Britain doesn't exactly have the best reputation in the world
for customer service.
Sometimes Brits are seen as a little reserved and stand-offish. This is a land where the phrase 'have a nice day' is very rarely meant honestly.
One customer, however, thinks that even the cursory pleasantries offered go too far.
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Disgruntled Beth Bellamy has announced that she will be boycotting Tesco forthwith after the 'patronising and offensive' conduct of the supermarket chain's staff.
Patronising and offensive actions, in Bellamy's world, constitute being called 'darling', 'sweetheart' and 'babe'. Heaven help her partner, if showing a bit of affection is offensive.
"I was fed up with being called sweetheart, darling and babe by checkout operators at my local Tesco," said Bellamy to the BBC.
Caption: The stores in this picture was not involved in the story
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"So I told the young checkout lady that I would rather she didn't call me that as it was patronising, and that I found it offensive. She replied that if I didn't like it I was free to use a different checkout operator.
"The checkout operator I chose was one at a completely different and cheaper supermarket."
Tesco, however, says that Bellamy has never registered a complaint with the chain.
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"We always do our best to offer customers the best possible service and it's never our intention to cause any offence. If this customer would like to discuss how we handled this situation, we'd ask them to get in touch so we can look into what happened," said a spokesperson in a statement.
It hasn't been revealed just where Bellamy was treated so unkindly. Maybe we can deduce that it wasn't Liverpool, where she would have been called 'chuck', or Newcastle, where it surely would have been 'pet'.
Or even Birmingham, where 'duck' would have been the name of choice. And forget about London, where nobody would ever have been nice enough to have called her anything at all.
Featured Image Credit: PA; All Article Images: PA