# So a customer made me cry today...



## sarah089

Today was probably my worst day at Mcdonalds. A lady came in asking for a double cheese burger with cheese on the side and not on the burger. I rung her up for a double cheeseburger with no cheese and 2 slices of cheese on the side. When I told her the total of her order, she became frustrated and said that it must be wrong. At the time, I didn't realize I was charging her a whopping 80 cents for two slices of cheese. My manager came over and told me to void the two slices of cheese and just ring her up for the sandwich instead. I then apologized to her but she still was pretty upset. She started telling me that I was a terrible worker and asked how I could make a mistake like that. She then asked me if I was new and I said it was my second week on the job. She then said "I guess I'll give you a pass then." If I wasn't new, would she have honestly called corporate based on an 80 cent mistake?? Also who tf orders slices of cheese on the side?

Another woman who overheard what was happening began defending me and said she had no right to ask me how long I've been working there and everyone makes mistakes. They then got into a huge fight and I started crying in front of them (I know I'm a baby). My manager saw that I was crying and then told me to go to the restroom. It was just an embarrassing situation and I'm dreading returning to work. I wish I wasn't so sensitive and I don't understand why I'm making so many mistakes on the job! :-(


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## Itari

"So many mistakes"? It's just one for the time being. You'll make many more in the future, just like everybody else, so don't bother too much, especially if it's such a small thing.


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## Tuan Jie

@sarah089
Sounds like a horrible day! Try to not make this about you. This woman was obviously very unfriendly and demanding. Quite immature if you ask me. Pretty awesome the other woman started defending you. Take her side and see it's okay to make mistakes. Everybody does you know. The world will keep on spinning. No big deal. Take care.


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## Karsten

Lmao. It's not a reflection of you, trust me. She is just a piece of garbage.

Think of how bereft of meaning her life must be to make such a fuss about something like that. 

I don't know how long you've been working there, but don't give up. I worked fast food as my first job and despite some horrible interactions with some regrettable human beings, it was one of the great leaps towards conquering my SA.


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## Alyami

These things always happen at work, especially fast food places, many of the customers you see are just miserable people who happen to have bad days and they choose to take it out on anyone, I can see why you would be emberassed I would be emberassed too, but I wouldn't cry, you should use this incident as a motivation to do well and better on your job from now on, I know it doesn't seem that rewarding but in your head it will be rewarding.


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## Kevin001

Aww don't let people make you cry, you will get customers like that. You made an honest mistake no big deal.


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## Mondo_Fernando

@sarah089

Probably nervous or anxious because you are thinking of the person in front of you, not what you are doing. When distracted a person makes mistakes. Concentration exercises help with this. Also have a notepad next to you and write the order down. That's how it's done in some restaurants in the past to make sure the order is correct. Then put the piece of pad paper on a rotating wheel, which the cook looks at and makes the orders. I noticed most of this process is digital these days.


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## Typhoid Mary

That woman sounds like a monster. I'm glad there was someone there to stand up for you. *hugs*


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## Owlbear

If everyone did a stint in fast food/retail at least once, I think we'd have a more polite society.


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## InfiniteGlitter

It's not you, it's them. No, seriously. Retail (ESPECIALLY fast food) is what I imagine hell would be, or a section of hell, right next to the reconstruction of Aperture Labs. 

No, I did retail for 10 years. One year was the gas panic after Katrina wiped out half of Louisiana. I was dealing with it by myself. 

I think retailers, though bound by litigation restriction, should take a page from the Milgram Experiment. The customer WILL always be right... if given the opportunity, will do everything short of what will land them in jail (sometimes, they'll even risk that) to see how far they can push an employee. 

A decade of that and I was ready to murder someone. All I needed was one more excuse. I had to quit and moved to metal work in factories. Then to something else after the injury but never retail, ever again. 

My heart goes out to you. I've got plenty of horror stories that will kill any hope you have left in the human species but I just can't bring myself to take that last bit away from you, if there is any. 

All I can tell you is that you are not alone. Lots of people feel your pain.


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## InfiniteGlitter

Owlbear said:


> If everyone did a stint in fast food/retail at least once, I think we'd have a more polite society.


I used to say that, too. I believed it would, at the very least, give them an idea of what it feels like. Unfortunately, you really can't fix stupid.


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## railcar82594

Yeah, inconsiderate human being. I've often used fast food drive-in and encountered quite a few mistakes from what I could gather could be new workers. Much of the time they say sorry or look worried and I always try to show I'm ok with it where I usually say, "it's ok, no problem", "thanks". Ironically I'm often worried I don't "look" understanding enough, since an aspect of my SA is that I'm often worried I don't express correctly to others what I want to communicate. 

Anyways, a job like McD's would be hard for me to handle. I would still make dumb mistakes because of anxiety and an overthinking mind. So best wishes on making it through this and getting better at the job.


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## 2Milk

I been working at McDonalds for a year and honestly I would have probably made that same mistake. It's easy to forget that just because you put "no cheese" on the sandwich that the computer doesn't actually discount anything. That lady was just being rude. It really wasn't a big deal. A normal person would have just told you to fix the mistake politely, instead of acting like an animal. 


Just yesterday I made this dude wait like 4 minutes for a large coke. My manager left me all alone and I had to do so much work that I forgot about his coke. He was really angry with me, and said "took you long enough, you did everything else but my order!" and he tried throwing his trash at me but I closed the window on him.

Also this girl at work had a panic attack during her second week. She was sitting on the floor crying and started hyperventilating and stuff. They called an ambulance for her. Anyway, we all acted like it never happened and now she's really good at her job. Crying isn't too bad, lol.


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## InfiniteGlitter

2Milk said:


> Also this girl at work had a panic attack during her second week. She was sitting on the floor crying and started hyperventilating and stuff. They called an ambulance for her. Anyway, we all acted like it never happened and now she's really good at her job. Crying isn't too bad, lol.


Happens to the best of us


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## Maslow

There are many completely irrational people in the world. Take a look at the woman in this video and the people who had to deal with her...


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## TimRobbins

Retail is not the appropriate job for someone with SA. You should consider an allternative job where you'll be exposed to less negativity.


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## 1ShyKid

Don't worry about it - Everyone makes mistakes! People freak out so easily for such little things.


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## SilentLyric

that's why I left that place. 

weird that she sent you to the bathroom instead of home.


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## sarah089

Thanks for the kind words guys. I was just kind of embarrassed that I cried in front of all my coworkers and managers lol. ;-; I've had a lot of rude customers in the past but this lady took it to a new level. I hate how some customers expect you to be perfect at your job all the time. 

I think my manager would've asked me to leave for the day but the McDonalds that I work at is incredibly understaffed. During peak lunch hour, we only have 2 people on the register. One of my coworkers took off a day this week and my manager bascially acted like it was the end of the world and pressured him to work on a day he is off.


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## gthopia94

People sometimes just like to be dramatic for no reason at all. I remember years ago when a guy claimed that the female worker put her bare hand on the food and just had to announce it outloud. I don't know whether or not she or didn't but it could've been handled better. The point is so what? We all make mistakes that's just a factor of life which is inevitable. Don't let the "lady" tear you down for something you couldn't control. People just need to be more tolerant as we all aren't perfect.


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## Just Lurking

sarah089 said:


> Thanks for the kind words guys. I was just kind of embarrassed that I cried in front of all my coworkers and managers lol. ;-; I've had a lot of rude customers in the past but this lady took it to a new level. I hate how some customers expect you to be perfect at your job all the time.


Credit to you for keeping up with it


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## roxslide

I have worked in a similar work environment now for a few years. I deal with people like this everyday, even just yesterday a lady yelled at me for making her coffee wrong and tried to "humiliate" me by trying to publicly prove I didn't know what her drink was or how to make it to everyone in the store. I shut her down real quick lol. If you keep working there you eventually learn ways to avoid almost all mistakes and that helps a lot with the number of unpleasant interactions you run into, but obviously sometimes mistakes happen or people yell at you for no reason at all. Even so it kind of becomes old hat and often now when I get yelled at I just get mildly annoyed and move on. 

I personally deal with it by thinking... if someone thinks it's an appropriate response to freak out and abuse someone over a cup of coffee or in your case, a cheeseburger or something they must be miserable ****s. I feel sorry for them. It helped me to put something in perspective when I read a story about a lady who was notoriously rude to the servers at this one place and later they found out she was going through chemo and was at the end of her rope. 

You can really tell some people are miserable/messed up because despite complaining and freaking out all the time, they continue to come back to our store again and again instead of doing what a balanced person would do and just stop coming in/limit visits. I had a terrible interaction with one lady who screamed at me, threw money at my face and stormed off. You think she wouldn't come back, but no, she came back day after day and continued to freak out over tiny things. I began to feel sorry for her, if she goes through life like that.


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## Karsten

roxslide said:


> You can really tell some people are miserable/messed up because despite complaining and freaking out all the time, they continue to come back to our store again and again instead of doing what a balanced person would do and just stop coming in/limit visits. I had a terrible interaction with one lady who screamed at me, threw money at my face and stormed off. You think she wouldn't come back, but no, she came back day after day and continued to freak out over tiny things. I began to feel sorry for her, if she goes through life like that.


Lmao, so true. There's always the 'regulars'.

I had this one guy bring me off to the side for 35 minutes to discuss why the seltzer water prices had raised from 79 cents to 99 cents. He just couldn't understand how sales worked.

He was there every week to nitpick about something else. Granted, he wasn't particularly mean, but he must be incredibly lonely?


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## komorikun

Can you imagine what it's like for the family members of these sorts of people? Or their coworkers?


Hmmmm....come to think of it my sister told me of an incident with our dad at Subway. He got all upset cause they wouldn't let him put different stuff on 2 halves of a footlong. Not sure if he yelled at them but he got bent out of shape.

Oh yeah and my old boss (fat geezer from Chicago) one time in a really loud voice got all pissed at some online company because the day after he bought something they lowered the shipping cost. He called to get that discount and they refused. So like half the office could hear him say "Well, I will NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH YOU AGAIN!!!" :wife:mum


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## InfiniteGlitter

Karsten said:


> roxslide said:
> 
> 
> 
> You can really tell some people are miserable/messed up because despite complaining and freaking out all the time, they continue to come back to our store again and again instead of doing what a balanced person would do and just stop coming in/limit visits. I had a terrible interaction with one lady who screamed at me, threw money at my face and stormed off. You think she wouldn't come back, but no, she came back day after day and continued to freak out over tiny things. I began to feel sorry for her, if she goes through life like that.
> 
> 
> 
> Lmao, so true. There's always the 'regulars'.
> 
> I had this one guy bring me off to the side for 35 minutes to discuss why the seltzer water prices had raised from 79 cents to 99 cents. He just couldn't understand how sales worked.
> 
> He was there every week to nitpick about something else. Granted, he wasn't particularly mean, but he must be incredibly lonely?
Click to expand...

Dude, why do you need to kick 'em when they're already down? Seriously.


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## Overdrive




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## iAmCodeMonkey

It was not your fault. That customer was being a total idiot for acting like that towards you in public.


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## Alkalinity

This gives flashbacks to when I first started working. Like a shark they could smell that you were new and take out whatever is going on in their life on someone vulnerable, **** them. It's always the middle aged women that gave me the most trouble. At least someone stood up for you. Most people just watch, which is the equivalent of being an enabler and just as abusive. This is why I'm glad I quit my cashier job and never getting one again. You are right she was a dumbass for ordering cheese on the side in the first place. Sadly, you will meet a lot of worse customers than her. You either learn to adapt or let it break you.


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## komorikun

Alkalinity said:


> This gives flashbacks to when I first started working. Like a shark they could smell that you were new and take out whatever is going on in their life on someone vulnerable, **** them. It's always the middle aged women that gave me the most trouble. At least someone stood up for you. *Most people just watch, which is the equivalent of being an enabler and just as abusive.* This is why I'm glad I quit my cashier job and never getting one again. You are right she was a dumbass for ordering cheese on the side in the first place. Sadly, you will meet a lot of worse customers than her. You either learn to adapt or let it break you.


Are you really an enabler if you don't want to get involved and end up in an argument with an angry crazy person?


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## feels

Yeah, she's a ****ing moron but unfortunately there are a lot of people like her that'll go ape**** over the smallest things imaginable. You shouldn't feel bad at all for getting upset, though. She's the one that should be embarrassed for acting like a toddler. The more you work in customer service the more you get desensitized to this kind of crap. No matter how sweet or accommodating you are some people will never be pleased so just do what you can and then don't let it worry you any more.


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## Alkalinity

komorikun said:


> Are you really an enabler if you don't want to get involved and end up in an argument with an angry crazy person?


Yes, enablers stay in their comfort zone and ENABLE abusive people to continue doing what they're doing by keeping quiet. I went through this with my own father who would stay quiet when my mom was abusing me. He was an enabler just because his comfort mattered more than doing what was right which is not allowing a child to get abused. I don't care if I get into an argument with a crazy person, if I see someone getting hurt or taken advantage of, I will not stay in my comfort zone and let that person be abused just because I want to stay comfy. It's selfish.


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## komorikun

Alkalinity said:


> Yes, enablers stay in their comfort zone and ENABLE abusive people to continue doing what they're doing by keeping quiet. I went through this with my own father who would stay quiet when my mom was abusing me. He was an enabler just because his comfort mattered more than doing what was right which is not allowing a child to get abused. I don't care if I get into an argument with a crazy person, if I see someone getting hurt or taken advantage of, I will not stay in my comfort zone and let that person be abused just because I want to stay comfy. It's selfish.


That's a completely different situation. Your dad was not some random stranger.


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## Alkalinity

komorikun said:


> That's a completely different situation. Your dad was not some random stranger.


It's still the same thing. Abusive people will continue to be abusive because they are used to people not standing up for the victim, who is usually unable to speak up for themselves due to one reason or another. I see this in the workplace, bullying, anything where strangers are involved. That lady targeted OP not just because she was mad about the order, but also because she sensed that OP was new and vulnerable and wouldn't lash out at her. And she likely knew that customers rarely stand up for cashiers who can't say anything at the risk of getting fired. When you remove the bully's comfort zone by intervening, it shocks them. I have seen this situation played out many times too, where passerby actually say something and the bully shuts up. Bystanders who stay quiet play a huge role in whether or not the bullying continues.


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## komorikun

I would never get involved. I don't like arguing with angry crazy people. Who knows what they might do.

Good luck to you if you want to get involved.


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## regimes

in fast food and retail, that **** happens a lot. people get irrational over dumb things.

maybe a week or two into my current job, i had somebody else who worked there get upset because i was ringing up her discount wrong. she literally started yelling and embarrassed the **** out of me. anyway i made a point to be _super_ ridiculously nice to her from then on and now she's super awkward whenever i say anything to her.

something that reassures me is: keep yourself together, because in a couple of days everyone will forget and keep moving forward. and it'll happen again, but you'll be okay. there will be a tomorrow and people won't care.



TimRobbins said:


> Retail is not the appropriate job for someone with SA. You should consider an allternative job where you'll be exposed to less negativity.


i disagree. i had intense SA and agoraphobia in my late teen's + early 20's and needing to work to survive and being unable to find anything other than retail and food industry work helped me come out of my shell. repeat exposure, for me at least, had a lasting positive effect.


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## Alkalinity

komorikun said:


> I would never get involved. I don't like arguing with angry crazy people. Who knows what they might do.
> 
> Good luck to you if you want to get involved.


^And that is the sort of enabling thinking that allows for people to continue getting hurt. Anyway, in this situation I doubt the customer would have pulled out a knife or something. That's just attempting to justify our own need to not step in in what is relatively a harmless situation, it happens but there is a higher chance that the lady was just a harmless angry customer mad at her own life. Sometimes you can choose your battles, and in this one I would say something as a cashier who's dealt with these sorts of customers and worse before. None of them pulled out a knife and stabbed me for standing up for myself/other cashiers, btw.


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## shaixd

You don't need to feel like that is your fault at all.
This woman sounds like she has her own personal growing to do. It was immature and terrible of her to yell at you, especially because you sincerely apologized.
Everyone makes small mistakes like that -- it's unavoidable.
It happens to the best of us.
I hope you feel better about this whole situation, and have a great day. <3


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## sarah089

A little update on my job. I made another mistake today ringing up a customer. She wanted sausage on a bagel but I rung up a sausage egg and cheese bagel. I would say I'm pretty good at ringing up lunch orders but breakfast still confuses me to an extent.
Also pretty sure one of my managers hates me because I keep messing up lol. ;-; They just started putting me on drive thru and it's really scary. I know this may seem like a stupid question but is it normal to keep making mistakes at 2.5 weeks in a job? I just feel like I'm not learning fast enough. As much as I really dislike the job, I'd hate to be let go because of my incompetence. Also really need the $$ for school. =/


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## Kevin001

sarah089 said:


> A little update on my job. I made another mistake today ringing up a customer. She wanted sausage on a bagel but I rung up a sausage egg and cheese bagel. I would say I'm pretty good at ringing up lunch orders but breakfast still confuses me to an extent.
> Also pretty sure one of my managers hates me because I keep messing up lol. ;-; They just started putting me on drive thru and it's really scary. I know this may seem like a stupid question but is it normal to keep making mistakes at 2.5 weeks in a job? I just feel like I'm not learning fast enough. As much as I really dislike the job, I'd hate to be let go because of my incompetence. Also really need the $$ for school. =/


2.5 weeks? Psshhh I've been working at a store and I still don't know where everything is....when customers ask me where to find things I have to ask someone else. Lol.


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## 2Milk

sarah089 said:


> A little update on my job. I made another mistake today ringing up a customer. She wanted sausage on a bagel but I rung up a sausage egg and cheese bagel. I would say I'm pretty good at ringing up lunch orders but breakfast still confuses me to an extent.
> Also pretty sure one of my managers hates me because I keep messing up lol. ;-; They just started putting me on drive thru and it's really scary. I know this may seem like a stupid question but is it normal to keep making mistakes at 2.5 weeks in a job? I just feel like I'm not learning fast enough. As much as I really dislike the job, *I'd hate to be let go because of my incompetence.* Also really need the $$ for school. =/


They're not gonna fire you man, you have to try to get fired in order to get fired. It takes a while to feel comfortable. It took me like 3 months to feel comfortable doing my job.


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