sexist/racist/Homophobic customers

[Cole]

First off I'm a girl, this is shouldn't be a big deal right, I mean this is 2006, not 1950. Which is what I thought until yesterday.
I was working over in the furniture department, when I see a couple of customers (a man and a woman) who looked like they need help. Not to mention I even herd the man complain how no one worked this store, and I was in plain sight of them up the aisle. So I walked over and nicely said to them
Me : "Hi, my name is Cole, is there anything I help you today?"
Male customer: No you can't help me, you don't know anything about this stuff, you're a girl, get me a guy
Me: I'm sure I can help, what's your questions?

Anyway the guy finally told me his problem and was amazed that I could help him (even though I was a girl).

Has anyone else had to deal with sexist/racist/Homophobic customers?

[Ezrockspants]

i deal with ageist customers all the time...

I'm 19 and a supervisor, but i have also worked at the store for almost 4 & 1/2 years. My main supervisor (the evil mole-bag that she is) is 45 but has only been at the store not even two years.

And yet all the time i get customers asking to speak to a supervisor, and when i offer to help (it even says supervisor on my badge) they say, "No not you. I want to speak to the older lady, the one in charge."
Most of the time, she has to ask me how to help them anyway!

It was kind of fun when she was on holidays though. Customers would come up and ask to speak to her and when i told them she wasn't there they would say:
'Oh. I'll come back tomorrow then, when she is here.'

I got real satisfaction from telling them that in fact, she was on holidays for three weeks. Their faces would fall, and i would laugh on the inside.

[protege]

I got called the "N word" one night by...get this...a black woman at Hechinger's. If you know that I'm white, it's kinda funny.

About an hour before closing, I got sent outside to water the various plants we had on display. Watering plants sucked, but at least you got out of loading cars or taking heat from a certain AM. It wasn't too busy, so I thought that I'd get done quickly. That was before we got slammed around 9-9:30

There I was, trying to water the damn plants, as well as stay out of the way of the forklifts/customers/cars/etc., not to mention keep the idiots from tripping on the damn hose. Keep in mind that the plants were on both sides of the street--some were in front of the store, under the canopy--the rest were sitting on racks in the first row of the parking lot.

No sooner I crossed the street, when I saw this black woman in a wheelchair coming up the sidewalk. Since I didn't want her to get stuck on the hose, I tried to move it. Rather than wait, she kept coming at me...and got stuck on it. I tried to apologize, but she called me a "stupid N-word."

Sorry folks, but I don't take that crap from anyone...especially some idiot who can't even get their slurs right--if you're going to use racist terms, make sure you use the right ones!

Since I was leaving soon anyway for school, I lost it. I simply told her that I don't appreciate that crap, and if she did it again, I'd push her crippled ass into traffic. The look on her face was great

[blas]

I was called "stupid" "bimbo" "blondie" and "dumbass" almost on a daily basis by a clientel of customers, who, with all of them put together, their total IQ would be about 60, and that's pushing it.

I was called an idiot and assumed I was a dumbass broad by a clientel of customers who probably didn't even make it past 6th grade.

It didn't hurt my feelings. They were all gum underneath my shoes.

[Phone Jockey]

This isn't work-related, but in college, I was asked for money by a homeless man. I advised him that I didn't have any. (college student, remember?) He called me a "honkey." The funniest thing was that he was white too.

[dragonflygrrl]

Male customer: No you can't help me, you don't know anything about this stuff, you're a girl, get me a guy
...
Anyway the guy finally told me his problem and was amazed that I could help him (even though I was a girl).

OMG, this happens to me too. I'm a girl (duh) and my coworker who has been with us for about a month and a half is a guy. Every once in a while, some guy will come into the store and want to talk about internet stuff, or PDA's, or even just cellphones, and when I ask if I can help they will say something like "this is pretty complicated, I'll just ask him." I just smile, sit back, and wait for my coworker to ask me to help. Then I make sure to give the SC every possible technical detail, rapid fire, as though he is also an expert on the subject, and is sure to understand. I even make tech jokes, which of course they pretend to get. Sometimes they even buy something, but really that's secondary to rubbing in their faces the fact that girls can be good at techie stuff too.

[Comp_geek]

I always get the women customers that just HAVE TO make comments about women's superiority to men.
For example:
"this computer has a dual core processor, you can think of sort of like having two brains, it will let you multitask better

c:"Oh so you mean like a woman"

or
me:"Sorry it's out of service right now"
C:"oh thats cos a man built it"

seriously now, i can take a joke but these people don't say it joking.

[dragonflygrrl]

I always get the women customers that just HAVE TO make comments about women's superiority to men.
...
seriously now, i can take a joke but these people don't say it joking.

I know a lot of women in technical fields that make comments like that in an effort to sort of make up for years of being told they don't know what they are doing because they have ovaries. I can understand the temptation, but I personally have never understood what difference gender could possibly make in a person's understanding of technical issues. As far as I have ever noticed, the computers, cell phones, mixing boards and effects processors I work with every day have yet to even notice I'm a woman, and I get pretty close to that board!

So I guess you are pretty good with computers, for a guy.

[Comp_geek]

I've got tons of friends who are techies. My friend Rachel works for a TV station and she does stuff I haven't even heard of. I've got no problem with women in technical positions, but I am getting sick of the SCs "I'm woman, hear me put down men" attitude.

So I guess you are pretty good with computers, for a guy.

he he thanks

[MystyGlyttyr]

Sexism is especially funny when it comes from other women. (I'm a girl, in case anyone still had doubts )

I had just started my first day in a grocery store deli, and it was all girls who worked there. There was me, at 21, another girl my age, a woman who was about 25 and pregnant, and the rest were in their late 40's to 60's. At some point, the other girl my age was pulling one of those 10-gallon white buckets, full of grease, across the floor, and I came over to offer to get it for her, when the manager, about in her 50's, stopped me. "Oh, don't try that, honey, it's awful heavy...we'll call one of the men over here to get it."

Ya'll know me. I looked at her for a minute, looked at the bucket, reached down with one hand, and hauled it up, holding it and looking back at her. "Where do you want this?"

Talk about They treated me like Superwoman from then until I quit, always giving me the "heavy" stuff to take off. I didn't mind it, though, since it got me away from dealing with the crappy customers and their $3 bologna sandwiches...

[LostMyMind]

Ya'll know me. I looked at her for a minute, looked at the bucket, reached down with one hand, and hauled it up, holding it and looking back at her. "Where do you want this?"

I get a variation of that sometimes. I'm quite large, I don't know where people get the idea that fat=weak. There was a huge box of computer parts (company was moving to a new building) probably 200 pounds. All my co-workers were saying the box was too heavy and we need to get a "cart" for it. I laughed at them and picked it up and carried it to the truck.

[AFpheonix]

Never really get sexists, mostly because up until now, we were never able to hold onto male technicians (too much estrogen in the pharmacy, I suppose). Racists, however:
Several old poops that disliked asians (about half of our staff are of various asian descent). and wouldn't be waited on by one, and who subsequently got banned. One of those old turds complained to corporate and threatened a suit, and corporate made us continue to help him. He's gone into hospice since, so I kind of hope he keeled.
One jackass who phoned and I answered, then asked if there was anyone in here that spoke english. Uh.....I'm white. I replied that we are all perfectly fluent here. (There's one tech with a cambodian accent, but she's pretty fluent in English). This one I let slide a little since he's seriously wierd, and although he's a young man, he's on stuff that Alzheimer's patients take.
Another jackass that was spoiling for a fight, and refused to try to understand our Russian intern, who really doesn't have a thick accent, either. That was her first intro to SCism.
The crazy ass lady who was in the drive thru who looked in the window, across the pharmacy and into the main part of the store where there was a promo sign in Spanish. Oh my god. She called back for several days complaining that it should be taken down, that this is AMERICA and signs should be in ENGLISH, and that she couldn't possibly shop somewhere where we have signs in SPANISH (Does she take offense at the products that are also marketed in Canada that have French on them?), and that she's going to call Lars Larson on us.... We never changed the sign until it that promo was done, and she still shops with us and is a general pain in the ass. Sigh....

[chainedbarista]

i get that, too; it used to happen almost daily in the service. i often had to lift large dogs to move after they'd been pre-anesthesized, making them heavier and awkward to move. most times, i could manage by myself, but if the owner was still there (and was male) they'd often tell me, 'oh, let me get that.'

nah, i've got a grip on this one, thanks! *carries german shepard to the table* the look on their faces was priceless.

[Primer]

I know a lot of women in technical fields that make comments like that in an effort to sort of make up for years of being told they don't know what they are doing because they have ovaries.

Several years ago, one of my students (I teach math at a local college) related to me how her high school math teacher said she didn't need to learn math "because she has breasts."

Sorry, but I do not let genetics get in the way of learning math! You don't have to like it, but you do have to learn it!

[dragonflygrrl]

Several years ago, one of my students (I teach math at a local college) related to me how her high school math teacher said she didn't need to learn math "because she has breasts."

Sorry, but I do not let genetics get in the way of learning math! You don't have to like it, but you do have to learn it!

I do like math...and I also have breasts...hmmm...am I a freak? LOL

I had a Circuit Analysis teacher once who said to me, "You really don't look like someone that would be this good at electronics." It was kind of insulting to think that he would assume that someone that looks like me would be bad at something. And that was an attempt on his part to pay a compliment!