Yelling in public doesn’t magically make someone right.

In fact, it usually does the exact opposite.

This cinema employee watched an older customer completely lose his temper over a 40-pence difference on a glass of wine.

Rather than accepting the replacement or simply ordering something else, the man decided to unload on a young employee who had no control over the situation.

That is, until this coworker stepped in and put the guy in his place.

Read on to see what he said.

AITA for stepping in when a customer yelled at my coworker over 40p?

I (28M) work at a cinema and almost had a full-blown argument with an old guy at work today.

He was screaming at my colleague (23F) because the certain wine he wanted was out of stock. The replacement cost a whole 40p more and he lost his mind. He was yelling about trading standards, false advertising, even threatening to “get a warrant to shut us down” (lol, what?). His face red and just absolutely unloading on her.

Both managers were within earshot, but they weren’t reacting, so I stepped in and calmly said, “If you have an issue, you can speak to my manager,” and gestured over.

The guy didn’t like what he had to say.

He snapped back, “No! You can talk to your manager! This isn’t acceptable, I’m getting this place shut down!”

Then he gave me the look of “why are you butting in?”

So I just told him, “I don’t appreciate the way you’re speaking to her.”

Suddenly, he backed down.

And suddenly… he looked rattled. Like he didn’t expect pushback.

Manager finally stepped in, though he kept ranting a bit before stomping off into watch the film he was seeing. All of this was over 40p.

The manager later told me I was right to step in, but that I had to “try to stay calm” in the future. Honestly, I thought I was pretty calm considering the situation.

AITA?

Wow! It’s always hard to see a colleague get treated like that.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer complaint that led to them losing their VIP status.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit would’ve responded to the situation.

Well, maybe don’t use these words exactly.

This woman wishes more people did that for her.

For this reader, it’s all about documenting the incident.

According to this comment, the manager knew he messed up.

Some people really struggle with how to behave in public.

It is nice to see a manager really take up for their employee in this “customer is always right” climate – because clearly, that’s not always the case.

If you aren’t ready to step in for your employees when things with customers get dicey, you probably aren’t management material.

More companies should realize that before offering promotions.

At least this person got it right!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a thrift store employee who refused to play “guess the price” without seeing the item in question.