Boyfriend Swore At Customer!

[TelephoneAngel]

Disclaimer - while I think it is great the SC got what he deserved, I'm really not sure that boyfriend handled this situation right.

Background, part of boyfriends tasks at work are to take people across the river on a huge floating raft.He loves dealing with the customers, many of whom are regular, he checks how their families are, he has even helped them when they had car problems, and goes out of his way to make all the customers feel welcome to the company premises.

Yesterday night he came in furious, apparently a customer had come onto the raft then started shouting at him because some other customer had got onto the raft and crossed the river ahead of him (making him wait five minutes). Boyfriend explained that when he is working the raft he cannot see the riverbank and cannot know who was first in line so if a customer steps aboard he has to assume that this was the customer who was first in line.

The customer started yelling that boyfriend had no idea about customer service.This upset him greatly and when the customer got to the other side of the river, he got hold of him physically and shouted in his face something along the lines of

"Fuck off you bastard and don't come here again when I'm here or we will settle this with our fists".



Boyfriend is ALWAYS polite to customers, even SC'S.This guy must have really pushed his buttons.

Boyfriend then went to his boss and reported what he had done, and his boss told him the customer hadalready called by phone and demanded that boyfriend be sacked.

However, there was another customer there who said to boyfriend and boss, that the customer had NOT been the first customer and therefore he was arguing about nothing.Boyfriend's boss told him not to worry about the incident.

[Legal Eagle]

Definatly not the right way to deal with the issue, he escalated the situation from annoyance to possible criminal charges.

I am amazed that he wasn't written up at least, for attacking a customer. Tell him he is extremely lucky to still be employed rather than facing charges.

[Whiskey]

Is your boyfriend Bruce Lee?

[TelephoneAngel]

Definatly not the right way to deal with the issue, he escalated the situation from annoyance to possible criminal charges.

I am amazed that he wasn't written up at least, for attacking a customer. Tell him he is extremely lucky to still be employed rather than facing charges.

You are quite right, as I said, I didn't think he dealt with it correctly, and I told him my self when he told me, that I thought he was lucky not to be fired on the spot.

I have talked through with him, what will he do if he sees this customer again? I think he should just say politely that the customer is banned and if he has a problem he should see boyfriend's boss.

[Dips]

Tell him he is extremely lucky to still be employed rather than facing charges.

I think the OP already knows that, but I'm really glad that didn't happen.

Based on the story it looks like the customer was trying to provoke a fight. Some people are very good at button-pushing and provoking others into doing stuff they shouldn't do. Then they delight in getting them in trouble for it.

Recognizing he made a big mistake and going right to the boss was the best thing he could have done. And thankfully the witness, who must have sussed out that the SC was a button-pusher, came forward.

If your bf is normally a calm person like you say, I'm sure he'll handle the next button-pusher better.

Hint: Nothing pisses off a button-pusher more than staying firm but extremely calm.