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Brought to you by my discovery that some people think that “the customer is always right” isn’t the slogan of a long-dead department store, but rather it’s an actual call the cops law.

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[-] Nemo@midwest.social 101 points 1 year ago

No, I don't have to accept a digital photo of your license as ID. No, your birth certificate is not proof of identity; it doesn't have your picture.

But the absolute worst one: Not only is this a beat-up photocopy of a foreign ID card with no photo; it also clearly states that you are 19 and even if I accepted this document as valid identification, which I can't, I still could not legally serve you alcohol.

[-] danwardvs@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 year ago

What I take from this is that birth certificates should have photographs.

[-] Mrgrey06@programming.dev 12 points 1 year ago

Exactly. But before they can issue it the photograph needs to be submitted electronically and allow a 3 week processing time prior to birth, with a passport style photo...

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[-] jocanib@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

The foreigner in question almost certainly did not know the age was 21. This happened to me in the US. Sitting with my mum and sister in the hotel bar, having a quiet beer. Then I get asked for my ID and it all gets very confusing. "But I'm 18, what's the problem?"

[-] grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Takes the drink away and hands you a gun and car keys.

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[-] ech@lemm.ee 99 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Was working retail in an area that had a local bag ordinance that required businesses to charge customers for bags. A man came up to the register and when I asked him if he wanted a bag for a few cents extra, he looked at me like I was crazy and was like, "You charge for bags?" I explained that it was required by the government and he just kinda scoffed. I thought that was it, but as he opened his wallet to pay, he flashed what turned out to be a police badge at me from another city some ways away, gave me a look, and said something along the lines of "I think I know what the law is." I just finished up the transaction and got him going asap, blown away at the insecurity displayed. It was such a bizarre powermove over what was only a few cents extra for something completely optional.

[-] goofyfoot@lemmy.ml 74 points 1 year ago

I work in law enforcement and this is called "tinning" when you show your badge unnecessarily. My personal rule of thumb is if I'm dealing with you and you tin me then I am 100% giving you a ticket now.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 35 points 1 year ago

I appreciate that there's a word for it.

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[-] hstde@lemmy.fmhy.ml 59 points 1 year ago

American police: they think they know what the law is.

[-] ComradePorkRoll@lemmy.ml 33 points 1 year ago

If cops had to pass the bar to be a cop, there wouldn't be any cops.

[-] axolittl@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago
[-] eric5949@lemmy.cloudaf.site 93 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Had a guy tell me he was going to sue me, personally not the store, and financially ruin me because I told him to put on a mask in like April 2020. He didnt do either. I'm sure anyone who worked with the public during that time has some story lol.

[-] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 57 points 1 year ago

I still can't wrap my head around why certain political factions latched onto not wearing a mask as a political rallying cry. Like.....why do you want to kill the people you need to vote for you? I can't understand.

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[-] Pipsqueaker@lemmy.world 86 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

At one point I worked for an electronics repair shop fixing mostly phones, laptops, and game consoles. We actually had a great manager and we all just enjoyed fixing things, so we really weren't out to rip people off like they usually came in thinking. Our store policy was even if we didn't fix it, we didn't charge you, and we stood by it.

One day a lady drops off her laptop with a cracked screen. Part of the screen was still working, but the majority was non functional and would surely worsen over time. We diagnose the laptop and give the customer a quote and she agrees to the repair. I let her know that once we start the repair, the previous screen will be destroyed during the removal process since it has no more integrity from being broken, she's fine with that. We get the part in a few days later and I start the repair. At this point the woman's husband calls - literally while I have the cracked screen half out of the laptop - and says stop the repair and return it how it was. We were like, we're happy to give the laptop back, but unfortunately we've already started the repair and while removing the old screen it broke more so it would end up being returned in a worse condition.

This fucking guy screamed at me over the phone about how what we were doing was illegal, how we never got proper authorization blah blah. We offered to even do the repair at cost, but no that wasn't good enough. When the husband and wife finally came into the store to pick up the laptop, he left screeching about how he was going to sue us. Unsurprisingly we never heard from him again.

[-] gammasfor@sh.itjust.works 81 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

how we never got proper authorization

Why do I feel like this is a domestic abuse situation. Husband broke her laptop in order to reduce her attempts to communicate with others? She goes to get it repaired, he finds out.

I think it's the belief that the wife can't authorise the repair..

[-] hbocao@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

My thinking was that there was something in that computer that he was trying to hide.

[-] closedmouthsdonteat@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

One thing I learned from working in customer service is the amount of people that have a lawyer on retainer. Better be careful!

[-] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 50 points 1 year ago

We developed a very effective strategy for this at a furniture store I used to work at; the moment the customer makes any suggestion of legal action, all our employees were trained to immediately say "I understand. Have a good day" and end the conversation on the spot. The unhappy customer immediately tries to press the issue, because what they want is for us to magically teleport a couch here from China or whatever, and at that point the employee says "I'm sorry but as you've notified us that this issue is now the subject of a pending legal action any further communication will have to go though our legal team."

Repeating this a couple more times would inevitably lead to the customer admitting that they were bluffing.

[-] nailbar@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 year ago

I'd hate to work directly with customers, but pulling the rug from under idiots sound really satisfying.

[-] Dubious_Fart@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

This is my favorite thing to do.

Second lawyer is mentioned, shut down all communication and offer only "Due to your pending litigation, Please direct all correspondence to our lawyers as we are not authorized to discuss legal matters."

[-] DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 1 year ago

Is the number close to zero?

[-] axolittl@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Damn I'm sorry you had to put up with that. And I feel bad for the wife for being married to him.

[-] Clav64@lemmy.ml 75 points 1 year ago

Worked in bars as a supervisor for 3 years, almost everytime I decided to cut a patron off (usually for being too drunk, or for being an arsehole) I would be met with "you can't do that, it's illegal, you HAVE to serve me"

No, I don't. Service is at my discretion, and it wouldn often be unethical for me to continue to provide you with more alcohol, endangering yours and others around you further.

[-] woodnote@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago

Funny because it's really quite the opposite in most places. You're legally required not to serve intoxicated patrons. If you overserve people and they go off and kill someone, you could be liable in my state. I think that's pretty bullshit but it surprises me that folks would argue to the exact opposite. Of course, why should that surprise me?

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[-] MobileSuitBagera@lemmy.fmhy.ml 62 points 1 year ago

Yay! I have one. We had a customer grab a product from a spot on the shelf next to where it was normally stocked. The spots have labels indicating the price of the item. This person argued that because the product was in the wrong spot they should only have to pay the price of the item that should have been there. The prices also include the name of the product. The reason the the product was taking up space in the next spot was because we had sold out due to the item being deeply discounted because we were discontinuing it. When we explained that they began accusing us of false advertising and threatened to call the better business bureau. They admitted that they knew it was the wrong product but insisted that because it wasn't shelved in the right spot that was some kind of loophole. I gave a firm no and then they asked to speak to a manager. I fucked off it was taken care of.

[-] SgtThunderC_nt@lemmy.zip 28 points 1 year ago

I also work front end, I've had sooo many people give me this shit.

#1 Not advertising. Advertising is what you see before you enter the building. Some stores don't even have shelf labels.

#2 Do you think someone can walk up to your garage sale and slap their own sticker that says $1 and demand you sell them a TV for $1? No, you can refuse to sell your own shit whenever you want. It's YOUR shit. You can burn it in front of them if you felt like it.

[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 23 points 1 year ago

Not really the case in most of the EU.

It doesn't count obviously if it's a misplaced item and the price is clearly labelled for another item. However, if a store leaves discount stickers on some product late, or mislabels some price, they are obligated to sell at that price. There is caveat that it only works if the price is believable, but I managed to get a ton of shrimp that just arrived at a Lidl 90% off one time. Family was eating shrimp for weeks.

[-] CrispyCactus@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

My dad and I were shopping at Home Depot one December and found a small Christmas decoration I wanted. When we got it to the register the cashier couldn't find a tag or sticker on it. Normally I'd go get another one with a tag but this was the only one they had. The cashier tried looking it up through the computer system but still couldn't figure it out. She handed it to us and told us it was free because it was the store's fault that she couldn't find the price.

We've been enjoying that decoration for years, my mom still puts it in the middle of her kitchen display. And we always remember how nice that cashier was to us.

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[-] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 61 points 1 year ago

Lots of people buy Emotional Support Animal vests online and think that means they can bring them into restaurants. Nope, FDA is very clear about it: trained service animals only. ESAs actually have almost no special privileges over regular pets. Basically the only exceptions they get are against pet policies/fees on leases.

[-] Kettellkorn@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago

People who do that I find so annoying and honestly pathetic. It’s like they think they’re better than everyone else and can do whatever they want.

[-] Trae@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

I watched a guy get kicked out of the Costco food court area because he kept saying his dog was an "licensed" ESA. The Costco manager busted out a little card with the relevant federal laws for a service animal and listed all the rules the dog was breaking by lunging at people, not staying under the table, and barking it's head off at a real service animal that was just sitting calmly under it's owners table like nothing was going on around it.

Even if your dog is truly a licensed and trained service animal, but you've allowed it to continously break all the rules it's supposed to follow in a private business. They can still kick you out if your dog doesn't behave like it's supposed to be behaving. That's why it's a big no no to interact with working animals with their vests on and for owners to let their working animals to break the rules repeatedly by misbehaving and never correcting them.

[-] fratermus@lemmy.sdf.org 59 points 1 year ago

I once had a b2b customer (store owner) tell me that having different pricing for wholesale and retail customers was racist.

I'm pretty sure meant discriminatory but even that doesn't make much sense.

[-] Galluf@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

It absolutely does make sense because it is discriminatory. He's absolutely correct.

The mistake that you are making, is thinking that all forms of discrimination are bad. They're not. Most are in fact good. We just don't tend to call them discrimination.

[-] fratermus@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 1 year ago

He’s absolutely correct.

He said it was racist, so I'm gonna stick with he's not correct.

The mistake that you are making, is thinking that all forms of discrimination are bad.

I am aware of the formal and common uses of the word.

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[-] blegh@sh.itjust.works 43 points 1 year ago

We do not have to keep a register open just because there is a customer in the store. We've been making closing announcements for almost an hour and the store closed 20 minutes ago. You had more then enough time to buy whatever you wanted. Come back tomorrow.

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Does working as a security guard and having the company that contracted your company trying to get you to basically be their own personal police force count? I worked for a security company hired by Longs and the loss prevention manager of the Longs kept trying to get us to do things that, in California anyway, are illegal as a security guard. Such as digging through someone's personal belongings. We can ask to look inside, but not touch, and we really can't force them to comply. We could not arrest people. We couldn't have weapons (not even allowed to carry a pocket knife while on duty with our guard cards). Little Napoleonic complex motherfucker didn't care. He would insist that it was legal and we would just tell him to talk to our boss because he isn't our supervisor, manager or even part of our company.

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[-] Jimbob15515@lemmy.one 33 points 1 year ago

I worked at a book store, and the card readers processed everything as credit. Which is generally fine, since most folks' debit cards can be run either way.

I had an old dude come up and pay with his debit card. When it didn't ask for a pin, he started screaming at me about how I'd just illegally charged his credit card. I politely explained that it didn't work that way and he just kept yelling. So I rudely explained that it didn't work that way.

Dude, you think you inserted your debit card and that magically, our system somehow found out your credit card information and charged that instead?

[-] Dubious_Fart@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

Dude would probably be better iff it it made his debit a credit card.

Debit cards can be run as credit, but they don't have anywhere near the protections of a credit card.

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[-] daFRAKKINpope@lemmy.one 30 points 1 year ago

"Actually, in the terms of service you signed with DirecTV, your NFL Sunday Ticket was set to auto renew after the first free year.

Also.

We've billed you for it for two months, and is now past the point where we can remove it. You have 5 additional payments.

This is in fact also not illegal apparently. Since it's in the terms of service.

If you'd like to sue DirecTV please have your lawyer contact our TEAM of lawyers and we'll be happy to address it."

Worked that soul sucking job for five long years while going to college. Sucked.

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[-] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Working in a financial call centre, a certain type of person considered us to have stolen their money if they sent us funds for an investment and refused to send anti-money laundering documents with it, because we also couldn't return the money without them. Sorry, buddy.

[-] Galluf@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

That honestly should be the law. If you can't accept it without documentation, you should be required to return it. Of course you can also report it, but that's separate.

[-] DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org 23 points 1 year ago

No, since people can just wire you money. Then, if you return it, they can attempt to use that transaction to prove dirty money is clean. If it is clean in the first place, they should be able to provide documentation.

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[-] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Speaking for the UK, that's every financial institution. The whole point is that everyone is required to complete checks to make sure you are who you say you are, if you refuse them then that is an indicator of money laundering. Even just receiving and returning money helps a money launderer establish a paper trail and assists in layering to legitimise the money they gave you. That's a big no-no, obviously, so it can't simply be returned without risking significant legal implications from the regulator. All expectations are set up front on this when beginning transactions.

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[-] golden_zealot@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 year ago

They told me I had to honor an expired coupon for 5 cents off their gas.

[-] linuxduck@nerdly.dev 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not exactly to the title but I was alone with a coworker and explaining my precancerous cells I was being checked up on and a customer walked up as I was explaining.

He said, "that sounds like bullshit and I would know because I have a PHD."

he was an idiot.

[-] Dr_Cog@mander.xyz 33 points 1 year ago

I know lots of very stupid people with PhDs

I have a PhD, for one

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[-] emoknapsack@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

I don’t think my customers were dumb but I was regularly accused of breaking the law in a previous job. This was back in 09-10, I worked for a mortgage company in the insurance escrow department processing homeowner insurance claims. The way my job worked: If a homeowner has significant property damage (fire, flood, fallen tree) and the home is under a mortgage, the insurance company will make the check payable to the homeowner and the mortgage company. If it has both names it cannot be cashed unless the mortgage company endorses the check. I was the person responsible for determining if we would sign the back of that check so the customer could cash it.

Mortgages have a clause that allows this, because it’s in the best interest of the mortgage company to make sure the property is returned to the way it was before the claim. If the claim was over a certain amount (I think it was $5k) we required a whole process of holding the money in an escrow account and doling it out in increments using property inspections to verify the work was being completed.

It was honestly a whole annoying process to have to go through, especially if you are already dealing with a traumatic situation that requires the claim in the first place. I got yelled at a lot.

Oftentimes it would start with the customer calling in to figure out why the check was made payable to the mortgage company also. The mortgage company I worked for was part of a large bank, so if the homeowner called the 800 number they were often frustrated by the time they finally found their way to me. Then as I explained that they couldn’t just have the money, we needed them to select a licensed contractor and get our approval, then we would provide 1/3, then we would do an inspection at 50% and release the next 1/3, then a final inspection at 100% and release the remainder. I would get yelled at and told it was illegal. But I would just point them to page 18 section 5 of the mortgage. I could access people’s mortgage docs and I was often asked to send the relevant pages.

Eventually people would accept their fate because they had no choice. I tried to be very sympathetic because it did suck for them. And I had customers tell me a lot of sad stories about fires and floods and tornadoes. It was a super interesting job though. I loved looking at the home inspection reports.

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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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