To have laughed out loud at this retail worker

[Shmee1988]

Today I went to a highstreet branch for some painkillers. I asked the lady behind the counter if they had some cocodomol. She said 'yes, we have our normal cocodomol and our max strength'. I asked if I was allowed to come and read the box and she said no (behind the counter so fair enough) I then asked if she could please explain the difference between the 2, I obviously meant the difference in strength in the active ingredient. Her honest to God, genuine response was 'yes of course, this one is our max strength version...... and this one ....is not'😂I was so taken aback by the utter ridiculousness of her explanation that I had no idea to respond, I just laughed. Anyone had anything similar or did I just encounter a particularly unknowlegable retail worker ?

I was one of the first to respond on this thread so I have read all the responses.
The OP didn't ask her question properly (@Shmee1988 no it was not obvious what you meant).
She also acted incredibly odd by asking to go behind the counter. Why would she go to that much effort to not even bother to clarify what she was asking.
If she goes back to that branch of Boots I can guarantee you if the same sales assistant see her she will be thinking "oh great.... it's that weird customer again" 😁

That's appalling and beyond rude. I was brought up to say "Excuse me, could you tell me where ... is please?" I find it staggering that multiple customers would say something like just "Eggs?" (although I've met a handful of people who would definitely be this ignorant).

So, you've read them, but have a very poor memory then. You've just queried something else which OP has answered, more than once, in her posts. Go and read them again. 🙄

Okie dokie. I think you're acting incredibly odd by having 'read all of the posts' and yet still failing to understand why I asked lol.
My question was obvious, to anyone with a half a brain and shoukd certainly have been obvious to someone selling potentially dangerous medication. Even if she'd misunderstood and thought I meant difference in price or amount of tablets, the answer she actually gave was pointless and rude and ..... heaven help me for daring to say it.... STUPID 😂

Quite. And had the retail assistant, when asked to "explain the difference", looked at the information on the box and answered "Well, the normal tablet has 8mg of Codeine and the Max has 12.8mg of Codeine and there is/isnot any difference in the caffeine content" then OP would have had the information she needed to make the right choice. And if it wasn't clear to the RA what the OP was asking, it was incumbent on her to say "I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you're asking me."
I am genuinely astonished at the number of people on here who are so accepting of poor service - no wonder we have so much of it. The RA is paid to do her job and she should try to do it well.

@Shmee1988 it's simple....
you didn't ask the CORRECT question.

@AngelicKaty I'm just curious why she wanted to know the difference but then just bought her regular type anyway.
Why ask then?
Maybe I have missed that answer..... apologies if I have 😁

I worked over 30 years ago in Boots on the otc medicines. it's not possible to know everything about some 4,000 products, maybe she could of asked the pharmacist or dispenser if available about the different strengths but as a reply to a obvious question and you're reaction was a rude. It's hard in retail, give her a break.

OP wrote in one of her posts: "I never actually got to the bottom of what the difference was and just bought the normal as I was in a hurry." Now go and read all of OP's posts carefully and you will find out why it was important to her to know the difference and why she ended up going for the "normal" tablets after getting a ridiculous and unhelpful answer from the RA.

Of course "it's not possible to know everything about some 4,000 products" - that's why the packaging has information printed on it and leaflets inside. I've never worked in retail, let alone on the OTC medicines counter, but if OP had asked me that question, the first thing I would have done is look at the PL codes on the two boxes and if they weren't identical I would then have looked at the list of active ingredients to identify the difference. Are you seriously saying that after 30 years experience in this type of job you wouldn't have known to do this? Seriously?

Well firstly, I didn't mock, I laughed. Secondly, I probably would of preferred that to the pathetic answer that I actually got.

If you passed me a note with these words on, and I laughed (or chuckled) out loud because you had said ‘would of’ and I found this ‘stupid and warranted a laugh’, how would you view it? Light-hearted humour or mocking? Be honest with yourself.

I can’t believe you have told so many people irl about this, and started a thread. The worker’s response was really not that interesting or funny! Your intense reaction is, though ;-)

If it was that important to her perhaps instead of wasting seconds laughing at the assistant she should have said "Sorry .....I meant the dosage".

its no excuse. The girl didn’t know what she was selling so shouldn’t have been in the job. The least she could have done was read the ingredient list to OP. If nobody calls out b poor customer service it will never get any better.

Does no one on here realise how dangerous a situation this could have been. This medicine is strong and addictive. Buying the wrong one could have made op ill or at the very least drowsy and unfit to drive (do I need to spell out the possible consequences) People selling drugs should know what they are selling or they shouldn’t be selling drugs.

Where did I say I worked for 30 years ! I said i worked 30 years ago! before I meanly meant had OP asked for the dosage mg, the assistant could of looked at the ingredients or checked with the pharmacist or Dispenser who have more knowledge.

As is the reaction of the 500 people that commented 😉

In answer to your question, in that scenario I'd of seen you as taking the piss, however, that would have been a mistake. The RW didn't even try to answer my question, it was stupid and funny and I laughed. Because it was stupid. Haha

As I've said before, I'm an insurance broker. Insurance documents are a legal document, quite important, much like buying the correct medicine. If you called me and the conversation went as follws:
You: hi, what insurance policies do you offer?
Me: third party or fully comprehensive.
You: thanks, can you please tell me the difference between the two?
Me: yeah, ones fully comprehensive and ones not.

Would you have thought 'brilliant, that's that cleared up then, I've got all the info I needed? Or would you have thought 'wtf, this girls obviously a bit simple'... be honest with yourself. I appreciate that you'll most likely then say that you'd have gone on to ask in more detail, but I did not have the time. The answer she gave was worth a laugh. She's lucky that's all it was as my initial instinct was to say 'well, yes, duh'...

I worked in a pharmacy 10 years ago and I had no training in pharmaceuticals. I had more training when I worked at Morrisons!! At least she’s out there working and trying to earn a living, laughing in her face was very ‘mean girl’ like.

No one’s disagreeing that the response was unhelpful. We are however saying that laughing in the assistant’s face was unreasonable. And we are saying that because that was the question you asked.

I’m amazed, though perhaps I shouldn’t be based on your ability to communicate clearly here or to the assistant, that you aren’t capable of understanding that. Comprehension also not a strength of yours…

If you’d asked the question that you keep answering (was the assistant’s reply unhelpful) then of course people would be agreeing with you. But you didn’t, you asked “AIBU to laugh out loud at this retail worker.” 🤷‍♀️

Yes, once again, you're stating I laughed in her face. Your comprehension can't be much better. Or does my title actually really 'AIBU to have laughed in the face of this retail worker?' No. I laughed, at what she said. Not in a rude way, not unkindly, not micking. Just a humorous laugh, which is the response from normal people when someone says something amusing.

That's not good enough. No, she won't know 4000 separate lines. But if she's on a counter where she's selling pharmaceutical products you have to ask for, she should have had enough training to know how to look things up and what questions to ask about who they're being bought for, whether they've taken the drug before and any relevant warnings. They should not be just handing these products over unquestioningly - if that were do, they'd be out on the open shelves, not OTC (and even then there are restrictions on how much bog standard aspirin or paracetamol you can buy.)

If she can't do that, she should be off that counter and out onto the main shopfloor/tills until she's had relevant training. We don't know if she really didn't know (the OP didn't get that far,) nor if she didn't, whether it is Boots not providing enough training or her not absorbing it.

But probably if the OP hadn't been rushed, she'd have had time to ask the question in another way, and the checkout person would have checked if she didn't know. Though unless she was brand new to the role, I'd expect her to know about cocodamol, because it's probably one of their more commonly sold products.

Yeh it is

Actually in high doses, aspirin should not be used in pregnancy. It can be dangerous to the foetus circulation. Just like ibuprofen. Which is also available to buy on the shelf in most shops.

Low dose Aspirin is prescription only in pregnancy as it's not suitable for some people, but is prescribed to those who need it. Which is why the staff were completely right not to sell it to you.

If you want to buy it off the shelf in Tesco go ahead, but don't expect someone to break the rules just because you said so. Pharmacies have strict rules and regulations that they must follow. A lot of it is set in law, and if they're found to be breaking it, then the pharmacist faces criminal charges. What if they sold it to a pregnant woman, who had low blood pressure, asthma, and the woman suffered fainting/collapse and hurt their baby. The rules are there for a reason.

This thread is hilarious. The amount of people sticking up for a shop assistant who was not only not offended but who also laughed is ridiculous. You all look a bit nuts insisting the op is a terrible person.