Please be nice to your cashiers!

And I'm saying this, because as a cashier, I have to deal with a lot of crap from people. I really hate when people are rude to me about prices, and it's not even my fault. I'll try to do what I can to make sure you get the right price, and the correct discounts, and if you just didn't read a sign right, I'll make sure to explain it to you as nicely as possible.

Just please, if you are ever at a store, and something doesn't ring up the price you expected, handle it in a polite way and don't immediately go off on your cashier.

I'm mostly bringing this up because I had an extremely rude customer today.

The store I work at is closing, and per our liquidator, the price that something rings is the price it is going to be. A couple came into my line and I scanned their item, it rang up the correct price and I told them their total. They then immediately became rude, claiming they were supposed to get an extra 25% off, which does not happen at my store. My supervisor, who happened to be on register behind me (we're short staffed and very busy) said this nicely to the customer, and the woman immediate snapped at her to mind her own business.

Okay, I work at Kmart, so if you're at all familiar with Kmart (or Sears) we have the Shop Your Way rewards program, which allows you to earn points on what you spend and then use those points to get a dollar amount off your purchase.

I think this customer confused her $25+ points with 25% off. I did not know she had the points because she did not tell me about them or ask me to use them (they do not automatically come off, and I told her this and that I would gladly take the points off). So with the points, if you have anything over $10, you need your pin number to use them. I told the woman this, and she snapped at me about not having a pin, and I pretty much said, "I was just about to tell you, your pin is right here on your card, you just need to enter these numbers."

Somewhere in the midst of all this, I asked this woman, "Please do not snap at me."

She then replied to me, "I'm not the one snapping at you, you're the one with the attitude."

At which point I became both frustrated and upset, and honestly was now trying not to cry. And it was the type of trying not to cry where I could not speak (I was also shaking really badly). I completed this transaction as quickly as I could, rang up the next customer (who was extremely nice, had witnessed the whole transaction before her, and tried to actually cheer me up. Seriously, she is my hero of the day). Once I was done with her, I went on my break (my supervisor insisted, because I was clearly upset) and I went into the employee bathroom and cried.

I've had plenty of rude customers, but this woman (and a little bit of the man she was with) were just terribly rude. I found out from my supervisor once I came back, that she had apparently told the managers at my store to basically kill themselves, she also called corporate before coming to the store, and corporate talked to my supervisor and even told her that she was sorry that we had to deal with them. They were honestly just very unpleasant people (and I really hope none of this is bashing, I'm trying to be objective about describing this), but I just want people to be polite to cashiers.

We seriously get so much crap for things completely out of our control (and sure, there are cashiers out there who are immediately rude to customers) but don't go into the store looking to get into a fight over something. We are people, and we deserve respect.

I never have customers that are so rude, that they make me cry. So again, please be kind to your cashier wherever you go. If there is a real problem, just ask to speak with a manager.

This ended up being longer than I expected...
March 28th, 2014 at 03:25am