Behaviour at the Beauty Counter

It must be infuriating in a small post ffice if you just want stamps and the person in the queue in front of you is taking a long time. Im thinking of people who go to the post office for the passport service and then keep others in the queue waiting. Or they are dithering about sending a parcel abroad.
However they had to queue in their turn and are entitled to the time they need to complete the transaction. Main post offices have a special counter for business transactions, bureau de change, and so on.

PamelaJ1

Of course you weren’t being rude, the customer was.
If you want private, individual attention don’t go for free advice in a store. Pay and go to a salon.

I have very willingly been given free advice by the No. 7 assistant in Boots.

A few years ago I used to go into my local post office with 10 or more Ebay parcels. Needless to say the order came to quite a bit of postage. I always tried to get there early to be in the front of the queue. However sometimes I had to wait behind one or two other customers.

On one occasion the assistant asked if I minded her dealing with other people in the queue (and consequently leave off dealing with me). I told her that I objected. It was my "turn" and I was entitled to full service until my business was completed. The other customers (who were huffing and tutting) would just have to have a little patience. They had the same choice to get up early and be near the front of the queue. She never asked me again.

That post office now has a special counter for business customers but I now have direct pickup from my house.

Sara1954

On my last visit to John Lewis, I had the incident at the Clinique counter, I was very dissatisfied with my service in the lingerie department, the shoe service was poor, but the electrical department beat the lot.
We were wanting to purchase a fairly large item, so we wanted to have a look, then order it online.
We asked the gentleman serving us, if he could jot down the details, he said, no, surely you can remember them.
I sound like a right moaning old bag, but I have always raved about John Lewis staff, and am sorry to see such a deterioration in their staff.

I think you are right - their customer service has really gone downhill. I asked a question about a dishwasher and the man serving me said “I don’t know” - no attempt to find out!

Do we know the makeover was free? Or had the customer paid to have it done?

It’s funny how some people posting their opinions have pointed out how rude poor SuzyQqq was in such a rude manner.
I really don’t think that her behaviour was rude, it was reasonable given the circumstances.

What a rude diva-bitch! I hope her karma is on it's way.

PoorJenny

SuzzyQqq

I do not think you were rude at all. The other person was getting a free makeover but you wanted to spend money so the buyer always should come first. The problem was with the counter service, there should always be two assistants working one for makeovers and one for serving, especially with the price of their cosmetic range.

The person having the free makeover could have been tempted to buy every product that was used on her, that this what the makeovers are for.

I have had a gentler experience - if you can call it that! I went into a large Boots to ask about some face cream and there wasn't a soul in sight!!!!! I gave up and went to my local chemist instead which had something similar. I've not been in that Boots since.

My first reaction was to laugh! I pictured it as a scene in a “Carry On” film. There was Hattie Jaques as the customer in the chair and Barbara Winsor as the make up advisor. You as an innocent would be customer. Sorry 🤣🤔

In my case I had patiently waited for my turn in the shop while the rude man was discussing printers with the assistant. It was one of those shops where all the products are piled up in boxes with just a few models out for customers to try/look at. Once the man left the shop his "turn" was over. Thats the deal.

It was the way he thought he could waltz back in and talk over a woman which angered me. He would not have done that with a man.

Submissive male customers used to pay a lot of money to ring up on the chat line and have me be "very strict" in talking with them. He got my service for free!

The ‘lady’ was quite unnecessarily rude. I personally would have no objection to a short interruption to a free makeover! Rather, I would have felt empathy for an assistant working on an understaffed counter and a shopper who just wanted an answer to a question. I worked in a customer facing role for many years and understand the assistant’s dilemma. You were not being unreasonable, just paying the price for cost cutting by a beleaguered store and a very ill mannered person.

On my last visit to John Lewis, I had the incident at the Clinique counter, I was very dissatisfied with my service in the lingerie department, the shoe service was poor, but the electrical department beat the lot.
We were wanting to purchase a fairly large item, so we wanted to have a look, then order it online.
We asked the gentleman serving us, if he could jot down the details, he said, no, surely you can remember them.
I sound like a right moaning old bag, but I have always raved about John Lewis staff, and am sorry to see such a deterioration in their staff.

by the way........ I was very lucky at a large Boots store recently. I asked an assistant at the perfume counter if they had any free samples, she happily said she'd go and have a look and came back with 3, two Dolce & Gabbana tiny spray bottles on cards. one called 'Q' and the other was 'Devotion' the third was Carolina Herrera's 'Good Girl'..
always worth an ask, in your most sweetest nicest way of course!

I popped the Good Girl one in a birthday card to a friend!

Strangely enough I was also at this shop a quite a few months ago and went to a makeup counter with a list of items for my daughters as Christmas presents.
I discovered three assistants all doing make up demos on customers whilst a queue of people waited patiently to be served.
These customers were ignored until one spoke up and asked if one of the assistants could serve the queue!
This did happen but quite frankly I thought it was rude of the assistants to ignore paying customers as their products are not cheap.
It all comes down to the training of the staff I’m afraid.
So no, I don’t think you were rude at all.

I was working as a dominatrix on a chat line at the time

Ooh, biglouis

The girl was on her own. Maybe someone had called in sick, leaving her to cope. It happens. She had to speak to people arriving at the reception desk, she couldn’t just ignore them. Your attitude just made things worse for her and she will probably be delighted if you go elsewhere. There was no need to give a poor review. I wonder, had you been someone turning up at the reception desk while she was attending to another client, would you have considered it acceptable to be totally ignored?

This happened to me yesterday. I arrived at the nail salon on time for my appointment and found that the technician was still dealing with her last customer. It was 30 minutes before my treatment started. I nearly walked out then but my nails needed doing for my holidays. Then she kept bobbing up and down to see to customers at the reception desk. I just said to her that I would appreciate her undivided attention especially when I was paying £50 for the treatment. She apologised saying they were short staffed. After 1.1/2 hours that should have taken 45 minutes for the treatment I left and when I arrived home I went straight onto the website, gave a poor review, not of the technician but of the company itself for leaving the poor girl alone to deal with everything.

I know for sure I will not be going there again.

A paying customer that is ready and willing to pay for goods there and then should always come first.

Ideally the sales assistant should control the interaction by acknowledging the waiting customer, pointing out that s/he is currently occupied, and suggesting a solution. Find another assistant, wait a few minutes, etc. Unfortunately sales assistants are often young and poorly trained and dont have the confidence to do this. In those circumstances the customer currently being attended to may have to speak up to impose the rules.

Many years ago I tore a strip off a rude man who interrupted while the assistant in a computer shop was dealing with me. The man had already queue jumped. and then left the shop. A few minutes later he returned and thought that he could just cut in as I was "only" a woman in a computer shop. I was working as a dominatrix on a chat line at the time so he got a lot more than he bargained for. I enjoyed the look of shock on his face at being told off like a toddler.

I had a bad experience in m and s. They were doing a bra fit promotion with booked slots. The fitter measured me, produced 2 inappropriate bras and moved on to the next customer who had arrived 10 minutes early. When I complained she said the other lady was pregnant so she didn’t want to keep her waiting!
Clearly she was more entertaining than an old lady!

Glad I just help myself at the no 7 counter.😂

To interrupt the assistant who was already engaged with a customer in my opinion is very bad manners. Your query was not more important than what she was currently dealing with. Patience is a virtue!

I was in JL the other day at the Lancome counter where there was no assistant. Very quickly a girl arrived from nowhere to help me. After making my purchase I mentioned it was my birthday so she boxed up lots of free samples including perfumes. I explained I was an Angel girl so she proceeded to tell me the offers they had on that.
When I asked if she was the Lancome girl she said she was the everything girl so there would have been other assistants who could have helped.

SuzzyQqq

I do not think you were rude at all. The other person was getting a free makeover but you wanted to spend money so the buyer always should come first. The problem was with the counter service, there should always be two assistants working one for makeovers and one for serving, especially with the price of their cosmetic range.

just reading the the OP first.

It's a bit like 'pushing in'. were you asking if you could look in the drawer you mentioned?

I would not have interrupted. the customer was very rude though. my opinion