AIBU to make an official complaint about cashier telling me to lose weight?

[LMCOA]

On Saturday, I needed to return some jeans to my local well-known supermarket, as they were too small.

I smiled, handed them over to the cashier and said "Could I please have a refund on these, unfortunately they don't fit".

She took them, laughed and said "You should lose weight then."

I kind of giggled in embarrassment, and got away as quickly as I could. I was very, VERY upset and had an awful weekend. I have BPD so I don't know if my reaction was a normal one, because I don't always have 'normal' reactions.

I'm 42, size 20, struggling with an autoimmune issue (which the doctors can't pin down) and menopausal. I am TRYING to lose weight but it's just not happening at the moment. Her comment broke me.

My friends are encouraging me to make a formal complaint.

What do you lot think?

Yeah, I thought you might say something like this.

Then you were correct. Well done.

LOL. 😂

There won’t be. It will be a ‘we’ve had a letter that says you said…’ they will say ‘customer misheard me’ and that’s even if they do actually speak to them.

I’ve worked supermarket customer service desk for a decade, I’ve never heard anyone say anything like that, but also never get complaints brought up with staff personally. Management (or rather staff member who gets to type out the letters/emails) will probably send a reply, maybe a ‘good Will’ voucher if you’re lucky.

I imagine it was an appalling attempt at humour rather than being purposely rude but I’d not be happy!

Some really bizarre comments on this thread, i'm sorry people are being so rude to you. I can only imagine they are fat phobic/rude/ entitled twats themselves. This is not an acceptable thing to say to a customer, these people are paid to service customers at the till, not impart their personal opinions, especially on peoples appearance, so yes you should complain if you feel you want to.

I would complain but not point out who said it. I would ask them if the staff should have some retraining and I’d also make clear I was awaiting a response from them.

Why are you 'not prepared to tell us at this stage' which shop it is, pray tell @LMCOA

What the fuck are you on about? What on earth does the OPs weight have to do with the person serving her in the supermarket? Honestly I despair sometimes.

Yeah, the only info I could give would be the time and that it was the customer service desk.

As OP has pointed out she didn't say the clothes were too small. They could have been too big/ short/ long or give her a baggy arse. The person on the till was incredibly rude. I worked in retail for a long time and would be mortified if anyone on tills said anything like that.

You should've chased her down and taken her photo, like you did with pigeon-kicking man OP

Anyway, have you made up your mind whether or not to complain?

I would end the letter by saying I would like to know what disciplinary action is going to be taken.

They would not tell you that as the information is confidential and they can't say it will happen, as they haven't investigated yet.

Kick an animal and I lose my shit.

Mention my weight and I'm a sobbing mess 🤣

I'm going to write a letter, explain what happened and ask that people are made aware that comments like this are not ok.

What a rude and totally unprofessional bitch. Please report this woman OP. She is clearly not suited to have a customer facing role and should be fired, or at least reprimanded and demoted to work in the stock room or something. I hope you’re ok.

😂😂😂 Brilliant detective work @worraliberty

I'm going to write a letter, explain what happened and ask that people are made aware that comments like this are not ok.

Write a letter in 2022?

Just email head office.

Id complain!
If thats how they speak tp customers asking for a refund, then they absolutely should not be customer facing and they deserve to be sacked.

Yes you should complain. I worked in customer service and had a colleague like this but admittedly maybe not quite as ignorant. Funnily enough she was pretty unpleasant to management and colleagues, not just customers so it was absolutely believed. She was never going to be fired off the back of a complaint which cannot be proved but helped back a poor appraisal rate that she got which affected her Christmas bonus. Also she would have never been considered for any promotion. From what I heard she's doing really well in a back office job 10 years on so obviously customer service just was not for her.

So no you should not just let people away with speaking to other humans like that because 'what would they do about it?'. It should be documented even if you don't get the response you desire.

@PurpleButterflyWings Why are you so obsessed with knowing which shop it is? What does it matter? If it's a big chain, I very expect this is a rogue employee rather than some kind of bizarre customer policy.

OP, I worked for several years in a clothes shop and would never have made such a personal remark. I think you should complain; and if it's a one-off incident and she denies it to management, at least it might make her think twice before making inappropriate comments next time.

You have such a weird take on this.

How awful, no wonder you feel bad !
I'd contact the store and tell them and frame it as a 'there appears to be a shortfall in your customer service training', rather than taking the 'disciplinary' angle. Maybe write to them if you feel uncomfortable speaking to someone, but definitely don't leave it.

Nowhere near the level of rudeness you had, but I emailed Boots customer service recently about (useless) staff in my local store. Got a reply the next day asking for more details, it was passed to the manager of the store who phoned me and apologised saying staff had been spoken to. You should absolutely complain, they will have a record of who was on the desk at the time. (I would also give a brief physical description to help them confirm it.)

It's because they're trying to suggest the OP isn't for real, and seem to think that if the OP was to say "it was Asda" that would prove whether the post was real or not.... Its not really clear why the OP naming the shop would confirm either way, but there we go.

This is ridiculous. It wasn’t the assistant’s place to make personal remarks about a customer regardless of whether they are correct or not.