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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

So sick of rude customers!

170 replies

Patrickstarisabadbellend · 12/07/2014 12:19

We were closing up yesterday when a last minute shopper appeared. I politely let her know that we were closing and that the store would be open from 9am the next day.

She wasn't happy with this. She asked me what time we shut, checked her watch and asked to speak to a manager.

My manager let her in! She browsed for a few minutes and kept smugly smirking at me. Eventually she bought some bleach and as I was serving her she laughed that the customer is always right.
As I was closing the door (over 15 mins late) she was reversing her car out of her space smirking and laughing at me. As she drove off she was glaring at me!

I felt totally undermined and like the manager/owner had made a fool of me. The manger/owner treated and spoke to me like a child being told off in front of the customer.

I'm due back in work on Monday but I'm serious pissed off. I've been job hunting all night too.

Why are some people such twats? Aibu?

OP posts:
kali110 · 12/07/2014 15:02

Yanbu
She was unreasonable and petty.
I hate retail. Everyone should be made to do it, might make people more polite to retail workers!

Original poster
Patrickstarisabadbellend · 12/07/2014 15:32

Bursary. I have a life outside of work.

I'm paid by the hour and we get no extra money for any extra time we are here. Imagine if this happened everyday. I don't want to work for free. It's not fair on me or my family.

I work to put food on my table. I turn up on time, I do the job to the best if my ability and I expect to be able to leave when I'm supposed to.

The odd couple of minutes don't bother me but this woman was just rude. It's totally knocked my confidence completely and I'm dreading working on Monday.

OP posts:
Original poster
Patrickstarisabadbellend · 12/07/2014 15:35

I actually work in 2 shops! Both are the same kind of shop. Gardening, cleaning products and pet supplies.

I don't think we sell anything anyone would need in an emergency.

OP posts:
Deemail · 12/07/2014 15:50

Yanbu. If your employer wants flexibility then he needs to pay overtime or give you time off in lieu. Don't be a pushover ask when is suitable for you to take the time owed to you.

The majority of customers are lovely but some of them are so rude and have no awareness of anyone else, either staff or other customers, I usually feel sorry for them as I'm certain with that attitude most people avoid them.

Dubjackeen · 12/07/2014 15:58

Used to work somewhere many years ago where one customer would knock on the door, bang the windows, anything at all, to be let in, after the place was closed. He was always let in, and would then get attention danced upon him by senior staff, which drove us junior staff mad.

YANBU OP, how badly did she need bleach? Confused I think the manager/ owner should serve the person, if they want to let them in.

Proclean · 12/07/2014 15:59

I think YANBU I have staff and would back them up (most times) if a customer took issue with what they were saying unless they were in the wrong of course!

Good staff are like golddust whereas customers are not hard to come by and only a tiny amount of these are difficult and you don't want THOSE ones!!

You said it yourself - you now feel undermined and are looking for another job - it will be your manager's loss and all they have gained is one difficult and unreasonable customer who will maybe spend a couple of pounds and make everyone dance around while she does.

OnlyLovers · 12/07/2014 16:13

YANBU.

But it was probably the highlight of her sad little life week.

Rise above it. Thanks

Pipbin · 12/07/2014 16:23

Yanbu. If your employer wants flexibility then he needs to pay overtime or give you time off in lieu. Don't be a pushover ask when is suitable for you to take the time owed to you.

This doesn't happen in retail. If you ask for extra money or time off in lieu then you are generally told where the door is and that there is a queue of people happy to do the job.

Where DH used to work there was NO sick pay, and he had to take a day holiday to go to his father's funeral. Most retailers treat their staff like utter shit.

Humansatnav · 12/07/2014 16:45

YADNBU ! My parents owned and ran their own newsagents / grocery for years, and it was a daily occurrence for someone to turn up as the door was being locked. If you needed baby milk you got in, if you fancied a bar of chocolate you got pointed to the all night garage . And on one memorable occasions < Xmas Eve> if you turned up wondering if we would take the door cage off, unset the alarm and switch the till back on so you could get a curry pot noodle, you were told to sod off !

buggerboooo · 12/07/2014 16:52

I would have just gone home. I hate customers like that.

I work for a company that deals with travel, selling tickets. I shut excatly when I am suppose to and I do not ever stay late. I do not ever do any over time.

There are very clear opening times and quite frankly it is tough shit if people turn up late. I will be shut.

Ilovemydogandmydoglovesme · 12/07/2014 16:57

You've got more patience than me. I've have turned to the boss and said 'well that's kind of you, I'll leave you to it seeing as I don't know how to cash up the till and I'm not being paid now' and I'd have been off out the door.

I may have issues with management. Grin

Original poster
Patrickstarisabadbellend · 12/07/2014 17:43

I'm just annoyed and upset that someone can treat me that way and actually looked like it made them happy.

OP posts:
PumpkinsMummy · 12/07/2014 18:07

she sounds horrible, obviously gets her kicks from pettiness like that. I agree with ILove but then I am older and more gobby cinfident now. When I have been in that situation in the past I have just silently fumed and then got my dad to phone in sick for me the next day and never go back Blush. On the other hand, a job in a shop that sells gardening stuff, cleaning products and pet supplies sounds like the closest thing to a good retail job I can imagine.

PumpkinsMummy · 12/07/2014 18:08

chuffing Nora, please excuse typos and grammar I am typing with a dog on my lap.

Original poster
Patrickstarisabadbellend · 12/07/2014 18:13

I've been spoken to like shit by a few people in this job. I was called a retard a few weeks ago by one customer because I didn't understand what they wanted.

He was an elderly man who had no clue what the product was called so that's my fault FFs.

OP posts:
KitKat1985 · 12/07/2014 18:27

YANBU. I used to work in a supermarket in my college days and despite the (numerous) announcements in the lead up to the store closing (e.g, "ladies and gentlemen, just to let you know this branch of X will be shutting in 10 minutes, we thank you for your custom and ask you please to make your way towards the tills" type announcements), it was amazing how many people would turn up 5 minutes before the shop shut and start doing a trolley load of shopping. Many a time I would still be in the store 15-20 minutes after the store had shut waiting for customers to go home, and I was never paid extra for it. Most customers didn't even have the decency to apologise. I used to find it really rude.

kawliga · 12/07/2014 18:30

I shut exactly when I am suppose to and I do not ever stay late. I do not ever do any over time.

This sounds OTT to me, it's almost like working to rule, which is a way of going on strike or undermining your employer. I get that nobody wants to work for free even for one extra minute because it all adds up, but there must be a balance somewhere.

mummytowillow · 12/07/2014 18:37

I work for the shop with the very nice food Wink

I'm a customer service adviser and take calls. I've been called a c**t, a bitch, told I'm thick and one woman said she hoped my mum dropped dead Angry

Yesterday a lady ranted on the phone for 25 minutes and didn't let me speak. She was utterly vile to me just because she doesn't like one of our policies!

I sometimes wonder why I do it, but I think about the prawn and mayo sandwich I eat with discount most days Grin and that gets me through the day!

MoreBeta · 12/07/2014 18:39

I agree with the OP.

The problem here is the OP gets paid by the hour up to 5 pm and no more. Businesses that want staff to stay on after hours at short notice need to pay them accordingly. Not have it both ways - paying minimum wage strictly by the hour then expecting them to work for nothing to 'offer a good service'.

In a professional job which pays well I worked from 9 am to 11 pm yesterday and will work part of the weekend because that is that is needed to get the job done. I am not on minimum wage and I get paid for every minute I work. No pay then no work in my book.

expatinscotland · 12/07/2014 18:40

YANBU

steff13 · 12/07/2014 18:45

I wasn't getting paid for it and i had to wait to do the till until she had left. I was half an hour late all together.

Why on earth wouldn't you be paid? I've worked plenty of retail jobs, and we always got paid when we were done working, regardless of whether it was after closing time.

HesterShaw · 12/07/2014 18:45

The customer is not always right. Sometimes the customer is fucking wrong.

Pipbin · 12/07/2014 18:52

Why on earth wouldn't you be paid? I've worked plenty of retail jobs, and we always got paid when we were done working, regardless of whether it was after closing time.

Everywhere I worked I got paid for my scheduled hours. If I was meant to finish at 5.30 but didn't get away until 6 then it was tough.

steff13 · 12/07/2014 18:57

Everywhere I worked I got paid for my scheduled hours. If I was meant to finish at 5.30 but didn't get away until 6 then it was tough.

Here you get paid for the time you clock out. It's crazy to think that you'd only get piad for your scheduled hours. What if there's a customer who doesn't arrive at closing time, but stays after? Do you have to shunt them out the door at 5pm? If you get paid until 5, and the store closes at 5, are you not expected to count down your till for the day?

Proclean · 12/07/2014 19:01

There will always be a looney customer now and again it is up to the manager/owner to have the necessary protective policies in place to prevent such scenarios - it is the business owner's responsibility to protect staff from such abuse and I speak as a business owner.

Good staff are worth their weight in gold, nasty customers are disposable!