How many times has it happened that a person justified their inappropriate and simply rude actions or words by the fact that at that moment they were in a bad mood, or they simply needed to take their anger out on someone? It doesn’t matter why, the important thing is that their unwitting victim was doubly upset then.
Often, the victims of such nervous breakdowns on the part of customers are store or cafe employees who are simply performing their own work duties. And then the principle ‘the customer is always right’ can also make the manager angry at them. As, for example, happened to the user u/luna_periwinkle, the author of the story that we’ll tell you today.
The author of the post is a store employee and they usually close at 10pm
Image credits: Peter Burka (not the actual photo)
So around 15 minutes before closing time, the staff starts counting the register and they ask belated customers whether they could pay with card
Image credits: u/luna_periwinkle
The author of the post did the same to this straggler customer, but she just started screaming at her in return
Image credits: Keira Burton (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/luna_periwinkle
The client ended up paying with cash anyway, and the manager later criticized the author for causing this outburst of anger from the woman
So, the Original Poster (OP) is a store employee and, in her own words, is completely dedicated to her work, literally putting her soul and heart in it. This situation turned out to be even more offensive. The thing is that the store where the author works usually closes at 10 pm, and about fifteen minutes before closing they start counting the register.
Accordingly, if some belated client arrives at these moments, the employees usually politely ask if they don’t mind paying by card - simply because counting the register is in process. Usually clients react to this question quite adequately, so this practice has lasted for a long time. But this time everything went wrong...
This woman walked into the store literally a couple of minutes before closing, and when the OP politely asked her that very standard question, the client suddenly burst into angry screams about how she was annoyed by such store employees, how they attacked her and berated her (although the author, in her own words, just stood and listened - she was not even allowed to get a word in).
In general, it all ended with the angry client, having spent almost 15 minutes on her tantrum, finally paying in cash and leaving with something like: “I can’t even deal with this, you guys are giving me so much anxiety." And the original poster just stayed at the register completely upset and devastated...
Image credits: Aranami (not the actual photo)
“Of course, we all have bad days when literally everything around us irritates us, but this is not at all a reason for being rude towards people just doing what they usually do,” says Vlad Ostrometsky, the administrator of UNIT Cafe in Odessa, Ukraine, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment on this described situation. “A similar practice exists in many stores and establishments, because employees quite logically do not want to work overtime - so when we count the register, we also ask belated customers whether it would be difficult for them to pay with a card.”
“It’s really more convenient for staff, but if a client wants to pay in cash, they have every right to do so. Of course, they talk about it quite calmly. Sure, over the years of work, everything has happened - sometimes clients behave inappropriately, but this is usually when they have had too much to drink. But here, as I get it, the client simply decided to take out her anger on someone. And this is completely unacceptable," Vlad summarizes.
By the way, in the post itself and in the comments below, the author first wrote that she probably made a mistake by not accepting cash from the client off the bat. On the other hand, few people probably could have predicted such a reaction from a customer to a completely innocent-sounding question. What also hurt and upset the OP was the reaction of her own manager, who literally criticized her for causing an outburst of negativity from the client soon after.
If the original poster expected to find support on the internet, then her expectations were fully justified. Commenters called out both the entitled client and the manager as well, arguing that for throwing such a fit, simply out of the blue, the author generally had the right to refuse service to the client.
“You didn't make a mistake. You made a polite and logical request to someone who was willing and able, but just threw a crybaby fit about it because their life sucks,” one of the folks wrote in the comments, and, as they say, there is nothing to add here. Well, maybe you have something to add, or just share your opinion?
However, commenters unanimously suppose the author didn't do anything wrong here, and it's inappropriate to take it out on someone
Image credits: Liza Summer (not the actual photo)
