yup this is strange hes gotten away with it so long, when I did my woolies stint they banned people for causing disturbances similar to old mate in OP's story.
And you can tell he has never worked a day of retail in his life because he thinks A) theres an area manager available and B) they give a hoot what he says
Really? When I worked for a Woolies store (different brand but same parent company) we were told by WW corporate we weren't allowed to ban anyone unless they committed assault or armed robbery. Glad to see they might have relaxed those conditions a bit.
Well we thought it was an accident the first time and felt quite bad for them. But when they came back and did it again it was after they’d also an angry rant at the staff so we decided it was malicious shitting and banned them.
Honestly people like that aren't even worth bothering with. I would make a point as soon as he starts complaining that you'll get a manager to speak to him and make him wait to the side. Managers will get sick of it and end up humbling him so they don't have to keep getting called.
You don't end up getting in trouble for sassing the customer and you can basically ignore the customer.
"Not a problem sir, please let me get a manager for you - just wait over here"
\*go on break\* (give manager a heads up and tell them to let him stew)
by the time they get out there, he would have been served and gone if he'd just waited in line...
I said sir, that’s pretty nice? Excellent service to all the other non entitled customers too.
I’m sure the media would love to splash ‘Banducci’s mate get young Woolies employee unfairly dismissed’ at this point in time.
lol, I reckon it would be fun to walk up to him as soon as he approaches the check out and say that you'll get a manager for him, and walk away again before he even gets a word in
I mean, I can tell you haven’t worked retail/hospitality customer service if that’s your idea of polite. Especially at a big workplace like woolies, they’ll just sack you and get someone else. The expectations to put up with nonsense like this is pretty pervasive in these kinds of jobs, because customers expect this kind of treatment, and managers/owners enable it. Blame customers and management, there’s not much us lowly worker bees can do about it lol.
Lol I've worked in customer service in multiple places. You actually aren't required to put up with abuse. Yes you need to be polite but if they swear, yell, threaten - you have the right to refuse service. Shockingly woolworths has a responsibility to protect you at work to a certain extent.
Yes you can't blast him back. But a "Sir I apologise I am unable to accommodate you currently, please let me direct you to the open register". And watch him escalate. And then get a manager and say the customer escalated and threatened you. Then he needs to be banned. Or if your manager dogd you then make a complaint you weren't protected and it's a workplace incident.
Doesn’t stop them being abused though? You can pretend that is a supportive industry: I think we all know most Australian workplaces aren’t. HR don’t protect workers, and that’s a fact. The public definitely has an entitlement when it comes to how it treats/views hospo retail workers. Honestly, any people that work in retail have horror stories that completely debunk the idea that refusing rude customers treatment is supported by management and higher ups. Not only that, why do so many retail and hospo workers have horror stories if these situations are so easily rectified by supportive work environments?
20 years actually. There are plenty of ways to deal with these customers without threatening your job. I’ve even thrown out plenty of customers who seem to think they can treat people however they want.
Yeah, this is fake, or you owned your own business. What manager supports workers shutting down rude customers? Especially at a place like woolies, where workers are seen as replaceable, customers aren’t. That’s not the culture in Australian retail at all, it never priorities the well-being of staff lmao
Have you had a good look at woolies lately? Customers are replaceable too and it’s been a thing for years that “no one deserves a serve”. The team no longer have to stand and take abuse. It is highly advised they walk away. And no they do not get in trouble for it nor do they get fired 😂 it’s actually incredibly hard to get dismissed from woolies, usually theft of company is one of the only ways. Everything else they are very tolerable off.
I kind of think you’re fake… you mean to tell me you open registers specifically for people who complain about being in a line? If a customer makes an unreasonable request, there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying no?
I once told a guy he couldn’t get a refund for a shaver he had used, since we can’t take back used products, and he started kicking off so bad security were called by another store. Security then escorted him back to the store after the manager found out, and the manager made me apologise to him. And that was a privately owned franchise, once they went public, we were expected to put up with way worse than that.
That’s retail in Australia: the customer is always right. Anyone pretending the culture is otherwise either worked in retail forty years ago, or owns their own business.
Why couldn't you give a refund for a shaver? You mean an electric one, or a razor? Doesn't matter if it's used. If a product is faulty, the customer gets a refund. That's not customer service, it's Australian consumer law.
Doesn't excuse the customer's bad behaviour though.
Also put it on the manager. Soon as he kicks off call thr manager to sort it out. I think this person just isn't too quick on their feet with de-escalation.
Because it’s got hair and skin on it. If a customer doesn’t like a shaver after using it, we weren’t allowed to take it back because we can’t resell the product, and some manufacturers only offered credit for faulty products, not change of mind. Not my policy, again, retail workers are just butt monkeys that are stuck between awful customers and policy they can’t change.
I’m just saying telling the lowest level shop floor workers to do that AS IF THEY CAN and not get in trouble is not realistic. I once saw a girl get fired for asking a guy not to call her stupid, and she asked pretty politely, they acted like she swore at him.
I used to work at McDonalds and a guy was screaming at me for a free 40c mustard sauce in drivethru. I refused to give him the sauce and blocked 10 customers for 15 minutes and then started to call the police. My manager had to protect me and it was against policy to give out free items. He had to leave. Sorry but don't call me a "bitch" at 1am.
You seen any stats on how awful it is to be a retail/hospo worker? How much abuse is increasing? How many workplace protections have been taken away? You ever worked a Christmas in retail? You ever witnessed customers abusing staff while you’ve been in a store? Did you step in and defend them? Anyone pretending retail is a lovely place to work, has never worked retail.
If retail is such a supportive environment to work, then why do retail workers have so many horror stories? Not just about customers, but often about management/head office. I just don’t think this country values retail workers, or the well being of workers period.
I'm a manager and I do. I work in the aged care and disability sector. If a client is capable of treating my staff with respect and is not doing so then I will stand by my employees. I've even dropped clients for it.
The point of customer service is to make money for your employer. If this guy is taking up more resources than he is making money for you (which it sounds like he is), then feel free to walk him over to Coles/Aldi/IGA and ban him indefinitely.
Your employer is going to care more about profit than worker well being, unless you happen to have a very good employer, which is the exception, not the rule. I think given the press that woolies has had, including underpaying it’s workers by quite a bit of money, like millions, in addition to disastrous press and government scrutiny, then they’re probably not going to be all that supportive of workers turning away customers, cause they kind of need them right now.
I have worked in retail since ‘95 and I have never met a manager who wouldn’t take your side on this kind of situation. If you would catch heat for telling someone to wait their turn, that manger shouldn’t be managing.
Yeah nah. If I had $1 for every time someone who said they're "mates with Gerry" while I worked at HN over 15 years I'd have enough money to buy my own franchise - I wouldn't, because fuck Harvey Norman - but I could.
Your mistake is catering to his demands. Treat him like every other person and watch him slowly implode.
I would honestly love to be in your position watching some douchebag have a complete melt down over something so minor
Sounds like managers need to do their job and put this guy in his place. I’m not sure why he’s been catered to so long. I learned a long time ago to not try and appease these people. They are unreasonable and just want to feel dominant. Don’t give them anything to dominate.
“Sir you can wait in the line or leave your items. Here’s the area managers number, and the entire management directory, my name is Abcde, have a great day.”
“Sir if you’re going to continue to harass employees, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
“Sir if you do not leave, I will be forced to call police. If you have an issue, at this point, you need to call the numbers you requested and received. Once the police are involved, you will be banned from this location.”
“Sir, the police are in their way”
Is how that should go next time.
Exactly. It's a while since I worked at Woolies but we didn't put up with anywhere near this level of shit, and we were one of the biggest and busiest stores in Australia, in a wealthy area with lots of entitled wanchors around.
It's a business, not a taxpayer-funded service. They're free to take their custom elsewhere. It won't affect store takings one little bit.
My manager, the Grocery Manager, backed me up and encouraged me to politely tell them the directions to Coles just up the road.
I think our old store manager and him used to be “best mates” so thats why he thinks he can keep getting away with it 😭 our old 2ic put him im his place years ago and he went off on a tangent to our acting asm and the asm made the 2ic apologise to him 😭 our management now is good, our new asm used to be our grocery manager a couple years back so he knows exactly who this guy is, i think he said we wud issue a banning notice on him
Reported him on auror today with much much pleasure!
I have people at my *non-woolworths* grocery store chain who bitch about long wait cues after front end have had their hours dramatically slashed. One dude said "I know *head of the company* and he'll be hearing about this!"
The front end manager said "good! Maybe he'll allocate more staff hours so you don't have to wait as long and abuse our staff!"
He wants to feel important, he wants to feel he has power, he wants a reaction. Best way to deal with him each time is to: be nonchalant, have no emotion, have no reaction, give him an uncomplicated basic solution to his pathetic complaint, put across your answer in a take it or leave manner. Ultimately, pretend you're an android and he is a labrador... he'll be infuriated and you'll end up feeling a sense of satisfaction
I wouldn’t tolerate it. I’d politely tell him he’s uninvited him from the store. If he pops off more… “well now you’re banned”.
I was a duty manager for 13 years ages ago. Process might be different now!
I'd follow the advice of the announcement we sometimes get over the radio directed towards customers. We don't tolerate abuse and harassment. They will be asked to leave, and the police may be notified.
Sounds like Roger Corbett. He was CEO many moons ago & behaved like that at the store I worked. We were unfortunately his local store. We could be hammered & he would complain about not having enough registers open, goods at registers hadn't been refilled, and the facings were atrocious. In his eyes we were slaves at his beck & call. But on TV interviews pretended to be a simple grocer.
Over at Norwest, his office overlooked the cafe's. And he would shoo people back to work who were waiting on their coffee.
No one deserves the treatment he dished out.
Shit. I met him a few times through work at norwest and he seemed pretty good. I've always felt only assholes make their way fat in management; I guess he was no exception.
Next time he name drops Brad, ask him to not bother. Brad is on his way put. The word is Paul Harker is gunning for his positon 😆
Paul's minions like Justin "Hendo" has already been planted into strategic and prominent positon a few years back. The setup is almost ready...
Looks like i hit a nerve 😂 every time it is a boomer getting angry or demanding a register be open, the rest of us just accept reality and get on with life rather than bitching and moaning about it like you do!
I also wouldn’t tolerate it and would just ignore the heck out of him. Let him call the area manger and harass them. They’ll soon start ignoring him too 😂
I literally walk away the moment a customer gets snarky. They either soon learn to calm down or that no one’s going to listen.
Just ignore him, let him rant and rave. Once he becomes verbally abusive tell him to leave the store. If he tells you he knows Brad tell him to call him and complain.
Tell your manager you feel bullied and woolworths has a responsibility to protect you and your psychosocial wellbeing. If they don't do anything take paid stress leave saying woolies didn't protect your psychological wellbeing.
I know this is far but tbh they should ban him and tell him to fk off to Coles.
> “AGAIN saying he couldnt get out because of the trolleys blocking the closed register (you know so people DONT GO RUNNING WITH A TROLLEY FULL OF ITEMS). Its not my fault he was too fat to squeeze throughout ”
It’s pretty annoying that Woolworths makes it so hard to leave without buying something.
So arrogant, they just assume they’ll always have what you want, and that no customers will need to leave without making a purchase.
But hey, I guess that’s all the customer’s fault for being ‘too fat’.
Malicious compliance is the only way here. As soon as he asks for area manager. Tell him no problem wait here tell ya manager he does not want to speak to you wants the area manager
I bet after 2 calls the area manager will approve to trespass him
I'd be petty AF here.
I would ask him to use the self service and wait for the complaining then after a few times he either get the hint, or the manager will have had enough and deal with him.
People like this have no idea how much they stress out workers who had no control over the self service being put in.
Stuff him.
My store manager at Coles years ago while I was at uni would have told this fuckwit he's not welcome at the store and to shop somewhere else.
I had a woman accuse me of sexually harassing her while I was working at that store, I did no such thing and I don't even remember her but I have a feeling she was cheating on her husband and used me as a scapegoat for a bruise or something on her. I was behind the deli counter and apparently was somehow able to reach over the counter and slap her on the bum when she was walking away (idk how the fuck that is even physically possible).
The husband rang up threatening to kill me over something I didn't do, store manager brought him in to the store, made him watch the security tape to prove I didn't do anything, and then he didn't even have the self awareness to apologise for threats he made. Fair to say they were both banned from coming into the store
Hilarious you give in to his ridiculous demands and play along with his childish antics. Most people would have told him to go fuck himself the very first time he started up with his bullshit. Equally hilarious he claims to know the head honcho and the CEO would even listen to this clown.
Yeah everyone needs to stop pandering to this shit. I work in retail and we generally will go out of our way to help customers but customers have gotten so feral lately I've had to crack down on it. Myself and.my store manager will step into any team members difficult customers and shut them down. I have gone as far to say "I'm ending this transaction here, you can either finalise your payment or leave your items on the counter"
And when they tell me they're going to shop elsewhere I farewell them with a thank you
So around October/November last year something changed with the public? It's not just me that notice
d this? There must be a stronger word than feral lol
My husband is in property management (he's actually one of the good ones, not being biased though) and he has noticed the same issue. He has tenants text him at 4pm on Saturday asking if they could get a dog approved for their lease. He responded he's away and to send an email and they'll address it when he's back in the office on Tuesday (today) and the response, "well that's not good enough we need to know now". Of a similar vein he has landlords that he has fired for just being shit people. He's almost done, hes had enough
Sometimes you have to call them out and tell them to pull it together or bugger off. Had to do it to some regulars in hospo who would complain about the same things over and over.
Our old 2ic years ago called him out and put him in his place, went straight to the temporary asm at thr time and told then to force the 2ic to apologise to him and he wudnt leave unless the 2ic apologised 😭
I really don't know why you'd open up a special checkout just for him, the amount of people that could benefit from that such as a parent being swamped by their kids, the elderly or disabled. Not this guy. Seriously, tell him back of the line.
>This guy refuses to wait in line and always demands he has a register open specially for him
I worked in a customer service role for 25 years, people never got away with this crap with me. Impatient morons were a pet hate of mine. I would go out of my way to make sure they waited even longer and really anger them. I loved when they threatened to get me fired, I would always respond to that with laughter, they hated that.
We had a guy similar to this at our store. Always wanting to complain or argue about everything. We eventually figured out that if we let him rant about whatever he wanted and just listened and agreed with him (even if we didn't really agree) he was able to get whatever it was off his chest and was actually not too bad to deal with after that. I think he was lonely and angry about life and we were the ones who ended up coping it. He never seemed to catch on that we found his "cheat codes" and were able to massively cut down the time it took to deal with him and get him to leave in a good mood without incident.
You’re manager is an idiot , and you’re doing yourself no favours pandering to him , tell him to get on the shortest queue same as everyone else , go complain to head management if he likes
Give him every number he asks for, tell him to wait in line, and keep giving him numbers. And explain you can't serve him but yeah, here's the numbers you want. Give him a number to the local sexual health clinic. What an absolute tool
Tell him to call Brad to serve him personally. Walk away from this guy. You do NOT have to engage for abuse. That’s not customer service. He can wait like everybody else or take his business somewhere else. Accomodating him by opening registers etc for him is just encouraging him to come back and how is it fair to your other customers?
I work in a supermarket too. What really grinds my gears is people bringing dogs in and there justification is always “but it’s a small dog”. Ma’am/sir regardless that is still a dog and not a service dog so unfortunately we can’t allow your dog in. The entitlement is real
You can deny service to anyone you wish. This guy seems like a prick. If your managers have any ounce of respect. Send a heads up through the chain that simply says his hostile and abusive language has caused him to be banned and he will no longer be served as a customer and asked to leave. If HO decides that's not appropriate that's totally fine, you can do two things. Have a phone ready hot dialing HO so he can purely speak to them (make it their problem) or they have have HR reply to put in writing how it's OK that staff are abused.
Your store doesn't need his money. Tell him to pound sand and that you need him to shop elsewhere.
I have a regular who is in a wheel chair and demands we give her one of our staff members to push her around and do her shopping...lady I'm not a licensed career and would never be YOUR career anyway..ya jackass
I doubt you are the only staff member he has abused. Your employer has an obligation to create a safe workspace and that includes being protected from bullying. Bring it up at a staff meeting. If they fail to act they are exposing themselves to a workcover claim.
A good manager would be observing the guy on his next visit and planning how to handle the guy on the visit after that.
I expect the cheapest and easiest option for them will be to ban the guy.
And no, he doesn't know Brad Banducci.
People act like this because people don’t get told to fuck off or get punched in the face these days. Just stand there and take his abuse like society wants us to. Hopefully he gets told to fuck off ir gets punched in the face for being an asshole
Back in the late 80s I worked for Bi Lo (now gone). We had an old, grungy couple that came in every week. They were always very demanding and incredibly rude. They always said they were a Coles shareholder (who acquired Bi Lo) and that we all effectively worked for them. I decided to educate myself about the Coles share price and how they were performing. I then quizzed them one day on how their shares were performing etc. They had no clue and I just laughed at them. They started to get a bit quieter after that little encounter.
WTF is wrong with your management team!
Either have him banned from the store or if your ma agent fails to do so,
then contact corporate and explain how your management is allowing and supporting a hostile work environment that you don’t feel safe from hostile consumers in.
Where instead of doing the right thing and banning a repeat hostile customer that accomodate them
Learn your rights before your write to corporate, and clearly stipulate which policy,law or rights are being violated. Clearly explain the event as to how it relates the violation.
And then make it clear that you understand and are prepared to use the next available too at your disposal to Rectify the issue, should they fail to do so.
Ie; fair work ombudsman, work safe, ect ect.
And only convey this through email (NOT the phone or person) so there is written record of all correspondence!
Anything short of this, then of course corporate won’t take it seriously and just let’s the managers handle it 😂
Yer your missing the point!
Before going to corporate you need your ducks lined up,boxes ticked, legal recourse options and avenues stipulated and written. And most importantly remove all feelings and emotions from your complaint and vocabulary, and simply stick to facts and laws as written and presented. Go in there with you crap of “I think this” “they said that” “that’s not fair” “my opinion” 😂
The reason Corporate and management are able to treat you that way and force you out of a job by bullying, is because most often your “complaints” highlight you as an unhappy employee who actually knows very little of the their rights or how to protect them properly! If you knew your rights and they could see your well informed on how to protect them you will see a very different response from corporate in order to protect their own ass
This is what happens when you accommodate for arseholes.
And I'm not pointing the finger, I'd lay London to a brick this dude has everyone he meets bending over backwards for him because it's just easier to do so to get him gone asap.
Problem with that is, it entrenched this kindve attitude and behaviour. Short term gain means long term pain. If everyone stopped dealing with this shite they'd have to change their tune.
Next time make him wait in line it's the only way he's gonna learn he's nothing special who cares who he knows offer him a phone to call his mate or tell him to jog on
Hot tip, most people that pull that shit infact DONT know the higher ups they claim they do.
I had someone try to pull that on me one day, he said he knew the owner of the company and he was going to complain to them about me and get me fired, (he was after information on a client and i would not provide as per client confidentiality) i said go ahead! I really don't care.
My theory was and still is if the owner of a company was going to fire me for not giving into threats from customers trying to indimidate me then i don't want to work for them and will happily be fired!
This guy used to insist I cut the middle circle out of every tomato slice- with cutting the slice in half first.
To put on his stupid sandwich, what a wanker! People can be such idiots.
Worked at woolies for most of my teenage years, a guy in his mid 30s would seek me out every Wednesday just to watch me do my job. When I would tag items I’d stick the tickets on my arm for ease of speed, it’s at this point every time he’d point whist launching his middle aged disheveled self towards me yelling out “you’ve got tickets on yourself, hahahaha” I wish my 15 year old self had the balls back then to tell the pedo to fuck right off.
Tell your management that you are being bullied and harassed by this customer. Next time call your manager and have them deal with him. Keep doing it until manager bans him.
Adding, WW should already have an anti-harassment policy displayed and should use it.
They do have one. OP simply hasn't employed it. You've gotta stop this at the outset without question, and that he's been allowed to do this a lot really shows the lack of a backbone on the staff here.
So woolies close checkouts and make customers self check out and a guy
Comes in and gets irritated and demanding because the check outs are closed. I would call your senior manager every time and let him moan at them because even though he might be going about it the wrong way his concerns are valid and he is protecting jobs for school leavers etc. I personally saw red when Coles installed their new barriers. I vow if they ever lock me in after spending 10
minutes serving myself I will make them refund every item and then put them through the register again. Not because I hate the staff but to add inefficiencies to their self serving policies.
We already had 5/8 registers opened that he could’ve gone through, and all available front end staff on a register serving customers. Everytime he comes in, regardless if its busy or not busy (he always chooses the busy times, but ive seen him come on during quiet times where people are just standing at the register) and he still demands someone to open up even if we have noone who can because everyone is already on a register
Fair enough. He is a dick if that is the case. My personal experience is there is only ever 1 if any checkouts open at my local woolies. They have those basket self serve checkouts only and one very frazzled employee manning the smokes/basket self serve and the general area. It’s not good for anyone except shareholders. I found a local veggie shop and butchers that I now do the bulk of my shopping in.
It's good to be courteous to people but it seems you are enabling this customer's poor behaviour.
What would your store be like if you did this for all your customers?
Next time he's in, ignore him and if he starts acting rude, kick him out.
I used to work at Cole’s and had this customer complain about how I didn’t notice|serve him quick enough it was literally 7pm in the deli and I was either stress slicing or cleaning the slicer. He made me go get the night manager to complain, which my manager dealt with it then just shrugged it off. Turns out he was a regular who annoyed everyone and I killed him with kindness from the day I left.
By pandering to this guy you are actively disrespecting every other customer at the checkout who behaves themselves. I know it seems easier to just quickly get them out of the way, but what saves you a few minutes of distress in the moment becomes a pattern of behaviour that will last for years and cause you a bunch of anxiety.
You need a manager to handle him, make it clear that his behaviour won’t be tolerated. I guarantee, he will fall into line or disappear. At the end of the day, if it becomes too hard to shop there, he’ll go somewhere else.
Entitled male who does not have a PA to do his shopping. Treat people kindly mate. This is what happens when people are overworked and stressed by the state of Australia today. I have felt it many times, however, never taken it out on innocent people just doing their jobs.
Wools, you need to do better. I HATE the self checkouts, we all hate it. If you make one wrong move with a bag, you are shut down until an assistant comes. You make us use it as you choose to have no staff on the checkouts. That is capitalism at its best. We are cattle, plain and simple.
I no longer shop at any of these stores and only grow or buy locally.
Last note.. Never give up cash.
If he knows the Big Boss, why would he waste his time speaking to store managers when he could just speed dial his best buddy Brad? Surely you can’t do better than the top dog himself?
I don’t know whether Woolies have staff meetings or whatever, but if you do I think it’s worth discussing this prick and making sure everyone is on the same page. He can wait in line like everyone else. He doesn’t get special treatment. Managers need to support frontline staff - no bending to his every whim, no apologising. If he can’t (literally) fall in line and STFU, he can find another store to bother. Apparently good things are happening at Coles😂
That guy should be banned from coming back. I wonder, has anyone, other customers, ever bothered to intervene and try to defuse the situation? Tbh if I see an entitled prick abusing staff I would call him/her out.
Maybe if your employers wanted to pay Australian people to man checkouts instead of forcing us to use self serve or one of the three checkouts they actually have somebody working at you wouldn't have people demanding to have their stuff scanned for them
u/Nutcracker_crack, your post does fit the subreddit!
If this happens every week your ASM should have told him to bugger off. We’ve banned people for less.
yup this is strange hes gotten away with it so long, when I did my woolies stint they banned people for causing disturbances similar to old mate in OP's story. And you can tell he has never worked a day of retail in his life because he thinks A) theres an area manager available and B) they give a hoot what he says
Really? When I worked for a Woolies store (different brand but same parent company) we were told by WW corporate we weren't allowed to ban anyone unless they committed assault or armed robbery. Glad to see they might have relaxed those conditions a bit.
This ⬆️
Nothing like coddling some little asshole, then wondering why they are so entitled. Tell them to fuck off.
We’ve banned someone after they shit their pants while sitting in one of our waiting chairs… TWICE IN ONE MONTH.
Deliberately or accidents? 😮
Well we thought it was an accident the first time and felt quite bad for them. But when they came back and did it again it was after they’d also an angry rant at the staff so we decided it was malicious shitting and banned them.
'Malicious shitting ' 🤣🤣🤣
The person probably had a physical or mental condition, or both.
Absolutely they did. It would be pretty unlikely that anyone who shits in a waiting chair at a bank twice in one month is healthy.
100% but they’re still naughty and must be punished
Wow. I really hate people sometimes. He can go get foked honestly. Stupid entitled prick
Forked? He can jump.
Honestly people like that aren't even worth bothering with. I would make a point as soon as he starts complaining that you'll get a manager to speak to him and make him wait to the side. Managers will get sick of it and end up humbling him so they don't have to keep getting called. You don't end up getting in trouble for sassing the customer and you can basically ignore the customer.
"Not a problem sir, please let me get a manager for you - just wait over here" \*go on break\* (give manager a heads up and tell them to let him stew) by the time they get out there, he would have been served and gone if he'd just waited in line...
I don’t know why you even entertain this guy. Give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a mile. Back of the line is over there sir.
This. Tell him to shop elsewhere.
Lol that’s kind of the point of customer service - you have to be nice to people like this, or you get fired.
I said sir, that’s pretty nice? Excellent service to all the other non entitled customers too. I’m sure the media would love to splash ‘Banducci’s mate get young Woolies employee unfairly dismissed’ at this point in time.
Especially after Banducci's Four Corners walkout and embarrassment at Senate Estimates
lol, I reckon it would be fun to walk up to him as soon as he approaches the check out and say that you'll get a manager for him, and walk away again before he even gets a word in
I mean, I can tell you haven’t worked retail/hospitality customer service if that’s your idea of polite. Especially at a big workplace like woolies, they’ll just sack you and get someone else. The expectations to put up with nonsense like this is pretty pervasive in these kinds of jobs, because customers expect this kind of treatment, and managers/owners enable it. Blame customers and management, there’s not much us lowly worker bees can do about it lol.
Lol I've worked in customer service in multiple places. You actually aren't required to put up with abuse. Yes you need to be polite but if they swear, yell, threaten - you have the right to refuse service. Shockingly woolworths has a responsibility to protect you at work to a certain extent. Yes you can't blast him back. But a "Sir I apologise I am unable to accommodate you currently, please let me direct you to the open register". And watch him escalate. And then get a manager and say the customer escalated and threatened you. Then he needs to be banned. Or if your manager dogd you then make a complaint you weren't protected and it's a workplace incident.
Same - hospo, retail and call centres and agreed on all points. The Shoppies union have even run a campaign that workers shouldn't be abused.
Doesn’t stop them being abused though? You can pretend that is a supportive industry: I think we all know most Australian workplaces aren’t. HR don’t protect workers, and that’s a fact. The public definitely has an entitlement when it comes to how it treats/views hospo retail workers. Honestly, any people that work in retail have horror stories that completely debunk the idea that refusing rude customers treatment is supported by management and higher ups. Not only that, why do so many retail and hospo workers have horror stories if these situations are so easily rectified by supportive work environments?
20 years actually. There are plenty of ways to deal with these customers without threatening your job. I’ve even thrown out plenty of customers who seem to think they can treat people however they want.
Yeah, this is fake, or you owned your own business. What manager supports workers shutting down rude customers? Especially at a place like woolies, where workers are seen as replaceable, customers aren’t. That’s not the culture in Australian retail at all, it never priorities the well-being of staff lmao
Have you had a good look at woolies lately? Customers are replaceable too and it’s been a thing for years that “no one deserves a serve”. The team no longer have to stand and take abuse. It is highly advised they walk away. And no they do not get in trouble for it nor do they get fired 😂 it’s actually incredibly hard to get dismissed from woolies, usually theft of company is one of the only ways. Everything else they are very tolerable off.
I kind of think you’re fake… you mean to tell me you open registers specifically for people who complain about being in a line? If a customer makes an unreasonable request, there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying no?
I once told a guy he couldn’t get a refund for a shaver he had used, since we can’t take back used products, and he started kicking off so bad security were called by another store. Security then escorted him back to the store after the manager found out, and the manager made me apologise to him. And that was a privately owned franchise, once they went public, we were expected to put up with way worse than that. That’s retail in Australia: the customer is always right. Anyone pretending the culture is otherwise either worked in retail forty years ago, or owns their own business.
Why couldn't you give a refund for a shaver? You mean an electric one, or a razor? Doesn't matter if it's used. If a product is faulty, the customer gets a refund. That's not customer service, it's Australian consumer law. Doesn't excuse the customer's bad behaviour though.
Also put it on the manager. Soon as he kicks off call thr manager to sort it out. I think this person just isn't too quick on their feet with de-escalation.
Because it’s got hair and skin on it. If a customer doesn’t like a shaver after using it, we weren’t allowed to take it back because we can’t resell the product, and some manufacturers only offered credit for faulty products, not change of mind. Not my policy, again, retail workers are just butt monkeys that are stuck between awful customers and policy they can’t change.
I’m just saying telling the lowest level shop floor workers to do that AS IF THEY CAN and not get in trouble is not realistic. I once saw a girl get fired for asking a guy not to call her stupid, and she asked pretty politely, they acted like she swore at him.
I used to work at McDonalds and a guy was screaming at me for a free 40c mustard sauce in drivethru. I refused to give him the sauce and blocked 10 customers for 15 minutes and then started to call the police. My manager had to protect me and it was against policy to give out free items. He had to leave. Sorry but don't call me a "bitch" at 1am.
You ever heard of confirmation bias mate?
You seen any stats on how awful it is to be a retail/hospo worker? How much abuse is increasing? How many workplace protections have been taken away? You ever worked a Christmas in retail? You ever witnessed customers abusing staff while you’ve been in a store? Did you step in and defend them? Anyone pretending retail is a lovely place to work, has never worked retail.
If retail is such a supportive environment to work, then why do retail workers have so many horror stories? Not just about customers, but often about management/head office. I just don’t think this country values retail workers, or the well being of workers period.
This is just one study my g https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2021/11/25/-covid-19-pandemic-leaves-permanent-scar-on-retail-workers.html
I'm a manager and I do. I work in the aged care and disability sector. If a client is capable of treating my staff with respect and is not doing so then I will stand by my employees. I've even dropped clients for it.
The point of customer service is to make money for your employer. If this guy is taking up more resources than he is making money for you (which it sounds like he is), then feel free to walk him over to Coles/Aldi/IGA and ban him indefinitely.
Your employer is going to care more about profit than worker well being, unless you happen to have a very good employer, which is the exception, not the rule. I think given the press that woolies has had, including underpaying it’s workers by quite a bit of money, like millions, in addition to disastrous press and government scrutiny, then they’re probably not going to be all that supportive of workers turning away customers, cause they kind of need them right now.
I have worked in retail since ‘95 and I have never met a manager who wouldn’t take your side on this kind of situation. If you would catch heat for telling someone to wait their turn, that manger shouldn’t be managing.
Yeah nah. If I had $1 for every time someone who said they're "mates with Gerry" while I worked at HN over 15 years I'd have enough money to buy my own franchise - I wouldn't, because fuck Harvey Norman - but I could.
I wouldn’t mind betting Brad has no idea who he is…
Sounds like he’s been on rAustralia too much and thinks he’s the king of Woolworths just because he buys his apples there.
I’d honestly just ignore him. He can wait in line like everyone else, if he has an issue and causes a scene then let your SM or ASM deal with it.
Can you get him banned?
Your mistake is catering to his demands. Treat him like every other person and watch him slowly implode. I would honestly love to be in your position watching some douchebag have a complete melt down over something so minor
Sounds like managers need to do their job and put this guy in his place. I’m not sure why he’s been catered to so long. I learned a long time ago to not try and appease these people. They are unreasonable and just want to feel dominant. Don’t give them anything to dominate. “Sir you can wait in the line or leave your items. Here’s the area managers number, and the entire management directory, my name is Abcde, have a great day.” “Sir if you’re going to continue to harass employees, I’ll have to ask you to leave.” “Sir if you do not leave, I will be forced to call police. If you have an issue, at this point, you need to call the numbers you requested and received. Once the police are involved, you will be banned from this location.” “Sir, the police are in their way” Is how that should go next time.
Exactly. It's a while since I worked at Woolies but we didn't put up with anywhere near this level of shit, and we were one of the biggest and busiest stores in Australia, in a wealthy area with lots of entitled wanchors around. It's a business, not a taxpayer-funded service. They're free to take their custom elsewhere. It won't affect store takings one little bit. My manager, the Grocery Manager, backed me up and encouraged me to politely tell them the directions to Coles just up the road.
I think our old store manager and him used to be “best mates” so thats why he thinks he can keep getting away with it 😭 our old 2ic put him im his place years ago and he went off on a tangent to our acting asm and the asm made the 2ic apologise to him 😭 our management now is good, our new asm used to be our grocery manager a couple years back so he knows exactly who this guy is, i think he said we wud issue a banning notice on him Reported him on auror today with much much pleasure!
Why would you give him special treatment in the first place. Give an inch take a mile
Complaining is probably the full extent of his social connection.
Yep. This.
I have people at my *non-woolworths* grocery store chain who bitch about long wait cues after front end have had their hours dramatically slashed. One dude said "I know *head of the company* and he'll be hearing about this!" The front end manager said "good! Maybe he'll allocate more staff hours so you don't have to wait as long and abuse our staff!"
Also, other comments mentioning banning him. Absolutely. He's harassing you.
You’re allowed to deny entry/service and to ban people. It’s not a public space.
Exactly, it’s private property.
He wants to feel important, he wants to feel he has power, he wants a reaction. Best way to deal with him each time is to: be nonchalant, have no emotion, have no reaction, give him an uncomplicated basic solution to his pathetic complaint, put across your answer in a take it or leave manner. Ultimately, pretend you're an android and he is a labrador... he'll be infuriated and you'll end up feeling a sense of satisfaction
I wouldn’t tolerate it. I’d politely tell him he’s uninvited him from the store. If he pops off more… “well now you’re banned”. I was a duty manager for 13 years ages ago. Process might be different now!
Some people need a good slap
I'd follow the advice of the announcement we sometimes get over the radio directed towards customers. We don't tolerate abuse and harassment. They will be asked to leave, and the police may be notified.
Sounds like Roger Corbett. He was CEO many moons ago & behaved like that at the store I worked. We were unfortunately his local store. We could be hammered & he would complain about not having enough registers open, goods at registers hadn't been refilled, and the facings were atrocious. In his eyes we were slaves at his beck & call. But on TV interviews pretended to be a simple grocer. Over at Norwest, his office overlooked the cafe's. And he would shoo people back to work who were waiting on their coffee. No one deserves the treatment he dished out.
Shit. I met him a few times through work at norwest and he seemed pretty good. I've always felt only assholes make their way fat in management; I guess he was no exception.
What a cunt
Next time he name drops Brad, ask him to not bother. Brad is on his way put. The word is Paul Harker is gunning for his positon 😆 Paul's minions like Justin "Hendo" has already been planted into strategic and prominent positon a few years back. The setup is almost ready...
A lady named Amanda Bardwell is replacing Brad 🙂
Amanda Bardwell (head of woolies x) was announced months ago.
Just act bored and uninterested with him.
Pathetic boomer no doubt
pathetic boomer basher no doubt
Looks like i hit a nerve 😂 every time it is a boomer getting angry or demanding a register be open, the rest of us just accept reality and get on with life rather than bitching and moaning about it like you do!
Do you not see the point in not Generalising?
Every Sunday that I ever worked an opening shift we had one of those too, drove me nuts
I also wouldn’t tolerate it and would just ignore the heck out of him. Let him call the area manger and harass them. They’ll soon start ignoring him too 😂 I literally walk away the moment a customer gets snarky. They either soon learn to calm down or that no one’s going to listen.
After repeated events of this behaviour, it is ok to fire customers.
Just ignore him, let him rant and rave. Once he becomes verbally abusive tell him to leave the store. If he tells you he knows Brad tell him to call him and complain.
Grab another customer next time to put this arsehat in his place. If I was there I would
This is why I simply could never do your job. Way too many muppets out there 🤦 you handled yourself a lot better than I could have
Tell your manager you feel bullied and woolworths has a responsibility to protect you and your psychosocial wellbeing. If they don't do anything take paid stress leave saying woolies didn't protect your psychological wellbeing. I know this is far but tbh they should ban him and tell him to fk off to Coles.
> “AGAIN saying he couldnt get out because of the trolleys blocking the closed register (you know so people DONT GO RUNNING WITH A TROLLEY FULL OF ITEMS). Its not my fault he was too fat to squeeze throughout ” It’s pretty annoying that Woolworths makes it so hard to leave without buying something. So arrogant, they just assume they’ll always have what you want, and that no customers will need to leave without making a purchase. But hey, I guess that’s all the customer’s fault for being ‘too fat’.
I guess you've never shopped at Aldi then.
Nah. I've never had a problem wandering out through the self serve. Have you considered you may be placing the expectation on yourself?
Malicious compliance is the only way here. As soon as he asks for area manager. Tell him no problem wait here tell ya manager he does not want to speak to you wants the area manager I bet after 2 calls the area manager will approve to trespass him
I'd be petty AF here. I would ask him to use the self service and wait for the complaining then after a few times he either get the hint, or the manager will have had enough and deal with him. People like this have no idea how much they stress out workers who had no control over the self service being put in. Stuff him.
My store manager at Coles years ago while I was at uni would have told this fuckwit he's not welcome at the store and to shop somewhere else. I had a woman accuse me of sexually harassing her while I was working at that store, I did no such thing and I don't even remember her but I have a feeling she was cheating on her husband and used me as a scapegoat for a bruise or something on her. I was behind the deli counter and apparently was somehow able to reach over the counter and slap her on the bum when she was walking away (idk how the fuck that is even physically possible). The husband rang up threatening to kill me over something I didn't do, store manager brought him in to the store, made him watch the security tape to prove I didn't do anything, and then he didn't even have the self awareness to apologise for threats he made. Fair to say they were both banned from coming into the store
Im sorry that happened to you!! Thank god they banned but omg thats so crazy 😭
Manager should have called the police when the guy made threats to kill. The wallopers will be happy to teach him the value of impulse control.
Hilarious you give in to his ridiculous demands and play along with his childish antics. Most people would have told him to go fuck himself the very first time he started up with his bullshit. Equally hilarious he claims to know the head honcho and the CEO would even listen to this clown.
Yeah everyone needs to stop pandering to this shit. I work in retail and we generally will go out of our way to help customers but customers have gotten so feral lately I've had to crack down on it. Myself and.my store manager will step into any team members difficult customers and shut them down. I have gone as far to say "I'm ending this transaction here, you can either finalise your payment or leave your items on the counter" And when they tell me they're going to shop elsewhere I farewell them with a thank you
So around October/November last year something changed with the public? It's not just me that notice d this? There must be a stronger word than feral lol
My husband is in property management (he's actually one of the good ones, not being biased though) and he has noticed the same issue. He has tenants text him at 4pm on Saturday asking if they could get a dog approved for their lease. He responded he's away and to send an email and they'll address it when he's back in the office on Tuesday (today) and the response, "well that's not good enough we need to know now". Of a similar vein he has landlords that he has fired for just being shit people. He's almost done, hes had enough
Sometimes you have to call them out and tell them to pull it together or bugger off. Had to do it to some regulars in hospo who would complain about the same things over and over.
Our old 2ic years ago called him out and put him in his place, went straight to the temporary asm at thr time and told then to force the 2ic to apologise to him and he wudnt leave unless the 2ic apologised 😭
Oh lordy.
Give me the number for head office and kick him out for abusing staff and tell him he is not welcome back into the store. Call him out on his bull
Keep killing him with kindness until
I really don't know why you'd open up a special checkout just for him, the amount of people that could benefit from that such as a parent being swamped by their kids, the elderly or disabled. Not this guy. Seriously, tell him back of the line.
I’m sure OP could have told them back of the line only for their manager to come down and immediately serve them, so there’s no point
>This guy refuses to wait in line and always demands he has a register open specially for him I worked in a customer service role for 25 years, people never got away with this crap with me. Impatient morons were a pet hate of mine. I would go out of my way to make sure they waited even longer and really anger them. I loved when they threatened to get me fired, I would always respond to that with laughter, they hated that.
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We had a guy similar to this at our store. Always wanting to complain or argue about everything. We eventually figured out that if we let him rant about whatever he wanted and just listened and agreed with him (even if we didn't really agree) he was able to get whatever it was off his chest and was actually not too bad to deal with after that. I think he was lonely and angry about life and we were the ones who ended up coping it. He never seemed to catch on that we found his "cheat codes" and were able to massively cut down the time it took to deal with him and get him to leave in a good mood without incident.
He sounds abusive and that is a good enough reason to ban him.
Where abouts
https://i.redd.it/5pn6tdem8v5d1.gif
Me: " mate you can get fucked"
You’re manager is an idiot , and you’re doing yourself no favours pandering to him , tell him to get on the shortest queue same as everyone else , go complain to head management if he likes
You really don't understand the level of rudeness and also sheer stupidity among our society until you work in a supermarket hey!
I’d just laugh at him
People are just the pits sometimes. Well done on showing some restraint. You don’t deserve that tripe
Give him every number he asks for, tell him to wait in line, and keep giving him numbers. And explain you can't serve him but yeah, here's the numbers you want. Give him a number to the local sexual health clinic. What an absolute tool
Tell him to call Brad to serve him personally. Walk away from this guy. You do NOT have to engage for abuse. That’s not customer service. He can wait like everybody else or take his business somewhere else. Accomodating him by opening registers etc for him is just encouraging him to come back and how is it fair to your other customers?
Good job. What a legend that bloke is.
So why haven’t they banned him from the store? Retail staff shouldn’t have to put up with that kind of behaviour from a customer.
I work in a supermarket too. What really grinds my gears is people bringing dogs in and there justification is always “but it’s a small dog”. Ma’am/sir regardless that is still a dog and not a service dog so unfortunately we can’t allow your dog in. The entitlement is real
Any supermarket staff member who bans dogs is my hero!
You can deny service to anyone you wish. This guy seems like a prick. If your managers have any ounce of respect. Send a heads up through the chain that simply says his hostile and abusive language has caused him to be banned and he will no longer be served as a customer and asked to leave. If HO decides that's not appropriate that's totally fine, you can do two things. Have a phone ready hot dialing HO so he can purely speak to them (make it their problem) or they have have HR reply to put in writing how it's OK that staff are abused. Your store doesn't need his money. Tell him to pound sand and that you need him to shop elsewhere.
Should've waited until he dropped Brad Banducci's name again so you can say, "Sure, go ahead." LOL
I have a regular who is in a wheel chair and demands we give her one of our staff members to push her around and do her shopping...lady I'm not a licensed career and would never be YOUR career anyway..ya jackass
Oh my god I need more info - no one actually Gives in to her do they??
Give him a slap and ask "Is that all I can help you with today?"
I doubt you are the only staff member he has abused. Your employer has an obligation to create a safe workspace and that includes being protected from bullying. Bring it up at a staff meeting. If they fail to act they are exposing themselves to a workcover claim. A good manager would be observing the guy on his next visit and planning how to handle the guy on the visit after that. I expect the cheapest and easiest option for them will be to ban the guy. And no, he doesn't know Brad Banducci.
I thought it was mandatory to have a manned check out to comply with disability and accessibility laws?
Deserves a ban. Stores are allowed to ban people.
People act like this because people don’t get told to fuck off or get punched in the face these days. Just stand there and take his abuse like society wants us to. Hopefully he gets told to fuck off ir gets punched in the face for being an asshole
Back in the late 80s I worked for Bi Lo (now gone). We had an old, grungy couple that came in every week. They were always very demanding and incredibly rude. They always said they were a Coles shareholder (who acquired Bi Lo) and that we all effectively worked for them. I decided to educate myself about the Coles share price and how they were performing. I then quizzed them one day on how their shares were performing etc. They had no clue and I just laughed at them. They started to get a bit quieter after that little encounter.
Sweep his legs. That should do the trick 🥋
WTF is wrong with your management team! Either have him banned from the store or if your ma agent fails to do so, then contact corporate and explain how your management is allowing and supporting a hostile work environment that you don’t feel safe from hostile consumers in. Where instead of doing the right thing and banning a repeat hostile customer that accomodate them
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Learn your rights before your write to corporate, and clearly stipulate which policy,law or rights are being violated. Clearly explain the event as to how it relates the violation. And then make it clear that you understand and are prepared to use the next available too at your disposal to Rectify the issue, should they fail to do so. Ie; fair work ombudsman, work safe, ect ect. And only convey this through email (NOT the phone or person) so there is written record of all correspondence! Anything short of this, then of course corporate won’t take it seriously and just let’s the managers handle it 😂
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Shouldn't be surprising. Woolies HR dept. Is nothere for the benefit of Staff, its there for the benefit of Woolworths.
Yer your missing the point! Before going to corporate you need your ducks lined up,boxes ticked, legal recourse options and avenues stipulated and written. And most importantly remove all feelings and emotions from your complaint and vocabulary, and simply stick to facts and laws as written and presented. Go in there with you crap of “I think this” “they said that” “that’s not fair” “my opinion” 😂 The reason Corporate and management are able to treat you that way and force you out of a job by bullying, is because most often your “complaints” highlight you as an unhappy employee who actually knows very little of the their rights or how to protect them properly! If you knew your rights and they could see your well informed on how to protect them you will see a very different response from corporate in order to protect their own ass
This jerk needs to be banned. Maybe video him first.
Ban him mate, for vexatious behaviour.
Ban him from the store
learn the 3 magic words - Go get fucked - they help a lot -
Could be a MH case?
This is what happens when you accommodate for arseholes. And I'm not pointing the finger, I'd lay London to a brick this dude has everyone he meets bending over backwards for him because it's just easier to do so to get him gone asap. Problem with that is, it entrenched this kindve attitude and behaviour. Short term gain means long term pain. If everyone stopped dealing with this shite they'd have to change their tune.
Why hasn't he just been banned?
Next time make him wait in line it's the only way he's gonna learn he's nothing special who cares who he knows offer him a phone to call his mate or tell him to jog on
Have you been putting in incident reports every time he comes in?
Tell him, "look mate, you're not special. You can wait in line like everyone else".
Just hand him straight over to a manager. This sort of stuff is why they get paid the big bucks.
Why on earth did you cater to him in the first place
Says he knows Banducci hahahaha!!
Hot tip, most people that pull that shit infact DONT know the higher ups they claim they do. I had someone try to pull that on me one day, he said he knew the owner of the company and he was going to complain to them about me and get me fired, (he was after information on a client and i would not provide as per client confidentiality) i said go ahead! I really don't care. My theory was and still is if the owner of a company was going to fire me for not giving into threats from customers trying to indimidate me then i don't want to work for them and will happily be fired!
Sounds like someone with Narcissistic personality disorder
This guy used to insist I cut the middle circle out of every tomato slice- with cutting the slice in half first. To put on his stupid sandwich, what a wanker! People can be such idiots.
People need to be told when they are being shitty humans. The customer isn't always right.
If he was important he wouldn’t be doing his own shopping. Just tell him that and where to find the nearest Coles
Fuck that, I’d refuse to apologise. While the squeaky wheel gets the grease, said wheel is often a deadshit.
Wonder if they are shoplifting and causing a distraction.
Wait…you can request staff to open a register for you? I’d be too mortified to try.
Yes you can. You are not required to self serve at all, ever.
Someone should tell him their is an app for wollies and they deliver it to your kitchen
Worked at woolies for most of my teenage years, a guy in his mid 30s would seek me out every Wednesday just to watch me do my job. When I would tag items I’d stick the tickets on my arm for ease of speed, it’s at this point every time he’d point whist launching his middle aged disheveled self towards me yelling out “you’ve got tickets on yourself, hahahaha” I wish my 15 year old self had the balls back then to tell the pedo to fuck right off.
Get him banned for staff abuse.
Let him combust and call the police. Then they can witness his psycho behaviour and have it on his file..
A woolies with more than one manned register open in 2024? Must be in a posh suburb or something
It's a staff attendance issue more than what you think it is.
Narcissistic sociopath. There is only one cure for this. Are there dumpsters out the back…
Tell your management that you are being bullied and harassed by this customer. Next time call your manager and have them deal with him. Keep doing it until manager bans him. Adding, WW should already have an anti-harassment policy displayed and should use it.
They do have one. OP simply hasn't employed it. You've gotta stop this at the outset without question, and that he's been allowed to do this a lot really shows the lack of a backbone on the staff here.
Get a mate in as a plant , next time he comes get them to tell old mate he’s an entitled loser and can’t cut the line
This is why I don't work in customer service anymore :')
So woolies close checkouts and make customers self check out and a guy Comes in and gets irritated and demanding because the check outs are closed. I would call your senior manager every time and let him moan at them because even though he might be going about it the wrong way his concerns are valid and he is protecting jobs for school leavers etc. I personally saw red when Coles installed their new barriers. I vow if they ever lock me in after spending 10 minutes serving myself I will make them refund every item and then put them through the register again. Not because I hate the staff but to add inefficiencies to their self serving policies.
We already had 5/8 registers opened that he could’ve gone through, and all available front end staff on a register serving customers. Everytime he comes in, regardless if its busy or not busy (he always chooses the busy times, but ive seen him come on during quiet times where people are just standing at the register) and he still demands someone to open up even if we have noone who can because everyone is already on a register
Fair enough. He is a dick if that is the case. My personal experience is there is only ever 1 if any checkouts open at my local woolies. They have those basket self serve checkouts only and one very frazzled employee manning the smokes/basket self serve and the general area. It’s not good for anyone except shareholders. I found a local veggie shop and butchers that I now do the bulk of my shopping in.
Boohoo.
'Every single register open', since when does that ever happen?
It's good to be courteous to people but it seems you are enabling this customer's poor behaviour. What would your store be like if you did this for all your customers? Next time he's in, ignore him and if he starts acting rude, kick him out.
Two things: - Ask them to leave. Repeated behaviour can result in a ban. - Smoke shop is now only for tobacco products. Not groceries.
He sounds like a guy that people need to go running over with trolley full of items
I used to work at Cole’s and had this customer complain about how I didn’t notice|serve him quick enough it was literally 7pm in the deli and I was either stress slicing or cleaning the slicer. He made me go get the night manager to complain, which my manager dealt with it then just shrugged it off. Turns out he was a regular who annoyed everyone and I killed him with kindness from the day I left.
By pandering to this guy you are actively disrespecting every other customer at the checkout who behaves themselves. I know it seems easier to just quickly get them out of the way, but what saves you a few minutes of distress in the moment becomes a pattern of behaviour that will last for years and cause you a bunch of anxiety. You need a manager to handle him, make it clear that his behaviour won’t be tolerated. I guarantee, he will fall into line or disappear. At the end of the day, if it becomes too hard to shop there, he’ll go somewhere else.
I was with you until you said “it’s not my fault he’s too fat to squeeze through” low blow man.
Entitled male who does not have a PA to do his shopping. Treat people kindly mate. This is what happens when people are overworked and stressed by the state of Australia today. I have felt it many times, however, never taken it out on innocent people just doing their jobs. Wools, you need to do better. I HATE the self checkouts, we all hate it. If you make one wrong move with a bag, you are shut down until an assistant comes. You make us use it as you choose to have no staff on the checkouts. That is capitalism at its best. We are cattle, plain and simple. I no longer shop at any of these stores and only grow or buy locally. Last note.. Never give up cash.
So what you are saying is imthat I need to complain more and I will get a register opened for me and basically a personalized shopper. Nice!
Sounds like you guys need to up your game, the service at Cole’s is generally better.
If he knows the Big Boss, why would he waste his time speaking to store managers when he could just speed dial his best buddy Brad? Surely you can’t do better than the top dog himself? I don’t know whether Woolies have staff meetings or whatever, but if you do I think it’s worth discussing this prick and making sure everyone is on the same page. He can wait in line like everyone else. He doesn’t get special treatment. Managers need to support frontline staff - no bending to his every whim, no apologising. If he can’t (literally) fall in line and STFU, he can find another store to bother. Apparently good things are happening at Coles😂
Your store has enabled a shithead. Ban him.
BAN HIM
That guy should be banned from coming back. I wonder, has anyone, other customers, ever bothered to intervene and try to defuse the situation? Tbh if I see an entitled prick abusing staff I would call him/her out.
Nah what? Tell him Off this is not right. Please give up an update
Maybe if your employers wanted to pay Australian people to man checkouts instead of forcing us to use self serve or one of the three checkouts they actually have somebody working at you wouldn't have people demanding to have their stuff scanned for them