Day off...

I had today off which is good because if I had to deal with coming into the store because their kids are still out on Christmas break, I was gonna die.  We have been so busy of the past 2 weeks that nothing in the store has gotten done.  It is completely trashed.  I just can't wait until tomorrow, when kids are back in school and we can clean that "hole" up.  It is not a good feeling going into work and being embarrassed about how the store looks when customers walk in.  What can you do though.  When you can't get off the register long enough to even replace the bathroom tissue in the customer bathroom what else are you supposed to do?  All you can do is try to be as nice as possible and hope that corporate doesn't decide to make an unannounced visit.

Finally a slow day....

New Years day...I guess everyone was getting over their hangovers this morning because we were slow today, finally.  There was no lack of ignorant people though. 
I was outside taking a smoke break and a woman came up to me and asked me if could go into the store useing "that" door.  Now let me explain, we have two doors that go into the store both of which saying enter and neither having a sign that says use other door.  Common sense tells you that you can enter either of these.  I just told her "of course you can." What else can you say?  "Here's your sign?"  Yeah, I dont think that would go over to well.
Customer # 2:  We were having a nice conversation while I was checking him out and he brought up how old his membership card was. "I bet you don't see many of these kinds of cards anymore."
I said, "No but that kind will last forever because it is hard plastic.  The ones we have no get torn up easily."  He said, "I know, I have heard." 
My first thought was, really, people are telling stories of how shitty our cards are and my second was wow I bet as soon as he said it he was wondering what in the hell he was thinking.
I know some of this sounds petty but when you deal with customers all the time you find humor and stupidity everywhere.  I never call anyone out on it but it is fun to sit back and think over the day and how many people really made an impression on you, good or bad!

New Years Eve...

I had to work the day shift today, thank goodness because I think the store is gonna explode (I work in a entertainment store). 
New Year's Eve is like a full moon in that it brings out the crazy people and you always have issues.  Today was nothing short of that.  We had one customer that got mad because everything she wanted was not in.  I think I had four people not even acknowlege me when I was ringing them up because they were on their phones, so what did I do?  I talked louder.  There is nothing more rude than not putting your phone down until you are done with your transaction.
I had one gentleman throw his coupon at me because it expired A MONTH AGO and I couldn't honor it.  Well, I just have to blow that off and move on to the next right?  Although, I must say things like that just stay with you because you can't understand how people become that angry.

All I can say is that I hope they are having a better time of it tonight!

Day off....

Thank God!  I needed to catch up on my naps since I haven't been able to nap the last 2 weeks due to Christmas and the remodeling of our floors!  I must say though that even though I was able to take a nap, a phone call woke me up during one of THOSE dreams so I didn't get to see where my fantasy guy and I were going with it....could've been a good one! Damnit man!

Jerk of the Day Award goes to...

As usual I was working my regular day shift today and things were going along just fine until a man walked into the store and asked me to check the balances of three gift cards he had.  That was nothing unusual until I ran the first card, well the card was originally purchased in the amount of five dollars and the balance was now two.  I informed him of this and he got very irritated and told me that it was not right that my company should not be able to deduct any money from an unused card.  I told him that the card was bought in 2005 and that was before the laws had changed and made it illegal for companies to charge a monthly "non use" fee which for my company was only after 2 years of non use.
So I ran the next card and informed him of a zero balance (supposed to be five dollars).  Holy crap, I thought he was gonna have a fit.  He asked me, rather forceably, to give him the card back with the balance reciept because he was gonna mail it back to the corporate office with a letter telling them that since I took his money they could have the card back and they could dispose of it.  I said nothing in response to this and ran his third card, which thank God, had a full balance of ten dollars so he ended up with two cards equaling twelve dollars instead of the total of twenty.
I understand the position he had but really?  He didn't have to blame me for something corporate did when that was the "norm" for giftcards four or five years ago.  I have no control over this!
Jerk

Day Off...

I had the day off today, thank God!  I live for my days off but all I do all day long is worry about going to work tomorrow and having to deal with unreasonable people.  It is a horrible way to live, to always be worrying about what is going to happen tomorrow.  This is what retail can do to you.  It can make you cynical, loath people and wake up every morning dreading going to work.
I can't stand to be around people outside of work because of the crap I have to deal with, with customers.  I don't hang out with friends ( I do have friends), I don't entertain at my house and I don't go to other peoples parties.  I seriously can't stand people.  Ask my husband, I have become sort of a home body.  It is sad and debilatating.

Attack of the Preganant CSR

It was late in 2006 and I was 8 months pregnant with my daughter.  I was working a busy Friday night when I had a customer walk up to my register ready to check out.  He gave me his account card, I scanned it and discovered he had a twenty dollar balance.  I informed him of this and he said that he had already returned the movie.  I told him polietly to hold on one second and I would check the shelf to see if it was human error and someone had missed it during checkin.  I proceded to check the shelf for the title.  I was standing infront of the movie looking throught the stacks for the specific copy number he had when an older gentleman walked up behind me and yelled, "The customer comes first and you are in my way, get the hell out of the way."  He was not standing there when I walked up because if he was I would not have been able to check the movie.  I, being pregnanat, lost my mind and told him "you are right the customer does come first and today it sure as hell isn't you."
The next day I called my district managager and informed her that I would need to go ahead and start my maternity leave because if I didn't I was afraid that I would take someone out Office Space style.