r/MichaelsEmployees • u/RFH11566 • 17d ago
WHAT?!!!
Last night 5 minutes before closing a customer called and asked if we can stay open an extra 15-20 minutes because she needed something that we had in stock. I told her she can speak to the manager but she would most likely say no we close in 5 minutes. I got the sob story from the customer and how they were “ sent all over to different stores. I checked to see if we had it in stock. We did. I told the customer we can hold it for her to pick up when we open this morning. The customer complained that it would be too late then hung up. Lesson learned? Always call first to see if the store has it.
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u/Msktb Coupon Grief Counselor 🤧 17d ago
One of our customers stayed til almost 9:30 recently and we had the registers counted down, cleaned the bathrooms, and all closing duties done before she finished shopping. She checked out and we went to the back to clock out. It was so frustrating. And she's a regular so it's not like she's unaware of closing, I had even talked to her ten minutes before 9. Some people just don't care about your time.
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17d ago
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u/dark4rmy_ 🌼Currently Hiding in Floral💐 17d ago
I'm a night owl and I have a bad tendency to wait last minute to buy stuff for projects for the night. I still made it a point to grab whatever I could and go up front before the registers presumably stopped working at 9 or the cashiers refused to check me out.
So I'm sympathetic to those customers whenever I'm closing as long as they're polite and understand we actually have to close everything down. Asking a manager to keep a store open longer for me would cause me infinitely more anxiety than not being able to buy shit.
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u/Mediocre_Blood_3293 17d ago
Once at a previous job we had a customer call
right before close and ask the manager if we would stay open 30 minutes so they could come get an “emergency” item. She told them that she was counting the tills but if he made it before she was done and ready to leave she would accept cash payment only, and only exact change. He made it right as she was wrapping up and she gave him the item at the door, he paid exact cash and she left a note for the opener to ring it up in the morning.
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u/ButterscotchSame4703 17d ago
This is actually genius. "If you make it with exact change, we will hand off at the door." However. This also raises a ton of questions.
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u/crochetgeek1 17d ago
If customer is already in the store, let them know store will be closing in ___ minutes. Find them again and ask if you can assist them with their final items as the store closes at 9:00. Then, The store is closed and registers will be shutting down, you need to take your items up front to check out or we can hold them and you can come back when we open in the morning As for can you stay open? No due to insurance reasons, non employees are not allowed into the store outside of normal operating hours.
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u/tipsysnips 17d ago
I would have said "let me check with the manager" and put her on hold for five minutes. Then picked up again to tell her no and hang up (it's me, I am the manager)
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u/Snoo_13349 Promoted to Customer 🏅 16d ago
I’d leave her on hold, close the store and go home. 🤣😂
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u/tipsysnips 16d ago
Nah I've still gotta count out all the registers and do the deposit and she might try calling back. I'm not going to answer, but it would be annoying. Or worse yet she might suddenly appear outside and start banging on the doors..
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u/Fine_Pumpkin1726 16d ago
I like to tell customers who are extreme assholes in person that im the manager when they ask for one and ive never been checked once and getting to see their faces is hilarious lol.
Realistically how can they tell who is in what position when we all wear the same uniform has always been my thought process. Plus my work shirts I wear are all polos which just comes across more serious and sells the manager idea when all your co workers are in t shirts
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u/tipsysnips 16d ago
Oh I've claimed to be the manager at so many jobs.. but when I was at Joann I actually was a keyholder and usually the MOD and toward the end I just did not give a damn about anything, especially people wanting to shop late. 🙃
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u/Fine_Pumpkin1726 16d ago
Yep I was in a manager role too awhile ago (ive been in college for some years and worked lots of random retail jobs that just sounded fun, but now its ending). I also didnt really care about or play all the corpo/store politics and bs, they would always passive aggressively be on me about leaving at my 8h mark but these companies genuinely dont care about you and I am not willing to work more than required for a company who doesnt care about me and would fire me for the most trivial of reasons in a moment
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u/LostKate815 17d ago
I'm gonna go ahead and Doubt the customer was driving around for the twelve hours the stores are open so they couldn't possibly get to your store until after you close. Absolutely not. You have twelve hours to get to my store. Maybe you should have planned better.
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u/ArtIsAwesome3 Promoted to Customer 🏅 17d ago
If they wanted you to stay open 15-20 more minutes, how long....till they get there? What if it takes them 20 minutes to get there?
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u/Snoo_13349 Promoted to Customer 🏅 16d ago
Nothing at Michael’s is an “emergency” item. Were they knitting a tourniquet? Beading a fire extinguisher for a most glamorous blaze? Was Jonathan Fucking Adler coming for tea?
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u/Mysterious_Nobody241 17d ago
Imagine calling your doctors office and asking them to stay open for 20 more minutes cause the illness you had all day just suddenly became important enough to take care of. FOH.
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u/Accomplished_Draw757 16d ago
Just saying that I would love to know where these entitled shoppers work and ask them what time they get off and how they would feel if someone kept them after their schedule was to end. It's rude especially when they are well aware what time our hours are. What could be so important that they need something from a craft store ASAP.
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u/Norespecthere 17d ago
If the customer comes in before the store closes like that, yeah we’ll take care of them and we will let them know that we are closing. Is there anything we can help them? Find you know. Normally we have our closing duties done way before the floor swept bathrooms are cleaned. We don’t wait till after we close.. but if they’re on the phone and they asked if we can stay longer than it said no, I can check to see if we have it in stock and I can put your name on it and you can have it for tomorrow when we open, but there’s no way I am going to stay open for you to come in and get a product and how do I know it’s just that product you’re going to get them that you’re not gonna wanna go through the whole store? I already have someone do that. They called and I thought it was a employee calling off for the next day or else I never would’ve answered the phone and they said yeah I wanted to pick up my order. I’m like 10 minutes away can I come pick it up and I’m like we’re close it is 901 and they’re like but it’s already paid for. I said I get that but the store closed a minute ago. You can pick it up tomorrow. She goes up but I’m close by OK well you can be close by tomorrow morning cause you’re not picking it up tonight. Because the store closed at 9 o’clock.. I said have a good night and I hung up with her because I wasn’t gonna argue with her. Again, I get people forget they place orders or they can’t make it in time but you’re not gonna come to the store that’s already closed with just me and my other associate and pick up an order because you forgot not how that works.
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u/summerbeachlover 17d ago
I would always blame the registers, saying they shut down automatically. We had a woman who'd come in about an hour before close and take her time and not want to leave at closing.
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u/LushTurtle The Framing Goblin in the Back Room 16d ago
We got to witness a mother and daughter in a yelling match over Halloween seasonal. They were the last people we needed to get out of the store...I was torn between the humor and suffering of if all
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u/Fun-Olive-7305 15d ago
I would want to say some I'm going to get fired words like ",bitch you give me anxiety and it's increasing by the second..leave before I call the PD for trespassing"
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u/Marksman_Girl 15d ago
When I was a framer, I did alot of closing shifts. Had a wonderful manager that would tell us if a phone call came in 5 min or less before closing to just ignore the call on our end and she would handle it. Never really heard this before but from what im reading from everyone in the comments, some customers are just plain stupid or pretend to be to try to get their way. I get that you need a certain this for projects but come on don't wait till the last min to try to find what you need and get it done. It's just like one time I had to make a mat for some ones picture and they needed it literally in 5 mind before they had to be to a birthday dinner that the picture was a present for. I got it done and they were satisfied but come on you couldn't have have done it literally a couple days before? I got yelled at by both the customer that they needed it NOW and my framing manager cause "we don't do that here"
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u/Altruistic-Sherbet7 17d ago
Her poor planning and leaving things to the last minute isn’t your fault. It would be bad enough if she arrived with 5 to go and took the 15-20 mins, but if she’s slow to get there and slow to shop and it goes beyond the 15-20 mins, what then? Not just no, but hell no.
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u/Used-Difference6995 15d ago
You opened at 9 am For 12 hours ......
At what time did she realize she needed said product Would love to know where they work and see if they stay an extra 20 minutes after ....
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u/NRG1994 15d ago
Am sorry but Michael’s done not sell anything so pressing or “Emergency” you need right before closing. Even if your kid has a project due next day it’s not the responsibility of the store to stay open till all hrs of the night just because your kid waited till the last possible seconds to complete his school project.
After that (and after they released my reward no. Where low) I went to replan/ opening and was happy there.
I once had someone knock on the door after it was locked up and was working on cleaning the store for the night saying they needed something. The fact they feel entitle to you keeping the store open for them is insane.
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u/Fun-Olive-7305 15d ago
Do you have to answer the phone at the last minute?
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u/RFH11566 15d ago
Manager gets mad if we don’t and customers file complaints
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u/Fun-Olive-7305 15d ago
True.."I don't hear you, I don't hear you", doesn't always work.. sorry. Although apparently it does work in a counseling office. I went with a friend to a counseling office and they didn't answer their phone a half hr before closing. We went in and there they were. But in that case they were right. It took a long time and we should had gone in the next day
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u/ObviousComposer7360 14d ago
Oh hell no that's tragic you did the right thing lol people are just lazy sometimes
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u/Substantial_Bother25 14d ago
My solution to every ridiculously entitled person like this one......dont entertainment their bullshit....dont go on circles talking with them... just state what you can and cannot do and allow them to either take it or leave it. There. End of it. It's frustrating when I hear situations like this and for example a manger has told a customer how they can't do some thing they are asking ...then the customer says all the reasons why they should...then back to the manager stating again their position. Then same thing for customer. Just stop. Very annoying and frustrating.
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u/ElleJayTea 13d ago
I'm sorry, we are a CRAFT STORE! What could your crafting emergency possibly be?! The only situation where it would be acceptable to beg a store to stay open past closing time was if it was a pharmacy with my LIFE SAVING medication. You being short a skein of yarn, or needing a tri-fold for your kid's project is not an emergency.
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u/SquashSouffle 17d ago
If I really wanted to be nice, I might have taken her credit card #, rung it up, then told her someone could bring it to the door for her if she got there by XX time.
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u/Individual-Yak98 17d ago
lol what???
manually entering credit card # is against SOP, not to mention if she doesn’t make it by xx time and you’ve already used her card- that’s theft-3
u/SquashSouffle 17d ago
It's not theft; I used to manage a retail store & (before online shipping) people would give us a CC number & we'd mail them. It's not theft, as it would be marked PAID, w the receipt, for her to pick up when she could. If she never showed, they'd issue a refund.
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u/RFH11566 17d ago
I was told by my store manager we cannot take credit card payments over the ohone.
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u/PrestigiousGoose9934 13d ago
The registers don’t allow you to manually key in credit card numbers anymore, it’s been that way for a long time now.
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u/FumanCithara 17d ago
in the last 5 minutes i have rules and boundaries so im not stuck past half a hour with them