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Hooray I missed this thread. I wasn't too active in the last thread but boy I loved to read it. I am still working in an electronics store in the UK but was recently transferred to a smaller branch in a shopping centre when I moved home. It's actually quite a bit nicer as the customer base has gone from self-entitled benefit spongers to tourists and students but at the end of the day, it is still retail, and I am not sure whether an unemployed mother of fourteen screaming in my face because little Johnny broke her goverment paid for TV is worse than trying to explain to someone who doesn't speak English very well how mobile broadband works. The most ridiculous thing I have seen in the new store so far is an extremely large woman who came in with her young son (around five or so years old I believe). In the middle of our shop we have a glass table with all the cameras and accessories in the centre and she parked herself by it to have a look. A couple of minutes later she turned around and KNOCKED HER SON OVER WITH HER ENORMOUS rear end and his head smashed into the cabinet. Naturally he burst into tears. Her response? Shout at him for making a public scene. One of my favourite co-workers who is well known for taking absolutely no poo poo from both customers and colleagues I thought was going to launch himself across the glass to tell her to shut the gently caress up.
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Oct 12, 2010 22:40
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Mr. Toad posted:Dixons don't have physical shops any more, they only operate online. Curry's, which is essentially the same company, are proudly carrying on the tradition of incompetence that Dixons stuck to so well. I couldn't possibly say what company I worked for. I also agree whole heartedly with these statements and I am getting the gently caress out as soon as possible. There is not enough time to tell you how much I dislike working for this particular company who's name I cannot mention because I'm fairly certain that at least one of my co-workers knows I visit this website. NGC773 posted:Sweet story, i used to work for a large electricals retailer in the UK too. I hates selling insurance covered up as protection for your little new laptop. Customers used to come in everyday to complain about how the company had a direct debit setup to their bank account, allot of the staff used to put it on the sale for free for the first few months then they start paying. Ugh this. To be fair the insurance isn't half bad albeit overpriced but the lengths some people go to here to get it on their sales is repulsive. I have been working mainly as cashier/customer service because it suits me just fine and I goddamned hate selling it. Operation Juicebox fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Oct 15, 2010 |
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Oct 15, 2010 20:43
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Nay, co-ownership has never been mentioned as long as I've been there.
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Oct 15, 2010 22:32
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side_burned posted:I worked at Radio Shack for a while and that company was down rite obsessed with up selling I was literally supposed to try and sale every customer a cellphone (plus accessories), a store credit card, in store warranties and 3 packs of (very over priced) batteries to ever sucker. Of course they tell us it possible to sell these to anyone if done rite and boy did the regional director let my store manger know if we didn't reach our goals. gently caress that chain seriously. I agree. This is pretty much how The Store I Work In operates (hence why I have emigrated unofficially to cashier rather than sales). There are some people out there who are not going to be sold all the accessories and insurance and just want to get their item and leave. I know because I am one of these people. Even I won't take the store insurance. I do have a story for the thread though. As I've mentioned I'm job hunting at the moment, and I applied for a senior sales position at a gaming store as they were advertising. I got an interview, managed to balls it up quite badly as I had the beginnings of flu, and wrote the whole thing off. But when I did not get a call back even though I was promised I would I decided to ring up just so I definately knew I was being rejected. I ring, guy picks up the phone, runs off to get the guy who interviewed me. He puts the phone down on I assuming the cash desk instead of putting me on hold like a normal person. I can HEAR the guy who interviewed me, let's call him M, talking to the boy who answered the phone. Boy: Some girl called Operation Juicebox. M: Who's Operation Jui-... <panicked> oh it's that girl about the interview. <Mumbled talking>. M: Ok well just tell her I'm in a conference call and I'll talk to her later. So Boy comes back and tells me that M is in a conference call and would phone me back in the evening. In my most polite, well mannered voice I ask Boy if he would please relay to M that I overheard them speaking. Suffice it to say I have not been contacted about that particular position and although I'm kicking myself slightly for not keeping my mouth shut, I'm still utterly pissed that they tried to fob me off in such a way. In other news, I am hoping to get an interview at the local pub as kitchen staff. It's better pay, more hours and I DON'T HAVE TO TALK TO ANY CUSTOMERS.
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Oct 17, 2010 00:44
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I work in a city well known for it's extremely prestigious university. Mostly this means that a good portion of our customers are students this time of year and most of them are really nice, appreciative people. You get the odd one or two though that are self-entitled assholes who exist to be better than you. So in my store we have a deal that is when you buy a laptop you can get Norton 360, Microsoft Office 2010 and a bag for £99.99. When this deal came on it was about a saving of £71 so we had POS out for SAVE OVER £70 with the total seperate selling price and the price the deal was set at. A few days ago they fiddled with the selling price for the bag so the seperate selling price went down. But whomever was in charge of rewriting this poster didn't edit the SAVE OVER £70 part. So the seperate selling price is now £169.97, down to £99.99 with the deal. So you actually save £69.98. So a customer is staring at this poster with the strangest look on his face, as if he was straining really hard to poop or something. I honestly thought he was in pain. He was a tall guy, younger than me, skinny, with slicked-back hair, smart glasses and a snappy pair of trousers, shiny shoes, a loosely buttoned shirt, and a university hoodie slung over his arm. I come up to his side to ask him if he is ok and is there anything I can do for him? He turns his head slowly, looks me up and down and says. "Did your people know that technically this poster is incorrect?" I blink and look at the poster. Initially, I could not see the mistake and turn back to him. "I don't understand," says I, "which part is wrong?" "Well," he replies, "your poster says save over £70." "Yes, it is a very good deal." "Well it is wrong. I just don't understand how your people could make such a mistake." At this point I looked back and did a quick maths check and realised what he was talking about. He was still staring at the poster like it was performing a vulgar sexual act in the store. I just stared at him. I still cannot fathom why it was such a big deal. I think he took my silence as me not being able to work out what he was on about because he gave an laboured sigh. "The saving is only £69.98." "Yes I know. It must be a typo, I'll say something to get it changed." Then his whole attitude changed, he thanked me curtly and then left. I have no idea what the gently caress. Operation Juicebox fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Oct 20, 2010 |
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Oct 20, 2010 20:44
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Kaninrail posted:I feel so dirty every time someone asks me to sell Norton to them. I know. Unfortunately selling Norton (as opposed to any other antivirus) is the only software that contributes to my commission.
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Oct 21, 2010 20:38
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Aye. I have to make a certain amount of profit per hour to qualify for commission. Theoretically I could do this by putting a shitload of travel adaptors or something through the till but I'd have to put like 3,000 or so through per shift because the best way to earn the profit I need for my commission is through 'KPIs'. This means if I sell a laptop I need to sell a bag, Norton 360, Microsoft Office 2010 and the insurance with it. That's it. That's all that counts towards my KPI. If I do not earn enough points in my KPIs I can kiss sweet goodbye to any extra money. If I sell a TV I have to sell a bracket/stand, insurance, HDMI lead (and only the expensive Belkin ones count). So if I can sell Norton to a customer I will.
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Oct 22, 2010 00:07
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side_burned posted:One thing I learned working Radio Shack is never ever to trust the sales person. It's not that I blame the grunts in the isles or at cash register themselves but management will drill into them to sell certain products and accessories that are huge wastes of money, and some clerks will do everything from repeat the company written sales pitches, to creatively stretch the truth, to using out right lies, in order get extra money and avoid being humiliated by store mangers. And again I don't blame the clerks,I've been there to, it's entire chain of command all the way up the corporate overlords who command this bullshit. We don't have Radio Shack here in jolly old England but I know what you mean. My co-workers fit so well into the sales tactics you just described. The girl with the highest sales figures in our store openly flirts with customers to get them to buy poo poo. She is extraordinarily pretty too so it works jaw-droppingly well. Pingiivi posted:Old man story. Sounds like he may have had the beginnings of dementia, poor guy. 
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Oct 24, 2010 00:45
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manguero posted:My biggest peeve was probably customers who interrupted me while I was talking to another customer. E.g., I am helping customer A with something, or telling them something while checking them out, etc., and customer B interrupts me mid-sentence to ask a question. God it would piss me off so much. I think because I felt forced to immediately answer their question and therefore be rude to customer A. Also it presumed a lack of a preference for politeness, whether giving or receiving, on my part. I hate this too. A little while ago, I was talking to a rather nice elderly gentleman about radios and a young lady with a young son just walked up mid-conversation and told me that she'd been waiting ten minutes to be served. My original customer narrowed his eyes and snapped, "well maybe no one here wants to serve you if you're going to be interrupting them every five seconds". She looked at him and then stomped out. Then he carried on as if nothing had happened. Also, I was on the receiving end of some horrible customer bullshit the other day. Here in the UK we have a chain of clothing stores named Primark. It's full of quite nice on-trend clothing but is a budget chain so it is EXTREMELY popular despite the fact that the materials aren't top notch. After I finished work I popped into our local store to buy some cheap slippers but as the place was about to close it was pretty busy and the queue was very long. I was waiting about 20 minutes and was getting near to the front when I noticed there was a young girl about 11 or so in the corner of the line. Where the cash registers were positioned there was a 90 degree turning and she was nestled up against the inside of the barriers letting people pass her. As I got closer a middle aged woman and a companion walked up to the barrier, passed this girl some clothes over the top and then clambered underneath. They start talking in French and the woman starts to measure the clothes up against herself and the child. They finish up and this woman starts looking for a place to enter the queue. At this point I am nearly at the front and my blood rises as I realised she is trying to cut. There is NOTHING I hate more than queue jumpers. It really grinds my gears. I can hear people start mumbling about her behind me. Naturally she attempts to slide in in front of me, and in doing so actually physically pushes me backwards. As she pushed me I let out a "hey!", more in reaction to the physical interaction than her actually cutting the line on purpose. She IMMEDIATELY whirls around, hands on her hips, and shouts at me in a thick French accent, "EXCUSE ME MY DAUGHTER HAS BEEN HERE A VERY LONG TIME SO I THINK IT IS MY TURN NOW." I blink, taken aback because this woman was radiating angry bitch vibes and is glaring at me with such ferocity that I was actually feeling quite threatened. The cashier called and I skirted around her with a mumbling of "yeah, I think I'll go pay now" and went to purchase my slippers. I was shaking so hard and was actually really upset. I honestly thought she might have hit me, she was so hostile. Luckily one of the security guards saw and asked if I was OK. I was a bit teary but he said he saw and hoped I'd still shop here in future. As I left I saw him going over to her at the register but I didn't see what happened - I just wanted to go back home. Even if you are a customer, customers suck.
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Oct 27, 2010 22:36
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So today I'm cleaning up the camera table and I am asked to help a customer. He wanted to look at SLRs. Normally I like talking about SLRs because I am saving up for one myself and I like enthusiatic conversations with camera nerds. It is quite often a mutually beneficially discussion. Not so today. The man was just ... boring. There are some people who are just uninteresting. Who say nothing of value. Who start sentences and do not finish them. Who you cannot connect with on any level and after about five minutes your brain starts whispering to you that you should leave RIGHT NOW because this is so awkward and you are falling asleep. He came back three times that day. He bought a camera in the end but I swear talking to him was like chewing on cardboard. Also there was a lady who asked me where home telephones were. They were right behind her. I told her so. She turned around 90 degrees and continued bimbling down the aisle, around the aisle, up the side of the shop, back to me, and proceeds to tell me she cannot find the phones.
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Nov 10, 2010 20:26
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So it's Saturday today and we're busy as all hell. I finish with a customer and turn around and a man behind me asks if I can show his wife a laptop. I think he means to demo some Windows 7 shizz or something I don't know. Now in my store, laptops are on two tier shelving units. He leads me around the corner and it turns out his wife is in a wheelchair and she's quite disfigured. She basically has no legs at all to speak of. The laptop she wants to see is on the top shelf and she can't reach it. Her head barely reaches the bottom shelf, so they want me to remove the laptop from the top shelf and bring it down so she can reach it and have a go. That'd be great, but these are laptops and they are bolted into the shelves with every single piece of shop security you can imagine. Tags that make an ear-piercing shriek when removed, padlocks, regular laptop locks, ANOTHER password protected alarm system. "Unfortunately," says I, "that's bolted in there good and I can't rea-..." "Oh just loving forget it." I turn around and blink and this woman glares up at me from her chair and her husband sighs dramatically. I am having a pretty poo poo day and the last thing I want is to be screamed at by a self-entitled handicapped lady so I narrow my eyebrows. "Excuse me?" "Your shops are never WHEELCHAIR FRIENDLY", she hisses, gesturing angrily with her hands, "NO ONE THINKS ABOUT THE DISABLED. It's like you don't WANT us to buy your computers!" "Well I can get it down for you, it'll just be about twenty minutes to get all the locks of-..." "NO IT'S TOO LATE." She is clearly expecting me to argue with her some more, sat there now with her arms crossed and glaring defiantly up at me. She has a point, the whole shopping centre I work in is not particularly designed for wheelchairs. It's accessible, but doesn't go out of it's way to be so. But I've never had anyone in a wheelchair or a mobility scooter have any issues. But I got woken up at 6am by my drunk boyfriend so what the gently caress do I care. I turn on my heel and mutter "fine, whatever", and off she rolls. Jesus lady yes it sucks being you but I am not your punching bag.
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Nov 14, 2010 01:47
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I was about to explain to her that the laptop was screwed in and I could get it down but it was going to be a while. If she hadn't interupted me to scream 'gently caress' at me she would know this. I was going to suggest that maybe they go get a coffee which is what I normally say to customers when I am doing something that requires a lot of standing around by them and concentration by me. But stuff it. If someone's going to swear at me and be a dick I don't care whether or not that person has legs - I am no more inclined to help you and I've done enough work around the mentally handicapped/disabled to know that pitching a hissy fit and throwing down the 'BUT I'M' card doesn't work as a guilt trip. Like I said in my previous post, whilst the centre wasn't designed with wheelchair users in general I've never had problems with them or folks on mobility scooters before. A lot of them actually just look online and come in with a printout of what they want. Then we talk about their dog or something. Funnily enough, I also get moaned at by regular people that the bottom laptop shelf is too low down.
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Nov 14, 2010 11:18
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Well I had a call this morning. I have another job. This will be retail job number 2 so I can actually make the hours I need to be able to purchase anything aside from food and rent. The new place is a jewellery store so soon I shall be able to regail the thread with jewellery-related asshattery. Some perks of this new job are that the manager is a MASSIVE nerd and we spent my entire interview talking about video games, I don't have to wear a uniform and it'll mean I can cut back on on working at the electronics store. Some content for the thread though: I just finished with a customer and I am grabbed by a European (chatting to him later he said he was from Belgium) buying a laptop for his daughter who was studying here (we have arguably one of the most prestigious universitys in the world and definately the best in the country). He then proceeded to buy the most expensive laptop in the place, microsoft office, dropped £250 on the company insurance like it was nothing along with various other computer bits and bobs. All together it cost him around £2000. "Put it on my card," he says. So I did. Later my boss complained that I didn't get the antivirus on the sale. 
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Nov 17, 2010 16:42
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Oh goons, I am incredibly disheartened today. My housemate has just gone on unemployment benefit. She is receiving more than I am actually paid. The only thing stopping me from just handing in my notice today is my sense of pride. I am existing on £650 a month and have been doing this for three years. How come a job hasn't whacked me in the face yet? Why will no one else hire me so I have to struggle with a part time job? 
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Feb 12, 2011 10:47
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Robzor McFabulous posted:I know just how you feel. One of my housemates while I've been at Uni (judging by some of your posts, quite possibly in the same city as you in fact) went on benefits not long after we all moved in together. So while I was scraping by on student loan money and working any odd hours I could to meet the rent he was chilling out all day and partying all night. Was it Oxford? And yeah I can't help but feel jealous that she sits at home all day and just chills out playing WoW when I have to wake up early and go to work. Although she's a great person and I don't begrudge her the money, I kinda wonder what the point is. Wootcannon posted:Even when I took a 15 hour a week job I was making more than JSA, are you quite sure about this? Unless you have obscenely high rent I guess... She is getting £375 housing benefit a month for rent and £85 a week JSA. That's about £715.
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Feb 12, 2011 20:11
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Wootcannon posted:Is she married or part of a couple? Because otherwise, that's an impossible figure. It is very well that I could be wrong but talking to her last night I get the feeling she may be on some disability allowance too? I don't know. I'm not going to dig into her finances that much. Also to contribute to the thread, I will now relate the most racist thing my manager has ever done. It is close to closing time on a weekend and we've generally had enough of the type of people who shop electronics late on a Sunday when a non-Brit enters the store. I am unsure what country he was from, although if I had a guess I would say Eastern European. He starts up a conversation with my manager in order to purchase himself a laptop, at which point the man attempts to haggle. This is not uncommon in my store. It ranges from 'do you guys have discounts for students' to 'give me twenty pounds off and I'll buy this RIGHT NOW' but it is something that grinds our gears (I once had the pleasure of talking to a baker who's bane in life was little old ladies that would wave bags of rolls at him and ask for ridiuculous 'bulk purchase' prices). He had generally been being rude and obnoxious to my manager so, stonefaced, my manager refused to give him any money off - he was not buying any extras and it was a brand new boxed machine. The customer snorts. "I don't think this is a reasonable price for this sort of thing." "Well sir," says my manager, "what price would you think is reasonable?" Completely serious response: "Fifty percent of this." Having had enough, my manager looks at him dead in the eye. "Well. We don't do that in my country." Customer stands there, after a moment walks out, and my manager goes to get himself a drink. I still don't know whether or not I'm cowed by him snapping or not.
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Feb 13, 2011 11:58
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A customer today blew my mind. He was a man in a mobility scooter with a large canopy. I have seen him around town before because on the back of his scooted he has taped a sign which says 'I HAVE ROAD TAX ON THIS SCOOTER. PLEASE STOP BEEPING YOUR HORNS AT ME' which I always thought was funny. So he motors into the store but as it is Sunday it is pretty crammed and there is not much room. He spends a little while driving up and down the lacquered floor at the front trying to look for a way in amongst the laptop-browsers but doesn't ask anyone to move and no one notices him. So what's the solution? Suddenly I hear the horn of this thing go off as he starts to reverse. He parks up against our brand new computer repair counter, completely blocking it, the canopy so high that the repair crew can't even see over it. Then he gets out, with a big black shaggy dog that I didn't even see in the scooter, and proceeds to start quite happily walking around the store. My manager's face just dropped and he asked the security guards to pull this guy up. He threw a disgruntled hissy fit about not being able to walk and how the centre doesn't have any disabled help at all (it does if you require it). The security guards kicked him out on having his dog in the store when they are banned and then told us that he had just been going from shop to shop doing exactly the same thing - parking somewhere ridiculous and getting out to walk around the store with his dog.
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Mar 6, 2011 19:39
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Robzor McFabulous posted:I've seen that guy around! I always thought his sign was funny too, although I admit it did always fill me with the urge to walk behind him making beeping noises. I'm a terrible person. I didn't know he was a bit of a prat though, so that makes me feel better. Funnily enough I have never seen him on the actual roads, always in town or motoring along a pavement.
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Mar 7, 2011 12:30
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