5 Annoying Groups of Customers

Anyone that works in any job involving human interaction will have certain things that annoy them about customers. Be it individuals, personalities, specific behaviours or any number of things, I'm sure any of you that have worked in these types of positions can easily think of something that gets to you.
I work at a store called Dan Murphy's. For those of you that don't know, it's basically a liquor warehouse. My store is huge and has hundreds of spirits, wines, beers, pre mixed drinks and a number of other things to choose from. We consider it a moderate to high risk environment and it's not all that hard to break bottles and result in injury from glass shards. We also tend to be fairly fast paced. It's not about rushing to get people out the door, rather to avoid people holding 7-20kg cartons waiting in line forever.
We pride ourselves on excellent customer service, going well out of our way to be kind, helpful and polite. It's for these reasons we hold our tongues when annoying customers reveal themselves. People that disrupt the store environment both for customers and staff.
People that...

Use phrases you've already heard a hundred times and still think they're hilarious.

I'm putting this first because it's rather subjective. I'm sure there are people who forget they've already heard it a dozen times the last hour, and genuinely believe it's funny.
I am not one of those people.
There are only so many times I can ask someone if they would like their receipt and hear "No, you can't get tax back on alcohol!" or "No, just my change," or even "No thanks, save a tree!"before I want to start facepalm. The most common one is possibly "No thanks, I won't be bringing it back!" Yet we have to smile and laugh like it's the first time it's ever been said.
I have a red headed cousin who worked at Red Rooster where their uniforms, unsurprisingly, are red. She consistently would get comments of "Did you know your hair matches your shirt?" As if this was the biggest news in the world.
Another one that we hear constantly is when PayPass doesn't work for someone and they have to insert their card's chip. "Oh, well I guess I have to do it the old fashioned way." I'm twenty and I can remember when chips first came out on cards. It's really not old fashioned at all!

Don't know how to use EFTPOS machines.

This one applies to young and old alike. It's not people with cards that won't read properly that are the issue. It's people that don't know which way to swipe or insert their card. It's people that don't wait for the machines to be ready to read their cards and then wonder why they don't work. PayPass was supposed to make life easier, you could just tap and it would be done. But it doesn't always read the first time and people will stand there for five minutes trying to tap it before attempting to insert their card's chip. I should mention this is five minutes after you first suggested it.
Then there are those that don't know how to use either the touchscreen half or the pinpad and get grumpy when it doesn't work.

There is a little picture on most EFTPOS machines that show you how to hold the card. It also helps to know which account your money needs to come out of and know which PIN belongs to which care. If this is still too much trouble, take someone else with you that DOES know!

Make absolutely no effort to communicate with you/flat out ignore you.

I know, some of you might think "Maybe they just didn't hear you?" Almost everyone in my store has an indoor voice the same volume as most people's outdoor voices. We almost shout at everyone that comes within out visual range. 

These are the people that will hear you, look at you and then say nothing. When a person approaches the register there are a series of questions that we ask. These include the basics such as whether or not they would like a receipt. or a bag, or a box, or even just asking how their day has been. Some customers just can't talk enough yet others refuse to say a word.

I have legitimately served deaf people that have made more of an effort to communicate than some perfectly capable of talking and hearing. How do I know this? They often come into the store talking on the phone. Which brings me to another group...

Won't hang up the phone.

Some phone calls are important, some have to be answered. Others, really don't. I don't really want to listen to you talking to your friend about what you plan to do on the weekend, or how annoying your boyfriend is being. If I then have to ask you something, I'm the one who's seen as rude!

It becomes slightly less annoying when people apologise for being on the phone, or for having to answer it. Part of my job involves human interaction, in fact, it's a rather important part. We're told right from the word go to be polite and enthusiastic, it's very hard to do that when it seems like you are actively avoiding talking to us. 

People on the phone will also hold up lines as they are more distracted and take longer paying, sorting their things out and then taking their purchases away from the registers.

One amusing thing that comes out of people on the phone is how often the person waiting behind them will start to complain about how rude or inconsiderate the talkers are. Just shows, it's not just the people that work there!

Bring in young or misbehaved children.

This is not only annoying, but dangerous. In liquor stores there is the added risk of children knocking off bottles onto themselves or stepping on broken glass. Thankfully, that's not happened while I've been working, so far at least. I have, however, had children get their finger stuck in trolleys, seen them smacked in the face by the automatic closing gates, had them trip and fall or slide along the floor and fall. There have been children that throw or fling things, get run over by trolleys and all manner of other injuries. 

Then there are those that just yell. So their parents are yelling back trying to get them to stop and holding up other customers. These children disrupt the atmosphere for both customers and staff and make it more challenging to assist customers over the din.

We frequently have children coming in that climb over things and run around all over the place. Not only do they hurt themselves but they run into other customers. The day that a child runs into an elderly customer and knocks them over in our store will definitely not be a surprising one.

To those parents that bring in well behaved, lovely mannered children into stores, we all sincerely thank you.