Working retail is hard enough, especially during the holiday season. The stores get busier, the lines get longer, and the customers get more challenging to handle. Please do not blame us for things that are not our fault. It is one thing to fault us if we are giving you an attitude for no reason or are just straight up rude or disrespectful to you. However, some things are just out of control of the store level employees and should not be blamed on them.
1. Item prices.
Price Tag
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Retail stores are usually part of a larger corporate chain. Prices are established by people well above our pay grades. Items go on and off sale all the time. Things like this are entirely out of control. Some places do things like price matching. However, the company I work for does not do that. Again, this is something completely out of my control. All I do is sell you stuff.
2. Trade-in values and policies.
Handshake
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Anyone who works where trade-ins are accepted has more than likely dealt with guests who attempt to haggle the price. While that tactic may work in a pawn shop, retail stores are not at all like pawn shops. We cannot alter trade values as they are established by people in an entirely different department. We can only offer what our system says to offer.
3. Return and exchange policies.
Paper bags
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I reiterate my first point where most retail stores are a part of a larger chain with their own rules and regulations. Different chains have varying return policies. We will try to accommodate you as best as we can, especially if you treat us nicely. In my company, while we have our policies, we are told to do what we can in order to take care of our guests.
4. Operating hours.
Clock
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Most retail stores, not including grocery stores, close around 9-10 pm local time. Many nights when I am closing my store, there will be at least one person trying to come into the store once it closes for the night, despite the open sign being off and the gates are not open. Unless I was working somewhere that sold food or medicine, I would not understand why anyone would be so desperate to go to a store once it is closed to buy something.
6. Long checkout lines.
Long Lines
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More often than not, long lines are a result of understaffing or due to customers tying up the line for whatever reason. Those who work in sales also have to try to get customers to signup for a membership or credit card to meet a quota. Either way, please do not yell at us for something that is almost always not our fault.
7. Having to wait to talk to someone on the phone.
Phone
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We do not work at a call center. We do not spend all day just talking on phones. We have a million things to do every day including making and receiving phone calls. Sometimes only one worker is working helping a line of customers, and they cannot always answer your call. I am just one person, and I cannot do everything at once.
8. Inventory.
Inventory
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We only have so much control over inventory at the store level. We are only human. Mistakes do happen. Sometimes the computer says we have an item when we do not. When another store in a chain send a customer to a different store without verifying that the product in question is there, that falls on the original store.
Also, when it comes to a product that comes to us in our shipments, we have little control as to what gets sent to us. We will do what we can to help you find the item that you want if it is feasible.
