People Being Rude To Customer Service

[aceman67]

In my almost 13 years of customer service experience, I've deduced that some people are just colossal assholes. Nothing you can do about it if you're the employee... but as a fellow customer... well now, we're going somewhere.

Fist, I'm going to get something out of the bag: The customer is not always right. They are only always right about one thing: How they feel. It is quite possible for them to be blatantly wrong, like you pointed out with that elderly gentleman.

There's a saying: "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing".

During that whole exchange over deep-fried salted chopped up potatoes, you didn't say anything, and you could have, because his grand display of assholery disturbed you and made you feel uncomfortable, and you have a right to do something about being made to feel uncomfortable.

Next time you see something like this, Speak up, call the person out for being an ass-hat.

Last time I did, the manager refunded my meal price.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I was in Mcdonalds a few days ago and some woman was swearing at them for taking too long. To be fair, they were taking a long time but I seriously doubt she could have done any better.
I got a chicken and Cheese and was rather annoyed to find lettuce on it. I couldn't be bothered wasting my time and theirs over something so petty so I just bought a new one and some fries.

In the OP's example I feel like the manager would be completely justified telling the old guy to calm down or fuck off. Well, other than it being against the rules of his employment.

 

[aceman67]

In the OP's example I feel like the manager would be completely justified telling the old guy to calm down or fuck off. Well, other than it being against the rules of his employment.

Actually its not. Employees have the right to refuse service if they feel they're being abused or threatened and to go and get a manager. The manager also has the right to refuse service entirely if they feel that the well being of their employees is being mistreated. A manager can actually be fired if they don't in some circumstances.

The sad part is finding a manager with a backbone.

It is a basic human right to have a workplace where you are free from being abused and mistreated.

Captcha: Stay Safe

oh, captcha, you crack me up sometimes.

 

[Frostbite3789]

I don't like most employee's. They walk up to you in retail stores all smiles and "How can I help you sir or madame?" But I know they are paid to smile, so I always get very cold towards people "just doing their job".

I assume half the people that are being nice towards me in retail are the same kind of people that were bullies towards me in school. If I want help I'll fucking seek you out!

*cough*

You're so right. I should be genuinely happy to make $7.50 an hour to get harassed by customers, mop up piss, vomit and shit in the bathroom and just generally do totally pleasant things.

Excuse me for a moment if your highness was not pleased with my greeting, I shall amend it for your pleasure so you don't tell a manager and I don't get a 10 minute lecture on how the customer is ALWAYS right.

Try working retail sometime, then ***** about how retail workers act.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

I don't like most employee's. They walk up to you in retail stores all smiles and "How can I help you sir or madame?" But I know they are paid to smile, so I always get very cold towards people "just doing their job".

I assume half the people that are being nice towards me in retail are the same kind of people that were bullies towards me in school. If I want help I'll fucking seek you out!

*cough*

You're so right. I should be genuinely happy to make $7.50 an hour to get harassed by customers, mop up piss, vomit and shit in the bathroom and just generally do totally pleasant things.

Excuse me for a moment if your highness was not pleased with my greeting, I shall amend it for your pleasure so you don't tell a manager and I don't get a 10 minute lecture on how the customer is ALWAYS right.

Try working retail sometime, then ***** about how retail workers act.

I have worked in retail. I mentioned this on the first page. It may be a big reason I dislike retail employee etiquette. I understand your bitterness, it sucks. Though not the worst job I have ever had actually.

This is was the post I mentioned.

I don't like most employee's. They walk up to you in retail stores all smiles and "How can I help you sir or madame?" But I know they are paid to smile, so I always get very cold towards people "just doing their job".

I assume half the people that are being nice towards me in retail are the same kind of people that were bullies towards me in school. If I want help I'll fucking seek you out!

*cough*

If they don't come up to you, smile, and ask if you need help, they get in trouble.

Yeah I know and it's unfortunate. I have worked retail myself. That doesn't change the fact that there is a person behind that smile.

Not to mention getting to know my asshole fellow co-workers at said retail job only fuels the fire of my hatred towards the smile, since I saw the fake ass smile in action every day for 6 months.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I work in retail (mind you it's mostly pleasant compared to some of the hasher retails out there) so I had a few experience-

Someone left a basket with contents inside it. Company policy is to take it and put the products back if there's no one about. I gave it a about 5 minutes and did look nearby if someone left it but there was no one about.
Halfway putting it all back, a hunchback old woman was looking for it and notice what I was putting back. Needless to say she had a go at me for doing it. Just to be clear I didn't mention about it was company order as I kept apologising to her about it and help her to put those products (and the rest I put back out) to her.
However a few days later she did came up to apologise to me as she didn't knew I infact work at the store (she thought I was just a customer there). Seriosuly how hard to tell a staff working at that store as out uniform is red fleece jacket with the company logo on the front and arm? I apologise again that it was a misunderstanding.

I was at the rear of the shop when this happen. A customer was buying this kid blanket as it was on sale (had a sticker) however it was in fact back to normal prices. She pretty much had a go at my collegue at the till and refuse to buy it at the normal price. I can't remember the conclusion to that but needless to say my new task was to remove the sales sticker on it.
To this isn't a scan or anything like that as the store sometime not get told what had been increase or decrease.

The recent one was that me and my collague had to spend the morning to move the christmas products at where Halloween was which invole putting new shelfs and hook. Two couple each with a pram enter the store, the woman when ahead while the man wait for us to move. Mind you there were alot of stuff on the floor near us so it would of taken a few minutes to clear it. My collague calmly told him to use the other aile instead. Instead of doing what she said, he just went to the manager who was at the til and complain that we were lazy. To make it worse, we were nearby so we heard the complain!
It turn out this was a ploy as while he was complaining his head off, the woman with the pram was trying to steal some bedsheet at the rear of the store!
Not sure what happen next but they didn't get away with the thief but no police arrive (I think they left before they called the police).

 

[Mr.Cynic88]

The worst customers are always the ones who don't understand what your job is like. I'm definitely a supporter of the idea that if everyone worked retail or food service the customers would feel far less entitled.

On a positive note, I'm the only one I know who never has a problem when calling customer service for a computer/cable problem. I'm pretty tech-knowledgeable, and I also understand that the person I'm talking to is working a shitty job in a different time zone and they're things they have to say and steps they make you take that are required by their company.

When my mom calls customer service for a tech issue it'll take her like two hours, whereas mine are usually under 40 mins. The representatives are usually very apologetic for every step they make me take because I'm sure most people they talk to are far more prone to anger and frustration than me. The calls usually end with them thanking me for my patience and I'll give them great marks on the post-call survey.

I always try to put myself in the other's shoes, and have found that it makes them far more willing to do everything in their power to help me. I know from personal experience as a cashier that I'll go out of my way and even bend the rules for a conscientious customer, whereas I'll make the transaction as difficult as possible for someone who is rude or disrespectful.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I have worked at customer service at Target for ten years now. The stories I could tell...

Most people are polite, understand that there are limits to what we can do, and that most of the time it is their own fault that we can't help them. But there are a few people who, if I had been allowed to talk straight with them and not give the constant, "I'm sorry sir/ma'am," line, they would have left the store in tears. The logic that these people use has no weight to it, and as they stand there and yell at me about it, my mind picks it apart and begs me to point it out to them. Sadly, I'm not allowed.

One lady I will always remember. Target has those electric mobile carts for handicap people. My store only has four, and they are in constant use. So, toward the mid-point of the day, they start dying. We do our best to charge them, but seeing as it seems like every tenth person coming into the store 'needs' one, a lot of the times the carts go out with only half a charge. And then they die. One woman had her cart full and her cart died right next to a cashier. She yelled at the cashier, demanding to know why the carts were always dead. The cashier responded correctly by apologizing and offering to get her a new cart--which was literally ten feet away and plugged in. The woman responded by standing up and saying, "Forget it," and proceeded to storm off. The cashier asked if she was coming back, seeing as her cart was still filled to the brim with stuff. The woman spun around (again, this is a lady who is suppose to need one of these carts to get around) and yelled, "I don't now!" and stormed off. She left her dead cart in the middle of the walkway, blocking traffic. After thirty minutes, I walked over and asked the cashier what the cart was. She told me the story, and I asked how long ago it had happened.
"30 minutes about," she said. So I started pulling stuff out to put it back. There were frozen items in there, after all. I came across a prescription back filled with meds from our pharmacy. I stopped and asked the cashier if she was SURE that the lady hadn't said anything about coming back.
"No, she didn't. She stormed off without saying anything like that."
"She didn't say she'll be back, or for you to watch her cart?"
"No." Well, I decided to leave it alone for another fifteen minutes just in case. I figured she'd at least come back with her tail between her legs to get her pills. So, FORTY-FIVE minutes after this woman has disappeared without a trace and not a word, my manager brings the cart over and tells me to start unloading it. I do so, and put everything back. Ten minutes later, the woman comes up demanding her stuff. She's very upset that we put it all back.
"No effort was made to find me. No one tried to track me down. No one tried to page me. I mean, I shop her all the time. (God, I hate that line). You guys didn't hold on to it. Now I have to waste my time getting all that stuff again, and I have to wait for the pharmacy to reopen to get my pills back." Because only the pharmacy is allowed to hold that stuff, and they were at lunch.
I nearly lost it with her there. Contact her? Track her down? Page her? What the hell were we supposed to say? "Would the woman who threw a fit and abandoned her cart at checklane 2, if you're still in the building, please let us know so we don't put away your melting ice cream."? I nearly pointed all this out to her, saying that she had left without informing us of her plans, and had made it very clear that she probably would not be coming back. And it's our fault that we couldn't read her mind? To top it all off, I suddenly recognized the woman. It was someone I had passed not twenty minutes ago, cruising through the CD section on another electric cart, which was now empty by the way, with her children. She had gone off shopping again and had expected us to hold her stuff after she had said she wasn't even sure she was coming back for it.

 

[kickassfrog]

I generally just redirect rude or annoyed people to a manager, because I can't solve their problems anyway, and the managers get paid more to deal with this crap than I do.

As an aside, I keep wanting to bump into one of the people in a bookshop requesting a book that was on TV and knowing fuck all else about it.
If I ever see that, I'm going to direct them to the most offensive book I can find.

 

[robot slipper]

I worked at Sainsburys supermarket for 4 years on the checkouts, eventually becoming a supervisor. I had to put up with an awful lot of verbal abuse about stuff that 99% of the time wasn't my fault, but because it was a small store, I was also the complaints department.

My favourite one was when for some unknown reason, one of the tills refused to accept credit or debit cards from Natwest bank. So, rather then close an otherwise perfectly good till (because we only had 8, and closing a till would increase the queue lengths at peak times) we put a nice big sign at the front saying "THIS TILL DOES NOT ACCEPT NATWEST CARDS". So of course, someone didn't see the sign and tried to pay with a Natwest card and it didn't work. Of course, this wasn't too much of a problem to solve, I just had to save the transaction and take it to another till. But no, the guy argued like this:

Guy: "Why on earth is this happening???!!!"
Me: "We don't really know, but..."
Guy: "I'M NOT INTERESTED IN WHY, I JUST WANT TO PAY FOR MY SHOPPING!"
Me: "Ok, but you did ask me why, so I was just going to explain that..."
Guy: "Don't be fucking clever with me, I've got my two children with me and I need to pay for my shopping! Why hasn't this been sorted? Why didn't you fix this problem when you started your shift? Why hasn't the management been informed??!!"
Me: "It can't be fixed until an engineer comes in, so we decided to use a work-around..."
Guy: "I don't want to discuss it anymore, and I don't want to hear your explanations." (this is after he's asked me several times to explain and discuss whats going on!)
Me:

Subsequently, in life, I am always nice to customer service people, because I feel their pain. I think there should be some sort of National Service required wherby everyone has to spend at least six months working in retail, then perhaps people wouldn't be so rude to staff.

 

[RJ Dalton]

This is part of the reason I won't go back to working Tech Support for DirecTV, despite being one of their top employees in the division.
The other part is the sort of amoral business making decisions that lead to it screwing over customers because, and I really am quoting, "Dish Network did it first."
Interestingly enough, my recapcha is an advert for Dish Network.

 

[Dollabillyall]

So, I work as an outbound callcenter agent. We need to call our client's customers and help them make a choice to deal with upcoming laws. We already sent a letter, but most people did not understand it, open it or respond to it. We are basically being their buddies and not pushing products.
Still I get my fair share of verbal abuse. Some don't even understand they are our customers and just start flaming me. Others think that because I work as a callcenter agent I must be stupid, so they patronize me and make nasty comments. Too bad I can't tell them I'm just working my way through university and probably have a much better grasp of their situation than they do unless they listen to me. That would be disrespecting the customer.

The thing is sometimes, to take the McDonalds example, the manager doesn't care about giving you another batch of fries or a fresh burger. It's not his money, and he just wants you of his back. Corporate figures they will lose a significant sum of money to "old" food anyway and they factor in some extra "loss" of resources for customer service.

At the end of the day the bottom line for the customer service clerk is that we are human too, and that means if you are rude we want to strangle you or cry. But if you are nice we appreciate not being verbally abused for 3 minutes because... you know how people are with customer service.

TLDR; Just because you are king doesn't mean you have to get medieval.

 

[SwimmingRock]

Got two stories:

1. Was in the grocery store with a fellow student from a project group. Cashier forgot to apply a discount for something and she immediately started shouting at her and insulting her personally instead of pointing it out. When I asked her outside why she'd behaved like such a total *****, she said:"The cashier was in function and representing the company she worked for, which meant she was no longer a person and didn't deserve to be treated like one." The scariest part of that story? This girl was studying psychology and wanted to become a child psychologist. God help the children who become her patients.

2. Worked at a bookstore a while. Helped an old lady find a book near the end of my shift. I helped her check out as well, but she then decided to faff about in the shop a while. My shift ended, I changed out of uniform and went up to the registers to quickly chat with the colleague who'd taken over since we got on quite well. I happened to be wearing a shirt which simply read:"RUSSIA!" that I'd gotten from my father who went to an exhibition of Russian art. The old lady saw me, read my shirt, walked up to the register and demanded her money back. She then started yelling out loud to noone in particular that it was a communist bookstore and that buying books there was supporting communism. Then she hissed:"Move back to Russia, you fucking communist. We don't want you here." at me before storming out.

 

[Zantos]

No, but the Escapist shouts at ME for being rude.

I thought that was because you killed those people.

OT: I find that most of the time they are far more happy to come to a mutually beneficial solution by being polite. It's got me gift vouchers and money off in good will (or whatever you call it) by way of apology. I seriously don't get it, losing my shit tires me out, why would I do that when there's a less energy intensive and probably quicker way of doing that. But I guess some people just like to shout.

 

[an annoyed writer]

I don't like most employee's. They walk up to you in retail stores all smiles and "How can I help you sir or madame?" But I know they are paid to smile, so I always get very cold towards people "just doing their job".

I assume half the people that are being nice towards me in retail are the same kind of people that were bullies towards me in school. If I want help I'll fucking seek you out!

*cough*

When I worked in retail I always got bitched at for not doing that fake-ass smile that's "scientifically proven to make you happier and healthier!" even though I had a pretty damn good track record for helping customers whenever they wanted it. My managers seemed to think that every customer was this extreme introvert that needed to be reached out to, even though most people are are content to go about their business and ask for help when they need it. I mean for fuck's sake, I already lie about a shit ton of stuff, the least you could do is not make me lie about my feelings that day. And I'll tell you that when you're forced to listen to the same bunch of trendy "easy listening" songs day in, day out, you're not going to be happy.

Fuck you Coldplay, for making that song Paradise. I'm anywhere but there, and I don't need a reminder.

Anyway, in regards to the OP, I find that customers that are unreasonably bitchy need to be counteracted, so I do my best to thank the people behind the counter. I've made some pretty decent friends that way. I know a guy at a Mcdonalds who's just the most laid back chap ever, and then there's a guy at the local Burger king who goes out of his way to help the customer, to a point where he's pretty much good customer service incarnate, even to the biggest jerks. Those people deserve a thank you at the very least.

 

[BeerTent]

I'm stuck in a call center, and the positions I get in said call center are such as I can't do my normal "You will use basic human skills while you are here, or I will treat you like an animal." routine because when customers get angry, they're justified.

However, I wasn't working at the pizza place I was getting a snack from when someone who ordered a donair before me was denied extra cheese, as the store manager said no. The customer proceeded to eat his regular cheese donair while glaring at the employee, who was a bit pasty, and probably 17 years old, and a hell of a lot thinner than a Deflated BeerTent.

Eventually, the boy called the customer out on this enraged glare, I guess provoking him by asking "What the hell is wrong? You mind not glarin' at me?" The customer's girlfriend tried to hold him back, when eventually, things escalated, and the customer apparently had enough of this shit and started to walk toward me. Keeping in mind, I'm leaning against the table where the entrance behind the counter was. He'd have to walk past me, and I assume, he planned on going around that counter to teach the boy why extra cheese in his donair was so important.

I stepped forward, getting in his way and told him to "Think about it." Stalling him long enough for the manager, to come from out back. The manager and customer fought, verbally, of course, and obviously, the customer lost his argument of "The customer's the most important." to the manager's argument of "I told him you can't have cheese, get the fuck out for acting like a child."

He left, and someone else who helped diffuse the situation informed me that that particular person was a bit stabby when he's drunk. And he was drunk. I could have been shanked when I stopped him. But it's alright because the employee remembered me, and he gave me a free slice of pizza at a later date.

In seriousness though, If he did pull a knife on me, and was successful, I wouldn't have regretted it. This industry is hard enough, when you have the power to make someone's day easier, and you chose to make it that much more difficult, you don't deserve an easy life.

 

[Palademon]

I pulled into a Sonic a day or two ago and there was this loud repeated honking goin' on. It was very close, so I thought maybe something had happened to my horn, so I was sitting there awkwardly hoping it wasn't me.

A few minutes after I place my order, I overhear a man yelling that he's been waiting. The employee asks him if he was the one honking, to which he replies yes and follows by cussing and pulling out of the drive-in.

._.

Ah yeah, I got nothin'.
The closest I can remember is a GAME employee remaining very calm when a man in his 30s came in with his partner to buy/preorder CoD, and his partner kept having a cheery conversation m(literally upbeat and laughing as if it's a joke, but she was serious), with the guy running the cashier, going "It's so sad isn't it? Pretending to be something you're not, like a soldier and shooting people".
I wouldn't have been able to deal with such a close minded position to gaming. But if I ever worked in GAME, I wouldn't even be able to bring myself to recommened the only applicable shovelware that a mother would ask for for her young daughter that likes fashion.

 

[Lucem712]

I pulled into a Sonic a day or two ago and there was this loud repeated honking goin' on. It was very close, so I thought maybe something had happened to my horn, so I was sitting there awkwardly hoping it wasn't me.

A few minutes after I place my order, I overhear a man yelling that he's been waiting. The employee asks him if he was the one honking, to which he replies yes and follows by cussing and pulling out of the drive-in.

._.

It's a drive-in restaurant [http://www.sonicdrivein.com/]. You pull into a parking space that has a menu and intercom and order grub. After awhile, a carhop comes out with your food. Kind of restaurant that was popular in the 50's before dine-in restaurants. There are dine-in and even drive-thru variants, but my local one is just a drive-in.

 

[beastro]

So I see someone made a thread about wondering where stupid people are, well here's good anecdotal evidence.

I do not understand why such people are abusive. I go out of my way to be nice at the counter because, though I'm paying for a service, I recognize that to those behind the counter I'm one of many others they've had to deal with today and they're having a hard enough time as it is.

If an order is wrong, I'm polite and the problem has always been fixed or given a pass. I'm the kind of person that, if I order two medium drinks and get two larges, will tell them about the mistake even though I know they're just going to tell me to keep them anyway. If I'm at a burger place and I need to wait for fresh paddies I'm actually happy, it means I get them fresh and warm which is worth waiting a few minutes for.

If I meet someone who is a jerk at the counter I remain polite and keep them in mind so that why I stop by there again, I'll go to other person at the counter. I find with such people, they either don't last long working there or get shunted off to go work in the back never to take orders again.

There are two old women who work at my local Tim Horton's, one uncommonly messes up my order but is very nice and understanding and I'm glad to see out and working at her age, the other is a cold ***** who makes you feel as if you're wasting her time when placing your order.

Guess which one doesn't work the counter anymore?

 

[Stryc9]

So I decided to take a walk down to my local McDonalds, cause I was in the mood for a cheeseburger. I went inside, placed my order, and waited patiently. While waiting, an elderly gentleman walked up to the counter and immediately asked to see the manager. Apparently they didn't give him enough fries, and I knew this cause the elderly dude seemed to want the entire McDonalds to know...he was the loudest guy there. I watched the entire interaction. The elderly guy was loud, abrasive, and honestly, just plain rude. He cussed at the manager, proclaiming to the entire store it was the last time he would set foot in a McDonalds.

Now despite all of this, the manager kept his cool. He never lashed out at him, calmly apologizing and getting him a fresh new batch of fries, this time filled to the brim. The elderly man refused, rather rudely..and stormed out of the McDonalds.

A week before this happened...I went to the same McDonalds and ordered a Double Quarter Pounder. When I got the burger, I found that they didn't put the 2nd pattie on my burger. Now I am a rather calm sort, so before I ate the burger, I got my receipt, walked up to the counter, told them what the problem was, and showed them my receipt. You know what happened? They got me and entirely new burger with the biggest and freshest patties that came out fresh from the fryer. After that, I thanked them, and walked back to the where I was sitting, ate the burger, and the rest of the day went swimmingly.

I did not overreact...I did not make a scene...I was polite about it, and in turn the situation was quickly and expertly resolved.

That man was completely out of line, and he should be ashamed of himself. Yes, he paid money for fries but you know what? The manager wanted to resolve the issue so he got him a fresh batch of fries...and still the man acted like an asshole. And while this entire situation was going down, I couldn't help but compare how I dealt with one of their mistakes, to how he dealt with their mistake.

Now I don't care what has happened to you, you have no right to take out your anger and frustration out onto another human being unless they give you a reason to do so...a legit reason. For example, that man would have been completely justified if the manager decided to give him lip. But when people are just so outright rude to one another for the littlest of reasons, I tend to get pretty infuriated.

What about you guys? Do you have any stories like that? Granted, I really don't want this thread to turn into a collection of stories about how Customer service was rude to them, rather I would like to hear stories about how they observed People being rude to customer service when really there was no reason for it.

I've seen this one before, he wasn't really pissed off that he didn't get enough fries, and since he wasn't happy after getting more fries what he was really after was getting his money back.

I've seen people of all ages do this one, there was a kid on my trap shooting team that would regularly pull this shit at McDonalds every time there was a meet. He'd order whatever the biggest McNugget meal was at the time, eat one then go back up to the counter and say there was one missing from the box. They'd let him keep the first meal and replace it.