To be fed up with everyone moaning at us shop assistants!!

[Dartfordmummy]

I've been reading a lot threads recently and there are so many of you out there moaning about Sales Assistants/Advisors...We are only human and do sometimes make mistakes!!

That's it....rant over.

malibD oh yes ive had abuse about the carrier bag charge too. As if its MY bloody fault

I'm obviously not human then!

amazingbouncingferret these things may be trivial to you but when you get it day in day out then yes it does become upsetting.

Maybe i'm just not cut out for retail!!

Hmm, pretty sure I've seen you on here moaning about the cuntstomers too, ABF...

Dartford ive worked in retail since leaving college.

it was after a day completely non-stop, so I got riled more than normal. Everyone has their limit and I'd reached my need for a about 5 minutes previously when I'd been kicked in the face by an uncontrollable 6yr old. It was the "properly" and the air of distain at the idea I might need to measure or she might be wrong. Everyone had a limit, but alot of customers do seem to think we are made of teflon and can take whatever you throw at us and it wont stick or upset us. only human after all

shouldnt have to put up with abuse though. not for shit wages

I used to want to snog nice customers, 'cos they were such a relief after the vile ones.

I was once asked how I slept at night as I refused to reduce a faulty top any more. It had 2 buttons missing. It was in the sale. It was reduced 20%. It had a big faulty label on it. The lady demanded I reduce it more then stormed out and screamed 'How do you sleep at night' through the door. Fuck off.

My favourite was the lady who had bought a pair of boots, got home and realised they were odd. Not just different sizes, or two left feet, completely and utterly different boots in colour and style. Took ages to sort her refund because she couldn't stop laughing about it. She was a gem

Hated it. Absolutely hated it.

See thats all i needed Maya, i feel better already.
Some people though, i think they just see a robot face when they come in, we (retail workers) are not human, not real people in their heads.
How else can they think its ok to talk to us like that?

Although after that episode, i have adopted a more hardass approach to rude customers, i simply refuse service.
Had a man in today and started whining FFS at me because the tills had frozen and i started to do a manual transaction, i was very apologetic, and smiling today! lucky him! still did no good
Started telling me to hurry the F up, so i just told him he wouldn't be served in that store again beacuse of unreasonable language and put his item under the desk and watched him leave all read faced.

I don't go to work to get sworn at, i don't get paid for that im afraid, so i won't put up with it.

Bad cuntstomers yes! Abusive ones. And shush i'm enjoying myself here...
But not ones that save me the hassle of doing a no doubt crappy job like measuring some wriggly childs feet!

ah but ABF if they give me the wrong size they get angry with me and then i have to take all the boxes back down the satanic steps and start all over again!

Beat them to the punch the MrsT. If someone says dont bother measuring, bring out boxes in the size they say and one size up and down. Dont let them wind you up, keep a grin on your face and if they go to far refuse to serve them because they are being abusive.

Fucking hell. I feel like writing a pep up book for disillusioned sales assistants "dont let the cunts wear you down" will be my title!

YANBU. Every customer thinks they're the only one to be impatient, sarcastic and rude with the shop assistant, or to treat them like a moron even if they're better qualified than the customer. They're not the only one, they are one of many who even the nicest shop assistant has to put up with time after time, day in day out. Sometimes it's justified, but most of the things they get moaned at for are not their fault. They're carrying out instructions from the higher echelons who aren't on the shop floor, or something is out of stock which is not their doing, or people think they're entitled for a refund for something which the store doesn't even sell!

I work in a Bookies so not quite the same as a shop but it is crap pay and long hours.

Most of the regulars are lovely it has to be said and I like talking to them but I've been sworn at, called horrible names, spat at. It is only the minority but there are people out there that treat us like we are sub-human, they virtually throw their betting slips at us, don't say please and thank you. If a race goes off at 12.35, don't get angry with me because you tried to put your bet on at 12.37 grr!

I am so glad that no-one can read my mind so they can't see that while I may look like I'm nice and helpful I'm actually thinking fuck the fuck right off

When I was working in my first retail job as a teenager I had a memorable shift with a co-worker who was on her last day.
She served a customer, handed him his change and thanked him before turning to serve the next person.
Customer didn't hear her thank him though and went insane demanding a refund, etc.
She argued back that she was sorry he hadn't heard but she had thanked him.
It went on for a while before she suddenly just turned and told him to 'F... Off'. Obviously he threatened to have her sacked for it and I'll never forget the smile on her face as she turned and told him it was her last day.
(I handed in my notice a couple of weeks later too, working with food was the worst job I ever did!)

I run a pub, a few years back I had a couple of customers who were being really rude to one of my staff. I took their drinks off them and told them that they couldn't treat my staff like that and to drink somewhere else. They were genuinly shocked. It's amazing how some people think its ok to treat others like dirt just because of the job they do.

I pride myself on the customer service that me and my staff offer but at the same time I expect my customers to behave in a reasonable way too and if they don't they can drink somewhere else. Don't know how easy that is to do in a shop though.

Quite easy once you have perfected ignoring them after you've refused service Wherearemysocks.

I will put up with general rudeness, ie, talking on the phone whilst being served, and holding up the que etc.
But i draw the line at swearing or intimidating behaviour, which i am perfectly entitled to do.
Some people get such a look of shock when you refuse them service for swearing, sometimes i think it must just be part of their daily vocab and they don't realise its offensive!
That or they geuninely believe we are there as a verbal punch bag aswell?

Shop assistant here too

Worst are the poshies, the ones who rarely smile and kick up a fuss at the slightest thing.

I did used to work in a corner shop on a council estate during my student days and not a day went by without some drama or other.
I had a lottery machine thrown at me, been screamed at by a woman for not serving her 5yo fags and making her come out the house and shouted at because a bloke couldn't afford his food (I let him have it - the manager was a bit )

I am always nice to customers though and have very low tolerance for poor service myself.

I am so glad that I only work one day a week and that I am management level so that I can exert my bastardness without recompense.

Whenever some dried-up old hag is talking to me like I was personally responsible for every ill inflicted upon the world, feel myself clenching my arsecheeks, inwardly chanting "Ihaveapostgradihaveapostgrad" Then I remember what irks these bastards the most; being killed with kindness. I did it to cuntwoman who I posted about upthread. She DID realise she'd been an arse tbf and apologised but I hold a grudge and I just did my best hurt feelings face and said "It's OK! Don't worry, christmas brings out the worst in most people. Really, don't give it another thought."

Pretty sure she went off feeling like a prize arse. Which she was.

I agree that killing with kindness works, if someone lobs their slip at me and doesn't say please/thankyou I tend to say please/thank you loudly and end with a loud your welcome Mr/Mrs X, the odd customer will then look a little shamed faced and mutter thanks.

oooh I could go on all day, but I wont. I'll just mention a couple of things.

When I worked in retail one old man had a right go at me because the tills went down while he was in the queue. Ranting and raving to me about how crap and slow the service was and how he hopes the company would go bust blah blah blah. I just stood there and served him without saying anything as quick as I could and he was stood blabbing as he was walking out.

The amount of people who think that customer service roles were beneath them is unbelievable. what would they do if everybody in a customer service role stopped went on strike and there was nothing they could do. I used to work in a cinema while at Uni and I was serving this one guy who obviously looked down his nose at me as I was far beneath him so I turned to my work collegue and mentioned how I had to finish my essay for Uni when I got home. The customers attitude soon changed when he realised I wasnt just a member of staff (as were the majority of us)

I always think about my behaviour when in shops and being served. Though I do have to say I actually enjoy working in a customer service role, but would be a lot better if people were actually nicer and didnt think we were above them and how Id love for a job where if a customer was rude to me I could be rude back, but most of the time you are still expected to smile sweetly and ignore.

notvery - I've experienced that too and I think it is more hurtful than being shouted or sworn at as it feels more personal.

I used to work in a bookshop and spent a lot of time one day with a woman and her daughter going through all the revision books. When I told her that I'd used a particular set she very sheepishly said that she'd rather not use that series then because she didn't want her daughter to end up working in a shop like me.
Because it wasn't said in anger and the woman obviously felt bad about saying it it hurt even more.
I cheerily said that actually I'd been to Oxford University and that I was only working there on my gap year. A complete lie but better than breaking down and crying.
It took me quite a while to recover my confidence after that but I'm quite sure that she forgot about it within a couple of days (and I'm being generous with that time frame)

On the other hand, I used to have a lovely regular customer who spent a lot of time encouraging me to go for my dreams. I left my job because of her and I'm now making a career of something I always wanted to do.

What drives me mad is that some people just expect/assume they are entitled to a refund if they have bought the wrong thing.

We carefully explain to people that if the item is an unsuitable gift we will exhange or credit but we do not offer a refund.

I have had more than enough complaints about staff who: HAVE REFUSED A REFUND AND SAID YOU ARE LUCKY TO BE OFFERED A CREDIT, caps deliberate, they get referred to Trading Standards by me.

We're in dispute with one obnoxious man at the moment. If he and his fiancee had been nice about things, we may have been able to assist them, but why should we accomodate their wishes when they have been obnoxious to my staff? It implies the message that if you are horrid you will get your way, if you are nice you won't.

If they had been nice to my staff and explained themselves in a sympathetic way, I would have allowed for special circumstances. As it stands, I have given my shop manager the option of how she would like to deal with it, she met them and she is digging her heels in, I fully support her in that.

"why should we accomodate their wishes when they have been obnoxious to my staff? It implies the message that if you are horrid you will get your way, if you are nice you won't"

Unfortunately most places I have worked Ive found that the obnoxious ones get their own way. I had a woman who wanted a refund (is it just me or is there a pattern here) with no reciept. The rules of the store was that without a reciept they had to go to the customer service desk, with a reciept any till was fine. Anyway I said please go to the customer service desk. You'd think Id asked her to strip naked by the way she acted. She really went off and one and went off. The next thing I know my manager is coming with said woman and telling me that I had to do a refund making me feel about this big . I went home and cried. Its this manager that is the reason why Im currently out of work (there were other things, but this was one of the main things). That is the most extreme example, but Ive usually found that as staff Ive been told rules, followed them and then customer kicks off and manager has promptly given customers what they want. Makes our job very hard

I'm fucking sick and tired of miserable shop assistants who cannot crack their face to smile or who completely ignore you. Or even worse they're haveing a coversation with the person next to them at the adjacent till and spend the time laughing and talking to them while ignoring you.

If you give shit service, expect to get shit back. The job ain't rocket science and it isn't hard to do it well.