Fareham’s Rudest Man.
Friday, June 11th, 2021Well! I had the dubious pleasure of visiting Hampshire Sewing Machines the other day. Actually, the only pleasure to be found was enjoying the momentary novelty of coming face to face with Fareham’s Rudest Man. My daughter is doing A-Level textiles and needed a new embroidery foot for her sewing machine. When we googled we found the Hampshire Sewing Machine just a few miles away. Perfect. We found it easily enough – it even had customer parking right outside, great! The car park was empty apart from us – this will become an important point.
It was a hot day and there was a newsagent just across the road so I nipped over there to get a bottle of water first (less than two minutes), leaving my daughter in the car – a clear sign to the majority of people that we haven’t just parked at the dodgy end of Fareham (because clearly my car would be safest there) and merrily waltzed off to the shopping centre for the afternoon. As I was coming back to my car there was a gentleman (or actually, just a man), standing outside the shop waiting to accost me.
“Why do think you’re exempt from the rules?” he asks.
“What?” I’m confused. Who is this man? The owner? The cleaner??? There are no clues.
“You’ve parked in our visitor’s car park, why do you have the arrogance to think that rules don’t apply to you?”
“What? We’re coming into the shop right now!”
“What are you buying then? Prove it”
“OK…..I’ll just get my daughter from the car and she can tell you.” (I know literally nothing about sewing machines).
“I don’t believe you. You’re just arrogant.”
I’m still a little lost here, “We’ve parked there to come INTO your shop.”
“I don’t believe you, you’re lying.” Of course I am, I’ve clearly done this journey and parked outside his deserted shop, especially to visit a newsagent that is so small it’s barely visible to the naked eye.
I am absolutely astonished by this point and don’t quite know what to say, but it’s all right because The Rudest Man in Fareham has a little speech prepared, even if it is slightly boring. He won’t ever get asked to do after dinner speaking, put it that way. In fact, he actually dispenses with sentences here and goes on a sort of loop consisting of ‘you’re arrogant, you’re arrogant, you’re arrogant, you’re arrogant.’
I then decide no way are we going into this shop so I tell him that his attitude has put me off buying from him and he’s just lost a potential customer. To be absolutely fair to the man, it’s probably been such a long time since he saw an actual customer that he’s forgotten what they look like and he says: “I don’t want you in my shop anyway.” Yep, that’s right, he doesn’t want a paying customer inside his shop that’s so deserted it resembles WW1 trenches after the war. Then he starts up his familiar chant: ‘you’re arrogant, you’re arrogant, you’re arrogant, etc.’
I then tell him that I’m going to write an honest review online. He says he doesn’t care and that if I do that he will go online and ‘belittle’ me and he repeats this two or three times. I point out that I have nothing to lose here, he replies that neither does he. What? He’s supposed to be running a SHOP! As a direct result of bad reviews online he could lose valuable custom. And it’s only HIS behaviour that has caused this little scene. I’ve since read elsewhere that he claims to have forty years of experience in the industry, during which time he’s apparently managed to learn precisely nothing about customer service. I wonder what his IQ is?
He’s still droning on about arrogance or something, and I question whether he knows what arrogance actually is but I don’t receive an answer. Maybe he’s programmed only to say sentences with the word ‘arrogant’. The scene comes to an end when he turns around and heads back to his ‘shop’, waving “Bye bye, bye bye” at me. I think he meant to be patronising, but it comes across as someone who doesn’t have the mental capacity to actually end a conversation. Presumably there’s a limit per day to “You’re arrogant” and he’s reached it.
I later found out that he’d approached my daughter in the PASSENGER seat of the car and asked her if she was driving it?! IQ…..?
So, needless to say, I cannot state emphatically enough that if you want a sewing shop, DO NOT go here. If you need a little more persuasion then read through the other reviews, they’re almost all about his appalling attitude and his, frankly unhealthy, obsession with his car park.
It only leaves me to guess what he might say in this ‘belittling’ of me, but let’s give it a go:
#1 – I was arrogant.
#2 – I was lying about going into the shop.
#3 – I was there longer than two minutes (maybe five if you count the ‘discussion’).
#4 – I’d parked over the pavement. This is true, I hadn’t pulled my car forward enough, but I immediately accepted the blame.
#5 – I was arrogant.
#6 – I was arrogant.
#7 – I was arrogant.
Etc.
Etc.
If you live in Fareham or surrounding areas, and need sewing-related services then don’t panic, you do have other options, you don’t have to grace The Rudest Man in Fareham with your business. In fact, I can’t recommend https://www.darnitandstitch.co.uk/ highly enough.
I’m already excited about this belittling of me! I shall post it here as and when…..