Oh, the joys of retail. Today alone could have filled an entire book of bad customer stories!
1. These two ladies came in here and were looking for a wash for something and my hearing is not the most acute-it's decent but English was obviously not their first language. I told them that no, we did not carry it. Well they go and ask our new sales leader, who has a lot more patience than me, and she asked me "They're wondering if we carry "down-there" wash". Then after both of us telling them no, they ask us where they can find some! Honestly, if you're having those kinds of problems, you need to go to an OB-GYN. The clincher: we had to talk in hushed voices, because they didn't want their guy friend to know what their problem was.
2. Our company made this coupon and emailed it to some people who lived near where new stores are opening up. Well some dipshit mass-emailed it, and it's not a free hand soap or home fragrance with minimum purchase-it's a free item up to $11 with any purchase. Because there were concerns about it being a fradulent coupon as well as us not being in that area, we invoked a rule saying that in order to use the coupon, the free item has to be of equal or lesser value to the items you purchased. Do not expect to buy a $1 gift bag or a $1.50 nail file and then get an $11 body cream. People then get pissed off because we chose to invoke the "exclusions and/or purchase limitations apply" clause on the coupon. I almost have to keep a highlighter in my apron for the 800 customers who try and do that every day.
3. Another shopping cart one-people who are shopping in the mall-with a Target shopping cart. The Target is in another building across the street. I almost poked my eye out with some idiot's finials. Not to mention it is supremely tacky to go into a shopping mall with a shopping cart from another store!
4. Groupies! Ah, groupies. That's what we call the huge groups of teenagers or kids who have no intention of buying, but just clogging up our sinks with hand scrub, spraying every body spray known to man, and doing crappy singalongs to our music. Even worse are the scavenger hunts-the people who come in, don't buy anything, and expect to be allowed to take Myspace mirror pictures and get Q-Tips and spatulas.
5. Continuing on that one was a story from my summer, where a group of three teenage girls came into the store and they were loud, brash, and probably sharing a brain. They try every body spray, they are being annoying, and then they find all the American Girl bodycare which is EXTREMELY sickeningly sweet. Well the head girl takes the bottle of the Strawberries & Cream and sprays it ALL over herself, and then does the "Squat and Spray", where well, it says it all, you squat and spray...well yeah. Then she goes up to our manager on duty and was like "Hey what's this?" while holding the tester bottle RIGHT IN HIS FACE. Not only did she stink up the entire store with that scent, but she made a complete arse of herself.
6. Here's yet another one: During the summer, this one girl would always come in and ask for TWO applications, to add to her stack of mall applications. I'm talking once or twice a week. Then one time, she grabbed a bottle of the Sensual Amber body splash, must have used half of it, and then did the infamous "Squat and Spray". Then she used a ton of the EDT. It's already overkill as that is one of our strongest fragrances, but it was a pretty warm Seattle day. Well she stopped after we made her sign up for the interviews and everyone else caught on to her.
7. People who come in when we have a line of 5 people, I am running the floor by myself...and they expect me to give them an application right then and there. There's a thing called a LINE!
8. Customers who get pissed when returning stuff because they don't have their card and they cannot get it back onto another card. It is company policy that if you paid with a card and you have your receipt, you have to have the same card in order to get the money back on the card. If you do not have that same card, you have to either wait and bring in the card, or you get it back on a merch credit card. There are people who get gifts from our store and get pissed because we cannot give them cash when they return our product.
Even though I don't do makeup, we all get the bad customers. Comes with the territory...but it's all experience in the end.
