Happy Atheist Forum

So yesterday, while working an early morning shift at my coffee shop, Java Town, a man strolled in. I am at the register, and my co-worker, a 19 year old female, was behind me, setting up the pastries.  The man ordered a latte, and a bagel. I rang him up, made his latte, and asked my co-worker if she can toast the bagel. After handing him his coffee, I grabbed his bagel and put it in bag and handed it to him, and walked away to get something. He came back to the counter and asked if we had any jelly. I said no, we only have cream cheese. Then he asked for peanut butter, which we also didn't have. He asked, "why don't you have jelly or peanut better." I told him I'm not the manager, and I don't do the inventory, I just serve what we have. He started yelling and screaming, saying how he can't eat his bagel without jelly and peanut butter. I told him, "well, you should have asked before you ordered it." Now my coffee shop is right near Ralphs, in the same plaza. He told me to run to Ralphs and buy him his peanut butter and I told him no, because I can't leave my work place. He then started lecturing to me about who he was. He's some doctor at the VA Hospital, which is across the street from the plaza, and that he's on his lunch break and he needs to eat before he goes back to work. I told him, "I don't care if your Jesus, I'm not buying you you're peanut butter." My co worker, for the whole time, didn't back me up and just stood there. I think she was scared. I was getting mad and was about kick his ass out, or call security. He also threatened to call security but I just laughed, cause I know they're not going to do anything over peanut butter, which isn't even on our menu. He eventually left, and my boss came in later. He found out what happened after watching the surveillance tape, and he said if you do that again, he'd fire me.  

I dont see why you should get fired, the customer was being an ass. Maybe you should have been sliiightly politer with him. but he was still an ass

Quotewell, you should have asked before you ordered it.

how about...sorry sir, but we don't have peanut butter or jelly but I will mention it to my manager.

Quoterun to Ralphs and buy him his peanut butter

little hard to believe that one...I would have said no too, probably would have asked if he was joking

"I'm a doctor. You should alter the rules for me."

Reminds me of a Monty Python sketch.

QuoteI'm afraid I'm going to have to operate. It's nothing to worry about although it is extremely dangerous. I shall be juggling with your life, I shall be playing ducks and drakes with your very existence, I shall be running me mitts over the pith of your marrow. Yes! These hands, these fingers, these sophisticated organs of touch, these bunches of five, these maulers, these German bands that have pulled many a moribund unfortunate back from the very brink of Lazarus's box. No, it was Pandora's box wasn't it? Well anyway these mitts have earned yours truly a lot of bread. So if you'll just step through here I'll slit you up a treat.

When working retail one thing I noticed is that some (somewhat) educated people think they can treat the cashiers etc like crap assuming that they are uneducated fools.  

I did tell one of these people off when I worked at Target in high school.  I apparently spoke over her head because she didn't realize how rude I was to her.  That made me happy.

But, if you want to keep your job you have to be nice to the people that are jerks towards you.  Plus, if you are nice and keep smiling it will piss them off that you didn't  play into their game...win win for you.

All good points. Anybody working in retail or customer service are categorized in two ways: the doormats, and the "Clerks". Be the latter.

Here's my method of dealing with them -
Smile.
Be Polite.
Say "Thank you!"
And every time you use the word thank, think the F word.  Just be careful not to say it aloud.

And I have had customers tell me to run over to the grocery store and get x, y, or z because it was nearby.  If you are in a city, you are almost always near a grocery store or another kind of store.  Invariably, I'd get those requests when working alone.  Oh, and that was working in flower shops - people wanted me to scamper off and get things to add to arrangements like potato chips, a snow globe, a bible, or candy not of the two dozen kinds we had in the store.

NaturaLCalamity, your boss was wrong not to back you up. You clearly handled the situation with the appropriate customer service skills. A barista can only grin and be nice for so long before he or she is enabling the bad behavior of the irate customer and is allowing that single customer to disrupt the environment of many customers. Ultimately, your job is to ensure that the coffee shop retains as many customers as possible, and you did that.

If I were your boss, I'd shake your hand and thank you for being so patient. I'd also put up a photo of the man from the videotapes and instruct the baristas not to serve the man again. Some customers are a lot more trouble than they're worth.

Quote from: "Kylyssa"Here's my method of dealing with them -
Smile.
Be Polite.
Say "Thank you!"
And every time you use the word thank, think the F word.  Just be careful not to say it aloud.

They might break the code when I call them a stupid thanking motherthanker and to go thank themselves.

Unfortunately, in retail the customer must be appeased some way no matter how big of a dick they may be.  He's a doctor? Okay, that's nice.  When I finish my doctorate should I waltz into a coffee shop and demand a pizza because I spent nearly a decade in school? No, I'm not Prince (An Evening with Kevin Smith reference).  Could the guy be having a bad day?  Sure, he works at a VA hospital - a good amount of stress there.  So that's a possibility.  Does that excuse his outburst? No.  Could you have handled it with tad bit more restraint? Yes but I do understand your frustration.  Anytime someone pulls the "do you know who" or "do you know what I am" card it notches up my rage a bit too.  I've been a graduate student working at a Starbucks before - I ran into many people who assumed I was uneducated so I was forced to serve them coffee having no clue I was studying cellular neuroscience when I wasn't making mochas.

With that said, unless ya really are being a douche, ass or a complete screw-up I'm easy as hell to work with in the retail area because it used to be me on the other side of that register.  I don't mind mistakes, I'm patient especially with new people - one girl at a burger joint screwed up my order horribly but she was new and she was almost in tears because she was nervous and scared.  I asked to speak to her manager (I thought she was going to pass out right there) and, in front of her, I told the manager she did an excellent job and would be returning because she was so helpful.  I don't think I've ever seen a bigger smile on someone's face.  And remember, like they said in the movie "Waiting" - don't fuck with people who make your food.

Ah, yes. I'm so glad I don't work in retail anymore.

I remember when I used to work at AMC Theatres sometimes as a concessionist. The register automatically print receipts for any credit/debit card transactions and not cash. No one ever taught me how to manually print receipts so when some people would ask for a receipt after paying cash I didn't have a clue as to how to do it, so I just told them "Sorry, a receipt prints for only credit card transactions." Some of them would just glare at me and walk away and others bitched at me. This got annoying so I spent downtime exploring the menus on the register before I finally learned how to manually print receipts. I've also had my share of other types of assholes and weirdos. Another day I was ripping tickets and some guy comes up to me who happened to be limping. He asked me if he could get into the theater and I told him he needed a ticket. He then tells me a story about how both his parents died when he was ten years old and he has been living on the streets ever since. The funny thing was, he was wearing fancy clothing and also what looked to be some jewelry. He also pointed to the fact that he was limping (maybe he was faking?) and told me that disabled people are entitled to public accommodations. I just said "That doesn't mean you get in for free sir, you still need a ticket like everyone else." He kept begging me and asked to see the manager. He asked if the manager was a female, saying that they would be sympathetic towards him. To his disappointment, I told him the manager is a guy. Again, he kept on begging and finally said something like "If you let me in you will be rewarded on the day of judgment!" At that point I really wanted to laugh, but I didn't want to be mean so I just held a straight face and he left at last.

Yowzers. Sounds like a nasty situation NC.

I've done my bit in the service industry, working in pubs mainly. I used to work at a pub called the Fountain Inn when I was at uni in Cambridge (not Cambridge university btw :)

Quote from: "Squid"And remember, like they said in the movie "Waiting" - don't fuck with people who make your food.

I live my life mainly according to this.

Thanks for all the replies. Ya know, I didn't care who that guys is, but he raised a title at me. I don't care if you're a student, a doctor, a teacher or a nurse, I treat every customer the same. He was being a prick and trust me, I was being polite. But maybe it doesn't sound like I did because the conversation is written down, and I left the majority of it out because it would take to long to write it all. I get dozens of other customers who are far worse than him, which leads me to kick them out and I hate doing that. Once, I found a man, who overdosed on pills, in our bathroom so I had to call the police. Since my work place is right across the streets, we occasionally get crazy customers, and that was just one if it. I talked to my boss recently, and he just told me to stock up on some peanut butter and jelly, which I think is bullshit.

I once had a client tell me to make arrangements "extra special" because the party was for a bunch of doctors, important people with IQ's of 130 or more.  She then implied that such a lowly piece of service personnel as myself should be in awe of such people.  She was really going on in that vein for a long time.  I wanted to backhand her arrogant snout but instead, I thanked her profusely.  

I think it's people who treat others as lesser human beings due to their place of employment who create the problem of rude customers in the first place.

Then again there are the other 95% of people who don't behave like that.