Terrible and Wonderful

[astyn-dbs]

Two customers back to back. The first one told me my service was crap. I refused to change his ciggarette pack to one with a less disgusting picture, in line with company policy as I explained to him (although he claimed that wasn't a problem), and asked him - SHOCK HORROR! - to swipe his card through the eftpos machine after I told him his total. My exact words were, "Your total is $x, just swipe your card through here." On this particular till, it is much easier for the customer to swipe their own card. As I recall he asked me, "Bad night or just not a very nice person?" Ah, excuse me? All I did was ask you to swipe your card. I was perfectly polite throughout the transaction. You, on the other hand, were a jerk.

The next customer thought I was wonderful, because I spent a couple of minutes tracking down a school on the map that was on a completely different road to the one they had been told (and the one it was named after) and showing him on the map how to reach the school.

WTF??

[tropicsgoddess]

People are strange...that's all I have to say on this one.

[Anthony K. S.]

I refused to change his ciggarette pack to one with a less disgusting picture

Oh, heaven forbid that a person who is buying poison should be subjected to the horror of an unpleasant picture on the package . . .

As I recall he asked me, "Bad night or just not a very nice person?"

That line reminds me of one of my pet peeves :

When I'm dealing with customers, I tend to be rather detached and formal.

(That's just how I am whenever I'm talking to strangers. I'm much more relaxed and friendly around people I know and like.)

Most of the time, this works just fine.

Every now and then, though, I get a customer who asks me, just out of the blue, "You having a bad day?"

I'm not sure why, exactly. Because I'm not smiling, I suppose, or because I didn't laugh at their lame jokes, or because I'm not making "small talk" with them, or just because I'm not acting all thrilled and happy to be working and helping the customers . . .

. . . or perhaps they think that their mere presence should bring such light and happiness to people that just the opportunity to serve them should fill me with uncontainable joy. [/sarcasm]

Again, I will say .

[Chanlin]

I get that quite frequently myself on the phone when I am talking to customers. Just out of nowhere they ask if I'm having a bad day. The most recent one nearly made me hang up on the guy because it was just incredibly rude. I'll make a separate thread for it since I don't want to hijack this one.

I just don't get why me not telling you what you want to hear, or my lack of making small talk automatically = me having a bad day.

[TTAZ]

I got fired from a job right after one of those lines from a customer. I was working at a grocery store pharmacy and this guy comes to get his meds and asks if he can get his other stuff there too. He was holding 2 drinks. Per company policy I said yes as it was just a few things, then he moves aside revealing an overflowing cart of groceries which, because I already said yes, I now had to do. So I'm busting my ass to get it done as fast as possible, and the guy asks me if I'm having a bad day, all smarmy like he's happy he caused it. I told him it wasn't a bad day, just extremely busy. Then he looks me right in the eye and says, "You're a real bitch you know that?!"



I was so shocked all I could think to say was the corporate line:

"Thank you for bringing that to my attention, now I can work on this issue and strive to not be a real bitch in the future."

Turns out he didn't appreciate that, and since he was friends with the store manager, I was terminated the next day.

So, YES, that is one of my toxic pet peeves too.

[Chanlin]

"Thank you for bringing that to my attention, now I can work on this issue and strive to not be a real bitch in the future."

I'm stealing this one. Apparently your a real smart ass too, whether you meant to be or not. This line is full of win

[powerboy]

I get that here and there. Hey don't blame me, if you come in 5 minutes before closing and want to check out every damn size we have. But because of company policy, we still have to help you. IF you think that I am rude now, when all I have been doing was being nice. Then you better rent a unit, because otherwise you are wasting my precious time and I will be pissed off.

[TTAZ]

I'm stealing this one. Apparently your a real smart ass too, whether you meant to be or not. This line is full of win

Honest that was the company line for customer complaints. We were supposed to thank them for bringing the problem to our attention, reassure them that we would work on correcting it in the near future, tell them we appreciate their business and to have a nice day.

I followed corporate policy, dammit!

[Chanlin]

Oh I'm not debating that you followed policy TTAZ, like I said you may not have meant it to be, but from an outsdie view that was a very smart ass way of handling that situation. Thats why its so full of win, you were being a smart ass and following policy at the same time.

[TTAZ]

I only wish I could say it was done intentionally.