Okay, having customer issues this morning and need to rant. Now my parents, as many of you may know from my previous posts, own a print shop, have owned it about 27 or 28 years and I have been working there in the summers since I can remember, and on days I donât go to school (two or three days a week) while in college for the last 4 years. The following are things I cant stand about customers, and I know I am not the only one.
I may have mentioned some of these earlier in other posts.


1. I AM NOT A THERAPIST! You have problems, guess what so do I. You come in spend a dollar on copies then want to talk to me for 30 min about all the problems you have. I am sorry your life is not great at the moment, neither is mine, but time is money so please please donât waste it for me. (I especially cant stand the people who walk in right at closing then want to keep me half an hour after workâ¦grrrr)


2. CREDIT CARDS ARE EVIL, CARRY CASH.

Sure credit cards are widely used, probably more popular then any other payment method. However people donât seem to realize it cost me money to have this service available for you to use.

I get 3% off the top of anything you spend PLUS a swipe fee. And for those of you who are carrying around credit cards so old that the magnetic strip is so worn off that the reader cannot read it I get another fee to type in the number of the credit card. So that being said who in their right minds walks in and wants to charge their $1.29 copy cost? I LOSE MONEY ON THIS DEAL. By the time I pay the franchise their % of the sale, cover the supplies (paper, toner, electric etc) and my time I have lost money on this sale. We no longer accept credit cards for sales under $3.00, people just donât seem to understand this, carry cash for things under 5 bucks AT LEAST (if not 10 or 20 bucks).


3. READ THE PROOF! We give you a proof to sign for a reason. It is a copy of exactly what you want before we put it into production. We do not know where you live, if your address is wrong on the business card you ordered and you sign the proof saying everything is right, do not come yell at me. It is not my fault you are too lazy to read the thing I gave you, and no you will not get a discount to fix it, why do I have to pay for YOUR mistake.

4. DONâT TRY AND âTALK ME DOWNâ Printing seems to be the only industry were in the last 20 years prices have fallen. Especially on copies, we just recently went up on copies but for the last 5 years a copy was cheaper then it was 15 years ago. How does that even work?

5. JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN OPEN A WORD DOCUMENT DOES NOT MAKE YOU A GRAPHIC ARTIST. People are constantly coming in and asking for copies of the business cards they did themselves at home. And guess what, 95% of the time they are not set up correctly. We have to go in and fix it, reset it and the run it.


6. SOMETIMES THE CUSTOMER IS WRONG. We have had people come in and tell us how to do things, we say, no thatâs not how its done, or it cant be done like that. Usually they say something like âyou wont be in business longâ and walk out the door. Which is fine with me. Every once in a while we have someone that will come back and admit they were wrong. Ex. We had a man come in and want business cards, it had sometime of detailed foil work on it/embossing/something else I cant remember, we told him there is nobody in Houston that can do that next day. And there isnât that type of work is very custom. He said âthatâs not right I can find someoneâ and left. 2 days later he was back with a smile saying âyou were right, nobody can do it.â Duh.

7. I HAVE TO FOLLOW THE LAW. I cannot copy any official documents in color. No drivers licenses, no birth certs no passports, nothing like that can be in color. Black and white yes, color no no no. So once I say no I am sorry thatâs against the law, donât look at me like I am crazy or ask me to do it on the âdown lowâ. I could go to jail, be fined and ruin the rest of my life, and for what? Less then 2 dollars? Come on. Same goes for those of you who want whole books copied, there is a copyright in the front for a reason you know.

Sorry this is so long but I thought there would be other people who understand this and perhaps will share their own stories, because I have tons and havenât been here that long! Lol


~Alicia

I can relate to some of what you are talking about. I work in a carryout that sells beer and cigarettes.. I get yelled at at least once a night if not more over me carding people. Umm I'm sorry carry your license and it wouldn't be an issue especially when you look 12!

I'm one of those credit card carriers, Alicia. Honestly, I had no idea it was so bad to use for small transactions, I NEVER have cash on me! Just curious, why do they carge for a manual entry?

Hang in there, we all have bad days.

I definitely don't want to get screamed at for this, but, I did work with the public for five years, not a lifetime, but long enough for me to observe that that's just not the job for me. I don't want to hear about anyones problems especially at closing time, I don't want to hear how you forgot your coupon at home and could I just please please please do it this one time, I don't want to hear about how one time at one other store this happened so now I need to watch how I do it at my store .. so maybe working with the public is not the job for you, and you should move onto something else? Not to sound harsh, but some jobs are for some people, and not for others.

I always use my card...never carry cash. I look at it this way...the merchants get my business because they take credit/debit cards. If they didn't take them, I'd shop elsewhere.

using a credit card for just a few dollars? do people live purely on credit and not have ANY money?

Almost everywhere here has a $5 minimum on debit card purchases, its crazy to lose money on a transaction - and if that effects who comes into your shop then so be it.

What do people do in an emergency if all you have is a card? What happens if their machine is down?

We don't have any credit cards at all...we use our debit card everywhere. If the atm around the corner is out, we go to the one around the other corner. If we had an emergency, we'd use our debit card, or go to the atm.

Our card machine goes down from time to time (its dial up) when the rest of the store is still running. When that happens, we write down the # (if thats all they have) and run it later (yes, at the higher rate). I'm sick of credit card fees too... we paid over $400 last month. I am also one who uses mostly plastic when I am shopping. However, I do try to be conscientious of which to use, debit vs credit... we pay a % on credit but a flat $.55 on debit. So for transactions over about $25 its smarter to do debit. Lately tho, anytime I try to use credit to help a fellow merchant out on a small purchase they wanna see my ID too which is a PIA. And I read somewhere that they are not allowed to by the cc companies... but oh well, I'm not gonna try to reason with a clerk who is just doing what they are told.

The cc companies are making SO MUCH FREAKIN' MONEY anymore (with everyone swiping), it'd be nice if they lowered our fees but I don't see it happening anytime soon. Anybody got a petition to sign?

I agree credit cards are evil (I only have one left!!!!! I'm almost out of debt!!! Yeah!!!!!!)

I am one who carries my bank card everywhere. (Its not a credit card but is accepted everywhere like a credit card) It's like cash/check. I'd even use it for $1.00

Just realize that the person accepting the card is having to pay out $.20 plus 1.9% (approx) for that $1 sale...

I read somewhere that the gov. is wanting to do away with paper money because it cost to much to make, can you imagine that?

Am i the only one left that pays with cash????

Yes i have credit cards, and a debit card, but chances are if i don't have the cash i don't buy.

I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I think all cards are bad. I carry my debit card, credit card and cash. I would just feel very insecure never having a little cash. I was at the drugstore a few weeks ago - credit cards and debit machines at the till were down but I had cash to buy my tampons... maybe its just that I'm cheap and will not pay $1.50 to use the ATM from another bank. Most places I would have to go 10-15 blocks to find an ATM from my bank that would be free.

Also growing up in a rural area makes me think of all the times when you just never know having cash will come in handy - getting a farmer to pull you out of the ditch instead of calling a tow truck (most will pull you out for free but its nice to give them something), run out of gas (never done that yet!)

Like I said before - many places in Alberta and Saskatchewan have a $5 minimum for debit cards, I'm not sure about credit cards. Perhaps things are a little different here in Canada though. I don't think I have seen any business take personal checks in the last 10 years where it seems it is common in the US.

I guess I just feel that credit card fees are one more thing that are driving the prices for everything up.

Ok...I have a story but its not about credit cards...

I was a customer service rep at a Cargo Airline in Miami, and we dealt with customers from all over the world...u'd have really sweet ones , talkative ones , and really nasty ones .
I had a manager who was a big @$$ coward ...We had a contract with a guy who picked up cargo from other businesses (not residences) and take it to our company. Well we had this one chick who we explained this to and she kept me on the phone for an hour saying that she was not going to hang up until we came and picked her cargo up...Ok first of all if he was monitoring this call he should've stepped in after the first half hour. Well we had one other worker came in to relieve me for break and it was the same thing she called back and would not hang up until we gave her confirmation that her crap was going to get picked up. Ok now a few hours has gone by the manager and I were still there, the company stopped picking up cargo and we were getting ready to close...she called back,'WHY DIDN'T U PICK UP MY F@$%ING CARGO'. I told her to hold on, I went and got the manager and told him there was a situation he needed to handle because I will not be yelled or cursed at...he told me to handle the call, I'm like are u serious, u don't want me to handle this call because once I get thru with her u'll fire me trust me! So he told me to calm down and handle the call but he was going to listen to make sure it doesn't get out of control...Ok so I get back on the phone and as calmly as possible I tell her, 'Well we cannot pick up ur cargo from ur house we only pick up from businesses and I'm sorry that ur cargo is not here for the flight out tonight but theres nothing i can do if the carrier does not pick up from a residence'...she starts yelling we better pick up her s@@t, she's gonna sue us blah blah blah...and all the while this yelling and swearing was going on this dumb @$$ manager was listening in and did not take over the call. Now I know some of us here has worked in customer service, relations or whatever and u know that when calls escalate to all the yelling, cursing and threatening a manager or supervisor needs to take over and disconnect the call. So after another 20 minutes of her yelling and swearing and me telling her 'I undersand' 'I apologize' I just lost it and said "Well u know what, ur cargo is not here for the flight not my fault that the company does not pick up from residences, ok...it is not our places to tell them to pick up your crap from your house. I have other customers that I need to get to and u are hendering me from helping them, now if u were a little more nicer I would be more inclined to help u in anyway possible but since u are not getting it thru ur head that ur cargo is not going to get here thru that company...I have one suggestion...if u want to get your shipment here and on the next flight u need to bring it here urself.....(CLICK) I hung up on the chick and logged out of my computer and this stupid manager comes in and says, 'Shakivia, I think u handled that call well' Are u serious!!! I went to his boss and complained and told her what happened and she agreed that he shouldn't have let the call go that far and his stupid @$$ had to go to a training Thats why at my bakery, I have my cousin who is very much a people person handle the calls and the front store and things like that. I only deal with the customers during tastings, consultations and when we deliver and set up....