Customer accused my colleague swearing to him!

santacruz_2

I work in retail and get no end of 'idiot' customers...however, I never say that to their faces, ever! Having said that I've been going through a stressful
time in my life and I've soooo nearly lost it with a customer and more so with my manager. Thankfully i haven't snapped. But I can understand if she's got family who is ill then she's going to think that someone who complains about a till at a supermarket is lucky to have only that to care about.

Good thing to do now is explain to her manager that shes very upset at the moment and apologises for losing it with a customer.

Wellery82

Good on your colleague. If someone called her a b1tch then i'd hope the duty manager simply sends the customer a reply saying that they are banned from the shop and backs her up in what she did. Its easy to say not to react but she has done and in my opinion offering her some support will probably benefit everyone more than a disciplinary

Gordon_Hose

Jimavfc82 wrote: »

Good on your colleague. If someone called her a b1tch then i'd hope the duty manager simply sends the customer a reply saying that they are banned from the shop and backs her up in what she did. Its easy to say not to react but she has done and in my opinion offering her some support will probably benefit everyone more than a disciplinary

He might have been going through some bad personal stuff too, so using your logic they should both be banned from the shop.

Wellery82

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

He might have been going through some bad personal stuff too, so using your logic they should both be banned from the shop.

Nothing to do with the personal stuff of either of them. Just if he was that rude in the first place then i can understand why she reacted, and also think the store have got to wonder if they really want that custom anyway.

Rupert_Bear

I worked for over 9 years in a customer complaints dept and had many abusive customers. Because the customer could not get their way some became very abusive. However I can say in all my time with this organization I never resorted to their level.

We all have our breaking point but to call a rude customer an idiot is totally out of order. You have lowered yourself to that customers level and as such reflects on yourself as well as the organization you represent.

Sharon87

At least she didn't do what my old Team Leader did at the cinema. A !!!!ed off customer threw her drink over the team leader, so the team leader threw a drink back in her face! I wish I had been there to see it, I just saw the aftermath of the customer leaving and kicking over a sandwich board out the door!

Sounds like OP's colleague's human, oh wait, of course we're all human! If someone really annoys you it's hard not to react. If a customer insulted me I would just refuse to serve them, in fact I've done that in the past.

katie89

She shouldn't of called him an idiot, but I find working in a customer service roll really frustrating, and I can sympathize with your colleague. In her position i'd of walked away and refused to interact with the man, personally, as we are told by the company I work for that we don't need to put up with aggressive or rude behavior from customers (the look on some of their faces when you refuse service sometimes is brilliant, as if no ones told these idiots "no" before ).

Hopefully if its a first time offence your colleague will just get a slap on the wrists.

Sambucus_Nigra

What is the procedure in store for dealing with abusive customers? Any one of you that overheard the remarks that you mention should have called security to deal with it. Don't you have a button that you press that turns a light on to bring a supervisor over?

When you wrote your witness testimonies, it should have included all the abuse that he said and your colleague simply saying 'Go to the basket till'; or are you all simple idiots yourselves?

williacg

Did the store not give training on how to (but more to the point, how not to) deal with rude or abusive customers?

GothicStirling

Under no circumstances is it acceptable to speak to a customer like that. No matter how abusive they are.

I've been called worse. My normal tactic is to go into a back room an swear.

I had one particular one last summer - and I was the manager! The guy even waited until I was doing a bank run to start abusing me again. All I could do was tell him to leave the premises, or the police would. What if he had the mind to post a review on TripAdvisor? The whole world would see that - and any potential employers.