So I’ve been working in retail for a while and seen my share of odd and rude customers, but today I had my very first “Karen”, and he was american also. (I’m not, and I’m in Australia).
The store I work for doesn’t give their bags for free, we charge for them. This guy picked an online order and then threw up a tantrum and demanded to speak to a manager when I refused to give him a bag for free. Another team member (more experienced) just gave him the bag and he just left.
That does it I guess, but it’s giving in to rude demands what sustains this kind of behavior imo. I’m not trying to protect the interests of the corporate I work for- it’s just a stupid bag ffs, perhaps ask nicely? I’ve been called off both for giving away bags for free before as well as calling for the manager to deal with “minor issues”.
So I’m asking, in general, how do you deal with these types of customers?
I mirror their body language like I’m gearing up for a fight and then make mine totally relax and talk in a pleasant voice. It breaks their brains.
Genius
Depends on the situation, but overall I first try to deescalate the customer and genuinely try to be helpful, but if the customer does not want to de-escalate or asks for absolutely outrageous demands, then I let them be whatever they want, just somewhere else.
It’s been decades, but I enjoy not giving them what they want. Unfortunately, management usually caves. If they are nice, I DGAF and will do whatever I can.
People suck and retail isn’t worth getting too worked up about, unless you desperately need the job.
Your colleague is a dick for not backing you up.
When I was in retail (Apple Store), we had a saying “Don’t feed the bears”. Meaning if you give in to petulant outbursts, the offender will keep coming back and asking for more.
Used to work a chain coffee shop. Had a closing shift by myself, but would randomly get slammed with large groups of people. On occasion when customers were rude to me while I was trying to do everything on my own, I just snapped and swore at them and gave them the finger. I thought I was going to get fired when word got back to my manager, but all I ever got were raises and eventually promoted to assistant manager.
Nice, good on you. Sounds like your management was down to earth
I think they were mostly just desperate for people who could do the job and wouldn’t quit within a month. I always got my work done, but I learned I’m not cut out for customer service.
We had bouncers dealing with them when I worked as a cook in Amsterdam at a grand cafe also selling hash and weed. If anyone was rude or entitled, mostly American or British tourist, they got dealt with pretty quick. I remember Americans going ballistic over orders, like “who put fucking tomato on my fucking BLT?!”, I could hear this woman screaming from th kitchen. Got launched by a knee from a bouncer, don’t be rude.
“who put fucking tomato on my fucking BLT?!”
Doesn’t the T in BLT stand for tomato?
Bacon, Lettuce, Take yourself the fuck outta here
Bacon Lettuce Thing
It sure does.
Ah lucky you. Unfortunately we don’t have bouncers here and security sucks. We’re in a mall and it takes them about half an hour to get to us if we call them. Useless
I haven’t seen an entitled British making a fuss though and we get lots of people from UK.
One CO worker looked a rude old lady right in the eye and said “ma’am this is a place of business. When people do business they have to operate with mutual respect and trust. If we don’t trust each other to do our end of a transaction, we can’t exchange anything between us. If we don’t respect each other, we can’t exchange anything between us. I’ve been acting in trust and respect towards you, are you going to do the same for me? Because if you can’t, we can’t do business.”
She immediately stopped being bitchy and was never a problem again. It was the wildest shit I’ve ever seen.
Man I really need to get my eyes checked. I thought the title said “How do you deal with nude customers?”
I mean, my answer is the same regardless: Fuck 'em.
But yeah. I need glasses.
Username checks out I guess :)
your only loyalty to the company is to the paycheck and that bag ain’t coming out of your paycheck (no matter how much your manager whines about it) – put on your best dead face (maybe mix in a little of “did you just shit your pants?” revulsion) as you hand over a bag and get him out of the store and out of your life as fast as possible – life is too short to give his ego anything other than apathy and disdain
I get my manager. That’s their job, it’s generally what the customer wants anyway, and I’m not paid enough to take abuse.
I’m working in customer service and we sometimes have people who don’t want to pay for a service we offer (fixing their stuff in IT). There are two options:
You tell me what you did when and ask nicely if we can fix it for free? You just did half of my work, of course I will make an exception for you.You blame everything on us and want the service for free as a compensation? Bet I will invest more time to prove why it’s your fault and therefore you’ll have to pay for it.
For a plastic bag? Give it to them, it costs nothing and it’s not worth your time and effort.
Its been a few years since i worked in fast food/drive thru. But the highlight of my time there was when a car refused to take thier receipt. Literally threw it back at me when i gave them thier drink + reciept. (reciepts are given to all cars incase of an order mix up)
Walked over to the other window, and put the reciept in the bag with thier food.
Some people cause a scene to bully you into breaking the rules and get free stuff. In most cases I just become super nice (like syrupy, sickly sweet) and pretend I’m on their side (bag fees are dumb), and let them know you don’t want to lose your job for giving away free merchandise (so sorry, did you still want to buy a bag?). If they are super toxic, you call a manager and make them deal with it, that’s what they get paid for.
Stick to policy and let the manager be the one who breaks the rules.
If you do it, then you can be punished.
Meh, shoulda called him a “Cunt”. That’s not an ok word with Americans.
j/k: not worth the trouble.
😆
