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So, I've lurked on this forum for quite awhile, but this is my first post, so bare with me.
I work at a movie theater in a smallish city in Canada. Most of the days I work turn out okay, no SCs to report. But when I do get SCs, they are rather bitchy and mean, making for a "fun" (
) shift. Here are some of the worst ones I've encountered.
No Nachos For You
We often close down the nachos and hot dogs early because we are severely short-staffed for closing on school nights (most of our staff have school in the morning, therefore they can't stay until 1 in the morning) and need to get as much cleaning done as possible during the slow hour of the night before the customers come to stuff their faces and watch movies. So it figures that I had this lady come in with her friend and the only thing she wanted was nachos. She said the thing she came here for was our nachos. Seriously, our nachos are good but they're not exactly world class. Anyways, so she bitched at me for a bit while I kept trying to explain that we're out of nachos for the night. Well, she wouldn't have it and wanted to talk to the manager. I, being on my wit's end and just wanting to get the hell out of there, finally snapped "Whatever" at her and stalked off to call the manager. I know, I know, I did wrong there, but wait 'til you hear what she told the manager. She basically twisted the story around so she came out looking like an angel (
) and I came out looking like the big bad devil (
). She said that she came in all nice and understanding about the no-nachos situation and just "politely" asked to speak to a manager about it, and I just snapped at her without provocation. Yeah, right...
Arrgghh!!!
So I was fairly new and I had a coworker standing beside me helping me out and these two teenage girls came up to my till. Well, I thought I was doing fairly good but apparently, "fairly good" just wasn't enough for these girls. Right from the start they were making fun of everything I did. They started by rudely "whispering" to each other (really, they weren't even trying to be quiet) about me not asking them if they wanted to upsize their combo (we are supposed to ask, but keep in mind that I was fairly new and wasn't used to serving quite yet) and that my coworker was doing a better job than me. Then they started commenting on my nametag and how it didn't even have my favorite movie on it. OK, it's not a rule we have to put our favorite movie on it, and maybe I just hadn't got around to doing it yet? Sheesh...so anyways, I was getting fairly flustered because I don't do well with people making fun of me, especially so blatantly, so when I went to give them their change, I dropped it all over the counter.
Then, they basically laughed in my face and left. 
B]OMG[/B]
The new Angelina Jolie movie Changeling opened up that night, and as I'm sure no one expected (well I sure didn't), it did fairly well. It sold out its first show. The night was going pretty good, until Changeling mysteriously stopped close to the end of the movie. We had a lot of agitated people come out and ask what was going on, and all we could tell them was that the manager and projectionist were working on the problem. I was working on something in the concession when my parents stopped by after their movie and were just talking to me and they were about to leave when this man came up to me and started demanding to know when his movie would turn on. I told him that we had someone working on it upstairs and that a manager would probably come and talk to the theater in a few minutes. Well, that wasn't good enough for him. He said he wanted to know what was going on "right now." I, having not been trained on booth yet (but I am now. Yay I don't have to deal with customers in booth!), did not have the slightest clue why the movie turned off and all I could say was I'd go and phone a manager and find out what was going on. The man finally left (and so did my 'rents, although they were mad at that guy) and I went to call upstairs. Well, I didn't have to, 'cause my boyfriend the supervisor and another senior staff member were going to hand out courtesy passes to the theater and explain what was going on. When I looked back, the mean man was staring at me from the other end of the concession...creepy.
Queen Bitch
This is the worst SC I have ever faced. Prepare yourselves. So I was working matinee shift and I was off at 6. I was feeling pretty good about my day and was just excited to get off so I could go hang out with my boyfriend. Lo and behold, shortly before 5, I had to deal with my worst customer EVER. I happily called my next customer over. A whole family walked over, a mom and dad and who knows how many kids. They had coupons for free tickets and popcorn combos and wanted to go to The new Mummy movie (oh why? that movie was horrible). I noticed that they had an awful lot of kid's coupons so I went to prep the kid's trays. But no, apparently they were missing their movie so they wanted me to just fill up small bags with popcorn for the kid's combos. I explained to them that we did inventory count every night and it would not be good if we were short a bunch of small bags and over on kid's trays. The mother (who I have dubbed Queen Bitch) did not care and started snapping at me and a coworker who was helping me prep the kid's trays. He understandably went and hid in the back (I would've too, she was scary) and I offered to go call a manager for her. I didn't know what else to do. So I went and called (my boyfriend was on duty at the time as relief manager) and he said that he would be right down as soon as he was done with whatever he was doing. So I went over to the till and started pretending I was busy ( I had already gotten the adult's popcorn and drinks ready, and had already taken payment so I was at a loss as to what to do). Queen Bitch was just insulting my manager and had just finished saying, and I quote, "He must be the slowest manager in the world", when my boyfriend walked up. He looked hurt and I felt so bad for getting him into that. He then started explaining why we couldn't substitute small bags for kid's trays, but they, or rather SHE just wasn't getting it. I think he had to try to explain to them several times, before he had it and tried to cancel on the computer so he could start over with the order. But I had to taken a gift card as payment, and it wasn't letting him void the order, so he told me to go get the real manager, as she had just arrived. I called upstairs and she came down pretty quickly. After having a talk with her, the manager caved and filled small bags for her. 
I get Queen Bitch as a customer from time to time, but always without her kids. She actually acts pretty decent, although the first time I served her after that incident, she wouldn't look me in the eye and her husband had to order for her, but she did utter a nice "thank you."
*sigh* And there you have it. I've probably dealt with more SCs, but those are the worst ones. If I think of anymore, I will post them. Adios, and thanks for taking the time to read my crappy first post.
I work at a movie theater in a smallish city in Canada. Most of the days I work turn out okay, no SCs to report. But when I do get SCs, they are rather bitchy and mean, making for a "fun" (
) shift. Here are some of the worst ones I've encountered. No Nachos For You
We often close down the nachos and hot dogs early because we are severely short-staffed for closing on school nights (most of our staff have school in the morning, therefore they can't stay until 1 in the morning) and need to get as much cleaning done as possible during the slow hour of the night before the customers come to stuff their faces and watch movies. So it figures that I had this lady come in with her friend and the only thing she wanted was nachos. She said the thing she came here for was our nachos. Seriously, our nachos are good but they're not exactly world class. Anyways, so she bitched at me for a bit while I kept trying to explain that we're out of nachos for the night. Well, she wouldn't have it and wanted to talk to the manager. I, being on my wit's end and just wanting to get the hell out of there, finally snapped "Whatever" at her and stalked off to call the manager. I know, I know, I did wrong there, but wait 'til you hear what she told the manager. She basically twisted the story around so she came out looking like an angel (
) and I came out looking like the big bad devil (). She said that she came in all nice and understanding about the no-nachos situation and just "politely" asked to speak to a manager about it, and I just snapped at her without provocation. Yeah, right... Arrgghh!!!
So I was fairly new and I had a coworker standing beside me helping me out and these two teenage girls came up to my till. Well, I thought I was doing fairly good but apparently, "fairly good" just wasn't enough for these girls. Right from the start they were making fun of everything I did. They started by rudely "whispering" to each other (really, they weren't even trying to be quiet) about me not asking them if they wanted to upsize their combo (we are supposed to ask, but keep in mind that I was fairly new and wasn't used to serving quite yet) and that my coworker was doing a better job than me. Then they started commenting on my nametag and how it didn't even have my favorite movie on it. OK, it's not a rule we have to put our favorite movie on it, and maybe I just hadn't got around to doing it yet? Sheesh...so anyways, I was getting fairly flustered because I don't do well with people making fun of me, especially so blatantly, so when I went to give them their change, I dropped it all over the counter.
Then, they basically laughed in my face and left. B]OMG[/B]
The new Angelina Jolie movie Changeling opened up that night, and as I'm sure no one expected (well I sure didn't), it did fairly well. It sold out its first show. The night was going pretty good, until Changeling mysteriously stopped close to the end of the movie. We had a lot of agitated people come out and ask what was going on, and all we could tell them was that the manager and projectionist were working on the problem. I was working on something in the concession when my parents stopped by after their movie and were just talking to me and they were about to leave when this man came up to me and started demanding to know when his movie would turn on. I told him that we had someone working on it upstairs and that a manager would probably come and talk to the theater in a few minutes. Well, that wasn't good enough for him. He said he wanted to know what was going on "right now." I, having not been trained on booth yet (but I am now. Yay I don't have to deal with customers in booth!), did not have the slightest clue why the movie turned off and all I could say was I'd go and phone a manager and find out what was going on. The man finally left (and so did my 'rents, although they were mad at that guy) and I went to call upstairs. Well, I didn't have to, 'cause my boyfriend the supervisor and another senior staff member were going to hand out courtesy passes to the theater and explain what was going on. When I looked back, the mean man was staring at me from the other end of the concession...creepy.
Queen Bitch
This is the worst SC I have ever faced. Prepare yourselves. So I was working matinee shift and I was off at 6. I was feeling pretty good about my day and was just excited to get off so I could go hang out with my boyfriend. Lo and behold, shortly before 5, I had to deal with my worst customer EVER. I happily called my next customer over. A whole family walked over, a mom and dad and who knows how many kids. They had coupons for free tickets and popcorn combos and wanted to go to The new Mummy movie (oh why? that movie was horrible). I noticed that they had an awful lot of kid's coupons so I went to prep the kid's trays. But no, apparently they were missing their movie so they wanted me to just fill up small bags with popcorn for the kid's combos. I explained to them that we did inventory count every night and it would not be good if we were short a bunch of small bags and over on kid's trays. The mother (who I have dubbed Queen Bitch) did not care and started snapping at me and a coworker who was helping me prep the kid's trays. He understandably went and hid in the back (I would've too, she was scary) and I offered to go call a manager for her. I didn't know what else to do. So I went and called (my boyfriend was on duty at the time as relief manager) and he said that he would be right down as soon as he was done with whatever he was doing. So I went over to the till and started pretending I was busy ( I had already gotten the adult's popcorn and drinks ready, and had already taken payment so I was at a loss as to what to do
). Queen Bitch was just insulting my manager and had just finished saying, and I quote, "He must be the slowest manager in the world", when my boyfriend walked up. He looked hurt and I felt so bad for getting him into that. He then started explaining why we couldn't substitute small bags for kid's trays, but they, or rather SHE just wasn't getting it. I think he had to try to explain to them several times, before he had it and tried to cancel on the computer so he could start over with the order. But I had to taken a gift card as payment, and it wasn't letting him void the order, so he told me to go get the real manager, as she had just arrived. I called upstairs and she came down pretty quickly. After having a talk with her, the manager caved and filled small bags for her. I get Queen Bitch as a customer from time to time, but always without her kids. She actually acts pretty decent, although the first time I served her after that incident, she wouldn't look me in the eye and her husband had to order for her, but she did utter a nice "thank you."
*sigh* And there you have it. I've probably dealt with more SCs, but those are the worst ones. If I think of anymore, I will post them. Adios, and thanks for taking the time to read my crappy first post.
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