So sick of rude customers!

[Patrickstarisabadbellend]

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?

[kawliga]

If you get paid for every single minute you work you are lucky, that is not the norm. The reality for most people is that they do unpaid overtime (billions of pounds worth of unpaid work in the UK - google it) but they have no choice. Most careers would be killed if you don't put in unpaid overtime. 'I do not do any overtime' is not the way to a promotion unfortunately, even though it's unfair.

[Collardove]

Well I hope she got a flat tyre on the way home!! :)

[Pipbin]

Kawliga. It's not even wanting a promotion. It's just wanting to keep your job.

And yes, PP, if a customer comes in at 5 when you close and doesn't leave for 10 minutes you are still expected to cash up the till and shut down the store until you can go.
In larger store it might be different but I only ever worked in smaller retailers.

[Purplepoodle]

Yanbu even worse are the ones on Xmas eve when they are literally pushing the manager out of the way as they try to shut the door.

[AlleyCat11]

I dunno. All customers matter to a small business. I would always stay open to make a sale. I was locking up yesterday & walking away, when a guy jumped out of a taxi wanting something he'd just seen in the window. He spent 160 euro. A day's takings in one sale. It was worth my while. And he'll be back.
Having said that, it does piss me off when folk open my closed door at 6pm, come in for a ten minute browse & leave empty handed. Always when I have to be somewhere that night... However, I let a woman in at that time last week. She was recently bereaved & really appreciated our chat & the items I helped her choose. To me, that's what being a good shopkeeper is all about.
Today, I was in a shop with the assistant loudly making weekend plans on her mobile with 6 or 7 customers browsing aimlessly. On a Saturday afternoon. All left with their wallets intact. Clueless...

[kawliga]

Pipbin, you're right, for most people it's about keeping the job.

[steff13]

If you get paid for every single minute you work you are lucky, that is not the norm.

I don't get paid for every single minute I work now, but I have a lot of benefits that make that ok for me, and I choose to work extra time, I don't do it because my employer demands it.

Every retail employer I worked for had a time clock - you got paid for the hours you were clocked in. It would be illegal for an employer to pay you for fewer hours than what you worked, or to somehow force you to clock out and then work more hours. I'm not in the UK, I'm in the US.

[foslady]

Where I work we have 2 sets of automatic doors. We close an hour early on a Wednesday for training. There is a large sign on the door stating this. This is not a new thing, we've always shut at 2 on a Wednesday.

It's amazing how many people prise open the outer door and then are stuck in a glass tube because the inner doors won't open and the outer door has shut behind them and end up banging like mad for us to either let them in (nope!) or out again!

[foslady]

We have always shut at 4 ffs!!!!

[Owllady]

She bought bleach?
What was so important that she couldn't wait until the morning?
Bonkers

I had much ruder customers when I used to work on the m6 services though. I was regularly called bitch and slut

[Owllady]

Clocks aren't the norm in all retail places here in the UK
I have only seen them in larger places

[cees]

The customer was being a bitch, her smirking and laughing at having kept you waiting are proof of that.

Yanbu and lets hope she gets that kick up the hole she so desperately needs.

[Proclean]

I maintain that good staff are worth far more to a business owner than bad customers!

[HappyAgainOneDay]

Owllady I had a temporary job at Tesco and had to clock in and out.

[kawliga]

Proclean, would you count 'I do not work overtime, ever, I down tools the minute the clock strikes 5' as good staff? Because many employers wouldn't. If anything that would be their definition of a nightmare employee.

[redexpat]

always right

[redexpat]

NOT always right I mean!

[sarahquilt]

YANBU and your manager should have backed you up.

[buggerboooo]

The area I work in really brings out the arseholes.
Kawliga, why OTT? It is my private time? Why would there be a balance? I am paid between certain hours. I work those hours. After those hours I charge £300 an hour- strangely no one wishes to pay that, therefore I do not work it.

I could not give a shit what you want to buy/need a ticket/ whatever. During working hours I will do all I can to help. As soon as I stop being paid, I stop giving a shit!

If more people actually did what I did and left then they would stop having the piss taken out of them.

[CoreyTrevorLahey]

Yanbu. Years working in retail taught me never to enter a shop any time after 5 mins to closing time. People have to clean up and cash up (and if it doesn't balance, that's another story).

People who go into shops as they're closing are selfish pricks who consider their time more important than that of the shop's staff. That's it. So don't do it.

[MoreBeta]

kawliga - that's the problem. Head office who demand employees only get paid 9 - 5 and then put pressure on managers to drive down costs year after year and leaving them in the position of only being able to deliver the service by forcing staff to work unpaid overtime. It happens everywhere.

If every member of staff in a shop got paid 30 mins extra for the actual hours they do then staff costs would immediately go up on average about 13% if they work a 7 hour shift. That would kill profit margins and would show just how much big business is making out of treating staff badly.

I am no socialist but it is endemic in business nowadays - forcing staff into unpaid work either through internships, unpaid over time or working for benefits. Big respectable businesses not just back street sweatshops are doing it.

[kawliga]

Well buggerboo, if you can command £300 an hour then I think you have quite a lot of market power and can do pretty much whatever you like, really.

But if most people did what you do they would be FIRED.

[NellyNoodle1]

Yanbu.

I used to work in retail and people would always turn up 3 minutes before you locked the door to do an hours shopping. I was never paid overtime or given the time back. If someone ran to the door and said 'sorry sorry I just need to grab this' I never had a problem - but you know the others are a lot of the time doing it on purpose - they don't give a shit and see their life as more important than the lowly shop assistant.

Another shop I worked in opened until 11pm during the run up to Christmas and you could bet your bottom dollar no one would come in after 9pm apart from the f*** who decided it was imperative they had their curtain measurements worked out at 10.55pm. I'd have to smile and nod and my poor mother would be at home waiting up for me to get home (was whilst I was at uni and working part time) having to get up for work herself the next day.

People just need to consider more than themselves sometimes. I always check on the shop opening hours and if I haven't got time I don't go. If it's 10 minutes to go I'll shout 'I know you're closing I'm just grabbing this...' As I trot past.

[Proclean]

Kawliga - my staff will go the extra mile at MY request not some random looney customer's! That is the difference here! I hire them not the customer, I then train them to do the things that all reasonable customer's value highly! That does not include working for free or being belittled!

[kawliga]

MoreBeta, you're right. According to the TUC so it may not be unbiased but it's indicative:

Employees across the UK worked a record amount of unpaid overtime last year, with over 5.4 million workers putting in around £640m worth of unpaid hours every week.