Yeah I worked retail..people are dicks generally..with an occasionally nice customer..

That is really sad. I always try to be respectful of service workers. My ex-wife was a waitress and a store clerk for a while, and she helped to see what they go through.

I spent most of my working life in customer service. Your post is spot on.

As young people my older siblings all worked in restaurants.
I have never forgotten their experiences. I also never did that because I knew with my temper I'd knock someone's block off if they pinched me.
I worked in the cafeteria in college - but was behind a counter! lol

Even working reception this kind of crap happens. People don't get it?
That person is just representing a company - it's way higher up then them.

That could be YOU standing there taking the abuse.

I actually got a cashier recently who had just been the brunt of someone's displeasure - and I just listened to her and acknowledged she wasn't crazy and the person had been rude.

It's not that hard to be nice. People need to figure this out?

Very little you said that I disagree with, I am a strong supporter of a livable minimum wage and against the use of multiple part time employees to fill fulltime jobs. As an employer in a business where customer service is important, I expect my employees to be curious, polite and friendly but, I expect them to speak out is a customer behave poorly if they don't then they can expect disciplinary attaction as it is an OHS violation not to.

Wow was just thinking of how unrealistic that is to the customers. Think that an employer would encourage a sick employees to seek medical care rest etc so that the employee could give the customers the best treatment in hope of repeated business.

"Then they should have gotten an education so they don't have to work there."

J/K; you told the story of my adult life. And someone is always going to have to do those jobs; it's not fair to attach shame to them.

Worked a lot of customer service jobs too. Reading your post reminds me of Ehrenreich's book 'Nickel and Dimed' . Even in Florida there's got to be something better. I know Florida's a right to work (for less) state but there has to be some jobs with union representation. I definitely know what you're going through. Take care. With you in the struggle.

I used to work for a municipal government. There were some good things about it, for sure. But, it was also like wearing a target on your back! I left. Now I'm a teacher. Hmm, something strangely familiar.......

Sometimes when I talk to someone quite younger than me I find myself saying, "back in the old days" and I hated when I was young when they said that to me. But it was better back in the 50's and 60's. My first real job in 1965 was at a chain grocery store stocking shelves $1.75 hr., it was a union job minimum wage was $1.35! People earned a very livable wage then. Anti-unionism to me has strangled our wage earners and thus ridiculous wages of today.

Thankfully Canada has universal healthcare and an almost decent minimum wage, approx.$11/hr, it differs by province. Still too much of what you say is on the nose. I worked over 25yrs in the service industry, from busboy to manager and saw verbal, physical and mental abuses by customers and employers that would shock most people not familliar with the industry. From cooks that would wager each night which of them could make a waitress cry first, to employers making servers wait for up to 3 hours, without pay, then sending them home because it didn't get busy enough. If you complained, your shifts were cut or you were simply let go. Lots more where you came from. My best advice to anyone in the industry is this: Be polite, courteous, helpful and attentive. Do your best to provide the highest level of service you can, but don't forget to respect yourself and don't allow anyone to disrespect you. You have value even when others don't or won't see it.

How people treat clerks etc is possibly the best indication of character I know. Even if service help aren't at their best, I assume they are having a shitty day for whatever reason and it's even more important to treat them with dignity and respect. We're all in this together.

Though only addressing a part of this it means a lot to me. I & most of my family has worked in sales or customer service often over the years, including retail & food service. One of the biggest indicators for me, when on a date, is how my date responds to & treats the wait staff or the clerks in a store. If she flings attitude & rudeness instead of empathy, that will be a final date.

The concept that "the customer is always right" was a lie from the beginning, a lie that sold.

God damn. Why can’t people just be nice to one another and show respect. It’s such a simple thing.

I am pretty sure if I had to work in 'customer service' the phrase "I will cut you" would be my name tag....I did work in as a 7-11 clerk back in the late 80's for a brief amount of time....but, during my shift, I called it an inconvenience store....when regulars walked in, I greeted them with either a 'whadaya want now?' or 'not you again'. New customers got a 'buy at your own risk'. The owner was the worst....a drunken 5' tall texan who had so many DUI's that his 7-11 eventually lost it's license..but the benefit was that he said,"Don't put up with no shit...if a customer is causing a problem, kick him out...it's not like we will run out of customers..."...haha! Rowdy Roddy Piper was a semi-regular....he got the 'not you again'....haha...he was awesome.

I quit a job at an insurance call center last year because I absolutely positively could not take it anymore. My job was arguing with stupid people all day who thought they knew my job better than I did. And like you said, people could stand to learn that the person helping you when you call someplace are NOT the people who make the policies, set the prices, etc.

My favorite was people who would immediately start bitching about the hold times. I always wanted to say, "What makes you think I have any control over that?" Or the idiots that would call for a quote, and then complain about the quote. "I'm not going to pay that. Why should I pay that much for this policy?!" What good does it do to bitch at me because you don't like the price? I always wanted to say, "Look, a$$hole, if you don't want it, DON'T BUY IT. Problem solved!"

Let me give y'all a piece of advice while we're at it: always, ALWAYS ask questions about something BEFORE you buy it. I can't tell you how many times I had to listen to people bitch and moan and threaten to file lawsuits because they bought insurance ASSUMING it would cover something it didn't. (And what happens when we ASSUME, boys and girls?) There's a big difference between being a victim of fraud and being someone who couldn't be bothered to read the contract.

I work customer service in Scottsdale (aka SNOTSdale). It seems like the people with the most money are the cheapest sons of bitches out there, and want something fo nothing. I am always polite, and will bend over backwards for a nice customer. But if someone is an ass? I'll do as little for them as possible. The customer is NOT always right, and I never allow someone to treat me like shit.

The only time the customer is always right is when they treat you right. Or if the commision on the sale makes it worthwhile for you to put up with thier crap !

People really do shoot the postman for the letter.

A couple of years back in Asda (the UK branch of Walmart), I saw a customer who wasn't looking where she was going push her trolley into one of the shopfloor workers. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said - and then looked down her nose at him and added "What am I apologising to you for? You're just a shop assistant."

Fortunately, as a customer, I was in a position to tell her she ought to be ashamed.

Well stated. I judge people by how they treat customer service and food service people. If tey are rude to them, or treat them as if they are less-than, I wash my hands of them. Of course, I tell them why and suggest to them they it is, in fact, they who are beneath the lowly customer service person.

Wow your experiences sound horrendous, sorry you've been through that. I'm not sure if people are that bad in the UK and Australia. I've found most people ok and just a few getting too personal in Australia. Or maybe that's just me. (Also you can bar them or stop serving them if you're in a pub, which is great!)

Very true - same culture in the UK and people in low paid customer service roles often have to use leave / holiday time as sick also if sick "too much" to be covered in work schemes /contracts.

I get sick quite often because crew and customers come to eat or work sick. I think I have more nice customers than the rude ones. This old senior was rude. I got my boss, he was rude to her as well. He wanted free things without a purchase. He thought he was entitled and privileged. Seniors tend to think that when they rudely ask for a senior drink. "I get a free drink?!" No, you ask like this: "May I please have a senior drink?" So many elderly people are rude about it.