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.

My sister works in M&S and has done for 7 years.

She is constantly complaining about the lack of staff. You are allocated your own section in M&S and if a customer asks you to help them on a section that you dont normally do and a manager catches you in the wrong section then you get into trouble.

Also in the store my sister works in, nobody is allocated on the womens wear which is why in her store you can never find anyone to help on that section.

I think it was too long too and I'd have got impatient but I'm with those who said the assistant probably didnt have it within his control to put more staff on. The evening is usually a quiet shift so it was probably unexpectedly busy. I work in retail too and am an assistant and it's usually ip to the managers where to deploy staff. I often get complaints but all I can do is apologise and pass them on which is frustrating for everyone

I always factor in a queuing time at M&S. The fact that the till staff are trained to say "thank you for waiting" doesn't really wash with me. And I am pissed off that you can never find anyone to help on the shop floor.

Yanbu op.

a company of the calibre of M&S

I think M&S are bad at customer service, they always have queues at the tills in my local food store and usually several staff swanning about instead of opening another till. Last week whilst queuing someone came and opened the basket till next to where I was standing and the person behind me in the queue shoved past me and rushed over to it - they were a staff member doing their own shopping, presumably just going home. I complained.

I had Excellent service yesterday in M&S. In the food bit, a member of staff could see my 3yr old was getting restless in the queue, so let me know another till was opening and guided me there. I put £100 of food on conveyor belt. Another customer ahead was being served, then those immortal (and very loud) words 'Mummy, I need a poo!'. 'Can you wait a few minutes?'. 'No Mummy, I'm desperate'. Massive store, loo miles away, not much time. I apologised and asked if the young lady would mind closing her till (thankfully nobody behind me) as I feared an accident otherwise. She said no problem, told me where the loo was, and off we ran, abandoning everything on the conveyor.
Got back to find everything had been scanned and beautifully packed, with even a little wine box for the wine. She had been able to serve someone else too, hold my transaction somehow, and I was really impressed and relieved (although not as relieved as my son I guess). Well done nice lady at M&S. You were ace.

How much was this person buying? To cause a 15 minute wait it must have been a huge amount!

Also disabilities might need a voice, but also the person may have been okay waiting in a queue, and not want to be part of your argument?

It's the norm to wait at M&S IME. It puts me off going in.

Dungandbother Sun 08-Nov-15 22:06:27
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.

Staff are a retailer's biggest overhead so the easiest thing to cut. I worked for a well known health food shop for several years. They slowly began to cut away staffing levels (every time someone left they wouldn't be replaced). I worked out that we had lost over 100 hours of staffing every week in a few years. Head offices still want the same level of service given but never understand why it often can't be.

This tactic may save businesses money in the short term but long term it will kill them.

10 minutes unacceptable? People in my store regularly wait 30 minutes plus on a weekend.

Maybe the cashier knew there wasn't any other staff that could help, op stated she looked around and couldn't see anyone.
Believe it or not it's not possible to Conjour up staff from no where.
Trust me. Every staff member wants you in and out as quickly as possible, wait times are not deliberate.

I don't bother with any M&S if I'm in a rush, their till queues are notoriously slow ime

Even if he knew there was no-one else on, perhaps he should have rung the bell, then it wouldn't have been his fault - anyone in the queue would blamed the imaginaryextra person hiding in the stock room instead!

When I worked at the co-op there was the 'plus 1' rule - if at least one person is waiting behind the person you are serving you ring the bell. And you apologise for the wait. Not doing either or both of those got you marked down on the mystery shop.

It would seem these days that everybody wants everything five minutes ago. You are pissed because you had to wait 10 to 15 minutes to be served. YABU.

Whoosh, there goes the point, straight over your head.

I've stopped shopping at M&S because it's such a horrible experience, especially in the Food stores. The one near us seems to have no staff at all a lot of the time .

Thank you for complaining.

I've been in this situation before as a disabled person, and it's not always easy to speak up for yourself. After 30 seconds on my feet my pain sky rockets.

I remember one particular time my wheelchair was being serviced, but I needed to pick a package up from Next that I'd ordered for my mum's birthday the next day that couldn't be delivered. I didn't have someone else I could send, so I went in with my walking stick, hoping to grab the parcel and go.

There was one lady in front of me, and a lady with a child behind me. Two people were being served. Time ticked on, and very quickly pain began to build up. There were no wheelchairs (and most shops have manual chairs which are useless to many people), no where near to sit and get help.

Eventually I was doubled over in pain trying hard not to cry, holding on to the queuing post thing. Had it been anything else I of course would have left it, but I really needed this gift. Not one person spoke to me. The lady in front had looked at me (stared) so I knew she wasn't going to offer to let me go. And when some say speak up, how? Shout across the store, "I'm clearly in agony here, let me go in front?" I couldn't do that. And often I'm in too much pain to think.

Then when after sometime it was my turn, the lady behind me tried to push in! I did say no then as I hobbled to the front.

When someone mentioned Dawn's daughter and having someone with her - I seem to recall she's a teenager, but she will grow, and there will be times and and situations where you have to hope for human kindness, or for the staff that are staring at you to realise they could resolve the situation.

I now have a PA/carer so fingers crossed won't have to do that kind of thing again, but you never know.

www.chronicchronicles.co.uk/blog/2012/05/22/my-hatred-of-queues/

This blog post is a good read in terms of disability and queues.

This sort of thing used to make my DM incandescent. Her DF owned a grocers and she'd find it astonishing that there were customers trying to give the shop money for their products and the shop would be making it difficult for them to purchase goods. M&S was always one of her favourite places to rant about.

YANBU, OP.

Vote with your feet. I have walked out of 2 High street retail stores in the last 2 weeks as there was no one available to serve me in the time I was prepared to wait. In one store I wanted to try on a pair of running trainers - not cheap and in the other I wanted to spend £50 on perfume which was locked away behing a glass door. Both strores lost my custom - I came home and ordered on the internet.

Your story about the disabled man, OP, reminded me of an experience I once had in our local Tesco store. Sainsbury had recently opened a store and Tesco had lost quite a lot of trade, having previously had a virtual monopoly and treating its customers with contempt. The staff had obviously had a talk about how they had to be chatty and polite to customers in order to try and win back some of the lost custom. I went in with DD who is in a wheelchair and was standing in a short queue at a till. The supervisor saw us, opened another till and called us across. ANother customer queued behind us at the newly opened till whereupon the supervisor slapped the till closed sign up and abruptly told the other customer to go and queue elsewhere. I was just

Yanbu.

of its busy waiting can't be helped. BUT more and more places these days seem to have staff milling about "helpin" when in fact they should have their arses on a till/service point serving.people.

displays and stuff should he done at quiet times or staff paid to stay longer. one person on a till with lines building up across the floor takes the piss

Yep.
I have walked out of shops before now. I have even left trolleys of stuff.
sadly the proliferation of self scan and zero hours contracts mean that stores operate with the fewest members of staff they can get away with.
I have sent his first hand whist working at a local co op.
They got rid of all the ft staff and supervisors and brought people to work at just the busiest times like Saturday's and Sundays.

They do need people in the floor too. I've seen it get to the point where there's nothing to buy. If the shop is busy, it empties really quickly. They just need to up their staffing in general - especially at this time of the year. Trouble is, it's all about costs and, instead, dole out ridiculous targets that can't be met because of the lack of staff

The customer service at M&S has definitely declined, in common with their clothes. The sales assistant simply should have apologised for the long wait: 'really sorry but I am on my own'; he would have done once.

My local store has an abundance of staff, but they are always very busy doing anything other than serving customers, so I don't shop there now.

John Lewis customer service has really gone downhill too!

I think more than 5 minutes is too long to wait, especially when it's quiet. That's why I go when it's quiet, not to have the pleasure of queuing with ten people in one line as no other till is staffed.

I am sorry GlitterNails that you had such a horrible and painful experience. It is a shame that the staff didn't offer to help you and the other customers didn't just let you go ahead. As you say there are situations when one has to rely on other people's kindness and sense of decency, and too often these are just absent.

I can believe that staff has been cut back to the bone as some posters have said, and that the remaining staff are being pressured/bullied to maintain the same standards of service with fewer resources. If employees feel they are being treated badly it is hardly going to motivate them to treat customers well; the whole thing just feels like organisations trying to maintain their profits on the backs of both their customers and their staff.