I Thought Young People Were The Rude Ones...

[Thana]

I don't know if it's something in the air or if I'm just having a minor run of bad luck but this week, old people have been freaking rude and grumpy at Where's The Beef? I've had three rude and grumpy customers in as many days. Also, the whole reason I specify old people is because even though my store is in a college town, our main customers are old people. We get a fair number of college kids and young adults...but it's mostly old people.

The first day was a customer who wanted to get a free keytag item and a senior drink (which are free at my place)...however in order to do both, you need to order 2 items. She only had one item so I gave her the free keytag item but charged her for the coffee (less than a dollar). She asked me why I charged her and I explained the change in policy... I was immediately met with "When did this happen? I've been coming here for years...yadda yadda yadda." I told her the policy changed back in September...and mentally added "I've explained this to you at least twice since then...both times previously you've been really nice about and now you're complaining about coffee?! Be happy I didn't give you the free coffee and make you pay a dollar+change for the keytag item!" She wasn't happy about it but my manager was right next to me ready to jump in an explain if she needed to. Oddly enough she came in today but my co-worker ended up taking her order and she was as nice as pie to her. Ordered one item and then wanted the keytag and senior drink again..when my co-worker explained the policy to her, the old lady was like "Oh alright, I'll also have a small fry."

Second customer kept changing her order after I had put it in and when she finally decided on what I wanted, I slowly read back her order to her (I always read back the order to make sure I have it correct and I tend to rattle it off quickly but usually catch myself and slow down), she confirmed it was right so I told her the total and she paid. After I finished setting up the tray she said "Where's my potato? I wanted a potato why didn't you put it in?" I just sighed and asked her what kind of potato she wanted and rang it up.

Third customer was... gah. I did my usual "Hello how are you? What can I do for you today?" he didn't respond so I said "If you're not ready yet just let me know when you are." and he immediately barked at me "I want XYZ combo with a diet coke." ...well with that combo comes three different types of sauces..so I very politely asked "Would you like the sauce sweet, smoky or spicy?" and he was like "I want the spicy, the regular size and a diet coke so quit asking me questions." I just nodded and rang up the order, told him the total and finished up his order.

10 minutes later he came back and practically threw his sandwich at me saying "Give me just a chicken sandwich. This sandwich is the nastiest sandwich I've ever had. How the hell can you serve something so effing nasty?" I was shocked so I didn't apologize...I just rang up his sandwich, took his money and starting reviewing my orders so I could refund him the price of the sandwich he didn't want. As I'm in the middle of going through the refund with my manager he says "And I want a damn refund for that nasty sandwich." My manager just refunded the entire combo and then a few minutes later sent our MiT (Manager in Training...a co-worker I really like) out to the dining room to talk to guests (Table visits..wheeeeeee!) and asked me what happened.

I told her what happened and how the guy ordered it and she went "Ah. He ordered it spicy." (Our spicy barbeque sauce really truly sucks...We like to joke that only the most brave people order it) MiT comes back and pulled me to the side with our manager and said "Remember that guy that had a problem with the sandwich? Well I just went out to do table visits and I asked him how everything was. He didn't respond and I started to ask again because I thought he didn't hear me and he told me to "go the hell away and leave him the eff alone" So I did." All three of us just kind of looked at each other and my manager said "The next time he comes in, if you're working Thana, let me know and I'll take care of him."

[prjkt]

I find the older customers to be the rudest sometimes

[Jay 2K Winger]

I Thought Young People Were The Rude Ones...

Rudeness knows no age boundaries.

[Teskeria]

A jerk is a jerk no matter what their age.

[Sapphire Silk]

People don't grow out of being dicks. They just fossilize.

[Zellie Crescent]

I find the older customers to be the rudest sometimes

Not just rude, they can be absolute assholes. Especially in the morning.

[Mytical]

The way my father believes is "I have been on this earth 81 years. I am entitled to be a bit grumpy"

[prjkt]

The way my father believes is "I have been on this earth 81 years. I am entitled to be a bit grumpy"

That's fair enough, but there's still no excuse enough to warrant taking it out on others

[MoonCat]

When I was young I always seemed to run into crabby older people. Now, a lot of people would consider me old at 57, so I try not to act like the stereotypical old grouch.

It seems that being an "old fart" is not limited to old folks! :P

[Mytical]

That's fair enough, but there's still no excuse enough to warrant taking it out on others

I absolutely agree. Sadly my parents can be SC's. I won't hijack the thread, but lets just say that they have given me plenty of reasons to facepalm regularly.

[MutualAddiction]

I always hated taking customer orders...there were really friendly people, and then there were...people like this. *They* knew what they ordered and *We* were the idiots for making it wrong...except 98% of the time they had ordered the wrong item. *sigh*

[Catwoman2965]

I had one the other night. My store has a counter, with 3 registers behind it, so no lines, per say. I saw him standing there, and wasn't sure if he was being helped or not. Sometimes customers who are, stand there and wait. So I asked if he was being helped. He said nothing but shoved his 3 sweaters he wanted to purchase at me.

Ok, fine. SOP is to ask if they are paying by store charge, or whatnot. Then we either have them swipe said card, which pulls them up, or ask for their info (all optional BTW) so we can make sure the purchase is in their customer history, if they lose their receipt, etc.

But he wasn't having any of that. Fine. So I ring him up. Now our stuff is pricy, and these 3 sweaters were cashmere. So even with the promo, it was still almost $350 for all three. I tell him the total and he looks at me and says "What? How much? Why so much???" I politely explained that they were a. cashmere, and b. told him how much each was.

"Why so much? what IS Cashmere?????" Then grumped and said "fine, i'll take them." But really? Did you not LOOK at the price before you came up? What a curmudgeon.

[Thana]

I hate it so much when a customer will order and confirm that what I'm repeating back to them is the correct order...then come up 10 minutes later saying that their sandwich is wrong because it has whatever on it and they "told" me they didn't want whatever on it. That was this morning's theme. Thankfully I only had to deal with that for the first hour we were open because our lunch rush started at 11am instead of noon. I think I would have lost my mind had that "You didn't put in my order correctly because I never told you the right way but confirmed it was right anyway." theme had continued.

[CorneliaMarieRocks]

had the exact same thing happen back in my Sonic days, had a guy order a 'root beer with whipped cream on top' I repeated it to him verbatim & he confirmed so I made it that way, root beer soda with whipped cream (hey it was Sonic if we had the ingredients to do something special order we'd do it even if it wasn't on the menu)

Carhop took his order out, comes back with the drink saying he ordered a root beer float, to which I immediately called BS, I told her that was NOT what he ordered, he ordered the above & I specifically read that part of the order back to him to make sure I had it right & she still claimed he said 'root beer float' well, then asshole needed to say that then

[Thana]

-bangs head on wall-

I have one customer for whom it apparently refuses to sink in that the policy concerning senior drinks and the free keytag have changed. For the 5th flipping time this month I had to explain the policy to her >,< She is the same customer in my OP from the first story. It's just me she does it to! I think from now on I'm not even going to mention the policy to her when she mentions the senior drink and the keytag. I'm just gonna charge her for the drink and give her the free keytag if she only orders one item.