The Worst Customer I Ever Had to Deal With...EVER!

[WHShit]

Ok, as some of you know, I am an American living in London. Since moving here, I have come across some discrimination from English people...mostly because Americans are seen as Bush-lovers and as loud, obnoxious spoiled assholes. I am sorry, but not all of us are like that...and I for one, HATE Bush...but....


I wrote this on the old site, but I thought I would write it again. Enjoy!


One day I was restocking the Filofax stand when one of the other employees walks past me with a customer. It was a lady who looked normal and about 40ish. The employee is the son of another employee who worked in Books. He came to me and said "This customer is looking for a book, have you seen my mum"? I said "I think she is down the Biography aisle" That was all I said, and this lady was not even my customer. So, the employee goes off to find his mom, but the customer stays behind and stares at me. Conversation goes as follows: please excuse the language, but I wanted to use it to make you all fully appreciate just how nasty this woman was to me.......

Me. "Can I help you"?
SC. "Can I help you"? (this is said in a mock American accent in a way that made me think she was making fun of how I spoke)
Me. "I'm sorry"?
SC. "Are you one of those Yanks"? (Yank is a term for American over here)
Me. "sorry"?
SC. "I saaaiiid, are you one of those fucking Yanks"?
Me. "I'm sorry, what did you say"?
SC. "You are a fucking Yank, aren't you"?
at this point, I am just staring at her in disbelief.
SC. "I hate fucking Yanks. Fucking piece of shit Yanks think they are so great, fucking peice of shit"
Me: "excuse me"....I leave to go get a manager or someone, and I was too shocked to say anything at this point.......I come back, cause I could not find a manager, with the intention of throwing her out of the store myself....I find her talking to the employees mom, Sadiqa.

Me."Sorry, Sadiqa, please do not help this lady, she has been insulting me and been very racist towards me"
SC: "Oh, it's the fucking piece of shit Yank"...and she continues talking to Sadiqa...
Me. "Please leave the store"
SC. "Oh, don't mind her, she is just a fucking Yank and I just hate them. The yare all pieces of shit"

Sadiqa looks at me like "what shall I do"?

Me. "Ok, leave the store"

SC. continues talking to Sadiqa and ignores me

Me. "I said get out of this store now or I will have to get someone to make you leave"

Now, she walks to go out of the store and I walk with her, the whole time she is telling me what a piece of shit I am and that she wishes I would die.

I was so shocked I had no idea what to say or do...I was not sad or depressed about this, just amazed that someone could hate me so much for being American!

I had a few more people insult me cause I was American (including my GP) but no one was as bad as this!

[XCashier]

I'm glad she got booted from the store. Nobody deserves to be called filthy names just because of nationality. Bigots suck.

[dendawg]

You should've called her a wanker in the loudest faux Cockney accent you could muster...I'm sure the look on her face would have been priceless.

(BTW, no offense to our British members. )

[Barefootgirl]

I would have simply thrown the "lady" (term used loosely) out of the shop. What precisely would Sadiqua have done if the same customer had called her a wog or a paki or some other delightful racist epithet? Would she have shrugged it off and continued to serve her?

To be honest, it sounds as if that customer was slightly mentally ill. There are certain nationalities I am not over-keen on, but I have sufficient control of myself not to start saying things like that (even if PERHAPS I am thinking it...). No sane person actually says things like that out loud.

[stormtreader]

It baffles me what kind of response people like this are looking for. What are they hoping to achieve with comments like this?

"Im sorry, youre right, ill go book the tickets to go back where i came from RIGHT NOW"

or possibly

"Im so sorry, have these vouchers to make up for your pain and suffering"

All theyve done is ruin the day of someone whos done absolutely nothing wrong

[Lace Neil Singer]

I've had the opposite problem with a loud mouthed American... I posted that elsewhere here, but nowhere near as bad as this woman! She definitely was a couple of cans short of a sixpack, and don't worry about it.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

"I may be a [censored]ing yank, but you madam haven't the manners God gave an incontentent yippy dog"

[Becks]

That woman...words can't begin to express my rage against her...

However, I'm also slightly concerned over the fact that Sadiqa seemed extremely passive throughout the whole thing.

[South Texan]

"Yes, madam. I am who I am, and you are what you are. I am afraid I cannot change either."

[Jester]

"See, it's not about color. Everyone gets hung up on skin color. It's not about black, white, brown, yellow, red. It's one race. The human race.

The rest are French."

[Lehk]

That woman...words can't begin to express my rage against her...

sure they can

try DIAF

or for slightly less serious rage KHITBASH

[Sunsetsky]

People like that piss me off. Just because I'm an American it doesn't mean that I'm a stupid red neck hick. You could've easily stereotyped back at her but you didn't which makes you the bigger person. I have to admire you for not killing her.

[Phone Jockey]

I get SO tired of ppl thinking ALL southerners (USA) are backwoods rednecks with a 2nd grade education. *sigh* A LOT of us are educated and speak even better grammar than the person screaming at or belittling us. *sigh* Rough day today.

[starla671]

Southern Stereotypes

I'm all too familiar with that! I live in Louisiana and it irks me to read negative things about the citizens of this state and the region. We're not all inbred, racist, pickup driving, redneck hicks!

On the International end, I once waited on a large French family who walked out without paying their bill. When the front desk(I worked at a hotel at the time)finally caught up with them to collect the money and asked about my tip, the reply was "We don't tip Americans!".

[staticradio]

psycho old bat

I guess the worst customer I had took everything I did out of context...from how she thought I treated the customer before her (we usually stop the conveyor since they are automatic...and will have a tendency to crush one's foodstuffs)...how long I took to process an order (most people think I'm the fastest clerk in the store)...et al.

unfortunately, I couldn't refuse her sale (like teens buying loads of either eggs or toilet paper...hmm, making omlets and producing mounds of...well... )...so I just let her go. It wasn't worth the hassle, and I believe she came through my line again some other time...calmly, I might add.

funniest thing tonight when someone tried paying their order at the self-checkout and sticking the $10 bill into the coupon dispenser. somebody's getting a bonus tonight!