[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Lostie!

Treating customers with respect and telling them they're right when they're wrong aren't the same thing. You don't have a special right to go into a store and treat the workers like pieces of dog **** just because you're "the customer". Plenty of other customers manage to be perfectly nice, it's not that difficult.

Respect goes both ways. What about the customers who have a habit of tampering with stock because they think they for some reason have a right to open things without buying them or who leave litter in the aisles (and hidden behind stock in some cases)? They're "right" just because they happened to set foot in the store?

I treat every single customer I meet with respect upon meeting them but, like every person on the planet, I have a limit for how much arseholery I can take. I won't flat out turn round and tell them I think they're an arsehole but I also won't fluff up their ego and treat them like they're absolutely justified in being an arsehole when they're not.

And frankly, if I saw some dickhead like the guy in this story trying to take a picture of me to get some attention on Twitter, I'd happily lose my job for the chance to let them know what pond life they were.

You have moved the goalposts there, I am talking about serving customers, if they are rude or demanding as long as they are not verbally or physically abusive, the job of the customer service assistant it to remain calm, polite and unflustered, that is what they are paid to do, not to be equally rude back just because they are annoyed about it, they are being paid to do a job not to have a jolly lovely time and that includes dealing with difficult customers. The problem seems to be firms today take staff on and offer little or no training in how to handle difficult situations.