Deaf To Reason, Part 11

(One of my coworkers is this young woman in her early 20s. She’s deaf and usually wears a hearing aid, but she can lip read and sign just fine. Her job mostly consists of unpacking and loading merchandise on the shelves so it’s rare that she has to deal with customers, and most customers seemed to understand that… except for this one time.)

Me: “Hello there. How may I help you toda—”

(The customer ignores me and directly walks towards my coworker.)

Customer: “Hey, you! Come over here and help me find [product]!”

(My coworker has her back to the customer so she doesn’t notice her yelling.)

Me: “Ma’am, I’ll be more than willing to assist you if you need anything; there’s no need to bother the other workers here. Plus, she’s—”

Customer: “No! I want her to help me; she’s lazing around the store doing absolutely nothing while you work your a**es off! These types of people need to learn a lesson! HEY! YOU!”

(She cuts me off and angrily steps towards my coworker and blocks her way.)

Customer: “I’ve been talking to you for a while now. How dare you ignore me, you b****?!” *pauses, seemingly noticing something in her ear* “You were on the phone this whole time?! I cannot f****** believe this! I am a customer and I deserve to be treated with respect!”

Me: “Ma’am—”

(I can’t believe my eyes. The crazy customer starts attempting to yank the hearing aid out of my poor coworker’s ear while the customer continues to scream, demanding proper service.)

Me: *while pushing her away* “MA’AM! FOR GOODNESS SAKE, SHE’S DEAF! Leave the store now or I’ll call the police to kick you out personally!”

Customer: *red-faced, realizing what she has done* “WELL, I DIDN’T KNOW THAT SHE WAS DEAF!”

Me: “Does that give you an excuse to violently yank something out of someone’s ear?”

(The customer left the store quickly and I contacted a few numbers to report about the case and have this woman banned from our store. My poor coworker, fortunately, didn’t have any injuries, but she got switched to work at a different department later on.)

Related:
Deaf To Reason, Part 10
Deaf To Reason, Part 9
Deaf To Reason, Part 8