to expect customers to believe me when i say 'we dont have a back'

[Ibizatime]

Literally happens about 4 times a day..

c: 'do you have this in a size x/y
me: 'Let me check for you'
me: 'im sorry we dont have it in stock at the moment, i can order it for you or check at another store?'
c: 'cant you just go look in the back for me'
me: 'im sorry we dont have a back'
c: 'it'll only take a few minutes go on'
me: 'no really we dont have a back, out off-site stock room is about an hour away and we get a delivery every morning'

Then its usually that im a 'fucking' liar/ im lazy/why cant i do my job properly/well you had it the other day.

sigh.. i guess im just sick of being called a liar everyday

Maybe you should start lying? Go out of a door and have a little sit down for 2 minutes.

Try rephrasing? "all of our stock is out so I'm afraid if you don't see it then we don't currently have it."

I've been told that before in big stores.

I used to get this all the time - we did have a stock room but I would know what was sold out. I would pretend to look - everyone went away happy.

Or rephrase it as: 'all the stock we have is out on display'

Sorry 8teedum* x post!

S'ok compo, yours sounds better.

If they persist, how about 'okay, I'll just go and check for you'...

'Nope, no stock has appeared in that room in the last three minutes, sorry'.

Oh, I will never ask again "do you have it out the back!"

I used to work for a high street clothes retailer and 'out the back' was actually up 3 flights of stairs - I regularly went to 'look for stock' sit on the stairs under the little window

I have never understood why people ask this. If they have it, it will be on the rail. It isn't very cost effective to have stock anywhere but in the shop surely?

Yip, go through to the staff room or whatever and have a quick drink of water, rest your feet for a minute or so, check your phone.

There's just no pleasing some people when they're in a huff that you can't pull whatever they want out of your arse thin air.

And technically , you're still checking in "the back", it's just that the back doesn't contain any stock.

I am in the fortunate/unfortunate position of picking the stock for replenishment 4/5 days out of 6. I know exactly what stock we have upstairs, and our regular customers know me and that if I say/comfirm that we have no more upstairs, we don't have any more. We will always pffer to order though.

The only thing I am never quite 100% on is the footwear and socks, so we will always check that.

I have been seriously tempted to invite someone upstairs if they don't believe me.

I shop online wherever possible, and have the pick of 'out the back'.

I dont argue anymore I go and check in the back if the demand it ie get a drink or maybe nip outside for a fag, if the want to stand there for 5mins while I have a break and explain to the rest of the queue that im in the back looking for something am happy to do it.

sparkling, I think the shop I worked in had a policy of only having one or 2 of each size hanging on the shop floor to keep it tidy, then all through the day we would be charging up and down the bloody stairs replenishing everything!

Luckily for me, I worked on the shopfloor and also did evenings unpacking the delivery, hanging it all up and carting the stuff up the stairs only to haul it back downstairs again the following day

I get this too. I generally don't mind people asking, but it is annoying when they don't believe you (we really don't have accessible stock in the warehouse) and sometimes it does get a bit annoying. Seriously, would a store leave a big empty space if they had the item waiting out the back? We can't sell it from there so we'd be bloody stupid not to bring it out... (and the fact you've driven X numbers of miles to get here will not give me the ability to magic it out of thin air either)

When I worked in a clothes shop I knew exactly what stock we had on the floor and in the stock room - I used to pretend to go and look as well if people were insistent!

I used to work for a high street clothes retailer and 'out the back' was actually up 3 flights of stairs - I regularly went to 'look for stock' sit on the stairs under the little window

I used to do just this too.

When I work in an opticians and someone was unreasonably happy with their glasses we used to take them out back for 'bench rest', clean the lenses and give them back. Fixed a lot of problems.

Is there a phone near the till? Pick up phone press random number "hi stockroom, have we got the froo froo dress in a size 8"? ... pause ... " Ok thanks"

No sorry customer, I can order it..etc...

It is annoying how just because you happen to be working in a customer-facing role, a lot of people will automatically assume that you are stupid and cannot do your job properly without their "helpful" suggestions.

It makes me

Sales is all about keeping the statements positive though apparently...

Have you got this in size 8

Let me see...ah, yes we do, we have an 8 in our main stock center, I can get it here for you by tomorrow morning and put it by for you. Would you like me to take your details and do that for you?

That tactic might divert a few is it out the back demands...tbh when you say 'let me check' it suggests that you have stock elsewhere.

If they get nasty then you can sweetly say, this one has been ever so popular, we definitely don't have anymore...I sold the very last size 8 earlier today (then smile sweetly...).