Our company policy toward abuse of staff.

We have been trading for over twelve years now and in that time we have seen a lot of abuse aimed at our staff by members of the public. It’s interesting that this abuse is mainly aimed at female members of staff, which I suppose says something about the type of person who behaves in this way. When it is aimed at me it is normally as the person is retreating out the door of the shop, again enough said really.

This abuse takes many forms. It ranges from just plain rudeness, for example where a customer carries on a conversation on their phone (or even carries on playing a game whilst being served) and between sentences throws the money at the assistant and barks “hurry up,”  all the way through to, rather more seriously, threats to kill.

Here are a few examples of what staff have had to deal with, sadly there are many more:-

  • Calling my wife the C word for not changing a 20p (we were low on change at the time). Not a customer, just some woman who walked in demanding change for some reason. This is quite common.
  • Swearing at my daughter because she asked someone not to block the door with his bicycle. He did also swear at me but only after he had cycled off up the road.
  • Swearing and being generally abusive to staff because we have been unable to satisfy their demands in some way. For instance, an assistant being unable to give a refund when there was nothing wrong with the product and the person has no proof of purchase from us. If an item has been sold by one person, another member of staff will have no way of telling if the item was bought from us a couple of days later without a receipt. People that have not worked in retail often think that it is unlikely anyone would try to get a refund on a product they didn’t buy in that outlet but actually it happens quite frequently. We have had people demand refunds for products we have never sold in the shop.
  • Attempts to con staff out of change with the old “Actually give me that tenner back, I’ll give you twenty, actually no I’ll use the tenner etc.” and then threatening them when the staff member refused to accept they had given the wrong change (we have techniques to combat this common scam, it never works).
  • Threats of violence when we have refused to take someone’s unwanted animal or take animals that people have bred and want to sell to us.
  • Threats of violence when we have refused to sell animals to people when it is clear that the person has no knowledge of that animal, desire to learn anything about its care or purchase equipment essential to its welfare or even, in some cases, actually tell us beforehand that they intend to give it to their dog to play with!
  • Threats of violence when we have refused to sell an animal to people the worse for wear with alcohol. Another common one unfortunately.
  • Threats of arson when it became clear that verbal abuse wasn’t having the desired effect.
  • Threats to kill (using a knife) when caught in an area they shouldn’t have been in.
  • Threats to kill when we refused demands for money.

As normal people can imagine, after a while this sort of behaviour becomes a little wearing so we have a policy of zero tolerance for abuse in all its forms. If someone has an issue with the service or products they have received from us we will of course do our utmost to sort out any problems to our customer’s satisfaction and in fact have a very good record for customer service and rarely have any issues. However, as soon as someone becomes abusive, either verbally or physically, the conversation will be at an end and we will cease to provide any further assistance. The person will also be escorted from the premises (or the phone will be put down – we get abusive calls too) and the police called if threats are made.

It seems a bit redundant to state this policy here as the vast majority of our customers are normal, decent people who would not dream of behaving in this way and the sort of people who would are unlikely to read this post but it needs to be stated for the record.

The Angell Pets Team

Christmas period orders

The run up to Christmas has begun in earnest and customers are getting their orders in to carry them over the holiday period.

We are getting extremely busy with our FREE local delivery service to Gloucester, Cheltenham and Painswick and will only get busier this week and next. With a few days out for the holidays it means we are cramming more and more deliveries into fewer days.

To avoid disappointment (and running out of pet food over the holidays) please get your orders in as soon as possible. To add to the urgency, some of our suppliers have restricted deliveries to us over Christmas and New Year so the chance of us running out of some of our lines is increased. Nearly all have added at least a day to their lead time to us already and that’s on top of existing days off.

We currently have some space on each nights deliveries but it is getting tight on the more popular nights (Mondays and Fridays) so please book as early as you can.

Here’s a link to our normal delivery schedule and our Christmas opening hours and delivery schedule as a reminder.

The Angell Pets Team

Pet Shop Gloucester December Offers

Our December offers are available on line, over the telephone and in our pet shop Gloucester. Call us on 01452 501882 to add one of these bargains to your order and get FREE local delivery.

Dreamies Chicken

Dreamies 60g ONLY 95p RRP £1.56

Chicken

Turkey

Cheese

dog chocolate drops

Dog Chocolate Drops 250g ONLY 99p RRP £1.99

Eukanuba Adult Maintenance Large Breed 12kg ONLY £29.99 RRP £42.99 (only available in store or on telephone orders)

burgess excel adult

Excel Rabbit Nuggets 10kg ONLY £15.29 RRP £19.29

dog toothpaste

Beaphar Dog Dental Kit ONLY £4.99 RRP £7.15

pet corrector

Pet Corrector 50ml ONLY £5.49 RRP £8.49

gourmet cat food

Gourmet Mon Petit Cat Pouch 6 x 50g ONLY £1.45 RRP £1.99

Meaty

Fishy

Poultry

harringtons optimum rabbit food

 

Harringtons Optimum Rabbit Food 2kg ONLY £1.99 RRP £3.19

harringtons optimum guinea pig food

Harringtons Optimum Guinea Pig Food 2kg ONLY £2.75 RRP £4.29

Sheba Select Slices Duo Collection In Gravy 12 x 85g ONLY £3.49 RRP £5.10

Sheba Select Slices Succulent Collection In Gravy 12 x 85g ONLY £3.49 RRP £5.10

Kong Cozie Alligator

Kong Cozie Alligator XL ONLY £6.99 RRP £10.99

Supa Wild Bird Cage Feeder ONLY £6.99 RRP £9.99

caged-seed-feeder

Seed

caged-peanut

Peanut 

caged-fat-ball-feeder

Fat Ball

nylabone-super

Nylabone Original Souper ONLY £6.49 RRP £11.49

bonio-original

Bonio Original 650g ONLY £1.35 RRP £1.69

cheesy-nibbles

Pedigree Tasty Bites With Cheese & Beef 140g ONLY 99p RRP £1.50

Pedigree Tasty Bites Puppy Cubes With Chicken 125g ONLY 99p RRP £1.50

The Angell Pets Team

 

 

 

Gloucester Pet Shop Christmas Opening Times And Delivery Schedule

Our Gloucester Pet Shop is open right up to Christmas Eve this year as usual. We are only CLOSED for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day, the only three days each year that we are closed.

This year, as Christmas Day falls on the weekend the opening times around the holidays are a little more complex at our Gloucester Pet Shop. Also as we do FREE local deliveries I have included changes to our published delivery schedule over the same period.

pet shop gloucester

Friday 23th December: 10am – 5:30pm (Normal Delivery  Schedule. Limited Space So Book Early)

Saturday 24th December: 10am – 5:30pm (NO Deliveries)

Sunday 25th December: CLOSED

Monday 26th December: CLOSED

Tuesday 27th December: 10am – 4pm (NO Deliveries)

Wednesday 28th December: 10am – 5:30pm  (Normal Delivery Schedule)

Thursday 29th December: 10am – 5:30pm (Normal Delivery Schedule)

Friday 30st January: 10am – 5:30pm (Normal Delivery Schedule)

Saturday 31st December: 10am – 5:30pm (NO Deliveries)

Sunday 1st January: CLOSED

Monday 2nd January: 10am – 4pm (NO deliveries)

Normal opening times and delivery schedule will continue at our pet shop Gloucester as usual from the 3rd of January 2017.

The Angell Pets Team