Am I A Magnet...

...for bad shit or what?

People shooting out my window, casing the house, prankcalling the housephone for 2 straight weeks, throwing mudballs at the window at 5am, and now some jackass customer has it in for me.

Saturday about 5:30 a customer wants some change from the register...a manager offers to get it for him, and then spend about 5 minutes going back and forth, ending with the guy offering to write a check for a quarter. Sorry dude. He introduces himself as Jonathan and goes on a rambling rant about how there should be better communication among employees.

I recognize this guy as a customer from Radioshack. Lined up about $1100 worth of cellphone equipment and then walked away with a remote control after monopolizing the assistant manager for 3 hours. He's hampered it his human interaction by the fact that he is, delicately, what used to be called a halfwit. Ordinarily I would not be this harsh, but given that the guy has expressed some serious interest in the cessation of my breathing, I don't feel any regret about anything I say regarding him. He can form coherent sentences, but can't string them together into a coherent, over-arching topic. He's perfectly fit and intelligent, he's just 90 cents short of a dollar, and loves to hear himself talk, which makes things even worse.

Me being the kind and considerate sales associate, I listen to this guy rant, offer to help him find stuff, etc. and so forth. Just like I do with everyone else. 45 minutes later, he wants me to give him a 4000 page master list of every CD we can order, wants me to write down a statement to the effect that "We can't get CDs we can't order" so he can give it to the #3 guy at Sony(WTF?), and is looking for Parkening playing Segovia CDs. I take him over by CDs, hand him something, and then my supervisor calls me over. I tell him I'll be right back, and head over by my supervisor. Jonathon is about 5 steps behind me, and throws his CDs on the counter, and says "If I were you, I'd watch myself closely. Very closely." before stomping out of the department.

He then goes and complains about ME to a manager, saying I'm showing by my body language that I don't respect him. The manager doesn't know at this point that he threatened me.

Over my break, I tell the manager what transpired, and she refuses to kick him out of the store, saying it's too far after the fact, and that I really shouldn't communicate non-verbally what I think about a customer. Woman wants to be a district manager, I swear. I tell her this isn't my fault, it's Jonathon's and his mother's, for not leaving a plastic bag in his crib. I also tell her that if I see him in the department again, I'm walking out and calling the cops.

She won't kick him out of the store, but she's concerned enough that she won't let me go back into my department during my break, for fear he'll show up again.

Jonathon finally leaves the store at 11, after haunting the perimeter of my department for about 5 hours. I'm kicked loose at 11 too, because to stay and help with the cleaning would put me into overtime.

The next day, my coworkers are all asking me if I'm ok, if I heard what happened, etc. Finally the store manager gives me the lowdown on what happened after I left. Seems when the employees finally headed out at midnight, Jonathon was waiting for them, as he had been for an hour. He pounds on the doors, demanding entrance, and the employees are frightened enough that they stay inside the store for an hour (hoping he'll go away) and then call the cops. Cops detain him long enough for everyone to leave, and then cut him loose.

I filed a police report the next day. I'll take threats from your average punk, that's not a problem. But this guy's 50 years old, nuttier than a Mr. Goodbar, and he was pissed enough to wait around nearly 6 hours (1 of them outside) for me. The police said they'd try and contact him, and were of no help besides that.

Well, I shouldn't say that. I did manage to trick them into giving me his name. Which I then punched into the WI court system and found out that Mr. Jonathon Hensel of 820 Reed Street, Manitowoc, WI 54220 has 13 priors for bad driving, not paying his bills, 2 divorces, one obstructing an officer, one restraining order, and one felony charge of torturing an animal to death. Freakin' choirboy.

The store manager who refused to kick him out got a print-out of all his dealings with the legal system, and now Mr. Jonathon Hensel is persona non grata at my place of employment. He will be kicked out on sight, and if he refuses to go, the police will be called to remove him.

I can buy a restraining order from the police, but it's nearly $100. Anybody here think it's worth it? Anything else I should be doing? Anything I did that I shouldn't have?

Some days I really hate dealing with customers.

Adrian

Adrian - Get out of retail, it's too dangerous LOL.

It sounds like everybody's worst nightmare>

Kathleen

with the exception of the animal thing he doesn't sound too dangerous just a nutjob with a little too much time on his hands.

you'll come across plenty of them working in a shop and i wouldn't do much except watch my back leaving the shop at night if he turns up and gets thrown out.

Maybe you could shoot him?

I jest, I jest...


I've had customers like that aswell. One guy who had clearly had been 'let out for the day' or something who, after i told him that we no longer stock Cherry Cola, grabbed me by the back of the neck and kept repeating ''What are you saying, son??'' and shaking me before security had to drag him off. Then HE had the balls to write a letter of complaint to head office about ME.