As part of my Over To You theme, I was asked by Laura from Life With Baby Kicks about my worst ever customer.
I’ve had my share of drunken idiots (I work in a pub).
These range from people who think they know everything about running a bar simply because they’ve been in one, to young lads who try to show off to their friends, and people with zero manners.
These don’t bother me too much. A bit of sarcasm goes a long way with these types.
There’s also the free loader – someone who complains for no reason other than to try and get something free.
But there’s always that one customer who stands out above the crowd, and earns the title of worst customer ever. In this case, it was this one “gentleman” who rather than remaining nameless shall be referred to as Muppet for the remainder of this post.
Muppet personified everything that’s wrong with society. Ok, that’s probably going a bit far, but he personified everything that can be wrong with a customer. He ticked all the boxes mentioned above (except he wasn’t a young lad).
He was rude for starters. Never a please or thank you. Just one word “Carling”. Much as I don’t like this, I pick my battles and that was one I just let go. If you can reach your sixties (yes, definitely old enough to know better) without learning any manners, it’s probably too late to start. I did sometimes shout you’re welcome as he left the bar.
Muppet was a huge misogynist. He hated women and he seemed to believe that it was still the 50s and us women should “know our place”. I’m sure you can imagine how this went down with us. Unfortunately, he was very good at kissing ass with other men, so the committee generally believed we were being too sensitive.
He would stand all day making nasty comments and arguing with women, but if a man said anything to him, he would just agree with them.
I heard a rumour that Muppet’s ex-wife had cheated on him, and that’s why he was so bitter towards women. Whether or not this is true, I don’t know. The part I find hardest to believe was that he found a woman with low enough self esteem to actually marry him.
He constantly complained about things that there was nothing wrong with. He would drink his pint down to the last inch and then moan about it hoping to get another one for free. He would moan about the way we washed the glasses, where we kept them and a whole host of other silly things that I can’t even remember now.
All of this is stuff that you could sort of ignore if he was a good spender but he wasn’t. He would sit in the club for six or seven hours a day and make two or three pints last him (unless someone else was paying of course).
He regularly called the staff to other customers who used to tell us what he had said, sometimes in front of him. This one didn’t last long because the other customers would stick up for us, and then of course he had to back pedal because they were men.
I made no secret of the fact that I didn’t have any time for him, and he decided he was going to try and get me sacked.
The extent of his effort was to leave whenever I came on shift (which cheered me up no end, it was lovely to not have to deal with him) in the hope that something would be said about us losing his custom. What he didn’t know, but I did eventually tell him, was as soon as he walked out, I would get a round of applause for getting rid of him. I really shouldn’t have told him, because once he realised this tactic wasn’t working, he began to stay again.
One time, another customer’s dog did pee up his leg, which was good for a laugh. It was even better when he was calling
the customer a couple of days later. What he didn’t know was the person he was talking to was the man’s brother. Watching him try to dig his way out of that one was hilarious.
We probably could have had him barred out for some of the things he said about us, but it got to the point where it just went over our heads. No one took him seriously and it was, I think, more frustrating for him that we either didn’t react at all, or just laughed when someone told us what he had been saying.
He also had a nasty habit of making sexually suggestive remarks to some of the staff. I was lucky, he hated me far too much to say anything to me. He went too far eventually and one of the barmaids made an official complaint against him. He was barred out for a year. After the year, luckily he didn’t bother coming back.
It’s fair to say Muppet really isn’t a nice man. He’s barred from most of the clubs in town for similar behaviour. If he put as much effort into being nice as he did into being obnoxious, I think he would find the world a much better place, and be a lot less bitter.
Thanks for the question Laura 🙂
Have you ever had to deal with a horrible customer? What did you do? Let me know in the comments 🙂
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He sounds the absolute worst. I dont understand people like that. Surely its more tiring and difficult to be like that , than to just be nice to people.
He was! It’s got to be a lot of effort to be that angry and bitter all the time.
I worked in a petrol station where a customer paid for £100 worth of diesel by tipping a money bag on the counter and made me count it.
Good thing he did as he was a tenner short!
#effitfriday
Oh no way! He probably hoped you wouldn’t bother counting it and he’d get away with it!
Sounds a nightmare!! What a knob! Thank god you don’t have to see/deal with him anymore… The saying “the customer is always right” does NOT apply in some instances and this definitely sounds like one of those! Well done for standing your ground l!
He really was a knob! And whoever said the customer is always right never met him! Thank you 🙂
You must come across so many idiots like him right? I mean everytime I went ot the pub, I would bump into some kind of babe like that… Well done for saying what you think, you have to be strong to work in a pub #effitfriday
I meet a lot of idiots yeah lol. I think he’s the worst so far though because he incorporated every bad customer in one. Thank you 🙂
Gosh, he does sound terrible! I have had a couple of bad experiences and I have had to learn to just walk away.
He was. Mostly I walk away too, but if I’m in a narky mood, I’ll stand and argue with them lol. I’m quite lucky that where I work doesn’t expect us to take crap off people.
Bad customers are met everywhere. Inevitably, I’m afraid. After years of Customer service roles, I’ve learnt to switch myself off, take deep breaths in and let it pass. It’s not worth the bother. 🙂 Lovely post. #effitfriday
Yea, I know what you mean. I’m pretty thick skinned and it just bounces off me, but sometimes I admit I don’t bite my tongue. If people are being ass holes then I treat them that way too. Thank you 🙂
This is why I hide in the kitchen at my job. I don’t often have to deal with customers.
That sounds good! I think I might try hiding in the cellar lol 🙂
He tried to get you sacked??? That dog must’ve scented his ill-will before deciding to pee on him. Good dog! Hope you gave the dog a snack/ treat 🙂
Yeah, but luckily no one took him seriously! I think he probably did, dogs tend to know bad people don’t they. I definitely did 🙂
This line made me laugh out loud: The part I find hardest to believe was that he found a woman with low enough self esteem to actually marry him.
He sounds absolutely horrible! I guess you must meet all kinds, working in a pub.
I’ve dealt with horrible bosses more than customers, but when I was a teenager, I had a job I loved–working as a tour guide in a museum. It was super easy and a lot of fun, and I kept coming back each summer. I’d had that job for three summers in a row.
In the year between high school and college, I was working two other jobs in addition to the museum. One was at a convenience store, and a man who volunteered at the museum was a frequent customer.
At first I was happy to see someone I knew, but I soon realized he was a very different man when he was away from the museum. For one thing, he was absolutely obsessed with lottery tickets, to the point I suspected he had a serious gambling problem.
He once came in and asked for “50 quick picks with the extra.” No problem–I punched in the info and handed him his ticket, and he went ballistic! He’d meant for me to punch out a single quick pick with the extra…50 TIMES! There was no way to fix it, and he threw a fit. He left the store extremely angry, but it really wasn’t my fault, as he’d assumed I knew what he’d wanted, but he hadn’t bothered to tell me.
Which was bad enough, but he used whatever “power” he had as a longtime volunteer to keep me from getting my museum job back the following summer. I was so hurt and upset over that–I’ve never forgotten it.
He sounds like an absolute douche! First he expects you to be a mind reader, then to actually stop you getting your job back? I think karma will soon be biting him back!
Well, Muppet sounds like a nightmare. Some people brighten the room whenever they appear. Some when they leave.
He was! He definitely brightened the room when he left!
Yay!!! For answering the question. But massive boo to muppet, I’m glad that he eventually got barred. Sounds like he deserved it!
Though it made me think of my worst customer service moment, working in McDonalds, I used to do the breakfast shift and we had a regular who didn’t eat egg. One morning his order was wrong, he marched back up to the counter and launched said egg over into the face of the poor girl who served him!!!!!!
He definitely did!
Oh my god, that’s shocking! I hope he was barred too!