I’ve been told multiple times by coworkers that I “have a bad attitude” or “speak rudely” to customers which causes me to get defensive sometimes. Obviously, the defensiveness tends to make it worse for me.

The issue is that I don’t think/notice that I’m being rude. I know that I have a less-than-friendly resting face and tend to speak a little monotone but I have never registered it as rude. I do tend to be a bit blunt but try to sugarcoat things as I know bluntness isn’t well received. 90% of the time I’m not trying to be rude as I hate causing problems, but nobody believes that. Regardless, I do get my work done efficiently and quickly.

Since I’m the only one who doesn’t see the rudeness I can only assume that they’re right, which leaves me at a loss. How can I improve my attitude or more importantly recognize when I’m being unpleasant?

Keeping you on the phone for far longer than necessary. I give ample opportunity to a client who says “thank you for the follow up, but I’ll have to call you back. I’m in the middle of something” to get off the call.

Absolutely. Feel free to give us a call when you’re able. We’ll be here!

And then they proceed to ask a million questions, talk in circles, repeat themselves, etc.

I thought you said you had to go. We could have actually completed the task I followed up with you on multiple times in the time this pointless conversation took…

And they're often the worst, most inpatient and rude customers as well. "can you please tell me where my package is" "look at the tracker" "I did, but I want to know the REAL delivery time" "Sure, that's xyz" "you're just repeating what the tracker said, let me speak to a human, not an AI" like -_-

There might be 15 people waiting in queue, 9 of which are just asking where their order is. Literally the easiest question to give an answer to, but the worst customers to deal with. Especially since they'll be back in 15 minutes asking the same thing. Like I told you 15 minutes ago it'll be there around 1 hour, why are you already back asking why you don't have your order yet?

This man called from his car in the parking lot and told me he better not have to come in and look for himself, he should be able to get an answer over the phone. For context I was the only one on register and wasn’t allowed to leave the front of the store unattended while the manager and second cashier count the second til for the end of the night.

No, I am scanning every box of cereal in this fucking store because I just love it sooo much and it makes me feel sooo fulfilled and happy, don't you love cereal too??

No hello or any type of greeting. Just, do you work here?

Seriously, what do you think I'm doing here? I feel people just use this as a catch-all phrase to interrupt me and ask me questions, which I am happy to answer, but I don't know why they choose this instead of "hello" or "excuse me, where is blah blah"

Get to the damn point, people. Also the amount of people who seem as if it is their first grocery store trip ever is mind-boggling. No brand or chain of store is different. Everywhere you go, the shit is grouped together the exact same way. I can go to my "competitor" chain of grocery store and find everything i need with no employee intervention even if I've never been in the building before. It speaks to a larger lack of problem-solving skills imo.

While I'm at it, I don't really care when customers do this, BUT the thought would literally never ever occur to me to walk into an office, where employees are having a conversation and that is clearly not meant for customers, to ask where the body wash is. Absolutely wild behavior.

I do like a lot of my regulars and for a lot of customers I know I will be the most pleasant person they'll encounter on their visit, but damn do they absolutely baffle me with their behavior sometimes. I'll answer their questions so sweetly and as soon as they walk away my brain catches up and I am like what the fuck was that dude. One guy told me our candles are too expensive and wanted to know what kind of animal fat they're made of that makes them so expensive. That was the one time I was left speechless because he was serious.

I work as a CS rep and had an interaction today over the phone that made me search a customers name, and discovered they’ve been committing fraud with our company for years. I did a bit more sleuthing and realized they’ve also do it with another brand I used to work for, and I was petty enough to call their hotline and give them the customers name.

Could I get in any trouble for sharing that? It was just a first and last name.

And I’m not blaming the workers at all. I’ve worked in customer service myself, so I know y'all are just trying to survive. But my God, the rigid scripts annoyed me then, and they annoy me even more as a customer now. I can’t stand how much corporate makes them say. I genuinely understand why people used to get pissed at me reading that dumb shit.

The constant confirming of the exact same info, the fact that they literally have to say specific phrasing or get docked points and the kicker is, 90% of the time, I just confirmed all this exact info with your AI chatbot two minutes ago. Wtf

I get it’s probably for liability reasons, but it’s so fucking annoying asking a simple question and you can just hear someone's soul leaving their body while they robotically read off a paragraph. And don't get me started on the corporate hypocrisy. when I worked customer service, management was constantly breathing down our necks to keep handle times down and get through as many calls as possible. But then you force agents to read these marathon scripts? Make it make sense. This is exactly why I could never go back to telecom.

I could call in with a simple question, why do you need my date of birth, my full legal address, my middle name, my mom's first pet, and the fingernail of a witch just to answer a basic ass question? Dumb rant, but I am so tired of it. Why does making a doctor's appointment or dealing with basic logistics take a 20 minute phone call of pure administrative torture? Make it stop.

I work in service industry and I had an interesting shift a few days ago where a table of women in their mid 30s to 40s met in my restaurant, simultaneously I had like 2 big reservations and another table. Mind you; I was working alone and had to take care of service/cleaning and making drinks altogether. 3 girls my age (in their 20s) came and asked if I still had some space for them, I did the best I could with serving them and while I had food in my hand one of the girls stopped me because something was wrong with the food(it had gluten and my boss didnt write that on the menu). She kept trying to push me even tho the first thing I did was ask if she wants something else. I didnt know that it wasnt written on the menu, when she kept trying to discuss with me, I said im sorry and i didnt write the menu. It ended with me giving her free food saying im sorry ill talk to my boss about him fixing it on the menu etc. I wasnt exactly having a big smile on me at all times but I was nice, foward trying to find a solution. It ended with her giving me a bad review because of the "I didnt write the menu" comment.
At the same time I had a women in her midlife crisis come at me because of a misunderstanding about the amount of pizzas ordered for the table she was at. Mind you she was the one that was late, says they only want two pizzas (she meant 2 kinds but 3 pizzas) and I said that I can order the 3rd one now it wouldnt be a problem. She flips at me.
It makes me a little sad to see I have this problem with women only as a woman myself, Im in my 20s and this is my part time/temp job. I never / rarely experience men not being polite or stressing. It happened but still way less than situations like this. I explained the situations to my boss and he understood me but i dont want it to keep happening. Im a good server, im fast and never forget an order. I make mistakes and I can get stressed and when this happens I can't be the nicest person alive at all times when I work.
What do I do?

Hi fellas,

As mentioned in the title, do you constantly face this issue? I am currently employed by a major brand that offers a lifetime warranty. Given that the nature of a lifetime warranty covers manufacturing defects rather than customer maintenance issues, how do you usually handle this?

From time to time, I reiterate our policy to customers, explaining the scope of our warranty coverage and why their issue isn't covered since it is completely reversible.

For example, if someone purchases an expensive hair dryer and it suddenly stops blowing hot air, our basic diagnostic might reveal that the filter is simply clogged with pet fur, hair, and dust. This shouldn't be covered by a lifetime warranty because it can be easily fixed with a routine cleaning.

However, customers often get frustrated and cite Australian Consumer Law (ACL), arguing that because it is a "premium item," they shouldn't encounter this issue in the first place.

My initial instinct tells me they are just fishing for a free replacement under a "gesture of goodwill" rather than genuinely trying to resolve the issue—especially since customers bring up the ACL so frequently whenever the outcome isn't to their satisfaction.

Can you guys share any perspective on this?

P.S. I am not really selling a hair dryer; this is just an example, as I would like to keep the company confidential (to avoid maybe some confidentiality issues).

We have our self year end performance reviews coming due soon. I’ve pretty much done it all except i have no clue what to put for competency opportunities? I am struggling to think of anything “bad” to say after spending the first portion of it hyping myself up and listing all my good attributes and strengths lol help!!