[simonbellringer]

See my colleague struggling to help a customer so I go over to lend a hand, as I have been working there longer. The woman in question starts a rant at me about how she is looking for something (fine,) but can't find it (fair enough, we have just changed all our drinks aisle over!!) BUT, she goes on and on, getting more and more annoyed, despite me trying to help her find the product she was after, with 4 or 5 different drinks tried. Tbh, I think she was a bit dippy, she said when she bought the one she was after last time, it was on offer (£1.45 to £1,) but couldnt get round the fact the offer had obviously finished!!

Then came the classic part at the end when she picked up a random (and probably the one she was after all along!!) 4-pack of Fruit Slurps: "I'm sorry I got annoyed at you, theres just no other member of staff around to moan at..." (?!?!?!?!)

[Katie (:]

Soooo many stories, the shop I work at had completely ran out of pennies so I politely explained this to every customer and 99.9% were ABSOLUTELY FINE with this; in fact most of them gave me a look as if to say "Why would I be bothered over a penny?!" Anyways, I get this one lady who was so rude from the start, no please or thank-you. I owned her something like 81p so I explained we had run out of pennies and she goes "WHAT, you have WHAT?" So I explained again and she makes a huge scene shouting at me cause I didn't have a ****ing penny. I told her I'd look in the other tills to see if they had pennies in but in the end I just went into the staffroom and got a penny from my purse. I've also been called a c*** which is always nice. The worst people are the ones who don't say please or thank-you, it drives me crazy!

[simonbellringer]

(Original post by Katie (:)
Soooo many stories, the shop I work at had completely ran out of pennies so I politely explained this to every customer and 99.9% were ABSOLUTELY FINE with this; in fact most of them gave me a look as if to say "Why would I be bothered over a penny?!" Anyways, I get this one lady who was so rude from the start, no please or thank-you. I owned her something like 81p so I explained we had run out of pennies and she goes "WHAT, you have WHAT?" So I explained again and she makes a huge scene shouting at me cause I didn't have a ****ing penny. I told her I'd look in the other tills to see if they had pennies in but in the end I just went into the staffroom and got a penny from my purse. I've also been called a c*** which is always nice. The worst people are the ones who don't say please or thank-you, it drives me crazy!

Give her 82p instead!! The store must have made a few extra pence because of this, so surely they wouldnt have minded!! Some people are so rude, and it makes me pretty cross too, manners cost nothing you know!! We ran out of eggs round Christmas, God did I get it in the neck, never had so many people being rude to me in such a short space of time!! Obviously we are being paid to be abused - amateur insulters trying it on the professionally insulted!!

[Katie (:]

(Original post by simonbellringer)
Give her 82p instead!! The store must have made a few extra pence because of this, so surely they wouldnt have minded!! Some people are so rude, and it makes me pretty cross too, manners cost nothing you know!! We ran out of eggs round Christmas, God did I get it in the neck!! Obviously we are being paid to be abused - amateur insulters try it on the professional insulted!!

Yeah, true - I did actually do that from the start but then was told to just ask if not getting the penny was okay and like I said 99.9% of people don't care or just ask me to put a penny (when I get one) into the charity box, which I did. But yeah, some people are SO rude. One man made me cry haha. Where do you work?

[simonbellringer]

(Original post by Katie (:)
Yeah, true - I did actually do that from the start but then was told to just ask if not getting the penny was okay and like I said 99.9% of people don't care or just ask me to put a penny (when I get one) into the charity box, which I did. But yeah, some people are SO rude. One man made me cry haha. Where do you work?

Sainsburys. To be fair, most customers are OK, but I find that the old people are extremes - the majority are friendly, and brighten the day (many are probably lonely, but many are really good characters,) but a lot of the rude people are either the older or the mid-20's I find. If people are rude, I don't try, I hate small-talk as it is but do make an effort to chat to the customers if they want it. If people are rude, I resort to transactional talk, polite, but with as little said as possible!! Where do you work?

[Katie (:]

(Original post by simonbellringer)
Sainsburys. To be fair, most customers are OK, but I find that the old people are extremes - the majority are friendly, and brighten the day (many are probably lonely, but many are really good characters,) but a lot of the rude people are either the older or the mid-20's I find. If people are rude, I don't try, I hate small-talk as it is but do make an effort to chat to the customers if they want it. If people are rude, I resort to transactional talk, polite, but with as little said as possible!! Where do you work?

Exactly! If someone is polite and nice to me I'm automatically so much friendlier and will make an effort to talk to them. But it's the rude ***** that get on my nerves, they assume I'm thick cause I'm blonde and I work in fast food. I always give the nice customers the biggest looking fries or put extra topping on their ice cream or whatever

[rural_boy]

Bleugh.

Terrible day yesterday, ridiculously short staffed, and ridiculously busy. I work in the men's shoe department at my store, and not only were people getting snotty about having to wait more than a minute while I rushed out of the stock room carrying four boxes at a time, but sometimes we don't have a person's size in stock. Obviously.

But one guy wanted to try on two pairs of shoes, we didn't have either in his size, he asked for another, didn't have it either, I tried to explain to him that the three pairs he'd asked for were pretty popular as was his size. Fair enough it's not great we don't have the three pairs he asked for, but I said we could order them for him, he then gave me the dirtiest look ever, as if I'd just been slapped him, and replied 'I don't use the internet'. Man you're f***in' 25 how do you not use the internet, I didn't say that, but he looked at me for a further 10 seconds before saying 'you're not having a good day are you?'. - That is honestly the most annoying thing anyone has said to me in a while, I felt like saying; 'I'm having a great day actually, just because we don't have you crap shoes in stock doesn't me I'm not having a great day'. And then I would have finished off by calling him a dick or something.

Alas, instead, I apologised and he walked off. In short, I hate retail.

[askew116]

(Original post by Katie (:)
I told her I'd look in the other tills to see if they had pennies in but in the end I just went into the staffroom and got a penny from my purse.

I'd have made some sarcastic remark about the fact that that penny must make all the difference to her finances.

[Skip_Snip]

(Original post by askew116)
I'd have made some sarcastic remark about the fact that that penny must make all the difference to her finances.

Sure it's only a penny, but I got a biiiig Coca Cola money box, and I dump change in there that's a 20p or smaller, or just random shrapnel, so I appreciate all change :P

[SirMasterKey]

(Original post by askew116)
I'd have made some sarcastic remark about the fact that that penny must make all the difference to her finances.

It can actually, for some people that 1p could be the difference for them buying their weekly bread or not.

[tehforum]

(Original post by Skip_Snip)
Sure it's only a penny, but I got a biiiig Coca Cola money box, and I dump change in there that's a 20p or smaller, or just random shrapnel, so I appreciate all change :P

Why?!

You probably have a ton of money in there because of your high threshold.

Really only 1p's and 2p's should go into money boxes, the rest should be used.

[askew116]

(Original post by SirMasterKey)
It can actually, for some people that 1p could be the difference for them buying their weekly bread or not.

Look, everyone is entitled to correct change, the comment I made was in situations where the customer is being excessively rude, for which there is never an excuse, even if they have a valid point.

The majority of the jobs I have held are customer facing, in the above scenario, I'd be far more likely to do everything I could for a customer who says something along the lines of 'Sorry to be a pain, but I have to insist on the correct change, as I really need it', instead of 'How dare you not give me the change I'm entitled to. I don't care if you've run out, give me my ****ing change now'.

As so many posters point out, basic manners and common courtesy cost nothing.

[JLXP]

Bloody women quoting the sale of goods act to me because they washed their damn jumper wrong.

[simonbellringer]

(Original post by askew116)
Look, everyone is entitled to correct change, the comment I made was in situations where the customer is being excessively rude, for which there is never an excuse, even if they have a valid point.

The majority of the jobs I have held are customer facing, in the above scenario, I'd be far more likely to do everything I could for a customer who says something along the lines of 'Sorry to be a pain, but I have to insist on the correct change, as I really need it', instead of 'How dare you not give me the change I'm entitled to. I don't care if you've run out, give me my ****ing change now'.

As so many posters point out, basic manners and common courtesy cost nothing.

Precisely the point I made earlier!!

I think society is becoming ruder and ruder. We should bring basic manners back - pleases, thank you's, and some patience too would be nice!! I said earlier I would do more for someone who said please than someone who was plain rude and just ordered me about - you are not my boss, my boss says please!! Down, rude people, down!!! Sadly, the customer is always right, and regarding rudeness, there's bugger all we can do as employees/victims of rudeness!!

[SirMasterKey]

(Original post by askew116)
Look, everyone is entitled to correct change, the comment I made was in situations where the customer is being excessively rude, for which there is never an excuse, even if they have a valid point.

The majority of the jobs I have held are customer facing, in the above scenario, I'd be far more likely to do everything I could for a customer who says something along the lines of 'Sorry to be a pain, but I have to insist on the correct change, as I really need it', instead of 'How dare you not give me the change I'm entitled to. I don't care if you've run out, give me my ****ing change now'.

As so many posters point out, basic manners and common courtesy cost nothing.

Look, did I state that customers in that situation have a right to be rude? No. I merely commented that to some people that 1p can actually make the difference in their lives. I inferred from your comment about that 1p making the difference in her finances was one of which it seemed to me that you were implying that 1p to anyone is simply not something worth worrying about.

Also, why should the customer have to say 'I really need it'. I'd say a lot of people are more proud than to admit to a stranger in a store that they really need that 1p, but surely they can insist on being given the correct change, otherwise they are overpaying for goods and who wants to do that?

Yes being rude about it is not the way to go about it, but I have never once inferred that it was in any way acceptable or do you beg to differ?

[Skip_Snip]

(Original post by tehforum)
Why?!

You probably have a ton of money in there because of your high threshold.

Really only 1p's and 2p's should go into money boxes, the rest should be used.

I know you're right, and sometimes I think "****e, I don't have the change to buy crisps now" or whatever :P

And I may as well just put pennies in, I got a bag of pennies in change to see how much space it took up - hardly any! I got mine from charity shop, if anyone wants to save, find one of them, when it's full you'll be rich!

[Stevo112]

(Original post by SirMasterKey)
Look, did I state that customers in that situation have a right to be rude? No. I merely commented that to some people that 1p can actually make the difference in their lives. I inferred from your comment about that 1p making the difference in her finances was one of which it seemed to me that you were implying that 1p to anyone is simply not something worth worrying about.

Also, why should the customer have to say 'I really need it'. I'd say a lot of people are more proud than to admit to a stranger in a store that they really need that 1p, but surely they can insist on being given the correct change, otherwise they are overpaying for goods and who wants to do that?

Yes being rude about it is not the way to go about it, but I have never once inferred that it was in any way acceptable or do you beg to differ?

Hmm, I was about to argue that nobody needs a penny but I just remembered some guys in the bookies I sometimes work at.


They literally count every single penny from their winning bet slips. You dare not short them 1p hahaha. Too often they put on 81p bets on 11/8 horses and mental stuff like that. I suppose in a way when gambling that penny can grow exponentionally.

But in supermarkets I would suggest that it is stupid. Factoring 1p into your budget would mean that you'd need to visit the shop 20 times in order to even attempt to purchase an additional item. We call such people life nits... and i hate them all... they control their money so tight to the point where they count every single penny. Whilst I appreciate that it is necessary for some people, it is an extreme stance they take regarding money! Unfortunately you do have to appreciate the exponentional nature of gambling though and so yea

[doughnut92]

Used to work at Boots.
- The customers that fail to read the price tag correctly so it's MY fault that they weren't expecting the product to be £30....it clearly has the price right in front of it.

- When it was my fault their advantage card is faulty...even though they've been told at various stores they need to get a new one.

- With the advantage card, you had to have the right amount of points on the card to pay for something with the points so you can't part pay. Customers seem to think that I chose to put this rule in place so decide to take it out on me about how ridiculous it is. RLY?
There were many more annoying things.

- The tills were all separated by little 'walls' with their own counter space and card machines....never stopped customers putting all their items on the next till over (unstaffed) and then placing their card in the other card machine...erm awkz I'm stood over here.

- There is a meal deal for, I think, £3.25 and you get a sandwich/wrap/salad, snack and a drink in it. Had a few customers come up with a sandwich and snack, it'd come up to around £3.70, 'if you get a drink, it'll bring it down to £3.25' 'Nahh'. Never understood it...they could throw the drink away if they didn't want it! And the drinks were literally 2 seconds away from the till point.

- The 'Spend £50, get £12 worth of advantage card points' offers. A customer spent £49.99, had an advantage card, 'spend 1p more and you'll get £12 of points'...it was a no. It's free money...

It's a shame really because the annoying ****ers overshadow the lovely customers. I used to love serving the ones that were genuinely pleased and really happy when you helped them. They were so sweet

[steeler4life]

(Original post by doughnut92)
- With the advantage card, you had to have the right amount of points on the card to pay for something with the points so you can't part pay. Customers seem to think that I chose to put this rule in place so decide to take it out on me about how ridiculous it is. RLY?

I had this problem with a woman when i worked at Boots. She didn't believe me about needing the amount of points the item costs. She then spoke to my department manager, the store manager, and customer services, who all said the same thing. She didn't believe any of us and thought we were all 'in on it' just to ruin her day

[askew116]

(Original post by SirMasterKey)
Also, why should the customer have to say 'I really need it'. I'd say a lot of people are more proud than to admit to a stranger in a store that they really need that 1p, but surely they can insist on being given the correct change, otherwise they are overpaying for goods and who wants to do that?

We don't live in a perfect world. Sometimes cashiers, and even stores, run out of change. Also, generally when customers are in a situation that 1p would make a difference to them, it is on a temporary basis - i.e they are waiting for their next payday. Therefore, they might be 1p down out of, say, 11p change they're owed. That isn't enough to buy anything else with, in this day and age. As I said, everyone is entitled to correct change, and I'd hope that any shop that's unable to supply correct change, they would work with the customer to come up with a mutually beneficial arrangement.

As an alternative, if that 1p is all the person needs to buy their next grocery shop, they could always go on Deal or No Deal - even if that goes ***s up they'll still walk away with 1p