Opinion: The Customer Isn't Always Right

Bella colorado | Editor in chief

As someone who has been working in customer service for a few months, I have had my fair share of rude and sassy customers. From getting yelled at because we are out of a certain product, to not letting them have a refund.

Currently at the Price Chopper I work at we have a sign that says all sales are final, meaning that if you buy something you can’t return it unless it was opened or went bad. We have signs posted at the door and at customer service, yet people still say they never saw a sign.

One of the many things customers get upset about is sale prices. For example, Coke, Pepsi, or 7 Up products will go on sale and if you buy three 12 packs then it will cost $10, while normally the for three 12 packs is $17.07. Customers will then try and buy only one or two 12 packs of soda and get angry when they see that the sales price didn’t come up. This is when I then explain that you must buy three of them. It’s mentioned in the Price Chopper Ad and is printed on the sale tag which is then circled in red. I get these customers would like their sale prices because they are trying to save money, but there is a better way of addressing the situation.

I’ve had customers yell at me and tell me I’m doing my job wrong or call me names. Of course I’m not the only one having upset customers, all of my co-workers deal with the same customers.

I’ve had a grown man throw a temper tantrum because he didn’t get a free case of Pepsi. The promotion was if Whit Merrifield got two hits then people enrolled in the rewards program would be able to clip a coupon to their card. The coupon was a free Pepsi 6 pack of the 24oz. bottles. The man didn’t understand that he had to clip the coupon to his card online. When I tried to tell him how the coupon worked he called me stupid and then said that the T.V. said otherwise. After that he dropped the F-bomb and stormed out of the store. Before he could leave the store he decided to aggressively push his cart at the front doors and walked out.

I just think it’s ridiculous when someone who is old enough to be my parent or even my grandparent, yell at me and call me names because they don’t know how to read a sales sign correctly. My co-workers are only around 16-18 years old and don’t deserve to be yelled at because a sale price didn’t come of. So if you are ever in a grocery store completely read the sales sign and if the sale doesn’t come of then address it calmly.