To ask you all to abide these rules when shopping

[Ladyofthehousespeaking]

I've namechanged as my boss is a mumsnetter-

I work in retail at a large pharmacy/beauty shop and I'm disgusted at the manners of mostly female customers. So if everyone could justfollow these I would be very grateful!

1. Please don't throw your credit card down on the counter - you know how to use a chip and pin machine
   

1. Don't call me a bitch because you don't have enough points on your loyalty card to pay for your disgusting perfume - I do not make the prices.
   

3.please acknowledge my presence as a human being - a simple nod will suffice although I am willing to wave this for busy mums with screaming kids and those on their lunch hour

4.do not accuse me of stealing £3.50 of your gift card, it is physically impossible for me to do so.

5.please and thankyou are expected.

1. Please do not answer calls in the middle of my serving you ad completely stop what we are doing and immediately ignore me. You're decision of wholewheat linguine or organic canneloni can wait.
   

I love my job but all of these examples are from 30-40 year old well dressed women. It's baffling and demeaning.

[MsSparkle]

I was in the bank once with 2 cashier's open. A man was in the middle of his banking when his phone rang. He answered the call and actually WENT OUTSIDE with his phone call, leaving the cashier to wait because she was half way through the transaction so couldn't serve anyone else.

I did my banking and he still hadn't come back in when I left.

I passed him outside and gave him a filthy look and judging buy his face he knew he was wrong.

Some people think their phone call is more important than anything else in the world. It is not and 99 per cent of the time it can wait!

[ConfusedMUM75]

Well, maybe his mum was in the hospital and he got an urgent call. I doubt somebody could be THAT rude on purpouse...

[MsSparkle]

I have not worked in retail so purhaps that is different re phones but I have worked alot in food. It used to really annoy me when I would be asking the customer questions of what they wanted and they would egnore me in favour of the phone.

So when you repeat the question louder they used to look at me like I was rude for interupting their call!

Then people wonder why they que longer.

[Crazycatlady]

OP, that's awful. Basic courtesy and human decency is the least you should expect.

However, (I'm assuming we're talking about Boots or similar here), Boots stores have the ability to bring out the absolute worst in me for several reasons:

• the security guard looks at me like I'm a criminal.
  
• the stores are always badly organised and cluttered.
  
• I can rarely find everthing I want to buy.
  
• the shop assistants, without fail, take a very long time indeed to serve people so the queues are always massive and slow. With a toddler in tow this is not fun.
  
• it's always too hot in there and the lighting is dodgy.
  

Shopping environment and service make a huge difference to people's mood. I don't know why Boots gets it so wrong. I had hoped their online service would be the answer, but the website is terrible too!

[MsSparkle]

I would like to think his call was a serious one but from what I heard from the conversation before he went outside, it was not urgent and could have waited instead of holding up a whole bank que.

[maighdlin]

for those who work in retail

//www.notalwaysright.com

[Onetoomanycornettos]

I find the OP incredibly patronising, as I have never done any of these things, and I'm guessing most people here don't, so who exactly is it addressing?

I have worked as a waitress, and in shops, and now work a lot with students/teenagers, however, I have rarely experienced this type of rudeness. I do think it's a two-way street. I am always very pleasant to shop assistants, having been one myself, and they are always very pleasant to me. There's always the odd customer who is a bit rude, or odd (and in catering, staff do take their revenge) but they are the tiny minority in a whole career, that's why those incidents are so memorable. I do have the odd ungrateful or downright rude student, but I don't post on student forums asking them all to abide by a set of rules on how to be nice, as they would rightly tell me where to go.

[Ormirian]

YANBU.

I'm not sure why some people are using this thread to say 'well yes but some shop assistants are rude too'. Irrelevant. The difference between rude shop assistants and rude customers is that customers can choose to go elsewhere. Shop assistants can't.

[MsSparkle]

Love the link!

[slug]

My standard answer to the "You only work in a shop" comment was (with a cheery smile) "Yes, six years of university education and you too could have a job like mine"

I confess, once, to being on the phone when at the counter. In my defence, nobody ever phones me and when they do, I never hear the phone ring so I was so shocked I answered it. However, karma stuck in, as I was a bit preoccupied, I left behind one of my purchases. Not the main one you understand, and one that was on sale, but none the less. I put it down to 'Serves me right'

[Kaloki]

Onetoomanycornettos Think it depends on the store and the area unfortunately, in some of my jobs the nasty customers have outnumbered the polite ones.

[NunOnTheRun]

OP, I am on your side :)

I've always thought that there was far more to the following customer service complaint story than as suggested by Edwina Currie [a classic bully/potential customer from hell if ever there was one...] :o
www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/customer-service/article.html?in_article_id=419226&in_page_id=515

[nancy75]

i can't read the link, but if it is about Edwina Currie getting bad service she deserved it! I once threw her out of my shop after she made a member of staff cry because we had no shoes to fit her over sized feet. and she said DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM!

[nancy75]

And to add to the list, if you are a customer, please don't stick your used sanitary towel to the wall of the changing room,
please keep your children under control, and if you can't/won't look after your own kids please don't blame me when they hurt themselves.

And finally for the lovely woman i served some years ago - please don't pay me with a £20 pound note that i have just seen you remove from your not very clean looking knickers!

[Kaloki]

Ew ew ew!!!

Although that reminds me of the bloke who handed me £10 worth of 1p and 2p coins... which were sticky!!

[scoobytoo]

I too have worked in retail and catering, I am always polite and always tip well. I do get annoyed by those luxury shops where assistants talk down to you. The worst people in service though have to be estate agents, you go in with a million quid and they still tut and say you won't get much for that! I hate estate agents off topic I know!

[caramelwaffle]

Yanbu.

[Kaloki]

For those of you who think talking on a phone isn't rude. Imagine you'd just met someone and were trying to talk to them and they answered their phone while you were talking, would that be rude? Although the transaction may not be verbal, you are still in interacting with someone.

[Lovecat]

I'll put my phone down when shop assistants are polite and say please and thank you.

Deal? :)

[scoobytoo]

I agree with most of your points but wanted to ask you a question. If it's not okay to talk on the phone is it okay to chat to a friend who is with you when you finally get to the till? Or do you as a cashier expect full attention? I really don't see the problem so long as the customer on the phone gives you some sort of eye contact and says please and thank you (smilesw and such like) all of which are perfectly possible whilst on the phone.
Sometimes I think the problem working for retail giants is that the customer can be seen as the enemy. I have a small business which I run from my home and often customers answer their calls whilst in the middle of a transaction. I don't mind at all because I am aware that they have just lined my pocket and I don't need to engage in conversation. A smile and a nod is sufficient. I am there to make them happy not the other way round.

[scoobytoo]

I also wanted to add that part of the problem is that many shops nowadays are not specialist there is nothing made on site or sometimes even in this country. This detatches the shop assistant to the product unlike the days where the shopkeeper bought or made his own product. Shops are also so automated that very little conversation is needed, we self serve, filling our own baskets and trolleys and sometimes even check ourselves out. In addition very often the questions we are asked at the check out are sales techniques rather than customer service. I can't remember the last time I wasn't asked whether I wanted or had a store card or whether I would like a gargantuan bar of chocolate as a random item for a £1! Sell sell sell. This might be the reason sales assistance come to meet people on mobiles. I do understand that it must be frustrating being behind the counter though.

[mippy]

Shop assistants, particularly security folk, can be horrible to teenagers. I was once shouted at by this bitch in the middle of a department store as a teenager, telling me I was banned from the store for 'concealing items' (???) and 'we have footage but we don't need to show that to you, and if you keep asking we'll call security'. I'd never stolen anything and had no idea what she was on about and I didn't get un-banned from the store until I wrote a very stiff letter to the head of security. She saw me when I returned and tried to get me to leave the store then just wandered off when I showed her the letter of apology I had got. Never much liked that store since.

There is one high-street store I always find to be grubby, badly stocked, products half-used on the shelves and with staff that can't be arsed, but on the very remote chance someone googles my username I won't name them here!

[bumpsoon]

Ive had people shout ,swear , poo, wee ,vomit ,bite ,scratch , kick and throw a variety of objects soiled and otherwise at me , oh hang im a nurse , i dont mind it so much when the patients do it ,its when the relatives join in