What is the rudest customer encounter, any examples?

[GemFever]

After this, we need a thread expressing the GOOD things we encounter, because right now, I'm very, very sad for our world.

I'm Asian and went to high school in a predominantly white, Rocky Mountain state. I get a lot of "you speak English so well!" comments, which I find hilarious. I learned long ago to just laugh inside when people say that.

For reference, and this is not to be braggy but rather set the context for my rude incident, I've always been strong in English (in fact, it's my native language), got an 800 on the SAT Verbal and Writing and 5s on my AP English tests, majored in English, went to law school, and oh, I'm an English teacher now. Completely contrary to the Asian stereotype, I don't enjoy or do math well

Now, knowing all of that, my story is that once upon a time, during college, I worked as a cashier at Staples over the summer (this is in my predominantly white hometown). A little old lady comes up, I'm ringing her up, we're having a nice little exchange of pleasantries. A few minutes pass as I finish her transaction. Right as we're done, I say something like "Thanks, have a great day" and she says, "I'm sorry, I can't understand you because your people don't speak our language." WTF??? Being all of 19 years old, I had no idea how to respond to that. Especially as we had JUST finished a conversation. To this day, I'm still not sure what the heck happened! I told my manager after she left, and he was flabbergasted. Just shocked that someone would say that.

Maybe she was losing her marbles?

 

[gammygam]

Two incidents: I waited tables when I was 16-21.

1) A large group of ladies came in (16+) and called me an as*h*le to my face in front of my manager as they were forced to pay the mandatory 15% gratuity. My manager did nothing and I was mortified.

2) A disgusting perverted middle aged guy loved to come in at nights and order a dessert and flirt with the waitresses. I had the very unfortunate experience of waiting on him for the first time where he told me, a 16 year old girl, that the night before he went to a strip club and saw a girl who looked just like me. He then winked and grabbed my butt and said "Now I know what you look like naked" in the most lewd fashion possible. I cried in the back and my manager had a chat with him but let him stay. Sigh.

 

[wireshield]

I think I will post what can be done to get even with rude customers.
I never did it myselft and I do not recomend it to anybody.
- Find where they live and piss on there doors.
- Find their fotos on net, print it and post photos around where they live with fake nasty message.
- Do they ride a bike? Get a U-shaped padlock, attach to a wheel, throw out a key.
- Pull out cell phone camera, point at them and smile like you are insane. Don't say a word.
I never did it myself and I do not recommend it to you.

 

[missy]

I am sorry you had to experience that. I've learned that people like that are miserable people, and there's nothing to do about them. As you witnessed, it was not personal, and that person was miserable to everyone. There's no point in "getting back" at someone like that at cost to you, because it will be done for you. I'm so happy for you that you kept yourself on the high ground. If you had said something, I would have been fine with that too, but that would have taken a lot of emotional energy and may have had bad consequences for your employment. It's best to waste minimal energy on people who take energy from others.

I had a rude experience as a customer, but it has nothing to with being a customer, but being a human being. I am not Caucasian, and I had someone at a computer store ask me if I was X. I replied yes, and then they made a rude comment about how "my people" had been responsible for a shooting in the US. I was so shocked that I didn't even have a reply and left my computer there to be repaired. If I had had my wits about me, I would have said something back, and left with my computer in hand.

It gave me a new understanding of why many people are not comfortable being asked "what are you" when you first meet them. I am sure many people have negative experiences with this, not just me. I don't ask anymore because It doesn't matter to me, and I would hate for someone to think it did, or for them to feel like I am eyeing them as a "curiosity" and singling them out as not being like everyone else. It's not a welcoming feeling. I don't mean to start a big discussion on this, as I know some people are fine with asking and being asked. That's not my personal choice anymore.

EDIT: I wrote this before I saw Sarahbear's response. It's too bad things like this still happen.

This isn't a customer encounter but it is still the rudest thing anyone has EVER said to me.

We are military and DH got stated in the midwest- in the center of the bible belt. We are also Jewish. When we first moved there it was around the holiday season. We went to the holiday party where Ham was the main meal so obviously my DH and I didn't eat it. After some inquiring someone at the table asked if we were Jewish and we responded that we were. Then the caos began. For the rest of the night his co-workers introduced us as G-ds chosen people. Not mr and mrs. Sarahbear or by our first names. Then the woman in charge of the spouse club came up and said she didn't feel comfortable with me attending spouse events followed by several other wives who said they hoped I would never have children as they would burn in hell unless they were saved. For a young and brand spanking new military wife I can't even tell you how I felt about this. We left as soon as we could. We were still there for 9 months but I pretty much has no social life.

Granted since then we have pretty much loved everywhere else we have been stationed and the people whom we have met. But I will never forget that night or how we were treated. We now actively avoid that base and will pretty much take any assigement no matter how bad to not be near it....especially since we have children now

EDit for grammer and spelling

After this, we need a thread expressing the GOOD things we encounter, because right now, I'm very, very sad for our world.

I'm Asian and went to high school in a predominantly white, Rocky Mountain state. I get a lot of "you speak English so well!" comments, which I find hilarious. I learned long ago to just laugh inside when people say that.

For reference, and this is not to be braggy but rather set the context for my rude incident, I've always been strong in English (in fact, it's my native language), got an 800 on the SAT Verbal and Writing and 5s on my AP English tests, majored in English, went to law school, and oh, I'm an English teacher now. Completely contrary to the Asian stereotype, I don't enjoy or do math well

Now, knowing all of that, my story is that once upon a time, during college, I worked as a cashier at Staples over the summer (this is in my predominantly white hometown). A little old lady comes up, I'm ringing her up, we're having a nice little exchange of pleasantries. A few minutes pass as I finish her transaction. Right as we're done, I say something like "Thanks, have a great day" and she says, "I'm sorry, I can't understand you because your people don't speak our language." WTF??? Being all of 19 years old, I had no idea how to respond to that. Especially as we had JUST finished a conversation. To this day, I'm still not sure what the heck happened! I told my manager after she left, and he was flabbergasted. Just shocked that someone would say that.

Yeah, these are all pretty dismal experiences. I am disheartened to read everyone's posts here but sadly not surprised at all. Even growing up in NYC you can see the intolerance of others though not nearly to the extent that others have in other parts of our country or world. That is one reason I have no desire to leave a major urban area. I don't care to deal with bigotry and intolerance and stupidity and though I encounter it here occasionally it wouldn't be the same if I was living somewhere else away from a major city. No offense to anyone living in those areas. It's just being jewish and married to a catholic man well, we wouldn't fit in with some of those communities. And reading Sarah's post just reinforces what my dh has been telling me as I fantasize moving someplace less expensive to retire so we can retire.

It also upsets me greatly when people refer to different ethnicities with derogatory terms and they don't even realize the term/word is derogatory. Someone I like quite a bit used a word the other day to refer to Asians and I was totally shocked. I gently told him you know, that word is not used anymore because it is not acceptable as people (including me) find it offensive and he was like really? And then a week later someone else used the same word! What the heck is going on? Are some people just living in a bubble or what?

IDK, it's 2013 and in some way we are overly sensitive and overly PC but in another way we can still be so backwards. It's upsetting, it's heartbreaking but I have to chalk a lot of it up to ignorance vs maliciousness. Though what happened to Sarah and others here is just evil IMO.

 

[bunnycat]

This isn't a customer encounter but it is still the rudest thing anyone has EVER said to me.

We are military and DH got stated in the midwest- in the center of the bible belt. We are also Jewish. When we first moved there it was around the holiday season. We went to the holiday party where Ham was the main meal so obviously my DH and I didn't eat it. After some inquiring someone at the table asked if we were Jewish and we responded that we were. Then the caos began. For the rest of the night his co-workers introduced us as G-ds chosen people. Not mr and mrs. Sarahbear or by our first names. Then the woman in charge of the spouse club came up and said she didn't feel comfortable with me attending spouse events followed by several other wives who said they hoped I would never have children as they would burn in hell unless they were saved. For a young and brand spanking new military wife I can't even tell you how I felt about this. We left as soon as we could. We were still there for 9 months but I pretty much has no social life.

Granted since then we have pretty much loved everywhere else we have been stationed and the people whom we have met. But I will never forget that night or how we were treated. We now actively avoid that base and will pretty much take any assigement no matter how bad to not be near it....especially since we have children now

EDit for grammer and spelling

Wow. It still amazes me the stupidity of some people....FWIW you get people like that here in TX as well. I remember at a grocery store one time while I was in college (and was dressed in black) and picking up some Halloween candy to give out and some crazy bat came up and asked me if I wanted to burn in hell because I was "celebrating Halloween" and how I better ask for forgiveness so I didn't lose my soul. We also get a lot of people like that who knock on doors prosthelytizing. I don't answer doors anymore if I'm not expecting anyone over.

 

[Amber St. Clare]

This isn't a customer encounter but it is still the rudest thing anyone has EVER said to me.

We are military and DH got stated in the midwest- in the center of the bible belt. We are also Jewish. When we first moved there it was around the holiday season. We went to the holiday party where Ham was the main meal so obviously my DH and I didn't eat it. After some inquiring someone at the table asked if we were Jewish and we responded that we were. Then the caos began. For the rest of the night his co-workers introduced us as G-ds chosen people. Not mr and mrs. Sarahbear or by our first names. Then the woman in charge of the spouse club came up and said she didn't feel comfortable with me attending spouse events followed by several other wives who said they hoped I would never have children as they would burn in hell unless they were saved. For a young and brand spanking new military wife I can't even tell you how I felt about this. We left as soon as we could. We were still there for 9 months but I pretty much has no social life.

Granted since then we have pretty much loved everywhere else we have been stationed and the people whom we have met. But I will never forget that night or how we were treated. We now actively avoid that base and will pretty much take any assigement no matter how bad to not be near it....especially since we have children now

EDit for grammer and spelling

I'm a Southern baptist and am MORTIFIED that you encountered this!!!