Hey there to all my fellow inmates of the Kroger asylum, was just wondering what the craziest or most unusual customer complaint you have ever recieved.
I got one recently for ripping a very loud fart on the sales floor, customers quote to the office person was "there is something wrong with that guy"
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The views expressed above are my own and in no way reflect the views of the Kroger company.
There was one recently about how there was a girl in produce who ignored her (the customer) and "seemed like she was angry at the world for messing up her grape display". The customer then went on to describe how she looked "she was short, chubby and with long hair, but I don't know her name because she wouldn't look at me". The review had a bunch of win all over it. Given who they were talking about (there's only 1 chubby, long haired female in produce) they were spot on.
There was one time I was bagging for a woman who was using one of the kid carts (the carts with the bean/McCue car thing on the front), and she had the cart filled up to the top, on top of that she made no effort to organize her groceries, so the light/crushable stuff went on the belt first, followed by the heavier stuff (cans)
After bagging and loading the groceries in the kid cart, the cart was overflowing, but the woman still didn't complain, and left (and I even asked of she wanted another cart, she refused)
Right as that happened, I was called out to get carts, and as I went outside, one of her bags fell off the cart, she then turned to me and said, literally, word for word "This wouldn't have happened if you didn't do such shi**y bagging" after collecting myself (I wanted to pound her in the face by this point), I asked again if she wanted another cart, she replies saying, with a tone "Well, it's too late now" and walks off
When I use to work the Frozen Food department, a grumpy old lady asked "why is it always so cold in this part of the store?"
Our dairy section is open air and people ALWAYS walk by me saying "I wish they would turn up the heat" or "don't you think it's cold" or "I should have brought a jacket" like it's somehow going to make me cover up all the coolers and/or somwhow make the air immune to cold. Makes me want to stab them in the face.
I've told people "yeah, open air coolers will do that" before. Dumbass people.
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Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
Old women always complain that it's too cold. Even if I'm dripping sweat, it's too cold in the store.
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It's Thanksgiving season. 10 pound bags of regular potatoes are 88 cents. That's less than a dollar, even with our grossly excessive state and city tax.
A customer is purchasing a bag of fancy ORGANIC potatoes and is complaining about the price. It was something like $6-10 dollars. I don't even care. Anyways, she suggests that I complain to corporate about the excessive price of organic potatoes since many customers can't afford them.
OK, I sure will!
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A certain manager's "friend" had a credit card that was worn to hell and didn't slide. I politely pointed out the BALD SPOT on the magnetic stripe on the back of the card, and politely suggested they should look into getting a new one from their bank. Unfortunately, my register was closest to the Coinstar, which was in use, and the music was too loud, so I had to raise my voice simply to be heard. Many many dozen tries later, it somehow went through.
I got written up for being arrogant with the customer and yelling at them. Hmm.
A significant amount of time later, I witnessed the same individual having card difficulties at self checkout. ****.
If I thought higher of them, I would wonder if it was on purpose.
A customer had a coupon for free beef hot dogs. But he does not like beef hotdog so he got pork. When we could not accept his coupon he said that the pork hot dogs are cheaper than the beef. I said it does not matter you are getting them free. I asked did he want my floor runner to go back and get him the beef he said no the pork is cheaper. I want to cuss him out and slap his domb a"". Why does the price matter you are getting them free.
This lady came through my line at the service desk and tried to cash a personal check for 500 $. We only cash personal checks up to 30$. She complained that I did it for her yesterday. I was not even their yesterday. Then she said it must of been another dark skinned male that works up here who did it. I am the only dark shined male in the front end point blank.. She told my manager I don't follow policy and did something for her yesterday day and won't do it again today. My manager looked at the time clock and it proved I was not their. I wanted to kick that lady's a""for almost getting me in trouble. Dumb broad.
I had a similar experience, store815. One lady came to pick up her party tray and we didn't have an order from her. Suddenly she pointed at me and said "you were the one who took my order!" I had never seen this lady before. I told her I didn't remember her or taking an order for her, but she kept insisting and blaming me that I was trying to cover up what I had done. No matter how many times I said I never had seen her, she insisted it was me. So I said "okay, what day did you order on?" "Either on Wednesday or Thursday." I only work on weekends, and when I told her that she got flustered.
At my store I'm a cashier. One day while on the main line I was in the smile zone. Well this man came up with a few items in his hand. We have two express lanes open no wait. I said "sir if your ready 6 or 7 can take you" and he replied "why can't you take me?" So I explained that we cant have small orders go though the big lanes. So he said "You should have a sign that says that." We have above our three express lanes signs that's says "express lane 15 items or less."
Two more I thought of I was closer checker one night. This family came up with an over flowing basket. I don't know if y'all are time when you are on a register but I am. Well I started to check my bagger didn't go and get an empty basket so the only place to put her food was on the counter. Well apparently a bagged cereal box got smooshed by a can of soup. She got so pissed that she stormed off complained to my supervisor that her food got smooshed and that before I can go fast on the register "like a bat from hell" that I should learn how to check out properly. Then she grabbed an empty cart to put her food in and her son whose like 2 or 3 said "mommy mommy mommy" and she said "mommy mad right now I'm not goin over there." Her son was right in front of me. By this point my supervisor came over and the lady said "the food next to my son was the one that got bashed up. SHE (meaning me) can go put it back up. " well sweet part was I didn't have to put it up. I didn't get in trouble because that lady was known to complain about everything. She once pushed a sacker aside (literally) because he wasn't doin it right.
Next story, this lady checked out in my lane. She paid with a check, well all on top of the check was ripped so my check reader couldn't read it. My sacker who also is a cashier said to her that the check won't read because of the huge rip in the check. Her argument was it wasn't on the side where the account number and the route number is. So then she said "can I take it to customer care?" And we said no because they use the same check reader. She got mad so she's like "I want to see a manager." Our assistant store manager was right there so we got him and he said the same thing we said. So she's like "so I have to write another check?" And we said yes. She got so mad about that fact that she made me tear out her check then said after the recite popped out "I CAN'T WAIT WHEN HEB OPENS" and storms off.
At my store I'm a cashier. One day while on the main line I was in the smile zone. Well this man came up with a few items in his hand. We have two express lanes open no wait. I said "sir if your ready 6 or 7 can take you" and he replied "why can't you take me?" So I explained that we cant have small orders go though the big lanes. So he said "You should have a sign that says that." We have above our three express lanes signs that's says "express lane 15 items or less."
I could be wrong, but i've never heard of people not being able to go through a regular line with less than 15 items. The sign says the express lane is 15 items or less, the other lines don't say it has to be 15 items or more.
If you had no one in line, I don't see the issue... i've gone through lines before with only a couple items. Is there really a policy like that?
There is, but it is up to the express lane cashiers to make sure it is enforced by blue-lining and grabbing the customer into the lane. It is more a policy to make the store look good than any of the cashiers. We also have one about trying to optimize U-Scan utilization. Just another stupid policy made up by upper management that really doesn't make a store look good or bad... it just makes them feel more powerful (like a little kid that invites you over to his/her house "but only if you play by MY rules")
At my store I'm a cashier. One day while on the main line I was in the smile zone. Well this man came up with a few items in his hand. We have two express lanes open no wait. I said "sir if your ready 6 or 7 can take you" and he replied "why can't you take me?" So I explained that we cant have small orders go though the big lanes. So he said "You should have a sign that says that." We have above our three express lanes signs that's says "express lane 15 items or less."
I could be wrong, but i've never heard of people not being able to go through a regular line with less than 15 items. The sign says the express lane is 15 items or less, the other lines don't say it has to be 15 items or more.
If you had no one in line, I don't see the issue... i've gone through lines before with only a couple items. Is there really a policy like that?
The signs I see say either. "1 to 15 items cash, check or charge" or "Any size order cash check or charge" I have never seen a sign that says "Over 15 items only".
At my store I'm a cashier. One day while on the main line I was in the smile zone. Well this man came up with a few items in his hand. We have two express lanes open no wait. I said "sir if your ready 6 or 7 can take you" and he replied "why can't you take me?" So I explained that we cant have small orders go though the big lanes. So he said "You should have a sign that says that." We have above our three express lanes signs that's says "express lane 15 items or less."
At my store I'm a cashier. One day while on the main line I was in the smile zone. Well this man came up with a few items in his hand. We have two express lanes open no wait. I said "sir if your ready 6 or 7 can take you" and he replied "why can't you take me?" So I explained that we cant have small orders go though the big lanes. So he said "You should have a sign that says that." We have above our three express lanes signs that's says "express lane 15 items or less."
Just because the express lanes say 15 items or less doesn't mean the other lanes are 16 items or more. In fact, you're the only person I know of who has thought that.
At my store I'm a cashier. One day while on the main line I was in the smile zone. Well this man came up with a few items in his hand. We have two express lanes open no wait. I said "sir if your ready 6 or 7 can take you" and he replied "why can't you take me?" So I explained that we cant have small orders go though the big lanes. So he said "You should have a sign that says that." We have above our three express lanes signs that's says "express lane 15 items or less."
That's what we're supposed to do at the store I'm at, too. The idea is you try to keep the non-express lanes open and ready for the larger orders that can't go through express and are unwilling to go through self-scan. If you have two or three small orders being processed through the non-express registers while the express registers are empty, you risk getting one or more dips if one or more large orders shows up behind the smaller orders that could've been processed at an express register or self-scan. It's one way to optimize the check-out process, but it's hard to enforce. We could fulfill the faster check-out at Kroger promise to customers better if this practice was utilized more regularly, but sadly it's not.
As for crazy customer complaints... I can only think of one at the moment, and it didn't happen to me but to a checker at my store. He told me about it and I couldn't believe it. Some lady that went through his line went and extensively complained to a co-manager because he didn't say "hello" to her when she walked up. He says he did, and I believe him because he's very friendly and professional and I always see him treat customers well. The co-manager just wrote the whole complaint off as one that was made by a crazy customer imagining ridiculous things.
I had a customer go off one day because I "didn't hand her driver's license back to her". She told me that I knew nothing about customer service and even threw her check at me. When I called for a supervisor, she said, "What are you doing?" I told her that I was calling for a supervisor. She said, "You better bag these groceries or there's gonna be another one." Don't know what she meant by that...
Yesterday, a coworker and me had to deal with this one lady for over a well over a half hour in total.
First, she made my coworker write on a paper three times to make sure she could write on the cake properly. I guess she felt that since she's young, she didn't know what the hell she was doing or something. She kept saying, "I can wait until someone who knows what they're doing is here". But we were the only ones there for the rest of the night, and she's really good at writing on cakes.
She tells this lady that she's only there until 6 and honestly doesn't have time to write on the paper anymore and she knows perfectly well she can write on the cake. Well she finally writes on the cake and the lady apparently isn't happy with the way the name turned out. Even though it was a perfectly fine cake!! She waits until my coworker leaves and comes back to me around 6:15.
I then had to scrape the name off the cake so it just said Happy Birthday. I had to get a small knife and take the name off as well as poke EVERY LITTLE drop of icing off the cake. Then she's like, oh do you have anything to cover this up? Then after that, she proceeds to make me hold the cake, while she scraped off the little crumbs that were on the cardboard platter. She kept making me get more and more paper towels to clean up the crumbs, which btw on the red velvet cakes are SUPPOSED to be on the outside of the cakes. She must have thought I was her personal assistant or something, the way she took control, she even took my knife and wiped some of the icing and crumbs off herself.
By this time I was about ready to throw the damn cake at this lady. I was in the middle of breakout and it was HUGE because of the night before Easter. I just barely got it done and had to rush through cleaning up, all because of this one crazy old lady.
-- Edited by 4hourrush on Sunday 31st of March 2013 07:11:06 PM
just a couple days ago, a customer told me that last time at our deli her meat wasn't cut even! i had no idea what she meant. i told her i will make sure it is cut even and not odd. she got pissed and called me rude. oh well
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I am no longer part of the oppressed, evil workforce of Kroger! Can you say "Hallelujah"
just a couple days ago, a customer told me that last time at our deli her meat wasn't cut even! i had no idea what she meant. i told her i will make sure it is cut even and not odd. she got pissed and called me rude. oh well
Cut even means cut evenly. Each slice is a uniform thickness. If the meat isn't sitting in the slicer properly, you end up with slices that are thicker on one side and thinner on the other.
Yesterday, a coworker and me had to deal with this one lady for over a well over a half hour in total.
First, she made my coworker write on a paper three times to make sure she could write on the cake properly. I guess she felt that since she's young, she didn't know what the hell she was doing or something. She kept saying, "I can wait until someone who knows what they're doing is here". But we were the only ones there for the rest of the night, and she's really good at writing on cakes...
*Snip*
I would have stopped right there and said, "Ma'am perhaps you should come back when the decorators are here because I don't think I could write on this cake to your satisfaction." Anyway, ones penmanship can be totally different when writing on cakes versus writing with a pen or pencil. I have terrible handwriting but may cake writing is all nice and neat and letter perfect. It burns me up though when I write on a cake and the customer acts surprised that it looks good. I guess they don't expect a guy to be able to write on a cake.
I bet she brought the cake back and tried to get a refund on it.
