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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

rude checkout assistant

46 replies

chocolatemademefat · 08/12/2013 16:16

Just back from doing my weekly shop. Shop was busy and not enough checkouts open so assistant packing shelves was asked to go on till. with a loud tut she flounced on, openly annoyed and started firing my shopping along the belt. Due to her speed she was finished before I had time to pack them all and proceeded to sigh and leave me to get on with it. My son has a part-time job in the shop so I felt awkward about speaking up about her behaviour. Now I just feel like shit because I let her off with it. AIBU to be annoyed with myself now for being such a wimp?

OP posts:
reelingaroundthechristmastree · 08/12/2013 16:18

Get over it.

RedLondonBus · 08/12/2013 16:19

What would you have said?

NewtRipley · 08/12/2013 16:23

YANBU

Next time just say politely "Can you slow down a bit please?"

sonlypuppyfat · 08/12/2013 16:23

It's annoying but life's too short.

YouStayClassySanDiego · 08/12/2013 16:24

Well I would actually expect to get on with my own packing, I don't want help packing bags.

I would have given her the death stare then ignored her.

YourMaNoBraBackOfMyCar · 08/12/2013 16:32

Why didn't you tell her to slow down?

YourMaNoBraBackOfMyCar · 08/12/2013 16:38

Also I know how it feels to be told to do something else when you still have your main task to do and it has to be completed. Makes me feel grumpy too. Obviously its not the customers fault but you do (unfairly) think to yourself "Can't you lot just fuck off and die?" :o

Bowlersarm · 08/12/2013 16:41

YANBU.

It would annoy me, too, OP.

whereisshe · 08/12/2013 16:41

The only way to survive the average UK supermarket shopping trip is to pretend that ALL the other people aren't actually there IME (unless it's necessary to talk to them for reasons of basic courtesy). That's what I would have done if I were you Grin...

getdownshep · 08/12/2013 16:52

This is why I Click and Collect, nice young man even put my shopping in the car boot for meGrin

StarSwirl92 · 08/12/2013 17:18

My OH works in a large chain of shops who are currently very concerned with how customers are unhappy with their service... I openly admit I had a cold when I went into the shop but imagine how truly awful I felt when the checkout assistant got up from behind her till, leaving it switched on, to wash her hands in the toilets.

I hadn't even touched her.

I get that you don't want to get a cold but that just made me feel sub-human, so I agree with OP here its really important to the customer how they are treated and sometimes its the difference between feeling like a valued customer or a leper.

LambinsideaDuckinsideaTrout · 08/12/2013 17:20

I would have just started packing EXTRA slowly, maybe rearrange a bag here and there, take ages to find my card to pay... let her bloody sigh at that! Grin

Sunflower49 · 08/12/2013 17:34

It would have annoyed me but only mildly.
Perhaps she had been given an allocated time to stack the shelves, knew she would have to stay late if she wasn't done on time or something... But she shouldn't take it out on you!Sometimes I'd even say something like 'Xmas rush is stressy isn't it!' Or something to see if she understood how she was behaving..

Alisvolatpropiis · 08/12/2013 17:47

Yanbu

I've been a checkout assistant, I wouldn't have behaved like that.

You don't have to say anything to her but you can raise issues at the customer service desk. They get fed back to the manager/shift supervisor there at the time.

sutekidane · 08/12/2013 18:16

What shop was that, star? Every shop I've worked in would have had you shot on the spot if you left your till without permission.

MillyChristmas · 08/12/2013 18:20

Star how do you know she left the till, went to the toilet and washed her hands??

StarSwirl92 · 08/12/2013 18:21

It was a Tesco. I was in shock at the time but I could've had half that till away before the silly woman came back.

StarSwirl92 · 08/12/2013 18:22

x post, I was packing while she did it. She got up, went to the toilet washed her hands with out shutting the door and walked back without logging out of the till.

MillyChristmas · 08/12/2013 18:23

But how do you know she actually went and washed her hands in the toilets?

MillyChristmas · 08/12/2013 18:24

The toilets are usually way back in the store, through big doors into the staff section aren't they?

StarSwirl92 · 08/12/2013 18:25

I was a disabled toilet so you could see the sink from the end of the till. I saw her do it. I heard the hand dryer.

MillyChristmas · 08/12/2013 18:27

O. Do you think maybe she had something sticky on them ? Very unusual in Tesco though anyway. You are not allowed to leave the till without the front end Team Leaders permission and then you have to log out and never ever would you leave a customer on her own unless it was a dire emergency. I am sure someone will have noticed and reported her. She may have not realised that she wasn't allowed to. Possibly new??

sutekidane · 08/12/2013 18:29

Bollocks! Grin And even if it wasn't, how do you know it was because of your cold? I used to ask (yep, needed permission) after I touched certain items because they often leaked. If I'd swanned off I suppose the customer would have come up with a personal reason when it wouldn't be personal at all.

Cheesyslice · 08/12/2013 18:29

YANBU. I asked a checkout assistant to slow down so I had a chance in hell of packing it all as she was launching my shopping down the conveyor belt at me. I was polite about it though.

complexnumber · 08/12/2013 18:34

oooh! We are coming back to the UK for a few days... I can't wait for this to be an issue!!!

OOh, just 19 days to go (We'll miss Xmas, but I'm sure there is plenty of potential for shop strop)

I have to confirm that this is only a spectator sport for me. There is no way I could make the poor assistants a misery