..to have complained about the cashier at sainsbury's this afternoon...?

A more measured response might have been to speak to the employee herself eg "may I have a receipt please? And have a nice day yourself too", sarcasm being the British form of complaint.

I did read in the local paper this week about a mum who was told by a shop assistant to "get her tits out" which rather puts this offence into proportion. The story was that the mum was miffed when the shop assistant was not sacked, but given an official warning and told to write a letter of apology.

Yes she is an employee not a servant, however part of her role is customer service, this includes eye contact, smiling and a thank you before moving on to the next customer - with a smile.

I think that on the whole customer service int hsi country is terrible and the more we put up with it the worse it will become.

I would rather someone talked to my manager who then approached me than made a sarcastic comment as that would just make me defensive, but hey thats just me.

Well, if the question is:

Is this woman's behaviour inappropiate?
The answer would be yes

But the question that titles this thread is:
Am I being unreasonable to have complained about the cashier at Sainsbury this afternoon?
The answer is... YES, the behaviour is inapropiate but having such a reaction to such a little offence, is like trying to kill a fly with a cannon.

They are employees, not 17th century service

one other observation - I get the impression americantrish is assuming the manager she complained to will be as nice and reasonable to his staff as he was to her, his customer. She thinks the best of the manager while thinking the worst of the staff.

IME managers in service industries are not always nice to their staff. He could be a two faced snake in the grass. There is no guarantee he won't be horrible to this counter girl - this complaint may have given him just the ammunition he wanted.

I think the putting it on the counter thing is cultural

that's why they have those dishes on counters and bars in other places like europe ex uk

expat I only want civil manners is all! Just politeness. Sucking up is nasty and inappropriate on these cultural shores imo!

I was in the Co-op once and as I arrived at the till to be served, the young lady's mobile phone rang and she answered. She then proceeded to tell the other person about what had happened when she went to the pub the previous evening. The queue is getting longer, I say "excuse me", and she turns her back and continues talking. Another worker comes over, gives her a filthy look, opens the till and apologises.

I hope she was disciplined.

I don't think being sucked up to equates to being treated properly.

In the US, it's hard to even shop in peace sometimes for all the 'greeting' and 'assistance' that goes on.

Drives me spare.

Gawd, I'm glad to be away from taht.

ipanemabunny

spot on

foul customer = cooler treatment
nice customer = great teatment

dont always go with the customer-is-right approach but do think you should work from a place where there should be mutual respect!

I worked in shops and a restaurant in my younger days and to be honest while on the till I would be in a sort of trance as it is so repetitive and I would say please and thank you automatically - bad day or not. It really annoys me when I don't get a please and thank you from staff in shops and even more when they say nothing througout the whole transaction. It is like they have decided to be as impolite as possible without actually telling you to f* off.

I have felt like complaining many times but I am too lazy but I usually say 'Thank you so much' in a sarcasitc tone which makes me feel slightly better.

each to his own expat but I LOVE being treated properly, just love it. I'm the customer, look after me and everyone wins!

lol at get tae f*.

OMG Bundle -- that's so dire its hillarious!

Was in WHSMiths in Manc airport once and heard woman asking if there were any copies of a paper left (it was about 5pm) cos she couldn't see any

he said YEH

'Right, urm will you please get me one then?'

'No. I've just taken them all away. I'm not going to get one now'

'I'm sorry -- what did you just say. You're telling me you're working in a newsagents and when a customer asks you for a newspaper you're refusing to get one because its a couple of metres away from the stand?'

[several people including me turning around, misbelieveing their ears]

'Well I just can't be bothered now -- I've put them all away'

Ya gotta love em!

The other day, I was standing in a long kiosk queue to get DH some filters for his fags, and this git showed up with a small basket of things because he couldn't be arsed to wait in the normal queue.

Luckily it was in Leith, where some heavily tattoed biker bloke in a leather jacket shouted, 'Hey, if yer no' buying fags or lotto tickets get tae f*ck' and the bloke left.

I hate shopping in the US and all that fake arse 'politeness'. Makes me cringe. I'd rather just be left in peace.

oh absolutely donny, foul customers deserve cool treatment but not nice warm friendly ones surely!!!

Sorry Bundle but I just laughed at that. You definitely had a right to complain - what a shocking attitude.

Damn, bundle! Yeah, but was really rude of him rather than just didn't say thank you or giving a receipt.

I hate it when people go to the kiosk to buy things because they can't be arsed to wait in the till queue.

The kiosk should be limited to fags and lotto tickets and things you can't buy at the normal till.

I think we're commenting based on OUR ways of interacting ... that is I am sure we have all been

polite, grateful customers

and/or

polite/professional workers

However ... all too often people actually behave in the OPPOSITE way so that cocks it up for all of us.

IYKWIM???

DH is in marketing and when pitching for business with a BIG burger company they asked him to serve behind the counter for a day to get an idea of what their customers were like and staff had to deal with ... he couldn't believe how utterly horrible customer (esp the more chavvy ones) could be ...

So I am ALL for customer-is-right service (and think the UK is prety wank on that front anyway) ... but you know, sometimes customer-is-shite for the sake of it

treat as you would like to be treated -- both sides of the relationship/interaction

i complained in sainsbo's once when a checkout boy told me to sod off (I'd asked him - politely - to use the carrier bags i'd brought from hoem to pack with)

but contentiouscat, americantrish wasn't rude I don't think? I wouldn't propose over politeness to rude customers.
But in a service industry I think it is a prerequisite to have some simple forms of politeness:
saying Thank you
for example, it doesn't need to be more than that. But that cashier is representing the whole company at that moment - it really does matter I think.

I remember being a waitress and having a bad day and he pulled me over and said 'dont ever ever take it out on the customer' and I think he was right!

'But somehow it's a bit of a feudal attitude - 'she is paid to be nice to me and if I don't get nice I'll complain to her superior [instead of addressing it with her]'. '

Spot on, berolina.

I can understand you being annoyed but NO sorry I think you were completely out of order to complain. I would have made a loud sarky comment and left it at that - her manager may be the type of person who has a quiet word or the type who will now make her life hell.

I was once told by a woman working in a supermarket that CUSTOMERS were unbelievably rude as many assumed she was not clever or as good as them because she was doing that job.