During high school and university I spent 6 years in retail thank you very much.
If its that bad then quit and move on. Sure I had shitty days or weeks but its retail what the fuck did you expect? No one should ever be abused but this false sense of entitlement pisses me off. There's a continuum of jobs and their inherent value and benefits and retail is close to the bottom. Why because thats what our free market economy feels they're worth.
Hate to break it to you but its not just retail where you have asshole customers. Don't you think the asshole who nickel and dimes the clerk is the same way in business? Pricks and assholes never shut themselves off.
Like you said, they're trolls. Fuck em.....they're the ones with the problem. When I had customers like that I did one of two things. Usually patronize the ever loving fuck out of them, when possible with other customers around, and make them look like the slug they were. Or if there weren't any other customers around I'd tell them in no uncertain terms to fuck off and get out of the store. They'd usually make a big flap about that, get all pissy and demand to speak with the manager. If they were around I'd call them into the situation and let them know the customer had an issue and IMO would be far happier if he spent his/her money elsewhere. And if the customer started to rat me out about telling them to fuck off I'd deny it.....who's the manager going to believe. Some dink of a customer who's beaking off or me
I can honestly say that I'm a great customer when it comes to dealing with staff. I'm more than happy to be patient with a clerk as long as they show that they're trying regularly write emails or letters of thanks.
That argument only goes so far. Second last time I was in future shop I was standing by the mp3 players waiting for service. Three clerks were working in that island and none of them were with another customer. They were all just gabbing away and not interested in serving a customer. I waited for 5 minutes, during which they all made eye contact with me but still didn't come over to see if I wanted anything. Finally a Bell rep asked if I needed anything and I said yes. When the clerk finally did come over she was rude and insisted they didn't carry the product I wanted (even though I could see it in the cage behind her). That sort of behavior has squat to do with management understaffing, rather its management either not training people well enough or not setting certain standards and enforcing them.
Again, bullshit!!! Unless you're a government employee we live and work in a free market economy. If the market feels a clerk at bestbuy is worth $12.00/hour thats what they'll get. If they're legitimately getting exploited thats why there are labour boards.