1. When working on Collection Point, it's always super awkward trying to fill the time until a customer's item has arrived.
So we make cringe-y small talk. Or go and hide out in the stockroom instead.
2. Though it's not as awkward as having to explain to a waiting customer that their item can't actually be found, and so they must get a refund.
Our bad.
3. The staff discount is only 10%.
That applies to everyone, from management down.
4. That doesn't stop everyone from bugging us for our discount.
5. Friends and family members are always asking us, outside of work hours, if an item is in stock.
6. That said, any staff member worth their salt can recall item catalogue numbers from memory.
7. Yes, staff do play with the stock, especially the toys.
We're only human.
8. Working at Argos provides great general training in the essential skill of patiently and politely dealing with members of the public.
9. We quickly get wise to all the tricks customers pull in order to blag a refund under the 30-Day Money Back Guarantee.
"Ah, so these Christmas lights suddenly stopped working on December 26 and you don't need them any more and would like your money back instead? I'll give you to the count of 10 to get the hell out of this store."
I say bring back the legendary 16-Day Money Back Guarantee to limit the scope of such scams.
10. Customers always seem to think we are personally responsible for their items' missing parts.
"Yes, I manufactured this desk, packed it, and deliberately sold it to you without all the pieces, just to annoy you and force you to come back in today and shout at me. Well done, you cracked it."
11. We also learn how to get rid of customers who turn up at the door five minutes after we've shut for the day.
12. This is especially the case at Christmas, when the crowds of customers threaten to become borderline unmanageable.
13. In the olden days, the most dreaded word for stockroom employees was "re-bin".
14. Staff now wear headsets when picking items in the stockroom, but sometimes we miss the simplicity of a machine spitting out paper order slips.
15. We hate being put on the deliveries schedule, as we have to start super early or work late at night.
16. Everyone has their favourite spot to hide in the stockroom.
17. This is what happens every time we have to help a customer fit a large item into a tiny car.
18. In our lower moments, we have been tempted to get a "five-finger discount" on some of the fancier items in stock.
19. Argos Direct sales – for big items requiring home delivery – are a head-wrecking, time-consuming nightmare.
It's always a competition between you and the customer as to who loses the will to live first.
20. Switching from the little pens to pencils was an end-of-an-era trauma for everyone.
Either I haven't been to @Argos_Online for ages or they've just replaced the blue pens with red pencils 😮 #crazy
21. And nobody knows what really happened to the discontinued pens.
@Argos_Online Trying to work out why these are washing up on our beaches - could they be @argos pens?