Tesco... and manners

[Normanhouse]

Quoting David Bean from 12:57, 24th Jan 2006

Personally, the phraseology I would use in these situations is "What would you like?", "Would you like me to pack your bags?", etc. Less absurd than "need", and less imperative and resentful-sounding than "want", but rather implying some sense of co-operation between the parties.

[hr]

Psalm 91:7

On the contrary, I think the word "need" is absolutely key and I'd rather be asked than not asked, even if I do look like a fit(ish) and healthy 20 something.

Oh, and Americans, unless you "need" the bag packed you should pack it yourself for the sake of the other customers waiting in the que. Staffing levels in British supermarkets are not suffeciant for this kind of pleasantry.

As for questioning every customer, I think that the shops such as TESCO should have at least the pretense of customer service, even if it is just that. Perhaps then, the real thing might follow.

With regards to being polite to rude customers (from which ever social background they may be from), it is absolutely part of the job. No one is asking you to be nice to these people, just polite. If you can't do this (as others have pointed out) you shouldn't be in the kind of job where you have to encounter rude people all day everyday.

The argument that some of the staff in TESCO's are harassed and treated badly by customers, just doesn't hold any water in my book. If even the management think that it is justifiable in any circumstance to be anything less than polite to customers I am quite bemused.

Anyway, I live in Poland now, and I dream of levels of customer care that match St Andrews TESCO's (old fag counter witch excluded)......... If you say anything other than hello to the checkout girl you get a puzzled look at best, a death stare and a call for security at worst........and you can forget them packing your bags.



[hr]

you really should visit

http://www.metalbearabroad.com Just trust me.

[hr]

you really should visit http://www.metalbearabroad.com . Just trust me.

[Rufus]

Quoting Mr Comedy from 13:23, 24th Jan 2006

Quoting katebush from 21:39, 23rd Jan 2006
Hear, hear. Beany babes got it right again- I couldn't help but giggle when I read his post. He should be running the country, that one...

No he shouldn't. He didn't go to Eton for a start...

With a pet name like Beany Babes who needs to go to Eton?

[hr]

'Love much. Earth has enough bitter in it'
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

[Tweedle-Dum]

Quoting Normanhouse from 17:54, 24th Jan 2006Staffing levels in British supermarkets are not suffeciant for this kind of pleasantry.

Then they should raise staffing levels.

[hr]

Tetragrammaton is a four letter word.

[novium]

The thing is, my amature bagging is going to be 100 times slower than someone who knows what they are doing and has had a lot of practice.

The whole thing would work more efficently if they just AUTOMATICALLY helped those with lots of groceries. They only ever did after about ten minutes of watching my inept attempts to cram everything into bags quickly.

And in my opinion, lines move a LOT faster when they have someone acting as bagboy.

Quoting Normanhouse from 17:54, 24th Jan 2006
Oh, and Americans, unless you "need" the bag packed you should pack it yourself for the sake of the other customers waiting in the que. Staffing levels in British supermarkets are not suffeciant for this kind of pleasantry.


[hr]

you really should visit

http://www.metalbearabroad.com Just trust me.

[hr]

you really should visit http://www.metalbearabroad.com . Just trust me.

[hr]

"those who wish to be feared must inevitably be afraid of those whom they intimidate"
"In anger nothing right or judicious can be done."

[novium]

I do not think it is an american import, because it always struck my ear as harsh and a bit rude. I would expect to hear at the very least, "what can I get you" or "what can I do for you" or as you said, "what would you like?"....which is just a long way of saying I agree with you.

Quoting David Bean from 12:57, 24th Jan 2006

Quoting Lid from 22:05, 23rd Jan 2006

I think this particular brand of insanity is another American import; so often on the television do you see characters going to a counter and being asked, "what do you need?". Which is fair enough if they're talking to a heroin dealer, but a little redundant in most cases.

Personally, the phraseology I would use in these situations is "What would you like?", "Would you like me to pack your bags?", etc. Less absurd than "need", and less imperative and resentful-sounding than "want", but rather implying some sense of co-operation between the parties.

[hr]

Psalm 91:7

[hr]

"those who wish to be feared must inevitably be afraid of those whom they intimidate"
"In anger nothing right or judicious can be done."

[daduffster]

Quoting gingerjuju from 18:07, 21st Jan 2006
St Andrews Tescos = shit
Morrisons = GO THERE! If it's too far, some people may be shocked to learn of the existence of public transport in st andrews. My friend and i took the bus from albany park to morrisons yesterday (96). It cost us 90p.

[hr]

"Goodness gracious Flopson - everybody's tumbling!!"

Exactly! It is all very well complaining about customer service but it's all worthless unless you are willing to take some action.

If you have bad customer service, you have a right to make this known and complain to management as it appears some have been doing. However, continuing to use the same establishment does not aid the cause greatly.

Of course, there are two problems with the argument I put forward here. The first will be the backlash of saying people should not have to experience bad customer service as it is the duty of the company involved to promote good service and "we" should not suffer from such incompetencies. The second is St Andrews itself, a small town with a small centre and only one supermarket in that centre.

It is probably the latter that is most influential here as competition for Tesco is not great, especially in the town centre. However, it is a SMALL town. Morrisons and Somerfield are certainly not far away in absolute terms, only in relative terms to Tesco. And as has been pointed out, public transport exists as are their people with cars (who could also go further afield if they wished e.g Cupar, Dundee, Kirkcaldy)

But again, why should we have to? Our rights as a customer should be protected, shouldn't they? Well, sorry to spoil everyones idealistic outlook but this is not reality and employees are not pleasent robots (although self-service has a polite and inviting voice, I feel!) I understand they are paid to be nice and helpful, and wholeheartedly agree that they should be exactly that. However, in a town like St Andrews with an underlying local-student rivalry, it is a difficult expectation to meet.

Honestly, I have never had a bad experience at Tesco and thus continue to use it. This partly because I have a couple of friends who work in Tesco and I go to their checkout whenever possible. I think, on the whole, students working in Tesco are certainly not the ones giving bad customer service, it is normally the local employees. Still though, everyone i've been served by has been pretty polite, maybe it's the Scottish accent as munchingfoo suggests or maybe i've just been lucky, I don't know. But my point is generally that, although I have great sympathy for the scenario of the original poster in this thread and feel the member of staff at Tesco was completely out of order, he/she still ends the post with "I would venture to Morrisons if only it was nearer."

As stated earlier, it is not that far away - especially by bus - and such inconvenience is relatively dependent on how much you value your customer service. This is the problem as competition is as necessary for price as it is for any other business aspect, in this case customer service. I cannot say for certain if Morrisons was based at the other end of Market Street that customer service in Tesco would improve (or the same would be true of Morrisons, i've no idea what it is like there just now, any thoughts?) Again, this is because of the nature of St Andrews: it's small and thus lack of variety make it easier to "exploit" consumers.

I always feel that customer service can be improved no matter what industry. From what others have said on this thread and to what i have been oblivious to thus far (which is not me having a dig, just reiterating that I have fortunately not shared in some if the experiences) cannot help but agree that there could be a fair degree of improval in Tesco's customer service. However, to change to Morrisons or another rival is not too diffcult if one is willing to make the effort. It is just a case of "convenience" versus "shopping experience."

[Pandora]

I used to walk to Morrisons from David Russell. Got lost in the estates ocassionally however it was a nice walk introoduced me to an area of St Andews I was previously unfamiliar with. Reason I did this was not due to bad serivce but due to the fact that I used to get sick of the same food from Tescos. Also there was the Tescos conundrum. if you went during the day it was lines that would rival Disney land in the middle of the summer holidays. However if you went in the evening you were met with empty shelfs.

[Normanhouse]

Quoting Tweedle-Dum from 19:22, 24th Jan 2006

Quoting Normanhouse from 17:54, 24th Jan 2006Staffing levels in British supermarkets are not suffeciant for this kind of pleasantry.

Then they should raise staffing levels.

[hr]

Tetragrammaton is a four letter word.

Couldn't agree more.

Quoting novium from 20:14, 24th Jan 2006
The thing is, my amature bagging is going to be 100 times slower than someone who knows what they are doing and has had a lot of practice.

Are you seriously saying that its faster for the checkout person to scan your goods and pack your bags, than for him to scan and you to pack? Really?

I'm sceptical......
[hr]

you really should visit http://www.metalbearabroad.com . Just trust me.

[Steveo]

No, she's saying it's faster for a seperate person, as per American markets, to pack ones bag.

I love this, 'Well, don't comlain about Tesco if you can't be arsed to go to Morrissons'.

All I have to say is fuck that. Service is service and you shouldn't have to travel to get it good.

Winge all you fucks like, but the fact remains, there is no reason for staff to be rude. Simple as.

End of.

[hr]

Strangers passing in the street, by chance two seperate glances meet.

[novium]

Yes. I am saying that. If they know what they are doing and have practice.

I would more advocate having someone to do it as a job, but think of it this way. Compare how fast the checkers can scan the goods compared to people try to get the self-service machines to work.

Practice. Efficency. And it definitely is faster is they would just automatically help people, instead of staring blankly as someone struggles to bag everything that's just gone through AND dig out the money for it at the same time.

Quoting Normanhouse from 23:26, 24th Jan 2006

Are you seriously saying that its faster for the checkout person to scan your goods and pack your bags, than for him to scan and you to pack? Really?

I'm sceptical......
[hr]

you really should visit http://www.metalbearabroad.com . Just trust me.

[hr]

"those who wish to be feared must inevitably be afraid of those whom they intimidate"
"In anger nothing right or judicious can be done."

[McNugget]

Quoting novium from 00:50, 25th Jan 2006
Yes. I am saying that. If they know what they are doing and have practice.

True, I went through years of training to learn how to pack a bag "properly". Of course if I see someone unloading a trolley of stuff I pack instantly, but I see no reason why lack of experience can be used to stop you packing. Maybe if you actually packed your bags yourself you'd get the so called bag packing experience you desire.

ps. I must state I'm nice to everyone I serve, I'm just a judgemental person afterwards when I come across rude people. It doesn't change the way I serve them as is the same for many of the staff, I think this point has strayed over this thread.

[novium]

Hmm, missed the point, did you?

You can pack faster than your average customer I'd imagine? (if you can't, no offense, you need more practice).

Quoting McNugget from 02:59, 25th Jan 2006

Quoting novium from 00:50, 25th Jan 2006
Yes. I am saying that. If they know what they are doing and have practice.

True, I went through years of training to learn how to pack a bag "properly". Of course if I see someone unloading a trolley of stuff I pack instantly, but I see no reason why lack of experience can be used to stop you packing. Maybe if you actually packed your bags yourself you'd get the so called bag packing experience you desire.

ps. I must state I'm nice to everyone I serve, I'm just a judgemental person afterwards when I come across rude people. It doesn't change the way I serve them as is the same for many of the staff, I think this point has strayed over this thread.

[hr]

"those who wish to be feared must inevitably be afraid of those whom they intimidate"
"In anger nothing right or judicious can be done."

[Cameron]

Was it Mark Twain who wrote: " I didnt have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead". Why are so many of these posts so long winded ? Are those who post so short of time ? ...I could go on.

Quoting daduffster from 20:33, 24th Jan 2006

Quoting gingerjuju from 18:07, 21st Jan 2006
St Andrews Tescos = shit
Morrisons = GO THERE! If it's too far, some people may be shocked to learn of the existence of public transport in st andrews. My friend and i took the bus from albany park to morrisons yesterday (96). It cost us 90p.

[hr]

"Goodness gracious Flopson - everybody's tumbling!!"

Exactly! It is all very well complaining about customer service but it's all worthless unless you are willing to take some action.

If you have bad customer service, you have a right to make this known and complain to management as it appears some have been doing. However, continuing to use the same establishment does not aid the cause greatly.

Of course, there are two problems with the argument I put forward here. The first will be the backlash of saying people should not have to experience bad customer service as it is the duty of the company involved to promote good service and "we" should not suffer from such incompetencies. The second is St Andrews itself, a small town with a small centre and only one supermarket in that centre.

It is probably the latter that is most influential here as competition for Tesco is not great, especially in the town centre. However, it is a SMALL town. Morrisons and Somerfield are certainly not far away in absolute terms, only in relative terms to Tesco. And as has been pointed out, public transport exists as are their people with cars (who could also go further afield if they wished e.g Cupar, Dundee, Kirkcaldy)

But again, why should we have to? Our rights as a customer should be protected, shouldn't they? Well, sorry to spoil everyones idealistic outlook but this is not reality and employees are not pleasent robots (although self-service has a polite and inviting voice, I feel!) I understand they are paid to be nice and helpful, and wholeheartedly agree that they should be exactly that. However, in a town like St Andrews with an underlying local-student rivalry, it is a difficult expectation to meet.

Honestly, I have never had a bad experience at Tesco and thus continue to use it. This partly because I have a couple of friends who work in Tesco and I go to their checkout whenever possible. I think, on the whole, students working in Tesco are certainly not the ones giving bad customer service, it is normally the local employees. Still though, everyone i've been served by has been pretty polite, maybe it's the Scottish accent as munchingfoo suggests or maybe i've just been lucky, I don't know. But my point is generally that, although I have great sympathy for the scenario of the original poster in this thread and feel the member of staff at Tesco was completely out of order, he/she still ends the post with "I would venture to Morrisons if only it was nearer."

As stated earlier, it is not that far away - especially by bus - and such inconvenience is relatively dependent on how much you value your customer service. This is the problem as competition is as necessary for price as it is for any other business aspect, in this case customer service. I cannot say for certain if Morrisons was based at the other end of Market Street that customer service in Tesco would improve (or the same would be true of Morrisons, i've no idea what it is like there just now, any thoughts?) Again, this is because of the nature of St Andrews: it's small and thus lack of variety make it easier to "exploit" consumers.

I always feel that customer service can be improved no matter what industry. From what others have said on this thread and to what i have been oblivious to thus far (which is not me having a dig, just reiterating that I have fortunately not shared in some if the experiences) cannot help but agree that there could be a fair degree of improval in Tesco's customer service. However, to change to Morrisons or another rival is not too diffcult if one is willing to make the effort. It is just a case of "convenience" versus "shopping experience."

[I agree with the general tone]

Well, i dunno exactly the conversation throughout the entirety of this topic, but I did read the first two pages and I do agree with you that this older lady who works at the cigarrette counter is often quite rude. I have seen it on a number of occassions and even experienced it myself. It is most disheartening when one of our country's best retail chains manages to display this sort of behaviour amongst its employees.

I won't say anything else apart that I have emailed Tesco notifying them of the current situation and have expressed a most sincere and earnest desire that they tackle the situation immediately - otherwise I fear that Morrisons it may well be!

[Admin]

Quoting Steveo from 00:29, 25th Jan 2006
I love this, 'Well, don't comlain about Tesco if you can't be arsed to go to Morrissons'.
All I have to say is fuck that. Service is service and you shouldn't have to travel to get it good.

I think the point was that in order to demonstrate your feelings about the lack of customer service in Tesco (other than complaining to a manager which may or may not work), you should shop elsewhere.

Voting with one's feet, as I believe it could be called.

[Jess]

A classic in this instance...

Proverbs 25:21-23(NIV)

21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

22 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.

Heehee!

[hr]

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration...so I keep telling myself..!

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37105926

[box_of_delights]

I use the golden haired lady's fag kiosk most times I shop at Tesco, and I fully admit that I've seen her being not so much blatantly rude as being a little unpleasant to students in particular. It's almost as if her attitude completely changes once she's had the nice little conversation with the old dear buying a lottery ticket or the locals with whom she's accustomed buying their papers or pack of biscuits. The number of times she's almost snatched things from me and slammed them down on the counter, accompanied by the never changing: "Thank yeeeewww. That's £1.50. Thank yeeeeew. Who's next? Thank yeeeeew"

I'm always chatty and polite with the staff in any shop - usually because I get great pleasure in being pleasant with people who are obviously pissed off to the hind teeth. The golden haired woman has, on several occasions, mellowed towards me and my pleasantries seem to have rubbed off - an example would be her browsing a magazine I buy and making jokey comments about some cover articles. However, in recent months this has ceased, and I'm now getting a little more wary of her.

Is stick lady the one with the curly hair and has an English accent? Uusually moaning to her colleagues or customers about her pains, be they physical or otherwise? I've never heard someone moan and be so self-obsessed as her, and that's just my observations from the occasional shopping trip there!

As for students, I will jump to the staff's defence a little because I work at a shop in town whose main customers are the students, and whilst the majority are very polite and we can have a bit of banter, there are invariably those who are talking on their mobile whilst being served and just chuck the money on the counter, or those who don't even acknowledge my cheery "hi" or "hey there" - in fact, these types rarely even say thank you or acknowledge that they've been served! Some people you can tell are just really shy and not perhaps socially confident enough to be chatty with me, when I am to a degree a stranger, but with some you can just tell it's plain rudeness. However, I can testify that we also get a few locals in and they can be just as rude, and there's certainly no excuse for anyone to tarnish everyone with the same reputation because of a minority's actions.

[rob 'f*ck off' wine boy]

Quoting Jess from 10:30, 25th Jan 2006
A classic in this instance...

Proverbs 25:21-23(NIV)

21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

22 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.

Heehee!

[hr]

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration...so I keep telling myself..!

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37105926

rofldofalous you just irrelevented the crap outta me!

[neener]

Why don't you contact head office and complain. What this woman did with the eggs was out of order. i worked for a corporate company and complaints to hq were taken VERY seriously.

http://www.tesco.com/help/jump.asp?choiceB=4

do it by email, letter or phone. the head office is in dundee.

[Lid]

The head office is in Cheshunt. Customer service is at Dundee.

[hr]

We are not drunks, we are multi-millionaires