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Hysteria1983
1,453 posts
27 months
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I did he one crappy experience where I did a quick stop for some Sat night pizzas and wine. Maybe I had a few other odds and ends. Anyway, I get to the till and get asked if I have any bags with me, now of course I usually would (but I don't shop at that store usually, so didn't take them in).
Anyhow, I politely tell he no, without the story of why etc... So she tells me it's 5p for a bag. So of course I asked why they have no 'normal' bags, and she said we do have them but the bags for life are 5p.
So I asked for a FREE bag for the £22 I had just spent. She then starts tutting at me, obviously plotting to kill me in her mind.
Off I walk to complain about the member of staff. Who apparently is known for her attitude towards the environment.
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TomTheTyke
129 posts
16 months
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I agree the forced American 'have a great day now' type of thing is just completely cringeworthy. However, I worked on a till while at sixth form (B&Q) and I always tried to be pleasant and have a little chat about the weather or something if it wasn't manically busy, and if it was people understood that because they had been waiting in the queue. It certainly seems some people in this thread are a bit too far the other way, not appreciating that people do jobs like I used to should talk to you at all. I will say though that I took the view that since my job was by no means permanent, unless a manager was in earshot I never offered anyone the 'push products' like de-icer we were supposed to mention to every customer and if anyone cam through with a slight defect I would just offer the 10% or whatever I was allowed to knock off at my discretion.
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JonRB
39,433 posts
141 months
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redtwin said: A polite greeting is fine, but I wouldn't be bothered if they said nothing to me at all. What I don't like is the small chit-chat about weather, or what I am making for dinner or have I got the day off or the local Soccer team being relegated etc.
I don't think I am being rude or surly, I just have no desire to carry on a conversation with a total stranger about things I have no interest in. Totally agree. I'm not very good with vacuous chit-chat at the best of times but even less so with a total stranger who I know is only doing it because they have to. Edit: Having said that, if the person comes across as genuine then I don't mind chatting. But it's when they're reading from a mental script and probably aren't even listening to you that I don't like.
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Cock Womble 7
29,908 posts
99 months
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colonel c said: Regular ray of sunshine you. Away from vacuous forced "conversations" from shop staff, I am actually. This morning, before work, I popped into my local Sainsbury's Local to get sandwiches/sausage rolls/egg custards/microwave meal to eat at work (it's a long shift). I usually use the self-service checkout, but I needed tobacco so was forced to use a manned till. Manned, on this occasion, by a young and very attractive lady - albeit one I'd "interacted" with before and knew she was the chatty type. This is pretty much a word-for-word transcript of our "conversation". So, I approached the till... "Mornnnniiiiinggg!" "Morning." "Do you have a Nectar card?" "Er, yes." At this point I must have let out an audible sigh, or my body-language must have spoken volumes, because she said: "Never mind, soon be Christmas!" "Sorry?" "Soon be Christmas. Are you looking forward to it?" "Erm, I've not really thought about it, what with it still being May and all that." At this point, she clocks my uniform; "Do you call it Wickes or Wickeses ?" "I call it Wickes, because that's what it's called. There's no apostrophe after the 's'. Only stupid people call it Wikeses. "All the people I know call it Wickeses." "Well, there you go." "You must be the only person in the world that calls it Wickes." "I doubt it." "Well, apart from the man that owns Wickes." "I suppose so." "I only found out it was called Wickes when that advert came on." "Which advert?" "The one for Wickeses." " Wickes". "Oh, yeah, Wickes!" There was a man fixing the neighbouring till. She nodded towards him. "I wonder what he calls it." " Wickes, I hope." "Do you have a Nectar card?" "Yes, here. Oh, and 25g of Amber Leaf please." "No." "Sorry?" "No, you can't have it." "Sorry?" "Only joking. 25 grammes?" "Erm, yes please." "There you go, that's eleventy twelve pounds please." Debit card/PIN thing. "Thank you, have a lovely rest of your day." "Thank you. Bye."
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redtwin
5,855 posts
51 months
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I would rather give up smoking than put up with that. Maybe I am more surly than I thought. 
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colonel c
6,009 posts
108 months
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Cock Womble 7 said: colonel c said: Regular ray of sunshine you. Away from vacuous forced "conversations" from shop staff, I am actually. This morning, before work, I popped into my local Sainsbury's Local to get sandwiches/sausage rolls/egg custards/microwave meal to eat at work (it's a long shift). I usually use the self-service checkout, but I needed tobacco so was forced to use a manned till. Manned, on this occasion, by a young and very attractive lady - albeit one I'd "interacted" with before and knew she was the chatty type. This is pretty much a word-for-word transcript of our "conversation". So, I approached the till... "Mornnnniiiiinggg!" "Morning." "Do you have a Nectar card?" "Er, yes." At this point I must have let out an audible sigh, or my body-language must have spoken volumes, because she said: "Never mind, soon be Christmas!" "Sorry?" "Soon be Christmas. Are you looking forward to it?" "Erm, I've not really thought about it, what with it still being May and all that." At this point, she clocks my uniform; "Do you call it Wickes or Wickeses ?" "I call it Wickes, because that's what it's called. There's no apostrophe after the 's'. Only stupid people call it Wikeses. "All the people I know call it Wickeses." "Well, there you go." "You must be the only person in the world that calls it Wickes." "I doubt it." "Well, apart from the man that owns Wickes." "I suppose so." "I only found out it was called Wickes when that advert came on." "Which advert?" "The one for Wickeses." " Wickes". "Oh, yeah, Wickes!" There was a man fixing the neighbouring till. She nodded towards him. "I wonder what he calls it." " Wickes, I hope." "Do you have a Nectar card?" "Yes, here. Oh, and 25g of Amber Leaf please." "No." "Sorry?" "No, you can't have it." "Sorry?" "Only joking. 25 grammes?" "Erm, yes please." "There you go, that's eleventy twelve pounds please." Debit card/PIN thing. "Thank you, have a lovely rest of your day." "Thank you. Bye." Fair enough. I suspect you have a natural talent for attracting the witless. 
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colonel c
6,009 posts
108 months
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I thought I'd got one yesterday in a pet food store. The double lip rings through deep mauve lipstick and extra darkened eye shadow clashed with her green company sweatshirt. While standing in the queue I wondered what the store manager was doing allowing a member of staff on the till looking like that. However the woman's appearance belied a young lady who was pleasant, helpful and not overly chatty. I came away reminding myself to be less hasty to judge others.
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DoubleSix
2,521 posts
45 months
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One word - Starbucks. Now friendly is ok, I'm not Victor Meldrew, but faux friendliness bordering on the intrusive really f  ks me off. I start work early so enter an empty Starbucks: "Can we have your name so we can write it on the cup?" "er... ok" (turning to see deserted coffee shop) '"So how are you today George?" "tired and in a rush" (turning to look at car on double yellows...) "So, do you work locally?" "Yes, just down the road, is my coffee ready cause I really need to be getting...." "So, what do you do for work?" At this point I actually put my palm up and said: "look, I don't want to be rude but I came in here to grab a quick coffee and whilst I appreciate you may have customers that like this chit chat, I do not." What was particularly annoying was that my whole demeanour screamed "leave me alone it's 6:30am and do not wish to engage with you", yet they were incapable of ready these basic signals. Starbucks need to sort out there training. I go elsewhere now.
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jimmyboy85
330 posts
17 months
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......Do my nut in!
Went to the supermarket with my other half and our 6 month old child in the middle of the day. Me and the missus are both 26.
Attempted to buy around £60 worth of food and 4 bottles of beer at a check out manned by an "older" lady which is where it all went wrong.......
Do you have ID sir?
Yep here you go
Turns to my other half,
Do you have ID? she didn't
Me "what has it got to do with her? its my shopping, i'm paying for it, why does she need ID?"
"Because you're together, so you both need ID, so I can't sell you this"
I point to my 6 month old daughter "well she doesn't look over 25 so does she need ID too?"
The woman suddenly took the most patronizing tone I've ever heard and replied "don't be stupid sir"
Whilst trying to stop myself laughing in her face "Well if thems the rules how come shes exempt, you can't change the rules when it suits you thats not fair on every one else......So what do I have to do to get my beers?"
"I didn't make the rules sir, if you come in on your own I can serve you'
We bought the food, the other half took the food to the car and I went round and bought my beers from the same woman but once I'd paid for them couldn't resist.
"these are actually for my daughter, she loves a pint!"
Now I can completely understand been ID'd for booze and have no problem with it but just wish they would have a bit of common sense, When I was 17 I certainly wasn't buying £60 quids worth of food to get illegally served £6's worth of booze, I no they need to be careful but I think the woman thought she was Robocop.
And also I'm struggling to see the difference between a group of 17 year olds waiting outside for there 18 year old friend to come outside with a trolley full of booze or them all been present at the check out whilst the one 18 year old buys it. They all still end up drunk outside the supermarket.
Utterly pointless rule and a far too enthusiastic old girl on the check out.
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wibble cb
613 posts
76 months
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Starbucks here in Canada have now decided to ask for your name here, 'for the cup'.....I replied that they didn't need my name, yet was then told 'its policy' WTF ? I really don't much care for the faux chuminess of wanting to know my name, let alone the high handedness of the staff when you dare to not comply with 'policy', I wouldn't have minded if the shop was rammed, but I was the only one in there !
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wibble cb
613 posts
76 months
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DoubleSix said: One word - Starbucks. Now friendly is ok, I'm not Victor Meldrew, but faux friendliness bordering on the intrusive really f ks me off. I start work early so enter an empty Starbucks: "Can we have your name so we can write it on the cup?" "er... ok" (turning to see deserted coffee shop) '"So how are you today George?" "tired and in a rush" (turning to look at car on double yellows...) "So, do you work locally?" "Yes, just down the road, is my coffee ready cause I really need to be getting...." "So, what do you do for work?" At this point I actually put my palm up and said: "look, I don't want to be rude but I came in here to grab a quick coffee and whilst I appreciate you may have customers that like this chit chat, I do not." What was particularly annoying was that my whole demeanour screamed "leave me alone it's 6:30am and do not wish to engage with you", yet they were incapable of ready these basic signals. Starbucks need to sort out there training. I go elsewhere now. I actually posted mine, having not read above....glad its not just me being a bit John Peel..!
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Keyser Soze
Original Poster
10,924 posts
60 months
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FailHere said: If they want you to give your name in Starbucks, do you have to give your real name?
Today I shall be The Honourable Victor Montmorency-Cholmondly, tomorrow just Fred.
I once got asked by a chatty checkout assistant "Are you having a party?" presumably because of the quantity of alcohol that had just gone through the till. My response "No, I'm an alcoholic." stopped all further comments from the then red-faced assistant.  That reminds me, I was grabbing a prescription a while ago and the lady in front muttered to the assistant 'A tube of Canesten please' Assistant (loudly to half the shop) 'Sorry CANESTAN?' Lady (obviously embarrassed and annoyed) Yes Canestan I have thrush!!!
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falkster
4,151 posts
72 months
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Sump said: Self service.
It quite literally means that day to day I don't ever talk to any blue collar workers.
It's such win. You need to get your head out of your arse.
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Zwolf
22,321 posts
75 months
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FailHere said: If they want you to give your name in Starbucks, do you have to give your real name? I don't think they require photographic ID somehow I find there's more variance in what's written on the cup when I do give my real name. It's three letters and one syllable. Yet has so far been all manner of things, the most amusing of which was "Lenno G" (as opposed to "Len, no G" as it kept gaining one). Evidently there's something confusing about how I pronounce my own name.
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ExFiF
18,389 posts
120 months
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All you whingers do realise that the checkout staff are instructed to behave like his, if they don't and get a low mystery shopper score it could, in theory, affect bonuses for the whole store staff.
Stop being such miserable sods, be a bit more accommodating of others and get your collective heads out of your collective rectums. With respect.
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DanB7290
5,114 posts
59 months
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I work in a shop to support myself through uni, the management are really insistent that we play up the friendliness towards customers, as every now and again head office send in a mystery shopper, who grades the overall state of the shop and staff, and if you're a miserable b d, then they'll fail the whole store, and too many fails means no bonus (although losing a 3% bonus on the square root of f k all isn't really going to give me sleepless nights). I agree, some people really do go OTT with it, but personally I do what I think is right by the look of the customer. If it's the old dear who comes in when there's nobody about in the morning for some cat food, coffee and a bit of a natter, then I'll have a wee chat, if it's in the middle of lunchtime and some pissed off chap in a suit has managed to get through the flock of schoolchildren who have taken over the shop, then I'll get things done as quickly as possible, no hassle. If it's someone who's so drunk they are struggling to stand up, I'll just laugh. And this whole IDing whole groups of younger looking people. It is a legal requirement in case a group of 16-17 year olds come in with that token older chap who's buying some WKDs for them to drink on the park whilst pretending to be 'gangster', that sort of thing. However, we are allowed to use discretion on things like people doing shopping with kids in tow, and they may have a bottle of wine to go with the dinner, and in our store, and most experiences I've had shopping elsewhere, that common sense is applied. However some see it as the only little shred of power they'll ever have in their s tty life because they didn't try hard enough in school and ended up being a till monkey at Asda and will probably remain a till monkey until they drop dead.
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NismoGT
1,548 posts
59 months
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Keyser Soze said: Is it just me or are a lot of them a little creepy?
They should be making your experience nicer and they are obviously trying but it just weirds me out. Most of them are on LSD. HTH.
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Cock Womble 7
29,908 posts
99 months
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ExFiF said: All you whingers do realise that the checkout staff are instructed to behave like his, if they don't and get a low mystery shopper score it could, in theory, affect bonuses for the whole store staff.
Stop being such miserable sods, be a bit more accommodating of others and get your collective heads out of your collective rectums. With respect. I really want to punch you in the face.
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DoubleSix
2,521 posts
45 months
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Cock Womble 7 said: ExFiF said: All you whingers do realise that the checkout staff are instructed to behave like his, if they don't and get a low mystery shopper score it could, in theory, affect bonuses for the whole store staff.
Stop being such miserable sods, be a bit more accommodating of others and get your collective heads out of your collective rectums. With respect. I really want to punch you in the face. Seconded. You seem to have missed the point ExFiF, I don't mind genuine friendliness. But what's annoying is when people behave like automatons and don't apply whatever instructions they have been given in a thoughtful manner.
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fido
9,387 posts
124 months
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Keyser Soze said: That reminds me, I was grabbing a prescription a while ago and the lady in front muttered to the assistant 'A tube of Canesten please' Assistant (loudly to half the shop) 'Sorry CANESTAN?' Lady (obviously embarrassed and annoyed) Yes Canestan I have thrush!!! Hehe. Reminds me of the scene in 'Me, Myself and Irene' when someone pushes in front of Jim Carrey at a supermarket queue! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUjMwiOm8sA
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