Rude shop assistants.

Davedubh

Anyone encounter shop assistants with no manners?Where in cork are they to be found?Lets hear your stories.

dulpit

Odd, I was actually considering posting similar thread there... Was in GQ yesterday, saw a jacket and was heading up to counter to pay, the guy hovering on floor ran up to me & grabbed it out of my hands to bring it up, I only realised later that he gets commission for the sale...

Then when i got to counter, there were 2 girls behind desk, 1 was dying from hangover (this was 5 in evening) and the other was nattering away to her... Ignored me more or less, ridiculously bad...

Maybe it was a bad day for them, I dunno, but it was shocking...

Another

Customer service in Ireland in shops (and some restaurants) is in general appalling. Often makes shopping an unpleasant confrontational experience. BT's in Cork was notorious for this. Stopped going there a few years ago.

Redrocket

Gq?

deRanged

stevenk wrote:

Gq?

Gentleman's Quarters I imagine.
Customer service is someting that's sadly lacking in Cork.

Judes

I left Cork the late 80's and at that stage unemployment was very high hence everyone jumping on a plane to seek work over-seas. But staff in the hospitality industry or retail were always polite, friendly and extremely helpful - because they were happy to have a job!!!

I returned to Cork a few years ago - and I totally agree - manners, attitude in the service industry have disappeared. Those Celtic Tiger Years were the best/worse thing that happened. Nobody gives a damn, as they know they can walk in/out of jobs. It's the same within the Building Trade, there has been so much work that they've become slack and unreliable.

So if staff are cheeky enough to talk around/over you with their colleagues about their previous night's exploits - or don't acknowledge you at the counters, or do as that guy in GQ did - when he grabbed your item for his commission - COMPLAIN - point it out to them - and ask for the Manager. If you are a bit too shy to verbally complain - then write a letter to the Manager.

We Irish have always been a nation of fighters - we constantly put the world to rights - but instead of talking to each other - we should talk back to those who give bad service. And if that doesn't work - then boycott said store. If more people did this - then Management would have to question why their sales are down and may act.

When I go out to lunch these days I will only go to places where I am guaranteed an efficient, friendly service - after all most of us get 1 hour - and so with getting to/from venue - we are often left with 45 minutes to order and eat. So if the staff are slow/rude/careless with the order - I don't return.

OK - this is off my chest now (until the next person ignores me at a counter).

Xtravision. Every single one of their outlets seem to go out of their way to hire rude people.

kashi

There are an enormous amount of people who are rude in retail, but there are also some really nice ones too. Having said that, having worked in Chartbusters for years customers are terribly rude too. Some seem to think that people who work in places are beneath them, and think that we can't think for ourselves. I always made the effort to be nice and polite to customers, but there are some that make it really difficult!

I always try to be nice to people in shops, and a lot are nice back, but others are not so nice. I won't say what some of them are!!:mad:

Dev 17

I work as a barman and I do genuinely try my best to be polite and extend courtesy and patience to the customers many have shown me.
Sometimes there is an off day and particularly with certain arrogant tipsy drunks I can become short.

Or if it's very busy and the bar is understaffed which is actually rare it can become stressful very quickly.

I think most staff behind the counter are becoming worse. I still maintain that the majority are polite. You wouldn't get away with much of the behavior you see in Ireland in the US. Americans put far more emphasis on polite service.

Raskolnikov

Dev 17 wrote:

Americans put far more emphasis on polite service.

Very true. I'm so used to feckless Irish customer service that the first time I was presented with a smiling and courteous American at a counter, I instantly viewed it with suspicion

Tazzle

Raskolnikov wrote:

Very true. I'm so used to feckless Irish customer service that the first time I was presented with a smiling and courteous American at a counter, I instantly viewed it with suspicion

You're right though.... The American 'courtesy' can be //extremely// contrived to the point where it's actually insulting. I'd like a nice polite person serving me, yes. I would also like a human being please. Can't win I guess, no pleasing everyone

Fysh

Dev 17 wrote:

I think most staff behind the counter are becoming worse. I still maintain that the majority are polite. You wouldn't get away with much of the behavior you see in Ireland in the US. Americans put far more emphasis on polite service.

Yes, but part of this is because in a significant chunk of their service industry (waiting work, etc) the job assumes that you will make a hefty amount of tips and thus pays a paltry hourly wage. It's far easier to be polite/friendly (even if it is that horrendous americanised over-the-top childrens-TV-presenter kind of friendly) when you know that being able to pay your bills each month depends on it.

Jack B. Badd

Fysh wrote:

Yes, but part of this is because in a significant chunk of their service industry (waiting work, etc) the job assumes that you will make a hefty amount of tips and thus pays a paltry hourly wage. It's far easier to be polite/friendly (even if it is that horrendous americanised over-the-top childrens-TV-presenter kind of friendly) when you know that being able to pay your bills each month depends on it.

Tbh, I've always assumed in any job that I've worked that the wage you're paid covers good customer service. Whether or not an employee receives tips, the onus is still on them to be polite as they are effectively selling their time to the company who presumably require good manners of their staff.
I'm not saying that it's required that shop assistants go completely overboard but generally the level of customer service in this country is appalling. It varies from assistants who seem to think that they are required to ration pleasantries, such as "please" and "thank you", to those that will outright swear at you (this happened to me in an Xtravision once and I was so shocked I didn't even complain about it).
That said, I've come across quite a few sales assistants who maintain very high levels of politeness but they tend to be older men and women, most teenagers and young adults (20's - 30's) in customer service jobs lack basic manners or are just downright rude. Man, I sound like an old fogey...:rolleyes:

Fysh

Ah, I don't mean that it's any way acceptable for staff to be less polite just because they don't explicitly get extra cash out of it. But between inconsistent levels of customer care training depending on the establishment in question, and that wonderful tendency of putting up with things and whingeing about them without taking steps to change them (such as taking names, making complaints to managers, etc) it's hardly surprising that some places are just crap at looking after their customers...

AutumnDays

BT's in Cork was notorious for this. Stopped going there a few years ago.

Actually, I found the opposite, the BT girls have been really helpful in the years I've been going there.

Not being racist here, just telling you my experience: but most of the shop assistants in BT are still Irish. And in my experience, alot of the unfriendlieness I have experienced in shops has been from foreign staff (maybe because of language difficulties).

Fysh

AutumnDays wrote:

Not being racist here, just telling you my experience: but most of the shop assistants in BT are still Irish. And in my experience, a lot of the unfriendlieness I have experienced in shops has been from foreign staff (maybe because of language difficulties).

Interesting, I was talking to someone about this yesterday and I've found the exact opposite - in the likes of Tesco, Dunnes etc I've found that the Irish staff have been guilty of crap service (carrying on talking to their mates while allegedly serving you, not making eye contact while talking to you, and so on) more often than foreign staff.

run_Forrest_run

as said many times here already, that crowd in BT are shocking. don't go there anymore.

DJ Hafez

I find some of the indians and morocons to be extremely pleasent, much nicer than some/most of our own!

Kold

Worked behind the counter for 5 years and I always tried my best to be nice. You need to take into consideration the **** that these people (especially ethnic) are put through for minimum wage. Although it doesn't excuse anyone's manners.

To be honest, it's not the fact that they're working in retail. Ireland is just full of very rude people.

My philosophy was to treat people the way that they treat me and whenever I go to a bar or shop I always try to be polite.

Trojan911

A few years ago I went into the convenience shop in Oliver Plunkett St to buy something at the counter.

The staff member was yapping away on her mobile as she tried to serve me. It took several minutes to get served when it should have only taken max two minutes.

I sought out the manager & apologised to him for being so rude to his staff by purchasing something while she yapped on her phone. He got the message.

TJ911...

rebs23

Stopped going to the Centra shop/Petrol Station in Little Island years ago after listening to a large lady behind the counter yapping to her colleague about the "georgeous fella"(beer goggles probably) she shagged the night before(several times in different positions). She also went on to describe in detail to the pretty big q forming that she her head was thumping as the "red bull and vodka didn't suit her" and she really needed to go home and have a kip.
The clincher was when she proceeded to pick her nose. :eek:

Davedubh

The pakistani guy with the goatee in texaco bishopstown never says please or thanks.

Toto Wolfcastle

Davedubh wrote:

The pakistani guy with the goatee in texaco bishopstown never says please or thanks.

Mst customers never say please or thanks either. Most customers never answer when you ask them how they are. I was asked how I was twice in 8 months and I was so shocked I could barely answer. I have been told to f*ck off for telling a lady that the queue was going the other way. She thought that because she had spent 400 euro ten minutes previous that she had a right to skip. When my till encountered a technical difficulty and doubled up a few things, I was treated to a tirade of abuse while the next customer tried to explain that it wasn't my fault.

A customer asked a lady working with me if she went to college with her as she recognised her. When she replied that she had never gone to college the customer said 'Yes, that's why you're on that side of the counter and I'm on this side.

I agree that many sales assistants are rude (Next in Mahon Point, would it kill you to smile woman??) but if you think about what they have to put up with for very little money, why should they be happy all the time?? Then again, some people should just not be hired to serve the public

Thank God I don't have to work as a sales assistant anymore, sick of customers thinking they are better than me. Ignorant b**t*rds!!!

Ok, rant over!!

gubby

Oh this is something I feel so very strongly about. I honesty wonder if any of those people are "trained" I am sure when they are hired they are trained on things like using the till ect but could someone ever just tell them to pretend that every customer that comes in is their mother/father or favourite aunt/uncle . I nearly jump for joy now when I meet plesant shop assistants and I make a point of telling them that it made my day to be served by someone pleasant. I do think that helps. If you complement them when they are nice I think it will give them a lift and make them try harder. human nature and all the rest. even a dog likes a pat on the head. I work in a shop myself and I honestly have a great rapore with my customers and have a great laugh too..

Doctor DooM

Worked in a shop for several years, and it really goes both ways. Most of my time was spent at management level so I was expected to lead by example, and I would like to think I had a smile on my face for 80% of people who came in- we are only human! Sometimes if you've just been shouted at its more nasty to fake a smile than not.

Its important to remember if you haven't worked in a shop how unintentionally rude or arrogant you can be to someone in their place of employement. Retail staff often put up with things on a day to day basis that would be considered completely unacceptable in an office environment.

However if you do say please, and thank you, and the staff is rude- really they aren't suited for the job, or aren't performing as they should, and you're doing their manager a favour by pointing it out.

razorblunt

Customers can be just as rude some are too stupid or ignorant possibly both to even join the back of a queue, I saw a woman throw the clothes she was buying at my manager once who told her she had to join the back of the queue.

GQ are pretty bad sometimes when you are served they oversell so much which is equally as annoying.

DawnMc

Oh my god, LIDL in Togher anyone? They seem to hate anyone who goes in!

bostonian

Another wrote:

Customer service in Ireland in shops (and some restaurants) is in general appalling. Often makes shopping an unpleasant confrontational experience. BT's in Cork was notorious for this. Stopped going there a few years ago.

Agreed. The whole of Ireland has terrible customer service. Even the kids outside of the shops fundraising for a charity or their school are rude. Then there are the flight attendants on Aer Lingus.

Sometimes rude is a good thing: on a flight into Dublin on Aer Lingus, they handed out envelopes for people to put donations into for Unicef; it's a convenient way to get rid of foreign coinage... anyway, an American a few rows up from me asks the attendant if he'll get a receipt. She asked "Why?" He said," So I can write it off on my taxes."

In that nasty quip that those girls have, she answered "No, it's for charity."

I almost fell out of my seat with laughter. Except the seat in front of me was 3 centimeters away from me so I didn't fall very far.

bostonian

Davedubh wrote:

The pakistani guy with the goatee in texaco bishopstown never says please or thanks.

Ah migrants don't count, there are language and culture differences.

idlesupernova

GQ seems to be the worst from what I hear, staff hate each other apparently, they all want the commison!! Very badly

Azhrei

I used to work for the first of what was supposed to be a chain of dedicated computer stores, but it never got past the first store due to the incompetence of certain people. Anyway, I like to think that I had a smile for most if not all customers, and before I left I had a number of regulars who I really liked. For example, there was a group of Asian guys in their early twenties who would make a beeline straight for me - one of my co-workers, a bit of an asshole who was fired not long after - tried to steal them once, but they shrugged him off and asked for me. He tried to steal them because when they came in, they would buy enough parts to build another computer, often choosing the best parts. Since we were working on commission, you can imagine why that co-worker would want them. They actually left the store and came in again another day when they were told I was on my day off.

Another regular was a little kid who only ever bought anything once. He used to come in with his mother, have a look around, talk to me about stuff he'd like to get for his computer, that he couldn't afford. More RAM to be able to play Black & White is one that I remember. I used to look forward to his arrival because he was a nice child, and I would indulge him in moving around the store with him and talking about computers. Once one of the managers, who had watched him come in several times, asked if he ever bought anything, because we shouldn't approve such behaviour, and I covered for him. His mother would follow us around the store, slightly bemused, but she was always nice, too, and I think she was grateful that I indulged him so.

We had one customer in at one point who was talking to one of the corporate sales staff for about half an hour when said staff member asked me to show him what pc's we had for sale, then he would go back to that staff member and buy from him. Yeah, big incentive for me! But I smiled and lead the customer around, showing him what we had. Whenever he asked questions I answered them as best I could. There was a really bad smell from him, like he hadn't showered in over a month or something - it was difficult to stand near him without acting on instinct to cover your nose, but I still grin and bore it. He thanked me for showing him around and went back to the corporate staff member. Minutes later he left the store without buying anything, and that staff member spoke to me for a few minutes, telling me that the "potentially large" customer had complained of my rudeness and short behaviour towards him, that I had spent no time on explaining anything to him before moving onto another customer. I was so shocked I could hardly believe what I was hearing, I had to ignore the strong smell coming from this person while going around the store with him, I was as conscientious as could be... some people.

As far as rude assistants go, though, the very same co-worker who tried to steal my customers actually managed it with another one. This guy who came into the store made a beeline for me and asked about speaker systems, he specifically wanted a good quality 5.1 set-up. So I start showing him what we have, and he asks for a demonstration. I duly set up the one he wanted to listen to, and for half an hour or so we test the bass and general volume of the set, as well as the 3D effects. Now, each of the sales staff excelled in knowledge in some area or areas, and I would often send customers their way because they could answer more knowledgeably. One, for example, knew much more about PDA's than I did, so every time I got the query, I would send the customer his way and he would get the sale. Likewise, he would send people who asked questions about motherboards, RAM and graphics cards my way. It was a good system.

So, this customer asks a very technical question about sound cards, and for assistance I ask this co-worker (not the PDA guy) to answer the question. We both spent another five minutes with the customer, asking us questions that both could answer. When he decided to go for the speakers, that brilliant co-worker of mine patted him on the back and pointed in the direction of the sales desk, looked back at me and told me to clean up the speaker set we were testing, and went off with my sale. Yep.