If my retail experience is any indication, acknowledging customers in this situation is a bad idea. Before you know it, the conversation turns to "I just need one thing!" Or "I promise I'll be really quick!" and you have to become the asshole to tell them no... Even though the store hours are clearly listed on the front door.
Or if you agree even once, the conversation could easily become "but you did it for me/my friend last time!"
I've literally had people sneak into the store using an exit, then act all indignant because I tell them to leave. You give some of these fuckers an inch, they'll take a mile.
My favorite way out of that situation was to tell them that the registers were automatically shut down at closing. Literally no way to ring up a purchase. It worked most of the time
That's why there's the JADE acronym. You never justify, argue, defend, or explain. That makes them think there's a chance if they just counter every single thing you say.
I usually lead with, “That’s out of my control,” or “that’s above my pay grade.” Most of the time people get it.
My go-to was the ovens have already entered shutdown mode and cannot be restarted. There was no such thing of course.
They did it for me last time is the bane of all service jobs. I managed a pizza place for years that would sometimes get up to over 200 food products per hour. You could see about the first 20 of them at a time on the screens. There was no way to indicate modifications that weren't available in the POS. I personally trained every new employee on phones and till.
I would tell them you're going to talk to a lot of assholes. There will be the person that wants extra cheese on their cheesesticks. You have to tell that person no. You cannot sell anything that can't be entered into the computer.
Every day during the insane dinner rush I'd either get employees coming over to say hey extra cheese on the cheesesticks on order 215. We're on order 175. There is no way those cheesesticks are going to get extra cheese.
No time to correct the employee, no time to call the customer back. Or the other which was worse. The customer would escalate the call to me. "They did it for me last time!"
I'm stuck on the phone with this piece of shit and I can't be firefighting. The fires grow. Sometimes they get so bad we have to stop production to get back on track. This means we get so far behind that I'll have to stay an extra hour or two to right the ship. For no extra pay. The customers get pissed as the wait and delivery times increase. Escalations to management increase. The whole place is engulfed in flame. Next thing I know I've been there for 12 hours for no extra pay.
Wasted my fucking mid 20s to early 30s there. It permanently ruined my mental health. It turned me into an alcoholic.
I could rant endlessly and I have so many stories.
The customers get pissed as the wait and delivery times increase. Escalations to management increase.
One rule I try to remember is that overserving Customer A means underserving Customer B.
This is also true for traffic, where being overpolite to the person in front of you means screwing over the people behind you.
Don't forget "Every other location does it."
Yup! You learn REAL fast, that if you just don't make eye contact they'll eventually go away.
When I worked at McDonald's I used to keep the DriveThru headset on after closing while I was doing paper work to tell people "sorry, we're closed" if they drove up to the speaker board. (Mind you, the building lights and menu board lights are off at this point. Something we call a "clue".)
That stopped after one too many people screamed "FUCK YOU!" into the speaker board (for us following our posted hours and me politely informing them instead of ignoring them.)You quickly adopt a policy of "just ignore them and they'll figure it out."
There's also a lot of stores with a policy that tills can't be counted or processed unless everyone is accounted for and all doors locked, if you have to reset that process it can be an extra hour of work.
There's no way your order is worth me turning everything back on, unless it is way too large to be something quick.
These days I’m usually against the death penalty, and I know it seems a bit harsh to advocate for this… but people entering in an exit door should be absolutely blasted with an Anti Aircraft gun (thanks Kim Jong Un for the idea!). It absolutely rustles my jimmies.
My wife worked at a rental office for an apartment building and had the same experience.
For a moment I thought this was a reply to the McDonalds headset comment and I was so confused, lolll
It's only a bad idea if you're bad at holding boundaries. You can acknowledge them if you've developed the ability to say no to people.
Everyone should work food service and retail at least once in their lives. It would give perspective to, and teach respect for, what those workers have to endure.
The worst part of retail/food service is the inescapable feeling of dread when you stare down the endless abyss of being stuck in that job day in and day out, forever, until you die. Only by resigning yourself to that fate does one gain the perspective needed to truly sympathize with the working class.
fuck the draft, make everyone spend a year or two in the service industry after high school
I don't know. Some people who experience abuse and escape it become far worse abusers when they're in position to do so.
This is very true. I was at my retail job and a customer walked up to me while I happened to be leaning on my workstation because my back hurt. The first thing he says to me is, “when I had a fast food job, if there was time to lean, there was time to clean!“ I looked at him, and then I turned around and walked away. He had this stunned look on his face. I walked into the back room To cool off a bit before I walked back onto the floor. It was probably five or eight minutes. When I walked back out, he was still standing there, at my workstation, waiting for me.
I went to lunch.
Add call-centers to that list.
Having worked both retail and call center, no, they're not in the same league. People can be assholes over the phone, absolutely, but it's quite different from face-to-face. Someone threatens to kill me over the phone, I can say "I'd like to see you try" and hang up, and the worst that happens is I get fired. In person, they can carry out the threat.
And hospitality.
They mad because they wouldn't acknowledge them or service them after the placed closed? What fucking Karen.
I'm sorry, but… no. Like, if you don't know it's closed and people do see you and just say nothing, that's just… not nice. It takes three seconds to shake their head or say we're closed something.
LONG EDIT: Trying to explain myself a bit as this got many negative comments. (I also said most of this in responses to people answering this).
I originally thought that they didn't know the store is closed, and just tried to put myself in their shoes. In that case, it just doesn't hurt to clarify by the staff and I can get the frustration of being ignored. I personally also had situations where I was confused because a store closed an hour earlier than it said on the door and online, and I was really grateful for the staff to clarify. Of course, if they know that the store is closed and just demanded some kind of personal acknowledgement, this is pretty ridiculous behaviour. And I personally definitely wouldn't behave like that (or even write such a review).
I also think that it's still good if the staff responds to someone knocking at the store. This doesn't mean that they are an "asshole that demands to be served". I personally also did this at one point because I lost my wallet inside the store. Luckily, the people there were really nice and opened it so I could search for it. I was really thankful, and the day would have been really horrible if they ignored me.
In the end, I think this also might be a cultural thing. Many people answered with stories of awful entitled customers that demanded ridiculous things. If this is your base experience, maybe you have other prejudices against someone knocking at the door.
As a customer, I always see a store worker as a human and engage respectfully, and most people I know do the same. I hope this is true for most people. Therefore, if someone knocks, it seems reasonable that they have a valid concern and / or are confused. But of course, if someone would do that just to push a store worked and asking them to do something they can't do, that would be absolutely awful behaviour.Fuck that bullshit, she knew they were fucking closed. They shouldn't have to explain it. I am sure there was a sign on the door. No this woman wanted them to waste time acknowledging her so she could spend 10 minutes explaining why they should service her after hours.
They were busy doing clean up after close so they could go home. Just by reading her review I can promise you she bitch if they had shaken their heads. I stare at dumb bitch too who was probably banging on the door trying get them to let her in.
"Just kept tossing their hair and looking at me."
Are we sure the employees weren't shaking their heads at the customer and they are just an idiot? I'm also assuming the doors were already locked, or they would have just walked in, and the hours are typically posted on the door. I feel that should be enough of an indication the store is closed. People don't need to have their hands held through everything I life. Expecting a little independence from them isn't being not nice.
People like you and the reviewer need to work a service job, at least once in your lives. "Closed", I wonder what that means?? The registers are all shut down, there's no cash. If it's a food place, the grill is off. They are not serving customers. So no, just because there happens to be glass or bars you can see workers through, they are not required to acknowledge people on the street or "be nice". They are trying to get home at a somewhat reasonable time!
PTSD from having to literally stop people from entering grocery stores after 11:00p in a previous job...
Nope, you never engage. Never ever engage. That flaming asshole who's too self centered and ignorant to read the hours posed on the door they're banging on and refuses to accept that the store is closed for EVERYONE including them, isn't going to be polite, honest, or responsible. If you engage, they will immediately punish you for it. Don't ever make that mistake.
You don't work for the customer, you work for the store. It's not always a crime to go along with a customer, but it's always a negative when they want to push you to violate policy, change prices, complain about Mike in sporting goods for having a mustache, or ''I'll be real quick I sware'' shopping when the store is closed. They will always punish you.
I eventually figured out that when a customer gets shitty, more than half the time if I say ''I work for the store and I'm responsible for [the dumbass shit you want me to do], if I violate store policy I'll be fired" they suddenly realize this isn't a game, and stop acting like a can of smashed assholes.
The best solution I have seen to this was the guy I worked with, sick of people shaking the doors repeatedly while we were redoing signage after close exclaimed at some door shakers: “what the fuck you doing bro?!” Those of us in the store lost it and the customers walked away embarrassed. From your comment, I can tell you have not had a job that works with the general population directly like retail. You lose patience pretty quickly with others trying to complain to get their way, push boundaries, and sometimes just be assholes. You should try it sometime. It is quite enlightening.
I've worked retail and food service and I would go to the door and let people know we're closed.
(a) I have no problem saying no to people, and (b) sometimes there's an emergency or something and they need help, or they're trying to notify us of a problem we can't see.
I haven't found my time saturated by this basic courtesy. Maybe I've lived in nicer areas, but in all my years of service experience I haven't seen the waves of assholes people talk about.
Sometimes it’s just pure obliviousness and you really need to speak up.
One of my embarrassing moments was shopping at a teacher store to supply my ex’s classroom. We were kind of enjoying the afternoon so taking our time, no big deal. Then the store people started coming over more frequently to ask if we needed help. No thank you. Eventually we make our way to the register and were shocked to discover the store closed half an hour ago. wtf, why didn’t someone kick us out, or at least stop being so damn polite and tell us they were closing since we clearly didn’t realize it? I’ll never forget the cringe of keeping people so late, and we were just enjoying leisurely shopping that could have finished long since
I worked retail at a store that had a rule that we DO NOT rush customers out if they come in before we lock the doors. We were NOT allowed to mention we were closed and we were NOT allowed to roll out merchandise to the aisles.
Corportate was confused on how our store had so much overtime when customers would regularly walk in a minute before close, stay an hour and buy nothing.
My favorite tactic used by several of the coffee shops near me is they start slowly turning the music louder. People naturally start leaving once it's too loud to think or talk. Place I used to work at we'd turn off half the lights and everyone would just show up at the register no confrontation needed. People were fine with it a vast majority of the time but occasionally there would be someone who asked us to turn the lights back on so they could keep shopping
I like the one with turning off half the lights. That seems like an effective signal while not being confrontational.
The thing is, you don't know if the customer is just an asshole or oblivious. So, I could confront you and risk being yelled at (which I really don't want to deal with at the end of a shift), then stand around waiting for a half hour, OR I could skip the yelling and just stand around waiting for a half hour.
I work at a restaurant inside a park. We open an hour after the park opens, and one of the store entrances is attached to the park welcome building. The doors for that entrance do not securely lock, and can be opened, with a bit of struggle, while locked. You know it's going to be an interesting day when you have to kick people out BEFORE we open. We don't turn the lights on until open, but every couple weeks people still manage to get in and expect to be seated.
You can hear them struggle with the door from across the room. They walk into a dark restaurant. You say "I'm sorry we don't open for another 15 minutes". Most of the time their response is not to apologize and leave. I've heard the open ended statements "Well we're here now", or "your doors were unlocked", or even the more presumptuous "can we eat in the trolley?". They are still made to wait outside and are inevitably mad about it.
I will choose to avoid confrontation anytime I can, as most of the time I don't have a choice.
I never worked food service, but I did my time in retail... That "Well we're here now" just gave me a PTSD-like flashback...
My boyfriend and I did this by accident in one of the big ass multi floor arcades in Akihabara. By default, service in Japan is so polite, and people are often very indirect, so the employees kept giving us subtle cues to leave that we were both oblivious to. Eventually, we caught on and were like, "Oh shit," so we headed to the exit. Most of the employees had gathered to wave off customers as they left, but they all looked pretty pissed. We were the last two customers in the building, and they closed the doors behind us.
I still feel so horrible. It doesn't help being foreigners and falling right into bad stereotypes 😭
As someone who works retail, I'm pretty shameless when it comes to kicking people out. I do it politely and with a smile but I have no problem telling customers we're about to close or are closed.
If they are non-assholes then they should be glad you made them aware
Shameless makes sense. Rules aren't shameful they're just rules.
I'll never forget when my wife and I accidentally entered the 15 items or less line at the grocery with a full cart. Why didn't they say no?
Whenever this is posted, a couple Karen's crawl out of the primordial ooze to remind us they've never worked retail and are incapable of empathizing with the workers (I count 2 of them in this comment section right now). I could never work retail again, people like this are as soul crushing as the manager who will reprimand you because of their 1 star review
Had people knocking on the door 2 minutes before we opened the other day. I acted like I didn't see them and waited until 1101 to open just to be petty.
People like that will be mad either way. There's no right answer.
They were closed, they don't owe you shit.
I hate bad customer service but this isn't it. Complain about a cold 6.99 fastfood burger or a racist server who won't serve you. (3 times in the last year for me🤣)
Ugh. .
I'm white but I have enough nonwhite friends to know racism is still very much alive.
Sorry that happened to you.
“I knew I got there too late, but they didn’t even acknowledge me to tell me what I already knew and which was completely obvious due to the locked door and lack of acknowledgement. How rude!”
Writes a bad review when all he had to do was look at the store hours on the sign. Did he also need their personal confirmation that they were closed? People are getting so strange in 2024.
They've always been like this
In addition to that there's usually also working hours on Google Maps that are up to date for most businesses.
I also hate people who fall for rage bait.
I'm more furious they left a shit review.
These reviews fuck with business, especially without context. Map apps while driving only show you the value.
It's that what this comment is? Everything is either bait, trolling, or not real. Only fools react to things on the Internet.
PSA: Don't be an Assbag
I have a few friends who work retail, and we've talked about nightmare customers. The shop closes at 7:30 every Friday, but two people often walk in between 7:10 and 7:30 to demand service that takes 30minutes to complete for one person and is appointment only which all appointments are closed by 7:00pm for the staff to leave on time. They expect to be served despite the fact that the tools required for the service are already put away by 7:10. Sometimes my friend bends to their requests, but I keep telling him: closing time is closing time, and doing so is like teaching your dog to eat off your plate. It's okay for now, but it will come back to bite you.
If you're going to show up close to closing time and are still willing to be served, then TIP THEM WELL. I've done it a few times, and I'm guilty of it, but I've made it worth their while.
There was one time in 2023 when my friends and I wanted to get together for some wings. We stopped by a dinner on the outskirts of town at 10:30 pm, and they close at 11:00 pm. We went in, and I asked if they would still serve us because I know it's late. And I don't want to be an asshole. They served us, and we enjoyed our wings while catching up on life before leaving a hefty tip on the table.
This year, there was another time when we went out to a local car hop at 8:30 pm, which closes at 9:00 pm. The girls serving and taking orders did a great job, and it was scorching hot outside all day. Since I don't go out to eat often and would rather give my business to mom-and-pop shops rather than the local megacorporation, we all pitched in and left a 40% tip – which came out to be around $24 on our $60 meal. When she came to take the tray from the car window, she asked if we needed anything else, and I handed her the tip of $24. Her face lit up, and she asked if this was a mistake. I said it was on purpose, and for her to have a good night. She smiled and thanked us before we left. Although the tip hurt my wallet quite a bit, with my brain reminding me of the $24 I lost, it felt good to help someone out – especially since she likely deals with a lot of crappy people in crappy weather.
There is always going to be a divide between people who have done restaurant closings and those that haven't. Some people who haven't done it will not see any issue with showing up 10 minutes to closing and ordering everything on the menu. You can't change their minds.
The last time I was traveling and absolutely had no choice but to go into a Chiplote 20 minutes to closing (it was the only place for miles still open), I made sure to be flexible about only asking for things that hadn't been put away already. I ended up getting what seemed like quad portions and free chips. Be nice to servers and they are nice to you.
Same, I've been forced to enter restaurants around closing time and usually asked for "whatever you've still got hot"
There is always going to be a divide between people who have done restaurant closings and those that haven't.
Naah every service that expects that "the client is king" philosophie have sentiment for all kind of people working in the same area.
I mean, I did retail jobs a few years ago, and still today when I go shopping or at restaurants or any other service, I always chose my time accordinlgy to not bother them to much... Because I know how people can be stupid assholes...
But from time to time you get some chill lovely creatures and that always brightened my day ☀️
I wish all customers were like you
If a business can't or doesn't want to provide their service after 7pm, their closing time should be 7pm (or earlier), not 730pm. It's not "assbag" to go into an open business and expect to receive whatever service they allegedly provide, and it certainly doesn't warrant extraordinary tips.
my apologize i forgot to add that the service the late comers demanded was an appointment only service. which usually all appointments were closed by 7:00. didnt mean to be a your tip is 50% 80% 100% meme
thanks for pointing it out, ill make sure to add the context
100% this, I've been a few times to pubs etc. where they tell you the kitchen closing time separately from the pub closing time but then when you try to order food before that they say they already took last orders because the kitchen staff finish at that time.
Like bro, politely I do not care what time your staff finish their shift, it doesn't affect me. As a customer, I care what time service ends - that's the time that should be included on the opening hours to the public.
If I was one of those employees, my response would be to smile and wave, maybe give a thumbs up, and go back to ignoring them. They can interpret it how they like, and only I know for sure that it means "Lol, you're getting nothing from me, you dumb buttmunch."
buttmunch
I haven't heard that since the Beavis and Butthead days. LOL, thanks for taking me back.
Edit: ROFL... I'm at a bar and right after I posted this comment I saw a sticker on the beer tap. The bar logo here is a woman in a Martini glass and someone made a sticker with that woman's face as (what looks like) Butthead. Perfect timing.
Here's the sticker:
Zoomed out:
I don't know what platform this is, but such a review should be moderated in some way. If an employee treats you badly during normal service, then fine, it's justified to drop a negative review, but if you're as incompetent as to be unable to understand that nobody is obliged to serve you outside of the stated working hours, it's entirely your problem and it shouldn't affect the rating of the establishment.
Looks like Google Maps
One of the many definitions “Asshole” is applied to.
English isn't my first language. What does "tossing one's hair" mean?
Flicking your head to make the hair move, i.e. out of your eyes.
You can read about it here
In this case it'll be the second meaning (disdain)
It's when you rip out a chunk of your hair, add spit to make it into a projectile, and hurl it at the glass separating you from a wayward zombie customer.
Good
Is this supposed to be ragebait or what? This review is obviously non-sensical end of story
All good but not all good
I was at a hardware store yesterday, locally owned. I didn't look at the hours before I walked in but they started turning off lights within a few minutes of me walking in, so I walked out without buying anything and went to a big box store. I want to support the little guys, and I respect the time of the workers, but at some point I need to get the stuff I need and my hours at work to align exactly with the hours of the little guys. 🤷
I wouldn't jump on to blame on the customer. In fact, have my own hill I'm fighting right now where I'm not completely in the right. Who knows, maybe the working hours were not visible, or maybe there was no closed sign at all. In any case, this made at least one person mad and is a perfect opportunity for a business to do a retro and check if they might need to do something about it. It's much more valuable than a thousandth review from someone who had a great time... or didn't, but didn't care to review either. And, unless your business is genuinely bad, even a Karen once in a while shouldn't affect the total score a bit.
It even says "10 min after closing", so they knew full well it was too late.
Maybe they've realized it after the fact? Maybe they were regulars there and/or times suddenly changed? Maybe they're not telling something? I don't know. As a manager I would've just left a number to call to check what's up, and as visitor this review wouldn't affect my decision to go there anyway.
This person does not complain about not being served ten minutes after the establishment having closed, but about the fact that not one of the four employees could be arsed to let the guest know that they're closed.
Honestly, and I'm not saying that this is a universal, most stores do have a sign with their hours of operation on or near the door.
And if you go to a store and can't open the door, the fact that the store is closed really should be the default assumption.
I've tried the door on closed restaurants before and had someone open it and explain that the place is closed, but I've also had people just expect one to read the sign. I don't think that just because there's someone in the establishment, that they should be obliged to spell the thing out and give you the hours. It's nice if it happens, but...
The locked door told them the store is closed.
Use this knowlege going forward:
- if the door is locked the store is definitely closed
- if i am an employee where the door is finally locked? It is both my prerogative and my absolute pleasure to not have to talk to you.
There is never a reason to talk to someone behind a locked door because the type who does always want the same thing: an exception. And the type of person who believes they deserve this exception is the absolute last person you want to let inside (or even waste time arguing with). Mgmt knows this too, they just been working long enough theyre too wily for you to see them from the outside lol.
Anyone who has worked with the public has at one point gone to that door and had that lesson taught to them the hard way, guarantee it.
Also "guest"? this isn't a work huddle. Don't you ever use that corporate trash-assed word after you clocked out. You arent c-suite, don't use their language
What is there to talk about? The employees can't tell them anything that they don't already know if they can read the posted hours.
"guest"
You aren't a guest if you aren't invited, and if the door is locked, you ain't invited.
Guests are during operating hours. Pests are for off-hours visitors.
Yeah like, they could put the opening hours on the door or something. Or lock the doors to indicate that it's closed! Or shake their heads! Oh wait!
Sure, they didn't unlock the door to tell the person the door is locked, because the store is closed. What a fucking brainfart you having mate?
Never unlock the door after close, she probably fits in the typical category of inconsiderate assholes who "just want an X," but this is also a common robbery technique. They'll have someone nonthreatening knock on the door to try and get you to open it to say "fuck off we're closed" and the second you do 4 dudes with guns (or knives, machetes, whatever) run around the corner and rush the door.
Just hit em with the "we're closed" lipsync and the "we're closed" international symbol: hand chop moving away from the body in front of the dominant hand side of your neck 2x.
