Experiences with RUDE SALES ASSOCIATES **ARGH**

S

soundjade

Member
Feb 28, 2007
455
0
#1
okay, i'm not sure if this thread was already started but i did a search (WHICH HAS FINALLY BE ENABLED, YAY THANKS Vlad!) and only found specific experiences at specific stores.

Anyway, Describe some of your experiences with rude sales associates!


This is triggered by one i had today. (VERY LONG PLEASE SKIP IF YOU GET BORED EASILY LOL)
I walked into Victoria's Secret at 34th Street and right as I was heading in, I asked one of the SA's if I could please have one of those shopping bags to put the sales items in. She was standing around holding a few so I thought that's what was expected? She had two in the crook of her arm/elbow and took one off her and held it on the tip of her fingers.
Now, this is hard to describe unless I were to act it out, but she didn't even look at me as she was doing this. And normally, when you're giving things to someone, you're supposed to hand it to them. She did it in a way like "well i have it, come and get it" I had to reach over to grab it from her. And when I say that she wasn't even looking at me, it wasn't as if maybe she was off in her own little world and sometimes we stare into space because we have a lot on our mind. No, she saw me come over to her, heard me request it, held it in her hand and looked to the side with the worst attitudey-posture ever. (Sorry, making up words now) And no, i'm not mistaking it for her being busy or her having too much on her mind. she was just standing around not doing anything looking bored/pissed off.

so i took it from her since she wasnt willing to make the effort to actually GIVE me the darn bag, and i walked away. i wasn't going to thank her - would you? As i began to walk away, she screamed at me sarcastically "YOU'RE WELCOME." I turned around and she had the nerve to actually call me rude. I started to talk back to try to explain to her that she was the one being rude but i stopped myself because i realized she wasn't worth it.

but i was still angry so after i did a little shopping and saw that i wasn't getting any happier, I went over to a manager and explained to her what happened. I didn't want to tattle and i tried not to. When the manager asked me to describe her i said i didn't want to because it wasn't really about that getting her in trouble. I just asked whether the manager could possibly stress the importance of customer service to her employees the next time they have a group meeting.

I even mentioned that okay, I understand sometimes if you're having a rough day, sometimes you just lose yourself and don't have the patience to be extra nice to random strangers EVERY day. But that was ridiculous. You don't have the energy to even hand me a damn bag you were holding the entire time but you have the energy to yell after me?

I've done retail and I know what it's like but i've always tried my best to be nice to customers even if i'm tired as hell. And you know, even if a customer WAS rude, i would never yell at them or call them out on it. I'd bite my tongue and then complain about it later to someone (sounds a lot like what i'm doing now, huh?)

I mean, am i wrong for feeling this way????? I tried very hard to see it from her perspective and honestly thats why i waited a while to calm down and be more collected before telling the manager. I hate bothering managers and SAs but seriously, some people have to learn when to grow up...

Sorry for the long post !!!
 
#2
I think it's good that you didn't tattle specifically on that certain SA. That's not really going to benefit anyone..it doesn't change the fact she was rude to you previously and she would get in some trouble probably. Hopefully the manager will stress the importance of customer service and nothing like this will ever happen again. I get annoyed with SA's sometimes too, but I just try to remember that everyone gets tired or has bad days..sometimes you just have to be the bigger person and let it go. :flowers:
 
#4
Some people is just TOO rude, if you are unhappy with your job get another one.. that's what I would do. I try not to be rude to my customers and oh man, some of them are a real pain in the a**. Here are my stories:

1. Call Coach JAX to locate and buy an item. It was my fisrt times buying something by phone so I had a lot of questions. She first put me on hold like for 5 minutes or more. When she got back to me she was already annoyed and took it on me, I asked about the shipping and she said What? I said is the shipping free if you ship to the store (like online purchases) and she actually sigh at me.. I might be overreacting but man she made me feel so bad and sad. Stupid b*** hehe

2. I went to this boutique at the mall looking for an especific style and size. I asked for help, she said we dont have anymore. I said what about the one in the maniqui, do you think I could buy it? she rolled her eyes and goes to undress the maniqui and she says its a small. I said its ok it'll strech out and she gave me the ugliest look, :sad: like I was 2568 lbs and gives me the shirt. I was so sad but I turned around and said I changed my mind I think I want this other one in that maniqui. Stupid b**, didnt buy anything, lol.
 
#5
I think you handled it the same way I would have. Stress to the manager you didn't want to rat out one SA for a relatively monir incident, but at the same time let him know that his SA's need to be reminded it IS the customers who pay their salary in the long run. I also beleive since she made no effort to talk to you, you did okay by not thanking her for it... seems to me she must have been in her own little world and you didn't want to break her concentration? Whatever her reasoning for her actions, it sounds like she's probably better off in another department. Like shipping.

I guess there is something to be said for Walmart, I've never had a bad experiance there with a casheir or SA on the floor. But then, I'm in a small town where their are no designer storesand everyone is very casual. The guy in line behind me may make 10,000 a year or 100,000. a year, one can't tell.

Times have changed so much from when I was younger... the customer was everything, and people treated everyone as if they were the only person they had to help that day. People forget to treat others the way they ask to be treated, and are generally irritated when they don't see themselves as the instigator. I'll bet you diamonds to buttons that SA is telling her friends she had the RUDEST customer come to her today, and she'll paint herself to be the helpful, loving SA and soundjade was just so rude!!! But I believe you soundjade, you described the incident so well, I can almost see how she acted.

SA's should ALWAYS make eye contact. At least then you'll know if you are annoying them or not.

I'm also the kind of person who'll contact management should I feel I wasn't treated right. But I also contact them if I feel a SA went above and beyond their job description as well.
 
#6
you are way too kind of a person and luckily that rude SA still has her job because of you. And I dont think you're wrong for feeling that way at all, I would've been FURIOUS and insisted that the employee be reprimanded. What did the manager reply with, if you dont mind me asking?

Victoria's Secret seems to hire the rudest sales associate, I had quite a few run-ins with some VS SAs who think they're hot stuff and trot around the store as if they're Heidi! They seem to forget that they work there :rolleyes:
 
#7
I think sometimes stores hire anyone just to fill space and they pay low wages and the people just couldn't care about doing their job or helping. I have worked retail and studied fashion merchandising in college. I always went out of my way to help customers and customers have been really sweet to me in return. I do think now so many people in retail HATE their jobs and treat customers like they are doing the person a major favor if they ask anything. I prefer to shop online.
The last rude person we dealt with as a cashier at the grocery store. She did not know my husband was behind me with his own cart. We each had a kid and did half the store to get out fast. I already paid and was sitting on the bench in front of her register waiting for my husband.
He was having a problem with his debit card getting checked through the machine. He could not get his pin numbers to punch in and this lady was literally rolling her eyes, making snide comments and was plain rude. I wanted say something but figured she was so bent out of shape it would be better to just get out of there. I do agree with you that the management in most stores is very lacking in training people how to act with customers.
 
#8
Some of these are just ridiculous... but I kind of want to stick up for myself on the other end. I think this lady thought I was the rudest person on earth, unfortunately I really wasn't trying to be. I just wish she could see it from my point of view. I'm just throwing this out so people will think about it before they jump into conclusions, though I must agree that these have no excuse whatsoever.

I work at a coffee shop in the middle of a food court, so it's not like a shop shop. Anyway, once a woman bought a coffee from me and spilt it about ten meters away from the shop. It was during a very busy rush, and I was running around like a headless chicken trying to get all the drinks done because someone was on lunch break and the other person was doing the serving, so it was just me making everything. Anyway, this lady, she called for me, I made eye contact with her (it's always important) and said "I'm really sorry, I will be right with you". She rolled her eyes and stood there tapping her foot.

Then I said 'Sorry, how can I help you?' putting every other drink on hold. She said 'I spilt some coffee there, could you go clean it up? I don't want anyone to fall.' I said 'I'm sorry, I can't do that, I can't leave this store. Plus because it is outside of our store, you need to call the centre janitors. Their office is over there [I pointed to a door that was less than about five meters away]." She goes "Excuse me, I'm asking YOU to do it. I don't want anyone to slip on it, now could you please get that mop that is behind you and go clean it up. It is a coffee from YOUR shop after all."

At that point, because about ten people were waiting for their drinks and the time was clocking up to about 4 minutes and I still haven't started them, I thought it would be far more important to do their drinks so they don't behead me for being slow than to entertain this woman anymore.

She then says 'excuse me, will you look at me while i'm talking to you.' I said once again 'I'm sorry I cannot leave this store. I have ten other customers waiting. The most I can do is make another cappucino for you which you spilt, that's all that I can do.'
She then asks to see my manager, who wasn't there, by then the janitors had cleaned it up already, and she wrote on one of those customer feedback cards 'worst service ever, will not come again, I cannot believe how rude she was.'

I thought about it though, I could see why she thought I was rude. I was trying to do drinks while I was talking to her, and for a while I just thought 'ignore her because she's not going to change her mind'. I had more important things at hand, like making sure the other ten customers who had paid will get their drinks at a reasonable time (though 4 minutes was shocking, some poor lady had to wait 6). But I wish she could understand how I was feeling at the time too.
 
#9
There are some things that will ALWAYS make me leave and take my money elsewhere.

1) If they follow me around without asking if I need help, ie- they think I'm stealing. I've never stolen anything in my whole life so this absolutely drives me INSANE. I always say something and then leave.

2) If I ask a question nicely and get a rude snarky response or a dirty look. If an SA did to me what she did to the OP I would definitely say something to her. I have a really bad temper and believe me, she'd get to see it.

I was in Barnes and Noble awhile ago and there was this snotty SA giving me the stink eye from the second I walked in. I went over to ask her a question and she looked me up and down and walked away. I was like "Hey thanks @sshole!" and she definitely heard me. It wasn't the best way to handle it, but it did make me feel better :shrugs:

The other thing that drives me crazy, but it doesn't offend me enough to leave is when a business is pretty empty/slow and there's 10 employees just standing around doing nothing. But then you try to get some help and they act like it's such a huuuuuge inconvenience. This just drives me nuts!!!!!
 
#10
Boy oh boy do I have LOTS of stories for you...

So when I am in a SHOPPING! mood. I dress down sweats, tanks, and flip flops bc it's easy to take off. If I'm dressed up, in all likelihood I'm not going to try on clothes. So I have been followed quite a few times. But the worst is when I went to this one Saks to buy a bag and the lady wanted to stress to me how much it was. And I said yes I know how much it is. And she did it like 3 times and even went so far to tell me that it would be hard for me to have good credit if I couldn't pay off the debt associated with this bag (which by the way was like $400) and I was PISSED so I said look, I can aford the bag which is why I'm on this side of the counter and you're on that side ringing it up!

Then in HS I went to go buy my mom some jewelry for mothers day but I had volleyball practice from 6-8 and the mall closed at 9 so u guessed it str8 from practice. And once again someone was in there telling me what I could afford and wouldn't even take out the pieces that I requested. So I asked for the manager and she didn't even want to get them! But so I called thestore and the manager answered the phone in the back and she got fired on the spot and I got a discount.

Another jewelry incident (which makes me think maybe this is why I didn't like jewelry for so long) I went in the store and only one person was in there and there were like 3 SAs but no one asked me if I needed help or wanted to see anything. FF thru the day and I come back after shopping with all these bags and they basically like break their necks to help me. So the guy asks me if I want to see anything, and I said no I already spent my allotted funds for the day since no one would help me the first time I came...

I have more but gosh I don't wanna write a novel!
 
#11
I just really really hate when i'm at the cashier trying to pay for my stuff and the saleswoman is busy talking to her co-worker instead of focusing on my purchases.....One time at Sears i went to exchange a pair of socks...i told the lady, "Hi, I want to exchange these socks for these". So she rings them up, charges me BOTH the socks, the total is like $15..so i tell her AGAIN, "I want to EXCHANGE not buy both." She would have known if she was paying attention and not gossiping!!
 
#13
soundjade - I admire the way you handled yourself. It was really good for all of us (not just the rude SA) that you explain to the manager we would like to deal with nice SAs!
 
#15
nviedprincess said:
Another jewelry incident (which makes me think maybe this is why I didn't like jewelry for so long) I went in the store and only one person was in there and there were like 3 SAs but no one asked me if I needed help or wanted to see anything. FF thru the day and I come back after shopping with all these bags and they basically like break their necks to help me. So the guy asks me if I want to see anything, and I said no I already spent my allotted funds for the day since no one would help me the first time I came...

I have more but gosh I don't wanna write a novel!
Click to expand...

That reminds me of that scene in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts walks back into that store that wouldn't help her. "Big mistake...HUGE!"

I used to not give much of a hoot about customer service people until I worked a convention. I now know I could NEVER handle working customer service because I don't take crap from people. But to those who can do the job and do it well, I applaud them because it's not easy.
 
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