How was I supposed to know??

[sourwolf]

I think she was right to let you know it was a cheese and ham biscuit.

I would have been very upset if I had ordered a cheese biscuit and was given something with ham in it.

I have a hard time calling someone rude because of their tone. Her tone might have sounded rude to you, but could have simply been because she was tired or in a rush.

I agree, especially since you said the cold medicine was making you weepy, you might have interpreted her tone differently than she intended.

[Sharnita]

I think that in the situation OP describes an employee says somethign like "I'm sorry I was confused, the sign was broken - it used to say ham and cheese"

[SpikeMichigan]

   I think writing to corporate would be MAJOR overkill in this situation. Tone can be hard to gage, and she really may not have meant to be as angry/condescending as she sounded. Is it really worth getting her reprimanded/disciplined over?

    They may very well have told staff to emphasise things like this, if a vegetarian/Jew/Muslim/etc had inadvertantly been sold a ham and cheese biscuit, there may well be all kinds of hell to pay.

   I'd let it go, unless you encounter her again/with a different product.

[andi]

As a retail CS person - I say write the letter. Tone and attitude is everyting in  some businesses.  Hers was rude and uncalled for.  A simlpe "this have ham also, the sign broke" would have sufficed. And I POD that a piece of paper and sharpie would fix that issue  Even if  "the tone" wasn't meant to be as condecending as it came out, calling the OP "lovely" would rib me the wrong way too. 

[Rohanna]

If the corporation has a FB page, I have found recently it has become the fasted way to reach a customer service rep.

[JeanFromBNA]

E-mail corporate.  As a business owner, I can tell you that you can't fix what you don't know is broken.  If it will make you feel better, note that you usually get excellent service, so this particular encounter was out of character.

[Amara]

I tend to cut those in customer service a bit more slack during the holiday season because they are under a lot of stress. OP, it doesn't excuse her rudeness. I do think she was somewhat rude in the way she replied even though I would have wanted to know because I don't ever touch ham.

Maybe the other posters are right, that corporate needs to know. But ... I probably would not inform them or the store manager. If it happened again, definitely yes but once, at this time of year, no. I'd personally file the experience under "be forgiving" and let it go.

[Bluenomi]

As someone who has worked in custome services for nearly 2 decades I's say something, either via their website or facebook page.

For starters the first person didn't have a clue about a product they sold, even after your showed them exactly where it was. The second lady was rude. I don't care if the sign is broken, you don't abuse a customer.

[Knitterly]

I think she was right to let you know it was a cheese and ham biscuit.

I would have been very upset if I had ordered a cheese biscuit and was given something with ham in it.

I have a hard time calling someone rude because of their tone. Her tone might have sounded rude to you, but could have simply been because she was tired or in a rush.

I agree, especially since you said the cold medicine was making you weepy, you might have interpreted her tone differently than she intended.

I am sure I did not.  I am further sure because she did not actually have a place in the original conversation.  I was not conversing with her.  She interrupted my original conversation with the cashier.

I have had a chance to thoroughly cool down and assess this from a more detached viewpoint.  I feel even stronger now that she was rude and out of line, not just for the tone, but also for the fact that she interrupted the conversation.  I sort of glossed over that point in my original post, but replaying it in my mind now, that is standing out to me as much as the tone.

Here's the order of events:
-I ordered a coffee and a muffin.
-I changed my mind the second the word muffin was out of my mouth and said "No, scratch that, I'll have a cheese biscuit instead."
-The cashier either did not hear or did not understand what I wanted, but she knew it was nto a muffin, she she asked "a what?"
-I reiterated that I wanted a cheese biscuit, and to help her out (in case my words were not so understandable, owing to the fact that I do have a cold), I directed her to the location where they were.  Top shelf, right next to the regular tea biscuits.
-She still did not know what I wanted (I thought "cheese biscuit" was pretty clear, but who knows...), so I repeated myself.

This is when the second employee put her nose into the conversation and got extremely snippy with me.  The tone was scolding.  You will just have to take my word on that.  A person knows when they have been scolded.  I was being scolded for ordering incorrectly.
She interrupted my order with the cashier to say "They are cheese and ham!"  She strongly emphasized the "and ham".  Overly emphasized it.  Loudly emphasized it.  It was not being emphasized in order to clarify that maybe I might want to know this because some people don't like ham.  Given the context of the rest of the conversation, she was emphasizing that there was no way Cashier could possibly know what I was ordering because I'm ordering something they don't have (with a very strong "you idiot!" left off the end of the sentence, but there in tone - trust me, it was there in the tone.).

I was extremely put off by the sickly sweet falsetto and being called "lovey".  I HAAAAAAAAATE being called by any childish endearment by people I do not know.  It is one of my biggest irritants.

IMO, regardless of tone, the only way for the woman in question to have communicated what I am pretty sure she was trying to would be to say something along the lines of "Do you mean the cheese and ham biscuit?  Our sign is broken.  We don't actually have cheese biscuits."

I am torn on the feedback.  As this is not a location I go to on a regular basis, I don't know if this employee is usually a problem.  I think I am simply going to try contact the manager tomorrow morning, rather than go up to corporate.  That way it doesn't look like I'm trying to get anything.  The manager will be in a better position to assess whether this is an ongoing problem or an isolated incident.  I wouldn't want the wrath of head office to get someone in trouble who may have just been having a rotten day.

[WillyNilly]

I think you should write to the manager and corporate (your choice who to direct to, who to cc).  If this employee is usually good, then no worries, her manager will have a chat and all be ok.  If this employee is generally an issue you will have helped the next person be spared this behavior.

There is only one appropriate time & place to show annoyance about a customer - that's later, after shift is over, when you are in a bar miles away decompressing from your day.  No matter what, in a customer facing job like that a solid 50% of your duties are smiling, listening and generally being pleasant. There's a saying in business - it costs twice as much to lure a new customer then to retain an existing.  Yes the staffs job is to sell at the moment a customer walks up, but their job is equally to create an atmosphere where that customer will want to come back.

[Outdoor Girl]

Part of the issue in terms of the cashier is that some Timmy's carry cheese tea biscuits and some Timmy's carry ham and cheese tea biscuits and there is no rhyme or reason why one store carries one and another doesn't.  I've yet to see one that has both.

But there is no explanation for the buttinski's behaviour.

[sourwolf]

I think she was right to let you know it was a cheese and ham biscuit.

I would have been very upset if I had ordered a cheese biscuit and was given something with ham in it.

I have a hard time calling someone rude because of their tone. Her tone might have sounded rude to you, but could have simply been because she was tired or in a rush.

I agree, especially since you said the cold medicine was making you weepy, you might have interpreted her tone differently than she intended.

I am sure I did not.  I am further sure because she did not actually have a place in the original conversation.  I was not conversing with her.  She interrupted my original conversation with the cashier.

It would have been helpful to include that information in your original post.  It's counterproductive to respond to a thread and have information added later that completely changes the OP.

[Deetee]

I think she was right to let you know it was a cheese and ham biscuit.

I would have been very upset if I had ordered a cheese biscuit and was given something with ham in it.

I have a hard time calling someone rude because of their tone. Her tone might have sounded rude to you, but could have simply been because she was tired or in a rush.

I agree, especially since you said the cold medicine was making you weepy, you might have interpreted her tone differently than she intended.

I am sure I did not.  I am further sure because she did not actually have a place in the original conversation.  I was not conversing with her.  She interrupted my original conversation with the cashier.

It would have been helpful to include that information in your original post.  It's counterproductive to respond to a thread and have information added later that completely changes the OP.

That information was included in the original post. It may have been missed, but it was in the post. (Though I wouldn't say she completely interupted where she shouldn't, as it was her job to get the biscuit, so it seems reasonable to converse with the customer directly if there is confusion)

The cheese biscuit.  Top row behind you, second from the right.  Next to the regular tea biscuits." 
"The cheese croissant?" (note, they did not have cheese croissants on the display shelf).
"No, no.  The cheese biscuit.  Right there on the top shelf."
At this point, the woman working next to the cashier (getting donuts, etc for both cashiers) stepped forward and looked at me like I was some sort of bug.  A very stupid bug.
"Those are cheese and ham biscuits!"

 

[The Wild One, Forever]

I hate being spoken to like I'm an idiot.

Notifying the location manager sounds like the best course of action. 

[TootsNYC]

how does a sign "break"?


And I say, Get ahold of corporate and let them know if it will make YOU feel better. If it will make you feel less powerless and more powerful. If it will help you let go of the frustration and anger and resentment and misplaced shame.