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Are you a messy shopper? Or another shop worker disgusted by the rudeness?

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missjef | 12:01 Sat 04th Nov 2006 | Body & Soul
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I work in a clothes shop & am disgusted frequently at the rudeness of customers & especially children & teenagers. I would like to know if any of you out there are one of many of the messy shoppers we get? Some people just seem not to care that someone else will have to pick up the top that they dumped inamongst the shoes.. or the jumpers left in a screwed up mess on the floor.
Also the amount of parents that seem to let their children run loose round the shop too, especially in the fitting rooms.
If you drop something on the floor by accident do you pick it up or walk off not noticing?

The rudeness of some people is unbelievable usually on a saturday in the fitting room, once i have had a lady say "oh i just left the clothes in the fitting room for you"!

Do you work in a shop and encounter rudeness?
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I don't work in a shop but I appreciate what you're saying about people just dumping things then walking off.

However, I shop in shops and encounter rudeness, usually from the shop assistants. The number of times I have to wait for shop assistants to finish their chat before they 'assist' is unbelievable! I've also been interrupted in the middle of paying whilst the assistant notices someone they know and decides to have a ten minute conversation.

I agree the rudeness of some people is unbelievable but it's not just the customers.
Well I can take on board what you are saying about people who drop things and don't pick them up etc, for that is rude, but you are not going to like this I'm afraid, you are in essence the servant of your customers if you have a shop, therefore in order to relieve your customers of the maximum amount of their money,you have to put up with their behaviour, as long as it falls within the framework of being anything like normal.There is a massive lack of common courtesy amongst serving staff in shops these days as well as customers and it really rankles me that I'm trying to buy something in a shop and the assistant is too ignorant to attend to my needs. I think if you work in a clothes shop then you have to expect to pick up and re-fold clothes. Just exactly what were you expecting when you took the job?
what gets me angry is when the shop assistants are chatting away on their mobiles and dont even look at you never mind talk, they just hold out threir hand for yor money, pushe the carrier bag towards you and almost throw your change at you, this is so rude, it makes me hopping mad.
My daughter works part-time in a clothes shop and would agree with everything you've said. It's amazing how argumentative customers are. One reported my daughter for coughing, said she shouldn't be in work spreading germs, reported her to the manager and security had to be called! Dirty nappies have been found in the fitting room which also apparently doubles as a ladies loo I'm told!
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i can agree with what you are all saying, yes in shops there are rude assistants too but in the shop i work i would say the majority of rudeness comes from customers & their children, some of it is just disgraceful.

noxlumos you do make a good point, but i do not expect when i work in a clothes shop to have to put up with people being rude to me - i've worked in retail shops for just over 2 years now and i can't get over the rudeness of some people.
Yes i do expect that part of my job is to pick up after people, but what i dont like to see is people just leaving tops in amongst the shoe's because it's obviously too difficult for them to put it back.
Also im lucky enough not to encounter some of the more disgusting things that have happened in the shop such as a mother letting her child wet themselves in our fitting room & not even apologising to any staff member instead she didn't say anything & just walked out! No-one expects to have to clean up after peoples children in a shop!!

medsecslave it's true about the fittings rooms doubling as a ladies loo! i was talking to staff where i work about the most disgusting thing thats been found in our fitting rooms & i was told that once someone had found a used tampon stuck to the wall, i mean how gross?! i just hate that people actually think we should have to clean up after them and deal with things like this!! it really makes me angry!!
Ewww gross!

I'm a very conscientious shopper having worked in a supermarket.

I have taken out of date things I've found on the shelves up to staff before now to let them know quietly and they are always rude or ungrateful which does make me think sometimes I should just leave them and they risk getting done for it.

I always have good manners and say please and thank you. I'm like that in other places too, especially in restaurants and cafes from being a waitress and comis chef when I was a student.

I always tend to tidy things up so the table is not left in a mess and pass dishes to staff trying to get around tables and such.

My friends laugh at me in hotel rooms to as I have to make the bed every morning and not leave the place untidy or messy. Maybe cos I lived in hotel/guesthouses too for a bit too.

People could be very rude when I worked in a supermarket as they seem to assume you're too dense to work anywhere else which is rubbish. We had a highly qualified staff in fact as many of us were students trying to pay our way through our education without resorting to loans and such.

The deli counter was one of the worst, kids licking the counter front and putting sticky fingers all over it and being left to run wild around the store, people clicking and thumping the counter to try and attract my attention (usually when I was trying to use an industrial meat slicer) and hardly a please or a thankyou, let alone a "can I have" despite me always being extremely polite to them, just a list barked at you then the products snatched before they walk off often having not having looked you once.

Another pet hate was the 20 questions syndrome. "What can I get for you madam", "Ham", "which ham would you like madam!, "ham, i want some ham" usually accompanied by pointing vaguely in the direction of about 20 different types. Cheese was even worse. <
Some people used to like to test you as well eg "I want a pound of cheese" then wait until you cut, weigh and wrap it before they decide they wanted �1 worth of cheese. I had one guy as for 93p worth of a speciality cheese with a big smirk on his face, by complete fluke and experience I got it dead on first time and he was quite speechless :)

I'm not looking for gratitude but a few manners wouldn't hurt.

A friend of mine, a fellow uni student, was on a shift and a woman standing right by her said loudly to her young daughter with her that she had to work hard at school or she'd end up like my friend!

Ahh, happy memories, we had a right laugh working there though :)
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Ive fortunately never had the experience of working in a supermarket but that sounds quite bad too so im glad!
i just think people need to learn manners, having said that some shop assistants need to aswell. There's no excuse for rudeness from anyone.
Jenna, you're deeply psychologically scarred I can seeLol. I'm afraid I'm guilty of the cheese thing, "just a pound of cheese ", vague wave, I actually do that, I feel bad now:( but I do always say please and thank you if it's any consolation.
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least you say your please & thankyou's!
I am with you on this one missjef... I have been working in retail and catering for many years and cant get over how rude some people are. They think because you are serving them that they have the right to talk to you as if you were stupid. I remember when I worked for a big restaurant chain we would have a group of women come in with their babies and proceed to change nappies on the tables and eat their own sandwiches. They only used to come in for the kids play area. When I confronted them about it, the language they came out with in front of their children amazed me.

Working in shops was even worse. I know that as part of my job is to tidy the shelves but it is not part of my job to put up with ignorant and rude people.
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so glad to hear im not the only person fed up with some customers behaviour BagPussAA!!!
Everyone where i work dreads the 2:30-6:30 shift on a saturday which is what ill be doing later today, simply because the whole shop usually end's up wrecked by the end of the day, which we do expect some mess.. but some things i don't understand like why some people can't put shoe's back on the shelves after they've tried them on this really gets to me as shoe's are the worst! I never just leave things dumped anywhere if i've tried things on or anything so i think thats why i can't understand why other people can do this.
I do agree there are two sides of the coin here and there's nothing more annoying than being ignored whilst you're waiting to be served but I think this is down to poor management as much as anything else. My daughter would be disciplined if she was anything other than helpful and courteous as the management are constantly monitoring the staff to maintain high standards. Can't understand how she changes the minute she gets home. Strange that .....!
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lol!! i could start a whole other rant about management but i wont since i posted a q about that the other week!
I find myself returning clothes to their proper places in shops after trying them on. Only last week I handed an item of clothing to a sales assistant 'cos it was priced at 1 euro and told her she should reprice it otherwise someone would demand it for the ticket price - should have been 17 euro.

I work in the service industry (banking) and have regularly asked customers "what's the magic word" when they ask for something - its a childhood prompt for "please" and is amazing the number of people who respond positively.

I believe that smiling people into submission is a brilliant tool. Works on both sides of the counter.
I used to work in an insurance brokers and what got on my nerves was when a client came in I would give a smile & say hi- how can I help you? the customer would just bark INSURANCE!! at me. well I did not think they wanted a faffing loaf of bread now did I?!
It annoys me that people think they can say whatever they want. People everywhere seem to have that 'I don't care' attitude & think its a good thing.......well its NOT!
The public act like insurance staff are con merchants (I have been called this many a time & had to bite my tongue & smile). I would never have a job as a traffic warden for this very reason!
I am always polite to shop assistants, I would never expect people to be rude to me, whether I'm a customer or a shop assistant, shop assistants are there to assist us, not to be our slaves!!
I don't expect them to chase around picking up after me, if I drop something, I would be to embarrassed to think that someone else had to pick it up for me, that is just laziness!!

I see a shop assistants role as someone I ask for advice and serve me with a purchase. I'm sure all shop assistants do their fair share of picking up after people.

Go into our local Primark and see more clothing on the floor than on the shelves and hangers, its an absolute disgrace, it puts me off going into the store! and that is the fault of the customers! I detest the shop.
I can't believe no one's mentioned call centre staff - I used to work for BT taking inbound calls with regards to billing enquiries and the way me/we were spoken to was appalling. I lost count of the number of times I was threatened with physical violence by customers. I genuinely believed that because you were "faceless" this gave customers the license to say what they wanted. We hardly ever got a please or thank you.
like most people on here iv wittnessed more rudeness from staff.Around my area the staff just look so bored and miserable,stood there with their arms folded with their eyes following u around the shop it makes me feel so uncomfortable i dread going in again.
but on the other hand i agree with u on people ''dumping'' things in the wrong place or on the floor, times iv not realised and ran over it with my pram but then its your job to keep the shop floors clean and tidy,isn't it? xx
I worked in retail for 5 years and dealt with some awful customers. One instance over xmas I had spent ages arranging the new stock (tinsle, baubles, tags) only to return half hour later to find a toddler sat in a pool of gold ribbon with the mother beaming down at him. She saw me approaching and walked off without so much as a word! I've also had customers get incredibly stroppy cos we didn't a film that wasn't even released until the next week (try telling them that though!). The list goes on. All the while I remained calm, smiling and polite.
As such I cannot stand bad customer service and wont hesitate to complain if I feel I haven't received the level of service I expect. My worst experience was in a big name discount shop in Swindon where I was escorted out by Hubby cos he was scared I might scratch the eyes out of the manager!

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