Customer stopped me one time while I was walking into the breakroom with my lunch. I told her "sorry, I'm off the clock right now, but they can help you," and pointed out the two employees standing like 20 feet away (that I'm pretty sure she walked past). She rolled her eyes and said "ok, but you're here now," to which I replied "yeah, and I wish you weren't," and closed the breakroom door in her face.
Well, if she complained, I never heard about it. I didn't have my name tag on anyways, so it's not like she could identify me any more specifically than "average-height dead-eyed brunette", and there's like 12 different people at my store that fit that description.
Last Christmas eve a customer asked me to open a case, and they asked how I was. I said "Dead inside."
They looked like they could appreciate my droll humor, and they did. It was nice of them to ask.
One time at my last job, one of our regular customers came through my checkout when we were absolutely slammed and I'd been cashiering for 6 hours straight. As usual, she asked how I was doing and I just looked around at all the chaos, then looked her dead in the eyes and went "take a guess." She thought it was hilarious and gave me a bunch of chocolates from her purse to make my day better. It's been like 5 years and I still appreciate her kindness. 🥹
When I get to work adult bev, I have fun telling my regulars what they want before they ask me. They like that I know what they want without saying it. :)
One older man (my age! 60 something) would always come in with his granddaughter. He would call his brandy his "medicine."
There's a lady who comes in about once a week for DU and almost always gets wine, and I delivered her order so many times I could remember her birthday, and she was very impressed the first time I remembered it lol.
Damn savage! You literally aren't supposed to service guests when you're off the clock. In fact the policy states you could be terminated for that so fuck the customer at that point. We're human and need to eat and shit and customers need to understand that.
Do they want us to come into their workplace acting a fool and generally just be assholes? I highly doubt it, so why do they? It's evident humanity is fucked and always has been fucked lol. I blame working retail for why I'm so cynical tbh. I was always socially awkward, but now I just straight hate people lmao.
There’s been a few:
- Gave a lady my email and asked her to copy me on the complaint that she was sending my boss because I wouldn’t help her delete her Facebook account, and told her I looked forward to reading it.
- After a guy told me that “he was a paying customer and demanded to get proper service”, I informed him that Target doesn’t have customers, they have guests, therefore that rule didn’t apply and he was thus entitled to nothing.
- Offered to look up the number to the local office when a guest threatened to call the BBB and put me and the SD out of a job because of a software update that changed some basic functionality of her phone ever so slightly.
- Calmly told a guy that said he wanted to put a gun to my head in order to get a better answer to his impossible to answer question that doing might put me out of a life, but ultimately wouldn’t change the answer at the end of the day.
These are the three that stand out. I have some general others, some political, some pandemic related, that I care not to share because it might start a flame war.
The guy had no idea how to respond. There was a long pause and he looked dumbfounded. You could see the wheels turning as he thought of his next move. I also had Consumer Cellular support on speakerphone when I said it, and the representative bursted out laughing.
Consumer Cellular was always the easiest to deal with when I was target tech, but then again that was when post paid was ATT, Verizon and Sprint.
One of my favorite calls was when an old man brought his maybe 5 year old granddaughter in with him. She asked if I was talking to a human or a robot. It was impossible for me not to tell her she could ask them and put it on speaker. When I did, she of course asked and the rep started making a robotic voice. Laughter ensued from all parties
OMG. This is awesome. We need a time-out bench.
It's actually really brilliant, too. Because you're not telling the person to get out permanently. You are reminding them that being a member of society (or in this case, a target customer) requires good behavior.
Someone put eggs (like just a single carton of eggs) on the bottom of my DUP cart, I was hauling ass outside, and literally as I pulled my cart to a car, cart hits a rock, and the eggs go flying off, I run over them, just smashed all over my feet. Best part as this is happening, a case of water fell and busted, bottles rolling everywhere.
Thus, I proceed to yell “FUCKING FUCK” and mutter “who tf does that, like seriously what fucknut puts eggs on the bottom of a cart and thinks geez my brilliance is astounding”. It was at this point I hear laughing and realize the guy had all his windows down including the weird little middle window on the back of trucks.
(In case you were wondering, all he said about it was “I’m gonna have to start using fucknut now”)
I was cursing in a language most people around here don't know. Nothing too harsh, but definitely NSFW. A guy nearby cracked up laughing and told me, "I know what you just said." I've been more careful since then.
I've worked in some aspect of customer service for most of my working life (20-plus years), as well as working in a daycare, so I've come up with some pretty creative ways to cuss without actually cussing lol.
I swore on the floor and in the OPU stock area (which was right next to one of the front doors at my store) more times than I’d like to admit. I tried to be quiet about it but I’m sure a few people heard me, never got spoken to about it though.
Oh I managed to scream fuck in what I thought was my empty drive up/fulfillment area, dropped an order off one of two loaded carts I was about to take outside, without realizing my SD was directly behind me going home for the day… never said a word, just asked if I needed help and tracked someone down to backup for me. I cuss up a storm both outside and our area, never get in trouble for it. I think most people don’t care that much since it’s not directed at them.
They probably don’t care lol. I was gonna say I’d be worried about kids hearing it, but you just reminded me of this one I time I was picking an OPU batch on the floor and I heard a kid throwing a tantrum say it, so it’s probably nothing kids haven’t already heard. I’m now dying laughing thinking about it so thanks for the laugh.
Quite literally 2 days ago, probably the worst. Person had double-beeped on me and it was like a 50+ item order, and I go out there to deliver it and they just give me the worst attitude imaginable, asking why it took so long (it took me slightly over 4 min) and BOTH (it was a young, probably well-off, couple) of them step out to follow me to the trunk and just WATCH me put the stuff in even though their trunk is already pretty full of beach stuff. The wife then goes,"Is that even our stuff? It says *insert different last name* on the cart." And I go, in my customer service voice"well just say you're on the way *before* you get here and we will have it all prepped for you with your name. I just didn't have time to erase the previous order's name."
The husband then butts in and says "we know what to do. Just put the bags in the car, because it looks like you don't know how to do anything but just make excuses." And that just set me off. I was already super anxious and my coworker was nearby delivering another order, and he was watching. I had 5 bags left and just started tossing the bags in there, I didn't care at this point and they weren't heavy, I just was about to burst into tears. He then starts asking for my name and I go "You see it." And I toss the final bag and walk away and they snap something at me and I go "Have a great fucking day!"
Definitely didn't run to the bathroom to cry... that was a fun talk with my lead, my coworker backed me up. Just can't believe some people actually treat us like slaves 🫣 especially someone so slightly above my age group.
My HR literally told me to cover my name tag in these instances and walk away. If I’m not done unloading….walk away and radio a TL to come be a buffer or do it for me.
It is not a requirement of your job to be verbally abused, and your leadership is supposed to be there to support you.
So sorry that happened to you. Try not to take things personally. I’m a huge advocate for sticking up for yourself. Don’t allow people to talk to you in a rude manner. I served in the military and one of the best things I learned is professionalism. Tact is one of the most important traits to strengthen in a customer service role.
when i was a tm mainly doing fulfillment, i was in an OPU batch RFID-ing in girls' apparel for clothes. my time was down to the wire and i just had a few hard-to-find items left.
my face must have been obviously sweaty and i was moving with clear urgency with the RFID scanner. a guest walked up to me, first without saying anything, but i felt her there and knew she needed something. in a tone i couldnt control i simply asked, "what can i do for you." no response for two seconds so i ask again, in a cold, flat tone "what can i do for you?" she was quiet again for a second. i found the item. she inhales with attitude (if ever there was a thing) and begins, "you know, i just want to be talked to like a-" i cut her off, "i dont have time for this," i say, because i dont, and storm off with my item.
i INF the other two or so items. thankfully she doesnt follow me. i hurry up and do the thing where i scan all my items and sort them into piles with the guests' stickers beneath each pile, scanning everything to one location to save as much time as possible (fixing the locations in the pickup app after the batch is "done," of course) because i dont have time to bag.
i finish my batch with *ONE SECOND* left on the timer. i had a choice to make in the moment in a lose/lose situation and i made the judgement call to be rude to the guest and it ended up saving my ass from getting in trouble for a late batch.
Oh, I hate the people who do this to me. Like, it’s fairly obvious that we’re in a rush by what we’re doing/the look on our faces, yet they just wander up and expect us to drop *everything* to help them. 🤦🏼♂️
Can’t help them find a brain cell if they don’t have one!
guest: *bitchily* "eye drops"
me: "....ok?"
guest: "EYE. DROPS. eyedrops."
me: "what about them?"
guest: "Where are they?"
me: "Aisle G 21." * points towards a grocery aisle all the way across the store * "thats g2. Take a left and you'll come onto g 21, theres a big sign"
Fuck the people who walk up to me, no greeting and just yell what they want me to find for them. No please or thank yous, im not a damn robot. I had had a long shift and probably shouldn't have done that but I didn't give a fuck lmao i was so tired and guests had been so mean to me that day. I sent that old man all the way across the store and barely feel bad about it. Treat me like a human lmao.
Honorable mention: Boy from my high school approaches me. Group of his buddies are watching and filming. Obviously going to make a video where they try to embarrass me.
Him: "hehe, where's the condoms?!?!!!"
Me: "You don't need those."
him: * startes at me, waiting for a different answer *
me: "Excuse me, You're standing in my spot."
This is on a weird tangent but I used to work at Five Below and once a kid and his buddy came in asking for condoms and lighters. They looked about thirteen. To this day I can’t figure out if they were serious or not.
I get asked by teenage boys where the condoms are like 3x a shift. I have never, ever, ever seen any of them walk out with a box. They just want to embarrass me or make me uncomfortable. They always ask weird creepy follow up questions and it's just so childish and irritating.
The lighters part does have me questioning a little if they were serious.... did they actually buy anything or just walk away giggling?
They were on their way out and asked me why they couldn’t find them, did we not have them. I was like
no, we don’t sell either of those. I was in the middle of doing a return for a customer too so that made it more awkward….first time he asked I was focused on my customer so I had to ask him to repeat himself, and then the seconds time it didn’t register in my brain for some reason, so I had to ask him to repeat again….
This will happen to me on closing Saturday shifts all the time. Half the time I just tell them where they are without missing a beat, the other half I’ll tell them they’re not old enough to buy them and tell them to move on. I swear it’s for some TikTok challenge or something, I’ve heard teens talk about doing said things before coming up to me and asking for things that are supposedly embarrassing.
Joke's on them. I've worked retail long enough that nothing fazes me. Ask me for condoms, I'll point them out to them. Ask for whatever they want, if we have it, I'll send them there. I don't care what a person is buying, just grab it and go. 🤷🏼♀️
usually it wouldnt bother me but they always follow up with stuff like "which one is your favorite?" or other personal questions and it jus feels a little inappropriate and sometimes it feels like its crossing the line into harrassment. I'm a girl who just graduated high school so for some reason they think it's funnier to say grosser things to me and im just fed up with people saying creepy stuff to me.
Im happy to show someone who actually needs something where they are, but if its a group of teenage boys giggling about it I know 99.999999% of the time they're just going to be mean cause sex = funny
Gah. I'm one of the people the younger girls come to when the creepers hit on them to get away. I have no problem scaring those jackasses away. Nor do I have a problem getting AP in on the deal.
It IS harassment at that point. I hope you get fewer of those assholes and if any of them continue, don't hesitate to get either the "mom" (my usual role), AP, or the "big guy" to scare their ignorant asses off. 🫂
Probably a good idea. I just feel worried that I'll get in trouble if I refuse to help them or something. I feel like they'll backtrack and play the victim and then I have to feel embarrassed infront of them and my coworkers and AP just for nothing to happen😕 idk
Never worry about that. If you are being harassed then AP needs to know. If they get away with it they'll never learn. And you absolutely do not deserve to be treated like that. No one does.
I told this guy that I'm not helping him. Mind you he screamed "Hey! Excuse me! Hello! Hello! Hello miss!" Sooo loud that people from Starbucks and a few aisles over and everyone within the area obviously heard him and I was so embarrassed because people knew he was talking to me and I was aware he was talking to me it was like an anxiety thing that made me turn around because it's like I'm so aware that he's talking to me that I just can't ignore it even though I know I should've just kept walking because it was so disrespectful and embarrassing. I went up to him and told him exactly this: look I understand that you need help and I understand that I work here but that doesn't give you the right to yell at me from across the room. I'm sorry but find somebody else to help you because I'm not." And all he said was oh okay well.." and was getting stutterish I guess because he wasn't expecting that but that was the first time I ever did something like that. Standing up for myself is hard but I'm glad I did that day.
good on you. i want to do that like every day lol but instead i just ignore them until 1. they say something polite or 2. i feel i can't anymore without getting in trouble.
I wouldn’t really say this was bad but this older lady, who was returning a tv was giving me and the other people at service desk a hard time. You know checking the serial numbers and what not, so by the end of it I was pretty over her. She then wanted to be like “I’m never getting a Vizio tv again! Their customer support are just a bunch of fucking Indians who don’t speak English!!” I was done! I looked her straight in her eyes and said “the transaction is done, leave now” kind of surprised she didn’t say anything to my TL. I wanted to lay into her but I was still a week in.
A guy took it upon himself to come into the back room to look for a team member (he claims there weren’t any on the floor) he also happened to be obviously wasted.
Me: You can’t be back here.
Him: I just needed someone to help me look for som-
Me: You can’t be back here. (guiding him back to the floor)
Him: well shit! I can’t get any fuckin’ help at least at WALMART I can actually get someone to help me.
Me: ok, there’s one right across the street.
Him: I’m just sayin, I’m just sayin…[unintelligible noises]
Me: just go through the light at the intersection, you can’t miss it, have a nice fucking day! (Closes back room door)
I HATE it when guests poke their pathetic stubby heads though the door.
Once a lady did it and as soon as she said "excuse me," I shouted **OUT!!!!** and pointed her back to the floor.
I mean I really shouted it. Like we were in a fight or something. I think I even scared her.
You could clearly see and hear that I was on equipment in the backroom one day and a guest kept pushing the door open and yelling while I'm operating equipment expecting me to just go put it away and drop everything I'm doing to go help them. It's also incredibly distracting when on the wave or any other equipment for a customer to yell to get your attention.
When I used to work in tech we’d have a lot of people come in wanting to price match something to Walmart, but it would end up that we did not have the item. Then they would get all pissy with me because they wanted the item so I would look them dead in the face and say “so go buy it at Walmart”. Surprisingly I never got called on it.
I had a woman who tattled to my TL about how mean i was because she said: "Why isn't there an ulta section here?? where do i buy my ulta products?" and i responded "because the ulta is next door. I reccomend going next door and buying them at ulta."
We're in a shopping mall and the ulta entrance is literally 10 feet away from the target one.
I got in trouble for this one, but it was extremely worth it. During the pride fiasco last year when all the homophobes were losing their minds about the pride collection, I was wearing a t-shirt from target from their pride collection like 3-4 years ago. It was just a red shirt that said “love is love” with the lettering being rainbow. I had a rack of clothes I was bringing out from the back when a woman stopped right in front of me and began to ask me a question, but she stopped mid-sentence when she saw my shirt. She looked at me with a face of disgust and goes “I hope you know you’re going to hell for supporting that lifestyle” (mind you, I am a lesbian, but she didn’t know that) and without even thinking about where I was I replied “well, as long as you’re not there I’ll be in good company. have a good one!” and I just walked away. I guess she got mad and told a manager or someone at the service desk because I was called into the office and told that next time i need to “not engage” or to “call a manger or AP”, but I still stand by what I said and it was absolutely worth it.
It was right after I gave notice. Someone pushed a street dated product to the floor. A guest brought it up to purchase and told me I had to sell it to her. I told her “Unfortunately it’s street dated and we can’t sell it before a certain day.” The guest responded very rudely “That’s your problem not mine.” My response was a quick and blunt “That’s not my fucking problem either.”
Sounds like my store, the other person in tech has some strange aversion to scanning products when pushing them, so I find street dated product pushed out all the time, as well as just lots of product in the completely wrong spot, and serious overstock issues (yes I've told our leads, nothings changed)
Probably "No, it's not 'sooo hard' working in the home department because I don't make enough money here to even be tempted by any of the products."
I get asked that all the time. 😭 Even if I was a millionaire, I don't need to be buying new pillows or throw blankets every season.
Had a guest rudely interrupt me while I was helping another guest and I just replied with “ Would you like it if I or someone else rudely interrupted you like that at your job?” And she just proceeded to roll her eyes and walk away
I had a lady at SCO and when the Target Circle phone number prompt popped up she called me over and very angrily asked "why does Target want my phone number? What are you guys going to do with it? Track me?" I said "its to save you money and is optional. Target doesn't care about you" and then hit the skip button and walked away. SETL just chuckled
This guy came in looking for a fidget spinner for his autistic sister but the only one we had was zeroed out and couldn't be sold so I defected it and told him to just steal it
I can get behind this one. I'm not a fan of theft but this seems like a valid one. Sensory issues for autistic kids can get out of hand for them and if a fidget will help her, go for it.
On a day with torrential rain, this guy comes in around 2 or 3, pulls a few carts out of each of the six rows, settles on a basket instead, and in a big, huffypuffy big to do way says "you know, someone oughtta dry these!" And I go ".... yeahhh no."
it was super busy (back to school) and i had a bunch of guests who wanted to ring up their multi carts of food at the tech boat and I told them they had to ring it up downstairs, and they said "wow you don't really care about us do you" and I just said "not really I don't"
Guest: “Do you work here?”
Me: “Nope😁”
Guest: “You look bored.”
Me: “No I was actually enjoying myself. The silence was great”
The people didn’t take offense to it and cracked up. I was already held back my scheduled time to leave for a few hours and was over it. 🥲
Oh yeah, I hate this. It’s supposedly a double negative connotation. Like you’re supposed to say, “it was my pleasure” like we’re chick-fil-a. I get in this argument anytime a manager brings it up. It’s 2024, it’s a social norm to say this. Even in a psychological demeanor, it doesn’t embrace negativity (which they claim). If this was 1950 it would be a different story.
A lot of managers don’t understand the concept that body language is more important than the actual words you say. Most the time the words you say don’t have any relevance in the conversation unless it’s specific towards something negative or positive. Such as identifying a compliment towards someone. But a simple, “how are you” isn’t going to be any different towards someone’s emotions.
The amount of the words you choose in your connotations is only about 10% of the actual conversation whereas the rest is your body language, tone, eye contact, etc… you could say someone is an “idiot” and still provoke a positive emotion from the conversation if you’re pose your body language in the positive manner.
Saying, “no problem” isn’t bad customer service.
I'm cashiering and it's 5 minutes past closing.
One of our many regular, late-night, not-quite-playing-with-a-full-deck customers wants to buy two things that cost about $5 each. Let's say a monster drink and a bag of chips.
I tell him his total. He's staring at the crumpled-up dollar bills in his hand and says he only has 8 dollars. He's looking back and forth at the drink and the chips trying to decide which to get.
I said "You're getting the drink." I take away the chips, grab the filthy bills out of his hand, shove his change into his hand and said "Go."
once i was coming back from meal and a guest walks behind me and goes “i want to buy a lamp.” so without thinking i just go “so buy one” lmaoooo (i stopped and apologized, he luckily found it funny and then i helped him choose a lamp)
I've snapped at guests only twice in my career. The first time was a lady who wanted to buy her navy son a target gift card. She asked me where they were (I'm on a checklane) and I proceed to answer with my huge smile and fantastic guest service. She then interrupts me every. time. Literally , I try to answer and tell her and she stops me, now getting huffy as if I don't understand. "BUT WHERE ARE THEY IM TRYING TO BUY ONE". After about the 6th or 7th time I finally snap, "IM TRYING TO TELL YOU IF YOUD STOP INTERRUPTING ME.". The look on her face suddenly changes as I point them out and tell her those are all the ones they offer and I make my suggestions based on what she told me. And she got quiet. My heart sank as I had NEVER done that. Luckily as we scan it I go right back to my guest servicey self and she goes back to the happy guest she is and she doesn't complain.
The second time I hear this family in the next aisle and there is crashing as they are throwing sports balls. I'm dbo of sports at this point and can hear mom with these teens messing up my area. I get so irritated finally that I whip around the corner and say with anger and authority "STOP THROWING THE BALLS AND PUT THEM BACK!" The looks on their faces was priceless- that wide-eyed stare and mom looks to the teens as she sits and then stands up from my base deck. "Yeah guys put those back and stop playing with them". My face was red and I waited the downfall but never got complained about.
after I saw that guy on tiktok with the videos about common things said to retail workers, I took a page out of the book...
"Hey so I'm trying to buy this (basketball) and when I asked someone how much it was they said it was $10, but when I rang it up it charged me $35, I want to see if I can get that adjusted."
I check it with my zebra and sure enough it's $35, there's no promo for it.
"Sorry ma'am, I won't adjust this, the price when I look it up is $35."
"OK, but the employee back there told me it was $10." (with the snarky Karen voice ofc)
"OK, but what do your eyes tell you?" (I show her the zebra with the price shown)
ofc a manager had to come and defuse the situation.
A new hire that was covering self checkout got in a argument with a guest that tried to skip scan. Guest started insulting TM. TSS got involved. TM was told to take a break. As he was walking away. He told the guest “ALL BARK NO BITE” guest lost it after that. He had to be escorted out. TM was given a coaching conversation. He said he was not gonna take that from no one. He quit same day.
“Mam your ID I’d maxed out I can’t give you store credit, and that was my last option”
“Mam no receipt no I’d no card, I cannot help you”
“Mam I cannot help you with your return because the ID only covers 100$ that item is 359$, so your stuck with the item”
“5 item or less we will not check your cart out here, please head to the check lanes”
“Mam it takes 2 hours for your order to get ready we will not grab it off the floor for you it’s not our department”
“Mam please stop harassing fufillment for your order before I call security (not ap)”
“Mam you paid in cash I cannot give you cash off your ID bring me the receipt or it’s gonna be store credit”
These are all the things I’ve said that have gotten me in trouble even tho it’s the correct thing to say to all these guests cause they just keep harrasint everyone in my location
My first week of cashiering and it's a few minutes past closing.
These two women were being indecisive about what they were buying. Take this out, put that back, you know the drill.
She goes to pay, but her card was declined. She says "Just a minute, I need to transfer some money."
I say in a very condescending way: "You really shouldn't be buying stuff if you don't have the money." Something like that. She flew into a rage.
I asked my TL if it was ok to turn off my niceness the second we close. She said "Yup." She was the best.
I had a particularly brutally unpleasant guest at the desk. Huge pile of cat & Jack and a lot of the items the garment tag was faded & hard to read. So I was getting a wee bit miffed.
The guest was, of course, no help. Every time I told her she’d have to look up an item on her purchase history on her phone she complained because it was “my job”
At the end of the transaction as I’m getting the pile of defective clothing that I had purposefully put in ESIM bags as I went I muttered “another nice contribution to your local landfill (probably 90% of the clothing was filthy enough that if you tried to donate it to charity they’d refuse to take it).” She either didn’t hear it or didn’t care.
As she was walking away I muttered—a bit too loudly apparently—“I hope I never see you again.”
That one she heard. Fortunately when she demanded a manager the TL who came up was one of the sympathetic ones. Guest didn’t even tell her what I had said—-which makes me think she didn’t hear the words, just the tone which was definitely a “you annoy me” tone.
I had a good laugh with the TL when she asked what I said.
Offered to give teenagers playing soccer in the aisle directions to the field
Told a dude who wanted a bogus price match that I didn't care if he scammed another store he wasn't scamming us
Told resellers to get the fuck out of the store multiple times
And yet the only coaching I've had is for being passive aggressive about safety
I don’t really have a whole lot from Target because most of my time is spent at work while the store is closed.
Most of my worst things I’ve “said” actually come from the faces I make when people ask me absolutely absurd shit. So I’ll make the most horrified faces when people are rude or ask stupid questions but then answer them in a normal way. It’s unhinged and guests don’t know what to do and it just throws them off.
Technically, I can’t get in trouble for my face and what it looks like because reporting someone for their face is messed up. No one’s ever asked me about it. But I also know when another team member says a guest came into contact with a “very strange TM”, it was probably me lol
“Don’t shoot the messenger” was what I said after telling a guest that I can’t change or make up the rules about ID requirements for specific items, I just enforce them. Apparently the guest went off saying I was violent or something .
i had just walked to tech after clocking in and there were 4 people crowded around my boat. one of them walked up to me and said he needed help with his phone so i told him to wait at the counter and i'll be with him shortly. i quickly helped the other three guests, took less than 2 minutes because they all just needed cords.
i walk back to the boat and immediately the phone guy gave me attitude. "what's your company policy on helping customers?" "wasn't i here first? why didn't you help me before the others?" when i tried to explain that he needed help with his phone so it could take awhile and i needed to clear the floor first, he wanted to talk to my manager. i told him that i'll call my manager but i'll no longer help you, he tried to backtrack but i had already walked away.
he's come back multiple times, each time giving attitude to everyone who's tried to help him, even my etl.
I hate people getting upset over "no problem." Linguistically it serves the exact same function as "You're welcome." They're both just verbal filler meant to lubricate social interaction and should, honestly, be treated as equivalent to each other.
I was in an OPU with very little time left to finish when a guest stopped to ask me to help find something. She started with "I'm looking for this thing... I saw it online... " I said "what do you need?" Irritated. And she gave me a disgusted look and said "Never Mind!".
Every time somebody asks me how I’m doing, I quickly take a look around and give some droll response. Most people in my store seem to appreciate my dry humor it seems.
Around Christmas time this lady threw a fit because she had to wait at Starbucks. She yelled at us and then knocked a cup off the shelf on the way out. I saw her on the way to my break and told her “that was super disrespectful”
One day a lady came in who had just buried her husband. She was with, presumably their two children, and the dead man's brother. The lady asked my Tarbucks coworker if she was okay, and she said "Yeah?? Are you okay??" with hella attitude and the lady replied that she wasn't, as she had just buried her husband. My coworker looked this woman in the eyes and said "I don't give a fuck about your dead husband" She still works there!
One of my coworkers would tell guests “womp womp” when they were being assholes about something. One day she was telling our etl about it and he was like “you need to stop right now and not tell anyone else about this, upper management has been trying to figure out who was saying that so they could give a write up”
“I am not god, the machine is” is something I’ve said when there’s simply no system in place for what the guest is demanding. My friend once handed a “we’re hiring” pamphlet to someone bitching about the line at checkout.
Seeing all these responses and guest “experiences” makes me real glad that my ETL and TL’s allow me to be the main in DU every single shift I work whether in Checkout or Service.
Customer was complaining and being a total bitch at returns Section. I said, "wow i wish I had a rich husband to buy me stuff like you" or something like that
A guest had been attempting to steal like 600 dollars of merch thru self checkout. I have another job that pays my bills. The had a whole cart full and was ignoring the attendant telling her it was ten items or less. I stood there off the clock talking to AP and another employee about how rude some people are to hold up the lines and how it's cute they think they are getting away with something. She looked me in the eyes and I took a drink from my straw, and then said "I said what I said" and as she left we obviously followed her and got pictures of her license plate. There were items we took from her and items she managed to leave with unpaid and she the police put those in the charges against her.
Still employed. Though I dropped to on demand.
I mean there was once when a dude was in my face when his gift card didn’t work and demanded a refund/me to help him. After like 5 minutes, I had enough and asked for him to let me see the card and the code he put into his phone. In less than 5 seconds, I close my eyes, and said to him in a stern voice “you forgot an R” and basically threw the card back to him. He immediately was all apologetic and tried to apologize, but I said to him, “get out of my face” and he immediately left.
Apparently it’s all disrespectful when I close the entire upstairs register when I’m the only one there when I have to leave
A guest I didn’t know needed assistance in tech rudely said “eXcUsE mE! I’ve been waiting for 5 minutes, can you stop walking away.”
In response I told her, “womp womp, that’s your fault for not asking for help and just standing there expecting me to help you.”
She quickly apologized and said that she was just tired from the sun. I also apologized.
It was a long closing shift and I had so much shit to do that I gave up on being nice💀
Customer stopped me one time while I was walking into the breakroom with my lunch. I told her "sorry, I'm off the clock right now, but they can help you," and pointed out the two employees standing like 20 feet away (that I'm pretty sure she walked past). She rolled her eyes and said "ok, but you're here now," to which I replied "yeah, and I wish you weren't," and closed the breakroom door in her face.
Ain’t no way you didn’t get in trouble for that one😂😂
Well, if she complained, I never heard about it. I didn't have my name tag on anyways, so it's not like she could identify me any more specifically than "average-height dead-eyed brunette", and there's like 12 different people at my store that fit that description.
You’d be surprised what you can get away with.
P sure I could literally fist fight someone in front of my ETL and he'd back me up. He might have fewer fucks to give than I do. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One of my TLs absolutely loves some of the things I say. She’s got my back when it comes to rude people.
Last Christmas eve a customer asked me to open a case, and they asked how I was. I said "Dead inside." They looked like they could appreciate my droll humor, and they did. It was nice of them to ask.
One time at my last job, one of our regular customers came through my checkout when we were absolutely slammed and I'd been cashiering for 6 hours straight. As usual, she asked how I was doing and I just looked around at all the chaos, then looked her dead in the eyes and went "take a guess." She thought it was hilarious and gave me a bunch of chocolates from her purse to make my day better. It's been like 5 years and I still appreciate her kindness. 🥹
I love how amazing some of our regulars can be. 💜
When I get to work adult bev, I have fun telling my regulars what they want before they ask me. They like that I know what they want without saying it. :) One older man (my age! 60 something) would always come in with his granddaughter. He would call his brandy his "medicine."
There's a lady who comes in about once a week for DU and almost always gets wine, and I delivered her order so many times I could remember her birthday, and she was very impressed the first time I remembered it lol.
damn thats a good one
My jaw dropped yesssss this was a good response! 🤣
Damn savage! You literally aren't supposed to service guests when you're off the clock. In fact the policy states you could be terminated for that so fuck the customer at that point. We're human and need to eat and shit and customers need to understand that.
Exactly! I know these clowns would hate to be bothered on their breaks, so why do they bother us on ours?? Selfish pricks.
Do they want us to come into their workplace acting a fool and generally just be assholes? I highly doubt it, so why do they? It's evident humanity is fucked and always has been fucked lol. I blame working retail for why I'm so cynical tbh. I was always socially awkward, but now I just straight hate people lmao.
Damn! Love it!
Ive started telling ppl "i trust you but the computer doesnt" when they get pissy abt giving me their IDs. It has a 50% success rate so far.
I almost say the same thing when I have to scan their ID. I say “I can tell you’re over 21, but the computer doesn’t know”
I say “The computer can’t see you.” 🤣
I've used this line as well! "I can see you're of age, but the computer can't aee you."
There’s been a few: - Gave a lady my email and asked her to copy me on the complaint that she was sending my boss because I wouldn’t help her delete her Facebook account, and told her I looked forward to reading it. - After a guy told me that “he was a paying customer and demanded to get proper service”, I informed him that Target doesn’t have customers, they have guests, therefore that rule didn’t apply and he was thus entitled to nothing. - Offered to look up the number to the local office when a guest threatened to call the BBB and put me and the SD out of a job because of a software update that changed some basic functionality of her phone ever so slightly. - Calmly told a guy that said he wanted to put a gun to my head in order to get a better answer to his impossible to answer question that doing might put me out of a life, but ultimately wouldn’t change the answer at the end of the day. These are the three that stand out. I have some general others, some political, some pandemic related, that I care not to share because it might start a flame war.
I hope you felt so cool saying “Target doesn’t have customers, they have guests” sounds like such a badass line haha
The guy had no idea how to respond. There was a long pause and he looked dumbfounded. You could see the wheels turning as he thought of his next move. I also had Consumer Cellular support on speakerphone when I said it, and the representative bursted out laughing.
Consumer Cellular was always the easiest to deal with when I was target tech, but then again that was when post paid was ATT, Verizon and Sprint. One of my favorite calls was when an old man brought his maybe 5 year old granddaughter in with him. She asked if I was talking to a human or a robot. It was impossible for me not to tell her she could ask them and put it on speaker. When I did, she of course asked and the rep started making a robotic voice. Laughter ensued from all parties
I told a grown man throwing things at the front end that he should go sit on the bench outside and take a time out.
OMG. This is awesome. We need a time-out bench. It's actually really brilliant, too. Because you're not telling the person to get out permanently. You are reminding them that being a member of society (or in this case, a target customer) requires good behavior.
I think it would be voluntarily used by TMs more than anything
Someone put eggs (like just a single carton of eggs) on the bottom of my DUP cart, I was hauling ass outside, and literally as I pulled my cart to a car, cart hits a rock, and the eggs go flying off, I run over them, just smashed all over my feet. Best part as this is happening, a case of water fell and busted, bottles rolling everywhere. Thus, I proceed to yell “FUCKING FUCK” and mutter “who tf does that, like seriously what fucknut puts eggs on the bottom of a cart and thinks geez my brilliance is astounding”. It was at this point I hear laughing and realize the guy had all his windows down including the weird little middle window on the back of trucks. (In case you were wondering, all he said about it was “I’m gonna have to start using fucknut now”)
I was cursing in a language most people around here don't know. Nothing too harsh, but definitely NSFW. A guy nearby cracked up laughing and told me, "I know what you just said." I've been more careful since then.
I've worked in some aspect of customer service for most of my working life (20-plus years), as well as working in a daycare, so I've come up with some pretty creative ways to cuss without actually cussing lol.
I swore on the floor and in the OPU stock area (which was right next to one of the front doors at my store) more times than I’d like to admit. I tried to be quiet about it but I’m sure a few people heard me, never got spoken to about it though.
Oh I managed to scream fuck in what I thought was my empty drive up/fulfillment area, dropped an order off one of two loaded carts I was about to take outside, without realizing my SD was directly behind me going home for the day… never said a word, just asked if I needed help and tracked someone down to backup for me. I cuss up a storm both outside and our area, never get in trouble for it. I think most people don’t care that much since it’s not directed at them.
They probably don’t care lol. I was gonna say I’d be worried about kids hearing it, but you just reminded me of this one I time I was picking an OPU batch on the floor and I heard a kid throwing a tantrum say it, so it’s probably nothing kids haven’t already heard. I’m now dying laughing thinking about it so thanks for the laugh.
Love hearing kids cuss, always makes me giggle ☺️
Quite literally 2 days ago, probably the worst. Person had double-beeped on me and it was like a 50+ item order, and I go out there to deliver it and they just give me the worst attitude imaginable, asking why it took so long (it took me slightly over 4 min) and BOTH (it was a young, probably well-off, couple) of them step out to follow me to the trunk and just WATCH me put the stuff in even though their trunk is already pretty full of beach stuff. The wife then goes,"Is that even our stuff? It says *insert different last name* on the cart." And I go, in my customer service voice"well just say you're on the way *before* you get here and we will have it all prepped for you with your name. I just didn't have time to erase the previous order's name." The husband then butts in and says "we know what to do. Just put the bags in the car, because it looks like you don't know how to do anything but just make excuses." And that just set me off. I was already super anxious and my coworker was nearby delivering another order, and he was watching. I had 5 bags left and just started tossing the bags in there, I didn't care at this point and they weren't heavy, I just was about to burst into tears. He then starts asking for my name and I go "You see it." And I toss the final bag and walk away and they snap something at me and I go "Have a great fucking day!" Definitely didn't run to the bathroom to cry... that was a fun talk with my lead, my coworker backed me up. Just can't believe some people actually treat us like slaves 🫣 especially someone so slightly above my age group.
My HR literally told me to cover my name tag in these instances and walk away. If I’m not done unloading….walk away and radio a TL to come be a buffer or do it for me. It is not a requirement of your job to be verbally abused, and your leadership is supposed to be there to support you.
So sorry that happened to you. Try not to take things personally. I’m a huge advocate for sticking up for yourself. Don’t allow people to talk to you in a rude manner. I served in the military and one of the best things I learned is professionalism. Tact is one of the most important traits to strengthen in a customer service role.
when i was a tm mainly doing fulfillment, i was in an OPU batch RFID-ing in girls' apparel for clothes. my time was down to the wire and i just had a few hard-to-find items left. my face must have been obviously sweaty and i was moving with clear urgency with the RFID scanner. a guest walked up to me, first without saying anything, but i felt her there and knew she needed something. in a tone i couldnt control i simply asked, "what can i do for you." no response for two seconds so i ask again, in a cold, flat tone "what can i do for you?" she was quiet again for a second. i found the item. she inhales with attitude (if ever there was a thing) and begins, "you know, i just want to be talked to like a-" i cut her off, "i dont have time for this," i say, because i dont, and storm off with my item. i INF the other two or so items. thankfully she doesnt follow me. i hurry up and do the thing where i scan all my items and sort them into piles with the guests' stickers beneath each pile, scanning everything to one location to save as much time as possible (fixing the locations in the pickup app after the batch is "done," of course) because i dont have time to bag. i finish my batch with *ONE SECOND* left on the timer. i had a choice to make in the moment in a lose/lose situation and i made the judgement call to be rude to the guest and it ended up saving my ass from getting in trouble for a late batch.
Oh, I hate the people who do this to me. Like, it’s fairly obvious that we’re in a rush by what we’re doing/the look on our faces, yet they just wander up and expect us to drop *everything* to help them. 🤦🏼♂️ Can’t help them find a brain cell if they don’t have one!
guest: *bitchily* "eye drops" me: "....ok?" guest: "EYE. DROPS. eyedrops." me: "what about them?" guest: "Where are they?" me: "Aisle G 21." * points towards a grocery aisle all the way across the store * "thats g2. Take a left and you'll come onto g 21, theres a big sign" Fuck the people who walk up to me, no greeting and just yell what they want me to find for them. No please or thank yous, im not a damn robot. I had had a long shift and probably shouldn't have done that but I didn't give a fuck lmao i was so tired and guests had been so mean to me that day. I sent that old man all the way across the store and barely feel bad about it. Treat me like a human lmao. Honorable mention: Boy from my high school approaches me. Group of his buddies are watching and filming. Obviously going to make a video where they try to embarrass me. Him: "hehe, where's the condoms?!?!!!" Me: "You don't need those." him: * startes at me, waiting for a different answer * me: "Excuse me, You're standing in my spot."
This is on a weird tangent but I used to work at Five Below and once a kid and his buddy came in asking for condoms and lighters. They looked about thirteen. To this day I can’t figure out if they were serious or not.
I get asked by teenage boys where the condoms are like 3x a shift. I have never, ever, ever seen any of them walk out with a box. They just want to embarrass me or make me uncomfortable. They always ask weird creepy follow up questions and it's just so childish and irritating. The lighters part does have me questioning a little if they were serious.... did they actually buy anything or just walk away giggling?
Just tell them you don’t have them in extra small.
They were on their way out and asked me why they couldn’t find them, did we not have them. I was like no, we don’t sell either of those. I was in the middle of doing a return for a customer too so that made it more awkward….first time he asked I was focused on my customer so I had to ask him to repeat himself, and then the seconds time it didn’t register in my brain for some reason, so I had to ask him to repeat again….
rip
This will happen to me on closing Saturday shifts all the time. Half the time I just tell them where they are without missing a beat, the other half I’ll tell them they’re not old enough to buy them and tell them to move on. I swear it’s for some TikTok challenge or something, I’ve heard teens talk about doing said things before coming up to me and asking for things that are supposedly embarrassing.
Joke's on them. I've worked retail long enough that nothing fazes me. Ask me for condoms, I'll point them out to them. Ask for whatever they want, if we have it, I'll send them there. I don't care what a person is buying, just grab it and go. 🤷🏼♀️
usually it wouldnt bother me but they always follow up with stuff like "which one is your favorite?" or other personal questions and it jus feels a little inappropriate and sometimes it feels like its crossing the line into harrassment. I'm a girl who just graduated high school so for some reason they think it's funnier to say grosser things to me and im just fed up with people saying creepy stuff to me. Im happy to show someone who actually needs something where they are, but if its a group of teenage boys giggling about it I know 99.999999% of the time they're just going to be mean cause sex = funny
Gah. I'm one of the people the younger girls come to when the creepers hit on them to get away. I have no problem scaring those jackasses away. Nor do I have a problem getting AP in on the deal. It IS harassment at that point. I hope you get fewer of those assholes and if any of them continue, don't hesitate to get either the "mom" (my usual role), AP, or the "big guy" to scare their ignorant asses off. 🫂
Probably a good idea. I just feel worried that I'll get in trouble if I refuse to help them or something. I feel like they'll backtrack and play the victim and then I have to feel embarrassed infront of them and my coworkers and AP just for nothing to happen😕 idk
Never worry about that. If you are being harassed then AP needs to know. If they get away with it they'll never learn. And you absolutely do not deserve to be treated like that. No one does.
You sound like one of my TLs 😂 She’s an absolute badass who doesn’t take crap from anyone.
Thanks. I'm actually kinda bad at standing up for myself, but I'm good at defending others. It's nuts. 😆
I told this guy that I'm not helping him. Mind you he screamed "Hey! Excuse me! Hello! Hello! Hello miss!" Sooo loud that people from Starbucks and a few aisles over and everyone within the area obviously heard him and I was so embarrassed because people knew he was talking to me and I was aware he was talking to me it was like an anxiety thing that made me turn around because it's like I'm so aware that he's talking to me that I just can't ignore it even though I know I should've just kept walking because it was so disrespectful and embarrassing. I went up to him and told him exactly this: look I understand that you need help and I understand that I work here but that doesn't give you the right to yell at me from across the room. I'm sorry but find somebody else to help you because I'm not." And all he said was oh okay well.." and was getting stutterish I guess because he wasn't expecting that but that was the first time I ever did something like that. Standing up for myself is hard but I'm glad I did that day.
good on you. i want to do that like every day lol but instead i just ignore them until 1. they say something polite or 2. i feel i can't anymore without getting in trouble.
WOW. I am taking notes, baby!
I wouldn’t really say this was bad but this older lady, who was returning a tv was giving me and the other people at service desk a hard time. You know checking the serial numbers and what not, so by the end of it I was pretty over her. She then wanted to be like “I’m never getting a Vizio tv again! Their customer support are just a bunch of fucking Indians who don’t speak English!!” I was done! I looked her straight in her eyes and said “the transaction is done, leave now” kind of surprised she didn’t say anything to my TL. I wanted to lay into her but I was still a week in.
A guy took it upon himself to come into the back room to look for a team member (he claims there weren’t any on the floor) he also happened to be obviously wasted. Me: You can’t be back here. Him: I just needed someone to help me look for som- Me: You can’t be back here. (guiding him back to the floor) Him: well shit! I can’t get any fuckin’ help at least at WALMART I can actually get someone to help me. Me: ok, there’s one right across the street. Him: I’m just sayin, I’m just sayin…[unintelligible noises] Me: just go through the light at the intersection, you can’t miss it, have a nice fucking day! (Closes back room door)
He went into the backroom?! That has to be something that can warrant a kick out of the store
I HATE it when guests poke their pathetic stubby heads though the door. Once a lady did it and as soon as she said "excuse me," I shouted **OUT!!!!** and pointed her back to the floor. I mean I really shouted it. Like we were in a fight or something. I think I even scared her.
You could clearly see and hear that I was on equipment in the backroom one day and a guest kept pushing the door open and yelling while I'm operating equipment expecting me to just go put it away and drop everything I'm doing to go help them. It's also incredibly distracting when on the wave or any other equipment for a customer to yell to get your attention.
When I used to work in tech we’d have a lot of people come in wanting to price match something to Walmart, but it would end up that we did not have the item. Then they would get all pissy with me because they wanted the item so I would look them dead in the face and say “so go buy it at Walmart”. Surprisingly I never got called on it.
I had a woman who tattled to my TL about how mean i was because she said: "Why isn't there an ulta section here?? where do i buy my ulta products?" and i responded "because the ulta is next door. I reccomend going next door and buying them at ulta." We're in a shopping mall and the ulta entrance is literally 10 feet away from the target one.
Imagine if they did try to report you: “They told me to go to Walmart for something you don’t sell here!!”😡
I still remember the woman years ago that got mad because I told her we can’t price match Aliexpress 🙄
I got in trouble for this one, but it was extremely worth it. During the pride fiasco last year when all the homophobes were losing their minds about the pride collection, I was wearing a t-shirt from target from their pride collection like 3-4 years ago. It was just a red shirt that said “love is love” with the lettering being rainbow. I had a rack of clothes I was bringing out from the back when a woman stopped right in front of me and began to ask me a question, but she stopped mid-sentence when she saw my shirt. She looked at me with a face of disgust and goes “I hope you know you’re going to hell for supporting that lifestyle” (mind you, I am a lesbian, but she didn’t know that) and without even thinking about where I was I replied “well, as long as you’re not there I’ll be in good company. have a good one!” and I just walked away. I guess she got mad and told a manager or someone at the service desk because I was called into the office and told that next time i need to “not engage” or to “call a manger or AP”, but I still stand by what I said and it was absolutely worth it.
I wear a love all ways pin on my vest. Being fluid it fits
It was right after I gave notice. Someone pushed a street dated product to the floor. A guest brought it up to purchase and told me I had to sell it to her. I told her “Unfortunately it’s street dated and we can’t sell it before a certain day.” The guest responded very rudely “That’s your problem not mine.” My response was a quick and blunt “That’s not my fucking problem either.”
Sounds like my store, the other person in tech has some strange aversion to scanning products when pushing them, so I find street dated product pushed out all the time, as well as just lots of product in the completely wrong spot, and serious overstock issues (yes I've told our leads, nothings changed)
Probably "No, it's not 'sooo hard' working in the home department because I don't make enough money here to even be tempted by any of the products." I get asked that all the time. 😭 Even if I was a millionaire, I don't need to be buying new pillows or throw blankets every season.
I yell back at them when then get aggressive. I do not care.
“Are you stupid?”
Had a guest rudely interrupt me while I was helping another guest and I just replied with “ Would you like it if I or someone else rudely interrupted you like that at your job?” And she just proceeded to roll her eyes and walk away
I had a lady at SCO and when the Target Circle phone number prompt popped up she called me over and very angrily asked "why does Target want my phone number? What are you guys going to do with it? Track me?" I said "its to save you money and is optional. Target doesn't care about you" and then hit the skip button and walked away. SETL just chuckled
Idt that's mean, that's kinda just a fact 😂
This guy came in looking for a fidget spinner for his autistic sister but the only one we had was zeroed out and couldn't be sold so I defected it and told him to just steal it
I can get behind this one. I'm not a fan of theft but this seems like a valid one. Sensory issues for autistic kids can get out of hand for them and if a fidget will help her, go for it.
It's so goddamn stupid to me how Target would rather throw more shit into the landfills than give anything away for free.
On a day with torrential rain, this guy comes in around 2 or 3, pulls a few carts out of each of the six rows, settles on a basket instead, and in a big, huffypuffy big to do way says "you know, someone oughtta dry these!" And I go ".... yeahhh no."
We’re hiring
I was in AP. I have said many less than tasteful things to “guests”.
it was super busy (back to school) and i had a bunch of guests who wanted to ring up their multi carts of food at the tech boat and I told them they had to ring it up downstairs, and they said "wow you don't really care about us do you" and I just said "not really I don't"
Guest: “Do you work here?” Me: “Nope😁” Guest: “You look bored.” Me: “No I was actually enjoying myself. The silence was great” The people didn’t take offense to it and cracked up. I was already held back my scheduled time to leave for a few hours and was over it. 🥲
“I didn’t ruin your Christmas, your lack of research on what you were buying your kids ruined you Christmas. I’m not taking back an open game.”
Sorry we don’t sell that brand here, I’m pretty sure that’s a Walmart brand.
Oh yeah, I hate this. It’s supposedly a double negative connotation. Like you’re supposed to say, “it was my pleasure” like we’re chick-fil-a. I get in this argument anytime a manager brings it up. It’s 2024, it’s a social norm to say this. Even in a psychological demeanor, it doesn’t embrace negativity (which they claim). If this was 1950 it would be a different story. A lot of managers don’t understand the concept that body language is more important than the actual words you say. Most the time the words you say don’t have any relevance in the conversation unless it’s specific towards something negative or positive. Such as identifying a compliment towards someone. But a simple, “how are you” isn’t going to be any different towards someone’s emotions. The amount of the words you choose in your connotations is only about 10% of the actual conversation whereas the rest is your body language, tone, eye contact, etc… you could say someone is an “idiot” and still provoke a positive emotion from the conversation if you’re pose your body language in the positive manner. Saying, “no problem” isn’t bad customer service.
I say it all the time.
I'm cashiering and it's 5 minutes past closing. One of our many regular, late-night, not-quite-playing-with-a-full-deck customers wants to buy two things that cost about $5 each. Let's say a monster drink and a bag of chips. I tell him his total. He's staring at the crumpled-up dollar bills in his hand and says he only has 8 dollars. He's looking back and forth at the drink and the chips trying to decide which to get. I said "You're getting the drink." I take away the chips, grab the filthy bills out of his hand, shove his change into his hand and said "Go."
Probably “No.”
once i was coming back from meal and a guest walks behind me and goes “i want to buy a lamp.” so without thinking i just go “so buy one” lmaoooo (i stopped and apologized, he luckily found it funny and then i helped him choose a lamp)
" I don't know how big your kid's feet are." When asked if a pair of Rollerblades would fit their kid.
I've snapped at guests only twice in my career. The first time was a lady who wanted to buy her navy son a target gift card. She asked me where they were (I'm on a checklane) and I proceed to answer with my huge smile and fantastic guest service. She then interrupts me every. time. Literally , I try to answer and tell her and she stops me, now getting huffy as if I don't understand. "BUT WHERE ARE THEY IM TRYING TO BUY ONE". After about the 6th or 7th time I finally snap, "IM TRYING TO TELL YOU IF YOUD STOP INTERRUPTING ME.". The look on her face suddenly changes as I point them out and tell her those are all the ones they offer and I make my suggestions based on what she told me. And she got quiet. My heart sank as I had NEVER done that. Luckily as we scan it I go right back to my guest servicey self and she goes back to the happy guest she is and she doesn't complain. The second time I hear this family in the next aisle and there is crashing as they are throwing sports balls. I'm dbo of sports at this point and can hear mom with these teens messing up my area. I get so irritated finally that I whip around the corner and say with anger and authority "STOP THROWING THE BALLS AND PUT THEM BACK!" The looks on their faces was priceless- that wide-eyed stare and mom looks to the teens as she sits and then stands up from my base deck. "Yeah guys put those back and stop playing with them". My face was red and I waited the downfall but never got complained about.
after I saw that guy on tiktok with the videos about common things said to retail workers, I took a page out of the book... "Hey so I'm trying to buy this (basketball) and when I asked someone how much it was they said it was $10, but when I rang it up it charged me $35, I want to see if I can get that adjusted." I check it with my zebra and sure enough it's $35, there's no promo for it. "Sorry ma'am, I won't adjust this, the price when I look it up is $35." "OK, but the employee back there told me it was $10." (with the snarky Karen voice ofc) "OK, but what do your eyes tell you?" (I show her the zebra with the price shown) ofc a manager had to come and defuse the situation.
A new hire that was covering self checkout got in a argument with a guest that tried to skip scan. Guest started insulting TM. TSS got involved. TM was told to take a break. As he was walking away. He told the guest “ALL BARK NO BITE” guest lost it after that. He had to be escorted out. TM was given a coaching conversation. He said he was not gonna take that from no one. He quit same day.
“Mam your ID I’d maxed out I can’t give you store credit, and that was my last option” “Mam no receipt no I’d no card, I cannot help you” “Mam I cannot help you with your return because the ID only covers 100$ that item is 359$, so your stuck with the item” “5 item or less we will not check your cart out here, please head to the check lanes” “Mam it takes 2 hours for your order to get ready we will not grab it off the floor for you it’s not our department” “Mam please stop harassing fufillment for your order before I call security (not ap)” “Mam you paid in cash I cannot give you cash off your ID bring me the receipt or it’s gonna be store credit” These are all the things I’ve said that have gotten me in trouble even tho it’s the correct thing to say to all these guests cause they just keep harrasint everyone in my location
My first week of cashiering and it's a few minutes past closing. These two women were being indecisive about what they were buying. Take this out, put that back, you know the drill. She goes to pay, but her card was declined. She says "Just a minute, I need to transfer some money." I say in a very condescending way: "You really shouldn't be buying stuff if you don't have the money." Something like that. She flew into a rage. I asked my TL if it was ok to turn off my niceness the second we close. She said "Yup." She was the best.
I had a particularly brutally unpleasant guest at the desk. Huge pile of cat & Jack and a lot of the items the garment tag was faded & hard to read. So I was getting a wee bit miffed. The guest was, of course, no help. Every time I told her she’d have to look up an item on her purchase history on her phone she complained because it was “my job” At the end of the transaction as I’m getting the pile of defective clothing that I had purposefully put in ESIM bags as I went I muttered “another nice contribution to your local landfill (probably 90% of the clothing was filthy enough that if you tried to donate it to charity they’d refuse to take it).” She either didn’t hear it or didn’t care. As she was walking away I muttered—a bit too loudly apparently—“I hope I never see you again.” That one she heard. Fortunately when she demanded a manager the TL who came up was one of the sympathetic ones. Guest didn’t even tell her what I had said—-which makes me think she didn’t hear the words, just the tone which was definitely a “you annoy me” tone. I had a good laugh with the TL when she asked what I said.
Offered to give teenagers playing soccer in the aisle directions to the field Told a dude who wanted a bogus price match that I didn't care if he scammed another store he wasn't scamming us Told resellers to get the fuck out of the store multiple times And yet the only coaching I've had is for being passive aggressive about safety
I don’t really have a whole lot from Target because most of my time is spent at work while the store is closed. Most of my worst things I’ve “said” actually come from the faces I make when people ask me absolutely absurd shit. So I’ll make the most horrified faces when people are rude or ask stupid questions but then answer them in a normal way. It’s unhinged and guests don’t know what to do and it just throws them off. Technically, I can’t get in trouble for my face and what it looks like because reporting someone for their face is messed up. No one’s ever asked me about it. But I also know when another team member says a guest came into contact with a “very strange TM”, it was probably me lol
“Don’t shoot the messenger” was what I said after telling a guest that I can’t change or make up the rules about ID requirements for specific items, I just enforce them. Apparently the guest went off saying I was violent or something .
I don’t believe in the military
not something i said but one time i must’ve made an annoyed face when an old guy told me to smile three times
i had just walked to tech after clocking in and there were 4 people crowded around my boat. one of them walked up to me and said he needed help with his phone so i told him to wait at the counter and i'll be with him shortly. i quickly helped the other three guests, took less than 2 minutes because they all just needed cords. i walk back to the boat and immediately the phone guy gave me attitude. "what's your company policy on helping customers?" "wasn't i here first? why didn't you help me before the others?" when i tried to explain that he needed help with his phone so it could take awhile and i needed to clear the floor first, he wanted to talk to my manager. i told him that i'll call my manager but i'll no longer help you, he tried to backtrack but i had already walked away. he's come back multiple times, each time giving attitude to everyone who's tried to help him, even my etl.
I hate people getting upset over "no problem." Linguistically it serves the exact same function as "You're welcome." They're both just verbal filler meant to lubricate social interaction and should, honestly, be treated as equivalent to each other.
You rage doesn’t get you anywhere XD
If you treat me badly, I won’t be nice to ya, because Target really doesn’t pay me enough for this shit😅.
"Yeah, well, you're a bitch"
I was in an OPU with very little time left to finish when a guest stopped to ask me to help find something. She started with "I'm looking for this thing... I saw it online... " I said "what do you need?" Irritated. And she gave me a disgusted look and said "Never Mind!".
“Ok great byeeeeeeee” 😂
Every time somebody asks me how I’m doing, I quickly take a look around and give some droll response. Most people in my store seem to appreciate my dry humor it seems.
Around Christmas time this lady threw a fit because she had to wait at Starbucks. She yelled at us and then knocked a cup off the shelf on the way out. I saw her on the way to my break and told her “that was super disrespectful”
One day a lady came in who had just buried her husband. She was with, presumably their two children, and the dead man's brother. The lady asked my Tarbucks coworker if she was okay, and she said "Yeah?? Are you okay??" with hella attitude and the lady replied that she wasn't, as she had just buried her husband. My coworker looked this woman in the eyes and said "I don't give a fuck about your dead husband" She still works there!
One of my coworkers would tell guests “womp womp” when they were being assholes about something. One day she was telling our etl about it and he was like “you need to stop right now and not tell anyone else about this, upper management has been trying to figure out who was saying that so they could give a write up”
"You came for a curbside pickup of twenty-five pounds of flour in the pouring rain. i can't help you."
I got fired for rolling my eyes at a woman once. 🙄
“I am not god, the machine is” is something I’ve said when there’s simply no system in place for what the guest is demanding. My friend once handed a “we’re hiring” pamphlet to someone bitching about the line at checkout.
Seeing all these responses and guest “experiences” makes me real glad that my ETL and TL’s allow me to be the main in DU every single shift I work whether in Checkout or Service.
I get ‘you don’t work here do you’? No!
Customer was complaining and being a total bitch at returns Section. I said, "wow i wish I had a rich husband to buy me stuff like you" or something like that
when they go into some new rant and are looking for a response i dead ignore it and say nothing it pisses them more
A guest had been attempting to steal like 600 dollars of merch thru self checkout. I have another job that pays my bills. The had a whole cart full and was ignoring the attendant telling her it was ten items or less. I stood there off the clock talking to AP and another employee about how rude some people are to hold up the lines and how it's cute they think they are getting away with something. She looked me in the eyes and I took a drink from my straw, and then said "I said what I said" and as she left we obviously followed her and got pictures of her license plate. There were items we took from her and items she managed to leave with unpaid and she the police put those in the charges against her. Still employed. Though I dropped to on demand.
I mean there was once when a dude was in my face when his gift card didn’t work and demanded a refund/me to help him. After like 5 minutes, I had enough and asked for him to let me see the card and the code he put into his phone. In less than 5 seconds, I close my eyes, and said to him in a stern voice “you forgot an R” and basically threw the card back to him. He immediately was all apologetic and tried to apologize, but I said to him, “get out of my face” and he immediately left. Apparently it’s all disrespectful when I close the entire upstairs register when I’m the only one there when I have to leave
A guest I didn’t know needed assistance in tech rudely said “eXcUsE mE! I’ve been waiting for 5 minutes, can you stop walking away.” In response I told her, “womp womp, that’s your fault for not asking for help and just standing there expecting me to help you.” She quickly apologized and said that she was just tired from the sun. I also apologized. It was a long closing shift and I had so much shit to do that I gave up on being nice💀