AIBU for refusing to sign a letter of improvement at work? Retail customer service related

[Welshlady60]

Recently at work I was made aware by my manager that a customer had complained about me to HR for my apparent poor customer service towards him.
In a nutshell, the customer had used the self service till, but his payment of around £35 hadn't gone through.
I went outside and asked him to come back into the store, explaining why. He wasn't happy as he was just about to get into his car, and he insisted that he'd paid as he 'heard the machine beeping'.

Once again, I explained that the payment hadn't been taken, and so he came back into the store, angrily tapped his card on the pad and stormed off saying that he 'wasn't trying to steal'.
I hadn't accused him of anything, and was polite at all times.

He's now made a complaint against me, which I wouldn't normally be bothered about. However, I was asked to make a statement to give my version of events, and was told that HR may most likely decide to issue me with a letter of improvement.
I've been at the store for ten years and have never had any issues, but I'm annoyed that a customer's unjustified complaint can result in me being reprimanded for doing my job, especially as I wasn't rude, he was.
Should I refuse to sign it, given that I feel it's an unfair complaint?

I'd be asking your HR department what the consequences of this would be not Mumsnet.

It might not even come to that though if it's only 'likely' at the minute

Don't sign anything that you disagree with. It can be used as evidence against you if they want to dismiss you at any point. With you having been there 10 years, they will need a solid reason to fire you so a lot of employers like to have something like this on file for a rainy day

I’d be bloody fuming if I was you!

The customer is not always right and certainly isn’t on this occasion.

Yes you should refuse, are you part of a union?

Refuse or don't, it will be on your file. If you don't agree with it then you must appeal it / raise a grievance.

I’d be interested to know what they would have wanted you to do differently in those circumstances. That’s what I’d push for. People know that the cards sometimes need to be inserted with the chip and pin. I was in a cafe recently and the staff member had to come and get from from my seat downstairs because the payment hasn’t gone through. And no I wouldn’t sign anything.

What’s the usual procedure you are asked to follow when a customer inadvertently leaves the store before their payment has gone through?

That's what I was thinking, I wouldn't have a problem if I felt I was probably in the wrong, but I'm pissed off that it could be used unfairly against me,

I am really annoyed, no I'm not part of a union.
My manager tried to make out that the letter of improvement is nothing, and not formal, but of course it is!

I plan to do just that.

What’s the shop procedure for customers who leave when their card hasn’t worked? I imagine that you have to call them back and sort out the situation. As he had left the shop then this is theft. Don’t sign or agree anything. Tell your manager that as he’s reported you then you will report the customer to the police for theft. I wonder if this customer has done this before? The shop should ban them. Say that the customer should be informed that you are taking it further. They should then desist. Look for another job that supports its employees.

Exactly! You can't do right from doing wrong these days

We've always been told it to approach shoplifters, but we've always politely asked customers to come back (if possible) if they're payment hasn't gone through for any reason.

Do you have an employee handbook that has anything in it about the policy in this case? The only reason most businesses ask staff not to follow customers outside is because of the risk of the customer becoming violent with the staff member.

Write a letter that explicitly compares the version you wrote against policy from the handbook to show that you followed policy. Check the details with ACAS if you aren't in a union, their advice is free. Submit it to HR to ask for clarity about what you misunderstood from the policy. If ACAS advises you of a specific mistake then take their advice on next steps. Turning this into a written warning seems extreme, verbal would be more than enough (and should be about the danger to you!).

Yes we just usually call people back in (providing they've not left the car park in a hurry, as some do!)
I hadn't thought about it that it could possibly be considered theft on the customer's part.

This!
Would the management have expected to let the customer to walk away without paying?

Is it more about the way you dealt with it and your attitude towards the customer? which is subjective of course.

As I understand it once someone has left the premises with unpaid for goods and here the customer was made aware of a payment problem on their part it would be theft. It wasn’t a simple mistake. Join a union for advice. I’d be asking why I was being targeted not the thief. I’d say to take a union rep with you to this meeting. Look for another job because this business must be failing if it supports theft and not their employees.

I would insist they give you a clear, precise, step by step instruction guide on how to proceed if this happens again.
Then you follow this to the letter.
The customer was wrong here. This happened to me once in a restaurant. I went back in and paid. I would not dream of kicking off like this.
I also pin management down like this if ever they question my deductions. It has worked in my favour several times as I always quote their own policy back to them, which they (reluctantly) cannot argue with.

We do in-store training regarding shoplifters, but I've never seen anything where it says we aren't to call people back when their transaction hasn't gone through.
We've always just gone out to the customer in those circumstances, as often the customer hasn't realised. Although I believe some of them know they haven't paid but try to pull a fast one, and leave the area before anyone notices.

Wait until you see the letter they want you to sign. If it identifies a specific thing that you should have done differently then fair enough. If it doesn't, then write your own letter back saying that you are always willing to strive to improve but any targets set need to be specific, appropriate and reasonable - including being things that are under your personal control. They can set expectations for how to deal with unreasonable customers, but they can't set targets for you that assume all customers are reasonable, sane and appropriately behaved.

Decisions.

What do they think you did wrong? Would they have preferred you to let him leave without paying? What improvements do they expect you to make? If it means never challenging a customer, even if they are shop-lifting or abusive to a member of staff or, as in this case, trying to leave without paying, they need to make it very clear what their expectations of their staff are. I'm sure your life would be a lot easier if you could just ignore customers doing all those things.

The thing is, putting aside the hundreds of pounds we must lose every month due to shoplifters, if we didn't bother to try and ask people to come back and finish their payment on the self service, we'd probably lose another few hundred.

According to the customer I was 'rude', but I really don't think I was. It was the customer who was nasty to me, probably because he was pissed off that he didn't get away without paying, I didn't say anything or accuse him of anything btw, I just re affirmed that he hadn't paid when he insisted that he had.

I wasn't told exactly everything the customer said about me, other than that I was supposedly rude. For all I know the customer could've added all sorts of things on that I hadn't said or done.