There is nothing positive to achieve from being vile towards retail staff. Why act this way?

I think so. I don't do much shopping online, but I now keep JL to a minimum, especially as I've found how much better M&S is.

Absolutely this! I've worked retail for years, and staffing hours have been cut year on year. This means that staff can end up single-handedly managing a store: running 2 different counter services, taking in deliveries, date-checking stock, sorting out Uber/Just Eat collections, restocking, cleaning & maintaining store standards, constantly on look out for shoplifters... then dealing with impatient/rude customers with a smile 😃

The only thing that keeps me working where I am is some of my colleagues, and a number of genuinely lovely customers (oh and the not-insignificant need to pay my bills!). Covid definitely brought out the worst in a lot of people it seems.

See the endless automated "did you know you can do this online" messages give me the rage as well, and agree no ones listening to shit music for (usually a lot longer than 8 minutes) ages for fun if they could easily address the issue online.

However im always really relieved when I speak to an actual human! And i often find if youre stubborn enough to stay on the line or call when they've made it almost impossible to find a number, the person can generally sort the issue quite efficiently.

I agree, I am now very surprised at receiving good service in most shops. The bar has been set low.

I think online shopping is taking over so people just feel grateful to be able to go into a shop and buy something they need/like.

What about staff being rude to customers? That's even more baffling.

In all honesty, I've found the customer service at JL to be very poor. Perhaps it's just my local store. Now I just go in buy what I want and thank the assistant at the till and don't ask for anything further.

The general public is definitely awful. Most people are fine but some members are just awful.

However, there are also some terrible or lackadaisical retail staff out there. I put it down to low morale / low pay / over work so it doesn’t bother me but I definitely go into most shops with low expectations of service.

I worked in John Lewis where the customer service is good but the attitude from senior shop floor staff to junior shop floor staff was awful. Not sure if it was because I was part time.

But that's quite an interesting one. 8 minutes is a fairly long time in someone's mind when they are trying to achieve a task. It's worse if the 8 minutes is accompanied by a message telling the person that "most tasks can be done on our website, have you checked our website", etc. Clearly the task I'm trying to achieve can't be done via the website or I'd have done it by now.

Is it any wonder that people are angry by the time the phone is answered? Then the caller has to navigate the script being used by the calltaker, interpret the keywords that they need to use to make progress with their task while having incomplete information (they can't see the script that the calltaker is working from, so can't pre-plan the script they need to use to navigate it).

The whole phone customer service interaction is designed to render the caller (and often calltaker) powerless and essentially push both into navigating an interaction in a set way that is compatible with downstream automation. People get angry when they feel power is being removed from them - that's a human design flaw.

We were there last year and a tip worker tried to stop a visitor doing something. I didn’t see the start of the altercation so I don’t know what it was. Anyhow, the car drove into the tip worker and knocked them off their feet 😮 More fool the driver as it was all caught on ANPR cameras so the Police would have come knocking.

Having had many years experience in retail the MAJORITY of problems are the customer doesn’t like what they are being told not that there’s poor service or anything wrong

demanding refunds there not entitled to

wanting online offer in store

refusing to contact customer service instead just shouting at staff who have no remit to help

complaining about no stock

self service tills ( I prefer them ) how is shouting at staff going to change that

more to the point right or wrong if the shop only has self service available ether don’t go or shop there and shut up about it

I think you have a point.

There is quite a bit of victim blaming in there.

Yes CS training is important BUT situations do not escalate if customers don't behave like morons in the first place.

People getting angry and rude, even violent because they cannot find an item or there is a queue etc is totally unacceptable and if i had my way, people would be blocked from returning to a Supermarket, any Supermarket for bad behaviors.

One reason why people do as they like is there is no consequences for their actions.

Wasn't it the previous Govt that said "Shoplifting below £200 should be classed as a low level offence" effectively de criminalising it.

The fact is, across the board, management teams are making choices to run on a skeleton staff and force customers down routes they don't want (like undermanned self service tills) knowing that an inevitable consequence is their front line staff are going to get abuse as a result. They're ok with the trade off if their numbers look better.
The numbers may look better in the short term, but not in the long term. Customers will vote with their feet.

Some people are just miserable and/or angry and see retail staff as an easy target to pass some of it on. Horrible people

I work in a well known card shop. That allows staff over the age of 18 to lone work. This can be anywhere from one hour to a whole 9 hour shift.
Even when I have explained I am on my own, haven't been able to go to the toilet in four hours and I'm close to a break down
They still tut, snap their fingers and demand I be ready to serve them but there are cards that need tidied, balloons to be blown up, refunds to be done, delivery to be worked so there are cards available to buy, we have to count stock every single day. I had one lady come in to collect her balloons 5 hours earlier than planned, they weren't ready of course and she demanded a refund, told me I was a joke and a karen
Even after explaining I was completely alone and close to tears from her shouting she did not let up.

I just don't understand it

Absolutely.

Those posters infuriate me (as in, seethe inwardly. I don't take it out on staff).
The poster says:
the management know there is a problem
the management know it annoys customers, but
the management are going to victim-blame customers, and
the management will do stuff-all to improve the situation.

No wonder people get cross.

I don't know. There are, what - about 60m people in the UK? I can't speak for all of them any more than you can.
However, I do know what it's like to live in a country with poor infrastructure and little accountability.
Some delays on the tills at Sainsbury's don't bother me too much. I prefer to see the bigger picture rather than be rude to people in service industries.

My teeth are worn down from gritting them and being polite.

It's sometimes difficult when you're being treated like an inconvenience for being there (with a real ailment) or stupid. And what is really irritating is a lack of poor note taking/passing on information.

I'm not rude to staff but the self service machines annoy me no end. The constant beeping, the impatience they have with customers, the barking instructions and the inability to notice that not every donut is going to be the exact weight of another one. I'm always muttering at them "give me a chance".

I've actually spat out a "for God's sake" at one malfunctioning machine that the person behind me took a step back.

Yes your sentiment is indeed outside the norm of how people in the country feel.

Isn't it obvious? The rise of automation creates a new social contract - that the customer will be expected to do more of the work and in return they get a more efficient experience with predictable interactions. The self-service checkout is the epitome of this.

The social contract fails when the automation fails to deliver its promise of efficiency. The frustration of this experience can't be directed at the machine as there's no way to feedback to it. So inevitably it will be directed at the human "supervisor" of the machine.