Seen and heard on Friday at the UPS store in Park Slope, Brooklyn:
The employee is a kid who looks to be about 16 or 17. He keeps flipping open his Sidekick to check messages and respond. He does not want to be working in the UPS store this afternoon—he won’t make eye contact with any customers and gives sullen, single-word answers to questions.
A guy in his 20s comes in.
| Guy: I brought in a package earlier and you guys packed it. I need to get it back and get a refund on the shipping fees. |
He hands the kid his receipt—the kid stares at it, turns away and mutters out loud in a strangely offended tone:
| UPS Kid: I have to go back there and dig through those boxes and find this one package?
Another UPS employee: Don’t go in the back. Just look at those— |
She points to a closet area behind the counter. The kid stops in front of the area she pointed to and stands staring at it.
| UPS Kid: I have to dig through all these boxes? |
The kid stands in front of the closet area muttering that phrase over and over for the next two minutes, and when we leave the store he still hasn’t started looking for the customer’s box.
Probably the only thing worse than this story is that the first thing we thought when the kid refused to look for the box is, “What is this, the post office?”
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The manager of a store usually affects how employees behave towards customers. This goes for any retail store. If their manager is treating them like crap, they will act it to their customers, thus resulting in a decline of the store. If there are cell phone issues in the place (WHY must everyone have a cell phone, I don’t have one, because I have no one to call, it would be pointless to me, and they are expensive) then the manager of the place needs to address this. If the manager is unwilling, the employees will be unwilling too. Also if the corporation doesn’t care, then this usually filters down to the district manager, then the manager and ultimately the store employees, who then don’t care about customer service because no one else does.
The stores that are well run and have friendly employees are run by a manager that cares, is fair to employees (kicks out the losers and gives the hard workers promotions) and a corporation that is at least behind the district manager and manager to some extent. If a manager isn’t fair to employees and doesn’t address the issue of lazy employees who talk on their cell phone all day, then you will have a bunch of employees that do nothing but that, no work will get done, your customers will become angry at the store, file complaints with everyone they can think of, and then your store will die.
@Szin: “I took a shower, but my butt still itches!! Can I help you?”
UPS Kid: “You mean I have to do my job?”
How novel.
@acasto: That’d almost be offensive if it weren’t so accurate, lol.
Not really “the worst.”
The worst was, when a driver decided to take his truck home with undelivered packages in it!
I had asked for my package to be held, because he wouldn’t deliver it to the address despite me being home all day.
Don’t get me started on CourierPost NZ (ALSO KNOWN AS DHL(DELIVERY HELL))
So, if some people here know this store/kid is this story being sent or mailed or taken to that store? Seems like it would be fun to go in and say “Oh, yeah! I know this store! I read all about you on the internet. I think I’ll go elsewhere.”
I read the headline quickly and assumed it was about the UHaul store in Park Slope. After a log day of moving my boyfriend and I went in to buy packing tape, which took forever because the three people behind the counter refused to make eye contact and when we asked someone to help they kept passing the buck. We went outside to clean out the moving truck and then realized we needed another plastic bag for trash. I walked back in and had the same experience as before and when someone finally turned to wait on me, the following happened:
Me: “Hi, could I get a plastic bag please.”
Her: No response.
Me: “You know, like a plastic grocery bag.”
Her: Silence
Me (knowing she speaks English because I watched her try to get someone else to help me): “I was just in here? We bought tape? We didn’t get a bag and realized we needed one?”
Her (still not moving): “I know what a bag is.”
Me: “Can you please get me one?” (sarcasm creeping in but still nice) “I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
Her: SLOWLY leans down to get bag, looks at it, glares at me, slams it on the counter
Me: “Ummm… wow… okay… Thank you.”
The amount of hostility involved in this simple request was mind-boggling. My guess is that there’s so much demand and so many minimum wage jobs to be had that there’s just no motivation to even try to pretend that they care? And wouldn’t have been easier to just hand me a bag instead of creating this drawn out hostility?
Hmm. If this happened at the post office, the customer would be laughed at. You mailed something and now you want it back? Um, no that’s not how it works. Oh, you have a receipt and you want a refund? Explain that to your local post office. Sorry, but I just don’t find this to be a big deal.
people in minimum wage jobs are becoming more and more hateful towards their customers. this isn’t strictly their faults – this is also their managers’ faults, and the business owners’ faults as well.
think about it.
@banmojo: Well, if you want to go that route, then perhaps it is the CONSUMER’S fault for not wanting to pay more for the product… Think about it. In a free market environment (USA), the consumer, thru supply and demand, sets the price of a product.
@Skankingmike:
Comment on The Worst UPS Store Employee In Brooklyn What’s with all this talk of people under 23 not working hard? You know,
it’s generalizations like this that have inhibited me from obtaining a good,
steady job up until literally a couple of days ago. I’m 19 and female, and
so far being a teenage girl has been a curse when it comes to getting
anything more than a temp job. I know I can work hard, and would, and I have
always proven myself when given the chance. Luckily I have been able to
babysit, but my only “real” job as most of my interviewers have put it
(which, by-the-way, would offend everyone’s mother) was a holiday position
at a department store. Unfortunately my job didn’t include use of a cash
register, as it was a merchandising position with more of a sales slant, and
therefore it hasn’t helped much in interviews since that job. I was finally
hired, ironically by UPS except I’m behind the scenes. I am personally
shocked that anyone would be enough of an idiot to put time into getting a
job, just to act like an idiot and probably, no, hopefully lose that job
shortly thereafter. I plan on keeping my job through college, and depending
on how things go, possibly past that as this is a company that can allow
room to grow a career. To anyone who might see this, please remember that
not every young person is uncaring and disrespectful, there are still those
among the bad apples who appreciate a chance to earn some experience doing
hard work.
This store is on 7th Ave. All the employees act as thought they absolutely hate their job and can’t stand being there and have NO hesitation in taking it out on the customers, and they go as slow as possible no matter how many people are waiting. I think they do that so some people will just leave, that makes less work for them. I’m surprised that UPS hasn’t heard complaints about this store and done something about it. It’s a really bad place, avoid it if at all possible.