Over familiar customers

[Gurndigarn]

My personal pet peeve is "kiddo." I've been told I look young, but dang it, I'm twenty-five!!

How about "Yew young whippersnapper"?

[Posture Moll]

I really don't mind pet names as long as the tone of the person using them isn't pervy or condescending. I even find it charming at times.

I did get pretty annoyed with this one woman who insisted on frequently addressing me as 'girly' whenever she wanted to get my attention. I, of course, alternately ignored or kept giving her the politely puzzled "Oh? You were referring to me?" look.

[workerbee222]

oooopps...I sometimes call people as "sweetie," but I'll stop now.

It really is a sign that I like someone, and that I'm in a good mood. I don't use it on folks I've never met before. I've never used it condescendingly. I once worked with someone who always called everyone by some endearment or other - I just assumed she wasn't good at remembering names. It never came across badly, perhaps because it was how she addressed everyone?

I'm over fifty, and from the north.

[Mighty Girl]

Mighty, I feel your pain. I hate hate HATE being called Liz, but tolerate it from family. Anyone else? Hell no.

And have you noticed how OFFENDED they get when you correct them (as I always do). Elizabeth isn't really my name, btw, just used it as an example. My name is Jennifer, and I can't count the number of times someone who was so not worthy, shortened it to either Jen, Jenny or Jenna. I would always very calmly look at them and say "My name is JENNIFER". Every time, I'd get this insincere "apology" and they would huff away. About half the time, they'd tell a manager that I was rude.

I tolerate Jen from family and friends, and I let my dad and grandpa call me Jenny, everyone else can go pound salt.

[ContraCorriente]

Once, this lady called me "chicky-girl." It was.......odd.

[BusBus]

I don't like being called "ma'am". I'm only 26 yrs old, I'm too young for "ma'am"! I do make a point of trying not to call women (older or younger than me) ma'am, either. Maybe that word sounds better if you have a southern accent or somethin', but it sounds yucky when it's said with a west coast accent.

[Imogene]

GAH I HATE THAT. Granted, I'm male, so I don't get as many of THOSE comments, but I get plenty of "buddy", "guy", "bro", etc etc.. Ugh.

The store owner at McD's called everyone 'Buddy', with our regulation nametags and everything. He kept doing it to me, and I was sorely tempted one day to ask him if he'd been in my pants, and knew for a fact what my sex was, and if he had, where I could go to make a sexual harassment suit.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

IMHO, you should just let folks call you "ma'am" if they want. It's a gesture of respect and courtesy, something that is in a grevious shortage. (hey, if it weren't, we wouldn't need to have a site like this, right?)

[MMATM]

I don't mind if I get "dear" or even "son" from an old man or woman, but if you're calling me "son you'd better appear at least reasonably old enough. Mainly middleaged ladies abuse this, and it's gotten to the point that unless you're like 80 years old and showing it, I don't approve.
One that really gets me though, is "kid." It's got the same demeaning "you are younger and therefore stupider than me" connotation as "son" but without the kinship that "son" suggests. What's worse is when A) I get called "kid" by someone who is VERY OBVIOUSLY not out of their 20's, or worse, out of their teens. Also B) when the person whom I have just served is talking to the cashier about me and calling me "kid."
Hellooo?? You are definitely still in high school. Do I look like someone you'd babysit? No? Then stop calling me "kid"!
Personally, I always call every guy that comes into the store "sir" and girls "miss" or "ma'am" because I don't know their names and "hey, you!" or "customer!" would be slightly tacky.

[stormtreader]

Around here the common word is "Bab" which I actually dont mind at all.
The one that gets me is "lady" as in "the nice lady". Im not a lady, im still a girl....arent I?

[tintaglia]

hm I only really only got annoyed with one wee old woman, she came in and shouted 'Which one of you gorgeous young ladies is going to help me' and the rest of the transaction continued punctuated with 'right my love', and 'ok sweetheart' ect, I think she got every pet name she could into one sale (and every other time she came in)

I get more annoyed when they get physical, you know, the arm around the waist, a hand on the behind (again its the wee old women), and occaisionally they thump us on the arm for emphasis (they can hurt somtimes too )

[Becks]

My mother does that to waitresses all the time, and it embarresses me so much. It's like, they have nametags, if you have to call them something, call them by their names!

But then there are those of us who get creeped out/annoyed by customers calling us by name, especially in a condescending tone.

Can anyone win?

[zzapp the witch]

You can't win, even if you are being, or trying to be bona fide respectful, everyone's got a personal preference/peeve, and until we all learn to read minds, someone's going to have something to bitch about.

My personal peeve: Anyone turning Jennifer into Jenny. A Jenny is a female donkey, and I'm hardly a jackass. Hell, when I worked at the big blue W, I just had them put Vince on my nametag, cause I was just out of the Army, and there were a lot of other Jennifers. People STILL managed to turn Vince into something like Vinny.....or anything else that sounded Italian.

[AirHostess]

I don't mind being called 'dear.' All crew seem to call each other 'my love,' not sure why! I do like being called miss or madam when I'm out and about though

[Scottya21]

personally I think that if you're a little creative, you can talk to people without having to explicitly refer to them at all. I've perfected it over the years since lots of people in the area know me through my parents, or my work at a camp, or whatever, and I have no recollection of who they are. But yeah.