Gas Him Up And Watch Him Explode
I juggle a few jobs, and one of them is working at a service station and café. We sell fresh food, coffee, fuel, etc.
One day, at around 3:00 pm, a customer pulls up to the pumps and starts fueling up his car. Normal enough.
I’m cleaning behind the counter while watching people at the pumps when I notice this particular customer acting pretty strange. He’s swinging off the side of his car, skipping between the pumps, and just generally acting pretty goofy. Weird, but he’s not putting anyone in danger, so I go on with what I’m doing.
He comes in to pay for his fuel eventually, and he tries to pay with a gift card for an unrelated retailer. This is still fairly normal; people get their gift cards mixed up.
Me: “We cannot take the gift card of another retailer. Do you have another way you can pay for your fuel today?”
As we’re having this exchange, I notice that the customer is swaying when he’s standing still and his voice is slurred and mumbling.
The customer gets defensive straight away.
Customer: “This gift card is the only way I can pay! I have no money on my debit cards, and there’s no one else who can pay for me.”
Still not unusual; this happens with people all the time.
Store policy is that when this happens, we can issue an IOU and the customer has twenty-four hours to arrange payment, but this has to be cleared by the manager first — no exceptions.
I jump on the phone to the manager, explain the situation, and get clearance to issue an IOU. Perfect.
While I’m doing this, more cars have pulled up and more customers are coming into the store, so I open up the second till and start serving on that while I’m also filling out the forms for the customer and making coffees and serving food.
Once the customer notices that there are other people in the shop, he starts asking me why I can’t just accept his gift card, in a very loud voice. I go through with him again why we can’t accept the gift card.
Me: “It’s not for our store; it won’t work with our systems.”
He asks the same question again. I respond with the same answer and apologise for the inconvenience.
The customer chuckles to himself and asks the same question again. And again. And again.
He doesn’t want to give me his name or contact details until I have answered his question to his satisfaction. It is at this point that my politeness starts to slip and my frustration starts to show. In a harder tone than I’ve been using up to this point, I explain to him again why his gift card won’t work with us: because we are a completely different retailer than the one his gift card is for. We have no affiliation in any way.
Customer: “Fine, fine, I’ll give you my name.”
He tells me the name of a popular brand of alcohol.
This could be legit. It could actually be his name, but people have tried giving us fake names in the past so we can’t contact them to pay their IOU.
Me: *With a smile* “Thank you. Can I see your driver’s license to confirm those details? It’s store policy.”
The customer just starts yelling at me.
Customer: “I don’t have my license on me! And I don’t like your attitude! I’m the customer. I’m right, you’re wrong, and I will not stand for this disrespect! I’m done. I’m going. You can just cover the cost out of your wages.”
Any patience I might have had evaporates.
Me: “No, sir, that won’t be happening. If you leave this store, I will call the police.”
Customer: “WHAT?! How dare you?! How dare you speak to me like that?! No one disrespects me like that! You’re dead. I am going to wipe the floor with you.”
What I don’t realise is that my manager has been listening to this entire back-and-forth because I didn’t put the phone down properly when I called him earlier. He lives very close to the store and, unknown to me, is already on his way as he can hear the situation escalating.
Also relevant is that I’m average height, very slim, and look like a strong breeze could knock me over. My manager is 6’4″ and built like a brick s***house. He’s the friendliest guy but doesn’t tolerate bulls***. He pulls up on his motorcycle outside just as the customer is explaining to me how his mates will find me and “destroy me” for how I treated him.
Me: “Sir, clearly, you aren’t satisfied with my service today, so I’m going to pass this over to my manager so I can assist actual paying customers who aren’t threatening violence. If you feel I’ve been inappropriate, I encourage you to file a complaint with the manager.”
I hope I never forget the look on the customer’s face when he turns his gaze upon the towering figure of my manager calmly taking his helmet off and saying, with a look of steel in his eyes:
Manager: “I’ve been listening to the way you’ve been threatening my staff, and I’m here to sort this s*** out. You can fill this form out with me now and leave on the condition that you’ll be back before 9:00 am tomorrow morning to pay and then never come back here again, or you cannot and I will call the police. This isn’t up for debate. What is your choice?”
The customer almost fell over himself trying to apologise and decided to fill out the form properly and go.
After he left, almost hitting another car as he swerved out onto the road, we called the police anyway.
Not carrying a license and driving in an erratic manner while showing signs of intoxication during school pick-up time? Nobody wants to be sharing the road with someone like that.
Hopefully, we won’t be seeing him tomorrow morning after all.