for those of us who work/have worked in customer service

[contententity]

best/worst experiences with customers? i work in a restaurant so we get a few jerks and a few really awesome people

there have been several occasions on busy nights where those few precious gems can tell that i'm frazzled bc i'm the only server (yes i work in a highly understaffed restaurant) and they let me know i'm doing a good job and tip extra well. once i got a $20 tip from a girl on a $15 bill even though i dont think i did anything extra special? so that was sweet. one of our regulars once made me a heart out of a dollar bill.

worst experiences... well, these ones arent really too bad, just kind of confusing. there have been 2 cases of people leaving the restaurant without paying their full bill. once it was a really old lady who literally just left me a single dollar bill on her $11-something bill. it didnt make any sense because her bill didnt end in an even number, so she cant have been confused and thought it was just one dollar for that giant bowl. my theory is that she escaped from a nursing home and wanted to have an adventure but only had one dollar so she decided to just go for it. another time a guy only left $9 for his $15 bill. he was probably short, but i wish he had said something or paid with a card instead of just leaving

what crazy/weird stuff has happened to you working in customer service??

 

[Caius]

Oh gosh.

I was an assistant manager in technical support for a while. For every good call, there were fifty more awful ones. I'm fairly sure that's the job that turned me into the mean person I am today.

 

[contententity]

Oh gosh.

I was an assistant manager in technical support for a while. For every good call, there were fifty more awful ones. I'm fairly sure that's the job that turned me into the mean person I am today.

ha! you probably got a ton of ppl asking really obvious questions. i'm pretty sure anyone that works in customer service can tell you how awful people can be/how their CS job made them lose faith in humanity

 

[Llust]

wow there are a lot of theres for this popping up haha
i work at re-tail for now just for a little extra money for myself to spend. its terrible, oh my god >.< i obviously dont plan on staying as a re-tail worker forever, i'll eventually get a different job after graduating and everything, but this is the only option that i have. the extremely rude and polite ratio of people is 50:50, so im not sure what to expect out of them anymore

i was organizing a pile of clothes and as i was just about to finish up with a couple of clothes left to fold - so basically there was a nice, neat stack of clothes on one side, and next to it was a messy pile of shirts. this woman walked by and throws a ton of clothes into the pile for me to organize like..tf? the least she could have done is neatly place it down somewhere and asked me to put them back where they belong, but the fact that she just did that and didnt say anything was so rude and i was just ticked off for the rest of the day thinking of scenarios where i could have shoved her off a cliff or something. whats worse is by throwing that pile of clothes at the counter, it knocked down the stack that i spent the past half hour or so putting together

then there was this other time when im not sure why but i was at the cash register extremely stressed out and tired. i had dark circles under my eyes from what i remember and i was just a mess. i wasnt expecting this, but while i was checking out this guy's items, he was just staring at my face until i finished. it was really awkward so i tried acting like i didnt notice. whem he handed me the cash, he said 'keep it and buy yourself a treat for staying strong later' and left after i gave him his receipt and everything. i was confused at first and didnt know what he was talking about, but when i was putting away the money in the cash register, i saw he included a $50 bill and a starbucks gift card along with his $10 purchase >u< i felt bad keeping it though, so i went outside to look for him and give it back. i found him but he was already getting into his car by the time i saw him--we made eye contact & he just smiled and waved before closing the car door. it was rare for me to be in a bad mood for the rest of the week, my faith in humanity has been restored after that haha

 

[SockHead]

i dont have a good memory but the other day i touched the top of a cup and the lady told me to get a dif cup for her smoothie.. that i made and probably touched 5 different things going into the smoothie so I just laughed it off haha

 

[contententity]

wow there are a lot of theres for this popping up haha
i work at re-tail for now just for a little extra money for myself to spend. its terrible, oh my god >.< i obviously dont plan on staying as a re-tail worker forever, i'll eventually get a different job after graduating and everything, but this is the only option that i have. the extremely rude and polite ratio of people is 50:50, so im not sure what to expect out of them anymore

i was organizing a pile of clothes and as i was just about to finish up with a couple of clothes left to fold - so basically there was a nice, neat stack of clothes on one side, and next to it was a messy pile of shirts. this woman walked by and throws a ton of clothes into the pile for me to organize like..tf? the least she could have done is neatly place it down somewhere and asked me to put them back where they belong, but the fact that she just did that and didnt say anything was so rude and i was just ticked off for the rest of the day thinking of scenarios where i could have shoved her off a cliff or something. whats worse is by throwing that pile of clothes at the counter, it knocked down the stack that i spent the past half hour or so putting together

then there was this other time when im not sure why but i was at the cash register extremely stressed out and tired. i had dark circles under my eyes from what i remember and i was just a mess. i wasnt expecting this, but while i was checking out this guy's items, he was just staring at my face until i finished. it was really awkward so i tried acting like i didnt notice. whem he handed me the cash, he said 'keep it and buy yourself a treat for staying strong later' and left after i gave him his receipt and everything. i was confused at first and didnt know what he was talking about, but when i was putting away the money in the cash register, i saw he included a $50 bill and a starbucks gift card along with his $10 purchase >u< i felt bad keeping it though, so i went outside to look for him and give it back. i found him but he was already getting into his car by the time i saw him--we made eye contact & he just smiled and waved before closing the car door. it was rare for me to be in a bad mood for the rest of the week, my faith in humanity has been restored after that haha

ahhh that first one, noooooooo. i would have been soooo mad.

that second one is really sweet!!! i wonder if he just had $50 and a starbucks gift card in his wallet and just decided to give it to you? or maybe he'd been watching you for a while (not in a creepy way?) and got it to give specifically to you? orrrr maybe he has tons of $50 bills and starbucks gift cards and hes just a really nice really rich dude who likes making ppl's days. i hope it's the last one

- - - Post Merge - - -

i dont have a good memory but the other day i touched the top of a cup and the lady told me to get a dif cup for her smoothie.. that i made and probably touched 5 different things going into the smoothie so I just laughed it off haha

ugh ppl like that are so obnoxious. like do u really think working in food that i wouldnt be constantly washing my hands...?

 

[Celestefey]

Hm, the nicest thing was when I was working during an incredibly busy period and was trying my best to be friendly to customers end and selling items as quickly as I could, and one lady I was serving told me I was amazing and did a brilliant job and she was so grateful for my patience and hard work. I was so stressed out, trying to be as quick as I could but also friendly and etc, all of my other colleagues were stressed out and they were sometimes harsh to me and it felt like I was just never making any good progress, but that lady really made my day and reminded me that I'm doing a good job even if they don't see that. She was so nice.

Worst thing, though, was when I had to serve some lady later at night. The shop was quiet. She came in after ordering something into the shop. It was the first time I had dealt with an order so was a bit unsure on what to do - I spoke to someone but then felt more confident on what to do. The shoes were for her baby. I was asking her to take the baby out of the pram and she kept refusing over and over, even though I was told SPECIFICALLY by staff to ensure that when checking shoes properly, the child has to be out of the pram and standing up. The lady kept refusing. She took him out the pram, and he started crying and screaming, for which she blamed me for - sorry but he's your child so you should be able to control him? The baby struggled away and started crawling around the shop, then she told me she had gotten into a car accident so she couldn't pick him up properly (????????) so once again trying to guilt trip me and make me feel bad. I kept telling her over and over the child needs to be standing up (she could hold onto him and that would be fine) for me to check them properly, it's part of our store's policy and what I was told to do, and I could check his shoes whilst he was sitting down but it wouldn't be as accurate and I would have to say it was a self-fit (because it went against store policy and she chose a different way of fitting shoes so I can't be to blame for it), then she kept using this one liner over and over again "I came to blahblahblah to make sure his shoes fit properly and you can't do that you can't do that blahblahkjslkla hurhurr" and I sat there telling her over and over and she just refused to listen. I felt like crying to be honest with you, she made me feel completely worthless. Eventually she asked for someone else to help her - one of our managers came along and told her the EXACT same thing that I had told her, which made me feel better knowing everything I did was right. Of course she listened to one of the managers though. :\ Ugh, just some people are so so rude and unwilling to cooperate and listen and have no respect for other people. I'm trying to do my job here but you won't let me, and when I offer alternatives it's just not good enough - so what is good enough? I remember walking out of the shop when my shift ended (thankfully once I managed to be done with her I could go home) just trying so hard not to cry. xD I'm a sensitive person, I probably shouldn't work in retail, but I need the money.

 

[infinikitten]

I'm pretty sure I've blocked out most of my worst experiences, though one lady made me completely CRACK. It takes a lot to make me "lose it", but she'd been calling over and over and over again, my office was incredibly busy and I was the only one there... she just would NOT wait to get what she wanted (I wish I could be more specific, but it's a healthcare thing, so.) and it was something I had zero control over, something she'd have to see a doctor about. But this lady just kept interrupting my business with other people to the point where she left me this angry message saying she wanted me fired, yadda yadda, she was going to go elsewhere... and when she marched straight into my office later that day, I was just like "You want to go elsewhere? Great. GREAT. Get me a name and a number and I'll fax your info immediately. I'd be happy to be rid of you."

...yeah. Not really becoming of a customer service rep.

Nice things that balanced it out, though, were that sometimes I'd get really sweet people coming by the office and showering me with compliments. Who doesn't love a compliment? An older gentleman told me I had the voice of an angel when he was making an appointment with me over the phone, and that... actually sounds kind of creepy out of context, but I thought it was cute at the time.

I really do love helping people when they can keep their cool, so doing really involved cases gave me some fond memories, oddly enough. It's all worth it when you finally work things out and the customer genuinely thanks you rather than the usual "k thx bye" + hangup.

 

[TheGreatBrain]

I had this really cheap boss at KFC. She would call you in the office and lecture you if she caught you giving a customer butter or honey when they didn't ask for it. This really sucked, because the customers just assumed that it would be given to them without having to ask.

One day, this man came in and bought a bunch of food. He came back so angry when he discovered there was no butter or honey for his biscuits. I've never been yelled at so bad in my life. He said he would never return. Sometimes being cheap ends up costing you more money in the long run.

 

[Kess]

omg... ALL the time. I live in a very interesting part of town to where we get a good mix of the pretentious, snobby rich people along with the straight up sheisty fiends! (I was robbed at this store so, there you go). I have so many stories.
I will literally say the same exact things to every customer just to make sure that everyone is treated as equally and as properly as everyone else!!! Like, that's how serious I am! I'm not going to be rude to you if you're not rude to me, you know? Like I don't have time to purposely make someones day bad, you know? I'll do like four of each for a nice little mix ^.^
ANTYWAYS!

Spoiler: good

good- The woman who trained me was seriously a straight up Boss. She was HEAVILY preggie and she was still working circles around me. One of our semi-regulars (I haven't seen him in months, but he used to come in more often) left her a $100 dollar tip on her last day working. This man would get a sub for like 8 dollars, pay with a 20 and leave you the change. Like what?

-This one lady was teaching her kids how to order and at first I was thinking, yeah right, but then she seriously ordered SO PERFECTLY that this was probably one of my fastest times. Like she knew exactly what to say and exactly when to say it. She was awesome she needs to teach a class on how to order properly and I'm not even kidding.

- When people get a super simple sub and still tip. Like I've made 8-10 subs for one person and they don't tip. Like sir I just made your ENTIRE family dinner and you aint gon tip? okay.

- When I ask people "would you like a drink/cookies with that" and they say "no but I'll get you one" and mean it. (not in like a flirt kind of way)

Spoiler: bad

bad - Theres one lady who comes in and I endearingly nicknamed her "meatball lady". She is SO.RUDE. She ordered two subs, a six inch meatball and six inch ham or something, and we get 100% complete with her order, subs made and she's paid and been rung out, then she turns to us and asks for four more meatballs and we have to explain to her over and over again that we can't just give her or ring up 4 meatballs, she would have to get another six inch. She also is very particular about the subs, and this really isn't an issue if you're kind and understanding about. We are there for hours making subs, we have habits. She's very condescending. She does one of my biggest pet peeves, which is pushing people down the line. If you're not with the person in front of you, don't stand super close to them! Get out of their personal space! It's making them uncomfortable and it's not going to make me get to you any faster.

- Two ladies nicknamed "meatball ladies". They came in and ordered like 1ftlng meatball, 1 ftlng ham, 1 six inch ham, and 2 six inch meatballs. They literally came in at 9:58pm.... I close at 10. They are VERY lucky I even served them, because I usually already have the door locked at 9:55. By this time at night, I'm out of meatballs and I'm obviously not going to make anymore. So I only had enough for the footlong and the first six inch and that was it. I had to state multiple times that I didn't have anymore to be able to make the second six inch. They were incredibly rude and kept asking "how are you out?? why do you not have any left? just make more??" Um, it's 10 at night and I'm closed, why on earth would I make a whole new batch of meatballs? And when I rung them out, I charged them for what they got, which was the completed 2 footlongs and 2 six inches. One of them asked me "what about that one? Can we get a discount on it" asking about the uncompleted one, that was left at the bain bc I didn't have enough meatballs for it, and I was like, "no, I can't finish it" and she was just so mad! And this made NO sense because, even if I had given her a discount, she would be paying for something she wasn't even getting?? Like why would I ring you up for something you're not getting??? Why would I make you pay more? The guy behind them apologized for their behavior they acted so bad.

-"Meatball lady #2". This one is recent. I make like 4 or 5 subs for this lady, and one of her kids had already put me off because of how rude she was. Like a little kid had no manners! Anyways, I complete all the subs and begin to ring her out and she goes "oh and I need more meatballs." And I'm like "I can't do that, you'd have to get another sub" and she goes "you can't just give me more?" and I say, "no, you'd have to get another sub, like a six inch or something." and she goes "oh, okay." Like she understood that I can't just ring out meatballs by themselves. So she pays and everything and I begin to wash my hands to go take care of the customer behind her and she goes "um, what about the meatballs?" and I said "I can't just ring out meatballs" AGAIN! And she goes "you were supposed to ring me up for a six inch" and I say, "oh!"(thinking I had misunderstood from when she said "okay") and I say "what kind of bread?" and she goes "... NO bread! Just meatballs!" and I'm like, "I can't just give you meatballs, you would have to get another six inch meatball sub." and the rude little kid from earlier goes "that's stupid" and the mother agrees and goes "yeah, that is stupid." but by this time I've already got my gloves on and I'm asking the next customer how they are.
(I also have a meatball lady #3 but she goes by a different nickname bc my boyfriend and I see her around the neighborhood a lot)

-This happened today. I wash my hands and go towards the bain after ringing out the previous customer, and as I'm putting on my gloves, I greet the next customer with "hi, how are you?" and she goes "can I get six inch on white bread?" but as she's asking this I'm opening the proofer and getting the herb bread so I can cheese it. This is obvious that I'm working... she can literally see me... I'm literally right in front of her working on something that only takes like 2 mins, so I don't reply because this should be obvious to someone who isn't blind and has basic common sense. I begin to place the bread in the oven and she goes "can I get a six inch steak and cheese on white?" And I have one more herb bread that was at the bottom i have to cheese, and as she sees me placing the bread on the bain so I can cheese it, she goes "seriously, f--- this s-bway." and storms out. Now, I realize that I should have said something along the lines of "lemme get this bread first and I'll be right with you." But considering the fact that I had already greeted her and she was there as the buzzer began to go off, and that she could SEE me working, I figured that would be pretty obvious that I was going to take her order as soon as I finished? ...

Okay wow this was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be... but honestly its so weird you started this thread today because after what happened today I was like "man I'd like a place to share these kinds of stories at" and here we are! Lol I unfortunately have a lot of these stories.... and I like to vent them... :]

 

[Flop]

I work at Kroger, 'nuff said. Not everyone tips at restaurants though. I think that if you don't have enough money to go out to eat and pay with a tip, you shouldn't go out to eat. I always tip a minimum of 20% (20% is the lowest I give, and that's really only for really s***** waiters) because I hope to make up for others who don't tip/tip lowly. I wouldn't complain about it though. It's better than nothing, I'd say.

 

[MozzarellaSticks]

Worst experience? Anyone who comes in 5 minutes before close and goes, "I don't know what I want."

 

[Midoriya]

I work and have worked at a Target now for 6 months... I've had like, two, maybe one depending on how you look at it rude customers compared to hundreds of nice ones.... Of course take all of that with a grain of salt. I am a very charismatic and friendly person, and know how to get all the various things done at my store, so customers are usually very friendly to me in response. It could also be that some of the customers I've interacted with before would seem rude to people who aren't me, but not to me. I'm really oblivious in a sort of sense that I don't see the big "challenge" in life or don't get why everyone who has gone before me in a stage of life tells me it's going to be hard. For me, it's really not :/

 

[Jake]

i never really had bad experiences but ive had ppl who just wanna chat and are generally interested in talking, its p nice.

 

[Miharu]

Best experiences with customers is when they are completely understanding, fun to talk to, and polite. I have a couple who I always LOVE seeing every Sunday morning because they are just so much fun to talk to! The husband used to come in to our store every Sunday and asked if we are bringing back the cinnabon classic cinnamon roll yogurt anytime soon. He would even write on our chalk board saying "Cinnabonnn!! Bring it back!" ahahahaha he was a funny guy. XD He wasn't annoying at all since he was just pretty much joking around with it. (Thought he really does love that flavor and it's his favorite ahaha) I ended up nicknaming him the "Cinnabon Guy" ahahaha until I asked for his name, and his wife and I has been best buds ever since! I just saw them this morning as well!

As for worst experiences, oh gosh. Thank god I work in the back the majority of the time so I don't have to deal with some rude customers. I haven't had a really BAD experience, but I've had some annoying ones that got on my nerves. There was this one time where this lady came in with a child and she didn't keep an eye on the child. The child stuck her tongue out and was trying to lick the yogurt that was dripping from the machine. She couldn't reach it though, but I kept a close eye on her before saying anything. Then she used her fingers and swiped the yogurt (touching the part of the machine where the yogurt comes out of) and licked her fingers... so I told her politely "I'm sorry, but please don't do that." She looked at me and stopped for a little, then her mom told her to not do that as well. About 2-3 minutes later, the child tried licking it again, and once again, I asked her politely to not do that. (Of course after she used her fingers to wipe off the yogurt, I went to grab a clean towel and wiped off the area that child touched.) The mother then grabbed her hand and nicely told her she can't do that, and they started to continue getting their yogurt. Then a few minutes later the mother went up to me and told me "Please don't talk to my child like that. If you have something to say, you can say it to me. She's still young and she's only 6 years old. You didn't have to be so rude." I then told her "I'm sorry, but I wasn't trying to be rude at all." then she slightly cut me off and disregarded my comment and stated "I know the owners of the store really well." I just pretty much apologized politely once again and she stopped and continued on with getting her yogurt. What got to me was I was not rude AT ALL to her child. Also I felt like if I were to just talk to the mother and disregard the child, that would be rude to the child and me practically implying that her child is too stupid to understand English or follow instructions. But anyways, funny thing is, she still tipped me which was nice of her xD I was a little dumbfounded at the fact she tipped. Maybe she felt bad? Idk ahaha (On a side note I told my boss what happened and they completely understood and agreed.)

 

[contententity]

I work at Kroger, 'nuff said. Not everyone tips at restaurants though. I think that if you don't have enough money to go out to eat and pay with a tip, you shouldn't go out to eat. I always tip a minimum of 20% (20% is the lowest I give, and that's really only for really s***** waiters) because I hope to make up for others who don't tip/tip lowly. I wouldn't complain about it though. It's better than nothing, I'd say.

i do the same thing and i completely agree!! like you have an iphone and you're wearing expensive clothes but youre giving me a 10% tip?? fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yooooooooooouuuuu

but yeah 20% is the absolute minimum for me to tip

 

[kayleee]

I used to work at a clothing store in the mall and I cannot tell you how many times people would come in right at close and browse around like they had all the time in the world. We would literally turn off the music and close the doors and they would still be looking around and in the fitting room trying on clothes. It happened all the time, it's like what the literal hell first of all there's no way you aren't aware that the store is closed, the whole freaking mall closes at 9, and second it's ****ing 9pm why are you needing to shop for clothes right now???? We've had people stay literally 45 mins past close it was ridiculous. And sometimes the people didn't even buy anything like holy ****
It's like they totally disregarded the fact that we were people with lives and we were supposed to be off work 30 mins ago but we are forced to stay and wait for you while you wander around UGH it was so annoying

Also there was always this one lady who would try to get a deal on EVERYTHING. She would never buy anything at full price even after you spent an hour talking to her, finding her a bunch of clothes etc. she would always end with "so is any of this on sale?" Like ummm... No... And then she'd always be like "oh darn really?" As if I could just magically mark it all down for her and then she would be like "well darn I'll come back when it's on sale then" and leave without buying anything. She came in and did this ALL THE TIME. and what's even more annoying is she would always bring me up brand new full price merch and be like "I found this on the sale rack, can I get a discount" like first of all, I'm 99% sure you did not find this on the sale rack and even if you did obviously someone put it there by mistake so ummmm no you can't have a ****ing discount

God it was so annoying but thankfully I don't work there anymore it was literal hell

edit: also there was a time I found a ****ing used tampon on the floor in one of the fitting rooms but that's another story entirely
Not to mention this was a higher -end women's clothing store where customers were mostly in their 30s-60s like half the **** I dealt with I would expect from children. Actually I take that back I don't think children would even act so oblivious and rude

Edit2: OH MY GOD so also there was this lady one time who came in later on a weekday, there was literally 1-2 customers in the store and just me and one other lady working. I was in the back doing stuff and my coworker is on the floor, this one lady goes into the fitting room (they weren't locking rooms so anyone could just go in and out) and literally the phone rings a little bit later, my coworker answers it and then she comes back to find me and goes "um the lady in the fitting room just called the store all pissed off because she needs a shirt in a different size and no one came back to ask her if she needs anything." Okay FIRST OF ALL there's literally one other customer in the store, you aren't going to lose your fitting room if you walk out on the floor to grab something. SECONDLY it probably took you more time to find the stores phone number and call to complain than it would have taken to just WALK OUT OF THE FITTING ROOM TO FIND SOMEONE ON THE FLOOR OR JUST GEt the goddamn shirt yourself. Keep in mind this was a SUPER SMALL STORE. like you could pretty much talk to people just walking in the door from the back of the store, that's how small it was.
Me and my coworker were literally just like this cannot be real. This lady cannot be serious

 

[contententity]

kayleee - oh god that last woman sounds ridiculous!!!! what! i cannot believe people sometimes

 

[Knopekin]

Worst experience? Anyone who comes in 5 minutes before close and goes, "I don't know what I want."

THIS. You can usually judge if someone's worked in retail by their attitude to coming into a shop 5 minutes before closing; if they say "they're open, so why shouldn't I come in?" you can be guaranteed they've never worked retail in their life.

I've worked on phones in customer care/sales a lot and people can be SO awful over the phone, in a way they'd never, ever be in real life. It's like trolling, except you have actual people shouting it into your ears.

 

[Caius]

I've worked on phones in customer care/sales a lot and people can be SO awful over the phone, in a way they'd never, ever be in real life. It's like trolling, except you have actual people shouting it into your ears.

Yeah this is a huge problem right here. A few of the places I've worked stress AHT, but if you're nice and actually want to help me solve your issue I'll completely ignore it in favor of making sure your stuff is 100% kosher before hanging up.