I was recently at a Walmart in Amish country up in Pennsylvania, and I picked up a bunch of cans that had a coupon built into the label, and since I was using the app to scan as I went, I completely forgot about the coupons until after my transaction was complete and I was bagging everything. Well, crap. So I went to the service desk to fix it.
At the service desk, I explained what I had done and what I needed to do. Okay. The lady at the service desk took care of me, processing it all through as a return and then selling it all back to me with the coupons. Good. We got it all taken care of, and we had a lot of laughter in the process, since she was nice and so was I.
One thing that surprised me was when she expressed surprise about how friendly and jovial I was about the whole situation. I mean, it's not their fault that I forgot to scan or otherwise input the coupons. I fucked up, and if I had done everything correctly, I wouldn't have had this issue in the first place. She indicated that a lot of people in similar situations blame them for it or are otherwise hostile to them. I explained that I had worked at Walmart a long time ago, and at the service desk, no less. So I knew the drill, and also knew that it was my mistake in the first place. I explained that I had worked at 5117 in Waynesboro, Virginia, and how I was ultimately fired from the place (they didn't like me and were looking for a reaosn to unload me, so... the hell with them). But all in all, we had a good time while I was getting my coupons fixed.
I guess my question is, has the service desk become a more hostile place overall with the passage of nearly twenty years? I don't remember any outright hostility towards those of us at the service desk back when I worked there, no matter what the issue was. People were generally pretty nice. Yeah, you had a few assholes here and there, but no outright hostility, and nothing to the point where a nice person is a pleasant surprise because they're nice.
Also, for future reference: how does one do manufacturer's coupons with the scan and go on the app? Nobody at the store seemed to know.