Customers behavior

[magnetite]

Hey, I had a few questions about why customers believe they have the right to do certain things. For example, we are here to serve, however, sometimes I see some customers show no respect for where I work.

A lot of the people I run into are very nice, however, what kind of person would just leave their stuff at the till and take off. There wasn't really a huge line up or anything. Maybe two people ahead of them.

Sometimes they don't actually leave things which they intend to pay for, they would leave their dirty kleenexs and half drank coffee cups in the baskets. Poses a health risk if you ask me, with the kleenex and all.

Anyways, don't want to get into too much of a rant, but where did all this start? That customers believe that they can act this way and get away with it? I'm only from the early 1980s, but did they do this back in the 1950s?

[Rapscallion]

Probably best in General Work Chat - the SC forum is more for discussing specific incidents of sucky behaviour.

Rapscallion

[Dips]

In the 50s my father worked in a grocery store and my MIL worked at a luxury resort as a waitress. Trust me, SCs being disrespectful is nothing new.

[MoonCat]

My mom was a waitress in the 50's. She loved her job but she did run into her share of SC's and EW's.

[wagegoth]

There have always been customers with bad attitudes, and even some abusive ones, and it was definitely worse for waitresses in earlier times with the more obvious sexism, but I personally find that the big difference is that customers seem to feel it's absolutely okay to scream and rant and curse in front of everyone and get rewarded for it. I blame this on the over the top, keep the customer happy at any cost attitude that started showing up in the 80's.

If a customer has a legit grievance, then giving them some compensation makes sense. Rewarding abusive behavior only makes for more problems in the long run.

[Blade_Raver]

The people who call me for tech support back in 2000-2001 seemed to be a bit easier to deal with than the ones who call me for tech support now.

I don't know if it's the people that have changed or if it's just over time my patience has eroded away.