Retail hell stories

[klarakluckbag]

I worked in Woolworths years ago and one woman kicked up a massive fuss because we wouldn't price match a computer games console with the Argos price (it was something like 75p cheaper there). My manager was fabulous, he told her..."Madam, I will give you the difference from my own pocket, purely because my hard-working staff don't deserve to have to listen to you" Her face was a picture, she couldn't work out whether to be pleased that she'd got her own way, or annoyed that she'd been insulted!

 

[gimm3more]

Was 19 and pregnant as a christmas temp at M&S. called in sick as I had really bad morning sickness and my manager told me “well I worked when I had morning sickness”. I ended up miscarrying whilst working there and tbf they were good about that and no questions asked was allowed to leave.
That was years ago and for some reason my sparks card still registers my 20% off staff discount (despite the fact I only worked there for 3 weeks)
I call it reparations for maternity discrimination lol

 

[Pizzledizzle]

Got so many but in the theme of this ‘delightful’ time of year I once had to separate 2 middle aged woman fist fighting over a packet of pigs in blankets one year. Both had kids/husbands with them, idly watching them kicking the shit out of each other in the chilled aisle

 

[TriviaNewtonJohn]

When I worked at the shop a customer got my name off a receipt and kept calling the store and asking for me/heavy breathing and saying really obscene stuff. I was a teenager and completely horrified.

 

[I_Like_Tractors]

Seeing as it's the festive season..
Christmas 2003 I worked for Virgin Megastore and had someone come in on December 23rd and react very angrily and then start sobbing because we didn't have Dirty Dancing on VHS People are weird, and even weirder at Christmas

 

[gimm3more]

Did Christmas in Lush one year. The job was basically just pestering people and trying to stop kids eating the shower jelly

I have friends who worked in lush for several years. The amount of products out (testers) that people had bitten into or tried to eat was crazy. I don’t know what it is but people just assume the shit in there is edible?!

 

[cowtastrophe]

My mum ran a petrol station when I was in my teens and she used to force us to come and serve behind the counter to improve our customer service and maths skills. There was a guy who always came in when I was on the till and even though I knew how much petrol he’d had, he’d chug up to the counter and go ‘six quid, love! Sick squid! geddit??!’ Definitely someone who deserved a nasal puncher.

 

[Rosie glow]

It's the same every year at Christmas people running in thinking they can get advent calendars on the 1st of December
Then leave it until 4pm on Christmas eve to try and buy mince pies/wrapping paper/sprouts/tins of quality street/baileys
and of course its our fault its a yearly nightmare

 

[MrsBsDayOff]

I worked in a clothes shop many moons ago and someone left a used sanitary towel in the changing room

 

[Bobby Chariot]

I worked for a well-known supermarket for about a year, doing Home Shopping.
Black Friday nonsense, watching idiots squabble about Polaroid tv's, they were overpriced junk.
Seen folk taking items out of other shoppers' trolleys too at Christmas time, shoppers even tried to remove items from my Cart as I went around the store picking orders, lol.
It was a 24-hr store so you seen all manner of oddities in during the night, drunks wanting to buy 24 cans of Lager & a Pedigree JumboBone for the dog at 4.30 in the morning.
"Sorry sir, it's outwith alcohol licensing hours"
"Wankers"
I enjoyed that job, for most of your shift you were left to do your thing, as long as you maintained the pick rate, but shit bullying managers & cliques were the order of the day, like most retail workplaces.

 

[Lord Voldemort]

Did Christmas in Lush one year. The job was basically just pestering people and trying to stop kids eating the shower jelly

 

[witchofwestbyfleet]

I worked in WH Smith for a while and a guy walked in, took one look at me, called me a racial slur and left! I didn't know how to respond to that

People who would leave their baskets while they went to get something, or pick something up, put it somewhere and then come back for it. I suppose that's not bad behaviour but we were told that shoplifters would do it, and pushed to follow them around and put the items back if we saw them do it. Which was a pain in the arse, generally we didn't bother but we would get told off if a manager saw we were not doing it

 

[Samf2020]

When I worked at the shop a customer got my name off a receipt and kept calling the store and asking for me/heavy breathing and saying really obscene stuff. I was a teenager and completely horrified.

Worked retail many moons ago. All female staff in the shop. We were forced to wear name badges and the perv got our names that way would ring for us and then start with his gross stuff.
It took ages but we worked out who it was and got a male security guard from centre next door to have a word. He never came back into the shop and the calls stopped.

 

[Beth1980]

Surely one of the top 10 is when the company you work for will only accept Bank of England notes, then when you refuse other bank notes you get 'it's legal tender' thrown back at you, nowadays I tell them to go do some research on the internet. ( Same goes for B.O.E £50 notes).
Also having to explain again and again to someone why they are barred ( normally shop lifting) because they have done the same everywhere else nearby and have no where to get there goods.

 

[Reality_tv_lover]

I worked in a clothes shop many moons ago and someone left a used sanitary towel in the changing room

I've had to clean shit around a toilet seat last week. It's apparently us customer service crews jobs not the cleaners. Go figure

 

[MrsBsDayOff]

When I worked at the shop a customer got my name off a receipt and kept calling the store and asking for me/heavy breathing and saying really obscene stuff. I was a teenager and completely horrified.

What an absolute creep. There are some horrible people out there. Wonder what other crimes he committed?

 

[gimm3more]

Surely one of the top 10 is when the company you work for will only accept Bank of England notes, then when you refuse other bank notes you get 'it's legal tender' thrown back at you, nowadays I tell them to go do some research on the internet. ( Same goes for B.O.E £50 notes).
Also having to explain again and again to someone why they are barred ( normally shop lifting) because they have done the same everywhere else nearby and have no where to get there goods.

Oh Jesus Christ I hated the “legal tender” morons. Black Belt Barrister has done some great videos on that lol

 

[hehehe]

Worked at Gap in 2005 and whenever there were these anti-Iraq war /anti-Bush /anti-USA protests in the city centre we were ordered to keep watch for "shitters". Funnily enough I didn't really experience any vicious customers that I recall -- saved that genteel pleasure for my call centre days.

 

[Reality_tv_lover]

Do you work in retail? Share the good the bad and the ugly. From arsehole customers to arsehole colleagues and bullshit "company rewards"
Share it all

 

[Beth1980]

Will have to have a look.