Archived Service Desk rant

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paidtosmile

Former Team Leader
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May 19, 2013
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Does anybody else get infuriated by how guests react towards the subject of giftcards at guest service?

Whether it's a no-receipt return, a return on a check payment, or really anything; whenever a gift card or store credit is mentioned as a form of reimbursement, the guests immediately act like we just verbally assulted them.

Like I had this one old guy who came in to return a coffee maker... His wife sent him, and it was obvious he was blindly completing an assigned task and wasn't invested in it at all.. Had the receipt and everything. He said it was too complicated of a machine so I asked him "I can just give you a giftcard if you're gonna go pick out a new one?" and he said "yeah that works." So instead of cash back I gave him a giftcard for 40something. He left and everything was good.

about 2 minutes later, his wife struts in through the doors, walks over, SLAMS the giftcard on the counter, and says "I actually need this in cash." Having dealt with her husband the first time, I had no idea what she was talking about and just said "sorry but we can't convert giftcards to cash"
She then told me that her husband was JUST in here and that she wanted cash instead of a giftcard. Super b**chy and patronizing, but I went with it and told her I can fix it since he was JUST in, I just need the receipt to do it. She put her hand on her hip, whipped her hair up, nostrils flaring, said "He was just F*CKING in here and I need this in cash, you need to just do it." So I dropped the nice/wholesome facade and repeated myself very clearly and firmly "I understand that, and since he was literally just in here I can go back and change it to cash, but I just need the receipt in order to do so. That's the only way we can physically do it." It had literally been two minutes so her husband was obviously right out in the car with the receipt.
She rolled her eyes, said "this is why I don't f*cking shop here. I just wanted the god damn cash back and you screwed that up." She was staring to leave and I finished with "I'm not sure what was said between you too, but your husband DID say that a giftcard was okay when I asked him."


Like you really would not think a giftcard was a big deal. Target is a general merchandise store, just put the credit towards some toilet paper or soap or milk or the essentials that you're going to buy anyways. It's literally the equivalent of money.

/end rant
 
We had someone last week, who thankfully I didn't have to deal with, who was insistent that she get her $100 gift card back converted to cash. She then tried name dropping and asking for another GSA (who also wasn't there) and said she would do it....because there was absolutely nothing they needed to buy.

We were all dumbfounded. Seriously...there is a Super Spot not 5 miles from us...surely they could go buy groceries or something?
 
We had a horrible woman that caused all kind of headaches when she came in. She would throw out the names of our ETLs & STL claiming they had told her she could do this or that. It was all lies of course.
 
Guests are a dime a dozen so a store will get a new one if one refuses to come back. Or they will come back a week later after making a scene.

I have had guests make a scenes for all sorts of reasons....they threw out their receipt and told us it was our fault, WalMart will do whatever for them, pick up the service desk POS monitors because they claimed we were lying to them.
 
what a nutjob! When I enjoy working service desk and thankfully those kinds of rude guests are few and far between it seems.
 
I get a bitchy asshole every now and then both at service desk and on a register, but I've never had someone cuss at me (yet). My poor friend works in HR in another store and she got cussed out twice in the same day.

I had a bitch the other day angry because we wouldn't price match the store she wanted, so she caused a little bit of a scene and declared very loudly and assertively that she was going to call corporate and complain. Like anyone gives a fuck. People like that are just lame. I also had another (older) woman angry at me because I carded her for buying alcohol. She just kept saying over and over again that no one ever carded her at Target and that "most people have common sense." BITCH!!!
 
My fellow TM had one yesterday:

A regular to our Starbucks, this guy came in and went to our ATM (which is right in view of guest services). Apparently he couldn't make a withdrawal because the ATM was out of cash. The guest got really upset when he found out the TM couldn't do anything and wouldn't give him any cash. Apparently he was supposed to take it out of a register or his own pocket? Anyway, he declared that if the TM couldn't do anything for him, then he had no reason to shop with us.

As soon same he made that declaration, he grabbed a motorized scooter (which he did need) and proceeded to spend an hour shopping in the store. Go figure.
 
Lol! He could always get cash back with a debit card.
 
I had an older man last week come in trying to return and open game.I explained that we could not do so unless the game was broken and he would then only be able to exchange it for the same game. (This is not store policy, but state law where I am.) He then began to FLIP S**T on me. He basically blamed me for the game "not being fun enough" and he yelled that he just needed to return the game and that he had forgotten his meds that day. He claimed that if he forgot his meds that "no one should give him any crap today" He eventually stormed out, leaving the game on the counter.
 
I had an older man last week come in trying to return and open game.I explained that we could not do so unless the game was broken and he would then only be able to exchange it for the same game. (This is not store policy, but state law where I am.) He then began to FLIP S**T on me. He basically blamed me for the game "not being fun enough" and he yelled that he just needed to return the game and that he had forgotten his meds that day. He claimed that if he forgot his meds that "no one should give him any crap today" He eventually stormed out, leaving the game on the counter.

Here we go again.

It is not state law in any state. What it is, is against the contract Spot has with these companies. So if we were to take back open media, we would be breaking the contract we have with them (which would be breaking the law), and they could sue or pull their items from Spot's shelves.
 
Here we go again.

It is not state law in any state. What it is, is against the contract Spot has with these companies. So if we were to take back open media, we would be breaking the contract we have with them (which would be breaking the law), and they could sue or pull their items from Spot's shelves.

Wow I had no clue, that's what I was told when I was hired, that it was state law. I really wish that employees could be better informed on these types of things. It bothers me knowing that i was lied to.
 
Here we go again.

It is not state law in any state. What it is, is against the contract Spot has with these companies. So if we were to take back open media, we would be breaking the contract we have with them (which would be breaking the law), and they could sue or pull their items from Spot's shelves.

Wow I had no clue, that's what I was told when I was hired, that it was state law. I really wish that employees could be better informed on these types of things. It bothers me knowing that i was lied to.

You might not have been lied to...the person who told you might not know any better. It's a common misconception. I suspect it started out as, "it can get the store in legal trouble" and then escalated from there.
 
You might not have been lied to...the person who told you might not know any better. It's a common misconception. I suspect it started out as, "it can get the store in legal trouble" and then escalated from there.


Most likely, thank you for the clarification, though. Target is my first retail job and I still have a lot to learn.
 
Here we go again.

It is not state law in any state. What it is, is against the contract Spot has with these companies. So if we were to take back open media, we would be breaking the contract we have with them (which would be breaking the law), and they could sue or pull their items from Spot's shelves.

I was taught it was federal copyright law.

It isn't. The myths on this run deep.
 
it happens. a few times recently. person returned a bike onto a gift card. her mom heard about this and was livid. she needed cash back since that's how she paid. she said she never got a return receipt until afterwards when she decided to check her purse and she had it all along. during this her mom was calling guest relations/store non stop asking for the lod until they gave her cash. we're f'ing dealing with your daughter, give us a minute. from what i overheard the daughter was trying to call the mom but mom was calling us. she got through and was yelling at her to lay off, she's dealing with it. mom was still going off.

we also had a dad go return a video game. he didn't care, he's buying the same thing for a diff system. wife got PISSED that he didn't get the 5% let alone we didn't have what he needed. overheard that conversation. felt bad for him.

its not your fault you explain things to guests.
 
my favorite guest service experience thus far was having a woman cause a scene in front of an ETL and LOD. they were working on photo kiosks and I was helping her at the registry. they were down and I was showing her the pda's to take with her, she didnt want to hear it. told her about the phone app. she didnt want to hear it. those are your options! she blew up about how she needed it right now!! stormed out. My LOD asked what her deal was and let him know I gave her all the options and he said "forget her" in so many words. she came back about 10 min later. she got the pda from the LOD finally willing to listen to him and threw her stuff on the counter to check out. I let my GSTL handle her this time. Once she was gone, the GSTL said "i cant stand that woman. she comes in here every month or so and its always a crisis. and we have messed up big time."
it was a relief to know it wasn't just me that want to strangle her.
 
I was LMAO at GS tonight when an (obviously newb) scammer couponer was trying to do a HUGE return of HBA items. The GSA found her receipt and she was throwing a major hissy fit because, instead of the massive return she somehow thought she was going to get, she ended up getting around $20.
 
I had a Guest who came in with a Tv. No box, no barcode, no Receipt .Claiming he used his Ebt Cash card to pay for it and that he paid $100 in cash. He expected a full cash return. When I informed Him I needed the bar code and Serial Number he acted like I was stupid because nobody in their right mind keeps a box. So I told him to go find the same Tv off the floor and we could use the barcode but the issue would remain that I have to have the serial to return It I can't use another tv's serial. He tryes to claim the barcode on the back of the tv was it. I informed him that was from the manufacturer n was different from us. I showed him how even when I swiped the card the item wasn't found. So I'm unable to return it. He started accusing me of calling him a thief that I refused to return an item he could prove he bought and when my LOD came to assist me he tried to lie and say that I looked up his $100 dollars cash..and refused to return it for him. I very bluntly informed him that that was not what I had said and told him flat out I was unable to do his return period. Then it took another 15 minutes of the LOD confirming. what I said for him to walk off ..
 
i don't know if you were trying to just get the guest to leave but the serial number on the back of the tv is the same as the one on the box.
 
We still run into the issue of not being able to do the return because the TV was not found on the card. If he had tried with an ID he wouldn't have been able to because it would go over the limit. He would've only been able to exchange for another TV of equal or more value.
 
A week or so back, a new GSA walkied LOD to ask about a returns problem. A guest wanted to return a TV box. Just... the box. The TV itself was too heavy to bring back to store, so they'd brought the box, wanted their money back, and were swearing they'd just throw the TV out when they got home.

LOD (who was auditing my 4x4 in Market) had to get GSA to repeat this a few times to ensure the story was right. As it came back over the walkie that yes, they definitely wanted to do that, LOD and I started cracking up, he was able to stop laughing long enough to advise "Noooo, we don't do that. Need the TV to return it". I just hope the GSA had already replied no and been told to 'ask your supervisor' :D
 
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