A Nice Hot Bowl Of Attitude Soup  

(I work in a sandwich shop. I’m in the back, stocking back up after a pretty tough evening rush. One of my employees comes back and looks at me.)

Me: “You okay?”

Employee: “This lady out here in giving me some attitude…”

Me: “All right, what’s wrong?”

Employee: “She said her soup ‘stinks.’ It smells like it usually does; I could smell it when I poured it for her. So, I asked her if she wanted a different soup, and she said no, so I asked her if she wanted a refund and she got an attitude with me.”

Me: “That’s weird. Did she not want the refund?”

Employee: “No, she does.”

Me: “Okay, well, that will be fine. I’ll be out in a second.”

(My employee walks back out. I follow suit in about a half a minute to find the woman laying into my employee at the register.)

Customer: “No, he rung me up because you were busy. You were all so busy that I didn’t get the service I deserve.”

Employee: “I’m sorry, ma’am. I just was asking which register you got rung up on.”

Customer: “Yeah, it was this one. You, girl, you need to watch your mouth! You need to learn when to hold your tongue; you shouldn’t have such an attitude!”

(My employee is not known for being rude — quite the contrary, actually — and while the customer is verbally attacking her, she isn’t saying anything. I try to interrupt the customer but she won’t settle down. I finally get a word in.)

Me: “Ma’am, do you have a receipt?”

Customer: “No, I didn’t get a receipt because it was so busy! No one ever gave me one!”

Me: “Did you pay with cash?”

Customer: “Yeah! I did!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, the register doesn’t automatically print out receipts for cash transactions, but it’s not a problem.”

(I nudge the employee over so I can get onto the register. The customer resumes lashing out at her.)

Customer: “You, miss, have a horrible attitude; you have horrible service! You need to learn to watch yourself!”

(My employee has not said a word, much less moved.)

Customer: “That’s right, you go ahead and fume! Go ahead and fume! Just go ahead and fume! You better get your act together!”

Me: *quietly* “[Employee], you can go in the back.”

(My employee exits to the back. I start a refund for the customer. I’m just as irate as my employee to the point that I’m shaking.)

Me: “Ma’am, was it just the soup that you needed the refund for?”

Customer: “Yeah, it stinks!”

Me: “Sorry about that, ma’am.”

(The customer continues to rant and rave as I process the refund. I can only do what I can to ignore her as I’m beyond furious at her treatment of my employee.)

Customer: “Can I go online or something? I have to let them know how bad your store’s service is! This was unacceptable; this was just horrible!”

Me: “You sure can, ma’am. We have a website and you’re free to leave comments.”

(I give her the address.)

Customer: “I’ll definitely be doing that; that girl was horrible! Way too much attitude!”

Me: “Okay. Thank you, ma’am.”

(I go into the back.)

Me: “[Employee], that lady was crazy. She’s going to leave a comment on the website, but don’t even worry. I’m going to take care of you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Employee: “She kept saying I had an attitude. I didn’t even say anything rude to her!”

Me: “I completely believe you.”