Why do some customers think they can **** you off?

Soldato
Joined
1 Sep 2007
Posts
3,902
I was at work today, and it was quite busy obviously because xmas is nearby and a couple wanted a certain laptop.

I went and checked the stock of a laptop, a nd we didnt have it in stock, so I told the customer we had some in a nearby store. She said, "how long till you can get it in?". I said, "I wont be able to guarantee it will get here before xmas (it was an xmas pressie) , so I would not want to disappoint you by taking your money and potentially letting you down".

She then goes on to say , "well thats customer service..."

That instantly ****** me off. Its hardly my fault is it?

So I said I can ring up the nearby store and see if I can get one in for her, which she was still ranting on , but accepted.

So I was ringing the store for like 20 mins, and they wernt picking up. I was apologizing for the inconvenience, but she was going on saying, its pathetic saying I cant put one by for the customer from my end - think she wanted me to teleport over there and put the laptop aside.

I explained to her that its not my fault, and I am doing everything in my power to try and make sure she gets this laptop reserved for her so she hasnt wasted a journey. She then goes on saying that if she goes and the laptops are sold, that I must provide her with the money she wasted for the petrol. I think she thinks I own the company or something, and can authorize that sort of stuff...

I started to have a bit of a go at her, but not blatantly making it obvious. I said look, I cant make them pick up the phone can I? She then started waffling on again.

In the end , she wanted me to get a manager, so I went and got him, and she was doing the same to him, and the manager basically told the **** to leave.

I am getting paid £11,500 a year and its not enough to be given abuse from stupid ********** like that. Thinking that because the company doesnt provide robots at all stores to transport a laptop to a holding bay to assure it doesnt get sold for the company , that its my fault.

I really wish that I would have given her more abuse. Because I work in retail some people think its ok to treat you like something on the bottom of their shoe.

I have all the time in the world for customers that have been let down and will try and make sure they leave happy with a solution fit for them. But this one silly smarmy ho...

I dont mind when they start saying the companies letting them down, but when that abuse is aimed at myself and they make out its me personally who has let them down, thats a big no-no for me now.

Sorry about the long post - just needed to vent! :D
 
do you work for the purple shirt brigade?
i would guess you could have went online for the customer and reserved the laptop for them at the other store, then they could have went and got it :]
 
I get it all the time mate, get called to checkouts or whatever to stand there listening to some silly old bag ranting and giving me hell because an offer ran out last week and they didn't realise, or something equally as stupid.

On the plus side, I can boot out anyone I like without a reason.. Sometimes I'm just so tempted to clear out everyone when I'm having a bad day :D
 
It's a week until christmas and she still expects to be able to get a laptop which is obviously quite popular? Her fault :/
 
do you work for the purple shirt brigade?
i would guess you could have went online for the customer and reserved the laptop for them at the other store, then they could have went and got it :]

Yes :)

It wouldnt let me, they had 3 in stock and wouldnt let me do a collect at store.


You always get a few like this, don't let it bother you :)

I dont mate - I used to work at the marriott hotel, and that was 10 times worse, I think its best to just let it slide and ignore it, but not anymore, if someone keeps going on like that again - Im going to let them have it....with a shovel... :p
 
I used to work in a petrol station when I was in college and this dozy bint came in one evening (about 9pm) and started really having a go at me because there weren't any Sunday times left. She was really shouting at me and calling me stupid.

It ended up me calling her a lazy **** who couldn't get off her bum to get a paper. Why was it my fault she couldn't be bothered just like anyone else. It felt good and I didn't care because I was leaving that day. There is only so much I will take, although I have to say I try to go the extra mile to help people.

Reminds me of a woman who went off on one because we were charging 30p more for something or other. I mean come on, its not like I was holding her to ransom. She went as far as driving to Asda and buying it cheaper then bringing it back to gloat, until I pointed out she had probably spent about £1.50 in petrol.

In the op situation, you should have asked her what she wanted you to do about the situation given that you had explained yourself. It puts the boot on thier foot then and maybe they might wake up long enough from their dream world to realise they are being an idiot.
 
Don't let it get to you mate. Some people are just rude and have no manners, working weekends in a shop for the past 4 years has taught me this.
 
Working in any kind of public-facing position very quickly teaches you not to put much faith in people, and the sheer number of arrogant ****s there are out there.

As already said, just don't let it get to you and you'll be fine. If some push you over the edge, you'd be surprised how far you can push retaliation as long as you keep it polite.
 
People are rude and ignorant no matter what your employment may be. You'd be surprised at the letters that are received at some fire stations, demanding new carpets because we got dirt on them while preventing the entire house burning down. Chancers will try to make money from anything.
 
People are rude and ignorant no matter what your employment may be. You'd be surprised at the letters that are received at some fire stations, demanding new carpets because we got dirt on them while preventing the entire house burning down. Chancers will try to make money from anything.



Unfortunately people simply don't surprise me anymore and neither does that, people...... are scum.

You keep hearing that its only a few and its not often, but thats balls isn't it. More and more I think the majority rather than the minority are rude ignorant uneducated pratt's. The minority of people are polite, take the time to understand the situation and won't randomly blame anyone who happens to be near them when something doesn't go perfectly for them.

I worked at M&S at 17/18 during a-levels and while most of the staff were fine, and some customers were fine, so many were just plain rude, and stupid, waste your time and effot. Retail is generally an unpleasant job when you have to deal with nasty people so I won't work that kind of job anymore, its simply not worth it.

I guess the goal is get your own business, throw out anyone who acts like a retarded child having a hissy fit and give your good customers more attention and time rather than waste it on those that don't deserve your time and effort. I'd prefer word of mouth from the good customers/clients(depending on the business) than that of bad customers as the chances are high the nasty people know more nasty people and the good people know more good people.
 
I would have just gone back on the stock computer and faked that somehow, mysteriously, it had been sold out in all the stores in the area and that she would have to tell the person that she was buying the christmas present for that it was her fault to wait until 10 days before Christmas to bother to get the present...

Ignorant people annoy me when they think hurling abuse at someone is going to get them any further/quicker - its just not common sense...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
I would have just gone back on the stock computer and faked that somehow, mysteriously, it had been sold out in all the stores in the area and that she would have to tell the person that she was buying the christmas present for that it was her fault to wait until 10 days before Christmas to bother to get the present...

Ignorant people annoy me when they think hurling abuse at someone is going to get them any further/quicker - its just not common sense...

ps3ud0 :cool:

Yeah well shop assistants the blatantly BS me annoy me as well. It's bad enough that most of them are ignorant ('dunno mate, we just shift the boxes.. init') but to be blatantly BS'ed is a major no no. Enough that'd I'd never visit the store again.
 
Which is why I dont go to the shop in question and do a lot of my purchases (informly) online ;)

Christmas just brings out the worst in people, especially when its shopping...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Well to be fair, i'd certainly expect to be able to go into a PC shop and buy the PC I wanted. If they didn't have it I'd be pretty disappointed, but if they don't have it they don't have it, and they wouldn't be getting my business.

It's like when sometimes I goto a chippy and say bag of chips please. .. and they say - 'yeah couple of minutes for the chips' WTF! your're a bleedin chippy you sell chips .how can you not have any chips to sell. Or a big mac in macdonalds. I should NEVER have to wait for a big mac.. N00bs, the lot of them.
 
This sort of thing is why I loved working in a face-less call centre - when customers really annoyed me, I could just hang up on them ;).
 
I hate retail jobs like that, its horrible having some cretin with the I.Q. of a piece of toast giving you a hard time but that's what you get paid for.
 
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