At a random McDonald’s somewhere in the world, a customer is currently screaming at the face of a teenage employee for messing up their order. Countless teenagers have gone through a similar experience. Numerous West Ottawa students have tales to share from their time in retail.
Rude customers exist everywhere. From insults to straight assault, students have seen it all. Sr. Dani Aguillon faced a very impatient customer. Aguillon said, “The rudest customer I ever had while working was a customer who was upset about the wait time for a table. He was an old man who acted really entitled and asked me if I was intellectually slow and started to flex his money right in front of me saying, ‘Yeah and you’ll never get this.’” The customer moved past complaining about service and insulted Aguillon.
Another vocal customer got enraged with Sr. Kenzie Morales. Morales, the manager, said, “When I was working at one of my old jobs a customer was very dissatisfied with their order and when I went to see if there was anything I could do and what the problem was, he screamed in my face, cussed at me, and asked to see a manager.”
The verbal abuse Morales experienced is an unfortunate encounter that many others go through as well. Some customers go further than just insults and curses though. Sr. Gabe Klemm said, “One time when I was working at Burger King, my manager forgot to give a guy some napkins. And so the guy threw all three drinks we had given him through the drive-through window, and we called the cops on him.” A simple forgotten item pushed this man to assault the workers.
Lots of WO students have stories about rude customers, but there are a few funny ones too. Jr. Caleb Montgomery said, “I was in Saugatuck and this guy told me that I was in the ‘town of sinners.’ I wasn’t sure what to think or say.”
Jr. Obi Foreman also had a unique experience. Foreman said, “[An] older woman told me I have gorgeous eyes and that they gleam in the light, which would have been nice if she wasn’t so close.” Hopefully, that compliment was supposed to be a kind comment and not a line that lurked some hidden meaning.
While not quite a customer, Sr. Kennedy Houseman recalled a time where an older gentleman tasted the bitterness of karma. “I worked as a dietary aid; washing dishes, collecting meal order tickets, preparing trays, serving, etc. ‘Gale’ was a massively picky eater and we always had to get him something not on the menu. One day, one of my coworkers accidentally gave him the wrong tray that was meant for someone else as she got their names mixed up in her head. Gale’s dietary restrictions was his food had to be ground. One step up from pureed food. The plate my coworker gave him had pureed food on it for someone else instead of his ground food. Gale was not having it whatsoever. Gale took a swing at my coworker while calling her obscenities. Albeit, he barely even swatted her hair since he had mobility issues. Five minutes later however, he choked on his ground beef and had to be switched to pureed food.” People say karma is best served cold, but in this case, it’s served pureed.
Many students at West Ottawa have had the dismay of encountering rude or strange customers at their jobs.
