Moopher

Don't any of you pay attention when people are bagging your goods?

Once again. Think about how many customers they deal with in a given day, shit does happen, people make mistakes, whether they're happy or not.

Cheato

And none of that is an excuse to be rude. None.

I don't care if your last 100 customers took a dump all over you. This is OUR interaction, and you are representing your store, and you damn well better be on your best behavior--that's what you're paid for. Your work time is not your time. It's your employer's. You don't get to be a prick on your employer's time. Go home and take it out on your family. Maybe they're willing to deal with your attitude, but I'm not.

The clerk was following procedure, and so was the security person. Great, thank you, that's what you're supposed to do, and if you can follow procedures like that professionally and efficiently, that will reduce the number of scams in your store, and help keep prices down. Thank you, again.

But, don't treat your customer like a thief. Apologize for the delay, let him/her know what's going on. Apologize for the clerk not taking off the security thing in the first place. Offer him/her a place to sit down. You know, act like a damn human being. There's a reason why many places call their customers "guests." Would you treat a guest in your home that way? I'm a guest of your employer in your store. You, as an employee, have absolutely no right to treat me otherwise.

In my younger years, I worked in retail at the bottom level and as a store manager. If I still did, I'd be glad to hear about behavior like this from my employees so that I could either (a) get them straightened out on exactly what their responsibilities are and what their attitudes need to be at ALL times, or (b) hand them their final paychecks and hire some people who know how to act at work.


Of course I feel sympathy/empathy for someone working a job which they hate, who's dealing with lousy customers all day long, etc.. That's why I go out of my way to be nice to the staff in stores, and why when I have a good experience, I try to tell a manager about it. But that sword cuts both ways.

I expect mistakes to be made. I bargain-shop, so I totally expect to get bargain customer service--in terms of competence, not attitude. Employees need to drop their sense of self-entitlement and recognize that this is WORK and that they have a JOB.

Doc Moonlight

Well said, Cheato!

Doc Moonlight

I'd go back and fix it, but that would make the joke moot. Merry Christmas and Happy Haunnakah everybody!

Icon769

Cheato pretty much nailed it. I definitely would understand if they had to verify the footage. The main issue I had with it was HOW they went about it.

As to why I didn't notice the Blu-Ray was still in the plastic case until I got home...

I've been been buying CD's/Movies/Games most of my life. This is the first time this has ever happened to me, so it didn't come across my mind to check. The Blu-Ray was also in one of two bags that I didn't think I needed to go thru until I got home.

From now on though I'll always check to make sure this doesn't happen again before I leave the store.

Moopher

It doesn't really matter what someone believes an employee should act like. EVERYONE is different, perhaps this employee was on the end of their rope anyway, maybe their fired now.

Bargain customer service should be expected.. I cannot fathom how anyone walk into a B&M and expect to be treated well these days, it doesn't happen. You might be staunch in what you say, but you're talking about people making minimum wage or next to it, and more than likely, their job is just a segway onto something bigger and better (which is not always true, and with people as such, they typically have better customer service skills).

I also feel that they don't have a heightened sense of self-entitlement, it's more that they just don't care and they are trying to get in and out and still have a life and get their paycheck. Obviously customer service isn't such a huge thing, because people claim they run into situations like this all the time.

Pizza

The OP has a valid complaint. They held him up 10 minutes (which I'm sure felt longer when there's no communication) for something that should have taken 15 seconds of his time. The clerk may be doing her job but she is obviously treating him like a criminal and making the situation worse by staring him down -- That would tick me off. If the clerk lacked people skills then a manager should have been brought to the situation immediately to explain what was going on and that it was protocol to double check stuff returned still locked in a security case. At the very least, be nice to your customers until you can prove if they're a crook . . . then bust 'em. I’m all for fighting shoplifting and maybe she was doing her job, but she turned it into an unpleasant situation for a legitimate customer.

Moopher

Well...That's if the OP is giving us a correct time frame as well.. I know how people like to make things seem worse when they feel they're in a bad situation.

MBoyd

It's probably just luck of the draw too. I bet plenty of employees (and probably longer term ones who have experienced this situation) would have just unlocked the security device no questions asked. Really why would they even really care. He has a receipt. It's busy, doubt anyone would of authority would even notice. Sometimes you gotta make a your own call.

The other day at a McDonalds in China, my GF asked for a ketchup for my hashbrown while picking me up breakfast. The worker got super snippy and yelled "No ketchup packets at breakfast!" Ying got the ketchup after getting snippy right back. When I heard the story, I asked why does the girl even give a shit? She makes probably less than a $150 a month at that job. I know there's not bonuses handed out for how many ketchups are left at the end of the day.

So there are over-zealous minimum wage employees everywhere. And plenty more under-enthusiastic ones with little work ethic. Why can't we find a happy medium!?!

JustinCleveland

I don't think that the OP's complaint is with the proceedure but rather the way that it was handled. Target didn't communicate with him, treated him as though he was guilty, and wasted his time.

Most people are very accommodating if you are up front with them. When you treat them poorly, however, they feel slighted even if that wasn't your intention.

fumanstan

Everyone always seems to think like they're being treated as a criminal.

hilts

He sure wasn't treated like a customer.

Cheato

"Don't you judge me!"
(from My Name is Earl)

Spicollidriver1

I agree there should of been better communication from the person at the desk, but I don't see this as a huge deal, but everyone is different and no matter how well the OP explains it we won't be able to fully understand how they felt at the time. I am curious why the blu-ray was in plastic I haven't seen any Target(I got a lot of Targets) that still uses plastic sleeves on media

Trevor

I'll risk getting flamed for saying this, but I think that a lot of these routinely described "bad encounters" are either wrongly perceived or partly due to the customer's attitude. I'm not singling out this particular OP.

I have spent more time at retails chains and customer service desks that all of you combined most likely, so I have some experience here.

I've seen cases where the store employees were very polite, but possibly short and firm in their company policy, and the customer explode or overreact when replying, exaggerate when the manager appears, or leave the store ranting to a friend on their cell phone at how rudely they were treated. And the reality was that the store employee was professional but the customer was just a jerk.

Also, you reap what you sow. A lot of people don't realize how rude they are, or seem to be, and if you treat a store employee rudely, you are more likely to get curt answers and no bending of company policy to your desires.

In a case like this, I can see the customer being upset as they walk into the store (and rightly so, but hey, nobody is perfect and in thousands of transactions per day Target is bound to make a few mistakes) and leaving upset no matter how polite the customer service desk is. They are upset and don't hear the apology or the polite explanations from store staff. Again, I am not saying that this OP did this.

But basically, in my thousands of hours at customer service desks, I've never been treated this rudely or seen another customer treated this rudely. But I have seen hundreds of customers "think" they are being treated rudely. I always imagine them leaving the store and going home to post a rant on a message board.

whotony

"No ketchup packets at breakfast!"

beautiful.

Travis McClain

I was Christmas shopping with my wife near the end of the night. I have Crohn's disease, and I was entirely too sore to continue shopping (which is why we stopped); I left the paying to my wife. We had several bags, she was checking on me, etc. It's called "life" and it doesn't always allow us to micromanage things that should be able to be taken for granted. You know, like whether or not an employee who is paid to remove security devices from paid merchandise do so.

I waited tables for several years and worked at the shop my family owned and operated for twenty years. I've been on the wrong end of a prima dona's self-righteous grandstanding, and I know firsthand the impact of how your business lives and dies by how you treat your customers. See, it's one thing when you take home your check (minimum wage or not), and when things go bad it's some faceless corporation that bears the brunt of your unhappy customer. It's another thing when you personally pay the cost of losing people's business. So, while I appreciate how frustrating the public can be, I also expect more professionalism.

Sean O'Hara

Have you ever used a video surveillance system? Ten minutes is perfectly reasonable to find the best camera angle, dial in the correct time, and then watch the entire transaction to make sure the DVD was rung up and the clerk didn't remove the case.

arminius

You were the checkout girl, weren't you?

Sean O'Hara

The girl in the story was at the customer service desk, not a checkout lane. No one can work the CS desk at Christmas and stay polite.

Abob Teff

I fully agree -- I wasn't complaining that it happened. In fact the cashier that rang me up that day was extremely friendly and chatty (probably why she missed the tags). My point was we'll see what happens when I go back ...

... and here is that story:

When it came time to go to the store, I could not find my receipt. I called the store and asked if they could look up the transaction using my credit card number and explained why I was asking. The CSR on the phone said "Just bring the items in in a bag and we'll take care of it." When I went in the CSR remembered my phone call and didn't even look up the transaction. All in all a very positive experience in a situation similar to the OP's. And the store ... (go ahead, laugh) K-Mart! One of the places that I have had the worst experiences with!

The OP had every right to be upset ... as has been pointed out it wasn't what was done, it was how it was done. The CSR should have politely explained "I understand, but it is our policy to verify this by using our security tapes. It may take a little while if you have some other shopping you need to do." The key is that the CSR should have kept the OP informed as to what was happening and why.

Abob Teff

Let me fix that for you ... customer service should be expected, just not anticipated.

You are correct, retail has destroyed customer service but we as customers have allowed it to happen. We should bitch and complain and make it known EVERY TIME. It is possible to get good customer service representatives, even at minimum wage. I've spent my whole life in customer service and I have come to one conclusion ... poor customer service is caused by poor management. A manager needs to recognize the right people for the right job and needs to provide the tools to succeed. If you are getting poor service at a business, it starts at the top.

When I worked for Hollywood Video, the company had this notion that we did not have "customer" service, we provided "guest" service. I'll admit that I laughed at that at first. But I quickly realized just how valuable that mentality is and I still carry it to this day.

Abob Teff

This caught my eye too -- that is actually excellent turnaround time for finding and viewing a transaction. They must have a digital system with time-stamp searching.

Abob Teff

No, she was right ... ketchup is not a breakfast condiment you jackass.

And you do realize that, because you cannot properly match your condiments to the appropriate meal, the cashier has probably mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again. Way to go ...

... (I know somebody will inevitably think I was serious.)

Pizza

I don't get your point or maybe you don't get mine. If a store is holding me at bay for 10 minutes and not telling me why and were being rude to boot, I'd be ticked. It doesn't matter to me if they're watching a surveilance tape or taking a coffee break, if they're keeping me in the dark on what's going on I would probably get irritated with the situation. Now, if they're being professional about the matter and they politely explain to me it's policy to check a tape to be sure such and such happened before unlocking the case, then I would have no problem. Clearly by the discription of events, this wasn't the case and they were treating the op as if he was already guilty. Maybe most times that's the case in this situation, but it still doesn't matter as I feel customers should be treated politely unless they're being unreasonable jerks, which I realize can happen quite often.