Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A good start to a crappy morning



I know it's been bad when I come home and see the dirty bowl reminiscent of breakfast sitting in my kitchen sink and when i remember eating oatmeal i think it was yesterday.

Landon's still asleep right now so i had to get this off my chest somehow.

I woke this morning early. Like i usually do for my mornings at Starbucks. Only today i woke up 20 minutes early - naturally (no alarm - hooray!). Landon was still awake from his late night and he fixed me oatmeal for breakfast and kept me company while i ate in a zombie fashion. he even started my car for me in hopes of a warm ride to work. after his kiss goodbye and "thank you for working so early" i felt empowered.

I shouldn't let ONE little thing ruin my day. but i did. and it did. around, hm... 6am i had a customer treat me like utter dirt. scum, even. I actually deal with many rude, impatient, cruel customers daily, but this lady takes the cake. She ordered her drink curtly (but i get it - it's cold out there in the drive-thru) and asked for a "piece of sausage". hm... did i hear that correctly? do we sell "a piece of sausage"? I told her that i would be happy to warm up the sausage from one of our sandwiches, but i would have to charge her for the entire sandwich. After this she proceeded to scream and scream at me and tell me that she is here EVERY DAY (except she isn't because I am here every day and i have never seen her in my life)and my manager better be at the window when she gets there.

we made her drink perfectly and provided her with excellent customer service. when she pulled up to the window i went to greet her. she was awful and asked for the manager. i told her that i was the supervisor (which threw her in an even bigger fit). she proceeded to scream at me calling me obscene names and began to ramble off four letter words in eloquence and speed i've only heard in movies like "snatch". at this point i am actually physically shaking from adrenaline and fright. she asked me a thousand questions but actually didn't want any answers - she would not let me speak to her one bit. i even wrote down the phone number to starbuck's headquarters with our manager's name and my name as well. i apologized. she told me that we just lost a customer - from now on she will go across the street to mcdonalds. i seriously doubt she will....but i hope she does.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

ah yes i remember those days well I think because it is drive thru people think they can treat you like crap! One lady threw her hot coffee at me once! I can am certain people wouldn't act like this if they knew you. I can't imagine someone being that mean. that lady sucks and I hope she does leave because those aren't the type of people that starbucks needs. Plus I love this threat and heard it all the time as well one time my manager even told a costumer 'good because we don't like costumers like you plus I don't think Starbucks will go out of business because of losing one costumer" oh that really got the lady going.

Sara said...

Oh Hannah, I'm so sorry that lady was so mean to you. Sometimes (well, really, quite often) I just really don't get people and how they can be so awful to each other. But you go to Colorado so soon!!!! Hope things have been improving since that nasty morning.

Anna said...

Sausage? She wanted sausage? Justin and I are wondering if she thought she was at McDonald's instead of Starbucks. JP won't tell me what he would have done in that situation...

Hannah said...

you ladies are great. yeah, anna, i've been playing the scenario over in my mind and trying to decide of how else i could have handled it. i think i would have told her that she was over-reacting, especially because we don't actually SELL sausage. ha! i'm sure i'll think of other ways i could have handled the situation, besides throwing a cup of cold water in her face.

Crystal said...

haha... sausage? that's a riot. it's almost like you were on candid camera.

I'm sorry you had to endure such a wretched woman. I remember those days from working retail at Christmas and not having the right pink Denali a week before Christmas.

Brooke Hereth said...

doesnt everyone get starbucks on a crappy morning?!! i know i would get starbucks twice a day every day if i could!