Sometimes, a situation starts with a simple misunderstanding and escalates from there.

Imagine you’re working at a gym late at night when a customer ignores check-in and walks straight past your coworker, and then pushes back when you try to stop him? Would you let it go to avoid making a scene? Or would you step in and address it, even if things got heated?

In the following story, one young man finds himself in this situation and has words with the customer. Here’s what happened.

AITA for how I handled a customer interaction?

I work at a gym that closes at 11 pm, no dogs after 2. Coworker is Jen, customer is Andy, and SD is Service Dog.

Andy came in at 10 with a very cute pug. Jen was upstairs at check-in. She asked him to hang on a sec while she finished up with a customer on the phone.

Andy didn’t stop, rolled his eyes at her, and continued to the gym area. She kept telling him to stop, but he kept ignoring her.

I went to him and said our dog hours are over, and he said she’s an SD.

Unsure about the law, he did a little research.

Here’s where I messed up. I asked to see the registration. I knew I couldn’t ask about someone’s disability, but I didn’t know I couldn’t ask for documentation. He got frustrated (understandably) and told me I couldn’t ask that.

I doubt him, and he tells me to Google it. I do, and realize he’s correct. I immediately apologize, and he starts going off for not knowing the law.

It’s fair to be frustrated, and I should’ve known, but I apologized immediately. He continues to say that Jen is poorly trained and very rude, and that he brings his dog all the time, which isn’t a problem.

They were both pretty frustrated by this point.

Btw, Jen is an angel and one of our best employees. There was also no note on his account, which we add for people with SDs, so all staff know. I say I was aware of the interaction, she asked him to stop multiple times, and he did not.

He responded with an attitude, saying, “I’m not a child, you can’t tell me to stop.”

At this point, I’m frustrated and give his attitude right back. I tell him he’s a customer, and when an employee tells him something, he needs to listen. He said he didn’t have time to wait, and I said he should have planned better and come earlier. She was not being rude. She was doing her job.

Then, he said something that finally made sense to the customer.

We argued about this for a good 5-10 minutes before I said there could have been an emergency downstairs, and he would’ve walked right into it.

At that, he seemed to understand and apologized. I apologize for asking him about his SD, then asking her name.

He tells me May, and says I should pet her. I say I thought service animals on duty couldn’t be pet, and he says it’s fine. I clarify that we don’t allow ESAs, only SDs, and that we have had past incidences with misbehavior from ESAs.

He seemed sheepish after that. He asked to apologize to Jen, and I said I would convey it to her.

The guy was worried he was in trouble.

I go upstairs, and Andy follows with May in his arms. He asks if he’s in trouble, and I say not for the SD, but I do need to let my manager know about the interaction for liability reasons.

He asks whether he needs to show any documentation for May, and I keep saying that my manager will reach out if there are any questions.

He says he wants to be friendly with the staff and not cause issues. He’s only brought her in twice this year (I thought you brought her in all the time?), and he’s worried other staff will bother him.

I understand and say I’ll put May on his profile so staff know she’s an SD. He leaves, and I see he has previous notes about being rude.

AITA?

Yikes! You really have to be careful when someone has a service dog.

Let’s check out if the people over at Reddit have anything to say about what happened.

This reader thinks his downfall was pretty simple.

Here’s someone with knowledge on the topic.

This reader owns a service dog.

For this person, he handled it well.

For the most part, he was fine.

But if you work in a place that only allows dogs sometimes, then you should know these laws.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.