AIBU to think the person answering their phone at Sainsbury checkout was ignorant

[daisychain01]

As soon as I heard the news item about the checkout assistant in Sainsbury telling the customer (while yabbering on their mobile) that they would only start ringing the items through when the person put their phone away, I felt they were absolutely justified and very brave. And also to think that Sainsbury shot themselves in the foot by NOT backing their employee up (they have since cynically changed their stance).

Checkout people do a great job, despite pretty crap conditions (try staying smiling for a whole 6 hour shift and listening to that bloody beep, beep beep OMG) and they don't need people with zero social skills holding things up and not engaging - instead of jawing they could have at least enjoyed a bit of banter or pleasantries, "how's yer belly off for spots?" anything to re humanise a job that technology has effectively stripped of any skill - they don't even need to add up anymore!

I had a real winner the other day... Not only was the woman in front of me in full conversation, but she completed the whole credit card transaction without looking up at the person serving her, no thank you, nothing, then to top it all, rather than walking ahead and round, she pushed BACK up through the queue with her bags, still talking! Maybe that's why the news story made me fume!! . Oh well, rant over. Sorry its too steamy hot for all this ... Happy Sunday y'all

Tbh it is one of my pet peeves and one of the things that most annoy me when I am working. That's why I am quite uptight about it.

I wouldn't ever say to any customer what the sainsburys cashier said because that isn't good customer service either but I have been known in my job to walk over to the next till and serve another customer when the customer I have been serving begins a phone conversation and I am unable to serve them anymore. I don't work in a supermarket, I work in a fashion/home department store and do need to ask questions, take details for many of my customers transactions.

If u have worked in a supermarket you will know what the management expect of u. There's so much interaction you are meant to provide! Also they have mystery shopper to see that they are giving 100 per cent! They get marked down for the "rude" "ignorant" customer and not providing enough interaction! Nobody in this world is entitled enough to be rude to another person! Where's humanity gone???

But the thing is I wouldn't mind if they did say something to me, I would probably stop if it personally irritated them and I admire people who say what they think. It's the namby pamby whinging followed by selling her non story to the mail that pisses me off. I would have sacked her.

"It's the namby pamby whinging followed by selling her non story to the mail that pisses me off."
I thought it was the customer who went to the papers? As far as I am aware, the checkout assistant has said nothing publicly?

Thistle is completely correct, I have worked in various customer facing roles including supermarkets and you are on constant alert for mystery shoppers.

Even if the customer you are serving is obviously not a mystery shopper (because they are on the phone) it doesn't mean a mystery shopper isn't observing you from further down the queue or another queue even.

theodora i don't understand your reference to travelling abroad .I live in France and here You have to ACKNOWLEDGE shop workers with a cheery "bonjour" they really don't like being ignored and I find that refreshing. (it's one of the reasons that we find the Parisians rude because we don't say hello to them).

France isn't the whole world. Try Greece, the Middle east or Africa. I overtook someone last night who was texting at 80mph with a child on his lap and a fag in the other hand. I laughed out loud at how many MN crimes he had committed in one go.

I am not sufficiently interested in this ridiculous business to start an investigation on whom did what but i am sure a big google copy and paste will follow shortly to answer your questions

If your not interested on this subject then why not stop reading and posting on this thread?!

I like the ridiculousness and earnestness about it. I am stuck on a plane and have nothing else to do.

I don't think the defence of the customer I've heard repeatedly makes much sense. The argument that 'she's paid to put the goods through in a timely fashion and nothing else' is irrelevant. Sure. We're all paid for basic things when we go to work. The other stuff that goes alongside it is part of the world of human interaction, manners and common decency. Forget any notion about your purchases paying their wages and questions of entitlement, either you think it's rude to use a mobile phone unnecessarily whilst interacting with another person or you don't. Otherwise, we can expect to live in a world where your GP doesn't look at you or sympathise, merely prints off a prescription wordlessly. Maybe the police can work to rule for a while and not show any sympathy for your situation. Let's all just do the bare minimum expected of us and stick two fingers up at each other.

And you don't have to chat to the operator if you don't want to. You can acknowledge them though. Or acknowledge the need to be on your phone to them. Until all humans are replaced with self service robots, then I hope that the majority (and thankfully this is evidenced by the response to this) will filter their behaviour through a code of conduct, not some arbitrary measure of exactly what has been paid for financially.

What everlong said, every word!

I really don't see what the big deal is about being on the phone whilst going through the checkout. As long as you say hello, goodbye, please and thank you etc. why can't you be on the phone at the same time? I'm would be perfectly able to multi task and do both. Usually I have my toddler with me when I'm shopping so I wouldn't be using my phone anyway, but amazingly I am able to say hello, goodbye, please and thank you to the cashier, answer any of their questions, whilst simultaneously packing my shopping, chatting to my toddler and keeping half an eye on said toddler to ensure she doesn't leg it or smash a carton of eggs everywhere.

The woman in the newspaper was wrong. She was using her mobile to phone her brother to say she was on her way.

Thats not an important call & she wasnt on her way. She hadnt finished her shopping as she hadnt paid for it.

Also the good thing about mobiles is that they show u the number so that u can phone them back.

How do you know the call wasn't important? What if her brother has an anxiety disorder and would have had a panic attack if she was late to meet him, perhaps she had to call him right then to ensure that didn't happen? Who are you to judge whether her call was important enough or not?

What *NicknameIncomplete" said - the OP's thread titled is factually incorrect. The articles I've read about this story all say that the customer called her brother, not answered a call from her brother - the customer chose to make the phone call.

I know I've walked into a shop while having a chat on the phone and haven't finished it by the time I get to the till a few times. My way of dealing with it is to tell the person that I'm at the till and they have to wait for me for a few moments. I then apologise to the person on the checkout (basically for not giving my transaction with them my full attention), do the financial bit, then thank them and go on my way. If either myself, DP, or my DM receive a call when we're in the queue for the checkout, then we always tell the person on the other end either to call back or to wait for a moment while we pay for our items.

It's only polite to at least make eye contact and to thank the person serving you whether in a cafe/restaurant or a shop!

You can make eye contact whilst using the phone. You can even exchange pleasantries whilst using the phone. As long as you don't completely ignore the person on the checkout what is the issue?

Vakant, if the customer's brother has an anxiety disorder and absolutely must have had a phone call at that exact minute in time, then she either should have been quicker doing her shopping or called before putting her stuff on the conveyer belt. In any case, I'm sure that if that was the situation then the customer would have happy to tell the press/media that as well.

If it had been an emergency on the line, I'm sure the checkout operator would have able to tell by the tone of the customer's voice and wouldn't have made an issue of it. This particular incident just seems to have been a chatty call made by the customer to say that she was leaving the shop.

Maybe you can vakant, but many customers I have served that have been on the phone haven't given me that common courtesy. And I have had to ask several times for them to put thier card in, pay, remove thier card etc because they arnt paying attention. Which makes my job more tiresome and holds the queue up. That's just a small part of it anyway.

I'm not saying that the brother has an anxiety disorder, chances are she could have waited to make the call, the point I was trying to make was how can you, I, the checkout operator or anyone determine whether or not any particular phone call is important enough when we aren't party to both sides of that call or know the reasons for that call. Only the person making or taking a call whilst at a checkout is qualified to decide whether that call is important or not, and as long as you acknowledge the person who is serving you/say please and thank you, then what is the problem?

*their bloody phone!!