Was I unreasonable or was she?

She was grumpy but she’d probably was frustrated she couldn’t give the service needed. We were never allowed to stand at the till and wait for customers. We had always be doing something. And not ever task can just stop. It’ll be more frustrating for the staff member believe me. I never want to go back to retail.

i said: if i need it i'll go and get someone.
I'm perfectly capable of deciding if i need something enough to go to the faff of getting someone to come and do their job. And i will tell them that it's shit service.

And before anyone starts: no i don't scream at them, or shout. I talk in a normal voice and point out that they are inconveniencing their customers by not being attentive and that it's not really inviting me to come again. what they do with that information is up to them.

It’s just so much extra hassle though, presumably you’re there as you need stuff, so you then dump it, habe to go to another shop. And start again, all as you can’t be arsed asking someone to open the till

talk about biting yout nose off to spite your face/

Quite.

She probably hears this dozens of times a day.

I'm not grumpy, but i simply cannot be arsed waiting around for someone to do their actual job of selling me stuff. If i need it then i go and find them and tell them to come and ring the stuff up.

I'm sure she knew perfectly well what the consequences are. As well as what other mitigating factors are in place - such as CCTV and, it sounds like, a general hope that the public are honest.

You were perfectly reasonable to be a bit annoyed you had to go find someone to ring up your purchases. To start lecturing the staff on the risks if they don't do their jobs properly was ridiculous and petty.

also in British-English we like to go around the houses and don't say what we actually mean.

So in the usual way of things it's a PA way of saying "i don't like having to wait for you to finally get off your backside and come to the till to take my money"

Do people really go about being this grumpy?

I think she knows it.

All you needed to say was 'Hi, please can I pay?" and go about your business.

You were being unreasonable for waiting at all and indeed for saying you could have walked out . You could have just found the assistant as soon as you saw it was unmanned and said you were ready to pay.

I am unsure why you waited knowing it was and had been unmanned for a while and didn't just speak up.

if i have to go looking for staff i sometimes just dump what i was going to get on the counter and leave.

If they can't be bothered to even keep half an eye on the till, i cba to give them my money.

She knows the consequences of nobody at the till.

She got stroppy because she’s frustrated by her job in general, because it’s a shit job to have. You were frustrated because you’re a customer trying to pay for items, and the business can’t even have a staff member on the till. Neither one of you are in charge.

But why? That's not your concern. Why approach them with anything other than a 'i need to pay for these please'.

Do you think maybe they didn’t know this and needed you to tell them?

😂

the Point is why point out the obvious. Just say you’re ready to pay. Nothing more is required.

The thing is shops try and survive on much less staff than they used to. So just standing at the till is not always a good use of your time. I suspect they have to carrying out other tasks while seeing if there is a customer at the till and they were not vigilant enough.

Saying you could have walked out with the stuff, as a PP said, I would think it but not say it.

You were both unreasonable I think. The customer service was poor and you would not be unreasonable to point that out. I don't get why you raised the fact that you could walk out without paying though. That's their look out. It seems an unnecessarily combative thing to say.

I grew up in a family of shopkeepers and it was drummed into me from an early age that if there is a customer to serve everything else can wait. It’s basic training.

Telling the shop assistant you could have walked out is weird!

If there is no one on the till just go find someone rather than wait?!

Why did you feel the need to tell her something she clearly already knew? Do you tell the bus driver how to do his job as well?

It’s annoying that the store was understaffed and you had to wait to get what you wanted. But I I think focusing on the idea of walking out without paying was a bit pointless - you could do that anytime. I doubt they’d run after you, shop assistants are often told not to and if the store is understaffed they’d leave it even more vulnerable.

You could have just said you’d like her to pass on to her manager that, as a customer, you might reconsider shopping there if staffing levels don’t improve Or email/Tweet/etc the company. (Though, unless it’s high end, they’ll probably take that with a pinch of salt as most people want cheaper prices over better service).

People don’t like being called out.
That’s why she got stroppy.
YANBU

She was being unreasonable, not you. I've worked in many shops and the expectations was that even if you're stocking shelves or something, you keep an eye on the tills and go over as soon as someone is waiting. Don't know why she'd get stroppy. Sometimes people are just having a bad day and take it out on a stranger. Not your fault.