customer complained about me

[LazyHermitCrab]

So today really sucked. This person asked me if there was a gallon of chocolate milk and I said "I don't think so, but let me check." I checked and their wasn't. The customer replies "Oh, but did you check? And do you have this?!" In a angry tone. And that product wasn't there either. This person flipped out. This doesn't usually affect me, but today it did. I didn't look this person in the eye as the whining occurred. I was pissed off so it's how I dealt with it :: About twenty minutes later I get a call from a lady from the front desk and it was about how the customer complained about me. She then asked if I actually checked to see if it was there and I said "yes" because I did. And the person at the front desk was like "ok thank you, bye!" Am I getting fired? Should I call and quit before they fire me? I'm so mad.

 

[Anomaly]

What would you gain from quitting if they were indeed going to fire you? The way I see it, you can only lose by going that route, as it offers no advantages over getting fired and you may lose your job in haste for no reason.

 

[DespairSoul]

Hello,

Well i think u did nothing wrong. U just didn't find it and this can happened to anyone. People are sometimes demanding and they can complain about small things. If u don't do it like everyday and
people don't complain about u by front desk all the time u don't have to worry. Calm down and don't think about it they will fire u. I don't think so they will is just small thing. I hope u will feel soon better. U said usually u don't worry about it then please try it not worry now too Good luck tomorrow in work.

 

[Solitudes_Grace]

I can relate. I work at a grocery store, and I have dealt with customers like that before. Those types of customers often upset me. Sometimes, management doesn't help the matter either.

Don't sweat it too much. You shouldn't be fired because you didn't do anything wrong. Try not to worry about it. Hopefully, you will feel better tomorrow : )

 

[NVN]

You did nothing wrong. You did your job. Some people cannot be satisfied and some are just plain *******s.

I get yelled at EVERY day at my job. I shrug it off. I have a very short temper and I have to hold myself back from confronting people. One time someone just randomly decided to poke fun of me and thought he could get away with it by yelling at me quick and then closing the elevator door. I opened the door and corned him. Alone.

He won't do that to anyone else.

 

[LazyHermitCrab]

You did nothing wrong. You did your job. Some people cannot be satisfied and some are just plain *******s.

I get yelled at EVERY day at my job. I shrug it off. I have a very short temper and I have to hold myself back from confronting people. One time someone just randomly decided to poke fun of me and thought he could get away with it by yelling at me quick and then closing the elevator door. I opened the door and corned him. Alone.

He won't do that to anyone else.

This is a great story :: How did you open it though?

 

[NVN]

This is a great story :: How did you open it though?

The guy made the mistake of going into the freight elevator. It has a longer delay before it will start going to the selected floor than a passenger elevator. I hit door open button on the outside and walked in.

It was the longest elevator ride of his life. I made him feel like a dork.

Back on topic, you just have to shrug it off. I used to go home and think about all the bad things that happened to me all day. I would replay them in my head. I told myself that it is silly to dwell on the past and to forget about it.

 

[Hastings & Main]

No, you won't get fired, so I wouldn't worry. Managers and supervisors are usually very well acquainted with "bad" customers. Sometimes you may be admonished in front of the psycho-customer, but you'll get a 'don't worry about it' right after. There's a lot of p'd off people out there and often the local store employees are the way to vent their weirdness.
It can shake you up sometimes, but just think to yourself, "Okay - well, I'm not HIM, so I rock!".

 

[dottie]

no way, you're not getting fired! customers are a-holes and will complain about anything and everything. your managers have heard it a million times so don't trip, friend. the person is clearly a shthead. it is ok to laugh at them.

 

[GhoulsNightOut]

You did nothing wrong. You did your job. Some people cannot be satisfied and some are just plain *******s.

I get yelled at EVERY day at my job. I shrug it off. I have a very short temper and I have to hold myself back from confronting people. One time someone just randomly decided to poke fun of me and thought he could get away with it by yelling at me quick and then closing the elevator door. I opened the door and corned him. Alone.

He won't do that to anyone else.

That's bada**!

 

[dottie]

@nvn hahah wow! what did you say to this guy once you had him in the elevator?

 

[krs2snow]

I can't say whether or not u'll get fired. I have no idea based on the information u've provided. I do know that dealing w/customers can be extremely difficult. They can be demanding, impatient, rude and obnoxious all rolled up into one. However, when u're working at a place that depends on good customer service for its business they- meaning the "higher-ups"- won't want to hear about how awful the customer was as much as they will want to hear about how U handled things. It's a business. Bottom line. Businesses don't care who was rude or who said what. What a business cares about is the bottom line. Which is money. Meaning, did U cost them money? Does having U as an employee cost them money? If U answer "Yes"- u're days w/the Co. are limited. U're learning how things operate in "The Real World". Either way, Do Not call in and quit. That suggests one thing and one thing only, weakness. Wait it out. See what happens and learn from this siutation. And always remember, if U know what the business or Co. u are working for wants- U can work towards giving it to them. Step 101.

 

[superfluouslyme]

I think you'll be fine. Managers just need to know about these kinds of things. As long as you did the right thing, there should be no problem. I would suggest in the future when a customer gets upset to run it by your manager, even if you think it was nothing. That way, they have your side of the story first-hand and can deal with the irate customer. Your boss cannot back you up if they don't know about the incident until the customer bombards them with it later.

At my old pet store job, people threatened to call my boss a couple of times. One lady threatened to call corporate on me once. I was busy checking out a line of people and this little girl comes up, interrupts me as I'm talking to a customer, and asks if she can hold a rabbit or something. We have every right to say no, especially if the customer wants to touch, but not buy. We aren't a petting zoo. But it was a Sunday and I was feeling kind, so I told the girl if she could wait for a couple of minutes, I would meet her over by the cages. I get through the line of people, start heading over to the rabbits, and this woman comes up to me and asks me how I could say such a thing to her daughter. She throws the products she was going to buy on the counter, asks for my name, and says that corporate is going to hear about this. I was so stunned and terrified at the time. The girl obviously misheard me and the woman gave me no chance to explain myself. I told my boss immediately. She understood and said that I did nothing wrong. I hated my boss with a passion, but she said that she would always have my back as long as I did the right thing or came clean when I didn't. I think that is all any boss wants. They know that people are difficult and hard to handle.

 

[dottie]

 

[GhoulsNightOut]

Hmm...I like this. haha

 

[twiggle]

If that's the only time you've ever had any kind of negative feedback then I doubt you'd be fired for it.
Sounds to me like your boss probably found the customer annoying too, and only rang you just because I guess its an obligation to see that the right was procedure was done (i.e you checking to see if the product was there).
More to the point who throws up a rage just because they can't get the gallon of chocolate milk they're after?!

 

[twiggle]

I can't say whether or not u'll get fired. I have no idea based on the information u've provided. I do know that dealing w/customers can be extremely difficult. They can be demanding, impatient, rude and obnoxious all rolled up into one. However, when u're working at a place that depends on good customer service for its business they- meaning the "higher-ups"- won't want to hear about how awful the customer was as much as they will want to hear about how U handled things. It's a business. Bottom line. Businesses don't care who was rude or who said what. What a business cares about is the bottom line. Which is money. Meaning, did U cost them money? Does having U as an employee cost them money? If U answer "Yes"- u're days w/the Co. are limited. U're learning how things operate in "The Real World". Either way, Do Not call in and quit. That suggests one thing and one thing only, weakness. Wait it out. See what happens and learn from this siutation. And always remember, if U know what the business or Co. u are working for wants- U can work towards giving it to them. Step 101.

True to an extent but I think it would depend how big and successful the business is.

I work in Customer Service for a huge retail company and if anybody sends an email which is rude we are instructed as not to deal with it - because even if we lose that one customer its not a big deal because we still make lots of profit anyway.

I'm not sure that the absence of a chocolate milk sale or potential loss of a customer would make a huge dent in the store's profits, but then that depends on if we're discussing a small family-run convenience store or a huge corporate company with many outlets.

 

[Nanita]

Try not to let it bother you, but it´s hard I know!!
I worked for a webshop company, and everyday there was problems with customers, packages or the paperwork, and I would constantly be asked if I had send that package on time or if I had replied to that customer... and so on. Everything was kind of chaotic because this company was not at all organized and I basically had too many tasks at once.
I was very nervous about doing things all right, and I was afraid to be asked questions and getting criticized....
One day I was promoted, like out of nowhere, and I realized that I should try not to let the questions and critique affect me, because I was actually doing a good job.

 

[Remus]

Unless you do something pretty serious (gross misconduct), an employer has to give a verbal warning, then written warning and finally a disciplinary hearing.

I can't see that you caused even a minor misconduct. You just had an arsehole customer. Usually a manager will contact this customer and find out they are an arsehole for themselves.

 

[Alphasocket]

Don't worry about it. That customer obviously had sand in a particular area of their anatomy. I believe you won't get fired because you did what was required from you. What else could you have done?