So sick of rude customers!

[Patrickstarisabadbellend]

We were closing up yesterday when a last minute shopper appeared. I politely let her know that we were closing and that the store would be open from 9am the next day.

She wasn't happy with this. She asked me what time we shut, checked her watch and asked to speak to a manager.

My manager let her in! She browsed for a few minutes and kept smugly smirking at me. Eventually she bought some bleach and as I was serving her she laughed that the customer is always right.
As I was closing the door (over 15 mins late) she was reversing her car out of her space smirking and laughing at me. As she drove off she was glaring at me!

I felt totally undermined and like the manager/owner had made a fool of me. The manger/owner treated and spoke to me like a child being told off in front of the customer.

I'm due back in work on Monday but I'm serious pissed off. I've been job hunting all night too.

Why are some people such twats? Aibu?

[AnyoneForTennis]

Yanbu

[Lweji]

Hmmm

I think you were BU, yes. Sorry.

She was a bitch, but you could have been more helpful.

[passmethewineplease]

Yanbu. This is something my manager would do, I think she was scared in case said customer rang up and complained.

It bugged me when customers would come in at 17:58 and want to do a shit load of shopping.
However we must not refuse them obviously. Despite not being paid for staying over to cash up and lock up...

Retail. Doubt I'll go back to it.

[Youoryou]

Isn't it upto the manager?

[myusernameis]

Yanbu. Customer was rude and manager needs a backbone.

[gamerchick]

Just think, that probably was the highlight of her day it's sad really when you think about it.

[passmethewineplease]

How could op of been more helpful?

I actually think it's pretty shitty to make someone overstay at work especially if they aren't getting paid for it.

[StoneTheFlamingCrows]

I think yabu. If you were "closing up" but it wasn't actually closing time, then she should have been able to enter the shop.

The manager let her in because if she had complained to head office you wouldn't have had a leg to stand on.

[WeedKillers]

YANBU, alot of people seem to think that because you are standing behind a shop counter you deserve to be spoken to like you're shit on their shoe. It's even more annoying when someone above you undermines you.

Honestly, if she was in for baby milk, nappies, medicine or something urgent it would have been understandable and in any case there was no need for her to be smug and rude when you were polite.

[hamptoncourt]

It depends OP. If you were locking up before the closing time then YABU. If the customer had arrived after closing time then YANBU.

I would be really pissed off if I turned up at a shop before the closing time, even if it was a minute or two, and was turned away. I would think that was really rude.

[Lweji]

Shops that are helpful to customers, even if they show up at closing time, have better prospects of keeping customers than shops that tell them to go back the next day. Your manager knows this as his/her pay is probably related to performance.
Most shops do allow for some leeway.

It would have cost you nothing to ask what she wanted (bleach) and quickly help her get it and pay.

Still, she was also unreasonable in taking more time than she should.

[AnyoneForTennis]

No matter what, the smug glaring was out of order

[Patrickstarisabadbellend]

I wasn't getting paid for it and i had to wait to do the till until she had left. I was half an hour late all together.

My boss says it's a sale and she doesn't was to lose customers but I have a family to get home to.

[passmethewineplease]

But to spend fifteen minutes in a shop that was technically closed?

That's taking the piss. We had some customers who were really grateful and literally only took a minute.

I wouldn't go to a shop so close to closing time anyway and if I did I certainly wouldn't take fifteen minutes.

[Patrickstarisabadbellend]

My manager is actually one of the owners. It was closing time.

Time to leave.

[Lweji]

How were you 30 min late if she left 15 min past the time?
Is there public transport involved?

But if you have been more helpful from the start you might have been only a couple of minutes late.

[Dontgotosleep]

Y.N.B.U. How rude are some people.

[TucsonGirl]

Most managers seem to be spineless nowadays. If I was running the shop I would have sent her away with a flea in her ear.

[ConfusedDotty]

YABU, I regulary have to work 15/20 mins after my shift, if you work with customers it's part and parcel of the job.

[Patrickstarisabadbellend]

It was closing. I was at the door locking it.

[Zucker]

YANBU, if the manager decided the customer was allowed in at that time, the manager should have stayed at the till to allow late customer checkout and OP should have finished at the correct time.

[AudacityOfHuge]

We get this at work and it infuriates me. I had a customer push the door open on me 2 days ago when I was turning the key, all for the sake of a sandwich they could get anywhere. I know it's customer relations but we go out of our way all day long. Dont mind in the slightest if someone is clearly needing something, generally to soothe a crying toddler, but so many people do it just to be an arsehole. I'm clearly made for retail .

[Lauren83]

Yanbu

I'm a retail manager and I would never undermine my staff like that, although I'm presuming it was at closing time, if it was 5 min before close then you probably should of let her in, anything past you were in the right your manager was not IMO

[Gruntfuttock]

Well, I think the manager was right to let her in, but I think the customer was very wrong indeed not to have immediately got the bleach and paid for it, taking less than a minute altogether. All the smirking and glaring was ludicrous. In her position, if I was desperate to get something at the last minute, I'd have been as pleasant and as quick as possible.

[Patrickstarisabadbellend]

I was helpful. I told her we were closing and she could see that the lights were nearly all turned off.

Our shop is next to a Spar and all she bought was 79p bleach.