Was I in the wrong with this customer

[Jungledrinks]

2 of us working in a shop college goes to the stock room and a customer asks me to help her with an item. I walk the customer and item back to the till to pay and there is a lady in front of the till who should I of served first. I served the lady I had been dealing with but the other lady got all grumpy and said she was here first. I did say I was dealing with this lady before she even entered the shop but my college would be along in a second to serve her but she walked out.

meh there are 2 scenarios here. You get to the till with the customer you've been helping. You have to ring up and bag the article, maybe something else. They rummage around to pay.
Meanwhile person with one item that you can quickly scan and give to them and they pay is about a minute for the other one to wait.

If I'd been the customer you'd been helping i would have asked you to serve the other person first if it would be quick (I'd check - if they were going to faff and have to have lots of service then I'd have said "i won't be long" and gone on to pay)

If I'd been the customer waiting? I'd have been a bit miffed but waited. But depending on the type of shop and how often i need that item and if i can get it easily elsewhere it would put me off repeat custom. I would keep all that to myself though. (maybe post about it on mn )

You serve the customer that you are already serving. If the other woman gets grumpy and storms out that is on her.

I would say as an external observer that you should let the lady waiting at the till pay first - she was self-evidently ready and waiting to pay before the customer you had been helping. It’s not as if someone is ready to pay before they get their item to the till, is it?!

I think you were right. You were already serving the other customer. The woman who walked out just looked like a twat.

Sounds like the OP was on the shop floor and was asked for help not someone who had queued up already.

if you were at say m&s and you asked for help from a shop worker, would you expect to be able to go in front of a queue of 10 people at the tills because a member of shop floor staff was helping you?

The OP was already dealing with a customer who came up to her at her till, just because they both walked away from the till to check an item doesn't negate the fact she'd been at the till with the OP first

But she didn't have an item to pay for when she asked for help. If the other employee had been on the shop floor, the woman waiting at the till would probably have been served and left the shop before the customer who needed help had returned with her item

I agree with this.

Exactly.

I would’ve said, “Then by all means, help this woman, since she can’t wait for 120 seconds.” Because I have manners & shit. 😂

Did you call your colleague out? Did she know she was needed?

When I worked in a shop, the rule was to take the person we were helping straight to a till and put the sale through if there was an empty till. If no empty till for us to use, then walk them to the queue and

@coffeecupsandfairylights, the OP didn't indicate the person was queuing. For all we know they were both on the shop floor, person A asked for help meanwhile person B queued. Person A then skipped the queue to pay.

Posted too soon.

Walk them to the queue and let them know it would just take a few minutes.

If you're alone on the floor then you serve them but apologise to anyone who has started a queue after. If you're not alone on the floor then you call a colleague over as you walk to the till.

It depends on the type of shop and your shop’s policies. If you are always supposed to have the till manned and you were supposed to ask the first customer to wait for help then the grumpy customer had a point - it does suck a bit to be organized, know what you want, where it is, be ready to pay, etc. and have people who are not as organized slow everything down. So if your shop is there, in part, to serve people in a hurry and has policies to try and ensure they can do that as best possible, there might be a reasonable expectation from a customer that she shouldn’t have to wait on someone being showed round the store leaving the till unmanned.

But I doubt there are many shops like that with only two staff on duty at a time. So I would wager YANBU. Grumpy shopper is just a grumpy shopper, though. Don’t let her bother you.

You were right here (the customer you helped did go to the till first) unless there was an obvious reason why not e.g. cross customer wanted to pay for one or two items which didn’t need wrapping etc and customer you were helping was trying to buy 12 items and was indecisive.

This is so over-complicating things. Op was serving someone, out on the shop floor. Second person arrived and stood at the till. Second person expected to pay first. Op did the correct thing and served the first person first. Shops won't have complicated policies to tell employees what to do if a customer needs help before buying, they will expect them to help.
And of course there are loads of shops with only two staff on duty at a time.

No you can't serve 2 people at once so sensible thing to do is finish with person you are already with.

Customers are a pin in the arse and anyone who works with the public needs a raise! I couldn't do it again

Exactly!

The customer you helped was there first, before the other customer even entered the store.

you did nothing wrong..

I think till lady should have been served first as the general rule is that someone should be on the till at all times or watching it.

I think you were wrong and I’ve never seen anywhere work like you did.

if I’ve been helped the person has always put my purchase behind the till and then I’ve joined the queue to pay for it, not swanned past the people waiting.

Surely "there first" refers to the till queue rather than in the shop first?

I agree with smiley

At no point did op say the woman she helped had queued or been at the till

i imagine it’s a shoe shop type scenario where you ask someone on shop floor for help

they get item and take it to the till

the customer should then wait her turn and point out item at til

this is how it works in schu, office, JD, footlocker etc

you still queue

Argh I dunno, I have been irritated in the past when this has happened to me. However recently I queued at a shop till and ordered ice cream, we then all moved down to where the ice cream counter was to choose our flavours. In the meantime I saw a man walk up to the till and empty his basket out even though he could see we were being served. Assistant then went back to the till carrying our ice creams, set them down and served the man. This took some time as he had a lot of items then was topping up electric or whatever and buying lotto tickets. I was raging to be honest and would have walked out only I would feel guilty at the wasted ice cream - plus DC would have kicked off I would think

So I dunno, I have been annoyed in both positions. Retail workers really can't win, sorry

Well, when I worked in clothing retail we didn't have set "till staff". We had staff on the shop floor, and we were expected to notice if someone was at the till needing to pay.

But If I was (as an employee) helping a customer, I wouldn't then take them to the till only to ditch them for another customer who happened to now be waiting there.

I'd finish up with my current customer and put their sale through. If I was going to be a while, I'd call another colleague over to take the waiting customer to the other till so they could pay.

OP, I imagine if you’d taken the other option and served the lady waiting at the till first, you’d have been starting a thread about the first woman walking out because you were in the middle of dealing with her and then went off and dealt with someone else. You can’t win.

Oh my love. Working in retail is the worst job ever 😕 I worked is several shops over the years and the worst one was when customer bought over a 100 pounds worth of food shopping and her bank card was rejected.. She wanted to take her shopping away and said her husband would come in later that day to pay for it!.. I was the biggest racist bitch to not allow this to happen 😢 worst job I have ever done was in retail!