Lesson learned here - not everyone reads every thread, esp the more ridiculous ones.
Sorry for the hijack, it was just a parody. :o
And, regarding restaurants: why be rude to the people that are handling your food? It’s amazing to me that it apparently doesn’t occur to these abusive assholes that a pissed off server might mess with their food.
From the assholes I’ve known, it seems to be a matter of principle that they not take crap from anyone. And don’t forget, the customer is always right. Except for the true crazies, they seem to learn this from a pretty young age. Go to the financial aids office of any college where people have to stand in line, for instance, and the jerks-in-training really stand out.
Wow. I tip well. I eat out fairly often. But there is a plethora of choices when it comes to restaurants. If I get shitty food/service, I don’t bother the manager about it. I just cross the place off of my list of places to go. Yes, I’m lazy.
So, you’re the guy who called Raw Dog (Sirius satellite radio channel 104) and told this story to the DJ earlier this week? Because if not, you’re ripping off the story.
Whaaa! No! You’re not lazy! I mean , maybe you are, but this isn’t about laziness. This is about places with great freakin food.
Gitses’ fish sandwiches in Rochester, NY
Monte Alban’s fajita cameroon in Rochester, NY
Sylvia’s red velvet cake in Harlem, NY
No way in hell am I going to let some bitch waitress deny me the yummy pleasures of those places. I go to those places all the time. If some waiter treats me rudely and gives me awful service, I am going to have the manager manage that shit. For the record, only Gitses ever had a waitress offer awful service and rudeness. Yes, I did tell. I don’t even consider it snitching; in the hood, we always say, “I’m not snitchin, I’m telling, cause I’m letting you know I will be telling”. I never had any further incidents at Gitsis and they still have the best fish sandwiches in town!
No, really, I am lazy. And I’ve learned to embrace it. The fajita sounds good!
And I have no problem with snitching. I was at my friend’s bar one night and I could see that the new bartender was giving her friends free drinks. When my buddy (the owner) came in, I asked him how he could afford the new bartender. He didn’t get what I was implying.
He went back to his office to do paperwork, then came back out 20 minutes later having realized what I meant. We went back to the pool table and I told him the details. So he asked me to come with him.
He approached the table, and said, “So, you folks are friends of Sharon?” They said they were. He then told them that Sharon was too busy to collect their money, it was his place, and they owed him $60. (I had figured that the shots/beers came to around $40)
They nervously paid up though. He told them to get the fuck out. Then he told Sharon to get out.
Which is why I tend to embrace my laziness.
I imagine the story is somewhat different when they tell it. I say this because I’ve seen co-workers struggling but succeeding to remain respectful and polite while on the receiving end of a barrage of abuse, and then read the customer complaint forms that come in about the incident that describe the co-worker swearing, yelling and abusing them, and (in a recent one), describing a spontaneous outburst of applause from other shoppers that just plain did not happen. So “I tried to return a toy two years after it was recalled and was offered a free soda, so I had a tantrum that a two year old would be ashamed to throw in public” would be “I tried to return a dangerous, deadly toy that had been recalled for safety reasons but the staff rudely refused, swore at me and said they hoped my daughter choked. After taking their abuse bravely I finally had enough and I tossed the toy on the bench and left”.
This one day, when I was a bank teller, we were uncharacteristically slow – maybe 3 people in line. This one woman came in and cup infront of everyone, saying “You don’t mind if I go ahead of you, do you? I’m parked illegally.” She then walked up to my window, shoved maybe 4 or 5 checks in my window, and said “Deposit these into my account.” She then left my window to go talk to a CSR. The checks weren’t endorsed, there was no deposit slip, and I didn’t know her account number. There were ways to get around all that, but they’d take time. In the meantime, the line was getting long again.
I couldn’t sit there and process that transaction while people were waiting, so I figured I’d set it aside until I had a free moment.
So I took a customer, who was always very cool with me. We were chatting away while I processed her transaction, when I made a little mistake. Like I withdrew $1000 instead of the $10 she asked for, or something like that. It was some sort of typo in the amount, and easy to fix – but it was one of those things that I had to fix RIGHT NOW, because if I forgot about it, it would be a major headache later. Just as I started, bitchy lady came back and said “Give me my receipt.” I told her why I hadn’t processed it yet, and she went ballistic on me. I told her I’d be with her in just a second, but she would have none of it. She pretty much pushed my nice customer out of the way and demanded to be taken care of now. I tried for a minute or two to get her to wait, but she wanted none of it. And she was yelling and swearing at the top of her lungs.
I figured that the best way to get rid of her was to just do her transaction and get her out of there. Pretty hard as she was cussing at me the whole time. I finally gave her her receipt, and she stormed off – back to the CSRs, to try to get me fired.
A CSR did ask me what happened, I explained it, and he just rolled his eyes. I never heard another word about it.
But I was pissed at that bitch for a few days.
Reminds me of a great scene from Dead Like Me:
“Rube: [to a hurried woman who sees an acquaintance in line at the post office and moves in line next to her] I have a question for you… is everyone in this line an asshole?
Woman in Post Office: Excuse me?
Rube: Is everyone you just cut in front of an asshole?
Woman in Post Office: No.
Rube: So it’s just you then?
Woman in Post Office: I have children in the car.
Rube: I have a cake in the oven.
[pointing]
Rube: He’s got three minutes left on the meter. And she’s got a lunch meeting. We all have a finite amount of time. Now get in the back of the line. And don’t use your children like that - it’s shameful.”
I remember hearing somewhere (another thread here maybe?) about someone who owned their own business dealing with a customer who was trying to get a discount on something. The customer got more and more insistant, saying that he “had to” give him the discount, and asking “don’t you want my money?” The guy opened the register, handed the customer a 5 dollar bill, and said “Here, I am actually paying you to leave me alone. That’s how much I don’t want your money.”
I would have loved to have seen that.
I’m reminded of a self-important prick like this I once had to deal with…
I’ve mentioned I used to run a pizza place. In regards to delivery, it never ceased to amaze me that most people think they are the only customer of the night, and that the pizza driver has nothing else to do than deliver their specific pizza. Countless times, a customer would not be home, for instance, then call later all pissed off because their pizza “never came.” I would tell the customer when the driver was there, how long he waited, etc, and that we tried to call. “Oh, I was in the shower.” “I went to the grocery store.” “I went on vacation.” Whatever. Another good trick that happened all the damn time: driver shows up, and the customer is completely surprised. “Oh, that’s right! I ordered a pizza 20 minutes ago and totally forgot! What, I have to pay for it? I wonder what I did with my checkbook…” And all the while, the driver most likely has another delivery or two in the car, as the nitwit customer wastes ten or fifteen minutes of the driver’s time.
Ahem. So anyway, to get back to Mr. Self-Important Prick. Before climbing to the top of that glorious ladder and becoming the manager, I spent a few years as a driver (can you tell?). Keep in mind this was in the early '90s, before everyone and their brother had a cell phone. Mr. SIP was a businessman in one of the high-rises downtown, three or four blocks away from my restaurant. This particular building kept the lobby open at night, but locked up the elevators, and there was no security guard or reception-type person in the lobby. So my instructions were to call him before I left the store, and he’d meet me downstairs.
I did so, and left with his order and a second one, going to the airport, which is a few miles out of downtown, and a pain in the ass to get in and out of. I told Mr. SIP I would be at his building in about two minutes, which was a generous estimate; indeed, I was there before those two minutes were up. And, of course, I waited. And waited. No Mr. SIP. I kept checking my watch, I kept checking the slip to make sure I had the right place - I did. After eight minutes had gone by - ten since I’d called Mr. SIP - I left, knowing the second order was already late now because of this.
I got back to the store about twenty minutes later, and of course Mr. SIP had called completely irate because I “never showed up.” So I again call him, tell him I’ll be there in two minutes, and leave with a second order. And, of course again, the same thing happened. I waited around ten minutes, Mr. SIP never showed, I left and delivered the second order.
I got back to the store, and now the guy’s really pissed. The manager tried to be as nice as possible, and said to him “Sir, I’m going to send the driver out one more time. Would you please do me a favor and take care of him? This is the third time he’s had to go out. Ok, great. He’ll be there in a few minutes.”
By this time I’d figured out what was going on: Mr. SIP couldn’t be inconvenienced by possibly having to wait around the lobby for a couple of minutes, so he was purposely waiting at least ten minutes before going downstairs. And I, being a peon with nothing else to do, should be perfectly happy to sit around the lobby waiting for him. So this time, I waited around for five minutes before leaving.
I got to the building, waited about five minutes more, and Mr. SIP finally decided to grace me with his presence. The first words out of his mouth were “so I guess you had the wrong building, eh?” I replied that no, this was in fact where I had been the first two times. He said I must have been mistaken. I said I was not. Then he called me a liar. I attempted to explain that when I said it would take me less than two minutes to reach the building, what I meant by that was it would take me less than two minutes to reach the building. I don’t recall how it went after that, because I was literally shaking with anger, and just wanted to get the fuck out of the situation before I said or did something I’d regret. I got him to sign the credit slip and went back to the restaurant. No tip, of course.
And, of course (I know, I’m saying that a lot), he managed to get back upstairs and call the store before I got back. Funny how a little motivation made him move so quickly then! According to his version of the story, he was perfectly reasonable and rational while I had a major attitude problem, yelled and cussed at him, yadda yadda yadda. My manager didn’t buy it. He blacklisted this asshole - thank gawd.
Very few times in my life have I been this angry over something. I remember thinking about it the next day, and starting to shake all over again. Hell, I’m getting all riled up retelling the story fifteen or twenty years later! 
There’s something about being called a liar to your face that has a tendency to raise the blood pressure.
Had a customer come in recently with her dog who had done something weird at home. She swung by to see if we thought it could be anything serious. The receptionist talked to her some and said something along the lines of “Huh, I wonder if Fluffy might have had a little seizure. Since she looks ok right now, let me take her to the back to have the nurses keep an eye on her and the doctor will take a look when she done with the current crop of appointments.”
This has now turned into an angry email to our head office about how the poor woman’s 70 pound boxer was seizing in her arms in the lobby for 10 minutes while the insensitive receptionist sat by and laughed, chatting on the phone.
It is fun that she shot herself in the foot with her own hyperbole. If she had toned down her description a little, the head office might take her version of events with a grain of salt. As it is, they are totally standing behind the receptionist.
I’ve seen exactly one episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, but on that one a guy who is evidently live-in baby-daddy to one of the sisters was drunk, came to an upscale restaurant where the rest of the family was having a business dinner with an investor (in what I’m not sure exactly- perhaps they’re selling Bruce Jenner) and ordered a drink. When the waiter wouldn’t serve him he badgered him and shoved a $100 bill in his mouth.
Did anybody else see this? Presumably the waiter had to sign a release for this to be aired and I was curious if- assuming it wasn’t totally staged with his consent- they had to give him a lot more than the hundred before he’d consent, because that’s flat up abuse and public humiliation and even conceivably assault.
I’ve gotta say, of all the things mentioned in this thread, I think that wins as most bizarre.
Completely agreed. Back when I was single, it was one of the first things I noticed about a prospective mate. It’s well and fine to treat me nicely, but that’s pretty much expected when you’re infatuated. I’m more interested in how you treat people as a general rule. How you deal with some guy you barely know says a lot about how you’ll deal with me 10 years down the road.
It probably was the guy immediately demanding it, which raises hackles.
If the same thing happened to me (and I’m pretty sure it has), I’d try to clean up. I wouldn’t assume they’d give me a replacement, but if I was polite/rueful (which would be my real reaction, not playing them), odds are, they’d replace it.
When I worked at a Hobby Shop I had several instances of dickheads.
During Christmas our busiest time we had this drunk “I’m miserable and I’m going to make everyone else miserable” old man come into our shop. My co-worker had helped him find a gift and put up with his abuse while doing so. He came to the counter and I proceeded to wrap his gift, the whole time while insulting me with irritating remarks, your doing it wrong, not going fast enough etc… In front of me other customers the last straw was when he called me a “fucking idiot”. I calmly stopped went over to the cash retrieved his 13$ and change for his purchase and gave it back to him, leaned over the counter about 6 inches away from his face and told him. “Customers like YOU, we don’t need nor want. GET OUT OF HERE.”
His eyes widened like saucers. Protested a little until I opened the door to the shop for him and told him get out or I’m calling the cops. I was the manager. Some of the other customers cheered when he left.
Another instance same shop, I had this mentally challenged man with a large white man afro going on about RC airplanes and he wanted to buy one. Nice 700$ sale for us, but would have been a post sale nightmare for the shop I’m sure. Operating a 4 channel is not a great intellectual feat but takes someone with an attention span greater than a gnat in order to operate. So I declined to sell it to him, he got a little upset about that hymned and hawed then attempted to bite my hand. I grabbed him by his fro and slammed his head down on the counter , not hard. But hard enough to get his attention and told him to get out.
Same shop, I had one customer looking for a particular size of bass would. I went to our balsa and bass would rack and thought that we were out of what he was looking for but he found the size he needed mixed up with the balsa would. Took the piece “Here’s what I’m looking for right here silly” and lightly knocked me over the head with it. “Don’t every do that again to me or anyone else” Sorry he whimpered.
I also worked in a Restaurant for 5 years as a bartender, surprisingly there wasn’t that much abuse during my experience there, I had to deal with drunks, cutting people off, kicking people out, but no real direct abuse. Probably that had to do with the fact I was the dude in control of the booze I got some sort of respect.
I never put up with over the top abuse.
I get people who behave like this all the time at my place of work, and I have the power to tell them that, no, you can’t cut in line (which happens to be over there points) because there are other people waiting. No, it doesn’t matter if it’s just a simple question, as most of the simple questions are not so simple and other people in line have shorter transactions. If it’s a matter of knowing where the bathroom is and you cannot wait the minute and a half it will take to finish with the person I am helping (Thanks for cutting me off mid-sentence as part of your interruption, by the way!), go ask the security guard. He’s highly visible and not bogged down with patrons. Occasionally I’ll get called nasty things or the person will be insistent, but giving them The Look cuts down on this immensely, as does our security guard (who is awesome) coming up and asking them to leave if they cannot be civil.