There is nothing like having some pissed off fat ass scream at you through the drive through window about how he ordered a LARGE FRY when both his receipt and the order on my computer clearly say medium. Or the time when I watched a recently hired crew member get yelled at by a customer about how long it took him to get his food when all the kid was trying to do was go out into lobby to get a drink. Lets not forget about the people who arrive at noon still looking for breakfast and then flip out at you over the ordering speaker. Its not my fault you couldn't drag your fucking hungover ass out of bed and get breakfast before we stop serving it. Honestly, I get into work at six am usually and if I can get up that early and work all day you should be more than able to get to McDicks before 10:30am. And if not... too fucking bad; Stay home and make your own damn McGriddles.
I myself have had several instances where I was was one word away from getting myself fired. There was the guy who came in with a piece of paper with all the stuff he wanted written down on it, along with the price of each item and the tax all calculated. When I rang everything in it came to more than what he had written down he immediately got angry. "No, no no" he yelled, "I did all the math myself and it should add up to this" holding his little scribblings right in my face. The problem was that the prices he had were outdated, while the ones in our computer were obviously correct. I tried offering him a refund and also giving him more food, all in an effort to shut him up but he would not be satisfied. Finally I told him to step aside so I could take the orders of the many people behind him while another employee went to get the manager. The entire time I took the next lady's order he stood right there, refusing to move or shut his mouth. Even the other customers could see how much of a tool this guy was being. My manager finally came up and rather quickly handled the situation, saying basically that "the price is the price and if you don't like it you can leave. When he continued to confront my manager she took it a step further adding that that whether he paid for his food or not he was no longer allowed inside our restaurant and that if he kept harassing her employees she would call the police. I just stood by the grill and watched this complete asshole grab his bag of now cold food and leave the store, slamming the lobby door as he left.
My worst encounter with an ill mannered customer happened not to long ago while I was doing first both of drive through on a busy Monday morning. The majority of morning customers only want a coffee, now available for only a dollar and maybe a breakfast borritto or an Egg McMuffin. While getting the orders together isn't so hard when you have a wrapped DT and a packed front counter of busy morning customers things can get kinda hectic. This week was particularly shitty as the Dunks down the street was being renovated all those customers flocked to our store to get their morning caffeine fix. I got to work right on time at 7am, clocked in and then got put back in booth to take orders and handle cash. With a line of cars already I started paying them out and taking orders over the headset. As I was ringing in an order when this middle aged man, probably 45 or so with a weak mustache and scraggly beard rolled up to my window. I said hello, being polite as i usually am and without any acknowledgment of my greeting, not even turning his head in my direction and he stuck his arm out the window with a five dollar bill in hand. I made up the change quickly, while also speaking to the customer placing his order at the speaker. While punching in a small coffee, 2 and 2 and a steak bagel I tried to hand the man at the window his change. I held my hand out as anyone would, with the bills in my hand and the few coins resting on top of them. Barely looking over at me he tried just grabbing the bills from my hand, I had tightened my grip so the coins wouldn't fall all over the ground. He didn't seem to like this as he finally glared over at me, his eyes saying "give me my fucking money" as he again just tried to pull this handful of money out of my hand. "Careful sir" I said pointing out the number of coins sitting atop the crinkled dollar bills. He looked disgusted, spouting out in a mean pitched voice " LOOK, Just hand me the bills, THEN hand me the damn coins."
Now I usually hold my tongue in circumstances like this, but between the busy ass morning, the line in DT and this guy's attitude I had to say something. "OR.. you could just take the change from my hand like everyone else" is said under my breath, but still loud enough so he could hear. "Excuse Me, What was that.." he said, this time pretty much yelling. I responded, " I said... Or you could just take your damn money from my hand like everyone else, Sir". He then blew up, "You have some fucking nerve speaking to a customer like this?" and "I don't know how someone like YOU could ever find a job!" I just stood there, getting as red in the face as my McUniform taking his insults. He demanded my manager's name and I told him, "Her name's Denise and shes up at the next window ". As soon as I told him he slammed his car into gear and sped up to the next window while I grabbed both sides of my DT window and smashed them closed. I could hear him bitching as I paid out the final car, telling Denise how poor of an employee I was. He demanded the customer service number and wanted to know my name and Denise's and then with the final word he told Denise that I was an asshole and that I should be fired on the spot. She then came back to first where i was and told me what he said and how he was going to call corporate. I was so furious, i slammed the counter several times until my fist was bright red and I swore that if he ever came back i would fucking just climb out of my window and beat the living shit out of him. It took me almost the rest of the day to calm down, I honestly have never been so pissed at a customer before, it was unbelievable how much a of a prick he was being. JUST TAKE THE FUCKING CHANGE AND SHUT UP.
These are just two of my more worse experiences; there are tons of stories like this both involving me and not. But instances like these really show the fine line that people in service have to walk. Being told that the customer is always right you have to maintain respect and politeness even if someone is being a total fuckhead. But where does being a good employee end, when do the insults reach a point where you can actually stand up for yourself as a person. It is always better to let shit just slide off, if someone is giving you static just grab a manager and they can handle it. And if you do act on your feelings to yell at the guy flipping his shit over the price of a 12 ounce soda, or the woman that calls you an asshole because you don't have any breakfast left then you have to expect the consequences. Fortunately I didn't get in any trouble, and the guy actually came back about a week later and apologized for behaving so poorly, I wasn't working at the time but it was still nice to hear that he had felt sorry for yelling at me. However overtime I have come to expect this sort of stuff to occur at work so I rarely get bothered by it anymore.
