Dealing with literally the most unpleasant person in the world

[Blackadderspants]

Not really an AIBU but more of a rant.

I work in the service industry for my sins....and have been dealing with someone I can only assume is the devil incarnate. They are the most unpleasant client I have ever dealt with in well over 20 years in the same job.

Because I'm in the service industry I have to adopt the "customer is always right" and smile sweetly while they spew poison but today I am right on the edge of telling them they can just feck off for themselves. Which of course would result in me being fired.

ARGH.

Awful op mind if thry swear or insult you surely that crosses a line?

Sounds like you have encountered my mil. .

I have a thread about working in retail going. Working with the public.... it's tough

Sympathies

My sympathies

I work in a call centre so I feel your pain.

The most utterly unpleasant people are often not the ones shouting and swearing so you can't hang up on them

Justmade

Nicemil they haven't sworn (yet) and I think are too clever to do so. Part of me wishes they would and then I would have grounds to shunt them!

MumIs thank you, I am going to look up your thread!

Has my father been on the phone? Nasty, bigoted, narcissistic old fucker.

Say hi to my mum for me.

harderandharder I will never understand how people can be so deliberately unpleasant! Politeness costs nothing...

Blackadderspants you have my respect, last night I witnessed a young women in our local shop being harrassed by a customer, it took all my strength not to intervene. The altercation was over ice cream and rather trivial but my goodness that woman was rude.

Yes, I had a while, many years ago, dealing with people on the phone.

The ones that shouted or swore - I could deal with.

But some were cleverer than that, just downright nasty. The worst one I ever had (had me in tears in my manager's office) was a Reverend. Man, he was scary. Sinister.

"Hell is other people".... Never a truer word said when you work in service industries

Just smile and inside your head plot how you would kill them if you could.

Sympathies op. I can still remember a similar woman on the phone from five years ago. Exactly as others said - too clever to swear or shout but so so nasty. Almost reptilian in her evil. She sounded like a snake. She made sure she got my name from the off.

I didn't handle it well. She rang often (with many issues to do with her order, to be fair we did give shit service, don't order carpet from John Lewis! ) and I just hung up when I heard her voice. She wrote a personal letter of complaint about me. My manager had to deal with her then and was signed off with the stress! Surprised I wasn't fired, but I think it was because my manager realised how awful she was.

Argh. I have had similar with various celebs over the years. Something sometimes goes very very wrong when people have a little bit of success in the public eye. The things is, if you were just dealing with them on the street you could tell them to feck right off with impunity. But when your job is on the line, it can be incredibly stressful! Sympathies op.

Maudlin maud, that's happened to me a few times in queues and I always compliment the sales assistant on the excellent way they handled the rude customer.

I empathise. I had one client with whom I literally dreaded having to interact. Even written words from him made me feel as if I was being tipped over the edge. It wasn't just me as my manager also dreaded him. I had a 'top 5' difficult clients.

I have also worked in a call centre before and the day I knew it was time to leave was when I found myself physically shaking after a call with a particularly unpleasant customer. That kind of job is so stressful as typically I couldn't resolve whatever the problem was - it was soul destroying and I don't miss it at all.

I thought Theresa May was being kept away from the public?

I had a client once years ago when I used to do divorce work. At the beginning I felt sorry for her but after a few weeks my sympathies switched entirely to her husband who I had never met. She was the most frustrating annoying awful person ever.

Yes story I spoke to her after, she was very red in the face bless her and I could tell it had upset her but she was firm and polite so hats off to her. The customer was relentless in her attack, perhaps she had a bad day or maybe she is just unpleasant generally. Who knows! But I have to admit I did judge her on her attitude. Dh calls this type of behaviour "kick the cat"

She was actually worse than the murderers I met, at least they didn't whine and question everything and ring me ALL THE TIME.

haha I work in the NHS and go by the principle everyone is a human being and deserves respect and politeness however there is one I've been seeing for 10 years we have christened the poisoned dwarf (not an actual dwarf just very short) who is so vile that we have to take turns with him on a rota or we'd lose it. Not once has this person responded to any kindness over the years just sits there and rants the whole session. we let him have whatever he wants as it's not worth the endless complaints to pals, the chief exec etc etc. You feel like your soul has been eaten after a session with him.

You cannot win with some people. When I took over as a branch manager in a high profile, wealthy and difficult area, i was warned about one particular customer. One day he started and I asked him into the office. I said that I had heard that he had made many complaints and would he tell me what I could do to turn him from an unhappy customer to a happy one.

He said,

"I am not here to tell you how to do your job" and walked out.

I never tried that again.

That grin was in response to *I thought Theresa May was being kept away from the public?

Trump?
Kim Jong-Il?
Theresa May?