Friday, March 7, 2008

What would you do?

So the other day at work I had the world's worst customer, here's the story.

I was working on a belted lane, and we were really frickin busy, this lady comes through my line and was really nice until she went to pay for her purchases.... and her check got declined. For those of you who don't know the Wal mart that I work at does electronic checking which means as the cashier I have no say in weather or not the check gets accepted or declined...well her check (for reasons unknown to us) got declined and she freaked out and her demeanor changed instantly. She kept asking me why it was declined and I told her that I didn't have acess to that information and that if she wanted to know why she needed to call the number on the declined slip and Telecheck would let her know why, well she proceeded to tell me she wanted someone competent to come over and take care of it so I called over a Customer Service Manager (CSM) and Sparkles came over to help out and told the lady the exact same thing I had so the lady looks and Sparkles and tells her that she needs to do something cause she's gonna pay for her purchase and leave and my CSM tells her that there is nothing we can do and unless she has another form of payment that we can't take her check, so the lady literally loses it and next thing I know I have a duffel bag flying at my face, she pulled it out of her cart and threw it at me), then I see a plastic bag full of other items flying at me...then I see a metal curtain rod coming straight for my nose. I was able to catch the items before they hit me but still very scary. So Sparkles slams her keys and the palm pilot down on my bag carasol and tells the lady that she is escorting her and her husband out of the store. Her husband then proceeded to tell Sparkles that his wife had low blood sugar and thats why she reacted the way that she did so Sparkles tells him that she doesn't care and the issue was not my fault and she had no right to assault her cashier like that and her husband "Well it was all your cashiers fault." I was extremely upset at being assaulted so Sparkles sent me to the bathroom to calm down for a minute when I got in there another CSM Lora followed me in there to make sure I was okay and she told me to sit in there as long as I needed and just to cry it out. Well I was in there for about 10 minutes and when I came out Assistant Manager Brian was standing over by the CSM podium and walked over to me and asked me about what happened then sent me to lunch an hour early. Needless to say I almost walked out and if it hadn't been for Assistant's Brian and Darcy and Co-Manager Ken I probably would have.
So I went back in today for my shift and I was actually doing really well...until I got my first check order...I had a mini panic attack in the 2 seconds it took for the check to clear, then when I got my first irritated customer, I got so scared I almost started crying again.
Do you know what it feels like to be terrified of your own job? I get verbally assaulted on a regular basis! I can understand being scared of being physically assaulted while walking to the car late at night, but being scared of being beat up while I'm on the clock behind my register? Does that make any sense? I think I might honestly have a touch of post traumatic stress (I know I am probably over-reacting but the term fits for now).
I don't know what to do I am honestly terrified of angry customers now. I talked to my store manager and he told me he would personally make sure that those two were not welcomed back, shouldn't that make me feel any better? I don't know whatever. I am going to bed now.

4 comments:

Kd Perkins said...

I had a similar experience when I worked for a cable company. People get really crazy when you shut of their TV! I just wonder if this is your answer about going back to school? I say take the leap!

Lesli said...

I think I agree with KD - you are a smart woman - take the Leap!!!

Brittanny said...

Well, before I even read those comments, I was going to tell you that maybe you should think about going back to school. Just do it. It's super easy once you're actually in it.

Richie said...

I worked at Walmart for a little while, and I worked at another grocery store for about 3 years. That is the worst grocery store experience I have ever heard!