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Been awhile since I've posted a story, truth be told, I have tons. But no willpower to type them up. But this one.... Oh, these particular women had to have their own thread as soon as possible.
So I work in an aquarium out of a mall. It's fairly decent for the space we have to work with and a wonderful atmosphere. I work at several different stations and deal mostly with transactions (Not my position of choice really, but it's my first paying job and one that would be easy to use as work experience for any retail jobs later on), so gift shop, the souvenir photo desk, and on rare occasions, taking pictures on our green screen. I like the job, have some great coworkers, and have (semi) intelligent bosses.
Now as many places like this, we do birthday parties. Yes, they're very expensive, but everything is supplied; drinks, food, cake (cookie cake, no less!) and staff hired just for such occasions.
This was last Saturday late into the afternoon. I'm pulling a double shift because my coworker called out and no one else was available. What makes this worse was that particular day was Thanksgiving with some extended family who I haven't seen in about a year. And I'm missing it because of work. I only took the extra six hours (on top of the six I already had) because I figured if I had a reason why I couldn't go to Thanksgiving, might as well give myself a reason to stay at work.
I'm at the gift shop till as normal when a woman with short dark haired woman (who shall be called SC1) and another woman (SC2) comes up. The following happens:
SC1: "I'm with the party group! I was told to pick up our presents here!" She had a really stern voice to her and I already had that feeling this was going to suck.
Me: "Alright, give me one moment to call our Events Manager!"
SC1: "What do you mean? They were supposed to be here when we arrived!!!"
Me: *Um, do you see them here?* "Well, Ma'am I'm not really associated with our Events Team. But I'll just call them and they'll bring the presents down here!"
SC1: *Dramatic sigh* "Ugh, this is ridiculous! Will our jackets be there, too?"
Me: (I'm trying really hard to keep a smile going by this point...) "I'm sorry about the inconvenience, Ma'am, they'll be here shortly, and they should have your jackets with them..."
1 minute later...
SC1: "WHERE ARE THEY?! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!!"
Me: **Oh God, here we go...** "Ma'am, they should be here in a little while, it takes a little time to get here with where they're coming from!"
SC1: "GET ME YOUR MANAGER NOW!!!"
Me: **Perfect, I was going to call her anyway now that you've started shouting.** "Yes, Ma'am. One moment please."
Manager arrives, unfortunately, out of the three that could have arrived at that time, it was the one who was just promoted to manager and doesn't have a handle on things quite yet.
I'm not really sure what all happened between her and my manager because the following happens.
Enter SC1's friend, SC2...
SC2 is an older woman with graying blonde hair, and looks to be about 10-15 years older than SC1. But this one was far worse and the reason for this thread's title.
SC2: *puts items on counter, and holds out money and an annual pass (annual passes get you a 10% discount on purchases) before I even scan her purchases.*
Me: "Alright, that'll be *price*. If you can just sign this card for me, I'll go ahead and ring the purchase through." (The card in question was what we give whenever there's some sort of discount. Annual pass discounts have and always will fall under this category)
SC2: I don't need to sign anything.
Me: "Ma'am, it's for the discount from the annual pass. It's standard procedure and I'm not allowed to move through the transaction without it."
SC2" "Ugh, fine. Hey, (man's name who is relatively unimportant to the story) this is your pass you need to sign this. (That's right, the pass wasn't her's. The only reason I let her through is that the man who it belonged to was in the group with SC1 and SC2. Although this guy is actually a decent human being.)
As I'm ringing everything through, I look to my left and see SC1's son has wandered behind my desk and staring at me holding a drink cup, not saying anything.
Me: "Woah, buddy! There's nothing interesting back here for you. Sorry! (Now, between missing family Thanksgiving, the double shift, and dealing with these idiots, my patience has been tested. I can imagine my temper was rather short at the time and my tone probably showed that. But I have Asberger's disorder. I have a hard time reading tone of voice, especially if it's my own.)
SC2: Wow! You guys claim to cater to kids and then there's THAT!
SC1: *looking up* (Manager she was talking to had gone with the rest of the team to get the presents to the family's car) "What happened?"
SC2: "She just said, *mimicking me in a very nasally voice* ""There's nothing back here for you, get out!"" (That "get out" was not there, I can assure you of that)
Me: **Just now it dawned on me here that what I said may have been taken the wrong way** "Hold on, Ma'am I didn't mean to sound rude. He just can't be back here. I meant what I said in the best way possible."
SC1: "So what? My son can't use your trash can instead of leaving his empty cup on your shelf? Is that not allowed?
Me: "He's more than welcome to. But I didn't know the cup was empty." (It had a lid on it)
SC2: "Well, you need to learn that children are people, too!" (Aaand that did it. That was where I started fighting back tears.)
SC1 and SC2 leave. Thank God.
And of course right after that, I got a woman who didn't understand why she needed her ID to make a purchase with a card. I called a manager again, luckily it was a different one than who SC1 was talking to. He handled the ID lady and after that I burst into tears.
It was bad enough to where my shift lead had to cover the shop so I could go to the break room and calm down. I stayed there for a good 30 minutes crying before I calmed down enough to finish my shift. Now, normally the "children are people, too" comment would only really piss me off on a normal day, but it was all the factors leading up to that which did me in. I'm 18 years old, the youngest member on the team. In that sense, no one would understand that children are people more than I would, seeing how I still am one.
I learned when I came in this morning that birthday party group had been a pain to almost everyone. With the way they complained to my manager (The one who was called down to talk to SC1) you would've thought we beat the kids with sticks. They complained of the party host purposefully scaring the kids, which while I'll admit I'm not on great terms with the guy, I KNOW he would never do anything like that. Then when the kids ran around everywhere like mad putting their hands in our open tanks and trying to grab the fish. Adults would get mad if an employee said they weren't allowed to reach inside the tanks.
Then there was the free green screen photo that the parents of the birthday kid receive with the party. Our program for the picture crashed just as theirs was taken and it didn't save. Yeah, I'd be annoyed, too. But I'm a rational human being and know these things happen, plus, you're allowed to retake the picture anyway. So with those factors, and with me being the last employee at the end of their visit, I got the major blunt of all of their rage.
So CS, thoughts? I just needed to rant, seeing as still find myself thinking about it and what else I could have said to them.
So I work in an aquarium out of a mall. It's fairly decent for the space we have to work with and a wonderful atmosphere. I work at several different stations and deal mostly with transactions (Not my position of choice really, but it's my first paying job and one that would be easy to use as work experience for any retail jobs later on), so gift shop, the souvenir photo desk, and on rare occasions, taking pictures on our green screen. I like the job, have some great coworkers, and have (semi) intelligent bosses.
Now as many places like this, we do birthday parties. Yes, they're very expensive, but everything is supplied; drinks, food, cake (cookie cake, no less!) and staff hired just for such occasions.
This was last Saturday late into the afternoon. I'm pulling a double shift because my coworker called out and no one else was available. What makes this worse was that particular day was Thanksgiving with some extended family who I haven't seen in about a year. And I'm missing it because of work. I only took the extra six hours (on top of the six I already had) because I figured if I had a reason why I couldn't go to Thanksgiving, might as well give myself a reason to stay at work.
I'm at the gift shop till as normal when a woman with short dark haired woman (who shall be called SC1) and another woman (SC2) comes up. The following happens:
SC1: "I'm with the party group! I was told to pick up our presents here!" She had a really stern voice to her and I already had that feeling this was going to suck.
Me: "Alright, give me one moment to call our Events Manager!"
SC1: "What do you mean? They were supposed to be here when we arrived!!!"
Me: *Um, do you see them here?* "Well, Ma'am I'm not really associated with our Events Team. But I'll just call them and they'll bring the presents down here!"
SC1: *Dramatic sigh* "Ugh, this is ridiculous! Will our jackets be there, too?"
Me: (I'm trying really hard to keep a smile going by this point...) "I'm sorry about the inconvenience, Ma'am, they'll be here shortly, and they should have your jackets with them..."
1 minute later...
SC1: "WHERE ARE THEY?! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!!"
Me: **Oh God, here we go...** "Ma'am, they should be here in a little while, it takes a little time to get here with where they're coming from!"
SC1: "GET ME YOUR MANAGER NOW!!!"
Me: **Perfect, I was going to call her anyway now that you've started shouting.** "Yes, Ma'am. One moment please."
Manager arrives, unfortunately, out of the three that could have arrived at that time, it was the one who was just promoted to manager and doesn't have a handle on things quite yet.
I'm not really sure what all happened between her and my manager because the following happens.
Enter SC1's friend, SC2...
SC2 is an older woman with graying blonde hair, and looks to be about 10-15 years older than SC1. But this one was far worse and the reason for this thread's title.
SC2: *puts items on counter, and holds out money and an annual pass (annual passes get you a 10% discount on purchases) before I even scan her purchases.*
Me: "Alright, that'll be *price*. If you can just sign this card for me, I'll go ahead and ring the purchase through." (The card in question was what we give whenever there's some sort of discount. Annual pass discounts have and always will fall under this category)
SC2: I don't need to sign anything.
Me: "Ma'am, it's for the discount from the annual pass. It's standard procedure and I'm not allowed to move through the transaction without it."
SC2" "Ugh, fine. Hey, (man's name who is relatively unimportant to the story) this is your pass you need to sign this. (That's right, the pass wasn't her's. The only reason I let her through is that the man who it belonged to was in the group with SC1 and SC2. Although this guy is actually a decent human being.)
As I'm ringing everything through, I look to my left and see SC1's son has wandered behind my desk and staring at me holding a drink cup, not saying anything.
Me: "Woah, buddy! There's nothing interesting back here for you. Sorry! (Now, between missing family Thanksgiving, the double shift, and dealing with these idiots, my patience has been tested. I can imagine my temper was rather short at the time and my tone probably showed that. But I have Asberger's disorder. I have a hard time reading tone of voice, especially if it's my own.)
SC2: Wow! You guys claim to cater to kids and then there's THAT!
SC1: *looking up* (Manager she was talking to had gone with the rest of the team to get the presents to the family's car) "What happened?"
SC2: "She just said, *mimicking me in a very nasally voice* ""There's nothing back here for you, get out!"" (That "get out" was not there, I can assure you of that)
Me: **Just now it dawned on me here that what I said may have been taken the wrong way** "Hold on, Ma'am I didn't mean to sound rude. He just can't be back here. I meant what I said in the best way possible."
SC1: "So what? My son can't use your trash can instead of leaving his empty cup on your shelf? Is that not allowed?
Me: "He's more than welcome to. But I didn't know the cup was empty." (It had a lid on it)
SC2: "Well, you need to learn that children are people, too!" (Aaand that did it. That was where I started fighting back tears.)
SC1 and SC2 leave. Thank God.
And of course right after that, I got a woman who didn't understand why she needed her ID to make a purchase with a card. I called a manager again, luckily it was a different one than who SC1 was talking to. He handled the ID lady and after that I burst into tears.
It was bad enough to where my shift lead had to cover the shop so I could go to the break room and calm down. I stayed there for a good 30 minutes crying before I calmed down enough to finish my shift. Now, normally the "children are people, too" comment would only really piss me off on a normal day, but it was all the factors leading up to that which did me in. I'm 18 years old, the youngest member on the team. In that sense, no one would understand that children are people more than I would, seeing how I still am one.
I learned when I came in this morning that birthday party group had been a pain to almost everyone. With the way they complained to my manager (The one who was called down to talk to SC1) you would've thought we beat the kids with sticks. They complained of the party host purposefully scaring the kids, which while I'll admit I'm not on great terms with the guy, I KNOW he would never do anything like that. Then when the kids ran around everywhere like mad putting their hands in our open tanks and trying to grab the fish. Adults would get mad if an employee said they weren't allowed to reach inside the tanks.
Then there was the free green screen photo that the parents of the birthday kid receive with the party. Our program for the picture crashed just as theirs was taken and it didn't save. Yeah, I'd be annoyed, too. But I'm a rational human being and know these things happen, plus, you're allowed to retake the picture anyway. So with those factors, and with me being the last employee at the end of their visit, I got the major blunt of all of their rage.
So CS, thoughts? I just needed to rant, seeing as still find myself thinking about it and what else I could have said to them.
Aww, Eevie. 
It's not your age, or you personally. I'm old enough to be your mother, and last week a conflict with a similarly 
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