I work in the bakery of a grocery store. One of the things we do is hand out free cookies to kids to make the shopping trip a little more bearable. A woman comes up with two little girls, the younger of whom is in a shopping cart.

Me: Would you like a cookie?

Older Girl: Yes, please

Younger Girl: *unintelligible* and what’s your name?

Me: My name’s (my name) but I didn’t quite catch the first thing you said.

Mom: “Can I be your friend”

Me: Oh. Sure. I can be your friend.

Younger Girl: Can I see the back of your head?

Me: Um… Ok. *turns around*

Younger Girl: *unintelligible*

Mom: She wanted to see your hair net. She thought it was a donut.

Me: *laughs* oh, you wanted to see my hair-net! It keeps my hair out of my face and the cookies and stuff.

Mom and Girls: Thank you.

Me: Have a nice day!

I had been having a really bad day, but that girl put a smile on my face, even if it was just for a few minutes. Easily the best part of my job.

(I work in a high end grocery store. I’m usually in the back room. We use speakers to communicate with other coworkers.)

Coworker: *over speaker* Someone from produce to the front for customer assistance.

(I walk to the front and see a man who is talking to himself about how horrible the customer service is here. My coworker tells me this is the man who needs help.)

Man: Yes I’m looking for [product]. Someone told me it would be yesterday and it wasn’t. Then someone told me it would be here by 12 today. It’s 3:00 so it should be here but I don’t see it on the shelf.

Me: Well let’s go look for it!

(We go over to the shelf to look for the product and I figure out what he’s looking for. It’s not on the shelf which means it’s most likely not in the back room, but I always offer to check. Low and behold it’s not in the back room. I ask my manager what to to because this customer has been pretty irrate already and he said just explain the situation and offer to get the customers info and call him when the product arrives.)

Me: Well it looks like [product] wasn’t shipped. It’s most likely because the supplier was out. So–

Man: *cutting me off* Well I think it’s because you’re too incompetent to order it! *storms off*

Me: *speechless*

Me: Well I guess you don’t want me to call you when it gets here…

(I’m checking out an elderly man.)

Me: “Now, what’s your bag preference?”

Customer: “I have no preferences; just give me paper!”

(While I am normally a cashier, at my store everyone works everywhere. I could be in the back, I could be a stock girl, I could be a cashier, I could work guest service counter, etc. Today I am working in the back because we got a HUGE delivery. Because it is always cold in the back, we are allowed to wear non-company sweaters over our uniforms. I get paged to get on cash so I grab my company jacket and get on a cash register.)

Me: “I can help whoever is next.”

Woman: “Are you wearing your uniform?”

(I look down and notice I forgot to zip up my uniform.)

Me: “Oh, yeah, sorry, I was in the back and—”

Woman: “Does your manager know you aren’t following company procedure?”

Me: “Well, yeah, she gave me permission to—”

Woman: “You know, when I worked here, I had respect for the store and its policies. Teenagers nowadays…”

(She droned on for so long that the rest of the line was dealt with by other cashiers. She eventually went and complained about me to guest services. I didn’t realize wearing a university sweater could be so insulting.)

(A lady approaches my register and unloads her groceries. She has about ten items. I scan the first item and bag it.)

Customer: “Excuse me, that was meant to be half-price. It’s scanned at full-price.”

Me: “Oh? I’m very sorry about that. I’ll have to call someone to go check the price for me.”

Customer: “I don’t have time for that; I’m in a rush. I guess I’ll just have to take it full price.”

(I scan the next item.)

Customer: “That was meant to be on sale, too.”

(It turns out that almost every item she was buying is supposed to be on special, but scans full price.)

Customer: “This is ridiculous. The only reason I came here today and bought these things was that they were supposed to be on special, but they’re not. This is false advertising.”

Me: “I’m really sorry. I have no idea what’s going on. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about it unless I get someone to go check the ticket prices on each item.”

Customer: “As I said, I don’t have time. I’ll just have to take them full price. But know that I’m very angry about this and will be complaining.”

Me: “Of course. Do you have a [loyalty card] I can scan through?”

Customer: “Yes. Here.”

(She angrily thrusts her card at me. I turn it over and see that it’s the loyalty card from our competitor.)

Me: “Um, so, I think I’ve worked out what the problem is. This is the card from [Competitor].”

Customer: “So?”

Me: “This is [Our Store].”

Customer: “What do you— Oh!”

(The customer turned bright red, paid as fast as she could, and hightailed it out of there.)

Related:
Sale Fail, Part 5
Sale Fail, Part 4
Sale Fail, Part 3