To have complained that the level of customer service I receive should not depend on what Im wearing?

[Humansatnav]

Garden centre close to my work with fab food hall. Usually pop in on my lunch hour ( professional job, smart office wear), and get some "naice" stuff for nibbles on a Monday.
With it being a bank holiday tomorrow dh & I decided to pop in just now & get the usual (organic wine, cheeses, olives etc). We'd been walking the dogs & I was still in my jeans/ trainers / fleecey jacket.
Staff have always been lovely before, but was served by a different man, he was fine with the lady before me, but very " off" with me, ie kept repeating the prices of the deli products to me several times, huffing and refused to give me a bag until I demanded one. It doesn't look much written down, but was very embarrassing.
I spoke to the supervisor immediately and she apologised. WIBU ?

I was thinking the same Lying.

OP what do you mean by 'professional' job? How can someone knows your job or salary? As i said earlier i wear smart at work but i dont have 5 pounds for lunch. And many people i.e. receptionists who have to dress very smart are on nmw. And cant afford a garden and dogs (grin). Office wear doesnt mean anything.

Laquitar , that's my point , professional office wear, nit a sign with my net worth on.
As for the bag, I asked politely for one and he stepped back, folded his arms and just looked at me. I looked at him, at my shopping and asked again, he still didn't reply, or move, at that stage I said that I couldn't carry everything and juggle a dog lead without a bag and could O have one now.

*not.

Well Vivian did find the exact same phenomenon in Pretty Woman, didn't she? That was a big mistake for those snooty shop assistants...

Yes, you should go back dressed as a prostitute and get your husband to throw wads of money around whilst pretending to be Richard Gere. That'll learn 'em !

This sort of thing has happened to me before.

Actually, my friend's DH was only saying yesterday that when he went to the jewellers to buy some earrings for friend's birthday dressed in his work gear (he nipped in between jobs - he is a plumber), they acted as if he was about to rob them, until they finally realised that he was seriously intending to buy.

You're probably right in your assumption.

Sales people judge for lots of reasons. If they're out and out rude then you're right to complain about it - not sure that will do any good, but if it makes you feel better, go for it.

They also might be clumsily trying to help by pointing out prices. Annoying, but I'd let that go.

Also, people may be on targets. If it doesn't look like you're going to spend a lot of money then I can understand them not devoting all their time to you if there is a more promising-looking customer.

That's no excuse for rudeness, but it is difficult.

I haven't read the whole thread but these these threads always throw up lots of Pretty Woman stories about eccentric millionaires in mucky wellies who're treated like trash but then turn up the next day to pay cash for a Bentley.

I find them tiresome and chippy. Mostly salespeople are trying to do their jobs and hold on to them and unless someone is nasty, it's shitty to do someone down who's doing what's quite a difficult job.

I expressed that opinion on the last thread like this. I was trashed by chippy people. No matter. I will continue to express the opinion that some customers are chippy cunts. You excepted, OP.

limited... I think sales people have a very difficult job and they have some awful customers to deal with sometimes. As a customer, I notice when people are chatting away on a mobile when a cashier is trying to process payment. It seems to me as if those customers really enjoy making them wait, it gives them some kind of power. I've snapped at those customers myself as they're keeping me waiting and being disrespectful.

I think some customers are too prone to complain too; because they can.

So, I will agree with you that some customers are indeed 'chippy cunts' and they shouldn't be. We all have jobs to do and should be treated with respect.

Thanks lying. DH works in retail. He pointed out the concept of the customer who not only wants to make shop workers' lives hard, but wants to thwart other customers too.

We were in a shop in Rome where we wanted to buy something. The woman ahead of us didn't want to buy anything but was deliberately monopolising the saleswoman's time to to keep us waiting.

The saleswoman was diplomatically trying to fend her off while frantically signalling for us to stay. The nasty bitch was tying up her time. We left, but we did come back later and bought. I can't imagine what that poor saleswoman was going through.

I shop a lot in Italy and it happens a lot there. But it happens in Britain too.

I posted upthread about my father being treated rather horribly by a car salesman when he had cash to spend.

A chippy bastard he is not . In fact, quite the opposite, he is the sort of person who has always allowed people to 'put him in his place' to his detriment, and it drives me bonkers. Eg we are a large family and he once was on the verge of buying a huge house as ours was rather cramped but decided against it because he thought it wasn't for the likes of him to be living in a huge house. And he raised us all to 'know our place', in a way which frankly doesn't tie in with the modern world we live in.

Not quite sure how this would make him a chippy bastard

Sorry, that should have been a chippy cunt.

Not everything is about you and your dad treaclesoda

Well your post did come directly after treacles limited so I can see why it may have seemed it was aimed at her limited.

Bolding failed there.

To add: my parents turned up at the council offices with a big bag of cash to buy their council house. They thought that was normal but said the official paled and thought they were bank robbers.

They joked about it because they weren't thieves and they weren't chippy cunts either.

No, you're right its not all about me, thanks for that

But you said that people who complain about these things are chippy cunts, you referred to buying a car in cash, on a thread where I was the poster who had mentioned a car salesman and my father being a cash buyer. I was merely pointing out that not enjoying being treated like crap by a salesman does not make you a chippy cunt, it is entirely possible that it actually just makes you someone who doesn't enjoy being treated like crap.

Well your post did come directly after treacles limited so I can see why it may have seemed it was aimed at her limited.

Are you saying that's my fault Ifpigscouldfly?

I'm saying it's not an unreasonable conclusion to have drawn that's all.

It is odd to assume that how you were treated was related to what you were wearing rather than the fact that you were served by a different person than usual.

I could believe it could occur if you were trying to buy something really expensive e.g. expensive car as then salespeople are probably trying to decide whether they are likely to make a sale (and gain commission). You were just buying food though from someone who probably couldn't care less whether you buy or not. Anyway, surely nobody wears smarts clothes to a garden centre the weekend so why would they assume jeans = no money?

YANBU. I have had this type of treatment, too, from shop assistants and from school teachers! I went to see DS's Head of Year a while ago dressed in my childminding clothes, complete with baby breakfast on my top! She could not have been more patronising if she tried. I have NO doubt that had I been to see her dressed up to the nines, she would have treated me more respectfully. When I emailed her a follow up email, I must have sent it First Class in a suit and tie, because her response was then a bit better. Just a bit.

It happens to me too. I make a point of being very polite to shop assistants, whose work is often tiring and repetitive, and therefore deserves particular respect, but I get pretty pissed off when I get rudeness back, and will always report them to their superiors if they cross the line simply because they don't seem to like to look of me. I recently did it in Boots with a young female pharmacist who was tutting and twiddling her hair and rolling her eyes at me when I was trying to have a perfectly ordinary, civil conversation about a prescription drug, and it was incredibly inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour for a pharmacist, and she also wasn't giving me the important technical information I needed. I asked her to stop being rude and offhand and listen to my questions instead, she got worse, so I rang Boots when I got home and it was clear I was not the only customer she had done this too. It was also in marked contrast to the rest of the staff, who are always very nice and professional. Anyway, I think they must have left her go as she is not there any more. Frankly she was a professional liability.

Granted Ifpigscouldfly But it is sometimes a mistake which is sometimes in your head, as I have tried to explain.

Brown Thomas in Cork used be terrible for this, slobbering good service if you were dressed up, barely given the time of day if in grungy clothes. In contrast brown Thomas in Dublin gave excellent service to every customer, my aunt and I could go in with jeans with holes and looking rough as fuck and still be treated fantastically.

I've found many places are the same, dressed well with a bit of slap I get fanned over, given discounts, spoken to with respect... In my skivvies I might as well be dirt on their shoe.

It's a sign of a really good store if they comprehend that how someone is dressed bears no relation to how much money they might have to spend.

*slobberingly
*fawned

Stupid phone

I think that how you are treated by some sales people may have more to do with age, accent and general demeanour than what you wear.