Rude Customers

marleyboy

The worse time I recall was at the post office, this was probably 20 years ago, there had been a long post strike, at the time I was on YTS, as it was paid via the benefits, I got it as a Giro, much as everybody else, the strike was over, everybody rammed the Post Office, pensions, benefits, were all paid via the Post Office in those days.

The first thing I noted was the Post Office were turning hoards of people away, for not having the right ID, fortunately for me, I had my passport on me, after a good hour in a queue, I finally got my turn, she asked for ID and I happily gave it. Then she said "Well I havent got any change, go and knock on a neighbours door and ask if you can borrow a tenner, and bring it in with you.

I left feeling agog, I didnt know any neighbours, and I am hardly going to ask the ones I do, if I could borrow a tenner for an hour. I decided to wait, then go back to the post office later, still the queue was large, but eventually I got to the same cashier, I said I had tried but nobody had any, she turned rund and said "Oh well if you cant be bothered to try, here you go, and handed me my money ALL (£110) in £1 coins. And it was £10 down.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I actually enjoyed working on a checkout. Bar work was enjoyable, too.

Maybe my degree level studies are going to be of no use after all.

fedupnow

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I actually enjoyed working on a checkout. Bar work was enjoyable, too.

Maybe my degree level studies are going to be of no use after all.

I enjoyed it too.

I have worked in shops on the till and floor. I worked bars and I have walked miles as a waitress. Enjoyed all of it. The grotty customers didn't upset me much, there is always going to be somebody trying to !!!! you off. I tried to stay cheerful and helpful and eventually they come around (usually).

The waitressing was the hardest job physically. Hours on my feet and I grew biceps too. Despite the free meals and ymmy desserts I never put on weight. I loved that job.

Now I work a lot less hard for a lot more money ... and it's dull.

power100

Great thread and I share your pain. I worked retail for about ten months before escaping the rat race, hopefully for good, and it was genuinely depressing. It really is a mind killer and reduced my opinion of homo sapiens to an even lower level that what I started with. The amount of obese, senile or just rude customers was incredible and it was mind numbingly boring. It still amazes me that I did not lose it totally with a customer and do a Wrestler type exit.

The big retail chains treat the staff like crap and probably are the worst for BS around. The team meeting we had on customer service where we were told to treat every customer with a smile, despite mood or customer attitude, because it was our job was especially gold. Simply do not know how people do customer facing jobs for years, or even decades, on end by the time I quit I was on the brink of losing it big time. The only thing that helped to keep me sane were the benefits!

Edit: The things that were among the most annoying were the customers who looked at your name badge and addressed you by your Christian name like they were best pals with you. I do not know you or have any desire to do so stop being an patronising !!!!!! and acting like my mate. After you have done that then jog on. It was unfortunate that this could be not vocalised as it would have constituted gross misconduct and was the reason why I wore the name badge as little as possible. The same thing applies to people calling you mate and was enough to inspire almost homicidal rage. The fact that staff were also personally liable for selling alcohol to minors was stupid as well.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

power100 wrote: »

Great thread and I share your pain. I worked retail for about ten months before escaping the rat race, hopefully for good, and it was genuinely depressing. It really is a mind killer and reduced my opinion of homo sapiens to an even lower level that what I started with. The amount of obese, senile or just rude customers was incredible and it was mind numbingly boring. It still amazes me that I did not lose it totally with a customer and do a Wrestler type exit.

The big retail chains treat the staff like crap and probably are the worst for BS around. The team meeting we had on customer service where we were told to treat every customer with a smile, despite mood or customer attitude, because it was our job was especially gold. Simply do not know how people do customer facing jobs for years, or even decades, on end by the time I quit I was on the brink of losing it big time. The only thing that helped to keep me sane were the benefits!

Edit: The things that were among the most annoying were the customers who looked at your name badge and addressed you by your Christian name like they were best pals with you. I do not know you or have any desire to do so stop being an patronising !!!!!! and acting like my mate. After you have done that then jog on. It was unfortunate that this could be not vocalised as it would have constituted gross misconduct and was the reason why I wore the name badge as little as possible. The same thing applies to people calling you mate and was enough to inspire almost homicidal rage. The fact that staff were also personally liable for selling alcohol to minors was stupid as well.

Sounds like you weren't suited to the job.

1. It's not the customer's fault the manager is a d*$k. Why take it out on them?

2. Why should a customer have to be presented by a sullen faced old bag or sulky teenager when they go shopping? Is it their problem that you think your job is below you?

3. There's no law against being fat. If you look at it positively, their increased food purchases make it more likely that you will keep your job for longer.

4. You can't legislate against poor education, old age or brain damage. Not everyone is a media mogul or Richard Branson, so why waste time being angry at them?

5. Rude people are in the wrong. However, if you were giving even the slightest hint of your true feelings over to the customers, they would have been more likely to be rude to you.

6. But then you go and complain about the ones that are chatty and friendly - they really can't win with you, can they?

7. For a lot of people, they have extremely isolated, lonely lives. Some find the whole supermarket experience incredibly unpleasant and demeaning to their personal sense of entitlement and dignity. Perhaps that is why you seem to have felt such rage towards innocent people as well as why some were so rude to you. Others find it their only connection with the outside world. They don't deserve to have someone working as a checkout dolly look down their noses, get snippy with them or treat them as something that has crawled out from underneath the nearest rock.



There are worse jobs around, as well as better ones. I have no problem with the concept of being polite, friendly and cheerful towards customers and if someone is paying my bills for me, I think they probably do have the right to expect me to adjust my attitude towards the paying public.

bethesda

power100 wrote: »

The things that were among the most annoying were the customers who looked at your name badge and addressed you by your Christian name like they were best pals with you. I do not know you or have any desire to do so stop being an patronising !!!!!! and acting like my mate. After you have done that then jog on. It was unfortunate that this could be not vocalised as it would have constituted gross misconduct and was the reason why I wore the name badge as little as possible. The same thing applies to people calling you mate and was enough to inspire almost homicidal rage. The fact that staff were also personally liable for selling alcohol to minors was stupid as well.

it's good customer service to wear a name badge...........it builds customer rapport among other things and i'm sure if you'd ever given outstanding service and the customer wanted to compliment you to your employers you'd rather they were able to name you than not.
In my last job we didn't get badges and i have an accent apparently that makes everyone think my name is Polly but then i should be grateful i'm not getting called Linda anymore:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

i'm not called Linda or Polly btw

Valli

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I actually enjoyed working on a checkout. Bar work was enjoyable, too.

Maybe my degree level studies are going to be of no use after all.

same here actually - and I worked at the bingo, on booksales which was great fun because you could 'banter' (carefully) with the customers. And I prided myself on being spot on with my money, too - £6000+ on a good night and all correct. But the pay wasn't fantastic so I moved on.

It really IS NOT difficult to give good customer service...and, as has been said, some customers have little or no contact with people - it matters to them that they CAN talk to the people who serve them.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

bethesda wrote: »

it's good customer service to wear a name badge...........it builds customer rapport among other things and i'm sure if you'd ever given outstanding service and the customer wanted to compliment you to your employers you'd rather they were able to name you than not.
In my last job we didn't get badges and i have an accent apparently that makes everyone think my name is Polly but then i should be grateful i'm not getting called Linda anymore:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

i'm not called Linda or Polly btw

I spent years being called Dorothy because during my first week of work, I wore a blue checked top and my hair was in bunches (I was 15 at the time) and some old dear decided my turned up nose, freckles and dark red hair meant I was Judy Garland's doppelganger. Then she told her friends to go to 'Dorothy's Till'.

And the so and sos in the back office were persuaded by the shop floor lads to issue me with a Dorothy name badge at the same time as someone stuck a sign on the back of my chair...

saying [sigh] 'This isn't Kansas Anymore'.

DCFC79

Big_Melons wrote: »

It's what they should all do, why should customers have to tell people tills are closing? Tesco's is the only one I know that does it.

a sign is put on the till belt but people just ignore it and carry on pilling theyre stuff on the belt so teh c/o has to inform the customer that teh till is closing, ive had to do it before and it was annoying

bethesda

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I spent years being called Dorothy because during my first week of work, I wore a blue checked top and my hair was in bunches (I was 15 at the time) and some old dear decided my turned up nose, freckles and dark red hair meant I was Judy Garland's doppelganger. Then she told her friends to go to 'Dorothy's Till'.

And the so and sos in the back office were persuaded by the shop floor lads to issue me with a Dorothy name badge at the same time as someone stuck a sign on the back of my chair...

saying [sigh] 'This isn't Kansas Anymore'.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: