Rude Customer.

talulahbeige_2

JoolzS wrote: »

Has it ever occurred to you that some shop assistants end up with bad attitudes because they are constantly in contact with customers such as the OP described?

Has it ever occured to you that some customers have a bad attittude beacause they are sick to death of being fobbed off, over charged, treated like dirt for spending money with your company, treated like dirt for wanting an item to last longet than a month etc etc?

superscaper

talulahbeige wrote: »

Has it ever occured to you that some customers have a bad attittude beacause they are sick to death of being fobbed off, over charged, treated like dirt for spending money with your company, treated like dirt for wanting an item to last longet than a month etc etc?

Has it occurred to both of you that people are people and whether they're customers or retailers/shop assistants dealing with customers you are going to get people who are pretty much rude and unreasonable without any reason or justification.

tandraig

having worked in retail for 40 years (omg - its 40 YEARS now) off and on between having kids - other jobs - not feeling like working cos my backs too bad .................i can honestly say that retail would be a brilliant job if it wasnt for the customers .......................(or managers in some cases). To OP you must be really good at customer service to survive so long without encountering worse abuse than that! Best advice I was given by supervisor on starting work in retail (in Woollies - back in the olden days) 'Dont let the B******s get to you - just smile do your job promise nothing and let the manager deal with it - you arent paid to take s**t they are! this advice has served me well through the years - and in any 'situation' with a customer i ALWAYS called for backup even if it was just another member of staff so I had a witness - but i preferred calling supervisor or manager in! why should they sit on their duff when i was getting hassle!!

Esqui

Because you're not employed as a messenger to get the manager to come out? I try to solve all my customer's problems, and if I can't do it, I'll do the legwork. I won't make them recount the problem again to a manager. Largely, the only reason I'll need to speak to the manager is to authorise something I wouldn't normally be able to (e.g. discount for goodwill). And even then, I still make sure that I own the issue and follow it through.

Customers hate being passed around.

ranger1066

Reverbe wrote: »

Just a tip we were taught at M&S super... if you get given a twenty actually mention this to them in some way. Thats £20 etc then you can say in front of witnesses that they gave you a £20.If you dont say it , you havent had one...

When i was at uni, i had a summer job working on a local tourist attraction, someone came in paid with a £10 note, then when i gave him the change said he had given me a £20 note. I then explained he had not as we have only just opened and before he came in the biggest note i had was £5. I opened the till and showed him. He went bright red, mumbled something then stormed off.

tandraig

fair point esqui - but that only applies if you have the power to solve customer problems - in a lot of stores only the manager could authorise giving refunds or a supervisor. this applied to the woolies i was in. and the original OP was talking about being abused (for no good reason when she was trying to be nice to customer). come to think of it I cant think of any store i have worked in where sales assistants had the power to refund money, give discounts, the only exception being exchanges. Or Customer service desk staff.
I was trying to say - not very successfully by the look of it - customers can be bloody awkward dont take it personally and if poss let senior staff deal with it - you arent paid enough to take the s**t some folks deal out!!!!
as for customers hate feeling they passed around - in my experience most people demand to see manager anyway! perhaps i have given impression that i would pass the buck and was uncaring - not so. i would never call in the manager and leave the customer to explain - i would explain the prob to manager or whatever in front of customer - and if manager not helpful i have even been known to give customers the head office address. you see - I too am a customer and i expect a good standard of service......I have always tried to exceed that when working and to deal with people as i would hope to be dealt with. at the same time - some peeps are just impossible!!!!

mishkanorman

I work in a pub and recently had a *ahem* give me an hours worth of abuse over the price of the lime in his beer, the person before me had not charged for it because he told her not to (yeah cheers)

I then had the pleasure of serving him, poured the drink told him the price took his money and just as i started to serve the next person he shouted over the packed pub, "you better not have effin charged me for the lime" I returned and asked him if he requested lime, yes, did he receive lime in his drink, yes, well then ive charged you for it. He then proceeded to call me a effin retard and was i effin delusional, i shouted back at this point and told him not to speak to me like that and if he wanted to discuss it with the landlord he could. (i used my best mummy voice which possibly tipped him over the edge:rotfl:)

Landlord then appeared and the bloke told him that he has witnessed the landlords wife walking their dog over a part of his property used for access. He has given her permission but will be revoking that and speaking to his solictor first thing monday morning. Unless his staff stop charging him for lime :rolleyes: Luckily my boss is uber cool and thanked him for his observations and said he would happily coopperate with any legal action :beer:

Its 40p per shot (we only charge for one even if you have 3) Ive never met someone so rude over something so little.


On the other hand i purchased a tv aerial in tesco and was charged £20 more than the price on the shelf, CS toddled off and I couldnt follow as i had my kids. 10 mins later she returns with manager who state they dont even stock that item They had cleared the whole shelf and the price tag and denied all knowledge :mad: When i asked where i got it from then he said i must have been mistaken and purchased it another day !

mishka

tandraig

did you wave the reciept under his nose? they cant argue with that

JCS1

mishkanorman wrote: »

I work in a pub and recently had a *ahem* give me an hours worth of abuse over the price of the lime in his beer, the person before me had not charged for it because he told her not to (yeah cheers)

I then had the pleasure of serving him, poured the drink told him the price took his money and just as i started to serve the next person he shouted over the packed pub, "you better not have effin charged me for the lime" I returned and asked him if he requested lime, yes, did he receive lime in his drink, yes, well then ive charged you for it. He then proceeded to call me a effin retard and was i effin delusional, i shouted back at this point and told him not to speak to me like that and if he wanted to discuss it with the landlord he could. (i used my best mummy voice which possibly tipped him over the edge:rotfl:)

Landlord then appeared and the bloke told him that he has witnessed the landlords wife walking their dog over a part of his property used for access. He has given her permission but will be revoking that and speaking to his solictor first thing monday morning. Unless his staff stop charging him for lime :rolleyes: Luckily my boss is uber cool and thanked him for his observations and said he would happily coopperate with any legal action :beer:

Its 40p per shot (we only charge for one even if you have 3) Ive never met someone so rude over something so little.


On the other hand i purchased a tv aerial in tesco and was charged £20 more than the price on the shelf, CS toddled off and I couldnt follow as i had my kids. 10 mins later she returns with manager who state they dont even stock that item They had cleared the whole shelf and the price tag and denied all knowledge :mad: When i asked where i got it from then he said i must have been mistaken and purchased it another day !

mishka

I do disagree with being charged for lime in beer . Best way to get bar staff to understand is to ask them for a pint (cos you get charged for full pint) and when pint is served ask them to add the lime to the already full glass.

Freddie_Snowbits

On the subject of rude customers, I was in local Co-Op the other Sunday morning at 10:30 am, to hear the customer in front use profanity after prpfanity. I informed the Assisstant that they did not have to engage with the customer and should refrain form serving them. There is no call for that, nor is the call for the assistant that was clearly a friend of teh customer to continue the conversation.

As such I tool my custom elsewhere.