I got my first customer complaint at work tonight

[The Lurker Below]

I kinda prefer it like that, but I can undestand that if you are used to niceties and smiles the Netherlands can be a bit of hostile place. Pleasantries just aren't apreciated here all that much, best advice ever should you revisited

Seriously? wtf over. One of the things that make annoying family, friends, and neighbors bearable is association with complete strangers that are generous and enjoyable to be around. Encountering random pleasantries keeps me filled with hope that my family, friends, and neighbors may at some point be less annoying. No really, brother, does living not come with enough unhappiness that we need to be unfriendly in random encounters?

[LittleGrizzly]

I am somewhat like you Hooah, calmness personified I have many friends who would like to see me actually lose my temper just to see what it looked like. I actually figured out at one point that I was worse off because of this. Usually being calm and reasonable is the best way but sometimes the situation does call for the cornered animal approach.

This doesn't really seem to be one of those situations though, advice about asking if it is okay to move onto the next customer seems the best way to go about it...

I shout at people on a (not American) football forum and can generally go a bit wild when watching football so I guess that is my release as I am probably too calm a person outside of that...

Do you have a particular sport or something you enjoy supporting?

Preferably something where you can lose all common sense and give into more animal instincts, I actually really enjoy it, the football is good too sometimes ;)

[Visor]

I used to work in retail (in a relatively small (not very small really) town), at a service station adjoined with a post office.

I had some nice customers, and I had some shitty ones. The worse ones I remember was the old man who kept asking how my sex life was going (smile and say good, first time he asked me, my mind went blank, and I just reverted to autopilot, which was to smile and nod), the aboriginal guy who came in and started swearing at me about the price of chicken breast and everything else, calling me and the business pieces of shit and the like. I just told him that 'x' was the price, I wasn't taking any shit from him (for reference, I was about 65kg and around 178cm then, had a bit of muscle on me, whereas he was maybe 190+, and a lot of muscles), in the end he paid for two, and didn't take his change. I've had people tell me the exact price of the things I'm getting for them (normally cigs), which pisses me off. I've had people ask for ridiculously complex orders and been rude and etc, however, there are the ones who remember your name, remember who you are, willing to have a conversation with you. And my bosses were good too, which made it better to work there. I used to work 5 days a week 10-11 hours, and it was alright pay for me at the time. Wouldn't do it again unless I had to though.

Only piece of advice I can give you is to never show any anger in front of the customer. Let off steam in the back or if no-one is around.

[Fragony]

Seriously? wtf over. One of the things that make annoying family, friends, and neighbors bearable is association with complete strangers that are generous and enjoyable to be around. Encountering random pleasantries keeps me filled with hope that my family, friends, and neighbors may at some point be less annoying. No really, brother, does living not come with enough unhappiness that we need to be unfriendly in random encounters?

It's not really rudeness, just informal, etiquette is different here. If you are overly friendly to a stranger he/she will think you are pulling a leg. If you don't care about how someone is doing just don't ask, it's just how we do things here.

Fun read from foreigners perspective http://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2011...ch-directness/

[The Stranger]

people can be annoying, they can b1tch about unimportant things or take very long time to decide on something (inertia... fk ye!)

but the fault was not with the girl, you should file a complaint about the enviroment you work in imo, doesnt sound very safe/well organised...

[lionhard]

If you let people wind you up they surely will, i find playing football or going the gym a good release. But weirdly enough i also find just shouting random stuff at the top of my voice works too (normally the worst swear words u can think of) so when im stressed from work, it feels good :~)

[Papewaio]

If you want more practice become a moderator :)

[Vuk]

You should have kicked her to the ground while screaming "THIS IS -insert name of institution you are working at-!"
That would have been good customer service.

[Kadagar_AV]

I hate corporatism. This is just why.

Hooahguy, I salute you!

Over here in Austria, we have little pretence of putting up with idiots. When I worked in bars here, it is general standard that if a guest don't know what they want when you address them, you give them a hateful look and move on to the next guest. You are also completely free to completely neglect that guest for the rest of the evening. Or week. Or life.

A guest of mine left his skis at the ski deposit. He lost his voucher saying where they were, and solidly claimed they were not where he had left them. He described them, and the staff promised to have a look.

When he returned the next day he was handed the skis, but somehow it now stood "you idiot" in permanent marker on them.

A woman in her 40's, carrying her skis over her shoulders, suddenly turned around and hit a friend of mine on the head. She went "Oooops, sorry.."

He pushed her so she fell to the ground and went "Oooops, sorry, moron!"

I had a kid in my ski group who bit not one, but two other kids. I locked the kid in the dog kennel and called the parents to pick him up. They actually went to the police about it. The policemen high fived me and dropped the case.

I effin LOVE Austria at times :)

Don't get me wrong, service here is EXTRAORDINARY... I for one just sweated my arse off helping older tourists with way too heavy bags up some brutal stairs. Everyone here wants the tourists to have a good time, and are glad to go out of their way to assure it.

But. We. Do. Not. Put. Up. With. Idiots.