I actually didn't realize what he'd said there for a few minutes... then I just sort of stood there and gaped after him.
"But I'm getting ahead of myself:"
Went to kmart for the microwave they had on sale. Ours is dying (we have one of those little push button-pops the door out kind and it's been slammed so many times (it's a venting microwave, poor thing) that now it no longer pops out properly, so I got a backup just in case we can't get the door open one day) and, for the appliance, it wasn't too bad a price. I also wanted to get one of the little '20 questions' thing for my roomie-who apparently thinks they are awesome. Yay! Stocking stuffers!
Friday morning was also the time the roomie was leaving with her boyfriend for a bit of a retreat and to celebrate their anniversary and both their birthdays, so her kid came with me. Said kid has been doing that thing kids do well-he gets sicker, then he gets better, then he gets sicker again. After an hour and a half in the store, he's hacking his lungs out.
Being the Uber!Auntie I am, I have cough medicine, headache medicine and half a drug cabinet in my purse at all times, so I told him to sit down on said microwave box (We were just carrying it around. Also, the kid is small, there's nowhere -else- to sit down in a kmart except the cold floor and he'd have gotten run over there, and keep in mind-we were purchasing the microwave), take a drink of water and I'd give him some meds.
This angry, ANGRY!!! guy runs up and gets -three inches from my face-, not quite yelling but certainly not calm and collected as I'd expect any sane manager to be on black friday. "HE CAN'T SIT ON THAT BOX! NOT UNTIL YOU'VE BOUGHT IT!"
I blink. Wtf? Then I realize he probably thinks it's some other customer's.
Me: Oh! He's just taking some cough meds real quick *note the kid is as red as his jacket is* and trying to get his breath back a little bit. We -are- buying it, though.
Psycho!Manager: YOU CAN'T DO THAT UNTIL YOU'VE ALREADY PAID FOR IT BECAUSE YOU MIGHT RETURN IT FOR HAVING A DENT IN IT.
Wait, what? so a kid sitting on the very corner of a box, with his legs on the ground, is going to dent the top of the microwave? Hell, even if it did, I'd tap it out-I'd know it'd be my fault. This kid isn't heavy. He's short, too.
Me: ...er... Oo' alrighty then. 'bye then?
The kid has already gotten up, he's still hacking again, and I swear this guy's skin should have turned green when I dared to say 'bye' to him. Some of you might see that as rude and dismissive. I didn't think of it that way when I said it-I honestly thought he had better things to do than stand and bitch at me since they were paging a manager up front.
Him: IF YOU TELL ME BYE AGAIN I'LL BE TELLIN' YOU BYE AND GET SECURITY DOWN HERE-*cue incoherent SCREAMING on the other side of said microwave box, finger a few iotas away from poking me in the eye*
Holy what the HELL, dude! I know tempers and stress runs high on black friday. I respect that. I'm usually nice and perky and try to help out the associates (IE: customers looking for certain items I've already picked up-I'll tell'em where it is and point them in the right direction). I mean, I could understand if I'd told him to fuck off or something, but I said -bye-. and he's threatening me with security? Wtf? The kid is near tears because this large, angry man is screaming at us. THREE ROWS OF PEOPLE are STARING in utter disbelief. My voice has not raised once, keep that in mind.
I scowl.
Me: Look. You already told me he can't sit on the box. Fine-I think it's silly, considering I could sit him down on it in the parking lot and it would STILL end up dented and, in your theory, I'd still return it-so I see very little use in telling me not to do it until it's paid for. Regardless, you already told me and he's already moved. You're being paged up front and it's pure insanity in any store on black friday. I told you 'bye' because I thought we were done. Now you're yelling at me. I'm not saying another word to you. 'Bye. Again.
Snappish and snarky-I don't take getting yelled at well, though. Especially when it's disturbing the kid so much. I turn my back on him, tell the kid to ignore him and look for the 20 questions thingy (we were in the toy aisle at the moment, so the people on the horizontal line ahead of us, behind us and the people on the same aisle as us were the ones wtf'ing over this).
He growls, stalking off, and I hear 'stupid cracker bitch' come out of his mouth.
I've been called stupid many a time. Bitch the same thing. Both were highly in appropriate, but still, -cracker-? Hi racist!
The people near me started asking just what the -hell- his problem was. So I explained. Many a shaken head were seen.
Of course, this is also the same manager I saw shoving, elbowing and slamming his way through a crowd later on (not even trying to say excuse me and give them the chance to move) while in line. He knocked over a little girl who started crying. He didn't even twitch about it (though in his benefit, he may not have HEARD her-it WAS loud in said store near the checkouts). He was trying to get to a register for a complaint, I believe-since he went to the register that was paging out for a manager.
I asked for some help carrying out said microwave (my back was one big hurt) and the store manager popped up. I asked him if he knew the manager's name that was such a dick. He gave it to me and curiously asked why.
That's when the kiddo popped up.
You will never see a grown man turn paler than hearing the words 'stupid cracker bitch' pop out of a seven year old's mouth.
He gave me the store number, his number, corporate's number, the guy's name, called his manager-in-training over to help me out (I offered the guy a tip and he said no-gods he was awesome, though), and told me to come back in saturday when things had calmed down a bit and he'd take care of it.
I called back yesterday. I asked if it was alright to wait 'til Monday so he won't be quite so busy. He thanked me for that, said that was fine, and I'm off to see them on Monday.
So, to recap:
Angry!!!! manager: shit service. Downright abusive.
Store manager: Hearts! Love! Good service
Store manager's minion in training who helped me out loads: More hearts! More love! Over-the-top kinda service for toting a massive microwave out BALANCED ON HIS HEAD!!!!! to amuse the kid (who was still upset about the dick manager) (mind you, the pressure wasn't on his head, but he was making it look as if he was balancing it like that and the kid was highly amused).
Edit: Anyone ever notice the naysayers are always the -same damn people-? And while I see people get whined at for having frequent bad service, I never see anyone get 'omfg no way you have that many shitty customers' over at cs. Doublestandards, ftw!
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