RETURNS
Sunflower has a policy that they will return just about anything and as cashiers we have the capability to refund, exchange, barter or whatever works to make the customer happy. It wasn't long after I started I got my first "Are you fucking kidding me?" (AYFKM) return. A lady came in with a bag of spoiled pears and informs me, "You know, I bought these pears a few weeks ago and you know what? They went bad."
It wasn't much later I got probably the grossest return. A lady comes in with a bag of lamb chop bones, a couple of cooked lamb chops along with the wrapping they came in mixed up in this greasy mess. She told me that she bought 12 lamb chops and prepared them for guests at her house. When she handed me the bag she told me that they were so bad they couldn't eat the last 3 chops. She didn't have her receipt so I had to paw through the bones and meat to find the labels on the wrapping. I love lamb chops but this was a bit much for me.
Then there was the man who bought four grape vine plants and brought them all back in clearly dead. His reason he needed a refund was that he planted them and then went out of town for over a week and didn't have anyone to water them. They died so he wanted his money back, and we did refund him. AYFKM?
I'm checking out a lady and ask her if the onion in the bag was a sweet onion. Her response was, "why would I put a sweet onion in my pot roast?"
Shortly after the store opened we would have long lines and of course we were all still learning at that point too. So my cash register goes down and we move all the people over to another line where I attempt to sign into another register. I'm unable to because even though the other register is down I'm technically still logged onto that one. So we call for another cashier to come assist but clearly too much time has elapsed for one gentleman who just had a bag of lunch meat and he threw it at me and stormed out of the store. He missed.
It was on my second to the last customer of the day and this woman came in telling me that she had just moved here and was a former massage therapist and wondered why we didn't carry a certain product. She started to tell me it's name and that I should tell the person in charge we needed to carry this product. I told her there was a suggestion box in the front of the store if she wanted to fill out a form with the information they would give it to the manager of that department for consideration. Holy crap, she totally went ballistic at that point saying things like it's a sorry state of affairs when the customer has to work harder then the employees and she thought we were different but we were no better then going to Smiths or Albertsons. I told her the form would be more reliable source then counting on me to remember exactly what she wanted. Then I got, it was the employees now days don't want to do their job with her voice getting louder and louder. I ask her if she would like to talk to the manager of the Natural Living department and I got a resounding no. Then I said I'd be happy to call the store director over because she was clearly upset. It was at that point I got the tried and true response, "I'll never shop here again." My last customer made me feel better calling her a total bitch and a woman in the line next to mine gave me a hug.
adding more later
PIN PAD
What in the world is so hard about using the freeking pin pad in the grocery store? Very seldom do the devices in our store allow the customer to use their fingers to touch in things like their PIN numbers so they have to use the stylus to enter in their information. It usually goes like this; the customer swipes their card. If they are on register 2 that can be a trick in of itself with the rude sound of "arrrahhh" instead of the sweet little "beep". So when we get our beep and the customer starts punching the pad with their fingers with no luck. I tell them to use the stylus or as I say "the stick". Step one, they tap DEBIT and the next screen shows the numbers for them to enter their PIN. Of course they start punching in their number with their fingers to no avail. After that the screen has the question, "Do You Want Cash Back? with the little YES / NO button that gets punched with their fingers with no luck once again. This usually goes alright but every now and then I'll hear a gasp, "I don't want cash back!" I reassure them they can tap cancel and start over. Then there appears the dreaded question, "Is $amount OK?" with the little YES / NO buttons which naturally they use their fingers again to punch. By now I'm getting my favorite questions or statements like, "What happens if I say no?" or "No it's not alright, but what can I do?" or "How many questions do they have to ask?" or "Why can't these all these machines be the same?"
It's kind of the same way when they use a credit card instead of a debit card except when when the "Is $amount OK" we still go through the same finger problem with the YES / NO button before it says APPROVED. After that appears the next screen pops up the signature area. Then it's the "Why does it need my signature when it says I'm approved?" or my personal favorite "You know in some places you don't have to sign anything if it's under a certain amount." Seriously, if I had $1.00 for every time I've heard that, my car would be paid off.
Other Pin Pad Observations
- Then there are those people who really must have some anger issues. When they get that little stylus (the stick) in their hand they slam that device harder then a carpenter pounding nails into a building.
- Forgetting their pin number, they fumble around with 2 or 3 attempts then try another card and get angry at the cashier and go through the whole finger punching YES / NO routine again.
- People on their cell phone trying to operate the pin pad. As much as they would like to think so, they really can't multi-task by talking and punching the pad with their fingers, oh wait they have to use the stick. Then when the next screen appears they are talking away and are unaware of what's going on. I usually have to point to the screen for them. Hello, you aren't done yet.
- They slide their card and it gives them the arrrahhh sound that it didn't go through while I'm still checking their groceries. They do it again with the same result then it's the up and down up and down about seven or eight times with the little blue screen showing up with the stop sign and the arrrahhh arrrahhh going on then sometimes I'll hear the little "beep" and they ask, "this is only going to go through once isn't it?"
