So I’ve been working in retail for a while and seen my share of odd and rude customers, but today I had my very first “Karen”, and he was american also. (I’m not, and I’m in Australia).
The store I work for doesn’t give their bags for free, we charge for them. This guy picked an online order and then threw up a tantrum and demanded to speak to a manager when I refused to give him a bag for free. Another team member (more experienced) just gave him the bag and he just left.
That does it I guess, but it’s giving in to rude demands what sustains this kind of behavior imo. I’m not trying to protect the interests of the corporate I work for- it’s just a stupid bag ffs, perhaps ask nicely? I’ve been called off both for giving away bags for free before as well as calling for the manager to deal with “minor issues”.
So I’m asking, in general, how do you deal with these types of customers?
I’m working in customer service and we sometimes have people who don’t want to pay for a service we offer (fixing their stuff in IT). There are two options:
You tell me what you did when and ask nicely if we can fix it for free? You just did half of my work, of course I will make an exception for you.
You blame everything on us and want the service for free as a compensation? Bet I will invest more time to prove why it’s your fault and therefore you’ll have to pay for it.
For a plastic bag? Give it to them, it costs nothing and it’s not worth your time and effort.