Man complained about me re yoghurt brand stopped doing a flavour

[Auburngal]

I was at work. Man (early 80s) asked me why we stopped doing a certain flavour yoghurt and the other two supermarkets stopped selling too.

Had my work’s handset on me and went onto the brand’s website and there wasn’t the flavour listed. Brand have dropped the flavour. On hearing the news - he flipped

He then went to the CSD asking for a manager. Manager said the same thing as me.

Do people realise that behaving like this is making staff leave retail?

I'm sorry but most people in retail don't have many other job prospects so doubtful they'll leave the industry.

🫢🫢🫢

Well of course, retails workers who should be grateful they with their 'limited job prospects' they are employed, should of course totally expect to be verbally and sometimes physically abused! They need to make allowances for absolutely every form of behaviour as they have no idea what's happening for the customer, whilst of course never expecting the same back!

I do understand this makes working in retail very shit

The UK is absolutely full of people who are not coping, who have MH issues but no support, who have dementia but are not being cared for, who are stressed up to the eyeballs - all of it just makes everything increasingly tense and retail staff get a lot of crap as a result.

I had someone complain about me to head office because I wouldn't give her a refund on her faulty shoes. Her shoes were indeed faulty and she was entitled to a refund but they were Clarks shoes and we were a Scholl shop. We only sold Scholl shoes. The Clarks shop was next door. She had a Scholl receipt so was proper furious and wouldn't have it that whatever that receipt was for, it wasn't for a pair of Clarks shoes as we had never sold Clarks shoes.

Head office only went and bloody gave her the money. Fools.

Was he voilent? All we know is he flipped. Op should have mentioned what he said or did. Since she didn't and he is over 80, I wouldnr put in abuser category. As a society, we should have some (not a lot but at least some) tolerance for those over 80, like we have for kids.

That's exactly right. People are making all sorts of assumptions about what he did, but until the OP comes back and tells us what she meant by "he flipped" we just don't know.

Really? I must have forgot about my degree then and other qualifications
I just happen to work in retail because it suits my health issues

Reminds me of the guy who told me I would have no qualifications because I worked in a call centre and pushed me to say what I had. When I told him he called me a cunt and hung up on me
Pleasant

I really liked the chocolate truffle Quality Street, but I didn't blame random supermarket staff when it was withdrawn.

I just started buying Roses, instead.

Absolutely. The crazy customers will always be there, you have to let it wash over you or the job will become very shit very quickly. I've dealt with so many stroppy customers over the years it literally has zero effect on me anymore

Try Yeo Valley raspberry yoghurt - almost the same.

wow, that is entitlement

Bit of a nonsense thread really OP, since you didn't bother telling us what 'flipped' looked like.

As far as I can see he didn't complain about her, he 'flipped', whatever that means. I am sure OP can look after herself, and i don't think body armour (or even a body cam) was required in this case.
But, hey, its the end of the world as we know it, if you like.

@RemarkablyBrightCreature agree with you! So much greed and entitlement everywhere

Who are the 23% that think a shop worker is responsible for a manufacturer cancelling a flavour?

Some people are just idiots. I deal with customers over the phone. One guy has been so abusive with members of my team that management have stepped in and told him we'll only communicate with him by email and any future calls will be terminated.

I reckon it was hazelnut flavour. Thought that as soon as I red this 🤷🏼‍♀️

Firstly, how do you know the man’s age ?
Secondly, would it be an acceptable complaint if the OP had said
’I was at work. A man (black) asked me why we stopped doing a certain flavour … ‘
If not, why not?

And as other posters have asked, what does ‘flipped’ mean ?

It sounds like he complained to you, rather than about you.

At 80 years old, who else has he got to complain to? He wants to complain that his regular yoghurt was discontinued. You could have sympathised, made a fuss of him and recommended something else. Told him to come back and let you know how he got on. Sent him off happy.

It would have taken the same energy from you and made you both feel better.

I believe everyone should spend a minimum of a year working with the general public.

I will never forget working in a call centre for a large retailer.

They'd changed their packaging provider for their ready meals, as they'd discovered they were using slaves. The new packaging meant that the ready meals lasted one week less. This was the best part of 10 years ago.

I had a man on the phone screaming and I mean screaming because he ate 2 ready meals a day, everyday as he 'didn't see why he should have to cook' and he was now going to have to go shopping once every four weeks, instead of once every five. When I suggested he could freeze them he told me that he couldn't wait the extra couple of minutes to cook a meal from frozen as it was 'too much work'.

He was so rude and patronising and his aim was to make me feel like dirt. He succeeded. All while never breaking the 'no swearing' rule, meaning I wasn't allowed to hang up.

I'd worked in call centres for several years at that point and was very pretty hardened, but he was so vile, I came off the phone and cried.

It was never the customers with real serious complaints who were nasty. Always the ones with little things, that were often beyond our control that were awful. In fact all of the customers I remember from that time for their nastiness were something of nothing complaints.

I work in food-based hospitality… sadly this sort of horrible behaviour is a daily happening for us☹️
If we don’t have certain food items available, the level of abuse is off the scale!! I’ve been accused of:

eating it all myself
hiding it in the store room
deliberately hiding it from this particular customer
Being awkward on purpose

You couldn’t make it up… and the worst offenders for this type of behaviour ..? Elderly men!!
They also meddle with the displays and equipment - but that’s another story…

Why 'make a fuss' of someone who's not being very nice to you? Because retail workers should be subservient?

Another stupid customers thing at work.

The lottery terminal was out of order as the printer broke. Had signs on the kiosk, lottery slip stand plus colleagues said in a projected voice "we are sorry we cannot do any lottery at the moment" or something similar.

Customers once at the front of the queue and got served asked for lucky dips. handed over their fast pay slips, winning scratch cards or a wad of tickets to check. When colleague explained that they are unable to do give them tickets, exchange scratch cards or check tickets - a few kicked off.

Some customers think we are the ONLY retailer that has the lottery. I can think of at least 8 in the town and out of those 3 are less than 5 min walk away.