FML # 37- Getting yelled at by customers

I work at a bookstore. A ****ty bookstore, i'll admit. We are closing in jan in fact. Today a lady with her kids came in. her little toddler started pulling books off the shelves, and running around, while she was on her cell phone.

I had been there for eight hours, working hard (for a change. I was actually working). I was exhausted, and was pissed about the new mess i had to clean up. I went up to the pile and said "ma'm!". implying that she should restrain her child, or at least be attentive.

my coworker comes along to pick up the books, letting me get back to closing down one of the registers. The mother comes storming up and rips into me.

"i've been coming here for years, blah blah blah, the service is terrible, blah blah blah, you are all incompetent, blah blah blah."

she went on to describe how the staff and i are all idiots, dont know anything about books and are never helpful.

i'm a full time student, with a part time job at a bookstore thats closing. i read two books a week.

i was so mad, i was shaking for twenty min (adrenaline i'm guessing). I rarely get angry, but i was livid today.

I came home and had a home brew. RDWAHAHB. After just one i am feeling a lot better. The point of staying angry has washed away. I feel serine and am anticipating my new batch recently bottled with excitement.

The moral of this rant, is that beer, and homebrew specifically cure almost any angst and frustration.

It is not uncommon for people to lash out when they are in the wrong.
After working in sales for several years, I had found that all you can to is be the better person and let them yell/*****/complain.

I had a long term customer(20+ years) blow up at me because his check that he wrote was denied by a telecheck machine, I was called names that I had never heard.

Take comfort in the fact that you are not that person!

It can always be worse.

The lady needs to control her kids in a store. End of story.

Next time she comes in, strike up a conversation near the Parenting books.

Some days I miss retail. When I remember stories like this (which have happened to me), my desk job looks better and better.

you could also push a large shelf of books ontop of the toddler, then say, little jimmy, i told you not to climb on the shelf!

avibayer said:

"i've been coming here for years, blah blah blah, the service is terrible, blah blah blah, you are all incompetent, blah blah blah."

Click to expand...

I don't understand people.

Just lob a hot cup of coffee in her general direction and run like hell. I guarantee you'll feel better.

i worked ten years dealing with ****heads of the top notch variety. i once took a call from a woman who had driven the car we rented to her off the road in the snow. tow truck was on the way, but she decided to stand out side of the vehicle in her highheels and wait. she had frost bite, and it was my problem/fault. i as i laughed at her on the phone, i asked why she didn't get back in the car and run the heat. ****ing morons make the world go round.

I'm gonna wait one more month or so, then rip into customers like that. theyre closing my store in january, so i figure a month before closing is ok to start telling customers what i really think about them, their attitude, and the ****ty books they ask me for.

Sure, and then there goes your reference for another job. Think what you want but don't stoop to their level. No real good can come from it.

I take a lot of solace in the fact that I"m much smarter than all those people that go off like that. I have to deal with customers who get mad on a somewhat regular basis, and 99% of the time it's something that they've done to screw it up. I usually let them know they are an idiot, in a subtle way of course

I spent my life in the retail part. It's tough to deal with customers. But all in all, I have WAY more good ones then stoopid ones. After 22 years in dealing with the public, I can say that there is nothing left that I haven't seen.

I used to work in a restaurant and got stuff like this all of the time. My only real solution was being overly nice. Odds are they don't think they're being a fool, and letting them know won't help either of you.

Sometimes its best to just stand there and take it.

Good job by showing some restraint and not just handing her bunch of self help/parenting books. I would have been tempted...

After the fact I agree with the sentiment, that i did the right thing by not reacting negatively. But now i'm disappointed with myself for getting so angry. It shows that i was real tired and grumpy from a long day. But the point is, you are all right. It was her that lost the cool, and i should have let it roll right off, rather than be swept up by it.

On a lighter note, earlier that morning an elderly woman told me i looked like balki from perfect strangers. yikes. I this job wasnt ending in two months i would be forced to quit.

avibayer said:

"i've been coming here for years, blah blah blah, the service is terrible, blah blah blah, you are all incompetent, blah blah blah."

she went on to describe how the staff and i are all idiots, dont know anything about books and are never helpful.

Click to expand...

First, what do all of those staements say about her ? The store, and employees, suck and are incometent, but she keeps coming back ?!?!?

Stories like this are the exact reason that I only lasted one year in retail sales. I did high-end stereo and home theater sales, dealing with snobby/snotty CEO's, doctors, lawyers, trust-fund kids, etc. More than once, I had to hand off a customer to another salesman, for fear that I would punch the arrogant SOB.

One of the best things I ever did was get a job as a telephone bill collector after many years of working retail. The bill collector job was ****ty in its own way, but it was FREAKIN AWESOME to be EXPECTED to yell at "customers" all day long. I'm really glad it only lasted 9 months, but that gig really helped me purge all the pent up customer-hate I had in my heart.

I actually went straight from that job into working for a charity, so that change was traumatic too, lol.