The manners police

[doormatgrrl]

Okay, so in my 5 year career in retail I have had some pretty sucky customers, but this one really blew me away.

I was working at the service desk when I called the next person over. I greeted the woman, and in return she gave me a medusa like icy cold glare...
okay..

The woman told me she wanted to send a moneygram, so I asked her if she was sending to a person or company.
"What!?" she snaps at me.
I repeat the question.
"A person!" she yells, as if I should have read her mind.

I then, ask her for the information that I need to send the transaction. This really sets her off.
"You know, you need to stop barking out orders at me and you need to say please and thank you! You are the rudest peson ever! I want a manager now!!" she screams.

My manager just so happened to be standing next to me. I indicate to the now snarling rabid woman that this was my manager.
"You're the manager?" she says condescendingly to her, "You're too young to be a manager. I want an older manager!"

Of course, my manager informs her that she is the only manager on duty. The woman becomes disgusted and slides over to my co-worker and has her finish her moneygram. She says not one rude word to her.

At this point I am shaken up by how crazy this woman is. I was perfectly nice to her.
She then informs me that she is calling home office on me.
I then left to compose myself, and returned when I thought she was gone.
No such luck.

I witnessed her glaring at me. If looks could kill, I would be dead.
She was also ranting about my "rudeness" to several co-workers. What a bitch!

My co-worker, who had processed her moneygram informed me that the lady had also called home office on her.
According to my co-worker you must say please and thank you after every other word or she goes crazy.

Can you say, "psycho"?

*MOD EDIT - Added line breaks and some punctuation for easier reading.

[Chanlin]

Some people were just brought up differently, but to say please and thank you all the time does break up the natural flow of a conversation.

Using your story as an example, and some people just can't be pleased....


You: Next please. *wait on customer to approach* Hi, how may I help you today?

Customer: I'd like to send a money gram. (I wonder if she said please)

You: And is this for a person, or a business?

Customer: A person. (My mom would say please here, I wouldn't just doesn't flow right to me)

You: May I have their name and *insert other relavant info here* please. (This is where please is more appropriate since you are asking for info someone would not otherwise willingly just give to you)

......

In any case the woman was also being rude in lecturing you about "good manners." As long as your tone was polite the please and thank you are not always necessary.

And lastly Welcome to CS.com mind rule #1. Don't feed Irv he can get mean sometimes. There are cookies.... *glances over and spies EvilQueen eating the cookies* ahem... there were cookies in the corner. You may be able to persuade EQ to share.. good luck with that. And remember, we like to think of ourselves as a slightly (maybe more than) dysfunctional family so don't be scared if something/someone weirds you out cause its probably status quo around here.

[karma_gypsy]

So, what is it about your co-worker that made the lady more tolerable to her?

I mean, age shouldn't matter ... you're all trained to do the same job with the same efficiency and we all can screw up just as much (young or old).



Sounds like the SC needs to grow up and stop throwing tissy fits ...

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

So, what is it about your co-worker that made the lady more tolerable to her?

She probably realized she wasn't getting anyone more likely to cater to her hissy fit, so she decided to behave a bit better.

And according to Miss Manners, it's rude to tell others they are being rude.

[daisychain]

Some customers really just can't be pleased! I once had someone complain to my manager that I was rude and unhelpful because I told her she'd have to wait in line when the cash registers were busy and had a queue!

[valhar2000]

How can you expect people to be polite to you when you are disgustingly rude to them? Worthless pathetic people.

[edible_hat]

Some people were just brought up differently

I didn't believe that people are brought up to be douchebags... until I met my future inlaws. They probably consider my future mother in law a bad parent because my fiance has manners.

[Chanlin]

I didn't believe that people are brought up to be douchebags... until I met my future inlaws. They probably consider my future mother in law a bad parent because my fiance has manners.

I meant that some people were brought up in such a fashion that it is proper to say please and thank you during any transaction in a store in which there is interaction with employees. Its more of an old fashioned thing. My Grand Parents are prime examples of this. Except they don't lecture on people being rude

[mattm04]

We had a SC who complained that one of our Deli employees was begin rude. They were tryign to order a cheese tray. The Clerk was apparently supposed to say(according to the SC)..

C: And what is the first kind of cheese you want please?
SC: X
C: And what is the second kind of cheese you want please?
SC: Y

If you guessed that the SC was on their phone the whole time you would be right.

[MadMike]

And according to Miss Manners, it's rude to tell others they are being rude.

Not to mention ironic, at least in this case.

[RetailSlave]

A couple of years ago I was up at Service Desk with a coworker who was also working Service Desk, but she was on her break. We were talking when the customer came up and asked for a form to fill out for lottery. I handed it to her and CW and I continued talking while the woman started filling out the form...the coworker had to go to the customer side of the counter for something and all of a sudden the customer said, "That is very rude!" we didn't know what she was talking about, then she told us that it was very rude to talk over a customer. According to her "that is like inviting someone to your house and then ignore them and talk to everyone else!"
CW and I were pretty stunned...most people who are filling out the lottery slips don't want you talking to them while they are doing it, they want to concentrate on the matter at hand. After she told us that she moved waay over to the other end of the counter to finish filling out the slip and glared at us, then when she brought it back to be run on the machine she continued to lecture us on our bad manners. We apologized but she just kept telling us how rude we were for not including her in the conversation. After she left CW asked me if I thought she was being rude, I told her that she was one of the most polite people we had working there and not to worry about it...the customer was probably just in a bad mood.

[JuniorMintz]

"You're the manager?" she says condescendingly to her, "You're too young to be a manager. I want an older manager!"

Sure thing, come back in 8 years and you can have one.

What a bitca!

[PepperElf]

irony....
being snarky (bitchy) and yelling at someone... and then complaining about their manners....

yes psycho is right