retail sucks

[silentrunner]

Just reopened (but not for long) and think that people think retail workers are literally the shit on their shoe. Had nothing but Cuntomers since we opened,
AIBU to think some people would be compassionate towards our situation.

@Anniecott

I'm a hairdresser, I don't make the salon rules, one of them is we are not allowed to take and hang up coats anymore, when I asked my to hang her own coat up after she had sanitised her hands she shouted at me, 'what is it fucking self service know?' , I then had to ask her to keep her mask on over her nose the whole time I was cutting her hair, to repeated mutterings of 'for fucks sake' I really wanted to tell her to fuck off, having your hair cut is not essential, it is a privilege but I kept my cool and was professional the way through and thanked her coming in as she left. Unfortunately she's not been the only one.

She was brave, being rude to her hairdresser?! Weren’t you tempted to slip the scissors and give her an accidental mullet....?

Another Argos gem, people who had left all their children’s present shopping till about 5pm on Christmas Eve and then got stroppy with us because we either didn’t have stuff in stock or weren’t serving them quick enough. Well why the fuck have you left it to the very last minute then!? Christmas happens on the same day every year, you’ve had more than enough time to plan for it! 🙄

I’m thinking the ones that have voted YABU are the cuntomers...I never cease to be shocked at the way we get spoken to at work. Oh and if you could all just WEAR YOUR FUCKING MASKS PROPERLY that would be great.

Quite daunting to realise that some of these instances are an actual assault and if it was done to someone outside of retail and hospitality staff, it would be treated as such

Sadly its nothing new or due to the pandemic, I worked in retail over 20 years ago and was called a cxxx and someone tried to hit me another told me I didn't live there and she would get me outside. All these examples from grown woman alot older than me . Sadly people have got worse and have no patience and certainly don't like being told what to do. I do think now if you experience a shouting member of staff its because they have had a pig of a day with people being horrible to them.

It goes both ways. Working in retail and making it clear you consider customers an inconvenience is never going to end up well.

On the other hand, who knows why people are so rude and abusive? There should be enough security to get rid of the dangerous ones, it's just not acceptable. Mind you, the public is just as rude and abusive towards teachers or medical staff, there should be more consequences.

One man came into my pharmacy to collect his medication. He had rang the day before to check what had come in on his prescription and he said that the doctor hadn't sent a particular item. Told him to take it up with the surgery.
He then came in and flew off the handle because the doctor hadn't sent further prescriptions to us for him.
As he was ranting and raging because this was apparently all my fault, another customer had quite clearly had enough of him and she said "oh for goodness sake put a sock in it you fucking idiot!"
It took all my self control not to start clapping!

Shirley
I would have loved to but unfortunately over the yrs I have come across so many ignorant clients that I am now almost immune to it and far too professional for my good. The ones that nearly tip me over the edge are the ones that comment on my sons asd I have had clients call him backwards and retarded to my face before now.

My friend worked in a supermarket for a while. I think customers assume the staff are just milling about with nothing to do. But they have tasks to complete and timescales to achieve them by, and the Managers are keeping an eye on it especially at this busy time of year. It sounded really stressful.

I used to work in our village shop and it was almost like some sort of switch was flicked when people walked through the shop door way.

People I’d see out dog walking or waiting to collect kids from school every day would suddenly turn into rude, obnoxious arseholes

I was once called all the cunts under the sun by a bloke I exchanged perfectly polite “good mornings” with when out dog walking because I refused to break licensing laws and sell him alcohol at 6am on a Sunday morning.

I did get shouted at by a member of staff in ASDA yesterday for standing on the wrong spot on the floor while waiting for a click and collect - the same spot on the floor that she’d told me to stand on not 2 minutes previously. She was so bloody rude to me

I work in a GP surgery and at the beginning of COVID was taking calls from patients who wanted a telephone consultation with a doctor. One rude person said she was going to make a complaint to the manager about me because I did not catch her telephone number as the phone kept cutting out. Said I should not be doing the job. Rudeness to staff is an every day occurrence . One person tried to kick the door down the other day. It can be very draining . I think the people who are rude in shops and to NHS staff are rude wherever they go.

Being rude is hardly a new thing. Nothing to do with Covid or Christmas some cuntomers are always like.
My colleague was threatened last week as in "I'll do you in after work" all because we'd sold out of potatoes on Saturday night.
I've never had anything that bad but had customers complaining about staff doing home shopping while they are doing their shopping, being told to get on a fucking checkout (I'm not even till trained and am actually doing something else) and being told I'm useless because we don't have bags for vegetables.
I've been on maternity since March so these all happened in normal times. On my last day I will stop being polite and may well say exactly what I think.

Mind you, the public is just as rude and abusive towards teachers or medical staff, there should be more consequences.

There absolutely should be consequently. I am oretty sure that many behave like that simply because they can

@Rosebel

Being rude is hardly a new thing. Nothing to do with Covid or Christmas some cuntomers are always like. My colleague was threatened last week as in "I'll do you in after work" all because we'd sold out of potatoes on Saturday night. I've never had anything that bad but had customers complaining about staff doing home shopping while they are doing their shopping, being told to get on a fucking checkout (I'm not even till trained and am actually doing something else) and being told I'm useless because we don't have bags for vegetables. I've been on maternity since March so these all happened in normal times. On my last day I will stop being polite and may well say exactly what I think.

Oh yes the assumption that all supermarket staff are trained to do all jobs in the shop, that is so weird-why would anyone even think that? The tannoy comes over 'all till trained staff to the checkout' in my local supermarket.

I really feel for staff having to deal with these people...i was just saying to someone the other day how we seem to have become very unpleasant and nasty as a society what with this kind of behaviour, online trolling & bullying etc - and we can't use Covid as an excuse.... people do it because there are little to no consequences. If every customer who yelled or swore at a member of staff was immediately marched out the door in front of everyone and barred, it might - just might - have an effect. If folk who bully online & send death threats to people were charged and had internet access removed, again just maybe.....

Years ago I managed a team where the job meant customers were already unhappy by the time they got to us. I always told my team I did not expect them to accept being screamed at or sworn at, they were very professional in handling people although it occasionally got bad enough for them to hang up on a call after several warnings, and i always backed them up.

When I hear about this, or overhear people talking about how x or y company or individual is useless, hasn't a clue what they're doing etc, I always wonder just exactly how wonderful they are and what fantastic contribution they are making to society

They were rude before, but the past 9 months has taken the foulness to new levels.

Part of the problem is people are going out shopping in groups. These groups leave no room for the space needed in stores, and people who are already nervous are getting more and more anxious. Anxiety makes me snappy- what happens if half of the people in the shop are at a similar state? Unfortunately, the staff get it. It makes it in no way acceptable, especially as there is a fair proportion of customers who consider staff as beneath their notice unless they need something.

I have worked retail for nearly 20 years- I spent 10 years working for a parenting retailer and lets just say the worst of the worst had nothing on what I experience nearly daily nowadays.

I wish retail/hospitality staff had more power to kick out the abusive/rude customers. I know a lot of managers are good and back them up but it would be great if they could just say ‘right that’s not an acceptable way to speak to me, please leave the store you are no longer welcome here today and we won’t be serving you.’ rather than just have to take it. I think the shitty customers would be a lot less bold if their behaviour was reined in. Although I suppose then the central customer services team would just get an earful when they got home.

Shops should have "The shouters" board and put CCTV pics of all these abusers. 2 weeks at a time. Though this might not work like it used to because people don't know each other as well now so the embarrassment of "everyone local will see it" is gone

I always wonder how these people are behind closed door if they behave like this in public...

I left working for a supermarket. Had cuntomers all the time. I was always nice to them tho and they hated that. Retail is a stressful job both physically and mentally. So glad I'm out of it.

Remember you do have the power to not serve anyone who is rude and abusive.

@Vivana

Remember you do have the power to not serve anyone who is rude and abusive.

Not if the company won't stand by you when they make complaint to HQ or managers. It needs to come from top that it's ok. And it bloody well should be ok

I've been spat at when I worked in a cinema as I refused to serve some kids who were causing trouble. Fortunately there was a glass screen in the way.
The rudest people seemed to be well spoken women with kids, I think they wanted to show they were in charge and say 'if you don't work hard at school this is where you'll end up' to their kids. At the time I was in retail it was as a summer job when I was at university!

I used to work in retail years ago and the general public were rude and thick, way back then. Fuck knows how bad they are now!

I work in a supermarket and it feels really sad that it is noteworthy when customers apologise.

I had a customer come to make a return yesterday of some lights in packaging I didnt recognise as from our store, which I told her. She had no receipt and the item didnt come up on my system but she was adamant that she bought them from us and when I said that I could not return an item that we didnt sell she became very defensive and said she would call Head Office about my refusal to return an item she k ew she bought from us.

I told her she was welcome to do so but we 100% would not refund an item we had not sold her. She got huffy so I figured I'd get rid of her quicker if I could prove she was wrong, so asked her to show me where she got the lights from. We went to where she claimed to have picked them up and lo and behold, the shelves were full but none of the lights she claimed were there. I asked her if she was sure she didnt buy the lights at one of the shops in our retail park (Home bargains, B&M, Argos and Poundstretcher) but she was adamant she bought them from us, even when I googled the company name printed next to the barcode and it came up as Home Bargains' parent company. I eventually told her that I couldnt help her and would not refund an item I had categorically proved she did not buy from us and she stormed out angrily.

30 minutes later I saw her back in my queue and braced myself for demands for supervisors and managers only to be totally shocked when she instead got to the front of my queue and looked very shame faced, holding some flowers that she gave to me along with an apology. Once she left our supermarket she had gone over to Home Bargains in an attempt to prove me wrong, only to find out that she was in the wrong and the lights had been bought there (and so they happily refunded her money).

Most people would have just gone home but this woman acknowledged her unreasonable behaviour and made a point to come back and not only own her mistake but apologise for the way she had spoken to me. This is such a rare occurrence that it was literally the talking point of the rest of my shift as colleagues heard the tale and kept asking if it was true that I got an apology from a customer

Taking appointments for a hairdressers this week, after being closed 4 week lockdown at hairdressers busiest period of the year, I've been shouted at and had the phone put down on me because I can't fit them in along with everyone who was already booked in for December and everyone who missed out in November. Just grateful I only have to deal with them on the phone and not in person anymore as we only book on the phone now,the covid rules have come in useful for that at least!