To have wanted to throttle this shop assistant?

[hyperhypermum]

DD & I went to the toy department of a local department store to look for a gift for her cousin. We'd been there a couple of minutes and were happily browsing the shelves of possible gifts when an assistant came up & asked if we needed any help.

Me : No, thank you very much.
Her What are you looking for?
Me: A gift for my niece.
Her: How old is she?
Me: 8
Her: (holding up something quite unsuitable). What about this?
Me/DD: Er, no.
Her: What does she like doing?
Me: Lots of things, we'll know the right thing when we see it.
Her: Well, what about this? Or this? (following us and holding up more things that were not particularly enthralling)
Me: (a bit curt, but polite). Look, I think it's best if we just look ourselves.

We then moved swiftly to another aisle. She followed from a distance and continued to hover. It made me feel really uncomfortable. Thankfully, some young girls came along who seemed more grateful for her "help"so we were able to finish our shopping in peace.

I'm all for a bit of customer service and get that she was probably told to actively help customers and generate sales, but fgs?!? I think if she'd persisted any more I might have exploded!

kali luckily I don't work in retail anymore- I'm now trusted to wield a needle! People are much nicer to me now

MrsTrentReznor unfortunately i don't think it is.
You wouldn't believe the things i've had said to me.
Oaps have actually got in my face and swore at me
You'd be suprised how angry some people cAn be when management change the rules on coupons! ( once again it's the workers who bear the brunt of it!)

YABU
One of the worst things about being in retail on the shop floor is being treated like shit by both management and customers. Some people genuinely don't get that if a member of staff doesn't follow the rules them they will eventually get the sack - then what? They have to claim benefits until they find a new job and get shit for that as well. It usually makes staff feel really uncomfortable to do it because they know that the majority of customers don't like it either but they don't get that choice.
Oh, and when did work in retail I had some arseholes come in who thought they were better than me but not one was stupid enough/had the balls to say 'stand in a corner and wait' to any of us. That's utter bs if ever I heard it!

Thank you for your replies - glad it's not just me! Although I thought it was likely that she was required to be persistent by management, I was puzzled by her apparent lack of self awareness when I'd made it clear several times that I didn't need help. From the replies though, it seems possible that she was instructed not to take no for an answer so I feel a bit guilty about wanting to "throttle" her now! I must say, however, that I've never had that problem in that shop before!

I can't understand why shops haven't realised by now that most customers don't take kindly to being pestered. Sure, ask a customer if they need help but, if they say no, step back and be available if they change their mind (agree it's just as bad to need help but no assistant in sight!).

As for the "stand in the corner" comment, I suspect it was more like "No thanks but I'll give you a shout when I do." No-one is that rude surely??

No-one is that rude surely??

Oh they are ... I was once covering a lunch break for my friend as the self scan attendant in my store ... our set up is 14 self scans in two lines of 7 facing each other, with an "entrance" at one end to allow people in from the shop floor and an "exit" at the other end that flows out with other customers coming through the checkouts ... I was at the "entrance" end, helping a customer and just as I finished I heard an "OI, YOU! YOU IN THE YELLOW JACKET, COME HERE!" accompanied by raised finger clicking and pointing in my direction by an elderly gentleman standing at the furthest away machine ... I walked over, expecting him to be having issues with scanning something and the whole (twenty seconds) he had to wait he was sighing, and rolling his eyes about waiting as I tried to get past the other customers in the area. When I get there he just points at the machine and says "Someone left their change" it was less than 20p and mostly coppers so my response was a blank stare before I managed to get out "Oh dear, they'll probably realise they've forgotton it in a minute, I'll keep hold of it over here and if they don't come back it'll go in the charity pot" at this point there were multiple customers who needed my help so I walked over to help them after checking the old guy didn't need anything else.

That guy then went to customer services to lodge a complaint and spent five minutes ranting about how rude I was because I didn't say thank you to him for telling me there was money in the machine and didn't seem grateful for him helping me. Unfortunately my boss happened to be standing at the desk so they overheard it and I got hauled straight into the office for a dressing down and a lecture on good customer service, before he finally let me tell him my side of the story ... as soon as I mentioned the bit where the guy yelled/finger clicked at me my boss' response was "Oh, the customer didn't mention that bit, in that case I kind of understand ... but in future just say thank you anyway for them pointing it out, then they can't complain"