Saturday 23 May 2009

Some people are just born arseholes.

Young(ish) woman with a baby in a buggy came to my till the other day. She hands her purchases to me and I start scanning them.

Young Mum: Wow, this place is a nightmare if you've got a buggy!

Me: Yeah, sorry, it's a bit cramped in places, isn't it?

YM: No, it's not that, there's no signs on any of the floors!

Me: Oh, there is, there's a directory, at least one, on each floor.

YM: Yeah, but they don't tell you where to go to pay for anything!

Me: Oh they do, they all say 'tills' on them at some point. Maybe we should make it a bit more obvious though.

YM: My god! You've obviously missed out on your customer service training!!

Me: Excuse me? (stunned!)

YM: You are being incredibly rude!!

Me: I'm sorry you feel that way.

YM: I certainly do!

Me: Would you like to speak to a manager about me then? (I was NOT in the mood to be dicked about!)

YM: I'd rather be served by one of your colleagues!

Me: (points at another till) I'm sure my colleague over there will be happy to help you!

So she picks up her stuff and heads towards another till, and the guy behind her in the queue gives me an 'eh?' look and comes to be served.

Young Mum then decides to complain after all, and my colleague calls over the nearest manager, who just happens to be the store manager! He looks over at me, I shrug, he takes YM away from the till area for a chat. A few moments later I see her leave and my manager comes over to me. He asks what happened, I tell him, word for word what was said, and he also shrugs. 'God knows what was bugging her!' he said.

So, I'm slightly confused. Was I rude? Was my tone condescending maybe? She claimed there were no signs, I informed her there were, for future reference. Her point was that 'having no signs' made it 'a nightmare if you've got a buggy'. So, if we had no signs, how would the majority of our customers who do not have buggys cope? Then, after claiming there were no signs, she acknowledges there are, but they don't give you any information. Did I maybe make her feel like an idiot? Or was she just born an arsehole?

And gee, thanks to my colleague who gave her a customer satisfaction voucher away with her! Some rather nasty feedback was left apparently! D'oh! :p