Your mad at your kid so you take it out on me?

[bbaaww13]

A SC comes through my line today with a stuffed comic book toy. As I'm ringing her up I ask her if she has a reward card. She tells me she does and gives it to me. As she's swiping her debit card she asks me what the reward card does for her. Before I can even start to explain to her the benefits of the reward card she goes off on me. She tells me how she's never got any coupons from the rewards card, the company I work for is slow and so is all the people who work for it, the company needs to get technology and quit being so "backward". After she yells all that at me she takes a deep breath and looks at me. Since she just called me slow I'm not going to smile at her and tell her the benefits of the card. I just tell her the total and wait for her to finish at the keypad. She then proceeds to apologize for calling me slow. I just nod and continue to wait. She takes another deep breath and then tells me about how she's having a horrible day because she doesn't want to buy the stuffed toy but her son is making her, and her boss was yelling at her all day, and all her bills are due, and she just wants to go home and finish the day. Ok...so am I suppose to feel sorry for you and it be ok that you just took all your anger out on me? Hell no. I just hand her the receipt and wish her a good afternoon.

[dragon_wings]

This type of SC is what makes me mutter to my coworkers 'I hate people!'

[South Texan]

MAJOR kudos to you for not blowing up at her for causing YOU to have a bad day. AND more kudos for not forcing a smile, acting cheerful and behaving as if what she did was acceptable.

I think you let her know very well how you felt and how nasty/rude/insulting she had been to you without being surly in return.

At least she had the decency to apologize.

[Titi]

And how exactly was her kid FORCING her to buy anything? Did he have a gun to her head?

[Jester]

It's called Not Parenting. As in, the child has the power, rather than the other way around.

I cannot recall EVER being able to "force" my parents to buy me something. I could ask. I could whine. I could demand. But force? Oh, HELL no. Why? Because, despite all their flaws, my parents made it real fucking clear who was in charge. And it was not my sisters or myself.

[PepperElf]

makes you wanna say, "I see. I hope everyone you encounter at work is VERY KIND to you today...." implying that SHE herself is creating a hostile situation to someone at work...

[BeenThereDoneThat]

It's called Not Parenting. As in, the child has the power, rather than the other way around.

I cannot recall EVER being able to "force" my parents to buy me something. I could ask. I could whine. I could demand. But force? Oh, HELL no. Why? Because, despite all their flaws, my parents made it real fucking clear who was in charge. And it was not my sisters or myself.

Exactly this. My mother was more tolerant than my dad but she also managed the money, and if she thought we couldn't afford it, she wouldn't buy it. End of story.

[Bright_Star]

SC's are famous for doing that. They figure that if they're having a bad day then "by-golly, I'll take it out on this stupid cashier!" Then they have the nerve to get upset when we don't smile or be cheerfull.

[cinema guy]

While I don't want to defend a SC, it is human nature that other stresses can affect how we react. And at least this particular one realised that she had in fact done that and apologised.

The cinema I work at trains customer serivce staff in how to deal with confrontational customers. This training mentions that the customer may be having a bad day.

And she is a push over of a parent. That kid needs to be told 'NO!'. And when he cries, that 'No, means no.'

[taxguykarl]

despite all their flaws, my parents made it real fucking clear who was in charge. And it was not my sisters or myself.

Your folks would get along with mine as they shared that philosphy.

she is a push over of a parent. That kid needs to be told 'NO!'. And when he cries, that 'No, means no.'

Or as I heard Dave Ramsey put it: "No is a complete sentence."

[MoonCat]

It's called Not Parenting. As in, the child has the power, rather than the other way around.

I cannot recall EVER being able to "force" my parents to buy me something. I could ask. I could whine. I could demand. But force? Oh, HELL no. Why? Because, despite all their flaws, my parents made it real fucking clear who was in charge. And it was not my sisters or myself.

Yup. My parents were like that, too. And if that wasn't enough, my grandparents lived on the first floor and usually backed up my mom and dad!