Rude Customers

power100

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

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.

You are right; I was not suited to the job. That was surely evident from the post.

1. Did not really take it out on customers by being overtly rude.

2. Personally as, I am now, a customer I am not really bothered how the staff act . It is very understandable for staff being bored or uninterested and more customers would realise this, and take on a different attitude, if they had do a stint. Also would have someone express their true feelings rather than hide behind an insincere mask of false sincerity which is what happens with a lot of service personal.

3. No laws against obesity but it does cost society a huge amount in health treatment and lost productivity. The argument about it keeping staff in employment is invalid in general terms and on personal terms because it maintains that I was interested in keeping said job at the time.

4. Did not say I got angry at them or treated them rudely. It was just frustrating and added to the boredom level especially when ultra tired as was often the case with the ridiculous start times. If this accusation was made because of the mention of homicidal rage you are clearly taking it way to seriously and it was exaggerated although I am sure virtually everyone has been there at some point. Any anger expressed is more general and directed at humanity, existence or society in general rather than any specific individual.

5. This is true but I was never unpleasant to anyone, but was uninterested and unwilling on occasion. This led to some high levels of abuse on occasion that was all out of proportion to anything that occasioned it.

6. They cannot win because I no longer work in the retail sector. Cannot lose the game if you do not play . In seriousness I was friendly with customers if they were nice and was feeling up to it. It is a soul destroying job and it is BS that management expects the staff to be friendly all the time.

7. Checkout dolly I resent that Sir, at least, on the grounds of gender!

They are worse jobs, but they are not easy to find and retail is certainly up there in the pantheon. As for better jobs then they do exist but it is highly relative when considering wage slavery. It has been said, but it bears repeating that the trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.

faded_flowers

Valli wrote: »

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.

Definitely. We've got a few regulars who come in just to chat because they're lonely.

Not that we don't get our share of the rude ones... especially when you have to refuse a sale for ID or something. It's not our fault the rules say you have to have it!

Kaleidoscope27

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 made me jump the other day when a customer I was helping out in the fitting rooms stuck her head out of her fitting room and addressed me by name. I forgot I was wearing a badge. :rotfl:

As I work in lingerie, my colleagues and I will often spend a good deal of time with just one customer (bra fitting) so I find it's nice for them to know our names because it builds a more friendly atmosphere between us (which is useful when we're basically seeing them half naked.) Also it means if we've ducked out of the fitting room for a minute, they can ask for us by name rather than say "the blonde girl was helping me."

I enjoy working in a customer faced environment. I did a couple of office jobs last year and despised them both. I'm not saying I want to work in retail for the rest of my life (I have nothing against retail but I would like to be able to afford to move out of my parents house at some point ) but I certainly enjoy it for the time being!

Not that I don't interact with my own selection of irritating and amusing customers, but they're far outweighed by the friendly and polite customers we get in

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

My apologies if the checkout dolly term hurt your feelings

What I wrote was what would be going on in my head, mainly to keep the worst parts of any job (dealing with idiot managers) at a minimum, rather than dwell upon it and make myself miserable.

Glad to hear you have something which makes you happier now.

fedupnow

Kaleidoscope27 wrote: »

they can ask for us by name rather than say "the blonde girl was helping me."

This reminds me of another story. My father took his shoes to a cobblers and never left his name. When he went to collect them, he described the shoes and told them when he had left them and what was wrong etc. The cobbler says, 'oh ay, here they are.'

'That's them' says Dad, pays and takes them home.

When he goes to wear them, he finds a note inside one of them that says, 'funny little fat man with glasses.'

EssexGirl

fedupnow wrote: »

This reminds me of another story. My father took his shoes to a cobblers and never left his name. When he went to collect them, he described the shoes and told them when he had left them and what was wrong etc. The cobbler says, 'oh ay, here they are.'

'That's them' says Dad, pays and takes them home.

When he goes to wear them, he finds a note inside one of them that says, 'funny little fat man with glasses.'

Funniest thing I've read all day, thank you!

It's for that reason we are not allowed to leave anything but factual remarks about our customers on their membership file at work.

fedupnow

EssexGirl wrote: »

Funniest thing I've read all day, thank you!

It's for that reason we are not allowed to leave anything but factual remarks about our customers on their membership file at work.

To be fair - he was a funny little fat man, and he wore glasses. So, it was pretty much fact.

He laughed till he was silly when he told people about it.

I do miss my Dad. He managed to find the laugh in most things, bless him.

I hope when I'm gone, my kids will remember me as somebody who laughed a lot too.

terryw

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'.

Double thanks here for the belly-laugh chuckle that you have given me.:rotfl:

power100

Kaleidoscope27 wrote: »

It made me jump the other day when a customer I was helping out in the fitting rooms stuck her head out of her fitting room and addressed me by name. I forgot I was wearing a badge. :rotfl:

As I work in lingerie, my colleagues and I will often spend a good deal of time with just one customer (bra fitting) so I find it's nice for them to know our names because it builds a more friendly atmosphere between us (which is useful when we're basically seeing them half naked.) Also it means if we've ducked out of the fitting room for a minute, they can ask for us by name rather than say "the blonde girl was helping me."

I enjoy working in a customer faced environment. I did a couple of office jobs last year and despised them both. I'm not saying I want to work in retail for the rest of my life (I have nothing against retail but I would like to be able to afford to move out of my parents house at some point ) but I certainly enjoy it for the time being!

Not that I don't interact with my own selection of irritating and amusing customers, but they're far outweighed by the friendly and polite customers we get in

It is understandable to like retail and it really depends on personality. I have never really understood humanity at all, which helps to explain the intense dislike of customer facing jobs. It is also very regimented and in our store people were not even supposed to leave the premises without explicit permission on breaks. It felt like prison as the staff got there and were not allowed to leave until the end of the shift despite desperately wanting to. It was even worse on tills as break times were religiously monitored and anyone taking an extra minute had supervisors get right on there backs.

Before that had worked in a factory and that was much better as there were basically zero customers, only corporate clients, and there were far less rules and the management and supervisors were far easier going although I am sure this does not apply everywhere. It was actually quite good fun on night shifts as there was no management and your shift of seven people were the only ones in the factory. It is certainly something to recommend to gap year students which is when I did it.

JoJo I was not offended by your comment. Anybody who gets upset about stuff on the internet is taking life FAR to seriously.