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Blah blah depressing blah.
Nov. 21st, 2010 11:48 pmSo at work today there was a really awful customer.
Which is weird, because most customers are quite polite if they're not drunk. But this lady, oh man. She's always caused trouble, been pushy and a bit frightening. Usually, I just serve her quietly and get on with it. But today, we were being observed by the area manager, which meant we had to do everything by the book.
See, she wanted to put money on her top up card. Which is totally fine, but then she asked to pay by credit card. Also fine, but we have to take the money off the credit card first, and then use the machine to get it on to the top up card, because if the credit card is for some reason declined, we can't undo the money we just put on the card. Basically, if we did it wrong, we could potentially lose the shop between £10 and £100. And with the area manager there, we couldn't exactly do it any differently, and so I told her.
She said to me "No, you put the money on my card first, and then I'll pay you, got it?"
I tried to explain to her that I couldn't, that the regulations said we had to do it the other way around.
"What? But I always get it in here the other way around. Are you trying to say I'd steal it?"
I quickly said no, I would never accuse her of that, but it was company rules and I couldn't change them. So she demanded to see the manager. I called out Phil, since he was duty manager, and he told her exactly the same thing.
She stormed off in a huff, and we thought that was the last we saw of her. But then, while Phil was serving another customer, she came back, and started yelling at him.
The lady Phil was half-way done serving was understandably miffed that this woman had 1: Jumped the whole queue and 2: made it harder for her to get her shopping done. She politely asked her to wait five minutes until she was done. The difficult customer told her in no uncertain terms where to shove it. Clearly shocked, the half-served customer asked her who on earth she thought she was, speaking to a stranger like that, and the argument escalated.
Thankfully, the politer woman's husband took her out of the shop before it could escalate beyond a slap fight, but the difficult customer stayed, and continued to yell at Phil. But Phil works as a doorman, and was complete with battle scars from the pub he'd worked the night before, and wasn't taking any shit from her, just calmly repeating and trying to make her understand why we couldn't serve her that way round.
She demanded to have the head office phone number. Which he gave her, along with a complaint form.
And so, she left for good, saying that this wasn't the last we'd see of her. As soon as she was out the door, Phil's response basically amounted to "lol bye bitch" and he went back to dragging stock.
I, however, was a little more shaken. I mean, I'd never seen two grown women (the difficult woman was in her early 30s, the polite one in her late 50s) actually go at it in such a way, complete with name calling and such. Besides which Ms Prissy is a regular customer (though Phil says she won't be back in here on his watch) so there's a chance I'll have to deal with her shit again.
Urgh, idk, growing up in an area of town where there is maybe like one crime every month... has probably made me soft to a lot of these kinds of incidents.
What really kind of narked me though, was that she flaunted that she had cash. Cash. If she'd paid by cash, I could have put the money on the card first, and then taken her cash, just in the order she liked it. But no. Nooooo. She wanted it exactly her way.
Blugh. Day = suck.
Me = playing on Sims.
PS: Went and saw Deathly Hallows, cried at Dobby, which made me feel a little better.
Which is weird, because most customers are quite polite if they're not drunk. But this lady, oh man. She's always caused trouble, been pushy and a bit frightening. Usually, I just serve her quietly and get on with it. But today, we were being observed by the area manager, which meant we had to do everything by the book.
See, she wanted to put money on her top up card. Which is totally fine, but then she asked to pay by credit card. Also fine, but we have to take the money off the credit card first, and then use the machine to get it on to the top up card, because if the credit card is for some reason declined, we can't undo the money we just put on the card. Basically, if we did it wrong, we could potentially lose the shop between £10 and £100. And with the area manager there, we couldn't exactly do it any differently, and so I told her.
She said to me "No, you put the money on my card first, and then I'll pay you, got it?"
I tried to explain to her that I couldn't, that the regulations said we had to do it the other way around.
"What? But I always get it in here the other way around. Are you trying to say I'd steal it?"
I quickly said no, I would never accuse her of that, but it was company rules and I couldn't change them. So she demanded to see the manager. I called out Phil, since he was duty manager, and he told her exactly the same thing.
She stormed off in a huff, and we thought that was the last we saw of her. But then, while Phil was serving another customer, she came back, and started yelling at him.
The lady Phil was half-way done serving was understandably miffed that this woman had 1: Jumped the whole queue and 2: made it harder for her to get her shopping done. She politely asked her to wait five minutes until she was done. The difficult customer told her in no uncertain terms where to shove it. Clearly shocked, the half-served customer asked her who on earth she thought she was, speaking to a stranger like that, and the argument escalated.
Thankfully, the politer woman's husband took her out of the shop before it could escalate beyond a slap fight, but the difficult customer stayed, and continued to yell at Phil. But Phil works as a doorman, and was complete with battle scars from the pub he'd worked the night before, and wasn't taking any shit from her, just calmly repeating and trying to make her understand why we couldn't serve her that way round.
She demanded to have the head office phone number. Which he gave her, along with a complaint form.
And so, she left for good, saying that this wasn't the last we'd see of her. As soon as she was out the door, Phil's response basically amounted to "lol bye bitch" and he went back to dragging stock.
I, however, was a little more shaken. I mean, I'd never seen two grown women (the difficult woman was in her early 30s, the polite one in her late 50s) actually go at it in such a way, complete with name calling and such. Besides which Ms Prissy is a regular customer (though Phil says she won't be back in here on his watch) so there's a chance I'll have to deal with her shit again.
Urgh, idk, growing up in an area of town where there is maybe like one crime every month... has probably made me soft to a lot of these kinds of incidents.
What really kind of narked me though, was that she flaunted that she had cash. Cash. If she'd paid by cash, I could have put the money on the card first, and then taken her cash, just in the order she liked it. But no. Nooooo. She wanted it exactly her way.
Blugh. Day = suck.
Me = playing on Sims.
PS: Went and saw Deathly Hallows, cried at Dobby, which made me feel a little better.
