📙 Part 2: Describe an occasion when you heard someone complaining about something in a restaurant/store or other business place

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You should say: what it is, where it is, how you got it, and explain why you want to replace it.

This episode's vocabulary

• Eavesdropping (noun) - the action of listening to someone's private conversation from close by without them knowing.
• To moan (verb) - to make a complaint in an unhappy voice, usually about something that does not seem important to other people.
• Checkout (noun) - the place in a shop, especially a large food shop, where you pay for your goods.
• Fortunately (adverb) - happening because of good luck.
• Till (noun) - the drawer in a cash register (= a machine which records sales in a shop, and in which money is kept) or the cash register itself.
• Unmanned (adj.) - used to refer to a spacecraft, or a place where military guards work, that has no people present to operate or be in charge of it.
• Solid (adj.) - continuing for a period of time without stopping.
• Good-natured (adj.) - pleasant or friendly.
• Resolution (noun) - the act of solving or ending a problem or difficulty.
• Row (noun) - a noisy argument or fight.
• To hold something out (phrasal verb) - to offer a possibility, solution, hope, etc.

Questions and Answers

R: I don't usually make a habit of eavesdropping, but sometimes at my local supermarket, people moan a fair bit about the quality of the service provided at those automated checkouts. Even just yesterday, when I was there, I heard a man complaining to a member of staff about it. I could see where he was coming from, actually. Fortunately, as could the member of staff, the tills are unmanned, so people are expected to scan things for themselves. But with some items like alcohol or energy drinks, you have to wait for a member of staff to approve this, and it can take them ages to come since they're busy in other parts of the store. In this particular case, the person who was complaining, the man, had been waiting for about five minutes solid before someone finally got to him, and all he wanted was some cans of energy drinks for later in the day. And it's funny, because these tills are supposed to make things more convenient, but I think he would have been served a lot faster at a regular till, rather than an automated one. Anyway, the lady who came to help him apologized and offered him this gesture of goodwill, and the guy seemed pretty happy with that. They were both very good-natured about the whole thing, but surely it would be a good idea for someone in charge of monitoring things on a more regular basis to save time. Better yet, maybe they could bring back the old-fashioned tills to save time. Actually, those aren't just my suggestions. Those are the ones that I heard the person making. I'm not sure how effective they would be, but it would make a lot of difference to him and a big difference to the other people who go there. Either way, it was nice to see a resolution that ended well, rather than people having a row over the whole thing. And hopefully, it'll happen less often in the future, although I'm not holding out a great deal of hope for that.

M: And do you often hear people complaining?

R: I'm not really aware of them doing it a lot, to be honest.

Discussion

M: Hey, thank you, Rory, for your story! So, dear listener, the topic is about describing an occasion. So a time when you heard someone complaining, so you heard a person complaining about something. So I heard Rory complaining about the soup. Okay? It could be a restaurant, a bank, a shop, a marketplace, an office, or anywhere. Like a public place. Maybe like a swimming pool.

R: What kind of complaints would people have about a swimming pool?

M: Swimming pool? You know, it's too cold, it's too dirty, the showers don't work. The rubbish is everywhere. You know? You can complain about anything, Rory, especially in the swimming pool.

R: Well, I'll take your word for it. I've never heard people complaining in the swimming pool.

M: I've heard people complaining at a swimming pool. They were ordering food, and the food took ages to arrive. And it was by the swimming pool. So kind of, you know, this area, a swimming pool, a restaurant, like a cafe by the swimming pool. So they complained about the food. So dear listener, choose your story. Okay? Rory told us about a time when he heard someone complaining in a local supermarket. Okay?

R: And if you're hearing what someone else does, you can call it eavesdropping, because you are listening to their conversation, even though you are not part of it.

M: No, but if you are standing in a line, and the person is complaining very loudly, and you just like, you just hear it. Is it eavesdropping?

R: It is if you're focusing on the conversation when you shouldn't be, you should be minding your own business.

M: No, but usually everyone listens in, right?

R: I try not to because I think it's less stressful.

M: And you, dear listener, do you always listen to such things? You do, right? Okay. Yeah, I sometimes listen. Sometimes I don't. So eavesdropping is a very good word. So to eavesdrop. So the action of listening to someone's private conversation, from close the action of listening to someone's private conversation, from close by, without them knowing. Okay? So usually, if you eavesdrop, it's a private conversation, and people who are talking, people who you are listening to, they are, they don't know that you are listening. Okay? And you can say that I don't usually make a habit of eavesdropping, but at my local supermarket or in a bank, a week ago, a person moaned about something. So people moan about things, they complain. So moan is the same as complain, yeah?

R: Well, they're connected, at least. What would the difference be? Complain is formal and moaning is informal for... Yeah, for complaining. I can't think of another way to describe it.

M: Or, for example, you can say, once I heard a person moaning about his food, okay? Or his delivery. Complain about, moan about the quality of the service or the product. And the construction is I heard a man complaining to a member of staff about something, or I heard a woman complaining to somebody about something, and the member of the staff helped them, a manager, a senior manager helped them. It was in a shop, so Rory told us about the tills. So what are the tills?

R: The tills are these things that scan items and tell you what the price is, and then they add everything up, and they tell you how much money you should pay. Theoretically, this is all very efficient, but if you have to ask for a staff member's approval for certain items, then what's the point?

M: In American English, they call it a register. So you go to a shop and this like thing when they kind of, where they keep the money, it's called a register. Like a cash register. So the person was complaining by the tills or by the cash register. These days, some tills are unmanned, because kind of you go there, you scan your goods, and you pay and you just go away, right? So people are expected to scan things for themselves. So the tills are unmanned. There's no man behind it, but usually, there's a manager around such tills to help you out.

R: Well, there should be.

M: Yeah, there should be. But some items like alcohol, or even energy drinks, really? In Scotland, energy drinks?

R: Yeah, we need approval for energy drinks in Scotland. It's really weird.

M: Really? Wow. And what kind of approval? Like children can't drink energy drinks?

R: I think if you're under 18 or under 16, then you can't buy them.

M: So some items like alcohol or energy drinks have to be approved, so you have to wait for a staff member to approve it. And it usually takes some time. And if it's a busy shop, it can take ages. So in this particular case, in this case that I'm going to tell you about, the man had been waiting for about five minutes. Can you imagine? Five minutes. Oh, wow. Like half of his life. And here, dear listener, you use past perfect continuous, because at that moment he had been waiting. Not has been because it was in the past. He had been waiting before somebody got to him and helped him. And he wanted some cans of energy drinks. Cans, like not bottles, but like a can of Coca-Cola. Like a can.

R: I feel like cola is a soft drink. It's more like Monster Energy drinks. Monster, thank you for paying us for the free advertising!

M: So this man was served after this long wait.

R: And you are served by staff at a store or a restaurant.

M: So the lady, the member of the staff helped him, she apologized and offered him a gesture of goodwill. What does it mean? A gesture of goodwill.

R: Now, this is important. A gesture of goodwill is something that a store does to say sorry, and they mean well, it's not the same as compensation. Compensation is something that you give people when you admit that you've done something wrong. Those are two different things. So there you have it. That's the difference between them and stores often give a gesture of goodwill, like maybe a voucher for shopping or something like that, just to encourage people to come back.

M: Can I say that they paid for my bill as a restaurant as a gesture of goodwill? So the restaurant actually covered my bill as a gesture of goodwill.

R: Yeah.

M: And the guy seemed happy with that. Yay. Both of them were good-natured about the thing, about the waiting. So they were good-natured. Everything was fine. And, Rory, but did the guy complain?

R: Oh, yes, he'd been waiting for five minutes.

M: And you can finish off with something like it would be a good idea if someone who is in charge can sort things out. Monitoring things on a regular basis would be a good idea. So kind of to keep an eye on such tills, which are automated. To have a member of the staff buy these tills to help people, or to bring back the old fashioned tills, cash registers. So everything ended well.

R: Yeah, they didn't have a row. They didn't have an argument.

M: They didn't have a row. A row? When people start shouting at each other, they start arguing. Like hey, but what you said, and I said, and... And it was expensive, and this thing. So it means having a row. If you heard someone complaining about something aggressively, you can say that, yes, they had a row. They were arguing. The person was shouting, they were shouting at each other. I didn't see a nice resolution, so they kind of didn't solve the problem. I left. I don't know how it ended, or it didn't end well, dear listener. Because sometimes, like people get really aggressive. And Rory, could you give us some negative words if I hear someone complaining about something aggressively?

R: They were shouting, yelling, screaming about something. All of these will be about something.

M: So they were sending negative vibes. Vibrations, dear listener. Excellent. So decide on your story. If you've never heard anyone complaining about anything, imagine. Usually, people complain about food. Or, for example, there is a mistake in the bill. Okay? So they haven't ordered this salad, but it was included in the bill. It's like a typical story. Make sure you choose your story wisely. Something easy for you to talk about. Thank you very much for listening, and we'll get back to you in our next episode. Okay?

R: Bye!

M: Bye!

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