To the entitled bitch that wouldn't leave my store.

The BBQ Pit
1

Look bitch.

I don’t care that you just flew in from Chicago, and I don’t give a fuck that cafes in L.A. are open later. I also don’t care that your watch said it was 6:27 - it was 6:30, and thats when we fucking closed! The only reason why the door was still unlocked was for the customers who were still gathering their things and leaving. I also wasn’t trying to close early - when you walked in, my register said 6:34 - bitch, we were closed.

However, despite your attitude, I made you your precious steamed soy milk - even after you recoiled in disgust because I had the audacity to give back your change in the form of a slightly crinkled dollar with a small tear. Look Miss fucking Priss - it was a perfectly fine, non stained, dry dollar. Fuck you!

So not only were you rude immediately when you entered my store THAT WAS CLOSED, you were incredibly picky with your drink, demanded I give you a “crisp dollar,” then you wasted my time even MORE by staying 20 minutes past closing!!!

What kills me is that I couldn’t do anything about it - no matter how in the wrong you were, I would get in trouble because “the customer is always right.”

I know you’re coming in tomorrow, because you cheerfully told me…but if you pull this shit again I won’t be nearly as nice - and I won’t care what you do because I put in my notice 3 days ago.

I hate customer service.

2

If you gave your notice three days ago, why are you worried about getting in trouble today? :confused:

I’m genuinely confused. Why couldn’t you give her a piece of your mind today?

What’s different tomorrow that makes it OK for you to not have to be nice to her any more? Maybe your pension vests tomorrow? :dubious:

3

I hope you don’t actually believe this. It’s a nonsense that was never true, perpetuated by selfish people trying to get their own way.

4

Oh you could have had even more fun with her this way:

“Please do come in tomorrow. I just gave my notice and I’m REALLY looking forward to making your drink for you.”

It’s important to have the right expression on your face as you say this. It’s a big cheery grin combined with a piercing, dangerous gaze.

5

I have a hard time being mean the first time around. Essentially I gave her a chance, I was nice - but I made it clear that I wasn’t okay with what she was doing. If she pulls the same thing again, then I feel less guilty over losing it.

6

No, I don’t believe in it - but the company I work for follows this code unwaveringly.

7

I’ve noticed that when people who work in retail try to vent about their work, there are certain dopers who like to pile on the retail worker as if they are never allowed to gripe about work.

I, on the other hand (as someone who worked retail), would like to point out that not only is the customer not always right, quite often they are douchebags.

8

As an aside, I have always interpreted “the customer is always right” to mean “don’t argue with a customer”, which is generally good advice. It doesn’t mean that you should do anything a customer asks you to. For instance in this case, you very simply could have told her you were closed, and could not help her. No arguing was necessary, just say “sorry!” and wait for her to leave. I do this practically every day to the customers who come in right at closing time without incident. If she gets belligerent, politely ask her to leave. If she doesn’t leave at that point, call security/cops.

9

I like this idea, and you can still do it. When you hand her the drink, say, “I made this especially for you,” without actually messing with the order. (Perhaps you can pour it from a separate container.) If you’re lucky, she’ll have it tested to find out whether you spit in it. At the very least she’ll wonder what you did to it.

10

Creepy. I, too, live in Seattle, and I, too, have trouble with getting customers to get out the door. However, I work in a consignment shop. Next to a coffee shop. Maybe you got one of my customers?* :wink: We close at 6pm, but often have people dwindling until 6:30, 6:45, longer… while I get hungry, impatient, hold the door open, and all but push people out the door - because “that customer might buy lots of stuff!” so I can’t go home until they all herd out. And customers whine to me that they walked two whole blocks to get here and shop, and “you just can’t close yet!”… while I have been there since 8am** and have worked with no breaks (because we are too understaffed for me to take one) and often alone… but I’m not allowed to have a sob story of my own - her legs are tired from walking two whole blocks, but my legs don’t mean shit…

I just put my notice in two days ago. :smiley:

    • Seattle is a big place. I am only joking.

** - some of this story is mild hyperbole. We actually close at 5pm on weekends, which are the days that I open, close, am understaffed and get no breaks. But, I mean, of course, I didn’t walk two whole blocks or anything heroic like that.

11

I worked one retail job - and hope I am never desperate enough to have to take another one.

This large-chain-of-women’s-clothing-stores had very strict, very security conscious rules. No less than two employees to ever be in the store. All purses and bags were checked by another employee when you left the store. Etc.

You were allowed to announce that the store would be closing 15 minutes before closing. You were allowed to announce that the store was now closed - please bring purchases to the sales desk. This was to be done over the P.A. system. You were not allowed to ask a customer to leave. If a customer was still looking, you just sucked it up until they bought something or left.

But wait! Managers and Assistant Managers were on salary - paid for 40 hours while usually working 50+. Sales clerks were paid hourly - and each store was allotted a certain number of hours. If someone decided not to finish shopping until 9:30 (the mall closed at 9), you still had to close the register, do the end of day checkout, etc. So you wouldn’t actually get out until 9:45 at the earliest. Since you couldn’t send the sales clerk home when you closed the store (always two people) you would get in trouble for going over the allotted number of hours. But if a customer or secret shopper reported you had asked them to leave, you’d get in trouble.

I hated that job!

12

On my way to Vegas a few years ago, I had a connecting flight in Detroit. Coming from Ohio, there was no meal, and with an hour layover, we had to fend for ourselves.

My two friends and I found a bar and asked for menus. Our surly waitress informed us that the kitchen closed at 9:00 and gave us the look of someone that had asked for a huge favor. I think it was 9:03 or maybe 9:05. I had never been in this bar, let alone this state, yet I was expected to know the hours of the bar even though they were not posted anywhere. Boy was I told.

Anyways the bar was still open. I ordered a Bud light (yes I was still drinking that crap back then), my one friend ordered a Miller Lite I think, and the other guy ordered a Bud Dry because there was a huge sign on the wall for it.

Bitch waitress comes back with our beers, clearly pissed at something, and disappears. We drink em after a half hour or so, and she’s nowhere in sight. I go to the bar and order what we had all previously had. The bartender informs me that they not only didn’t have Bud dry, but they never had. The bitch just gave my friend something similar without saying a word.

I bought our second and last round at the bar, and we finished them at the table. The bitch waitress took time out of her miserable day to give us the check, barely masking her contempt for us. We left enough cash to cover the check, plus a nickel, some crushed pretzels, and a few upside down beer glasses.

Sorry you had a bad day toots, but there’s no reason to take it out on me and my friends, let alone lie to us. I hope you cried. I’ve said “Fuck Michigan” before, but this time I really meant it. There is no excuse for such rude behavior, ever. Had there been a manager present, they would have heard about it.

13

Don’t judge the best state in the union based on the behavior of a waitress at Metro. Most Michiganders are great folks as so many visitors to the Super Bowl a year ago can attest.

14

Indeed.

15

I don’t understand how customers get so bent out of shape about closing and opening times. That shit is written right on the door. It only takes half a second to stop walking and avert your gaze a few inches down towards the posted hours.

I worked at a costume store last October, and (in true horror-movie fashion) as Halloween loomed closer our customers started losing their damned minds at an exponential rate. We closed at 9 PM every night–posted on the door for all to see, again–and one night someone demanded entry at 9:10. We were well into the closing process and even if we wanted to sell her a costume, the store was not even close to being in a state where she could wander around for 20 minutes finding the perfect one, let alone actually buying it. And none of us were in any mood–we’d all been on our feet for 8 hours or more and needed to get home and sit down. Her rage was like Solanum–after she started banging on the walls, customers of nearby shops started stumbling towards us like zombies and pretty soon we had a small-scale riot on our hands. Everyone suddenly wanted a costume after closing (keep in mind there was still a solid week left before Halloween); one customer threatened to randomly kill a handful of our employees; another customer was actively attempting to break through the (locked, glass) door. We had to call the cops over to break it up and escort us to our cars. It was possibly the stupidest fucking thing I’ve seen this decade. I mean, a riot with death threats sparked up just because some precious, salty little cumwad couldn’t wait til the next morning–no, she was special, she deserved her stupid-ass costume so much more than everyone who was coming in the next day. She was probably going to end up looking like every other wannabe sex kitten even if she got her shitty costume anyway. That’s the sad part–after seeing all those costumes, I was amazed on Halloween at just how many people put no creative thought whatsoever into it, and just wore their costumes exactly like the picture on the bag they came in. What a bunch of maggots.

Anyway, I work at a retail chain now, and they’re actually pretty cool about closing. We can say whatever we need to to get people out, and we don’t have to let them stay after closing. Tonight one of our regulars had headphones on and didn’t notice we were closing, or hear the closing announcements–so after everyone else was gone, one of our employees yelled into the PA, “[CUSTOMER’S NAME], THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. YOU MUST LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.” in a mock sci-fi-emperor voice. It worked, and it made the culprit smile on his way out, too.

16

If I’m in a store and I either know they’re closing or they announce it, I either grab what I want and run for the registers (if it’s a fifteen minute warning, say) or if I don’t have time to finish shopping in the time I have I…leave. What a concept. I know how badly the employees want to get out of there.

I too work retail, or I’m trying to – I’m looking for a job, and have an interview this afternoon. You’d be surprised how annoying the stores can make getting a job that really usually isn’t hard (at least the duties aren’t in and of themselves, it’s when you need to do three of them at once and you have customers breathing down your neck and management is on you to do something else completely). I mean, what’s the point of the lengthy honesty/personality tests? Is somebody going to say, “I don’t like to work hard, I hate people, and I hate my bosses past and present,” to a potential employer? No. Duh. Of course, if they’re dumb enough to, they deserve what they (don’t) get.

17

The idea that the customer is always right is a principal of business owners and managers – not something thought up by the customers. If you want people to keep coming back, you treat them as if they are special.

Of course they can be a pain in the butt.

My father had a store in a small town. One man and his wife wanted to leave his shopping purchases at Dad’s store while he and his wife went to the movies. Dad let him do it even though he often had to stay open late until the man came to pick up his stuff. That sort of thing kept people coming to his store for thirty-five years.

A terrific pancake shop opened in a little strip mall near me. I live in the South and these folks were from “away,” but very friendly. One day I arrived close to closing time – about five minutes before. Around here, if you are in a restaurant at closing, that’s considered fair. They locked the door in my face. It was a big glass door and we were face to face. I had become a regular customer. You just don’t lock the door early in someone’s face. I knew then that they weren’t going to last and they didn’t.

I don’t blame anyone for ranting, but my parents came from a generation that shames us all. My father worked for someone for a week for free just to show the man how valuable a worker he could be. He was that desperate for a job. He got work that way.

When I worked for him later in life, sometimes it was fun to make the customer feel like royalty.

Just sayin’…

18

Zoe, that’s a great story, but I’d like to point out that your dad’s boss was also part of that generation, and he exploited your father for a week’s worth of unpaid labor before putting him on the payroll. His behavior shames that generation.

Daniel

Edit: Of course, I just finished my student teaching–twelve weeks of unpaid labor–so maybe I shouldn’t talk :).

19

In my life, I’ve worked in CS and have dealt with angry and entitled people. I don’t do that now, but its one of the reasons I’m damn nice to wait-staff. Of course some people I worked with took it as a license to be assholish turds to people in service industries with the “if I had to deal with it, then you’ll have to deal with it…so Deal” attitude. But thats on them, not me. I think what I took away from the experiance is more valuable than that, but opinions differ.

20

I work with the public. My coworkers and I try to provide polite service. Most of the people who come in to see us are polite and reasonable, but we encounter some real jerks. Like the mother who came into our office this week carrying a toddler. The kid was wearing a poo-filled diaper and stank to high heaven. The whole office REEKED of this kid’s shit. Shit was leaking out of the poor kid’s clothes and was smeared on its hands. There’s a public restroom in our building with a changing table, so there was no excuse for the mother to carry the kid around in this disgusting state. To top it off, the mother was in the office to fill in a three-page form. She could have taken the form home and mailed it in to us but, no, she decided to fill it in on the spot. The stupid, trashy woman actually asked me to hold her feces-smeared baby while she did. I declined. I wanted to shout, “I’m not getting near the kid and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for allowing that child to marinate in its own shit” but I just mumbled something about having a cold (I didn’t) that I didn’t want to pass on to the child. The mother put the child on the floor while she did the form. I should report her to child protective services for neglect. We couldn’t get the smell out of the office for hours.