Customer Non-Service

People of all sorts come up and DEMAND to speak with "the store manager," as if that is some magic phrase that will make us quake in our boots. Ooooohhh. This person wants "the manager." Whatever.

We at the Courtesy Desk are under strict instructions NOT to call a member of management for routine customer complaints. Of course, they don't know that, but we have standing orders to "deal with the problem." If we can't handle it, call one of the supervisors over. This used to be me before I stepped down. Now I take particular delight in tormenting people, because several people who used to NOT take responsibility were promoted, and I can, in all honesty, pass the buck like they used to do.

But I digress. The only circumstances where we are to call management come with special code words, like a CODE WHITE for customer accident, SALE APPROVAL (self-explanatory), a visit from the Brinks truck (I can't reveal that one) or anything involving the Cash Office, because that's next to our service desk.

So when someone walks up, agitated or not, and says "I want to speak with a manager," we more or less have to reply "Is there something I can help you with Sir/Ma'am." Try to help first; DO NOT pick up the phone and page.

So our story begins.

Picture it, Saturday morning, 2005, everyone is emerging from a post-Hurricane Katrina slumber AND we're playing host to tons of refugees from Miami-Dade and Broward counties who've come to escape the power outages and flooding.

This man comes in today, raises his voice, doesn't wait for anyone to ask if they can help him and says, quite loudly, "I want the store manager."

ME: "Is there anything we can help you with sir?"
HIM: "Are YOU the store manager?" and he points at me rudely.
ME: "No sir, but we are trained to handle customer service issues. Is there something you need?"
HIM: "You don't have enough registers open. I complained about this last weekend. And the weekend before. He said it would change. I wanted to talk to him again. Why do you have signs up that say "ALL REGISTERS OPEN 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. Saturday & Sunday" if they're not open."
ME: "Sir, I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I can tell you we're hiring more people every week, but right now we don't have the staff to man the registers. If there's no one to run the register, we can't open it."
HIM: "So that's your answer?"
ME: I just quit at this point, because he was obviously about to try to get me in trouble.

I was telling the truth. A Wal-Mart SuperCenter is supposed to have 125 cashiers to be fully staffed for full-time and part-time shifts. We have a grand total of 57, and every one except those with religious reasons works on Saturday and Sunday. I know. I make out the schedules for them. We can't hire them fast enough to keep up with the rate of quitting, firing and not showing up.

And really. The median house price here is $490,000. You're not going to survive running a register at Wal-Mart for $8.50 an hour. Who does he thing works there? This isn't a college town either.

Now, we do have those signs up. Look the next time you're in a Wal-Mart SuperCenter. But until they commit to hiring more staff, "ALL REGISTERS OPEN" ain't going to happen.

And the old fool, he just walked off.

And if shopping here is so bad, WHY DO YOU KEEP COMING BACK EVERY SATURDAY? Come in on a freaking weekday you old bald goon!