To feel sorry for people who have to work with the public?

[SomeoneStoleMySausageRoll]

Last week I was in a cafe and I was queuing up for the hot drinks and to pay. There was a woman in front of me who seemed to be in a bit of a bad mood anyway as she kept tutting and sighing.

When the woman got to the till she asked for just a black coffee. The lass at the till charged her £2 for it and this is when she got a bit stroppy and pointed out the sign in front of her and snapped "it says it's £1.50 there for an espresso, are you trying to rip me off?" The cashier then explained nicely that an espresso was just a tiny shot of coffee and if she wanted a full coffee it was an americano and that was £2. At which point she started raving and ranting away at the cashier telling her "it was a bloody rip off!" and "you should make it clear!". Still the cashier remained polite and cheerful throughout.

Then when she got her coffee she snapped "where's the bloody sugar?" and again the person at the till pointed out politley where it was (it was right in front of her) but instead the woman picked up her tray and went to the other till to look for the sugar. And again when she couldn't find any (there was more sugar on that side, again right it front of her) she again snapped "where's the bloody sugar?" only this time she sounded much more aggressive.

Then when again the girl pointed out nicely where it was, the woman then stormed back over to her, picked a handful of sugar up and threw them in her face before storming off to sit down with her coffee. The poor girl was like this and so was I.

She did tell me though that this wasn't the worst she'd had to put up with either.

My sister used to work in retail and the amount of abuse she had to put up with was astounding.

Seriously, how do you cope with all the idiots?

I was at work once and confiscated alcohol from some very drunk customers....got called a "c u next tue"

I got my own back though.... as on landing I gave them cloths and plastic bags and made them clean up their own sick

They were then met my the police....

I worked very briefly in a banking call centre for HSBC. One of my very first calls I took the guy just abused me from start to finish. "Why are you so slow you stupid fucking cunt, are you fucking stupid. What's the matter with you?. Put your fucking manager on you daft bitch" .

I lasted 1 week.

Another job in a bakery, had some really rude customers. It had 2 tables if customers wanted to sit in but wasn't classed as a sit in cafe iyswim? No toilet facilities etc, everything in takeaway bags/cups. The abuse we got because there wasn't a toilet was unbelievable! And we didn't serve 'tea for 2'. And the tea was in a paper cup, god forbid.

It was always the older customers too.

I'm a practice nurse and work in a GP surgery. Most patients are lovely but some are utterly vile. I appreciate people may be scared, tired, unwell or in pain but some are none of those things and are just nasty, nasty people who are rude, demanding and have hugely unrealistic expectations.

One that sticks in my mind was when an elderly man sadly collapsed in the waiting room. We discovered he had arrested and started CPR whilst the receptionist called 999 and the other receptionist started moving waiting patients into the corridor so the poor chap had some privacy.

A woman stepped over me and the patient as I was doing chest compressions on him to complain to the receptionist that the nurse (me!) hadn't called her for her appointment yet!!

We all looked her like "what the ACTUAL fuck" and I shouted "I'm a bit busy - you're welcome to wait or rebook!"

I am disgusted by the way some people treat front line staff. I always try to make a point to my children that these people work incredibly hard often for fairly low pay. Of all the people we meet they are the ones to treat best of all.

Travel delays must be another situation where you see people at their worst. It is rarely the fault of the train or air line staff although they do seem to disappear just when you want information, people are being delayed to getting home late to collect the baby or breastfeed it or seal that £10m deal in the US and they do lose their tempers. The ability to keep calm when all about us are losing their tempers etc is really something we need to try to teach our children.

Actually on the whole I think the English are quite good at this - we queue unlike some nations, we follow the rules, we tend to apologise. I don't think we're too bad.

Sidge

My colleagues had a death on board once on an outbound flight. De fib and compressions ....life support whilst family present. The passenger died. So so sad for all involved.

The next week I bought back all those passengers from the week before....who would have witnessed what happened in some capacity....

On boarding I got a passenger saying...." Now I want to make sure we ARE getting a meal on this flight aren't we. Last week we didn't even get anything to eat"

Me...."last week your aircraft had to divert to disembark a deceased passenger and his family"

"Yeah I know that but surely one of 'em' could have come out with some food....we got nothing"

"I think the crew were a little busy trying to save a life however i'll give you a form to fill in to express your comments"

He later took the form

It made me cry.

I used to work in a bar. Been told to fuck off more times than i can remember. One man told me he would 'cut me up' because i wouldn't serve him. And one loon proclaimed he was IRA and would bomb me. Nothing surprises me any more.

One that made me laugh though was when there was a local derby on (bham city vs aston villa) - we showed football matches but had a policy of not showing the local derbys as we got too much trouble. A massive guy, football and england tattos all over, looked hard as nails came in and asked if we were showing it. I explained we weren't. He went off on a massive rant about it, ending with "Why the FUCK aren't you FUCKING showing this FUCKING football match?"
I'd had enough by this point so replied "because of this sort (pointed at him) of FUCKING behaviour".
Luckily he cracked up laughing, said "Good one love" and walked out!

I am also in retail, until next week... I have escaped the madness that is "customer service" woooooohoooooo......

Last week I stood for 3 and a half minutes waiting for a rude person to stop talking on their phone so I could tell them the fiver they were waving was not enough to pay for their goods. It took them THREE AND A HALF MINUTES to stop speaking on their phone in front of me. (I know I was being a bit of a git not interrupting - but hey-ho I'm leaving, so was making a point)

Some folks are great though... I had someone shout "why on earth would I want a fucking loyalty card?" when I just asked if they had one to scan - and the customer behind her said - "so.... you... can... get... stuff... cheaper... darlin'." spoken slowly and precisely so that she would understand - I could have hugged him... he made us all smile.

Someone on the tube with 5 children was tutted when his children were noisy and strap hanging. As he left the carriage he told one that they had come from the hospital where the mother was dying. I always think that story sums up why we have to give others some slack and not jump to conclusions. We never know what they have gone through.

Some people are just nasty drains of energy so negative. Others are radiators. Be a radiator today and make other people feel happier. It works to the benefit of all.

I have never ever worked in Retail but I have worked in Tourism and some people are unbelievable - we used to spot when they arrived the ones who we knew would kick off about everything in order to get a free holiday or discount! we were usually right!!
I have just been to post a parcel and the man next to me being served was kicking off because he had to tell them what was in the parcel and it's approximate value, he was REALLY annoyed when the man serving politely suggested that the man out his address on the reverse " why the hell should I do that? That's why I pay insurance!!"
I handed over my parcel and loudly asked " would you like to know what's in it?", " the approximate value is x" and " I have put my address on the back so it can be returned to me" I finished with " is there any other information you would need to help you send my parcel?"
Bit PA I know but the lady serving me was trying really hard not to laugh and the alternative was me telling this man he was a dick head.

You say that Greengrow but.......

I was a manager of an opticians. A customer came in 15 minutes late for a 20 minute appointment. I told him that he had missed his appointment but if he wanted to wait then the optician might be able to fit him in. He went ballistic at me telling me that he was late for his appointment because his wife had cancer. I said that we would try to fit him in as the person after his had gone in a wee bit early. I then went for my break.
He then came storming up to the desk and demanded to know when he was going to be seen. The member of staff told him that the optician was still seeing the first patient. He then asked for the manager.
When I came out he said 'oh its you again you fucking cunt, well you aren't going to fucking help me are you, bitch?'
I asked him to leave and he refused. Another patient, who was built like the side of a bus stood up and 'encouraged' him out of the shop.
I don't care if his wife did have cancer. It doesn't excuse being spoken to like that.

I've volunteered in a charity shop, worked in pubs and in a call centre. Now thankfully I don't have to deal with the public directly, but work as part of the quality assurance team for a credit card company and part of my job is marking calls from our call centre. So I have a few stories

One thing I was shocked by is the amount of theft that happens from charity shops. I find that so depressing.

While working in an east end pub a customer assured me he used to be part of the Kray Twins "Firm" and I would "be cut from ear to ear" because the fruit machine didn't pay out.

And the fraudster who called up wondering why the card had been stopped, when the fraud investigator informed him he didn't believe he was speaking to the genuine applicant got "listen to me you mother fucking cock sucking little cunt I know where your office is I am going to come down there and beat the shit out of you". To his credit he didn't bat an eyelid and replied "well you can do that sir, but it still won't give you the use of this card"!

People are idiots.

What worries me is that everyone who has ever worked in a public facing role will have a story of customers being utter shits. So how many people must there be out there who treat people like this?
Who are they? Are they our friends or partners and we don't know?

That's why I always trust the 'waitress test'. I'm all for complaining when there's an issue, but there's a HUGE difference between complaining and being abusive. And of course first of all your complaint needs to be justified. Waiting over an hour for a soup and salad, complaint worthy, (assuming no one has collapsed, the kitchen has blown up, gone up on fire etc etc)
Complaining after 5 minutes waiting, not justified.

95-98% of the time in nursing you could shrug off the complaints, as people in pain/scared etc lashing out, doesn't mean its right, but at least its explainable.

It was the ones where people were so sure of their right to treat you like shit, or were so dismissive of other patients needs really stick in your head

I last worked in customer service jobs about 15 years ago and it's taken that long for some faith in human nature to come back. It really changed my view of people in general.

I am always pleasant to anyone in shops, call centres, cafes etc - I know the difference being treated like a human being makes to your day. I know how horrible it is to be shaken up and on the verge of tears because of some twat of a customer, but having to carry on and be pleasant.

I have a much shorter fuse these days and would probably last a day, before telling the first slightly rude person to fuck off!

(I work from home now, and only have the dog to bug me!)

I love working with the public.

I also worked in a coffee shop in my late teens, I loved that too! But yes the espresso/black coffee drama was common. And wankers were common too but there were also really nice customers and regular customers and awesome staff.

Ive worked in bakeries and clarkes shoes and I swear Id go back to it for part time work as and when I can/need before my career kicks off (I hope it kicks off!).

Working I'm customer facing roles actually has given me the opinion that the vast majority of people are not very not nor very intelligent sadly.

If I'd been standing in queue behind such a twat I'd have given Her both barrels and stood up for the poor server. If you don't work there you don't have to be polite. When a customer was abusing me in a Saturday job and reduced me to tears as an awkward 17 year old another customer spoke up. I have never forgotten that and would do the same. The woman giving me abuse threw books at me and said 'I bet your mother is a fucking slut and wishes she had a fucking abortion looking at you, you useless, ugly, speccy whore!!!' My crime was that I had no copper change in till so had to ring bell for change, these days I'd ram her fucking penny down Her throat!

Worked on the tills for years.Most people were lovely but it was the retired older gentlemen and the middle aged women were the worst.I was just closing up and the supervisor asked me to take a customer i said ok,She then flung all teh shopping on the belt.At which point something nearly hit me.I think it was a tin of peas.She was also being very aggressive.So i stopped and told her if something hit me i would get her arrested.So i called security over and they stayed wiht me and funnily enough she was ever so nice after that.Not as nice as me though i killed her with kindness.

The way the certain members of the public treat people in customer service is appalling.

I once served a woman in the pub I used to work in, who got physically aggressive when I told her we had no more of the wine she wanted left (i'd just served her friend the last glass). Later on, while collecting glasses, she grabbed me by the arm and attempted to pour her friends wine over me, I was left with a scratch and some bruising, nothing serious, and she was asked to leave.

The next day I nipped into my Dads workplace for a look around as it was a field I was interested in working in (scientific). As he was showing me round who should I come face to face to, but said assaulter.

Watching her squirm was most fun

Some customers came into a tea shop I work in today... they asked me to clean their baby's bottle out... which I did, asked for extra milk with their tea.. which I provided, extra hot water..which I gave... then asked for a total of 4 straws for the childrens drinks (which they'd kept on destroying)... then they proceded to leave the biggest mess you'd ever seen. Chocolate cake smeared over the high chair and 4 other chair seats, legs and table cross bar. Chocolate cake crumbs walked all round the table and into the toilet.
It took 2 of us 20 minutes to clear up after 3 adults, one child and one baby. Just disgusting...sometimes the 'naice' customers don't even have to speak to be vile. How you can leave a space in such a mess without a word of apology amazes me.

Worked in retail, bookies, a pub and a bank to name some public facing roles in my 17 years and i can't believe how rude people can be!
I'v had elderly people scream and swear at me. People throw food at me when told theyll be a wait as we were busy.
Had very posh lady complain because we never had a certain product so we always had to go and fetch it from the store we were in and couldn't understand that although we were in same store it wasn't our stock! She was so rude and wondered why a collegue ended up yelling at her when she kept questioning if the colleague knew what he was doing!people would try to avoid serving her. She would sneak her own bloody food in too.
I'v had people be so nice and then just turn! Lot of the time it's because management have made decisions but workers have to carry them out.
I'v found the most rude and aggressive people were elderly or posh people in retail and in the pub.
I can
I no longer have the patience for the public.

YANBU at all - the general public suck.

Some individual humans are lovely of course, but en masse they (we?) are terrible.

Wellnow in response to your comment about the waitress test...I worked in retail for a number of years, both through Uni and beyond so know "how to behave".
Most embarrassing situation I was put in post all that was when out with (now) DH and his ex who was "still a good friend" - I had doubts over her for a number of reasons but when having ordered lunch in a busy restaurant she wasn't served in a quick enough time (i.e. straight away on a Sat lunchtime ) she proceeded to berate the luckless staff and demand free food/drinks etc...Result was she still paid for her food as they clearly weren't going to put up with being treated like crap and me cringing under the table ( I was still wet behind the ears and not wishing to cause a scene). Now would be a different story...Luckily we don't have her in our lives any longer...
Moral of the story is - treat people how you wish to be treated!

I remember being in a garage and a customer didn't approve of his loan car being a bit dirty. Apparently they were so short staffed the receptionist had nipped out in her break and hosed the car down for him herself but hadn't had time to clean it inside. He went ballistic in the showroom, it was so embarrassing. He threw his car keys down on the floor in front of her. To her credit she kept a straight face and said to his wife would she mind picking them up as she actually had a bad back.

I wasn't with him, by the way, but if the sales guy hadn't pitched up and told him to leave I think I'd have had to say something. He was so rude.

I worked as a building society cashier for many years and we all got a hard time on occasion from our mainly male and City based customers, some of whom were the sort who knew about mortgage rate and interest rate changes long before we did. It was those who started their sentence with a grunt and the words "I want..." that raised my hackles considerably as did those people who flung their passbooks at us through the partition or moaned about their perceived to be low interest payment at the end of the year. None of us ever received a bonus at the end of the year.

I also worked at the same branch for a number of years so many of the more regular people who visited got to know my colleagues and me quite well and customers were always encouraged to address us by name.

As cashiers we only had a certain amount of authority and although we all tried and used our discretion on cash limits particularly if they were regular customers (cash limit at that time was £250 per day, this was nearly 20 years ago) this was not good enough for some people who often demanded more money without giving 24 hours notice. I was not sworn at or spat at (a minor miracle in itself and the glass partition prevented people from leaning all over the counter) and one of our managers was very good at dealing with the more obstructive customers.

Although we were robbed three times at gunpoint (and I did get a gun pointed at me, it was an occupational hazard) I met some nice people from all walks of life and even to this day I wonder what became of some of them.

Closing one of our regular customer's account due to their death was a hard thing to do but it had to be done. I still recall writing to a Solicitor that I was saddened to learn of this man's death and that he had always treated all of us in the branch with due respect. I hoped that those words did provide a small note of comfort to his family.

Bloody hell AtillaTM, being held at gunpoint just about trumps everything else on this thread I have worked in retail for years on and off and currently work in a charity shop and see all sides of human nature - the downright tightarsedness of people to the very, very generous and not forgetting the thieving buggers - more often than not folks who you'd never imagine would do it! I do love that when someone kicks off in our place the other customers will always support the member of staff