Service Jobs

[ChristineES]

I am speaking about cashiers, waiters/waitresses, tellers, etc.

Ever since I became a cashier last year, some disturbing things have come to my attention. The vast majority of people are polite enough, some are very kind even when thing go wrong. But there are times when people become downright abusive! If there's item doesn't have a price or scan code, if their card won't go through, if the lines are long, if someone needs extra help and takes a long time in the line, and other things. People will get very rude. Why do people think they have the right to scream at people they don't know? Service people are human beings, they are not automated machines. Cashiers don't have the power to make a debit or credit card go through if it doesn't go through. It is not our fault if you bring us something with no price on it.

What do you guys think? How many of you have service jobs and have experienced abuse?
I think this could be a interesting discussion.

 

[Tarheeler]

I spent my teenage years working a cash register at a local department store and delivering pizza.
I make sure my items have a price tag, I always tip well, and I'm sincere when I wish them a good day.

I think everyone who has been behind the counter has experienced it. As the face the customer sees, they take the brunt of the frustration.
It isn't right, but it's the truth.

 

[Quagmire]

I am speaking about cashiers, waiters/waitresses, tellers, etc.

Ever since I became a cashier last year, some disturbing things have come to my attention. The vast majority of people are polite enough, some are very kind even when thing go wrong. But there are times when people become downright abusive! If there's item doesn't have a price or scan code, if their card won't go through, if the lines are long, if someone needs extra help and takes a long time in the line, and other things. People will get very rude. Why do people think they have the right to scream at people they don't know? Service people are human beings, they are not automated machines. Cashiers don't have the power to make a debit or credit card go through if it doesn't go through. It is not our fault if you bring us something with no price on it.

What do you guys think? How many of you have service jobs and have experienced abuse?
I think this could be a interesting discussion.

The world is full of self-entitled nitwits, Christine, and they have to do their shopping too.

 

[Skwim]

IMO, they're self absorbed people beset by personal problems who lack coping skills. I once worked behind a counter and sometimes ran into such people, and while disturbing---no one wants abusive people in their life no matter how brief---it was apparent they were carrying a lot of baggage they couldn't handle, which put it in perspective. It's nothing to take personally no matter how well directed at you it may be. It's like a screaming two-year-old who might lash out at you. They can't help it. They have no other way of dealing with their situation. Think of them as snarling, snapping dogs. It's part of their nature.


.

 

[Augustus]

What do you guys think? How many of you have service jobs and have experienced abuse?
I think this could be a interesting discussion.

I used to work in a bar many moons ago and yes, some people were just plain rude.

I used to politely but firmly remind them that purchasing a drink didn't give you the right to be abusive and if they wished to get a drink they would have to speak to me politely. If they had a problem with that then I told them they could go and plead their case to the manager as to why they should be afforded the right to give abuse to staff as they went about their jobs, then serve the next person.

The other approach for when people are annoyed rather than rude is the 'Tell me about it. I've got to deal with this machine all day so if you think YOU'RE annoyed then how do you think I feel? I've been telling them to fix it all week but nobody listens to me...' Worked with most people who tended to apologise.

 

[LuisDantas]

Some people simply lack the understanding that the world is not built to their convenience alone.

I suspect many people need some personal experience in situations of humility and servitude before they understand the worth of respect.

And yes, it can spoil one's day when a single rude person happens through our way.

 

[George-ananda]

The vast majority of people are polite enough, some are very kind even when thing go wrong.

That's as much as you should expect from the real world in my experience. We're not in the heaven-plane yet

 

[columbus]

One of the main things I like about my little private business is this.
I can throw the president out on his butt if I want to and nobody can do a damn thing about it. I pay the rent and I make the rules and I can change the rules on a whim.

Knowing that I don't have to put up with anything makes it easier to put up with difficult customers. It's like a game. When I can smooth everything over and make a sale, I win. Convincing the a-hole customer that they won, and should pay my large fee, is crucial to winning and I am good at it.
Tom

 

[Twilight Hue]

Remember....The customer is always right.

 

[Glaurung]

I worked at McDonald's, the job itself wasn't all that bad (although it really depended on how good your co-workers and managers were) but the conditions bordered on abusive. The occasional coffee notwithstanding, I don't frequent fast-food joints all that much these days unless I'm really in a pinch.

 

[Vinayaka]

I don't think anyone anywhere deserves to have rudeness placed upon them. But the person we can change is ourselves. I like name-tags on service people for that reason. I engage, smile, thank them by name. For every self-obsessed rude person out there, we can balance it out by being that exceptionally nice customer, in hopes that when they go home at night after a hard day's work, they remember the nice guy not the other kind.

 

[ChristineES]

I don't think anyone anywhere deserves to have rudeness placed upon them. But the person we can change is ourselves. I like name-tags on service people for that reason. I engage, smile, thank them by name. For every self-obsessed rude person out there, we can balance it out by being that exceptionally nice customer, in hopes that when they go home at night after a hard day's work, they remember the nice guy not the other kind.

I always enjoy it when a customer speaks with me, uses my name, etc. And it does make a difference in my day.

 

[Vinayaka]

I always enjoy it when a customer speaks with me, uses my name, etc. And it does make a difference in my day.

The other day I had almost called a lady 'Hope'. But when I looked at her shirt more closely, I realised it was one of those patterned shirts with 'Hope' and 'Love' all over the pattern. So then I said, 'Jeepers, I almost called you 'Hope' there for a minute. She thought it was funny.

 

[Sunstone]

Remember....The customer is always right.

Except when they're not.

 

[Sunstone]

My first day on the job at a new restaurant, I encountered a boorish, drunk couple who, after waiting no more than five minutes to order, began loudly complaining to the other tables that their waiter (me) was ignoring them. Since I was occupied taking another table's order, I was only able to tell them that I would be with them as soon as possible. That didn't satisfy them: They stood up, almost shouted to me that they had just experienced the worse service of their lives and were now leaving, and then walked out.

A rather dignified gentleman at a nearby table then got up, crossed the floor to my manager, and explained to him what had happened, and that none of it had been my fault.

Things settle down and I went about my job. When the gentleman had finished eating, he made a point of leaving me a rather large tip -- a tip I later learned was about five times the average tip for that restaurant.

Perhaps oddly enough, I've never since then been a witness to a service employee being abused by a customer. But should I ever be, I have plans to do what that gentleman did and seek out the manager to defend the employee.

 

[gnomon]

I am speaking about cashiers, waiters/waitresses, tellers, etc.

Ever since I became a cashier last year, some disturbing things have come to my attention. The vast majority of people are polite enough, some are very kind even when thing go wrong. But there are times when people become downright abusive! If there's item doesn't have a price or scan code, if their card won't go through, if the lines are long, if someone needs extra help and takes a long time in the line, and other things. People will get very rude. Why do people think they have the right to scream at people they don't know? Service people are human beings, they are not automated machines. Cashiers don't have the power to make a debit or credit card go through if it doesn't go through. It is not our fault if you bring us something with no price on it.

What do you guys think? How many of you have service jobs and have experienced abuse?
I think this could be a interesting discussion.

I've been in the service industry a long time.

One of my first jobs was working as a cashier at KMart when I was in high school a long time ago. I had a classic situation in which a customer brought clothing to my register that had no tag. I paged for a price check and the woman just laid into me for holding her up. My first job. At that time I held a naive belief that adults were more responsible and respectable. At that moment that belief was shattered. After she laid into me for something completely beyond my control....and as she left once the price of what she wanted was confirmed........I told her to have...I quote....."I hope you have a great ****ing day, *****"......the people standing in line behind her applauded. Which may seem vindicated but it set in me for a few years a hostile attitude towards others. Five months later I was transferred to the electronics department and a baby threw up on me. Might have been a perturbed Karma. But I didn't know what I was doing in that department because I had two managers quit while I was back there. No training at all. I had never used a camera but I was supposed to sell them? An assistant manager told me that I was absolutely useless. Constantly belittled by both management and customers I don't know why I worked there while I was in high school.

Strangely enough after high school I went and found a part time job with the same company. I told them I wanted to be a stock employee but they saw I had spent some time in electronics so they decided to put me in the electronics department. Unlike last time I learned everything I could and read every manual about everything but..........a regular customer.....who I didn't know at the time....walked in one day and threw a roll of 35mm film at me and told me to do the regular. He literally threw it in my face. It wasn't until my fellow employees told me about him that I got "used" to that sort of treatment. At that same store I would see cashiers break down under customer verbal abuse just to watch supervisors come over and give more abuse to the employrees. There was no training. There was no support. I walked off the job one day after asking one of the managers a simple question when another store asked if we could transfer excess stock to their store and she berated for not knowing a policy that was obscure and that she was actually wrong about it in the first place. At the end of that day she mocked me for not taking off my name tag at the end of the day so I took it off and shoved it in her face.

Yeah.......I was a ***** employee at that point.

I'm a retail manager now. Go figure.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

I make a point of being nice to people in service jobs, and have been known to intervene when ignorant people start to abuse them.
Most people are OK, but as they say, "there is always one".

 

[Ana.J]

I am speaking about cashiers, waiters/waitresses, tellers, etc.

Ever since I became a cashier last year, some disturbing things have come to my attention. The vast majority of people are polite enough, some are very kind even when thing go wrong. But there are times when people become downright abusive! If there's item doesn't have a price or scan code, if their card won't go through, if the lines are long, if someone needs extra help and takes a long time in the line, and other things. People will get very rude. Why do people think they have the right to scream at people they don't know? Service people are human beings, they are not automated machines. Cashiers don't have the power to make a debit or credit card go through if it doesn't go through. It is not our fault if you bring us something with no price on it.

What do you guys think? How many of you have service jobs and have experienced abuse?
I think this could be a interesting discussion.

I work in customer service and I have been in your shoes numerous times. I think only unhappy and miserable people behave like that. When they yell at me, I do not take it personally because I understand that they might have the reason and it has nothing to do with me. I'm trying to keep my self esteem balanced, you know.

 

[McBell]

I am speaking about cashiers, waiters/waitresses, tellers, etc.

Ever since I became a cashier last year, some disturbing things have come to my attention. The vast majority of people are polite enough, some are very kind even when thing go wrong. But there are times when people become downright abusive! If there's item doesn't have a price or scan code, if their card won't go through, if the lines are long, if someone needs extra help and takes a long time in the line, and other things. People will get very rude. Why do people think they have the right to scream at people they don't know? Service people are human beings, they are not automated machines. Cashiers don't have the power to make a debit or credit card go through if it doesn't go through. It is not our fault if you bring us something with no price on it.

What do you guys think? How many of you have service jobs and have experienced abuse?
I think this could be a interesting discussion.

Seems to me that some people are merely looking for someone to unload their frustrations on.
What better person than someone who basically has to sit there and take it?

 

[SomeRandom]

Lol oh service jobs! First thing you have to learn in customer service. People are ****ing ********. Nothing you do will every satisfy everyone so don't bother.
Just shake it off and complain with your fellow retail workers.

I once had an argument with a customer over a news report. No kidding. Said news report said that we reduce our hot chickens at around 5pm. Of course it was probably speaking generally. Food safety laws in Australia dictate that any cooked hot food has to be off show after 5 hours. So we often reduce it around the 4 hour mark in order to avoid "dumping" it. Which reflects poorly on the store's sales. We often mark down chickens at 5 due to cooking them during trading hours throughout the day. I refused to mark down a chicken put on the hotbox roughly half an hour beforehand due to guidelines followed by my company regarding markdowns and argued that I knew my job better than the News. Next thing I know this guy is screaming at a trainee and then complained to management. Like wtf? 20% off a chook is not worth berating a freaking scared high school kid. Scumbags I swear.

I find it amusing now. Like we had this ginormous sign specifying a special for a pack of 24 cans of whatever it was. They were plastered all over the store written in huge letters. Every day the special was on I got at least 10 people who "misread" the signs and got all huffy when I pointed out that the huge print did in fact specify that the 24 can pack was on special not the 12 or 48 pack.

Then of course you get people who yell at you for not having enough stock. Like ***** please do I look like the supplier?

And don't get me started about the fresh food departments. Jeebus!
I shaved the last of some ham I think it was triple smoked, placed it in the case as a lady literally watched me shave it and then she asked me to shave some fresh stuff. And honestly I have no problem with shaving/slicing meat when asked, even if I only just did some then and there. It's my job, I will do it for you. But after I politely explained that that was in fact the last of said triple smoked ham until the load (delivery) she exploded at me, calling me an incompetent moron for basically following my training. Then there's the people who make you pick up multiple types of fish only to not buy anything, wasting valuable cleaning time during your close shift (we can't leave to go home until all our jobs are done, regardless of our actual shift ending time.) Like I understand being picky about seafood but kindly don't waste 20 minutes of my time doing so. Ughh!
Or those people "just looking" for 15 minutes and you ask them politely 5 times and then they get all mad at you for "ignoring" them when you focus on, ya know, doing your job. Like ****ing hell I have **** to do, either call me to help you or leave me in peace. Customer service is not even a third of our actual job in the department. Like I literally don't have the time to wait for your humming and arring for half a goddamned hour. I have other **** to do.

Honestly the experience has left me with a surprising amount of politeness when engaging with the public even during my days off and a seemingly unlimited amount of patience for others in the service industry. It's like that meme. If you want your kids to learn manners, make them work in retail for 6 months.Lol