Don't take it out on the check out girl/boy

Polydactyly

Takoda wrote: »

If you choose to post your comments on a PUBLIC forum you can expect people to comment on your qualifications for backing up your arguments. Especially MSE and especially in the Vent section - we take no prisoners. Post c**p and you can be sure someone will tell you about it. I've posted c**p on occasions but not this time.

You appear in your posts to be somewhat naive and have a user name that most likely has your age in it. Plus someone using a Little Miss username is probably not going to be a pensioner are they?

Keep my comments to myself? Have you learnt anything from reading my posts on this thread? Obviously not! More naivety. It is a message board - if everyone kept their comments to themselves then Martin would be here on his own LOL. I dunno - the youth of today... what ARE they like?

Like I said before if your job involves dealing with difficult people on a daily basis and you can't handle that then it is most likely NOT the correct job for you and you should find a role that is more suitable.

My bookshop experience was OK because I felt that customers were treated well by Pentos who owned it. The staff were underpaid and undervalued but that's another story.

I would've had an ethical problem with working for a company who I felt was ripping customers off. If a till person gets an unreasonable amount of complaints (from a wide section of society and not just the nutters and those with anger management issues) then the company is at fault and should review their practices.

Good training + the right attitude can work wonders in customer relations.

You probably won't agree with me now but you might in a few years time LOL.

Last comment on this issue - bored with it now.

Thank heavens. We're bored of you too.

My original post: In no way shape or form did I suggest that checkout staff are 'special' or more important than other public facing roles such as health professionals or the police force.

Just proves that there are a minority of people who take pleasure in belittling others.

Yes the youth of today...... You appear in your posts to be somewhat patronising and too far up your own a*se.

"in my day......blee blee blee blah blah blah" Give it a rest.

Thank you for your pearls of wisdom. We will all learn from your many years of bookshop experience and who knows... may even dig ourselves out of the recession :rolleyes:

hollydays

fizzlebottom wrote: »

Glad I came across this thread so I can vent my spleen. Library I work in now provide free IT access. The word free seems to send people into 'mad mode' I have had to stand there and 'take' some young girl shouting about my attitude etc. etc. and her rights all because I asked her to produce her library card - which is a stated rule for using IT. The really awful part, as others have said, is having to stand there and take it. If anyone spoke to me like that out in the street I would ********** them. Feeling slightly better now, thank you:A

You need an attitude adjustment.:DPeople like this are to be more pitied than laughed at (as my granny used to sarcastically say)-enjoy the entertainment (you must keep a straight face though!) Look forward to the foot stampers, as it will make the day go quicker.

OfficeSpace

I was lucky enough to work for Sainsbury's for bang on 5 years from shortly before my 16th birthday. All those rude customers made me a better person i feel.

Takoda

Polydactyly wrote: »

Thank heavens. We're bored of you too.

My original post: In no way shape or form did I suggest that checkout staff are 'special' or more important than other public facing roles such as health professionals or the police force.

Just proves that there are a minority of people who take pleasure in belittling others.

Yes the youth of today...... You appear in your posts to be somewhat patronising and too far up your own a*se.

"in my day......blee blee blee blah blah blah" Give it a rest.

Thank you for your pearls of wisdom. We will all learn from your many years of bookshop experience and who knows... may even dig ourselves out of the recession :rolleyes:

"Bored of" me? I THINK you mean "Bored WITH" me.

Why should I give it a rest? I'm as entitled to post my opinion as anyone else. More so in fact since the range of jobs I have had gives me an overall view that someone who went from school into retail and then stayed there for years cannot possibly have!

Yeah - youth of today...don't get me started. Want everything but are not prepared to put the time in, work at things etc.

My little old pearls of wisdom? - why thank you. You're very welcome

Like I said get better training/skills/attitude or get another job.

Simples!

nich29580

Jo_F wrote: »

Good training and the right attittude can work wonders, but it doesn't work all the time, there are times that no matter how well trained you are, how diplomatic, helpful or nice and friendly, yoou are just going to have the customer from hell who is hell bent on being a right royal pain in the !!!. There are some that there is just no pleasing, they actually go out with the intention of 'making that idiot pay for that' and as such, will not be happy until they have reduced some shop worker (or anyone else for that matter) to a gibbering wreak.

I have worked in retail, most of the big names, I have also worked behind bars in clubs and function halls, there are nice customers and there are horrible ones, and when it comes to the horrible ones, even a saint would struggle with them.

100% agree with you. ive worked for the big A for six years and have one of these types of customers on a monthly basis.

vyle

Takoda wrote: »

Like I said get better training/skills/attitude or get another job.

Simples!

In an economy/climate where jobs are drying up, leaving the job one has and getting another one would pretty much be suicide.

For one thing, if you stay in the job and try to find a new one (as I did with a job I absolutely dispised) it could take months or even years.

What if the person who is in such a job has disabilities which restrict the work they can apply for?

If they leave the job voluntarily, they won't get benefits and may well end up in severe financial peril.

You seem to be under the impression that people are willingly putting themselves in a position to be abused, when in reality, a lot of people are in these jobs out of necessity.

All OP is asking for is for people not to blame the frontline staff for the failings of management.

I got an earful yesterday because a customer decided it was my fault that they didn't have a digital TV aerial because they came in, bought a TV and didn't get a signal. At the time of purchase they had been given a leaflet explaining about aerials and the sale of goods act position, showing that they weren't entitled to a full refund because the TV wasn't faulty.

If I had given the refund, I would have been sacked.

So therefore it was my fault that the customer was an idiot.

In contrast to that, I had a very nice customer on the same day who understood that I couldn't do a whole lot about their problem there and then, because they hadn't bought their receipt or told me what was wrong with their item, only that they were fed up with it and wanted a refund. They'd bought the item, but no accessories or packaging.

Instead of exploding, as many customers would, he went home, got the relevant items that we needed to sort it out, was back in half an hour and everything went smoothly. On some days, a similar person would have spend the next forty minutes in the office screaming about how I was a moron.

I understand things can get stressful for both sides, but I wonder how many professors (it seems to mainly be professors who are the idiots around here) and other arrogant customers would like me to come into their place of work and abuse them for no reason other than to make myself feel special?

biscit

Sometimes it's not what you say, it's the way that you say it.

Some (not all) of the things in the opening post would be perfectly acceptable if phrased differently.

"Sorry I don't have a Boots card, I don't believe in them" would get the same message over without any rudeness or agression. Maybe "I don't like big companies knowing too much about me."

I do get the impression some see those who would like things expressed nicely as high faluting snobs.

It is very easy to treat the front line worker as a representative earpiece for the company as a whole. I would be lying if I said I had never done this.

Yes sometimes the shop floor worker is not expressing a level of competence that it is reasonable to expect from any human being, training or no training.
Sometimes I hold my tongue and only show my frustraions in invunutary frustrated manerisms. Sometimes I manage to let it pass totally. Other times I fail.

biscit

Takoda wrote: »

By virtue of your username you are immediately on ignore. I refuse to waste even one second of THIS summer holiday reading your drivel, nastiness and lies.

I absolutely hate liars with a passion and you are one of the worst. Bye.

A liar is someone who says something that

* Is factually incorrect (ie not a matter of opinion)
and
* Believes what they are saying to be factually incorrect.

If you believe what you say is right, you are not a liar. You may be wrong, but being wrong is different to being a liar.

eyelinerprincess

I had a lovely customer the other week, I asked if she wanted a bag and she went on this huge rant about "Of course I want an effing bag, how the eff am I going to carry this stuff home if I don't get one? Blah blah blah." Are people so self absorbed that they don't realise that people bring their own bags now? That I was simply asking if they would like a bag, or would they like to put their stuff in one of the bags they already have.

Glowie2k2_2

I had to reply to this as some of the comments on here about needing the right skills to avoid hassle from customers is complete rubbish:mad:. I used to work at Tesco and always enjoyed my job on customer service. I was always polite and helpful, yet I would always have at least 2 customers coming to customer service with "a bag on" because we didn't have anything in, shouting and hurling abuse at the staff in general and myself personally.

I have always been calm in these situations and could normally help the customer, but there are some that will not be helped and just want to basically try and cause trouble. In those situations there is nothing you can do but either tell them that you can't do anything or get security to escort them from the store.

However, on the other side some customer assistants I have seen are awful. Rude, grumpy and annoyed when you interuppt them mid-conversation:mad:. Won't do anything to help, but at least they will be told off about it and threatend with disciplinary action of some sort. You can't really do that with customers!!:rolleyes:

Btw I apologise for my horrific spelling as I am typing very quickly at work!! :rotfl: