A woman see's a couple kissing in public and loses her mind.

[Pete]

The very first day I moved to California, I stopped at Jack In the Box on PCH in Malibu and this woman stumbled while carrying a tray and spilled her soft drink.

She went *off* on the staff behind the counter for not putting the lid on tighter... I mean ranting and screaming like I had never seen. Said she was an attorney, was going to sue them... The manager apologized (even though their fault in all this was pretty dubious) and that just fired her up more.

I also worked at a sporting goods store during college and a man came in to buy an exercise bike that had been advertised. Turns out we didn't have any left and a rain check to buy one at the same price later only made things worse. This guy came in angry and yelled and screamed and swore and demanded the manager and then yelled and screamed some more. It was unbelievable.

There are indeed people like this and when they get called out or embarrassed, they just scream louder.

[Roger S]

I also worked at a sporting goods store during college and a man came in to buy an exercise bike that had been advertised. Turns out we didn't have any left and a rain check to buy one at the same price later only made things worse. This guy came in angry and yelled and screamed and swore and demanded the manager and then yelled and screamed some more. It was unbelievable.

There are indeed people like this and when they get called out or embarrassed, they just scream louder.

I was in Home Depot last week looking for some specialty fasteners and the employee that stopped to help me told me he had a man yell at him because they didn't have what he was looking for a few days earlier.

[SoonerDave]

I was in Home Depot last week looking for some specialty fasteners and the employee that stopped to help me told me he had a man yell at him because they didn't have what he was looking for a few days earlier.

I think this happens more often than we realize. I'm amazed at the number of people who don't get the fact that it almost certainly is NEVER the clerk in the aisle who is responsible for Thing A or Part B being out of stock or otherwise unavailable, yet they're the one who gets unloaded on by crazy customers who go way out of bounds with their license "as a customer."

A similar thing happened to us in a restaurant about a year ago. The family across from us, including two relatively young children, had just been seated a few minutes ahead of us (it was a Japanese hibachi-style restaurant). The dad had obviously already had a bit too much to drink, and absolutely went off on the waitress because she hadn't responded quickly enough (in his view) to his demand for a spoon. A spoon. He then went off on the other server for our table, then turned to the manager, and was making a big enough scene that heads were turning. You couldn't ignore him. The waitress was in tears, as I could see she was serving (at least) two large parties in different areas of the restaurant. I felt awful for her and the manager. I tried as best I could to tell her, "hey, don't let that guy bother you. You're doing just fine" (words to that effect) and I think that small effort helped her calm herself a bit.

You have to think that other things are going on in people's lives when they lose control like that over something trivial (fasteners, a spoon, whatever). I can't be too high-and-mighty about it; I remember snapping at a guy at Panera a few years back because they were out of something. I went back and apologized to the him for being a jerk, but it doesn't excuse the behavior...

[Roger S]

I think this happens more often than we realize. I'm amazed at the number of people who don't get the fact that it almost certainly is NEVER the clerk in the aisle who is responsible for Thing A or Part B being out of stock or otherwise unavailable, yet they're the one who gets unloaded on by crazy customers who go way out of bounds with their license "as a customer."

My wife was a phlebotomist for DLO and she would tell me stories about people they were about to stick for blood going off on them..... Personally one of the last people I want to be yelling at is the person about to stick a needle in my arm.

[Midtowner]

A similar thing happened to us in a restaurant about a year ago. The family across from us, including two relatively young children, had just been seated a few minutes ahead of us (it was a Japanese hibachi-style restaurant). The dad had obviously already had a bit too much to drink, and absolutely went off on the waitress because she hadn't responded quickly enough (in his view) to his demand for a spoon. A spoon. He then went off on the other server for our table, then turned to the manager, and was making a big enough scene that heads were turning. You couldn't ignore him. The waitress was in tears, as I could see she was serving (at least) two large parties in different areas of the restaurant. I felt awful for her and the manager. I tried as best I could to tell her, "hey, don't let that guy bother you. You're doing just fine" (words to that effect) and I think that small effort helped her calm herself a bit.

That manager was either bound by some unreasonable company policy or was an asshole fore failing to protect his employee. A hundred dollar table isn't worth your employees knowing you don't have their back. He should have told that gentleman that the rest of his family could stay, but that he was no longer welcome at their restaurant. I did a few years in retail and I had zero problems with telling an abusive customer that they needed to get the hell out or I would be calling the police. That wasn't ever a problem because management had my back.

What amazes me about these situations is that the employees/managers allow customers to behave so horribly. The customer is not always right.

[SoonerDave]

That manager was either bound by some unreasonable company policy or was an asshole fore failing to protect his employee. A hundred dollar table isn't worth your employees knowing you don't have their back. He should have told that gentleman that the rest of his family could stay, but that he was no longer welcome at their restaurant. I did a few years in retail and I had zero problems with telling an abusive customer that they needed to get the hell out or I would be calling the police. That wasn't ever a problem because management had my back.

What amazes me about these situations is that the employees/managers allow customers to behave so horribly. The customer is not always right.

In this case, the guy was moderately imposing physically - not a weightlifter or anything - but certainly such that he was taller and almost certainly intimidating to the manager, who by comparison was of a slighter build, and I'm sure he surmised that if things escalated at all he'd be in trouble. Honestly, I think the manager handled it about as well as he could short of throwing them all out - and he probably also knew that would just punish his wife and their kids. It was a really ugly balancing act the guy had to navigate, and I know I wouldn't have wanted to be in his shoes.

What made this situation even worse was that I happened to recognize his wife as a member of local media, and I'm sure in that vein she did not want the situation to escalate any further than it already had. What struck me was in the midst of her husband's antics, she was a 100% class act through it all. She totally kept it together when I think most spouses would rightfully have become just a bit unglued. In fact, she was actually able to talk him down a bit from his most extreme behavior when he started engaging people across the table - the sad thing to me was that probably implied it wasn't the first time something like that happened. And to act that way in front of your kids was just...inexplicable. The guy obviously has/had a problem.

Anyway, sorry for the rabbit chase, but that incident came to mind....