<vent> Those that work with the public...
 

HOW DO YOU DO IT!?!? I have a rant.

I recently started working at Wendy's (my parents decided it's time for me to support my own hobbies lol). I love my job itself, I love the people I work with, I love my boss, I CAN'T STAND the people. A lot of them are really nice, but some of them just...UGH!!

and I started working drive through (I collect the money) the other day, so I get to deal with all of those pleasent people too. :rolleyes: I don't mind getting feedback from customers about the restaraunt or whatever AT ALL, but it's the people who yell at me that I want to strangle.

Especially the ones who yell at me for something I have NO control over.

This was one of my last customers of the night:

Girl up front: *takes order*
him: *drives up to my window to pay*
Me: *opens window* Hi how are you?
him: Do you know what you sound like?
me: Excuse me?
him: You sound DEAD!
Me: I'm sorry...?
him: How do you learn to take orders in this place?
Me: I don't take the orders, sir, I just collect the money.
him: Well whoever DOES collect the orders needs to be taught something. How are you supposed to take orders here?
Me: I'm not sure, sir, I haven't been trained to take orders.
him: You're supposed to say "May I help you" "thank you" "please."
Me: Yes sir, I suppose so.
him: I can't believe how rude you people are.
Me: I'm sorry you had a bad experience sir. I'll pass it on to her. The total is $9.27.
him: *pays*
Me: Have a good night.
him: :rolleyes:Yeah.:rolleyes:
Me::mad: You're welcome.
him: *drives away*

I know I should just get over it. But it's like...oh my God. At least practice what you preach! last time I checked, you're supposed to say thank you when someone wishes you well. But I guess his mommy didn't teach him that HE has to have good manners too - other people just have to give them to him.

He wasn't the only one tonight...but he was the one I was ready to kill. I told my boss I quit afterwords, and she was like "No you don't." lol.

Just...if you're going to customer service or whatever, please don't scream at them or anything because they have feelings too and more than likely you're yelling at them for something they have nothing to do with. (And they talk badly about you after you leave if you're mean. :p)

*sigh* Thanks. One thing I've learned from Wendy's: I can never have a job that requires me to be nice to people I want to knock out.


EDIT: OMG this was much longer than I thought. Sorry!

Welcome to the world of customer service, Megan....unfortunately it won't be the last time.

How did you not laugh?? I would have!

Great! Now I want a chocolate Frosty with Oreos. :rolleyes: :p

I'm sorry people are so mean Megan. :( Unfortuntaely it's just life, lol! As long as you keep being nice, you know at the end of the day who's the better person.....you! :) I worked at Ryan's when I was younger as a cashier, I feel your pain with rude people, some are just relentless. AND they end up lookig like an a$$ to everyone who is within hearing distance, so just look at it that way, lol! ;)

Hope you get a good order taker....I hear they can be really rude. :rolleyes:

Actually at our Wendy's....it's a game...they put whatever they want to in that bag...regardless of what you've ordered. If you don't check your bag before you leave the window....it is lunch surprise for you. I am sure they laughed their butts off over it.

Deb - LOL! We're usually about 90% with getting our orders right. We'll forget some things like making burgers plain or whatever, but of course the customer gets a free correct one if they bring it back. Overall though, the orders are usually right.

Kyle - HAHA go get one! But don't be rude. :p ;)

I'm not really the better person, because I'm only being nice because I'm getting paid to lol. If it were up to me his food would be shoved down his throat the way it was. Along with my headset.

Oh gosh I feel for you! I've always worked in customer service and retail management and there are always people that have not a shred of tact or politeness.

I do the standard customer is always right, never break my smile and kill them with kindness then I vent with all of the other employees after they've left. You should have heard our back room sometimes at my old store, lol! :)

It's true about our Wendy's....so it's either the order taker is deaf (no offense to deaf people) or they do it intentionally. I don't mean you get ketchup when you asked for none....it's beyond that.

For the record...my girlfriend refuses to return incorrect fast food orders...she swears the replacement whatever will be spit in (or would that be on?).

You have to learn the art of telling people off in a nice, professional way...if that makes sense. I never knew how until I moved to Pa and worked in a restaurant. Funny part is there is so much you can say without them realizing your completely making them look like an idiot.

omg megan im sorry! But i know EXACTLY what you mean! All too well! As you may know i WAS waitressing lol notice WAS, cause i quit..anyway some people are really nice and understand what a waitress has to go thru but i was appalled by some people. And where i worked was a high class place, you could only eat there by making reservations, no walk ins, etc. Anyway some days i just had the worst people. Since i was their waitress they would take everything out on me, that i had no control over. One day it was SUPER busy, and its a really bis restaurant. Well this couple had ordered their food and it was taking long. Normally i would go down to the kitchen and check on it but this day i had absolutely no time, i mean i had to take orders left and right and barely had a bus boy, one didn't show up that day. The kitchen btw was at the other side of the restaurant and then you had to go down the stairs so i really couldt do that. Anyway she accused me of forgetting about her and her husband and said that i never put her order in. I explained to her that i put it in and it was a busy day(it was mothers day) so the food might take longer than expected cause the kitchen it really busy and she yelled at me and said 'i work in restaurant business before and the food NEVER take long, even on busy day!IT'S YOUR FAULT!!' omg i was soo ready to cry. At that point i knew i was going to quit already, i had had enough, i was like 'Look Lady you want to come to the computer with me so i can SHOW you your order???' She was like 'No please just go away' and did something with her hand for me to go away. Some people...i just hate customer service, srry about the long story but i totally understand, i had way too many customers like her, they see you busy, busting your butt and think they are the only ones in the restaurant :rolleyes:

I have been in food and Beverage for most of my life and have owned two restaurants. It is long hard hours and much hard work if it is done correctly. I was trained in my early years by an excellent corporation. I always upheld the high standards I learned there. One of my supervisors told me to never lower my standards but to make everyone come up to mine. He was a most excellent mentor! Hardnosed and fair at all times.

Whenever my employees had a difficult, rude or obnoxious customer I always asked them to alert me immediately. Some people can be quite abusive to folks in a server capacity because they feel 'oh so superior'. Not so. I told my employees they didn't get paid enough to take abuse and that I would always handle it myself. And I did. Sometimes, the wayward customer stayed and acted more respectful, sometimes they left. Sometimes, they even apologized.

Another rule I had was that nobody ever got chewed out in front of a customer or fellow employee. If it was necessary to be corrective, I always did so in private. I think it is best to allow people to maintain their dignity and self respect. If I am out and see this happening, I will ask for the manager and leave after speaking my mind. I will also write to the corporation if it is a corporately owned establishment.

All that said....I hate the way so many allow their employees to be disrespectful because it is deplorable, sometimes. I went into a Burger King, ordered, received my food and as I was walking out I ate a fry. It was stone cold. I went back and asked if they would please replace the fries. They did and as I got to the door I decided to go back once more and state my opinion. I asked the girl if she realized she had spoken not one word to me during the ordering process, or even getting the fries replaced. Her comment? "Oh, Je-eeee-su Ch--rrist!!" Excuse me? Are we now in a worship session or are we discussing horrible customer service, still?

They do it because they can....the same reason the others treat people so badly in some situations. Those in positions of responsibility and management need to get a handle on it but are often apathetic, themselves.

Customer service and common decency have both passed on. Please observe a moment of silence in their honor.

Hey Megan-sounds like a rough night! Sorry that guy was a turd to you! At least you handled yourself well, and didn't hand his lovely attitude back-I definitely would have been tempted too, but it sounds like you held yourself together well. I have waited tables in a restaurant, worked as a cocktail waitress, worked retail as a manager, as a cashier, and a fitting room attendant, and BOY do I understand how you feel. The best part about a job like yours-and several of my former jobs-was that you get to see a lot of people in a short amount of time. For every annoying, grumpy, pain in the patoot customer, there are 2 really friendly, understanding, caring, bubbly customers that make it all worth it. Hang in there, and enjoy each interaction as they come, and try to learn from both the good and the bad experiences.

One nice thing about having jobs while you are still in highschool, you get the chance to decide what you really DON'T want to do when you get out! My youngest daughter had a job at Burger King while she was in college, and said that she will never work in foodservice again!! LOL

I am so impressed with the way you handled yourself, you will learn a great deal from this experience, and it looks like you be teaching others a great deal too.

LMAO now that would have been a sight to see! :p:D

I hope the next day your scheduled to work goes better for you ;):)

yeah unfortunately you will always encounter these type of people no matter what job position you are in if you are in a postion where you have to deal with people.. ive learned to just smile and not let it affect me.. company policies are usually "the customer is always right" so there is not much you can do unless they get out of line and that is where you can tell your manager but other than that.. just try not to let it get to you! i know its hard at first.. also remember even though they may be wrong, you dont know what kind of day they have been through and they may be just putting it out on you (as wrong as this sounds) so the best you can do is just learn from it and try not to let it get to ya :) good luck!

Oooh honey you just realized what all retail and fast food workers experience. Sorry. I went through the same stuff. You just have to think of what you can do with your paycheck to get through the day.

My sister is in college and working at Bed Bath and Beyond. She tells me some doozy of stories. But I do tell her to keep that in mind when she has to decide if she should slack off in class. It's a good motivating tool to keep yourself on track in school so you can get out of that area of the work force.

Sending you a big old hug honey.

Thank you guys.

I've read all of your stories on this thread...I'm totally shocked. I mean...how do people treat complete strangers like that? Even before I worked in Wendy's, if I had a complaint about something, I knew that you get more results doing it politely and talking to the employee/manager, not by yelling and accusing them.

There was another older lady last night. I was listening to the conversation with the order taker on the headset, and I ended up taking it off because our order taker was being extremely rude. I knew that there was nothing I personally could do at that point in time, so I was just really polite to the lady when she got to my window and I apologized for what happened. Then I told the manager, who talked to the order taker (whose name I really need to learn lol). I could tell the woman was in a bad mood when she got up to pay, but as soon as I was nice to her she seemed to have gotten over it and she was nice to me. I like people like that - who don't take a bad experience with another person and blow up on the next person they see.

I understand that people have bad days at work or whatever. But I can't stand it that they don't realize - hello, I'm also at WORK, and as far as they know, I could be having a bad day too. So I'm going to try and remember that when I'm dealing with the obnoxious ones, and just hope they remember it too. and if not, well then...too bad for them.

That turned into another vent lol. Sorry.

Beth - I know right!! The one other thing I've learned from this job: I'll work my butt off in school so I don't end up doing this for the rest of my life!

My favorite ones are the people who come storming up like they're going to rip your head off and look like they got their heads knocked in when you're nice to them. I had this one guy when I was on cashier who was like stomping up to the counter with his burger being crushed in his hand and his face was like..turning red haha. and he got up to me and he was like "I WANTED THIS PLAIN!!!" and I said "I apologize. Let me get you another one." and he looked like he deflated and he was like "....you will?" lol.

Oh you are so right about that.

I worked in restaurants for 20 plus years and got so good at it that my worst customers would end up giving me the biggest tips.:rolleyes:

LOL..sorry to laugh...but I have been there and done that....I was a waitress years ago...and OMG....yes...people can be SO RUDE...
You handled yourself very well...keep on smiling hon....

I was a waitress for many years and yes there are some rude and obnoxious people but theres more kind and nice ones and you have to remember that. I liked working with the public. And in most restaurants the workers really band together.

How do you tell people off in a nice way!? LOL

Educate me, oh great ladies of the restaurant world! :)

Hopefully tonight will go better.

Well, you're a dog person so this should make sense___

You know how the tone of your voice is what the dog keys into? Like you can say mean things to them in an excited voice and they get as excited as when your saying nice things.

It's a little like that.;)

The customers "hear" you apologizing when you use an apologetic tone of voice, even when you are actually telling them that they seem to have forgotten what their mama taught them.

And since you are a student of the stage---"Smiles everyone!"

i work for a doctor's office.
People always want you to do little extra favors.."just for them". What they don't realize is how many people ask for little extra things..."just this time, just for them". I'm amazed at how easily it is for people to ask for more than they should expect, and have no problem inconveniencing someone. This is why I like animals so much better than people!!!!
Hope things are better for you Megan!! Hang in there!

Consider this job a learning experience on how to turn people off.(in you head)
You were very polite. Keep up the good work. Don't let these
arrogant people change you one bit. Just go with the flow.
Many years ago, when the kids were young, I did phone sales for a local
paper. I was told so many rude things I had to quit because I took it
personal. They girls in the office tried their best to teach me how to
shrug it off but I just couldn't. Today if I spoke to those same rude
people they would have me arrested for the answer I would give them:p
Most people are very pleasant to deal with but you will, as you already found out, find some just plain misreable, rude and not nice in anyway people.
Perhaps with your sweet personality you may just change one or two.
You have to learn to turn the rude ones off and don't take it personally.
Feel sorry for those who seem to be so misreable. Maybe they really
have a reason to feel that way. Sad as it may be.
Enjoy your job Megan and shop until you drop with all your $$$$.
Have a great summer.

Hugs,

Man - when I hear about people acting like that to someone who is working a window and is a KID on top of it ...makes me hope that guy drove off and got a flat tire !

Megan - I've never worked in a job like that but I hear it's pretty common and you're going to meet ALL kinds of people - both good and rude....

poor girl - I can't imagine anyone acting like that to you :(

I hope your job is going good aside from that - and Hey - at least Wendys has decent food right ?

Megan, my best advice for you as far as "telling people off" but in a nice way is to NOT do it. They will realize what you're doing and complain if they're really hotted off. Calmly tell them you understand why they're upset, apologize for the mistake/inconvenience, offer to make it right at no charge, and thank them. Just like you did with the guy crushing his burger-remember, the customer is always right. And when the customer's wrong, they're still right-or at least you have to make them think they are. The worst is when someone orders something other than what they wanted, and then blames you for it. In that case, you could say "Oh, I'm sorry, I had down that you ordered a bacon-double cheeseburger (or whatever you think they ordered)." then if that's really what they ordered, usually they'll realize their mistake, and order something else (and pay for it too). If they really ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, they'll tell you that too, and then you can just help them get what they wanted. Repeating their order back usually helps with this too-like the guy who wanted his burger plain, it shows that you have it in the computer the correct way. Never, ever, blame the kitchen or other co-workers by saying "oh, I had it in the computer correctly, but THEY must not have gotten that"-it shows that you are unwilling to take responsibility (even if it isn't your fault). I would have done exactly what you did, and just offer to make his order right. Great job!!!

This is too funny.. especially since I've dealt with the public in every job since I was 16.. including the BMV.. and I gotta tell you it's not the workers there that are horrible people, it's the PUBLIC that makes them that way. You think you've been yelled at, at a job.. not till you've worked the BMV/DMV..:eek:

I agree with the poster that said.. don't do the sly/tell people off in a nice way. Believe me I've done it all.. and occasionally that one still rears it's ugly head :cool: But the kill'em with kindness works best.. Smile, be nice, AGREE with everything they say.. UNLESS they swear at you or call YOU names.. that's a deal breaker..no pay is worth that.

Very sage advice. You can say most anything to a person with a smile on your face and the right tone.

I had an older couple come into the restaurant one night and she was already in a fiercely bad mood when they walked in. She was snarly at the beginning and I knew it could potentially go badly. She was rude to the hostess who seated her, also to the server on the initial approach to the table. So I told the employee that I would take that table for her. She was very relieved. ;)

Throughout the course of taking the order and the serving, right on up to the end of the meal, she kept making verbal digs and jabs that were just plain rude. I continued to treat her with deferrence and smiled at her a lot while being verbally abused. I left them with their ticket and a 'y'all come back to see us again'....

Upon leaving, she came to me and apologized. Rightly so. At least I didn't have an employee off the floor in tears because of the attitude of a selfish and ruthless woman.

I might add that her dinner companion was embarrassed over the whole thing and was extremely nice. I felt badly for him.

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