Where's the Line?

Where is the line between customer and employee?

I believe I know where it is...and it all comes down to the ugly red vest.

If a body is wearing the ugly red vest (unlike bowling shirts, I see them as NEVER attaining any sort of punk/alternative fashion statement) then, and only during the time the vest is on the body, is that body to be considered an employee, co-worker, or associate. It's not a test, and yet it is.

There are people who fail this test. And it makes me wonder how often they fail the customer service test. Is there a hierarchy of service that is offered in degrees to people they judge to be in certain categories?

These are legitimate questions.

If at any given moment, a person is NOT wearing the ugly vest, but currently has the priviledge of looking that ugly for any number of hours in any given week, are they subject, if spending money, to a different standard than someone who has never worn that ugly vest, or who has managed to escape serfdom to the vest?

I think not.

People, when you're working retail, are to be classified into two categories: those who are currently wearing the uglies, and those who are not. Those who wearing the uglies are obligated to those who are not (regardless of vest priviledges) to provide consistant and fair customer service.

If someone with vest privileges is not currently on the clock and is in spending their money (or needing to get their money back) they should not be treated with LESS courtesy or shown LESS customer service than any other "joe off the street".

Period.

It makes me wonder, when this sort of thing happens, how do these co-workers REALLY treat the customers they come in contact with?

It probably wouldn't bother me so much, if this particular co-worker hadn't, in the past, tried to "give me hell" for this sort of thing. He gave me hell once (cornered me actually) about a customer whom I was unable to satisfy given the policies and my position. He will probably corner me again sometime next week about this.

Yes, I went over his head. I bought something, discovered it was broken, and given my "insider knowledge" it would have made it a logistical mess--not only do I not want to go through that myself, I don't want to drag anyone else through it either.

The wrong answer is "Then you can't bring it back until tomorrow."

So, naturally, I go to the guy who is going to help me find a solution to my problem. And he did. If that steps on Associate *A*'s toes, too bad. I suppose it makes me a bitch (or worse).

If I were a *real* customer, I'd have been dialing toll-free customer service lines complaining.

Again, I ask: What does he treat *real* customers like?