- Date posted
- 2y
Abusive customer (any advice from retail workers?)
Hi, I have been bothered by a recent event at my work. I sent an email to my company's HR which they said they would forward to the retail leader. I have been ruminating so much and trying to stop, but it is just too hard. It is long but here is the email I sent: "Hello, I am a cashier at (a retail drugstore). I am not sure this is the right person to email but I will let you know anyway. I wanted to ask you about a situation involving a rude customer I had. She came to the register with cereal and said the price was different on the shelf than what was ringing up. I went to check the shelf but could not find the tag for the cereal, but I couldn’t find it. I went all the way to the cereal aisle to check for her. Then, I called over the manager and he checked the price with a scanner and the price ringing up was correct. The lady said in an irritated tone that “could you just give it to me anyway?” for the price she thought it was. Then, we needed an approval for the price modify, and I told her my manager has to approve it. She said thank you to him. She was complaining about something, and I told her “we’re short staffed and there are only two of us”. She didn’t like that and I told her “then why don’t you apply here” to which she said “excuse me” or something like that. I didn’t mean it in a rude way, we really need the staff and I felt she was not understanding our situation and was being rude. If she thinks there are not enough people then she should apply and help us or see what it is like! I felt like she should see how it is for us before she says something. She was older and later maybe I thought I shouldn’t say that to an older person, but then again we do have older staff at our store. I have no disrespect for the elderly, by the way. Then, I accidentally forgot to ring up her wine and she thought I rung it up, and I tried to explain to her by showing her the receipt that I didn’t ring it up. She also complained about the tags not being right. Putting the tags is not even my job. I really felt she was being too rude to me and I stood up for myself and said, “you don’t have to be so rude”. I have hardly told customers that. She said you are never supposed to tell customers that and I could get in trouble for it and that she wasn’t being rude, and I told her “you have no right to disrespect us”. I might have told her you are being rude, after she said she wasn’t, honestly I can’t remember. She said “you should not be working here” and I told her “I should be working here” and she said “okay “. I also told her she “can shop somewhere else”. Later, she told me she thought I had already rung up her wine and maybe mentioned the cereal issue again and I told her, it happens. I don’t know if she was trying to apologize, but the incident nearly made me cry. My voice was breaking talking to customers for some time after. I feel that customers have no right to be so rude to us. She didn’t swear it anything, but I felt she was excessively rude. I have never had anyone in the nearly year and a half I have worked for this company tell me I shouldn’t deserve to have my job. I don’t mean to boast or anything, but I feel like I have done an excellent job and have gotten many positive comments from both customers and employees. People have even said I should get a raise. I have had one supervisor tell me I am one of the best employees they’ve ever seen. I have told a few other customers to not be so rude, and they were not so nasty back. That lady hurt my feelings. I don’t feel I did anything wrong. I got the supervisor to modify the cereal price, I bagged her stuff for her, rang up her items and accidentally forgot to ring up her wine. I said hello to her when she came to the register. I can’t think of what I did to her for her to be so rude. I want to know, did I handle this properly? I have been told by past supervisors that customers don’t have the right to treat us wrong. If I didn’t handle this right, then how can we deal with these kind of people? I know people complain about wrong prices and other things, and that’s fine, but this lady was just too much for me to not defend myself. I think she was just too much to just say “sorry” to. But why should I apologize if I didn’t even do anything wrong? She should apologize to me for having such a nasty attitude for nothing! Other people don’t act like that, even if we mess up. I felt like considering quitting because of this. I told my supervisor about it as well afterwards and he heard some of the things I said. He didn’t tell me that I did something wrong. With OCD, it feels even harder to deal with. I am so proud of myself for the hard work and dedication I have put into this job. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you...Hello, I forgot to add that the lady said something was “terrible”, I can’t remember what. I think things like this could be avoided if we had more than just two people in the evening. Other places have more and even our store used to have more. Maybe more people could have helped. Thank you". I don't know if you have worked in retail before but if you did, did I screw up? I don't mean this as reassurance in an OCD way, I just really want to make sure. Thank you so much.