these actions and words are considered RUDE. What are your opinions

[HALFHUMANHALFZOMBIE]

Just a bit of actions I've observed from Customers that makes me wonder that they were never raised with proper manners and ettiquette. The common ones all seem to be quite obvious for many of us but in retail... It takes all kinds. HEre is a list of what is rude, please add if you want.

Don't interrupt: The worst case scenerios and it doesn't have to be retail is when you interrupt someone when they are in the middle of working. One scenerio I've noticedat the theatre is when someone was mixing drinks in a blender and a Customer interrupted his work to ask where the washrooms are, when he heard her he abruptly stopped the blender and almost got himself into a big mess. When people are on a ladder working or cleaning a spill are very innappropriate times to interrupt as the outcome could cause a safety hazard.

Don't rush someone when they have no control of the situation. when someone's till shuts down and stops working please don't say that you have to get going or you are in a hurry. Why are you shopping to begin with, what's wrong with you to bully someone who encounters an unexpected problem? it doesn't solve anything.

Don't reach over the counter. Even when there is shopping bags you should never in any curcumstance reach for anything that's not in front of you. You invade someone's personal space when they stand near the bags. The bag of stuff that isn't on the counter means that the bag isn't ready to be filled, don't be inconsiderate and reach for that bag.

Don't grab items out of someone's hands unless they say so. When I put something on the counter intentionally, please wait until I put the items on the counter before you grab it. It looks intimidating on the cashier's behalf, when they struggle to get the bag of stuff out of the other bags that are stuck amongst each other, please don't extend your arm in front of them. Don't touch the item that the person has in his/her hand until they no longer have it in posession.

got any more, please list!?

[jigshoes86]

Don't rush someone when they have no control of the situation. when someone's till shuts down and stops working please don't say that you have to get going or you are in a hurry. Why are you shopping to begin with, what's wrong with you to bully someone who encounters an unexpected problem? it doesn't solve anything.

Oh god, I hate HATE HATE when people get snippy because of technical difficulties. In Virginia, we had a few really big thunder storms in my area causing the power to go out on occasion a few weeks ago and in our store that meant no cash register- on a friday night. Not good. Had at least two orders where the person looked at me, of course the unfortunate M.O.D., like I can magically snap my fingers and make it all start working again. They got good and ticked off, and left because I'm only a shift manager and for some reason have not been given a key to the register. And no power of course ment no credit card machines, so it was cash- EXACT CHANGE ONLY or check for a good 20-30 minutes. So there went at least one memorable order- they weren't the smartest young men on the planet. Somehow they thought by threating to cancel because they didn't have any cash between them I'd magically make the machine work. Trust me, I'm not hiding some magic credit card machine somewhere- it doesn't work. I can't get on the phone to get someone to fix it until you stop the stupidity. Be patient for goodness sake and you'll be rewarded in the long run....I will probably give you a discount for waiting.....be an asshat, and be snippy and threaten to cancel well it won't work out so good.

[JustaCashier]

I strongly agree with each of the ones you listed, and can think of nothing to add at this time, other than to "Don't Interrupt" I'd add, not to interrupt when money is being counted.

I'm not going to be very happy having to recount what may end up being 75 loose one dollar bills, when you barged up to my very obviously closed register, asking some lame question, as I reached the count of 66. Or was it 67? 68?

Don't be surprised if I don't immediately respond, and when I DO respond, it's in a rather abrupt manner, especially if you approached in an aggresive manner while I have my head down counting, and I might fear you were intending to grab the money.

Mike

[Seshat]

I will say that sometimes a person can't see what you're doing, or isn't aware of the safety hazard/counting problem. If they're polite about the interruption, they're probably not being intentionally rude.

In such circumstances, a polite 'one moment, let me put this down' or equivalent would probably be the best response. Indicating that you've heard them, acknowledge their existence and that they're waiting for you, and that for some reason you can't respond immediately.

Assuming they remain polite, the next thing would be 'Thanks. It's a safety hazard to take my eyes off that while it's running' - or some other brief comment explaining the reason for the delay. Just in brief, but enough that perhaps that same customer will look for that particular hazard before interrupting the next person.

As for the other three: I totally agree.
If a person is doing their best to deal with a baulky piece of equipment, the most you should do is apologetically say 'I'm sorry, please cancel this transaction, I'll try again tomorrow' or something. (And that only if you really can't wait.)
And there's no reason to reach into the employee's workspace, or take something from someone's hands when they're still gripping it. Both are safety hazards, and just plain rude.

[BaristaGirl]

Do not invade my personal space for any reason.

Dude, it's COFFEE. You do NOT have ANY need to come BEHIND the counter to take it from me. Stand at the other side of the register like customers are supposed to and let me do my damn job. My personal bubble is sacrosanct. I'm sorry, did I use a few big words? Let me simplify it for you, you miserable excuse for a human being. BACK THE GOD DAMN HELL OFF. DO NOT MOLEST ME LIKE YOUR LITTLE BROTHER WHEN I TRY TO GIVE YOU COFFEE.

[Tito]

Coming waltzing in 2 minutes to closing....

And then saying 'Whew, just made it!'. Then taking forever and a day getting what you need to get. In addition to the actions listed above, this too used to get on my nerves big time! I used to feel like telling them, 'let's go! Just because you have no life does not mean that I don't!'

[sms001]

"Don't Interrupt" I'd add, not to interrupt when money is being counted.

Even worse - I'm counting away and SC steps up and starts counting out loud to screw my count. Thought it was a joke. ha ha. "How come you're not laughing?" I put the money down and explained. (The SC was a limo driver.)
"How would you like it if the last thing you had to do before you got off work was wipe down the car and someone stepped up and poured a pop all over it? Same thing - seems funny to ME, but delays your getting home for absolutely NO reason."
SC: "WELL! I didn't mean to bother you!"
Me: (nice and friendly) "No bother at all, honestly. I figured we're both working stiffs and you just hadn't thought about how similar all these blue collar jobs are."
Oddly enough, this analogy, delivered in this "We're all in this together" sort of way, actually seemed to sink in. Guy was great from there on out.

[jrh215]

Rushing me when I have no control over the situation:

To buy any over the counter drugs containing pseudoephedrine (the stuff you use to cook meth) you have to do so at the pharmacy counter since all those products are behind the counter. On top of this, we must enter your name, address, and driver's license information into the computer per the law so it can be tracked how much of the stuff you are buying on a monthly basis. Whether or not you pay in cash, you still must sign your name on our PinPad to complete the transaction.

Well, this old lady is trying to buy some Sudafed but something is wrong with the PinPad and it won't let her sign her name, meaning she won't be able to buy the stuff. Now if this was me and problems arose, I'd just go somewhere else to make the purchase and let the employees deal with the problem on their own time. Of course, she just has to stand there and "wait" (fair enough I suppose) while I go through some basic troubleshooting--resetting the register, swapping the PinPads out, etc. Of course, the whole time she has to be making quite audible *sighs* and rolling her eyes.

Basically, nothing I tried worked and I apoligized and told her this much. She still expects to be able to purchase the Sudafed, of course--why would she think I would spend ten minutes of my day trying to make the pinpad work for her to sign if she really didn't have to do so in the first place? So, I tell her that I'm sorry, but that without her signature we can't make the sale. I could try to continue to fix the problem, but that could take some time.

So, of course, I get the lecture of how she drove all the way "from the south side of town", blah, blah, blah as if it was all personally my fault for wasting her time. Hey, why not have gotten your shriveled ass packing ten minutes ago to another store to get what you need instead of standing around whining like a baby?

[BookstoreEscapee]

"Don't Interrupt" I'd add, not to interrupt when money is being counted.

This was one of my biggest pet peeves when I was head cashier. We kept a change drawer at the cashwrap so that we didn't have to run back to the office all day, and at shift change we had to count it (also if someone's drawer was off). I swear, it was a magnet for people to come up and ask me questions, regardless of how many other cashiers were behind the cashwrap doing nothing. And they would come right up to the counter, and there is no way they couldn't see I was counting money. I would ignore them until I was finished with the stack in my hand . If I was lucky they would go to someone else before then. Most of the time I was not lucky.

Even worse - I'm counting away and SC steps up and starts counting out loud to screw my count.

I've never had a customer do that but I have had fellow employees try it. One guy (who's lucky I liked him) tried it every chance he got. It never worked on me

[MoonChild2007]

I also HATE it when customers also walk up to you when you are counting. I would be counting my till and customers will just stand there looking at me!

[Ree]

I hear so often that people don't want customers interrupting, or they hate when customers just stand there and watch them until they finish what they're doing.

I also read a lot of stuff with people saying, "Why didn't they just ask for help?" if a customer complains about a lack of service.

It would seem the customer just can't win sometimes.

Yes, it's thoughtless for them to call out to the worker if they are doing something that could possibly be dangerous, or requires concentration, but if I see a customer standing there, staring at me, it's obvious they want something, and, like it or not, it's my job to see what that might be.

If I'm in the middle of something important, like Seshat said, I will at least acknowledge that I know they're waiting so they don't feel like I'm completely ignoring them.

Most customers just don't think, really. It doesn't occur to them that, perhaps, you need that bundle of money counted right away, and they figure you can just go back to counting after you wait on them.
They don't think that their interruption could cause you to lose count and you have to start all over again, or that it could be the third time in the past 10 minutes that it's happened.

[ShadedWings]

One thing that really pissed me off when I was cashiering at a grocery store... the section where I would stand would be open in the back to the line behind me. Thus, enabling any random asshat to shove their way into my space in order to let their cart/family by ahead of them. It's called LET THEM GO FIRST IN THE LINE IF YOU WANT THEM FIRST! *pant...* Not only is this space just barely big enough for one person to comfortably move around in, it is DEFINITELY not big enough for myself and a 300+ lb person. Sure, some people would apologize or say excuse me, even though I would still be annoyed over it I'd appreciate it. Those that didn't even say a word, or smacked my shoulder/back/arm with their purse or back right into me, etc, etc would get a nasty glare from me. Some times I really really wished there was a door or chain or something to prevent these people from shoving/jostling/barging their way into my personal space... especially when that space is sometimes a third smaller when my register opens, or when I'm handling someone's grocery bags! Argh!

[Imogene]

Don't reach over the counter

I got in trouble for snapping at a 'customer' who was doing that to me. I was checking him out, and he suddenly grabbed for a pen on my register, reaching around everything on the counter. I just about bit his head off in response, told him NOT to ever F*cking reach across my counter like that, particularly when the register's open.
Guy tells me I should keep pens on the counter then.
If I did that, they'd disappear. And where the hell was your "Please may I borrow a pen"?
And just then, the SM walks in, gives me a very short lecture about arguing about pens, or whatever.