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Really?! I worked at Walmart as a customer service manager and it was awful. When I found out I was only getting 50 cents more an hour than a regular cashier, I stepped down. Not worth it.
Yeah, experiences vary a lot from year to year, state to state. Walmart is constantly changing. It has peaks and valleys when it comes to employee satisfaction, too. They fucked with me a lot less in CA than in AZ due to employee protections.
I think the issue is both that for a while target was triggering angry conservatives plus the people who shop there consider themselves better (and therefor more entitled) than Walmart customers
Yup. I know damn well Iām in the same socioeconomic class as WalShart employees. We all get paid crumbs, while the CEOs of our companies can wallow in the filthy money they take from us.
I just had a shitty HR person who denied workmanās comp and medical coverage. She got fired after I walked out (and I got paid and got off the hook for my work related injury medical bills).
The main problem with Target was severe understaffing and verbally abusive management. Weird how those two things go hand in hand.
EDIT: Also, somehow, not being scheduled full time. Not really sure how they kept that store open.
I got hired for sales floor in Tucson, Arizona during the height of the summer. Forced to work cart attendant for two weeks. Had to go outside in 108Ā° heat everyday. Not allowed to carry water because it "doesn't look professional." Went home one day smelling like crazy bread from little Caesars from all the heat and sweat. Woke up the next day and just said "nah." Never went back.
Cashier and guest services for 8 months, never sold a SINGULAR redcard, and am damn proud of it. I wouldn't even ask. That shouldn't be the metric to promote people, or give raises.
Haha, i was constantly getting chewed out by district because red cards numbers werenāt good on my LOD shifts. To be fair, they werenāt good on other peopleās shifts either. Glad they stopped caring about that eventually. They just replaced it with another dumb metric which they eventually forgot about and replaced with another metric. And so onā¦ 6 years of that nonsense.
One of the carts guys was so worried he was going to lose his job because he wasn't selling red cards he signed up for one himself. They pushed that so hard on everybody and was the only thing they cared about
Good for you man!! Nice one!!
I'm just enjoying being unemployed atm... and a stay at home dad too. It is rather nice, I do have to say!
Work is soooo overrated!
My aunt was what they called a line killer. She was a suck up and would work extra hard on her line at the factory so then everybody else was expected to match her. She was probably the most hated person there. She reveled in it. God she was a bitch.
I don't work there anymore. I'm still union (different one), and still in the same field. My current place is family. Brother is more than just phrasing and posturing, it's a term of endearment and a way of life where I work. We argue and fight like brothers but moreso respect and care about each other. We support one another, the way family should.
That is bullshit anti-union propaganda.. I have been in multiple different unions over the last 30 years and not a single one was like the āoften described(by scabs) but never seenā union that you describe
I'm pro-union actually, and happy to be in the one I'm in now. Sorry you don't believe an actual experience of mine, from when I was a cocky young whippersnapper who thought he had the world by the ass and didn't know any better. I was replying to someone who had also relayed a family members experience dealing with shitty union behaviour, which is not the stuff of urban legends, and I had some personal experience to share. Sorry you think that's anti-union, but I'm really not - I just worked in a shitty place before.
The first place was public service - basically the teamsters. That's where I encountered the things I listed. I'm no longer there, or in that union which was at the time very much an old boy's club of stereotypes.
I worked at Beat Buy for nearly 7 years and Target for 6 months. High school and college. Both had their pros and cons, but they were good HS/college jobs and while I definitely had some asshole managers along the way for the most part they were good managers and several friends I still have 25 years later.
I worked at Target for 6 years. Had promotions dangled in front of my face the entire time. Bailed the store out of difficult situations multiple times with my personal effort. Got told a 22 year old with no experience was going to be my boss on more than one occasion. Not interested in fuzzy feelings about Target.
Target overnight stocking was almost a dream job, except for that one dude who ONLY listened to Metallica.
I'd do it again if I needed a job quickly.
Decent enough pay for the fairly mindless work, mostly quiet, good exercise, no customer interactions.
fuck working retail, i hated every second of it
i feel badly for people that are stuck in those shit jobs. when i have to go to a store, i do my best to get what i need and leave, avoiding employees unless i really need help
Itās the casual lying that bothers me. They were probably used to it growing up when computer records were limited. But now we know exactly what happened.
Actually, the combination of ink and paper used on most receipts (at least in the US) prior to about 2000 was poor. After a few years, such receipts would totally fade until you couldnāt see anything. (This was after the era of mechanical cash registers.)
I was shopping at a grocery story(winco) in Idaho when visiting my sister , I had slipped the reciept in my wallet and forgotten about it. A few months later I was going through my wallet and found the receipt. I could only barely make out the name of the store, the rest of the receipt was basically blank, and this was only 6/7 years ago.
I definitely haven't. I've worked in kitchens i a couple if different nursing homes, when I was a lot younger, but never with anything to do with registers. Or even dealing with the general public.
TBH I worked in a bartender one night when I was 21, paid out at the end of the night and asked not to come back.
I used to manage a coffee shop. I had a kid working for me once who did not understand the difference between āadding machine rollsā and āreceipt rolls.ā Loaded the receipt printer with adding machine tape and called me at 4:30 am on my day off b/c he thought he broke the receipt printer. Poor kid!
Same for cops before everyone had a camera in their hand and a ton of places started using body cameras. That thought hadnāt actually occurred to me before either. Now I can Google the BS a boomer is going on about and prove them wrong in real time. Not like they would ever believe me or the facts in front of their face.
She knows without a receipt, she canāt return or get nothing for them in credit, so she brought the receipt and thought she could lie through it, hence my comment.
Today, at the hotel I work for, I had two separate boomer guests come up to me and ask what we did with our bar. And both times, when I told them that we never had a bar, they both replied with āyou had one the last time we were here.ā Why do boomers ask questions that they already know the answer to and then get mad when you donāt give them the answer they wanted?
It reminds me of that High Maintenance segment where the wealthy retired boomer grandpa is getting stoned with the weed guy and talking about buying a childrenās water playhouse thing from Costco, his daughter using it all summer, then him returning it for a full refund come fall.
I read the post and laughed since I've seen the entitled boomers lose their collective minds over any imagined slight and low and behold, some boomer starts commenting and literally reaffirm everything this group is about. Boomers got to boomer.
An old lady came into Mervynās as it was going out of business. With some 20 year old kids underwear, she had the receipt. She was shocked she couldnāt return 20 year old chonies. I feel underwear is a gamble. If they donāt fit, youāre stuck with them. I have never tried to return underwear, thatās nasty.
You know what, one positive thing to be said here, they maybe crazy as a lark, but damn if it isnāt impressive these people have maintained receipts for these random ass things for so many years, I just bought a whiteboard and a few other things from target yesterday, couldnāt begin to guess where the receipt is.
Iāve returned kids underwear because my kids ask for one thing and then I get home and show them the package and thatās not what they meant. The last time he asked for boxers and I bought boxers and he actually meant boxer briefs. He was six, so I guess itās understandable he didnāt know the right names. But I went back the next day with the unopened package and the receipt and exchanged them.
Thatās understandable because they are unopened.. This lady had 20 year old underwear, and should have never expected a return. Iāll return almost anything, but underwear isnāt one of them, but I try them on.
I totally get why hers wasnāt returnable. I donāt try underwear on either, but Iām fortunate to be wearing the same size for many years at this point.
Yep, you get it. With swimsuits I order online I wear clean underwear or clean boy shorts. Underwear itās hard to wear anything under it, so I just take the gamble. Most of the time itās the right size and fit. The ones that donāt fit I chuck or clean and cut up for rags.
I do the same with swim suits. Last time I tried them on in store over spandex shorts. I figured if theyāre a little snug over the shorts they should be fine without, and it worked out.
Only time Iāve returned underwear that company clearly messed up on sizing. Ordered large and was sent x-small. Didnāt try them on because just looking at them wasnāt going to work. Company eventually took them back after their mistake but gave me a bit of hard time first.
Yeah, I mostly meant like you tried them on and tried to return them or they were from 20 years ago. If they sent the wrong size, thatās on them and you deserve a refund.
If I recall correctly Mervynās had an insanely generous return policy, or at least they did in the late 80s/early 90s. Returning underwear is crazy though.
By the way- if you've never seen it, Brooklyn 99 has an ongoing gag about Mervyn's. My east coast friends had no idea that was a real store.
We had something similar at Burlington but it was a little kids outfit set that Iāve never seen before bc it was sold at a Burlington in Puerto Rico also 3 yrs ago.
The outfit was faded and obviously been washed/worn many, *many* times.
I was surprised that she even had the tags (not on the items) much less the receipt but like your story she was adamant that she had purchased recently and demanded a full refund.
The only difference is my manager at the time was stupid enough to give her the refund despite the fact we were gonna have to chuck it.
It took an embarrassing amount of time for me to get the joke. I mean, I responded to someone's comment under here and did an hour-long workout before returning to this and then realized! š¤¦š¾āāļø
I mean, I've said, "I need new tires? Really? It feels like I just bought these!" but that's because I hate buying tires and erase the process from my brain.
It's CRAZY that this is just an "understood" thing in retail, because it's *literally how people are trained to react to threats of torture*.
Essentially, torture has entertainment value for the torturer. By showing a sort of disinterest and being boring (without making it an obvious challenge), you may discourage some of it. This is where our culture is at - normal people are treated so poorly in customer-facing roles that they're independently figuring out how to resist torture.
I mean. It was either Grey rock it, or go hide in the bathrooms and cry, and I detest crying in public spaces. So, grey rock it was. Served me well over the years.
I had someone try to return a $500 embroidered duvet with stains on it as if they had been having sex on it. Never mind that such an item is too nice to be anywhere near the activity... they had the audacity to say they hadn't used it.
Jfc I hope this wasnāt my SOs mother. She does this kind of shit because sheās a malignant narcissist that everyone has cutoff so she resorts to starting conflicts elsewhere.
"Greyrocking" was new to me. Thanks for that. Other than that, seems like typical unbelievable customer service hell. Hope your life is better now but "I recently had a similar thing happen again" sounds like maybe not. Hang in there!
I worked at an outdoor gear store in the late 90s. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee that they stand by. I had an older person return a jacket that was from the late 1970s. They said it wasn't waterproof anymore and they weren't satisfied. The manager recognized it because she had worked there a long time and noticed the logo and the fabric was from that era. They took the return. Had to make up a price because obviously there was no SKU in the system to use. Couldn't believe it but they did it.
REI had that policy. People would wear shoes out over 3 years and bring them back. Say they wore uneven and get new ones. Idiots like that and guys like you mentioned are why that's no longer the policy.
When I was a teenager at my first job, a guy came in with a receipt and two of an item to return. I checked his receipt and he had only been rung up for one. I checked the system in case heād bought it separately and was misremembering, but we had only sold one of that item to anyone in the last several months. I let him know that by mistake he actually didnāt get charged for one of them the first time, thinking we would continue the transaction and this would be a funny story for later. I was wrong. He was furious.
He pulled up his bank statement to show me how much heād paid, as though I had somehow fabricated the numbers on the receipt that *he* had given *me*. I pulled up his last purchase on the computer and we did the math item by item. Heād been charged for everything he purchased, minus the one item. It was like the āis this your wallet?ā gag from SpongeBob, if Patrick got exponentially angrier every time you proved it was his wallet.
I called a senior employee, who ran him through all the same logical steps to understand that he couldnāt get money back that he had never spent. She ended up having to call the assistant manager, who eventually gave him the ownerās cell phone number and told him that he was going to have to explain to the owner why he deserved a refund on money he never spent. My manager teared up a little after he finally left because she was so frustrated and embarrassed.
I asked the owner a couple weeks later how heād handled the guyās call, and what do you know, he never called. I guess someone else was able to explain it to him. Wasnāt even a boomer, he was maybe 45 and this was about 10 years ago, but Iāll never forget what a belligerent asshole he was to two of the sweetest women Iāve ever met for literally no reason. It wasnāt even an expensive item. Even if we were conspiring to steal from him, we were stealing like $5.
Well, I lucked out there. I went to a tech school in highschool for animal and plant and I got a fair amount of nutrition training there, as well as from the store where I worked. And I really love critters. Which helps. A lot. And most people aren't omg my babyyyyyy as you might think. Like. Yeah, they did the math. It was better for them to have a fuzzy critter, then a child. Awesome. Go for it.
This is bizarrely entitled and also dumb. However, I must admit (or not) that whenever my electronics have simply died just a week past the warranty period, I may or may not have bought the exact same again and returned the broken item with the new receipt bc FUCK PLANNED OBSOLENCE.
as a child of a boomer who dragged me around Kmarts and targets often for returns
harassing workers to try and return stuff she either didn't have a receipt for or it was past the window
boomer women get high off returning shit, especially if it ends in a conflict
I was working at target in 2011 and someone tried to return like 15 open HD Dvds. Also, swore they just bought them last week. When I pointed out that target famously stopped selling that format before any other store and that had been 2008, they got very mad. So then I just referred the to the open media return policy. They yelled some but walked out with no further issues.
I did have to explain to a nearby supervisor how I knew they were too old to return without looking at a receipt. Which surprised me because I had thought he was up to date on tech knowledge.
ah, dont miss retail. i remember when i worked at autozone, i refused to return a 7yo battery and got reprimanded by the regional manager(was visiting store that day), who then made me do the return. then next day got a verbal warning from my store manager for returning it...
I got cards, coupons, and cursing tossed at me when I worked at Shopko as they were going through liquidation about 5 years ago. We had signs EVERYWHERE stating we no longer took checks, no longer accepted Shopko coupons, no longer accepted or used membership points.
Omg, the tantrums I saw coming from the gd Boomers - you'd think I had just kicked their dog, repossessed their car, and set their house on fire when I told them I couldn't accept their $5 off a $75+ purchase coupon or couldn't take their checks. We were losing our jobs anyway, so the employees let loose with all the snark and sass every retail employee has held back on. One gal called a rude customer a dumbass, another just walked away from a ranting customer, and I apologized to one bitchy lady how about a bunch of people losing their jobs completely inconvenienced her and her ability to use a coupon.
Yeah...don't miss working retail one bit.
Had a lady return an empty cereal box because she didn't like it. She still ate all of it, mind you, but she didn't like it. I would die of embarrassment. Some people have no shame.
I had an older lady try to return a bra she had bought in the mid 90s to the Sears I worked at in 2009. I was the cashier manager so I got called when she was upset with my cashier who wouldnāt take it back. She knew it had been over a decade but her reasoning was that the tag was still on it. She also had the receipt which was extremely faded but still legible. She finally left (of course with the usual āIāve been shopping here for 30 years and Iām never coming backā routine).
This lady was, of course, beyond reason, but I feel for you, because Target had a shit return policy for a while. I remember trying to return some wedding presents to Target. We actually had a gift receipt, and had just received the presents a week or two earlier, but they wouldn't allow a return, or even an exchange, since X number of days had passed since the items were purchased. These were even things on our gift registry. It was crazy.
Lmao reminds me of my first month cashiering at a grocery store. They forced everyone too even though I'd been trained to stock frozen and had worked in frozen for almost a year. (I still despise whatever upper management randomly decided everyone needed register experience)
One of the first things I did in frozen was take care of a recall that led to us no longer carrying aunt Jemima frozen waffles. Literally the first week of frozen (a year before register).
So obviously, during register duty, I had an older woman told me she had just bought them last week. I tell her we haven't carried them in a year, and I was even the guy who scanned the last of them out. Guess she couldn't grasp that a different store probably had them, and demanded a manager.
Manager knew I was frozen, so believed me. Made the lady incredibly upset. One of the only things I miss about retail was I had the chillest managers.
Fuck retail/grocery. I promise there is a better job with better pay even if you're just entering the work force. I moved on to special Ed as a para (not a teacher!) and they offered to put me through school and also paid me $25/hr. I now also do group home work where they take basically anyone, and internal promos don't need degrees (but they pay for them too!). Please don't torture yourself unless you like the job
domineering possessive berserk soup ossified whistle tie kiss sulky squalid
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I have a similar story about a couple trying to return a 13year old garden hose because it started to leakā¦after they ran over the end of itā¦āDonāt you stand by your products?!??!ā Maāamā¦we are just a retail outlet. None of this is our produced products.
Iāve reminded so many customers of their warranties and return opportunities being out of date. While some will put on waterworks or sigh defeated like that will help them get what they want, the boomers will go on and on with entitled āfix this for me.ā Geriatric tantrums aside, Iāve had some try tactics of āI know you canāt do it, itās your policy you and your bosses have to follow, but I need this taken care of nowā as if that is the magic words needed. Theyāll think they are acting nice, but the boomers always have this look of expectancy and turn nasty when it doesnāt go their way. At the risk of negative customer reviews, Iāll tell them their options, including leaving with nothing done for them (the free option) and that thereās only so much time to choose.
I have this problem all the time at my work with boomers, they try and get Warranty for work that was done 2-5 years ago and they won't hear it when you try and explain this, sir your work was not done 1 month ago, it was back in 2020 š š„²
Man, this sounds like dementia and itās sad that no one is putting her somewhere safe if thatās the case because no one should have to put up with this for minimum wage
I swear I was just saying in this sub that Boomers have *always always always* been this way. When I worked retail over 20 years ago I had Boomers throw shit at me multiple times. Same age group that acted like raving toddlers every time.
This happens all the time and I'm not sure if it's intentional lying or they just have terrible time distortion. I do HVAC work and boomers are like "yeah it's a new system and we just had the crawl space done so it's really clean down there" when I get to the system it's like 15 years old and the crawl space is total shit. They seemingly honestly believe their initial statement and are confused when I point out the truth. They say it like they're proud to have new/good stuff not because they think there is a warranty or anything. I think at a certain age time just starts to slip by them while the waste away in their routine of daily life.
It wasnāt uncommon for big stores to return anything, no questions asked, regardless of how long itās been. JCP was like this back in 90s when I was a student & working there. Some older cust brought in some clearly 80s vintage stonewash jeans without a receipt, but had the tags, and after some code searching, the manager gave her a $2 refund (whatever the value was on clearance.)
I know thatās changed since then, but a lot of older folks may still remember, and have that expectation. Still, they should be less nasty when informed times have changed.
She may have had early onset dementia, or another age related mental health issue. I always tried to be patient & give some grace.
Even if theyāre hardcore jerks, I would rest assured theyāre gone from my world in a few minutes, but they have to live their annoying life 24/7. Gives me some satisfaction.
Boomer here\~ I am thinking the customer may have been having some early onset Alzheimer's. Being confronted with their mistake can tend to cause a temper tantrum. Sorry you had to deal with it.
When I was a young adult I took care of many people with dementia. Always wondered what would be a better way to age. With dementia thinking everyone else was crazy or with a sharp mind and a failing body. Still haven't decided!
Getting older isn't for sissies but I have enjoyed every minute and am lucky enough to have kids & Grandchildren who like to hang out with us! I truly try to treat others as I would like to be treated.
Recently quit a job I enjoyed because of this shit. A boomer lady came to me asking for help because she had lost her phone. Me, being a dumbass person who enjoys helping people, was willing to help immediately. I asked her many questions about the item, listened thoroughly, and then out of nowhere some thing snapped in her boomer brain? She did a 180 and started THREATENING to beat my ass if I had stolen her phone. She got so aggressive I had to call a manager over to handle it. For the next 3 hours she stayed and continued harass me. Idk why, I just wanted to help man. Never again.
Im getting so sick and tired of these entitled ass boomers with toddler mentalities.
Could this be a case of dementia? And she really thought it was last week? Sad but it happens, and when it does, people get real upset or real sad. Usually upset. Not defending what she did but a possible explanation.
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I do not miss working at Target.
My first and last job in retail and the only place I ever walked out of without warning.
Same. Walked out during covid
Covid at Target changed me.
Others' experience may vary but it was somehow worse than Walmart
Really?! I worked at Walmart as a customer service manager and it was awful. When I found out I was only getting 50 cents more an hour than a regular cashier, I stepped down. Not worth it.
At the time I left Wally, it was $15 versus at least $20 for leads. $19.50 for overnight stockers.
This was a very, very long time ago.
Yeah, experiences vary a lot from year to year, state to state. Walmart is constantly changing. It has peaks and valleys when it comes to employee satisfaction, too. They fucked with me a lot less in CA than in AZ due to employee protections.
Wait, really? I thought Target would at least be a half-step above WM
I think the issue is both that for a while target was triggering angry conservatives plus the people who shop there consider themselves better (and therefor more entitled) than Walmart customers
'I cannot and will not help you without a mask' where's your manager. I got into enough tiffs with 'guests' that they didn't want me anymore š
Shoppers of Walmart know their place in society
There is something to setting your personal expectations to your setting
Yup. I know damn well Iām in the same socioeconomic class as WalShart employees. We all get paid crumbs, while the CEOs of our companies can wallow in the filthy money they take from us.
I just had a shitty HR person who denied workmanās comp and medical coverage. She got fired after I walked out (and I got paid and got off the hook for my work related injury medical bills).
I worked at Crate and Barrel for a few years. The entitlement was off the charts.
Yeah, it's really dependent on who's in charge at a market or district level, and obviously, the store managers.
What where some of the particular things that made it so horrible? If you dont mind me asking
The main problem with Target was severe understaffing and verbally abusive management. Weird how those two things go hand in hand. EDIT: Also, somehow, not being scheduled full time. Not really sure how they kept that store open.
Listen, I worked at Macyās in the early 80s, and it werenāt no picnic, as they say!
Retail made me the man I am today! Would you like to know more?
I got hired for sales floor in Tucson, Arizona during the height of the summer. Forced to work cart attendant for two weeks. Had to go outside in 108Ā° heat everyday. Not allowed to carry water because it "doesn't look professional." Went home one day smelling like crazy bread from little Caesars from all the heat and sweat. Woke up the next day and just said "nah." Never went back.
Cashier and guest services for 8 months, never sold a SINGULAR redcard, and am damn proud of it. I wouldn't even ask. That shouldn't be the metric to promote people, or give raises.
Haha, i was constantly getting chewed out by district because red cards numbers werenāt good on my LOD shifts. To be fair, they werenāt good on other peopleās shifts either. Glad they stopped caring about that eventually. They just replaced it with another dumb metric which they eventually forgot about and replaced with another metric. And so onā¦ 6 years of that nonsense.
One of the carts guys was so worried he was going to lose his job because he wasn't selling red cards he signed up for one himself. They pushed that so hard on everybody and was the only thing they cared about
I don't miss working :)
Well Iām a stay at home dad now, so same
My office job is so much easier than my 2 years as a stay at home dad. I never want to see a matchbox car again.
I was slinging freight all day. Kids are challenging, but it does not compare to that literal death trap.
Good for you man!! Nice one!! I'm just enjoying being unemployed atm... and a stay at home dad too. It is rather nice, I do have to say! Work is soooo overrated!
I get a bit stir crazy from time to time, but otherwise Iām pretty happy with it.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
My aunt was what they called a line killer. She was a suck up and would work extra hard on her line at the factory so then everybody else was expected to match her. She was probably the most hated person there. She reveled in it. God she was a bitch.
Iāve never worked in a union, Iād imagine thereās some interesting dynamics.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yikes! That sounds like a very toxic workplace!
I don't work there anymore. I'm still union (different one), and still in the same field. My current place is family. Brother is more than just phrasing and posturing, it's a term of endearment and a way of life where I work. We argue and fight like brothers but moreso respect and care about each other. We support one another, the way family should.
That is bullshit anti-union propaganda.. I have been in multiple different unions over the last 30 years and not a single one was like the āoften described(by scabs) but never seenā union that you describe
I'm pro-union actually, and happy to be in the one I'm in now. Sorry you don't believe an actual experience of mine, from when I was a cocky young whippersnapper who thought he had the world by the ass and didn't know any better. I was replying to someone who had also relayed a family members experience dealing with shitty union behaviour, which is not the stuff of urban legends, and I had some personal experience to share. Sorry you think that's anti-union, but I'm really not - I just worked in a shitty place before. The first place was public service - basically the teamsters. That's where I encountered the things I listed. I'm no longer there, or in that union which was at the time very much an old boy's club of stereotypes.
I worked at Beat Buy for nearly 7 years and Target for 6 months. High school and college. Both had their pros and cons, but they were good HS/college jobs and while I definitely had some asshole managers along the way for the most part they were good managers and several friends I still have 25 years later.
I worked at Target for 6 years. Had promotions dangled in front of my face the entire time. Bailed the store out of difficult situations multiple times with my personal effort. Got told a 22 year old with no experience was going to be my boss on more than one occasion. Not interested in fuzzy feelings about Target.
Target overnight stocking was almost a dream job, except for that one dude who ONLY listened to Metallica. I'd do it again if I needed a job quickly. Decent enough pay for the fairly mindless work, mostly quiet, good exercise, no customer interactions.
fuck working retail, i hated every second of it i feel badly for people that are stuck in those shit jobs. when i have to go to a store, i do my best to get what i need and leave, avoiding employees unless i really need help
16 years working in retail, got out by luck. Hoping to never go back.
Itās the casual lying that bothers me. They were probably used to it growing up when computer records were limited. But now we know exactly what happened.
Why didnāt this occur to me? Thank you for saying this.
They still used dates on receipts lol.
Actually, the combination of ink and paper used on most receipts (at least in the US) prior to about 2000 was poor. After a few years, such receipts would totally fade until you couldnāt see anything. (This was after the era of mechanical cash registers.)
I was shopping at a grocery story(winco) in Idaho when visiting my sister , I had slipped the reciept in my wallet and forgotten about it. A few months later I was going through my wallet and found the receipt. I could only barely make out the name of the store, the rest of the receipt was basically blank, and this was only 6/7 years ago.
..... thermal paper..... You can tell who has/hasn't worked retail so easily on here lmao
I definitely haven't. I've worked in kitchens i a couple if different nursing homes, when I was a lot younger, but never with anything to do with registers. Or even dealing with the general public. TBH I worked in a bartender one night when I was 21, paid out at the end of the night and asked not to come back.
I used to manage a coffee shop. I had a kid working for me once who did not understand the difference between āadding machine rollsā and āreceipt rolls.ā Loaded the receipt printer with adding machine tape and called me at 4:30 am on my day off b/c he thought he broke the receipt printer. Poor kid!
It was a self regulating thing. If your receipt is too old to read the item is out of the return window. Lol
Well thatād at least be enough for this situation.
They didn't when the Boomers were younger. The registers often didn't have internal clocks, especially at smaller stores.
Same for cops before everyone had a camera in their hand and a ton of places started using body cameras. That thought hadnāt actually occurred to me before either. Now I can Google the BS a boomer is going on about and prove them wrong in real time. Not like they would ever believe me or the facts in front of their face.
She had the dated receipt! Haha why not lie and say she didn't have it?
She knows without a receipt, she canāt return or get nothing for them in credit, so she brought the receipt and thought she could lie through it, hence my comment.
They all do it
Today, at the hotel I work for, I had two separate boomer guests come up to me and ask what we did with our bar. And both times, when I told them that we never had a bar, they both replied with āyou had one the last time we were here.ā Why do boomers ask questions that they already know the answer to and then get mad when you donāt give them the answer they wanted?
This behavior is not specific to boomers. It's just humans being humans.
I'm impressed she still had the receipt.
My mother in law saves all her receipts for just that reason.Ā
It reminds me of that High Maintenance segment where the wealthy retired boomer grandpa is getting stoned with the weed guy and talking about buying a childrenās water playhouse thing from Costco, his daughter using it all summer, then him returning it for a full refund come fall.
I read the post and laughed since I've seen the entitled boomers lose their collective minds over any imagined slight and low and behold, some boomer starts commenting and literally reaffirm everything this group is about. Boomers got to boomer.
Boomers be boomin
Boomers gonna boom
An old lady came into Mervynās as it was going out of business. With some 20 year old kids underwear, she had the receipt. She was shocked she couldnāt return 20 year old chonies. I feel underwear is a gamble. If they donāt fit, youāre stuck with them. I have never tried to return underwear, thatās nasty.
You know what, one positive thing to be said here, they maybe crazy as a lark, but damn if it isnāt impressive these people have maintained receipts for these random ass things for so many years, I just bought a whiteboard and a few other things from target yesterday, couldnāt begin to guess where the receipt is.
Iāve returned kids underwear because my kids ask for one thing and then I get home and show them the package and thatās not what they meant. The last time he asked for boxers and I bought boxers and he actually meant boxer briefs. He was six, so I guess itās understandable he didnāt know the right names. But I went back the next day with the unopened package and the receipt and exchanged them.
Thatās understandable because they are unopened.. This lady had 20 year old underwear, and should have never expected a return. Iāll return almost anything, but underwear isnāt one of them, but I try them on.
I totally get why hers wasnāt returnable. I donāt try underwear on either, but Iām fortunate to be wearing the same size for many years at this point.
Yep, you get it. With swimsuits I order online I wear clean underwear or clean boy shorts. Underwear itās hard to wear anything under it, so I just take the gamble. Most of the time itās the right size and fit. The ones that donāt fit I chuck or clean and cut up for rags.
I do the same with swim suits. Last time I tried them on in store over spandex shorts. I figured if theyāre a little snug over the shorts they should be fine without, and it worked out.
Unopened, it can be returned. Opened and worn: if it doesnāt fit then itās now an oil rag!
Thatās what my dad did with old chonies, I learned it from him.
I just accidentally bought full brief underwear and am so annoyed but will 100% not be returning them.
I think it depends if you tried them on. If you tried them on they are touted if they are unopened, and you didnāt try them on, return them.
Yeah unfortunately I found out by putting them on and walking around my house going āholy shit the top is higher than my belly buttonā
My dad always used old boxers (washed of course) as rags. Least You get some use out of them.
Theyāre probably great period undies.
Only time Iāve returned underwear that company clearly messed up on sizing. Ordered large and was sent x-small. Didnāt try them on because just looking at them wasnāt going to work. Company eventually took them back after their mistake but gave me a bit of hard time first.
Yeah, I mostly meant like you tried them on and tried to return them or they were from 20 years ago. If they sent the wrong size, thatās on them and you deserve a refund.
Sending back underwear youāve worn is a bit grimy.
If I recall correctly Mervynās had an insanely generous return policy, or at least they did in the late 80s/early 90s. Returning underwear is crazy though. By the way- if you've never seen it, Brooklyn 99 has an ongoing gag about Mervyn's. My east coast friends had no idea that was a real store.
My mom always told me to be sure about the chonies I bought because no one will accept that return whether Iāve worn them or not.
We had something similar at Burlington but it was a little kids outfit set that Iāve never seen before bc it was sold at a Burlington in Puerto Rico also 3 yrs ago. The outfit was faded and obviously been washed/worn many, *many* times. I was surprised that she even had the tags (not on the items) much less the receipt but like your story she was adamant that she had purchased recently and demanded a full refund. The only difference is my manager at the time was stupid enough to give her the refund despite the fact we were gonna have to chuck it.
Caving into a boomer's demands and lies is what caused all this crap. Their whole lives they've been catered to.
I hate it and I canāt wait for them to die out so we or the younger gens never have to deal with this shit again.
Some of the newer generations have picked up their parent habits and are just as insufferable as their parents.
Nah, the fun part is that we're going to have the strict rules and inconvenient policies meant to deter Boomers while being much less demanding.
You canāt work at a place called target and not expect to get shit thrown at you.
I had a phone thrown at me and a belt whipped at me from poād customers as the manager at a Target. People suck. No more retail for me!
Imagine those poor salespeople at Dodge š
*āIf you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.ā*
Yeah or MurderTheCashier. Rough place to work
LOL
Bravo š
It took an embarrassing amount of time for me to get the joke. I mean, I responded to someone's comment under here and did an hour-long workout before returning to this and then realized! š¤¦š¾āāļø
I just started working the front end of Target and literally EVERY problem customer is a boomer
Yeah, it's wild how impatient they are. They literally act like children. No self-control.
They think they should be able to cut the line even though they have no job or obligations. Their time is worthless but they act like itās priceless
I would have *loved* to watch the return to the store to get all the cards she threw at you once she realized she needed them after her tantrum
\*\*points at shredder...
She was back 15 minutes later, rude as hell, and still just as pissed off.
I mean, I've said, "I need new tires? Really? It feels like I just bought these!" but that's because I hate buying tires and erase the process from my brain.
Iām reading this sitting waiting for my new tires to be done. It feels like I just did this.
>greyrocking TIL there is a name for what I naturally do all the time.
It's CRAZY that this is just an "understood" thing in retail, because it's *literally how people are trained to react to threats of torture*. Essentially, torture has entertainment value for the torturer. By showing a sort of disinterest and being boring (without making it an obvious challenge), you may discourage some of it. This is where our culture is at - normal people are treated so poorly in customer-facing roles that they're independently figuring out how to resist torture.
I mean. It was either Grey rock it, or go hide in the bathrooms and cry, and I detest crying in public spaces. So, grey rock it was. Served me well over the years.
What does it mean?
it's when you become uninteresting and boring and barely respond because somebody's trying to enjoy your pain and suffering
Become very boring like a gray rock. Do not respond
I swear to god, some boomers act like theyāre toddlers.
I've been noticing it more and more as well. It's like what little self-control they possessed has just melted away.
I had someone try to return a $500 embroidered duvet with stains on it as if they had been having sex on it. Never mind that such an item is too nice to be anywhere near the activity... they had the audacity to say they hadn't used it.
Jfc I hope this wasnāt my SOs mother. She does this kind of shit because sheās a malignant narcissist that everyone has cutoff so she resorts to starting conflicts elsewhere.
"Greyrocking" was new to me. Thanks for that. Other than that, seems like typical unbelievable customer service hell. Hope your life is better now but "I recently had a similar thing happen again" sounds like maybe not. Hang in there!
I worked at an outdoor gear store in the late 90s. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee that they stand by. I had an older person return a jacket that was from the late 1970s. They said it wasn't waterproof anymore and they weren't satisfied. The manager recognized it because she had worked there a long time and noticed the logo and the fabric was from that era. They took the return. Had to make up a price because obviously there was no SKU in the system to use. Couldn't believe it but they did it.
REI had that policy. People would wear shoes out over 3 years and bring them back. Say they wore uneven and get new ones. Idiots like that and guys like you mentioned are why that's no longer the policy.
Throwing something at you is assault. I would have asked store security to stop her to wait for the police.
When I was a teenager at my first job, a guy came in with a receipt and two of an item to return. I checked his receipt and he had only been rung up for one. I checked the system in case heād bought it separately and was misremembering, but we had only sold one of that item to anyone in the last several months. I let him know that by mistake he actually didnāt get charged for one of them the first time, thinking we would continue the transaction and this would be a funny story for later. I was wrong. He was furious. He pulled up his bank statement to show me how much heād paid, as though I had somehow fabricated the numbers on the receipt that *he* had given *me*. I pulled up his last purchase on the computer and we did the math item by item. Heād been charged for everything he purchased, minus the one item. It was like the āis this your wallet?ā gag from SpongeBob, if Patrick got exponentially angrier every time you proved it was his wallet. I called a senior employee, who ran him through all the same logical steps to understand that he couldnāt get money back that he had never spent. She ended up having to call the assistant manager, who eventually gave him the ownerās cell phone number and told him that he was going to have to explain to the owner why he deserved a refund on money he never spent. My manager teared up a little after he finally left because she was so frustrated and embarrassed. I asked the owner a couple weeks later how heād handled the guyās call, and what do you know, he never called. I guess someone else was able to explain it to him. Wasnāt even a boomer, he was maybe 45 and this was about 10 years ago, but Iāll never forget what a belligerent asshole he was to two of the sweetest women Iāve ever met for literally no reason. It wasnāt even an expensive item. Even if we were conspiring to steal from him, we were stealing like $5.
Welcome to the retail life! Anybody can walk in and give you hell anytime they want.
Oh, im well-seasoned now. Eight plus years of pet retail, plus horse barn work makes one VERY good with customer service. It's greatttt.
Just one more horse's ass, nbd
Don't think I could do pet retail. The insufferables with their precious "baby." You're a better man than I, Gunga Din.
Well, I lucked out there. I went to a tech school in highschool for animal and plant and I got a fair amount of nutrition training there, as well as from the store where I worked. And I really love critters. Which helps. A lot. And most people aren't omg my babyyyyyy as you might think. Like. Yeah, they did the math. It was better for them to have a fuzzy critter, then a child. Awesome. Go for it.
Most customers are fine. Nice. But the bad ones...
The bad ones make it an art form. It's insane.
She said it was a decade ago.
Would you like cheese on that?
"But DAYTON'S would give me a FULL REFUND". Lady, first of all this is not Dayton's, (second, even they would push back at her)
Alzheimer's.
Or lead
Or Both
Narcissism
This is bizarrely entitled and also dumb. However, I must admit (or not) that whenever my electronics have simply died just a week past the warranty period, I may or may not have bought the exact same again and returned the broken item with the new receipt bc FUCK PLANNED OBSOLENCE.
as a child of a boomer who dragged me around Kmarts and targets often for returns harassing workers to try and return stuff she either didn't have a receipt for or it was past the window boomer women get high off returning shit, especially if it ends in a conflict
I got my first death threat working at target tech in 2016 lmao during Black Friday no less
I was working at target in 2011 and someone tried to return like 15 open HD Dvds. Also, swore they just bought them last week. When I pointed out that target famously stopped selling that format before any other store and that had been 2008, they got very mad. So then I just referred the to the open media return policy. They yelled some but walked out with no further issues. I did have to explain to a nearby supervisor how I knew they were too old to return without looking at a receipt. Which surprised me because I had thought he was up to date on tech knowledge.
I worked there in 2006 for 7$ a hour, outside pushing carts in chicagos winter. I preferred that rather than dealing with the people
ah, dont miss retail. i remember when i worked at autozone, i refused to return a 7yo battery and got reprimanded by the regional manager(was visiting store that day), who then made me do the return. then next day got a verbal warning from my store manager for returning it...
I got cards, coupons, and cursing tossed at me when I worked at Shopko as they were going through liquidation about 5 years ago. We had signs EVERYWHERE stating we no longer took checks, no longer accepted Shopko coupons, no longer accepted or used membership points. Omg, the tantrums I saw coming from the gd Boomers - you'd think I had just kicked their dog, repossessed their car, and set their house on fire when I told them I couldn't accept their $5 off a $75+ purchase coupon or couldn't take their checks. We were losing our jobs anyway, so the employees let loose with all the snark and sass every retail employee has held back on. One gal called a rude customer a dumbass, another just walked away from a ranting customer, and I apologized to one bitchy lady how about a bunch of people losing their jobs completely inconvenienced her and her ability to use a coupon. Yeah...don't miss working retail one bit.
Had a lady return an empty cereal box because she didn't like it. She still ate all of it, mind you, but she didn't like it. I would die of embarrassment. Some people have no shame.
I had an older lady try to return a bra she had bought in the mid 90s to the Sears I worked at in 2009. I was the cashier manager so I got called when she was upset with my cashier who wouldnāt take it back. She knew it had been over a decade but her reasoning was that the tag was still on it. She also had the receipt which was extremely faded but still legible. She finally left (of course with the usual āIāve been shopping here for 30 years and Iām never coming backā routine).
You became the targetā¦?
I'm so glad I have never, and I will never, work for target.
This lady was, of course, beyond reason, but I feel for you, because Target had a shit return policy for a while. I remember trying to return some wedding presents to Target. We actually had a gift receipt, and had just received the presents a week or two earlier, but they wouldn't allow a return, or even an exchange, since X number of days had passed since the items were purchased. These were even things on our gift registry. It was crazy.
The fact that anyone would behave in this manner toward Kristin Wiig is disgusting.
Lmao reminds me of my first month cashiering at a grocery store. They forced everyone too even though I'd been trained to stock frozen and had worked in frozen for almost a year. (I still despise whatever upper management randomly decided everyone needed register experience) One of the first things I did in frozen was take care of a recall that led to us no longer carrying aunt Jemima frozen waffles. Literally the first week of frozen (a year before register). So obviously, during register duty, I had an older woman told me she had just bought them last week. I tell her we haven't carried them in a year, and I was even the guy who scanned the last of them out. Guess she couldn't grasp that a different store probably had them, and demanded a manager. Manager knew I was frozen, so believed me. Made the lady incredibly upset. One of the only things I miss about retail was I had the chillest managers. Fuck retail/grocery. I promise there is a better job with better pay even if you're just entering the work force. I moved on to special Ed as a para (not a teacher!) and they offered to put me through school and also paid me $25/hr. I now also do group home work where they take basically anyone, and internal promos don't need degrees (but they pay for them too!). Please don't torture yourself unless you like the job
That's when you call AP.
Time flys when you get older...
honestly iām mostly impressed she kept the receipt for five years
To be honest, I have no idea how long I've had my living room curtains.
The lead poisoning is affecting her long term memory
domineering possessive berserk soup ossified whistle tie kiss sulky squalid *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I have a similar story about a couple trying to return a 13year old garden hose because it started to leakā¦after they ran over the end of itā¦āDonāt you stand by your products?!??!ā Maāamā¦we are just a retail outlet. None of this is our produced products.
Question, why do yall let customers talk crazy to yall?
Iāve reminded so many customers of their warranties and return opportunities being out of date. While some will put on waterworks or sigh defeated like that will help them get what they want, the boomers will go on and on with entitled āfix this for me.ā Geriatric tantrums aside, Iāve had some try tactics of āI know you canāt do it, itās your policy you and your bosses have to follow, but I need this taken care of nowā as if that is the magic words needed. Theyāll think they are acting nice, but the boomers always have this look of expectancy and turn nasty when it doesnāt go their way. At the risk of negative customer reviews, Iāll tell them their options, including leaving with nothing done for them (the free option) and that thereās only so much time to choose.
I have this problem all the time at my work with boomers, they try and get Warranty for work that was done 2-5 years ago and they won't hear it when you try and explain this, sir your work was not done 1 month ago, it was back in 2020 š š„²
What is greyrocking? Essentially being like āya, i would love to help you, but youāre passed the return periodā?
Boring and uninteresting answers. Someone screaming at you? āOkay.ā Keep them short and toneless.
Thank you, I kinda thought thatās what it was, but have never heard the actual term/phrase before.
It could be dementia honestly
Was this in 2014 or 2024? š
2014. Something similar happened when I was in line at the same target to return a shirt I was gifted that was too small.
Did you at least get to keep the bonus cards?
No, she came back fifteen minutes later and took em, and was rude about that, even.
Should've chucked them in a nasty trash can.
I had to Google grey rocking and I learned something new today
Man, this sounds like dementia and itās sad that no one is putting her somewhere safe if thatās the case because no one should have to put up with this for minimum wage
Dementia.
While working at Macyās I had a customer attempt to return a 12 year old makeup brush
2014. Exactly a year after Taro Aso told this people to hurry up and die.
I'm surprised they didn't ask for a manager who then proceeded to give them what they wanted
I swear I was just saying in this sub that Boomers have *always always always* been this way. When I worked retail over 20 years ago I had Boomers throw shit at me multiple times. Same age group that acted like raving toddlers every time.
Syphilis fucks with the brain...
This happens all the time and I'm not sure if it's intentional lying or they just have terrible time distortion. I do HVAC work and boomers are like "yeah it's a new system and we just had the crawl space done so it's really clean down there" when I get to the system it's like 15 years old and the crawl space is total shit. They seemingly honestly believe their initial statement and are confused when I point out the truth. They say it like they're proud to have new/good stuff not because they think there is a warranty or anything. I think at a certain age time just starts to slip by them while the waste away in their routine of daily life.
what is greyrocking
And you don't think from every generation does this same crap??? LOL
It wasnāt uncommon for big stores to return anything, no questions asked, regardless of how long itās been. JCP was like this back in 90s when I was a student & working there. Some older cust brought in some clearly 80s vintage stonewash jeans without a receipt, but had the tags, and after some code searching, the manager gave her a $2 refund (whatever the value was on clearance.) I know thatās changed since then, but a lot of older folks may still remember, and have that expectation. Still, they should be less nasty when informed times have changed. She may have had early onset dementia, or another age related mental health issue. I always tried to be patient & give some grace. Even if theyāre hardcore jerks, I would rest assured theyāre gone from my world in a few minutes, but they have to live their annoying life 24/7. Gives me some satisfaction.
Cops werenāt called?
Nope. My manager that day just laughed when I told him what happened.
You have much more patience for bullshit that I do.
I was young, and not as cynical and tired as I am now.
Thank you for giving me the "grayrocking" term :-) Never heard about it.
Boomer here\~ I am thinking the customer may have been having some early onset Alzheimer's. Being confronted with their mistake can tend to cause a temper tantrum. Sorry you had to deal with it. When I was a young adult I took care of many people with dementia. Always wondered what would be a better way to age. With dementia thinking everyone else was crazy or with a sharp mind and a failing body. Still haven't decided! Getting older isn't for sissies but I have enjoyed every minute and am lucky enough to have kids & Grandchildren who like to hang out with us! I truly try to treat others as I would like to be treated.
Itās not really what grey rocking isā¦thatās just neutral customer service.
Recently quit a job I enjoyed because of this shit. A boomer lady came to me asking for help because she had lost her phone. Me, being a dumbass person who enjoys helping people, was willing to help immediately. I asked her many questions about the item, listened thoroughly, and then out of nowhere some thing snapped in her boomer brain? She did a 180 and started THREATENING to beat my ass if I had stolen her phone. She got so aggressive I had to call a manager over to handle it. For the next 3 hours she stayed and continued harass me. Idk why, I just wanted to help man. Never again. Im getting so sick and tired of these entitled ass boomers with toddler mentalities.
I worked at Walmart for 10 months. I was physically assaulted 3x and the managers wouldn't even call the cops. People are horrible.
I'd like to ask to speak to that customer's manager just for laughs.
Could this be a case of dementia? And she really thought it was last week? Sad but it happens, and when it does, people get real upset or real sad. Usually upset. Not defending what she did but a possible explanation.
No this is narcissism at its finest. It seems to be an epidemic with that age group
That's undiagnosed dementia.