It's how you play the game

I was rude to someone today.

I had been wandering through the maddening crowds of Oxford Street this afternoon, failing miserably in an attempt to buy a new pair of shoes, when I decided to pop into Game to see if there was anything interesting I could pick up for my Gamecube. It's not a chain of shops that I'm terribly fond of, but they do occasionally have some bargains, and I was in the mood to treat myself. A mood which as it happened lasted for about all of five minutes.

I did indeed find a game that I've been interested in on sale (Splinter Cell, if you care) and I went to pay for it. I presented the box to the sales assistant and he asked if I had a store card. I shook my head from side to side. In retrospect, this was a mistake, although I didn't really think about my options at the time. Sales assistant took this as his cue to wax lyrical about the numerous virtues of the store card. I stood before him looking thoroughly disinterested and waited for him to finish. And waited. And waited.

After I while I put down my debit card, to see if this hint would nudge him into action, to disrupt his near endless rhetoric and persuade him to continue processing my sale. It did no good. He instead responded by producing an application form for the store card. I nudged my card closer towards him, the expression on my face now one of abject pleading. Again, he seemed to take no notice.

And with that I gave up. I simply picked up my card, which he had so steadfastly ignored and walked out sans game. I know this was a poor way to treat anyone, but I dislike the idea of store cards at the best of times, and his attempts to persuade me to accept one were bordering on hard sell. Such tactics were probably the result of management diktat rather than the choice of sales assistant, but the end result for me is the same - standing in front of someone being pressured to accept something that I don't want. It's an approach I disagree with and one that I don't have to support if I don't want to - so I voted with my wallet and left.

The moral of this story is that if you have to try and persuade a customer to accept something they don't want and they keep trying to make you take their card, pick up that card. After that you're free to continue your attempts to cajole them and they can't simply turn their back and leave because you have something they need returned first.

But, humour aside, my behaviour was unconscionably rude today and I do regret it. I would feel better had I made the attempt to explain why I was withdrawing my custom, but I hadn't uttered a word since I set foot in the store, and nothing that happened in there made me want to change that. Maybe my silence will have spoken volumes.

But I doubt it.