[commodorenutt]

There was a story in the media recently about some % of retail staff being abused.
I reckon a lot of it is brought on themselves.

I needed to buy a particular item as a Christmas present. Knowing one of the common electronics chain stores is up the road from work, I checked their website, found it was in stock (but having been caught before, I decided to call - "Yes, we have 11 in stock.
So I printed out the product page and took it in with me.

The "greeter" looked at the page & said, "I don't think we sell them, but check in the phone section anyway" and moved onto the next person before I could even say "you have 11 in stock!"

Started looking up & down, couldn't find them. Waited 5 minutes for another staff member to finish helping someone with a bluetooth speaker (that was 20 seconds, the rest was him chatting about finishing school for the year), and asked where these items were - showing him the page. He pointed in the distance & said "down there". My reply was "can you show me, I've looked there?" He huffed and stomped about 3 steps, and said "there, opposite the TV" (there were dozens of TVs in the shop). So off I go, and after 5 minutes I finally find a little narrow rack, but there's none of the one I want, only a very basic version, and there was only a couple of them too.

So I looked around for someone else. Finally got a guy. His reply "I'm going on my break, find someone else" - so I spat back "I've used up 15 minutes of my break waiting for useless help in this store, surely you can give me 10 seconds to ask a question?"
Once again, a big huff... I asked if they had more somewhere, as the website showed them in stock, and when I rang 20 minutes ago, they said they had 11. He walked off without replying.

So onto staff member # 4 - an older guy than the 3 schoolies/toolies I'd already tried unsuccessfully. His first response "we don't sell them" So I showed him the page & pointed out the web address. "Oh, they must be new, try the phone section" - I had to stop him & explain the 11 in stock, and walk him to the rack to show him. Finally someone understands it!! So he says he'll go & get somebody who can check for me, as he's not real sure, as it's only his first week here, and the system is different to the last store he worked in.

Waited almost 10 minutes, and he's still not back. So I started moving further from the rack to see if I could spot him. Found him, in the phone section, being Mr Smooth to a teeny bopper looking at phones. I stood nearby until he could finally look away from her, and I said "did you find someone?" - his reply "really sorry bro, I forgot" and went straight back to chatting up little blondie......

So I stormed out, only to have the "greeter" ask me if I had a good experience.

If anyone remembers the band Scatterbrain, then I almost had a "don't call me dude" moment, but held it together, stating firmly, and factually, that the place employed dickheads.

Is it any wonder retail staff get abused? I'm extremely patient with people, and I'm always polite to them. I even did their legwork, checking stock & printing out the web page for the product from their own site.

In the end I ordered online from a different place, who have a 'click and collect' arrangement, and got it all sorted much more easily.

And these morons want us to support bricks & mortar stores.... yeah right, not with those idiots working there. Absolutely no customer service skills.



But back to the dockets, I had a small win at Bunnings the other night. I had a handful of items, and I'd added up in my head what they would total. When she had scanned everything, it was $82 instead of $89. Knowing one item was close to $7, I asked if she'd scanned everything. She did a quick recap, and confirmed all 5 items were processed - but then found the expensive item had scanned at $7 less than the shelf price. Maybe the sale tag blew off (or someone removed it?) Who knows. But that was a pleasant surprise.