Retail workers.. Has a customer ever made you cry?

[NotProudOfMyself]

One did today. I'm not proud of myself. But they were one in a long line of customers today who decided to tell me how rubbish I am at my job (I'm not BTW, and I wasn't doing anything wrong )...and it just got to me. And I hate myself for that.

I wish people could remember that just because we wear a uniform and serve you doesn't make us less than human, or mean that we don't have feelings too.

We do. And we need kindness and understanding as much as you do. Trust me.

Bastard. Absolutely hate customer public facing roles.

I think a combination of the new way of shopping with the Covid restrictions and Christmas looming is affecting people's mood. My friend who works in retail says the same. Soon the customers will be accusing her of 'ruining their Christmas' about something being out of stock no doubt.

What did they do to make you cry? What made you 'rubbish'?

Bless you that’s totally unnecessary and unacceptable.
I’m sorry that this happened to you, it’s wrong.

I’m not in retail but a nurse and patients, relatives and friends of patients have made me cry many times with their aggression and sometimes violence towards me & my lovely, kind, caring, helpful colleagues.

I can totally sympathise with you on this.

Horrible old man made me cry when I was 17 and working in Tesco. Had a huge go at me- I opened a till due to a big queue, said “who’s next please?” Apparently I allowed someone to jump from the back to the front of my queue 🤷🏻‍♀️

Some people are just twats....its never ok to make someone so upset, and i bet youre fab at your job

Not customer face to face but in a contact centre role yes, he was absolutely vile and when I listened to the call back you could tell I was crying to it wasn't unknown to him.

What did they do to make you cry? What made you 'rubbish'?

I answered their question politely and accurately, but not to their liking, and they exploded full force, screaming at me, and I just crumbled because there had been many before them.

Not in retail, but customer facing. I used to work for the DHSS and I had to interview a PVP (potentially violent) and he got very aggressive, and threatened to wait for me when I left work and stab me. I was terrified and broke down in tears once I got back into the office. My manager drove me home, and the bloke was hanging around in the street corner.

Yeah a few times. I stopped working in retail a good while ago about 6 years. But I had some fucking awful customers. One I remember was convinced we were trying to scam her on the various offers. When actually it was a combo of her not reading them right and the ops department being shit at taking down expired offers. One time it just got too much

Another was a man who got aggressive and pretty much squared up to me raising his voice about an offer on a pizza! The store manager asked him to leave.

Yes, over five years ago. Person came in asking for a refund on a pair of shoes she’d bought for a elderly relative. No receipt. We didn’t give refunds without receipts. She came out with a sob story - relative had passed away etc and why was I tormenting her, causing her to reveal personal details etc. Somehow, I knew something wasn’t right, and so did the manager. He discreetly did a quick stock count on the shoes, realised a pair was missing. As soon as she realised her game was up, she fled. Had she not chosen one of the most expensive pairs, she may have got away with it. I remember feeling cross with myself for letting her make me feel so bad, and I can still picture the tall, strikingly beautiful woman today, several years later.

Oh bless you OP, people can be right bastards can't they? Try to remember its a reflection on them not you.

Its a good 15 years since I last worked in customer facing role but I still remember that sick feeling when someone has got to you.

I used to work in a bank and typically end of March / early April would be really busy with people opening ISAs, you can open an ISA any time of the year but April 4th s new tax year so people who could would put their years entitlement in ASAP to claim the most interest, fair enough. We used to go at great pains to explain that interest is calculated daily, it isn't all loaded on in one go.
A very well to do looking couple came in to close their account days after opening it and absolutely lost their shit that they hadn't accumulated to full year's interest, they were like a tag team yelling at me how stupid I was, they were going to get me fired etc etc.
I knew I was right but they really shook me and were part of the reason I changed my career path.

Yep, myself and my colleagues have all been there too OP. It's shit and no one should have to put with the crap retail staff get. We've also been physically assaulted which was pleasant

Its been worse this year than any I can remember

Sorry you had a crap day. Working with the public sucks! Don't get me wrong, they're are some lovely people out there but then there are just as many arseholes. I haven't had one make me cry but I did nearly lose my my shit at a rude bitch lady and had to get someone else to take over before I smacked her one

Used to work as an admin at a community college. As such, I was always the one left to explain to people who had enrolled on courses that my manager had done things like cancel the course without letting me (and ergo the person attending) know. I remember vividly breaking down on front of a furious adult student and feeling so ashamed of crying. But when I know the tears are coming, there is no going back!

Thank you all. Appreciate the kind thoughts. I live to ride another day. Do need to toughen up though.

@goose1964

Not in retail, but customer facing. I used to work for the DHSS and I had to interview a PVP (potentially violent) and he got very aggressive, and threatened to wait for me when I left work and stab me. I was terrified and broke down in tears once I got back into the office. My manager drove me home, and the bloke was hanging around in the street corner.

Did you contact the police? That's awful.

Twenty years ago I was on tills at the local Tesco. Customer laid into me for not scanning at the right speed (everyone is different FFS) and it was the last straw, I just felt the waterworks coming and that was it. I never went back either.

It's been such a hard year to work in retail. I've lost count of how many of us in my store have been reduced to tears by shitty, rude, entitled people. The one thing that keeps us going is each other, I honestly couldn't wish for better support than I get from my colleagues and I really hope you've got the same thing in your store. It doesn't matter how many lovely customers we get throughout the day, unfortunately we only remember the bad ones. I hope you have a better shift tomorrow, always remember it's them with the issues not you

@PatchworkElmer

Horrible old man made me cry when I was 17 and working in Tesco. Had a huge go at me- I opened a till due to a big queue, said “who’s next please?” Apparently I allowed someone to jump from the back to the front of my queue 🤷🏻‍♀️

I had exactly the same experience at a similar age working in a pub. There was an event down the road and the normally quiet country pub was absolutely rammed with people. It was about eight people deep at the bar and no extra staff had been put on. It was me and one other girl on the bar. The owners had gone out. An old man screamed in my face in front of all these people about how useless and rude I was for “ignoring” his son trying to order and how I shouldn’t have the job if I was incapable. I was doing the best I could, and a regular told me later the son had waited about 2 minutes before stomping off. I cried in front of everyone and had to keep serving with mascara running all down my face.

My colleagues and my store are wonderful, and I love them dearly.. And most customers too. I wish I had handled it better, but I was just too emotional about it (a great character flaw on my part). But I will be back at it tomorrow to try my very best because I love my job, and I am proud of all we do there. We all genuinely try our best.

I had quite bad acne even into my late teens and early twenties. I had a summer job in a newsagent aged 19. I was getting on with it, serving customers, and these two ‘lads’ around my age said very loudly to each other in front of a large queue ‘does your girlfriend have as bad skin as her’ (gesturing at me)? They both thought they were hilarious. I had to keep on serving the remaining customers. It was over 25 years ago: I still feel the shame and embarrassment.

I've been in many customer facing roles...
Car dealership - screamed at because the mot was taking too long/wifi wasn't working.

Currently work in a hospital and I got screamed at because I wouldn't cancel another patient to bring his appointment forward. He has been waiting a fraction compared to the other one. Absolutely vile. Bet he was clapping for the NHS 6 months ago.

It was a patient rather than a customer. I worked on reception at a drs surgery and a man shouted his head off at me banging his hand on the counter,swearing at me.

I used to get very upset when I had rude customers. I work in pharmacy and some days it feels as if our patients think everything is our fault.
Surgery didn't send their prescription over? Our fault.
Doctor didn't issue the required amount of tablets? Our fault.

And so it goes on, but I've become quite hard hearted now, I do not hesitate to politely but firmly set the record straight.

You should refuse to work for any customers like that OP.

Also when I worked in a call centre and refused a dodgy claim for compensation, I was told that they wished I would get sick from all the money i make (yeah minimum wage is amazing, not) and die.
Charming.