Dear Customer,

That fact that I am in a customer service job and you are shopping in this store, where things are pricey, and I can tell you have money, does not mean that you are smarter or better than me!

One indication of a person’s character is how they treat people in positions of service.  Really.  And I can tell you, it’s no fun to wait on someone with a poor character and way too much self-esteem.  Like you.

Yours truly.

Oops!!  Just had to blow off some steam!!  I’ll tell you why.

Here’s a conversation I had with a customer at work a couple of days ago.  Or should I say that she had with me.

Customer:  Where is your “product abc?”  (I won’t say what she was really asking for.)

Me:  Well, we don’t sell that back here behind this counter, but…

Customer:  (interrupts)  Oh yes you do!

Me:  Well, ma’am, I have been here only about 4-1/2 months.  I apologize, but it’s something I have never seen back here.  We don’t have it now; however, we do have a company that makes what you are looking for…

Customer:  (interrupts)  I am NOT looking for that.  I am looking for the kind that YOU make that is right behind the counter where you are.

Me:  Well we don’t have that back…

Customer:  (interrupts with a smirk on her face)  Are you the manager?

Me:  No ma’am.

Customer:  Can you get me the bakery manager?

Me:  Ma’am, she’s not…

Customer:  (interrupts, laughing haughtily)  I suppose you are going to send me away with no information and no help.  Anyway, I don’t believe that you have suddenly stopped selling “product abc” in the short two months since I’ve been here last. 

She slapped her hand on the counter in front of me and stormed off shaking her head.

I found out the next day when I talked to my manager that we have not made the product she was asking about in over two years. 

Perhaps it would do some people — like that customer — some good to have to work in a customer service job and wait on people just like herself.  It would be a humbling, eye-opening experience for her, I’m sure.