Needs More AC To Deal With The Heated Anger

(A customer, already irate, approaches me with his wife in tow. He is waving a receipt in front of me.)

Customer: “I paid you guys a lot of money to fix my AC and now it’s broken again! I demand compensation. This is outrageous! I paid 700€ for this and you can’t even do your work properly. You guys are scamming us!”

Me: “I’m very sorry your AC is broken again, sir. I will have someone check that.”

Customer: “Yeah, you’d better be fixing that s*** right now and I won’t be giving you a single Euro for that!”

Me: “Of course. Would you mind if I take a look at that receipt you brought with you?”

(He hands it to me, and as I take a look at it and a look at our files, I instantly know that this is going to get even worse.)

Me: “Um, sir, this is not for repair work. This is for the recommended annual inspection for your AC, and it’s from last June, and it was only 120€. If you had someone repair your AC, it sure wasn’t us.”

Customer: “What? Are you calling me a liar?”

Me: “No, sir. But if my coworker hadn’t done his job properly, you would have probably noticed during the summer months of last year.”

Customer: *starts to get verbally abusive, practically screaming*

(The good thing is that we have a great manager who is always very supportive, and tells us that no one has the right to treat us like that. I decide not to take his s*** anymore. I’m already a tall woman, but I make sure to stretch as much as I can to look even taller.)

Me: *in my most determined voice* “Firstly, if you want to talk to me, you are going to do so in a respectful manner, and secondly, if you want our help with your AC, you will sit down over there and wait for one of my coworkers to schedule an appointment for you. If you’re not okay with that, please leave.”

(His wife had the most shocked facial expression I had ever seen. Apparently, no one had ever had the guts to talk back to her husband. I turned around and walked away because I had other customers waiting, but I was later told that they did, in fact, sit down without speaking another word, wait for my coworker, and treat him with respect.)