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

[Muban]

You could have course work for the NHS. They say they have a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and agression towards staff, verbal abuse is not tolerated. Unfortunately I do not deal with patients, only other NHS staff. If some of my own colleagues can't even manage not to be abusive when I am trying to help them out how can they expect the patients to act any better?

Mind you on bad days I should just remind myself I used to work (sub-contracted) for a Bailiffs. Anything I get now is quite polite in comparison

 

[hegemon]

I had a women complain to my manager cause I told her we wouldnt be getting more cake. She lied about what I said though.

The Cake is a Lie!!

 

[Bengaboy]

Stop complaining and get a better job then, that 11 500 you get paid a year does include getting moaned at by customers. You are in a customer facing role and it will happen, more often than not.

I know how you feel though, as work in a similar job. It can be quite demoralising, that's why am getting a new job.

I am actually - Im joining the navy , its only a stop gap until my waiting time is up. But so what if Im getting paid 11 500 a year?? Why do you think my job includes getting moaned at?

 

[romperstomper]

Erm if pretty sure if somebody started hitting me in the face i would have laid them out.

would have loved to ,but I was deputy store Manager and it took a lot of hard work to get there to be sacked for hitting some loser .

 

[Tefal]

would have loved to ,but I was deputy store Manager and it took a lot of hard work to get there to be sacked for hitting some loser .

self defence can't be fired for that.

 

[SiD the Turtle]

You want rude customers? Try working in Legoland, like I did a few years back.

Understandably if you've been in a queue with loud, jumpy kids for two hours, to go on a ride that lasts 3 minutes and I tell you little Timmy is 2cm too small to go on, you're going to be a little short with me, but they were the rules. I had people swearing at me, calling me Hitler, spitting at me, one guy even said he was going to wait for me to leave the park and knife me. Once you learned to rise above it (and wall up so if people started shouting at you, they weren't going to get anywhere) it was a fun job.

Best one I remember was when there was a massive queue one summer weekend. Legoland has a rule that if you have a disabled child you can get a rubber stamp and completely skip the queue and such a family arrived to skip the queue. Someone near the front noted that the family was Asian and that I'm fairly dark, so he shouted something along the lines of 'how dare you let them jump in just because you're all Pakis', to which the mother replied with something like 'would you like Downs Syndrome so you can skip the queue too?'. The glares from the crowd shamed him out of the queue. Felt sorry for his kid though.

The nicest people I ever met there were the carers for the terminally ill. So patient and polite. Conversely though I remember taking half an hour to load a bunch of them (severely disabled, can't move themselves etc.) and a chav dad stood there shouting cripple because his kid had to wait in line

 

[Bengaboy]

Bengaboy, honestly you need to get out mate, I took customer satisfaction seriously, doing the best I could whenever I could (which some customers commented on), but I honestly feel so much better since escaping! We used to get s**ts like that all the time, especially in MK (although we did have some reasonable regulars), your store seemed relatively pleasant (and busy) in comparison I'm still customer facing, but not in retail, and the average customer is A) Smarter (or acts it) and B) is more pleasant. (although some of our Irish customers :/) Not to mention the extra cash elsewhere, its why they raised the minumum store wage because they realised employees were getting poached by other retailers...

I think a lot of people forget its not about not putting effort into your job, or expecting to get a little aggro now and then, it's the sheer bloodyminded attitudes of some people who come into certain shops, a reasonable percentage of whom come in with an unpleasant assumed atmosphere because of where you're working.
Stock wise yes it is a pain, but generally on highly demanded products it is often a case stock is limited to the store it is sent to, to ensure various areas have a fair amount of stock, especially in demand! We did not have interlinked stock systems as this would be an absolute horror to maintain! I mean for example how would you feel if you went on the first day to a shop xxx and was told that you couldn't have the laptop as a shop in john o groats had requested all the items in the UK? Many shops operate a similar stocking policy; you want to ensure YOUR customers can get thier goods.

On the other side of the coin how is everyone up in Leics store?

Hi mate, thought you might pop up

I know mate, but its a job and im quite lucky to have one at the moment!

Everyone in Leicesters cool mate, how ya doing?

Someone near the front noted that the family was Asian and that I'm fairly dark, so he shouted something along the lines of 'how dare you let them jump in just because you're all Pakis', to which the mother replied with something like 'would you like Downs Syndrome so you can skip the queue too?'. The glares from the crowd shamed him out of the queue. Felt sorry for his kid though.

The nicest people I ever met there were the carers for the terminally ill. So patient and polite. Conversely though I remember taking half an hour to load a bunch of them (severely disabled, can't move themselves etc.) and a chav dad stood there shouting cripple because his kid had to wait in line

Makes me laugh how people can be like that! Thats terrible...

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Hi mate, thought you might pop up

I know mate, but its a job and im quite lucky to have one at the moment!

Everyone in Leicesters cool mate, how ya doing?



Makes me laugh how people can be like that! Thats terrible...

Haha, sorry, can ya blame me?
True that, I was lucky to get my current employer, they gave us £50 as an xmas present each just because they could..., birthday cards etc too, good people.

I'm not doing bad, just working and chilling mostly, am able to afford to rent with a mate now

 

[_dogma_]

As for the OP why on earth should it take so long to get a laptop transferred from one store to another, obviously their is something fundementally wrong there!

HEADRAT

In my old job, if a customer was wanting a pair of curtains that Edinburgh had and wanting the brought for collection to Kirkcaldy they would get put on the van, end up in England somewhere and then be brought to our store . I have no idea why but it was just the way things worked and no matter how much huffing and puffing a customer could do it's not something the person behind the till has any control over!

It was my last day of work today so I have 2 abusive customer free weeks untill i need to start looking for another job

 

[ticklemebougy]

Most customers that come in to woolies are fine, but the few that cant read that we're out of stock on xxxxx annoy me. the tags we have go over the top of the price so its pretty hard to miss if you care about how much an item is. also the customers that dont understand the concept of display cases.

im fairly sure woolies isnt a competetor if so feel free to remove

 

[thecremeegg]

I think a lot of people forget its not about not putting effort into your job, or expecting to get a little aggro now and then, it's the sheer bloodyminded attitudes of some people who come into certain shops, a reasonable percentage of whom come in with an unpleasant assumed atmosphere because of where you're working.

Agree 100%, sums it up

 

[Conscript]

Very well put. Just because a job is menial or low paid does not mean you should cease to put in any effort.
I busted my arse to be helpful when I worked in a petrol station, did the same when I worked in a chip shop, did the same when I worked in a garage, did the same when I worked in the travel industry and now do the same in the courier business.
And if I switch roles to be a driver as I have been considering recently, I'll bust my arse to be good at that too. I would want to be known as "Oh that's Leon, he's one of our best drivers so you can guarantee he'll be on time if he says he will"
I couldn't care less if I'm being paid 12k or 120k, as I see it my company are paying me to fulfil a role and make a difference. So my colleagues might not be trying half as hard as I do, but I don't worry about that - I get satisfaction from knowing that I am good at what I do and I make a positive impact on people's lives - however small it may be!

You will always get the odd soul who cannot or will not be helped or pleased even if you go to the ends of the earth for them. Unfortunately that's life and you can't win 'em all. Just try and use the experience as a learning process and next time you might win one of these types over.

My job is menial and low paid but I still put the effort in, mainly because I take a certain pride in my work, in knowing products, being polite, offering advice etc. I enjoy being someone who a manager can rely on to get a job done, so even if don't particularly enjoy the work, I get on with it and do it the best I can regardless.

I think the point that is being made by a lot of people here though is not so much the effort that the staff put in, but that the nature of the job does not give customers the right to be overly rude, especially when it seems in the OPs example that he really was trying his best to do his job.

 

[platinum87]

one guy even said he was going to wait for me to leave the park and knife me.

seriously?

Once you learned to rise above it (and wall up so if people started shouting at you, they weren't going to get anywhere) it was a fun job.

theres no rising above that, if someone says they will stab you, you kill them or frame them for something

 

[Dj_Jestar]

To the OP:

Get used to it. It's probably impersonal abuse. You're representing the shop they have just arrived at, expecting to get a laptop. They are angry there isn't one available. Irrespective of blame, they are still angry. People get angry like this. You are their easiest target to vent this anger at. Brush it off and get over it.

 

[Tefal]

theres no rising above that, if someone says they will stab you, you kill them or frame them for something

I'm going to stab you...with my pork sword

 

[Lopéz]

I think the point that is being made by a lot of people here though is not so much the effort that the staff put in, but that the nature of the job does not give customers the right to be overly rude, especially when it seems in the OPs example that he really was trying his best to do his job.

In fairness, my point wasn't really aimed at the OP who seemed quite helpful, it was more the responses from people who believe that you should expect poor service because pay is low and so on.

It seems to me like the OP did pretty much all he could to get the situation sorted for the customer. Okay, so it's unfortunate that they have poor inter-store communication but he is "just" a shop floor representative, he can't change company policy overnight to suit one customer - he tried his best to and got nowhere.

Trust me, I know how he feels! I currently get a lot of complaints from one customer who doesn't like the fact that when drivers go to underground delivery points (Bullring etc) they are uncontactable for long periods of time, so we don't know if they have made their timed deliveries or not. She thinks they should periodically come out and upload their POD's. For what it's worth, I agree with her. I've passed it on to her account General Manager, and spoken to the General Managers at the delivery depots about it, but I am not likely to be able to get anything changed. I'm just not "powerful" enough within the company to amend national policy.

 

[Conscript]

Yeah that last paragraph wasn't really aimed at your post Lopez, was just my general view of the thread. There's lots of completely stupid things where I work too, but its true, theres' not really a lot I can do to change it. Sometimes Ive found myself agreeing with the customer about how stupid some of our policies and procedures are but all I can do is apologise on behalf of the company (which I hate doing when its out of my control, but its necessary because I am a representative of the company :/ )

 

[4T5]

Once again a TINY little point has been Blown out of proportion by the OcUK faithful so they can go into one with Self righteous indignation.

 

[HEADRAT]

Well I guess this is a "discussion board", if posts didn't elicit "discussion" then it would be quiet place!

 

[4T5]

^^ Agreed Headrat but it always seems to be the tiny little pedantic points that are discussed rather than the relevant issues.