There should be a website to rate the horrid customers who come to your work place!

[holypriest]

I worked customer service for years when I was going to school and some of the worst customers I ever got had to be when I worked at the return desk in Walmart.
I had one older lady bring a potted plant up to the desk from the floor asking for a discount because it 'didn't look like it had been watered today and it was the last on the shelf' (the plant looked fine not wilted or yellow just a little dry). I told her I could give her 10% and she got really angry and went on a rant about how she should get it for free because she spends so much money here and we are probably going to just let the plant die anyway. I appologized and said I could get the manager if she didn't mind waiting 2 min. She then called me a stupid bitch, threw the plant at me and left.
I also had guy that bought 4 bikes from me then 20 min later came back wanting to exchange them for new ones because he hadn't hooked them up to his RV properly and they fell off when he backed up and he ran over them. The worst part is that the manager actually replaced the bikes because the guy was such a dick about it and argued for over an hour.

Not sure a website would really stop people from being assholes, the company holds the employees accountable but individual people wouldn't care especially if they act like that in the first place

[Zephyr Storm]

It's the required minimum. What you're saying is that being an asshole to customers who are an asshole to you is what is asked for. Lol?

We never said you should be an asshole to someone. But you should never just be neutral on everything. To do that shows one's lack of care and concern for the job and customers being serviced. In the medical field, if you are always just neutral, you are going to get really bad surveys which WILL affect your job in the end. For someone with so much "experience", you are still pretty clueless on the matter.

[Vokal]

I had one older lady bring a potted plant up to the desk from the floor asking for a discount because it 'didn't look like it had been watered today and it was the last on the shelf' (the plant looked fine not wilted or yellow just a little dry). I told her I could give her 10% and she got really angry and went on a rant about how she should get it for free because she spends so much money here and we are probably going to just let the plant die anyway. I appologized and said I could get the manager if she didn't mind waiting 2 min. She then called me a stupid bitch, threw the plant at me and left.
I also had guy that bought 4 bikes from me then 20 min later came back wanting to exchange them for new ones because he hadn't hooked them up to his RV properly and they fell off when he backed up and he ran over them. The worst part is that the manager actually replaced the bikes because the guy was such a dick about it and argued for over an hour.

Some true horror stories right there.

Now that is the serious shit, truly horrible customers and truly horrible people. The example in OP's case doesn't even come close. Quite tame compared to these gems thats for sure.

[Lightwysh]

Why doesn't someone create a Facebook page and get people to "like" it and share stories? Is social media not the place to take action against unpleasant people. If customers can do it for business, why not the other way around?

Example: from "abused employee" - "Joe Shmoe came into my hotel today and was a bad customer, he didn't tip, he whined about a slow elevator and demanded I break the rules for him because he didn't want to use a vending machine. He then threatened to write bad reviews because I wouldn't treat him like a princess".

I think enough naming and shaming of bad customers and word will get around. The customer is always right does not enable you to be a complete fucktard.

[Giscoicus]

Why doesn't someone create a Facebook page and get people to "like" it and share stories? Is social media not the place to take action against unpleasant people. If customers can do it for business, why not the other way around?

Example: from "abused employee" - "Joe Shmoe came into my hotel today and was a bad customer, he didn't tip, he whined about a slow elevator and demanded I break the rules for him because he didn't want to use a vending machine. He then threatened to write bad reviews because I wouldn't treat him like a princess".

I think enough naming and shaming of bad customers and word will get around. The customer is always right does not enable you to be a complete fucktard.

But there is no real point. If a buisiness gets bad rep, it goes unused. A person who gets bad rep really can't have anything done to them.

[Adam Jensen]

I get so many discounts, free stuff, and faster service than normal because I'm fucking empathetic. If you yell at the person serving you, put them down, make their life harder, they will go out of their way to make your life harder. If you treat them with respect, they do the same. I go out of my way to be nice to them and get stuff.

At the airport whenever there's any type of delay I always feel bad for the poor ticket/gate agents. Because they have to deal with all the angry passengers, as if it was their fault the flight canceled or delayed. No one at my airport determines if flights are going to cancel, except maybe the pilots. All of that comes from dispatch from wherever these decisions are made by JetBlue or United Airlines (these are the two airlines my contract company works for). The agents the public sees aren't the cause, nor is there anything they can do about it.

I mean the JetBlue Agents were even gracious enough, on one evening when the PWM-JFK flight was delayed 7 hours (ouch) to buy the passengers pizzas (and they shared what was left with the ramp agents!) A good company with good agents will help you through this crap, but you help no one if you scream at the poor agent who now has to work overtime because the flight delayed or canceled.

I know flying is stressful, but jesus, the gate agents are the last people you'd want to scream at because they're the first people who can help you get new tickets and a hotel.

If anything, scream at the thunderstorm that grounded the airplanes. It won't be effective, but at least you're screaming at the thing that's guilty.

[Sunseeker]

I was actually fired because of a customer like this. She demanded things the company wouldn't do, which I even asked my management multiple times if we could fudge on and they refused. She ended up writing to corporate over it and management took it out on me.

[Skyduke]

These are cultural issues.

As the people jumping up the 35 year old Finn's throat probably did not understand, Finland is a very different culture from the US and the UK (but I guess most people's reading comprehension skills on these boards are sorely lacking, and therefore simply did not compute this information). "Colder" countries, like Germany and Scandinavia, do not expect you to be a good little hypocrite and smile and be all servile to customers.

They expect you to be polite and efficient, not effusive and hypocritical. Insofar, he is right. If customers get your goat easily and you think you have experience serving customers', you really do not. I have worked in the food industry, and am now working as an area manager in the retail industry. Rude customers are just a daily occurrence nowadays. Which is why you have policies for returns, and pretty much everything else. I don't expect you to smile manning a cash register during eight hours, but I expect you to catch eye contact, say hello, please and thank you. Always. Regardless of whether people answer or not, because that is just common courtesy.

Personally, coming from Switzerland, when I spent one year in the US I always found intrusive clerks asking me if they could help me over and over again to be a pain in the ass, the same way I found waiters topping my glass automatically to make me drink more (while trying to make it look like courtesy...) to be insufferable.

[Deleted]

I've worked in retail for a few years. Only thing you can do about idiot customers is to find good excuses that they will accept, with time you find out what works best.