Working in customer service is a special kind of hell, but luckily lots of us have suffered in this hell together. Whether you worked in customer service in high school or are doing it now, here are some things that have definitely happened to you if you’ve worked in customer service.
1. An older person has hit on you or said something that has made you uncomfortableThis might happen more to female workers, but I’m sure this has happened to everyone. It is always the absolute worst.
2. A middle aged woman has lost her shit at you over a coupon
There’s always that one lady who refuses to accept that her coupon expired two years ago or doesn’t apply to the products she is buying. She will bully you until you give in and call your manager, and then she’ll bully them until she gets 50 cents off her Activia yogurt. Totally worth it.
3. Someone has given you a hard time over something you have no control over (points, prices, store hours, promotions)
This kind of relates to the last point, but it goes beyond that. There are some customers who will hold you personally responsible for the price of their bananas or the fact that the store closes at 9:00 p.m. instead of 10:00. As a minimum wage employee working part time, I definitely deserve to be yelled at because we don’t do price match here. Thank you so much for that.
4. A customer has lingered way longer than they should have and stopped you from doing your work
Some chatty person is going to stand in your line or engage you in conversation and refuse to leave even though you have six other people waiting for your attention — and it’s so awkward because what are you supposed to do? Just start serving the next person? Make everybody else wait while this person tells you about their cat?
5. A child has been so horribly behaved that you’ve been tempted to discipline them yourself since their parent doesn’t seem to be doing anything
Why the hell do parents think that they don’t have to discipline their children while in public? I’m not your babysitter. Get your damn kids to behave and stop trashing the store!
6. A customer has come in right before closing and forced you to stay late to serve them
We’ve all had to deal with that one person who comes in three minutes before closing and needs a ton of assistance, completely oblivious to the fact that the entire store is empty, the lights are turning off and two employees are locking the doors with the two of us still inside. The store hours are posted everywhere, bud. Please don’t do this to me.
7. An asshole is talking on the phone about something completely unnecessary while you’re trying to serve them
The most annoying thing in the whole world is when you have a list of questions you have to ask before you can start serving a customer, and you can’t because they’re on the phone, especially when they’re talking about something that could definitely wait two minutes. Just hang up your damn phone, dude, and tell me if you want bags.
8. Working with that one person who refuses to do their job and leaves all the work to you
You know the person I’m talking about: they’re always chatting with coworkers, wandering away from their station, getting glasses of water or going to the bathroom. They are somehow never in the right place to actually serve customers. Even worse, these are always the coworkers who constantly bitch about how much they want to go home and how long their shifts are.
9. Someone has shared something extremely random and personal with you and you have had no idea how to respond
Nothing is more awkward than finishing with someone’s order, asking them if they want to pay cash or credit and having them respond: “my husband died three years ago.” I’m so sorry to hear about that. Your change is $4.37 and your receipt is in the bag. Have a nice day.