She Stood Right There While a Customer Demanded Her Firing Over Damaged Groceries. Then She Introduced Herself
Pexels/Reddit
It’s funny how quickly someone’s tone can change when they realize who they’re talking to.
One grocery store employee saw that happen after a customer called to complain about how her order had been loaded into her car.
Earlier, she’d squeezed the woman’s groceries into a crowded backseat, but now the customer said her drinks had crushed her bread and chips.
Not realizing she was speaking to the employee who’d loaded them, the woman went on about how awful “that girl” was and said she should be fired.
So when her manager came over, the employee offered to hand off the call, but first made sure the customer could hear her say the complaint was about her.
Read on to see what happened next.
Rude Customer Finds Out
I used to work at a grocery store, and I was in the online order department. Basically, we filled online orders and then loaded them into customers’ cars when they came to pick them up. On this particular day, things were slow.
A customer showed up with a rather large order and a complicated payment method.
One of my coworkers and I decided to take it out together to shorten the process. He took out the tablet to process her payment, and I was in charge of loading her order into the car.
Unfortunately, the woman’s car was tiny and could barely hold everything.
Now, this woman had a small car, and she wanted the order loaded into the backseat, which had a car seat in it as well, making the order even harder to load. I did my best to load things so that they wouldn’t fall, but it was a struggle. However, I managed to load it and get the door closed.
Keep in mind, the 12-packs of drinks she had ordered were placed on the seat because they were at the bottom of the totes containing her order. I had packed the order in like sardines, and the woman was far too impatient for me to have taken the time to reload the order and put the 12-packs on the car floor.
The rest of the groceries had been piled from the car floor up, with the soft things on top, so I assumed that they would be safe, as the seat had a backward lean, and it was unlikely the drinks would move forward to hit them.
As expected, she called to complain.
To no one’s surprise, she called our department to complain, and unfortunately for her, I was the one who picked up. This is roughly how the conversation went:
Her: “Hi, I picked up my order about an hour ago. Two people came out to deliver it, and the boy was fine, but that girl was terrible. She put my drinks on top of the bread and chips, and they’re ruined.”
Me: “Oh, I’m sorry about that—”
She then proceeded to interrupt me and go on and on about how awful “that girl” was and how “she” should be fired for being so bad at the job.
She got a great idea when the manager appeared.
After about five minutes of this, I saw my manager, Lindsey, come into the back room and see me on the phone, clearly annoyed. Stopping, she pointed to the phone and mouthed, “What’s wrong?”
It was at this point that I had an idea.
I cut the woman off and went, “Ma’am, would you like to speak to a manager?”
She enthusiastically agreed, and I smiled to myself. I just barely pulled the phone away from my face and put it slightly down toward my chest, making sure that she could DEFINITELY still hear me.
Suddenly, the woman’s whole demeanor changed.
Looking my manager in the face, I very loudly said, “Lindsey, some lady called to complain about me and wants to talk to you.”
Silence from the phone.
Lindsey came over and took the phone, and I stood there as they had a very short conversation before Lindsey hung up. She turned to me, laughing, and said that the woman was suddenly extremely polite about what was wrong.
Lindsey asked me to be a little more careful loading groceries in the future and left the back room smiling and shaking her head. Sometimes I miss that job. It had its funny moments.
Yikes! It sounds like Karen struck again.
Let’s take a look at what Reddit readers had to say about this whole situation.
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Those things must smell terrible!
This person totally gets it.
Here’s someone who actually thinks the worker was in the wrong.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who decided to stop being so helpful when aiding coworkers cost him a promotion.
That’s funny!
She didn’t need to make it so personal.
It’s understandable to be upset if your groceries get crushed, but calling someone awful and demanding they lose their job is way too much.
And the fact that she suddenly changed her demeanor shows she did know how to be reasonable.
Next time, she should give the store a chance to fix it instead of going straight to Karen mode.
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