No, actually that's discrimination not fairness.

[seryn]

There is a group on Ravelry, called Remnants, which is this catchall thing. Everyone is automatically subscribed to it and you can't get rid of it though you can shuffle it to another page.

One of the posts there (which you have to be a member of Ravelry to see, but it is free and there's probably a bugmenot for it) is from a store manager who describes her staff as "young puppies". One non-busy evening customers came in. The staff found out the customers were going to the Olympics. One of the staff members asked if you have to get tickets for individual events. The customer said he wasn't paying so he didn't know. The staff member was supposedly crushed by the customer's "harsh tone".

The store manager, the original poster, was not there when this happened and it was only related to her after the fact. She then conveyed this to the store owner with the statement that she would like a cash register button that allows her to "add a fee for this kind of behavior". The store owner created the fee button. Now customers they don't like get charged more. [It does not say where they live, where the store is, nor does it give the real life names of these people.]

One of my friends posted about this in her LJ. That is where I found it because I am not so idiotic as to torture myself by reading the Remnants group on Ravelry.

The other commenters all thought this was a really amazingly good idea. Some said they wished more stores would have signs saying that prices change based upon customer attitude. I disagree strongly. I left this comment which I am editing for clarity now:

I find most of these [odd expectations for personal behavior] strange and I'm just eccentric. I'm from here. Imagine what tourists from other countries feel? Imagine how people who look different or who have other cultural expectations feel. It's discriminatory and intolerant to presume rudeness. I wasn't there. Maybe the guy was actually condescending and snippy, but it didn't sound like it to me from what I read.

I guess I can see the attitude problem if the tone was really there, but the OP didn't actually hear it (said she wasn't there or she'd have sent that clerk out to get cookies.) I think the OP is really intolerant. If you're not paying for an event like the Olympics, you probably don't know if there are individual fees per thing or how cumbersome the logistics are. It was an annoying and off-topic question that was answered, textually at least, politely and possibly to the best of the customer's knowledge.

Personally I hate it that stores have these bizarre and unreasonable social expectations that no one explains. I understand that the staff shouldn't have to be mistreated or put up with rudeness, but for the customers to be denigrated for [politely] answering unrelated questions asked by yappy-puppy clerks*? I'm not shopping there and I hope they go out of business.

*the OP described them as puppy-like.

Knowing they have a penalty button on the cash register? "Hello Amazon! Thanks for taking my money with no hassle and delivering my purchases to my door for free." If this is what personalized customer service means, why on Earth would I want it? Small store owners are constantly whining about how people go to big box stores and order online and how there won't be any small stores anymore if no one supports them. Well guess what? We've just seen an example why. I'm pretty sure when I go to Target I'm going to get treated just like everyone else there. I order my yarn online because the local yarn stores are staffed by bitches who don't think fat women should be allowed to buy nice yarn and say so in front of me without ever turning away from their phones where they are speaking loudly to a remote person.

If there is ever a store with a sign saying that people are treated differently for nebulous and undefined reasons, I'm not going in there.

Comments

[corrvin]

Couple things I've been thinking about:

Brick and mortar stores actually all charge more for rudeness. You pay more at a local store, because they pay for a building and utilities and employees. The employees are paid to give customer service to everyone. And customer service includes dealing with the occasional thoughtless, tactless, or rude comments. Your employees should know how to deal with this, it's what they get paid for-- so, there's already a "rude tax" and EVERYONE pays it equally because it's part of the overhead. This just separates it out from a general pay raise and applies it specifically.

I'd also point out that in the story, they only used it *once* afterwards. So, other than that one incident, what changed? The clerks' attitude? Their perception of the customers? Anything at all?

I'd actually rather see a system that goes something like this: Hire employees and a shift supervisor. If the employees are bothered by someone, they should request the supervisor help the person. And the supervisor is trained (and empowered) to say things like:

• Jokes about Mexicans offend our other customers. And us.
  
• Not everyone who looks pregnant wants to answer whether they are or not.
  
• We get paid to help you with yarn; politics is too distracting and personal.
  

Or similar comments that politely tell the person "Your behavior is making it hard for us to do our jobs."

[seryn]

I don't see what the guy said as rude. From what I gathered of the situation as it was written by the OP, the yappy-puppy clerks were all over these people asking them lots of unrelated questions about their lives. (How else would they have found out the people were going to the Olympics? The guy clearly knew nothing about it, so he's not likely to be bragging.) Then when they ask him something he doesn't know or doesn't want to explain and they get their panties in a wad over it.

Then someone who wasn't there is told that the guy was an asshole and they shouldn't have to put up with that.

If we're going to allow that kind of thing, then we might as well re-institute bargaining and let the extroverted people with lots of friends have the cheaper prices all the time while everyone else gets shafted.

[pj]

Having worked in retail for decades (wow - sigh) I am appalled at the "extra fee". And to label it as "expedited service"? Really?? Gah! We get some rude customers of course, who does not? Yet we let it roll off of our backs most of the time, pretend they just are having a bad day, and bitch about them after they leave out of earshot of any other customers. The screamer/thrower/swearers I have no problem with staff telling them to stop or leave, but charge a fee? If you're too rude to deserve service then you do not get service and you do not pay an extra fee.

Will customers get a "rude service discount coupon" when they enter this store for when they're treated poorly by staff? I thought not.

[seryn]

Most businesses here have signs saying they have the right to refuse service. I don't have a problem if someone is behaving that badly when a store asks them to leave.

But a secret penalty button? Š Oh yeah, that's not going to be abused. š

I get rude service all the time. Especially in yarn stores. I and my money can leave though. I'm not trapped by employment obligations. But my money buys yarn elsewhere and when yarn stores in my area started disappearing, there was this hue and cry about how we need to all get out and support our local stores or we won't have them anymore. I'm voting for not having them anymore.

I frequently choose to stay home, to buy online, to shop at a national chain (for anything except food) because these tiny little shops have no interest in happy customers. Or they have some prejudice against certain kinds of customers. Or they just don't like me. It's hard to tell what their problem is. Some of the stores are ridiculously popular and it makes me think it is discriminatory because there's no possible way that if everyone is treated like I am that no one would say something.

[pj]

I buy mostly online also, for many reasons, but disinterested clerks is a big one.