Bloody shop assistants - rant

A few years back I went to the Mardyke Pool and Bowling emporium with a buddy on a Sunday afternoon. They opened at 4 PM (this particular day) and I went in an hired a pool table.
Feeling peckish I picked up a menu and went to the bar counter to order some food. The two staff members behind the counter were having a chat and being the pretty inoffensive chap that I am I waited for them to notice me. They didn't so I continued to wait.... and wait. I went back to the pool table took a few shots and then went back up to the counter again. It was quiet at this time in there and there was only a hand full of customers in there and still I waited... Eventually I called over to the staff saying "Any chance of getting serve or shall I stand here all day" and with that one of the staff came over and asked what my issue was. I explained and asked to see the manager. 5 minutes later I was approached by security staff and asked to leave for being abusive to staff. I kid you not.
We left and I looked up the website for the company and wrote a scading email to the manager. I never received a reply and I have never been back there since.
 
CCOVICH said:
Closure order served and lifted on the same day?
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Yes That is strange. What does something like this mean for the consumer ?

I've been having tea and a jam/butter croissant or soup in Metro for a few years at this stage and never had a problem with the food. I do think its expensive compared to McDonalds for example but the company I keep likes to go there.
 
I would assume that either (a) the dates are mistaken in the FSAI database or (b) the environmental health inspector visited, found a problem, issued a closure notice, they sorted the problem out, s/he returned and lifted the order all on the same day?
 
We were at the "customer service" desk in B & Q and had a plumbing query. We were told that the staff member who deals with that section was on "a smoke break". Sooo professional.
 
Another one:


Oasis on Henry St. Trying on jeans & asked for another size (which I'd seen upstairs in the shop). Shop assistant went off to get them, came back about 30 seconds later. "Sorry - we don't have them". Me: "I'm pretty sure I sawe them". Shop assistant - "I told you. We don't have them. Someone must have bought them."

So, I got dressed, picked up my shopping bags, back upstairs, got the jeans I needed in my size & back downstairs. Showed jeans to shop assistant who by now was texting someone.....her response. "Someone must have brought them back".

Where do shops get off not training their staff???
 
totally agree PMU...


what 'training' do staff need to simply be polite? - it's simply deliberate bad manners..
 
PMU said:
Is there a national policy of hiring thick ignorant gob-daws as shop assistants in Dublin?
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This is a symptom of full-employment.
PMU said:
Is being a slack-jawed acne-faced thicko an essential qualification?
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Staff under 18 can be paid as little as 70% of the minimum wage.
PMU said:
it’s just that nobody was interested in taking my money.
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Most probably aren't getting commission and therefore have little or no interest in selling you anything. I suspect that most know little about what they are selling.
PMU said:
the whole exercise was more like work than a pleasurable experience.
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You might be better to stick to fancy Dan shops where you'll essentially pay for the experience.
 
I can speak for myself I've been to Dunnes Stores many times I find the staff there to be friendly and courtious and nothing is too much trouble for them.
I went up 1 day looking for a particular bag of berries and couldn't find them. So I asked a girl and she couldn't find them either, so I left it be.
When I was queuing to pay for my shopping she came back over with a bag of cherries, this was half an hour after I asked her.
I generally find that if I speak to the cashiers they talk back.
Most people seem to treat cashiers like machines which they obliviously are not.
 
My sister was in Dunnes last week with her five year old and five month old. There were three cashiers on the customer service desk and a manager type in a suit keying something into the computer.

The baby began to grizzle and my sister bent down, got the bottle from the bag and handed it to baby, who stopped crying and there was silence. The Manager looked at the three assistants and said aloud almost into my sisters face "imagine having to listen to that all day" At which the three shop assistants started laughing.

My sister was very upset and fled. When she got home her husband was absolutely fuming. I phoned Dunnes head office the next day and got a return call from a really professional lady in senior management. She asked if she could contact my sister and I gave her the number.

I could not believe that someone in a management position could be so unprofessional to a customer.
 
Danmo said:
We were at the "customer service" desk in B & Q and had a plumbing query. We were told that the staff member who deals with that section was on "a smoke break". Sooo professional.
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This wouldn't be my experience of B&Q

I would shop in the Liffey Valley store a lot and always find them to be very professional, helpful and courteous. I find their customer service to be miles better than what I've become accustomed to in Dublin and equally as good as Superquinn.
I must be getting old and cranky because I just will not tolerate bad service anymore. I will often ask to see the manager and let fly.
 

I can't believe it either.
Is it not possible that your sister is a bit thin skinned?
I don't want to be unkind but it really doesn't seem to me to be a big deal what the suit said in the shop?
 
Again, it's just bad manners. Since when is it appropriate for management and/or staff to comment on a customer's circumstances or lifestyle?

Maybe the person in question was sensitive but it doesn't excuse total lack of professionalism.
 
Caveat said:
Again, it's just bad manners. Since when is it appropriate for management and/or staff to comment on a customer's circumstances or lifestyle?

Maybe the person in question was sensitive but it doesn't excuse total lack of professionalism.
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You are right but I don't believe it was a total lack of professionalism it would be to me an off the cuff remark not meant to insult or hurt but to make people smile including the OP's sister, that's the way I would have taken it.
 
S.L.F said:
You are right but I don't believe it was a total lack of professionalism it would be to me an off the cuff remark not meant to insult or hurt but to make people smile including the OP's sister, that's the way I would have taken it.
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No she was more annoyed at the fact that the comment was said not to her but as an aside to the three staff. Manager did not have eye contact or any conversation with the customer whatsoever. It just happened that the baby was handed a bottle and quietened just as the comment was made. Sister said upset not even what was said but how it was said. Did not even have the good grace to look up from the computer and meet the customers eye when he realised that the customer had overheard the remark. In the meantime three junior teenage staff are looking at the ground embarressed and tittering. Kind of like not laughing with you, but laughing at you, if you know what I mean.

Said sister worked as Manager of a Boutique in the Square for 12 years. So well aware of whats acceptable in customer service situations.

Anyway, head office said not professional from their management and it is not acceptable in any way for a staff member to comment on a customer. Not his place to make that remark and should not have happened.

My sister said later and we got a laugh out of it, well realistically I could have said to the three girls, "that big baldy head must be cold this weather", not sure he would have appreciated that.
 
I was in a hotel one day for dinner with my daughter who was 18months. Had ordered food andit was going on 20 minutes from the time we ordered. It was the middle of the day and there were a few old men at the bar watching the racing. Daughter was tired and hungry and pretty much went into meltdown when I took a knife (which the waiting staff had laid in front of her) from her. After a moment or two of me trying to soothe her the barman arrived over and said we would have to "shut the child up" or move into the "ballroom" which is a glorified hall used as a nightclub. I refused and said if he got her food she would be quiet. He again told us to move into the nightclub and I again refused as I didn't feel like eating my meal in a smelly, cold room. He said "other customers" were complaining as they couldn't hear the racing on the telly. I asked if our meals which would come to roughly 60 euro was worth the price of a pint nursed all day. He then said child was "melting his head". We walked needless to say.
4 years on and I've never been back, nor have any of my family. their loss as my brother and his now wife were considering it for their wedding but went with a different venue after our experience. So not only did they lose the meal but they lost a 20k wedding too. I did fire off an email and told them as much. Their response was that I was offered an alternative room to wait in so what was my problem I responded that I had been in said nightclub enough times to not ever want to eat in there. Thought baby was a bit young for the alcohol fumes too.
 
A neighbour went into a shoe shop in <Meath> with her 9yr old son and 6yr old daughter.

Kids being kids , hard to please, took a while to make up their minds. Obviously, dealing with kids requires a lot of patience from shop staff, but this is a bit much ....

Boy walks away from mammy to look at trainers - staff member comes over and whispers in
his ear "Will you hurry up and make up your f**king mind !"

Boy goe's back to mammy, a bit shocked. "Mammy, he said f**k to me"

Mammy not happy, confronts staff. "What did you say to my son ?"
Reply;
"I am sick of you f**king women coming in here and can't make up your f**king minds"

Mammy throws new shoes at staff member and walks out (with kids, no purchase)

The staff member was the middle-aged, male, Irish owner of the shop.
 
What is the situation if every poster here named the establishment where their personal experiences happened ?

Are they liable to be sued for libel ? Are comments relating to actual events (as opposed to opinions/rumour/hearsay) immune to this ?
 
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