To think they should have reduced the price of the shoes in Tesco?

[Rewd]

A pair of childrens shoes from tesco, they were the last pair in my sons size and there was some damage to them.

By damage I mean messy glue around the joins and some black marks which looked like permanent marker on the white of the shoe which didn't budge when I tried to clean it with a wipe.

I took them to a till and explained that they were the last pair on the shelf in that size and asked if the store would consider selling them at a reduced rate because they're not in great condition. The woman on the till quite bluntly said no. I said no problem I'll put them back then.

As I turned to return them to the aisle she called over her supervisor and repeated my request to her, to which she said to me "well we're not going to reduce, there's not much wrong with them is there" in a really shitty tone.

Was I being unreasonable? As far as I was aware it was common practice to sell damaged stock at a reduced rate, and if not common practice then a gesture of good will.

Was I being unreasonable?

Ok this is weird. You started off saying they should have reduced them and moved it to they didn’t say no nicely enough to you.

Not quite getting why if the till person said no. And you were polite they then called a supervisor. Seems something missing there.

Look if you’re just pissed they didn’t reduce them then own it.

Agree with @satnighttakeaway

Your initial post was asking if you were being unreasonable in asking for a reduction on the shoes - but now you're saying not getting the reduction isn't what's bothering you, but how the staff responded to you.

Sorry to be blunt, but maybe get over it? We're taking your word that they were being rude, maybe they weren't? You asked a question, you got an answer very quickly. What's the problem? Oh dear, an over-worked supermarket worker may have been a little short with you. They are working in an industry currently dealing heavily with the pandemic and what that entails for them. Perhaps this is their 10th shift in a row and they're tired. Perhaps they're missing their families. There is no need to be rude, but nobody is perfect. There's really no need to be so affected by how they responded to you that you need to go home and start a MN thread about it. Sheesh.

Not unreasonable to ask

Very unreasonable to give it a second thought after you were told no.

Why would you buy a pair of damaged shoes

And if I had a pound for every time I heard "The staff member 'rudely said'" just because someone's been told no, I could probably open my own chain of shoe shops...

@Rewd

The black marks weren't on the inside, they were on the top of the toe area at the front of the shoe so clearly visible.

They may reduce them at a later date but, if people approach them with damaged items, they may not automatically discount to prevent people from purposely marking / damaging items themselves for a reduction,

You should never have asked the woman at the till. She has zero authority to do anything. Your best bet would have been customer service who would have contacted either a store manager or someone within clothing who could authorise.

I used to work in retail and customers asking for discounts are a PITA. An ordinary shopworker on the till wouldn’t have authority to give a discount and you probably caused a hold-up. You should’ve gone to customer service. (They’d probably say no too.)

YABU to be annoyed about this and still dwelling on it.

Snap Meepmeeep!

It's funny. On MN it's always the staff were too rude or abrupt. In RL what I see is customers being rude or abrupt while the staff are being polite.
Just an observation.

Well I wasn't rude, so there's that.

I do think they should have reduced them on account of them being damaged, like they do tens of other items on a weekly basis, although I didn't expect them to.

I'm qualified to say they were rude to me as I was there.

It's not my fault that they get shitty customers or chancers damaging the stock themselves for a discount, they shouldn't hold everybody to that standard.

I was happy to put the shoes back and go on with my day, there was zero need for rudeness and it was rudeness.

If nobody posted about mundane inconveniences then AIBU would be empty.

I'm not dwelling on it.

It bugged me, I posted and am responding to the replies.

@Rewd of course you’re entitled to a reduction. Irrespective of company policy. Managers are permitted to make reductions as and when they please. I work in retail and my manager above me makes reductions ‘when he feels like it’. If he doesn’t like a customer’s attitude he’ll pull out the old sorry sir it’s company policy but if the customs is friendly (and particularly attractive) he’ll fawn all over them to demonstrate what a great manager he is.

It is a pain to make till reductions, but it is always worth asking. Glue mess on a shoe is cosmetic and should be reduced, but this is Tesco you’re talking about, too big for their boots at the best of times.

@Rosebel

It's funny. On MN it's always the staff were too rude or abrupt. In RL what I see is customers being rude or abrupt while the staff are being polite. Just an observation.

Agree. I’ve actually stood and witnessed folks being rude and then decide the employee was the rude person,

In my experience employees are seldom proactively rude. It’s normally in response for being treated rudely in the first place.

So it is more likely the op was rude and bigging up the damage and going on about how they discount other stuff, or rhe simple act of saying no she deemed rude.

The cashiers only word was 'no' and the supervisor said 'well we're not going to reduce, there's not much wrong with them is there?' according to your op.
Neither of these is rude in my opinion. 🤷

Get a grip, OP. Seriously. This is just a tragic thread.

I'm sorry about the reaction you're getting.

I had a similar experience in a supermarket a couple of weeks ago and it unsettled me, I was replaying it trying to figure out if I'd somehow caused it and if I'd been unreasonable but I hadn't.

In my case I'd simply queried a discount I thought I'd get, that was advertised on the shelf and I was left feeling like I was taking the piss and trying to fleece a major supermarket.

So it is more likely the op was rude and bigging up the damage

Bugging up the damage?! showed her the bloody shoes!

I'm laughing now.

I agree this thread is tragic, not because of me but all of you nutters on here rewriting history when you weren't there in the first place.

I agree this thread is tragic, not because of me but all of you nutters on here rewriting history when you weren't there in the first place

lol. So we got it right then? 😂

@Thehogfatherstolemycurry

The cashiers only word was 'no' and the supervisor said 'well we're not going to reduce, there's not much wrong with them is there?' according to your op. Neither of these is rude in my opinion. 🤷

It's all in the delivery.

You can say no politely or you can be abrupt about it.

They were the latter.

Yabu. You wanted to score one over the shop staff and they saw through it and declined. They are doing their jobs, some people purposely damage stock so they can get a deal, maybe they were suspicious. They will have new stock soon enough.

I would have approached it differently (and have done). I would have taken the shoes to the Customer Service Desk and say I want a pair like these but ones that haven't been marked/damaged/etc. Can they see if they have any others like it.

If they go and look, they are implicitly agreeing that the shoes are marked/damaged/etc. and if they return empty handed they may then offer to reduce the price.
(I don't think that the people on the till have the authority to do this)

If they don't offer to reduce the price you could still buy them and colour all the toes in black!

i dont blame you, they sound rude and like they own the blinking shop from your description

it is the way you ask sometimes, you need to chat people up as it were, be smiley.

or beg