Yep, I don’t get it either. I own a small business. When we make a mistake, I bend over backwards to make things right. This happens maybe twice a year.
When, on the other hand, a customer is a total ass and we are not to blame, I tell them to fuck off. I’d rather see them walk then to kiss their ass. And about half the time they come back anyway!
I’m astonished at the sheer level of asshololgy that one must practice to even come up with such a concept!
As was I … as was I. Needless to say, cousin was not invited out with us much after that.
I didn’t witness the abuse of the clerk, but I heard it’s aftermath, so it must have been dreadful.
I went into a Wal-Mart and first thing I needed to do was go to the restroom. There were two clerks in there, young women, and one was sobbing while the other was trying to comfort her. I heard “It’s just my first week here! I told hime I was sorry, why did he have to yell at me like that?” Sounds as if the poor kid was reamed out by an assholish customer. I left as soon as I finished my business, so as not to embarrass anyone.
I broke up with my girlfriend in college because of the way she treated a waitress. Well, that, and a few other reasons, but this was the topper.
We were at Denny’s or someplace like that and she ordered a tuna salad. You know, a scoop of tuna salad on a lettuce leaf. When the waitress served it, it wasn’t quite to my girlfriend’s liking for some damn reason, and she proceeded to give the poor waitress a reaming out that seemed to go on forever (probably about 5 minutes). She didn’t yell or swear, it was the condenscening, I’m-a-princess-you’re-a serf way she did it, letting the waitress know that even if she was just a lowly waitress, it was no excuse not to take any responsibility, etc., etc., etc.
After a while, I just said to the waitress, “That’s fine, thanks,” and she thankfully scooted. I can still remember what my girlfriend hissed at me after that: “Don’t fight my battles for me!” I mean, she was pissed. Whereupon I told her that it wasn’t much of a battle to be chewing out some poor soul who got paid partly to take her shit and so couldn’t tell her off like she deserved, and anyway, what the hell did the waitress have to do with the damn tuna salad in the first place?
I pictured myself being married to this woman for about 50 years. We broke up pretty soon after that.
Thankfully, I was always allowed to get away with dealing with jerk customers in my own way. My favorite job in college was when I worked in a local small town pharmacy. If a customer got out of hand, the pharmacists would normally give them the boot before anyone else could say anything. One time a customer was getting irate with a delivery guy and the delivery guy told the customer to follow him out the back door if it was that big of a deal. The pharmacists still tell that story with a smile.
I may have shared this one before, but I was at a mall one Saturday standing in line at a Subway. The mall was infested with Boy Scouts and their Den Fathers (?) for some reason; one of them was standing in front of me with two kids, a boy and a girl. The boy looked scared, and the girl looked like she had been crying. When it was his turn in line, he shoved both kids forward, repeatedly yelling at them to tell the Subway Lady what sandwiches they wanted. Both kids mumbled something; the father ended up relaying the order across the counter. Then it was time to select meats and ingredients. “TELL HER WHAT YOU WANT!” he repeatedly yelled at both children, occasionally grabbing one by the arm and shoving them against the counter. The girl finally started wailing, and the guy proceded to yell at her some more. The Subway Lady, meanwhile, was trying to get his attention to move them along, as a considerable line had formed. She raised her voice slightly to be heard over the noise. His response was to lunge at the counter and start screaming at her. I finally told the guy to chill and finish placing his order. He started spewing some nonsense about how much trouble it was to deal with two kids, and that I didn’t understand. He did finally calm down enough to pay for his order.
What an example to set for your kids – or, for that matter, your son’s Boy Scout Troop.
Yeah, seems to be the thing to do at a 24-hour diner. I worked at one in college, on the overnight shift, and the customers were forever doing crap like that.
My most recent “favorite” customer took umbrage at the fact that there was a spider in the hot tub of her hotel room. I had already moved/upgraded her room, and at 2 am, had no other room I could move the couple to. She called the front desk, and then came to the lobby to demand a refund, which I couldn’t give her - she wasn’t the person who checked into the room, paid the cash, and signed the registration card. (Her husband, boyfriend, “old man,” whatever had done so.) When I refused her demands, and told her that she would have to talk to the manager about it the next morning, she cussed at me, called me names, told me to do physically impossible things to myself, and told me she was going to call the police. I gave her the number to the police department. 
(Of course, the officers told Little Miss Muffett what I already knew - this was a civil matter, not criminal, and that they had better things to do at 3 am.)
I also recently dealt with a woman who had told the front desk that she DIDN’T want housekeeping that day, only fresh towels. Housekeeping complied - in fact, the head of the department heard the phone call and delivered the towels. At midnight (naturally) the guest decided to call the front desk to bitch because she hadn’t received housekeeping service that morning. I apologized, offered to give her fresh sheets and towels, but I had no one available to clean her room at that hour. She then stormed down to the lobby, barged ahead of another guest who was trying to check in, and repeated her demands. I held firm - I really couldn’t make another employee materialize at that hour. She took it up with the manager the next morning (manager = owner, in this case.) I love my boss: She told the guest that she had until 11 am to check out, that despite tough economic times, the guest wasn’t worth the trouble she caused. (And the guest who patiently waited to check in while this woman was ranting got a 25% discount on his room and an upgrade. He had quietly said to me “Yeah, I’ve worked in hotels before. I understand.”)
I worked at McDonald’s for a long time and I’m amazed after a performance like that the customer was ever served again.
At my old job at the corporate headquarters for a chain restaurant, one of my duties was to sort through the restaurant checks for this and that.
One day, while looking for something else, I came across a check from a customer who hadn’t left a tip. On the check the person wrote a very long and detailed note on why he or she hadn’t left a tip.
Holy crap, wasn’t this person the head douche of the universe! Written were things like “Make me feel happy. Make me want to come back here. Your company and your boss depend on YOU to make me give you repeat business. Don’t just take my order and rush off. Smile, and seem pleased to serve me…”
I couldn’t friggin’ believe it. About the only thing it didn’t mention was genuflecting and kissing rings. It pissed me off to read it and it had nothing to do with me.
I suspect that he heard about this “trick” somewhere, and was just dying for a chance to try it out. Thus the manufactured outrage at the lack of a desert special.
I used to do that cup trick when I would close the restaurant I worked in. I would leave it for the morning crew to discover. Don’t worry, it wasn’t one-sided anger from me, everyone did stuff like that to everyone in the store. It was fun, kind of like how the cast in Waiting got along.
Y’know, a large part of me is saying :eek: here; and another large part of me can’t let go of the idea that “Morning Bag of Coffee” would be an excellent name for an indie-rock album.
I used to run a quick-service pizza restaurant, and had to deal with these self-entitled assholes on a daily basis. Like others here have said, if we made a mistake, I’d do my best to make it right, but more often than not if a customer was getting heated it was because they had this “I’m the customer and I can do whatever I want” mentality. Fuck that. As soon as I could tell this was the root of a customer’s “problem,” said customer got bounced.
When I was a teenager doing my time in fast food hell, we had a customer come in trying to return a little toy that had been recalled by the chain due to the batteries being a choking hazard. The recall had occurred, IIRC, about TWO FREAKING YEARS prior to this. People who brought the toys back in when the recall was actually going on got a special coupon for free food (I think - this was over 20 years ago, I’m a little fuzzy on details).
Since Zippy the Wonder Bitch waited TWO FREAKING YEARS to try to return this toy (“I only just found it when I was cleaning my kid’s room!” :rolleyes:) my manager had to very politely tell her that there were no more special coupons (because it had been TWO FREAKING YEARS). I believe she offered her a free soda coupon or something. Zippy the Wonder Bitch was having none of that. She screamed, “Well, just throw it in the trash, then!”, flung the toy across the counter where it exploded into many little bits of plastic shrapnel, and stormed out.
I often wonder what happens when repulsive people like this start bragging about how they “put that stupid waitress/cashier/customer service rep in their place” to their friends. Does anyone ever point out to them that they are sub-human cretins and deserve to be slapped in the mouth?
Seriously. As a manager it would have taken me less than 5 seconds (since I have done on other ocassions to beligerant customers) to ban/trespass that customer from ever coming into my store again.
I’ve even banned certain customers only to see them wandering the store a month later. It was always fun to approach them and ask them to leave.
“Uh, yes I do remember you and you lost your privledge to shop here last month. Please leave now or I will have the police escort you out.”
I was surprised at that too, but all I can say is, sometimes managers supported us and sometimes they didn’t. The employee was more than happy to transfer.
There was this one older woman who came into my restaurant several times. She… was… incredibly… slow… about… placing… her… order. The first few times it wasn’t a problem, as she showed up when we were slow; the last time, she showed up during a rush. She literally took about twenty minutes to order a couple of pizzas, all the while blissfully unconcerned about the line of customers, out the door, behind her. I kept weakly smiling at the other customers, trying to convey “Sorry! I’m trying to move this along!” I don’t think any of them noticed, though, as they were all staring daggers into the woman’s back.
She finally finished ordering her two pizzas, I told her it would be fifteen to twenty minutes, and she went and sat down. I had the line moving again, I’m apologizing to the other customers. I swear to gawd, not two minutes later, Old Woman comes up to the counter and says “How about you serve me now? I don’t like to wait!”
The threshold had now been crossed. My reply: “You know what? I don’t like to wait while you take forever to place your order. I don’t think these other people do, either.” Her only response to that was “Well!”, then she sat back down and made a big show of hemming and hawing as she waited for her pizzas. The rest of the customers, who had been patiently waiting through all of this, were all smiles after that; I received several compliments. 
When old woman got her food and was leaving the store, I told her I didn’t want to see her again. Amazingly, I didn’t.
:smack:
I work with a guy who is like this. Regretfully, a group of us regular diner-buddies invited him along to a place where we regularly get lunch in the hopes of including him in our outings. He seemed friendly enough, a little hyper, but in an entertaining way. Well we get to the diner, and from the minute he steps in he is bossing around the waitstaff and demanding to speak to the manager IMMEDIATELY because we did not get the “best” seat in the house (the table was being reserved for a big group and even had a ‘reserved’ sign on it). He then persisted to bitch about his food, his drink, the service, the smell of the air in the restaurant (wtf???), everything. We couldn’t wait to get the fuck outta there. Later he was bragging to another coworker that he never hesitates to speak to a manager about any thing that bothers him, because “the customer is always right!!!” He believes his behavior helps these peons become better people! :eek:
For the record, as I’ve gotten to know him better, he has a raft of mental and emotional issues that often surface at very inappropriate times. He has gotten his ass in trouble at work a lot for his outbursts and shit-stirring. To the point where he has nearly been fired. So perhaps you can take a (very) small amount of comfort that these asswipes often lead a troubled existence, and that poor employee treatment is just the TIP of that miserable iceberg….
I have pointed this out to a couple of people. One of the women in my office made a big deal about how she parked illegally at the Dunkin Donuts for a few minutes and when she came out she was getting a ticket. She had been dating a cop for about 6 weeks at the time and she somehow had his minishield and tried to worm her way out of the ticket by thrusting the minishield in this woman’s face and making a big deal out of her relationship with this cop. She screamed about how she would have this woman’s job and that she would make sure she regretted writing the ticket, etc. She got the ticket anyway and was going to ask her boyfriend to harrass this woman at work. I pointed out to her that she was actually parked illegally and if she continued harrassing this woman or using her boyfriend to harrass her he would probably get fired/demoted or whatever since the woman was absolutely in the right for giving her the ticket. She got really quiet after that and hasn’t mentioned that kind of thing since.