JEDDAH: Although some salesmen have the slogan “at your service” literally written on their uniforms, the demeanor of some of them conveys an entirely different message.

F. Aslam had an experience recently that left her doubting whether salesmen were trained to serve customers or flirt and annoy them. She had gone to buy some groceries from a supermarket. As she was selecting some drinks she noticed one of its employees watching her. “The next thing I knew, he came over to the section that was empty except for him and myself. Then he started walking by me over and over again, and he walked so close I felt he was going to rub his shoulder against me,” she told Arab News.

“Then he stood right beside me and starting singing. And he had a very vulgar expression on his face. I couldn’t tolerate a moment more of this nonsense. I left everything and decided to just get out of there.”

Aslam was near the exit when she saw the manager and decided to report the employee’s bad behavior. She approached him, only to be met with a rude response. “[He] told me rudely that there are several employees, how can he know which one I’m talking about. So I took him to the section and showed him the guy,” she said.

“The two of them talked in a language I didn’t understand and all the while the employee kept pointing at me. Then the manager glared at me and said that the guy was only doing his job and that he can’t stop what he’s doing just because I’m there.” A shocked Aslam explained that she did not want the employee to stop his work, but simply to respect customers’ personal space and not to flirt with her. The manager simply got angrier and told her the employee had not done anything wrong.

It was only when Aslam threatened to call the Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice that their stance changed.

“And that was when the manager and the guy apologized promptly and were on their best behavior.”

Hala Adnan also had an annoying experience with a mobile salesman in the showroom of a store. It was near prayer time and the salesman had been talking to his friends when she asked if the showroom was open for business.

“With his back turned to me he shouted ‘we’re closed’,” Adnan told Arab News.

“This was rude enough but I didn’t say anything. I asked him ‘what time does it open?’ I repeated this question four, five times and the salesman just ignored me as if I wasn’t there. What kind of customer care is this when salesmen don’t even have basic manners?”

Nofa is another disgruntled customer who got very upset with an assistant working in a branch of a famous chain of pharmacies. She had approached the counter to extend her prescription.

“The guy kept styling his hair and asked me what medicine I wanted without even looking at the slip. I went to another pharmacy,” she told Arab News.