Customer service (or lack of)

trafalgar_2

My bugbare today is shop assistants young and old , male and female.
I went into my local store today and the two behind the counter were quite happily chatting, I helped myself to what I wanted and approached the till

BIG MISTAKE , now I realise I am what is called "a neccessary evil"
Neccessary, because without me the shop would not sell anything and would close ,putting these unlucky people on the dole

Evil, because I dared to enter the shop, pick up the items and approach the till in order to pay for them


How utterly inconsiderate of me to interrupt their conversation, how dare I expect a few seconds attention, why should they say please or thank you, how can I expect them to ask if I want them in a bag
I'm meant to do them the courtesy of keeping them in employment , what else would be my purpose in life

I really should learn consideration and should not venture to that shop again until I do

I'M SORRY ::)

arkonite_babe

I worked in retail for many years and always treated people the way I would like to be treated myself, sorry you had a bad experience . Not all retail peeps are like this

scheming_gypsy

Few years back me and a mate were in a Sports shop in Bury where my mate was shopping for some new trainers.  There must have been about 4 'assistants' standing round talking and looking at him looking at them with a shoe in his hand waiting for some service.  After about 5 minutes of this he called them a bunch of effin w'ers and threw the trainer at them.

I could hardly leave the shop for laughing, and i doubt they learnt a lesson

trafalgar_2

I worked in retail for many years and always treated people the way I would like to be treated myself, sorry you had a bad experience . Not all retail peeps are like this

No your right I worked in retail too and wouldn't dream of treating people this way
But these days that's not an isolated thing I'm afraid

trafalgar_2

Few years back me and a mate were in a Sports shop in Bury where my mate was shopping for some new trainers.  There must have been about 4 'assistants' standing round talking and looking at him looking at them with a shoe in his hand waiting for some service.  After about 5 minutes of this he called them a bunch of effin w'ers and threw the trainer at them.

I could hardly leave the shop for laughing, and i doubt they learnt a lesson

I think I should be more polite but the idea is attractive ;D ;D ;D

The trouble is there is no happy medium
Ignore or pounce is all they know, at least with pounce you can say "just looking , thanks"

Fran

I can't stand people gossiping when they're at the till either, I've even had people on the phone and they don't pause but serve you as well! Equally I don't like being pounced on the second I start looking at things. ::)

trafalgar_2

Equally I don't like being pounced on the second I start looking at things. ::)

True , Sometimes if they pounce too quick I'll just leave the shop and not even bother looking round

I like a good browse

aussielle

Hi Trafalgar
I would say consider yourself lucky, after my experience in Asda a couple of months ago. At least they did stop and serve you!!
I whizzed round this particular day, didn't even have a basket, just a few bits, came to about £3. It was quite busy and I wanted to use switch card (don't ever use cash) so I went to the kiosk, where 3 assistants were stood chatting and laughing. I put the shopping on the counter and one of the assistants looked 'most put out' and decared 'You'll have to take them over to the tills love' When I said but I want some cigs and a lottery ticket as well. Assistant's response was come back when you've paid for your shopping. I explained that I only want to make one purchase, using switch and she still wouldn't serve me. She told me that the kiosk is only used when the store is busy. Who on earth defines 'busy'? There were queues at all the open check outs, so my definition would be 'busy' I went and queued at the checkout and paid (if I hadn't really needed the things I think I would have thrown them at her) but I didn't bother with the lottery etc. I went to customer services and they filled in a complaint form. I wish I had asked to see the manager now, looking back to the incident still makes me mad. If assistants think I will queue up to get served, so that they can get paid to finish their conversation without interuption they can think again. In true MS style I voted with my feet and my purse, have not been in since and now use Tesco.

lawrat

sorry to be the slightly annoying one here but not all sales assistant pounce by choice. I personally hate doing it, I like to give people time to browse, but we're often under pressure from managers to pounce on customers. One job i had, we had to approach i.e. pounce on someone within two minutes of entering the store. Even if its obvious the customer really is just browsing. In my current job we can have up to 4 or 5 managers on the shop floor as well as supervisors(i.e. me) so there can be no escape for the staff

However I do feel for you trafalgar - I can't stand rude sales assistants who make out as if you're interupting their own time and Fran I think answering the phone whilst serving someone is one of the rudest things a sales assistant can do and also means they are not focused on either task they are doing.

Anyway just felt the need to give my two pennies worth

lawrat

trafalgar_2

Hi Aussielle
Good on you for voting with your feet as long as you don't pay more for your shop
What we should do actually is call the manager and ask for 10 % off the bill, because part of the profits from the sale pay for assistants to serve us. Just say I only got 0.5 % sevice so I would like 10% off please
Wonder what reaction it would bring
Next time it happens I'm going to do that and see ;D ;D

trafalgar_2

I take Sheel and Lawrats points
and yes there are rude customers too

If someone pounces I say politely I'm just looking thank you but if they come up and go YES I walk

I think there are a lot of very rude people on both sides I can only speak from my point of view,I was raised to be respectful of everyone young and old ,common courtesy costs nothing .