the wal-mart incident

[Will Hay]

so i give her 65 cents to complete the transaction and say "keep the change, use it to buy some manners

A pox on both your houses. Look likes you should have kept a few pennies from your change and bought some manners for yourself. Young people need to realize, that someone being rude to them is no reason for being rude to them. What it instantly turns into is two people being rude.

You can call me a limp wrist if you like, but I would have taken what I bought and left, wondering a single thiought: What parents raised such an awful child? Now I have to think in pluarlities, now.

Jeex, for once, got it spot on.
Bullying has many forms, and the most effective way to tackle bullying is to confront it.
People like this checkout bitch should learn people will stand up to her, and the hope is that she'll learn from the experience and therefore know if feels.
Will

[pacmania_2001]

so i give her 65 cents to complete the transaction and say "keep the change, use it to buy some manners

A pox on both your houses. Look likes you should have kept a few pennies from your change and bought some manners for yourself. Young people need to realize, that someone being rude to them is no reason for being rude to them. What it instantly turns into is two people being rude.

You can call me a limp wrist if you like, but I would have taken what I bought and left, wondering a single thiought: What parents raised such an awful child? Now I have to think in pluarlities, now.

I'd have done what Jeex did and told her off. She's getting paid to serve customers and part of that is being nice to them. At the very least I would have filled out a complaint form.

[tgpo]

One of the things that amazed me about America was how late the sun set at night. In some places it was still light at 9pm, over here the latest it sets is around 6:30ish.

The latest sun goes down here in SC around 7:45 or so. But it's still visible outside up until about 9 or so.

[adam]

i'm wondering if there is any legal (cashwise) action i could take against walmart?

I've personally handled some cases like this specifically against Walmart. This exact thing happens all the time, and no you have absolutely no legal recourse, and really there is no reason why you should.

They can't catch everything that happens on every monitor all the time. When someone makes a complaint against a customer (shoplifting usually) they have not only a right but an obligation to use reasonable detainment. They can physically force you to stay on the premises until they have had a reasonable opportunity to discover for themselves what really happened, which usually just means viewing the tape. If one of their own employees accuses you of something then you can't blame them for believing her. They looked into it and corrected the problem. There's nothing more Walmart could have done. You can't blame the security guard or the police they are just doing their job, they can't possibly know its a false report at the time. Also you've got to figure that 95% of the people they are called out on are in fact guilty and usually hostile toward them. At time time I'm sure you looked like you fit the bill. I bet if you had been cooperative you would have gotten out of there in 1/10th of the time.

As for the woman, she has had applicable criminal charges pressed against her, though they will most likely just be dropped. Aside from some frustration you haven't been injured personally so I don't see any cause of action against her or Walmart or anyone else.

Also just to clarify. Assault does not mean what most people think it means. Battery is when there is physical contact. Assault just means you put the person in fear of recieving the contact. If I raise my fist in the air at you, its assault. So did she say you actually shoved her, or that you just assaulted her? From your discription of things it still doesn't sound like assault either though.

You know when someone acts like a jerk to me I just act twice as nice and thank them even more. It either wins them over or pisses them off even more, and best of all the police don't have to get involved.

[makntraks]

I'd like to know what was on jeex's t-shirt that pissed off the clerk

"Will and tgpo are bummers".

"I'm with stoopid" with the arrow pointing to the cashier...

makntraks

[Capmaster]

One response I made got the funniest reaction. This dim, bitchy clerk, about 17, was giving me all sorts of crap. When I left I said "Did your parents have any children that lived?" As I was walking away I could see she was drawing on all 65 IQ points to try to figure that one out

[Craig Tucker]

We have 24 hour supermarkets, 7-11's, service stations etc but not places like Walmart open at that time of the day.

Our Asda Walmart here is a 24 hour store, in fact my wife works there and does the 10pm to 6am shift.

[tgpo]

in fact my wife works there and does the 10pm to 6am shift.

Ouch. How does she like it? I know some people love the 3rd shift, but I wouldn't be able to handle it.

[Craig Tucker]

Took her a while to get used to it, but she likes it fine now. The shop is nice and quiet at that time of night, and the money is much better.

[Cobra]

At the very least I would have filled out a complaint form.

Want to know what happens to those forms? The managers just burn 'em, unless they don't like whoever it was who got the complaint.

People like this checkout bitch should learn people will stand up to her, and the hope is that she'll learn from the experience

Exactly. Get a manager if you want to do it right, stand her up and give her hell. She'll soon learn, even if she was missing the family brain cell on that particular night.

Cobra

[housepig]

Jeex just think yourself lucky that you only have to pay $2.61 for a pack of smokes. 20 Silk Cut over here costs me £4.90 thats $9.06.

Craig -

no shit. when I was in London, I wanted to pick up some cigars, walked into a store and couldn't find any single cigars for less than £8 ($15 US)....

then I noticed a pack of Phillies Blunts up on the wall. These are about the cheapest, bottom of the barrel dirt smokes over here, usually no more than $1.50-2.00 for a pack of 5. (£.45-1.00)

Your 5 packs were £16. balls!

[pacmania_2001]

At the very least I would have filled out a complaint form.

Want to know what happens to those forms? The managers just burn 'em, unless they don't like whoever it was who got the complaint.

Depends what company really, at the store I work for my mate had a complaint lodged against him becaused a customer overheard him saying he was "bloody tired" to another staff member. The manager (admittedly a dickhead) gave my friend a lecture about words that shouldn't be said in front of customers.

[tgpo]

Your 5 packs were 16 balls!

Did you give them a raincheck for 14?

[tgpo]

Depends what company really, at the store I work for my mate had a complaint lodged against him becaused a customer overheard him saying he was "bloody tired" to another staff member. The manager (admittedly a dickhead) gave my friend a lecture about words that shouldn't be said in front of customers.

Is bloody considered a cuss word?

[lordsmurf]

Jeex, good job. 8)

[pacmania_2001]

Depends what company really, at the store I work for my mate had a complaint lodged against him becaused a customer overheard him saying he was "bloody tired" to another staff member. The manager (admittedly a dickhead) gave my friend a lecture about words that shouldn't be said in front of customers.

Is bloody considered a cuss word?

To some old lady with nothing better to do then lodge complaints over nothing, yes, to the other 99.9% of the population, no.

[flaninacupboard]

if bloody is a swear then so is damn, and that's just stupid. in fact, it's bloody stupid.

[Devanshu]

Great story jeex. That cashier deserves to be punished..who the hell does she think she is? I would've done the same thing(except the cops part). I had a similar incident @ walmart which is why I refuse to step into one now.

[Craig Tucker]

if bloody is a swear then so is damn, and that's just stupid. in fact, it's bloody stupid.

Its bloody damn stupid.

[Will Hay]

if bloody is a swear then so is damn, and that's just stupid. in fact, it's bloody stupid.

Its bloody damn stupid.

There's just some words I won't say
Will

[Guest]

okay.. so its like 4:30 in the morning, ......, out of the store & to my car..

i'm wondering if there is any legal (cashwise) action i could take against walmart?

Don't you think the arrest of the cashier was vindication enough? It was for me in a similar situation a few years back. I was in quick need of a portable cd player. I went into a music store and purchased one. No problem. Got into the ride and found it didn't work. Then realized in my haste that the cashier did not give me a receipt. BFD. Only 2 cashiers in the place and it wasn't 2 minutes since I left. Nope! The cashier would not let me exchange it. I'm like WTF? I was just in here, with u a few minutes ago. Check the credit card logs/receipts. Sorry, can't do that until the manager returns from lunch.

I'm late, so I'm like F*&k it. I say "You people are all the same" (thinking -dumb ass, $5/hr laborers that can make your day difficult). Well, since she was black and I'm white she thought I referring to her race, and decided to test out the recently enacted racism laws. I quietly waited for the police while she was pointing out to everyone in the store how such a racist was going to pay dearly when to police arrived. This was really pissing me off since I have no race /religion issues with anyone.

Well, the police arrived and questioned me. Sir, what were you referring to when you said "you people". "Salespeople", I replied. Well, this girl could not have been to smart (the problem in the first place) because she had a warrant out for her arrest. The police apologized to me and promptly arrested her. The manager returned as she was being led out in cuffs. Instantly fired. Vindication for being branded a racist. Oh yeah, gotta new cd player too.

So, jeex, even if you can't sue, take some solace in the outcome.

[indolikaa]

What I want to know is where in the world you can still buy a pack of cigarettes for $2.61?!

Damn, they're $4.01 out here!

There's a difference between being a dick and making a false police report against someone. One can be protected speech, but the other is definitely a crime.

Had that been a Wal-Mart in my part of the world, she'd be facing felony charges instead of misdemeanor charges. Our county attorney can be a real prick when he wants to, and wasting 911 resources is one of his biggest pet peeves.

[rallynavvie]

She's getting paid to serve customers and part of that is being nice to them.

Are you really though? Back when I was more on the retail side of work I didn't feel I was getting paid enough to deal with difficult customers. Shortly after starting that job I had a situation with a man who felt he had been overcharged 4 cents on a transaction totalling $20-30. I looked over the receipt and couldn't find any problems with it that would have caused it to be off so I called a manager over to take a look at it. She couldn't find anything wrong either but when offering to refund the 4 cents the man said he'd rather see me punished for overcharging him than get his pennies back even though we were sure everything had been charged right. It was after this incident, which did not harm my job in any way, that made me decide that customer service works both ways. I'm not paid to make people happy. I'm paid to make sure their job is done right and charge accordingly. I'm not going to give anyone any attitude but I'm not going to kiss ass just to make them feel special. I was paid for customer service, not customer counseling. For that I would have had to have been paid a lot more. Oddly, now that I am paid more I am very curt to the customers that have complaints. I have zero tolerance for whiners. If something is obviously wrong I'll remedy it as fast as I can and maybe even discount the order if the person was easy to work with. I don't discount for difficult customers because I feel that money is rightfully mine for putting up with their ill manner. See how simple that is?

Funny thing is my whole time there I never had a single complaint against me yet the retail people who insisted on kissing ass to make up for things not only lost our company money in being silly pushovers and throwing out discounts like candy they were also the ones that still got complaints against them regardless of their demeanor. Boy I hate retail, but sometimes it's just so interesting

[/customer service rant]

[lordsmurf]

I've done phone jobs in the past. Most places have "hang-up" policies. You're an ass, I hang up. Note my record, and it's all good.

Same for in-person. Customer is an ass, call security for outside escort. Or just walk away, saying something like "thanks for coming, sorry I couldn't help you more".

But this was not jeex's case. Jeex was dealing with a bunch of power-hungry nobodies.

[pacmania_2001]

If a customer is rude to me I still be nice to them, I just don't do anything for them.

For example today I had a customer come in wanting something that was on sale in one of our ads. There was none of the floor and the guy was acting like a prick so I said I'd look out the back to see if we have any for him. I walk out the back (knowing we have none), have a chat to a friend out there for 5 or 10 minutes then go back and tell him we just sold out.

If that still doesn't satisfy them enough I tell them I'll take down their details for when the order comes in. As soon as they have left I throw out the details and leave a note for my co-workers to delay/make up excuses as long as possible to annoy the customer.

If it was a good or even average customer I would have also checked cancellations to see if any had come off layby and if they didn't have the item I would also have rung around the local stores to try and track one down.

If a customer starts swearing or abusing me I have a similar policy to the telemarketers (and Lordsmurf's), I tell them once to stop it, if they keep going on I just walk away and tell them to take it up with management. Never had management talk to me about it because they normally realise the person is a dickhead.

[Tommyknocker]

okay.. so its like 4:30 in the morning, ......, out of the store & to my car..

i'm wondering if there is any legal (cashwise) action i could take against walmart?

Don't you think the arrest of the cashier was vindication enough? It was for me in a similar situation a few years back. I was in quick need of a portable cd player. I went into a music store and purchased one. No problem. Got into the ride and found it didn't work. Then realized in my haste that the cashier did not give me a receipt. BFD. Only 2 cashiers in the place and it wasn't 2 minutes since I left. Nope! The cashier would not let me exchange it. I'm like WTF? I was just in here, with u a few minutes ago. Check the credit card logs/receipts. Sorry, can't do that until the manager returns from lunch.

I'm late, so I'm like F*&k it. I say "You people are all the same" (thinking -dumb ass, $5/hr laborers that can make your day difficult). Well, since she was black and I'm white she thought I referring to her race, and decided to test out the recently enacted racism laws. I quietly waited for the police while she was pointing out to everyone in the store how such a racist was going to pay dearly when to police arrived. This was really pissing me off since I have no race /religion issues with anyone.

Well, the police arrived and questioned me. Sir, what were you referring to when you said "you people". "Salespeople", I replied. Well, this girl could not have been to smart (the problem in the first place) because she had a warrant out for her arrest. The police apologized to me and promptly arrested her. The manager returned as she was being led out in cuffs. Instantly fired. Vindication for being branded a racist. Oh yeah, gotta new cd player too.

So, jeex, even if you can't sue, take some solace in the outcome.

For someone who's removed all race and religious prejudices from his mind, you sure do bring the terms up a lot.

[Guest]

okay.. so its like 4:30 in the morning, ......, out of the store & to my car..

i'm wondering if there is any legal (cashwise) action i could take against walmart?

Don't you think the arrest of the cashier was vindication enough? It was for me in a similar situation a few years back. I was in quick need of a portable cd player. I went into a music store and purchased one. No problem. Got into the ride and found it didn't work. Then realized in my haste that the cashier did not give me a receipt. BFD. Only 2 cashiers in the place and it wasn't 2 minutes since I left. Nope! The cashier would not let me exchange it. I'm like WTF? I was just in here, with u a few minutes ago. Check the credit card logs/receipts. Sorry, can't do that until the manager returns from lunch.

I'm late, so I'm like F*&k it. I say "You people are all the same" (thinking -dumb ass, $5/hr laborers that can make your day difficult). Well, since she was black and I'm white she thought I referring to her race, and decided to test out the recently enacted racism laws. I quietly waited for the police while she was pointing out to everyone in the store how such a racist was going to pay dearly when to police arrived. This was really pissing me off since I have no race /religion issues with anyone.

Well, the police arrived and questioned me. Sir, what were you referring to when you said "you people". "Salespeople", I replied. Well, this girl could not have been to smart (the problem in the first place) because she had a warrant out for her arrest. The police apologized to me and promptly arrested her. The manager returned as she was being led out in cuffs. Instantly fired. Vindication for being branded a racist. Oh yeah, gotta new cd player too.

So, jeex, even if you can't sue, take some solace in the outcome.

For someone who's removed all race and religious prejudices from his mind, you sure do bring the terms up a lot.

Maybe. But would you like being labled something you were fundementally opposed to.

[Tommyknocker]

If you were fundamentally opposed to them. I see you edited your post for grammar, but did you edit for style? The reason I asked is this statement sticks out like a burning cross:

I'm late, so I'm like F*&k it. I say "You people are all the same" (thinking -dumb ass, $5/hr laborers that can make your day difficult)

Giving you the benefit of the doubt (I'm being overly generous here) and say you have reached point of perfection where very few people have reached (Christ, King, Schweitzer, Ghandi, Theresa, Shabazz, etc), you still have one huge beam in your eye to contend with. If you think you are better than some people simply because you make more than they do, you, my esteemed colleague, are a snob, plain and simple.

The reason being the kindest people I have ever met in my travels lived in third world countries and make considerably less than 5 dollars an hour, while curmudgeons tend to be well-heeled. Of course there are exceptions here and there, but they are few and far between in my experiences.

You do not have to answer if you do not want to. I baited you, and put you in an awkward position from "square one". I got a little bored reading your "experience to help all mankind".

[Guest]

If you were fundamentally opposed to them. I see you edited your post for grammar, but did you edit for style? The reason I asked is this statement sticks out like a burning cross:

I'm late, so I'm like F*&k it. I say "You people are all the same" (thinking -dumb ass, $5/hr laborers that can make your day difficult)

Giving you the benefit of the doubt (I'm being overly generous here) and say you have reached point of perfection where very few people have reached (Christ, King, Schweitzer, Ghandi, Theresa, Shabazz, etc), you still have one huge beam in your eye to contend with. If you think you are better than some people simply because you make more than they do, you, my esteemed colleague, are a snob, plain and simple.

The reason being the kindest people I have ever met in my travels lived in third world countries and make considerably less than 5 dollars an hour, while curmudgeons tend to be well-heeled. Of course there are exceptions here and there, but they are few and far between in my experiences.

You do not have to answer if you do not want to. I baited you, and put you in an awkward position from "square one". I got a little bored reading your "experience to help all mankind".

Whooaaa! I'll concede. Gettin' a little too heavy for me. Thanks for showing me the light.I can start mending my ways and working on my writing style.

[pacmania_2001]

I'm not racist, I hate everyone equally.