Yep. I've worked in both retail and fast food, and just when you think you've seen it all, some asshole proves you wrong.

My favorite moment has got to be when this guy came in ranting and raving, demanding we all be fired, and how he's gonna go totally ape on us "IF I *EVER* SEE A BURGER LIKE THIS AGAIN..." as if he thinks we actually care. In no time flat, the general manager comes out and, never raising his voice, cuts the guy off.

"We'll talk about it outside."
"NO! I--"
"We'll talk about it outside."
"BUT--"
"We'll talk about it outside."

...and so on. No idea what happened outside, but I'm pretty sure that guy's never coming back. :3

When you threaten to leave and never come back, as if it's going to seriously hurt our business or whatever, the truth is we hope you do just that.

I agree that this is sometimes the case.

Though - from personal experience in "customer service" (in person and over the phone) occasionally it's not the customer [i know that totally sounds crazy]. Honestly, i have had people come onto a phone and just start yelling at me [sometimes in odd languages like Chinese....] - sometimes it is because the person is off their rocker, but occasionally, though probably more often then not - it has nothing to due with you as the person in service.

Some people have a really shitty time with other stuff going on in their life, but not everyone knows how to cope with those emotions and keep it capped. Some people just have been mistreated before by too many customer service companies. I know it sounds weird, but in a lot of the places I've worked the general response was lacking greatly. This can piss off a lot of customers [i.e.- how I feel EVERY TIME I call Comcast.] and cause them to just automatically shut down before they have even spoken to you. If a person in customer service speaks to me like a person and doesn't totally give me the BS answer without batting a lash, I will try and work with them. A lot of companies are missing the mark on training their "customer service" centers to treat people like people.

But yeah, there are just some customers who you will never be able to get to chill out.

Being a five-year straight employee and having to deal with everything from taking an order (and then ten minutes later the customer saying i made a mistake and to give them free stuff PLUS a full refund) to dealing with misunderstandings blown wayyy out of proportion.

At the end of the day, especially with all of these restaurant "ass kissing, watch your back" shows on telly nowadays, the "customers" feel they have a false sense of entitlement. They think it's okay to put people down, and that they should. I agree with the power trip they feel that was explained in the article. It is a powertrip. Have you noticed that 80% of all reviews are generally negative? the people who have a really good time are less likely to speak up because that's supposed to be the "norm". I dunno. I've seen the best customers and i've seen the absolute worst customers. People just need to realize we are all human, at the end of the day.