Wednesday, December 12, 2007

And the number one reason I hate retail is...

The people. Pure and simple. Most people are fine, but some people just make you want to slap them, or worse.

The other day for example. We are closing. There are bright yellow, large print signs up in several places throughout the store stating this and that all sales are final. And there are at least two signs right on the counter by the registers, and another on the pillar next to the register, just in case you missed the fact.

So a woman comes up to the counter with her things and E rings her up. The woman signs the credit card slip and starts to walk away when something obviously finally begins to register in her tiny little brain. She comes back, gets right in E's face and says, "All sales final? What do you mean? Does this mean if I change my mind and want the larger set that I can't come back and change it? That's shitty." And goes on in the same vein, not actually allowing E to speak.

The woman points to the signs on the counter. The one which reads "Returns and Exchanges" in large letters at the top and ALL SALES FINAL in large bold text at the bottom. In between it says that all sales after 12/4/07 are final. Items bought prior to that date may be returned or exchanged with a dated receipt until 12/16/07. But of course, this woman only reads the part she wants to read, which is the first line. E finally gets to speak and calmly reads the entire sign. With a few more swear words the woman stomps out.

An hour later the phone rings. I answer and it's that woman. She begins immediately yelling at me about our shitty policy and states that she's calling her bank and canceling the charge and she'll bring back our crap and dump it in front of the store. Now I am thinking, a) You signed the charge slip, agreeing to the charge. The bank can't do anything, and b) it was a debit, which means her account has already had the money electronically removed anyway.

But I say, "I'm sorry ma'am, but we do have big yellow signs clearly stating all sales final throughout the store. That is our policy and we have to uphold it."

She starts spewing at me again, finally ending with her favorite phrase, "That's shitty." I again politely apologize, but in my head I am getting heartily sick of her poison. And that's when it really got ugly. She then informed me, "then I'll call your district and get your ass in trouble, fucking bitch S___!"

That's when I said, "Oh you're nice." And hung up.

Get my ass in trouble. *Snort* She's not the brightest crayon in the box. What part of store closing, out of a job does she not understand? Oh and by the way, I don't have a district any longer, I have a liquidator who is responsible for my return policy, try and contact him. Call and complain to corporate. They've shut the door on us and hung us out to dry already.

But neither I nor E need to put up with behavior like that. All the woman had to do was be nice about it. Had she not immediately begun spewing vitriol at E. and instead had nicely said, "Oh, I didn't realize that all sales were final. I'm not really sure this is the set I want after all. May I return it and think about it for a while?" And I can promise you E would have said, "Absolutely." And we'd have bent the policy. But you can't scream at someone and then expect them to turn around and put their ass on the line for you.

For me.

It's been a long winter. Mentally, I feel even worse off than I was before, though things are finally looking up. I abandoned the gym. I...