AIBU to think that most people would know I HAVE to ask these questions?

[Caff2]

I work for a well known chain which used to have a very good loyalty system. Ahem. It's not so great at the moment. One of the things I have to ask at the till is "Do you have a membership card?". Most normal people will say yes or no. Some people insist on quite angrily telling me why there's no point in using their card, and it's rubbish and they've been let down, etc etc. "Why do you idiots even bother asking this?" was a gem from tonight.

I just work there. I have to ask this question. Just "no" would do, surely. I am just a shop assistant.

You have my sympathy.

It's just as easy to be nice to people in customer service roles as not. Some people are simply ignorant and stupid.

Times are hard and sometimes you have to take whatever job you can which sometimes is as part of a company that you wouldn't have chosen if you could afford the choice and just do not care about. Realistically, one person not coming back (and they probably will if they need whatever the shop provides) won't make a difference and not giving a fuck is a good antidote to being in a job you hate but have little choice about. Yes, it's annoying but it's also annoying to have to ask because you know you're annoying people! Just be nice and don't make someone else's day a little bit crappier! Sorry, rant.

We should all challenge retail practices that we are unhappy with but at either top level or by voting with our feet!
I refuse to shop at Argos due to their poor customer service especially when goods are faulty - I have recently also added Tesco to my list
Whilst I am aware that my one person protest will not matter a jot - if thousands of us wrote and complained or took our business elsewhere retailers would be forced to look at their practices

I don't blame the pp that said 'I don't give a fuck, I just work there'. These roles are almost always minimum wage so seeing as the employer is showing their attitude to their staff through their pay, what more can they expect?

Roussette is right. I am always nice to shop staff (I worked in retail for a number of years) but the various scripts in every shop is extremely annoying.

I also dislike being approached by "helpful" staff the minute I land in a shop without being allowed to browse freely. On the recent Shopgirls documentary the founder of Biba said the only sacking offence for his girls would have been to approach a new customer saying, can I help you?
Now when I am pounced on it ruins my experience and I usually leave without looking.

I wish retailers would realise this. Also not stocking enough in sizes 12-16. Also not stocking enough in the better colours (they must wonder why the sales are full of loud tat?)

No reflection on the staff. I am always a friendly customer.

I get that it's annoying to get asked lots of "script" questions - I'm obviously a shopper as well as a shop worker! In my particular job, we don't upsell, or try and sign anyone up to anything. It's just the membership card question, and "Would you like cash back?". I will never be convinced that these questions deserve rudeness in response.

Also, as the poster with the John Lewis card said, quite a few people will say "Oh yes! Thank you for reminding me!", so it's obviously not an entirely pointless question for everybody.

Maybe now is the time to recount the story of the smartly dressed man who came up to me when I was on the shop floor and said "Eggs." Yep. That was his way of asking me, the idiot shop assistant who doesn't deserve respect obviously, where the eggs were. That was a tricky one to be charming in response to...

Agree that it is one of the annoyances of modern life but am pretty hmm at the pp who said "I don't give a fuck, I just work there". I have done retail jobs and they can be dull and annoying and yes you get grief off customers but I think that's a really poor attitude. Whatever job you are doing you should be doing it well and giving a fuck that the company does well, or else yes, you won't have that job. As someone else said, if you are annoyed by low stock or whatever, feeling like the assistant does give a fuck might just make you go back another time. How many times on here have we seen complaints about how an incident was handled? Not the issue itself but the attitude of those involved with dealing with it. Poor customer service is actually just bad manners at a personal level

I was never rude to people when I worked in retail. Never. But I did manage to perfect my blank stare and my distant 'hmm sorry about that. I'll pass it on' when they were kicking off at me for something outside my control.

No, I actually didn't give a fuck if one rude complainer never came back. I was 18 and doing my A Levels and being payed minimum wage. Actually, couldn't give less of a fuck if I tried is probably more accurate.

It's the suggestive selling which particularly irritates me. WH Smith being among the worst offenders. You take your book, mag, card etc to the checkout and the assistant asks if you want a bar of chocolate with it. No, I don't want a bar of fucking chocolate. If I wanted a bar of fucking chocolate I would have chosen one. I don't say this to the assistant, of course, but sometimes it is a real struggle not to.

Has anyone here ever worked in the marketing department of a major retailer? If so, I would genuinely be interested to know why they take such pains to piss off their customers.

And further...I'm now the manager of a complaints department for a bank. My customer service is excellent, as is that of all my staff.

I'm now in a position where I can actually do something for the customer, whether we're at fault or not, and I bend over backwards where I can.

But some people you just can't make happy. They want to scream, want to shout obscenities, want blood.

What some customers don't realise is that if you make enough of a pain-in-the-arse of yourself, or are abusive and rude consistently then the company won't want your business.

I close about ten customers bank accounts every week and have no problem doing so. I've had staff members in tears after being abused over the phone for an hour, which the customer feels they have the right to do as they're the 'face' of the company. The customer is then surprised/horrified when I take the situation over because they've reduced said staff member to a puddle, and tell them we're exiting the relationship. Bye now, off you fuck, find another bank.

Seriously, what do you expect? Not all companies will put up with appalling behaviour from their customers.

This kind of thing really upsets me. It's as if they don't understand that there's a difference between the massive fuck-off organisation itself and the hapless person who stands behind the till earning a pittance. What power exactly do they think you have?

Being asked if I have a loyalty card doesn't annoy me at all (I don't have any), but staff asking for my email address so they can "email a copy of the receipt" does wind me up because they (the company, not the staff personally) are trying to get my email address by stealth for marketing purposes.

I do have a fantasy of going to the checkout with a huge sign round my neck saying:
"No, I don't have a loyalty card. No, I don't want cashback. No, I don't want help with packing".

I know it's not the fault of the assistant but it's about time that shops stopped these inane questions.. With the cashback I honestly thought in the beginning when you could get cashback at the checkout, they would do it for a few months until it had sunk in that you had to ask for it before the transaction had finished but, no, about ten years later, they are still asking if you want cashback and still all those thousands of transactions later, I am still answering their question "no". People are treated like idiots and it would only have to be once that you forgot to ask couldn't get our cashback and you would make sure you remembered from there on in, but no, the whole population has to have that stupid question asked forever.

And surely if we want help packing, we can ask?

Rant over. Sorry.

Rousette- but you're directing your irritation at the wrong person. Do you they think they get a vote? No. If it annoys you write to head office and say that as a customer you find it offputting.

And yes you can ask for help with packing but usually the assistant asks you before they get busy scanning all your stuff for you.

Personally, I don't care how many questions I get asked, but I am always nice because I know the checkout staff must ask, and they do not necessarily choose to. It's not a glamorous job as it is, and I figure they could do without the eye rolls every time they stick to the script.

Thank you Miss Battleaxe. Actually, last night I had quite a few people thank me for reminding them of their loyalty card - "Oh, God, yeah, thanks, I always forget the damned thing" type of response, and you'd be surprised at how many people do decide they want cash back when asked.

Since I was moaning, however, I also dislike the fact that we quite clearly wear name badges so that people can complain about us by name, which would be OK, except the company pretend it's so we seem more approachable. We didn't come down with the last shower.

YABabitU. How are customers supposed to know what you 'have' to do?
I'm not saying it's ok for customers to be rude, but it's not just yes or no though is it? As a customer, when you answer 'no' to the card question the next question is always 'do you want one?'
If you think it's tiresome to ask it every time it's just as tiresome to be asked it every single time. No and no i don't want one.
Having said that I agree with MrsTP. There should be avenues for feedback to management. If they get the message enough times that customers are p'd off about something they should do something about it.

Shop assistants shop too. I've never felt the need to be rude to anyone asking me a question like this, which to my mind it is quite obvious they have to ask, as otherwise, why on God's green Earth would they bother?

I got caught out last time I was in Tesco. I forgot that it's normal to pack your own bags in the UK, and let everything start piling up before I remembered! the checkout girl did then ask me if I needed help packing (who could blame her?!) but I said no, I'd just forgotten I needed to do it. In Australia, it's normal for the checkout staff to pack your bags for you as they go.

Can I add McDonald's?

'A medium chicken sandwich meal with a diet coke please.'
'Is that a large meal?'

I just SAID medium!

I fondly remember the days when you could go to the post office and buy stamps without being asked if you want broadband, or are you going on holiday, do you need a passport/money/travel insurance, ISA, premium bonds, house/car/pet insurance, credit cards etc etc.

Can I just buy 6 first class stamps?

I wonder if the reason that people don't give a fuck is that they know very well that their employers don't give a flying fuck about them? How can you be disciplined for not asking the "right" questions when you know very well that your customer won't want that, & will only get annoyed by you asking? This is standard practice in so many banks. As an employee you are just a number, & senior management don't care if you live or die. As long as you reach those targets!

I hate rude customers with a passion. I'm doing my job. I work in a pub which is part of a massive company. I'm professional, good at my job and I have won awards for my customer service. But when someone is shouting in your face for something you clearly have no control over, it is hard to 'be the face f the company' and just blandly take it. If there is a problem, I go out of my way to help, stuff that is problematic gets raised at team meetings, we're all professional and care about our work. But I am not paid enough for people to be spectacularly rude and aggressive towards me.

Sod's law is that on the odd occasion I forget to ask a customer if they have a loyalty card they always produce one at the end of the transaction which means I have to do another transaction to put the points on. I've also had customers complaining that they've never been asked if they want to apply for one!

Now, if only I had a pound for every customer who says "I've got too many loyalty cards" I wouldn't need to work at all. FGS I've just asked you if you've got one - I'm not holding you at gunpoint until you sign up for one!

MissBattleaxe. Totally agree. But I'm never rude and I DO feedback fat lot of good it does as I'm still inundated with inane questions. I was in a customer facing role and know how hard it is so I don't show my irritation, not fair on those in the frontline.

At our grocery store, it says on a sign at the till
"If our cashier does not ask you for you points card, you can have a free chocolate bar from the service desk" .

It has happened once so far, DS was very pleased to walk away with an Aero! It also means most customers do not complain about being asked. Rather an efficient system!