Now we've all heard the old adage ..."the Customer is Always Right..." and in an ideal world this saying might hold true. Yes, in the world where we all bask under a smiley faced sun and all the little children and puppies are frolicking through green fields with crayon marked flowers and rainbows...as I was saying...We are all familiar with the saying right? So, when are we able to assume that the customer isn't "Always Right"? Read on and you be the judge...
I was working an afternoon shift back in the day when our store was so slow, that there only needed to be one clerk on duty for the better part of the afternoon, when an unpleasant looking older gentleman walked through the door. I watched as he walked to the soda cooler and pulled out two 20oz Dr. Peppers and walked up to the clerk's platform with them. I rang them up and told him the total at which he yelled loudly "Wrong! They are two for $2 dollars..." I calmly told him, "Um, nope they aren't on sale this month" and repeated the total to him again. "No, your sign says that they are two for $2 dollars!", he shouted again. " I looked in the direction of where the sign supposedly was and shook my head, "Sorry, they aren't on sale this month..." I was saying as he shouted over me again, "This is the same (expletive) that they put me through at your other store...you need to give them to me for two for $2 dollars..." "I can't..." as I was saying something else, I could see him winding up with the bottles of Dr. Pepper and jumped out of the way right as he lobbed the bottles at me over the counter! One of my regular customers was waking through the door as he was throwing soda bottles at me and actually chased the man down to yell at him as I stared stunned at the scene through the window. Now really was that called for? Why this man didn't just drive himself to Albertson's a few blocks away and get himself a 2liter bottle of Dr. Pepper for 89 cents is beyond me...sure the customer is always right...hmmmm...
Not too long after I started working the Convenient circuit, I was mopping the floor one afternoon somewhere in the back of the store by the bathroom and I could see a pinched face, very angry looking woman walk toward the bathroom with her son in tow. I could hear her beating loudly on the bathroom door before she appeared in front of me demanding a key for the bathroom. I explained to her that there was just someone in the bathroom and she'd have to wait her turn. She glared at me and went back to the bathroom where I could here her beating on the door again. I continued to mop as she appeared before me again demanding that I go get the key to unlock the door. "I'm not going to do that because there is someone in there", I told her as she shouted something at her son and marched out of the store with him in tow. After a few minutes a man came out the bathroom and walked over to me to thank me for not opening the door. I assured him that I wouldn't have opened the door under any circumstances and he left just as I saw the awful lady with her son marching past me. "See I told you there was someone in there", I told her and she turned her pinched face my direction to spit, "Well, you didn't need to be such a (expletive) b---- about it!", and slammed herself and her son into the bathroom. I didn't need to be such a what? Am I wrong or was it you that was causing such a ruckus? Of course as I relayed this particular story to my boss the next day, he had to ask me if I was being a (well, you read it above, I won't repeat it) and I told him no, well at least not that particular time...Ha! The customer is always...whatever!
A couple of years ago my boss was on vacation and our Regional Director sent us a Director Trainee to be in charge while he was gone. I was familiar with this lady and liked her, but had never had to work below her. Well, we had received our delivery that day and there wasn't any other help in the store except a brand new cashier and myself. She busied herself with sitting in front of the computer, putting in invoices as I struggled to put all the product we had received away. This while I had to stop every few minutes to help move customers, because it's hard to move people out the door when you are a new cashier. The Director Trainee announced that she was done for the day and left with half of our delivery not put away, as well as, trashes needing to be emptied cups, straws, lids needing to be stocked, not to mention the walk-in cooler that needed attention... I was really annoyed as I struggled to make a dent in the work I had to do with the limited time I had to do it in. I looked up once again to see a very large line of people at the register and jogged up to the front of the store to help the cashier with people moving. I helped a couple of people and had a lady in front of me wanting to pay for the gas she had pumped. I told her the amount and she produced a credit card which I ran and handed her a receipt to sign. I asked her if she needed a copy and she said she did, as I took the signed receipt and put in the slot in the till. She wrote the gallons she pumped and the amount on her copy of her receipt as told me, "I need to write this on the other receipt as well." Confused I asked, "On the store's copy of the receipt?" "Yes, I need to write this on the that receipt as well," she insisted with her eyes opening very wide. I was very annoyed with the long line, the irrationality of the lady in front of me, and the way too many things I needed to get done. "Why do you need to write on that receipt? I lost it in my drawer and nobody even looks at the store's copy of the receipt. I can print you another receipt", I offered. "No, I need that receipt!", she insisted, loudly this time. "Why?, you are being irrational..."I told her, frustrated at this point and eventually I fished her stupid receipt that no one was going to look at out of the bottom of the till. I remember telling her she was "nuts" before she left as well, making sure to throw her receipt, that no one was going to look at, away as she left finally. Why? I never understood that question pertaining to the irrational receipt woman. I did get in trouble for that incident, apparently the crazy woman was lucid enough to look up the corporate number and tell whoever cared that I was a horrible clerk and what not. I guess when they looked at the tape of the incident I told her to get out as well..although I don't recall telling her that. The Director Trainee wrote me up the next day as I fumed wishing I could tell her off for leaving me so swamped with work that day, I kept my mouth shut.
The Customer is Always...okay, so I think that we've established that may not always be the case. If the customer is irrational, mean, or just looking for someone to fling Dr. Pepper at, I think it's safe to assume that the customer may not be always right! Sheesh!
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