Customer service

[virginie_morisot]

and on a much -needed lighter note.. :
I was called "sweetie", "darling" and "honey" today.. by a female i may add.. just sweet and friendly. However, although I enjoy calling my friends by similar names, i question their use by a complete stranger, however friendly.. Indeed i like to use terms of endearment but also wish for them to actually have a meaning still..
This reminded me of when I first arrived in England and I noticed people in shops often used very affectionate terms such as "my love" or "darling " simply when I purchased bread or milk etc .. I thought it was unusual, surprising but pleasant I guess, to get such a loving and warm greeting just to pay for my groceries..

[ro]

Endearments like this don't bother me much in normal conversation when they are hardly more than just punctuation for some people. I think there can be trouble if there's any question of presumed status though - for example, one time I did get cross about something similar was when I was making a complaint to my bank after some mess-up of theirs and the person on the phone called me by my first name. Given the nature of the conversation up to that point, the false friendliness just came over as disrespect. I guess this is exactly what the OP felt too.

[Squashed_Fly]

I think it has a lot to do with where you're from and how you're brought up as well.

Many regional dialects use these terms and everyone is brought up using them so nobody takes offence, or assumes they are of lesser intellect for using them.

I think it's more common in the Northern areas of the UK, amnd also Wales, where people are just generally more friendly and it's not seen as being 'over familiar' etc.

In Wales, every calls each other butt, and you go north, everyone is 'love', or 'duck' etc. The Scots use the term pal quite a lot to be friendly, but down here, that term can come across as quite aggresive.

Then you've got 'context', and how these terms are used. You can call someone mate, or buddy to be quite nasty in the right context. Or you can call your mates n*bheads and w*nkers in the right context to be friendly. In many ways, I think the context is more important than the actual words used...

[RedSoul]

I think it has a lot to do with where you're from and how you're brought up as well.

Many regional dialects use these terms and everyone is brought up using them so nobody takes offence, or assumes they are of lesser intellect for using them.

I think it's more common in the Northern areas of the UK, amnd also Wales, where people are just generally more friendly and it's not seen as being 'over familiar' etc.

In Wales, every calls each other butt, and you go north, everyone is 'love', or 'duck' etc. The Scots use the term pal quite a lot to be friendly, but down here, that term can come across as quite aggresive.

Then you've got 'context', and how these terms are used. You can call someone mate, or buddy to be quite nasty in the right context. Or you can call your mates n*bheads and w*nkers in the right context to be friendly. In many ways, I think the context is more important than the actual words used...

+1

[Swanny]

Please and thank you seem to have disappeared from our language :-/

[Squashed_Fly]

Please and thank you seem to have disappeared from our language :-/

Don't get me started on that one! I always make a point of saying "thanks then" when I hold a door for someone and they just walk through it with so much as a by-your-leave.

Manners cost nothing, whether you call someone mate, sir, buddy, madam or love!