Customer’s absurd suggestion

[Auburngal]

Customer is one of those who insists on going to us when it’s extremely busy. As per usual we are short staffed - which is the case for many retailers. Again it’s because staff leave as fed up with the rude and aggressive behaviour from customers. In fact - some customers are bullies. As when they shout at me, I get the same feelings that I got from bullying at school.

She suggested that we should be on call on our days off! What a bloody ridiculous idea! I want my days off to relax etc. If any retailer had this option- no one would take it up!

I worked in retail for many years. I have noticed the self entitlement of some customer has worsened over the years. There are many stories to tell but one in particular stands out. Bloke walks in at 5.55pm on Christmas eve. We close at 6. He wanted a trolley. He was very aggrieved when refused and demanded to see the manager. He asked what he was going to do, he needed to do his Xmas shopping. He was reminded that Christmas is on 25th December every year, it never moves. He was purple with rage as he was escorted out of the store by security 😉

@thisfilmisboring123 I know a few people of the "older generation" who maybe are the type to watch the Grand National - but in my circle of relatives and friends none of us would be interested in watching it.
Whether it's popular in Orpington I do not know 🙂

We are the same

Work give jobs to anyone who walk in,but we still don't have enough staff

I work with a lady who gives no shits and if anyone starts she just smiles and says 'let me get you a job application'

When they start to bluster,she leans in and say's 'well,you think you can do better?apply and show us how it's done'

They never do

(My motto in life is #bemorebev and its working-nobody takes the piss out if me anymore)

Surely, anything like that, you just smile and nod and say something noncommittal about how it's not up to you? Unless you are the boss (and it doesn't sound as if you are?).

I work for a supermarket but in the warehouse not the store but my work shirt still has the company logo, although the shirt itself is a different colour. I called into the store after my shift once and a customer asked me where the vegan items were, i replied i had no idea as i didnt work there but id help to find someone who did. She then told me i was being rediculous and purposely refusing to help her because i was being lazy. She then asked to speak with my manager, when i told her there was a very slim chance my manager would be in that store at that very moment she shouted at me to fuck off then if i wasnt going to help.

Apparently if you work for a supermarket chain you should know the ins and outs of all their locations 🙄 half the staff that work there dont even know there locations of all the stock because they are moved round often.

I work in retail and give as good as l get. Then they have the audacity to call me rude. I couldn't care less, l have high standards and don't let those slip just because l have to wear a store uniform. If it were up to me the whole shopping experience would be done online only. It's a form of torture for the staff having to put up with the shit we do because customer walked through door in a foul mood.

But were the travelators both working??

@supermamio

I get customers asking me do (shop in the area) sells a certain item. Unless I have seen it in the shop in question, I have no idea if they sell the item!

Then when I’m in other shops - other stores of my employer and others, customers recognise me and ask me where is (item). I remember one lady went batshit on me. Why not ask someone who is wearing the uniform of the shop?

Some people think because I work in retail, they expect me to know all the shops’ products and their locations! No it doesn’t!

I heard an old lady shouting at a member of staff in my local asda the other week because they no longer stocked aldis own brand hand cream , she was adamant she bought it in asda previously 😂

@JohnWickAteMyHamster no they weren't 😂
You could go up one to the mezzanine level but had to go down in the lift.
I don't go to Orpington very often - do the travelators frequently have problems?

I don't think I've ever seen them both working! Last time I was in there the single working one changed direction while I was shopping, it was going down when I wanted to go up and by the time I needed to go down it had switched to up 😂

Keep saying we need a national campaign to highlight the rudeness and other awful behaviour customer make which is making retail staff - cry, go home early, go on antidepressants and leave.

No retail worker should have to react like that. The first three apply to me. If i wasn’t able to move departments from customer service/checkouts to shop floor - i would have left.

When I see the queues at checkouts and kiosk are large, I can go into the walk in chillers as I can’t hear the tannoy! “I’m sorry I was in the chiller”

I think it should be a requirement that every person has to work in retail for 6 months, maybe they could do it as 'work experience' in 6th form or something. Would only need to be on Saturdays for people to start to understand how awful it is to scream at a cashier because the shop is out of a certain brand of soap or whatever.

Customer is a fucking dickhead. There’s a lot of it about. Where I work her idea wouldn’t work anyway- plenty of people want overtime but company won’t allow it anymore due to cost cutting (despite continuing rising profits…) So we struggle on understaffed. And then get harsh criticism about poor feedback from customers.

Sorry for an ageist post. The problem on Saturdays are the elderly (the second generation 85+. As those in their 60s and 70s have different attitudes etc). Working age customers have asked me what on earth are they doing shopping on the busiest time of the week. Plus heard those who shout “leave Saturday mornings for customers who worked all week”. Generally those under 55 are getting more annoyed with the 2nd generation elderly.

Stubbornness and stuck in their own ways achieves nothing.

I was staying a place 120 miles from home and popped into a supermarket on Saturday morning. I was walking around and heard two elderly couples down different aisles moaning about how busy it is.
“Why do you shop on Saturdays?”
”We always shopped then”
”When you were working…..”

I am so tempted to tell the elderly that they are pissing everyone off with their stubborn antics. The elderly are their own worst enemies.

My parents changed their shopping times when they retired. Also my mum only does the grocery shopping. It doesn’t need two people to shop if they drive or just buying two bags of stuff.

@Auburngal you had a little sympathy from me, until you started with the ageist nonsense!

But if there is consistently higher demand on Monday morning shouldn’t management be aware and sorting out? So getting back room staff on phones on Monday, offering part time jobs on Monday etc.
Lots of problems seem to be due to poor management, poor systems and people unable to use their common sense.
Im sorry for people who get shouted at, I have had experience of this in several jobs. However I can see that I was getting the hassle because I was the ‘face’ of the company. The main problem was always the crap management not having any idea of what actually happened on the ‘shop’ floor.

During lockdown I was feeling a bit isolated and when the shops reopened I started volunteering in my local Oxfam on Saturdays for some human contact.

Now Mon-Fri I usually wear a suit and do a very high-powered job, and am used to being treated in a civil way even by the public, and have never thought anything of it.

But when I was behind the till at Oxfam for the first time in my life I felt degraded and looked down upon. I could believe how badly people thought they could get away with treating me because they thought I worked on a shop floor! People who I’m sure wouldn’t dream of being so rude if they came across me in my regular job. It really was eye opening how much people’s prejudices can change their behaviour towards you.

My friends husband manages a claims team for a large insurance company. If members of his team are being shouted at they can pass the call straight to him. He will always call customers out on the shouting. They always,always deny being rude in any way. The calls are recorded so he plays them key snippets of their best moments. They are usually suitably horrified by how they actually sound.
I have worked in retail in various settings over the years. We had a man once who was just so unbelievably rude from the minute he entered the shop. In the end I'd had enough and I just very pleasantly said " You have been incredibly rude to me since you walked in and I have been nothing but pleasant and polite to you. Can I ask what the problem is?". It was one of those moments that stick in the mind forever because he looked like I had just punched him. His wife said that he was always rude. He apologised and he never did it again. I wonder whether he had seen his parents behave like this to 'staff' and he just did it as naturally as breathing. It hadn't actually ever occurred to him that it was absolutely vile behaviour. He came in regularly and he was always pleasant after that. My former MIL and my mother don't always think of shop staff as people. When I got a job at Waitrose she couldn't speak for the sheer horror that her daughter was working in a shop.

I once worked in a place that welcomed children to have fun and play, in a very affluent area so usually demanding parents. One child ran into a water pump and chipped a tooth, I rang 111 at mother's request on my phone as she didn't have signal, then gave her my number so I could send her the instructions they said. Mistake.

Hours later was having a drink with friends in a lovely riverside pub and phone rings, it's the mum calling me at 9pm saying she's outside my workplace and can I come to the gate to let her in, as her dentist said if they find the tooth they may reattach it to the stump. I calmly explained that as its 9pm I'm not there, as I don't live in a closed adventure play area 😐 must think we were robots that powered down for the night and stored ourselves in the mushroom slides.

This is very shitty. And what the hell is ' second generation elderly' . My husband's siblings are a lot older than him ( SIL is 20 years older than me). I must try out the phrase 'second generation elderly' out on them.

@Auburngal One example I can recall is a customer wanting to return a swimsuit. The hygiene tape on gusset was removed and there were skid marks on there

Had similar years ago with control knickers. Complete with pubes! I quite rightly refused the refund as clearly been worn. I was then accused of swopping the underwear as hers weren't worn. 😂

💯 %

Was talking about this with a customer in work last night....since covid people have become ruder, more aggressive and more impatient.

How on earth do 12% of voters think you are being unreasonable to think retail staff should have a day off 😳

When I was 16 my first job was in a Harry Ramsden restaurant. There was a poster with 'the customer's always right' in the staff room. Someone had crossed off 'always right' and replaced it with 'a pain in the arse'. Never forgotten that all these years. Especially when dealing with aerosols