Sick of customers moaning to shop staff about things beyond our control

I do think other than customer lack of planning, the problem is your employer creating a situation where you, the front line shop staff, are the only way customers can contact anyone at your company to complain.

It is really hard to speak to a human at so many big companies, other than the staff in store. It’s unfair on the store staff.

So many companies are running to such tight schedules for staffing and supply to drive profits, but this means there’s no capacity in the system for the slightest issue.

My personal annoyances:
Please do not hand over a huge pile of coupons at the till that you haven't sorted through to see if they are actually valid.
Please do not ask where something is and then when told insist that it was in a different place before when it hasn't actually moved at all.
Please do not collect reductions from the reduced area just before the final reductions, walk around the shop, and then bring them all back and try to get them reduced again.

To make it ten times worse there's no damm mobile signal in our store so you can't transfer money at the tills because you can't access your mobile banking so I have to store the transaction while you leave to go do it then you have to come back and queue up all over again

You have my sympathies. I’ve never worked in retail but I have worked on a public counter where I frequently had to tell people ‘no’. Everything had to be nailed of fixed down or it might come flying your way.

It's feedback. Create a process that allows people to feedback what irritates them, encourage the customers to vent online, and send it all to management.

It's basic customer care. They get to vent and the management should try to make changes which mean they stop irritating their customers, and driving them away.

As for any legalities, just share the information so the customers know.

People can share their irritation but there's never any need to shout or be abusive.

Couldn’t agree with you more. The last couple of years the behaviour of customers has nosedived. The aggression is off the scale and the condescending is even worse. It’s not my fault that your bank requires you to use your pin, no there is nothing wrong with my till you just can’t use your phone/watch. (No I don’t actually say that I just pretend to restart it my side!)

and please for the love of god please transfer money into your spending account before you get to the till! You would scream at me if you had to wait in a queue but you create the queue

Every. Single. Year

YANBU obviously but nothing ever changes due to these threads.

And I say that as someone who worked in retail for 32 years.

But ditto anyone you're dealing with whether they're working in the emergency services, your local A&E, GP surgery, waiting on tables or driving a bus.

Working in retail can be a thankless job and must be so much worse at this time of year. You have my absolute sympathies. I try and be extra nice to balance out some of the twattery!