Rude customers!!

[skimask]

I'm just wondering if any of you have ever been unnecessarily rude to a staff member in a shop or if you've intentionally loudly complained about a price or if you've been the staff member in a situation like that?

I work at a charity shop as an assistant manager and the amount of rude customers we have/customers asking for money off/people saying we're a rip off is crazy!!

Also people coming in 5mins before close and then ignoring us when we say we're closing, is my town just full of rude people or are there people everyone that are so ignorant and rude!!!!!

Rant over lmao

Working in a well known upmarket supermarket honestly made me lose my faith in people.

Oh and the customers who ask if they can have money off for paying in cash, or come to an “arrangement” cos they use our store quite often... the price is the price!
I buy my groceries from Asda every week but I wouldn’t expect them to do me a deal 😂

I'm never rude to shop assistants and in fact have stood up for one or two before.

One was a really rude lady in Sainsbury's, asked an assistant to slice a loaf of bread. She'd got her coat on over her uniform and was clearly on her way home. She very politely asked the lady to ask at the counter, the lady went crazy and insisted the store manager was called. He came and her version of events was so wrong.... I stepped in and said I was an independent bystander and the customer was rude and arrogant the assistant was perfectly polite.

I've had a few tantrums with self service tills, does that count?

@TroysMammy yeah it dies
Don't use them if you can't cope with the reality of how they work.

Does

The public can be harsh.

A lot of people believe the saying "Squeaky wheel gets the oil" so you get chancers who shout and think if they intimidate you, the manager will pop up and give them something at a discount or for free.

BuildBuildings I do know how they work but when they malfunction it's out of my control.

@Calltheguards my customers wish that would work, if something comes to the till without a price and they've obviously removed it me and my manager will always add a couple of quid on top of what it was! That way they can't say 'oh but it was £5 before not £7' and they're less likely to do it again!

Some charity shops do take the piss though, I found a pretty little beaded bag in one with a tag attached saying 'Vintage - £8'. I opened it to examine the interior for mildew, etc and found a MATALAN label stitched inside

You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat staff in shops and restaurants.

I'm never rude like that. I'm lovely!

Yes lots of times I've come across rude customers specially the days I use to work in retail they are the worse ones but one memory that always sticks with me and to this day still is when I once work in Starbucks I remember making a coffee and the customer this woman was horrible I had to smile and nod whilst thinking I just wanted to Chuck the coffee over her head the member of staff that served her at the time mustn't have smiled enough to her liking and she bitched and moaned to me and said "considering it's people like me who pay your wages you'd think to smile more and be politer" she was so arrogant just not a nice person at all I just had to smile and nod but I've always hated it in retail the two says a customer always comes out with I pay your wages and the customer is always right

I believe everyone should spend a year working in customer service like national service

Yes excellent idea that!

Done my time customer facting but it was some years ago not and In those days people were a lot more polite. However in a shop or other reail place I see no reason not to be polite ot he staff that includes waitig staff etc.

Did the charity shop thing many years ago a simple innocent pair of hi-fi speakers they were asking 40 quid for them I said i'll give you a hundred the manager said I couldnt take that money but i picked them up and left the ton behind me.

They were a very good investmet there now going on ebay for aound a grand:)

Or more!

If anyone out there has a pair I'd like another pair but they are getting a tad pricy now;!

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROGERS-LS3-5a-Monitor-Speakers-15-ohms/153501291675?hash=item23bd63d49b:g:HOAAAOSwvVVc6GXp

I used to see people trying to swap out price labels (as if we couldn't tell, take security tag off, return items that had clearly been used or worn and one of the best ones was of a woman who looked like she was wearing a short skirt but grabbed an item of clothing, stuffed it between her legs, pulled down the hem of her skirt (had been niftily hiked up) and then she slowly shuffled out of the shop.

I sold clothes. The amount of "it's the last top, do I get money off" was unbelievable. Err no, because it's not a perishable and we'll get more from the stock room, thanks for flagging up that we need to replen!

One of my old managers was fired for being a bit dodgy & she'd been a bit too nice about giving people "just because" discounts, too. When she left we toughened right up & explained why, most customers were fine. One woman ALWAYS asked for the discount she used to get from this manager. For THREE YEARS after this lady got fired. We explained we couldn't do it & shouldn't have done it anyway and she always nodded but kept asking. I got pulled off my break once to shut her up because she wouldn't take no for an answer off my staff member. Telling her someone lost their job over it stopped her for a few months but not forever. We had to warn new staffers as she'd always mention her "lovely regular discount".

Same lady also once popped her head round her fitting room curtain to talk to the fitting room girl but spotted me first as I walked past on my way to the staff room on my lunch break, wearing a huge coat, boots I couldn't wear on the shop floor, scarf, gloves and carrying my huge bag & a hot chocolate from Cafe Nero. Clearly off duty. She thrust a top in my face for me to catch and asked me to get her another size. She looked amazed when I pointed out I wasn't working at that moment and would call for someone else.

Agree OP I have worked in customer service for over 10 years. I think people think the louder they shout the more they will get their way. What has upset me in the past is how they can make it personal. In my job there are a lot of rules/regulations. Afew times over the years I have had a complaints over something I could do nothing about. But instead of customer complaining about our policies they just state how unhelpful etc I was.

I work in care. Good lord carers get some abuse. Or else just looked through like they are not even human beings.
It's usually any present relatives that are terrible for this not the person we care for themselves....
I politely asked a mans relative where his outside bin was last night (so I could dispose of his Dads urine soaked incopad). I got a 5 minute diatribe of 'how thick are you? Why do you not know where the bin is?'
We have 70 service users I see on only a semi regular basis as I'm usually office based. Occasionally I forget where the outside bins are in each house. Im a care manager not the memory man 🤷🏽‍♀️
His bin was in his back garden, down the path and had recently been moved to be put in his shed (according to my colleague). So I couldn't possibly have known where it was anyway
Outwardly I remain polite and professional. Inside I'm screaming 'oh do fuck offski'

I've worked in retail. Now I'm a GP receptionist.

I've never had an truly shocking customer/patient. I've had some that lay on the thick emotional blackmail. Some of my colleagues have been called "Cunts" I know people who've been threatened with violence/rape.

I was in the cinema on wednesday. Some woman called the guy at the door of all the screens "Jobsworth" all because the cleaning crew were still cleaning up the screen we were due to go in.

Local shop, store manager ask lady to leave bike outside in the next visit and she kept arguing with him why she couldnt.

Then just today, some woman called a Lidl store manager a "Racist" for asking the kids not to ride scooters down the aisles. They were escorted out in the end.

Colleague was ranted at because the patient was going on holiday and couldnt get contraception without a review even though she had months to book it.

The entitement of people is awful. They think the would owes them,

If you work customer facing you tend to be more considerate but I have met many a rude customer in my time .... sometimes I get it’s a bad situation they are in / special circumstances but some people just are not nice at all

When I was 17 and working on a till a man was so rude to me and then said the customer is always right with a dickhead smirk. I looked at him and said what, even when they are wrong? Later I was taken to the office and "told off." Had to be seen to be discipline me but she was totally in agreement with me as he was a twat.

What I don't like is when another shop worker says t9 their colleague, "sorry, but can you serve this customer?" Last time it happened I asked the speaker if she'd prefer me to shop elsewhere as I thought staff were there to sell goods. She looked very confused.

Another shop and the staff on the till was complaining about a customer. I'd heard the whole conversation and he had no reason to slag her off. I suggested he not do that in front of other customers and walked out. Not been in since. Custom lost. I've also pulled up a teenager for complaining about a customer who phoned in. I used to work for that firm but not that branch but I'd have done it anyway. It's not on.

I used to work in a nightclub. It was hideous and if I hadn't been a poor student I would have walked out on the first shift. In fact my first shift was probably the worst. I had not recieved any training on how to mix drinks, where everything was kept, how to log in and work the till! Etc. Well, I was put on the busiest bar (it was a nightclub with multiple rooms). First order on a busy Saturday and I have no idea what I am doing and as a result I was slow to make the drinks. The customer was horrible. Treated me like a silly child that couldn't even mix a drink properly. Completely spoke down to me while ranting to his friends about how incompetent I was. I wanted to cry.
It just got worse from there. On more than one occasion I had men lean over the bar and kiss me. I had no idea it was coming and security were never in the vicinity. Then there was the man who when I refused to give him my number told me he would be waiting outside for me at the end of my shift. I walked home that night looking over my shoulder until I got through the front door.
I have had rude customers since while working retail jobs but nothing as bad as dealing with drunk people. People working behind the bar have my utmost respect.

I used to work in a bookshop. I was once called "dozy" and "complacent because you work in a bookshop", merely because I'd been busy and not at the till ready to serve her when she wanted to pay. I wish I'd refused to serve her but I meekly listened to all she had to say while ringing up her purchases.

I've never forgotten it but I'll bet she has.

"What I don't like is when another shop worker says t9 their colleague, "sorry, but can you serve this customer?" Last time it happened I asked the speaker if she'd prefer me to shop elsewhere as I thought staff were there to sell goods. She looked very confused. "

Well normally if I ask a colleague to serve someone for me there's a reason why I can't do it myself. I might be in the middle of doing something, going for a break, checking a till... so I'd probably look a bit confused as well as to why you'd feel the need to take an attitude about it.

I didn't have an attitude about it and the assistant who was asked to serve wasn't doing anything time vital . Nor was the other.

So a snarky comment like "would you rather I took my business elsewhere because I thought shop staff were here to serve" or whatever it was you said isn't getting an attitude? Lol you're the kind of person this thread is talking about.

Though I'm curious as to how do DO know that they weren't doing anything that you deem to be "time vital".