People Being Rude To Customer Service

[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.

 

[vodkainferno]

Being an employee of a McDonalds, I have had people rip money from hands because they thought there price was outrage due to Sales Taxes and demanded me to lower the tax without taking anything off of their order. Among the stories I've had hot fries thrown in my face due to not enough salt and a burger thrown at me for missing a patty...

 

[excalipoor]

My grandmother does this every single time we take her to dine out. She has to make sure that not only will the waiter know just how unsatisfied she was, the rest of the customers will do too. Every. Single. Time! You're not even paying, you old fart!

We'd gag her, but then there wouldn't be much purpose in taking her out to eat at all. If we don't take her along, she starts complaining about how nobody gives a shit. And we couldn't possibly keep her gagged all the time, that would just be cruel!

 

[Kargathia]

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*

I agree with this. Thats why I make it a point to show my real feelings in my tone of voice and on my face when working. I frown and act very hostile towards rude customers and tell them off when they do something they're not supposed to. I hate that fake smile crap.

Psht, I wish I could have done that when I was in retail.

Back when I worked at Target I got written up for not smiling enough. They didn't like that my face, when at rest, has a bit of a frown to it.

Personally I was always helped by my natural tendency to be amused by the outliers in human behaviour. There's just as much entertainment to be had from assholes as happiness from genuinely nice people.

There's also definitely inspiration to be had from otherwise useless phone calls to customer service.
A few weeks ago I was mucking about with my new SSD and Windows 8 installation, which had decided to go sour on me. After a few hours of trying to figure out why it wasn't even consistent in not working, I called the local PC shop I tend to buy stuff, and asked them whether they had any answers. An activity which resulted in the rather predictable "how the hell would I know from over here?" (phrased rather much more politely).

I thanked him for solving my problem. Turns out that the realisation that in order to get an answer, you need a question was enough for me to figure out how to go fix my pc.

Helpdesk zen, right there. Don't think that made me any less irritating to the guy on the other end of the line though.

 

[ultrachicken]

My mom, who's a lawyer, got to deal with a case where a man got so angry that his phone didn't come with "the internet" that he threw the box on the ground in the middle of the store and started stomping on it while yelling obscenities. That's my most outlandish story I've got. My dad gets pissy quite often with people in retail if he judges that they're "not trying hard enough," which typically translates to making small and insignificant mistakes that only hamper the purchase in adding a few seconds to it.

I have a lot of sympathy for the unfortunate bastards in retail, and they don't need any additional shit from me.

 

[Fiad]

I work in an Express Cafe, and occasionally we get an order wrong or there is something out of our control that happened. We will fix it no matter what, but if you are nice to us when bringing it up we are going to be a lot nicer about it as well and most likely give you better service. But if you come up shouting at us that we fucked up we are not going to be happy and will just barely fix the issue enough to make you shut your yap.

I always live by the rule, "Don't piss off the people who handle your food." Not because we will spit in it or anything, but just because you will get better food if you are nice.

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

I've never personally been rude to any form of Customer Service. It's pointless. Yes it might get me something that I want, but what does it ultimately achieve? Nothing. It's wasting anger on a person who, most likely, has nothing to do with the problem.

 

[Sectan]

I was pretty lucky when I worked at Walmart. Being in receiving meant I was in the back room most of the time or stocking shelves at around midnight so that wasn't too bad. It must just be the Minnesota heat or cold depending on the weather, but people never got too pissy when it came to retail. Rudeness I've seen was when some guy was having a tantrum like a 5 year old in the McDonald's drive through. His order was taking a while to be made and he was refusing to pull ahead, which meant he had about 7 people stuck behind him. People who were getting their food walked out to them, but were unable to leave because they were boxed in. Since this guy was in a convertible I rolled my window down and very loudly said "Wow this guy ahead of us is being a really huge ass-hat!" He turned around and I just stared at him. He eventually demanded his money back and spun out as he left. He must have thought his time was REALLY important to pout and whine in a drive-through for 10 minutes.

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

Do you by chance happen to work at a Walmart? I worked in one for six months, that song was ALWAYS on the intercom. After a few days all of the songs just started getting on my nerves. I like Coldplay, but I got pretty sick of that damn song after a while.

 

[goldenjester]

True, some people are rude for no reason.

It is funny tho because I am planning to go to my local electronic store today. I have a Samsung S advance smarthphone. It started showing problems with battery life after a month. It lost all of its charge in a single night on flight mode. And about 60% if I turned it off completely. Now I'm not a retard so I noticed that this isn't normal. I tried a few diagnostics myself to come up with the conclusion: the shit is broken.

I went to the store. They told me: yea, your shit is broken. We'll send it to samsung helpcenter for repairs. I was happy. 3 weeks later I got it back.

The shit was still broken. This leaves me to conclude that the samsung IT repair service is actually a shelter for the mentally challenged. Which is admirable: trying to give those people a place in society. But it does NOT HELP ME. Today I am going to the store and I am going to yell at whomever crosses my path until they either give me my money back or a new phone. I feel this is completely justified and they should be happy I don't start breaking shit. Kratos wouldn't have to put up with this shit so neither should I!

Wait wait wait wait.

Maybe my reading comprehension isn't what it used to be, but here is my understanding of what you're saying:

1. You bought a Samsung phone from a store
2. You took it in, so they sent it to Samsung IT for repairs
3. Samsung IT didn't fix it
4. You're going to go yell at the people who AREN'T from Samsung IT for what Samsung IT failed to do

Yessssss...the logic...it is...flawless

 

[Nyaliva]

Speaking about McDonalds, The one near us is actually really bad, almost every time we go there, there's something wrong with our order. But despite that, we never shout at them or anything, although considering the frequency with which there are errors, I've been thinking I should talk to the manager one day soon...calmly and politely mind you.

Having worked in retail and hospitality for the past 5 years, I've had my fair share of really horrible customers, but not so many that you'd think. There was one lady who full yelled at me for not being able to split the bill (which whoever booked would have been informed, it's because of our terminals and despite her arguing that you could, no restaurant in the area splits bills either) and in the end she wasn't even paying for anything to begin with. There was another woman who had an issue with this when she rang up to book, saying "this is really something I need to know 2 weeks in advance" which is ludicrous in and of itself, but also, she's the one making the booking two days before, we couldn't exactly ring her up and say "we know you're going to book in two weeks time, we just wanted to let you know that we don't split bills."

What annoys me most though are the passive aggressive ones, the kind who are really short with you, are always almost condescending and will show displeasure in the littlest things in such a way that they seem like they could explode into a rage at any moment. They always come off as extremely unpleasant people, mostly because they're always in that passive aggressive state.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I work in a grocery store.

It works like this:

If I, the cashier, make a mistake, there are four ways you can respond:

1. Finding the humor in it. If you manage to make it into a joke of some kind ("Man, I swear the prices are constantly doubling!") while being SINCERE about your non-annoyance, I will fix the error, and if necessary, even throw in a store coupon to avoid having to do price checks, or even straight up BSing a price (always in your favour). I like you, you make me happy inside, I want you to leave satisfied.

2. Straightfaced, friendly. It's OK to be a bit annoyed, because I DID make an error. If you're willing to drop it right away, though, then I'll streamline the fixing process as much as I can. I don't want to make you wait, as you're being nice, and I'll even do a price-check myself if necessary.

3. Annoyed. If you're being passive aggressive about my error, you're only going to spawn more, because you've reached "unpleasable but non-hostile" territory, so I'm not worried about you freaking out, but I'm also not worried about making you happy, because chances are, you can't be made so. No streamlining, everything by the book, have a nice day.

4. Explosive reaction. Sorry, I'm not paid to deal with twits like you. I call the manager, and send you to the front desk. You're going to be buried with corporate bureaucracy, infinite loops of doom, and generally have a terrible time. I'll even assist with the process, because I sure as Hell don't want you back in the store ever again. You're not threatening us by saying "I'll never come here again!", you're giving us a glimmer of hope.

My system was pretty much similar when I was a cashier at Walmart. One day we ran out of normal sized bags and could only use the extra large ones for packing. A man came through and was absolutely pissed that we didn't have normal bags. He refused to believe that we had run out. He was pretty much doing his best to try and make me feel like shit and he kept on escalating when I told him that I could call a manger to try and help him if he'd like.

I finally just told him that he can either find another till or drop the attitude immediately. This caused him to start yelling all kinds of profanity at me. I said: "I see you've made your choice. Very good. You can pick your stuff up off the belt now and go stand in line." It was at this point that he decided that he wanted me to call a manger after all. Managers don't generally care for extremely pissy customers. The man was told to leave.

The next lady in line told me that she was glad that jerk was gone. She then told me that it's not my fault if there are no normal bags. We happily chatted about life while I scanned through her items. When something scanned through at the wrong price, I brought her attention to the scanning code of practice (which we're never supposed to do if they don't know about it). This meant that she got 10 dollars off the item because of the pricing error.

Those are pretty much the two extremes. If you're a massive asshole, you get made a fool of and are forced to leave. If you are kind and understanding, you get discounts.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Well I worked retail for more years than I care to think about, and my current "day job" is
as close as makes no difference, so my stories from that could fill up a couple of books.
Instead of tackling those, I'll share one instance when I was a customer and another customer
was being a scheistkof. (hope I spelled that right)
This was about 14 years ago, and at the time I was running the toy department of a K-mart,
but on my day off I was in a different town and stopped in the KB Toy&Hobby. While I was
there, a "customer" began berating the only employee in the store (a girl who was maybe
nineteen on an old day). He began shouting at her to bring out the unopened boxes of Hot
Wheels that he "knew" were in the back. (Hot Wheels collectors do this because they think
that they might find the ultra-rare super special car that will net them millions of dollars
on a 99cent investment if they can just get to an unopened box.)Every time the girl assured
him there was no stock in the back, he shouted louder at her that he KNEW there was. After
this exchange had occurred maybe four times, I interrupted the man saying, "Excuse me, Sir?
You know what you really need?" The man just looked at me in bafflement, amazed that another
customer would interrupt him, so I continued "You need a *new hobby*, because this one is *obviously*
*not* relaxing you!" The girl went from being frightened to trying to hide laughter, and the man started to
insist on getting the corporate phone number, because he
was going to call and ensure that *I* not the girl--that he would get *me* fired. Between
giggles the girl assured him that I didn't work there, but gave him the number so he could
waste his time trying to get them to fire another customer.

TLDR;Stepped in when collector was being rude/scary to toy store girl

 

[twistedmic]

I deal with all kinds of rude people at my job (large chain of supermarkets), though rarely the kind that scream and holler or throw things.
I usually end up with the slow, stupid fuckwads that take up entire aisles or spend five minutes trying to pick out which gallon of milk that they want (it's all the same milk you stupid fuck! Grab a jug and get the hell out of my goddamn way!), or the jackasses that seem to think supermarkets are the perfect place to practice their dance moves or to let their children run around like hell-spawned demon brats.
But the ones that piss me off the most are the dipshits that violate my personal space bubble and then say "Oh, you're okay." when I move away from them. Every time that happens I'm so tempted to respond with "But you're not, back the fuck off."

 

[an annoyed writer]

Do you by chance happen to work at a Walmart? I worked in one for six months, that song was ALWAYS on the intercom. After a few days all of the songs just started getting on my nerves. I like Coldplay, but I got pretty sick of that damn song after a while.

I did. Same job as you, in fact. I did that for two whole years. Still surprised that I didn't get fired. Most of my managers were total asshats. Just about everything there made me want to try a third suicide attempt, and the guns in the hunting section weren't helping. As soon as I got a good excuse, I quit. Just wish my excuse wasn't losing my car in an accident.