Having a company website that shows customers what you have can make things very convenient, but it isn’t a perfect system.

What happens when the website says you have something, but in reality that thing is back in the warehouse and not readily available?

That is what happened to the new employee in this story, so after getting threatened by a customer, he had to go track it down.

“You’re lucky we’re in the store right now and not the parking lot”

So, about a week after starting my retail career I got my first taste of a truly nasty customer.

Things can be difficult when you are new.

It’s an uncharacteristically cold May morning at our big box store. I’m opening our department for the first time with a coworker there for me to shadow.

At this point it’s important to note that we have a rotation of seasonal merchandise which gets wrapped on a pallet and put away for the off-season.

We also have a website which shows store stock (as well as the last known aisle/bin location, which is almost always at least partially incorrect).

I can see how this would cause confusion.

As you might imagine, this leads to a bit of frustration for impatient customers on, say, a cold day in late spring.

So, in walks a couple to my department, a man (henceforth referred to as CH for cold-hearted), and a woman (henceforth not referred to as she was entirely silent during our entire interaction).

He seems more than happy to help.

I notice them looking around the department somewhat frantically.

Me: “Hi! Did you guys need any help today?”

CH: curtly “No.”

Some people are just rude, nothing to worry about.

I then just kind of awkwardly walk away, taken aback and not really sure what to say. But whatever, some people don’t like being pestered while they shop. I went and found something else to work on for a little while.

After a few minutes he flags me down

Oh, now he needs help.

CH: “Where do you keep the heaters?”

Me: “Oh sorry, all of our heaters have either been clearanced out or put away for the season, we don’t have any stock on the shelves”

CH: “Well where’s aisle ‘the aisle we’re in, now the air conditioners‘, bay ‘right in front of us‘? It says you have two of one in particular online.”

Online sites aren’t always accurate.

Me: “Sorry, the site must not have been updated when they took it off the shelf.”

CH: “Well go get me one.”

Is this even something the store wants him to do?

Now. This is not an impossible task, but it is generally really time consuming. This particular winter was not very busy for our store, which meant lots of overstock. So much so that they couldn’t put all of the merchandise in our department’s top stock.

They’d also gone to no effort to categorize where in our huge big box store these miscellaneous pallets of merchandise had been stored.

This could take all day.

So if I wanted to find one exact item, I have to basically walk around the whole store reading pallets until I get lucky and find the model number I’m looking for on the sheet of paper describing every item on the pallet.

At which point I have to find an associate licensed on the tall motor so that we can walk the forklift across the store, close down the aisle, bring down the pallet (with spotter), open it, take out the single box we need, re-wrap the pallet, and then put it back on the shelf.

Hopefully the customer will change their mind.

I had been advised by the senior in our department in this situation to explain to the customer that we could do this, but it could potentially be a couple of hours, so this is what I try to explain to the guy.

CH: “A couple of hours?? Are you serious?”

This is more than generous.

Me: “I’m sorry, but if you want to leave your information we can call you back when we find what you’re looking for.”

CH: “Why don’t you just DO YOUR JOB? I need this heater NOW”

Good thing he has some backup.

At this point my co-worker notices how upset this guy is getting and came over to help. I explained the situation to CW and then let them talk

At one point CH sprinkles in: “And I really don’t APPRECIATE the attitude of your associate over here.”

How did he have a bad attitude?

Me, completely dumbfounded: “Sir I really don’t know what your problem is I’ve just been trying to help this whole time”

CH: “Yeah well just wait until I speak to your manager. You look like a momma’s boy. You’re lucky I’m in here right now and we’re not in the parking lot or cracks neck as if getting ready for a fight.

At that point, they should have asked him to leave.

CW calms down CH and tells him we’ll go find his heater while he waits there. We’re actually able to find it surprisingly fast while we joke about the guy but I’m clearly upset and a little shaken.

The guy was scrawny but had crazy eyes so I was worried he might try to shank me or something. CW ends up grabbing the heater the fast way and not the “technically what we’re supposed to do to not get in trouble” way and goes to take it to the guy. He tells me to cool off in the break room and I do.

People like this are often all talk.

He later explains to our managers what happened to try to vouch for me but apparently the guy never ended up complaining to anyone.

Later my store manager and assistant store manager come over and tell me that next time I should probably just get one of them if a customer’s mad.

You can’t be too careful these days.

I never see the guy again but like the momma’s boy I am was looking over my shoulder walking back to my car after that shift.

If a customer threatens an employee, even like this, they should be asked to leave and never come back.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this situation.

These people should be called out.

This would have been a good response.

You can’t be too careful.

Yup, I agree.

Right, this is way outside his job description.

Don’t threaten employees. Ever.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.