It’s becoming increasingly clear to me why people don’t say “thank you” to you…
Actually, I’m a clerk’s dream. I am always polite and pleasant and mind my manners and say “please” and “thank you” and have my money ready and don’t hold up the line and don’t make unreasonable demands and never ever say “The customer is always right,” and I smile a big friendly smile and all of that good stuff.
All I’m asking is for some courtesy in return.
My complaint is when clerks say “You’re welcome.” when you haven’t said thank you (why should you, when you’re the customer?). It seems so sarcastic. I should say “You should be thanking me for buying something, not scolding me for not thanking you. I think I’ll just return this. Where’s the mangager?”
Personally, I want to rip the fingers off of everyone who ever typed in the word “your” where it is obvious (to me) from the syntax that they should have typed in “you’re”. But I don’t. I give them the benefit of the doubt; that they were attempting to behave correctly, but failed, and I try to treat them kindly and politely, without correcting them.
When I was a clerk/assistant manager at a video store, I told EVERY customer:
Thanks for stopping by! See you again soon!
If I knew their name and they seemed OK with it, I’d use that, too.
Thanks for stopping by, Mrs. Smith. See you again soon!
It gave 'em the warm fuzzies and they ate it right up. Same for when I worked in retail pharmacy. I’d usually say “Thanks very much, and if you have ANY questions, please don’t hesitate to call us”. (again, using names if it seemed OK). I actually cared if they had questions or not, so I guess I was an exception to most clerks.
Screw the “your welcome” thing. Has anyone had a clerk total up your goods, then just look at you? I mean, come on! What if I were illiterate or sight impaired? How rude is THAT? (Twice I’ve said something to a manager about this. It’s just wrong)
Zette
I just came from “Don’t call me by my first name” Is it just me and Guinastasia againts you benighted hoard of consumers? (OK I’m exaggerating. Except for spoke)
Well, there were a lot of things I thought about saying (like about how much I love a customer saying “You’re welcome” to ME.Like he was giving ME his money.)
But I’ll just say, look: You, the consumer do this little cortesy dance a couple of times a day. A retail worker (AKA “clerk”) does it acouple of hundred. Punoqllads said something about the benefit of a doubt. Unless you really, truely believe the person was trying to be rude…or you really believe clerks are a different class of lifeform than you are…let it go. We do.
I find this thread shocking. Somebody saying “you’re welcome” is a cause for outrage? As Americans, we are conditioned to automatically say “you’re welcome” when someone says “thank you.” I can’t believe you want to beat up on some poor clerk making minimum wage for being polite. You are reading waaaay too much into a two-word phrase. Lighten up and save your ammunition for some real battles, like getting overcharged.