Sick of customers moaning to shop staff about things beyond our control

[Jdot]

Please do not show your frustrations to the stressed and burnt out staff with:
. prices
. company’s policies
. the law
. supply issues - including local, national and global
. traffic issues that delays with deliveries
. staffing issues- both short staffed and if staff are on the sick
. your lack of planning. Waiting til Dec 1st for advent calendars and 31st Oct for pumpkins

Do you realise that this is unacceptable and unnecessary to shout at staff. Many staff are leaving mainly because of customers’ behaviour.

Think about this before you open your mouth at staff

I don't think it's unreasonable to buy gift cards on Xmas Eve. The shops are open, they are selling gift cards.
No one should be shouting at cashiers obviously.
I know this thread is not representative of shops on a daily basis, but I really don't see all this aggression and shouting in the shops.

They absolutely do just like they ask for the heat to be turned up and turned down. In a world where customers ask for cashback when paying with cash do you honestly not believe this. The general public can be opinionated and weird about lots of random stuff

While I have never asked for the heat in a shop to be turned down, I am often baffled as to why they have some stores so cold. In summer I need to make sure I take a coat into Sainsbury's. They spend millions on marketing to make us shop, but honestly I can't wait to get out!

I assume its to keep the food fresh. But I agree shops seem to go the extremes with temperature control

Lucky old you. I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of shifts I got through without some wally kicking off & that's after 25 years of customer service/retail. I've worked in call centres, large stores &, latterly, a garage forecourt. I retired from the last one because new owners wanted to only have one person shift at a time. One person to deal with tills crashing, forecourt problems, drunks, shoplifters & the myriad of small problems & all for sfa an hour. Management available by whatsapp, rarely respond. If you phone the number on the receipt, you'll get the lone worker, if they have time to answer the phone.
Oh & don't mention the 'ooh, I've found my loyalty card now' after the transaction has finished, followed by unhinged rage because their 5 nectar points can't be added.
Pfft!

And before I worked in a supermarket I refused to believe that some customers were self absorbed lunatics who firmly believed that, because their weekly shop paid my wages, they were entitled to treat the place like an extension of their own home. They’d complain if it was too loud, too quiet (we needed to jolly up, apparently), too cold, too hot, too busy, too clean (toilets out of use for the time it took to clean shit off the wall), not clean enough etc. Some of them truly believed that everything needed to be immediately adjusted to suit their personal preferences.

I didn’t believe that people would find it acceptable to have a picnic while they were doing their shopping and leave the stolen packaging behind random grocery items.

I didn’t believe that middle class professionals were probably bigger shoplifters than some teenager in a muddy tracksuit. But they bloody are. And then they’ve got the brass neck to be outraged when you politely ask them to pay for their shopping.

I didn’t believe that seemingly able bodied grown adults either wouldn’t be toilet trained or would enjoy leaving urine, faeces and other bodily fluids on the floor and walls, while a perfectly functional toilet was only inches away.

I didn’t believe that seemingly normal people would be so driven to incandescent rage by something so inconsequential that they would spit, hit, threaten to sexually assault, threaten to physically assault, and/or cause damage to stock but, again, I’ve seen heard or experienced all of those things.

I rarely got to sit down and when on self checkout would average 18k steps in a shift. Collection parcels where up two flights of stairs and no lift for humans. I was done in at the end of every shift.

No, as you’ve said in your post yourself, Head Office need to understand this.

You’ve made some really valid points but then completely undermined them by blaming the customer for your poor working conditions.

I work in the NHS. I generally find treating people politely and not rising to the provocation helps resolve situations. It’s not always easy though. I am really nice to shop staff. I always have a quick chat with them if they’re up for it; at this time of year we talk about how busy it is in the NHS and shops, and the challenges of shift work.

However, I’m sorry to say that I have witnessed quite a few rude shop staff over the last few years. If I smile and ask if they have something in stock, they often bark no and walk away. I do wonder how they get their jobs and how they get through interview. Especially as retail work is quite competitive nowadays.

Anyway, my philosophy is to reward good service rather than complain. At least 2 to 3 times a month I will find the Head office email and feed back about good service from a retail assistant. It may be somebody who has gone to a stockroom and been very proactive when they didn’t have to be. Or if someone has gone above and beyond in a restaurant to find out about a dish. Once I had very good service in the theatre, and they told me that they had given her a round of applause in the interval because my email to Head Office that I sent at the start of the show, had been forwarded to them within the hour!

I think positive feedback works better than negative feedback and I make a real point of emailing managers for even the most small ‘trivial’ act of great work by a staff member in restaurants or shops. As their good work often goes unnoticed.

All of this 100% facts.

She’s not blaming customers for poor working conditions 😂 She’s saying that it’s already a really difficult environment to work in and then customers come through the door. And lots of them are lovely, polite, friendly and thoroughly pleasant to serve. And some of them are a bit unpleasant and make your heart sink as they approach your till. And some need smashing in the face with a multi pack of own brand baked beans. And it’s these last two groups who make retail go from difficult to unbearable.

Careful now! Your superiority is showing.
Proof, if it were actually needed, that some look down on the shop girl for not having the wherewithal to make something better of herself.
You really ought to be ashamed of yourself; though I’m sure you’re not.

Noise pollution is a massive problem, so yes I can assure you that the customers do notice it when it's too loud - and it's probably a problem for the staff as well! And I also don't think any customer in the history of the supermarket has asked for music to be louder (other than maybe lightheartedly if it's a good song but it won't be annoying in that context!)

As for the staffroom - are you trying to tell me that you never talk about experiences with customers and what they have said? Pull the other one. That's like teachers claiming they never gossip about kids and that parent in the staffroom!

Nothing to do with being self-absorbed, you are forgetting that a lot of us have worked in customer service roles and we made a much better job of it than a lot of people do now.

Well you could see it that way. Or you could see it as working her way up to something where she is proud to do a good job and puts her clients/stakeholders/customers first.

Unlike many of the moaning minnies on here who funnily enough, refuse to take feedback, and would probably be better employed in a non-customer-facing role and open up the customer services jobs for the kids who need them!

No excuse to abuse members of staff. Of course not. But they are representatives of the company. I think companies get away with poor service in part because people don't want to feel like they are taking it out on the staff by complaining. If I ever fill in a survey and mention e.g. long waits I will make sure I'm clear it wasn't the staff at fault, but the staffing levels, and actually it's pretty unfair on their staff to put them in that situation.

Also all the comments on here are talking about supermarkets. Despite the demise of the High St, there are a lot of other shops. Many of which pride themselves on good customer service, have access to computers and take feedback on board.

As I said upthread, given the money we spend in supermarkets each year, the entshittification we allow them to get away with is unreal. But you can't do anything when people hang their heads and say ok it's not good but it's so hard for them cos covid/Brexit/shoplifting/Christmas/any other excuse they can pull out of their backsides.

A lot of online retailers give exemplary service as well. It can very easily be done. And funnily enough, if you give good customer service you get far fewer (justified) complaints and can giggle about the ridiculous ones.

I can assure you that the customers do notice it when it's too loud - and it's probably a problem for the staff as well! And I also don't think any customer in the history of the supermarket has asked for music to be louder (other than maybe lightheartedly if it's a good song but it won't be annoying in that context!) I suggest you wear ear phones if you can’t cope with the noise. And you can believe whatever you like but you’ve never worked in a supermarket and I and another poster have, and we’re both telling you that people do complain. There is literally nothing that they won’t complain about.

As for the staffroom - are you trying to tell me that you never talk about experiences with customers and what they have said? Pull the other one. That's like teachers claiming they never gossip about kids and that parent in the staffroom! Where do I start with this? I can promise you that I don’t, because I don’t work in a supermarket anymore. But when I did, it was rare that I got to have breaks with people I knew because they were covering my absence. Breaks are staggered. And if I was with someone I knew, the most said was ‘ I’ve had some right moany fuckers in today. It’s nothing like a teacher gossiping about kids or parents because retail staff don’t have that level of relationship with customers. You come in and you’re either lovely or normal/pleasant, or you do your best to just destroy our souls a bit more in the ten minutes we’re in each other’s company and then you’re gone and forgotten about, just leaving us feeling valued, or like we never want to come back. The only times I thought about customers were when they were nice and also elderly or ill and I hadn’t seen them for a while, or if I saw a regular arsehole out and about, where I’d think about how much I disliked them and how nice it would be if they tripped, broke their legs and had to do online shopping for six months. During a break time, I liked to try and pretend that customers didn’t exist, except the lovely ones. What I didn’t do was discuss what a particular customer thought about anything.

Nothing to do with being self-absorbed, you are forgetting that a lot of us have worked in customer service roles and we made a much better job of it than a lot of people do now Sounds pretty self absorbed to me. And you are forgetting that you have sod all idea what it’s like to work in a supermarket. I’ve done both jobs, in call centres and face to face. It’s like comparing apples and oranges.

Unlike many of the moaning minnies on here who funnily enough, refuse to take feedback, and would probably be better employed in a non-customer-facing role and open up the customer services jobs for the kids who need them!

Oh this would definitely be including me. I did get a job in a non customer facing role because I got so utterly sick of people utterly unable to comprehend that I had no power and a manager who had a policy of not wanting to hear anything negative, which included whines about how the store wasn’t as comfortable as their house. I’m not a fan of my job, but not having to deal with entitled customers has been glorious.

Do you mind if I ask what you do now? It sounds lovely

Our ATM wasn’t working so we put up a sign saying out of order. A customer phoned head office and complained about the sign . We were told to take it down as it was unprofessional!

Lowly Civil servant, so different challenges, but office based and no interaction with the general public at all.

I’ll be completely replaceable by AI at any moment and will undoubtedly be desperately searching for a job with the general public in the near future, but for now, it’s one of the few perks 🙂

I hear you. I worked in retail and in all honesty I’ve never encountered such rudeness of people in all my life. Some of the stuff people said to me was absolutely shocking, that was years ago and I would have hoped things have improved since then but it clearly has not .

Ive done a few Christmases in retail and I admire each and every person who does it year after year.

I was getting random stuff shoved in my trolley for mark down on Xmas Eve one year. They weren't fresh or bakery items, but long life shelf items and when I said that I unfortunately couldn't mark down those items I got shouted at in another language. I guessed what she was saying wasn't nice.

I've been screamed at for the store closing Xmas Day by a man with a £200 trolley of food who wondered where he would go if he ran out of milk and the same on Easter by an elderly lady "but where will we go after church dear, we always come in for a wander".

I always try not to go to any shops after 4pm on Xmas Eve or until after boxing day. Retail staff deserve a break as well, probably more than the rest of us to be honest.

I currently get shouted, tutted and huffed at by people mainly by telephone. I do give them 3 chances to change the way they speak to me and if it continues I end the call - which of course you cannot do in a retail setting

I had to send an 18 year old home today because she was threatened by a customer and was shaken up. It was the 50 year old who’s been there for years that sent the customer packing. Kids are less equipped to handle situations like this so if all of us moaning Minnie’s left who’s got their backs when it all kicks off?

You’re right, I’m not.

It must be nice to have got at least one thing right.