An Ice-Cold Attitude

(I work for a place that serves coffee. I just clocked into my shift and am feeling pretty good, just in a go-with-the-flow, peppy mood. I’ve got my smile on and I’m just gonna do my best. A customer comes in and asks for a medium coffee and a cup of water. The following goes down after he asks for water.)

Me: “Sure thing! Would you like ice in that?”

Customer: “No ice, please.”

Me: “All righty. Just to let you know, the water will be room temperature, then. Is that okay?”

(We just say that because it’s true and some people usually expect the water to just immediately be cold.)

Customer: “What? Is the water going to be boiling?”

Me: “No. Just room temperature.”

Customer: “A little bit of ice, then.”

(I charge him for his coffee and tell him the price.)

Customer: “WHAT?! ARE YOU CHARGING ME FOR WATER?!”

Me: “Oh, no. We don’t charge for water here. That’s just the price of coffee.”

(He tells me how he went to buy coffee last month and that he paid a cheaper price. I listen and I know the whole pricing thing. Unfortunately, I know that I can’t control the price. I do inquire if it was from this location. He tells me that it was from another location. I apologize and say that prices do change from place to place. I ring him up and he remarks how he could have gone to the convenience store to get a cheaper coffee.)

Me: “You could have!”

(I’m just trying to agree with him because what else was I supposed to say? I think at this point he is fed up with my so-said “attitude” because the next ensues:)

Customer: “I think I will. Give me my return.”

Me: “Sure thing!”

(I start the return process.)

Customer: “What’s your name?”

Me: “[My Name]. Let me see if I can do your refund via card, seeing that you paid with a card.” *still keeping a happy attitude even though I’m dying inside a little*

Customer: “[My Name Pronounced Incorrectly]. Can. I. Swipe. Now?”

Me: *corrects him with the right pronunciation* “Go ahead, sir.”

(It doesn’t work, so I will have to refund him via cash.)

Customer: “[My Name Pronounced Incorrectly]. Can. I. Swipe. Now?”

(He had already swiped so I’m not sure why he is asking again.)

Me: “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll have to refund you with cash.”

(He agrees with it and as I’m giving him the money…)

Customer: “I don’t come to places like this often because of your attitude.”

Me: “Oh, okay. I’m sorry about that.” *gives him his money back* “Have a good one!” *still a smile and just allowing that to come at me*

(We still served him water. I ended up crying not because I felt as though I’d done something wrong, but because I was confused by it all. My coworker told me to go take a break. However, I didn’t want to because I felt like some weird sense of pride. If I left, I felt like it was allowing this guy to win. But I guess me tearing up a bit was me losing, huh? Funny thing: we saw him sitting at one of the tables with who I assumed to be his son. Said son wasn’t at the cash register so probably was wandering around. When the man left, he felt some need to point at me to his son. Was he trying to be the evil monkey from “Family Guy”? Maybe?)