Tuesday, May 19, 2009

the customer is NOT always right: part deux

Ahh the DC cherry blossom festival. It's famous, tons of tourists, TONS of business (which was wonderful for our store to meet budget). Only you would think it was a full moon the night before because the customers were CRAZY.

DC Cherry Blossom Festival: Incident One.

Three customers, daughter was bilingual and was translating for her mother and grandmother. They all wanted vanilla frappuccino's (according to the little girl). and this is what went down.

LG: Little Girl
AM: Angry Mom
G: grandma
V: me!

V: sweetie did you want yours to have coffee in it or did you want it without coffee so its more like a vanilla milkshake?

LG: ohhh yeah like that I dont like coffee!

V: but your mom and grandma, they still want the coffee right?

LG: yeah they like coffee.

V: ok sweetie that is going to be x.xx

LG: (tells her mom in spanish and hands me the money with a smile)

***

this girl is a cutie! she was so sweet and well mannered. Her mother on the other hand must have been in an extremely bad mood. because she grabbed the money out of my hand and did not mutter a thank you or anything. also she grabbed her daughters wrist and YANKED her across the room to be by the hand off plane. Now i dont want to get involved in parents and their form of parenting but I think that violence was a little uncalled for, but obviously an unfortunate side effect from her mothers pissy mood

I make the drinks as my other partner is sweeping under the counters for me, my back was killing me that day (cramps haha)

***

V: oooook one vanilla bean for you sweetie! And two cafe vanilla frappuccinos for you ladies so you can get a caffeine kick! (mind you I was perky while saying this, with a smile, even though I didnt want to be nice to this lady, but I like killing people with kindness.) Thank you ladies you enjoy your day and the parade. Its wonderful weather for it this weekend!

LG: THANK YOUUUUU! (goes over to the condiment bar to add vanilla powder, sugar... you know the things kids love)

AM: WAIT A MINUTE, WHY DOESNT MINE LOOK LIKE HERS?

V: you mean your daughters ma'am?

AM: YES I MEAN MY DAUGHTERS *rolls eyes* WHY DOES MY DRINK NOT LOOK LIKE HERS

V: because yours is made with coffee... did you not want coffee in yours? your little girl said she would rather have one without coffee so hers is a vanilla bean and yours is a cafe vanilla. it still uses the same vanilla bean powder, only difference is your drink is made with a base that has coffee in it.

AM: *another eye roll and insistance on raising voice at me like i am incompetent* YES I UNDERSTAND THAT BUT WHY DOESNT MINE LOOK LIKE HERS?

V: (at this point i am confused) because yours has coffee in it so it turns brown and hers is white because it does not have coffee in it...? ma'am im not understanding what the problem is?

AM: WHAT ARE YOU STUPID? IM NOT SAYING IT HAS TO BE THE SAME COLOR I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHY MINE LOOKS DIFFERENT.

V: well what is making them look different aside from the color?

AM: YOU KNOW WHAT FORGET IT. I DONT APPRECIATE YOUR ATTITUDE *storms out of the store*

***

G the grandma is slurping up her beverage like liquid crack. so no complaints form her thank goodness!

also at this point her daughter is still jazzing up her drink by the condiment bar so I do a slide and go over to clean up the little mess she made.

V: sweetie did your mom want the same thing you wanted.

LG: no she is just in a bad mood and she doesnt like americans. sorry.

V: thank you dear. would you like a cookie?

LG: yeah!

yeah yeah i know its "illegal" to give out freebies but this 6 or 7 year old at least justified that I was not out of my mind.

***

a half hour later AM returns storming in and almost hitting an elderly couple that was on their way out. no appologies to them of course because AM is entitled to use me as a punching bag. she must think it is in my job description...

AM: WHY DOES MY WHIPPED CREAM LOOK LIKE THIS?

V: because you argued with me for 10 minutes after your drink was made and you took it outside and it is now 30-45 minutes since you have been in this store, I assume you were outside in the heat. those circumstances will make the whipped cream go "flat" as we say because it is not fresh out of the chilled canister anymore.

AM: I DONT UNDERSTAND HOW YOU CAN MAKE SO MANY MISTAKES.

V: ma'am I can give you some more whipped cream. and im going to give you more in a cup. take it outside and i assure you the same thing is going to happen.

AM: I DONT LIKE YOUR ATTITUDE.

V: well ma'am I have tried understanding your needs today and you have continued to scream and raise your voice at me which has made myself and the people I work with uncomfortable. not to even mention the people sitting in the store. I am going to give you my managers number. you can talk to her about what you think is my attitude problem, but I will also be telling her, and i have witnesses... that you called me stupid and raised your voice at me every time you talked to me. so if this is all, I am now going to ask you to leave my store.

AM: *taken aback but leaves quietly*

***

point of the story? people think retail employees are sooooo beneath them that even if they are having a bad day I can be your own personal verbal assault punching bad. I am sorry that is not in my job description. and it is in my job description to protect my store from hostile customers. the police department knows me very well (in large part because of the two threats against my life all starbucks related) so if they get a phone call from me. they respond FAST.

Lesson to learn: respet people in retail? because if you piss of the person in charge, they can have you barred from the store.

respect works both ways. I do not have to tolerate curse words, or anything derogatory said to myself or the people I work with on my shifts. And I dont care if that means loosing...

"the most loyal customer to starbucks, because without me you would not have a paycheck."

that is my favorite line, and while working that day a former barista (one who put out a hit on my life) came back with another one of my favorite lines that I have never spoken but think all the time.

X. for ex barista exclaimed: "BITCH WE GET OUR PAYCHECKS WHETHER OR NOT YOU COME IN HERE WE ARE FUCKING STARBUCKS. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE HOWARD SHULTZ?"

This was in retaliation to another incident... which will be tomorrows topic!

4 comments:

  1. I've been there before! I've worked different types of retail since I was 15 and I've heard it all and I've been yelled at about it all! It's insane. People think that they can be rude to retail employees and just because she "hates americans"doesn't mean she can be rude to them. If she hates Americans, leave America and go bcack to her own country! Jesus!

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  2. Haha I love your customer encounters. I have quite a few for you. 2 of them include drink throwing! Can't wait to hear more from you!

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  3. I stumbled across this blog and boy it's great! 3 year partner here, SS and CM, and I work in an urban store in Milwaukee. These are great stories...I definitely have more than a few of my own for you! Can't wait for more posts!

    -137xxxx

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  4. Hey Jacob! Im so glad you found this blog. I hope you read a past post a wrote about becoming a guest poster. Im sure you have some great stories from Milwaukee!!

    xoxo
    valerie
    -133xxxx

    ReplyDelete