On a related note, one little phrase made a ton of difference in how helpful I was to an irate customer. If they said something to the effect of “I know this is not your fault, but I’ very frustrated…” then I would return the compassion and help you to the absolute limit of my abilities and then stretch the limit. If you’re screaming at me for something that I have absolutely nothing to do with and only limited recourse in helping you, I’m not going to respond to your complete lack of respect any more than my job description says I absolutely have to.
Precisely. Frustration I understand. Taking it out on the powerless person (me) is another.
QUOTE=Queen of the Felines]You haven’t had it bad until you’ve had a customer complain that you’ve put human feces on her food and then demand gift certificates as compensation.
Gift certificates. To a place that supposedly put shit on her food. :dubious:
[/QUOTE]
Ahahaha! And of course, you’re not allowed to say “Why do you want gift certificates to a place that put shit on your food?”
Heh heh. I should defend my manager. He didn’t know what was going on. It’s faster to appease the angry customer than risk a scene throwing them out of the store; there WERE still people waiting.
I like to stay as cheery as possibly no matter who I have in front of me. It seems to please the nice customers and piss off the assholes.
You’re fired. Next!!
Oh, God, how I hate people. I am a nurse–so I see all kinds of people in all types of stress. I do have compassion for people (I’m a nurse), but forgive my jaded ass.
Of the variety available, I’ll take the lower income, less educated person ranting at me over the entitled wealthy individual who is acting like a great big baby. NOTHING puts my back up more than being treated like a scullery maid by some blowhard from the “the right side of the tracks”. The sheer effrontery of some of the more financially privileged people in this country takes my breath away. Who, exactly, do they think they are? Obviously they are stars in their own dramas, but to me, the play is sure to get a bad review.
Keep in mind, I am NOT talking about people who are out of their minds with anxiety and grief. I am talking about people who throw a hissy because we don’t do courtesy trays for visitors; no, you cannot have 10 people in this room, including infants; I don’t wash pt’s hair OR do their nails, I can’t make the doctor appear presto. I have no magic power to make him call back, either. All I can do is page him/her-again. :rolleyes:
I was once reported because a pt’s daughter said I didn’t smile enough. Fuck that. I am not Julie McCoy–your mother is dying. Which would you prefer? Someone who can answer your questions, take excellent care of the your mother and anticipate your and her needs, or someone who will enter into your denial and lie to you? Keep in mind, I am not Oscar the Grouch at work, either–I am professional.
Grrr.
I have worked in the food industry (restaurants-as a cook and as a carry out girl-never been a waitress) and I still work as a nurse. I try very hard to support any and all service people–these jobs can really suck. I don’t understand the rage instigated by someone’s pizza being wrong. Disappointed, sure-but rage?
My sister is a Screamer–who insists that if it (whatever it is) isn’t perfect–back it goes and no tip, either. I loathe going out anywhere with her (luckily, she lives in LA, so this doesn’t happen often). There’s no changing her.
My sister had a job in a clothing shop, that was, without doubt, the worst retail job ever.
The shop was one of those little boutiques that sell strange Italian designer clothes, so the clientele was usually quite wealthy. Anyway, her life was made miserable by one particular customer.
This lady bought something (quite cheap, a t-shirt) and then returned it the next day, labels still on, but with a pulled thread or a tiny stain or a little hole- and she got her money back and a gift certificate because the shop had sold faulty merchandise.
She then spent the money and gift certificate on another item, slightly more expensive. happy days everyone thought, and sister checked this second item very carefully to make sure it was pristine.
Of course, this woman then brought that item back a few days later, again with its labels intact, but with a little defect (yep, one that definitely wasn’t there when it left the shop), only to get another refund and another gift certificate, for the trauma of having bought damaged goods.
After the second time, sister was onto this game and wanted to just return the money, however, this woman made such a fuss about a shop being owned by one of the members of her church, ripping it’s customers off by selling faulty products that the owner insisted on giving her a gift cert, lest she spread it around his church that he was ripping people off.
So she kept doing it. At least once a week, every week, for that entire summer she would return something “damaged” and buy something a little pricier with the refund and the gift cert. Every week, if they tried not to give her the refund, or not to give her the gift cert, she’d threaten to “expose” the owner to his church, and he’d cave in.
In the end she walked away with a fancy-schmancy dress for the price of that original t-shirt, plus a hell of a lot of gift certificates for “damaged” goods. :rolleyes:
That’s exactly how I feel. Even if you have a problem with a product or service, you get much better results when you work with the salespeople/managers than against them.
Many years ago, when I still had my first car, I brought it to a local repair shop to take care of a few problems. This was on a Saturday morning, and it was one of those walk-in places – first come, first serve. I brought my books with me so that I could study during the wait.
I’d been in the shop’s waiting room for a few hours when another customer walked in. She threw a fit when the guy behind the counter told her that she’d have to wait an hour or two to get her car fixed, because there were a few people ahead of her. She yelled at the guy for about five minutes before stomping out of the shop.
When my repair was completed about two hours later, the same guy came out and thanked me for waiting so patiently. He said the management was so grateful to have a calm, rational customer that I was getting the repair for free.
A vouple of months ago, Hubby and I went out to a chain resturant for dinner. There was a long wait, but we were in no hurry. The manager herself finally seated us, apologizing for our wait. I said it was no problem.
As I was eating my meal, I speared a piece of vegetable with my fork and saw that the sticker was still on it. I was pretty grossed out-- obviously, the veggies hadn’t been washed before they were cooked. When our waitress came back, I showed it to her.
The look of trepidation on her face when I pointed it out was kind of sad-- she really expected me to start shrieking at her. She offered to get me something else, but I had already eaten a lot of my meal, so I said that wasn’t necessary-- I just wanted to let them know.
The manager came back over and apologized. She comped our meal and gave us a gift card in addition.
When I got home, I sent an e-mail to their corporate office, telling them that I was really impressed with the staff for their politeness and that the manager had been very nice to us-- we hadn’t expected a gift card. They replied, saying that it wasn’t often they got positive feed-back like this and they were very grateful for it.
We went back to the same resturant a week or so later, and that same manager recognized us, and thanked us for the nice letter we had sent. She was thrilled to have gotten praise from the corporate office-- especially since she had probably anticipated a complaint.
Since I saw her reaction and realized that the corporate offices really do pass on nice comments, I’ve sent quite a few of them. Whenever I get great service, I make a point to contact either their head office, or the store manager.
Another line I covet. 
Nursing is one of those occupations that I thank whatever gods there may be that there are intelligent and committed people who enter the field, but how anybody can do it is just something I cannot fathom because the stress:money ratio would just have to be one of the worst in the First World (dealing with stressed out [and stupid] family members, trying to tell something to doctors who won’t listen, egggh).
Since I’ll admit I gave hell to a couple of nurses [both of them with serious tudes] when my mother was in ICU I was shrinking a little when I first read this, but I’m certainly not rich/entitled and the issue certainly wasn’t manicures/grooming but more serious [feeding tubes that were loose and leaking for hours, nobody to change her sheets when they were covered with diarrhea, etc.].
I have done this, too - looked up the manager before leaving and let them know that their staff was very good. I got the same reaction too - people expecting the yelling to start when I asked for the manager.
We had an interesting experience last night - mixed good and bad. The restaurant felt that we had waited too long for our food, so they offered us a couple of drinks. That’s good, but I don’t drink - I appreciate the offer, but it’s kind of empty for us non-drinkers. Then half of my dinner (the sweet potato fries) were barely lukewarm. I wasn’t sure what to do with that. I guess I could have told the server and got some fresh fries, but things seemed to have been such a big production already. I just ate some of them and forgot about it. The rest of the meal was very good. Then the server brought the wrong bill. We just laughed it off at that point - there was no point in getting all het up about this little stuff.
It’s kind of a balancing act, figuring out what to push and what to leave alone. Your attitude sounds really good, FRM. Staying cheery will indeed piss off the grouches. 
My cousin and two of my best friends over the years worked at a chain theme restaurant that I won’t identify (though I will say it’s name is the same as a 1967 hit single). They all confirmed that there was a “special button” on the computerized order placement system that had an unknown real purpose but was used for “do something rude to this order” and was used for jackass customers (like the one who complained about an order by GRABBING the arm of a waitress who wasn’t his and yelling, or the woman who was going apeshit because there were scallions on her chicken and ‘I’m deathly allergic to seafood’ (and she wouldn’t listen when told ‘scallops are seafood, scallions are not’), etc… When the key was eventually disabled, it became sign language.
In hotels we used to get a lot of liars who would come in, ask for a room, and when told we were fully booked insist “I have a reservation” (odd you didn’t mention it before). Of course there’d be no reservation under that name and they’d have no coonfirmation number, but they’d still yell and rant and rave about our incompetency until a passing manager would say “give him a room”, which would then of course displace somebody who really did have a reservation, who would then have to be walked (i.e. sent to another hotel at our expense) and if this legitimately aggrieved person went postal there was of course no manager there to bear any of the brunt of the yelling. There was also the belligerant asshole who really did have a confirmation number and used a racial slur at the black clerk, and the confirmation number was in fact for another hotel (it even started with the first few letters of the other hotel’s name) and he not only didn’t apologize (unless you count cursing his secretary for making it at the wrong hotel), but the gelatinous spined manager STILL gave him a room at our establishment. (Personally I think when a racial slur has entered the equation any need to be polite, accomodating or in any way helpful is officially over, even if the original complaint was legitimate, but never underestimate the ability of a spineless mid-level to “forgive”, especially if it doesn’t apply to them.) One night a racial slur was used against a desk clerk who was also called stupid by the guest; his response was classic: “I might be a stupid nigger, but it’s strange that I’m not the one who just used a term like that against a man standing here with lots of gang member relatives, membership in the Nation of Islam, your home address, the name of the company you work for and your credit card number.” The point was made (and the desk clerk was about as in with gang members and the NoI as I am).
I am thrilled beyond words to have received such a compliment–I will smile all the while for you. ( I meant that-thanks for the nice comment).
See, this shit should not happen. You were right to raise a fuss. I round on my pts, at least every 90 minutes, sometimes, it’s every hour or even half hour, depending on their condition. (Frankly, if I need to be in there more than every 30 minutes, the pt does not belong on my unit). I also catch alot of stuff that was undone from the noc shift-not always because the noc shift can be lazy–often the noc shift is short and cannot get to all the work that needs to be done.
A word to the wise: if you have a loved one in the hospital, ONE family member needs to stay with that person–especially if the pt is elderly or easily confused/unable to advocate for themselves. It costs me something to say that, but I fear it is true. Note I don’t say ALL family members stay or MORE than one at a time. This is not the time for a family reunion…
People continually amaze me–I had a pt(in her 40’s) recently who couldn’t remember the dosages of her home meds. Common enough problem. She refused to call home to get those dosages for me (or to let me call), instead she wanted me to name off all the most common dosages of these 12 meds and she would pick the ones that “sounded right” to her. Yeah-I’ll do that. :rolleyes: She seemed surprised when I declined her generous offer.
Oy.
It’s not uncommon for me, when someone has been very helpful, especially on the phone, to ask to speak to a supervisor. I always make a point of letting the person know it’s to compliment them so they don’t end up with the wrong impression. Sometimes they don’t tell the supervisor, though, so the boss will come on the phone audibly girding their loins to deal with a shrieking asshole – so it’s always fun to knock the wind right out of them by saying nice things. I guess not enough people are saying good things about good service these days.
I do have one pet peeve in a restaurant – failing to bring me something to drink promptly, or, even worse, bringing my food before my I get so much as a glass of water. For no known reason, just walking into a restaurant makes me thirsty. But rather than yell and scream about it or bother other servers (who have their own work to do), I’ll just get up and walk over to the serving station and ask someone there to please get me a glass of water. It’s amazing how quickly that brings apologies from my server and often the manager, and usually more attentive service for the remainder of the meal. I’m not doing it because I’m looking for comps; I’m just thirsty! I don’t usually take comps even if they’re offered, unless it’s for truly bad service. There have also been a time or two where our server was so bad that another server voluntarily stepped in and did most of the work – and in that case I’ll hand the tip to the server who actually did the work rather than the one who sloughed it off. It’s only fair to reward good service.
Well, no, from the perspective of a manager, it’s a choice between appeasing the idiot and leaving a positive impression and telling the idiot to get bent so that the idiot can tell everyone she knows how terrible the place is, how awful the people are and how poorly she was treated so be sure never to eat there again! One dissatisfied customer, despite having no actual reason to be dissatisfied, can do a fair amount of damage by spreading the word of her dissatisfaction.
Of course what managers in this position tend to fail to realize is that the bitch is going to complain about it to all of her friends anyway so the real choice is in how bad the manager wants the “review” to be.
We had one today. We hit a McDonald’s while running a lot of hot, dusty errands. We walk in right up to the counter. No one else is in line.
The cashier ignores us. She bustles back and forth, trying to unlock the other register, I think because she ran out of singles in her register. She finally gets the key, makes the change.
She has yet to acknowledge that we are standing there, not even a “I’ll be right with you.”
Then someone from the back brings up a phone and says, “You have a call.” He also ignores us as he drops off the phone and walks away.
By this time more people have come in behind us. I’m hot, hungry, dusty, and apparently smell like dog feces since the cashier continues to ignore us. She disappears to the drive-up window, grabbing the phone to talk to whoever called her.
I yell out “Helloooo!!!” a bit angrily, and I see a manager pop his head out from his office in the back and promptly disappear again. No one bothers to come up to take our order, and the cashier continues to yak on the phone.
I yell out “Goodbye!” and we go off to Wendy’s, where there was another line, but the cashier did apologize for wait and told us she’d be right with us as she’s getting another customer’s drinks.
Look, I know they get paid minimum wage. I’ve worked for minimum wage when it was barely $4.00/hour. I still tried to be courteous to customers. How hard is it to smile, nod, and say, “I’ll be right with you?”
When I was a small child - maybe five years old? - my sister and I were at a restaurant with my dad, who we never saw very much.
When the waitress came to take our order, he asked for a double cheeseburger. The waitress was confused, as they didn’t offer a double cheeseburger. He got pissy with her and told her to just tell the cook to put an extra meat patty on his cheeseburger. He was condescending and rude.
When the bill came, the waitress had, rightly, charged him for two cheeseburgers. He went balistic and yelled at her.
I wanted to just die and crawl under the table. Even I, at five years old, wondered what else the waitress should have done. I felt to bad for her.
He scared me that day, and taught me a lesson that he didn’t intend. That he was a mean man.
Ivylass, I think you should make a complaint to McDonald’s head office for that. I worked for the McDonald’s head office for Southern Alberta, and they took complaints like yours very seriously. (Complaints because people couldn’t get the fourth toy in the four-toy series, not so much. )
Part of the problem with managers and chains is that upper management and district managers tell local managers to please the customer no matter what. If a manager stands up to a rude jerk of a customer and that person complains over managers head then the manager is almost always in the wrong. They don’t want to hear the story. They just don’t want any complaints. It reflects badly on the manager.
It’s a lousy system that moves managers to take crap from assholes and reward awful behaviour from customers. It also breeds customers who know which buttons to push to get free stuff. I worked in big box stores and I always hated that crap. I also appreciated the rare manager who would calmly but firmly refuse to take too much shit from customers and tell them that verbal abuse was not tolerated at all.
I now happily work for a small privately owned company and the scam artists and the bitch loudly until they give me something customers don’t get too far.
Our rental department has a sign up saying
“Out of politeness we will not interrupt your phone call” Which is a very nice way of saying “If you’re on the phone we won’t wait on you”
Ivylass - I think you should complain too. That’s some really crappy service you got. You can ask for the complaints line and they’ll have to give you the number even if they don’t particularly feel like it. Or if you don’t feel like going that far explain to the manager how you were treated. It might not be the same manager and the worker might not be there but they’ll generally take that sort of thing very seriously. But if they don’t, call head office
What a *great *story. I’m surprised the Officer didn’t arrest the customer after the racial slurs.
A coworker of mine used to be a manager at MickieDs. ONe customer pulled up to the drive through pickup window {ahead of those ordering} and insisted he get a free combo meal because they had screwed up his order some time back. The manager explained that he couldn’t do that and jerk off customer throws some money at him and demands some combo meal. The manager picks up the money and reachs out the window to give the money back suggesting that the person take their business elsewhere.
At this point the customer becomes enraged and grabs the managers arms and starts name calling including racial slurs. Over a freakin combo meal!! What an idiot. Anyway, customer leaves but the police are called. Turns out customer is some well to do real estate guy and no charges are pressed.