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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To rant about a customer complaint?

115 replies

Superlooper · 01/04/2020 18:22

Just need to get this off my chest Angry

Frontline essential staff who are still working, serving customers when the rest of the country (non essential workers) are told to stay home and stay safe and getting paid to do so in many cases. Meanwhile many frontline staff are stressed and worried and have to keep working.

So this customer puts in a complaint that the person who served her didn't serve her with a smile.

AIBU to be mad with this customer?

(I will hopefully calm down before I respond)

OP posts:
Vanhi · 01/04/2020 20:31

YANBU at all (assuming that the staff member was passably polite)

At the moment I don't care if they can't even muster that. Not flat out rude whilst looking stressed and pissed off is fine by me.

Lowprofilename · 01/04/2020 20:33

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ for privacy reasons.

AmelieTaylor · 01/04/2020 20:39

You have to feel fucking joking.

I hope customer service (you?,) give her what for & tell her not to bother coming back!,

mineofuselessinformation · 01/04/2020 20:41

I went to my local pharmacy on Monday (I'd had a good go at chopping the end of my finger off on Sunday and needed more steristrips).
It was a queue system, one in, one out etc.
The staff were serving wearing gloves and masks, and there were barriers to stop you getting too close to the counter.
The poor woman who served me looked terrified.
I couldn't blame her to be honest.
Anyone working with the public at the moment is putting themselves at risk.
It's not difficult to be extra polite to those people who are.
A smile and a 'thank you' don't cost anything and go a long way on times like these.

EveryDayIsADuvetDay · 01/04/2020 20:46

Well if the customer is smiling, maybe having her own mouth open so much will make her more vulnerable. She probably isn't though. Mardy cow.
Invite her to shop elsewhere.

pearpickingporky84 · 01/04/2020 20:49

Some people are just awful!
I used to work in McDonalds as a student. One evening a man came to my DriveThru window to collect his food complaining that the guy who had taken his order hadn’t smiled, we had just been told (literally an hour before) that an 18 year old colleague had died in an accident that day and were all devastated, I told the man as much and I’m his only response was ‘but you managed to smile!’, I wasn’t aware I had but I was obviously on some sort of strange autopilot😡

Anotherdayanothernight · 01/04/2020 20:49

YANBU, I've always treated everyone with respect, and we all should always appreciate key workers, amazing people and the crap they have to put up with is astonishing! Thank you!

Willow2017 · 01/04/2020 21:05

Difference between not smiling and being sullen and rude.
is that just the complaint or is there something about their attitude or other?
If the staff had been sullen and rude op wouldnt have made the thread!
Yes people will complain about the slightest thing as they think shop staff are far beneath them amd just there to be servile. This complaint doesn't surprise me at all.

GabsAlot · 01/04/2020 21:12

silly bitch glad youre not taking this forward some poeple bloody astound me

MitziK · 01/04/2020 21:18

Email, hopefully?

Thank you so much for your kind comments.
We take all feedback from our valued customers seriously
and would assure you that yours will be passed
to the relevant department in due course.

Regards.

  • possibly slightly more subtle?
winterchills · 01/04/2020 21:21

YANBU. Some people 🙄

mrsBtheparker · 01/04/2020 21:30

You're not smiling to avoid opening your mouth and possibly infecting the customer, you have the customer's well-being at heart!

Plan B, You're bloody lucky that I'm here at all!

HavenDilemma · 01/04/2020 21:35

@MitziK That will just make the complainer think that their complaint has been upheld?! Hmm

Inapickleortwo · 01/04/2020 21:41

I used to work in escalated complaints doing the 'multicomplainers'. This definitely is where all the non existent or overly dramatic complaints come to light followed by some compensation requests.

somm · 01/04/2020 21:50

In these horrible times how much difference does a smile or a 'hello' make? I've found myself going more out of the way than ever to appreciate, and show that, to people working in supermarkets, etc (whilst keeping an appropriate distance) :-)

Last week, after queuing around the car park at our local Tesco, my husband and I (when we reached the store) were told 'Only one person per trolley'. It was bloody cold, so why weren't they telling people this at the end of the queue, ie as you reach the car park (just put a sign up), rather than being told by a bouncer, as you reach the door? I accepted this, smiled (grudgingly), and left my husband to interpret the shopping list.

The next day I went to the shop to get what he hadn't interpreted. Queued again, everything fine, everyone complying, no frayed tempers. However, when I was at the till (with only a few things), the young girl, with her very sullen expression, and her brief use of words, made me feel like an idiot and a nuisance. I'm of an age when you know young people may look down as you as being a waste of time. I was using contactless payment for the first time and, as someone who has anxiety problems, her scowling face made me very flustered.

I realise she probably hates being there, but so do I. I'm always conscious of being a nuisance to people, because I'm not technologically savvy, but I don't appreciate somebody treating me, as a customer, as a pain in the backside. I wouldn't dream of reporting a cashier for not having the right expression on their face, but they affect how I feel. Out of the many positive (socially distant) experiences I've had with people, of course her sullen face and language is what I remember.

MitziK · 01/04/2020 22:02

@HavenDilemma. Exactly. That's what she will think. The relevant department is 'Delete'.

Thank
We
and
to

Like I said, it's little more subtle. Hitting return at the end of each line could be merely a purely coincidental artefact of the email system and the text is absolutely professional in content.

HarrietThePi · 01/04/2020 22:22

somm maybe the girl who served you was scared. Maybe that's why she looked sullen. In my last week of working in retail I was genuinely scared, convinced I'd die of corona and having palpatitions at the thought of coming to work. Plus, all the arseholes who treat you like you're beneath them because you work in a shop will be out in force at the moment, I bet. Hard to stop these things from getting to you. I had more than customer joke about me catching Corona from their money.

TrainspottingWelsh · 01/04/2020 22:24

Dear valued customer.

Thank you so much for noticing the strain our staff are under. We appreciate that a superior being such as yourself would be able to maintain an ear to ear grin in the same circumstances, so we're offering you the opportunity to work here in a voluntary capacity and lead by example.

Your hours will be subject to change at very short notice, but we can guarantee you'll be working at least 50 hours. We will of course donate the equivalent of your salary to a registered charity of your choice.

We do apologise for the earlier response, suggesting you fuck a loofah. Please find your pineapple enclosed.

C U Next Tuesday

Femail · 01/04/2020 22:30

Ignore idiot customers. Had one myself the other day moaning about the offers had gone
So inreminded him I'm here having to work and putting my health and my family health at risk and dont be so rude. I have no time for idiot rude customers now.

Vanhi · 02/04/2020 12:52

SOMM we're being urged not to make unnecessary trips. I suspect the supermarket thought/ hoped that people would realise it only takes one person to go and get the shopping. If the person who is better at shopping cannot drive, that means the driver staying in the car. If you knew your DH would have a problem with the list, could you not have gone in yourself?

I know people who have resigned from checkout jobs because they just didn't sign up to be front line staff in a pandemic. And sometimes you need to take the lead. 'Gosh, all this is so difficult isn't it? Sorry I'm all fingers and thumbs, I'm not good with technology and I haven't done this before'. It's very hard for most people to keep being rude to someone who is cheerful and polite to them.

Localocal · 02/04/2020 17:37

Smiling is always optional. I bet the employee in question was a woman and I bet the customer in question was a man.

TriangleBingoBongo · 02/04/2020 17:42

Sorry this happened OP. Shop staff look truly miserable atm. I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t want to be them. Mixing with the general public with no PPE. Sod that.

I haven’t been into many shops but when I have had to get essentials, I’ve been sure to ask the shop assistant how they are and try and lighten their day and thank them for their service.

You all have my upmost respect.

Alizzle · 02/04/2020 17:50

Yanbu most of the nastiest complaints I've dealt with this week have come from the older age group that our restrictions are protecting. Mind boggles

Samlew89 · 02/04/2020 17:50

This would irritate me, some people have to work in these circumstances when they don't want to in fear of contracting covid 19. They can lose their job if refused to work so I think a person that is not serving with a smile is perfectly within their right to feel like crap!!!! The same as the rest of us.

Nanalisa60 · 02/04/2020 18:02

Ignore the silly cow!!
I remember years ago when I worked at big supermarket at 6pm on Christmas Eve a customer shouted at me because we were closing and we were supposed to be a 24 hour open shop!! And she had not done her shopping yet!!
I told her to go but my ARSE !!