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.
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.
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.
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!
:eek:
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.
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.
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.’
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
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.
And the customer is the earth.
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.
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.
Why does the phrase “self fulfilling prophecy” keep going through my mind?
“Incense and Peppermints.” I’ll have to watch it the next time I go there…
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.
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.
These are the stories that get me out of bed in the morning. “Jerk Gets Comeuppance” is my favorite headline.
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
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!
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)