"in back" (retail related)

[lokithelion]

Also in regards to this thread, people being shitty to customer service related employees should come as no surprise Loki hit the nail on the head. I've been dicked over by so many shitty employees at stores so yeah, if I know something very well be in the back 9 out of 10 times yes, I will ask. There's no harm in asking a damn question. And if you say "no everything's out front" then fine, at least I asked. I've gotten so many "in back" things it isn't even funny. Asking questions isn't such a god awful thing. It's the people who expect you to jump through hoops and do the impossible and act like it's your fault when something's out or are rude about it. I can think of more awful things to bitch about in the customer service related field. Asking an innocent question isn't one of those things.

It's a reference to the always sunny christmas special. Also I read what you wrote, which is why I mentioned the tickle me elmo rule. The cd's you spoke about fall into that zone. Post more cutie.

loki, they dont fall into that zone.. his specific rant (and it's pretty clear) is about his annoyance with customers who ask him to check the back for stock when he is certain they are sold out. He is not annoyed with people asking for product. It isnt' about lazy employees who just tell you whatever they want to get you off their back. it's about his specific situation. Hes just ranting. Some of us can totally see where he's coming from.

I know people can be lazy sometimes, but this isn't a vague situation about employees situation be questioned.

I dont know how many of you work in retail during xmas and are being literally questioned by 20 people at a time for things, and if you are out of something you know for sure, and they ask you to check the back, most cases you will be annoyed. You don't have time to walk and check for 3 to 4 minutes. if you do that for everyone, you'd never get any of your own work done. after all your job consists of other things besides helping people. I know it's our job to help people, but we can only do so much.

If I wasn't clear enough when I said I considered the albums he was talking about to fall into the tickle me elmo camp of product I'm sorry. None of my posts are directed at OP, just general conversation on the topic.

Also you don't know hell until you've worked Christmas Eve and Day at a video store.

"what do you mean you don't have its a wonderful life, i bet someone just dropped it off in the box right there a second ago!" so you have to run to the drop box w/ a line to the back of the store and search through a thousand dvds/tapes that all look the same to find the one that isn't there to satisfy the crazy rich lady. I'd so much rather be out on the floor answering questions.

[alertthemute]

Generally when this happens at my work (Starbucks) I'll look at the door of the back office (no storage, just an office) and look back at the customer and tell them "Nope, we're still sold out." Some people laugh, some people get pissed.

[rtw88]

Generally when this happens at my work (Starbucks) I'll look at the door of the back office (no storage, just an office) and look back at the customer and tell them "Nope, we're still sold out." Some people laugh, some people get pissed.

Haha.

I see where some of you guys in this thread are coming from, but I've worked retail before with some lazy people who will say anything to a customer to get them to leave them alone, and I've found stuff after other employees have said it was out of stock.

[silentgods]

i would never look when i went "in the back".

ever.

unless i knew exactly where the 900 copies of ill divo's latest suckathon was located.

also, fuck retail.

[lokithelion]

The moral of the story is the person asking you doesn't know that you're a good employee that knows the stock like the back of your hand or if you're the shitty kind that tells people what they're looking for isn't in the back only to ask another person and find out it was. You can hate every customer if you want. Seems like a fucking miserable way to go through life, but thats your choice. They're not calling you a liar. They're saying you're human and it is possible in a busy holiday season that maybe a new shipment might have come in, or one accidentally got left on the shelf in the back. If this shit is really ruining your day get a new job cause you take this one way too seriously.

[silentgods]

my general rule was if you were a dick to me you didn't get shit, if you cool with me i'd at least make an effort.

[lokithelion]

my general rule was if you were a dick to me you didn't get shit, if you cool with me i'd at least make an effort.

Same here when I used to work retail. It just took a lot more than asking me to look in the back to consider someone a dick.

[drabley]

I was always taught that when dealing with consumers, you need to treat every idiot like he's the first. In the eyes of the individual, he really is the first and only idiot that matters. It's the same for virtually everything, not just retail, so I fail to see the surprise in it.

Seems to me we should all be used to it by now, no?

[darknesscomesalive]

my favorite "in back" question from my retail days was always people looking for bowls and bongs.

I guess when you work in any kind of indie record store people just assume you have fields of pot and bongs in the back that are only accessible via special handshake and secret passwords.

[scottheisel]

When I worked at a record store, someone came in once and asked if we repaired video games. They seemed incredulous that we didn't.

[littlerobot]

Im pretty sure I have encountered some of the most retarded people in my life working retail.

[alertthemute]

my general rule was if you were a dick to me you didn't get shit, if you cool with me i'd at least make an effort.

Same here when I used to work retail. It just took a lot more than asking me to look in the back to consider someone a dick.

I've always found that even when you're being a dick to someone, it's best to do it with a smile on your face and laugh about it. So like I said before, I'm not going to go look in our magical back room that doesn't exist when I can tell the customer "We get our orders on Fridays you can check back then, or maybe some fill fall out of the sky , did you want to leave your number just incase?" I'd rather have fun with it than be outright shitty to people.

If i can't be laughing at work, there isn't much reason for me to be working then.

[tanukichu]

Yes sometimes it's annoying when someone persistently believes you're lying, but most of this sounds like whining. Your job is customer service. If they ask if you have something, you can't be annoyed. If you leave any doubt that you're sold out and they ask you to check, that's your job.

Now if you tell them "I was just back there and there's nothing.." and they tell you to look again, that's one thing, but still, it's your job to interact with them, so you have to be polite. I don't work in retail, but my part-time job is all in the public managing an ice rink and the requests get equally as stupid, ("where's your pro shop?" -Sorry, we don't have one. "So where do I get my skates sharpened?" -I dunno, Great Skate, like the rest of us?) but you have to stay polite. I bitch at my employees allllllllllll the time because they whine about having to answer questions like when Rec Skate is. Part of the job, if you don't like it, get a different job.

[Guest kissthesharks]

Same here when I used to work retail. It just took a lot more than asking me to look in the back to consider someone a dick.

I've always found that even when you're being a dick to someone, it's best to do it with a smile on your face and laugh about it. So like I said before, I'm not going to go look in our magical back room that doesn't exist when I can tell the customer "We get our orders on Fridays you can check back then, or maybe some fill fall out of the sky , did you want to leave your number just incase?" I'd rather have fun with it than be outright shitty to people.

If i can't be laughing at work, there isn't much reason for me to be working then.

I miss working at Starbucks, man.

[3milesdown]

haha this is an interesting thread. i work at best buy which basically sucks during the holidays. but when someone asks if we have _____ in the back and i know for certain we don't have it.... i'll take him to our little computer and physically show him we have 0 quantity in our counting system. if she STILL asks me to check the back (to which this point, i understand the OP's frustration), and refuses 'we don't have any' responses then depending on her attitude i'll go to the back and just sit there for 2 minutes. i get a nice little break, but sometimes it's annoying when you have so much shit to do and you know for a guaranteed fact you don't have that certain item.....

if we have less than 3 in stock for the item (according to our counting system) and it's not where it's supposed to be, yeah i'll check the back and won't be mad about it or anything cus' that's what i'm supposed to do. sometimes i find it and if i don't, (esp if it's a cd/dvd) i just tell the customer it's not in the back and make up a valid excuse suchas someone could've picked it up and put it in a random spot... (which happens 7 out of 10 times)

the worst is, however, that dickfuck retarded customer that is an asshole. when we had limited stock in wii's, it was a nightmare.... but when they demand you to do something, i usually try not to deal with them and do something else. if that customer finds me doing something, i'll just be like yeah i looked we don't have any. go somewhere else

[lechevre]

Ok,

Well my Christmas Retail stories:

1) Toy Store- Kept a log of every Christmas we "ruined" because of not having a certain item in stock. Usually a hi five was in place.

2) Music Store- Q) Where is "insert artist here" Christmas album. (Also, it was always someone who doesn't have one and probably never wil, I.E: David Copperfield, George Bush Jr, Sarah Palin)

A) Oh, they're Jewish/Muslim/Insert religion here ,they refuse to record one. Blank Stare: 1) So where is it? 2) I'll pray for them.

Seriously. Maybe I'm a dick. I don't really care. Also this post is horribly structured. I'm tired, whatever.

[darknesscomesalive]

When I worked at a record store, someone came in once and asked if we repaired video games. They seemed incredulous that we didn't.

along those same lines; i used to get phone calls asking if we sold tires. records, cds...but, nope, no tires.

basically after a year or so working in a record store during my college years I realized that Kevin Smith pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to certain types of customers.

[lechevre]

When I worked at a record store, someone came in once and asked if we repaired video games. They seemed incredulous that we didn't.

along those same lines; i used to get phone calls asking if we sold tires. records, cds...but, nope, no tires.

basically after a year or so working in a record store during my college years I realized that Kevin Smith pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to certain types of customers.

Weirdest thing I can think of, When I worked at Borders I had some lady so pissed because we didn't sell toothpicks.

[Snaggle Von Swift]

I worked at Target for a couple of years, my favorite time was x-mas cuz that's when a lot of retardation comes to fruition. I had a guy one year trying to get a Barbie jeep 2 days before x-mas and was pissed at me cuz me not having it in stock just ruined his daughters x-mas.

had a lady tell me this last week because my store was out of Zhu Zhu pets, she even went as far as to tell me that she was going to bring her kid in on December 26th, so I could see how upset I will have made the kid.

[lechevre]

I worked at Target for a couple of years, my favorite time was x-mas cuz that's when a lot of retardation comes to fruition. I had a guy one year trying to get a Barbie jeep 2 days before x-mas and was pissed at me cuz me not having it in stock just ruined his daughters x-mas.

had a lady tell me this last week because my store was out of Zhu Zhu pets, she even went as far as to tell me that she was going to bring her kid in on December 26th, so I could see how upset I will have made the kid.

Sweet! Take pics!

[controlthebleeding]

If I wasn't clear enough when I said I considered the albums he was talking about to fall into the tickle me elmo camp of product I'm sorry. None of my posts are directed at OP, just general conversation on the topic.

Also you don't know hell until you've worked Christmas Eve and Day at a video store.

"what do you mean you don't have its a wonderful life, i bet someone just dropped it off in the box right there a second ago!" so you have to run to the drop box w/ a line to the back of the store and search through a thousand dvds/tapes that all look the same to find the one that isn't there to satisfy the crazy rich lady. I'd so much rather be out on the floor answering questions.

general conversation? oh ok.. it almost seemed you knew and kinda didn't know why he was ranting.. my bad.

funny that you should say that (about working a movie store). I have. I once worked at a neighborhood videostore back in 04'. I was the only one in town and had to work xmas eve and xmas. Good times!.

Anyway, this lady comes in on Christmas eve looking for a copy of "A Christmas Carol". I told her we were out. She asked if we had any for sale. I told her "nah, i'm sorry we dont, and we don't have any for rent either.". She then asked if maybe i could check. I explained that we were out. Now i know we were out. There was no possibility it would possibly be there. I rented out the copy 2 days prior and it wasn't due for 2 more days. And I had already checked in all the movies that had been returned.

I explained to her that there are no copies in the back. We only have one and i rented it out a few days ago and it hasn't been returned. Suddenly she gets irate and starts talking about how her granddaughter who was there in the store was going to be disappointed. Her granddaughter couldn't give a flying fuck about that movie because she was asking to rent "A christmas story". I wound up leaning forward over the counter and asked her granddaughter "would you like to rent A Christmas story? We have it in stock". THe grandmother gets furious and starts telling me how that movie is the devils work and that she wouldn't dare let her granddaughter watch it. I told her, you don't have to even rent it. it's on for 24 hours right now (it was in earshot of her granddaughter too).. lol. She got pissed and said that thanks to me her granddaughter was going to have a horrible Christmas and stormed out of there. I just said in a shallow voice as she was out of earhshot "yea, merry xmas too you too bitch" and started laughing. I wish we had videocameras in that store that recorded audio. that shit was fuuuuunnnnyyyy.

that is the only irate customer i had for those 22 hours i worked those two days..

[rtw88]

Why would anyone even ask for A Christmas Carol when you can get A Muppet Christmas Carol instead.

[controlthebleeding]

OFF SUBJECT:

BEST BUY during xmas season (especially black friday" is fucking awesome. I had a guy pay for a $1200 dollar tv and a portable heater in $1's and $5's. Anyone who's worked at Best Buy knows the managers want all the cashiers to neatly have their cash facing the same direction. Talk about a inconvenience. Sure it's money, but you could have taken it to a bank to get bigger bills. I don't go to your bar and pay my tab in pennies and nickels.

[controlthebleeding]

Why would anyone even ask for A Christmas Carol when you can get A Muppet Christmas Carol instead.

Fuck i forgot all about that movie.. i should go buy it.

I'm usually all about SCROOGED and 8 CRAZY NIGHTS during Christmas. I see Christmas Story at least once a year during the 24h Marathon on TBS though. I love Xmas movies. Bad Santa yo!!!

[goraiders]

i feel like he mustve been losing money to inflation to have that many 5's and 1's, that seems so weird. I can't imagine anyone just putting all their ones and fives in a jar.