Poll: Look dude, I'm just doing my job...

[Zing]

The thread that should be acknowledged: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.70218-The-Customer-Is-Always-Wrong

The article that should be read. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/04/charlie-brooker-shop-snobs

Have a nice day, y'all.

My last job would have been so much more enjoyable had I been able to ask rude cunts to politely go fuck themselves.

And by politely I mean adding "Please" and "Sir" when I tell them to fuck off.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Y'know, it's one of the very few advantages of living in a really small community; the clientelle of our supermarket isn't really all that bad. Are they thick hicks? Yes, quite a few of them are. But they often are also very nice thick hicks. Do the near-deaf and wise-ass old ladies get on my nerves? Sometimes. But at least they're friendly and complement me and say thank you.

I can joke around with the people here, it's a relation of mutual respect. When I or the store in general screws up, I can explain it without being scolded at or have my mothers dignity called into question. I apologise, they accept, I offer an alternative, they're thankful for it. Hell, sometimes we take the piss out of each other, just for shits & giggles.

And even when they are pissed, often for legitimate reason, they never actually take it out on me. Even if I apologise for whoever fucked up, these customers actually say "Heej don't worry, you're just doing your job." How cool is that? In almost 6 years of working in this joint the amount of people taking it out on me for no reason can be counted on one hand.

Yeap, despite their many flaws and plenty of groan-worthy moments, these people make this mind-numbing job bearable.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Yeah, I hear you. And people shouldn't behave like that to people just doing their jobs.

Even so, I chose the third option, because there are the occasional groups of 'customer service' people, especially in large corporations who either genuinely don't care, are instructed not be helpful, or don't know what they're doing.

There's nothing as frustrating as calling tech support or sales or something at a company only to have the person tell you something that you know is just complete and utter bullshit which at best is explicitly designed to confuse you or be misleading.

It's very hard to remain calm and reasonable when a company is screwing you over, and the person supposed to 'help' with this doesn't even seem to understand what you're complaining about.

Granted, that seems to be the fault of the company more so than the person, but since they are the only means of contact...

Still, that's mostly an issue with huge corporations and their 'customer service' departments, who universally seem to be trained to be as aggravating as possible...

I'd imagine working those jobs must be pretty stressful considering what seems to be going on.

i fucking hate this job (my job, which is basically what you described) I'm actually very good at it and i know just about all there is to know, especially compared to the other 30 people in my department, but sometimes errors come up on our shitty systems and they will near explode with 20 errors coming across a customers account in which i can't do anything then, and i end up getting death threats over the phone just because i was going the extra mile of helping them then and there instead of sending them to the next person like we are told to do

Sounds like a lose-lose situation.

Still, it's good to hear you're actually trying to be helpful, and death threats are unwarranted.
I think it's the corporate policy that's at fault here mostly, so on balance, mistreating the customer service people is still wrong.

But it's about the most aggravating situation I can come up with for a customer...

 

[SammiYin]

I'm a postman, which means everybody in the nearby village is a customer.
It also means 90% of them are intolerably stupid / rude fuckwits. I could honestly write a book about the gripes I have with it, but here's my selection of fun people.

1. An old man who will follow me nonstop until I give him his mail. I've once told him I didn't want to, but he kept following me because it might be 'urgent mail', no it wouldn't. If it was urgent it wouldn't be sent through the fucking mail service. But will he listen? Of course not.

2. Peoples attitude towards special deliveries. While I appreciate that people have work to go to and not everyone will expect one etc. What I utterly detest is people not being in when they have specifically ordered the bloody thing.

3. This is the best story I have to tell, it was a lovely rainy day, I was drenched head to toe and wasn't provided the right gear for the day. I was dragging miserably through the day thinking blissfully of home, when up comes a man [Oh let's call him, moany old arsehole] complaining that his letters were wet today.
I wasn't pleasant to him, but I wish I'd been even ruder.

So to answer your question, no customers should not be arseholes. But will they? Yes, they seem to get off of it.

 

[dragonslayer32]

My job is a safety steward at a local football stadium which also hosts concerts. I recently had 4 days of a boyband called 'Take That'. As if that wasn't enough, I had to stand for over 10 hours and take abuse from all directions. I get abuse for any little thing, from asking someone to move away from the wall to aiding the police in arresting people. I also get abuse during football matches if the home team is losing, which is all the bloody time. I have been spat at, kicked, punched, pushed and threatened with death. I love my job.

 

[Jedoro]

Two years of working at a movie theater. Dumb ass people asked me what the prices were when there was a huge sign mentioning them right behind me. People bitched about the prices to me as if I'm the one who set them. This wasn't the rare stupid customer, this was about 1/3 of the people who walked into the building. So, I've made two changes:

1) I'm a 3rd shift security officer who doesn't see anyone I don't work with

2) I'm one of the most polite customers people have ever met. I make a point to be patient, observant, and tolerant of the little things. Even if something goes wrong, I only get irritated when it's not fixed after I've asked someone to do so.

 

[MaxwellMurder]

I'm a postman, which means everybody in the nearby village is a customer.
It also means 90% of them are intolerably stupid / rude fuckwits. I could honestly write a book about the gripes I have with it, but here's my selection of fun people.

1. An old man who will follow me nonstop until I give him his mail. I've once told him I didn't want to, but he kept following me because it might be 'urgent mail', no it wouldn't. If it was urgent it wouldn't be sent through the fucking mail service. But will he listen? Of course not.

2. Peoples attitude towards special deliveries. While I appreciate that people have work to go to and not everyone will expect one etc. What I utterly detest is people not being in when they have specifically ordered the bloody thing.

3. This is the best story I have to tell, it was a lovely rainy day, I was drenched head to toe and wasn't provided the right gear for the day. I was dragging miserably through the day thinking blissfully of home, when up comes a man [Oh let's call him, moany old arsehole] complaining that his letters were wet today.
I wasn't pleasant to him, but I wish I'd been even ruder.

So to answer your question, no customers should not be arseholes. But will they? Yes, they seem to get off of it.

well to make feel better i gave my postman a cupcake the last time i had to sign something

 

[SammiYin]

I'm a postman, which means everybody in the nearby village is a customer.
It also means 90% of them are intolerably stupid / rude fuckwits. I could honestly write a book about the gripes I have with it, but here's my selection of fun people.

1. An old man who will follow me nonstop until I give him his mail. I've once told him I didn't want to, but he kept following me because it might be 'urgent mail', no it wouldn't. If it was urgent it wouldn't be sent through the fucking mail service. But will he listen? Of course not.

2. Peoples attitude towards special deliveries. While I appreciate that people have work to go to and not everyone will expect one etc. What I utterly detest is people not being in when they have specifically ordered the bloody thing.

3. This is the best story I have to tell, it was a lovely rainy day, I was drenched head to toe and wasn't provided the right gear for the day. I was dragging miserably through the day thinking blissfully of home, when up comes a man [Oh let's call him, moany old arsehole] complaining that his letters were wet today.
I wasn't pleasant to him, but I wish I'd been even ruder.

So to answer your question, no customers should not be arseholes. But will they? Yes, they seem to get off of it.

well to make feel better i gave my postman a cupcake the last time i had to sign something

It's generous people like you and half naked hot ladies that make this job worthwhile.

 

[Chase Yojimbo]

I had ONE asshole costumer, and that is when he looked like he was going to bolt it. He had a 70 doller game in his hand in Electronics, and being the trusting sort I usually let customers hold their games. But this guy was waiting for me to turn my back or put my head down, because he had his feet turned towards the exit of my work area towards the rest of the store, and I would have lost him. So I asked him if I could hold the game while he looked at whatever it was he was looking at. Automatically he flipped and was calling me a racist because he was a Native-American. I didn't care if he was Native-American. Finally it got so out of hand I had to call a manager to help me out because this guy wouldn't even let me speak, he did nothing but just foul mouth me and just ***** and complain about how the "white man were making sure that all thieving native men didn't steal from their white stores". Very rarely do I ever have problems with customers, but this one guy decided that he would throw the Racist Card on me so that he could get off for free. My manager saw what was going on and knew what this guy was doing. So we made him pay and this guy was bitching and complaining his entire way out of the store. (It still pisses me off to this day that he laid the racist card on me... that son ova *****...)

This was the only time I ever had problems with a customer... and god damn it was a bad time, jesus christ. Most of the time you deal with nice people, very nice people, or neutral people, but once in a while you meet that one asshole who just makes it his sole mission to ruin yours and everyone elses day. It is a pain in the ass...

 

[Cpu46]

I work at a grocery store and generally the customers are reasonable. When there is an unruly customer they unfortunately direct their ire at the wrong person. In our store we have a front end (Checkout), back end (Stocking, bakery, ect), pharmacy, and non-food sections each with their own manager. However customers tend to disregard that when you try and explain who they should go see and will continue to chew your ear off. I generally just turn them to the front end manager because they will listen to her.

 

[monkey_man]

I worked in pizza delivery while I was in college and every time I got a rude customer (or one that didn't tip) I had the satisfaction of knowing that the next time I took their order I'd be alone and unsupervised with their food. I gotta say you would be amazed what you can do to a pizza that will go totally unnoticed by the people eating it.

Moral of this story kids? Be nice and always tip your pizza guy.

Why is the tip almost forced to give these days? I mean, It's my money, and the Pizza is expensive enough as it is. 10 euros is a lot of cash for a meal. If it's like 25 cents change then fck it.Keep it. Perhaps a euro of 2. but I'm not shelling out my hard earned cash for someone else, who is just doing their job. Because you get payed for that already you know. If the Pizzas were delivered by strippers on the other hand...

And I work in a supermarket, and when a wanted stock is empty, people can get pretty annoying, because they nearly force me to check the supply(if I don't they either mutter something about incompetence, or my supervisors might hear it, so I'll go anyway), which always costs precious minutes I simply cannot spare. I have to fill 1 box per minute people! 5 minutes is 5 boxes I need to catch up to! And it's not like I'm fast anyway
[sub]And I don't see people giving me tips grumblegrumble[/sub]

 

[StriderShinryu]

I don't deal with customers, per se, but I know exactly what you mean. I work in the Security industry and have been called every name in the book (and some that probably aren't) just for doing my job. You have to learn pretty quickly to not take it seriously when your job involves dealing with the public, but that doesn't mean it ever gets easy to deal with when the people you deal with get extremely abrasive for absolutely no good reason.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I notice that Ex-Subway employees are the angriest people in the world. Maybe its making millions of Chicken Bacon Ranch Sandwiches to fat people that miss the point of going to Subway in the first place.

God yes. I used to work at one and the ex-employees I encountered were assholes, you would think they would be so much nicer since you're making their damn food. After seeing those people I decided that when I left I'm not going to be that person, besides I never understood the amount of anger those people had towards Subway anyways. Yeah they're a bunch of jerks but nothing to get angry over.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Excuse me if I offend people but as Yahtzee and Totalbiscuit have said Fanboys (WoW or otherwise) are entitled gits. And while not everyone is humble most people are dicks when costumers. And before you say "Well I'm nice to my server etc. etc." when was the last time you thanked the person at Starbucks for you coffee? When was the last time you said "May I please have a frappucino" or whatever. When was the last time you bid someone who worked at a taco bell or a grocery store a good day after they've serviced you?

I actually do all of those things on a regular basis; it's how I was raised. The idea is to not treat people like your slave just because their behind the counter. I tip well, I always thank my servers, and I always tell the person behind the counter to have a nice day. Maybe it's because my mother is a pharmacist so I grew up with stories of customers, nurses, and doctors, treating her like shit over things she couldn't control. I just see no reason to not afford them the same courtesies I would extend to any random stranger I'd meet on the street.

I did some time working at the local cinema behind the concession stand and while most people were perfectly agreeable every day there was at least one person who seemed to be on a mission to make our lives miserable. To my credit I almost lost it only once because this guy decided to take me to task over the fact management hadn't updated our menu board (which might I add was facing away from us three feet away and in the air) and one of the combos wasn't written right. The guy flat out told me he didn't believe me so I grabbed my manager and he set him straight. Didn't help that we had been and still were balls out busy that day thanks to the surprise hit that was The Hangover that summer.

 

[McNinja]

I work at a Target and contemplate human genocide each and every waking second of my existence.

Hahahahahahaha I used to work at a Target. I got fired because they scheduled me during school when I clearly told them not to.

At any rate, there's always that one retarded customer who doesn't pay attention, or is simply unreasonable. I worked at a place called Shadowland for over two years (it's a laser tag place) and there were some insane customers.

One of my co-workers accidentally delivered pizza to the wrong party room, which meant that the wrong party had pizza (the one that was given the pizza hadn't actually ordered any, they just assumed they had). So after a few minutes the other party realizes that they don't have their pizza, and they talk to the manager, who talks to the party sponsor, who realizes his error. By now the other party has started digging into the pizza, so no taking that back. The manager then offers to get them new pizza, for free, if they want. They didn't want. What they did want was a free game for each of the 16 kids who were at this party (at $20 a kid, that is a lot of money we'd be losing), so of course the manager told her no, and she threw a fit in the middle of the lobby.

Another thing was one time an older lady (around 50 or so) decided to complain that she couldn't hide in the 2x5 space under the ramps in the arena (where the laser tag happens). She tried, and was told to get out, and so decided to yell at me. It was grand, because in order to get there you have to sit or lie down, and the rules (which I have to go over) are very clearly stated at the beginning and end of each briefing. She still complained and my manager and I chalked that one up to being a moron.

 

[purplegothchick]

True not everyone is an ass and most people are a pleasure to deal with, but it only takes one person to completely cock up your day.

I've worked in game shops for about a year now and if there's one thing I've learned, it's not to let one random dick ruin your day.

I got kicked off at really badly the other week, honestly the worst I'd ever had. He was trying to return a memory card under our 12 day exchange policy and he couldn't understand why I wouldn't give him a refund. Aside from the fact that he was outside the 12 day period, he also wanted the money back even though I'd explained it was an exchange at best. He'd got himself completely worked up, was even threatening to call trading standards. Ended up having to call my manager on his day off to ask his advice! After he'd got his own way and he'd left, one of my colleagues gave me a hug, we had a coffee and after that, I got on with my day.

Yes there are total asses out there who will try to bully you to get their own way, and yes, we do get a lot of regulars in our shop, but the majority of people, you will never see again, so I've learned not to let it get to me and to just move on when I get a customer like that. It really helps me a lot ^_^

 

[purplegothchick]

True not everyone is an ass and most people are a pleasure to deal with, but it only takes one person to completely cock up your day.

I've worked in game shops for about a year now and if there's one thing I've learned, it's not to let one random dick ruin your day.

I got kicked off at really badly the other week, honestly the worst I'd ever had. He was trying to return a memory card under our 12 day exchange policy and he couldn't understand why I wouldn't give him a refund. Aside from the fact that he was outside the 12 day period, he also wanted the money back even though I'd explained it was an exchange at best. He'd got himself completely worked up, was even threatening to call trading standards. Ended up having to call my manager on his day off to ask his advice! After he'd got his own way and he'd left, one of my colleagues gave me a hug, we had a coffee and after that, I got on with my day.

Yes there are total asses out there who will try to bully you to get their own way, and yes, we do get a lot of regulars in our shop, but the majority of people, you will never see again, so I've learned not to let it get to me and to just move on when I get a customer like that. It really helps me a lot ^_^

 

[purplegothchick]

Oops, did not mean to post that twice! Stupid updating guidelines, making it do it twice -_-

 

[Ranma12569]

Excuse me if I offend people but as Yahtzee and Totalbiscuit have said Fanboys (WoW or otherwise) are entitled gits. And while not everyone is humble most people are dicks when costumers. And before you say "Well I'm nice to my server etc. etc." when was the last time you thanked the person at Starbucks for you coffee? When was the last time you said "May I please have a frappucino" or whatever. When was the last time you bid someone who worked at a taco bell or a grocery store a good day after they've serviced you?

well i work in a shop and can safely say that near enough everyone says please and thankyou to me when i'm serving them. I admittedly don't always say please myself (when i'm in another shop) but i always say thanks to the person that served me.

OT: I've actually been called so many different rude names by some people that i've sorta learned to ignore it. I've been shouted at a lot but again, it doesn't bother me too much.
There's only really been once that i've been left pretty shaken and that's when someone was literally right in my face. My supervisor then said "I thought he was going to hit you" to which i replied "I thought the same thing"

 

[Talon_Skywarp]

Spent 40mins explaining why I couldn't give this guy his £20 deposit back. He commanded me to get it out my own bank account. He told me to get £20 from my bosses wallet. This went on and on and on

To finish him, I simply said 'this call has cost you £10. So I'd give up now.'

I've got hundreds of tales of horror. Needless to say, the customer is wrong