It's hard to believe, but I have worked at customer service for over two years now. Things have changed in that department, but some things never will. And there are certain things I hate when I'm back there. Here's my list of them, 50, just like I did with checking:
1. A customer waiting for a while (long line, or I'm handling Western Union) just for something the self-checkout attendant could have helped them with, like a question, change for a large bill, or cigarettes. I always feel bad that they had to wait.
2. A customer who comes back and needs something changed with their Western Union money transaction. Usually, that requires calling WU, and it takes 10-15 minutes on average. And if there's no management to call to help other customers, it REALLY sucks.
3. Being in charge of the liquor case key but not being able to get the liquor call because of customers needing help at customer service.
4. A customer complaining that Just 4 U doesn't work. It's really not that hard, and it's probably something you did wrong.
5. Customer's getting upset at me enforcing rules, such as money orders are cash only (used to be), the limit for any transaction (WU, money order, etc.) is $3,000. Do you want me to lose my job?! Plus, I didn't make up the rules.
6. Customers who return 5+ items. The more the worse. Like really, what is your angle? I call these people serial returners.
7. Customers who call and talk forever and ever on the phone, especially when I have things to do or people to help.
8. Customers who want lottery tickets when that particular game is drawing. Know the rules and times, people, if you're going to waste your hard-earned money.
9. When customers bring their rotten food to get money back. Either take a picture or just have your receipt, I will take their word for it 99% of the time. Leaving me to dispose of the rotten food.
10. When I'm behind on my closing duties, yet customers keep coming or the self-checkout attendant keeps sending me customers they could help.
11. A checker making a mistake (scanning something twice, missing a 50% off item) that I have to fix.
12. People asking me things that not even management sometimes has a good answer for, such as why a particular item hasn't been in stock for a while, or why we stopped carrying a certain product. THEY TELL ME NOTHING. ALL I HAVE IS CONJECTURE.
13. A checker acting annoyed when I was crazy busy when they paged for an office call, and I missed it.
14. A checker needing help or an override when their problem was so simple/didn't require an override (like entering in the price manually when they could just type in the numbers next to the bar code).
15. Counting a till and it's way off for an unexplained reason.
16. Going to exchange a till that is a complete mess. I never need store coupons! Why don't you put bills and coupons in envelopes? They are there for a reason!
17. The bill counter being a piece of shit and displaying "No call" for every bill, or getting a jam.
18. A person needing to do a Western Union transaction who barely speaks English.
19. A person needing to do Western Union who is unhappy with their policy (Only can be received in Euros, have to include a test question, etc.)
20. A customer needing help with the DVDxpress. Safeway does not own, nor is responsible for it!
21. The phone constantly going off, especially when a holiday comes up and people ask our hours, or if there was a big storm and people call and ask if we're open.
22. The floral, deli, or meat department not answering their phone.
23. Customers calling for floral, bakery or meat after they've left, leaving me to answer the phone and tell them they can't be helped.
24. Something being down (Western Union, Money Orders, Orca) and customers getting mad at me for it.
25. People asking questions about Orca that even Metro Transit experts would have trouble answering.
26. People complaining about the price of cigarettes.
27. Someone asking for a manager (possibly a phone call) and they're busy (conference call, checking)
28. Starting my shift or getting back from break and the counter is a mess and unorganized.
29. Having to fill out a SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) Form because a customer sent over $3,000 or sent over $1,000 to China.
30. Trying to get stuff done like changing out checkstand changers, organizing the department, or doing pulls of large bills, and I keep getting interrupted by customers.
31. Needing a particular key (Lotto, Propane, Master) and it's not in its assigned spot.
32. Someone trying to return a gift card. All gift card sales are final, and they always have been. I do the return, I get in trouble, and the store loses money.
33. Alternatively, people coming back with a gift card saying it doesn't work, or they peeled the code off like a moron and expect us to be liable and replace it. You have to contact the company for whom the gift card is for! Once we sell it and activate it, it's out of our control.
34. A customer not knowing how a product works and needs me to explain it to them like they're a freaking child. I've had multiple customers come to me with the cartons of soup/broth saying the seal was already broken. No, idiot, the seal broke when you opened it! Also had a foreign couple that didn't know how to open a small trash bag.
35. Management telling me to pull customers from the self-checkout line because they failed to schedule enough checker help (and I have other things that need to get done).
36. Customers either not communicating clearly with lotto or changing their mind on either Mega Millions or PowerBall, forcing me to either buy the mistake ticket myself or have the store take it as a loss (because we can't cancel for those two games).
37. A customer having a lot of questions about a Rug Doctor (something I have never personally used).
38. When a customer tries to return a fairly expensive item without a receipt. Either you're scamming us, or you're a freaking idiot. If you buy an expensive item ($20+) and there is ANY chance you might return it, hold on to the freaking receipt! Or at least remember the day you bought it. I know for sure I have done returns on stolen items, but there's nothing I can do, because Safeway doesn't have clear-cut return policy rules nor do they help me with the ability to look up transactions by something other than day/checkstand number.
39. When a customer returns a food item they say was bad, and most of it is gone/eaten. I'd say over half the time this happens they are trying to scam us out of a free product they actually fairly enjoyed.
40. When a machine malfunctions (Lotto, CoinStar) and I have to fix it while other customers need help.
41. When customers form two different lines, and I don't know who was next.
42. When I have to help a customer for a long time (Western Union, calling someone) and they don't allow me to help other customers in the meantime,
43. Repeat customers who always get pint-sized bottles of liquor. They would save money by buying the 750ml every two days, but apparently, they can't force themselves to stop drinking. Sad.
44. When I have a list of things to do that keeps getting longer, and I stress out about it because I'm too busy with customers.
45. When one of the national Lottery games gets a really high jackpot and clueless customers come wanting to buy tickets but not knowing what the hell they're doing.
46. Customers who send multiple Western Unions, not allowing people behind them to be helped in between transactions.
47. Getting a complaint about an unruly customer, a customer asking for money, and having to tell the manager.
48. When a customer has a deal on an item (such as Free on J4U), but we don't carry it.
49. When I have to check because we're shorthanded, causing me to fall behind on customer service closing duties.
And lastly,
50. Having to deal with people. That's it. 90+% of the people I deal with at customer service are people I couldn't care less about.
BONUS:
51. People that buy a lottery ticket and tell me to sell them a winner. If I could control that, I'd sell myself a winner before you, fool.
Monday, April 1, 2019
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