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.

I'm a GP's receptionist and I get treated like I'm shit on someones shoe. I get sworn at, spoke down at, insulted, yet they still seem to expect me to pull an appointment out of my arse.

We are all rude and on a power trip apparently. Well no. we are given rules by the GPs in how we use the booking system. You got a problem with it, take it up with them.

Quite frankly, OP they sound very, very strange.

If I couldn't hear them, I'd do that thing people do when they pretend the signal is bad and put the phone down. "Sorry, I can't hear you, hello? hello? oh they must've gone" - puts phone down.

Sometimes when I was working on inbound calls, I'd hold the earpiece away from my ear for a while whilst they ranted on, put it back - still ranting - hold it away or tuck it behind my ear and wait until they'd finished as I did not like exposing myself to their vitriol.

The 'you called me' happened a lot to me. They'd call and when I wanted to go through security, they'd refuse saying how did they know I was legitimately from the place I worked for. I thought 'but YOU called ME' using a number you got from the institution either in person or from their website.

But surely, Lenina and Wizard , TheQueen said he DIDNT play keyboard in a band? Was he more of a xylophone player, TheQueen?

I had a horrible customer who came into the shop I worked in many years ago most days. Was sneery and sarcastic and expected us to grovel to him. When there was a vacancies notice in the window, he came in, thrust his application form at meand demanded I take it to the manager. I said "Yes, I'll do that now".
I left and went upstairs... and chucked his application in the bin.

I was chatting to the Sainsbury's delivery driver today and he was telling me how rude some people are to him, and that sometimes people don't even say hello/thank you/bye etc, and just take their shopping & shut the door in his face!

Oh god, I don't miss working in retail. I thought it would get better when I left retail to work in a student accommodation building but then I had to deal with some very bratty students and their rude, demanding parents.

Now I work in a university and just have to put up with bald faced lies about why coursework hasn't been handed in. Sometimes they don't even bother to lie - I recently had a request for an extension because a student "is currently being pumped by deadlines on all sides"

I read recently about someone who deal with horrible customers by writing a very rude four letter word on the roof of their mouth with his tongue while the customer was ranting away.

Juvenile but satisfying I'd have though.

Tali I've done that job, never ever again.

I get this bit after 12 years i just detach myself in my mind and it doesnt get to me.

I am aware of them trying as hard as they can to take their shit out on me or to browbeat me into getting what i cant give them and just ignore it.

Had someone being really shitty today demanding something im not meant to offer but which normally i would try to arrange anyway and risk annoying my boss.

I didnt this time.. they had to inconvenience themselves instead.

Lesson here..be nice to customer service staff

I think everyone should do a stint in retail - compulsory customer service!

I work in a bookshop. I have been screamed, yelled and sworn at by a sample of every single group in society.
The best was by an awful, racist sack of shit regular that finally over stepped the line when I was eight months pregnant and I got to say "your banned. Leave now or I'm calling the police." all the folks in the queue were very nice to me after.

I did six years working for McDonald's so you can imagine the sort of shit I dealt with. A 12 year old girl spitting at me and saying that she hoped my baby would die whilst I was pregnant was a particular highlight.

The worst ones though were men who, when dealing with male members of staff or older women would be rude but not horrifically so but would really go to town on the teenage girls.

They would be really vile to them and I've often wondered if it was a sexual thing, like they were getting off on making young girls cry.

Yeah, I've come across those MrsFairbrother. Obnoxious, inadequate bullies.

Re: the ranty astronomer, It's got to be the xylophone player - the keyboard player isn't an astronomer!

Am open mouthed at some of these stories! I worked in sales for a while, I spoke to a LOT of angry people on the phone. I remember one guy ranted at me until I hung up on him, and then called back a few minutes later pretending to be someone else to rant at me again.

Oh and the emotional blackmail they try to lay on you. "If something happens, I'm holding you personally responsible." or the threats of legal action. We had one guy threatening to invoice the GP for wasting his time.

Oh and the ones who try to blame you for their stupidity. FFS, you're an adult and we arent a babysitting service. If you need something that's gonna mean you get to feed your kids, then dont leave it weeks and then get pissy with us because you cant get it on the deadline day.

The xylophone playing astronomer had something of a name for being a wee bit snippy, I think understatement

I once had a customer who when I asked him for his his account number, said in his most patronising tone "no, you don't need my a/c number, why don't you just listen to me. Now you've wasted a little bit of your own time, and a little bit of my time" - I let him speak on, but he was waffling on, and I didn't have a clue what he was after. I tried to interject with a pertinent question he started yelling "SHUT UP, SHUT UP!!!" like a madman, over and over. I cut him off.

Our manager said we weren't paid enough to be shouted and sworn at - so we were 'allowed' to cut them off. But, as OP says - the clever ones can be really, really nasty without shouting & swearing. They're the ones who get to you.

I remember sometime last century I was in a Kensington newsagent on my lunch break when I saw a bloke berating the staff loudly for no reason at all. It was a well-known newsreader with very bad taste in ties

You are not alone.

How awful for that you can't get away from them. You have my utmost sympathy.

I know it can't be the guitarist astronomer, as I've heard he's very nice and he's involved with saving hedgehogs

I've worked in retail, as a nurse and as airline cabin crew.

There is a good reason that I now work in an office away from the public...

Every sympathy here. Have previously worked in mobile phone call centre, so you can imagine how that went.

Everything from I hope you die in a crash on your way home to hoping your daughter gets raped.

I always used to play they kill them with kindness card. The worse they were, the sweeter and nicer I'd be, upto the point of cheesy. They would get so mad as they were getting any reaction out of me, was so fun.

Unlike a lot here, we COULD terminate the call without one cross word, as in if we were just going round in circles, asking the same questions and getting the same answers we'd say along the lines of "there is nothing else I can advise you, so unless you have any questions I haven't answered then I'll need to end the call". Naturally they would start asking again, so they were advised again then the call was release without another word.