To think this was awful customer service in M&S?

[Livingtothefull]

So I was in a large branch of M&S recently…..this was a weekday evening and the store was very quiet, i.e. not a busy Saturday afternoon.

There were a couple of people in front of me queuing to pay, and only one cashier although 4 or 5 empty cash tills. The person at the front was buying a lot of stuff which all had to be paid for & packaged by the cashier on his own. I didn't time my wait but it was a LONG time to have to wait when the store was quiet, maybe roughly 10-15 mins.

While I was still waiting a man queued behind me, he was disabled & on crutches, obviously struggling with these & holding his shopping basket. I offered to let him go in front of me. The cashier didn't make any reaction, didn't call or ring for help etc. I looked around for staff to ask to help but none nearby.

When I finally got to the front I complained to the cashier, not unpleasantly just said 'I know it's not your fault but that was an unreasonable time to wait to be served, you need to let your manager know that you need help'. He just shrugged & looked sulky. Afterwards I complained to a manager, I also mentioned the disabled man because I think that the cashier should have had better training especially in supporting disabled customers and should have known it was appropriate to ask for help.

AIBU to expect this and that staff of a company of the calibre of M&S should be much more customer focused and disability aware? The manager I complained to was very apologetic but I am not convinced it will translate into doing anything differently.

Our local M&S is a small one and the only assistants there are, are at the tills. There's never anyone to ask for help on the shop floor. Apart from once, there was a man in a suit and a M&S badge, talking on a phone as he wandered around, for ages. Quite often, I get those feedback thingies with the receipt and fill them in, although the £200 is yet to materialise. I wonder whether they actually take any notice of the comments. The only hing they seem to have done lately is to change the carrier bags and the uniform (again.)

I think they've lost their way and their customer service has dropped.

Were there no self service check outs? I'm not a fan of them but faced with either a 15 minute wait or self service I would have opted for self service. Also the man with crutches would have got more help there as they always have someone (to check you do actually pay)

Vote with your feet and go else where to shop, M&S have been doing mediocrity for years now due to a lot of factors - from a store that used to in the 70s give wonderful service and sell quality products

I find it hard to get worked up about waiting times in shops. Yeah, it's inconvenient, but if waiting 10-15 mins in a queue is the worst thing to happen to you in a day, you're doing ok.

The man on crutches - well yes, that's unfortunate. I wonder why he was doing his shopping on his own/not using a wheelchair provided by the store/using a trolley for his purchases etc. I'm not blaming him, because I know how easy it is to go into a shop for one thing and end up with armfuls of items, but I assume he had a voice and could have asked for help.

Living My point was that the combination of a disabled customer waiting and someone who was taking an unusually long time to be served is unlikely.

Of course there are lots of disabled people, and when we add hidden disabilities into the mix then I am sure it is not uncommon at all.

No two ways about it, M&S have cut down on staff and it's painfully obvious. There is always a shortage of staff on the tills at our large local store and shop floor staff? Forget it. Anyone remember the days when the clothing was hung on the rails in order of size ? Now it's a jumble and don't get me started on stock levels. Fine if you want a size 6 or 20 in extra short.

I think all the big stores are spending too much on fancy Christmas advertisements ( no, I don't buy into this crazy nonsense) and need to look hard at the real experience of the shoppers who do have choices and can go elsewhere very easily.

YANBU

I think the point you need to make if you complain further is that for you as an able bodied person, a wait of 10 minutes was not good enough but for the man behind you on crutches it was completely unacceptable.

Sounds like some staff training is needed. An alert asst ought to see the man on crutches and ring for help.

I used to find the staff in Marble Arch incredibly rude and disinterested. Talk about avoiding eye contact or engagement. Then they seemed to go OTT and ask how you were etc when all you wanted was for them to take your bloody money with a smile and a 'thank you'.

YANBU I was only thinking the other day that of late there dose not appear to be as many staff in M&S when you need them. This is especially true on collections and returns. The poor staff are like headless chickens running between both areas.

I can assure you I am not 'worked up' backwardpossum and just because I post about this doesn't mean there are no other problems in my life. Plenty of posters here write about everyday events which they think are worth discussing/commenting on, it is not all about the big stuff.

And it is not always that easy for a disabled person to speak up (depends on the nature/level of disability, but some disabilities make that hard) or to find the store wheelchair (assuming there is one & it is not being used) or to push a trolley (not sure how he could do that with crutches!).

Here we had a customer who was clearly struggling and should have been offered help hence my post. I was btw MUCH more concerned about him than me on this occasion.

*does

YANBU! As a former retail monkey (and eventual manager) myself, it really grinds my gears when this happens - even when understaffed, there are ways of dealing with it that can help to placate the queue.
My rule of thumb was always that if you realise your next customer is going to take you more than a minute or two to serve (ie, they want to refund/exchange something or have just bought a shedload of stuff) then you ring/call for help. Even if there are only one or two people waiting behind them, they soon build up.
Even if there isn't another member of staff to help, people in the queue will appreciate you acknowledging the situation, even if all you can do is apologise to them collectively as they were waiting. I used to do this in a cheery manner and try and lighten the moment and this seemed to really help diffuse people, who would then sympathise about the short-staffedness with me when I got to actually serve them. And no-one got mad!

The absolute worst thing a cashier can do in this situation is blindly ignore the queue and plod along with their current customer, hoping that another staff member will just appear out of nowhere without being summoned. And while we're at it, staff members out on the shop floor doing ticketing or whatever need to remember to check a queue hasn't built up every few minutes or so (my local Co-Op, I'm looking at YOU.)

in the good old days all it took was a crying child to have staff running to open more tills (not that i ever asked my child to scream her head off at the local wilkinsons and bought her sweeties for doing it so we could get home faster ) but these days we are told well if you don't like it fuck off elsewhere imagine their surprise when we actually do

I was about to say M&S Definietly have christmas temps working. We have some very nice but rather clueless ones in our local store.

I was a bit hacked off last weekend by a non temp who at customer service when I took back a seriously faulty bra which had left me with a 12" deep scratch down my arm tried insisting I would have to pay the delivery charge for a new one as they didn't have my size in stock.

I pointed out not only did I have the large scratch, I'd driven into town, paid £4 car parking and they were suggesting I had to pay a further £4 delivery charge. There was a bit of huffing and then the lady rang a manager for permission and told me she didn't think I'd get free delivery. Manager said yes. Woman smiled at me and said "I knew he would say yes, but I have to ring". Wtf! Polar opposite to what she had said ten seconds earlier.

Exactly Creak, I think that the cashier should have rung for help/done something to acknowledge that a queue was building up. Just being ignored & expected to wait is what I found so annoying. There were about 5 people in the queue, we were queuing some distance away so I would have had to shout over to get his attention which I felt embarrassed about doing.

Tbf I think he was out of his depth & not sure how to handle it, I don't think he meant to be rude. But that is a training issue.

Living - don't get me wrong, I do think it's poor customer service, and obviously the right thing for the cashier to do would have been to ring the bell to alert the other staff that he needed help. I should have said that in my post. I do, however, think that stressing about having to wait 10 mins to be served is a bit pointless - note, I'm not saying you were stressed or worked up about it, but people do get that way. I worked in retail and customers sometimes got quite angry at having to wait just a couple of minutes to be served. I always cringe when a cashier says "sorry about your wait" when I'm being served - it's really not that big a deal to have to wait to be served.

Regarding the man on crutches, it's not clear in your posts how disabled he is. It's surely easier to use a trolley with crutches than carry a basket - hence why I mentioned the trolley. I've been on crutches and when I used the trolley, I chucked them into the trolley and leaned on the handle of the trolley for support. Obviously, not everyone with a disability would manage this, but considering he was carrying a basket while being on crutches, this would probably have been a better option for him.

I just want to emphasise again that I don't think YABU.

Thanks for your post backwardpossum which I appreciate, and OK point taken that in the scheme of things waiting 10 minutes is not something to get too stressed about. But it is really irritating and feels disrespectful, as though M&S don't value their customers' time.

I have worked in customer service myself and I know that customers frequently take out their frustrations on the staff…I think I was very careful not to give the busy cashier a hard time, and complained to management instead.

I presume the man with crutches had his own reasons for using a basket rather than a trolley, and he was clearly struggling & should have been offered help. I could declare a personal interest here as I have a DS in a wheelchair, and I know that shopping can be challenging and stressful in ways that are hard to understand…..just a little consideration and awareness from staff can make a huge difference. This is probably at the bottom of why I was so affected by this.

if waiting 10-15 mins in a queue is the worst thing to happen to you in a day, you're doing ok.
This would cause dd2 serious pain.

for Dawn 's DD

I don't think there's a rule that you can only post on here if the subject of your post is the worst thing that happened to you that day

Love M&S products but their customer service is frequently poor in my experience. They never seems to be any sense of urgency or eagerness to please.

If I had had DS waiting with me on that occasion Dawndonnaagain it would have been a huge challenge. I have posted elsewhere about what happens when DS has a meltdown….very upsetting for everyone in the vicinity. I am sorry a wait like that would have caused your DD pain.

I think 10-15 mins is a huge length of time to wait anywhere esp a store of the calibre of M&S at non peak time. No it is not the worst thing that can happen but it is seriously annoying and for a few, downright distressing.

Interesting to see that a few people have mentioned the coop as being bad with queues. My local coop is amazingly on the ball and every single cashier is quick to call others for help (we go in a lot despite the food being crap ). Can't fault them for customer service though

I don't think I ever said the OP couldn't post about it, fast. Indeed, the post I made after Living's reply surely clarified that I actually agreed it was poor customer service.

Dawn would you be with your dd2? I have no idea how old she is/her condition. Would you make her stand for that length of time for the sake of buying something in a shop? If you were standing with her for 10-15 mins in a queue, surely you'd speak out for her or help her?

Thanks for your reply, OP, I appreciate it.

Haven't read the whole thread

But I've really noticed the shite staff levels in all retail of late. I don't shop in Boots anymore as they have no staff and the queues are terrible, at lunchtime for a sandwich especially but at all other times as well.

Add John L to the list as well.

It's really been bugging me lately and actually driving me to online shopping more and more

My mum returned a faulty cardy to M&S last week. The seam came apart.
She took an identical cardy to the till to swap. The cashier said no, can't do that so mum said why on earth not? A manager was called who immediately exchanged the garment.

Training has also gone down the pan.
There's a generation of shoppers who expect the service (the manager gave) in M&S. Poorly trained staff is letting them down