Chapter Twelve: Those Annoying Customers...

I have to say, annoying customers are few and far between. Therefore they are highly unexpected and one can become quite taken aback at serving them.

There was one annoying gentleman who I happened to serve. He did not realise that we charge extortionate rates for the our drinks and was not willing to pay 90p for a can of Coke. Our conversation went something like this;

Gemma: That's £2.48 please
Man (we'll call him Barry): I don't think that's right.
(Gemma checks the till screen to see if anything has scanned twice. Everything is in order)
Gemma: No, it's definately coming to £2.48
Barry: That can't be right... How much was the coke?
G: 90p
B: I think that's wrong. Cans of coke are normally about 55p
(Gemma turns till screen round to show him)
G: It definately says 90p
B: I don't think that's right.

etc etc. He paid for it in the end. I ended up saying to him, "Different shops charge different prices"

It is also highly annoying when a customer is so imptient that literally two seconds is too long to stand to open a bag. One particular lady reached over the counter and grabbed it off me.

IF ONE MORE PERSON COMPLAINS TO MY FACE ABOUT THE FACT THAT I DON'T KNOW WHERE EXACTLY EVERY BOOK IS, PRICES OF BOOKS OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, OR WHETHER WE EVEN STOCK THE BOOK THEY'RE LOOKING FOR... AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!
I DON'T EVEN WORK IN BOOKS!

This is what usually happens when I come out from my break...

Customer: Hi could you tell me if you have {title} by {author}?
Gemma: I'm sorry, I don't work in books but -
Customer: Well can ye not ask someone who does?
(which is exactly what I was about to do)
G: Yes I'll go and check for you now
(a few mins later)
G: I'm sorry, I can't actually find anyone at the minute who would know
C: Well that's not very good is it? Tell your manager you need more staff, (smugly adds) if somebody doesn't say it now, nobody will! The service in here is terrible, I've already asked three people and none of them "work in books"

Fair play to the customer if they've asked a lot of people; however these customers are usually the ones who then complain about the "incompetance" of the new people. One simply cannot have it both ways... "hire more people... somebody tell that new girl how to do her job!" We're actually overrun with staff at the minute, but most people are new so it takes a bit of time for them to actually feel confident enough about what they're doing. People simply don't realise that nobody keeps a log in their head of everything that we sell, and that only people in the books department are trained in how to use the computer to look for a book.

Any time this happens I'm usually coming out from my break. The last time, I was 10mins late for going back on the tills which not only kept back the stationery guy who was covering me but also had a knock-on effect on everyone else's break for the rest of the day.


Recently, the girl on the till beside me had a rather annoying customer... I am so glad he wasn't one of mine:

Mr Man: Can I do the lottery here?
Clare: Yeah, yeah, sure
M: Ok, I want the normal lottery draw, but for just the bonus ball
C: Is it the normal lottery draw with the dream number you want?
M: No, just the bonus ball
C: (Very confused, and to be honest so was I)
So, is it just the dream number?
M: No, the bonus ball. The bonus ball.
Me: (Finally realising what he's after)
You can't get just the bonus ball on its own; it comes as part of the draw.

He finally settled for a normal lottery draw, went away but I saw him scrutinising his ticket for a while. Then (oh dear) he came back...

M: Clare, I don't think this is what I asked for. I don't think this is the normal lottery draw.
C: Let me see... no no, that is the normal lottery draw
M: But it says thunderball at the bottom; I asked for a normal lottery... you know the way there's about a hundred and one different things now; I wanted just the original one but I think this is a thunderball.
C: No no, that's just promoting the thunderball. It is a normal lottery draw.
M: No it's not, it says thunderball right there
C: Yes but it's just advertising the thunderball
M: Ok, but if my numbers come up in the normal lottery draw tonight I won't win because this is a thunderball ticket.

Long story short he went away believing he got a thunderball instead of the normal lottery. I hope his numbers didn't come up in the thunderball... :P


All I will say about "Customer X" on Wednesday 21st November 2007 is that he started yelling the f word all over the place. With children present :( He said that one person was "no f'ing use" She was actually the most experienced person on the tills at the time. He wanted to order a magazine but the news team were as elusive as ever and the queue was nearly at the door so all we had time to do was check the news store for them and they weren't there. Till staff aren't allowed to to orders, so aren't trained in that particular area.