Book Store Invaded By Crazy Customers

From BookAce:

It's been assholes to the left of me and vultures to the right this week, man. And it's not just me! My sweet-as-sugar co-worker who nobody could hate, he's that nice, has had two different customers scream at him in the last couple days!

By now everyone's heard about Hoarders melting down. My store did not close, afflicting me with a mix of relief and survivor's guilt. The vultures and discount rats began gathering days ago.

Are you closing? Is everything on clearance? Is everything free because you're closing? Why isn’t this on sale? Can I just steal shit since you’re closing anyway? No way will I buy one of those crappy Plus cards or e-readers, you won’t be around in a year.

The day before the big announcement I asked a man to take one of our free cards. FREE. And he says to me, “I dunno, let’s wait and see how your stock does. HAHAHA.”

Me: …=| “It’s free. It doesn’t matter what our stock does.”

Guy: “I…I know, I was just…”

Me: B|

It wasn't funny then when I was thinking my paycheck was on the line, and it's not funny now after knowing people personally affected here. (He noticed I was not amused and left quietly.)

Then later, an old man came up and slapped a book down. It’s a hardcover, 40% off for Plus members, 30% off for everyone else.

Old man: “I’ll buy this if you give me the 40% off.”

Me: “Are you a Plus member?”

Old man: “I was a member a long time ago.”

(We started up this Plus program last fall. Yeah…a long time ago. Sure.)

Me: “If you’re not a Plus member, it’s 30%.” (Still a good deal, honestly.)

Old man: *long stare*

Me: *GTFO stare*

Old man: “Fine.” *stomps off*

THIS IS NOT A FUCKING FLEA MARKET. And I'm not haggling just because you think we're desperate enough to be pushed around. At least use "please." It's not that hard!

Then today it was time for the usual dicks to gang up. First came generic asshole guy. Throws the greeting card he's buying at me along with his credit card and gives nothing but monosyllabic answers. The guy's pretty high up in police rankings, believe me, I'm sure he's capable of using a full sentence and maybe even "thank you."

Then came Bible thumper guy. After I muttered under my breath about hating the people who put the stickers on books, (because they put two different priced stickers on said book and I was like, "WTF?") the guy goes, "Hey!" He holds the Bible out at me and stares at me long and hard, pointing at it.

Me: *puzzled stare back*

Guy: "It's not good to hate." *walks away*

I wanted to tell him that if everything in the Bible is true, the head dude upstairs surely has a number of more pressing issues with me than my annoyance at the sticker people.

Then not even a half hour later comes condescending change guy.

I'm not good at math. Disorder-level not good. And I'm not ashamed to pull out a calculator when someone pulls the whole, "I have change!" just as I open the till (ignoring that I always wait for them to offer change beforehand...) because I don't want to shortchange them or be shortchanged. This guy has the change once the till is open. I ask my co-worker quickly what the even-dollar value should be because she's a whiz and she gives me the answer. The guy harumphs at me and goes, "That's so simple, you need to ask her for that? And they've got you running the register? Geez."

Then I got so flustered apologizing for my bad math skills that I forgot the answer my co-worker gave me and had to ask her again, my face burning at this point, while the guy huffs and puffs and rolls his eyes.

Thanks a lot, jerkass.

Not long after that came a discount rat, asking what the sale price on everything was. Turns out she thought we were closing. After I corrected her she shut up about things that weren't on sale, but she still kept pulling that move where custies lean over the counter and ask after every item, "That was on sale, right?" ARGH.

Got a three-day weekend though. Gonna head up to the gun range this weekend and use one of those silhouette targets. "What's that bitch? Did I just hear you say 'everything should be free LOL!' because thousands of people losing their jobs is funny? And you don't want a member card? And oh, you're too busy gabbing on your phone about your hook-up last night to thank me after I fetched books for you for an hour, but you're NOT too busy to interrogate me about the price of every item? Well, meet my little friend..."

--BookAce

Comments

[UIdiot]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10707308

[Caper]

Maybe I'll try the gun range to take out my frustrations (if there's even one on my island T_T.. my neighbors dislike when I shoot the bb guns in my backyard even though there's nothing but woods where I'm shooting.)

[Joe the Cigar Guy]

You have my sympathies, BookAce. Discount Rats who think they're comedians deserve a habanero enema.
Don't sweat the math skills thing. I always use a calculator when custys want to play fast and loose with change. If they're on the level, it holds them up for about 10 seconds. If they're trying to fluster me into shorting the till, it shuts them up.

[cary]

BookAce - (and anyone else out there who gets a change idiot) as a store manager, I hereby give you ALL permission to follow these simple steps to help start training these less-than-intelligent jackwagons:

1)Announce total of their transaction.
2)Wait a slow three count after they hand you the bills.
3)Open drawer and give them the change for the bills.
4)When they start in on their "Oh, I have the change" routine, hand them the change from their original amount, take the change from their hand, add it to the change you just handed them and say "Now you have a dollar's worth!"

They just might start getting the idea they should volunteer information a tad bit sooner.

[Ali]

I've taken advanced math and if I'm tired I can't add at all, although when I worked in retail I used to be really good. I would NEVER make fun of anyone for using a calculator. That's just mean and ridiculous.

[Tarat]

I know the feeling about the change guy.

I'm not good at math either, so on occasion if someone tried to pull the change thing, I'd just smile and tell them that I've already opened the til and can not accept anything else.

If it was easy math, like a few cents, I could either do it in my head or grab a calculator, but if it was a lot of change, I'd close the til and give them the change for what they originally asked me.

Once, I did fold though...I was new and the change guy was getting bitchy with me and I mumbled something about math, then like everyone else in that line jumped on my ass and and ended up just redoing his change to get him out of my line.

[NC Tony]

I suck at math too, but since people always decided that waiting until I was getting the change out was the perfect time to tell me they had the change, I just ignored them and handed them their change and shut the drawer. Tough shit, you should have remembered that sooner.

[Meg]

Totally agree with Cary, plus one more: get friendly with the phrase "I'm not a bank." say it nicely, coldly, whatever, but have it ready when someone is nasty about wanting to get back the dollar instead of coins.

[Katie]

Customers like to do the "change thing" with me too. I had one lady yell at me last week, because she thought I short changed her. She her bill was $27.43, and she handed me 2 $20 bills. I put it in the register and took out the change. As I was handing it to her, she said "wait, I have the change". she handed me a $1 bill. SO I handed her back $13.57. She started screaming that I short changed her $10. She said she gave me $50 (not a $50 bill...just $50.) Huh? Why would anyone hand over 2 20's and a 10 when the total was less than $30? She claimed that the $1 she gave me was a $10. It was stupid to even give me another $1 , since she just got it back as part of her change. And I still had the money on top of the till, so I could see what she gave me. I explained why she got what she did and showed her what she had given me and then she started that i couldn't even do simple math. She kept pointing at the till and gesturing as she spoke.I got the impression she was trying to get her hand in the drawer, so I shut the door, and turned up the music in my head (that's my defense mechanism...I pretend music is playing and it keeps me from getting upset while
I'm being yelled at) and let her rant for a minute. Then I told her that I couldn't take money from the till, until the manager counted down at the end of the night. I said "if you give me your name and phone number, manager can call you if there's an overage." At that point she grabbed her bags and stormed out. I know if I thought that someone owed me $10, I would do whatever i had to to get it. People have made bigger scenes over a lot less money.
I'm guessing she realized that she hadn't fooled me.

[Joe the Cigar Guy]

I forgot to mention the thief who handed my co-worker a $100 bill. After she handed him his change, he pulled the "Oh, I have change. Let me have that hundred back" bit.
The boss fired her the next day.

[MJay]

I hate the "oh, I have the change snd I have to go through my lugage size pocketbook to find it." I also like when they give me the change and totally mess up.
For example, the bill is $7.91 and they will give me a dime. I thank them, give them the dime back and nine cents. Usually, they get it and look sheepish. But I have had some people argue.
My most memorable time was when I was working by myself and had a line. The total was something like $6.92. The woman handed me a ten and said oh, I have the change. I handed her three dollars and a dime and said oh, I closed the drawer...sorry. I was not going to wait for 92 pennies.

[Tarat]

@ Joe

I didn't realize it at the time, but I think someone tried to pull that on me when I was really new. He was trying to talk and confuse me and had a couple hundreds...etc etc etc.

Finally, I was like "please be quiet for a moment. I need to check my math." I then ignored him and figured it up, and gave him the right change. At least, I guess it was. To my knowledge, I wasn't over or under and never got in trouble so I guess I'm good.

[BookAce]

Thanks for the comments everyone. x3

I'm especially nervous about change because I'm almost positive someone used belatedly giving me change as a way to short me once. When I was new and very anxious, the man waited until the till was open to announce he had change. It was busy and while I was scrambling to find a calculator he's bitching about me not being able to make change and snaps, "It's 10 dollars! Just give me my 10!"

I meekly gave him the 10 and he left. The next day I was told my till had been 10 dollars short. I doubt it was a coincidence.

[Grendus the Self Check Guy]

I've been blessed with good mental math skills (admittedly, I used one of those brain trainer programs for a while, which got me to the point where I knew the answer before I recognized the question - which is a weird feeling). I usually ignore the math custy's try and just give them the change the register says, and if they pull out change I can make the next dollar easy enough in my head. I did have one guy pretend he handed me $100 and ask for change, and I'm thinking "it's 11:00 PM dude, don't even try to pull that shit til 3:00".

Sorry you've got the buzzards circling your store. Just tell them that this isn't a fucking bazaar and you aren't allowed to haggle and wouldn't if you could (especially for them) - all prices are as marked, no discounts, no negotiation, no sale, get the fuck away from the register. Learn a few arabic curse words to go along with that.

[Trekkiebabe31]

First of all, I'm so sorry about Hoarders! I'm glad your store isn't closing though.

Second, I always wait to make sure that the custys aren't going to give me change before opening the till, but I've had them catch me too. Anymore I just tell them I can't do it.

[Jereer]

I, too, love the customers who will get a total like 7.92 and hand you $10 (for the 7) and another $1 (for the 92 cents). Most of the time they look confused when you hand them back the $1 and just ring in the $10. Really have to wonder what they're thinking.

[crafty cashier]

I was so upset when I heard my Hoarder's might be closing. I don't know what it is about book stores, but they always hire THE BEST cashiers/sales people. Every single bookstore I have EVER been to. And every Hoarder's I've been to, the salespeople were always soooo nice to me, I love going. Crazy nice. Plus I like to read manga, and no other stores in my area (even the "anime/manga store" lol) carry more than two or three. Luckily the closest one to me isn't closing. Phew! The next closest one is a good 40 minute drive.
In other words, stay strong bookace! Don't let the vultures get to you, just stay awesome.

[enslaved beauty advisor]

Sorry about the people losing their jobs, but glad your store is one of the lucky ones.
I hate when people wait with the change, I'm good at math, but like most anyone else, when I'm exhausted all ability goes down the drain.
Another annoying thing is the customers who think you're the bank, and purchase the cheapest thing possible to break a $100 bill. Especially annoying when they do it right after opening, and sometimes even before closing it takes all of my drawers bills. I had one asshole on the phone the entire time, came 5 til close, purchased a tin of mints. Wanted to smack him when he handed me a $100 bill. The bitches at my counter get really pissy if you close the drawer with nothing other than change and a big bill (we only leave $100 in the till to open). CS gets pissy if you want change that late. Lucky me opened the next day, so I got to do the hike up to the third floor for change. I wouldn't mind so much if I weren't always having to get the change.
Anyway, I too have noticed the nicest people seem to work in book stores. :)

[ShoeDevil]

We have custys that will ask us to break bills and not purchase anything at our store and I tell them the bank is across the street. We only open our drawers to give change back from a purchase.

[Queer Geek]

I made the mistake of attending one of the Hoarders liqudation sales. BAD IDEA! For one thing, the store was packed with crowds of people hoping they would get a bargain. Mind you, the discount is substantial but if you figure out it is just minimal amount off the regular price plus the Rewards card. This is an awesome deal if you purchasing several paperbacks but it hurts your wallet if you're buying hardback so I ended up not buying anything. What really annoyed me was the whole atmosphere. Normally, the store is pleasant but with all the hooplah of vultures arguing with the poor cashiers about more discounts (along with the added piggie custys tearing up the shelves like there's no tomorrow) I had enough and left.

[evie]

I once had a cashier at B&N fuss at me for buying a canvas bag with Stephen Colbert's face on it. He goes, "I freaking hate shows like that, it's all fake and phony." I was like, "Man, I'm not sure I'm the person you should be talking to about this problem. I'm buying a Stephen Colbert bag."

That being said, I mostly love book store people. Hope your store is in it for the long haul, and nevermind all the liquidation vampires. :P

[Sari]

We have had the same customers at my store. "No, we're not closing, no we're not closing, no no no no no NO!" But two stores nearby are and there are people we know who work there, so it sucks big time.

The other day our 'up' escalator was broken (again). A poor co-worker got stuck with a lazy custy who made said colleague go upstairs and find all the books the custy wanted. WTF!?

On the up side, we have had several customers say they are glad we're not one of the stores closing. :)

[DV-Diva]

I'm not a Hoarders Slave, but I do work for a company which is currently closing LOTS of stores.
To all you RHUers who do work for Hoarders, and are surviving through this store closure madness - and to those of you who sadly now have to find a new place to work, I tip my hat, and gladly volunteer my middle finger in a great "F-U" to the jackass custys who are taking advantage.
It sucks so bad to see a place where you put your time and effort in being ravaged by people who don't give two shits what happens to you next.
I've already been through it once, and am scared to death that I may have to go through it again.
So glad that we have RHU to come and vent and find a little bit of support and understanding.