RantSome: A Personal Soapbox Site

Ever see someone totally go off on some poor checkout chick because some item (from a department the chick probably has never been in, let alone had any responsibility for) was mispriced? Or someone go ballistic on a waitress because their steak wasn't cooked the way they wanted (as if she personally cooked it or something)? Ever wonder why people think it's perfectly okay to act like complete assholes to anyone working in a service industry?

I have a theory on this. See, I used to work in the hospitality industry (i.e., I was a waitress at more than one place), and I also worked in retail (sales clerk, then floral designer working with... wait for it.... BRIDES). I got plenty of rude or ridiculously picky or downright abusive customers.

My theory is that the abusers are people who have no self-esteem and bigtime anger issues, and they feel that any person working in a service industry is theirs to abuse. You know, that "customer is always right" crap that people try use to justify even the most vile of behaviors. I've actually heard of people SAYING "It's your job to take my abuse," or words to that effect (and I have even heard of it being said to flight attendant, who is, of course, responsible for making sure you stay ALIVE in an emergency...).

I could give a long and possibly entertaining account of the many occasions on which I've had to deal with people like that, but there's no point, really. Every single one of them was either incredibly insecure (OMG, the ribbon on the custom cake top doesn't precisely match the swatch from the bridesmaid's dress, the wedding will be a complete failure, CHANGE IT RIGHT NOW and how DARE you make a very close but imperfect match for a swatch I didn't even bring when I placed the order!) or pretty clearly angry and taking it out on me (such as the mother of the heavily pregnant fourteen year old who was there to buy "It's a Boy" balloons and expected me know the precise order number for every one of the 200+ balloons in stock).

I'm always polite to people in any kind of customer service or hospitality job, because in fact I know that they are not paid to take abuse, they just end up getting it as an unhappy side effect of the job they are paid to do.

Okay, I admit, I'm not always polite to tech support, but mostly because I was a support tech and I can tell shitty support when I hear it, and it pisses me off that "Cheryl" (like, oh yeah, that's her real name, of course) in Bombay knows less about my computer and my internet connection than I do, and yet gets paid to go down a checklist and give me stupid advice. But bad tech support provided by people who aren't even in the country is another rant for another day...

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Rudeness and Service Industries