...to wonder why some people treat sales assistants badly?

[98percentchocolate]

I've worked in retail for about 10 years off and on (through uni) and now work a couple of hours a week whilst I'm a SAHM.

I'm always polite and friendly, and most people are lovely, but occasionally I have some...memorable... Moments.

This week somebody threw something at my face because they tried to queue jump and I wouldn't serve them first. I was very nice about it and very apologetic but still had something thrown at me.

I've also been called "stupid" and "thick" (I'm really not), have had people refuse to speak to me AT ALL (happens very often actually), snatching, snapping...

I'm not alone either, it happens very often. I've seen people physically assault my colleagues before over the smallest things.

So really, I'm just wondering what sparks it? I'm sure nobody will actually admit to being somebody that would throw something at a sales assistant, but I'm just really interested in the psychology behind it.

What is it about pooing? I have heard of people pooing in changing rooms, in beds,in places other than the toilet.

Fay DH was familiar with people pooing in changing rooms and once closing the Knightsbridge shop while a group of Arabs had a party with cocaine and hookers in the changing rooms. They were otherwise well-behaved and generous with tips to the serving staff.

A friend worked in a tanning salon and was often there alone. Some men would shit and spray semen in the booths knowing that a lone woman would find it. She said you could never tell who'd do it. It really freaked her out about working there especially on winter afternoons when it got dark early and her shop was lit up with her sitting in the window.

I used to be overly nice to rude customers,it really unnerved them.I love when customers jump in to defend you as usually the trouble makers won't open their gob to them.

I remember once I must have been 6 or 7 months pregnant and I got an arsehole giving it loads about a cooked chicken.So up I hauled myself off the seat and his face when he realisd how pregnant I was and he was telling me it didn't matter.But I went anyway,that was the best 20 minute break I ever had.

In the 80s I was a cleaner during 6th form and on holiday from Uni, at a local college teaching foreigners English. That was a real education in how domestic staff get treated.

A lot of the young students in particular were from wealthy backgrounds in countries where a lot of people were dirt poor. Clearly at home they had maids whom they could treat however they wanted.

Being told to flush the toilet for people, ordered to pick their bogeys out of the bed linen and their used tampons off the floor, talked about disparagingly as though we were deaf, people getting a kick out of walking across a floor you were cleaning so you'd have to start again. Having to work in twos in the men's rooms because of the sexual harassment. It was endless.

Fortunately the Obergruppenfuhrer of the cleaners was an absolutely terrifying woman who would march up to the main office to complain when one of the team was badly treated. For the students the experience of being called out of class to apologise apologise! to a cleaner was absolutely shaming for them, so they would leave us alone after that.

We would just get one lot of students taught not to be vile when the course would finish, they would leave, and a new lot would arrive so we had to start all over again.

Contrast with the Chinese students, usually older people doing a course to get their English up to scratch before going on to postgrad courses. They had nothing. And no money. This is the time when Chinese people still wore Mao suits, so they were all dressed the same way, and used the same foul soap. They missed their families desperately and obviously found England very alien, particularly the food. They were incredibly disciplined (rooms immaculate), hard-working, and polite. So when the rich kids left, leaving £100s of stuff in their rooms, a lot of it unused, the cleaners collected it up and doled it out to the delighted Chinese students.

That was one of the nicest parts of the job. That and listening to the Obergruppenfuhrer wax lyrical about her absolute idol, Rod Stewart.

Just popped back to this thread!

Dhs cousin used to work in Primark, boy has she got some stories (sex in the fitting rooms, and poo left in there...)

the worst was working the lottery machine

endless 'oh you never know' ...'it might be me' ...'If I win I;ll share it with you' and having to smile like it was new every time

I quiet liked helping people and chatting but I hated the rude bastards who spoke to you like crap

The other night I had some drunk guy use the customer toilet, walk out and shout to his friend 'mate I just threw up everywhere' then laugh and walk out, went to inspect it and he had indeed thrown up all over, and I mean ALL over the bathroom also left a line of cocain on the soap dispenser..... What a charming lad. Guess who was the lucky person who had to clean it up... Me.

I used to refuse to serve anyone on a mobile phone.Its just the height of rudeness.
They would stand there and wonder why their shopping wasn't been scanned

Most of the them hung up and said sorry.One or 2 didn't so I didn't scan their shopping.

I worked in retail a bit when I was a student. When I was working in a cinema I was spat at for refusing to let a child to see an adult film. Luckily there was glass between me and the spitter. Wasn't pleasant cleaning it up though.
I regularly got abuse for refusing to let underage people into adult films. One that sticks in my mind was a Dad taking his daughter to see a 12 film. I asked "How old is your daughter?", "10" he replied. Of course I couldn't sell him a ticket, cue lots of moaning about our "companies policy." I told him it's the law!
I also had a job selling ice cream from a van one summer. I found the rudest people in that job were Mums with kids, it was like they were trying to show their kids what a loser I was for having a service sector job. At that point I had graduated and was earning some money before starting a PGCE, I could be teaching their kids in just over a year!
I firmly believe everyone should work in these kinds of jobs when they are young, it makes you a more balanced person imo.

company's not companies! Grammar fail

I was in a shop today and the man in front told the assistant that her name was spelt wrong on her badge (her badge read 'Mellissah'). She said 'no, that's how I spell it' and he tutted and said 'how ridiculous!'

Why did it matter to him?! I felt really bad for her and bought two packets of her promotional polos to try and make her happier

I had so much shit when I worked in shops. People calling me stupid, telling me I was a liar because I couldn't sell an incomplete 3 pack of knickers, creepy men hitting on me.

Although when I worked at TK Maxx as a teen, we used to get an extra pound in our pay packet for every 'switched sticker' (those little red clearance stickers) we found. People would peel off a £2 one on a plant pot and put it on an expensive handbag. The best days were the ones where you happened to serve someone with a trolley of switched stickers. I would get £25 for one transaction, and the satisfaction of seeing the would be fraudster get more and more embarrassed as I pointed out each wrong item (I would always insist on scanning everything)!

Having done 20 years in the service sector between retail and catering i experienced a First last week- a customer who was rude to me the week previously (although I didn't think she was that bad considering some I've come across) came back into store and specifically sought Mr out.

She apologised for being so rude the week before, realised when she got home how awful she had been and couldn't bare to think of me being upset and spoiling my evening. I was astounded but it made a really nice and welcome change.

Not seen any poo in a fitting room, or come across shagging but I did once find a half eaten Burger King Whopper burger chucked on the floor, and most bizarrely a jar of pickled beetroot smashed and spilled everywhere.

I worked my ways through London's finest 5* hotels while at uni. Most guests were okay, some were lovely and a few will remain forever etched in my memory as some of the vilest specimens the species has to offer.

Memorable examples include the guy who called my boss an 'irredeemable arsehole and the scum of the earth' for refusing him a free upgrade. He CC'd in the whole world. We also had the pooers, the peeing on the carpet types, tons of sexual harassers and at least one rapist. Plus countless plain rude ones.

I used to get my revenge sometimes by loudly reading out the bills of particularly horrible people on checkout: [cue loud cheerful voice] and then we have a total of 99 pounds for the movies 'Anal MILFs', 'Customs and Sexcise', ... Will this be alright, Mr Jones?

Mean but always felt very good!

I once had a customer try to use £200 worth of fake notes near christmas at my till. When I called my manager who would have called the police, the man called me a stupid c**t and tried to assult me.

Also had a woman try to argue with me and be aggressive when I told her she could not use healthy start vouchers for milkshake

Another member of the team was called racist names.

I don't work in retail any more but my partner does(we met at work) he has been threatened, got in fights with shoplifters, been spoken to like crap all sorts. Funniest one was when someone came in and got annoyed when my oh told them no turkeys were in stock... This was an hour before the store closed on christmas eve

I am now overly polite to sales assistants!

We had a poo incident in the cleaning job I posted about earlier. In one of the showers, a colleague found a carrier bag of huge turds and a pair of poo-smeared rubber gloves. We laughed ourselves stupid thinking up explanations for that scenario.

sparkle101 that's really nice that the customer came back and apologised to you. She must have been having a bad day.

I feel like I need to confess this now. Once I had a lovely customer ask if something was in stock and I went to check the stock room. I bumped into a colleague who i'd not seen for ages, ended up having a bit of a chat and completely forgot I was supposed to be looking for something until I walked out and saw the man waiting. I was so embarrassed, I apologised went back in to look for it and then completely forgot whg I'd gone back in. I don't know what was wrong with me that day . How he refrained from losing his temper with me when I came out a second time having forgotten about him, I won't know. Third time in the stock room and no we didn't have the product.

Worked in retail 12 years. When i started out customers were lovely.
Last 8 years or so things have changed!
I have been sworn at, ( mainly by elderly customers for not being able to accept loyalty vouchers) had things thrown at me, threatened, told im stupid etc
Manager couldn't care less just didn't want the hassle even when customers were complaining that staff wouldn't let them use other peoples credit cards, accept out of date vouchers.
I used to love the job but now i would never go back. I can't understand how people can be so rude and assume you're only working there because you're too thick to get a shop elsewhere ( no i just really enjoyed my job!).
Did have a few nice customers who would stick up for you and genuinely cared about you, but they were far outweighed by the number of horrible people.
I will stick up for other staff in places if people are being really unreasonable to them now!

I've been threatened - more than once.
I've been physically assaulted - more than once.
I've been verbally assaulted - more times than I care to count.
I've had to clean shit, sanitary products and pee from changing rooms.
I've been told I must be stupid because I worked in retail. It's amazing if you get through a day without being shouted at.

I'm so glad that after ten years in retail management I've left and now work in a completely different type of job - where the people I deal with are happy!

I've also been followed home and threatened when I've been out socialising.

I was rude to a shop assistant who I thought was hurling the shopping through really fast and laughing at me as I struggled to keep up with bagging. I might have been wrong, i wasn't well in the head at the time. She gave me plenty back though! She said she wasn't laughing at me, she was just a cheerful person. I avoided her shift for months after that!

I used to work for argos. I was managing the collection point on Christmas eve and there were absolutely no carrier bags available (supply wasn't delivered). I asked the manager to explain at the till there were no bags but they refused to. The amount of abuse we suffered when they collected their items and couldn't carry it home was unbelievable. I would never work in retail again, not in a million years!

I don't work in retail but I was shopping with a friend. She was in the fitting room trying in bras and I was waiting in the shop just looking around. If heard a woman's vouce saying excuse me but hadn't thought to look behind me. This voice got more and more irate until I eventually turned round. I was greeted by a very angry looking woman clutching a bra. She thrust it towards me and said " are you going to wait on me or do I have to complain to a manager?"
So I said you can complain to who the chuff you like love cos I don't work here!

When I worked in retail, the one thing worse than the rude customers was definitely the managers who didn't back you up for just enforcing the policy. If it's a rule then you should be supported by management, not them come and ring it through the till for an easy life as it is really undermining.

Sadly management that do that aren't limited to retail.

It was much better when I worked as a doorman (person for the equal opps types) as if someone was rude I just ejected them. If they continued to be rude they got restrained and if they still didn't give up they got the police.

I work in customer services for a well known retailer.

Over the phone I've been called a bitch, thick, told to f-off, and even called a c**t!

One customer said she hoped my mother dropped dead and that I must have been bullied at school.

I just stay silent, then say I'm sorry they feel that way and terminate the call!

They're the ones that are thick not me as they clearly can't communicate properly.