sat at work in tears

[6demandingchildren]

for context me and my husband own a shop that sells stuff and repairs, our shop is by a nightclub and a junction and we quite often get the police in asking for our cctv footage.
A woman has just been in as her son had an accident in his car at the junction 2 days before christmas, we were closed over christmas and new year but this lady asked for the footage, my husband spent a few hours trying to locate what she wanted but he couldn't find anything, so we presume it was just out of our camera range.
I explained that he spent time looking but didn't find anything , she just let rip at me telling me that i have no community spirit and that we got their hopes up and that her son has depression and anxiety and she is really really angry at me, an actual customer said to her that she is directing her anger at the wrong person and she just ignored them and told me what a horrible person i am, she has left me in tears and im not normally someone who gets emotional over customers getting angry but this has really got to me.
just feel writing it down will get me to pull up my big girl pants.

It’s no wonder you are upset. She’s clearly stressed so I understand why you didn’t shout back, but just being expected to stand there and take abuse is horrible.

Hot drink, biscuits if you have some and long hot bath when you get home.

What a bitch! I'm surprised your h didn't throw her out.

If their was footage we would of gladly helped her and not expected anything in return, but i think i'm upset as she called me a horrible person.

You aren't a horrible person. She lashed out as she has no evidence which she was relying on.

You can't help people see sense who don't want to.

Before Christmas? Thats a long time to hold cctv footage.

Does CCTV footage now come under GDPR? If so check on the rules about releasing it.

PS. She's a prat for treating you like that.

She was stressed and lashing out.
She was relying on you solving her problem. You tried to help, you could not this time. It triggered a response you can do nothing about.
You tried to help, you did not wave her away, you did your best.
She was in a heightened emotion and you got the backlash.
Unfortunate but it does happen occasionally.
The customer was right. You have done nothing wrong.

You have done nothing wrong at all; she was frustrated and upset and took it out on the wrong person. Someone was put through to me at work last week and I explained straight away that unfortunately someone had put him through to completely the wrong place. He still ranted for about ten minutes despite my very best efforts and ended up calling me a dysfunctional dickhead. I managed to calm things in the end, he said sorry and I said that I hope that he resolved the situation he found himself in.

It wasn't personal as the attack on you wasn't either, although it certainly does feel like it at the time. Hope you're feeling better now, she is probably feeling awful too at having acted like that.

Wouldn’t you have to release it to the police rather than a relative? (I know it doesn’t exist). And from before Christmas is a long time to be retaining footage.

Chocolate hob nob and try to put it behind you.

There is a horrible person in this story, but it isn’t you.

You don’t recognise that this lady as being completely unreasonable - why is that?

itwasntme1 it's hard having some one be completely unreasonable at you, especially if they are doing it in an angry and aggressive way. That's why people put their questions on here so at least they feel vindicated in their feelings even if only views from strangers.

This woman was in the wrong but I doubt she will come back and apologise but maybe us all telling her it wasnt her fault will help op feel better.

You should have told her to fuck off. I have no time for wankers like this.

You’re not a horrible person. What an upsetting experience. I agree with the above- a hot drink and a funny film on and try and take your mind off it xx

If you were a horrible person, you wouldn't have attempted to help and you also wouldn't feel bad that you weren't able to help. Her anger is totally directed at the wrong person - it doesn't excuse the way she treated you, but it does explain it, and that should hopefully help you not to take it personally.

I recommend large quantities of chocolate this evening

OP your DH was lovely to spend all that time looking, and you are not horrible at all. She’s upset, anxious, stressed and disappointed so lashed out at you. I’m sure once she’s calmed down she will know she was in the wrong. Chin up

That wasn't on, but it was probably a good thing you couldn't find anything to hand over to her. I think you need to check where you stand with GDPR on sharing CCTV footage. CCTV images are considered personal data as far as I recall.

It's a few months since I read it to remember exact details but CCTV is caught by GDPR. You don't want to get into bother just from trying to help someone.

Tbh most small businesses only keep cctv for 48 hours so she was a bit hopeful a month on.
Take no heed.

Sorry I didn’t mean my post to be Confrontational. I am genuinely Concerned that OP has been so upset by this bonkers lady.

She was bang out of order, and I think maybe there is something else going on which has zapped ops resilience or perspective.

I have suffered from depression and anxiety and this sounds like a reaction driven by other issues.

Talking about it, hot drink, something sugary. Talking about it some more.

Other women was mega stressed and let rip at the wrong person. Nowt to do with you or what you did.