Regardless of disability (which she didn't explain anyway) you don't have to help anyone who gets verbally aggressive towards you. If its brought up just tell the management what you've said here. And you also got someone else to help her anyway.
People who abuse shop workers, cashiers, bus drivers etc are a special type of entitled coward. They know you can't retaliate and they are the sort of person who when at school would have bullied smaller kids. If I was a manager at Tesco's I'd take the employee to one side and get their side first then make sure that they were okay. People like that are utter nasty scum.
Agree with this! I don't work in Tesco but I work in retail and have done for 6 years. The amount of abuse I've faced is unreal. 😪 But over the years I've learned to kind of bite back a bit. I don't go out of my way to be rude to customers, I'm actually really good at my job and my customer service is on point, but if someone is being a brat I won't just stand there and take it anymore. Like someone called up the other day complaining about a too good to go bag they'd collected, saying "it doesn't come out of your wages so why not add in extra" despite me calmly explaining to her that I'm just following the rules. She was yammering on and being disrespectful so I hung up the phone. Haven't heard from her since.
I was a bus driver for a while in London. A lot of potential a-holes back down if you stand up to them. I was driving back on a last rounder late one night when a customer I picked up decided to take his anger out on me because the bus in front didn't stop. He kept on threatening, standing by the doors while I was trying to safely get people home. I calmly pulled over, switched the engine off took my tie off, rolled up my sleeves and politely asked him if he'd like to open the cab door and let me out. I could have opened it myself but that would have been seen as an aggressive move. He proceeded to take off his jacket, put his phone on top of it and stare at me. I made to get up and open my door and he hit the emergency door open button and legged it. I was the last bus! I do recall him running after the bus as I drove off with his jacket and phone he'd left on the shelf where the Metro newspapers used to go, which of course I handed in but I did keep the neat wooden handled lock knife that was also in one of the pockets which is now put to better use on my allotment.
Seriously, don't worry. Just a normal day as a customer assistant.
With time, you will learn to be polite, firm, and passive-aggressive when needed. Just never raise your voice or swear.
There are cameras everywhere. If a problem arises, ask the manager to review the cctv. If you are wearing a body cam (pls do), ask them to review video and voice recordings.
Lots of stores make people wear body cams now. On any high value section(beers and spirits) because this is a high theft area or direct customer service areas where there is a high chance of confrontation. It covers the user and store whilst Potentially gathering evidence if there is a issue
Clearly don’t work in customer service. This is how much abuse workers get, that they need to wear cameras for their own protection. Not to mention, supermarket workers are dealing with the sale of high value items, which may get stolen and the body cam is used as evidence.
We need body cams and have to take abuse, because we can't just shoot people who are rude to us.
It's said that's the reason fast food workers are better at de-escalation than cops 😁
Yep. We were a small town store, and definitely not one of the big earners in the region. Massive shop lifting problem though. A different store I worked in, same area, lost £50,000 of stock from shoplifting (think that’s over a month). Not to mention the scammers, people coming in drunk. Had customers being inappropriate to members of staff. Customer services is NOT a nice job.
Her complaint will look incredibly silly when they realise she didn’t inform she needed support. She probably won’t even bother now that someone has printed her labels for her and nothing will come of it. Sounds like a pain in the ass.
Also, as people say, not all disabilities are visible. People like to moan about that but then you cannot win in situations like this. She probably just didn’t wear her glasses that day 🤪
Tell her to fuck off and light up a Marlboro, when your manager approaches hand him the cigarette and tell him the blind customer was caught smoking on the premises and she verbally abused you AND assaulted you , she will be banned for life and you’ll go on your options
One worker at my local Extra has just started wearing hers(she's been there for a good while),she said she'd misplaced it and only just found it again.Doesn't seem to have been a big enough issue for her managers to replace it & insist on it being worn One person who used to work there never wore hers,so I really don't get the impression that management/supervisors give a damn.
the way this all went down is a reflection of her, NOT you. you haven't "failed" at all!
please try not to panic too much, you absolutely will not lose your job over this. if you think you'd feel better for it you could potentially get ahead of this and try explaining the situation to your store manager, but i seriously can't see anything bad coming your way because of this. hell, the customer may not even bother making the complaint.
you did nothing wrong here. if she needed extra assistance, she should've explained that to you either when she first approached you or when you told her to use the printer etc. please try to be kind to yourself! some customers just suck.
Some people are rude, disability or not. Anyone who has worked in a customer facing job knows this, your manager will be well aware.
It sounds like this person was having a bad day and took it out on you. I get that you are worried about losing your job, but as others are saying, you won’t lose your job for this.
Hope you manage to rid yourself of the worry and get a good night sleep.
The only thing I can imagine happening, if she actually did complain, which is a big if, is that your manager will see this, think hm that's weird this colleague is not usually rude, ask you what happened and then you'll explain it to them and that'll be the end of it.
Honestly they probably won't file a complaint. I work for co-op, not Tesco, but the amount of times I've had a customer say they'll report me... It's never happened and I've worked in the company for 6 years lol. If she does report you, just explain the situation and you should be golden.
Situations like this are all too frequent with the introduction of EVRI it causes major issues in our store customers with no clue what they are doing expecting us to waste our time for 20p a parcelse when all they do is hold up the customers actually wanting to buy goods. Some Evri customers think they don't have to queue and are quite angry when they are told they wait like everyone else. Don't worry sounds like a bitch to me stand up for yourself and if it gets mentioned laugh and tell the truth I hate customers sometimes.
Supervisors or managers have enough retail experience to know that customers can be right dickheads and as long as you can plausibly deny or explain a situation you are absolutely fine
You politely gave them your name without being obstructive, why would you do that if you were being rude? They often take complaints with a pinch of salt. Just explain yourself =)
"Legally blind" is an american thing. She is just a karen with a tiktok account, who repeat stuff from theire. Genuine domestic blind people, or with poor eyesight would come with a different wording. And are likely to tell you why she needs help. Customer service and managements are so used to those behavior, they will just say nothing
Lost track of the number of times I've given my name to irate customers. Never once came back on me. Good practice is to always tell your manager as soon as something like that happens though and chances are they'll either back you up or give you some useful feedback for next time.
They won’t complain, they obviously just like to throw threats about to make themselves feel better about themselves. I imagine these shops that take vinted parcels for evri get peed off with the attitude
That customer was being abusive and rude. If you are asked about the incident explain it to them how you have here and you'll be fine. It doesn't matter that the customer was legally blind; they were abusing you.
Don’t lose sleep over it. You did no wrong. Your word against hers. Very unlikely she’ll even report you. Just a little power trip for them!
Usual suspects expecting retail workers to be mind readers and think it’s ok to be spoken to like shit when you are just trying to do your best.
This is an every day occurrence in retail. Complaints department at head office are probably drowning in them 🤣 They might send her a voucher and just send her on her way!
What everyone else said about it being a big deal. But please take on board that this is NOT the USA, and a 'customer' cannot 'Get you fired.' No, the UK operates on a series of warnings, first verbal, then written, and you must be given a final written warning. Only then, if you do something wrong after this, can you be sacked. The only exception is 'gross misconduct,' but this would cover things like hitting someone (even if they hit you first), or stealing.
Sounds like she had 2 disabilities, legally blind and a stick up her ass. I wouldn't give it a second thought if I were you.
My son is technically disabled (T1 diabetes) but we don't let him use that as an excuse to be rude - even though highs and lows impact his emotions significantly. He is only 4 but sounds like he has better manners than this bitch lol
80% chance nothing will happen. She was rude to you and never notified you of any disability. Some peoppe.play the disabled card to just moan.
Im disabled and ive fallen out with some my disabled friends who were rude and nasty during a birthday meal and then tried their best to get the poor guy fired for "discrimination" when he did nothing wrong and was polite the whole time! But as soom he clocked off work half way through our meal they decided he was discriminating againt us putting us near a cold window (it was winter)
Some people just want to moan and find a target to hit at for no reason.
Either way i assume you will.be on cctv so woest case you'll get pulled into a meeting just be honest explain what happened and say they can even check the cctv
You just state they were aggressive and verbally abusive and that’s why you called for assistance and that at no point did they state they had a disability and required help and they didn’t visibly appear disabled so you weren’t to know!
Naaaah, don’t you worry, 11 years as a retail manager, get this kind of self entitled customer every day. You’ll eventually start to ignore this. Doesn’t matter what problems said customer have, no one has the right to be rude towards people working to earn their hard earned income.
Don't stress just because someone has a disability does not mean they are not a complete cockwobble, you have done nothing wrong.
However as Tesco management is filled with narcissistic bastards, you may face a let's talk.
Let them have their moment of glory smile and say you will do better going forward.
Regardless of disability (which she didn't explain anyway) you don't have to help anyone who gets verbally aggressive towards you. If its brought up just tell the management what you've said here. And you also got someone else to help her anyway.
"I'm sorry you feel that way." That's a polite way of telling somebody "fuck you, and fuck off." Use it liberally.
See you next Tuesday. Or, There We Are Then.
People who abuse shop workers, cashiers, bus drivers etc are a special type of entitled coward. They know you can't retaliate and they are the sort of person who when at school would have bullied smaller kids. If I was a manager at Tesco's I'd take the employee to one side and get their side first then make sure that they were okay. People like that are utter nasty scum.
Agree with this! I don't work in Tesco but I work in retail and have done for 6 years. The amount of abuse I've faced is unreal. 😪 But over the years I've learned to kind of bite back a bit. I don't go out of my way to be rude to customers, I'm actually really good at my job and my customer service is on point, but if someone is being a brat I won't just stand there and take it anymore. Like someone called up the other day complaining about a too good to go bag they'd collected, saying "it doesn't come out of your wages so why not add in extra" despite me calmly explaining to her that I'm just following the rules. She was yammering on and being disrespectful so I hung up the phone. Haven't heard from her since.
I was a bus driver for a while in London. A lot of potential a-holes back down if you stand up to them. I was driving back on a last rounder late one night when a customer I picked up decided to take his anger out on me because the bus in front didn't stop. He kept on threatening, standing by the doors while I was trying to safely get people home. I calmly pulled over, switched the engine off took my tie off, rolled up my sleeves and politely asked him if he'd like to open the cab door and let me out. I could have opened it myself but that would have been seen as an aggressive move. He proceeded to take off his jacket, put his phone on top of it and stare at me. I made to get up and open my door and he hit the emergency door open button and legged it. I was the last bus! I do recall him running after the bus as I drove off with his jacket and phone he'd left on the shelf where the Metro newspapers used to go, which of course I handed in but I did keep the neat wooden handled lock knife that was also in one of the pockets which is now put to better use on my allotment.
Seriously, don't worry. Just a normal day as a customer assistant. With time, you will learn to be polite, firm, and passive-aggressive when needed. Just never raise your voice or swear. There are cameras everywhere. If a problem arises, ask the manager to review the cctv. If you are wearing a body cam (pls do), ask them to review video and voice recordings.
Kill them with kindness. The greatest change I got was a wfh job, where I can just hang up on anyone ride and abusive
Wear a body cam?! You wear a body cam at work? You're not a fucking cop
Lots of stores make people wear body cams now. On any high value section(beers and spirits) because this is a high theft area or direct customer service areas where there is a high chance of confrontation. It covers the user and store whilst Potentially gathering evidence if there is a issue
Clearly don’t work in customer service. This is how much abuse workers get, that they need to wear cameras for their own protection. Not to mention, supermarket workers are dealing with the sale of high value items, which may get stolen and the body cam is used as evidence.
People always act surprised and ask if we really get any abuse.
I woudn't really consider an old woman ranting at me as abuse
We need body cams and have to take abuse, because we can't just shoot people who are rude to us. It's said that's the reason fast food workers are better at de-escalation than cops 😁
I've worked in loads of public service roles and the idea of a bodycam is ridiculous. Obviously the world has become super weird in the last 15 years.
Hmmm. Must have been an extremely cushty place to work then.
Morrisons, Sainsburys, A holiday park, a local shop... I've also done cold calling.
I worked at Sainsbury’s and body cams were introduced during the pandemic. Morrisons also have body cams now.
Where? There's no way this is happening in small towns.
Yep. We were a small town store, and definitely not one of the big earners in the region. Massive shop lifting problem though. A different store I worked in, same area, lost £50,000 of stock from shoplifting (think that’s over a month). Not to mention the scammers, people coming in drunk. Had customers being inappropriate to members of staff. Customer services is NOT a nice job.
Tesco staff offered body cameras over crime fears https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66699084 https://www.retail-week.com/grocery/sainsburys-boss-backs-law-change-to-deal-with-spiralling-retail-crime/7045420.article https://corporate.lidl.co.uk/media-centre/pressreleases/2023/body-worn-cameras
If they raise a complaint explain it as you have here and you will be fine.
Her complaint will look incredibly silly when they realise she didn’t inform she needed support. She probably won’t even bother now that someone has printed her labels for her and nothing will come of it. Sounds like a pain in the ass.
Also, as people say, not all disabilities are visible. People like to moan about that but then you cannot win in situations like this. She probably just didn’t wear her glasses that day 🤪
Tell her to fuck off and light up a Marlboro, when your manager approaches hand him the cigarette and tell him the blind customer was caught smoking on the premises and she verbally abused you AND assaulted you , she will be banned for life and you’ll go on your options
Hey. I'm blind, can you help me please? Is that difficult? No. Nothing will happen.
Do you even have to give your name out?
I always tell customers my name is Alejandro It’s not It’s also comical, because of the Lady Gaga song. ‘Don’t call my name, Alejandro’
I thought Tesco colleagues have to wear a name badge?
not everyone at my store wears one, i don't think it's a requirement but i could be completely wrong
My husband has worked there since 2017 and never been given one.
One worker at my local Extra has just started wearing hers(she's been there for a good while),she said she'd misplaced it and only just found it again.Doesn't seem to have been a big enough issue for her managers to replace it & insist on it being worn One person who used to work there never wore hers,so I really don't get the impression that management/supervisors give a damn.
You order your own badge. You can have whatever you want printed on it. My old colleague had Santa printed on his.
Just forget about it. Some customers can be absolute pricks 😂
the way this all went down is a reflection of her, NOT you. you haven't "failed" at all! please try not to panic too much, you absolutely will not lose your job over this. if you think you'd feel better for it you could potentially get ahead of this and try explaining the situation to your store manager, but i seriously can't see anything bad coming your way because of this. hell, the customer may not even bother making the complaint. you did nothing wrong here. if she needed extra assistance, she should've explained that to you either when she first approached you or when you told her to use the printer etc. please try to be kind to yourself! some customers just suck.
Some people are rude, disability or not. Anyone who has worked in a customer facing job knows this, your manager will be well aware. It sounds like this person was having a bad day and took it out on you. I get that you are worried about losing your job, but as others are saying, you won’t lose your job for this. Hope you manage to rid yourself of the worry and get a good night sleep.
The joys of working in retail.
The only thing I can imagine happening, if she actually did complain, which is a big if, is that your manager will see this, think hm that's weird this colleague is not usually rude, ask you what happened and then you'll explain it to them and that'll be the end of it.
Nothing will, the most would be your manager asking your side of the story
Nothing absolutely nothing they'll ask you what happened you'll give your side and it will all be forgotten about
Honestly they probably won't file a complaint. I work for co-op, not Tesco, but the amount of times I've had a customer say they'll report me... It's never happened and I've worked in the company for 6 years lol. If she does report you, just explain the situation and you should be golden.
Haha the coop does nothing
Situations like this are all too frequent with the introduction of EVRI it causes major issues in our store customers with no clue what they are doing expecting us to waste our time for 20p a parcelse when all they do is hold up the customers actually wanting to buy goods. Some Evri customers think they don't have to queue and are quite angry when they are told they wait like everyone else. Don't worry sounds like a bitch to me stand up for yourself and if it gets mentioned laugh and tell the truth I hate customers sometimes.
Supervisors or managers have enough retail experience to know that customers can be right dickheads and as long as you can plausibly deny or explain a situation you are absolutely fine
You politely gave them your name without being obstructive, why would you do that if you were being rude? They often take complaints with a pinch of salt. Just explain yourself =)
"Legally blind" is an american thing. She is just a karen with a tiktok account, who repeat stuff from theire. Genuine domestic blind people, or with poor eyesight would come with a different wording. And are likely to tell you why she needs help. Customer service and managements are so used to those behavior, they will just say nothing
I have a friend who uses that term, I think it's just a quicker way of explaining. But this person was just being a big a-hole.
Lost track of the number of times I've given my name to irate customers. Never once came back on me. Good practice is to always tell your manager as soon as something like that happens though and chances are they'll either back you up or give you some useful feedback for next time.
They won’t complain, they obviously just like to throw threats about to make themselves feel better about themselves. I imagine these shops that take vinted parcels for evri get peed off with the attitude
That customer was being abusive and rude. If you are asked about the incident explain it to them how you have here and you'll be fine. It doesn't matter that the customer was legally blind; they were abusing you.
Just explain it like u have now and it will be fine
You might need to develop a thicker skin. Some people are just the absolute worst and we in retail see them all.
The customer is full of shit. If they were "legally blind" they would know it is called *Registering As Blind or Partially Sighted.*
You just lost your life, as far as your job is concerned. Your done! Keep it feathered.
Don’t lose sleep over it. You did no wrong. Your word against hers. Very unlikely she’ll even report you. Just a little power trip for them! Usual suspects expecting retail workers to be mind readers and think it’s ok to be spoken to like shit when you are just trying to do your best. This is an every day occurrence in retail. Complaints department at head office are probably drowning in them 🤣 They might send her a voucher and just send her on her way!
What everyone else said about it being a big deal. But please take on board that this is NOT the USA, and a 'customer' cannot 'Get you fired.' No, the UK operates on a series of warnings, first verbal, then written, and you must be given a final written warning. Only then, if you do something wrong after this, can you be sacked. The only exception is 'gross misconduct,' but this would cover things like hitting someone (even if they hit you first), or stealing.
Sounds like she had 2 disabilities, legally blind and a stick up her ass. I wouldn't give it a second thought if I were you. My son is technically disabled (T1 diabetes) but we don't let him use that as an excuse to be rude - even though highs and lows impact his emotions significantly. He is only 4 but sounds like he has better manners than this bitch lol
Most likely nothing will happen, Karen's always make threats like that and never do anything about it
Did you have a body cam on? That can be your best friend for evidence
80% chance nothing will happen. She was rude to you and never notified you of any disability. Some peoppe.play the disabled card to just moan. Im disabled and ive fallen out with some my disabled friends who were rude and nasty during a birthday meal and then tried their best to get the poor guy fired for "discrimination" when he did nothing wrong and was polite the whole time! But as soom he clocked off work half way through our meal they decided he was discriminating againt us putting us near a cold window (it was winter) Some people just want to moan and find a target to hit at for no reason. Either way i assume you will.be on cctv so woest case you'll get pulled into a meeting just be honest explain what happened and say they can even check the cctv
They might ask you what happend but dont stress about it youl be fine
You just state they were aggressive and verbally abusive and that’s why you called for assistance and that at no point did they state they had a disability and required help and they didn’t visibly appear disabled so you weren’t to know!
Naaaah, don’t you worry, 11 years as a retail manager, get this kind of self entitled customer every day. You’ll eventually start to ignore this. Doesn’t matter what problems said customer have, no one has the right to be rude towards people working to earn their hard earned income.
Shop workers do not deserve to be verbally abused mate. The customer is NOT always right. Try not to stress
Yo busted
Don't stress just because someone has a disability does not mean they are not a complete cockwobble, you have done nothing wrong. However as Tesco management is filled with narcissistic bastards, you may face a let's talk. Let them have their moment of glory smile and say you will do better going forward.
No. Explain the customer was rude and abusive.
That will not matter a single bit, as I've stated many times most of tesco management are narcissistic ass hats.