Was this an SC or my fault?

[LdyJedi]

Oh man - *hugs* That woman was WAY out of line! If she hadn't been, oh, yelling at you, you wouldn't have been so flustered. But she'll never see it that way, because people like this have a 'center of the universe' thing going

[AFpheonix]

Does anyone know if there's a law in place that allows you to refuse service to abusive customers?

Because most of us work for private companies, and because these stores are located on private property, we do have the right to refuse service. Corporate tends to like to kiss ass more than us pawns do, but hey, bask in the knowledge that you can walk away, tell another associate to go deal with her, but to be sure to take their sweet time to get to her.

[MadMike]

Thanks all for the kind replies. The last time i mentioned my social phobia I got mocked badly.

You shouldn't have to worry about that here. Those of us in charge are pretty easygoing, but one thing we do not tolerate is people attacking our members. It's rarely a problem anyway, as most of the people here are really nice. We're like one big dysfunctional family.

Back on topic, I have my own story that sort of fits in along with yours, one where I made a mistake, but the customer was still completely out of line.

I was on the express lane one day. I had just finished up with one customer, and next in line was a man and a woman, with a few items on the belt. The guy handed me a refund slip for some chicken that apparently was bad when he bought it. I looked at it, and he impatiently and quite rudely told me, "Just give me the money, like it says on the slip!"

I was caught off guard, but I went about what needed done. I politely told him, "OK, let me get these rung up", and started to ring up the items. They way we did it was, if they had any kind of refund slip and they were buying groceries, we rang up the groceries and then deducted the amount of the refund from the total. If nothing was being purchased, then we simply opened the drawer and gave them the money.

At this point, the guy freaked out on me and said, "Oh this is just great! First the chicken is bad, now I have to wait!" And then he kicked the side of my counter -- hard! I must have jumped about a foot in the air, but quickly finished ringing up the items so I could get him out of there.

Unfortunately, I made an incorrect assumption that he and the woman in line were together, and that the items on the belt belonged to both of them. All he needed was the refund. So then I had to call a manager to void them off the order. Meanwhile, he's getting more and more pissed off, and I'm getting more and more nervous. The manager took care of it, but questioned why I had started ringing up the next customer's items like that. I wanted to explain myself, but I was so freaked out, I couldn't even speak.

[crewboy]

This was not your fault at all. I know the feeling because it's the same way at my store. Everybody is always in such a huge hurry, but they don't realize that forcing us to rush things usually makes the transaction take twice as long because we end up making mistakes.

[Sunsetsky]

I believe that if you are in a rush somewhere then you don't need to be making side trips unless they are absolutely necessary. When I worked at Burger King I received idiots like that all the time.

It wasn't your fault. As you told her....you're human and you make mistakes. If she was in such a rush to pick up her kids then she shouldn't have stopped.

[XCashier]

Welcome to CS, wblastyn!

Hello, first a little bit about me - I was diagnosed with depression and social phobia (due to bullying), and am currently being assessed for Asperger's Syndrome and possibly ADD.

Looks like quite a few of us are in the same boat. I've been there too, though not formally diagnosed with anything other than depression. Doesn't excuse SC behavior towards us, though.

Your customer was totally in the wrong. I wish these folks would realize that yelling at the help will never improve the situation.