To think there’s never any need to scream at staff

[Polarbearflavour]

I was in Starbucks today.

Woman at the next table grabbed a barista by the arm and shouted at her - her coffee tasted funny apparently. The barista apologised and went to make her a new one.

The re-made drink was not to her liking. She stood up and leaned over the counter and screamed at the staff! Apparently it was burned tasting.

Why on earth would you get so upset over a drink? The staff were very calm and remade her drink twice. She uttered the immortal words “I’m never coming to Starbucks again.” Pretty sure she’ll be back! Not sure why she expected the baristas to care if she didn’t return.

MH issues? Something else going on and taking it out on others? who knows 🤷‍♀️

People are weird. I could never work in customer service!
🤷🏻‍♀️

No, never any excuse !

I screamed at someone over something minor once.

I'd just been told my daughter was dying and had responded by running out the hospital and walking to god knows where. I don't even remember what the event was now.

Thankfully she is fine. But it made me less judgemental you never know what's happening to someone.

I work in customer service so I dont say anything back when a customer speaks to me like shit. No one is worth my job. When I'm a fellow customer and I see it happen though......

Just a nasty person. Lots of those to go around.

Ok you don't know what is going on in someone's life but no one should be screamed at or grabbed, at work or anywhere else. Someone should have intervened.

Like Seline I once lost it with a rude Post Office customer service assistant after being told my grandmother's life support machine was to be turned off. I made a stop at the Post Office before making my 200 mile journey to say my goodbyes to my grandmother.

To be fair she was a rude bitch, was frequently rude and had form for it. But normally I'd let it wash over me. But that day she chose the wrong person to pick on and I admit, I screamed and swore at her.

Completely out if character for me, and I appreciate I must have come across as a loon. But I was in a really bad place. My grandmother had been like a mother to me and I was devastated. Her rude arrogant attitude just tipped me over the edge.

I've never behaved like that before, or since. But whenever I see someone behave ott I now take a step back and think before I judge.

To be fair she was a rude bitch, was frequently rude and had form for it.

I'm talking about post office assistant here btw, not my grandmother!

I've never behaved like that before, or since. But whenever I see someone behave ott I now take a step back and think before I judge.

But as you said, the member of staff was rude. However upset you were though, would you have done that if they'd been polite and helpful?

I never know what people on here mean when they say someone ‘screamed’ at someone. I don’t think I have ever seen anything which could be so described - and I’m a teacher, a group who are often accused of this.

Well people do it because they can. A minority do it because they have something else going on, but you can usually tell tbh who is trapped inside their own head and lashing out and who is doing it for a power trip.
A lot of the issues I face at least are because of stupid policies that we're told to enforce and then management back peddle on because they don't like getting shouted at so give the customer what they want while telling us 'it's all part of the job' and blaming us to the customer and promising retraining and change - that never happens.

That fucking ridiculous mantra "The customer is always right" should actually be "The worker is always wrong" because that's how most people interpret it.
Customers have power over the staff that serve them, and they know it, and some like to make sure the server knows their place - which is beneath everyone else.

But as you said, the member of staff was rude. However upset you were though, would you have done that if they'd been polite and helpful?

No admittedly, it was the rudeness that made me flip. But tbh, rudeness in the grand scheme of things is trivial and I wouldn't normally let it affect me tgatcway. Id be peeved, but wouldn't give her the satisfaction of biting.

But here, in OPs story, it's possible that the trivial crap coffee was the straw that broke the camel's back for someone in distress.

However, she could just be an entitled cow who likes to lord it over those she considers inferior, in which case I'd have to agree.... No excuse. Appalling behaviour.

The woman was happily chatting away to a couple of friends before she lost her temper.

I’m sure many of us have been upset, sad, dealing with grief but haven’t felt the need to lash out at staff.

There seems to be a strange idea amongst the more entitled that customers somehow own the staff.

not everyone screams under pressure. I can't imagine Barack obama doing something like that for example!. Being mean to people in low paid jobs who have done nothing wrong is just shitty behaviour.

There’s no excuse for treating a member of customer service staff like shit. None. And it says a lot about a person if they do.

If it's not MH issue, it's either poor social skills and/or something else is going on. If you are having a bad time or going thru something brutal like a family member terminal illness or a bereavement & just barely holding it together, small things can be the last straw & push people over the edge & into full on meltdown. Often if you gently ask are you OK after (not during) an unusual or unreasonable outburst, you find out something else big is not OK.

There seems to be a strange idea amongst the more entitled that customers somehow own the staff.

Ah yes, the 'I pay your wages' brigade. Even better are the 'I'm putting this on FB, TA" brigade, usually because it'll get an instant response from management who will roll over and tell the customer that the staff were wrong, and they're so sorry, while dreaming up and implementing silly policies and bollock us for using initiative if we don't follow them to prevent a situation like that.
A lot of it is how staff are treated by their employer - it only takes one manager to quietly but firmly say "Please do not speak to the staff like that" and refuse to deal with them until they are reasonable, to give an example. Sadly in 25 years of being employed in customer facing roles, this has only ever happened once.

For every rude customer who ‘has something else going on in their life’ so is excused being a cunt there is also a sales assistant who has been rude too. And guess what they have something else going on in their life too. However professional they try to be and put up with shit from the public there is always going to be a tipping point.

Totally missing the point of the thread but I also noticed the other day that Starbucks Coffee has started tasting burnt. Completely undrinkable. I've had two coffees from two different stores. Nth undrinkably burnt tasting. In the second store they remade it for me using their new blond toast which was fine. They assured me the coffee has not changed so thought it was me however the woman in your thread sounds like she is of the and opinion. Interesting.

I didn't feel the need to shout and scream at anyone about it though. And they remade the coffee without any fuss.

@MiniMum97 off topic but my local Starbucks has been closed for a refurb & I've been patiently waiting for it to reopen. Will be gutted if the coffee is tasting burnt or bitter. I stopped drinking Costa for the same reason.

Starbucks coffee is awful, but no need to be rude to the staff.

sorry, phone unlocked & typed gibberish. Have reported previous!

I always try to be polite to staff, although I once lost my shit with a very bored sounding student loans company phone operative.

After years of working in customer service, I absolutely love wading in if I'm a customer and see a fellow customer being rude to a member of staff.

There is rarely ever any acceptable excuse.