Your worst experience in a retail envoirment,

ps3man

tell us what has been your worst retail experience, what caused it? where was it? how did u react?

Kintarō Hattori

How did you miss this sticky:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055199604

Doctor DooM

For the record though, answers gotta be customers.

ps3man

i work in a womens dept part time on grafton street and at the end of the day there is always a massive pile of clothes in the changing room, can women not hang up there own clothes after they used them? we never have a problem with the mens changing room but gurantee that that womens room is always like a pig sty

stupidusername

I agree with the last post there, I worked in retail for a few years, in Oasis for over two, in the end i had to leave because it just drove me mental. one sunday evening i remember tidying up the fitting rooms, i got one of the girls to put all the clothes dumped there into one of them, (there's only four of them) That fitting room was half its height in clothes!! It's unbelievable. We never had enough staff and were always mental busy. Some days we had to stay on an hour extra just to put back the clothes. And yes we had been doing it all day, didn't just pile up! I got so sick of it. I said i'd never work in a clothes shop ever again. Not sure now whether or not i'll have the choice when i get out of college though.... :mad:

ps3man

its crazy the state they are left in, i dread closing because its always there,

Lollipops23

i work in a women's dept and i'd have to agree with both posts above-not just dumped on the floor,but INSIDE OUT!!!i hate that!some people are so lazy.actually most are customers we seem to have are so lazy.

ps3man

can the women who leave shops in such a state please explain why, just because your having a nice shopping day off why must you dump something else on us to do, with retail cuts so bad atm we have enough to be doing without cleaning up your mess, we are so streched that we dont get a second to ourselfs

krudler

People who pick stuff up off a shelf and put it back down somewhere else, could you just not put it back where you picked it up 3 seconds ago?! and I hate that "but thats your job" ****

Climate Expert

Will you get a grip. Its your job to look after the customers with fitting. The cheek of some customers to leave you some work. Some customers might chose to replace clothes on the rack but they will have to be put back properly anyway by a member of staff.

Doctor DooM

Climate Expert wrote: »

Will you get a grip. Its your job to look after the customers with fitting. The cheek of some customers to leave you some work. Some customers might chose to replace clothes on the rack but they will have to be put back properly anyway by a member of staff.

Look after them, yes. Clean up after them like children, no.

People in shops are still people. And they have more to be doing than picking up stuff off the ground. Especially if their job is commision based, which many are.

ps3man

im sure you have never worked in a clothing retail store, we have enough to be doing, customers, footwear, merchandising so on so forth, if you ever have seen the states theses changing rooms are left in you wouldnt belive, 2nd day of the january sales it took 3 of us 30mins to sort out 3 changing rooms, before doing anything else,

Lollipops23

Climate Expert wrote: »

Will you get a grip. Its your job to look after the customers with fitting. The cheek of some customers to leave you some work. Some customers might chose to replace clothes on the rack but they will have to be put back properly anyway by a member of staff.

*sigh*
clearly you've never worked in a retail environment. because serving customers at the till, getting them extra sizes if they ask, clearing the floor up from general traffic through the department, polishing fixtures and mirrors and giving customers general fashion advice isn't enough to be getting on with. Oh and of course putting up with some customers who want to yell at you for no good reason,can't forget that too!!
:mad:

Climate Expert

Its part of clothes retail.

I worked with Topman for a while and I never though anything bad about replacing clothes from the dressing rooms.
You all sound like you think its beneath you.

Lollipops23

Climate Expert wrote: »

Its part of clothes retail.

I worked with Topman for a while and I never though anything bad about replacing clothes from the dressing rooms.
You all sound like you think its beneath you.

iv worked in the shop for 5 years.i love my job, i find it interesting and the public are always fascinating.

Climate Expert

Lollipops23 wrote: »

*sigh*
clearly you've never worked in a retail environment. because serving customers at the till, getting them extra sizes if they ask, clearing the floor up from general traffic through the department, polishing fixtures and mirrors and giving customers general fashion advice isn't enough to be getting on with. Oh and of course putting up with some customers who want to yell at you for no good reason,can't forget that too!!
:mad:

You must have a terrible manager. Ever hear of task assingment?

Lollipops23

ever hear of budget cuts?

Climate Expert

Lollipops23 wrote: »

ever hear of budget cuts?

So why are you blaming the customers because you work in an understaffed and unpleasant enviroment?

Lollipops23

because it's a complete lack of respect. i'm not talking about merely leaving a few items on the rail at the door of the fitting room-it's rooms half-full of inside-out clothes knotted up in a heap that i object to.i suspect you're once again trying to get a rise out of people.:rolleyes:

jaffa20

My worst retail experience was with a women who threw me a dirty look for leaving clothes in the changing room. I'm sorry, you're getting paid for it aren't ya missy

Lollipops23

jaffa20 wrote: »

My worst retail experience was with a women who threw me a dirty look for leaving clothes in the changing room. I'm sorry, you're getting paid for it aren't ya missy

not enough money in the world:D

ps3man

cause its horribly un-plesant to deal with, i work in nike and I see women going into the changing room with 4 diffrent track suit bottoms in the same size, there all nike so measurements are going to be the same, we dont have the staff to manage changing rooms and customers who dump clothes just make what already is very stressful job that bit worse, btw ive missed buses home due to cleaning up changing rooms is that fair?

Climate Expert

Lollipops23 wrote: »

because it's a complete lack of respect. i'm not talking about merely leaving a few items on the rail at the door of the fitting room-it's rooms half-full of inside-out clothes knotted up in a heap that i object to.i suspect you're once again trying to get a rise out of people.:rolleyes:

Its a ridiculous way to view your job.

Its like a toilet attendant getting annoyed because somebody went and pissed on a toilet that he just cleaned. Its part of what you are employed for.

People leaving rubbish like empty cans you might have case but not for clothes.

Doctor DooM

Climate Expert wrote: »

So why are you blaming the customers because you work in an understaffed and unpleasant enviroment?

Making an assumption there, aren't we.


Retail is a rather dynamic environ to be working in. There are things you must do in one store which you would not dream to have to do in another.


Also, I have sold to men before and they're ALOT easier in general.

Lollipops23

Climate Expert wrote: »

Its a ridiculous way to view your job.

Its like a toilet attendant getting annoyed because somebody went and pissed on a toilet that he just cleaned. Its part of what you are employed for.

People leaving rubbish like empty cans you might have case but not for clothes.

how about a dirty nappy?iv gotten that too.and burger king bags.

Corruptedmorals

I work in retail, I've no problem with customers handing me back their clothes from the fitting rooms for me to put on the rails there, or with clothes where the hanger is back to front/clothes on the wrong hanger etc. Inside out is a bit annoying, depends how busy I am if it annoys me or not, throwing the clothes at you, 5/6 items followed by the hangers is rude, I'd never do that! Worse is either leaving all of the hangers behind in the changing room OR attmepting to leave all their clothes and the tag there too. Wouldn't be so bad in fitting rooms of 4/5 but there's about 20.

ps3man

Climate Expert wrote: »

Its a ridiculous way to view your job.

Its like a toilet attendant getting annoyed because somebody went and pissed on a toilet that he just cleaned. Its part of what you are employed for.

People leaving rubbish like empty cans you might have case but not for clothes.

im sure if someone did piss on that attendants toilet they would be annoyed, people with no respect for other peoples property is the most un courtious thing, its the exact same with clothes, do you belive its ok for customers to abuse the service provided to them? because thats the point you seem to be making across to us in the retail sector, I doubt whatever sector you work in that you would like customers to abuse the services you offer them,

Duiske

Climate Expert wrote: »

Its part of clothes retail.

I worked with Topman for a while and I never though anything bad about replacing clothes from the dressing rooms.
You all sound like you think its beneath you.

So if you have tried something on in a fitting room, and you decide you don't want it, you just roll it up in a ball, throw it on the ground and let the staff deal with it ?
Christ, even if it was too much bother to walk all the way back to the rail you got it from, it would just be common manners to at least put the item back on a hanger and hang it up in the fitting room.

Lollipops23

Duiske wrote: »

So if you have tried something on in a fitting room, and you decide you don't want it, you just roll it up in a ball, throw it on the ground and let the staff deal with it ?
Christ, even if it was too much bother to walk all the way back to the rail you got it from, it would just be common manners to at least put the item back on a hanger and hang it up in the fitting room.

couldn't agree more. i wonder of these people do that when they undress at night-just bung em on the floor for someone else to take care of.i bet not-but because it's someone else's it's ok.

Climate Expert

Lollipops23 wrote: »

couldn't agree more. i wonder of these people do that when they undress at night-just bung em on the floor for someone else to take care of.i bet not-but because it's someone else's it's ok.

I don't leave clothes in a bundle at a changing room but I always feel awkard putting them back out and rather have somebody do that for me.
At home I like to throw my clothes everywhere and leave them for the cleaning fairy which sees them magically washed and put away.

krudler

Climate Expert wrote: »

Its a ridiculous way to view your job.

Its like a toilet attendant getting annoyed because somebody went and pissed on a toilet that he just cleaned. Its part of what you are employed for.

People leaving rubbish like empty cans you might have case but not for clothes.

Well I used to work in HMV, was it my job to pick up burger king wrappers and coke cans left lying around on the shelves? i had to do that almost every day, the public are pig ignorant, moronic children at the best of times, not that I didnt enjoy dealing with the regular customers, the ones who actually saw you as a human rather than a till monkey and were a pleasure to deal with, you'll go out of your way to help nice customers, stupid ones you just want them to hurry up and get the **** out

krudler

Climate Expert wrote: »

I don't leave clothes in a bundle at a changing room but I always feel awkard putting them back out and rather have somebody do that for me.
At home I like to throw my clothes everywhere and leave them for the cleaning fairy which sees them magically washed and put away.

how old are you 5?

Kensington

A lot of customers plain and simply have no respect for retail staff. I hate the ones who pick things up and then leave them down somewhere else in the shop. Yes, my job involves merchandising so it one of my duties to keep the store tidy and presentable. I don't mind doing it. I always remember one customer commenting that one particular section of the shop was a "right state with stuff all over the place", only for her to throw down a pile of DVDs her son wanted, in another part of the shop later on.

Aswell as that, I've had stuff thrown at me by customers in their fits of rage, I've been screamed at countless times, had extremely unpleasant things (which couldn't be posted here) said to me and been called every name under the sun. I've also once been told I'd be killed by one customer if he ever saw me outside of my job.

ergonomics

I work in a large clothes shop with about 20 fitting rooms. When I started my job was to cover the fitting rooms. It was my job to hang up the clothes and I didn't mind. It was my job. What did annoy me was when people came out with 5 or 6 items, twisted in a ball and inside out, and shoved them at followed by the hangers. It annoyed me because it showed a lack of respect for the clothes. When you decide to buy the clothes you can treat them anyway you want but if you decide not to buy them it is not your right to bundle them up like rags. The other day a lady left the fitting room with 8 items of clothing. She returned the disk to me and I asked her nicely did she want me to put any of the clothes back out. She declined, stepped out of the fitting room, and threw them all on the floor. Honestly! That is just pig ignorant and completely uncalled for.

P_1

Currently working in a shoe shop, some of my main gripes are,

a) People wanting to try on multiple pairs of shoes, then simply dumping them and leaving the shop literally 2 seconds after you bring them down to them.

b) People picking up a shoe, looking at it for a few seconds, then proceeding to leave said shoe back in a completely different location to whee they picked it up from.

c) People coming into the shop say 5-10 minutes before closing time while we're trying to get the shop tidied up and demanding to try on 5-6 pairs of shoes. C'mon people some of us have homes to go to!

d) People banging on the doors afterhours and demanding to be let into the shop even though there is a sign on the door that clearly states the shop's opening hours.

Kintarō Hattori

pithater1 wrote: »

d) People banging on the doors afterhours and demanding to be let into the shop even though there is a sign on the door that clearly states the shop's opening hours.

Ah yes this gem. In my many years of working in retail I've experienced this on many occasions. Even though the shops hours are clearly stated on the doors folk have continued to bang and asked to be let in. So being pleasant people we open the door to tell the customer than unfortunately all the tills are down and we just can't process any sales. In 95% of cases this just doesn't wash with them and you get given out to for being closed...... even though you're opening hours are clearly stated. They'll try and convince you some more to be let in, only for you to repeat what you said moments before.............. and only for it to have fallen on deaf ears. Repeat the process once more.

ztoical

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Ah yes this gem. In my many years of working in retail I've experienced this on many occasions. Even though the shops hours are clearly stated on the doors folk have continued to bang and asked to be let in. So being pleasant people we open the door to tell the customer than unfortunately all the tills are down and we just can't process any sales. In 95% of cases this just doesn't wash with them and you get given out to for being closed...... even though you're opening hours are clearly stated. They'll try and convince you some more to be let in, only for you to repeat what you said moments before.............. and only for it to have fallen on deaf ears. Repeat the process once more.

+ 1 Worked in two different Easons over the years and had my head wrecked by people who didn't understand shop opening and closing hours. Worked in Easons in Hesuton Station and we had to arrive super early for newspapers on sundays 6am but shop doesn't open till 7am. We'd two different newspaper drop offs - one around 6am and one around 6.30, we had to leave the shutter of the shop open about a two feet so they could slip the papers under - if we didn't they would leave the papers on the other side of the train station and we'd have to carry them to the shop. The amount of people who saw a shop shutter open two foot, no staff around [we'd be in the stock room putting all the extra supplements into the sunday papers], no lights on and every other shop closed and would get on their hands and knees and crawl under the shutter really amazed me. I'd come out from the stock room and get the fright of my life finding people standing in the dark asking where the newspapers were.

Jaysoose

Not my worst experience but a bit annoying all the same, every starbucks in blanch shopping centre closing off the some if seating areas of the stores about half an hour before the shop closes.

Was in the borders one last week to meet some friends and the seated area to the side was closed but no seats were available in the area beside the balcony so we went in and sat down, one of the staff came over and told us that section is closed. My mate told her there was nowhere else to sit and to be fair the place is open for another half hour so its a bit cheeky to expect the customer to stand around so you can get away earlier. Not impressive at all, i get that people work long days etc but why have opening hours that apparently only apply to the sections they want. We didnt move and finished our coffee its not like we were going to make that much of a mess.

gar_29

Climate Expert wrote: »

At home I like to throw my clothes everywhere and leave them for the cleaning fairy which sees them magically washed and put away.

i have one of those too. they're brilliant. the ultimate labour saving device.

the groutch

Kensington wrote: »

A lot of customers plain and simply have no respect for retail staff. I hate the ones who pick things up and then leave them down somewhere else in the shop. Yes, my job involves merchandising so it one of my duties to keep the store tidy and presentable. I don't mind doing it. I always remember one customer commenting that one particular section of the shop was a "right state with stuff all over the place", only for her to throw down a pile of DVDs her son wanted, in another part of the shop later on.

Aswell as that, I've had stuff thrown at me by customers in their fits of rage, I've been screamed at countless times, had extremely unpleasant things (which couldn't be posted here) said to me and been called every name under the sun. I've also once been told I'd be killed by one customer if he ever saw me outside of my job.

I would have called the Gardai on that customer

the groutch

pithater1 wrote: »

d) People banging on the doors afterhours and demanding to be let into the shop even though there is a sign on the door that clearly states the shop's opening hours.

at the same time tho, there are shops that have stopped letting customers in 10-15 minutes before their official closing time, and even tho I know exactly what I want to buy an would be less than 5 minutes (and I tell them this), they won't let me in
there are 3 or 4 shops that have done this to me before, and have each permanently lost my custom

Climate Expert

the groutch wrote: »

at the same time tho, there are shops that have stopped letting customers in 10-15 minutes before their official closing time, and even tho I know exactly what I want to buy an would be less than 5 minutes (and I tell them this), they won't let me in
there are 3 or 4 shops that have done this to me before, and have each permanently lost my custom

All of these are a case of staff putting themselves before customers. Taking little shortcuts and tricks to make their lives easier rather than some customer who makes a trip based on some stated opening hours only to find the staff have closed up early.

Lollipops23

we always shut fitting rooms 15 mins before closing. if there's just one customer who wants to try something on(and there's no others lurking around!!) we would nearly always let them in to try it on. we do it because if we didn't,there'd still be customers sneaking in at 2 mins to closing and not coming out til 10 mins later. i don't get paid for that extra 8 mins and i'm damned if im staying out of the goodness of my heart!

ps3man

I had one of those customers who wouldnt leave the shop door when we were closed, he told me he wanted something downstairs right beside the till so i said hurry up, only to find the guy run upstairs to grab something else, on his travels he bumped into my manager with all her fifty euro notes on the til, he didnt do anything but i got a bollocking for it, never gona let any1 in again no matter how important it is, i would have lost my job if he did anything

ergonomics

ps3man wrote: »

I had one of those customers who wouldnt leave the shop door when we were closed, he told me he wanted something downstairs right beside the till so i said hurry up, only to find the guy run upstairs to grab something else, on his travels he bumped into my manager with all her fifty euro notes on the til, he didnt do anything but i got a bollocking for it, never gona let any1 in again no matter how important it is, i would have lost my job if he did anything

That's something that really annoys me. You're being kind enough to let the person in because they've promised you they only want one thing and then they disappear off for a look around. Happened to me just before Christmas. The woman said she knew exactly what she wanted. Although it was 5 minutes after closing I let her in because there were still a couple of people at the till. Cue her wandering around, slowly looking at this and that. In the end the manager had to ask her to leave. The next day, same thing happened, different woman. I told the woman I'd gladly let her in but I would get it the thing that she wanted and bring it to the till for her. Suddenly she changed her mind and said she'd get it another day. She just wanted to go in and browse, despite it being after closing time.

Tippex

The stories I've heard from my other half who works in CS for a large retailer both makes my blood boil and my mind boggle.

The amount of times its obvious that people have not engaged their brains are unbelievable.

TBH I have no idea how she or anyone else does it thankfully I'm out of retail 14 odd years and I don't think I'd go back as I would not be able to hold my tongue.

Although I'd love to do the CS for a week just to tell people where to go.

Corruptedmorals

I think my worst customer experience was when a customer came running up to me when I was on fitting rooms shouting 'Hello!', to which, thinking someone had fallen over or some other accident I said 'Sorry, yes?'. Not good enough, she had wanted me to say hello back to her...but her tone of voice indicated an accident, not 'I want help finding a size etc'. So she screamed at me for about 3/4 minutes, even though I explained myself stating that I thought she had a problem, not a query, which is why I said 'Sorry, yes?' not 'Hi' or something. Most of her rant was 'This is a ****ing joke, you're SUPPOSED to say hello back to me, what kind of ****ing manners do you have? What is wrong with you? Are you even Irish? So did your parents bother to actually bring you up properly and teach you manners, no, you were dragged up, yes?' I think she was South American or something. Anyway, I just stood there in shock. Just my luck, no managers were on the floor at the time, just other customers standing and staring, also in shock.

One customer made one of the girls on tills cry, for the first transaction, the girl asked the customer for her clubcard. Customer subsequently bought credit after that transaction had gone through, but the girl forgot to ask her for her clubcard for it. So the customer, Irish this time, roared at her for 5 minutes straight. The manager involved was a spineless one..

I've no problem with customers coming in 10 minutes before the shop closes and buying milk, but people ALWAYS lie when they say they're just popping in for one item, they always want to look around, so I can see why security stand there and say no. The best is when they come up at actual closing time and refuse to accept that the grocery tills are closed.

XxXciaraxXx

I dont understand why some people are giving out about people leaving piles of clothes in the dressing rooms! I dont want to state the obvious but, it is your job!

Yes I do know how it feels because I do work in retail! Can it not be controlled in the store you work in?

The way I work it is, stand at the entrance to the fitting rooms while the customer is in there, let them in with a max of 4 items, take the hangers off them before they go in and take the items off them on their way out!

In my workplace this works very well and we are out at our finishing time every evening because we dont have a mess to clean up!

ps3man

It would be a great idea to have the changing rooms covered but at the best of times I'd have one other person working with me on the floor the rest of the time I'm on my own,this is on grafton st so as u can imagine I have a lot more to do, oh the joys of cost cutting

Kensington

the grouch wrote:

I would have called the Gardai on that customer

Yes, probably should have, looking back now but between the mixture of shock and anger at the time, I didn't. Was a great topic of conversation for the staff canteen though :D

Tippex wrote:

TBH I have no idea how she or anyone else does it thankfully I'm out of retail 14 odd years and I don't think I'd go back as I would not be able to hold my tongue.

Although I'd love to do the CS for a week just to tell people where to go.

Tis a tough job alright! There's always what you'd like to say, and then there's what you can say to a customer. And it's so tempting at times to say what you'd like!

Lollipops23

XxXciaraxXx wrote: »

I dont understand why some people are giving out about people leaving piles of clothes in the dressing rooms! I dont want to state the obvious but, it is your job!

Yes I do know how it feels because I do work in retail! Can it not be controlled in the store you work in?

The way I work it is, stand at the entrance to the fitting rooms while the customer is in there, let them in with a max of 4 items, take the hangers off them before they go in and take the items off them on their way out!

In my workplace this works very well and we are out at our finishing time every evening because we dont have a mess to clean up!

I'd love to be able to do that-in the olden days(when we has waay to many staff!) we'd at least do that during the sale,using a rota(its a shockingly boring job!). but given that they've either cut hrs or re-distributed staff now, we've no option. plus on sundays there's rarely more than 2 of us, we also cover the dept next to us that day. usually that's grand cos sundays are usually quite slow but if there's a rush there's absoloutely nothing we can do as 1 person on the till point is to little.

And FYI my job is "sales assistant". Not professional Mammy/cleaner/arse wiper.