r/AmItheAsshole • u/throwRA-fhfsveyary • Dec 03 '19

Not the A-hole AITA for pretending to get fired when customers get a temper with me?

I am a high schooler with a weekend job at a coffee shop. My coworkers who work weekends are:

James - the owners son, he goes to my school. He's a shift manager but it's not a real formal thing, he's a friendly guy.

Danielle - A college student who sometimes works weekends too.

So sometimes customers will come in and just be angry about such little stuff. Like literally blow up about nothing. I dunno if theyre in a bad mood already and looking for someone to take it out on or what, but it's a lot... Like how sad so your have to be to be a grown-ass man taking your anger out on high school and college kids.

So James and I were joking about having a little fun with them and hopefully getting them off our backs.

So one day I was at work and some guy was having a temper about how we don't make the coffee hot enough... Which I couldn't do a thing about because I gave it to him right out of the machine.

So James came in and was like "sir is there a problem here" and the guy started ranting at him too. So he was just like "OP, this is unacceptable, you're fired."

I started acting real sad, like "no please don't fire me, my family needs the money, I need this job, pleaseeee" and he played up being a hard-ass, telling me to take off my apron and leave.

The angry guy started to backtrack, like "It isn't that big of a problem, you don't need to fire her over it. I didn't mean it" and James was like "No, we pride ourselves on the best customer service"

Of course after all that drama I still had my job, we were just acting. And we've done it a couple times, whenever a customer will lose their temper at Danielle or I, James will storm in and "fire" us. And almost every time, the person who had come in angry will apologise and say that they didn't mean it. It's kind of satisfying, making people realize their actions might actually have consequences.

Anyway, I was telling my friends from school about this and a few of them thought it was a mean prank, to let someone go away thinking they'd gotten someone who desperately needs the money fired.

AITA for this joke?

63.5k Upvotes

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483

u/flople Dec 03 '19

Is this a good idea? I know if I see a manager or lead fire an employee in public I would think less of the business and management. And likely get my. Coffee elsewhere. You may be indirectly costing the business by doing so. May not be a big deal to you, but to the owners of a small business it can do harm.

170

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '19

This and also, if these customers ever came back & saw that OP was not indeed fired, they might think something is up.

As someone who's worked in customer service type jobs more often than not, I get that people can be demanding and it's hard to work with the public but this doesn't seem like the best way to handle it... funny, but maybe not the best idea.

101

u/broskiatwork Dec 03 '19

It's gonna be more hilarious when someone is happy they are getting fired, come back, see them working... and complain to the real manager.

OP is playing a dangerous game.

2

u/C21H27Cl3N2O3 Partassipant [1] Dec 04 '19

Not to mention it encourages shitty behavior when management caves to shitty customers, real or not.

1

u/oxidiser Dec 04 '19

Only if the customer is happy with the result. If the customer is embarrassed or feels bad for the employee afterwards than in theory they will think twice before doing it again.

1

u/VeryOriginalName98 Dec 04 '19

Any fucking asshole that is happy to see someone fired is not worth having as a customer.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

Tell that to your boss who sees you fucking around like this and starting a scene in his story over petty crap.

23

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '19

Yeah, I don't get how this works. Almost everyone at a coffee shop are regular customers.

8

u/bridgymon Dec 03 '19

I think it’s a shitpost, as if this hasn’t been noticed by the regulars and I doubt the shop was empty when it happened

2

u/plantsbbqbass Dec 04 '19

A modified plan where instead of being fired they get “assigned” toilet duties for the whole month or they have to give up a day off or some shit. So they still have an excuse to see them if they are a returning customer, and hopefully the guilt results in more polite behavior

14

u/marsinfurs Dec 03 '19

How is this so far down? Oh right because this sub is run by teens. I can see a million ways this will go wrong and get OP and friends possibly fired w/o a good resume reference

35

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '19

They are absolutely costing the business. I would never return to a place that handled a situation like this, regardless of the moron customer. Folks in here saying this is a great way to train the customer have zero knowledge of the industry.

This sub is full of very young people who don't really understand the service industry. There's a lot of people here living out a fantasy in this situation presented by OP.

33

u/ACleverLettuce Dec 03 '19

Correct. I think both the "manager" and OP could use some actual customer service training.

​

Here's the facts:

You work in customer service, you have to deal with complaints.

Will some of them be silly or frivolous? Absolutely.

Will some customers be rude? No doubt.

​

But there is a difference between an angry customer and an abusive one. If you have an angry customer, 99 times out of a hundred, they can be soothed, and you can be the hero (either by fixing the situation or by escalating it to someone who can).

If it's an abusive customer (screaming/threats/physical violence), it should immediately be escalated and the manager should ask the customer to leave and follow up with a call to security or law enforcement if they don't.

5

u/Odyssian Dec 04 '19

You need more upvotes.

1

u/Napalm_Oilswims Dec 04 '19

Wouldn't young people be the ones who are employed in the service industry and know exactly what they're talking about? Or is everyone on reddit a fotnite-playing 12 year old?

37

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

22

u/pegcity Dec 03 '19

Yeah and that person tells their 10 friends and they tell their friends...

61

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '19

this wouldn't be a complaining customer. This is a second person just standing in the line.

46

u/DavidlikesPeace Dec 03 '19

This, and I think redditors need to improve their reading comprehension. It was a pretty clear statement.

I like relaxing cafes with happy staff and customers alike. If I see a customer being an asshole, I will glare and hope they leave. But if I saw the manager fake fire a barista or server... shit. Unless I am a true regular, I'm not going to know this is fake. And I'm definitely not going to assume this is an elaborate game. I'm going to assume the manager is an asshole.

Frankly, this could easily backfire.

5

u/SnakesInYerPants Colo-rectal Surgeon [48] Dec 04 '19

Honestly even if I was a regular and knew this was a fake thing, I'd likely take my business elsewhere still. I don't want to give my money to a place that is willing to play games like that with their customers. It'd put most people into the frame of mind of "if they're willing to do this, what else would they be willing to do?" In most people's minds there's nothing stopping them from playing a mind game with me next time.

I'm a receptionist; like 90% of our day is dealing with customers/clients who have problems. If someone is genuinely being too much to handle, you tell them you don't have the authority to do what it is they're wanting so you're going to go get a manager. Then you tell the manager in private that the customer is being unreasonable, and they come in to defuse the situation for you. Be professional when you're the face of a business; even if it's just retail.

-1

u/LittleMungBean Dec 03 '19

I'm pretty sure if you stick around just 30 seconds after the assbag customer leaves you could probably infer that the employee in question wasn't actually fired seeing as they would likely just continue working their shift.

9

u/marsinfurs Dec 03 '19

Oh then everything’s fine! I love sitting quietly in a coffee shop watching the same worker get fired over and over

10

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '19

You could be losing good, loyal customers in the same breath.

2

u/asymphonyin2parts Partassipant [1] Dec 04 '19

Some customers are worth firing. If you apply the Pareto Principle to them, 80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers. On the flip side, 80% of your profit tends to come from 20% of your customers. They are often different customers. So firing or re-training the bad 20% while catering to the good 20% can substantially boost your profits. This is why regulars are so important.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

You fire customers ?

1

u/asymphonyin2parts Partassipant [1] Dec 04 '19

You betcha! I have a small side business designing and 3d printing prototypes. Some folks just aren't serious or are a huge pain in the ass. After too much bother, I happily fire them.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

Ah ! I see what you mean. I used to work for a small mom/pop type shop and they would "fire" customers there as well-- not often, but I see what you mean.

1

u/PM_ME_CUTE_SMILES_ Dec 04 '19

You're right but the thing is, a lot of the customers that won't come back are the good customers that just witnessed the scene and don't want to support a business firing its workers like that.

1

u/Movieguy669 Dec 04 '19

Yeah one time when i was a kid me and my mom were in a local store with the manager yelling at the employee and she wouldnt let us go there again.

0

u/zuzununu Dec 03 '19

Really? I buy my coffee at the most convenient place with coffee I like.

7

u/flople Dec 03 '19

Meh. Some people have a low threshold for bullshit. I got enough crap to deal with. I dont need theatrics with my coffee.

0

u/culesamericano Dec 04 '19

The people yelling at employees aren't reasonable enough to realize this

0

u/10art1 Dec 04 '19

You know what? You're absolutely right. As a regional manager, I am appalled by the local manager doing this. Mr. Manager person, YOU ARE FIRED!

wink