Has a SC Ever Made You Cry?

[calulu]

...or am I the lone stranger.

Had a lady yesterday furious that she'd paid for three sets of very expensive flowers to be delivered very quickly and they were delivered an hour late. No problem, right? Talk to her, calm her down, apologize profusely and refund the deluxe shipping right? Everyone's happy.

Not this woman, the more I tried to genuinely help her and tell her how I was sorry that this happened but I was going to take care of it the angrier she got. Every time I opened my mouth to say anything to her she'd shout for me to stop patronizing her and just kept getting angrier the nicer I got. It should have been a five minute call with me simply refunding her fees but it morphed into a twenty minute rant where every time I offered sympathy or a solution she went ever more ballistic on me. Eventually there was nothing more to do but kick her upstairs to a manager. But she refused to hold because I'd so rudely put her on hold a couple of times. Of course she didn't have any identifying info on the orders like, say, order numbers.

After getting her phone number out of her and promising her politely as I could that a manager would call her back I ended up having a good cry. Stupid, I know, but after that verbal assault it was slug someone or cry.

The manager pulled the tape of my call, listening to it before calling her back. She wanted her orders for free was the upshot and the manager did end up giving her a discount... but only after forcing her to apologize to me.

I rarely do customer service so I take my hat off to you guys that do it every day, in the sales dept we only do it when the CSR are swamped and it's always a challenge to stay 'nice' when someone is calling you a douchbag for not doing what they want.

[iradney]

*Squishies*

At least your manager made her eat crow and apologise.

What sucks is that it was most likely a half-hearted one...and she still shouldn't have gotten the discount.



Sokay, WE love you! :hugs:

[trunks2k]

They never made me cry, but one got pretty close. A woman handed me a $10 bill and I gave her the appropriate change. She then claimed I gave her a a $20. I KNEW she didn't because I had just cleaned out my drawer and had left myself 4 $20 bills, which was all I had in terms of 20s, I also left myself 4 $10 bills and I had 5 of them in my drawer now. I tell her she must be mistaken, because she gave me a 10 not a 20. She starts screaming at me, accusing me of stealing from her and trying to take advantage of an old lady, that the store trains us to do this so it will make more money, etc.

I get someone to cover the lane and go to have the drawer counted to see if I'm $10 over. While that is happening, she continues yelling at me, still accusing me of stealing from her, telling me she's gonna call the cops, and saying how horrible of a person I am. I kept telling her it would all be cleared up in a minute.

My drawer comes back, not only am I not $10 over, I'm actually ten cents short (I had dropped some change earlier). She then accuses the girl of making it up, then she accuses me of pocketing the money. To which I get pissed and empty out my pockets and show her that I had a whole $2 on me. She continues calling me a horrible person, etc. I was inches away from snapping and just punching her in the face -- having been berated for 15 minutes straight by this point and not in a position to really walk away I think, my patience is pretty good. The store manager was called and I'm told to go take a break. As I walk away I hear him telling her over and over that the drawer balanced out and there's no evidence that she gave me $20, and she continues to scream about how horrible we all are (especially me).

I came back and found out that the manager caved and just gave her the $10 just to get her to shut the hell up. I was livid. Not long after that a lady who was behind the evil bitch came back into the store and asked me what happened with the evil bitch. I told her the drawer balanced, and she said "I knew I saw her hand you a ten! But I wasn't entirely sure." I was not a happy cashier for the next few days because of all that.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

^^ Once the drawer balanced, we would have kicked her out for attempting to scam us. If she refused to leave, we would have called the cops, and pressed fraud charges.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

Gods yes, it doesn't help that anger sometimes makes me cry, too. It's been awhile but just the memory of that [expletive only deleted because none of the ones that I know are strong enough] is enough to make me grind my teeth. Pardon me while I go have a cup of tea to calm down.

[IHateStupidCustomers]

I know I've cried a couple of times because of customers.

I know there was a couple of times at the evil lingerie company call center, but I can't remember the specific situations. I think I blocked them out of my memory. There was a girl there, I remember, who was in tears after getting a "pervert" call. We had to deal with them, we weren't allowed to hang up. I don't know what the guy said, but apparently he wouldn't hang up for awhile and it upset her afterwards that she had to log out and sit in the managers office to calm down for awhile.

There was a time when I worked at Waffle House when a manager made me cry. Apparently he didn't like the way me and the other server were calling in orders when we got busy. He was basically freaking out over nothing, because we weren't doing anything wrong. As things died down a little (although there were still four or five customers) he started screaming at us on the floor, in front of the customers, not in the back. He's screaming "What the hell was that! Why can't you two learn to call in your orders! You can't do anything right! This is bullshit! No wonder third shift isn't bringing in any money!" on and on and on. Finally I just broke down and went in the back and cried.

So, I feel ya'. At least your manager was cool and make the evil woman apologize.

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

The Crying Game

Has an SC made me cry?

Only inwardly.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Sucky ones usually make me shake with frustration/anger.

The only customer that ever made me cry was not a sucky one. It was a woman who could not get in touch with her daughter and had me call a few numbers that were on her daughters recent list of calls to see if we could track her down, since she had no access to her daughters phone nor the recent numbers called on it.

We had no luck. This woman had not heard from the girl in several days and she was SO upset. I felt so powerless, I wish I could've done more for her. I just pray her daughter got home safe....

[chainedbarista]

i've come close, but am more likely to want to clear the counter and strangle them.

she should have gotten NOTHING for her behavior; in the scheme of things, she should be grateful that it was the worst part of her day-she's not going hungry and has a place to sleep tonight, after all.

*hug* some people are just that hateful and ungrateful; we're just glad we're all not like her.

[Norton]

Sometimes the frustration is too much. You can't simply leave the situation, and you can't retaliate the way you'd like to a customer, so sometimes crying out your frustration is the only option. I've done it before.
However the following story about an asshole customer making an employee cry is a former co-worker's experience.

I used to work at Krispy Kreme, on the graveyard shift. One night I came in, and the manager from second shift was obviously upset. He took me in the back and told me what had transpired roughly an hour before I arrived.

A guy (SC) had come in with a coupon. I forget exactly what the coupon was for... either a BOGO, or one dozen free. Either way, the coupon offer was specifically for one dozen original glazed doughnuts free. He was served by my lovely co-worker (CW). CW is Lithuanian. She speaks perfect - though heavily accented - English. In fact, her English is better than that of most Americans I know.

SC demanded she allow him to buy one dozen of mixed doughnuts, rather than the original glazed. This was at a time when our coupons were carefully compared with our sales and our stock. We could get in trouble if the coupons didn't match what was actually sold. CW explained that she could not alter the coupon. After a bit of arguing from SC, CW crossed the line a bit by saying "you should be happy you're getting a dozen free". Now, she could have handled it better, but how the customer reacted was waaaaay over the top.

He yelled at her that this is America, and maybe she isn't used to having food in her third-world country. He then proceeded to belittle her to his companion. She burst into tears and was sent to the breakroom by the second shift manager. SC went out to the parking lot, followed by the manager. The manager was very upset, and asked him how he felt knowing that he had brought a sweet young girl to tears. SC threatened to have us shut down, saying he had contacts in high places, knew journalists, etc.

Whenever a complaint reached corporate, all stores in our state were emailed a copy of the complaint. This case was no exception. The complaint was from the SCs side, of course. Even the way SC described the event made it seem unreal - he included disparaging remarks about CW and his threats of shutting us down. A manager from another store mentioned seeing the complaint, and thought it was a joke. He was suprised when I told him that no, this actually did happen.

[rerant]

I've never cried because of a specific SC, but I did break down one day at work because of a bad day.

I was doing a 13 hour shift (on cash during a massively busy day, mind you) and not only was I having a bad day to start, people were up my ass all day.
My break had been pushed back and I was going on four hours without one, but I eventually had a break in my line and I took this opportunity to shut down and go to the washroom for just a moment of peace.
When I was going to leave a coordinator tromps over and bitches me out for not calling to say I was going to the washroom and getting someone to take my place while I was gone.
At this point this was not a rule, and he was just bitching me out because he was having a bad day as well.

Well, he was coming to take me off for break anyway, and I went outside for a cigarette and started to get really upset after everything and cried a little on my break.
When I was going back onto the lanes my manager was walking me out and asked if I was ok.
That was when I broke down and started bawling.
I told her I was doing too long a day and it was really getting to me.
She gave me two options: I can either go home now or take off someone for their last break and leave when they come back.
Thanking it would only be 15 minutes and not wanting to leave anyone else with their break being further pushed back like mine was, I agreed to the 15 minutes, which turned into an hour before I could leave.

Another time at my old job I was on cash and I had a mother and her two tenage daughters ripping into me over the prices of some articles of clothing, how long it was taking to get price checks, the fact that their card wasn't signed, etc.
They weren't just being snide, they were yelling at me and swearing at me, calling me names all the while.
Eventually I snapped. I told the mother, "Sign your fucking credit card slip."
When she did I slammed my drawer shut, walked to the back, grabbed my stuff and went home. Two hours before my shift was supposed to end. I just left without telling anyone and went home to seethe.

I never did get in trouble for it.

[DesignFox]

I had a couple customers make me cry at one of my evil photography jobs.

It takes a lot of time, but after doing customer service for a few years, people stop bothering you.

I have two basic responses if someone starts yelling and screaming at me now:

1) I laugh at how big of an asshole they are. (when they leave of course)

2) I want to choke them to death. (but of course, this stays merely fantasy, I'm not really a violent person)

In both situations, I get nicer and nicer, and just repeat myself until they leave. Or I just stare at them while they yell and carry on...then let them leave. (and I tell them to have a nice day...always tell them to have a nice day- assholes can't stand that)

I've gotten jaded over the past few years. Mostly I consider it sport to see how nice I can be to someone no matter how big of a douche they are. I'll be shaking afterward, but I won't let them "win" by giving them an attitude (or crying in front of them).

There's no shame in admitting that the occasional asshole got to you. It happens. But it'll happen less frequently with time.

[Marxfan]

Quite a few times, to be honest. Particularly at Mickey D's. What can I say? I'm overly sensitive to overly assholish people.

[Shangri-laschild]

SCs have put me close. A manager made me cry though not while I was at work, while I was supposed to be having a nice night and my guy at the time answered my phone when it rang because he didn't know I was avoiding work calls. It was an employee saying he'd wait for me to get there but he was essentially quitting right then and there. The manager wouldn't answer her phone and I had to call my DM at 2am because I couldn't go in. The manager had of course yet another excuse for why she didn't answer her phone. This is what led me to say "transfer me or I quit." The day before I officially quit I was crying so much my friend called me in. In my current job the only thing that's made me cry is frustration with my coworker I'm always having trouble with.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I've never cried because of a customer, but I have gotten my feelings hurt bad enough to genuinely bother me once.

We had this guy come in and my first impression of him was that he was an asshole. He was a regular. And looking back, a bully. He very, very quickly learned that he could not bully me. So he stopped trying and started being nice.

He would actually chat pleasantly with me while waiting on his orders and I THOUGHT we developed a bit of a nice raport. I forgave my first impression of him.

NOTE: Never forget your first impression of anyone. There are no exceptions to this rule.

He wanted a bit of custom layout work done, so he got my husband to do it (husband worked there.) I told the husband the guy was a very nice guy, so husband gives him a far more expensive job than he would have normally and charged him for basic work. A very nice gesture.

Husband's one of the best designers in town. Just sayin'.

Guy comes back in and it was like Jeckle and freaking HYDE. Berates the work, berates me, berates the husband, rejects the work, and stomps out without even offering suggestions on how to fix it or what he would like different. Never comes back in.

I really felt bad about that. Not because he was unhappy, but because it hurt me to have let my guard down like that, done favors for someone, and then turn around and get treated like that. He at least never came back in, because after I got over being hurt, I got mad. And I was ready for his ass. Had he come back in, I would have let him know his game playing wasn't welcome and he could find someone else to yak at and to wait on him. And good luck getting the typesetters to do free scanning and extra favors for him, because I'd let them know what happened and to be on the lookout.

I would simply have told the boss the guy made me uncomfortable if the issue had come up. Which I seriously doubt it would have.

What a fker. That still makes me simmer when I think about it.