Miss Management (Not Mrs)
(A couple comes up to my checkout with a large amount of sporting goods.)
Me: “Wow, looks like someone’s getting all their holiday shopping taken care of. Your total is [over $200].”
Customer: “Ugh, no, it isn’t. My husband here is a manager with your company, so we get the employee discount.”
Me: “Okay…” *leans over to the paging system* “Manager to register two, please.”
Customer: *surprised* “Why did you just call a manager?”
Me: “Because you said you and your husband were getting the employee discount.”
Customer: “Oh, what, and you don’t believe me? You think my husband can’t be a manager because we’re [race], is that it?!”
Me: “Huh? What are you talking about?”
Customer: “I’m talking about you calling the manager on us because you’re a f***ing racist. I’ll have you know we drive a BMW and have a lot more money than anyone here, especially a minimum wage nobody like you!”
(She goes on verbally attacking me, insulting my appearance, and just sounding generally crazy. Her husband is quietly standing behind her looking very nervous, but puts a restraining hand on her when she threatens to come behind the counter and teach me a lesson. At some point, the manager I paged approaches the counter.)
Manager: “Hey, how come you called?”
Customer: “Are you the manager? I have a complaint! Your employee here is a racist and should be fired for discrimination!”
Manager: “What happened?”
Customer: “Little-Miss-Hair-In-Her-Face over here called a manager when I told her my husband was getting the employee discount. We shop here all the time and we’ve never been treated with such disrespect.”
Manager: “Okay. Well, we can give you a discount once we get this cleared up.”
Customer: *shoots a smug nasty look at me*
Manager: “So, since you shop here all the time and work for our company, of course you know that in order to get checked out with an employee discount a store manager has to enter his number and authorization code. Now, I just need his employee number and you’re set.”
Customer: “…What?”
Manager: “The employee identification number, we all have one in our system. He does have one, right?”
Customer: “When I said he worked here, I was just kidding. But she called a manager because she’s a racist!”
Manager: “No, you weren’t kidding. You were trying to scam her. She called me because she was following the procedure to prevent people like you from getting away with it. I’m voiding your transaction. Please leave.”
Customer: “Oh, yeah? We’ll go to the news! Once everyone hears how racist this place is your store will be shut down!”
(The customer’s husband, who has been frozen in silence up until this point, suddenly speaks up.)
Husband: “No, you absolutely will not. You’ve already embarrassed us enough and dragged me into your bull****. Don’t even think about dragging me onto TV! I like this store. Now how am I supposed to show my face here? It’s bad enough to have a crazy, meana** girlfriend who lies like she breathes, but every time I take you out I’m lucky if the cops don’t get called. Now get in my crappy Volvo everyone can see from the window. I’m taking you home!”
(Just as the customer’s ‘husband’ said, he was not only not an employee, but he wasn’t even married to her. He came back to the store a few days later and apologized for her behavior, and told us he had dumped her that evening. Because he was so nice about it my manager told him he wasn’t banned, and when the guy tried to purchase some of the items he’d been trying to pick up the last time my manager gave him a small discount.)
This story is part of our Scammer roundup!
Question of the Week
Tell us your story about a customer who couldn't understand the most simple concept.
