Well for those of you who know me, you might know that I work as a cashier currently. For those of you who don’t know me or where I work – I’m a cashier. Haha. Anyways, as you might have noticed, this post is titled “Things I Don’t Like About Being in Customer Service” therefore let’s get onto that and I’ve made it into a lovely list format just for you!
1. Customers with Bad Attitudes
Yes, while I understand that no one person will be happy all the time, the least you could do is not take it out on your awesome cashier. I obviously realize that you might be having a bad day, that you might be in a rush from your rude and relentless tapping, but it isn’t going to make our exchange at the counter go by any faster unfortunately. I am probably already going as fast as I can, if not already feeling rushed and pressure from your impatience, not to mention if there’s a growing line-up, I am probably just doing the best that I can. So please, calm down, it’ll all be over soon…
2.People Who Throw/Hand You Very Tiny Folded-Up Dollar Bills
Honestly, that’s so annoying on so many different levels. For starters, it would be nice if you could at least unfold it for me, but no, people never usually do. It takes times to unfold and shove into my til, and the more time I have to waste on doing something as small as that, the longer everyone in the line-up has to wait. You know who to thank for that now. If by some chance you do unfold it (hurrah!) now it’s all bent/crumpled, ya, thanks for that, now it won’t stay flat in my til. I don’t exactly have any bricks or encyclopedias lying around for that kind of thing, thanks. But even if I did, I highly doubt it’ll ever resemble flatness or some sort of smooth piece of paper again.
3. People Who Get Mad Because We Can’t Find Something
Sorry, but it’s not our fault. If you come into the store looking for something and you need help, by all means ask, we’ll help you the best we can. If we can’t find it because we don’t know where it is or it happens to be out of stock or we just don’t carry it, well we can’t do anything about that. We try our best to know what we do have, but we carry a lot of items in the store, so we probably won’t know where exactly they ALL are, nor if we carry that particular crazy thing you assumed we MIGHT have had. I personally suggest calling ahead as to not waste your time, nor ours, and if the clerk can’t find what you were promised on the phone, please, feel free to hunt down the one who did tell you that or ask to speak with whoever you spoke to on the phone. It’ll just make everything so much easier for everyone.
4. Rushes
It seems like people rarely come to the counter one at a time, unless they happen to be the only ones in the store. Seriously, we stand there a long time, and not to have anything to do is really boring. That’s why getting customers (good or bad) is usually pretty exciting, or if not, at least a relief from doing nothing. What’s awful though is going from doing absolutely nothing, to a rush of over 3 people. It’s not fun, it makes your experience rushed and gives me anxiety because I just want to help everyone in some sort of timely matter without making anyone wait too long. So instead of dawdling when you’ve found everything you were looking for, go to the counter while it’s empty! Instead of joining the long line-up and waiting for me to finally get to you, then maybe hang back a minute or two and look around the store. You might be done shopping but at least you’re giving yourself something to do, and when you’re done the line will probably be much shorter!
5. People Who Sneak Behind the Counter
Whoa, whoa, whoa…What do you think you’re doing?! I can get in trouble for customers going behind the counter! Not cool! So if you need anything, like lighters, the phone, or anything else, just ask and I’ll help you to the best of my ability, just don’t go running into my space with no warning though. It’s just not allowed. If I invite you behind, to use the phone for example, go for it, you still shouldn’t be there, but at least I know what you’re doing and why you’re there, and that’s okay. Going behind my counter without my permission is not okay because I don’t know what you’re doing, and for all sorts of legal and security reasons you just shouldn’t be there because you’ll probably get me and yourself into trouble.
6. People Who Sneak into the Store, Literally a Minute Before Closing
Come on! We all just want to go home. You’ve literally had from 9 am -9 pm to go shopping, and you want to do it now, when we’re getting ready to leave? I can assure you, no one in the store will be pleased if you do this, especially if you decide to grab more than one item. Seriously, we don’t want to be there all night and you had all the time in the world to do this earlier! Also printing out your entire 200+ photo album of that wedding you just went to last weekend does not need to be printed out within the last half hour of closing. I realized you might be inconvenienced to be coming here so late, but you need to understand, you’re inconveniencing us as well, and need to appreciate the fact that we’re letting you stay in the store 5 extra minutes when you aren’t supposed to be here anymore.
7. Misbehaving Children and Other Inconsiderate People
All in all, I like kids. What I don’t like however, is when they stink-bomb my place of work, linger about when we decide to not get them into trouble and then later on cause further troubles. Very annoying, and very rude. Parents, if that’s your kid, keep better tabs on them because we’re not here to discipline them, you are, and it’s your job to teach them what’s okay and what’s not. Pranks can be fun and harmless, I completely understand, but pranking public businesses in a way that affects a large group of people isn’t acceptable.
8. People Who Think the Store is a Bank
So I’m sure that we all, from time to time, pay for insignificant amounts of money with $20 bills. What’s irritating is when people do it constantly, and with larger bills. Paying for a $2.0 dollar purchase with a $100 is absolutely ridiculous. Sometimes I don’t have enough money in my til to give you back that much change, or it is immensely inconvenient along with taking up most or all or my remaining cash. This is what a bank is for. Not anywhere else, and especially not our store. I understand it’s inconvenient to go to the bank, but sometimes I can’t afford to give you that much cash. Also the least you could do is ask before passing me the $100, if I can give you cash for it. If I accept then I’ll accept the fate I’ve decided for myself to help you, but forcing me to give you all my cash is not cool. It will annoy and possibly piss off your cashier and you just shouldn’t do that.
That’s it for now, I might update this post or make another when more things come up! And remember, be nice to your cashiers! They’re humans with feelings and emotions too!!
Tags: customer service, customers, part-time jobs, work