The "I'm So Rude" Thread

[Strathclyde]

That's easy - Alaska, Colorado, Washington (both D.C. and the state). Or, if it's the right season, anyone from Toronto can score them some primo dandelion. Hey, dandelion is a weed.

And Oregon as of October 1st!

[scruff]

Me and a friend got a complaint about how upbeat we were first thing in the morning - so we turned it up to 11. Having a boss who kept us in starmix (sugar sweets) really helped.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I once had a customer complain to my supervisor that I looked miserable. My supervisor told the customer that since my granny's funeral was the day before, that wasn't surprising. The customer was shocked and withdrew the complaint.

[Food Lady]

One time I employed a bit of self-depreciating humor about one of my physical features I felt was not my best due to being out of proportion. Apparently she had the opposite view and would've liked to trade with me; therefore I must be subtly bragging.

[HawaiianShirts]

Working for Major Electronics Retailer. Walked out of the stock room--exhausted and slightly dazed--at the end of a ten-hour shift, looking for a computer at which I could clock out. Approached the Appliances computer just as the person working Appliances that day also approached it. I asked, "Do you mind if I clock out before you take over?" She said she needed to place an order for a customer. At that point, the customers (a couple) came around the corner. I said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were helping someone. I'll go clock out in the camera department instead."

The customers stopped to complain to a manager on their way out of the store. They acknowledged that I apologized, but they said it was still "rude" of me to want to clock out on a computer that someone else needed to use to help them with their purchase.

(Manager told me about it the next day and we both laughed at the stupid complaint. He then said, "Hey, I pretended to be concerned. You should at least pretend to be chastised.")

-- Asking someone if they'd like their penny change. (Apparently this made them feel guilty for not tipping if they were to say they wanted it.)

But they wouldn't feel guilty about leaving a measly penny as a tip?

Having to go find a SKU. I should magically know all the prices and SKUs for everything.

Sorry, that one might be partly my fault. When I worked for Major Electronics Retailer, I did end up memorizing many of the SKUs in the computer department. Mostly for the laptops, printers, and external hard drives, just because people were constantly asking me to look up specs that were not listed on the spec tag.

...and withdrew the complaint.

That happens?

[Chazzie]

But they wouldn't feel guilty about leaving a measly penny as a tip?

Well, I used to ask because usually if I tried to just give someone their penny, they would look at me like I was stupid (you actually think I WANT my change?), scoff, or laugh, snap at me "i don't want it" etc. However, in this person's case, if I hadn't asked, then they would have gotten their penny and not tipped at all. I guess the logic there is that them not thinking about it means they don't have to feel guilty about it.

[Water]

When I asked a lady "may I help you?", she said she was leaving.

[Dreamstalker]

I was rude for not letting a customer reach across the scanner and scan their own card. Sorry, that's getting your paw too close to the drawer and screen for my liking. My side of the counter is my space. You want to scan your own stuff, that's what the SCO kiosks are for.

[tnd777]

Do everything you can to try to help the customer. Reassure them that you will follow up to make sure the issue is resolved. They then complain that you are rude and then you are fired for trying to be helpful.

[Ashaela]

- For being overworked and for the phone lines being busy.

As background - half of my folks have been poached by other departments at the same exact time that our base is expanding by around 50,000 people. These 50,000 are transferring to our jurisdiction from another agency that had no automated records and never informed their base that they would be transferred.

This means there are a lot of phone calls, with a maximum of 5 people at any given time to answer them. This in turn means that instead of being able to write procedures, test software, and train employees in processing all these new files, the dept. manager and I have to keep stopping everything we're doing to take escalated calls saying "why isn't this done? Why can't you do mine first? What's taking so long?"

And because all the phone lines are tied up, we started getting emails to the public box complaining about how rude it is and how poor customer service it is for the phones to be busy.

[Kittykat]

I once asked a local cop his ID to check to be allowed to pick up something he ordered online. He had to go back to his squad car to get it.

Thought it funny at the time...well, i still do...but I realize I probably was being rude even though his car was about 10-15 ft away

You weren't rude, there is such a thing as pretend police officers.

[Lace Neil Singer]

You weren't rude, there is such a thing as pretend police officers.

He could also have been a stripper.

Was called rude, cuz I wouldn't open another till to cope with the massive queue. Reason I didn't? It was broken, with an out of order sign displayed prominently and I was stacking shelves while I waited for IT to call me back.

[Dreamstalker]

I was rude for not being instantly available (to a stand-and-stare SC) despite two other SCOs with open transactions deciding to freeze up simultaneously.

The kicker is Shithead tried to lecture me about "serving the customer" as I was in the middle of rebooting both SCOs and keeping those customers happy while keeping an eye on everything else going on (just because you can't handle this doesn't mean you get to distract me from doing so).

[April]

last week a father of one of my clients called a supervisor (not my supervisor, nor a person in my department) and advised her that I was rude and unhelpful because I advised him that I cannot release any information regarding his son, and that it was against privacy laws for me to do so. I advised him to ask his son to sign a release of information. That wouldn't work, because his son didn't want to tell him anything. I explained to him that his son is an adult and does have a right to the information that he wants to hand out.

(I realized how many times I write "Advised" in just this short paragraph. I write a lot of letters to judges LOL)

[Food Lady]

Not me this time but a coworker said at her old job someone didn't laugh at a customer's joke and then it was "I want a manager now." Get over yourself.