Unfiltered Story #292172

(I am a cashier at a home improvement store and its been a pretty slow day. Something to note is that we have a big store so sometimes it can be hard to find an employee on the floor to ask about products. Every so often we get people asking for help in a certain area of the store and they ask us to call someone to that area. This one exchange the other day really stood out to me.)

Me: Hello! How can I help you?

Lady: I’ve been waiting in the appliance section for a while and no one has come to help me. Can you call someone to go over there and help me?

Me: Sure.

(I use the intercom to say “customer service to the appliance section” and the lady leaves. Several minutes later the lady comes back, looking frustrated.)

Me: Hello again. Did you find what you were looking for?

Lady: No. I’ve been waiting for 20 minutes and no one has come to help me. You should call a manager to tell someone to go back there to help customers. With this customer service, I’m going to take my business elsewhere.

Me: So sorry about that ma’am. Have a nice day.

(The lady leaves. I see no reason to call a manager if there’s no customer waiting, so I marvel at the fact the lady told me to do that and left anyway. A little later I relate the story to a coworker.)

Coworker: I know that we had several employees back in that section, they were just busy with other customers. Some people just don’t want to wait 20 minutes for their turn!