And then we give poor customer service this weekend

At Lowes!

I am really put off right now with my store.

After my Rant about the shoddy customer service at Walmart here in town on Friday, I have been keenly aware of how my store needs to improve in this area as well.

I realize that not everything that has happened this weekend could be helped but there are a few things that could have been.

My store, it turns out, is afraid to call a code 3 (three customers in line), when it is needed, over the intercom. Which by the way is just stupid!

Plus, it turns out, that my store, not all CSA's are aware of how to run a register, or even think that it is their responsibility that if they are not busy with a customer that they should come up and jump on a register if the code three is called.

Friday night, I was asked to clean all around the self checkouts, get all of the dust bunnies, papers, everything that had fallen down next to the main register, just all out spring cleaning. So I was on the floor trying to reach some papers (that were dated last November) out from between the register and the wall. When L yelled at me to get up and get some of these customers, because they were being swamped.

Hummmmmm... all four self check out lights were on, so all they had to do was mention it and they would have come down.

But what ever... I walked to the end of the self check out area, and said, excuse me I am open down here and can help you. The customers all came straight down.

Then K gets on her high horse about it a while later when she walked by, "sitting on your a$$ while we are getting slammed. I corrected her, but it did no good. K thinks that she is god's gift, oh and since she gets away with showing up an hour late to work, and ignoring customers all the time, she must be.

Yesterday we had more cashiers on a Saturday than I have ever seen in that store. So it wasn't too bad. Every now and then the garden center got slammed and had to call a code 3 but not a big deal.

Today, someone screwed the pooch!

To open the store, there were 4 of us, and a head cashier. That is one person for customer service, one for self checkout (that is broken again), one for garden center, and one for commercial sales. Until 10.

Oh wait back up, K "overslept" and was 90 minutes late! So there were 3 of us this morning plus the head cashier.

Now for the first couple of hours we were not too busy.

But then 3 rolled around, and for some reason when A did the break schedule she did it so that all of the assigned code 3's, and 2 of the cashiers all went to lunch at 3.

Oh and K, L and S were all working customer service, and none of them could be bothered to move out of customer service and open another register.

So I was getting SLAMMED with a million customers in line, who were all complaining at me, about the lines.

I called code 3, not knowing the aversion that the store has to calling code 3's.

I called it 3 times, because I was getting my butt kicked, and was getting chewed out by customer after customer, and hum, everyone in the store should know how to run a register, so if they are not with a customer they should have hopped on a register.

Then K strolls down and screams at me to stop calling code 3, because there is no one to come do it, and I am just being a "stupid, f'ing, idiot".

I looked at her and said then get out from behind the damn desk and get on a register.

W was walking by and later said she thought we were going to come to blows over it, and then also apologized for not being able to get on a register, because she was getting a wheelbarrow for a customer.

I ended up having to apologize to about 30 customers for the wait.

I was told when I was getting off work that not everyone in the store was shown how to work a register.

Which I am pretty sure is against Lowes policy.

To say that I am not a happy person being a cashier, is an understatement.

It ticks me off that I have had enough training from Lowes that is going to waste, and I am stuck on a register. I have worked 5 months in home decor, and 9 months in Lawn and Garden, and have level 2 in seasonal, and level 1 in mill-works, flooring, plumbing, and appliances, and I am stuck working a dang register, where I am treated like I am lower than dirt.

It ticks me off that the CSA's and sales specialist think that they are too good to help out on a register when they are needed on one.

It ticks me off that I have a masters degree in education, and I am stuck working at Lowes. I keep getting told to keep my chin up and that a teaching job will come open for the fall, but after weekends like this one, where I just want to walk out of Lowes and never go back, the fall seems like such a long time away.