I actually had to look it up, I’m new to J-action-ville; not to near, I’d say about 1 hour away.
Ah. My parents live there. So does my sister, though she just moved there from Orange Park.
Generally people who are stuck working in shitty, low-wage jobs are just plain pissed off, they’re not TARGETTED in how they’re pissed off. Some customer comes along and gives them any guff, that customer might just find himself on the highway to hell.
And I never said anyone had a RIGHT to be pissed off at customers. It’s more like I’m pointing out a law of nature. You stick a monkey in a cage and poke it with a stick, it’s gonna fling shit at you. It’s not 'cause the monkey has a RIGHT to be pissed off, it’s just taht that’s what happens when you put a monkey in that situation.
So when people find themselves stuck in a low-wage job dealing with the public and its many jerk members, whether the reason is a bad economy, their personal situation, drug use, or whatever, they are gonna be pissed off. Expecting people in such trying circumstances to be polite and reasonable is BEYOND clueless. I’m amazed more people don’t get whacked by retail clerks myself.
And enabling people (by saying “hey, that’s the way it is”) in this situation to have freedom to be rude, to me, is WAY beyond wrong.
Yes, poking in a monkey in a cage with a stick will result in flung dung. However, humans are a little more evolved than monkeys and can deal with situtations differently.
The customer service people should fling ding (um, dung) at customers that are assholes but when another customer comes in don’t assume they are an asshole and start flinging (and the ability to differentiate is one of the things that separates us from the monkeys).
originally posed by Fin_man
I used to work in restaurants for eight years, while on the seven-year college plan. Yes, I was pissed that: my parents did not pay for college, the government did not give me enough financial aid, my landlord actually had the nerve to charge me rent and that the world is no longer accepting the coupons for all the stuff it owes me. After I consulted every lawyer in town about resolving these issues, there was no other choice but to get a job.
My experience in working with people is this, I liked most of it and the jackasses can make life a little more interesting. Incompetent and disgruntled people can be found everywhere, and if they make up a majority of the people you deal with perhaps you should look at the situation more closely.
- Companies that suck and treat their employees badly tend to have workers that suck and treat their customers badly. Shop elsewhere.
- People that are unpleasant to deal with don’t get treated well at the least these people are avoided.
Never assume that folks in customer service are uneducated. Usually, the assholes who never heard of a please, may I or thank you, do this. One evening I had a customer that talked to me as though I was a fourth grader. (Actually, I wouldn’t talk to a fourth grader in the manner he did.) The polite customers next to them started making fun of the guy after he left. I bought these people drinks and dessert for making my day. Bottom line: most people in customer service want you to have a good experience, and a little kindness goes a long way.
Guinastasia, I must have just gone to that message board at a bad period or something, cause I fully expected to love it, but thats truely the impression I got from it.
Evil Captor, I was once one of those people who got stuck in a minimum wage job. I had a good job, making about 10-12 an hour, and my car got totalled by a drunk, I couldn’t get to work, couldn’t get a new car (it was a piece of shit, worth about $500 from the ins. co.) and was forced into taking a shitty 4.50 an hour job that I could walk to. I was bringing home about $150 a week, and that had to cover food, rent, utility bills, the debt I racked up while making good money, all that stuff. I had to do that for 8 months, walking 2 miles every day (on preview, um, uphill, both ways, in the snow 
). Sometimes I closed, and was out at 12:30, only to be back in at 5 to open. I still managed to save enough to buy a car that was another piece of shit, which was enought to get me to another shitty job, this time in a factory at night. That paid enough to let me afford a better car, and some decent clothes, and allowed me to slowly work my way from job to job, each one a little better than the last. It took me 5 years of working my way through the shitty degrading world of service oriented jobs and factory jobs to finally escape that, into the “professional” world of call centers. Yup, more customers. The whole time, I was polite and reasonable to the customers. So don’t tell me about people’s circumstances. If someone can’t politely deal with a customer, and they work in that industry, then they don’t deserve that job. Period. Not saying I don’t have sympathy for people, but it only goes so far. Treating me as an asshole when I’m being polite is going to get nothing from me when I’m being polite.
On the flip side, I think nothing of calling managers and / or leaving comment cards or if the situation calls for it, an extra large tip for good service. Usually I’ll call the manager, and leave a comment card, AND find the corporate website and leave some feedback there.
Altoid, I meant no disrespect with my list. I am not assuming any reason why people are in customer service. All I was trying to do (and I should have explicitly stated it) was come up with reasons why somebody in a crappy job feels he/she is stuck in that crappy job. Follow?
Hell, I used to bus tables and clean the dishes in a pizzaria. That was the crappiest job I ever had but only got upset with the assholes (those leaving extreme messes, not controlling their children, etc.) and not every customer.
My belief is any job (that is legal) is a job worth doing (and doing well). Just because somebody has a job that you would never thing of doing doesn’t mean that they are any less a human being. Everybody should be treated with respect until they prove otherwise.
Is it me or did this thread just become a polite discussion? I’m not complaining just noticing.
Maybe it’s just me, but, isn’t that all the people in the other thread were doing?
No one was complaining about each and every customer they served, they were complaining about the assholes with a sense of entitlement demanding lower prices because they had seen those lower prices elsewhere.
Or maybe I was reading the wrong linked thread…
[customer service voice] Sir, I am very sorry we are currently out of flames. Perhaps you could check back later or try at another location. Once again my apologies for the inconvenience. [/customer service voice]
Helpful hint from your neighborhood Binarydrone:
You will never ever get consistently good service from the service industry until the folks that work in the industry earn a living wage and are respected. So sorry. I suppose using the logic that I have seen in this thread I could just tell you to stop buying things.
Also, the point is very well made that surly employees are a very strong indicator of management that mistreats the workers. Really, I blame this culture of “the customer is always right”. Perfect example of a decent idea that got carried to foolish extremes.
I don’t get this duality.
Either customer service is a low-paid, no skilled job that the workers should just be thankful to have in which case, logically, you won’t be getting the cream of the crop, so why would you expect premium service? If you’re going to pay for a Chevy, you can’t bitch when you don’t get Ferrari handling. This is why I don’t understand when people complain about the service at a place like Wal-Mart. It’s Wal-Mart. They keep prices low by employing as few people as they can get away with.
Or customer service is a fine calling, nay, a vocation. Then they should be paid accordingly, I assume.
My advice, look for the Vinegar-boy story and search for any posts by Meltdown. I used to work retail, and i do cooking-waitstaff now, and you got to realize, the customer is not always right. Nobody is perfect. I still say 9 and a half times out of 10, i get the nicest people.
I’ve been bitten by a little kid, I’ve been threatened by people because we dont have their precious Playstation game in stock, I’ve seen 2 co-workers litterally get assaulted. Sure I’ve heard stupid things, (someone asking if our store is 2 towns over from where it is) But i take some pleasure in my work.
But to have an OP call us ingrateful assholes, because we complain, that is low. Have you ever had a bad day, dumbfuck? Have you ever wanted to bitch about the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard or seen, Asswipe?
According to the loving OP, we are supposed to be seen and not heard. We have been abused by customers, management, corporate entities, and we aren’t taking it sitting down. There’s been efforts over the years to unionize various retail stores and restaruants. I applaud these efforts, if only to give the little person a voice.
~SkY~
Well, lezlers, I must admit I didn’t read the linked thread. I was going by comments in the OP
“So the customer asked you if you have price matching, you poor baby. Being subjected to questions about your store’s policy. Boo-fucking-hoo”
and
“Many the times the customer is an all out asshole who deserves to be bitch slapped and told to get the fuck out”
From these, I understood the complaint to be about normal, friendly customers asking normal, friendly questions.
My bad :smack:
I rather think the OP has managed to miss a fairly crucial part of the linked thread. The customers weren’t trying to clarify store policy; they’re asking stupid questions, trying to scam the store, or generally being jackasses. If we all have to stop bitching about people who are stupid, or dishonest, or jackasses, they’ll have to close this forum altogether, and the rest of the board will take a hell of a hit, too.
What, now we have to actually READ threads before bitching about them?
Don’t sweat it, bayonet, I’m on the job!
I’m sorry, but anybody who isn’t pissed off about being stuck in a stupid job is a sap. Most retail and service sector jobs are a grand waste of human potential. Most of us are a LOT better than what we get in the wonderful world of corporations, capitalism and wage slavery (which doesn’t pay NEARLY as well as it used to. btw).
I mean, let’s face it. For must of us, the choice isn’t to work or relax and have a good time. It’s a choice between working in Marse Delta’s fields, or Marse Rich’s fields, or Marse IBM’s fields, but that’s 'bout the only choice we get, and in the present economy, we work in any damn field that’ll have us.
Well, if you wanna bend over and spread 'em for your employer and then when you get your predictable reaming, beg and plead for more in hopes that soon you’ll be bent over a more comfortable barrel, be my guest. Just don’t go around claiming you’re doing it for any reason other than your own, shall we say, personal needs.
Let me take a look at my OP, nope didn’t call anyone an ungrateful asshole. Or was that directed at someone else?
I have to say that when I worked in the service industry I bent over backwards to be polite and helpful. It gave me a sense of satisfaction to send a customer away happy. But some customers make that impossible. They are bound and determined to be miserable shits despite my best effort.
And yes, I would vent about them behind their backs. Better than having a stroke.