Retail "Horror" Stories

[Ganymede]

@Cobaltasaurus said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

My AM did this the first week I was on the floor, he added a day to my schedule without telling me. I only found out because I went to get the schedule that was outside of my first three weeks that Personnel Manager had given me. If I hadn't happen to be looking to >the future< well ahead of time, I would have had a no-call/no-show my second week into the job, because I would have had no idea I was scheduled.

Wouldn't it be nice if AMs were real professionals, and politely requested extended hours from you rather than just slap them up on the schedule?

Shit, people, how hard is it to pick up the phone or talk to people in the workplace?

[Miss Demeanor]

@Royal Only because the system is set up to lock me out if I don't. Mind, it doesn't actually lock you out until two hours after your scheduled lunch time.

@Ganymede I reported mine to corporate. Walmart policy forbids a change in schedule after its been posted, without employee approval of said change. Approval in writing. No signed form, no schedule change. So I turned her ass in. Because fuck that bitch.

[vanderlylle]

My store has basically given up on ever having anyone at the info desk at this point. The MOD gets to man it, and if you're lucky you get maybe a couple of hours in the morning (when you don't need it) and at night (when you also don't need it) because we have to have somebody in for break coverage for a couple hours, but are required to schedule them for four hours shifts. Despite this, we still can't hit payroll and the customers and the employees are starting to ask if we're closing down because the store constantly looks trashed and half-empty of product.

Hell, I'm considering it a good day if we manage to not leave unfilled shifts on the schedule because our AM is a useless pile of crap. I came in to close the store on Monday and discovered I had nobody to man the second floor cashwrap. Sometimes, your coworkers are more your enemy than the customers. -.-

[Vorpal]

@Royal said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

@ThatGuyThere
Kia Forte. We were impressed it made that far. I still put my money on divine intervention.

Holy shit, that thing deserves a medal.

[Cobalt]

@Ganymede said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

Shit, people, how hard is it to pick up the phone or talk to people in the workplace?

When I told the personnel manager she was like: "That wasn't in the schedule I gave you at orientation... I don't know why that's there. I'll take it off."

Que me on the floor redlining, and the offending AM walks up to me, looms over me and says, "I had you scheduled for X to X but it seems you can't do that..."

Que me being intimidated into working 7pm to 11pm on a school night because I was caught off guard and a guy a foot taller than me was looming over me.

[Ganymede]

@Cobaltasaurus

I love you very much. I wish I could help you somehow.

Do you need a letter?

[surreality]

@Cobaltasaurus I would absolutely report that. Absolutely. Bullying like that is simply not OK. I am so sorry you had to deal with that.

[Cobalt]

@surreality said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

@Cobaltasaurus I would absolutely report that. Absolutely. Bullying like that is simply not OK. I am so sorry you had to deal with that.

I appreciate the sentiment but I work for Walmart. At this point he leaves me alone. He tried to tell me I couldn't change my schedule for six months, and so I talked to some other people and they were like "what?". And I was like: "Well if he won't accommodate my school schedule I'll just quit." Which I assume he overheard because we sat down and looked at the schedule he's got me on right now and it doesn't interfere with summer and the personnel manager has said she'll put my fall schedule into affect a week or so before school starts. We'll see if this comes true come September.

@Ganymede said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

@Cobaltasaurus

I love you very much. I wish I could help you somehow.

Do you need a letter?

When I'm done with my associate's and desperately looking for work in the field, crying because the training I'm getting isn't really enough to actually prepare me... yes, probably.

[Cobalt]

I keep forgetting this one!

So there is this guy that came in and he was kind of loud, and talking to someone in the aisle. I just figured he saw a friend or something. One of the other cashier's turns to me and goes: "God that guys pisses me off so much."

Which was pretty out of character for her, she doesn't normally complain about anything. So I was like, "...why?" So she tells me he always come in acting like he';s on some kind of drugs, acting weird, being a pain, etc. I'm like: Okay whatever.

He comes through my line and he makes weird nervous chatter. But for the most part its normal. Kind of nonsequitor but not outside the norm of what some people say to me. And I finish his order up and he asks me for a plastic bag, and I say, "I don't have any."

And he's like, "Oh right, right, what about a round one?"

"A... round one? A paper bag?" I ask, confused now.

To which he says, "yeah, yeah." He pulls out a nickle and gives to me and says, "Yeah that's it! That's it, I was thinking about a nickle bag."

(We charge 5 cents per paper bag because bag ban in the city.)

And I'm like: Okay, strange but not outside the realm of a normal person. Maybe he has some sort of cognitive issue, it's fine. He grabs a bag and shakes it open and suddenly looks up to me and says, "AND THAT'S! the difference between a troll and leperchaun."

And then walked off to talk to another customer.

He came back through my line a few days later, and he's acting mostly normal. We're even having a coherent conversation. He spent the day with a family member who was getting ready to cover for someone at work. He had an okay day.

...and he goes, "Yeah, I spent the day with the AristoCats."

[Auspice]

Customer email today.

"I bought this book on Google Play, but I want it on your service."

Sorry, we only have an older edition. The publisher may be releasing the current one, but we only provide the service.

"Just give me the older edition."

You purchased the new edition through a totally different site. I cannot just give you the book. You can contact the publisher to find out if they'll be putting the edition on our service.

"Why won't you just give me the book I paid for?"

Because you purchased it through someone else and we don't even technically have it. We have a different edition. Now, if you purchase it through us, yes, definitely, you can have it.

---

And on and on in circles, with panicky 'WHY AREN'T YOU REPLYING' emails if I didn't get back to him within 5 minutes.

[thebird]

I'm pregnant and supposed to be on "light duty" (hahaduty) at work right now. They've been scheduling me 40hrs a week, for the last six weeks or so, when I'm actually part time. Which I agreed to during one of our busy weeks, as long as I could take a bunch of breaks...naturally they're taking advantage of it now...so no overtime, bo benefits, hours actually making me physically ill.

Finally get a doctor's note, after getting the run around from them and finally walking into the office like "look...". (Everyone there is so nice except the doctor...going to have to change practices...but that's another story..)

So I have this note, explaining I can only work 24hrs in a week (about three days, assuming they schedule me.eight hour days), and I can't lift over 25lbs, etc...

So naturally, they give me the job that involves the most mental stress, at 5am in the morning, two twelve hour shifts. For two weeks now.

Whaaaaat the fuck.

Just about done with like... Everything. But especially this job. Which makes me sad because up until now, I really liked our new management. I understand we're a little short handed, but that's not my problem. Hire some people =|

grumblerage

[ThatGuyThere]

@Cobaltasaurus said in Retail "Horror" Stories:
d the personnel manager has said she'll put my fall schedule into affect a week or so before school starts. We'll see if this comes true come September.

I hope this happens for you. My only similar experience was not a pleasant one.
Slightly off topic cause it is food service but not retail. My first college job was working as a dishwasher in a restaurant. I started in the summer and had already registered for fall. One of the classes I took was a Monday night class, after being on the job for a few weeks and generally liking it but being scheduled every Monday night, I go into my manager, and said Starting in September I need Monday nights off because I have a night class if that is an issue let me know so I can change my class schedule. There were other sections of the same class with open spots I had just picked the night class on a whim. He says It won't be a problem. Cool I work the rest of the summer. Schedules were made weekly so I went in two weeks before classes started to remind the manager, again I was told it was not an issue.
So the schedule for the first week comes out and I ma set for Monday. I go in talk to the manager and he changes it. Second week scheduled for Monday, I skip class and work it talking to the manager again and being assured tit will not happen again. Third week, I am working Monday on the schedule I switch shifts with a co-worker, then tell my manager if I am scheduled for a Monday again I am done. That Friday we get the schedule for the next week. I am listed as working that next Monday, so I work that Friday then head out of town for the weekend, missing the shifts I normally worked and was scheduled for on the weekend. I then return home to a lot of messages from the place, I then called in dead. No really, in the smarmy way that only an 19 year old can I called in and told the guy I would not be coming in again "Because I am like dead or something."

[surreality]

@ThatGuyThere said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

then tell my manager if I am scheduled for a Monday again I am done. That Friday we get the schedule for the next week.

I had one of these at a (different!) department store the first year I was in college.

Semesters change, my availability changes. My (snotty, classic mean girl breed) manager calls me into her office and says, "You are going to need to think long and hard about what's important to you, college, or your job," while making it clear she thought working as a part-time contigent in a crappy department store trumps a college education in some universal order of importance.

She was also aware I'd moved all the way across the country to attend said college, so this was especially funny to me for some reason even now.

There is still a part of me that wishes I had managed to somehow get a pic of her face when I just nodded emphatically and without missing a beat said, "We have department stores back in Delaware, actually, so I'm afraid it's going to have to be the college," and she really did just splutter, baffled, until she came to her senses just enough to, deflated, say, "Well, I guess you can go, then... " and I smiled and nodded and walked out without a worry in the world.

I did not move my ass across the country to work at a regional Macy's chain, lady. Holy jeez. Still makes me giggle.

Quitting that job got me six months of best job ever, though, so less than zero on the regret scale. (Other than not being able to get a picture of her face.)

[ThatGuyThere]

@surreality said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

@ThatGuyThere said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

then tell my manager if I am scheduled for a Monday again I am done. That Friday we get the schedule for the next week.

I had one of these at a (different!) department store the first year I was in college.

Semesters change, my availability changes. My (snotty, classic mean girl breed) manager calls me into her office and says, "You are going to need to think long and hard about what's important to you, college, or your job," while making it clear she thought working as a part-time contigent in a crappy department store trumps a college education in some universal order of importance.

I got that same line when I was working as a telemarketer about a year after the restaurant gig. My supervisor was stunned when I literally laughed at the question.

[dontpanda]

@Cobaltasaurus Your stories about shift changes reminded me of this one:

I used to do loss prevention at a small bookstore chain. I liked it. Wander around, check out books, catch dumb people stealing. It was good.

Management was messed up. I don't know why. Anyway, our loss prevention supervisor was let go, and then it was months before we had a new one. In the meantime, the other LP guys and I made our own schedules. It worked very well.

New dude comes in and changes a pile of things that don't actually help. But okay, no problem. He and I got along okay, but then he started changing MY schedule (not the other guys') after it had already been made. I got two phone calls about not coming to work, and when I showed management that I had a copy of the original schedule, they said it was my job to check every day for changes. When I replied that I don't work every day, and if the schedule is changed on my day off - as was the case in this instance - how would I know, they just said, "It's your responsibility."

I learned shortly after that the supervisor dude wasn't keen on me being there. Not sure why.

Sure enough, another phone call due to a changed schedule and I was terminated "with cause" because I missed too many shifts. I made an appointment to speak to Management and the GM said it was just easier if I left, and they "wouldn't make it worse" than to have that as the reason on my employment record.

I was so glad when I learned the little chain was going under/being sold/whatever. Apparently I wasn't the only employee they shafted this way.

[silentsophia]

Man. I had someone bitch at me that I pretty much work mids. Well, no kidding, fuckface. That's when the pulls come out so I can restock shit. Also, I tend to get psychosis on night shifts and that rarely ends well.

[Cobalt]

Apparently we're moving to an automated scheduling system in about a month. "You might get oddball schedules." and "its based on your availability so the more open your availability it is the more likely you'll get hours and not have your hours cut".

[silentsophia]

@Cobaltasaurus Oh gosh. I'm so sorry.

[vanderlylle]

My company just started trying that--the new Dayforce system is not fully automated, but it's supposed to basically do the job for you anyway. It is one of the worst-designed programs I've had the misfortune of using, and can't even manage the basic functions of covering the three cashwraps and the cafe all day without your having to completely rebuild coverage for breaks and lunches. It also leaves unfilled shifts if people's availability doesn't look perfect for whatever arcane thing it wants, and it schedules people in weird areas of the store because you can't distinguish between 'jobs they do well/regularly' and 'if I have to have someone in this area for a few hours, this person is marginally better than a dead body.'

However, I /did/ set a new record on in-store excitement today when I had two of our regular problem customers that we've kicked out and attempted to ban already... decide to get in a fistfight while I'm the only manager in store all day. I ended up with a lot of blood on the floor, but kinda worth it to see one of my least favorites get punched in the face, and my #1 least favorite tased in return. Also, everybody's now trespassed, so all told, I'm considering it a victory.

[surreality]

@vanderlylle said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

'if I have to have someone in this area for a few hours, this person is marginally better than a dead body.'

Some days, I wonder if this is how a lot of M* staff jobs get filled on places that require umpteensquillion staffers.