Was the assistant rude?

IvanOpinion

OK, this is not a moan, a vent or a whinge but more of a disussion however since it is related to muany of the postings on the vent board I thought I would put it here rather than in DT.

On many a thread in the vent board we see 'so-and-so was rude to me when I complained'. What made me put this thread up was a conversation I overheard today while waiting at the checkout. A lady (used in the loosest possible terminology) was returning an item, I didn't hear what the lady said but the assistant said something like 'you will need to discuss that with the manager' and then went to get her (the manager); at this point the 'lady' absolutely tore shreds of the assistant and accused the shop assistant of calling her a liar, of walking away while dealing with her etc. etc.

On another occasion I was accused of calling a customer a liar because I would not refund them for a lawnmower they wanted to return. They had no receipt and were somewhat annoyed when I explained to them that we had never stocked that particular model (to be honest the store had never stocked that particular brand because it was a load of rubbish). Apparently the shopper took this as me calling him a liar and demanded to see the manager which I duly got .. although as I walked away to get him I could hear him swearing after me and telling other customers about the rubbish service we offered and 'how dare that little upstart call me a liar'. Fortunately the manager agreed with me and the made the man look like the pratt that he was.

I could list another dozen or so cases of customers getting on their high horses.

So everytime I read a thread claiming the shop assitant was rude I always ask myself 'were they?' In my experience rude shop assitants are few and far between and often when they are they are falling into the trap of responding to the customer in exactly the same way as the customer has treated them. Just because someone disagrees with you, or does not give you that refund for valid reasons, does NOT mean they were rude, aggressive or various other terms that I have seen used.

Finally one also has to remember that shops have to protect themselves from the liars, the cheats and the various forms of low-life that try to return goods that they KNOW were damaged by themselevs, with phoney receipts, bought elsewhere but pretend you have lost receipt etc. etc. I have seen virtually every trick in the trade ...and it is amazing how many shoppers are lairs, are ignorant, are arrogant or are just plain thieves.

Ivan

Bossyboots

I agree with you. I have wondered the same thing myself.

Bun

Ivan, you are talking a lot of sense. Of course shop assistants have bad days but I have been one (back when I was 'young') and although we used to get the odd shoplifter or con-artist you never used to get the abuse that you do now. Nobody is paid enough to be abused and harrassed on a daily basis just for doing their job, and being sworn at is in a work capacity is not acceptable. My pet hate is people in till queues who loudly give a running commentary about how slow the queue is going, which intimidates the assistant into making mistakes. I work in publishing and some of my staff have had aggressive clients who have sworn at them. It is not tolerated and they are warned that we will not deal with them if they behave in this fashion. At least we can revert to email only if we have to.

I have had largely good experiences, including getting refunds and exchanging goods. Asking politely, smiling and saying thank you are not really that much effort.

Bossyboots

My boss seems to think it is acceptable for the secretaries and support staff to be abused but not the "professional" staff above us. We had a customer who told me he was going to complain about my colleague because she had kept him holding on the line (she had gone to get a diary from someone else's desk). He is a particularly obnoxious little man and for some reason my boss fawns over him. My boss was not in that day so it was left for me to deal with. I believe I remained polite and professional when I told him where to get off and we have not heard from him since.

Trow

I would agree that usually people generally helpful - but I have had a customer service agent swear blind that I was refunded the correct amount and they would not listen to me at all - would not take on board *anything* I said. It did get sorted, but I had to phone back and get someone else on the phone that would actually listen and look a little more critically at the order.

There are good and bad in every field.

krisskross

Not only shop assistants, almost anyone who has contact with the public. I worked in the NHS, as a Senior sister and was responsible for dealing with complaints "out of hours" I have been threatened i.e. i'll be waiting for you outside......been spat at and verbally abused more times than i care to remember. One lovely chap tried to strangle me because he wasn't attended to as quickly as he wanted, luckily for me the police were in the department and rescued me. Were these people banned? Of course they weren't, weak lily livered management are too afraid of not being politically correct. I finally left, took early retirement, but in reality driven out by the small percentage of the population who are out of control.

Wig

I will say it takes two to tango.

In Ivans example, the correct way for the assistant to have handled the situation

"you will need to speak to the manager - would you like me to call him/her?"

"you will need to speak to the manager - I'll just go and get him/her"

"you will need to speak to the manager - please wait while I fetch him/her"

"I'm sorry I cannot do that for you, Only the manager is authorised to make that decision, shall I call him/her?"

A lot of it is misunderstandings on both sides, but when you factor in that a customer going to CS desk is usually going to be annoyed to begin with it is all the more important for the CS staff to be as polite as they can be.

I'll give an example of what happened to me last week.

Gave cashier 2 vouchers, 1 for double points, 1 for organic veg. Out side store I checked the reciept (which is where I allways check it) I saw the double points menioned on the reciept but what I thought was 50p off organic veg wasn't showing in the subtotals/Total. So I went back in to the CS desk. Said to lady, just bought this handed over two vouchers only one is showing, she looked at reciept, and said
"Have you questioned the cashier yet?"

*From my point of view I thought, why does she expect me to go back to the cashier all the way down there, the sensible thing for me to do is to go to CS desk and that is what I have done.....Is she telling me to go and talk to the cashier first then come back to her?

*from her point of view (I suppose) she might have thought I had brought it up with the cashier as and when it happened, which is why she asked, she did not see that I came in from the car park - that I had not come directly from the cashier.

So going as I saw the situation (above) I said "No, but I'm sure you can ask her"

She then said "Ok, what's the name?"

*from my point of view I thought she was saying what is the name of the cashier.

I said "it should be on the reciept"

she says "no I mean your name on the voucher"

me "Ohh I see, and I gave her another voucher with my name on".

Off she went and came back, to point on the reciept that the voucher I had thought was pence was in fact points and was showing on the bottom of the reciept in the points section. Problem solved.

Outside my OH said to the effect of "I cant believe she expected us to go back to the cashier! - she wasn't very pleasant was she - I would have told her where to go - I don't know how you remained so calm...."

So I replied to OH "that's what I thought she meant too - but I think she was just asking if we had enquired with the cashier at the time of payment, she didn't realise we came into the store from outside" OH said "oh right, I see that's possible I suppose but she still wasn't very pleasant".

I agreed she wasn't overly pleasant, but that isn't very important to me. Because I can be a grumble myself. What is important to me is:

Professionalism
Being clear asking questions clearly so it is obvious what is meant. (but misunderstandings are always going to occur)
Saying what you intend to do - before doing it.

A bonus for me is a CS rep who is polite & pleasant to deal with.

Conclusion: Both sides need to keep a clear head remain calm, and always remember the other person might not mean what I have interpreted they meant.

Ellie2758

I work with the public and I can honestly say that the rudest of all in my experience are old (i.e. retired) people. Not ALL old people I hasten to add, but a far higher percentage than of other age groups. Weird innit?

Ellie
no spring chicken btw

Smiley_Mum

I don't mind standing in a line for a checkout if things are going at a reasonable pace. What annoys me greatly is when the checkout operator is having a major gab with one of her mates and is going not particulary quickly, although it is obviously busy with every checkout going at full pelt, but still yatters on and takes three to four times longer, and more to put the goods through than normal because they are comparing notes about their night out etc or how is so and so getting on blah blah. I can appreciate the friend being served is a customer and a little bit of a chat while packing is fair enough but some go sooooooo slowly, you feel like throttling someone. Example, in local tescos one day and stood, with one person in front of me for around 20 mins before I got served. There was the person in front being served and then me and they only had like a small trolley, basket sized one and the C/OP was gabbing away, hell it was slow service that day. It was busy and it was a hassle to get a trolley, and then line up again in a long queue, probably six of one and half a dozen. This was the shortest line and thought it would have been the quickest. What got me even more was that by the time I got served, despite the time I had waited in line, she didn't apologize for the wait, unreasonable to say the least. Any other checkout operator would have had at least a few trolleys through in that time.

shopbot

Well done IvanOpinion for starting this thread.



I’m not going to defend the poor service that you often get in this country. Rude shop assistants exist just as rude anybody else exists….however this might give you an idea of the view from the other side of the counter. I work as a Manager for a major High Street store and the following has all happened in my store:

*I’ve been threatened with being knifed simply for refusing a refund on an item that the customer freely admitted was non faulty and had no proof of purchase.

*Had my fitting rooms used as toilets with the fitting room curtains used as toilet paper.

*Had garments returned covered in excrement and…lets just say other human stains.

*Deal on a weekly basis with people (a minority) intent on abusing our refund policies. I know that sometimes this is a contentious area but if you return that dress which you “didn’t wear” but has food and wine stains on and smells of smoke…..then please don’t threaten to assault me when you are refused a refund.



So if you get bad service please complain to the Manager, write to Head Office, go to Trading Standards, vent on these boards but please don’t treat anyone else like you would not want to be treated yourself.



Rant over…

SnowyOwl_2

Sometimes - just sometimes mind - a customer will show up determined to get their way. It's like they have decided they are going to get what they want, they arrive ready for an argument and they are not going to take "no" for an answer and will shout and yell to force the issue. I have a friend who used to work for a council in environmental services. This entailed answering the phone to customers complaining about bins, abandoned cars etc - she had two colleagues doing the same job, and there was at least one of them in tears every week. And of course the turnover in the job was sky high. Customers in shops may not be quite so bad, but there are people who will argue and fight to get their own way and as often as not pick on the first person they encounter.

Edit: Ewww ShopBot...we cross posted, and what you say is disgusting...ughhhhh! My statement above about customers in shops being not too bad is obviously inaccurate - I was customer facing in IKEA for 3 years, luckily I never had the misfortune to encounter human "deposits". End of Edit.

From the other perspective though, it really irritates me when a shop assistant doesn't look you in the eye, speak to you, and then puts change/debit card/receipt etc down on the counter for you to pick up. It's also annoying when they start ringing another customer's goods through before the customer ahead has packed theirs. These to me are examples of bad manners. People with good manners don't need to be trained to say hello, make eye contact etc and I think it is very very sad that shops have to train their staff to have manners - these used to be taught either at school or at home or both. Shop assistants who shout and roll their eyes are ill-tempered as well as bad mannered and need some guidance on how to diffuse and manage awkward situations/customers, even if the customer is yelling at them.

Phew! Glad to get that out.