Open Letter To An Obnoxious Customer

[Subnuts]

Mind if I vent a little?

To the rude customer at ShopRite who asked me "what are you, weak?" this Tuesday, I reply: No, sir, I am not weak. As a matter of fact, I have never seen you shoving 14 shopping carts across the parking lot in the middle of July, empty overloaded garbage cans, dispose of rotten diary products, replenish the milk shelves, or bag a $500 grocery order. The only thing I HAVE ever seen you do is behave in an utterly condescending manner towards total strangers who perform menial tasks on your behalf and receive no respect in return.

My parents taught me to say "please" and "thank you" when required and as often as possible, to never point in people's faces and demand immediate assistance, to help those in need, and to respect anyone who provides any assistance for me. If I, as an employee, treated you as I you treated me this afternoon, I would have been fired long ago. If you feel like you have the right to treat supermarket employees as second-class citizens, don't be surprised if your next victim doesn't just walk off in the middle of bagging your order.

[Oberon]

[CaptainHaplo]

Some people are arses - don't let it get to ya man!

I respect you - want to know why? In a society where there is a safety net that many times makes it more profitable to sit on your a$$ - you go to work every day doing a job that usually pays crappy, makes you deal with sorry excuses for people, and works you hard. Instead of sitting around waiting on a welfare check - your busting your hump.

If that kind of character isn't worth respect - then what is?

Salute!

[Flopper]

Ever bag groceries for tips, and after hauling the old lady's cart out and putting all the bags in her Cadillac, she says, "Do you like oreos?" And then hands you a coupon for 20 cents off of oreos?

Hostility in the work place, you ought to complain to some official source. That's why there are things like trade unions etc.

[Reece]

You get that type all the time, just yawn in their face or smile at them, but what ever don't let them get to you, just do your job the best you can!

[Chad]

CaptainHaplo, well said sir Totally second that opinion.

[TLAM Strike]

I know how you feel.

I work in food service.

One day I got really mad at a customer who called back to complain, he yelled at me for about five minutes before I snapped and yelled something like "well maybe we are having a really cr*ppy day here today and if you would shut up for a minute I would find a way to fix your order!" then I hung up.

My co-workers were all shocked, they had never seen me yell at someone before. In fact I'm quietest one there and always say "please", "thank you" and "have a nice day".

[krashkart]

Ah, reminds me of the days of pizza delivery. Took an online order out one night only to have it thrown back in my face by the customer. Turns out the order was a re-make and over an hour late, and she had every right to be angry with us. But having the order thrown back at me was too much. I didn't say anything. I just got back in my truck and drove off a couple miles into the country, then took a ten minute Hephaestus break. Boy was I ticked!

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by krashkart

Ah, reminds me of the days of pizza delivery. Took an online order out one night only to have it thrown back in my face by the customer. Turns out the order was a re-make and over an hour late, and she had every right to be angry with us. But having the order thrown back at me was too much. I didn't say anything. I just got back in my truck and drove off a couple miles into the country, then took a ten minute Hephaestus break. Boy was I ticked!

Hephaestus... is that like a slang term for something? Google didn't spit anything out of interest...

If only our drivers would take 10 minute breaks...

Yea we had a guy who vanished after taking a delivery for about an hour, he came back and said he couldn't find the house and decided to eat the pizza.

We had another guy who to try and secure orders from potential customers would give away the food that was for other customers. Of course this guy couldn't take a pizza out of an oven to save his life.

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Yea we had a guy who vanished after taking a delivery for about an hour, he came back and said he couldn't find the house and decided to eat the pizza.

We had another guy who to try and secure orders from potential customers would give away the food that was for other customers. Of course this guy couldn't take a pizza out of an oven to save his life.

Greek god of Fire. Here's what Wikipedia has on him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephaestus


I was referring to the fire and volcano aspects. Temper? Who, meee?


Luckily we didn't seem to have any bad drivers when I worked at that place. We did have a shift manager that was caught skimming off store profits, though. He was fired in a heartbeat.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by krashkart

Greek god of Fire. Here's what Wikipedia has on him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephaestus


I was referring to the fire and volcano aspects. Temper? Who, meee?

OK I knew about the Greek God, I figured it was slang for a green leafy plant common in pizza shops... you know... uhh... "oregano"...

[krashkart]

Ah okay, now I see why Google didn't come up with anything.

[Zachstar]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

Mind if I vent a little?

To the rude customer at ShopRite who asked me "what are you, weak?" this Tuesday, I reply: No, sir, I am not weak. As a matter of fact, I have never seen you shoving 14 shopping carts across the parking lot in the middle of July, empty overloaded garbage cans, dispose of rotten diary products, replenish the milk shelves, or bag a $500 grocery order. The only thing I HAVE ever seen you do is behave in an utterly condescending manner towards total strangers who perform menial tasks on your behalf and receive no respect in return.

My parents taught me to say "please" and "thank you" when required and as often as possible, to never point in people's faces and demand immediate assistance, to help those in need, and to respect anyone who provides any assistance for me. If I, as an employee, treated you as I you treated me this afternoon, I would have been fired long ago. If you feel like you have the right to treat supermarket employees as second-class citizens, don't be surprised if your next victim doesn't just walk off in the middle of bagging your order.

You are a courtesy clerk as well? I am one at a Krogers around here. Union?

I have had lots of people talk crap like that. Sadly they enjoy the fact that it only takes one idiot to ruin a great day.

If I remember right HQ has a policy that says that customers that harass, use discriminatory remarks towards employees and other actions that truly ruin the family nature of the store get asked to leave. I could be wrong but that is what I remember being told after a customer got asked to leave for being racist towards a cashier.

Abusing employees isn't funny. most are paid under 10USD in grocery situations and its hard backbreaking work. I would like to see some of these fat lazy pigs that abuse workers try to push 7 10 cart rows inside in less than 30 mins.

[Zachstar]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Battle of Yonkers, Great Panic of World War Z