Rude cashier and manager

I'm sorry that happened to you. A manager who refuses to handle
problems is not a manager. He has a boss and that's whom you need to
speak with. There is really no excuse for being rude to a customer.

Let me come at this from a slightly different angle, by sharing some
episodes from my own customer service experience. The other day, I
got a phone call from a customer. She immediately demanded to speak
to our owner. I asked what this was in regard to, and was told that
was "none of my concern." When I had made it clear that he would
probably not take a call without knowing at least who the caller was
and a brief description of the problem, I was grudgingly told that the
problem was something that a) had nothing to do with our owner
specifically, and b) was easily fixed by me. If I had made our owner
stop what he was doing and come over, I would have wasted his time, my
time, and the customer's time. Even less of the customer's time could
have been wasted, if she had just communicated the problem to me
immediately.

Another scenario happened at Budget constantly. A customer would
return a car and want a discount for a problem with the rental. I
could physically enter in a discount, but had to have manager's
approval to do so. So, I would smile and excuse myself to talk to the
manager. The manager would approve the discount, I would come back to
the front to apply the discount, and the customer would then want to
talk the manager. Our managers, like HD's I'm sure, did many other
things other than deal with customer service issues, so often they
just didn't have time to come out and deal personally with a customer,
especially when the problem had been resolved.

I think what happened in this case was that Luis told Olivia how to
handle the problem, and didn't have time to go discuss it further with
Wendy. The problem was less with Luis than with Olivia's relaying of
the message. Probably Luis said something like, "Go do this and this
to fix it, and tell her we're sorry for the inconvenience, but I have
to do payroll/paperwork/scheduling/administrative stuff and can't come
talk to her." What Olivia then should have done was to come back and
say, "Ok, I've talked to my manager. He is right in the middle of
someting and can't come out, but instructed me on how exactly to
resolve this. If you have further questions, here is his card."
(That is a little speech I've been polishing lo these many years in
customer service, and it rarely fails me.)

I'm not saying Wendy was wrong, although she did carry the whole thing
a bit farther than I probably would have. Of course, having worked in
retail, I understand that if you don't really need the manager you are
really just wasting your time by demanding one. I realize that
people's first instinct when they encounter a problem is to get a
manager, but they really aren't necessary for most issues, except to
give an employee direction or permission. Once that is done, they
generally have no further need to be there.

Of course, I could be completely wrong and off base. Heaven and I
both know that there are some truly bad managers out there that let
their employees take the heat and refuse to help. Heaven and I both
know that I've had them too. If that is the case, I hope Luis is
corrected. I don't know that Wendy needs to be informed of how this
is dealt with, but it should probably be dealt with if Luis truly is
falling down on the job.

I believe the manager would not come over. Reason I have experienced
the same thing in Home Depot. The managers hide off the floor and
refuse to come out. I was a store manager for years and I cannot
imagine ever refusing to speak with a customer that had requested to
speak with me.

I even suspected that perhaps this had been some type of directional
training from Home Depot. A good friend of mine in NYC related a very
similar story with a manager refusing to speak with him at his
neighborhood store.

i remember a time at work.. a lady wanted to return something, and it
was a binder or something.. but the only thing that was on the receipt
was something from the copy center. I told her this and she said the
girl rung it that way cuz there werent any more like that. So i called
the manager over to verify.. and luckily he was there that night. but
yea.. its a pain in the rear.

Because really, that's all you want: to know that they aren't going
to ignore blatant rudeness and will speak with the manager.

Good luck!

I am with you on this one. I would have been ticked off if that
manager didn't come over to help me. What a COWARD!!! I think that
Home Depot makes enough $$$ that they can spare some for customer
service training.

The cashier was TOTALLY at fault for this - she should know that
regardless of whether it is quicker for her, she is supposed to touch
EACH item you have and scan it for this exact reason.

Sounds to me like she was trying to cover her backside because she
failed to follow procedure!

But bottom line, I am guessing a wonderboard would not be a small
item, certainly not something you could have accidentally walked out
with or tried to fraudulently returned. It should have been obvious
it was a mistake.

Since it was her fault, I'm surprised she didn't just tell you to get
the right one that matched your receipt and been done with it. That
should have been a relatively easy fix.

But I get the feeling that there are holes in this letter and I have a
suspicion some info is missing here - either this cashier lied to the
mgr. and that's why he never came over or there is something that the
OP is not fessing up to that caused the staff to behave so strangely -
I'm just not sure which it is.

Though the OP does say in her letter that she was okay with the
cashier scanning the same one six times, as they were heavy.

But I agree - if the manager wouldn't deal with her (not sure I
totally buy that, but, for the sake of argument...), he was wrong.

HOWEVER, I do think there are holes here, and I do think there was no
need for her husband to have pressed the issue.

wonderboard is heavy... its comes in 3ft x 5 ft sheets usually 1/2
thick and its made of concrete.. its used for bathroom or kitchen
walls or where ever your putting tile... i hated lifting wonderboard
when i worked for HD and i used to do the same thing the cashier
did.... if the customer had 6, i zapped it 6 times....


now about the mgrs.... most of HD mgrs suck anymore... (speacking from
experience...worked for HD for over 7 yrs)... they have absolutly no
customer service skills.. they dont even have the skills to talk to
their employees correctly....

Sounds to me like she was trying to cover her backside because she
failed to follow procedure!

Do you mean Olivia? If so, she wasn't the one who rang up the poster.

The one who rang her up is the one who got it straighened out. She
came over and explained what happened.

First of all, I don't see how the cashier was rude. She didn't know
how to handle the situation but, unless I'm missing something, she
wasn't rude. Should the manager have come over, yes, but eventually
the situation was resolved by the line manager so why beat a dead
horse and get your husband involved?

I disagree with these posters. This situation wasn't fully resolved
if the manager did not get reprimanded for refusing to speak to the
employee. If this were to happen to me, I would not be finished until
his boss had the opportunity to hear about his employees
carelessness.

Now, she could have handled it herself, but the fact that her husband
did it doesn't mean she was lesser because she was a woman. It simply
means that while she was throwing up her hands at that moment, and
perhaps choosing to deal with it by phone or mail later, he insisted
on handling it at that moment.

This doesn't just happen between husband and wife, I've had my friend
step in for me before when I felt too frustrated to handle the
situation calmly anymore, but she refused to see a store employee get
away with treating me badly. I was glad she did, because at that
moment, it needed to be brought to his managers attention but I was
far too angry to deal with it.

I can understand you telling your husband about the way you were
treated and I can understand his anger over it but he had no business
getting involved since he wasn't in the first place. And it was done
and over with.

Your husband just made things worse.

I do have to say though that your letter is well written.

You know, when I first read the letter, I must have skimmed over the
part where you said it had been resolved before you went and told
hubby. Therefore, I was completely in agreement with you, right until
the end.

Then I read ticky and Zachs comments, and went back to re-read.

As a woman, this makes me angry on several levels. The fact that you
resolved the situation, and then felt the need to go complain further
to your husband, is what gives certain people the false impression
that women are helpless. I don't blame you for being upset. I don't
even blane you for telling your husband about it. But the fact that
you didn't stop him from going back into the store on your behalf,
really gets me.

Why did your husband need to speak to Luis when you were the one
shopping, can't you fight your own battles, plus you got the problem
resolved so it was over. No need for your husband to go in there
unless he wanted to make a scene or cause problems.

You had already rectified the situation; I see no reason for your
husband to have gone in as well. Can't you fight your own battles?
Especially those that have already been won?

I was with you, by the way, until that "I want these employees
reprimanded" comment. Do you honestly think corporate is just going
to take you at your word and not talk to them (if they even bother).

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a response from Home Depot,
either.