- Joined
- May 3, 2016
The Retail Horror Thread 2: More Tales to Chill your Bones
- Thread starter Surtur
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2015
I figured most places would give "barely damaged goods" to second hand shops or other resell outlets for dirt cheap...?
EDIT: But then again that might be a big box store thing or just flat out ignored, I don't really know.
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- Joined
- May 30, 2014
Some places damage out merchandise they can't sell to a discount store under the same brand (some like NM Last Call, Saks Off 5th, etc) and others go to other discount type stores (like Jeremy's which is on the upscale side where you can sometimes find nice things like slightly damaged Miu Miu bags and mismatched size Louboutins for far less than retail). Some stores (think like Express, Old Navy, Uniqlo, Banana Republic--those are the ones I've seen) put out merchandise on the sale racks with big old final sale tags indicating where the damage is, the nature of it, and a very deeply discounted final sale price.
Other times merch gets destroyed before it's thrown away to prevent reselling. Sometimes this happens because someone did something and didn't pay any modicum of attention, like someone putting two lefts of the same Dior pump together in the same box
. Oh man, that was like sawing into my stomach when I had to cut those.I think it varies on the store and with their policies. I know this also happens with electronics, home furnishings... everything. I've bought a few "open box" things at Best Buy. I feel like most retailers are really good about pointing out any damage/wear as a CYA move.
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2016
I'll make one. Though if you want a visual image, imagine ten stories in ten seconds. You think it disappeared then you look up and say "oh, there it is". So it puts the whole Takata recall into perspective when that's going into your face and there's a slight chance it may shoot metal shards into your face.WE WANT A VIDEO!!
We're a junkyard, if a customer wants to repair a broken part, we'll sell it at a discount.
fire_fly
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2015
Today wasn't too bad, but we did have one customer who tried to return a couple of shirts that no sane person would think we'd take back. One of them had food stains on the back of it (???) and the other smelled like the inside of an asshole.
The thing was, the shirt still had a tag on it, so why did it stink so bad? How nasty does your car/house/whatever have to be for a shirt you didn't even wear to smell like that?
The thing was, the shirt still had a tag on it, so why did it stink so bad? How nasty does your car/house/whatever have to be for a shirt you didn't even wear to smell like that?
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2015
Maybe they literally used it as a seat cover while farting like a steam engine?
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
You kidding? I used to work for John Lewis (high end UK department store) delivering and collecting shit from customers houses. When Plasma TV's were new and very very expensive Bose sold a batch of about fifty that were perfect in every way except the remote had been omitted from the packaging. Rather than send the customer a remote Bose demanded we give them an entire replacement TV then provide VIDEO PROOF of the destruction of the old one clearly showing the Serial number engraved on the casing. We had three of the batch go through our depot and our boss even rang Bose's UK HQ to ask if he could give them away to staff and was told no. We ended up having to feed them into a shredder.
Interesting side note BTW, never ever buy anything from Bose. The TV's they sell are manufactured by Panasonic then just fitted into a case that says Bose on it, a £1000 Bose flat screen is functionally identical to a £250 Panasonic one. The wave guide speaker things they make are reasonable BUT because they own a patent on it they can make them for under £10 and sell them for a few hundred. Basically all they are is a cone amplifier that projects reasonable quality sound over a wide area, the gimmick is that a very small speaker sounds like a large one and that makes you not notice the middling sound quality the things kick out. They never service or repair anything if they can just bin and replace it because they have such a massive margin on anything they sell the stuff is worthless to them. Basically they're a wasteful, deceitful bunch of assholes who sell crap tech to unsuspecting people using nothing but clever branding to appear premium. You want really good tech? Buy Bang & Olufsen.
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2014
A lady in the grocery store I work in freaked out for no reason whatsoever. I was working outside while she was storming out, so I didn't see the whole thing happen. She was screaming like someone just ran over her beloved pet dog and looked like a morbidly obese meth abuser. She also got into a verbal spat in the parking lot with another person who had apparently stuck up for the cashier girl she had just subjected to a tirade of verbal abuse for no reason. I'm a patient guy when it comes to customers as they're the ones paying me, and I can empathize with customer frustration when something doesn't go right such as an item being expired. However, if you're going to be an abhorrent sack of shit and abuse people for no reason, I'm not going to serve you.
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2015
Back when my aunt managed a Wal-Mart, she'd always talk about what a great company they are to work for and one of her favorite things to do was handle destruction of returned merchandise. I remember her going on about how returned clothes got just automatically tossed into the dumpster and that the homeless would sometimes get the clothes and wear them.
Now a normal person might just decide, hey, let's donate this stuff or something. But not her. She'd make sure it was all completely shredded, then pour used motor oil on it too so it couldn't be used as a rag or blankets. They'd do that for food too, even though they didn't have to. She hated the homeless.
She was one of the "chosen group" of high level managers the company sent to Germany in the late 90s to try and shove Wal-Mart down their throats. She came back bitching about those mean rude Germans, calling her "American Pig", and refusing to speak English! Just awful!. I later found out she was horribly rude to everyone, completely shit on the culture and everyone she met, refused to learn a word of German, and ran around screaming something like "ICK BEN AMERICAN! SPRICKEN THE ENGLISH!" at random people whenever she needed something.
She ended up later leaving Wal-Mart and trying to start her own retail business and completely lost her ass on it. Billed it as an upscale antique shop type place for rich tourists, but it was all new stuff bought from catalogs made to look old and she'd order a fuckton too much then raise the price like 300%. I handmade a bunch of outdoor crafts for her to sell like garden archways and birdhouses (which were the only sales she ever had).
Eventually she realized she was losing everything, so she left my uncle (after 20+ years of marriage) left him holding the bag for everything and then fled across the country to live with her kids and filed for divorce. Haven't really heard from her since.
Now a normal person might just decide, hey, let's donate this stuff or something. But not her. She'd make sure it was all completely shredded, then pour used motor oil on it too so it couldn't be used as a rag or blankets. They'd do that for food too, even though they didn't have to. She hated the homeless.
She was one of the "chosen group" of high level managers the company sent to Germany in the late 90s to try and shove Wal-Mart down their throats. She came back bitching about those mean rude Germans, calling her "American Pig", and refusing to speak English! Just awful!. I later found out she was horribly rude to everyone, completely shit on the culture and everyone she met, refused to learn a word of German, and ran around screaming something like "ICK BEN AMERICAN! SPRICKEN THE ENGLISH!" at random people whenever she needed something.
She ended up later leaving Wal-Mart and trying to start her own retail business and completely lost her ass on it. Billed it as an upscale antique shop type place for rich tourists, but it was all new stuff bought from catalogs made to look old and she'd order a fuckton too much then raise the price like 300%. I handmade a bunch of outdoor crafts for her to sell like garden archways and birdhouses (which were the only sales she ever had).
Eventually she realized she was losing everything, so she left my uncle (after 20+ years of marriage) left him holding the bag for everything and then fled across the country to live with her kids and filed for divorce. Haven't really heard from her since.
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2016
Did she get her Germany job through nepotism? That's the only way I can imagine someone so incompetent can get such a post. I hope Walmart learned a lesson.
- Joined
- May 18, 2014
Are you really surprised Walmart of all companies encourages being a classist asshole?
This is where the current CEO of Walmart lives.
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2016
Oh no, what surprises me is that they didn't do research on their employees to make sure they didn't waste money on an experiment set for failure.Are you really surprised Walmart of all companies encourages being a classist asshole?
This is where the current CEO of Walmart lives.
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2015
They weren't in Germany long, the Germans pretty much told Wal-Mart to get out and stay out. Wal-Mart blamed it on "weak CEOs, too high of worker pay and too many worker rights/union rights". Basically they weren't going to allow Wal-Mart to come treat Germans like they do Americans, and they were fucking appalled that the potential German management stood up for employees rather than jumping at the chance to shit all over them as was expected.
Apparently despite being fairly evil and obnoxious, my aunt was quite ruthless and imposing. Like 6' tall, very masculine, and a loud Texas republican as well. Apparently quite a good manager as far as Wal-Mart was concerned. Just good at making an ass of herself outside a professional setting.
fire_fly
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2015
So, I don't know if any of you have ever had to do really intense prep work for a sale, but I need to vent a bit.
Last week, we made 1500 (yes, over a thousand) phone calls, went "blitzing", which is when you go to salons and hand out samples and fliers, told EVERYBODY who came into the store about the sale, tried to take orders... And it became apparent this morning that it was all for nothing. We're supposed to make $16,000 in two days and I have no idea how we're going to get there now. We'd made about half of our goal for the day by the time I left this evening, and it was just an hour before closing time.
See, there were two things that killed us. 1) we just had our VIP sale a week ago and most of our big buyers showed up to that, and 2) the sales reps have been running their sale for the past week, effectively killing our chances of getting any other big accounts in. Several people told us outright that this was the reason they weren't coming.
I feel like I wasted my fucking life for a solid week. I killed myself working to get everything done and literally worried myself sick, and I have nothing to show for it.
The thing is, salons tend to be slower in June, at least in our area. If this sale was in May or July, we'd be making out like bandits, but since it's the slowest salon month of the year, people aren't going to buy as much, even if things are on sale. I get why the company is trying to drive sales in a slow month, but expecting us to make these ridiculous goals is just stupid. As is having the real sale only a week after the VIP sale, I mean come on. At least wait 2-3 weeks so some of these people will run through their stock.
If things don't pick up tomorrow I think my manager will have a nervous breakdown. And I won't be far behind her.
Last week, we made 1500 (yes, over a thousand) phone calls, went "blitzing", which is when you go to salons and hand out samples and fliers, told EVERYBODY who came into the store about the sale, tried to take orders... And it became apparent this morning that it was all for nothing. We're supposed to make $16,000 in two days and I have no idea how we're going to get there now. We'd made about half of our goal for the day by the time I left this evening, and it was just an hour before closing time.
See, there were two things that killed us. 1) we just had our VIP sale a week ago and most of our big buyers showed up to that, and 2) the sales reps have been running their sale for the past week, effectively killing our chances of getting any other big accounts in. Several people told us outright that this was the reason they weren't coming.
I feel like I wasted my fucking life for a solid week. I killed myself working to get everything done and literally worried myself sick, and I have nothing to show for it.
The thing is, salons tend to be slower in June, at least in our area. If this sale was in May or July, we'd be making out like bandits, but since it's the slowest salon month of the year, people aren't going to buy as much, even if things are on sale. I get why the company is trying to drive sales in a slow month, but expecting us to make these ridiculous goals is just stupid. As is having the real sale only a week after the VIP sale, I mean come on. At least wait 2-3 weeks so some of these people will run through their stock.
If things don't pick up tomorrow I think my manager will have a nervous breakdown. And I won't be far behind her.
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2013
I'd prefer not to elaborate much further, but I've learned that when you're applying for a job and your potential employer introduces themself to you by telling you their entire history of mental illness and that they swear their anxiety is getting better, you should seek employment elsewhere.
Also if they greet customers by telling them they have nice skin, that's just weird.
Also if they greet customers by telling them they have nice skin, that's just weird.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2015
"You have nice skin..I bet it feels nice to touch.."
Nope. Nopenopenope.
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2014
Those sorts of statements are most commonly followed up by "I can't wait to wear it."
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2013
It was "Welcome to [undisclosed location]. You have very nice skin by the way" *slight pause* "Are you a dermatologist?"
Customer was like "holy shit I just came in to look at fudge"
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2015
Run. [undisclosed person] is going to skin you and wear you like a coat.
- Joined
- May 30, 2014
I wish you the best of luck in your search. I had a phone interview with someone once who I couldn't get a word in edgewise with, even when I tried to cut the call off. He also repeatedly disparaged the previous designers for "running off" for full-time employment. I'm glad it was a phone interview because I know I was making some pretty terrible faces.