was the only way he'd leave the store. Also that both registers he'd been at had been sprayed down with Febreeze by general demand of everyone on the front end.
The thing was, after I'd calmed down and stopped seeing red - and I was shaking, I was so angry - idk, nothing else seemed so bad? Like that clean feeling you get after a storm.
And, you know, management saw me being controlled and patient and not flipping my shit while dealing with a difficult customer. And I made sure to thank all of them, as I saw them over the rest of the night. So. Net benefit?
I am so glad it's my weekend now.
