retail is teh suck!

I work retail and it fucking sucks. Customers are asses, bosses are asses, sales ruin my life. and even if I keep moving up I will never make alot of money because it's fucking retail. the one good thing that comes from it is the stories about customers. for example:

"Slow-guy" as we like to call him comes in returns a game through me. I ask him if he want's anything in exchange, and he say no, just the money. He then takes that money and buys a controller five minutes later. after a while he returns the controller saying he changed his mind and get's his money back. At this point I'm mildly annoyed, but things have just begun. He then asks if he can buy back the game he returned to begin things. I swear to god. Guess what he did after about twenty minutes? come on guess. that's right he returns the game again. He comes back after I help one more customer and asks if he can put 4 dollars on a gift card, I tell him he has to put atleast 5 on it. he gets a five dollar gift card. To finish the night he later spends the five dollar gift card on another game.

For those of you counting that's seven, yes fucking seven, transactions for one dumb ass hole. He totally fucked my numbers.

Point is, anyone else got stories, perhaphs happier than mine. I can't be the only one dealing with morons. can I?

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Originally Posted by Box Drink

I can't be the only one dealing with morons. can I?

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There is no reason that you should have missed the hundreds of other posts just like your own. You even used your "I hate retail" thesis statement to segue into an example of a recent retail work event.

I failed to see any recent threads asking for stories... even if there are some I still don't give a fuck about anything you have to say ninjas. sorry.

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Originally Posted by Box Drink

I can't be the only one dealing with morons. can I?

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I've never gone through anything like that, but I've worked at Duchess, a fast food place in Connecticut. Customers are Assholes. Capitol A. Assholes. I once had a guy screaming and swearing at me because I didn't say "Welcome to Duchess. May I take you order" loud enough. If I didn't say it very loud, fine. But to yell and swear at me? C'mon. People are ridiculous.

Hey Box, you better consider it a temp job until you find something that's worth your interest. You don't have to put up with crap like this for the long haul.

That's an awesome retail story. One of the best I've ever heard.

I worked retail for a while at a Sam Goody store in Washington. Best retail story I have involved me and my coworker Roy. We were in the back of the store, putting up the few video casettes that we carried. A guy in a nice suit--about 5'6" and 200lbs--comes up, and the guy looks completely normal. Again, he's wearing a suit, is clean cut--normal looking as can be. Then he asks me, "Do you do piggy back rides?" I don't wanna be offensive, but my initial response is, "Uhhh, I have back problems." I couldn't think of anything else to say to him, I was sufficiently scared.

Anyway, the guy then turns to my coworker Roy and askes him, "Do you like piggy back rides?" Roy's just as taken by surprise as me, and laughs (scared, mind you) and says, "Yeah, I guess."

The guy--all 200lbs. of him--jumps onto Roy's back (Roy is taller than me, but skinnier, and I'm pretty thin). His arms are holding onto Roy tighly and he has his legs wrapped around Roy's torso. The whole time the guy is repeating, "Just as friends! Just as friends!" and Roy is getting both strangled and pulled to the ground by the guy's density. Roy finally pryed him off, and the guy goes running out the store.

A few days later we got some memo from the mall saying that some guy (we assume the same guy) tried getting a piggy back ride from a woman in Nordstroms and left a semen stain on her dress. Oh shit--poor Roy.

Mark, that is awsome.

I would of carried him around the store.

Well, maybe not.

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Originally Posted by Rhydant

Mark, that is awsome.

I would of carried him around the store.

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You would have got it just as bad as that poor lady.

Teh "babbages rumble" with me and icepick. That was pretty neat. Other than that we had like 5 pages of this shit on a pc somewhere. It all blurs together.

The only time I've ever worked retail is when my department at my last job "volunteered" us to work the road show booths as cashiers for our corporate launch (cell phone company in Singapore). I saw all sorts of stupid ass people the two days we had to work.

One guy bought $2000+ in cell phones only to pay with a huge wad of 10 dollar bills. Of course, all the cashiers had to get together to count the damn stack and held up the line forever.

One guy bought $40 worth of stuff and tried to pay us with a $10000 note (I'd never even seen one of those until then...) and he created a huge scene when he we insisted we couldn't make change for that. After 2 managers tried to calm him down, 20 minutes later, the fucking asshole pulls out a huge wad of bills from his pocket and counts out the money in 10s.

One dude was like openly gay. He managed to create a scene by asking to examine his phone and stuff after he had paid and signed his activation agreement. He then asked the cashiers all sorts of technical questions. He refused to talk to the sales people (who knew that stuff) and held everyone up for 15 minutes before declaring that he wouldn't buy the phone because we didn't have another color except for gray.

I swear... just the 2 days at a cash register makes me swear off retail work for the rest of my life.

Mark's story tops them all, good lord is that hilarious.

Tell Roy I'm sorry, but he shouldn't have lied to me about liking piggy back rides.

Yeah, Mark's story is easily the best I've heard.

I work at a concession stand at a movie theater. There are a few stories.

My friend Jeff was working with me and we had a rush (a lot of people wanting food). This one lady was screaming at him because she dropped her own popcorn and he wouldn't refill her bag. She got so upset she slapped him. He turned to me shocked, then socked her one. I had to stop selling food because of the sheer laughter of the subject. She threatened to sue and everything until we pulled the tape from the security cam that she hit him first and if she didn't leave the theater we'd call the cops.

One lady ordered 15 drinks and 15 small bags of popcorn. That's $90. She then said nevermind and didn't buy it.

On a floor that I wasn't working on, some kids snuck in and were running around. They started to bother the guests that wanted to watch a movie. An usher told them to leave and the kids just laughed and said "fuck you." After that he tried to grab one but they all scattered around. He chased just one kid and tackled him to the ground. The kid was only 10 years old. The usher then proceeded to pick the kid up by his throat, took the escalator down to the exit, and tossed him into the street. Security took care of the other brats.

Yeah, selling shit sucks.

The "retail sucks" thread is to TNL what "favorite videogame music" thread was to GameGo!.

Overused, highly unnecessary, and every thread twice as annoying and useless as the last.

You're getting paid to do a job. If you're posting at TNL and working at a videogame store, chances are you wanted to work at said videogame store. So work, get your money, and shut the fuck up. Or, you can quit and get a different job. They are out there.

Good lord. If you guys bitch this much about idiots at the retail counter, try working in farm/livestock maintenance. You wouldn't last five minutes.

Cantankerous animals + faulty farm equipment + hard work + frequent injuries & illness >>>>>>> Stupid customers.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

The "retail sucks" thread is to TNL what "favorite videogame music" thread was to GameGo!.

Overused, highly unnecessary, and every thread twice as annoying and useless as the last.

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Fuck, I forgot about those videogame music threads. They were fucking obnoxious. And he is correct... these retail sucks threads are as well.

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Originally Posted by Raz0r

She got so upset she slapped him. He turned to me shocked, then socked her one.

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That's awesome. I hope he busted her open.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

The "retail sucks" thread is to TNL what "favorite videogame music" thread was to GameGo!.

Overused, highly unnecessary, and every thread twice as annoying and useless as the last.

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It's TNL, dude, shit gets recycled here endlessly...

I'm perfectly happy working retail part time. However if it were my career i think i'd kill myself.

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Originally Posted by diffx

The "retail sucks" thread is to TNL what "favorite videogame music" thread was to GameGo!.

Overused, highly unnecessary, and every thread twice as annoying and useless as the last.

You're getting paid to do a job. If you're posting at TNL and working at a videogame store, chances are you wanted to work at said videogame store. So work, get your money, and shut the fuck up. Or, you can quit and get a different job. They are out there.

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JUST AS FRIENDS, JUST AS FRIENDS!

And to clarify, it is not just retail that sucks. It's any job that deals with the general public. That's because the majority of the world population is dumb. And if they're not dumb, they're trying to lie and cheat to get money.

One thing that happened to me in retail that comes to mind - was when I was working in the mall at a shoe store.We had a lady come in the store and try to buy an $80 pair of shoes. No problem right? Until she whips out a couple of huge-ass jars of fucking pennies :curse: I cant believe we didnt send her out the store packing but, I was voluntold to go in the back storage room and count em out. Went in the back and a while later came back out after only counting about 56$ worth - thats 5600 pennies I counted out. Pissed off I walk back out ,proceed to give the lady the bad news, and she proceeds to call me a liar and asks for a recount , for which I :lol: and then :curse: to the point at which she just left --- Yeah people are teh suck , you notice this a lot better in retail ....

I would've shoved the pennies down her damn throat.

Actually, I would've gotten a manager. That's what they get the big bucks for.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

I would've shoved the pennies down her damn throat.

Actually, I would've gotten a manager. That's what they get the big bucks for.

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Yeah, actually the manager didnt really support me on this ,he's the one who told me to count em out - as a matter of fact he never did shit - #1 of many reasons why I left that job to begin with...

I have stories, but they don't top that piggy-back ride thing.

We had a guy passing bad checks for weeks, taking us for thousands. Of course, one of my fool employees was the one taking the checks. This is the same employee who gashed our countertop with his personal 3" switchblade knife. The same one who gives out the wrong information. The same one who wants to play the role of fanboy, praising PCs and bashing Macs, even though he knows we sell both.

Gosh, you think retail is bad - assistant management in retail blows. Not enough authority because of your ass-clown boss to fire idiot workers, and idiot workers. Um...the customers can be bad too, just never had a piggy-back story. Thank goodness.

Randal - "This job would be great if it wasn't for the fucking customers" - More proof as to why Clerks rules.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

JUST AS FRIENDS, JUST AS FRIENDS!

And to clarify, it is not just retail that sucks. It's any job that deals with the general public. That's because the majority of the world population is dumb. And if they're not dumb, they're trying to lie and cheat to get money.

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It's not that the world's population is dumb. It's that most of you guys who worked at a videogame store and sneered at the people paying your salary are just elitist fucks. That's right, just about all of you. I know, Ive been there.

There's a LOT of reasons why most people, rightfully so might I add, dont give a shit to learn as much about videogames as we did. Going into EB, the home of the sneering elitist nerds, must be an awful experience for them, and I cant say I dont blame 'em. But maybe youll listen to them on a sports talk radio show, spewing amazing amounts of facts and statistics from their head. And they think YOU'RE dumb because you cant do it.

I would say maybe 15-25% of people in my HS class are gonna graduate college. Does that mean the 75-85% are dumb? Maybe, maybe not. A lot of them are gonna end up being plumbers or bricklayers and what not. Sure, I can use residue theory to solve an integral, but I cant lay brick for shit.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

It's not that the world's population is dumb. It's that most of you guys who worked at a videogame store and sneered at the people paying your salary are just elitist fucks. That's right, just about all of you. I know, Ive been there.

There's a LOT of reasons why most people, rightfully so might I add, dont give a shit to learn as much about videogames as we did. Going into EB, the home of the sneering elitist nerds, must be an awful experience for them, and I cant say I dont blame 'em. But maybe youll listen to them on a sports talk radio show, spewing amazing amounts of facts and statistics from their head. And they think YOURE dumb because you cant do it.

I would say maybe 15-25% of people in my HS class are gonna graduate college. Does that mean the 75-85% are dumb? Maybe, maybe not. A lot of them are gonna end up being plumbers or bricklayers and what not. Sure, I can use residue theory to solve an integral, but I cant lay brick for shit.

Elitist. Bullshit.

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Easily the finest post so far this year.

The scamming bit is true though. Some people will make up the biggest lies just to try and save a few bucks. You have your good customers and your bad, it just comes with the territory.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

they're trying to lie and cheat to get money.

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I do that.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

It's not that the world's population is dumb. It's that most of you guys who worked at a videogame store and sneered at the people paying your salary are just elitist fucks. That's right, just about all of you. I know, Ive been there.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

You're getting paid to do a job. If you're posting at TNL and working at a videogame store, chances are you wanted to work at said videogame store. So work, get your money, and shut the fuck up. Or, you can quit and get a different job. They are out there.

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Both these are perfect.

diffusionx is spot on with everything he has said here. I see no harm in telling a funny story like Markryan, but anybody who bitches about what they voluntarily to earn a wage, is just stupid and lame.

Well, all I have to say about my experiences working the snack bar a movie theatre years ago is that it wasn't the customers that sucked (people are fairly well-behaved around here), it was the MANAGERS.

Holy fuck... it's like Famous Players chose our theatre to be the inept-manager dumping-ground or something.


I worked in a videogame store before that. We had the usual selection of regular weirdos (Reno was one, for example,) but I never had any insane encounters. The only memorable ones were on the phone: the kid who called every-single-fucking-day to ask when a certain title (I forget which one) would be released, and the calls from people who thought we were an adult video store (Underground Entertainment.)

About the only other noteworthy thing that happened while I worked at Sam Goody involved pretty much just me.

I was working at the register, and if you've ever been to Sam Goody (hell, all retail places do this) you know that the employees have to sell customers stuff while they're being helped. Like, we're supposed to always talk about the Sam Goody club card (which is pretty much worthless unless you spend a whole lot of money on CDs), ask if the customer wants to reserve something, and ask if they want a free subscription to Entertainment Weekly (which is pretty dubious, but whatever).

Like I was saying, I was working the register and doing my thing, while my female manager was doing some work behind me. One guy comes up to check out and I'm ringing him up, while doing the whole selling thing. I look at his ID 'cause he's paying with a credit card, and I noticed it was a California ID (again, I was working at Sam Goody in Washington). I said something about me being from California, and he was telling me about Santa Cruz or something and being real friendly, and I didn't think much about it except that the guy did seem gay. Not flamboyant or anything, but he had that sway or something. Anyway, I get him to reserve a couple of CDs--Shania Twain was one, and I forget the other--so he's filling out the little card for a reservation. He writes his name, the CD he wants to reserve, and his phone number so we can call him when the CD comes in. He slides the reservation slip towards me with a little spin so I can read it and says, "Well if you want, you've got my number. Give me a call some time and we'll do something."

And no, I'm not gay. Afterwards my manager was like, "Oh my god, he was totally hitting on you" and when I told her that he gave me his number and told me to call him we were both rollin'. That wasn't the only time I got hit on by a guy, but it was definitely one of the slickest.

Congratulations, now you know that you look like a fag.

http://www.dashboardconfessional.com...lash-03-01.jpg

My looks are good enough for my beautiful girlfriend. And I don't have a pink flower in my avatar.

That is possibly the worst shirt I have ever seen. It's up there with those "angel" and "Brat" shirts.


/edit nice sig 88! KISSES!

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

I do that.

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So do I. You're one of the smart ones.

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Originally Posted by diff

It's not that the world's population is dumb. It's that most of you guys who worked at a videogame store and sneered at the people paying your salary are just elitist fucks. That's right, just about all of you. I know, Ive been there.

There's a LOT of reasons why most people, rightfully so might I add, dont give a shit to learn as much about videogames as we did. Going into EB, the home of the sneering elitist nerds, must be an awful experience for them, and I cant say I dont blame 'em. But maybe youll listen to them on a sports talk radio show, spewing amazing amounts of facts and statistics from their head. And they think YOU'RE dumb because you cant do it.

I would say maybe 15-25% of people in my HS class are gonna graduate college. Does that mean the 75-85% are dumb? Maybe, maybe not. A lot of them are gonna end up being plumbers or bricklayers and what not. Sure, I can use residue theory to solve an integral, but I cant lay brick for shit.

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Yeah, I don't blame people for not knowing things about video games. I blame them for being dumb. In any job in which you have to deal with the general public, you will get pissed off at a great number of people, because they're dumb. This has nothing to do with what people know or don't know about video games. Your point is valid, just shouldn't've been directed at me.

Though not as ammusing as MarkRyan's story, when I was working at Circuit City in college, a cute girl had come in with a printer problem. I tried diagnosing the problem the best I could. She didn't seem comfortable doing what I had told her to try. At that point she asked me if I could come over to check it out. She was cute, so I couldn't resist. I went over to her house (she lived with her mom, while she was in school). Her mother answered the door, and I introduced myself as the guy who was coming over to check out the printer. She looked at me blankly, "I thought you were here for dinner?" Sure enough, the girl comes to the door and says "I hope you hungry." with a smile. Sure shit, she went and had salad, dinner and dessert made for the both of us. The kicker is that after 3 hours of dinner and conversation, I stated "I better go check out that printer", considering that I was getting weirded out. I went to check out the printer, only find that it was hooked up and working fine. She asked me to stay and I felt too uncomfortable to leave. Once I finally did a few hours later, she asked if we could go out some time. She was cute and was good conversation, so I agreed. We went out to dinner downtown, and from our orignal conversation I remember her saying that she was a Junior at the locally college, as was I was a Junior in college as well. As we left the restaurant I asked if she wanted to stop for a drink at one of the downtown bars. I was at that point she dropped the bomb that she was 17! Yeah...she was a Junior in college...she started college at 15, she was some musical genius or something. I was totally freaked out. I took her home, gave her a kiss on the cheak and never called her ever again. She would stop in the store randomly to look for me, but I had some good look-outs, so I always ended up in the breakroom at the right time.
My wife and I went to dinner a few months back. The printer girl was our waitress. Luckily she was cool and let me know be her look that she reconized me, but never said anything in front of my wife.

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Originally Posted by MarkRyan

My looks are good enough for my beautiful girlfriend.

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Whatever you say... tiger.
http://www.freedomforum.org/graphics.../gay.pride.jpg

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Originally Posted by MarkRyan

And I don't have a pink flower in my avatar

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And I don't have a man's penis in my mouth. Whats it like?

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Originally Posted by Icepick

And I don't have a man's penis in my mouth. Whats it like?

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Why does everyone desperately want me to be gay? Find another guy!

Eh, that was kind of lame Icepick, you need to pick it up a notch, not enough sleep?

/waits to get flamed

Perhaps your rich white family can buy me some better insults?

Thats more like it

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Originally Posted by NApOLm321

Thats more like it

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Kent by location, kent by nature [/scottish accent]

I think Diffusions point was well made, and the title of this thread is quite obvious in a way (of course retail work sucks, but you do it to get a paycheck...although I admit sometimes its hard to get out of retail because in many cases, what else would one do?).

Maybe the thread should've been something akin to 'Share your retail war stories' or whatever. There's nothing wrong with trading war stories, especially for retail veterans...but as far as advice: I find the best thing to do is just to do your job as painlessly as you can manage, pass potential fucktard customers to your supervisor or manager (thats their gig) and don't stress yourself out at all. It took me many years of experience to finally learn to do that, I'm much happier now, and going on to my 4th year in retail. =\

I've been doing retail for years (gaming retail, even) and don't have any real horror stories. The odd difficult customer and all, but nothing really stands out as hair-pullingly aggravating. Maybe I'm not doing it right?

I've been snapped at, threatened, hit on (once), and made fun of. Worse, I was forced to admit to being *gasp!* wrong once (Oh, the pain!), but none of it has aggravated me enough to spin it into a good story.

And for what it's worth, I always like a good job-horror thread. Any thread with that piggy-back story in it is a thread worth the read.

James

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Originally Posted by Satsuki

nice sig 88! KISSES!

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Can you shoot lightning yet?

no, sorry, not yet :( But I'm learning!!!

Can you videotape your lessons for us?

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Originally Posted by Satsuki

no, sorry, not yet :( But I'm learning!!!

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Keep it up.

Icepick: check your PM's bitch.

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Originally Posted by Videodrone

Both these are perfect.

diffusionx is spot on with everything he has said here. I see no harm in telling a funny story like Markryan, but anybody who bitches about what they voluntarily to earn a wage, is just stupid and lame.

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i work in retail for the love of the things i sell, NOT to deal with f***ing idiots. nobody chooses a job in retail 'cos they enjoy serving fools.

that's just stupid to suggest such a thing.

In EVERY job there are going to be things you like and things you don't. That's life. Bitching about it publicly is just fucking lame. From when I was 18 I worked 30-40 hours a week as a sales person at circuit city, I also spent a year as a manager at Abercrombie and a year as a manger at Gamestop. Retail is not that bad. Actually apart from a few situations, I enjoyed retail very much. There are most definetly worse customer service fields. I can only imagine being a bill collector or something. I spent some time as a customer service rep for an insurance company. You think retail is bad, imagine dealing with people life, ie their health and finances. I didn't enjoy it one bit, but it paid my bills and I had taken the position myself. I didn't like it, so I decided to leave and seek other options. I didn't go on a message board and bitch how I deal with complete idiots and my job is the worst in the world, oh pity me. Crisp Rapper if you love of what you sell out weighs the mental anguish of "f***ing idiots", then great, but you have no bitch about it publicly. You are paid to do a job, and a system of supply and demand determines that your wage is appropriate with what you are required to do and what you are required to deal with. again:

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

You're getting paid to do a job. If you're posting at TNL and working at a videogame store, chances are you wanted to work at said videogame store. So work, get your money, and shut the fuck up. Or, you can quit and get a different job. They are out there.

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point taken... it IS a supposed games site, hell our company provides a website for staff that's almost entirely bitching... it's pretty funny really, idiots are everywhere, i've just learned to ignore them for the most part.

never had anyone asked to ride on my back though. nuts.

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Originally Posted by Hero

Gosh, you think retail is bad - assistant management in retail blows.

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That's exactly where I am right now, I feel your pain...

I figured you'd have people riding on your nuts... since your rapping is so crisp. Holla!

Holla, Holla!

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Originally Posted by Box Drink

I work retail and it fucking sucks. Customers are asses, bosses are asses, sales ruin my life. and even if I keep moving up I will never make alot of money because it's fucking retail. the one good thing that comes from it is the stories about customers. for example:

"Slow-guy" as we like to call him comes in returns a game through me. I ask him if he want's anything in exchange, and he say no, just the money. He then takes that money and buys a controller five minutes later. after a while he returns the controller saying he changed his mind and get's his money back. At this point I'm mildly annoyed, but things have just begun. He then asks if he can buy back the game he returned to begin things. I swear to god. Guess what he did after about twenty minutes? come on guess. that's right he returns the game again. He comes back after I help one more customer and asks if he can put 4 dollars on a gift card, I tell him he has to put atleast 5 on it. he gets a five dollar gift card. To finish the night he later spends the five dollar gift card on another game.

For those of you counting that's seven, yes fucking seven, transactions for one dumb ass hole. He totally fucked my numbers.

Point is, anyone else got stories, perhaphs happier than mine. I can't be the only one dealing with morons. can I?

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I've never worked retail before, so I don't imagine why this aggrivated you. Why did it?

I have a shitty pizza hut job while I put myself through college and probably make less than you even though I've gotten 4 raises. Everybody goes through it.

I complain about my job in retail a lot to let of steam but there is one thing about it:

It's far better than having a REAL job.

Sometimes when I'm down, I think about some of my old jobs, working 3x as hard for half the pay. Then I smile, and sell another digital camera.

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Originally Posted by GohanX

I complain about my job in retail a lot to let of steam but there is one thing about it:

It's far better than having a REAL job.

Sometimes when I'm down, I think about some of my old jobs, working 3x as hard for half the pay. Then I smile, and sell another digital camera.

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While I dont care if someone bitches you were spot on here...

A question for everyone griping about this thread- if it was called something like "Retail Stories" rather than "God I Hate Everything, Wah Wah Wah", would that be ok? As I said earlier, any thread that has the piggyback story in it is worth having around.

Retail doesn't suck, but it does get you some interesting stories.

James

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Originally Posted by James

Retail doesn't suck, but it does get you some interesting stories.

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And lots of free games, and lots of super-cheap games and anime, and lots of random video game crap. I like it, overall. Never really feels like work, more like hanging out with friends.

Except for closing, closing sucks.

I just got fired from CompUSA because I didn't sell as much as the seasonal employees. Never mind the fact that I was making the fucking store run while they ran around pushing replacement plans to backwater hicks in addition to working there for almost three years and knowing the store inside and out. Eh, too bad I was the only guy who knew anyfuckingthing about half the shit they sell. I don't think I can handle electronics retail anymore, but I know some poeple at the SoftEtc here and may give that a shot.

Just cashed in my Xboxretail points. Turns out they give you seven days after termination to take advantage of the goods. Sweet.

I had some stories but they're all stupid. Like my old job. Fuck I'll miss the discounts. :(