AIBU to complain? Humiliated and angry about how I was treated in Waitrose.

[JustSpeakSense]

I visited my local Waitrose cafe this morning, I placed my order at the counter (two breakfasts & two lattes, and a slice of cake) I was going to pay by debit card, the lady serving asks me to enter my card and then she goes off to make lattes. The card machine doesn't register my card going in.

She comes back and says 'oh sorry I didn't set it up right, put your card in again' which I do, nothing happens. She now gets quite annoyed with me and says 'you need to put the card in properly, all the way' I do this (again) and nothing happens, she lets out a massive sigh (I am obviously really dumb in her eyes!)

'Don't you have contactless?' she asks (I don't) 'You'll have to use another card then' she says. 'Or cash' (I don't have another card and I don't have cash on me) 'your card's not working she says' (loudly and rudely - shaking her head at me) everyone in the long queue is now showing interest in the kerfuffle.

I say to her 'there is nothing wrong with my bank card, I use it everywhere I go, in fact I have just used it in this store'

'I'm not disputing that' she snaps at me 'you'll have to go and draw cash and pay that way'

At this point I turned around and walked out the store (I was humiliated at how she spoke to me and fuming) We went down the road to Sainsbury's cafe and had a delicious breakfast (and no problems with card machine)

I was fuming and I want to complain (I have never complained anywhere before) do you think I should complain and who should I contact?

It's not the fact that the machine wouldn't read your card, it's the way that it was implied it was your fault, and the overdramatic sighing, and broadcasting it to the queue...
I've been the person behind the till when someones card doesn't go through and we always blame the machine for 'being faulty' and apologise to the customer for the inconvenience. It's just polite... the same way that if two people bump into each other slightly they both apologise!

I'd complain. Fucking rude of her. I won't have contactless. Too much potential for fraud.

I watched her and she seemed very flustered and to not know how to operate the system

Given this extra information maybe she was new and didn't know of any other way to put the payment through and just knew they wouldn't be allowed to comp the food and got flustered. Were there any other staff members in the vicinity?

It's a fairly regular occurrance when I'm at work that a customer will accidentally put the card in the wrong way, try to pay without realising they're overdrawn, have a transaction put all the way through before they realise they've left their card at home and a variety of other payment problems and while I have to give impeccable service at all times even if this DOES happen when there's a big queue, I know some customer-facing people are a bit more liable to panic despite their best efforts.

I suppose if it is really playing on your mind though you could drop an email telling Waitrose to refresh their staff on training/service.

I'm another who refuses to use contactless even though my card is capable by the way

To be honest, though, the cafes are Waitrose's one duff spot. For some reason they're ALL staffed by the same team of well-meaning faffers, apparently running the place on the Roy Cropper Cafe model, and every order takes forever as Barbara has to check with Barry whether Keith's trained on the panini press, and where's Linda? Linda? We're out of side plates, etc, etc, etc, as the queue stretches back into the vegetable aisle.

Her manner sounds off, but clearly your card wasn't working in her machine

They can enter the card details manually.

That's all she had to do, rather than huff and puff. Sometimes cards don't work. So you enter the number and the person enters their PIN - sometimes it goes really retro and you have to sign. All acceptable and normal.

So you enter the number and the person enters their PIN - sometimes it goes really retro and you have to sign.

FWIW we are actually not allowed to do this at my workplace; it used to be something we could try as a last resort but new regulations or something mean we are no longer allowed to enter customer card details in this way. It might literally just be my workplace that doesn't allow it though, I'm not sure.

I'd complain too. She was unnecessarily rude.

Although some of the replies on this thread show that 'rude' is the new 'normal' soon rude will be the new 'polite and pleasant' .

Old gimmer sigh.

She could have transferred the order to a working machine, called her supervisor to sort it out, apologized for the technical problem etc etc, rather than huff and puff and roll eyes at a customer.

Exactly

I want to complain
Complain then, why ask on here first?

do you think I should complain
I don't think it sounds that much of an issue but obviously you feel differently. I wasn't there to here her tone. Sighing could be a frustration at the machine rather than you.
who should I contact?
Waitrose, if you can start a thread on here surely you can google them.

The Waitrose where I went the other day was painfully slow, the queue was huge, and each individual waitress was doing every single thing themselves, so two cups of tea and cake seemed to take about 5 minutes apiece. I only wanted a cup of tea, it was nearly 25 minutes for this!

Op if you had just gone and found manager or someone else there they probably would have just given you your breakfast for free!! They wouldn't tolerate such rudeness, shame you didn't there and then, could have done much more than Moaning on mn!!

Your second post suggests she may have been new, but that's no excuse for the way she spoke to you.

If people don't complain, she'll probably not get any support and might well end up really snapping and losing her job because of it.

So if the card doesn't work the person has to go without their item if they don't have another card?

What happens if the second card doesn't work?

I don't mean declined, I mean if the machine doesn't read it? I understand you wouldn't' accept a declined card.

That was to Puddington by the way, thread has moved on.

I wasn't with my DP I was with my teenage DD who had just had an orthodontist appointment, I wanted her fed before returning her to school as she was starving and would miss lunch at school.

We needed to eat and leave pretty promptly so she didn't miss her next lesson.

This probably also contributed to me not hanging around to sort this out in the store.

As I said we popped into Sainsbury's cafe where we were served promptly with no problems.

So if the card doesn't work the person has to go without their item if they don't have another card?

Granted it has never happened (to me personally) that the customer did not have a second card or cash on them if the machine refused to read the first card, but I'd have to assume so given that our managers have been told to really hammer home that we're not allowed to enter the details manually. Which I know sounds ridiculous but this is actually a famous "big box" retailer (not the first of their policies I find a bit inconvenient tbh!)

Do complain. Shops like to know whether their staff are dealing with customers in a polite manner or not. If staff rudeness has cost them a sale they will want to know, and if she is a repeat offender in this area they will be able to deal with her or train her accordingly

I can't believe anyone is excusing her rudeness. I agree that lovely Waitrose seems to struggle getting good service going in their cafes. At Christmas I had done a massive shop of over £1000 I was catering for 20 people over several days. We were exhausted. My DH was loading the car while I was queuing for coffees using our mywaitrose cards which give you a free coffee. The server said who is the other coffee for and I explained that my husband was loading the car. She wouldn't serve me a second coffee unless she could physically see the second person as if I was fraudulently trying to get a second free coffee for myself ie crime of the century. I had a meltdown and actually released some pre Christmas pent up rage!

But to be honest I'm not a complainer, I never have complained

Complainers are probably more useful , as they highlight areas in service or products that need improvement.

I'm just a walker, I'm not at all assertive, I just take my business elsewhere. Which doesn't benefit me or the store.

If it's any consolation I never assume someone has no funds in their account if it happens in a queue I am in. I always assume it must be the card reader, if I am even taking notice at all and my Interested In Which Cake Face is mistaken for a Gives A Shit If Person In Front Of Me Has Run Out Of Money.

Really not worth the drama. She was rude and probably new and flustered but why didn't you just use another card or complain there and then? Bit late now.

Obviously you weren't so humiliated that it ruined your appetite.

I'm sorry you're having such a bad day yourself, but is there any need to be so rude to a stranger on the internet? Or is it easy because you can hide behind your screen?

OP I can see how you felt judged and upset. Her delivery was totally wrong. YANBU.