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LOL... I wish it had been that simple. This guy, bless his heart, had never in 8 years taken off a monthly service charge, recorded any auto-drafts, nor took into consideration any outstanding checks he had. He opened his statement, wrote down the ending balance in his register and then threw his statement away. It was quite obvious he had no fundamental checking skills. He had never been taught to "balance" his account, and it finally took those 8 years for it to catch up to him.
Believe me when I say, I wasn't trying to be funny. I've been on both sides of the customer service issue. But the things I wrote about above, happened in a very small town at a bank where the "customer is always right." Well... the customer isn't always right... sometimes the customer is just plain stupid... and no amount of pandering to them will change that fact.
I worked at a law firm, and our clients were our "customers". When we handled an estate we really pressured the executors to leave us the estate checkbook to pay the estate costs, otherwise we ended up with an estate account mess like the above. Try finalizing an estate probate when the beneficiaries wrote checks and spent the estate money like drunken sailors on things that weren't estate expenses (some of them thought, it's my inheritance and I'll take it now), didn't record the amounts or what they were for, and then...shudder...there was no money left for the attorney's or filing fees.
LOL... I wish it had been that simple. This guy, bless his heart, had never in 8 years taken off a monthly service charge, recorded any auto-drafts, nor took into consideration any outstanding checks he had. He opened his statement, wrote down the ending balance in his register and then threw his statement away. It was quite obvious he had no fundamental checking skills. He had never been taught to "balance" his account, and it finally took those 8 years for it to catch up to him.
I have a feeling a lot of people don't bother with balancing their checkbook.
I have a "bad customer habit" story about reconciliations. I was working with a business cleaning up their accounting file. They could never get their checking account to reconcile so rather than asking for help in figuring out why they just used the handy "force the reconciliation" feature of the software. This went on for three years until they received an audit notice from the IRS which inspired them to clean up their books.
If they had called someone knowledgeable it could have been avoided. The result is 15,000 dollars shifted to an equity account and overstated income for the past three years.
What happened is the software version is older and one of its flaws was it didn't handle credit card refunds automatically. You have to process them differently and apparently the bookkeeper wasn't aware of this fact.
What was amazing to me is that they never even considered this an issue. I understand the concept of "materiality" and not wasting your time trying to find a missing nickle but when you are consistently off by 100 to 200 dollars or more month after month at some point you HAVE to realize something is wrong.
I could write a book if I stated all of mine over a two-year period working at Wal-Mart and a few working at a courthouse and a Dairy Queen. But the one that takes the cake, that makes me laugh my behind off was from Wal-Mart a couple of years back. The woman spent the whole time I was ringing her up, verbally abusing me. She proceeded to leave two bags behind and I didn't realize it.
You know honestly when I realized it, at first I thought "oh gawd, the b---- is coming back!" and I was a nervous wreck as I waited for the inevitable, but she never came back. I never entered her lost items into our log of forgotten items, I just sent the items back to their departments. I know it was horrible of me, but it completely lifted my day and I remember thinking "after all these months of taking this crap, finally, revenge".
I'd love to hear some other bad customer stories, either experienced directly, heard about or witnessed for those who have them.
I am a cashier at Walmart and have to say that 99% of my customers are just great. The ones that irritate me sometimes...and I have a LOT of patience so it takes some doing on their part...are the ones who do nutty things while I'm trying to ring them up.
The ones who push things in my face to use the 'gun' on while I'm doing other stuff.
The ones who pile all their stuff on the belt in a jumbled mess and THEN pile a load of clothes on top of that! And I always appreciate the ones who take the hangers off of clothes because that really slows me down.
The ones who tell me how to bag their stuff...I'm VERY anal about how I bag and want to keep like things with like...cold/frozen, boxes, cans, produce, etc.. I used to spend a lot of time scanning the belt to try and keep things together and then I finally said "Hey, if that's how they put it up there then that's how they must want it!". lol When I have customers who put their stuff on the belt the way *I* like I tell them I appreciate it.
And then there are the ones who'll tell me THREE times that they have stuff in the bottom of the basket when I heard them fine the first time! Or feel they have to tell me where the bar code is when I know where it's at. lol
Or the ones who insist on putting 40# of dog food, cases of beer/water/soda on the belt when I can scan with my gun IN the basket. I tell them they can leave them in the basket and they say, "Oh, that's alright!". Well, NO it isn't. It's hard for me to lift that heavy stuff from the belt to the other side! And many of them won't do it themselves.
The ones who let ALL the bags get filled up and I have none left to fill but they still won't put them in their basket. It IS part of my job to do it, and I DO, but when they are just standing there it's irritating.
As for the "left behinds". I always, always do a final check because I do NOT want them leaving things behind. The ones that get me are the ones who have ONE bag and leave it on TOP of the bag holder! I have to chase them down!
I have worked with the public since I was 16, so that means I've dealt with a HUGE variety of people and personalities for the past 53 years. I learned a long time ago that the best way to deal with them is by having a good sense of humor, accepting the fact that a lot of human beings are just irritating and taking a whole lot with a grain of salt. I do have a lot of patience with people, especially the older ones, and have been complimented on that often. But even with all that I can't help getting irritated at some of them. lol I've been there long enough that the customers who DO appreciate me seek me out and come through my register and I've had quite a few tell my CSMs good things about me.
So...customers can be good or bad, depending on THEM, and you, but remember...they are only in your life for a few minutes and will be gone. So just try to laugh about human foibles and get on with your life. It ain't that hard.
And just one more thing and then I'll shut up...lol...the customer who won't waste ONE minute going to a CSM or manager with a complaint but won't take a minute to give a compliment.
I am a cashier at Walmart and have to say that 99% of my customers are just great. The ones that irritate me sometimes...and I have a LOT of patience so it takes some doing on their part...are the ones who do nutty things while I'm trying to ring them up.
The ones who push things in my face to use the 'gun' on while I'm doing other stuff.
The ones who pile all their stuff on the belt in a jumbled mess and THEN pile a load of clothes on top of that! And I always appreciate the ones who take the hangers off of clothes because that really slows me down.
The ones who tell me how to bag their stuff...I'm VERY anal about how I bag and want to keep like things with like...cold/frozen, boxes, cans, produce, etc.. I used to spend a lot of time scanning the belt to try and keep things together and then I finally said "Hey, if that's how they put it up there then that's how they must want it!". lol When I have customers who put their stuff on the belt the way *I* like I tell them I appreciate it.
And then there are the ones who'll tell me THREE times that they have stuff in the bottom of the basket when I heard them fine the first time! Or feel they have to tell me where the bar code is when I know where it's at. lol
Or the ones who insist on putting 40# of dog food, cases of beer/water/soda on the belt when I can scan with my gun IN the basket. I tell them they can leave them in the basket and they say, "Oh, that's alright!". Well, NO it isn't. It's hard for me to lift that heavy stuff from the belt to the other side! And many of them won't do it themselves.
The ones who let ALL the bags get filled up and I have none left to fill but they still won't put them in their basket. It IS part of my job to do it, and I DO, but when they are just standing there it's irritating.
As for the "left behinds". I always, always do a final check because I do NOT want them leaving things behind. The ones that get me are the ones who have ONE bag and leave it on TOP of the bag holder! I have to chase them down!
I have worked with the public since I was 16, so that means I've dealt with a HUGE variety of people and personalities for the past 53 years. I learned a long time ago that the best way to deal with them is by having a good sense of humor, accepting the fact that a lot of human beings are just irritating and taking a whole lot with a grain of salt. I do have a lot of patience with people, especially the older ones, and have been complimented on that often. But even with all that I can't help getting irritated at some of them. lol I've been there long enough that the customers who DO appreciate me seek me out and come through my register and I've had quite a few tell my CSMs good things about me.
So...customers can be good or bad, depending on THEM, and you, but remember...they are only in your life for a few minutes and will be gone. So just try to laugh about human foibles and get on with your life. It ain't that hard.
And just one more thing and then I'll shut up...lol...the customer who won't waste ONE minute going to a CSM or manager with a complaint but won't take a minute to give a compliment.
some of that stuff i wouldnt have even though about as a customer. like if im picking up stuff for both myself and my boyfriend i would want his stuff in a separate bag regardless of what "category" the particular items go in.
I still recall at one of my first jobs having a A/P clerk who while she did a great job for the company, called the bank about every 5th day, asked her personal balance, wrote it down in her checkbook, w/o considering outstanding checks.
We got along great, although she was a bit upset when, upon hearing her do this, I smirked and patted her on the head while walking by her desk.
I currently work retail and had a load of crazy mean people during the holiday rush.
One woman was beyond irritated that she had to wait in a line. She started yelling about how she had to wait in line and how we opened more lines after she was at my register and blah blah blah. She was so irritated that she tried to throw my credit card machine (the little keypad attached to the register) at me. The funny thing was, there wasn't even that many lines at the time. I really wanted to tell her that she needed to seriously re-evaluate her priorities since there was no reason to be that irate for waiting an extra ten minutes tops. Those kind of customers make me appreciate my own decency towards other people I share the earth with.
I've had a handful of customers like her, one even ten times worse. Then I had one customer who was just dumb. While she was waiting, she stuck her unwanted items in crazy places like a shirt and slippers on top of the candy rack. I usually don't like when people hand me a ton of things they decided that they didn't want, but discarding things right in front of me is not too swift. Her only currency was charity gift cards and after the gift cards, she was $110 short, so she didn't count anything ahead of time.
"Well, now I guess I'll put stuff back." So then I had to void the eight gift cards I had already scanned and start voiding items. She also didn't keep track so she had no idea how much she needed to put back after I voided a few items. Instead of putting back expensive items, she decided to give me milk and eggs and other perishables to put back, things she could actually use, but would probably buy later with her food stamps.
I worked a retail job at a nationwide electronics retailer during black Friday years ago. Black Friday at an electronics retailer + crazy black Friday shoppers + being at the store the entire day = 'nuff said.
so there's been a lot of stories so far... and I think I only laughed at one..
Please post some good ones!
Years ago, when I lived in Eastern Pennsylvania, I worked in the management office of an upscale department store. Well, upscale for that section of Pennsylvania, anyway. The area had a large influx of New York transplants, some who were extremely rude. (My apologies to you New Yorkers, I know you are not all like this). They'd complain about the merchandise, the area, the lack of cultural mix, the restaurants, etc. One in particular used to call the office every week or so to talk to Mrs. *******, who was the store manager. They went to the same synagogue. Anyway, the manager would NEVER take her calls, and pawned her off on me. I had to sit for 15 minutes or more listening to her rant about the dress department's merchandise, then that the sugar free candy she bought in the Candy Department gave her "the runs", then she would ALWAYS launch into insults of Pennsylvania. We were ignorant un-culcha'ed fah-mahs, there was no thee-AY-tuh, yada yada yada.
If New York is so much better, why move to Pennsylvania? As for farmers, where did she think her food came from?
some of that stuff i wouldnt have even though about as a customer. like if im picking up stuff for both myself and my boyfriend i would want his stuff in a separate bag regardless of what "category" the particular items go in.
That's no biggie. I get a lot of people who do several separate purchases and that's a whole different kettle of fish. Some of my customers are shopping for older people who can't get out while they do theirs as well. I have NO problem with that.
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