I hope this is not typically British

[Johnboy]

As a treat yesterday I accompanied one of my daughters to Hereford and I went into a a shop of a nationally owned news agents and the two women assistants were talking as I approached the counter they stopped talking but before I could ask for what I wanted they began talking again and ignored me. I counted up to twenty and then asked to see the manager.
He just said "what do you want" in a very disinterested fashion so I told him what I wanted and explained what had occurred. He then said "get him what he wants" to the assistants who were still talking. I said don't bother I'll get it from somebody who is interested in their customers.
That cheeky sod said "I can do without stroppy customers so don't come back."
I have just finished a letter to the managing director of the company concerned. All three were wearing name tags and have mentioned them by name and if they are there next time I call I would be more that surprised.
Has anybody had such a thing happen to them?
JB

[Primrose]

JB - Well done for following up. Too many people just accept this kind of service with a shrug, as if it's the norm and they have no option but to accept it. I think the whole customer service concept in the UK is pretty lousy. with a few notable exceptions such as John Lewis/Waitrose who spend a lot of money on staff training in that respect, which makes their shops a joy to visit if you need staff assistance.

A not-dissimilar thing has happened to me on more than one occasion. I just turn on my heel and say in a loud voice words to the effect of "Well, if you don't want my business I'll take it elsewhere, and when all your customers start doing this, you'll close down and be out of a job."

It's especially surprising that this kind of behaviour is still happening in a period of austerity when retailers are so desperate for our business. We consumers should take advantage of this and use our influence to ensure that customer service is driven upwards.

[Arnie]

Hi Johnboy

I am afraid it is creeping in I have never had it happen to me thankfully but see & hear it all the time, staff chatting about what happen weekend or whatever not taking any notice of customer's waiting to be served

I think if more of us complained instead of accepting shoddy service it would be soon be sorted

Regards

Kevin

[peter]

It comes from school, where little darlings treat class as a social event, rather than turning off mobile phones, shutting up and paying attention to teacher.

I found this sort of attitude common amongst hospital staff when my mother was in various wards. She was a demanding pain, but, where could you always find the staff?
Sat in a huddle discussing their social life, tv schedule, or "care plans" for patients rather than actually caring for them.

[Primrose]

I'm not frightened to complain in instances of bad service, but I've not yet achieved my late father's epic levels of impatience with bad service. Can't remember whether I've related this incident before.

As a small child I trailed along with my parents to the Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia one year, and my father took us into one of their resturants for an early lunch as a "treat". There were lots of waiters & waitresses all huddled around in corners chatting, with tables rapidly filling up yet none of them were making any attempt to start serving.

My father, never the world's most patient man, finally lost his rag, stood up on a chair, and banging a glass with a spoon called out "Is anybody going to come and serve us or do we have to come into the damned kitchen and start serving ourselves?"

There was a deathly silence for a moment, followed by clapping from one or two other customers at other tables, then waiters and waitresses scurrying everywhere to start taking order. I just wanted to curl up, crawl under the table and die with embarrassment.

I might just have the nerve to do this in a restaurant far from home, but never anywhere where I'm likely to be recognised again!

[Geoff]

If it begins with 'S' I hope you weren't trying to buy a book. Went into the Lancaster branch before Christmas for the first time for ages and discovered they had none, don't know if it is national. By comparison went into the branch of Waterstones and couldn't browse for being offered help, not sure which approach I prefer sometimes.

[alan refail]

Must be more of an English than a British thing. Anyone working in shops here, from local to supermarkets is most friendly, attentive and welcoming - a chewch hefyd ddewis rhwng dwy iaith (you get to choose between two languages) especially if they are wearing their Iaith gwaith badge

[richard p]

one of our large electrical retailers is renound for it... last time the mrs wanted a new hoover we went in spent a considerable time looking at various hoovers..it was early on a weekday morning there were more staff in the store than customers.... mrs eventually dragged me out ....
ive often wondered how long it took them to sort out the hoses filters etc from the heap of half a dozen dissassembled vacuums and get them back on display
having decided what model she wanted we came home and bought it cheaper online .

[Elle's Garden]

We had this in our local pub just a couple of weeks ago. The young lady apparently in charge was so extremely rude in saying we "would have to wait to eat because her 'priority' were those who had booked" that we drank up and took our business elsewhere. We weren't in a hurry at all and would have happily waited with a couple of drinks for an hour or more - but she was just so rude about it. A friend's mum is actually the cook in the kitchen and she later revealed that the young lady didn't want the business because she wanted to chat with her friends!! She did her employers out of about £150 that day! Of course, her employers are absent so they don't know how their staff are behaving - but hopefully next time they return the cook will fill them in!

[Primrose]

We had this in our local pub just a couple of weeks ago. The young lady apparently in charge was so extremely rude in saying we "would have to wait to eat because her 'priority' were those who had booked" that we drank up and took our business elsewhere. .... She did her employers out of about £150 that day! Of course, her employers are absent so they don't know how their staff are behaving - but hopefully next time they return the cook will fill them in!

Isn't it amazing that some employees seem unable to correlate the fact that business being turned away because of a bad customer attitude could turn into business failure and P-45's being collected? Which all goes to show that for a business to remain successful, whatever it is, you need 'hands on' supervision. In any business your customer is your greatest asset but so many people just don't seem to understand this.

[Johnboy]

By comparison to my problems yesterday I am always struck by the young Polish people we have working in this country who seem to have the correct work ethic.
In Newtown Powys a group of young Polish workers have set up a delicatessen shop selling not only Polish goods but many goodies from a selection of other European countries. They were the only shop in Newtown that day that actually had a queue. The staff were wonderful and were working their butts off. They were all smiling and going as fast as they possibly could.
A woman in the queue complained that they were only here to take our jobs and another woman rounded on her and said well why are you bothering to stand in this queue. If you don't like these people why not shop elsewhere! At which point I was about to be served but when I left the two were still at it!
Wonderful service! Wonderful produce! The complainant jealous or what?
They were showing us how it could be done and was most refreshing.
JB.

[Nature's Babe]

Our village local supermarket is great, they do have the right ethic and it is four pronged - good management / staff relations, excellent staff training,
customer feedback encouraged, and strong and cordial links with local suppliers who are kept in the loop and promoted. Just before christmas I rushed in there for some last minute shopping to find that my purse was still at home and not in my bag, the staff member on duty at the entrance, who actually welcomes customers, noticed my dismay, took me to the manager explained my predicament and as a regular they let me have it on an IOU slip which was paid on my next visit If they can achieve it so could others, all their staff go the extra mile to make customer sevice an experience that surpasses what we can reasonably expect.

[Primrose]

NB - You're more fortunate than us. We have a couple of smallish supermarkets in our village - one run by a grumpy set of people and the other is a Tesco Express. Choice between a rock and a hard place really. On the other hand, our village butcher will sell a single sausage to an elderly person living alone with the same courtesy as he'd sell a huge joint of beef to somebody else.

[Gerry]

Primrose, You are lucky to have a "local" butcher. A number of years ago, when living in Cheshire we had a marvelous butcher. The shop was being run by the third generation of the same family. They were also farmers and bred most of their own meat. Late one Saturday I was in there when an old lady,when asked how her husband was, replied "Much better thanks. I'm going to get him a nice piece of beef, as a treat, for dinner tomorrow". As the butchers son cut the joint I heard his father whisper to him "She can't afford that piece". "She can if I put my finger under the scales" he said.

Shortly after this the shop closed because everyone was buying their meat from the Supermarket.
Regards, Gerry.

[Primrose]

Gerry - that's such a sad tale but I'm afraid the closure of your butcher is a typical tale that's happening all over the country, and it's even sadder because the quality of supermarket meat is much more unreliable than that from a butcher. How many times have people ended up buying chops in one of those polystyrene packs to find that one is much smaller than the other, or they've been packaged in such a way that all the bony parts are hidden underneath?

Our local butcher is being continually harried by the Environmental Health people demanding impossible changes such as rebuilding work to his premises that he cannot deliver because his shop is ased and the landlord won't spend any money, and all sorts of other nit-picking demands that make no tangible difference whatsoever to the hygiene of his shop. We fear that one day he will just decide that "enough is enough" and pull the shutters down.