I don’t usually make serious posts on this account, but as a retail customer assistant I would like to share my experiences.
Generally I have a pleasant time on checkouts/tills, you have a wide variety of faces, new and familiar. It’s nice helping people along with their day by totalling up their shopping and helping them finish what could be a very daunting day for them. What’s not so pleasant is some of the things a minority of customers tend to do. I will list as follows with my reasons.
I know Christmas shopping is a very stressful time of the year for everyone, it has been especially stressful for me this year as I haven’t been as financially stable. But please don’t start having a go at the cashier when they tell you the total price of your shopping, they are literally telling you the value of the shopping you purchased, it is nothing against you as a person or your financial situation. Most likely the cashier is struggling to make ends meet too if they are only contracted to work short hours.
Another thing is people who are on their phones when you’re serving them, but it’s not necessarily that which annoys me, it’s those who roll their eyes and sigh rudely when you ask them questions such as ‘do you have your loyalty card?’ Or ‘are you paying by cash or card?’ The machine has certain functions that can only trigger if I press a certain button, the machine doesn’t automatically know if you’re paying by cash or card, so when we ask, we ask so we can enable that card payment function.
The system may not always be updated and that’s not necessarily the fault of the cashier, there is a different department that is in control of how the stock is managed on the tills where I work, so if the item won’t scan and we have to find it, please be patient, we most likely won’t know what the people managing the stock have labelled it under. I know some retailers may work differently, but where I work it works the way I mentioned.
Another thing is vouchers, please don’t argue with us if you genuinely haven’t met the terms and conditions of the voucher and you still want to redeem it, we cannot accept vouchers that you haven’t met the terms conditions of, this happened to me once with some customers who when I called the supervisor over, it was scary these people were legitimately shouting at me, even laughing and calling it ‘entertainment’, they started arguing with her too when we both clearly explained that they hadn’t met the t&c’s of the voucher- you’d think that’s common sense. Usually if you need a certain amount to activate the voucher, I have no issue with you running to get another item or two to reach that total, but don’t argue the total when the evidence says otherwise (evidence being the till totalling system).
If a cashier is working slowly especially in festive seasons (like myself on the odd occasion), it is most likely that they have been given incredibly long shifts, especially if the store is under staffed. This week from the post I made I have done a 43 hour week when I’m on a part time contract, we are most likely exhausted. So please, all I ask is for you to be patient with us? We are all trying our best, even if it doesn’t look like it.
