People using up your time

fierystormcloud

amistupid wrote: »

I can tolerate chatty conversations between staff and customers but my blood boils when I'm kept waiting by two shop assistants nattering about nothing.

WOW! This is soooooo annoying.

And I tell you what, this happens to me around 2 in every 5 times that I go into a foodstore/hypermarket. Iceland are the worst offenders, but Tesco and Sainsbury's are almost as bad. I have had countless times when I am not greeted at the checkout, and I have no eye contact, and then the checkout assistant starts chatting to one of her mates about NOTHING work related. Completely ignoring me the whole time.

I have even had some transactions where the assistant doesn't say one single word to me throughout the entire transaction, despite me saying 'hello and 'thank you.' Amongst other things.

So unbelievably and utterly, utterly RUDE.

vroombroom wrote: »

This annoys me greatly.

My CM is great example of this - when I drop my son off, she goes into great detail about her weekend or something similar. I have to get to work.

What is a CM?

Pollycat wrote: »

I think keeping people waiting is the height of rudeness.
It just says 'my time is more important than yours'.

I too get annoyed when shop assistants are chatting.
I was in Poundworld yesterday and there were 4 staff on the shop floor, one behind the till and a queue of more than 10 people.
.

Absolutely right Pollycat!

Another bugbear of mine is the dentist, the doctor, the optician, the hairdresser...

I have yet to go to the doctor OR the dentist, and get in on time. I almost always have to wait 15 to 30 minutes after my appointment time.

One time my doctor's appointment was 8.40am (ten minutes after they opened,) and I wasn't called in til 9.05am. He was 25 minutes behind, by the SECOND appointment of the day! (The doctor turning up 10 minutes late didn't help either.)

I have also been to the dentist for 2pm before (the first appointment after lunch,) and he waltzes in at 2.07pm, and calls me in at 2.10pm, so he is already 10 minutes behind before he has started! 3 out of every 4 times, I don't get into my dental appointment until half an hour to 40 minutes after the appointment time...

The hairdresser and the optician annoy me too, although they aren't as bad as the doctor and dentist. They are almost always 15-20 minutes behind.

This is along a similar vein...

My husband finishes work at 4.30pm, and this one woman who is a cleaner who works 4.30pm til 8.00pm, and she just LOVES to keep people talking. Sometimes my husband in the unlucky one LOL. She talks and talks and talks, and keeps him til 4.50pm sometimes. Occasionally even 5.00pm!

He won't say anything, but he grumbles about it at home. It's so annoying for him. I said that he should say to her 'if you want to keep me talking for 20-25 minutes, why don't you come in at 4 0 clock?! So you can yak and yak on YOUR time?!' Thing is, she keeps him so long sometimes, that he hits the rush hour!

quidsy

If I get ignored by shop staff & they are just standing around or chatting a loud "Do you work here? Oh you do, I'd not have guessed" seems to move their asses pretty quick. I can live with the dirty looks & sulky face, as long as they get on with their jobs.

Alikay

Pollycat wrote: »

It's not the sales assistant to customer exchange that annoys me.
It's the sales assistants talking to each other when customers are waiting to be served.

Well that's just poor staff training or supervision by the management, or bad behaviour by the staff members. When I worked in a shop (a travel agency) we were expected to attend to customers immediately, and nattering to colleagues simply wouldn't be tolerated in a shop with customers waiting to be served. Of course commission on sales (even though it was low) and a hope to gain promotion helped . It's no excuse, but I wonder if keeping most retail staff on zero hours contracts and minimum wage negates the desire to excel at customer service?

FBaby

Well that's just poor staff training or supervision by the management, or bad behaviour by the staff members.

But it's absolutely everywhere or so at least it seems and happens even with managers. Same with supermarket staff who stack shelves in the middle of the day and seem to think that customers should be waiting for them to finish, or move to let them pass with their trolleys, or just block a whole alley whilst talking with their colleague. They seem to be doing so totally naturally that it is hard to believe they have actually been told not to.

fierystormcloud

BigAunty wrote: »

I wish I had been less tolerant.

My ex pal, continually disorganised, late and charmless when challenged, seemed to be very indulged by others.

It was seen as 'just how she is', 'you know what she's like' and a source of jokes.

I have no idea why her behaviour, very offensive and selfish, was always so forgiven. Seems she managed to become a 'character' and was thus forgiven for her eccentricities like regularly turning up very late and without any money with her.

I only ever found one ally who sympathised with me - she said she couldn't believe a grown woman in her 40s acted like a child and was indulged without question by those around her.

LOL she sounds annoying! And yes it is irritating when people seem to think it's OK, and it's like 'awwwww you know what she's like hahaha...' :mad:

Me and my husband socialise with a couple (pub every 4-5 weeks) and without exception, they are always always always anything from 7 to 25 minutes late. They always blame each other, and they rarely apologise. One neighbour of mine says they even turn up late for Church, and certain social groups they attend.

I think it is attention seeking and narcissistic behavior. Like they think their time is more important than yours (as someone said earlier,) and so they can be the centre of attention when they do eventually arrive; blustering in loudly and arrogantly, with a fascinating story that they just HAVE to regale everyone with. *rollseyes*

I also used to know someone who was always - without fail - ALWAYS late for work. Anything from 3 to 20 minutes late. ALWAYS. It became a standing joke, and me and 2 other girls made up a list of '50 excuses that Jen comes up with for being late!' It was annoying though, because in the 7 years she was there, she never ever got pulled up about it by the boss.

BarryBlue

BigAunty wrote: »

I wish I had been less tolerant.

My ex pal, continually disorganised, late and charmless when challenged, seemed to be very indulged by others.

It was seen as 'just how she is', 'you know what she's like' and a source of jokes.

I have no idea why her behaviour, very offensive and selfish, was always so forgiven. Seems she managed to become a 'character' and was thus forgiven for her eccentricities like regularly turning up very late and without any money with her.

I only ever found one ally who sympathised with me - she said she couldn't believe a grown woman in her 40s acted like a child and was indulged without question by those around her.

I have a cousin like that. She's in her 70s now and has been like it for over 50 years to my knowledge.

About 3 years ago we went to visit them for the day, a 2-hour drive away. We were invited for Sunday lunch but inevitably it would be 6pm by the time we ate so we suggested going to a restaurant. We arrived about 12 so hoped we might get to the restaurant by about 2. It was nearer 5 by the time she had sorted herself out and there was nothing left so we ended up trying to find a curry house that opened early. We hadn't eaten since 9am.

Suffice to say that we've not bothered visiting since.

fierystormcloud wrote: »

WOW! This is soooooo annoying.

And I tell you what, this happens to me around 2 in every 5 times that I go into a foodstore/hypermarket. Iceland are the worst offenders, but Tesco and Sainsbury's are almost as bad. I have had countless times when I am not greeted at the checkout, and I have no eye contact, and then the checkout assistant starts chatting to one of her mates about NOTHING work related. Completely ignoring me the whole time.

I have even had some transactions where the assistant doesn't say one single word to me throughout the entire transaction, despite me saying 'hello and 'thank you.' Amongst other things.

So unbelievably and utterly, utterly RUDE.

Try using Aldi. Their cashiers are almost too quick and you are so busy packing you don't have time to natter. Suits me fine!

As for being ignored, that isn't acceptable either. I used to do mystery shopping and Tesco had a standard where the cashier had to greet you, make eye contact, ask about Clubcard and if you were reusing any bags, ask if you needed help packing, and thank you as you left. You had to tick a box for each and comment if they failed. It affected their bonus payments if we failed them.

FBaby

As for being ignored, that isn't acceptable either. I used to do mystery shopping and Tesco had a standard where the cashier had to greet you, make eye contact, ask about Clubcard and if you were reusing any bags, ask if you needed help packing, and thank you as you left. You had to tick a box for each and comment if they failed. It affected their bonus payments if we failed them.

They do do that.....after they've ignored for how long as they saw fit (talking with colleagues)! I actually find Waitrose to be the absolute worse supermarket for that behaviour!

Cycrow

When i used to work at Tesco, had a regular customer who used to deliberately go as slow as possible. He would put 1 item at a time on the belt, wait for it to be scanned, then pack away before putting the next one. And would be very slow at packing.

His reasoning was to stop Tesco getting his money to quickly, because he hated large companies. Not that it would make a difference, and the only people it actually effected were the customers waiting for him to finish

Pollycat

Alikay wrote: »

Well that's just poor staff training or supervision by the management, or bad behaviour by the staff members. When I worked in a shop (a travel agency) we were expected to attend to customers immediately, and nattering to colleagues simply wouldn't be tolerated in a shop with customers waiting to be served. Of course commission on sales (even though it was low) and a hope to gain promotion helped . It's no excuse, but I wonder if keeping most retail staff on zero hours contracts and minimum wage negates the desire to excel at customer service?

TBH, I don't really care what the reason is.
It annoys me.
As FBaby says, it's common practice nowadays.

And another thing:
If you are in somewhere like the doctor, dentist, libarary etc and are being attended to and the phone rings and the person serving you immediately picks the phone up. :mad:

"Er, excuse me, I was here first. Why is the person on the other end of the phone more important than me?"

BarryBlue

FBaby wrote: »

They do do that.....after they've ignored for how long as they saw fit (talking with colleagues)! I actually find Waitrose to be the absolute worse supermarket for that behaviour!

Believe me, I would have made comment about that and sometimes did. Tesco had some awful staff at that time and their bonus payments would certainly have suffered.

The worst ever was at a Tesco Express where we had to buy 3 or 4 items, including a bulky one that required a bag. We were instructed that we must never use a self checkout, we had to wait. At this one shop, the staff were all stood nattering, some outside having a fag with the security man. One woman said "use the self checkout, the others are all closed" so I played dumb and she had to come and scan it for me. She was extremely abrupt with plenty of tutting.

Suffice to say my controller came back to me for more details as the store were dismissing her. Mine was not the first poor report, apparently.