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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Me or Sainsburys staff member?

278 replies

HouseofSkullduggery · 21/02/2022 14:31

My local Sainsburys is in a shopping centre with chargeable parking. You usually have to spend £10 or more to get free parking unless you are also using the pharmacy or Argos which is also inside.
So this morning I had to return some items to Argos that I bought yesterday. I did that no problem and never asked them to validate the ticket as I had a few other things to get from Sainsburys and thought it's quicker to go to the self service tills and do it myself.
I bought items which were just over £7. Paid and started to walk to the machine to validate my ticket. The staff member immediately saw me approaching and stood blocking the machine. She actually had to walk backwards to make sure I didn't go round her.
She then said have you spent £10? Where's your receipt? In a really snotty tone. I explained I'd just been to Argos too but needed other things hence why I was there. But no that wasn't good enough. She said no I would have to pay to park because I hadn't spent the £10.
She was really off and I felt like a naughty child! I just said again I'd been to Argos, I was in a rush and as it made no difference to her please could I use the machine on this occasion. But no she wouldn't back down.
I left and just felt quite bewildered at her attitude. Nobody normally mans the machine. I go in there all the time. Never had any issue. Even going through the normal tills staff have been happy to validate the ticket as long as youve bought something. I feel she was rude and a jobsworth. Aibu?

OP posts:
okthx · 21/02/2022 17:03

@planningtomakeaplan
So if YOU were that employee, you’d choose NOT do do your job and just let people like OP continue to be “I’m too cool for rules”?

JudgeJ · 21/02/2022 17:03

@Ramalamadingdongs

You didn't qualify for free parking, your fault.
But for some people nothing's ever their fault, rules, spending limits exist for lesser people. If anyone was rude, you were to try it on and now be moaning here because it didn't work!
JudgeJ · 21/02/2022 17:08

@DameOctaviaOstrich

But from what you've written you didn't qualify for free parking. Those are the conditions that you agreed to when you entered the car park Her attitude may leave a lot to be desired but you were trying to get something you weren't intitled to
'Her attitude' is merely the OP's less than unbiased opinion!
ClawedButler · 21/02/2022 17:08

Gotta say I'm on the Saino's employee's side here.

She was doing what she was most likely told she had to do.
"Common sense" would dictate that she follow's the bosses' orders, not that she just let people break the rules.
The rules apply to everyone. That's what a rule is. Your circumstances are not special. And she ain't getting paid enough, and you ain't spending enough for any deference.

Gardeningcreature · 21/02/2022 17:08

Well if this is Wakefield it is prime city centre parking and let me tell you that is very rare there. If you can park there for free then I'm all in the next time I meet friends for a coffee in one of the many cafes which do not provide parking facilities.
Of course Sainsbury's don't want you parking there unless you are spending in their shop.

luckylavender · 21/02/2022 17:09

Are you Boris Johnson? You explained the rules to us, you didn't follow them but you think she's in the wrong.. right

Rosehugger · 21/02/2022 17:11

In any parking scenario you are allowed a grace period to park and get change for the machine. The OP was intending to go on to get other items to the value of more than £10 so this grace period should have been extended to her also.

Blanketpolicy · 21/02/2022 17:11

@HouseofSkullduggery

I forgot to validate the ticket in Argos as I was rushing. Admittedly this is not the staff's fault and I get that she didn't know I was telling the truth but it was the way she backed up to the machine then arrogantly blocked it that I found wrong. Surely it would have been better to take the customer's word and say next time you will either need to spend £10 at this till or get Argos to validate it but don't worry this time you can do it here.
Do Argos and Sainsburys each pay a fee for each of their customers that validate their tickets in their stores? They probably do and have found lots of people are taking the piss and they have to check. Very simply, you never met the requirements for Sainsburys to pay for your parking use.

The staff member was doing their job, why on earth should Sainsbury pay for your parking use?

DiddyHeck · 21/02/2022 17:11

Why is it that whenever a retail assistant tells a Mumsnetter something they don't want to hear, they're automatically 'arrogant' or they 'shouted' or 'sneered' or some such other hyperbole 🙄

There's only one arrogant person in this situation and that's the customer who expected preferential treatment.

Snaketime · 21/02/2022 17:11

I would have smiled at her, gone and bought somw chocolate or something else for £2, walked back to the machine, smiled again and validated my ticket. If she still wasn't happy, then it would be obvious that she is a jobsworth and would have complained.

BorderlineHappy · 21/02/2022 17:11

I'm willing to bet Sainsbury's would have expected their employee to a) listen to the customer and b) apply some common sense
@Cuck00soup obviously never worked in retail.
You're not allowed to use common sense 🤣.

Why don't people realise it's not up to the staff member,she's been told what to do.
So she has to do it.
There could have been a manager watching there's no way I'd get in to trouble for someone else.

WindyState · 21/02/2022 17:14

@Cuck00soup

I'm willing to bet Sainsbury's would have expected their employee to a) listen to the customer and b) apply some common sense.
I'm willing to bet a manager decided that on this day someone was going to enforce the rules re: parking validation, and if the employee had ignored said manager's instructions she would have got into trouble.
CailleachGranda · 21/02/2022 17:14

All these posters telling OP to complain. Aye right. Go ahead then come back and tell us what they said

Incidentally anyone using the term "jobsworth" is 99% of the time a nightmare customer.

Rosehugger · 21/02/2022 17:15

Also surely the parking conditions are "either you spend £10 in Sainsburys OR any amount in Argos or the Pharmacy". So the fact that the OP had a receipt for Argos should have been enough for Parking Jobsworth.

WindyState · 21/02/2022 17:15

@Rosehugger

In any parking scenario you are allowed a grace period to park and get change for the machine. The OP was intending to go on to get other items to the value of more than £10 so this grace period should have been extended to her also.
No, the OP wasn't intending to spend more, and what 'grace period' is there on a minimum spend?

Utter nonsense.

CailleachGranda · 21/02/2022 17:17

@Rosehugger

In any parking scenario you are allowed a grace period to park and get change for the machine. The OP was intending to go on to get other items to the value of more than £10 so this grace period should have been extended to her also.
Where on earth did the OP say anything like that

Grin. Why do posters make shit up

Lurkerlot · 21/02/2022 17:17

Complain

Rosehugger · 21/02/2022 17:17

Utter nonsense

Utter nonsense yourself.

Read the OP's post again.

OperationDog · 21/02/2022 17:19

Rosehugger, you have misunderstood the OP.

Supersee · 21/02/2022 17:19

@Rosehugger

In any parking scenario you are allowed a grace period to park and get change for the machine. The OP was intending to go on to get other items to the value of more than £10 so this grace period should have been extended to her also.

What post did you read?! GrinConfused

Rosehugger · 21/02/2022 17:20

So this morning I had to return some items to Argos that I bought yesterday. I did that no problem and never asked them to validate the ticket as I had a few other things to get from Sainsburys

That's the reference to Other Items.

Anyway it's irrelevant as you should just be able to show your Argos receipt as the parking conditions say that the £10 limit does not apply if you are using Argos or the Pharmacy.

SpiderVersed · 21/02/2022 17:20

I feel sorry for the staff member.

She's given a tedious task of enforcing the parking rules and has to put up with an angry OP insisting she's too special for the rules to apply.

You could have had the parking validated at Argos. You could have spent another £3 . You could have paid for parking . Instead, OP, you didn't do any of those things and tried to get away with free parking, then come on Mumsnet to rant about the poor staff member.

dementedpixie · 21/02/2022 17:22

@Rosehugger

So this morning I had to return some items to Argos that I bought yesterday. I did that no problem and never asked them to validate the ticket as I had a few other things to get from Sainsburys

That's the reference to Other Items.

Anyway it's irrelevant as you should just be able to show your Argos receipt as the parking conditions say that the £10 limit does not apply if you are using Argos or the Pharmacy.

She was in Argos and didn't get them to validate her ticket

She then went to sainsbury's to get other items that totalled £7 and that didn't meet the £10 minimum spend for free parking.

OP is in the wrong and you're misunderstanding what OP has written

WindyState · 21/02/2022 17:23

@Rosehugger

Utter nonsense

Utter nonsense yourself.

Read the OP's post again.

I have. Twice.

Where does it say she was going back to spend another £3, exactly? I'll wait.

Rosehugger · 21/02/2022 17:23

To be fair, I'd probably have just gone back and got my ticket stamped at Argos then come back and waved it at her.