customer service: it gets worse

[bcbm]

9EJw6oGSft0

[Ele'ill]

haha, no, it's way worse than this video

[bcbm]

http://notalwaysright.com/

[Ace High]

The bald dude:

"And uh....she didn't buy anything. She just left the store."

Funniest moment.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Oh sweet lord, the amount of truth in this video would make Jesus Christ himself feel inadequate.

It is so very hard to describe to people, who have never had the experience, the sheer soul-demolishing hell that is working in the service industry.

It's not just the shitty pay, the irregular schedule, the lack of labor representation, or the constant dehumanization by your supervisors...

...It's how you are forced, day after day, to see the absolute worst that humanity can conjure up out of the primordial slime. The constant scamming, lying, bullying, child-abusing and shaming would drive a much weaker person into suicide.

If I had my way, I would require every preppy uppercrust trust-fund chode who goes to college be required, by law, to have to spend two years in the service industry part-time. Because really, fuck joining the army! It's customer service that really gets your shit in gear.

[Ele'ill]

I usually retaliate and management is afraid of me. They literally draw straws when having to present an issue and union thugs everywhere are jealous of my ultra sashay

[The Douche]

My whole life, since I was 16 and a half-ish, has been spent in the service industry, except for whatever time I spent on military duty.


Working at the tattoo shop was nice, because often the customer was wrong, and it was not only ok to tell them, but necessary, and also because rude people would literally be told to "shut the fuck up" or "get the fuck out", and if they hesitated, would be surrounded by multiple dudes insisting that it was time to leave.

But even there, you still had to put up with so. much. bullshit. from customers. I dunno what it is about being a customer that makes motherfuckers feels so goddamned entitled.

Now I'm back in retail hell.

"This shirt is $20?!?!?!?! You can get 10 shirts at Wal-Mart for that price!!!!"
GO TO WALMART ASSHOLE I DONT CARE I DIDNT SLAVE OVER THE SHIRT FOR HOURS ITS NOT MY MASTERPIECE I DONT OWN THE COMPANY IT DOESNT MATTER IF YOU BUY THE SHIRT OR NOT I STILL GET PAID SO JUST BUY IT OR DONT AND JUST BALL IT UP REAL TIGHTLY AND THEN STICK IT IN THE MIDDLE OF A PILE OF OTHER SHIRTS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORE OH AND THANKS FOR LEAVING YOUR HALFFULL COFFEE CUP ON THE RACK OF JEANS

[Rugged Collectivist]

Fucking coupons. At least once every three orders I have coupon issues because some lazy motherfucker didn't have the time to read it. I had someone give me a "coupon" that had "not a redeemable coupon" printed on it in large letters. Granted, It's fucked up that the company prints out ads along with your coupons, but that isn't my fault. And then they get all indignant when I have to tell them no. News flash, stores don't give away free shit without a catch. You're more than twice my age you should know this by now. A lot of people are cool about it but they're the minority.

[The Douche]

*heh heh* didn't see a price on here, must be free *heh heh*

I HOPE YOU FUCKING BURN TO DEATH IN A CAR ACCIDENT ON THE WAY HOME YOU WALKING TALKING PIECE OF DOGSHIT I HOPE JESUS CHRIST REALLY IS THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIGHT AND THAT YOU REJECT HIM AND ARE FOREVER CONDEMNED TO BURN IN HELL FOR ALL FUCKING ETERNITY

[Ele'ill]

workin hard or hardly workin

[Jimmie Higgins]

The Douche should post in all-caps more often! It's like he's narrating the screams made by my soul while I'm at work. It's cathartic.

[Devrim]

Fortunately I haven't spent that much time at working dealing with the public, the five or so years I did as a postman when I was young was enough to convince me that the public are weird.

Sometimes when drunk I tell people stories about it. The dog woman always gets a laugh.

Devrim

[The Douche]

One time I was helping a customer, they wanted an item that was in a locked glass case in my store, so I had the case open and was showing them their options, a Kanye West song came on our stereo which prompted the following conversation:

Her: What is this music?
Me: Huh? Oh, its Kanye West.
Her: No, I mean, why is it playing?
Me: Oh, I dunno, everybody likes Kanye, I guess.
Her: No, I mean, why are you playing "nigger music" in the punk store?
Me: *puts item back in case and closes case while laughing in disbelief*
Her: What? Why are you putting that back? I want that.
Me: Sorry, you can't talk like that, not in my store, not on my planet, please leave.
Her: WHAT?! I'm a customer! You have to give me what I wanted!
Me: You're not getting anything from here, obviously, if you want, please call corporate and complain, I'm sure that will go over really well for you.

[Devrim]

The Dog Woman

In the 80s I was working as a postman in South London. In England most people have letter boxes that are in their doors. One of the problems that you can have with this is the dog that tries to bite your fingers as you deliver the letters. Now most people who have dogs that might do this have some sort of cage to stop the dog doing this stopping the dog from both biting the postman and chewing up their mail. Some don't but you get to know which houses they are and are just a little bit careful with it.

Anyway as well as having one dog that did this on my walk, I had a mad old woman who used to sit beneath the letter box and then when you tried to put the letters through the letter box, she would bite them out of your hand, and then start barking at you. This was no problem for me and the other guy, Tony, who delivered to this house, as we both knew what she did, and were careful about it.

It became a problem when the old dear started to complain. It was that she complained once or twice. When people complained once or twice the governor just ignored it. Letters get put through the wrong door all the time, and one of the few things that postmen and management were in agreement on is that the sort of person who will write a letter of complaint and then travel to the delivery rather than just popping next door and putting the letter through their door is a wanker.

These complaints are different though. The old woman is complaining every day. What is she complaining about? Well, her letters have teeth marks in them, of course. The post office IB (investigative bureau) gets called in. We were a bit freaked out by all this. The IB have more powers than the UK police. For example they can raid your house without a search warrant. So we get taken off and interviewed by the IB. It was all mini tape recorders, which in those days was sort of cutting edge James Bond style technology. We were a bit worried by this, but we hadn't done anything wrong and she was well mental, so we thought it would all be ok.

A few days pass and we have heard nothing, so we decide to go and ask the governor what is going on with it all, and as soon as Tony has put the question to him, he just falls about laughing. He must have literally laughed for about thirty seconds and then every time, he started to speak, he started to laugh again.

When he finally managed to get a few words out, he explained that we were off the hook, as the IB had gone round to her house, and she like lots of lonely old people used to do in those days had just invited them in and given them some tea and cake without asking who they were even. Then they explained what they were doing, and that they were from the Post Office, and she bit one of them so badly that he required seven stitches.

Funny people the public, I was glad to go back to laying bricks after five years of that sort of stuff.

Devrim

[Devrim]

So you are walking up the street, and you hear some screeching voice calling out 'Mr Postman', and you look round and you can't see anyone. You continue on your way. And you hear it again, the same thing happens. After her third call, you realise that there is somebody hanging out of an upstairs window, 'Have you got any more letters for 26b?' She asks. 'Yes, I have about half a dozen more for you, but I thought I'd just taken them up to the top of the street to give them a bit of exercise before I bring them back down'. 'Oh that's good' she replies 'I have been expecting something'. 'Ok love, I will just take them for a walk around the park and to give them some fresh air before I bring them back down'.

Devrim

[Jimmie Higgins]

One time I was helping a customer, they wanted an item that was in a locked glass case in my store, so I had the case open and was showing them their options, a Kanye West song came on our stereo which prompted the following conversation

Reminds me of when I worked in a liquor store shortly after 9/11. People were always coming in and making jokes about arabs running stores. This one white guy in particular came in and said, "Hey there, buddy - where's your turbin?" I just stared back, but he thought it was because I didn't get his joke so he tried to explain it to me. "...you know, like those guys... you know because they always own all these places. Mooslums. You know with the turbins... they own all the liquor stores."

I said, "Nah, the owner is white" and then leaned in all conspiratorial, "those... guys... own... everything".

He just backed out, totally confused why the white cleark didn't laugh at his hilarious (and highly original:rolleyes:) racist jokes.

[The Douche]

Reminds me of when I worked in a liquor store shortly after 9/11. People were always coming in and making jokes about arabs running stores. This one white guy in particular came in and said, "Hey there, buddy - where's your turbin?" I just stared back, but he thought it was because I didn't get his joke so he tried to explain it to me. "...you know, like those guys... you know because they always own all these places. Mooslums. You know with the turbins... they own all the liquor stores."

I said, "Nah, the owner is white" and then leaned in all conspiratorial, "those... guys... own... everything".

He just backed out, totally confused why the white cleark didn't laugh at his hilarious (and highly original:rolleyes:) racist jokes.

Yesterday I was ringing up this white man in his early-mid 50s, seemed pretty upper-middle class, probably owned a mildly successful local business, probably drives last year's lexus, wife/girlfriend had some obvious cosmetic surgery, you know the type.

Well some hood as fuck black dude with tattoos all over his face was also near the counter, looking at stuff, and he noticed the white man's watch, so he made a comment about how nice it was. The white man looked directly into my eyes with a sense of fear and desperation that I found so funny, that all I could do was start laughing. The black dude was wearing the exact same watch as the white guy, and was trying to you know, make a friendly observation or whatever.

When the white man finally left after being able to muster up some sort of grunt/stutter/"yeah, they're nice", the black dude turned to me and started laughing hysterically, and asked how often I see scared white people, I told him "everytime I see a black man interact with them".

[Philosophos]

Once I was covering as a cafe waiter for a friend of mine that had an accident. So there is this guy that orders a frappe (one of the easiest coffees around) and he asks for some weird shit like cream!!! (on a freaking frappe), black sugar of the company 'ASFHJKFHJDHF' and he wanted the water to be not too cold and not too hot (this freaking coffee is COLD... COOOOOLD).
So I told him that I can bring the coffee as a little ballerina spinning and stuff (tottally joking at the time) and he actually showed some interest ON THIS and he wanted me to bring the coffee like THIS.
I have to say: I had a lot of saliva to share at that day....


I dunno what it is about being a customer that makes motherfuckers feels so goddamned entitled.

Customers are getting fucked in their own jobs so propably they have a sort temper too. They also see all around them rich people doing whatever the hell they want because they have money, so whenever they have the possibility of spending some money without dying from hunger they will fucking use it to feel that they are better than what they are.... It's one of the most ironic things we have in this society and it makes me wanna puke/take my eyes off.

Of course there is always this beloved, pure and inoscent stupidity that nobody can really understand, but it always 'makes' sense (unless you have a freaking common sense and baloons in your head).

[Red Banana]

Background information: this takes place at about 5:00pm on a weekday in a grocery store (pretty quiet, not a lot of people) and well over half of the workers and customers at my store are black. Also as a side note, Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield is playing softly in the background.

So about a week ago this white lady comes into my line with her kid in one of those shopping carts made to look like a racecar. He was playing with action figures of some sort and after about 15 seconds into the order he starts screaming "die nigger, die!". Everyone hears it, everyone is watching, it's dead silent, you could almost hear Unwritten skip a beat. The mother starts pleading with him to stop, saying "no, don't say that word, don't say that here" (my emphasis) but you know how kids are, you tell them not to do something and that makes them want to do it ten times more. So he just keeps on saying it over and over really fast and loud.

Now my manager, who is black, saw this whole thing go down and I was just looking at her like "what do I do?" and with a weathered look on her face just said "keep scanning", then went into the office (can't afford to lose even a single sale I guess). So I finish her stuff, no words exchanged, Unwritten still playing in the background, but then we get to the part where I have to ask "credit or debit?", she says credit and then as I'm giving her the receipt she says to me "I'm sorry, I don't know where he got that from" etc. etc.

I figured I had at least a little leeway to be snappy with this lady so I took the chance and said "Well you said don't say that here, which kind of implies that it's ok for him to say it elsewhere. Kids don't just pick that up from nowhere." You could tell she was offended but literally the whole store was just staring at her so she was ready to get out.

Who knows, he might have picked it up from friends or a redneck dad or something, but I don't think I was out of line in assuming a toddler shouting racial slurs and wishing death upon minorities so comfortably had that kind of behaviour condoned by his parents at home.

[Sasha]

My short stint in retail just sucked, my binman days are where the good story's are, finding naked corpses in a room only me and 1 other dude had a key too (he didn't kill her either it turned out, she suicided by diving down the garbage chute), guns getting pulled on you by assholes with roadrage, tossing binbags back on peoples balconies when they took almost your head off...

[Ele'ill]

when I was on break once I had a disabled guy pull a gun on me from his car but then threaten to set his german shepherd on people in the parking lot and in the store neither him or his dog looked like they really wanted to though

There has always been the serial pants pooper that once or twice a month comes into stores and shits on the floor, the toilet seat, the ceiling, tries to clean up a little bit by smearing it all over but then leaves their turd coated underpants right on the floor because those would be way too hard to throw out with the shitty paper towels.

[Ravachol]

This (http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell) aptly describes the utter, cold, caringless chasm that is both web design and customer-driven software development.

[The Douche]

Background information: this takes place at about 5:00pm on a weekday in a grocery store (pretty quiet, not a lot of people) and well over half of the workers and customers at my store are black. Also as a side note, Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield is playing softly in the background.

So about a week ago this white lady comes into my line with her kid in one of those shopping carts made to look like a racecar. He was playing with action figures of some sort and after about 15 seconds into the order he starts screaming "die nigger, die!". Everyone hears it, everyone is watching, it's dead silent, you could almost hear Unwritten skip a beat. The mother starts pleading with him to stop, saying "no, don't say that word, don't say that here" (my emphasis) but you know how kids are, you tell them not to do something and that makes them want to do it ten times more. So he just keeps on saying it over and over really fast and loud.

Now my manager, who is black, saw this whole thing go down and I was just looking at her like "what do I do?" and with a weathered look on her face just said "keep scanning", then went into the office (can't afford to lose even a single sale I guess). So I finish her stuff, no words exchanged, Unwritten still playing in the background, but then we get to the part where I have to ask "credit or debit?", she says credit and then as I'm giving her the receipt she says to me "I'm sorry, I don't know where he got that from" etc. etc.

I figured I had at least a little leeway to be snappy with this lady so I took the chance and said "Well you said don't say that here, which kind of implies that it's ok for him to say it elsewhere. Kids don't just pick that up from nowhere." You could tell she was offended but literally the whole store was just staring at her so she was ready to get out.

Who knows, he might have picked it up from friends or a redneck dad or something, but I don't think I was out of line in assuming a toddler shouting racial slurs and wishing death upon minorities so comfortably had that kind of behaviour condoned by his parents at home.

Hampden?

[Red Banana]

Brooklyn, but I just work there. I actually live just outside the city.

[The Douche]

Brooklyn, but I just work there. I actually live just outside the city.

I was in a unit with a dude from Brooklyn for a while. He was some yo-boy/wanna be hood white boy, he would always be like "eyyy son, I'm from Brooklyn.............Maryland", fucking lol.

[Ele'ill]

Natasha Bedingfield is the better of the music that plays. Our music system among other things has stopped working several times.

[Red Banana]

Oooh yeah, there are tons of them. I don't know what it was like in other areas, but around here that has been the dominant trend or subculture or whatever among (white) youth for at least the past decade. It is beyond annoying.

[Red Banana]

Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield, I'm like a bird by Nelly Furtado, No One by Alicia Keys and every Dido song ever made have been permanently etched into my brain by my employer. It's the same songs on the same loop every single day. I never minded those songs before (except for Alicia Keys, puke) but now they just make me think of work, it drives me crazy.

[Ele'ill]

I've been waiting here forever and I wanted you to know that I'm calling YOUR company head quarters to tell them


oh my god whatever you do, not that. You might get to talk to one of our tele-service bots and they'll surely report the catastrophic discrimination you and your $400 sunglasses suffered through today






I am picturing your complexion turning grey as you vomit the remaining blood in your body out onto the floor you stupid taint.

[Decolonize The Left]

"I don't know if you know about vegetables. I do because I'm a chef. But you might want to relate this back to your kitchen: this kale, it's really good and I liked the salad a lot, but, I dunno, it needs something. I like kale a lot. Haha, I even have a kale tattoo here on my arm [shows me tattoo]. So, you know, I know a lot about kale. I think that the one thing that would make this salad better, and I dunno if your kitchen does this already, but, if they don't, they could massage the kale. I mean, really massage it. You can do this before you clean it or after, but it really makes it better. It's better for your digestion and easier on the palate. It would really make this salad excellent."

Fuck. You.

[Rugged Collectivist]

I'm surprised the Douche is allowed to work in customer service. From what I understand he's covered in more hammers and sickles than the main page.

[The Douche]

"I don't know if you know about vegetables. I do because I'm a chef. But you might want to relate this back to your kitchen: this kale, it's really good and I liked the salad a lot, but, I dunno, it needs something. I like kale a lot. Haha, I even have a kale tattoo here on my arm [shows me tattoo]. So, you know, I know a lot about kale. I think that the one thing that would make this salad better, and I dunno if your kitchen does this already, but, if they don't, they could massage the kale. I mean, really massage it. You can do this before you clean it or after, but it really makes it better. It's better for your digestion and easier on the palate. It would really make this salad excellent."

Fuck. You.

How much was your bond to get out of jail after stuffing that dude's throat full of kale?


I'm surprised the Douche is allowed to work in customer service. From what I understand he's covered in more hammers and sickles than the main page.

1?

[Rugged Collectivist]

1?

1 + Marx

EDIT: but seriously has anyone ever brought it up before?

[The Douche]

and two American flags.

[The Douche]

1 + Marx

EDIT: but seriously has anyone ever brought it up before?

The hammer and sickle? Just to be like "are you Russian?". When you have a lot of tattoos close together people just see *tattoos* not the individual pieces, I've found.


Every time I look at your location I start singing that fucking song.

[The Jay]

After finishing a line of customers in my department store I begin clearing off the desk. I had been ringing for forty minutes straight. An asshole approaches. "I'll give you something to do since you're not busy." "Here, let me give you something to do." "Let me help you make a sale."

I want to kill them all.

[Quail]

Natasha Bedingfield is the better of the music that plays. Our music system among other things has stopped working several times.
I used to hate really hate the Christmas music playing on a loop in winter. It was just awful.

[Devrim]

Pigs in Stockings

It is 6.45 in the morning and I am emptying my sack of packets out onto my work bench. One of them has come open during the sorting. I pick it up and it is a magazine. I stare at it in complete disbelief. It is called 'Pigs in Stockings'. And that is what it is. I start to flick through it, and it is not just pigs in stockings, it is also pigs in leather boots, pigs in latex, and in some of the pictures there are men having sex with them. Just to be totally clear beyond any doubt here this is not a derogatory term about ugly women. These are farm animals engaged in sexual acts with men whilst wearing 'erotic underwear'.

We are quite shocked, and amused by this. It gets passed up and down our bay, and everyone has a giggle. After that I take it off to the Postman Higher Grade to repackage it. It comes back about twenty minutes later, so he has obviously had a good laugh too repackaged.

Now, for people who don't live in the UK when a parcel comes open in the post they rewrap it in a clear plastic cover that has the words 'the Post Office would like to apologise ...' On it. I take it round to the house, and it is too big to go through the letter box. As I knock on the door, I am feeling a bit embarrassed, but I sort of rationalise it, and think it is him who should be embarrassed not me. He doesn't answer the door. His wife does. My face goes a bit red, and I pass her the packet, she looks at it with the picture of a naked pig in black stockings and suspenders on the front cover, looks at me, looks at the pig, looks at me, looks at the pig, and slams the door.

A week layer she has put in a redirection card (when you move house you can pay for the P.O, to send on your mail, just her not him. He is still there, so she has obviously left him.

He didn't tip me that Christmas either.

Devrim

[Devrim]

I used to hate really hate the Christmas music playing on a loop in winter. It was just awful.

One of my favourite Christmas things ever was in Beğendik in Ankara. Most people in Turkey don't do Christmas for obvious reasons, and nobody really knows anything about it. With most people thinking it is the 31st December. However, like with nearly everything today there is a commercialized US aspect to it which has been imported nearly everywhere.

So I wk into the supermarket and they are getting well into the season of commerce with lights and Christmas music playing, and they have a life size crucified Santa Claus hanging from the ceiling, and I thought 'hmm somebody has slightly misunderstood this here'.

Devrim

[Igor]

I NEED MY MORNING PAPER BY THIS TIME AND I WILL CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION UNLESS SOMETHING CHANGES

random old lady just guess how much exactly i care if you buy the newspaper i'm delivering as a summer job

definately enough to go for really stupid and inconvenient route options and a longer work night just to accomodate you, i'm confident you'd tip me for this

[Zukunftsmusik]

I wish Devrim was my father so he could tell me these things as good night stories. I would sleep like a rock with a big fat smile on my lips

[Decolonize The Left]

I NEED MY MORNING PAPER BY THIS TIME AND I WILL CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION UNLESS SOMETHING CHANGES

random old lady just guess how much exactly i care if you buy the newspaper i'm delivering as a summer job

definately enough to go for really stupid and inconvenient route options and a longer work night just to accomodate you, i'm confident you'd tip me for this

You wouldn't happen to deliver in the Boston area would you? Because if so, that was totally my great aunt calling you. And I was there. It was Sunday. There was no paper. She reads the paper every morning with her coffee. She's 89 so it's not a new hip thing she's doing just to be retro. This shit is for real. But there was no paper. So rather than be like "oh well, I'll just wait until the afternoon," she calls the company and complains for like fifteen minutes. The paper got there around 2. She was all "well now I don't want to read the paper anymore because it's already midday and I've had my coffee."

[Igor]

well, not exactly anywhere near boston area: finland, and it was not a single event but some people constantly complaining at me while i delievered the paper well before my actual deadline, not before the deadline they wanted me to have

[Ele'ill]

sit down we need to talk to you about some slop we heard from the rumor mill that we have absolutely no proof of and approximately zero documentation of so instead we're going to just turn red and stare at the floor because we know you are much smarter than our sharpest attempt at coercion

[The Jay]

I used to hate really hate the Christmas music playing on a loop in winter. It was just awful.

Since there's so many old people that shop there, as in it is so popular with that demographic that nursing homes drop them off at the front door and there are lines of them every morning, they play a lot of scat music. It makes me crazy.

God damn it I want to leave. I worked in coats and dresses on friday, did a double in housewares on saturday, and was in jeans on sunday.

[Ele'ill]

It would be interesting if there were forum users here who worked for the same company.

[The Douche]

It would be interesting if there were forum users here who worked for the same company.

Its sketchy as fuck to talk about who you work for online though, given the way lots of companies scour social networking looking for mentions of their brands.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

When I worked for Wal-Mart they would play this god-awful $0.99 christmas CD on a loop all goddamn day during the Holiday season.

And it was all covers. They played "White Christmas" and it wasn't Bing Crosby. They played "Merry Christmas, Baby" and it wasn't even Bruce Springsteen!

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Hey, how about this one?
You spend an hour filling out online forms, another two hours completing an online test, get up at 8AM for a telephone interview, get up at 7:30AM for a 9AM in person interview that starts ten minutes late (despite being told to show up ten minutes early), do an excruciating hour long interview with a person who has the personality of a soggy cardboard box, then are finally told, three weeks from the beginning of the process, by a form-email, that you didn't make the cut. Further inquiry yields that, after jumping through every stupid hoop, "All in all it was a good interview however it seemed as though your sales and client focus answers did not meet the qualifications of the interview."

And in that stupid font colour, too.

Dear Telus,
Die die die.

[Ele'ill]

Its sketchy as fuck to talk about who you work for online though, given the way lots of companies scour social networking looking for mentions of their brands.


Of course, it's also not a good idea to mention the really good stories for the same reason

[Devrim]

I wish Devrim was my father so he could tell me these things as good night stories. I would sleep like a rock with a big fat smile on my lips
I know I am a pretty good father, but would you like Lara* to be your mum?

Devrim

*this is for people who know us.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

I am very entertained, this is by far the most exciting thread on revleft so far.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Some great posts. I feel that pain every fucking day it seems.

I work in Primark and it's pretty shit, to put it lightly. Recently, because the UK has been having a massive heatwave, all our summer stock has basically sold out already and we're now starting to stock winter stuff (even some christmas stuff already which makes me want to shoot myself just a little bit). I keep getting fucking annoying people coming up to me asking why we don't have any swimming shorts left and I have basically said the same fucking line "oh sorry, because of the heatwave they all sold like wildfire" etc. Just seriously want to punch the next person who asks me that.

Primark also sells things in only certain sizes basically as a method of saving money during manufacturing (this is the reason they give for why the clothes are so cheap, not because of the shitty wages). There's always some fucking shite who asks after a certain size tells you it's stupid that 'you' don't make it in her/his size and that 'you' should think about changing that. Me? You think if I had any say in the store's policies that I'd be here talking to morons like you? Fuck off. Get a size bigger and hope it shrinks in the wash, you fucking turd.

God, I need to get out of this place. I'd actually prefer to work in some shitty warehouse/factory job so I can be miserable in peace.

[Zukunftsmusik]

I know I am a pretty good father, but would you like Lara* to be your mum?

Devrim

*this is for people who know us.

If her stories are half as good as yours, I'm in.

[The Jay]

Some great posts. I feel that pain every fucking day it seems.

I work in Primark and it's pretty shit, to put it lightly. Recently, because the UK has been having a massive heatwave, all our summer stock has basically sold out already and we're now starting to stock winter stuff (even some christmas stuff already which makes me want to shoot myself just a little bit). I keep getting fucking annoying people coming up to me asking why we don't have any swimming shorts left and I have basically said the same fucking line "oh sorry, because of the heatwave they all sold like wildfire" etc. Just seriously want to punch the next person who asks me that.

Primark also sells things in only certain sizes basically as a method of saving money during manufacturing (this is the reason they give for why the clothes are so cheap, not because of the shitty wages). There's always some fucking shite who asks after a certain size tells you it's stupid that 'you' don't make it in her/his size and that 'you' should think about changing that. Me? You think if I had any say in the store's policies that I'd be here talking to morons like you? Fuck off. Get a size bigger and hope it shrinks in the wash, you fucking turd.

God, I need to get out of this place. I'd actually prefer to work in some shitty warehouse/factory job so I can be miserable in peace.

I hear you. Just last week I was told that "my" store policies were stupid, meaning that the dipshit was upset that he couldn't return a blender without a receipt and wanted cash back. This is pretty close to what I said, "Listen and think about who makes the policies here. Do you really think that I do? What happens if I break them? Do you lose out on forty dollars, maybe. Do I lose my job, yes. I can only do what I'm contracted to do. I don't set policy."

He stopped for a second and accepted the gift card. He looked ashamed. Good.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

I hear you. Just last week I was told that "my" store policies were stupid, meaning that the dipshit was upset that he couldn't return a blender without a receipt and wanted cash back. This is pretty close to what I said, "Listen and think about who makes the policies here. Do you really think that I do? What happens if I break them? Do you lose out on forty dollars, maybe. Do I lose my job, yes. I can only do what I'm contracted to do. I don't set policy."

He stopped for a second and accepted the gift card. He looked ashamed. Good.

Good for you. Fight fight fight!

[Ose]

Most people who aren't familiar with my line of work tend to react with disbelief when I tell them about the level of verbal abuse I have to put up with each and every day. I can't help thinking that if the kind of interaction I have with a lot of customers at work were transferred to any other area of life, it would seem ridiculous, almost implausible. But as it is, I have to put up with the worst insults in multiple languages (but mainly the worst English has to offer, and I do mean the very worst) being hurled at me scores of times every single day, and all of this is somehow considered normal.

Look on the bright side though: after four years of this, there's nothing anyone could possibly say to me that could even come close to provoking a reaction. I've become completely immured to it all. My ability to ignore shit-talk is unparallelled. I count that as a strength.

So yeah, customer service isn't great.

[The Jay]

Most people who aren't familiar with my line of work tend to react with disbelief when I tell them about the level of verbal abuse I have to put up with each and every day. I can't help thinking that if the kind of interaction I have with a lot of customers at work were transferred to any other area of life, it would seem ridiculous, almost implausible. But as it is, I have to put up with the worst insults in multiple languages (but mainly the worst English has to offer, and I do mean the very worst) being hurled at me scores of times every single day, and all of this is somehow considered normal.

Look on the bright side though: after four years of this, there's nothing anyone could possibly say to me that could even come close to provoking a reaction. I've become completely immured to it all. My ability to ignore shit-talk is unparallelled. I count that as a strength.

So yeah, customer service isn't great.

Not only is it not great, it sucks. It seems to me that the class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, rather, capital and humanity is shown on a front as large and inescapable as work. When people buy they are trying to scrap as much use-value for their dollar as the capitalist tries to gain the most value for his spent on wages. The worker that annoys the shit out of me is not only manipulated by the PR/Advertisement Industry, but also by their desires to maximize their buying power in the face of their own exploitation.

I feel sorry for them but also feel my emotional reaction to theirs towards the capitalists I am being paid to represent. I don't want to be that fucking middle man, but I have to. Hopefully some damn class consciousness will pick up soon.

[Ele'ill]

we're going to document you for attendance issues that we haven't actually been documenting (we're making shit up) but we're also going to be ten to fifteen minutes late every day ourselves

[Rugged Collectivist]

So a guy came through my line today with an Obama shirt and an NRA hat. Obama's face was scribbled out with the words "Muslim socialist" written above his head. At the end of the order he payed with food stamps. I thought that was amusing.

[RedBen]

So a guy came through my line today with an Obama shirt and an NRA hat. Obama's face was scribbled out with the words "Muslim socialist" written above his head. At the end of the order he payed with food stamps. I thought that was amusing.
i got dirty looks for wearing an army pullover with an obama hat back '08:D

[Ele'ill]

no wait that song isn't that bad, this one here is the fucking worst it makes my blood curdle in my fucking veins

76ib0-_fAtY


MURDER IS IN THE AIR

[The Douche]

Yesterday towards the end of the night I was trying to help the sales associate recover the store and was folding shirts on the back wall, a suburban mom and son are looking at the shirts about an arm's length away from me.

The kid: Do they have that shirt, I don't see it?
*I look over and see them looking between the displays on the wall and the baskets of shirts*
Me: Hi guys, is there a shirt I can help you find?
Mom: I don't see it, I guess not.
Me: Excuse me folks, would you like some help finding a shirt?
Kid: Why would they have it on the wall if they don't have it?
Me: I know the shirts are pretty messy right now, I can probably find the shirt you're looking for
Mom: Obviously they don't know what they're doing here, c'mon lets go.
*Woman makes eye contact with me*




WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

Well comrades, as an official Prole now I get to contribute to this thread.

Our manager who told me that I need to cut my hair (fuck her) keeps hanging up this sign for a food item that we don't sell, in order for us to draw more customers.
Every single day I get to have the pleasure of explaining that our stand does not sell this item, but would they be interested in this that or the other thing? Every single person every single day gets more and more annoying to deal with. I can already anticipate the question before the first syllable is spoken. They see I'm not genuinely interacting with them and I can't do anything about it as I'm already on thin ice with my manager so I don't feel the liberty to complain again.

[Quail]

Well comrades, as an official Prole now I get to contribute to this thread.

Our manager who told me that I need to cut my hair (fuck her) keeps hanging up this sign for a food item that we don't sell, in order for us to draw more customers.
Every single day I get to have the pleasure of explaining that our stand does not sell this item, but would they be interested in this that or the other thing? Every single person every single day gets more and more annoying to deal with. I can already anticipate the question before the first syllable is spoken. They see I'm not genuinely interacting with them and I can't do anything about it as I'm already on thin ice with my manager so I don't feel the liberty to complain again.
How does that even work? Surely if anything you'll get fewer customers in the long run because people will be sick of the false advertising, so not only is it annoying for you it's probably going to fuck her over too.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

There's two floors in the store where I work both with changing rooms but the lower ground floor changing room is closed on Sundays because we don't have the staff to cover it. There's a big fucking sign saying "fitting room closed" and we usually also move an empty rail and a cage of baskets in the way so no-one can get in. Most Sundays we also have stock in the fitting room prepared to go out later in the day. It's pretty obviously closed.

Yesterday some woman asked me if the fitting rooms were open but I told her unfortunately she would have to go upstairs. Five minutes later where do I find her? In the closed fitting rooms with her friend. With all the stock we had in there strewn about on the floor with the clothes she had brought to try on.

It was like she chose deliberately to do everything she could just to make my day that little bit more miserable. Plus the person I usually work with on my department had been moved to a different department and I ended up having to do two peoples' jobs at once.... shit day yesterday, essentially.

[Art Vandelay]

I guess I've had a few jobs in the customer service industry and I guess I'm still a service worker now. Since all these are pretty depressing maybe I'll try and lighten things up, although I do have some really good stories from my days of delivering pizzas. Anyways the guy I work with is 25 years old, but has the mentality of someone 14-15 years old. He can't really have a job, unless its assisted employment, so alot of what I do is find ways he can spend his time not just hanging out in his bedroom. Over the course of this summer I really got him into walks, we'd generally take a walk everyday for maybe an hour to an hour and a half. Now the guy I work with absolutely loves Justin Beiber, I have no idea why, but its his favorite. So when we went on walks he'd bring along his MP3 player. Over the course of the summer he kinda began starting to sing a little bit out loud, to the music in his headphones, and as time went on the singing got louder and louder. So one day were walking down the street, its a relatively busy afternoon and there are plenty of people out walking in the neighborhood. On this particular day, I guess the guy I work with was really feeling like singing and as were walking down the street he starts singing out loud at the top of his lungs (obviously since he's wearing headphones no one can hear what he does). People were kinda like 'what the fuck', as they walked by. As we keep walking and he's still singing out loud, he starts doing like these weird kinda hip hop dance moves or something. So now were walking side by side down the side walk, he's belting out some Justin Beiber tune at the top of his lungs (and no offence to the guy I work with cause he's awesome, but he has a really, really bad voice) while somehow combining the actions of walking and dancing. I'm just walking beside him smoking a cigarette. I don't think I've ever gotten more stares and weird looks, it was fucking brilliant. The look on all these yuppies was one of absolute horror by the end of it, it was awesome. Dude was my hero that day, he could of cared less what the hell anyone thought and was having the time of his life. That day was actually a big point for me in overcoming my own self consciousness issues.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

I've mostly done bar work, and the worst was definitely the race courses. Slimy show-off nouveau-rich arseholes are bad enough sober, but when they've bought a few bottles of moet & chandon for their equally oily mates they're unbearable. They're extremely rude and patronising, they treat staff like they're idiots and worst of all is when they try to be all chatty with you and expect you to laugh at their (usually sexist) jokes

ugh

[GiantMonkeyMan]

I thought I'd resurrect this thread because I got a warning for finally snapping at a customer.

It's coming up to crimbo and Primark, where I work, is basically turning into the ass end of hell with queues zigzagging all across the store and people pushing prams about everywhere else making my work virtually impossible. A women came up to me and asked me if I could exchange an item for her and, obviously, I told her to take it to customer services. She then said along the lines of, "The queue is too large at customer services, you should open up another till and serve me." I told her unfortunately I'm not customer service trained but, regardless, she would still have to queue to which she responded, "Why can't you just open one of the other tills and exchange the item there?" They're not customer service tills and, again, I'm not customer service trained so, sorry, but everyone has to queue. "This is ridiculous, I have a parking ticket that will be going out of time soon and you're preventing me from getting my item exchanged. I want to see your manager."

Now, this hadn't been a particularly stressful day for me (I've stopped really giving a fuck at work plus you should go there on the weekend after payday, that's fucking murder) but this woman was taking it out on me because she thought she should be entitled to special treatment and basically skip in front of about a dozen or so people waiting patiently. I said to her "Look, I'll get my manager but she'll say exactly the same thing. I'm a wage worker not a miracle worker, you'll have to queue with everyone else."

My manager was nearby anyway so I flagged her down, hoping to ignore the woman and get back to work. But before I could get away, she says to my manager, "Your worker is being rude and stopping me from exchanging an item and I'm running late and it will cause me to have to pay extra for my parking ticket!"

I kinda laughed a bit, which didn't go down well with my boss, and said, "I'm sorry if you didn't plan your day well enough to realise that the store might be busy and have large queues but you'll just have to line up along with everyone else or leave and come back another day." To which my manager told me to leave and go to her office and, happily, I left. My manager understood my side of the story but I still had a written warning go down on my record. Some customers are the most self-entitled fucks in the world. :rolleyes:

[La Comédie Noire]

I have tons of stories from my days as a grill cook. We were a sandwich shop next to a bunch of businesses so we'd always get really prickish businessmen who were not only arrogant, but rude as hell. Now not to toot my own horn, but I was such a good grill cook and employee in general that I could get away with almost anything.

My Good Will Hunting moment:

So one day this guy comes through the line, he's kinda "the reader" of the office, the intellectual alpha male. He's always talking up economics and carrying a copy of Forbes with him. So one day he's talking about Keynes and how "Keynesian stimulus doesn't work and central banks are evil." And I very belligerently pipe up that stimulus didn't originate with Keynes and boom and bust cycles were around before central banks" The look on his face was priceless that he would expect someone who serves him to call him out on his bull shit, someone who has actually read The General Theory no less. So he counters with this line and in my head I'm like 'where have I heard this before?" and then it hits me, this guy basically regurgitated a line from Keynes Hayek: the clash that defined modern economics. So I go on to counter and end with "or do you believe everything Hayek Vs. Keynes told you?" His face got so red.

Besides that not too many stories from there. I was just a dick in general to customers, I'd ignore people, move their tickets back, refund their money, not respond to people who asked me questions, take the next person in line when people were on the phone. Sometimes people would snap their fingers at me to get my attention and I'd just start snapping back. Hang up on people, hung up on people when they complained about waiting, and last, but not least, never have I ever apologized not once, for anything at all ever, even when I was asked to by management, even when I could tell people were searching for one. I once joked that if I was a game of thrones lordly house my words would be "we don't apologize."

Sometimes people would try to tell me a whole story and I'd just be like "what do you want?" "well you see..." "no, no, I don't care about the story, what do you want in return?" Because I definitely wasn't going to listen to a first worlder's tale of woe about how in a world where people starve on the regular, they had to wait 20 minutes for a hot, ready to eat sandwich.

Oh and I'd hate the people who'd try to be nice and joke with me or get mad when I wasn't nice. It's like look if you are going to treat me like a machine then what you're going to get in return is an automated response. I'm not your buddy or your pal, we aren't friends, this isn't your 1950s neighborhood grocery store, this is a faceless corporation that doles you out food. If you want it to be like the 1950s or at least leave it to beaver's version than you can't have food in under 5 minutes made by a wage slave.

I guess that's what bothers me the most about customer service, it's so fake and used to mask the oppression of an irrational and unjust system of exploitation.

Nursing Stories

Being a Nursing Assistant or Home Health Aide can be one of the most rewarding things you do with your life. It can also be a big pain in the ass. Not only does it include the shitty aspects of customer service, but also the shitty parts of Nursing, that is dealing with real physically existing shit and peoples' emotional shit.

I've been kicked, bit, slapped, punched, put into headlock, had things thrown at me, been yelled at, not only by patients, but their families, the nurses, doctors and management. I've been forced to work over 16 hours, with faulty equipment, short handed, and understocked.

The worst thing about it is management tries to have this holier than thou attitude about caring for the sick and elderly, while doing everything in their power to increase profits and shift the blame onto floor nurses and CNAs when things go inevitably array. What do they care if some good nurse in a bad situation loses her license from time to time? And I'd ask them, who are worst the people who are powerless and in the bad situation, or the people who preside over and permit the bad situation?

CNAS have it especially bad, not only are they underpaid, but their scope of practice is so ill defined that in some places they act as unofficial maintenance and custodial staff.

Worst day of nursing ever

I remember one time we were working short, like 3 CNAs on a morning shift. That meant instead of our original ten patients each, we had an additional 3, that's 13 people to get up and bathe in a matter of 3 hours, not including the hour and 15 you have to stop to pass trays and bring people to the dining room for breakfast and the other hour and 15 for lunch. So we're running around trying our god damn hardest to get everybody up and cleaned before we have to pass trays for breakfast when all of a sudden the floor nurse marches up to me "room 104a needs to have her stuff moved to 116b, facilitate that" and she marches away.

By this time it was 7:40am, I had gotten 4 people done, 9 to go, but now I had to stop what I was doing to pass trays. So we're doing that when this nurse comes up to me "I've been told you haven't moved 4a yet, you need to do that!" It's like alright guy in a minute. So it's after breakfast, we've wheeled everybody back to the halls and I continue to get people up. 2 more, that's 7 people to go, I'm on the 3rd giving them a shower in the shower room (which by the way I did by using a mechanical lift by myself, which you aren't under any circumstances to use alone because it's so fucking dangerous) When the Social Services manager pops her head into the curtain "Hi David, I've been told you haven't moved your patient's room yet, you really need to do this the family is quite upset and rightfully so. " (Which by the way is a big invasion of privacy I mean the guy I'm washing is buck naked for Christ fucking sake.)

So okay that's 6 people to go, but now I have to stop to move the rooms. So I move everything down the hall, including the furniture and am pushing the last object, this heavy ass dresser down the hall when this other Nurse comes up to me "hey, 111a isn't done yet, she has an appointment in 15 minutes!" It's like okay let me stop what I'm doing go to the other side of the hall so I can wrestle with a women covered in her own feces, who is a notorious fighter." So I do that, she wasn't so bad, she kept pulling on my name tag, but it wasn't bothering me, and as I'm leaving the nursing manager comes in. "Why is their just a dresser off to the side in the fucking hall?" Well I tell her the situation, she gives me the shittiest look ever and just walks away. So I go there and move it to the other room. I now have 5 people to go and it's already 10:30am only have an hour and a half till lunch. So I go and get the other 4 done and up, 2 of them weren't hard at all they were what's called limited assist, you only have to drape out some clothes for them and they usually do the rest.

So I'm on the last guy, who is comatose, vegetable state, but needs a shower. In order to do this you have to detach all his machines, including his catheter and oxygen for his trach and go get a hoyer lift, the mechanical lift I was talking about before. So I'm giving him a shower when this woman I've never seen before pokes her head in "You're responsible for my mother, you moved her stuff it's all wrong! She's missing her favorite socks and everything's crooked, it's like you don't even fucking care!" and blah blah I'm a bad person and so on and so forth. So I tell her calmly, please go, and I will be right with her. So I finish up and bring him back and everything's good. I'm passing trays when she comes over again "I want to know what we're gonna do about this sock situation." and it's like sigh. "After I am done, passing trays I will help your mother find her socks." I'd also like to mention at this point I had not taken my 15 minute break or my 30 minute lunch. So I do that I find her stupid precious socks, they were actually in the wheel chair next to her, she'd just forgotten cause she had Alzheimer's. At around 2 or clock or so I'm doing paper work when the nursing manager comes up to me again "you haven't taken your lunch yet, you have to take a 30 minute lunch or else the facility could get sued or fined." SO blah blah blah I go do that and I get back to find the Social Services manager there. "this women in 9c, you've been promising her you will help her pick out clothes, you haven't done this yet. People may perceive it that you don't have compassion or care if you don't take the time to do these little things with your residents instead of being off on break somewhere."

And I'm like Sigh! So I help her pick out clothes and end up staying an extra 15 minutes. A day or two later I find out I've been written up for going over time! It's like sighhhhhh!

So the next time you read a horror story about a bad nursing home or abusive caretakers remember most of the time it probably stems from systemic reasons rather than the fault of "Malicious Haitians" (BTW there's a lot of racism and threats of deportation against Haitians, who dominant the work force in some areas. I've been asked for by several people based solely because of the fact I'm a white American male.)

[GiantMonkeyMan]

My Good Will Hunting moment:

So one day this guy comes through the line, he's kinda "the reader" of the office, the intellectual alpha male. He's always talking up economics and carrying a copy of Forbes with him. So one day he's talking about Keynes and how "Keynesian stimulus doesn't work and central banks are evil." And I very belligerently pipe up that stimulus didn't originate with Keynes and boom and bust cycles were around before central banks" The look on his face was priceless that he would expect someone who serves him to call him out on his bull shit, someone who has actually read The General Theory no less. So he counters with this line and in my head I'm like 'where have I heard this before?" and then it hits me, this guy basically regurgitated a line from Keynes Hayek: the clash that defined modern economics. So I go on to counter and end with "or do you believe everything Hayek Vs. Keynes told you?" His face got so red.
That's class, comrade! The thought of it makes my day. :D

I feel for you in regards to the nursing assistant work. My sister works in a nursing home that recently got privatised in one of the last round of cuts and she's been telling me how in the process of a year things have been getting harder and with more being expected of her and this is all on top of her having to look after a five year old as well. That line of work is one of the most under-paid and under-appreciated in my opinion.

[Ele'ill]

alqD9_BilGY (http://youtu.be/alqD9_BilGY)

[La Comédie Noire]

Also I'd like to add how in America older people like to point out how this generation is too entitled and selfish, but the worst offender of customer temper tantrums is always people in their 40s and 50s who were alive when the welfare state was the strongest. There's also the phenomena of underemployment so you'll get a lot of people in their 40s and 50s who have to take on a low wage job temporarily and guess what? They complain the fucking most.

It's like whatever happened to rolling up your sleeves and putting in a good hard days labor, pulling yourself up by the boot straps? Oh, you mean it was just people romanticizing misery and toil? :lol: