Dealing With Some Customers Is A Laughing Matter
Our store has a customer who comes in like every couple of months purely just to spread her own brand of misery. I don’t always realize it’s her and greet her, and she just holds her hand up and snaps:
Customer: “No talking! I don’t want you talking to me!”
Good enough for me! So, the rest of us just leave her alone. One time, there were no other customers in the store apart from Ms. Misery-Guts. Since she didn’t want us talking to her, we were talking among ourselves.
Customer: “I said no talking!”
Me: “We weren’t talking to you, ma’am.”
Customer: “No talking among yourselves, either! You’re all at work! You shouldn’t sound like you’re having fun!”
Me: “Ma’am, we are happy to respect your wishes and only talk to you when you ask us to, but you can’t control who else we talk to.”
Customer: “If it bothers the customer, then you need to stop doing it!”
Me: “No, ma’am. We’re not behaving in an antisocial or disrespectful manner; we are simply talking. We do not need to stop doing it.
Customer: “Then I want to talk to your manager!”
Manager: “That’s me, ma’am. I’m one of those people you don’t want talking, so I can’t help you.
She gave us all an unhappy “hmph!” and left the store to go darken someone else’s day.
Since that day, every time she came in, it was immediately obvious that she hated it when the rest of us looked like we were not miserable at work, so we made sure to overplay how much of a good time we were having.
Manager: “Why couldn’t the jalapeno practice archery? Because it didn’t habanero.”
Us: *Laughs.*
Customer: “What did I tell you about work?! This is not a place to have fun! Your work ethic is deplorable!”
Manager: “Ma’am, if existing in public is such an inconvenience for you, have you considered online shopping?”
She half gasps, half glares, and storms out again. Our manager just shrugs:
Manager: “I swear, she’s like that “quit having fun!” meme.”
Thanks to that awesome manager, we didn’t always have to pretend to be having a good time at work.
