You Won’t End Up In The Soup
(I work at a coffee franchise. The particular location is nestled into the corner of a gas station, and as such, we have no area for customers to sit and eat their food. It’s almost nine pm, and a middle-aged man walks up to my register, and I’m the only senior employee in the store at the moment.)
Customer: “I’ll take a large [coffee] — two milk, two sugar — your soup of the day, and a BLT.”
Me: “Okay, will that be everything for today?”
Customer: “Can I get the food in those china dishes you guys have?”
Me: “I’m sorry, sir, we don’t carry china dishes at this location. If you’d like, I can direct you to [Other Location nearby with a dining area, owned by the same person as my location].”
Customer: “Bulls***! I know you guys have those d*** dishes; I got my food in them just yesterday!”
Me: “I’m not sure what you want me to do, sir; we don’t have any dishes at this location. We have no tables, as we’re in a gas station, so there is no reason for us to store them here.”
Customer: “I see plenty of f****** reason! I want my food in them! I want to speak to your supervisor.”
Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but she is only in from six until three. However, I’m currently acting supervisor as the senior employee right now.”
Customer: “Well, f*** you, then! I’m going to [Place I told him he should go to]!” *storms out*
New Hire: “Well, that was interesting. Are you worried he’s going to complain?”
Me: “Nah, the camera’s are recording everything, and [Manager] knows me better than that. There’s no way she’s going to take the word of some dude who wants to eat soup on the floor of a gas station over me.”
(As I predicted, my manager called me in during a shift next week to bring up the complaint from the man. She had gone over the tape and heard the whole exchange. Apparently he had gone to the other location and threw a tantrum because, as it had passed nine pm, they had tossed their soup because were going to close in a half-hour. She told me I did all I could, and even tried to make sure the owner still got a sale.)
Question of the Week
Have you ever served a bad customer who got what they deserved?
