Hello TFR! I've posted before, but for those of you who missed it, I work in a juice bar in a grocery store. My job is ~60% food service and 40% customer service. Since I'm the first person people see on my side of the store, I get hit with all the complaints/questions/'where do you keep...?'s/'you're out of...'s/'is there any ... in the back?'s/whatever else pops into the customer's head. I don't mind it, but sometimes I'm just floored by the stuff that comes out of people's mouths.
Some necessary information before I begin: Our juice is pricy. It's freshly pressed and made to order in most cases, so our small (7 oz) is $5, our medium (12 oz) is $7, and our large (16 oz) is $9, at the very cheapest. We also recently found out that the fill line we've been filling to was giving people 2-4 ounces extra per drink, so we've been cracking down on only giving people the exact amount that they pay for. It doesn't seem like an awful lot, but those extra couple ounces add up really quickly.
On with the story: A few days ago, a regular who I'll call Honest Lady (or HL for short) comes up to our counter and orders a couple drinks. HL is the type of person who always seems impatient and annoyed, and she really likes to micromanage us while we're making her orders (telling us how to make it, what to make first, how to handle it etc), so usually if she's not annoyed when she comes in, she's miffed by the time she leaves for one reason or another. Fine -- people get mad. I get mad. I really want to not be upset or have her be upset, so I commit to following every instruction I'm given and getting the drinks out just as she comes back from the register so they're put into her hands fresh. She seems pleased, and I'm pleased -- I've done my job, hooray! I tell her to have a great day and she starts to turn away, so I go to clean up my station.
HL: Excuse me, miss? This is two larges and a medium.
Me: Oh Gosh, I'm sorry, I didn't take the order. What did you pay for?
HL: It's fine -- I know she (my coworker) took it. I got two mediums and a large.
It's a simple enough fix. I take the drink she indicated should be medium
HL: It's fine.
Me: thinking she means the situation is fine Yeah -- it's a really quick fix. I'll just put it in a medium cup and you can be on your way :)
HL: No, it's fine. as I switch out the cups You can leave it in there.
Me: Oh I'm sorry, I thought you wouldn't want to go through the line again.
HL: I don't, but I mean, it's fine if you just want to give me that indicating the large cup
Me: Well, we're not allowed to give out free product, so unless you want to pay for it I can't do that. I'm sorry your order was processed inaccurately, but it looks like the express registers are free so it should only take a minute to fix it.
HL: Just dump it in here. You didn't fill it all the way, anyway.
I can sense she's getting annoyed now and I'm trying my best to handle this in a way where she understands why I'm not giving her what she's asking for, but I'm starting to panic a little. I don't want anyone to be upset with me and she's looking more and more annoyed.
Me: Sorry about that -- That line right there is the liquid fill line, so that is the amount of juice you paid for and I'd be more than happy to measure it out for you so you know we're not trying to cheat you out of anything. If you want to get refunded for the medium and pay for the large, I'd be happy to keep the cup in my refrigerator until you come back.
HL: impatiently It's fine -- just dump it in.
She shoves the cup at me and at this point I'm really uncomfortable. I want to stick to policy and I don't want my manager to be upset with me, I don't want this lady to be upset with me, and if she'd just pay for what she was asking for everything would be fine. I hesitate, and she just keeps repeating 'it's fine' with varying amounts of force and telling me to give her the rest of the juice.
Me: I'm sorry but if you don't want to pay for the rest of the large, I can't give you any options aside from taking the medium. It doesn't seem like a lot, but my manager's been cracking down on this because of the money we've been losing. I realize it's a new policy, but you are getting all 16 ounces.
HL stares at me for a moment, and I can see the rage building in her eyes. I'm pretty done at this point -- I don't like how she's been talking to me and I really don't like when people try to badger me into doing what they want. She clearly wants to be rewarded for telling me about my mistake, and I'm not giving in.
HL: putting the top back on her juice Fine, I figured because, I don't know, HONESTY...
She keeps muttering to herself, packing up her stuff really slowly so she can continue to hit me with super well thought out arguments for why I should have just given her a large like 'I was honest -- you should have just given it to me' and 'never be honest again in this place' and something about robbing her. I'm speechless because I'm literally giving her exactly what she paid for. She keeps shooting me glares and I'm getting so anxious. I want everyone to be happy and no one is happy. I'm trying to find something to say that would fix everything but I have no idea what I should say.
Eventually I just told her to have a nice day and went to calm down in the back. I went to tell one of the managers, and he said he thought the whole situation was stupid and HL was childish for wanting a reward for being honest, so at least I know that they were on my side, but I still felt bad that HL didn't understand why she wasn't getting what she was asking for. I was being as honest as I could, but I guess it just didn't get through :(
Submitted July 04, 2016 at 07:03AM by itsathrow-away http://ift.tt/29fR9pW TalesFromRetail
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