Why so miserable? (customer service)

[Sergio Mendacious]

I have, plenty of times — used to go out for a lot of meals in London, and one of the lasses who went with us always had a meal twice as expensive as everyone else, and then tried to split it equally — I wasn't even drinking, and in rough financial times I'd have something very cheap, so there's no way I was paying for her bottle of wine and steak. Would never expect the restaurant to split it, though, that's just weird.

[Undefeated Steak]

Everybody has off-days or points during a day when they've got other stuff going on, but people who work in customer service and have the 'minimum wage, minimum effort' attitude can suck a fat one. Manners and a smile cost nothing. It's just showing a bit of professionalism at work.

 

Rude customers are usually just looking for a reaction out of the staff most of the time. It's always better to rise above it.

[Nexus]

I see both sides from this - I used to work in Tesco, HMV and Brantano, and prided myself in always being polite and friendly (but not OTT) towards customers, as well as doing my best to be professional.

 

The only thing that really pisses me off is something which happens in Banbury Waterstones almost every time I go in, and that's staff standing around chatting to each other, particularly behind the till, about what they did last night or whatever, whilst serving a customer. So I'll be stood at the till whilst they're scanning my books, and instead of looking at me or owt, they'll be chatting to their mates. I find that behaviour particularly rude - as far as I was always told, the customer is the number 1 priority.

 

In restaurants, I don't really give a toss about service as long as the wait staff aren't arses - I'll tip if the food is decent, or if the service is decent. I don't tend to complain unless there's something majorly wrong, like my chicken's not cooked in the middle or something. It's about being polite and reasonable - most customer service staff have probably had at least one cunty customer that day, there's no need to make it two. 

[Sergio Mendacious]

The situation with tipping in the states is mental - you can't withhold a tip, it's immoral - the tipped staff wage is about $2.50 in a lot of localities, you're really taking bread out of people's mouths if you don't tip them.

[Undefeated Steak]

The situation with tipping in the states is mental - you can't withhold a tip, it's immoral - the tipped staff wage is about $2.50 in a lot of localities, you're really taking bread out of people's mouths if you don't tip them.

 

I've always wondered about this. Is it just a case of it being so ingrained into American culture to tip that the restaurants/owners feel like they can get away with paying them so little? Are there any food places that pay a 'proper' wage? It'd be a bit daft for a restaurant owner to pay a student/part-time waitress $10 an hour if they're then gonna earn another $15 an hour in tips. Does it feel as though the owners are exploiting their staff so you feel a need to tip, or is just accepted as normal? By the sounds of your post, it's the former.

[Cousin Jim Bob]

American barman in my local was explaining to me one day how fucked it is if you do bar work in parts of the US. He is from Denver and the state of Colorado passed a law where by bar staff could be paid legally less than minimum wage. He was on $5 an hour, he says he would have been screwed if it wasent for tips. Its why people tip 15-20% in America. He said he hated serving none US people as they would either not tip or leave a crap tip.

[Sergio Mendacious]

I knew a lad that worked for a big gimmicky medieval banquet place in Nutley, NJ - he was in about $2.50 an hour, and although the law states that if your tips don't make it up to the federal minimum your employer is supposed to top it up, in practice that often goes by the wayside. So not only was the poor cunt prancing around dressed as a jester or some form of caitiff, but if he was serving a table of tightwads, he'd be potentially doing it for $30 a night

[SpursRiot2012]

Customers are dicks. In my working life, I've thankfully been able to avoid jobs where I'm dealing with the fucking public but when I have had that misfortune (telephone roles), I've found a huge number of them to be entitled pricks. Like when I worked selling upgrades to BT broadband customers. You'd call them up to say that they could now get fibre optic in their area (when that service was first rolling out) and they'd come out with "well, I'm not paying extra." Alright. Cool. Stay on your shitty broadband then. The best ones were the ones who thought shouting at me because I'd disturbed them watching Coronarion Street was a good idea. Those people got a call back scheduled for first thing Saturday morning.

[Otto Dem Wanz]

Hang on, are you saying you can't understand why people don't appreciate their routines being interrupted due to you forcing a product (that they don't want) on them?

 

The customer is not the twat in that situation, its you.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

I work in a retail clothing chain (Primark) and I get as equally frustrated with people I work with as I do with customers. We had a lad working as a temp last Christmas who got up everyones noses with his complete and utter lack of work ethic, he'd lean on the counter constantly despite being told not to, was caught a few times sitting down on a chair designated only for distressed customers or pregnant/injured staff which is a no no and you yell out in frustration in front of customers. Theres also a couple of girls I work with on a weekend who are ditzy as fuck, are constantly late off breaks and, in one girls case, stand with their head in the clouds while customers are waiting to be served

 

On the customer side, Its a constant source of frustration for us all when customers fill trollies/baskets to the brim with stuff then get to the tills and leave half of it, or they are too lazy to put stuff back and leave them in the wrong sections or on the floor or worse they knock displays over and walk away from them. They also have zero sense of timing as most leave coming to get served until dead on closing time, meaning till staff have to stay on an extra 10/15/20 minutes past closing to serve them, meaning the till supervisors are late to cash up the active tills. Foreign customers are the worst however, as they always try and score a cheaper deal on the items they buy even if they are already reduced, some never look at or converse with you and they always feign a lack of language understanding if they are short on paying for their items

[SpursRiot2012]

Hang on, are you saying you can't understand why people don't appreciate their routines being interrupted due to you forcing a product (that they don't want) on them?

 

The customer is not the twat in that situation, its you.

Not wanting the product is no skin off my nose. Shouting at me is unacceptable and will be met with swift vengeance in the form of an early morning wake up call.

[Briefcase]

I work in a retail clothing chain (Primark) and I get as equally frustrated with people I work with as I do with customers. We had a lad working as a temp last Christmas who got up everyones noses with his complete and utter lack of work ethic, he'd lean on the counter constantly despite being told not to, was caught a few times sitting down on a chair designated only for distressed customers or pregnant/injured staff which is a no no and you yell out in frustration in front of customers. Theres also a couple of girls I work with on a weekend who are ditzy as fuck, are constantly late off breaks and, in one girls case, stand with their head in the clouds while customers are waiting to be served

 

On the customer side, Its a constant source of frustration for us all when customers fill trollies/baskets to the brim with stuff then get to the tills and leave half of it, or they are too lazy to put stuff back and leave them in the wrong sections or on the floor or worse they knock displays over and walk away from them. They also have zero sense of timing as most leave coming to get served until dead on closing time, meaning till staff have to stay on an extra 10/15/20 minutes past closing to serve them, meaning the till supervisors are late to cash up the active tills. Foreign customers are the worst however, as they always try and score a cheaper deal on the items they buy even if they are already reduced, some never look at or converse with you and they always feign a lack of language understanding if they are short on paying for their items

 

I feel for you. I feel stressed just walking into Primark. I would hate to imagine what its like working there.

 

It just feels like utter carnage, everyone for themselves, no air conditioning so everyone is hot & bothered. 

 

I have respect for anyone who can work in that shop, I struggle to last five minutes , far too stressful.