Name: Anonymous 2007-12-25 13:19
I work at an American department store in a large mall -- I don't want to name the specific chain, but its comparable to Bloomingdale's or Nordstrom for U.S. goons, to Harrod's or Selfridge's for U.K. goons, to Holt-Renfrew for Canadian goons, etc.
I've been at the wristwatch counter lately, as a cashier/salesperson, and one of my colleagues there is a petite, soft-spoken twenty-something female I will call Beth, because that is not her name.
Beth is a part-time employee responsible for stocking displays for some of the higher-end watches. While she is able to answer inquiries from customers about the watches she works with, she has not been trained on the cash registers or given a ID number/PIN number combination to log into the register with in order to complete transactions, because ringing purchases is not part of her job. Therefore, if a customer approaches the watch counter with items from nearby displays to purchase or requests to purchase one of the watches, Beth has to direct them to another associate, because she cannot complete this task. I have seen her explain this fact to multiple customers, and she does so politely and articulately. Sane people respond to this by calmly approaching an alternate employee.
The incident I will describe was relayed to me directly by Beth and corroborated almost exactly by other employees. One night earlier this week, Beth was behind the watch counter straightening up a display, and the cashier who had been accompanying her at the counter that evening had stepped outside for a quick cigarette break.
A large female approached the counter carrying a pair of gloves and told Beth she wanted to pay for them. Beth gave her usual explanation about the register and asked the customer to take her gloves to one of the other counters, because the regular watch counter cashier was unavailable. The customer started to argue with Beth, insisting that she take the gloves and ring them up, while Beth continued to explain that this was not possible. The woman adamantly refused to approach another counter, because they all had "long lines" (the store was not crowded, and each other register had maybe one or two people waiting to be rung up there) and she was in a hurry.
When Beth did not relent, this customer reached across the counter between them, grabbed Beth around her bicep hard enough to leave marks and cause pain and yanked her forward until their faces were close together, smashing her ribcage against the edge of the counter -- when Beth showed me her arm a day later, she had faint purple bruises. The woman reiterated her demand that Beth ring her up immediately. Beth, taken aback and unsure what to do, basically froze and said nothing. She told me she was hesitant to try and yank her arm back or use her other arm to disentangle herself, because the customer might interpret this as retaliation and accuse BETH of assault (sadly, a valid concern).
Store policy is to call security or management if a customer becomes hostile, but since Beth was being physically pinned at the counter away from the phone, she was unable to do this. Apparently, one of the cashiers at a nearby counter realized something was happening and called a manager to the area. However, by the time the manager arrived and security was alirted, the woman had given up and left the area.
What really pisses me off about the whole thing is that the customer got away with this completely. Security did not pursue the matter whatsoever, purportedly because the woman had backed off of her own accord. When Beth gave a description of the woman, assuming that security would be searching the store for her and attempt to apprehend her, the idea that the woman would cry foul and play the race card (she was African-American and Beth is white; the race card is occasionally played by shoplifters stopped by security) was expressed by security with the night manager's assent. The matter was dropped, the manager apologized to Beth, who then said she would not be returning to the store after this incident. Management gave her the rest of the shift off and apparently persuaded her to change her mind.
If it had been me, I would have been sorely tempted to circumvent security and the store officials and called the police to file charges against the woman -- the store does have cameras in every area, and the incident almost surely was taped. I'm still kind of hoping she will, though she's expressed a desire to just let it go and try to forget about it.
And while it disgusts me, the fact that the situation became physically aggressive isn't entirely surprising to me -- I've been yelled at, sworn at, called names, talked down to like a child, and had merchandise thrown at me (thankfully only lightweight clothing, though) -- all by the store's customers. Sometimes I've involved management, other times I've diffused the situation myself and let it go.
I guess my question to the goons is this: how much are employees of stores or restaurants or any establishment catering to customers expected to tolerate?
Anyone else got experiences like this to share (feel free to threadjack)? What would you have done to handle that situation? Is anyone else as repulsed as I am at the fact that consumers no longer have the patience to wait behind just one or two other people in line to be helped by an associate, and would rather harass a defenseless girl than accept that most stores don't have a 1:1 employee to shopper ratio? In my experience, it's almost always women who become hysterical over being asked to wait their turn -- women old enough to be my mother or grandmother, 90 percent of the time...it's just pathetic.
I've been at the wristwatch counter lately, as a cashier/salesperson, and one of my colleagues there is a petite, soft-spoken twenty-something female I will call Beth, because that is not her name.
Beth is a part-time employee responsible for stocking displays for some of the higher-end watches. While she is able to answer inquiries from customers about the watches she works with, she has not been trained on the cash registers or given a ID number/PIN number combination to log into the register with in order to complete transactions, because ringing purchases is not part of her job. Therefore, if a customer approaches the watch counter with items from nearby displays to purchase or requests to purchase one of the watches, Beth has to direct them to another associate, because she cannot complete this task. I have seen her explain this fact to multiple customers, and she does so politely and articulately. Sane people respond to this by calmly approaching an alternate employee.
The incident I will describe was relayed to me directly by Beth and corroborated almost exactly by other employees. One night earlier this week, Beth was behind the watch counter straightening up a display, and the cashier who had been accompanying her at the counter that evening had stepped outside for a quick cigarette break.
A large female approached the counter carrying a pair of gloves and told Beth she wanted to pay for them. Beth gave her usual explanation about the register and asked the customer to take her gloves to one of the other counters, because the regular watch counter cashier was unavailable. The customer started to argue with Beth, insisting that she take the gloves and ring them up, while Beth continued to explain that this was not possible. The woman adamantly refused to approach another counter, because they all had "long lines" (the store was not crowded, and each other register had maybe one or two people waiting to be rung up there) and she was in a hurry.
When Beth did not relent, this customer reached across the counter between them, grabbed Beth around her bicep hard enough to leave marks and cause pain and yanked her forward until their faces were close together, smashing her ribcage against the edge of the counter -- when Beth showed me her arm a day later, she had faint purple bruises. The woman reiterated her demand that Beth ring her up immediately. Beth, taken aback and unsure what to do, basically froze and said nothing. She told me she was hesitant to try and yank her arm back or use her other arm to disentangle herself, because the customer might interpret this as retaliation and accuse BETH of assault (sadly, a valid concern).
Store policy is to call security or management if a customer becomes hostile, but since Beth was being physically pinned at the counter away from the phone, she was unable to do this. Apparently, one of the cashiers at a nearby counter realized something was happening and called a manager to the area. However, by the time the manager arrived and security was alirted, the woman had given up and left the area.
What really pisses me off about the whole thing is that the customer got away with this completely. Security did not pursue the matter whatsoever, purportedly because the woman had backed off of her own accord. When Beth gave a description of the woman, assuming that security would be searching the store for her and attempt to apprehend her, the idea that the woman would cry foul and play the race card (she was African-American and Beth is white; the race card is occasionally played by shoplifters stopped by security) was expressed by security with the night manager's assent. The matter was dropped, the manager apologized to Beth, who then said she would not be returning to the store after this incident. Management gave her the rest of the shift off and apparently persuaded her to change her mind.
If it had been me, I would have been sorely tempted to circumvent security and the store officials and called the police to file charges against the woman -- the store does have cameras in every area, and the incident almost surely was taped. I'm still kind of hoping she will, though she's expressed a desire to just let it go and try to forget about it.
And while it disgusts me, the fact that the situation became physically aggressive isn't entirely surprising to me -- I've been yelled at, sworn at, called names, talked down to like a child, and had merchandise thrown at me (thankfully only lightweight clothing, though) -- all by the store's customers. Sometimes I've involved management, other times I've diffused the situation myself and let it go.
I guess my question to the goons is this: how much are employees of stores or restaurants or any establishment catering to customers expected to tolerate?
Anyone else got experiences like this to share (feel free to threadjack)? What would you have done to handle that situation? Is anyone else as repulsed as I am at the fact that consumers no longer have the patience to wait behind just one or two other people in line to be helped by an associate, and would rather harass a defenseless girl than accept that most stores don't have a 1:1 employee to shopper ratio? In my experience, it's almost always women who become hysterical over being asked to wait their turn -- women old enough to be my mother or grandmother, 90 percent of the time...it's just pathetic.