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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not want to be treated like an idiot just because I work in a shop!

143 replies

zisforzebra · 25/01/2010 16:11

I'm currently working in a shop. Before I started working there I had no idea just how rude people can be. Lots don't say please or thank you and some don't acknowledge me at all and practically throw the money at me. But the worst are the ones that treat me like I have no brain at all.

A woman came in today and said she wanted to learn to crochet and that she wasn't very good at knitting. She asked me if I could crochet and I said yes. Her response was a sneery "Well if you can do it, I'm sure I can". I wanted to say that I'm a bloody good knitter and not bad at crochet either and she should just bugger off with her judgements but I just smiled and sent her in the direction of a library for a book on crochet.

AIBU to be very pissed off?

OP posts:
RockbirdandHerSpork · 25/01/2010 17:09

And on the phone as well. I manage people who man a phone line all day and have covered the job many times in the past. People are so condescending it beggars belief. The only advantage is that you can give them the finger while they rant at you or hang up if they are really abusive. People on phones are right down there in the gutter with shop assistants and waitresses it seems.

DoNotFeedMeBiscuits · 25/01/2010 17:10

oooh, and when I worked in Boots as a saturday job, one particulary obnoxious woman came in and demanded her money back on some talcum powder. I expalined to her that as it was St Michael talc, she must be mistaken and have bought it in M&S, as it was their own brand and we didn't stock it. She was, however, adamant that she had bought it in Boots, and I was trying to imply that she was lying, and insisted on speaking to the manager - who (and I will never understand this) apologised to the woman and gave her a £10 gift voucher for Boots! strange and rude people everywhere!

nickelbabe · 25/01/2010 17:10

oh yes, people on the phone are brilliant: because hey can't see you, they think they can be really really rude.

like those that have names that start with an S or an F: they both sound the bloody same on the phone! so you have to ask them to repeat it and they shout it at you. then you ask them to spell it and they treat you like you're really dumb! but they hissssss the bloody F or S, so you still don't know which one they're using! why can't they just stop being rude and just say "s for sugar" instead of going sssssssssssssss (which sounds like fffffffffffffff)

RockbirdandHerSpork · 25/01/2010 17:11

I've had road and street spelled for me. Hard words those...

wukter · 25/01/2010 17:14

Norbert!
When I worked in a shop some pig told me he'd rape me (for not allowing him to return something he'd wrecked).

Ivykaty44 · 25/01/2010 17:16

I just play dumb - they get even more annoyed then its comical to watch

LunaticFringe · 25/01/2010 17:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

ppeatfruit · 25/01/2010 17:28

i have worked in retail and catering and YANBU at all!! I actually think that if a person is rude to you they are showing up they own inadequacies and it is a good sign of what type of person they are. The customer is not always right; the challenge is (it makes it easy to think of it as a challenge)to deal politely but firmly with the bad customers.

Pogleswood · 25/01/2010 17:30

It's a common problem ,isn't it.I used to get the "only a receptionist" treatment when I was temporarily manning reception - and loved seeing people's faces when they realised I was going to continue dealing with them,because I wasn't ,in fact,the receptionist.It was amazing how much their attitude and manner would change.
I have had people refuse to deal with me because I was a woman - interestingly that only seemed to be other women - not sure what the message was there!(that doesn't seem to happen now!)

Bumperlicious · 25/01/2010 17:37

Oh I don't know, some people are really nice, when i worked in a bar one lovely chap told me I'd look alright if I lost a bit of weight.

PureAsTheColdDrivenSnow · 25/01/2010 17:45

Norbert - I too have worked in a high street record store in the run up to Christmas. utter madness of Christmas shoppers + Christmas CD on loop all day, every day. I didn't lose my temper once (amazed)

OP - you are NOT being unreasonable. I've worked in several shops, couple of times as head cashier (get me ) and doesn't matter where you are, people always treat you like crap. You can be in a bespoke designer furniture store, or an electrical retail, and the attitudes are exactly the same.

Reception? Ha... don't get me started.

I'm lucky in that I have a job that's pretty much entirely shielded from Joe Public. Just the people at work to deal with then

darkandstormy · 25/01/2010 18:54

I worked for an airline once, and I have to say the rudest member of the public I ever came across was king tosser himself GORDON BROWN. Alongside another classic tit Norman Wisdom.

darkandstormy · 25/01/2010 18:59

Gordon Brown said to me "Don't you know who I am" this was back in 92/93 when he was just shit shovelling along the benches.

MorrisZapp · 25/01/2010 19:01

YANBU but it's not because you work in a shop, it's because you deal with the public, many of whom are just rude.

I used to work in shops too, and now work in a professional job. I still get people being friendly/ rude to me in the same proportions.

I must confess the rudest people I meet most days are shop assistants but I never say anything usually, sometimes I stretch to a sarcastic 'thank you' if they manage to conduct the entire transaction without looking at or speaking to me.

Mongolia · 25/01/2010 19:02

Well, it is not limited to retail, my boss, a former secretary, treated us all admin staff as if we were proper idiots. The only one who didn't have a brain degree at that place was herself.

picklepud · 25/01/2010 19:02

you know what, I take issue with judging anyone based on what they do. That goes for assuming that anyone is a fine, clever person because they do a so called "more respected" job or anything else. I also loathe many people's sense of entitlement. I am fast becoming a big old lefty.

nancy75 · 25/01/2010 19:04

i once had edwina curry demand of me - "dont you know who i am?"
i said yes i do and thats why i'm asking you to leave!
she was very very rude and deserved it!

Ivykaty44 · 25/01/2010 19:05

The rudest customer I ever had the misfortune to serve was Bob monkhouses uncle - of course I don't know who you are and I havn't got a clue who Bob monkhouses is either So it is no good slamming your fist on the counter and until you tell me what you actually want I can't serve you.

tethersend · 25/01/2010 19:07

Cuntstomers.

EmmaBemma · 25/01/2010 19:14

Quite a few of the posts here are from people who have taken pains to point out that they were studying/researching/etc at the time they worked in the service industry, viz DecorHate's "I do have a degree you know!". I think that kind of illustrates the problem really - some people are unpleasant to service industry staff because they think they're beneath them, and that's wrong regardless of whether the object of their rudeness has a degree or not.

Everyone deserves respect and courtesy - but especially if their job means they have no choice but to deal with your bullshit.

chickbean · 25/01/2010 19:17

Not just retail. I was a librarian and people could be just as rude there. Academics (always the wannabes, not the professors) would demand "Don't you know who I am?" when it wasn't actually relevant - the rules applied to them as much as anyone.

What I found worse was people who were smarmy to me because they knew where I'd got my degree, but were rude to my colleagues - that really used to piss me off. People who are rude anywhere have no class.

shockers · 25/01/2010 19:24

When I was working in a pub in my ealy 20's, Alex Higgins came to the bar and shouted out his order. Very politely I said " I will be with you in a minute sir, there are a few people who have been waiting.
"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?".... "No sir". "I'M ALEX HIGGINGS NOW GET ME A BLOODY ----" (think it was whisky but can't be sure)
The manager approached him and said very quietly. " With the greatest of respect Mr Higgins, if you were the Queen of England herself I would not allow you to speak to my staff like that. Would you like to wait to be served or shall I show you the way out?"
He waited... and he tipped me!

Ivykaty44 · 25/01/2010 19:25

I didn't have to get a degree to work in a shop, receptionist or catering work - to be honest I would have thought if you had a degree you would be a bit over qualified - I was shocked that all the staff in one kinghtbridge shop had degrees. I gues that just shows how important the work is ...
i did know that librarians had degrees though.

Mongolia · 25/01/2010 19:25

No, actually, it is not about having a degree or not, is the darn superiority complex that is the problem (and make us all needy to take out the credentials to show we are not lesser than the offensive person).

PureAsTheColdDrivenSnow · 25/01/2010 19:32

Agreed. It doesn't matter if you work in a shop while at school, whether it's a Saturday job/main career/supermarket night shift that fits in with childcare/job that you're doing while at school or uni.

The amount of shit that cashiers and receptionists have to put up with is ridiculous. I always make sure I'm exceptionally polite to them, especially at the weekends, as I know full well they'll have dealt with at least one arsehole in the last 10 mins.