To think that if you're going to keep a salesperson behind over half an hour late...

[MrsWobbleTheWaitress]

...you could at least make it worth his while by buying from him?

So, a salesperson is polite and patient enough to spend half an hour of his evening, when he would normally be on his way home to his family, which you can tell he has as he wears a wedding ring and has photos of his children on his desk. He is kind and careful and generous with his time. You drag the transaction on and on and on. And then you just say 'oh, I don't think we will buy after all'! So the poor salesman has just wasted half an hour of his pitifully short evening with his family and got bloody jackshit out of it!

Please don't do this to salesmen! Far too many people do and it's not fair. If you're genuinely going to buy something, then fair enough. But if you're not, then please don't make them stay behind after the place closes.

If a salesman has spent half an hour being polite and patient and attempting a sale, he's just doing his job, nothing more, nothing less. So he's had to stay late for half-an-hour, if the couple had bought from him you'd think nothing of it. They don't owe him anything, they have the right to say no.

If you don't like the system of sales, encourage him to get a different job.

It is frustrating but just try to be positive that he has a job. My husband started a new job just before we had our first baby and although he is apparently meant to finish at ^Pm he has so much work on he has only finished at this time in 11 months of having the job. Many nights he works 2-3 hours extra and whilst we were meant to be going off on holiday today he has had to posptpone the hol to go in to work to meet a deadline- we had not booked up a place as we go camping so that is a good thing but I just realise that as the main breadwinner he just has to do whatever to make the job work. Because he never complains I try to make sure I never do too and 12-14 hour days with a baby on your own are not always ideal!

Just try to be positive if you can-imagine if he was out of work and then you would gratefully have him put in overtime.
It is normal to get frustrated though- rather than unreasonable.

We all work beyond our hours in most jobs I think which is just the way it is.

I feel your pain, used to spend a lot of time with gritted teeth at closing time in shops. You'd go up to a customer at say 6 o'clock and ask "can I help you?" to get the response "no, just browsing" - all the while you can hear the shutters going down and there'll be someone hoovering around the store. So, no hint that the shop is actually closing at all

I did get one customer utter the immortal line of "do you know who I am?" when I told him his wife could not try on 5 more dresses at 6:30 when we closed at 5:30.

What time is late to your husband - only ask as you posted the OP at 18.40ish and that's not finishing late in my business. That's a normal time (in fact, it can be early) in my trade. And no, not shift work.

If he finishes at 6.30ish and it takes 45 mins to get home then that's not late for many many people.

People are not under any obligation to buy. It can be difficult to close a conversation when someone is trying to sell you something. Presumably customers have their lives to lead as well, so they would only hang around if there was a chance of them buying something.

you arent unreasonble to be disgruntled with his job now and again, but sadly its just life. its reality for most people. i dont know anyone with a 'ding, thats hometime!' job.

and the reason people get the huff when you slag off customers is because we are ALL customers. the idea that the sales staff who try so very hard to appear friendly and genuine are really thinking 'will you bog off, i've no interest in 'wasting' my time on you' makes lots of people think 'well balls to you'. any one of us could be that person umming and ahhing about buying something and assume the not being asked to leave is a sign the shop is still interested in our money. the fact your husband failed to seal the deal on this occasion, and you therefore feel he wasted his time, is not the customers fault.

The problem is with employers who want their staff to provide great service and behave as if there is no clock, but won't pay for the time this requires. I used to work in a major department store and for security reasons we couldn't start cashing up until all customers were clear from our floor and every floor above. We were never paid for the time spent waiting and cashing up -- a minimum of 15 minutes every night makes 1 1/4 hrs a week, 5 hrs a month, which is a lot in a low-paid hours-based job. But it wasn't the fault of the customers, and I would never expect them to have been using that time scrutinising us for markers of marital status.

YANBU.

The people who say you are obviously have no experience of what it feels like to work for free for an other 30-60 minutes because of 'Good customer service'. If they were being paid until a certain hour then I'm sure they would complain that it was eating in to family time. I left my job because of this exact situation. I was expected to greet a customer at 5.30pm and sit with them until the end of a sale...always, always a customer would come in at least once a week at 5.30 looking to boook an 'Around the world holiday' staying in 6-8 different countries. I would leave at 8pm. I was paid until 530pm and believe me the commission really wasn't worth the stay. The customers would say things like 'I'm so sorry you have to stay behind'. Oh really? Are you? Then why are you still here 2 and a half hours later? Grrrr. You may be able to tell it's a small gripe of mine.

I think there is a major divide between working in, say, a clothes shop, where you're likely to be on the minimum wage, paid by the hour, and a 'sales' job, where you're likely to be paid a salary and have an element of commission.

In the latter situation, I would say, not such a problem, in the former, it's pretty unfair on the person working for free.

I also used to work in a major department store with the same cashing up system as the poster above.

And, being a teenager I was only on about £4.50 an hour. Believe me, when I was 45 minutes late out of work I wasn't really thinking of customer service. I agree a large part of the problem is unscrupulous employers.