Things usually don’t end well when someone feels disrespected.

Imagine you didn’t understand what a customer was asking during a busy moment, and they took it personally. How would it make you feel? Would you just shrug it off and move on? Or would it leave you feeling really badly because you didn’t mean anything by it?

In the following story, a convenience store cashier was left feeling like this by a customer. Here’s what happened.

AITA for making a regular customer at my job feel discriminated against?

I (F18) work just outside the city in a convenience store in a small complex. Regularly, workers from the other businesses come to the store to buy bags of ice and sometimes drinks.

Most of the people who work in the complex are Asian, as well as literally ALL of my coworkers. Sometimes I find it difficult to understand what people are saying (no matter race) if they have a thick accent.

The store also gets busy, so sometimes I’m doing multiple things at once, which makes it harder for me to concentrate. I’ve never had an actual issue with anyone with an accent. I usually just have to ask them to repeat themselves so I can understand, and they usually laugh about it a little.

The lady tried to explain herself twice.

Today, a lady who works in a cafe in the complex (she comes in a lot) came to buy ice as usual. I was in the middle of serving a customer, there was a small queue, and I was the only one in the store at the time.

She asks me, “Do you sell plates?”

But I didn’t understand and asked her to repeat it as I thought she was asking if we sold plants (we get asked this a bit), and I said, “Sorry, we don’t sell plants,” and she said, “You know, plates you eat off?”

She was not accepting of the apology.

And then I thought she might be talking about herbs as a garnish (I know it sounds so ridiculous, but when I’m stressed, I find it hard to think clearly).

As she’s walking towards the ice, she grabs a packet of paper plates and says, “Like these!”

And I said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t understand,” as I’m serving the customer.

She then says, “You always make me feel discriminated against,” and I said, “I’m sorry, I just didn’t understand,” and she responds, “You were trying to embarrass me. You discriminate against me because I’m Asian.”

Now, she wants to write an apology letter to the woman.

I tried to apologize again, and she went to get the ice. After she comes back and the other customers are gone, I try to apologize again, but she says, “I know what you’re like. I know people like you.”

And I just apologized again and served her, and she left.

I was shaking and honestly trying not to cry a little. I get really anxious when people are mad at me if it’s something I can’t control or don’t realize is wrong. I don’t know if I am wrong or not because I really didn’t mean to. I want to write her an apology, but I’m not sure exactly which store she works at.

AITA?

Eek! It’s easy to see both sides, but it does seem like an innocent mistake.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit have to say about it.

This person sees both sides.

According to this comment, she tried.

Here’s someone who gets asked to repeat things.

As this person explains, it can be hard to understand people sometimes.

The woman seems very sensitive, because there was nothing wrong with how she handled it.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who gave her phone number to be friendly to a guest, but immediately wished she could take it back.