Your Story is BULLSH#T!

[DrFaroohk]

And just as important you can't judge someone as lying just because they might have a really consistent story, either. It's so hard sometimes, and people always love to pick up on the wrong things when they're trying to spot a liar.

[Lace Neil Singer]

There was someone, I can't remember her name, but she was an employee who posted moaning about having to do her job filling bread trays up. Several people pointed out that this was her job, and she retaliated, eventually ending up on a ban.

She then went to PFB and moaned there about CS.com... anyone remember her? I only vaguely remember the story.

[Rapscallion]

Marcy/Kayem/Lazuli, not that the names she's used are burned into my memory or anything.

Rapscallion

[DrFaroohk]

Well if my job was filling up bread trays and I complained about filling up bread trays, only to be met with the stupid notion that it's my job and shouldn't complain, well...i'd be pretty upset too. Seriously, if you're gonna call one person on that, you gotta call everyone.

[Peppergirl]

Well if my job was filling up bread trays and I complained about filling up bread trays, only to be met with the stupid notion that it's my job and shouldn't complain, well...i'd be pretty upset too. Seriously, if you're gonna call one person on that, you gotta call everyone.

It was a lot more than that. She was kinda cray-cray. Raps still twitches at the thought of her.

[protege]

She was kinda cray-cray.

Kinda? I think she passed that point long ago

[guywithashovel]

Until it came up in another post, I didn't know that KayEm was Lazuli. But yeah, she was kind of weird. I thought so, and I wasn't even a mod, which meant I didn't have to deal with the dirty work involving her.

One time, she got mad because people were disagreeing with her in a thread, and she posted another thread asking how she could get "unjoined" from the site since she was tired of people always going against her. Another member responded to this thread, suggesting that she just quit visiting the site since there probably wasn't a way for her to delete her account. Well, Lazuli flipped out and said something like, "Well, gee, thanks a lot for supporting me! I guess you don't really want me here after all!" (I'm paraphrasing, of course, but it was to that effect.) She ended up getting banned.

Then, when she came back as KayEm, she started up about how much she hated kids, and that irked some people. I think she also used her husband's death as an excuse for a lot of things.

Now, as for complaining about filling up bread trays and being told to suck it up because that's your job, I can understand being irked over that. It's technically our job to put up with SCs, yet there we are on CS grumbling about that. In the not-so-recent past, that was a problem on CS. It got to where you almost couldn't post a work story without some self-righteous know-it-all lecturing you about how "it's your job" to do that or telling you that you were overreacting to the stuff happening at your job. Yeah, it may be my job to fill bread trays, but maybe I don't like that part of my job, and maybe I want to sometimes talk about how I don't like that part of the job. Is that such a crime?

[Rapscallion]

I can see your point, and yes CS.com is a venting site, but we really hope that people vent about customers who suck.

I don't think it unreasonable to take the view that a customer buying things is - in and of itself - sucky behaviour.

This is why we're really wary about the Failing to See the Suck aspect. Every so often you get a tale where you have to wonder why the customer as described was sucky. It's the other side of the coin from the reason for starting this thread. Let's face it, you agreed to fill bread trays when you took the job, and when someone buys some you get to refill them. You're not at the wrong end of a target range. You're not being derided for being a retail assistant. You're doing the job you agreed to do - an essential function of the running of the operation.

We like to keep the moral high ground on CS. We've had people come on and start talking about how they abused customers who didn't deserve it (if you read the stories), and they were waiting for rapturous applause. Um, we've actually saved a few from themselves over this. Some didn't like what we explained to them and departed, never to be seen again. Others got where we were coming from and became valued members of the community.

Rapscallion

[HYHYBT]

I don't think it unreasonable to take the view that a customer buying things is - in and of itself - sucky behavior.

You probably mean that the other way around

That's a distinction some of the earlier descriptions left out: the world of difference between "I really hate trying to keep the shelves full when we're busy and people are grabbing stuff off as fast as I can put it on" and "I'm trying to fill these shelves, but these customers are being all rude and inconsiderate by buying the things I put out for sale."

[Ree]

Now, as for complaining about filling up bread trays and being told to suck it up because that's your job, I can understand being irked over that.

Ummmm...it was more than that.

It was hatred and wishing death to the customers who kept buying her damn bread, forcing her to have to refill her shelf.
She was never told to suck it up, and I don't think anyone actually said, "It's your job."

It was pointed out very politely, if the customers didn't buy the bread, then it made her job a bit redundant, and she would pretty much not actually have a job if nobody was buying the product.

As Raps said, a customer is not necessarily sucky for shopping and buying your merchandise.

[guywithashovel]

I had a feeling there was more to it in KayEm's (Lazuli's, or whatever name she was using at the time) case. However, I have to say that back when I was posting regularly on the CS site (several years ago), I did post a few work stories only to get lectured about how it was "my job" to deal with that stuff and that I needed to do it professionally.

Actually, I did understand that it was my job to deal with those things, but that didn't mean I had to like doing them. I have to admit, it was a little unsettling to get that on a site that invited me to vent about my work frustrations. However, from the mod's standpoint, I can understand how enforcing the whole "fail to see the suck" rule could be tricky. I'm not totally sure how I would do it if I were in the situation where I had to do so, so they have my empathy.

[Ree]

I have to admit, it was a little unsettling to get that on a site that invited me to vent about my work frustrations.

I was tired of it too. That was why the FTSTS started.

I rarely even post work stories anymore.

It seemed that every time I posted about a customer, I would get all kinds of "devil's advocate" type comments that made it seem as if I was being overly sensitive.

I used to be guilty of pointing out when I thought a member had caused their own situation with the customer. You gotta admit, there are a few people who should not be in customer service at all, and based on what they posted, it seemed to me that their own approach to the customer caused an escalation that might not have happened if they had treated their customer differently or used different phrasing.
I felt it was just a bit of advice from a seasoned (over 30 years) customer service worker.
I always tried to preface it with the comment that I understood how they felt, and that the customer's behaviour was sucky, but I can see how it might have been taken as my saying, "It's your job," rather than approving of their need to vent.

That's why the FTSTS rule can be frustrating. I find I really have to bite my tongue...a lot.

As for made up stories, sometimes, I do mentally question a story because it always seems as if the customers are flying off the handle and spouting, "I'm the customer and I'm always right," when it really didn't seem that there was any provocation.
Sometimes, I question a story because the customers in the stories end up making totally ridiculous demands or behaving in a way that is just too over the top to think it could be true.

I still roll my eyes and think "Hollywood" when I read that the clerk told off the customer with the manager's approval, or there is some amazing cosmic retribution where the SC gets owned while all the customers within viewing and hearing range applaud.

I tend to question amazing coincidences such as when the customer demands they call the police, or the SC gets into an accident on the way out of the store. The police get called, and the SC ends up having outstanding warrants, and gets hauled off to jail.

I have smiled to myself a few times when there have been stories that are meant to be passed off as actual experiences, yet I have already heard the story told ages ago as a joke, or I have seen it as part of a plotline in either a movie or TV show.

I think, as long as internet forums exist, there are always going to be storytellers.

[HYHYBT]

Sometimes things do happen; I've seen real people try to stomp off in a huff , letting out that final insult or threat as they go, only to find that the door is locked or they've left something behind. A beautiful television moment, but a bit spooky to see in life.

[Ree]

Oh yeah, I know it does happen like that sometimes, and it really is beautiful.

I had a sucky one try to make a big dramatic exit, only to discover that he had stormed to the "In" door and it didn't push out.

We managed to hold our laughter until he was out the door.

[jackfaire]

The suckiest customers we get are the "Nice to your boss" kind where they don't like what your answer was so they proceed to mistreat you and scream at you telling you how worthless you are finally asking for your boss when somehow that made you less willing to bend rules for them.

Then they are uber sweet to your boss you know the person that can go listen to that recorded call and hear how the person treated you and who actually has less ability to bend the rules than I do because my boss manages another project for another company as well as the project I am on so knows less about it than me and will turn to me to ask if something can be done.

Oh and my boss can be ruder.