That’s funny. It made me hungry for Chinese food…
Indeed. For every shitty customer, there are plenty more who will see the situation for what it is. It’s incredibly satisfying when someone tears a strip off a waiter or store clerk, and promptly gets told to “Shut the fuck up!” from another customer who overheard the whole thing.
He’d probably have got a lot further by politely and calmly explaining his dissatisfaction to the waiter, instead of just steaming in with an attitude. Flies, honey, vinegar and all that.
Jaade, I think I met that woman 20 years ago when I was working in a department store. I’ll skip the details, and not just because most of them have faded, but it was not a pleasant encounter. After she left, I told the next customer I was sorry if I had sounded a bit rude. The customer replied, “No, I was surprised at how nice you were.” After that sale, as it happened, I had to go back to get change, which meant walking past personnel. I heard that same woman telling them, “Well I own a business and if one of my people had treated someone like that, I would have fired them.” I remember thinking, “Lady, if I worked for you, I’d quit!” I’d been with that department store for 4 years, working summers and holidays. Personnel knew me, liked me, and never said a word to me about it.
Rudeness may appear to pay off short term, but long term, in my opinion, all it makes you is an idiot. Not to mention, I can’t help but believe it catches up with a person eventually, and I’ve got to admit, I enjoy seeing it happen.
CJ
Unless you’re yelling out of fear because the hospital staff has lost your newborn baby, or you’re bleeding to death and everyone’s just kinda standin’ around doing nothing. . . there is no reason to act like an asshole to strangers. (Or people you know, but we’re talking about customer service here.) It accomplishes nothing but brings you and everyone around you unnecessary stress.
When a customer yells at me, I don’t think, “damn, I better get in line here! He’s mad and he’s not gonna take it anymore!” I think, “oh god, please let me get through this as quickly as possible.” I just turn into a robot. A polite robot, mind you, but I’m not giving someone who is screaming demands special treatment. It’s like parenting–you don’t reward bad behaviour.
I always end up wondering how these people get through their day if something as simple as a botched order or whatnot is enough to send them into a screaming frenzy.
I always feel so badly for employees on the receiving end of abuse. Oftentimes, whatever the person is complaining about has nothing to do with the employee at hand, or is something completely outside of their control.
I wonder if he chose a Chinese restaurant on purpose? Perhaps the stereotype of the non-confrontational, passive Asian appealed to his overwhelming sense of fraud. :rolleyes:
Esprix
Oh man, I had that woman when I was waiting tables! Do you live in California??
The story: I actually went on break and my sweet, timid coworker took over my tables. I had one table in back that apparently, she didn’t see. I was eating at the counter.
They came up and started yelling at her, giving the typical "I own a business and if you worked for me, you’d be fired! And all that crap.
My poor coworker just kept saying “I didn’t see you!” with her wide open doe eyes. I felt so bad. So I looked up and gave the woman a “bring it, bitch” look which of course, had her flying up to me. The bitch put her finger in my face about 1 inch from my nose and told me not to be rude.
I just looked at her and said “rude? Excuse me maam, but would you mind taking your finger out of my face? I’m not your child.”
The horrible part of it was my manager overheard and while I didn’t get in trouble (it fell into the realm of “self defense”) the rude bitch got a free meal.
I ended up quitting that place because I was so disgusted with how assholes got rewarded. Every time anyone acted like an ass, they got a free meal. I wasn’t the only one who quit because of that. :rolleyes: