Retail Holiday Horror Stories

I worked retail through 3 holiday seasons, though this year wasn't one of them I heard and saw nothing that made it seem ballbreaking in any way. Nearly every store seemed to kinda coast along nicely without much stress or panic. '01 Holiday season was a headache for me in Video Game retial. Not only did we get LOTS of trade-ins but we also did amazing sales with 2 systems launching at the same approximate time. Add a harsh string of gun-point robberys in there and you have my record hardest season even though in '99 we did more business (both '99 and '00 we're just striaght-up clean madness.. no violent crimes). '02 seemed tame.

ºTracer

Pretty tame holiday season all around. Christmas Eve is usually the absolute worst, but it was almost sad how many customers we got in. I guess everybody got their shopping in ahead of time. Next thursday I will join the ranks of the ex-retail workers.

See, this is disheaterning; was my staff the only staff that was at each other's throats? Bitter and or jaded? Drowning in a deluge of phone calls inquiring about pre-owns and BeyBlades for the PS1?

Damn.

Maybe it's the different economies...

Last year a woman returns a crockpot to Wal-Mart, it had been a gift from her husband, and it had a minor issue, you see it was already returned once for whatever reason, and the woman could tell this because upon opening it up to use it she found it already filled to the brim with food, note this was not a free gift that came with the crock pot, the fact that the food was rotting made her realize this. :wtf:

The mall I work for bought a microwave from Wal-Mart, It was very important that everything go right because the people using this microwave were all Simon and IPC big shots, and when they opened up the microwave they found that the handle was broken, managing to pry it open they found that this also was a return (can you guess how?) If you said because it included the nasy pile of rotting food feature then your absolutly right. It was promptly returned. :wtf: :wtf:

Not a hideous holiday season, no real standout stories that I can think of. The only even somewhat interesting bit is a guy telling me that GTA3/VC is unamerican, and after a comment or two from me I realize he's actually serious. I did something very rare and exercised restraint, just letting it go. Too bad, it could have been a fun conversation. (GTA is made in Scotland, antiauthoritarianism is a very American value, etc.)

Our assistant manager got fired the weekend before Christmas, and the holiday shopping refused to come to an end until a nasty snowstorm this weekend. It wasn't so much one big thing adding in the stress but the day after day grind of no letup. The store is still a bit of a disaster area, but it's being tamed at last. This isn't being helped by a new planogram with every section in the place getting moved to a new area. Feels like busywork to me, but they didn't ask my opinion.

Oddly, the big sold-out game was Kirby GBA. Not that we didn't get a good number of Socom, X-Box Live, and Sony Network Adaptor requests, but the Kirby ones were the most frequent and never filled.

It's over now, at last. :)

James

At this point, I guess I should be thankful I got out of the retail mess back in 1996. :) Before that, I worked for Toys R Us for two and a half years (two of them in the security booth where the video games were kept), and just over a year at a poster/framing shop. (It kind of tells you how bad TRU is when you leave a video game job to go work for your ex-girlfriend...)

Stories are available should anyone want, but they're kinda long... :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by DArque Bishop
Stories are available should anyone want, but they're kinda long... :)

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Post away!

Long = good. Lets hear 'em. :)

James

Quote:

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Originally posted by James
Long = good. Lets hear 'em. :)

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Not necessarily, but here goes one...

Back then, Toys R Us kept their video games in a locked booth called the security booth, and customers would pick up tickets for the games off the store shelf, pay for them, and then bring their validated ticket and receipt to the security booth to pick up their game. When we ran out of a game, we'd just go out onto the salesfloor and pull all the remaining tickets. Hence, the whole "Security ticketwriter" position and all. (Personal note: I happen to think that switching from that system was pretty stupid on TRU's part; I'd hate to see what their loss levels are at now.)

Anyway, during Christmas shopping season, we would end up being stuck at the security booth our entire shift, just handing out games. One day, I'm at the booth, when the little sale printer by the door printed out a slip letting me know a security item had been purchased. I looked at it, and it said, "SNES Super Punch-Out". I went, got the game, and stood by the window waiting for the customer. She eventually arrived, handed me the ticket and receipt, and I proceeded to stamp them. After she signed the slip for the game, I handed it to her. She looked at it, then at me, and said, "No, I got Donkey Kong Country."

Excuse me? :wtf:

"I'm sorry, ma'am, you bought Super Punch Out."

"No I didn't. I bought Donkey Kong Country."

This went on for a little bit, with me even at one point taking the ticket and showing her it said "Super Punch-Out". As near as I could tell, she picked up a ticket from an envelope ABOVE the DKC display, and not BELOW it. In any event, she said, "Well, I want DOnkey Kong Country." Problem was, DKC had JUST come out, and we were sold out of the game. I told her as much, and she said, "Could you check in the back, please?"

*sigh* So, I walked back and did, knowing full well I didn't have any copies I could sell her, but looking anyway. (Note #2: we actually had three copies, but they were pre-orders that hadn't been picked up yet. I wouldn't consider giving those out under normal circumstances because someone already put money down on them, but this was a week or two after one of my associates got screamed at because she gave a customer a copy of a game that was sold out but we had copies of for pre-order people... and one of the pre-order people came in to find his copy had been sold. Needless to say, I wasn't going down that route myself.) So, not finding a copy I could sell her, I went back to the front, and told her that we were sold out. She asked what she should do now, and I answered that she should take her ticket to the front for a refund. As she goes, I get back to work straightening the booth area.

A few minutes later, I hear my name called over the intercom, asking me to call the customer service desk. I do so, and the customer service department head asks me, "Hey, do you have any copies of Donkey Kong Country in stock?"

Excuse me? :wtf:

I look over at the desk, and sure enough, there was the customer I was just talking to standing by the department head. I sighed, and said, "I already told her: we don't have any in stock." There was a pause while the department head talked to the customer, and then:

"She doesn't believe you."

EXCUSE ME?! :bs:

*sigh* Somehow the department head convinced her I wasn't lying, but still... wouldn't it make sense to a rational person that it would have been more in my self-interest to GIVE her a copy of the game so that I wouldn't have to DEAL with her anymore?

I dunno... I'm just glad I'm out of all that madness. :)

Well, we run a pretty tight ship here at the store I work at(a second-hand game store in the mall, not a chain) and the worst we had we the people that think they can "outhink" our return policies.

1. Now, most the time it's no big deal, because we just exchange their stuff...however, this holiday, alot of people bought the Fellowship of the Rings game (which I've never seen, but I assume must suck unlike Two Towers, because almost every single copy did someone try and return, gift *or* self-purchase). So, this customer brings in a copy, and he's like, "Uh,I need to return this."

Me: "Was there some problem [besides buying a shitty game even though I *told* you to try it on the system in the store first]?"
Dumbass: "Uh, it doesn't play in my Xbox."
Me: "Oh really. How strange, because, you bought a brand new copy."
Dumbass: "Uh, I don't know. It just doesn't work."
Me: "Well, let me try it in our Xbox here, and see if we can't see what the problem is, eh?"
Dumbass: "Well, uh, there's some other games my Xbox doesn't play either; so, it might just be my system."
Me: "Riiight." *game runs perfectly*

2. Some people also buy games or systems that they own a damaged/malfunctioning version of, and then try to return their broken crap, saying that what they bought from us "doesn't work." Too bad we right down the serial numbers on the systems. I love the look on their faces when they're caught...of course, I get to play it straight, "Excuse me sir, but...this isn't the system you bought from us. You must have made a mistake." Sometimes they can get away with it with games though, except when they're retarded; which is most the time. Once...

3. ...this guy buys a new, sealed copy of Ghost Recon. Next day, brings it back, claiming it doesn't play. I take a look at the disk, and it's scratched to hell. "Sir, this game no longer appears to be in 'new' condition; I can't accept a return."

4. Sometimes the problems are employee-caused. Someone bought a copy of Pokemon Silver for the store. I don't find out about until some customer returns it and says that it's not the right game inside...so, I take a look at it, and it looks like it's been drilled in the back or something (certainly not very pristine condition no matter what)...popping it in, it becomes apparent that someone switched the rom inside with Qix (a really shitty GB game). Good one, guys...