This is more going to be just a quick one (now how many times have I said that before and then it ends up being lines and lines of text) as I have got work again tomorrow. Today was my day off after a four day stint, and then I only have to work one more day to end this week. And then I get three days off before my next week's work days start.
I am so looking forward to those three days.
I'm actually being more productive through my journal entries on Sparks, but I need to keep this one going as well. If anyone wants to go and check it out, then I'm under Kyabett. Look if you so wish.
I'm either really crabby or else... No, let's leave it at crabby. Best to leave it at that.
Ignoring the health part of this, I've re-found my annoyed little Voice over the sheer stupidness of customers. Yes, it's Christmas Season again and here comes all the grinches, grouches and scrooges of the world take over again and make anyone who work in retail's life hell. Simple logic, or common sense has once again escaped to a far off land that no one seems to know how to get to, and the ones who suffer are the ones who have anything to do with customer services.
And Head Office has made sure that all of the deals are, of course, way too complicated for anyone to seem to understand. And of course we have to be the ones to explain it to the customers again. And again. And again.
And on and on through the day. And week. And weeks.
At work, we have got a four for three. That means four books for the price of three. It does not mean four books for three euro. There is no euro sign there, so it is not that. And there are even banners everywhere that instead of stating simply '4 for 3', it says '4 books for the price of 3'. Of course, this seems to completely ellude all of our customers. And the posters, banners, table skirts (the little banners that run along the edges of tables) etc are everywhere.
So, if we are not getting told off that we should have made it more clear that its four books for the price of three (we've had quite a few customers who just throw three euro onto the counter and then try to walk away. And then we have to go chasing after them to explain that they are not getting the four books for three euro), then we have the wonderful 'dance' with the customers of trying to explain that they can get an extra book if they only bring up either three or two. We were actually told by Head Office that we have to mention it to every customer and then try and push it if the customer starts humming and hawing.
I love being on the front lines.
So, what usually happens is that the customer decides that they do want a fourth book and so they go trundling off to find one. We then delete their transaction so far (it's very rare now when there isn't a long line by our tills. The one good thing about it being Christmas), and then continue on with the rest of the customers.
And then of course, the customer who went looking for the fourth book comes back and cuts through the entire line. And think they should be allowed to as they had already been in the line, and they had gotten up to the front of the line to be dealt by with one of us. So it's only right that they are immediately served.
Hence of course, customer throwing a fit when one of us refuse. We've had a few close calls of managers nearly needing to be called (and as there are only two and they are only in the shop for the morning hours as its the rest of us who close up the shop usually now as we've all been working there long enough, meaning that there isn't always a manager who can deal with it. That seems to make the customer then think that we can just call up Head Office and make their complaint to them there and then), but we've always managed to either just take it (why do customers seem to believe that we are just there to be yelled, bullied and basically be used as something they can throw everything at when they are having a bad day), or else have the customer storm out, swearing that they'll never shop there again. There's nothing we can do about it, as we aren't the ones who made the rules, and we definitely will enforce society's polite rules such as have respect for everyone else.
The customer only loses this when they have gone way over the line in our view of what is acceptable, and then we have to be just terse. Can't swear or anything, but we can be firm and close the entire conversation. It's one of the good parts of the shop. The managers know how much crap we get put through, and the shit that Head Office puts us through as well. So, they will stick up for us.
Part of the problem is of course that there are two other promotions going on. There is a 3 for 2 (that's three books for the price of two) going as well, and another one that has about twenty books fifty percent or more off. So if someone buys a book that has one of those promotions, that becomes the cheapest book that is free. We enjoy another rant because of that, as the customer seems to think that it is unfair that the book that is already at least half price now becomes free, instead of another one that is more expensive.
Trying to incorportate those into the 4 for 3 is just nightmarish. It means breaking the amount of books, if the customer brings up more than three, up into at least two transactions, so that at least then it isn't the cheapest one, which is usually the one under a five because it's part of the 50 percent or more promotion. Most are understanding, and thank us, but then there are those few... It doesn't seem to matter that we are trying to make it better for them. That we are trying to make it so that they save more money, but oh no, we're wasting their time. And why can't we just do it in one transaction, and how inefficient and stupid the system is.
Sometimes you wonder why you are trying to give them the best deal.
And then there's just the general bad humour customers have for us slave retail employees. It seems that it's our fault that a book is out of print, and will not be back in print in time for Christmas. There is nothing we can do. We can't call up the supplier or publisher and demand that they bring a book back into print. We can not magically make it re-appear (it is definitely not in the magical back room as other retail slaves have mentioned before). We of course try to be nice to them (if a customer is nice to us then we will go the extra mile), and will look up other sites (websites as we will try and not send someone to a rival shop if we can as that is frowned on by Head Office. They can't say the same if we help someone with using Amazon and so on) to see if they can get the out of print book there.
Of course, that leads to another problem. Customers don't seem to understand that we have no account with Amazon or any of the other book websites. We can't order from them. We can get the details, we can give instructions of how to find the website, and how to use it in order to get the books. But we can't do anything else.
But, having customers understand that seems to be something out of another planet. Sometimes it feels as though we shouldn't even bother trying to give people that option, as it just causes more problems than it solves.
Anyway, this was supposed to be a short one and has turned out to be another long one. I will probably be adding more in another one in the next couple of days.
But do check out the website 'Retail Hell Underground'. That's partially where this entry came from.
And, complete sympathy for all people who worked during Black Friday. I am so glad that we don't have it over here.
So, good night,
Kya |
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