Service Industry Stories

Where do you work?

Fast Food	19.1%	[ 9 ]
Retail	23.4%	[ 11 ]
Coffeeshop	0.0%	[ 0 ]
With Tourists D:	2.1%	[ 1 ]
Other	34.0%	[ 16 ]
I don't have to deal with customers :D	21.3%	[ 10 ]
Total Votes:			[ 47 ]

[Useless Fact Bank]

My roommates and I all work in the service industry (fast food, cafe, retail, restaurant) and almost every night we tend to sit around and rant about our day.

So I would like to know your stories LD. Whether it's about customers or managers or fellow co-workers. I'll begin:

This one time a guy came up to my register asking for napkins, I pointed down the counter to the napkin dispenser. He grabbed a bunch and walked over to his grandson to clean him up (his face and hands were covered in ice cream). The man walks back with a handful of dirty napkins, then spits his gum into them and then tries to hand it to me.
"Sir, there's a trash can right behind you, if you don't min-"
"I didn't see it, just throw it out for me"
"Actually, it's right behind you, I can't take it over the counter."
"What do you mean you can't, I know you have a trash back there."
"But it's a sanitation issue-"
Then he just tosses the ball of dirty napkins at me and walks off with his grandson. I grabbed a pair of gloves and sanitizer to clean it up.

Not the worst thing I've experienced, but the first thing that popped into my head.

[~ Aki - Fairy ~]

The garbage thing bugs me. I would just pick up the can and hold it out for them rather than touch their garbage. I became jaded to letting people use it for stuff that they brought in from outside after one person brought in a dirty baby diaper and another their dog poop (both were in bags, but that doesn't do much to mask the smell or change the fact that it's disgusting and not something I want at the till in a grocery store); there's a public outdoor garbage can a couple buildings down, all sorts of dumpsters in the alley behind the store.
People are lazy creatures though. I can't even count how many times people crossed the centre road line to park in front of the store instead of just parking on the side of the street they were on and walking across the street (and I'm talking walking straight across the street from the car door to the store door, I have nothing against jaywalking). Hell, one time a guy parked that way at the store, got his stuff, got back in his vehicle, pulled out to again head west (crossing the centre line), pulled back in three little buildings down (it would have taken him a whole fifty or so steps, maybe less, to get there).

[Useless Fact Bank]

~ Aki - Fairy ~

The garbage thing bugs me. I would just pick up the can and hold it out for them rather than touch their garbage. I became jaded to letting people use it for stuff that they brought in from outside after one person brought in a dirty baby diaper and another their dog poop (both were in bags, but that doesn't do much to mask the smell or change the fact that it's disgusting and not something I want at the till in a grocery store); there's a public outdoor garbage can a couple buildings down, all sorts of dumpsters in the alley behind the store.
People are lazy creatures though. I can't even count how many times people crossed the centre road line to park in front of the store instead of just parking on the side of the street they were on and walking across the street (and I'm talking walking straight across the street from the car door to the store door, I have nothing against jaywalking). Hell, one time a guy parked that way at the store, got his stuff, got back in his vehicle, pulled out to again head west (crossing the centre line), pulled back in three little buildings down (it would have taken him a whole fifty or so steps, maybe less, to get there).

I don't understand how people can be so lazy. I had this one lady use the counter to make her coffee and left her sugar packets and empty creamers strewn across it.

When I asked her to throw it away (the trash can is literally on the way out) she held up her coffee in one hand and her cell in the other and say she couldn't carry it.

Like excuse you, I have orders to fill and I'm trying to stock things up. If everyone covered my counter with trash I wouldn't have time to get anything done. Especially since where I work is very strict on cleanliness, which is why I can't take anything over the counter.

[Bottling Sunshine]

I work in fast food and the stories that me and my coworkers have are unending.

It was during a huge rush that this little story takes place and when I say huge, I mean there were cars backed up all the way to the street and I'm essentially getting yelled at to get the line moving faster, but I literally can't because the people up front are slow with handing out the food. I'm taking orders and I don't have time for people going "Uhhhhhhhhhh.... I don't know what I want, so give me a minute." ( I see these people come in all the time and they know what we have, so why the hell don't you decided that before coming in line!?!?!). Anywaaaaay this woman pulls up and tries to sub ice cream for her drink in a kid's meal and I try to politely explain to her that we can't do that. She immediately gets snippy with me and says "Well they did that for us before." I tell her again that I'm unable to do that because of the way the register is set up, so I tell her to pull up so I can finish her order and explain to her why I can't specialize her order for her.

She pulls up to my window with a glare and I brush it off and continue to explain to her why her happy meal can't be the way she wants and. This woman stops me in the middle of my sentence and asks for my manager. I say sure and call my manager over (I love this girl to death~!) and guess what. She tells her the damn same thing and asks her who did this for her. The woman of course says she doesn't know and after throwing more of a hissy fit she says, "Your employee really needs to get an attitude check."

I looked at her with my mouth agape! I spent a good 5 minutes talking to this woman and she held my line and I was still patient and polite with her!!!!!!!! She drove off in a huff after she payed and I wanted to throttle her! My manager just looks at me and says that chick was just being a dumb b***h and that I'm not in trouble.

I don't understand how customers can get so upset when something doesn't go their way, so they have to take their anger on some poor employee!

[~ Aki - Fairy ~]

Bottling Sunshine

I don't understand how customers can get so upset when something doesn't go their way, so they have to take their anger on some poor employee!

It's that whole "it's not my fault" mindset. People just can't be in the wrong, it's always somebody else's fault. With service, this is part of the reason the whole "the customer's always right" saying needs to be eliminated from everybody's minds.

[Bottling Sunshine]

~ Aki - Fairy ~

I completely agree! I'm not saying customers don't have the right to be upset sometimes over service because sometimes we mess up, but that doesn't give them the right to become mega rude or yell at employees. This sense of entitlement thing needs to stop.

I think I've cried at least twice in my two years of working at the restaurant because a customer took upon themselves to berate me and make me feel worthless.

[MeIanite]

My little sister works at Subway and she tells me that people are always coming in asking for ketchup, and since they don't have it, they go batshit.

[~ Aki - Fairy ~]

Bottling Sunshine

~ Aki - Fairy ~

I completely agree! I'm not saying customers don't have the right to be upset sometimes over service because sometimes we mess up, but that doesn't give them the right to become mega rude or yell at employees. This sense of entitlement thing needs to stop.

I think I've cried at least twice in my two years of working at the restaurant because a customer took upon themselves to berate me and make me feel worthless.

I think I only cried because of a customer once, at the bank. This guy freaked out because I had a cold and he couldn't risk getting sick or something. Though that's not the only time people spazzed on me for stupid reasons/things out of my control, my skin had just toughened some by them I guess..

[Padawan Ryan]

I have too many stories, especially since I've spent the past two years working at a retail Customer Service desk. I can say that I have been threatened, and called a 'stupid c**t', by customers.





I'm just glad I'm switching departments now. Same store, so still retail, but I won't be stuck in a position where the ONLY thing I really do is deal with customers.

[Useless Fact Bank]

~ Aki - Fairy ~

Bottling Sunshine

I don't understand how customers can get so upset when something doesn't go their way, so they have to take their anger on some poor employee!

It's that whole "it's not my fault" mindset. People just can't be in the wrong, it's always somebody else's fault. With service, this is part of the reason the whole "the customer's always right" saying needs to be eliminated from everybody's minds.

I work at a theme park and I was closing this stand of ours (big place, six windows) and it usually closes before the rest of the park does. Our biggest problem is that, with all the windows around the building, people are always coming up and knocking trying to get service. It doesn't matter that the time says we close at 9 or that the outside lights are off or all the windows are closed, they still coming banging.

Once I was cleaning the warmers a guy just opens one of the slide windows, except he does it wrong causing it to fall off the railing and fall on the register, cracking it. Didn't apologize, didn't acknowledge what he did, just yelled at us for closing an hour before the park does and telling us how inconvenient that was.

[Lilac Wood]

Ah here's a fun one! Still pisses me off a bit to think about it...

I used to work at a fairly well-known restaurant in a major city's GLBT neighborhood. It was very busy, especially packed on the weekends and during lunch hour and absolutely crazy during holidays and street festivals.

During one such street festival, I think an art fair type thing, a man from South America, accompanied by a large party, attempted to pay his bill. The card was declined and the error message was one I did not recognized, but seemed to suggest that the card was not connected to a valid bank account.

I called my manager over and attempted to discreetly explain that the reason for decline was not a card read error. The customer stands there, charming my manager and looks straight at all and smooth as can be remarked "She's new, right?". I was absolutely not. Dude was a total dickbag.

My manager brushed it off, continues his flirting, and makes a manual impression of the card saying the error probably stemmed from the fact that the card was from another country. The customer leaves.

Only later in the day did my manager realize his mistake. The card wasn't valid. It hadn't been valid for well over a year (according to the bank that issued it), and that dude walked out with a $200 free lunch. And guess whose problem it was? Not mine. emotion_awesome

[PixelZombe]

I have a story from today that made everyone at my work pissed off.

So we had a lady come through drive thru and order like 20 sausage biscuits, we told her she may have a small wait to allow things to be packed in boxes and bring up fresh sausage off the grill along with biscuits. She was okay with this and said, "I don't mind waiting on fresh food." and happily pulled forward. She even nodded in understanding once we said that next time she wanted an order like that, calling ahead would make everything a little faster.
Not ten minutes later does this douche walk in and order 60 biscuits, and oh man did it get fun from here.
We told him that he would have to wait about fifteen minutes so we could cook EVERYTHING fresh just for his order so we could still run smoothly for the other customers coming in since Saturday is our big breakfast day. This did not sit well with him since he thought he'd be able to walk in and out and get that order with no issues. Like, the whole place went silent as my manager was being cussed out over this. He got even angrier when they mentioned in the end that calling ahead would allow us to give him much faster service.
Needless to say, everyone in the kitchen, on front line, and in the drive thru was irritated because he acted like an a** the entire time.

[Jason0690]

My husband used to work at a piercing and tattoo shop.
Apparently a lot of women don't know the difference between a hood and a c**t peircing ._.

One time, when I was there just chilling(we both knew the owner and he was cool with me being there.) a woman came in an asked how much a c**t piercing was. The owner's brother looked at her and sighed "Do you mean a hood piercing?"
And she flipped her s**t on him. Claiming that he treated her like an idiot, and eventually saying that he called her one.
He just sighed again and pulled a book out from under the counter and opened it to a c**t piercing, and asked if she really wanted a "c**t piercing".
She looked shocked and said 'That's not what I want at all!"
Then he flipped the page over to a hood piercing and said "Then you do mean a hood piercing."

Apparently that wasn't the first time that happened.

[Namekuji no Baka]

I work at a Web Hosting company. I do server maintenance, etc, etc... I am talking to customers on the phone, through tickets, and using live chats on a daily basis.

We are not programmers, customers are responsible for finding their own programmers and web developers; we just maintain the servers themselves and some basic stuff like the LAMP stack, core Wordpress installations, etc, etc...

I get to talk to horribly disgruntled customers on a daily basis.

Just yesterday I got to speak with a customer on the phone for AN HOUR AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES, HOLY ******** s**t. She had an un-managed server with us. That means the only things we support for her server are the functionality of the hardware and making sure that the server has internet connectivity. It is literally written in our terms of service that is all we support for un-managed, and she was told verbally over the phone about this when she purchased the server.

She became livid and screamed at me for quite a long time when I explained to her that I cannot check her PHP coding for syntax errors and fix her websites. (we don't even support the coding on fully managed servers.) I even tried walking her through steps she could take to investigate the issues she is having (even though I don't even have to do that much) and she called me incompetent and a horrible employee.

She then went on about how she was going to lose some $250,000 deal with a publisher because I refused to fix her website. I explained to her that if she migrated to a fully managed server, I may be able to offer her some more assistance, but she then started accusing me of trying to swindle her out of more money and I got an earful about how my company is full of greedy bastards that just want to ruin her life.

It went on like this the whole time. Eventually she called back in to talk to a supervisor who told her the exact same things, and she flipped her s**t once again. She then went to the leave feedback section and gave me specifically, a horrible review that raved about how she has to start taking blood pressure medication due to how badly I traumatized her.

This is what I deal with on a near daily basis.

[buggsie blue]

I work at a grocery store the frequently has sales, and BOGO deals. You would not believe how pissy people get when they don't get a deal, even if it's one cent off.
This is just yesterday, a lady came in with 50 dollars worth of things, but because of our rewards card, it takes off the prices of some items. She had a 5 of 50 coupon. First she wanted to try it without using her card. I tried to explain that you must use your card to get the coupon deal. She had me try it anyway, and lo and behold, it didn't work. So the she angrily gave me her card, remarking that I was "a stupid blonde c**t". I used her card and it brought her price down to $30. I told her I wouldn't be able to use the coupon, since her order total was only 30. So then she proceeded to yell at me that she "wanted her coupon" and she "wasn't going to spend more money". I told her that she would be spending less money this way, and she spat in my face. Then she brought over my manager and tried to yell at us both. My manager tried all he could to please her, but it just wasn't going to happen. He offered to override the prompts so that she could get her coupon. For some reason, she got mad, spat in his face, threw her hot coffee on the floor, screamed like a 2 year old, and stormed out, leaving her groceries.
An even better story is one the we've all probably encountered. That douche who wants to pay a $100 order in cash change. I told him he would have to use the coinstar (literally 10 feet away from him), because I did not have enough room in my till to hold the change, and that would be against company policy. He then started the usual spiel about how it's "legal tender" and we have to take his money. I called over the manager, who told him the same s**t I did. So what did he do? He left his groceries there and walked out the door. He came back 20 minutes later, got the same s**t, came back to my line, and tried his s**t again. I told him we still could not take that much change. So what did he do? He called the cops on me personally. The manager had to shut down my line, leaving all the others to get backed up. We had to wait for the cop to come, all the while douchebag is trying to get me arrested for refusing to accept legal tender. When the cop explains that we don't have to take it if we can't fit it in our till,he flips his s**t. He starts taking out his groceries and throws them at both me and the cop. Luckily the cop tased that ******** and he went down like an axed tree. He was arrested for creating a public disturbance and assault, and assault on a police officer.
I also had blueberries thrown at me by an old lady because she was mad that the weren't BOGO today, but the were yesterday, and she was too ******** lazy to get a damn raincheck.