The customers who drive me nuts in fast food places (I’ve never actually worked in one, this is just from being in line) are the ones who go through the drive through to order food for 132 people, the ones who wait in line for 15 minutes at a McDonalds (which has the exact same menu the world over, save for in France where I understand they call it a Royale with Cheese) and then, when they get waited on, can’t decide what they want. In regular restaurants I hate it when people (including one of my nearest and dearest friends, Jessica, bless her) seem incapable of ordering something that’s actually on the menu (“Let’s see, I want the garlic toast from the chicken parmesan dinner, but instead of the chicken parmesan give me a shrimp scampi dinner, but instead of the pasta I’ll have the baked potato and instead of the mixed vegetables I’ll take a Caesar salad and I’ll just have water to drink with lemon, lime and a cherry in it, oh, and a cup of coffee that’s half regular, 1/4 decaf and 1/4 vanilla flavoring…” It’s like dining with an occidental Miss Swan.
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
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.
[/QUOTE]
I worked under two managers while I was working for a hotel (big brand-name chain), and neither of them ever did this. The first manager was a nice lady, but she would never, ever bump a reservation, no matter what the people claimed. If a credit card had been given, the room would be held until 7 AM.
The second manager was a nasty bitch. (She would actually say horrible things to the customers and when they complained to corporate, they would believe the manager’s denial because some of the things she said were so fantatically awful that no one would believe someone would actually say that.) She would never have bumped a reservation even if it appeared it was a no-show because it was against her personal code to do anything nice.
But I know what you mean about the liars. Once a year, we had a huge event in town which would bring in about 40,000 visitors. Hotels would be booked solid for a sixty mile radius. I think some people were just so desperate for a room that they tried the screamer approach hoping that we’d cave, but in our place, it never worked.
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
the ones who wait in line for 15 minutes at a McDonalds (which has the exact same menu the world over, save for in France where I understand they call it a Royale with Cheese) and then, when they get waited on, can’t decide what they want.
[/QUOTE]
I HATE people who do that. If I’m at a fast food place, and I still haven’t decided what I want, I stand back, off to the side, to study the menu (if it’s a place that I don’t know what they have), or just to think about it.
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
I HATE people who do that. If I’m at a fast food place, and I still haven’t decided what I want, I stand back, off to the side, to study the menu (if it’s a place that I don’t know what they have), or just to think about it.
[/QUOTE]
Or the chattery teenage girls who order in a big group, then remain in front of the counter in a big group so that even when I call “Can I help anyone?” nobody comes up because I look like I am helping someone. If you’re not ordering, get out of the ORDERING AREA!
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
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).
[/QUOTE]
:eek:
[QUOTE=FlyingRamenMonster]
But apparently it doesn’t matter. He calls down the mike to ask if they can make her order super fast, please, and throw on a free chips on top of that. Meanwhile Phone Lady is staring at us, and me especially, as if we strangled her dog AND her firstborn son.
[/QUOTE]
Thus rewarding her bad behaviour and guaranteeing that she’ll throw her weight around the next time she considers her time and convenience more important than anyone else’s.
[QUOTE=FlyingRamenMonster]
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
[/QUOTE]
You know, I really can’t be bothered to complain. We picked McDonald’s because it happened to be the closest fast food restaurant to where we were. I think I’ve hit a McD’s twice in the past year…I prefer Burger King or Long John Silvers.
[QUOTE=FlyingRamenMonster]
<snippity snip>
- The customer is always right.
<snip> - The customer is always right.
[/QUOTE]
The sales guru/management consultant who spawned that line should be shot in the head, repeatedly.
That illogical, non-sensical, factually incorrect piece of corporate crapspeak must go. It sets the salesperson up for failure, and has arguably been the cause of immeasurable harm to and misery in the service industry. If there is one statement that every salesperson, manager and mentor must completely erase from his/her sales manual, it’s that one.
Customer: ‘The sun revolves around the earth’.
Service provider: ‘Well, that settles that then. You are right, Copernicus and Galileo were wrong. Case closed.’
[QUOTE=ivylass]
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?”
[/QUOTE]
I’ve got to say, I don’t think, “but they only make minimum wage!” is ever an excuse for shitty service. I know you weren’t making that argument, but the “I know they only get…” implies that it CAN be an excuse.
You get hired to do a job, you do the job. You agree to be a burger jockey for $5.35, then you’re going to be a burger jockey, and you’re going to get $5.35 for it. There is a fucked-up sense of entitlement going on in which it seems like half the people under 21* in the workforce think they deserve minimum wage for showing up, let alone actually lifting a finger to do their job.
A person’s pay rate does not effect their ability to do well at their job, nor their ability to deal with other people.
More on topic … I think customers waiting in line should be able to take a vote on whether a rude customer in front of them deserves to have anything comped.
*Not limited to this age range, just appears more prevelant
[QUOTE=irishgirl]
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.
… <snip>
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.
[/QUOTE]
You do realize that this lady was using the shop as her own personal closet, buying things, wearing them once and then returning them for the exchange and gift certificate? I worked retail for many years and no matter how careful people were, we could always tell when something had been worn and returned. Wrinkles across the lap and elbows, sweat stains, makeup, smelling like smoke or deordorant. Some people eve tried ironing out the wrinkles, but it was pretty obvious.
[QUOTE=Mellivora capensis]
Customer: ‘The sun revolves around the earth’.
[/QUOTE]
And the customer is the earth.
[QUOTE=tdn]
And the customer is the earth.
[/QUOTE]
Ooh, that totally makes me want to say something like, “Look, lady, no matter how big you are, the sun does not actually revolve around you.” But I probably wouldn’t, because I’m pretty non-confrontational and a big lady could bend me up like a pretzel.
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
I just have to mention that I covet that sentence.
I have actually suggested a “Giving precedence to a cell phone call will result in you losing your place in line” sign at the reference desk where I work and at other businesses where I’ve gone. People think I’m joking- I’m not. I will gleefully humiliate the hell out of a student who takes a cell phone call to say anything other than some five second or less synonym of “I’ll call you back” while I’m teaching a class. People who have no common courtesy or common sense with those things should have to forfeit them.
[/QUOTE]
I had a professor who would answer the student’s phone if it went off in class (unless the student darted out the door immediately to take the call outside). He would ask the person on the other end of the line a question about what we had been discussing in class. Once he asked someone’s optometrist’s receptionist what she thought of the phallic symbolism in Jane Eyre. That was a fun five minutes.
I’ve thought about having a similar policy when I start teaching next fall. I’m not going to jump the gun, though. First I’ll see how much of a problem it is, and then I’ll decide.
[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]
Why does the phrase “self fulfilling prophecy” keep going through my mind?
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
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).
[/QUOTE]
“Incense and Peppermints.” I’ll have to watch it the next time I go there…
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
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.
[/QUOTE]
I remember reading a book with management tips and advice; I don’t remember the name of the author, but his agency manages a number of athletes. One of his tips was to keep your temper when dealing with people in service positions. His example was a person whose flight was delayed, yelling at the person behind the ticket counter. His reasoning: “Why anger the one person who can possibly help you?”
Sure enough, years later my wife and I were flying to another city. I had reserved a rental car, and they had assured me the day before the flight that they would pick me up at the airport (they didn’t have a booth in the airport). As you might anticipate, they were nowhere to be found when the flight arrived. When I called them, it became obvious that they had no car for us. They said that they would send someone to talk to us. In the meantime I talked to all the other rental agencies in the concourse, but to no avail. Eventually our alleged rental agency sent a young girl, obviously working a summer job and who had drawn the short straw. She was forced to tell us that the people who had our reserved car had decided to keep it for another week. Remembering that little tip, instead of getting angry, I explained that we were helpless without a car, and could she do anything at all to help us out? She led us over to a competing rental agent (one who had previously told us they had no cars), and they agreed to rent us a car at the same terms.
[QUOTE=ladybug]
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.
[/QUOTE]
My fiance is the manager of a place I’ll call “Quick Oil Change.” Almost every night he comes home with a story about his Asshole Customer of the Day. My favorite ones are the people who think that taking their car in for an inspection automatically qualifies them to pass and then they pitch a fit because they failed the inspection. The best story in this genre involves a relative of the Queen of the Universe who came in at the same time as an instructor in the local state inspector’s school (he was there for an oil change). The Queen of the Universe’s relative pitched a high holy FIT because she failed the emissions part of the inspection. She loudly declares that HER UNCLE’S shop ALWAYS passed her car, so there is NO REASON for her car to fail. She also mentioned the name of her uncle’s shop. In front of the guy who works for the NCDOT’s inspector training school. As soon as she left, he got on the phone and asked for an immediate audit of HER UNCLE’S shop.
[QUOTE=SpazCat]
My fiance is the manager of a place I’ll call “Quick Oil Change.” Almost every night he comes home with a story about his Asshole Customer of the Day. My favorite ones are the people who think that taking their car in for an inspection automatically qualifies them to pass and then they pitch a fit because they failed the inspection. The best story in this genre involves a relative of the Queen of the Universe who came in at the same time as an instructor in the local state inspector’s school (he was there for an oil change). The Queen of the Universe’s relative pitched a high holy FIT because she failed the emissions part of the inspection. She loudly declares that HER UNCLE’S shop ALWAYS passed her car, so there is NO REASON for her car to fail. She also mentioned the name of her uncle’s shop. In front of the guy who works for the NCDOT’s inspector training school. As soon as she left, he got on the phone and asked for an immediate audit of HER UNCLE’S shop.
[/QUOTE]
These are the stories that get me out of bed in the morning. “Jerk Gets Comeuppance” is my favorite headline.
[QUOTE=featherlou]
“Look, lady, no matter how big you are, the sun does not actually revolve around you.”
[/QUOTE]
Heh.
My former roommate was very clever once.
He was a clerk at Bloomingdale’s once. For some reason two abusive women got up to his counter at the same time. They both insisted on being waited on first, and would not hear of waiting. “Wait on me now or I will get you fired!” “No, wait on me now or I will get you fired!”
It was a seeming impass. My roomie, being quick on his feet, came up with a workable solution. “Let’s do this by age. The older of you gets to go first.”
They were both willing to be second.
On the clever front (and the police angle from page 1), I once worked for the County Library system, and a co-worker and I got a VERY Cranky man who screamed at us for the $89.95 (or whatever) fine his children had racked up.
He became verbally abusive, until another gentleman in line stepped up, tapped his shoulder, asked him to step aside for one moment, and showed him something.
When Mr. Cranky returned to the line, he paid his fine, apologised to the clerk, and went meekly on his way.
Turns out the gentleman waiting behind him showed Mr. Cranky his Deputy Sheriff badge, and reminded him that he was verbally harassing County staff on County property.
There were many thanks exchanged!
Eli
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
The customers who drive me nuts in fast food places … the ones who wait in line for 15 minutes at a McDonalds (which has the exact same menu the world over, save for in France where I understand they call it a Royale with Cheese) and then, when they get waited on, can’t decide what they want..
[/QUOTE]
My boyfriend does that in the drive thru. It drives me nuts. He’ll do the whole “uhhh…I’ll have a…” I almost have a nervous breakdown everytime we go through a drive thru as a result. Then he wonders why I’m yelling at him because he, honest to god, doesn’t realize how annoying he’s being. Even after cursing at the person ahead of us who just took just as long as him! :rolleyes:
And I would just like to say that after reading this thread, I was very careful to tell a certain CSR on the phone this morning that \what I was bitching about wasn’t her fault, but I was just really frustrated. I could actually hear the relief in her voice. Nice!
[QUOTE=SpazCat]
I had a professor who would answer the student’s phone if it went off in class (unless the student darted out the door immediately to take the call outside). He would ask the person on the other end of the line a question about what we had been discussing in class. Once he asked someone’s optometrist’s receptionist what she thought of the phallic symbolism in Jane Eyre. That was a fun five minutes.
I’ve thought about having a similar policy when I start teaching next fall. I’m not going to jump the gun, though. First I’ll see how much of a problem it is, and then I’ll decide.
[/QUOTE]
At a certain improvisational theatre in Chicago, the young lady performing on stage makes it a practice to charm patrons into giving her their ringing cell phones. Which she then drops into her pants. She really likes it when they’re on vibrate.
(really enjoying all these stories, BTW)