A thread on customers claiming they will take their money to other stores got me thinking, in a roundabout way, of the games they play, and the guilt trips they put you through, in order to get something out of you. This might be a reduced price, "faster" service because they're in a hurry, to be served before someone else, and so on.
This is very alien to me. I am an honest and straightforward person and it has never occurred to me to try to make someone feel bad on purpose (especially if they have a low-paying job in the retail or service), so it usually takes me a while to re-assert my own mental defense in light of these attacks.
One particular example happened several months ago and has just resurfaced in my memory, submarine like, to bob in the turgid waters of my mind.
A customer, with wife/girlfriend, and young infant, was in the process of obtaining a game. Now, as far as I can recall, I served him as quickly and efficiently as possible (we were very busy), and beyond ingesting several vials of crack or shooting adrenaline into my jugular, I can't really think what I could have done to make myself get things done faster.
He scowls at me and says, "Come on, man, hurry up. My boy's tired and he wants to go home."
Now, bear in mind that this is at eleven o'clock at night. I'm sorry your baby is tired and grumpy, but maybe you shouldn't have a five month old out and about close to midnight?
Then there was the lady who screamed at me because I put her comforters, encased in plastic bags, on the floor. "Don't be putting my things on no floor!"
Firstly: if you've seen the trucks these things travel in, and the shelves they sit on before you buy them, you're not going to give two donkey turds about "no floor." Secondly, they aren't yours yet. Thirdly, you have a cart full of these things and you're checking out at Electronics, where we have a counter just about big enough for the Pillsbury Doughboy to lie on, if he kept his legs together. Where else am I going to put it?
Anyway....rant off. Feel free to add your (undoubtedly better) stories about guilt trips here.
This is very alien to me. I am an honest and straightforward person and it has never occurred to me to try to make someone feel bad on purpose (especially if they have a low-paying job in the retail or service), so it usually takes me a while to re-assert my own mental defense in light of these attacks.
One particular example happened several months ago and has just resurfaced in my memory, submarine like, to bob in the turgid waters of my mind.
A customer, with wife/girlfriend, and young infant, was in the process of obtaining a game. Now, as far as I can recall, I served him as quickly and efficiently as possible (we were very busy), and beyond ingesting several vials of crack or shooting adrenaline into my jugular, I can't really think what I could have done to make myself get things done faster.
He scowls at me and says, "Come on, man, hurry up. My boy's tired and he wants to go home."
Now, bear in mind that this is at eleven o'clock at night. I'm sorry your baby is tired and grumpy, but maybe you shouldn't have a five month old out and about close to midnight?
Then there was the lady who screamed at me because I put her comforters, encased in plastic bags, on the floor. "Don't be putting my things on no floor!"
Firstly: if you've seen the trucks these things travel in, and the shelves they sit on before you buy them, you're not going to give two donkey turds about "no floor." Secondly, they aren't yours yet. Thirdly, you have a cart full of these things and you're checking out at Electronics, where we have a counter just about big enough for the Pillsbury Doughboy to lie on, if he kept his legs together. Where else am I going to put it?
Anyway....rant off. Feel free to add your (undoubtedly better) stories about guilt trips here.
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