Why are people so ignorant? (staff and customers)

Zhane

i went into my local game shop today and i asked your one at the counter if shes taking pre-orders on The Sims 2, and she looked at me like as to say 'Who are you to ask?' then she said 'No, its not being released till after Christmas' now this is compleat bullsh!t, its being released September 17th. and i mummbled that to my friend who was with me but also loud enough for that snotty cow to hear me.

BTW who else is getting this game?

rainbow kirby

That's disgraceful. It's people like that who give game shop staff a bad name.

lee_baby_simms

Originally posted by Zhane
i went into my local game shop today

how about a name 'n shame?

Zhane

Originally posted by lee_baby_simms
how about a name 'n shame?

Computer World in Wexford...:dunno:

Dcully

Go into most stores nowadays and the staff are pure ignorant.
Go into any store in the US,SpainGermany and every staff member in every store are so pleasant and helpfull.
While in Dunnes Stores last week in Liffey Valley my wife and i were getting some bits and pieces for the holliers coming up for our 21 month old son.
When my wife asked do you have this item in whatever size she asked for ,the so called shop assistant replied i dont know ,i dont think so.
Then when the wife asked if she could check she sighed and replied jesus i dont have the F----ing time and off she went to the stores out back sighing some more.
Ten minutes passed and next we see herself rambling off with 2 of her mates on her lunch break with the typical arms folded with the purse/wallet in towand when she passed she was F--- ing out of her about " your one lastnight,i should have slapped the F----ing head off her"
Now i was pissed off so on i went after her and asked her could i see her name tag,before she could think i had her name and was on the way to speak to her management.

It was her tone ,attitude and downright lack of respect and bad language that was bad enough but when she went off to check for that item her mates obviously asked her to go on her break and her attitude was feck them .
All she had to do was say she was going on break and we would have seeked assistance of someone else.
This arrogance in most stores is like an epidemic lately and i for one am ashamed to bring any relations or friends out to shop in this wee island of ours.
I ask myself what is wrong with Irish society.

Rant over

tuxy

why buy from rip off high street shops when u can buy online?

Sand

It was her tone ,attitude and downright lack of respect and bad language that was bad enough but when she went off to check for that item her mates obviously asked her to go on her break and her attitude was feck them .

Ah that brings me back to the days..... Dealing with customers, saying "Yeah, sure, Ill go look for x,y,z for ya" heading off into the backstores and staying there for a good 15-20 minutes till they sodded off.

Or all those people whod come up to you, shove some obscure product into your face asking "How much is dis?", WTF, how the hell should I know, why dont you waddle off to the scanners that are installed specifically so customers can check the price - I just started guessing prices in the end, 1.20 for a bottle of coke and so on - I remember some woman coming back to me once, angry, after I had told her a bottle was such and such a price and she was charged more than that at the checkout. I just laughed and told her she should demand her money back from the checkout girl. If shes a woman of her word shes never shopped there again - I still sleep well.

You cant deal with customers in Ireland without slowly coming to hold all of them in utter contempt. Youre paid crap, treated like crap and it feels great to pass it back onto the customers for a change. I worked in retail for years and two things I will carry to my grave - customers are scum, and Ill never ever lower myself to working with them again.

Still, the chuckles that were there - some stupid twit pulled down a display of cans on herself from the top shelf by ripping out the bottom can. Oh, how I laughed.

And like your man said - buy online, usually cheaper and usually more stock.

KdjaCL

Ah other side of coin? Public are whingey ungrateful demanding cnuts.


Specially the ones the that think they know what they talking about. And i bet everyone here who complaining is usch a happy person when in their own jobs. Noone likes working and everyone a bitch in work. Just happens their work is where we go to buy things.


Also for €7 an hour think you get what you pay for in terms of staff and most Game shop staff memebrs under 21 are on about €6 an hour. Be happy if they even ackowledge you.

kdjac

Earthhorse

It's the 10 day rule isn't it?

There's a 10 day lag between how management treat staff and how staff treat customers.

So if you ever meet anyone helpful in retail it's either in their first 10 days of work or their last.

Deadwing

Originally posted by Sand


Ah that brings me back to the days..... Dealing with customers, saying "Yeah, sure, Ill go look for x,y,z for ya" heading off into the backstores and staying there for a good 15-20 minutes till they sodded off.

Or all those people whod come up to you, shove some obscure product into your face asking "How much is dis?", WTF, how the hell should I know, why dont you waddle off to the scanners that are installed specifically so customers can check the price
You cant deal with customers in Ireland without slowly coming to hold all of them in utter contempt. Youre paid crap, treated like crap and it feels great to pass it back onto the customers for a change. I worked in retail for years and two things I will carry to my grave - customers are scum, and Ill never ever lower myself to working with them again.

heh man i used to do that too. The general public, as a rule, are all ignorant bastards. Most of them talk to you like something they scraped off thier shoe, and tbh, i used to love leaving them hanging for ages while id pretend to look for a price for whatever crap they wanted. Then id come back and say "Sorry, cant find a price for that". As someone said, youre treate dlike shit, paid shit, so you take it out on customers. If i got a nice customer, chances are id be nice back in most cases tho. Everyone expects floor staff etc to be cheerful, chirpy and helpful, but its hard when all day long you put up with ignorant bastards .

blobert

It's difficult to expect great service when people are getting paid €7 an hour, but it does happen in other countries.

I also find non-Irish workers in shops to be much more efficient and friendly in their attitude. Perhaps it's a cultural thing. The Irish tend to moan about stuff a lot more other Europeans…

kamobe

The solution is quite simple. Pay them on a commision basis

Seriously, next time you walk in the door they'll jump at your feet. And if you ask them to reserve something, not only will they hold it for you, but they'll be calling you to let you know it's arrived!!

Without performance related pay, you're just another annoying customer ruining their day....


EDIT:

The Irish tend to moan about stuff a lot more other Europeans…

That is absolutely not true in the least Have you ever worked with the UK market at all? Irish customers are a God send in comparison to the UK...

jonski

Originally posted by Dcully
I ask myself what is wrong with Irish society.

Rant over

Read some of the posts between yours and mine and all will become clear .

I work in the wholesale trade and have done for 20 years , the pay is crap the conditions not much better but , heh it's a job , I go in there acting like a prick then I have a ****ty day , I go in there and get on with it , deal with the customers like they are paying my wages ( ****ty an all as they are ) and heh my day ain't so bad . If you don't want to do it then **** off and get a job somewhere else .

John.

and yes the irish can be whingers , but we do nothing about it , fairplay to you cully at least you did something .

Dcully

Totally agree guys that customers can be as bad but in other countries they bad too

Seriously though i see it myself some customers are right pains in ass.

Big Ears

Originally posted by tuxy
why buy from rip off high street shops when u can buy online?

because their ignorant people , thats what this thread is all about .

edit: and some people dont have credit cards .

orangerooster

In the jobs iv had iv managed to gain new depths of contempt for two types of peolpe-customers and golfers.I was nice to them for the first two hours then I was asked to price a bag of 8 mushrooms-8 ****ing mushrooms.I then lost all human respect for customers.
Golfers are worse-their looks of contempt as I destroy their days out by making a lot of noise satisfy me endlessly.

Doodee

Heh, I agree with the people who've been in the position.

I used to be a nice,happy, upbeat, stride in my step kinda lad.

then i started working for 7e an hour.

Now the job aint bad. Its got great perks for me and Its easy. The problem is the customers.

Fact is that alot of people seem to believe that just because your behind the counter, they are not required to be mannerly.
I get people just walking in and pointing at stuff. Or before when it was busy, just walking in behind the counter to tell me they want something. And after it happens enough to ya, you just get fed up and snotty and tell them to **** off.

I had a customer the other day, who after myself and a friend helped sort out a problem that they created, turn round and say they weren't going to pay for the mistakes they made.
I've also been threatened by customers too, which i've never responded well too.

Big Ears

Originally posted by Joodee
Heh, I agree with the people who've been in the position.

I used to be a nice,happy, upbeat, stride in my step kinda lad.

then i started working for 7e an hour.

Now the job aint bad. Its got great perks for me and Its easy. The problem is the customers.

Fact is that alot of people seem to believe that just because your behind the counter, they are not required to be mannerly.
I get people just walking in and pointing at stuff. Or before when it was busy, just walking in behind the counter to tell me they want something. And after it happens enough to ya, you just get fed up and snotty and tell them to **** off.

I had a customer the other day, who after myself and a friend helped sort out a problem that they created, turn round and say they weren't going to pay for the mistakes they made.
I've also been threatened by customers too, which i've never responded well too.

its all down to some crazy person , who put the idea in peoples heads that the customer is always right .(sure they have rights , but a huge amount of the time their wrong )

_CreeD_

If you don't like the job/pay/management....leave. Get one you'll like rather than sitting on your arse and whining about how the people that pay for what little wage you do seem willing to accept actually expect you to (god forbid)...WORK. That's why it's spelled that way and not FUN. See the difference? W O R K - F U N .

BKtje

Tbh if im nasty/rude or generally unhelpful to people i tend to have a horrible day. I try my best to help people as best i can and it makes the day go quicker, im not pissed off at the end of the day and i dont get them moanin at me.

Sure u get people who moan at ya no matter what but i say **** em. if they wanna be miserable thats their call, they aint gonna ruin my day.

I can see where all of u are coming from tho

regeneration

Teenage workers acting like twats and morons? Gosh.
Middle aged customers acting like insecure snobs? Gosh.

No one's mentioned these age groups, but from working in shops and tech support (you think dunnes stores are bad, try dealing with customers that actually _have_ problems), 90% of the problems with both come from those age groups.

As for buying online? Who on earth buys clothes online; how are you meant to try clothes on, check sizes etc - unless you're a tshirt and jeans man that is.

tuxy

Originally posted by regeneration

As for buying online? Who on earth buys clothes online; how are you meant to try clothes on, check sizes etc - unless you're a tshirt and jeans man that is.

who said anything about clothes

regeneration

Dcully was - mentioning Dunnes Stores and more teenage angst. But anyway...

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by regeneration
Dcully was - mentioning Dunnes Stores and more teenage angst. But anyway...

Who the hell buys clothes in Dunnes anyway:D?

l3rian

who the hell bothers to ask questions in gameshops anyway?

Raz

I worked as a general operative in a tile shop. Much like your shelf stacker in Tesco or dunnes only the labour was tougher for the same pay.

I was constantly under a barage of questions like "Would these colours look good in my bathroom?". How the hell was I meant to know what their bathroom looked like? But that didn't mean I got snotty with them. You try and help them out with their decision.
I had to explain, an extraordinary amount of times, the problems with laying tiles on wooden floors or in moist areas or outdoor etc.
You answer the questions as best you can and you help the customer out. It reflects on you. After being there a little over a month I was moved into a sales position. A much easier job with commission.

The customer always responds better if they're treated well. I've always called them Sir or Madame and talked in clear level tones.
When you act like that customers tend to respect you more and you don't get that look of contempt.
There's a lot to be said for being polite and friendly.

Now what the hell is this doing in the games forum?

po0k

Game of Life™

full forward

Originally posted by Raz

There's a lot to be said for being polite and friendly.

Good man Raz. Employers know that guys like you are rare and you will always earn more and feel better about yourself than the other lazy useless gits on this thread.

The moral is ... GET A JOB YOU LIKE!

I work hard in my job and when I walk in to your shop I expect you to do the same.

l3rian

I work hard in my job and when I walk in to your shop I expect you to do the same.

"just buy something or get out" comes to mind, when someone expects better service that a point to where the leaflets are

whosurpaddy

Originally posted by Raz
I've always called them Sir or Madame

id be the same, one time though, while doing tech support for everyones favourite ISP/telco after calling a woman(snotty cow who seemed more intent on picking a fight with me than getting her computer fixed) madam, she asked me if i thought she ran a brothel. it took some self restraint to just mute her while she ranted instead of replying in the affirmative.

pebble

Its good to know that very few of the people on this board will be taking up thjose valuable high paid jobs in the future.
I look forward to ordering a Big Mac and fries from a few of you in the future.

Sand

Oh thankfully Ive gone into full time employment now so no more scum for me to deal with.

I look forward to ordering a Big Mac and fries from a few of you in the future.

The Golden Rule: always be polite to those bringing you food and drink.

A friend of mine used to work in Bewleys, they got some arrogant gimp in giving them hassle so they took his coffee on a tour of the back and got everyone to spit in it before giving it to the guy to drink - and he paid for it. Now, that is justice

I work hard in my job and when I walk in to your shop I expect you to do the same.

We expect you to not regress to the age of a 4 year old child who needs to be taken by the hand around the entire shop. I guess were both dissapointed.



.

sceptre

Originally posted by Sand
A friend of mine used to work in Bewleys, they got some arrogant gimp in giving them hassle so they took his coffee on a tour of the back and got everyone to spit in it before giving it to the guy to drink - and he paid for it. Now, that is justice

That's not justice.

Justice is when you pee in it.

regeneration

Ergh, I really hope that for your sake this guy was shouting, abusing and generally demeaning you, cos if he was just being picky or arrogant, spitting into someone's food is childish and unprofessional and _I_ wouldn't hire you knowing that.
We've all done **** jobs in our life, but the classy thing is rising about the assholes, not decending to their levels.

steviec

Sure 7 euro an hour is crap, but staff are being paid to be there and the customer isn't(in fact they're spending money to be there), so why can they just ignore their job and be ignorant to customers?
I worked in a shop for 4 years and sure some people(I'm talking 1% of customers) annoyed me, but as long as they're giving me money I don't see why I should go out of my way to upset them. Wages are **** but thats not the customers fault, if your not willing to work for that little other people are so look elsewhere.
I always made sure I was polite to customers no matter what and I looked after them as best I can, and I was always honest when I didn't know the answer to something(usually questions like 'how do you cook this?'), if I'm shopping and there's something I want to know about a product I'll ask staff, but I'm not gonna blame them if they don't know every detail about every product in the shop, as long as they try(eg. I was looking for Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire which none of the staff had heard of since it was a few years old and never very successful, so I accepted that, but another time when my PS2 was broke and Sony told me they'd replace it through Game, Game's staff completely dismissed me and I ended up having it done by mail through Sony, that I didn't appreciate). And in my experience most customers are the same, the one or two bad ones stick in the mind longer but you just put up with it.

UnrealQueen

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
Who the hell buys clothes in Dunnes anyway:D?

An awful lot of people unfortunately. Lots of ignorant and downright stupid people. I could write a book on the stupidity i have to deal with. Stupid questions like : "Do you work here?" (im standing there in my uniform), "Is this till open?" (ive just served the 5 people in front of them). "Oh sorry i didn't see the queue" (a line of 20 people beside them). This is just the tip of the iceberg.

regeneration

Stupid questions like : "Do you work here?" (im standing there in my uniform),

Hey, you could always start messing with their heads in a nice way - "no im actually des bishop" or something like. Oh the humanity.

galwaydude

when i was in the states in june i found the customer service a hundred times better than here in ireland, even in a cloths shout the assistant comes over to you , same everywhere really, yet these ppl are been paid rougly the same.It pays to be nice but then again i was in a tech support job dealing with ppl from the UK and 90 % of the time i was shouted, abused over the fone, i left the job unsuprisenly.Abusing staff gets you nowhere cause if your friendly and polite they are more inclined to help the person.So its a win win situation

Victor

Originally posted by galwaydude
when i was in the states in june i found the customer service a hundred times better than here in ireland, even in a cloths shout the assistant comes over to you , same everywhere really, yet these ppl are been paid rougly the same.

Minimum wage of $2 an hour + commission + risk of being fired for lack of "hussle" makes people do this.

cleareyed

People are ignorant in shops because they get away with it. Get their name, complain, get the name of the person you complained to and follow it up with a letter. Make sure that you send a written follow up on how the manager dealt with the complaint to her superior. With a bit of luck it will go into their personnel file. If they did a good job in sorting it, great.

article6

Originally posted by Victor
Minimum wage of $2 an hour + commission + risk of being fired for lack of "hussle" makes people do this.

The US minimum wage is hardly that low. $5.15 is the federal minimum if I recall, and states can set their own as long as it's higher than that.

Computer World in Wexford = bad experiences for me. Bought the first Sims expansion pack there - and wouldn't you know it, it came without a manual. Naturally I was on the coach out of Wexford Town when I noticed.

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by galwaydude
a tech support job dealing with ppl from the UK and 90 % of the time i was shouted, abused over the fone

i have that very situation as i type this post

Our man in Havana

I work in the same place as Mossy, and I must agree with him and Galway dude about being shouted and roared at.

My observations are that the welsh and scottish get the most irate with you. They will fly off the handle when you tell them to call back in 6 hours for a fault update. They will always come out with a quote like "I am paying £19.99 for a service that I cant use" or "I wont use dial up because YOU are meant to be providing a service and why should I pay for it".

Just my 2cents.

RuggieBear

Originally posted by article6
The US minimum wage is hardly that low. $5.15 is the federal minimum if I recall, and states can set their own as long as it's higher than that.

When i was working in Boston 3yrs ago the minimum wage for waiters was $2 but you would end up making over a $100 in tips...

My first job ever was working in Superquinn "facing off shelves"...i made £1.98 an hour....i think it was about 1994!!! Made 20 quid a week and i though i was it!!

I find that if you are polite and friendly to people working in a shop, they'll recipricate.. Mind you, i used to get very pissed off with outright rudeness or computer shop sales people lying to middle aged women trying to buy a decent computer for their sons/daughters..."of course this celeron 500 will play Unreal... no problem...sure hasn't it got 16mb RAM and a top of the range voodoo GFX card!!!"

I've done some pretty ****ty jobs in my life from shovelling manure to weeding golf greens but by far the worst was cold calling people trying to flog mobile phones. Used to get tonnes of abuse but could kinda understand it...

Could never work in a call centre again....found being forced to keep my callrates up one of the most miserable experiences in my life...would rather do heavy manual labour than work in callcentre again....so i always try to be polite to call centre staff...
even if some biddy in Eircom is obviously lying!!!!:D

p

Deadwing

Originally posted by pekelly


Could never work in a call centre again....found being forced to keep my callrates up one of the most miserable experiences in my life...would rather do heavy manual labour than work in callcentre again....so i always try to be polite to call centre staff...
even if some biddy in Eircom is obviously lying!!!!:D

p

I feel your pain. Call centre jobs are the WORST jobs in the world, fact. Id honestly have more repect for myself if i was cleaning toilets than working in a call centre. Did it for about 2 months a few years ago, and its the most miserable, soul destroying, god awful job imaginable.

Victor

Originally posted by article6
The US minimum wage is hardly that low. $5.15 is the federal minimum if I recall, and states can set their own as long as it's higher than that.

Includes commission and tips.

Originally posted by Deadwing
Id honestly have more repect for myself if i was cleaning toilets than working in a call centre.

Thats 'cos call centre staff aren't allowed use the toilets

galwaydude

Mossy and bond, ye should apply to HP for jobs, they are currenly recruiting through CPL, have been here a year and its a hundred times better than that company in swords whom i wont mention.Its nearly time for me to move on though as u soon get sick of tech support work.

Pinapples

Irish people are dead stuck up, doesn't matter what side of the counter they're on.

Yep, call centres are a disaster. Never never ever ever again.

ixoy

Originally posted by galwaydude
Mossy and bond, ye should apply to HP for jobs, they are currenly recruiting through CPL

No don't do that - then you'll be across the courtyard from me! Too many boardsters...

Cactus Col

worked behind a counter in mcd's a few years back ... found if I was cool with customers they were cool back .... but then I was drunk most of the time

sam_hain

Firstly dont know if this is in the right place or not. If not it's kewl if its moved.

I notice that alot of people here give out about Game staff, and i was just wondering if that was Game Store staff or game shops in general. I'm a member of the Game Staff group and let me be the first to say that yes you are correct to give out about some of us but not all of us. Some of us just couldn't be bothered were as the rest of us are having a good day when one of the following happens.

1. Store Manager starts to be a dick about something stupid
2. Customer comes in a expects you to spend at least 2 hours (including your break) to find some game that their kid, whom they know nothing about, wants
3. some non-national comes in and without a word of English, expects you to know what they are saying and what they want

But please understand that where as we might be bad our managers are worse. There is one manager that has the customer service skills of an enraged ape. But to be fair to him (yes its a him) he hasn't really got much pratice at it. You see he spent many many hours upstairs either in his office, playing a ps2, or spending more time on a break that had already expired 3 hours ago. Prime example of this managers customer service skills:

A customer comes in and is unhappy with something.
They speak to the manager in question.
The manager looks at them and says to them in the most unpolite way, that they are not entertaining them and walks away.
Customer is left standing staring at us and the back of the manager.

So please don't always blame us for out actions its really the manager that is the bastard.