Ar**hole customers

AtomicHorror · 29-10-2013 12:56AM

Example 1 wrote:

"I want to rent this DVD."

"Do you have your membership card with you?"

"No."

"I'm very sorry, but your account is set as card-holder only."

"Yeah, I asked for that because my brother keeps renting DVDs on my account and not returning them."

"Ok... so you understand I can't rent this DVD to you without the card?"

"But it's me."

"Do you have some ID with you?"

"No."

"...I'm really sorry, I can't..."

"It's me though!"

"..."

"For **** sake, it's me! ****ing pay peanuts, you get monkeys."

I facepalmed at least once a day in that job.

kneemos · 29-10-2013 12:56AM

whirlpool wrote: »

Hope you're not dealing with human beings full stop with your attitude.

It would be such a treat to find a store worker who had an iota of information about what they were selling or showed just a modicum of even fake interest in the customer who pays their wages.

Kintarō Hattori · 29-10-2013 12:57AM

kneemos wrote: »

It would be such a treat to find a store worker who had an iota of information about what they were selling or showed just a modicum of even fake interest in the customer who pays their wages.

Hello.......... however I'm out of retail a while now. Did 10 years though.

RayM · 29-10-2013 12:57AM

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Be really really helpful and informative without licking their ass, in order to show them how wrong they are.

Or if they're particularly rude and obnoxious, ramp up your helpfulness and politeness to the most ridiculous levels possible. You know you're being sarcastic... they know you're being sarcastic, but there's nothing they can do about it.

The Backwards Man · 29-10-2013 12:57AM

I work in the service industry. People that work in the service industry themselves can be just as big of arseholes to deal with as everybody else.

orestes · 29-10-2013 01:00AM

kneemos wrote: »

It would be such a treat to find a store worker who had an iota of information about what they were selling or showed just a modicum of even fake interest in the customer who pays their wages.

You pay my wages? Sweet, any chance of a raise?

AtomicHorror · 29-10-2013 01:00AM

MadsL wrote: »

None of which justifies the attitute so, so common in Irish retail...

"Are you alright/OK dere?"

:mad:

What does that have to do with the topic? Sure, I'll bet there are plenty of cases of customers who were provoked by bad service. Bad service is common in Ireland for a variety of complex reasons. Is that what we're talking about though? We're ostensibly talking about unprovoked assholery. If you detect some justification for customer assholery in an anecdote contained herein, please by all means air your opinion on the service shortcomings evident in said anecdote.

cmore123 · 29-10-2013 01:09AM

Paying someone's wages, as an employer, gives us zero right to abuse them. Paying their wages indirectly as a customer also gives us zero right to abuse them. And, there is always the issue of whether we are actually a financially profitable customer at all - if not, we aren't even paying anyone's wages - we are actually a cost to the business.

Not that any of that's the point really - the point is that if a reasonable customer is very often right, a rude, ignorant or obnoxious one rarely is, and ought to be shown the door.

Politeness is the key as a staff member or customer.

P_1 · 29-10-2013 01:10AM

Having worked in retail myself I'd have to say that the asshole customers vastly outnumber the good ones which naturally leads to poor morale. This is often compounded by stupid head office policies that are set by people sitting behind desks who have no appreciation of what it is like to work retail and who are only interested in increasing profit.

It's a bit like the trenches in WW1 with the asshole customers playing the role of the German machine gunners, the head office types playing the role of Field Marshall Haig and the retail workers playing the role of the poor Tommies being sent into the killing fields, with a lot less of the killing mind.

vibe666 · 29-10-2013 01:14AM

Working in a bar in Cambridge when I was 19. Some guy took a dislike to me and spent the entire evening calling me every derogatory homosexual name under the sun.

Towards the end of the night he motioned for me to come over and asked me if a handbag on the bar was mine and then says "you're a fcuking queer aren't you?", to which I replied "I finish in an hour if you want to wait outside for me, but whether I am or not, one way or another you're getting fcuked tonight."

He did wait for me. With 2 mates. 2nd worst beating I've ever had, but a valuable lesson learnt about opening my mouth when I shouldn't.

Petrie · 29-10-2013 01:16AM

P_1 wrote: »

Having worked in retail myself I'd have to say that the asshole customers vastly outnumber the good ones which naturally leads to poor morale. This is often compounded by stupid head office policies that are set by people sitting behind desks who have no appreciation of what it is like to work retail and who are only interested in increasing profit.

It's a bit like the trenches in WW1 with the asshole customers playing the role of the German machine gunners, the head office types playing the role of Field Marshall Haig and the retail workers playing the role of the poor Tommies being sent into the killing fields, with a lot less of the killing mind.

It's true, and it doesn't matter how interested you are, how much of an expert you are on the product you're selling, how polite you you are etc. some (a lot) of people are just ass holes when it comes to dealing with service staff, it can really wear you down even if you've had the best intentions to start with.

AtomicHorror · 29-10-2013 01:16AM

kneemos wrote: »

It would be such a treat to find a store worker who had an iota of information about what they were selling...

Depending on the shop and the nature of the stock, that might mean hours of learning per week. No problem if the management pay for that as training, but where I worked the sum total of product information was a couple of photocopied sheets pinned to a noticeboard each week and it was to be learnt on our own time.

kneemos wrote: »

...or showed just a modicum of even fake interest in the customer who pays their wages.

Please. You don't pay their wages. You pay the company that pays their wages and that company takes most of your money, and then pays the front line workers as little as they can get away with without getting in trouble for it. Whether you spend a little or a lot, it will not change that staff member's wage by one cent. So that point can be discarded too.

Femme_Fatale · 29-10-2013 01:16AM

Gotta say, I find the vast majority of customers are grand or really nice.

The Backwards Man · 29-10-2013 01:20AM

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Gotta say, I find the vast majority of customers are grand or really nice.

Probably because they treat you as you treat them, and vice versa. Sadly, there's a hell of a lot of people out there on both sides that can't match up this equation.

AtomicHorror · 29-10-2013 01:21AM

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Gotta say, I find the vast majority of customers are grand or really nice.

I found 15% nice to very nice, 80% neutral to fine, 4% general asshole, 1% threatening or actually violent.

P_1 · 29-10-2013 01:22AM

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Gotta say, I find the vast majority of customers are grand or really nice.

That they are but remember that old customer service mantra: "Nobody will remember a good experience but you're sure that they'll remember a bad one and tell anybody who will listen about it"? Exact same applies on the other side of the coin. Everybody remembers the assholes but few people will remember the good customers.

loveBBhate · 29-10-2013 01:24AM

vibe666 wrote: »

Working in a bar in Cambridge when I was 19. Some guy took a dislike to me and spent the entire evening calling me every derogatory homosexual name under the sun.

Towards the end of the night he motioned for me to come over and asked me if a handbag on the bar was mine and then says "you're a fcuking queer aren't you?", to which I replied "I finish in an hour if you want to wait outside for me, but whether I am or not, one way or another you're getting fcuked tonight."

He did wait for me. With 2 mates. 2nd worst beating I've ever had, but a valuable lesson learnt about opening my mouth when I shouldn't.

All that homosexual talk, did he put anything in your mouth once you opened it?

kneemos · 29-10-2013 01:28AM

AtomicHorror wrote: »

Depending on the shop and the nature of the stock, that might mean hours of learning per week. No problem if the management pay for that as training, but where I worked the sum total of product information was a couple of photocopied sheets pinned to a noticeboard each week and it was to be learnt on our own time.

Please. You don't pay their wages. You pay the company that pays their wages and that company takes most of your money, and then pays the front line workers as little as they can get away with without getting in trouble for it. Whether you spend a little or a lot, it will not change that staff member's wage by one cent. So that point can be discarded too.

Where would "the company"get money for wages if I didn't give it to them?

RayM · 29-10-2013 01:30AM

kneemos wrote: »

Where would "the company"get money for wages if I didn't give it to them?

They'd get it from nicer customers instead.

pragmatic1 · 29-10-2013 01:31AM

Literally thousands of times.

I used to work at telesales and as a customer care representative for a phone company. I'd get hundreds of calls a week giving me abuse, sometimes racist abuse when dealing with UK customers.

I dealt with it by not giving a fcuk. What some anonymous nobody thinks about me doesn't matter a wet fart to me.

AtomicHorror · 29-10-2013 01:37AM

kneemos wrote: »

Where would "the company"get money for wages if I didn't give it to them?

Other customers or, in the worst case scenario where revenues don't cover it, a bank. The staff member will not lose salary if they lose your sale, but they also won't gain anything if they win it. Their motivation in how they deal with you is just not going to be related to some concept that you're somehow their boss. They don't see you that way, nor should they.

Miss Lockhart · 29-10-2013 01:37AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Probably because they treat you as you treat them, and vice versa. Sadly, there's a hell of a lot of people out there on both sides that can't match up this equation.

I think this is very true. No matter what you do as a service worker there will be rude customers and vice versa. But my experience in retail was that colleagues who had very frequent bad experiences with customers were themselves ill-mannered and often bad at their job. Not that that excused any poor behaviour by customers - rudeness is unlikely to improve any situation.

MonaPizza · 29-10-2013 01:39AM

kneemos wrote: »

You're paid to deal with customers.
Do you want a medal for doing your job or something?

So is a bus driver paid to be threatened?
Is a nurse paid to be shanked with a hypodermic by a scumfcuk?
Is a barman paid to be glassed or beaten?

These are all customers. If a customer of this ilk abused, spat upon, or assaulted you I can bet you wouldn't be a bastard to the solicitor you hired to settle your claim as you snivelled with indignation.

loveBBhate · 29-10-2013 01:41AM

Kneemos I enjoyed your post yesterday regarding the 'plural of you' thread, I thanked it.

However, due to your uneducated behaviour in this thread I have removed my thank.

Now for ya

MadsL · 29-10-2013 02:10AM

AtomicHorror wrote: »

What does that have to do with the topic? Sure, I'll bet there are plenty of cases of customers who were provoked by bad service. Bad service is common in Ireland for a variety of complex reasons. Is that what we're talking about though? We're ostensibly talking about unprovoked assholery. If you detect some justification for customer assholery in an anecdote contained herein, please by all means air your opinion on the service shortcomings evident in said anecdote.

Then, equally, explain to me how your low pay comment justifies itself. Just because retail is badly paid does not in my view excuse the fact that 15-30% of the time in my experience Irish retail customers are treated as an inconvenience, before they have even opened their mouths.

Explain that or cut the condescension.

stmol32 · 29-10-2013 02:14AM

I was going to post a few stories from my own experience but after the getting spat on post and the beaten up posts they'd sound a bit lame.

I work in an IT department in the public sector and most of these posts are from the retail sector. We get maybe two horror stories a year and when you get someone like this they can really ruin your entire month after having to deal with their bulls**t.

My question is, is this behaviour more prevalent in retail/services because of anonymity or is it like myself where I really remember the a**eh**es and then they seem to be more prevalent than the normal customers.

Galwayguy35 · 29-10-2013 02:16AM

I don't work in retail but one day in SuperValu this wan was at the counter ahead of me and another woman, the cashier totted up the goods and asked for the real rewards card, yer wan gave her and old card because she forgot the newer one.

The cashier told her politely that she needed he up to date card, which lead to the idiot going mad and roaring for a manager, then turning to us and telling us to pack up our stuff because she wasn't moving.

The cashier was saying sorry to her, personally if I was her i would have dumped the stupid bitch head first in to the shopping basket.

siblers · 29-10-2013 02:26AM

When I was younger I was working in a music shop, had one customer come up to me and I greeted him politely, he just grunted as he gave me his c.d. I then told him it was "14.99 please" nice and pleasant. Gave me the money I then told him thanks and when I gave him his change told him to have a nice day. He walked away without saying thanks or showing me any but of courtesy , I got really pissed off and before I knew it I gave him the finger as he just turned his back, but just as he turned his back a young child came up to the counter and instead of being greeted by me saying hello, he had me giving him the finger. I quickly told him "no no no that wasn't meant for you" but he only seemed confused and just give me his c.d. The next few seconds seemed to go incredibly slow as I scanned the shop to see if a disgruntled parent was coming charging at me for having just given their child the finger. Thankfully no one else in the shop saw what I did except for the kid, who didn't seem to know what was going on.

stmol32 · 29-10-2013 02:32AM

siblers wrote: »

When I was younger I was working in a music shop, had one customer come up to me and I greeted him politely, he just grunted as he gave me his c.d. I then told him it was "14.99 please" nice and pleasant. Gave me the money I then told him thanks and when I gave him his change told him to have a nice day. He walked away without saying thanks or showing me any but of courtesy , I got really pissed off and before I knew it I gave him the finger as he just turned his back, but just as he turned his back a young child came up to the counter and instead of being greeted by me saying hello, he had me giving him the finger. I quickly told him "no no no that wasn't meant for you" but he only seemed confused and just give me his c.d. The next few seconds seemed to go incredibly slow as I scanned the shop to see if a disgruntled parent was coming to charge me for just given their child the finger. Thankfully no one else in the shop saw what I did except for the kid, who didn't seem to know what was going on.

And that kid's name was Amazon McItunes.
And that's why HMV went out of business.

I've actually done that too. Sometimes flipping the bird is like a tourettes reflex, you can't control it.

siblers · 29-10-2013 02:35AM

Yeah, I felt awful for doing it to the kid but at the time I wouldn't have given a **** if the guy I was serving had seen it.

Ar**hole customers

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