Retail Abuse of staff is getting worse and worse.
Every day colleagues are shouted at, sworn at, threatened, filmed with cameras and even spat at (because a colleague couldn't offer a gentleman a table.. there were none available)
Today I was accused of something extremely serious because a customer was not happy about how their transaction went.
They had neglected to scan part of several items (key items that flag on the system because they are chronically underscanned) and I had to show them that these particular components also needed to be scanned, which they disagreed vehemently with.
This led to them requesting that the part scanned items be removed from their bill as they no longer wanted them because of the additional cost.
Unfortunately for them removing items from the bill triggers an automatic spot check meaning I then have to rescan however many items the system prompts me to scan in order for the customer to proceed with the transaction.
Completely automated and not under my control in any way.
Again the customer was not pleased, and at this point accused me of something extremely serious 3 times. I did explain that the spot check was not at my behest, but at that of pre programmed software, but this was ignored, and again I was accused.
The spot check now done I left the customer to complete the transaction, which they did, and they left the store commenting loudly to anyone who would listen that I was "......". Fill in the blank yourself.
A hugely confidence damaging episode for me, and very distressing to be accused of something untrue merely for doing my job. To be honest I had to take 5 minutes and have a cry before getting back to work.
For the record I try very hard to be kind, polite and courteous when I serve people, something that's often acknowledged by my bosses and peers, but if I get it wrong I'm honest and I hold my hand up and admit it.
But that wasn't the case today. Hugely damaging words were very lightly thrown at me, and they have had what I believe is the desired impact on me.
I understand people are under a lot of pressure in their everyday life (me too!), but that never gives you the right to be abusive to staff. Please think about what you are doing and treat them as you would wish to be treated yourself.
If you recieve bad service by all means address that, that needs to be addressed and sorted.
But you should never be behaving in a way that makes a member of staff cry ( and believe me we have all cried at some point). You wouldn't want to be treated like that yourself, so don't do it to us. We are peoples too.