Sainsbury staff called me stupid, childish and pathetic

SukieSoo

Several weeks ago I was in a branch of Sainsbury near to where I work. (I pop in there a lot and all the staff are very friendly and helpful. Customer service there is usually excellent.)

But on this one occasion, the guy at the checkout was extremely rude. I have tattoos and tend to dye my hair bright red or occasionally other colours – he hated my hair and tattoos and made sure I knew it. He ranted on at me the whole time I was at the checkout, including stuff like telling me I'm stupid, childish, pathetic, etc.

I was quite upset and embarrassed. I could feel myself going bright red and he seemed to enjoy getting this reaction – his grin got wider and wider as he was ranting on at me.

Later that day, I called the store and a checkout supervisor answered. As soon as I started telling her what had happened, she laughed and said, “that would be [name]. We’ve had loads of complaints about him. He does this sort of thing all the time. He can’t help it – he has tourette’s syndrome.” Then she said she would get the manager to have a chat with him yet again and asked for my mobile number so she could call me back.

Something didn’t sound right – isn’t tourette’s syndrome verbal and/or physical tics? His ranting didn’t strike me as tics, it was a coherent torrent of insults.

That was several weeks ago and I’ve heard nothing back – the store hasn’t even bothered to call me. Yesterday I was in the same store and the guy was on a checkout again. I put my head down and hurried to another till, hoping that he wouldn’t notice me and have another go at me.

My sister thinks that because he was apparently enjoying how embarrassed and upset I was getting, that he’s using his tourette’s as an excuse to bully people he doesn’t like the look of and get away with saying whatever he wants. My husband thinks it’s likely that he’s a relative or friend of someone senior at the store, which is why they’re apparently letting it go.

Allowing for the fact that this guy has tourette’s, would it be wrong of me to write to head office and complain? If he is incapable of taking responsibility for the things he says, is it wrong of me to expect Sainsbury to take some responsibility? I'm not saying they should fire him, but surely they could move him to a non-customer facing position? All they seem to do is just keep telling him off over and over then putting him back on the checkouts knowing he's going to have a go at customers again.

ryanstarr

SukieSoo wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. If he'd been behaving as you describe I'd have guessed he had tourette's and wouldn't have been offended, because I'd known he couldn't help it.

He wasn't swearing but was telling me how stupid I am, that my tattoos are pathetic, my red hair was childish and stuff like that. All coherent sentences which didn't seem like tics. It included telling me about a relative of his who dyed a small streak of colour in her hair, and he told me his entirely family told her she was disowned for being childish and they all refused to speak to her until she grew up and dyed it back to brown!

If that's the case then the likelihood of him having tourettes are extremely slim . A lot of people use tourettes for an excuse nowadays , I have seen others do it and it genuinely angers me as I know what its like to live with. It makes you want to just curl up in a ball and die when people look at me because of my tics.
anyway , Id take it up with head office along and point out what he was saying does not link in with tourettes in the slightest.
You deserve at least a proper apology.

cyberbob

Write a formal letter of complaint to the manager giving them a timescale to respond. Then send a copy to Sainsbury's head office.

squack

why sainsbury's would put a guy with such bad tourette's on a checkout is beyond me. plenty of other jobs he could do around the store.

jumpycheese1

I work for Sainsburys and I don't dare even to talk to customers like what this 'tourettes' guy did to you. I keep my opinions in my head. For example, if I'm serving a customer with BO, my mind is thinking 'you could do with some anti-persparant mate'.

I had an elderly couple banned from our store as they just hurled verbal abuse at me when I've done nothing wrong. Their language was shameful and customers nearby were digusted at their attitude, behaviour and language towards me. I then burst into tears, which is unusual for me. I was then taken to the canteen for colleagues saying to me - how could anyone say horrid things to me etc. The incident happened 4.5 months ago and yet, this incident still angers many colleagues. My colleague who we are close friends phoned me that night (as she started about 2 hours after the abuse happened) and cried over what happened.

I would write to the store manager - their name is on the website if you type in the name of the store on store locater and click on store details. If you cannot remember the date of the actual incident, you could put 'I visited your store in mid-July' and express that you normally receive excellent customer service from the checkout and customer service desk. However, you haven't received a reply regarding the named member of staff and you are disappointed with the lack of response. From my experience, you get excellent dept managers - if that happened at my store, you wouldn't need to write on here, as my checkout manager is very good and rubbish ones.

He could move onto nights - just taking deliveries and putting the stuff out with no customers in the shop as that has happened with a couple of colleagues that have made several cashback errors or if the store is near to a depot - he could locate there.

jumpycheese1

Perhaps, Sainsburys need to access this guys medical records.

Sandoval

squack wrote: »

why sainsbury's would put a guy with such bad tourette's on a checkout is beyond me. plenty of other jobs he could do around the store.

Speaking hypothetically about a staff member with Tourettes syndrome - because they wish to treat him as they would any other member of staff and not discriminate against him because of his condition.

Most staff in supermarkets would be checkout-trained and be required to jump on the till during busy periods, companies can not and should not treat a staff member differently because of a condition like this.

Sandoval

Coming back to the issue if this is in fact true and he hurled abuse at you with no reason then it is classed as gross misconduct and he should be dismissed immediately.

Perhaps an offhand comment would be dealt with with a written warning or final written warning depending on the severity of the incident, but hurling a torrent of abuse at a customer is sackable offence.

preable

I really doubt he has tourettes if he is saying things like you have stupid red hair. Usualy its just 1 word or physical ticks

jamespir

squack wrote: »

why sainsbury's would put a guy with such bad tourette's on a checkout is beyond me. plenty of other jobs he could do around the store.

why should they discriminate :mad:

tbw

jamespir wrote: »

why should they discriminate :mad:

Look, with the best will in the world it simply is not possible/appropriate for people to always be given a toallly free choice of where they want to work. Unfortunately, some people do have disabilities and, while I have every sympathy for them and would want them to be given every possible chance to live life to the full, there are some things they can't/shouldn't do. It isn't discrimination in the true sense of the word to put a person who is clearly not able to deal with customers face to face in a 'background' position. Its being sensible - and also kinder to the person concerned as forcing someone with a bad case of Tourette's to deal with customers surely will cause them embarrassment, distress and hurt. They know themselves what is happening and would want to avoid it if they could.

Doesn't sound like this guy has Tourette's though - possibly some per personality disorder or Asbergers. He shouldn't be on the till though - customers have the right to be treated politely !!!