The More You Know
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| My interpretation of a layaway box, it also had holes at the top, so you could hang clothes through. |
How it works
The associate had to bring a big brown box from the back room, and had to insert the items into the box, many times people would put so much stuff on Layaway, that you'd need a bunch of these boxes.
They then had to write the customers information, expiration date, and layaway number, on the box, then tape it up. At the end of the day, the closing cashiers had to put the layawys in the layaway room. Many a time, cashiers didn't do this. So the layaways would start to pile up by registers, and cause lot's of problems because layaways would be "missing", due to the fact that they were still by the registers!
Layaways were always obnoxious, they were very time consuming, and held the line up. (Thank goodness they got rid of this system! But apparently it was only my store that was affected. )
I work in the Home department, and while I was working near the furniture sectopm. This illiterate lady comes up to me, and she goes. "Do you guys have LAYERWAYS here?".
And I said, yes, we have Layaways.
She goes, are you sure you have LAYERWAYS?!
I said, yes, I am positive!
Then she tells me, she needs ME to be her personal assistant! She directs me to the furniture section, and she keeps asking me for prices for things that clearly have the price like right in front of her!!! The price would be right there, and she'd ask me how much it was! I kept telling her what prices everything was.
She wanted all of this obnoxiously big stuff! Like lot's of it, three dressers, two stools, some glass/ceramic decorations, weird metal things, a this and a that. I had like four carts of junk, and it's just like, do you really need all of this stuff??!
Then she's trying to see if the stools work, I was thinking to myself, she's obese, and she's trying to get on these tiny stools. Meanwhile only like 30 percent of her is on this thing, like she cannot physically fit on this thing. She's like I want it, her (I assume) husband is telling her that it's uncomfortable and cheap. (Well duh, where the hell do you think you are, Macy's?! This is an off brand retailer, we get stuff that other stores don't want!) Her son, also commented saying the stool was uncomfortable as well.
So she's like, I want two of them
She explains to me about how much she's going to tell the manager how great I am, and I was thinking to myself, I'm trying to get a new job, I don't care about getting praised! I highly doubt she even told a manager anything, not that it really matters...
She goes on her way, to shop more. I put her obnoxious order to the front, near the registers. But not all of it would fit in the carts, so I go and get a Hand truck-flat bed thing.
I go to the back, and get another flatbed (Some call it a hand-truck). I bumped into two of my co-workers, and I'm recounting the story, about how this lady keeps calling them "LAYERWAYS"!
Later...
The woman wanted a discount for the three dressers she wanted to get, because they had scratches. I had to run around this big store trying to find a manager to ok it. After I found a manager and brought her over, she OKed the use of the discount and was probably the only other person who actually heard the lady pronounce it as "Layerways".
I put the items up, and I tell the supervisor about the layaway and the discount. She actually went out of her way, and wrapped the fragile stuff in a paper in advanced!
I wasn't there for this part, so It's going to be brief.
Maybe an hour later, I went up to the registers for whatever it was and I had jut missed something, unfortunately.
Apparently the woman was causing problems, and being rude to the cashier! She wanted to pick and choose what was in her "LAYERWAYS", after the layaway would be created. At my store, when you make a layaway, it's a final deal. You can't take something out, or change it. What's done is done, and if you want to add something, you have to make a completely new layaway. But she didn't want to do that, so she was complaining and being a jerk. Ironically enough, she had to leave without making any LAYERWAYs, because her husband forgot his check book!
(Bring a credit card, it's easier and more convenient!)
They did however, buy 500 dollars of merchandise, but couldn't pay for the "layerways". I assume she bought all of the clothes that I saw her putting in her cart, after I had put away all of the things she wanted for her layaway.
They said they would be back for it, but they never came back. At the end of the day, me, the supervisor and two other people had to put all of the stuff back! There was lot's of it too, 2-4 carts and 3 big dresser furniture...
Throughout the day, I would tell people about the "Layerway" Lady and I would joke, don't you just love LAYERWAYS??? Saying it incorrectly on purpose!
The one manager said she needed a vacation after this. Girl, I don't blame you...
I literally spent 40 minutes trying to help this lady out, being her "personal assistant". Dealing with her saying "Layerways", and running around the store trying to find a manager because she wanted something discounted. Just for her to be nasty to the cashiers, not have the proper currency, and then waste all of our time going on a treasure hunt for her, just for her not to buy half of the stuff! We have lot's of stuff to do, and it's ridiculous when customers waste our time like this!
It was just so weird, but funny, this is probably the lightest customer story I have posted on this blog!
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