'I am not allowed to do anything': Retail worker faces down angry parents after colleague sells parents the wrong computer for kid's gaming ambitions, prevented from helping them by silly company policy

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Nov 12, 2024 6:00 PM EST

Working retail is a hectic and endless stream of customer interactions that balance on a knife's edge, with any one of them threatening to teeter off into a full-blown customer meltdown with possibly little to no cause. It's a way of living that leaves you emotionally drained and completely exasperated, while weekends end up giving you just enough time to self-isolate and prepare for your next shift.

Meanwhile, despite claiming to have the customer's best interest at heart, upper management makes decisions that only serve to maximize their own bonuses and profit, putting you directly in the firing line for even more hostile interactions with customers. They'll enact some broad-sweeping policy that flies in the face of logical reason and expect you to follow it to the letter, vaguely implying serious consequences should you not blindly obey and refuse to listen to the insistence of everyone that their plan is a bad one. Then, acting like it's the worker's fault when they receive customer complaints about their policy. That's what this retail worker shared experiencing when they recounted this story from their days in retail, facing down belligerent customers whilst handling bizarre directives from their superiors.

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  • 01
    Sparer TO "I am not allowed to do anything with the pc department as it is a store policy..."
    via Clay Banks
  • 02
    You don't want me to help customers in different department? Than don't be surprised by complaints! L About 10 years ago I have applied to work at a retail store selling different tech. It is a rather large chain in the UK and can get pretty busy, especially after 5pm or during holidays/sales. When I applied for a job I wanted to go to
    via Lickawall483
  • 03
    computing department as I was very passionate about different builds and had some experience in building my own PC, instead I was temporarily placed on white goods (fridges, washing machines etc) for training even after I have admitted I know absolutely nothing about them.
    via Lickawall483
  • 04
    But no, apparently this knowledge should have been inherited through my genes since I am a girl, so I must know about them and be very good. So I bit my tongue and waited as I needed money and was fresh out of uni.
    via Lickawall483
  • 05
    About a few months in I have realised I am not going to be transferred to the computing department, no matter how much I wanted to. My sales were good but the managers wouldn't budge as they were scared I might advice something wrong.
    via Lickawall483
  • 06
    It was a start of a school term and the store was getting petty busy. A couple came in wanting to buy a PC for their teenage kid to game on, I wanted to help them as a fellow gamer myself, but got rudely pulled back by my manager and was told unless we are assigned to a specific department, we are not allowed to help customers or advice
    via Lickawall483
  • 07
    them. So he fetched another colleague who carried on assisting the parents. As it was quiet in my department I was doing some tidying up around the store and heard the colleague trying to sell the parents one of the apple PCs saying they will be great for gaming and all professionals use them (at the
    via Lickawall483
  • 08
    time we had a bigger commission from apple brand). Let me tell you they are not the best machines for gaming and if you are into heavier games they are likely not going to run that well or be incompatible with the OS.
    via Lickawall483
  • 09
    I don't know what else the colleague said, but the parents believed him and got an iMac for the kid. The manager was very proud of the colleague and told me to use him as an example of a good sale for the store. I have told him I could have topped it and the customer will come back with a return, but was told again not to go to computing department. Cue malicious. compliance.
    via Lickawall483
  • 10
    A few days later it was a busy day in the store, especially PCs due to back to school sale. A few people were off sick due to being overworked so the computing department had like 2 people on the floor, including the work colleague who sold the iMac. The parents came through the door with the pc they got, which usually means something broke down or they want to return it.
    via Lickawall483
  • 11
    They saw the guy who sold them the PC and started heading his way. He saw them too and decided it is time to go on lunch, leaving one colleague on the floor in the department.
    via Lickawall483
  • 12
    The parents are visibly getting angry and try to go to the till, but after being in the queue are told to catch another colleague from the tech department as we can't process refunds at the till for large items.
    via Lickawall483
  • 13
    The parents approach me as I don't have much to do and ask for help. I would be happy to do so, but remembering what the manager said I had to tell them I can't as I am not allowed to do anything with the pc department as it is a store policy. The parents approach more colleagues and keep hearing the same excuse.
    via Lickawall483
  • 14
    Obviously they are getting more and more angry so are other customers who want to buy something but can't since only people in computing department are allowed to sell stuff for computers. They try to grab the only person on the floor, but he is already busy with other customers and can't assist them while the other colleague responsible for the sale signed
    via Lickawall483
  • 15
    out for the day and the other is late. In about 20 minutes there's a massive queue by the tills of angry customers demanding to speak to the manager. The poor person at the till has no choice but to fetch the store manager and floor managers due to the amount of angry customers.
    via Lickawall483
  • 16
    They are trying to shift the blame on us, other store colleagues, but I mention about what the other manager said about not touching anything in tech department or help customers as we are not authorised and since it is a company policy and we haven't received the training we have to comply. Of course it makes customers even more angry and feel like their time is wasted, resulting in a commotion by the tills and further delays for other customers.
    via Lickawall483
  • 17
    I am unsure how the entire situation ended, as I was grabbed by an older lady to help her, but that day we had a lot of complaints on different websites about the policy and "store staff refusing to help as it is not their department" and we had a few "brainstorming" sessions after how to reduce complaints with none of the ideas taken on board.
    via Lickawall483
  • 18
    You would hope they would learn something and change the policy, but no. They gave extra training to the people already in computing department and allowed other colleague to sell smaller items like mice, keyboards, consoles, games, printers but not the laptops or pc. or vr, resulting in more complaints. Last time I have been
    via Lickawall483
  • 19
    there to buy my mum a new laptop (had a voucher) the situation seemed to have stayed the same, as we ended up waiting around 45 minutes for someone to push the sale through. At least I got a chance to complain to the store manager as well telling him everything I think about that store policy.
    via Lickawall483
  • 20
    DrafterDan I clearly remember when the now-defunct Fry's Electronics stopped having helpful people in their computer department. When bean-counters are in charge of customer service, everything falls apart
    via Lickawall483
  • 21
    Tamalene Well, this was just infuriating. Then again, I've been in a vile mood all day.
    via Lickawall483
  • 22
    JGCii Ironically...if you WERE working in the Tech Department, I can 100% guarantee that more than half your customers would want a "second opinion". from a male associate...or wait until he was free. Because, y'know, [s] girls don't know anything about tech...[/s]
    via Lickawall483
  • 23
    I know a woman that worked at Future Shop several years before they sold to Best Buy, and she was a nerd, geek, tech-head, and gamer gurl... She worked in the computer section, and after selling a customer on a tech item, game, etc., they would go ask the guy a couple rows over what his opinion was... Or, they would ignore her,
    via Lickawall483
  • 24
    and wait for the male associate to be free. The smart ones, or the ones that were capable of learning...would approach her first if she was available. (One person actually told her that they would rather speak with someone who knows the subject, instead of simply what they were told/reading a script - so she
    via Lickawall483
  • 25
    let them wait on her busy male colleague, whom told them some high points [things he'd been told], and said if they really wanted to know, they would have to talk to the store's computer expert. When they said, "yes, please!", he called her over...instant humiliation, but they were one of the smart ones, and actually sought her out when she was in the store on their future visits!)
    via Lickawall483
  • 26
    Contrantier That manager one hundred percent found out you were right about the return, and was too chicken sh*t to admit you knew better than him. But what else is new.
    via Lickawall483
  • 27
    DavidANaida Best Buy was the opposite. They insisted on sending you to departments you weren't trained in, literally advising employees to "go make something up." Whatever got revenue out the door, professional ethics and customer experience be damned.
    via Lickawall483
  • 28
    CoderJoe1 To quote some obscure movie, "Stupid is as Stupid does."
    via Lickawall483
  • 29
    SarkyMs My husband bought me a PC from there I only wanted to play world of Warcraft so it didn't need to have that good graphics the computer he was sold didn't have any graphics anything more complicated than word or Excel it couldn't handle.
    via Lickawall483
  • 30
    djdaedalus42 And you didn't take the chance to say, "More than my job's worth, mate!" ???
    via Lickawall483
  • 31
    MutualRaid Friends don't let friends go to Currys (except maybe on the rare occasion they have a weirdly low price on a specific item, usually as a business customer).
    via Lickawall483
  • 32
    ProperMagician... If I were a customer in that store (I think I know the one you mean!) and they tried to sell me anything Apple branded for gaming purposes I'd ask if it was their standard training policy to sell the most appropriate product, or the most expensive one, because I'm only a moderate gamer, but even I know that iOS is the worst for gaming!
    via Lickawall483
  • 33
    I'd be demanding to speak to a colleague who actually understands computers, and not someone with basic sales training and nothing else. I wouldn't be quiet about my disgust with the policy either!
    via Lickawall483
  • 34
    Zealotteen This post made me hit my breaking point
    via Lickawall483
  • 35
    MolassesDue26... Just remembered the response I've frequently get "sorry can't help you with this I JUST WORK HERE".
    via Lickawall483
  • 36
    Tubist61 You have to love PC World. My favourite game was figuring out the most clueless sales chap on the computing department and then playing with him for as long as I could be bothered to.
    via Lickawall483

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