Complaint About Retail Store Workers

[Talking Hands]

I was at the mall yesterday and decided to stop into The Limited. I looked around and decided to try on 3 shirts, and as I went into the dressing room, the sales woman yells to me (with a slight additude) to make sure to bring out what I wasn't going to purchase. Why is this OK??? I was like, "Ok, and when I get out, make sure to have part of your pay check waiting for me!" ETA - There was no rack to put the unwanted clothing on - she wanted me to put them back.

I don't ask people to do my job for me at my work, why do I have to do theirs for them? What, was actually doing their job going to take away from the fact that all they were doing was sitting on the tables and chatting!?!? Oh, I was so annoyed!! And then when I actually wanted to purchase one of the shirts, it was a 5 minute wait/search to find someone to actually ring me up.

Ok, vent over.... anyone else experience this? How do you feel about it??

I would have brought them out and handed them to her and cheerfully said, "Here you are"

 

[tedhowe]

We work retail! Remember, we deserve abuse day in and day out! That's what we get paid for! I think it should be a law that everyone should have to work with the public for at least 1 year! That way we would all treat each other a little nicer and with more respect! I'm just a girl trying to make a living! Doesn't mean you can treat me like crap! (not you personally!)

goofinoff...

I've been saying this exact thing for over 20 years. If people could be on the other side of the counter for a short while and see what they are like as customers, then I believe most of them would be more courteous.

I worked in retail (gift shops, computer stores and video stores mostly) throughout high school and college. I LOVE retail and after college I gravitated to retail companies as my employer. I've been in information systems for major, national retailers for the last 11 years now, and I think the business is fascinating. I sometimes wish I was back in the stores... but I recognize that a lot has changed as profit margins continue to be squeezed, and I probably wouldn't like all the pressures of working the front lines anymore, so I do my job to try to make the store associates' lives easier through technology.

As to this issue, I would recommend that the OP contact the store manager/corporate office and provide feedback. They can't take corrective action with the employee about her attitude unless they know about it.

 

[Cool-Beans]

I was at the mall yesterday and decided to stop into The Limited. I looked around and decided to try on 3 shirts, and as I went into the dressing room, the sales woman yells to me (with a slight additude) to make sure to bring out what I wasn't going to purchase. Why is this OK??? I was like, "Ok, and when I get out, make sure to have part of your pay check waiting for me!" ETA - There was no rack to put the unwanted clothing on - she wanted me to put them back.

I don't ask people to do my job for me at my work, why do I have to do theirs for them? What, was actually doing their job going to take away from the fact that all they were doing was sitting on the tables and chatting!?!? Oh, I was so annoyed!! And then when I actually wanted to purchase one of the shirts, it was a 5 minute wait/search to find someone to actually ring me up.

Ok, vent over.... anyone else experience this? How do you feel about it??

Yes, I've had stuff like that happen. Of course I don't like it.

I order almost everything online. You get to skip the surly clerks and you end up spending less than if you actually went shopping. And it is one less customer with which to be burdened for the clerks. Win-win.

 

[I_Know_You2!]

I didn't know I was a slave. Or lower caste.

Talk about treating people rudely.

Did you read my post? I'm on your side. I've worked it and been treated thusly.

 

[SamIAm21]

I think customer service is a dead-art. No store has it anymore, except maybe the folks at the Disney Store.

I always put the clothes on the rack near the exit of the fitting room, but if there was no rack, I'd probably put them back myself, but heck I don't want to be told, snottily, that I was expected to do it.

The one thing I hate is when you ask a salesperson a question, and they look at you blankly, then reply with, Ummm, I don't know, and then just walk away. I guess I'm very spoiled by Disney where they say, I don't know, but let me find out for you.

Sorry you had to go through that.

 

[Squirlz]

I think that if you do work for a store where all the stock is out, you need to come up with a gracious way of telling the customer that. Just looking through the rack that the customer just looked through is insulting, but going to the back is a waste of time. How about, "I'm sorry, but we dont' have any stock in the back. May I help you look for it on the floor?"

Oh yeah! I'd tell them that and they would say "Well go look anyway". Okay, you're the customer.

 

[denisenh]

Isn't the limited a smallish store? I would expect the sales clerk to put away the unwanted items. I would put the items back on the hanger an bring them out with me though. (And I would not appreciate a rude comment esp. before entering the fitting room.)

Some stores are different. It just depends.

 

[Smooshdog]

I worked at the Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic and at all three stores it was our policy that customers leave the clothes and let the employees put them back up. Part of that was customer service and part was for us to properly re-hang/fold the clothes and to size them back into the stack. I think you are right to complain that was just poor customer service.

 

[DarthKTrava]

We work retail! Remember, we deserve abuse day in and day out! That's what we get paid for! I think it should be a law that everyone should have to work with the public for at least 1 year! That way we would all treat each other a little nicer and with more respect! I'm just a girl trying to make a living! Doesn't mean you can treat me like crap! (not you personally!)

Ditto goes for fast food as well.

 

[tigercat]

I have worked retail and know what it is like on the "other" side. But that means that I know what it is like and how you should be when you do work. Today I went to a grocery store that is a discount place. You have to pay to use the buggy, you bag your own groceries with bags that you have to bring. Now I am short and there is only one debit machine that I can use. The manager has assured me that it would always be available to me as it is a handicapped lane. This is the 4th time I have attempted to use it and again there was not one there. I asked a cashier and she told me to ask the "window". I went to the window and said hello. No answer. I tried again. I was then told to wait a minute. I was in a real hurry but waited. After a couple of minutes I just dumped the milk, cream and ice on the closed lane took my bags and left. The last time I waited it was 20 minutes before they got to me. I went next door to another store where there were free buggys, they bagged the groceries with their bags. And it didn't cost me anything extra. I won't be back the the discount place. If I had of had my staff treat customers like that I would have fired them.
tigercat

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

If an employee looked busy and stressed, and asked nicely, I would be more than happy to hang my clothes back up and put them where they go.

If an employee asked me with an attitude, and then proceeded to stand in one spot and I heard him/her chatting with their friends about non-work stuff, I would still hang the clothes up and bring them out of the dressing room (as I always do) but I would not be so inclined to hang them back up in the store.

I know about customer service...and there's no excuse for an employee to be rude. None! The employee should have checked up on her to see if she needed any sizes, and then asked if things fit, if she would like her to hold any clothes behind the counter, etc. while she continued shopping...especially if there were others working! It's called being attentive to the customer- in any situation!

I totally understand your frustration, OP!

 

[rparmfamily]

Bad treatment= they aren't getting my hard earned money. Call corporate or email them and let them know WHY you're not shopping at The Limited anymore.

 

[bumbershoot]

It never used to be this way. You never had to have a dressing room cleaned up between customers. People took their clothes with them when they left the dressing room. Now I guess people expect to be catered to. More of the entitlement mentality thats running rampant.

Not sure when this time was, but since mid-80s when I started shopping for fashionable clothes to when I stopped (early '00s) every store I've ever been to *wanted* you to leave things hanging up in the dressing room. The rooms were empty b/c the employees emptied them out for the next customer!

I could never score a job at a clothing store, but the friends who did knew exactly how to fold and hang their specific items, while I try to fold things and it looks like a bear got to it (this is why hubby is in charge of folding clothes 'round here). So I don't try to fold things, and I try to not mess up things that are on hangers so they don't have to UNdo what I've done and then do it how they are supposed to.

Anyway, we might have been shopping at different stores (my main ones were Nordstrom until I moved to WA and found that they are extremely snobby here vs in CA and won't help a person dressed to try on lots of clothes and buy lots of clothes, Limited, Gap, Ann Taylor, and similar ones until I "grew out" of their sizes ugh), but that was always my experience...they didn't WANT you to put things away, b/c they were like librarians, wanting to check over the merchandise and put it away perfectly, not just shoved somewhere.

 

[rie'smom]

Depends on the store, I say. Most of the boutiques around here have sales women who pick up the clothes from the dressing rooms. The larger retail stores do not. I bring both the wants and the discards to the register at the larger stores.
However, if I had a saleswoman cop an attitude like the OP experienced, I'd leave some pieces in the dressing room and hang other pieces on the crowded sales racks.
I went into The Limited this evening after receiving flyers about the new Limited. They can have it. The sales women stood around talking the entire time. Not only did no one ask to help me but 3 other people were shopping and no one asked to help them either. We all left empty handed.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I'll admit that I have some pretty high expectations when it comes to customer service. They told me when I did my first college program that Disney will ruin ou on customer service forever because you expect everyone to treat you the way you treat people at Disney! It's so true. Just last night I was in Hastings looking for a book. There were two workers in the same section I was in stocking books. The section was messy and not alphabetized well at all. They were gossipping the entire time and did not once acknowledge me. I could have used some help in finding the book, but I wasn't comfortable talking to them because of some of the things they were saying, it was all pretty negative, and it was about their fellow workers. I finally went up front to ask for help, and they called one of those two to the book counter, it made me uncomfortable. I mentioned to them that the section I was looking in was out of order, and he just gave me this "what do you want me to do about it?" attitude. It's a shame, because normally their customer service is decent.

For me, it's not about asking the OP to return the clothes, it's about the attitude. I treat you with respect, so I expect to be treated the same way. I don't have to shop in your store, and if you are rude to me you will lose me as a customer. When I was a kid I was humiliated by a lady at a store called Vanity. It was my first experience in their store, and it ruined it for me. I have not been back since.

I have worked a lot of customer service jobs, from Disney to local restaurants, and I know how lousy the pay is and how poorly we get treated by the public, but it is not an excuse to cop an atittude or be rude to the guest. Sadly, it seems like good customer service is getting harder to find.

I will say that the best experience I had recently was at Hot Topic. That store kind of scares me, and I was really nervous going in, but I wanted to get a Twilight shirt. The employees there were some of the nicest employees I have seen in a long time! If they sold the type of clothes I wear, I would go in there more often just for their customer service.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Woops! Meant to add: the way people treat dressing rooms is appalling. I remember going into the Macy's in Orlando and every single dressing room was full of clothes and trash. One I went into even had a dirty diaper in it! When I told the sales associate (who was standing around talking with another one and not working), she got real attitudy with me. I talked to the manager about my experience, and she was really apologetic. Hopefully they fixed the problem.

 

[mhsjax]

I too have worked customer service, didn't like it very much, but was always nice and helpful, that being said, I think that there is no excuse for poor customer service and on the flip side there is no excuse for lack of manners from everyone these days. I will not ever work with the public again for that reason. I am am at the age now where I won't take anybodies crap. please note, this is not directed at anyone here, just a general observation. And please excuse any typos haven't had breakfast yet, and the blood sugar is dropping. lol

 

[kelleigh1]

While I won't defend the attitude, I can tell you that I work two jobs and the 2nd one happens to be in retail. I work at a warehouse type shoe store.

We close at 9:00 and we're on the schedule until 9:30. This is one of the reasons I took the job. It's close to home and getting out at 9:30 means I should always get home at 10:00.

The problem is the people who make an absolute mess, tossing the paper, etc. that comes in the shoe boxes, on the floor, shelves, etc. and then they try to jam the shoes back in the boxes. If they've taken the shoes to a bench to try them on, they'll just leave a huge pile on the floor. And in the clearance racks, they'll try on the shoes, walk around in them and just leave them in a totally different location.

Most nights lately, we're not even getting out until 10:00 or later because we're still trying to get the store cleaned. And for some reason it seems that those who make the biggest mess are the ones who show up at 8:45 or later and don't care that we close at 9:00. They'll take as long as they want and make a bigger mess forcing us to stay. So even if we've spent the whole night cleaning, we now have to go over everything again.

I was not brought up this way. I can not even imagine making the mess in a store that I see some people make. And my job is to sell you shoes. It's not my job to clean up after you because you can't figure out how to put something back or throw some paper in the trash. And yes, we have trash bins located all over the store. I hate it when people assume to know what my job is. Or they assume that because I work retail that they are somehow better than me.

But it goes both ways. There are awful retail associates and there are awful customers. Just like there are good associates and good customers. A little common courtesy would go a long way these days.

 

[Took]

You know, this thread reminds me of why I try to shop at our local Von Maur. Sure the prices are higher (go for the sales racks), but the staff is pleasant and helpful (TELLING me to just leave stuff as they will put it back) and the atmosphere wonderful (they have a pianist in the center--lovely). I decided that most of the time, it just isn't worth my frustration level to deal with places (such as The Limited?) which charge so little that they can't afford good or plentiful staff.

That said, if I do go to a bargain store, I do put things back since I realize it's part of what's expected there. BUT, that doesn't excuse the rudeness of the OP's sales clerk (yelling to her to bring stuff out). Ugh.

took

 

[mickeysgal]

OT: You'll love this one. I'll never forget it. I was at the Walmart Deli counter ordering luncheon meat. I first ordered ham, then she asked me if there was anything else I'd like. I gave her my next selection then when I tried to order a third item, the clerk told me what else was I going to order in total because she'd like to know now since it's a lot of walking back and forth (between the meat counter and the slicer). WTH??