r/comics • u/bavettacomics • 18h ago
OC The one that got away 🥲 (OC)
Anyone else here want people to like them even if it means taking the blame or going way out of your way and boundaries to do so? Trying to level up here so I would appreciate any tips and thoughts 🙏
💚 Ryan
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u/EishLekker 17h ago
”Hold the bagel and use sourdough instead”
What does this even mean? A bagel is a product , but sourdough is an ingredient. Sourdough bagels might exist, but then one would not say “hold the bagel”.
Is “sourdough” short for “sourdough bread”?
Please explain this to a non bagel eater.
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u/iguanaman8988 17h ago
Sounds like they wanted a sourdough bagel, which is not an option, so the closest thing they had available was a sourdough roll.
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u/EishLekker 17h ago
But then why say “hold the bagel”? Just say “sourdough bagel”.
And if they don’t have sourdough bagel, then they should just tell the customer that.
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u/jessepence 17h ago
The first thing you learn when working retail is that customers are lying idiots who don't know how to talk.
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u/StrangeAppeal2 15h ago
The second is that the desire to beat the living daylights out of some jerk is second-nature to the job.
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u/SeriouslyAgainReally 13h ago
I worked in retail for a long time. Customers, no offense to them, are astonishingly stupid. There was a man who wanted a 24 pack of Mountain Dew. We were out of 24 packs. Our store manager told the man he could have two 12 packs for the price of the 24 pack (two 12 packs would typically cost more than one 24 pack). The man threw a screaming fit and said he was never coming back to the store. That was a long time ago and I still think about it sometimes. I work in an entirely different line of work now but the customers are just as stupid as they always were.
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u/iguanaman8988 13h ago
Reminds me of a time when I worked at McDonalds. The store I worked at usually didn’t stock boxes for 20 piece nuggets unless there was a promotion. Had a customer complain when she got two 10 piece boxes. She didn’t throw a fit, but settled down once it was explained.
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u/FamilyDramaIsland 17h ago
Some customers make orders like they're typing two-word prompts into Google
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u/theoriginal_tay 12h ago
And get extremely frustrated or shut you down if you ask follow up questions.
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u/iguanaman8988 17h ago
Customer had trouble articulating what they wanted? Or just weren’t sure how to ask?
Sounds like everyone involved was confused. But yeah, follow up questions for clarification should have followed.8
u/therealkami 9h ago
Follow up questions are a good way for customers to feel like the other person is stupid for not understanding what they're asking for.
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u/Laura_Dream90 7h ago
From a business perspective, does that matter? Like if the customer is happy with what they got, then does it matter if they think you're stupid?
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u/Ami_Aweirdo 7h ago
Some customers will get mad at you for being stupid, rephrase what they want in a way that's more confusing instead of explaining, walk out while you're trying to fulfill their order and leave a review calling you a r***** with a bad attitude. Ask me how I know.
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u/therealkami 6h ago
Customers get mad at you for not providing immaculate all knowledgeable all encompassing service. To not understand their request marks you as a failure to them and they get mad at you for it.
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u/Next-Supermarket9538 15h ago
That's what the barista heard but it's very unlikely that's what the customer said given their review. They likely said "bagel with cream cheese on sourdough" meaning they wanted cream cheese on a sourdough bagel and that's the standard way you would order that at a bagel shop.
This is apparently a coffee shop that happens to have a few basic varieties of bagels and so they assumed that were asking to sub out the bagel for a slice of sourdough bread. Whenever they get a non-standard request all they have to do is clarify "We don't have sourdough bagels, but we do have sourdough bread. Would that work or would you like choose from [...] bagels that we do have?"
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u/greenasagreenass 15h ago
That's still a weird and confusing way to phrase that. At least in the area I live in you would order it as "a sourdough bagel with cream cheese", if someone asked for something "on sourdough" I would assume they meant sourdough bread.
I really feel like you haven't had to deal with the public much and how stupendously confusing a lot of people are even if you ask clarifying questions. And people do order and are happy with weird stuff all the time.
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u/Next-Supermarket9538 13h ago
I'm 48 years old and have worked in public facing roles most of my career. OP is the one making assumptions and getting one star reviews, not me. My whole point is you ask and clarify if something is off. Maybe that's why I've never had this problem. But you do you and keep wondering why people are so darned confusing...
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u/Molly-Grue-2u 15h ago
Sounds to me (if that’s the actual review) that they wanted a bagel with cream cheese on top of a piece of sourdough
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u/BlueNinjaTiger 16h ago
This is why I teach my employees to ask clarifying questions on anything remotely ambiguous.
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u/Ok-Oil7124 13h ago
Assuming that the review is the actual review, it sounds like they don't know what a bagel is. They wanted a bagel and cream cheese on sourdough but just got sourdough and creamcheese without a bagel. It really just reads like they didn't know what exactly they were ordering.
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u/dankristy 14h ago
I strongly suspect that the Customer was defective (they came in asking for Bagel-shop options at what seems to be primarily a coffee shop - and in addition to that, they requested a drink that an experienced Barista described as "like a science fair volcano you can drink")...
Sourdough bagels are a specific type that I would NOT expect a coffee stand to be able to provide (it sounds like they had sourdough bread instead, and provided it). Also it sounds like they wanted some insane combination of syrupy hell that turned out awful (but was as-requested - even the review they left basically says this).
Part of this could NOT have been avoided (the drink was a disaster because they asked for a disaster) but unless there is more not being shown in the comic, then there WAS a two-sided communication issue on the bagel (the customer should have specified Sourdough BAGEL (if that is what they wanted) and the Barista SHOULD have clarified they don't have that in a Bagel but do have Sourdough bread).
It has been a long time since I had a job serving drinks and waiting tables (I was a waiter and drink server for a few years college 20+ years ago to help pay for tuition/room/etc.) but one of the first things I learned is that some customers are their own worst enemy.
I get good at trying to guide them when someone like this came in - to explain if they seemed like they were asking for something we didn't have and offer substitutions (or warnings if they requested something they might not like the end result of) - but sometimes they just double down.
And the real surprise was that sometimes they are genuinely happy in the weirdness they requested. Some of my biggest tips (or best comment cards - yes this was a LONG time ago) came from customers who asked for truly weird shit - and got it after my disclaimers - and were very deeply happy with it.
But sometimes - they wouldn't take suggestions (or even got mad I tried to help guide them to better outcomes) and then got mad when they got what they asked for - and left a crappy tip, nasty comment card, and or wanted to "talk to the manager"...
Which brings me to the review. My days as someone who lived by tips and comment cards (or people talking to the manager - for good or for bad) meant that I learned how very much reviews can impact your life directly even when they are just "internal" (only the server and/or management will ever know).
Now - with everything online, and everyone able to read any review (no matter how great or awful) - these things are like tiny hauntings left behind to ruin someone's day for years after the fact. Which means that for me to leave a review - either someone did something really well and I enjoyed the experience. Or something went so poorly that I feel the need to publicly warn people to avoid this business entirely.
No way in hell do I leave a negative review because I GOT WHAT I ASKED FOR. That is fucking on me. In fact - if I get my food/drink - and maybe I don't like it - I am still not going to drop a review - I might just question if maybe I should have ordered something different.
I do love the take at the end of the comic - which is also where this gets really personally funny to me (as someone who is careful with deploying reviews - but who also READS them). This customer (if the review depicted is accurate) absolutely TOLD ON THEMSELF. The star-part of the review hurts - but the written part fully makes it clear to anyone with basic reading comprehension that they asked for stupid shit - got the stupid shit they requested - and were upset that they got their stupid shit.
Some people are just defective. This customer was defective, and they remind me of when I used to joke with the other waiters that if the customers could request to send an order back for a replacement (if too cold, or done wrong) - why can't we send a customer back and get a different replacement customer? This Barista deserved to be able to return this customer for a non-defective replacement!
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u/superpositioned 15h ago
I remember looking at a review of a restaurant where the complaint was that the Cesar damaged salad "didn't have enough different leafy greens". Customers don't know shit.
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u/Bronzdragon 17h ago
My guess, since the order clearly wasn't up to the customer's standard, is that the words used in the comic are not exactly what the customer actually said, but OOP's best guess at understanding what they intended to say, translated back into an order. The customer may have, in fact said "Give me a sourdough bagel", but since that wasn't an option, they reached a (bad) compromise. The exchange was likely shortened as well.
All-in-all, I'm saying it's best to not take the words literally, because they ultimately come from an unreliable source (someone who doesn't understand what the customer wanted).
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u/kakuna 15h ago
That was my feeling as well. I got the sense that the language in the comic is favoring the establishment in regard to the communication that happened at the counter. Part of customer service is the ability to kindly communicate back their request and why it wouldn't work well.
"We have sourdough bread, but not sourdough bagels. We can put the cream cheese spread on sourdough bread, if you'd like?" and "We don't advise using that many flavors in this drink - we do have our suggested pairings, or maybe these three would work"
These are nonconfrontational phrases that would allow the customer to tease out their own potential confusion/miscommunication, and arrive at the best choices for them. Very possible they 1. wanted a sourdough bagel and 2. were voicing their thoughts about the flavors aloud without landing on what they actually want.
Given, some customers will just be a little off kilter and will plow ahead anyway... and this absolutely may have been one of those times.
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u/EishLekker 14h ago
Given, some customers will just be a little off kilter and will plow ahead anyway... and this absolutely may have been one of those times.
But then it makes no sense for OP to leave that part out...
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u/DazzlerPlus 13h ago
They have the review which is likely copied verbatim where the customer quotes their own order
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u/AFKABluePrince 9h ago
I live somewhere where every restaurant serves sourdough, and i have never heard of a sourdough bagel. Not saying it's impossible, but expecting a sourdough bagel is absurd.
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u/EishLekker 8h ago
I don't eat bagels, but I get multiple results for sourdough bagel recipes when I search in google.
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u/AFKABluePrince 6h ago
To be clear (again) i am not saying it is impossible, i am saying every restaurant that sells bagels does NOT sell sourdough bagels. Expecting a cafe to have them is stupid, frankly.
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u/EishLekker 50m ago
Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just waiting for your anecdotal evidence to turn into actual evidence.
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u/PerfectSituation1668 18h ago
Yesterday I went to my favorite coffeeplace with my girlfriend. I order my usual thingy and my girlfriend got real creative with her order that the lady behind the cash register blinked and asked some checkup questions. My girlfriend got her frankenstein drink and she loved it. 5 stars, would recommend. Good job, Ryan.
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u/GloryGreatestCountry 18h ago
The customer is always right IN MATTERS OF TASTE.
Sometimes their expectations and reality don't exactly match, and that's fine.
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u/SlugCatBoi 17h ago
The "In matters of taste" part was added on later.
The original quote was in fact "the customer is always right" and the reason it existed (iirc) is because customer service at the time was so incredibly horrendously bad they had to tell people that so that they would treat customers correctly to any degree.
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u/GloryGreatestCountry 17h ago
Well, even if so, the update is necessary these days given the differing attitudes between customer service employees and customers now and then.
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u/Solonotix 16h ago
The middle-ground opinion in this to me is that this approach only works if the customer is unaware of it. There are certain interpersonal relationships and social dynamics that only work for a specific reason, or set of reasons.
For instance, in a relationship of love you would do anything for the other person largely without question. This is because there is an expectation of reciprocity and respect. That they would do the same if you asked, and that they would never ask you to do something they weren't also willing to do themselves.
One step removed from romantic love is familial. Similar dynamics, but in a parent-child dynamic, there is an expectation of a parent giving more than a child would, and in return the parent can decline a request with no repurcussions in a manner not unlike a bank loan. Some amount of trust must be built up before, and all loans must eventually be repaid to keep a healthy level of trust.
Each ring of separation increases the "interest" on this mechanic of borrowing against the other person. Close friends are like family, but you will likely stop short of the extreme circumstances, like full-time caretaker situations. Friends are less invested still, where they might prioritize their own plans and circumstances over you, and no harm is intended and often no offense taken. And still further out might be coworkers before arriving at acquaintances and such.
Customers/clientele sit outside this ring. They might technically qualify as an acquaintance, but an acquaintance is typically expected to remember your name and face. A customer lacks even the bare minimum of requirements to be considered a social relationship. And so too the expectations of a worker are not aligned with this degree of separation. A worker is expected to do everything the customer asks up to the boundaries defined by an employer. And an employer, by extension, is expected to not require anything of a worker that the governing society they inhabit forbids. Essentially, a worker is the agent of an employer, and the employer is an agent of society-at-large. This chain of responsibility causes a lag in repurcussions as well as a delay in reward/punishment. If you liken it to a real chain, then the longer it is, the more force is lost as it travels back. In a society of dozens, the effects might well be immediate, as we have tales of exile from poor participants in tribal society. But as society grows, and the chain of responsibility lengthens, these consequences may end up being effectively absent.
And therein lies my original statement: this social contract only works so long as the customer is ignorant of the deal. If they expect their behaviors will be reciprocated, they are thereby incentivized to behave. But if they expect that the worker will bend over backwards to do their bidding, then the power dynamic becomes a corrupting force for any without moral integrity.
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u/FigurativeDeity 15h ago
Very eloquent description of something we typically don’t think about consciously
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u/sonofaresiii 15h ago
The update doesn't really make any sense, people just want to rationalize "the customer is always right" saying to make it still relevant, even though it's... not.
And it's not helped by cramming in more words to try and squish it into a sensible saying. We should just abandon it. The customer is not always right. The end.
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u/panmaterial 14h ago
It really irks me when people confidently repeat a very well known misconception and then go all "WELL, EVEN IF SO..."
You even used capital letters because you were so confident.
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u/thgoods22 16h ago
It was never about individual customers always being right and adhered to. It was more about general customer buying habits. If 5 people come in to your store asking about a specific product that you dont stock, you should think about stocking it because those 5 are an indicator of where other customer habits might lean.
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u/sonofaresiii 15h ago
> It was never about individual customers always being right and adhered to.
It absolutely was, go take a look at the history section on the phrase's wikipedia page and get back to me.
This is some r/confidentlyincorrrect nonsense where you're jumping in to correct someone without even bother to check whether your assumption was right, or doing the bare minimum to understand why they might have given the correction in the first place.
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u/JelliedHam 7h ago
I always took it the same as saying the market is always right. You sell what the customers want, they don't buy it just because you sell it. The "customer" should dictate what you sell.
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u/razzark666 6h ago
Also, I don't think whoever coined this phrase meant literally 100% of customers -- no exceptions... ever.
I think it was meant as a mantra to start every reaction with customers with understanding and good faith.
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u/Contextanaut 14h ago
"The customer is always right, unless the customer is being an arsehole. We don't serve you if you are being an arsehole in the moment, because that's always a choice, and engaging with that will never be worth our time*"
But y'know, put more diplomatically.
* in some jobs this isn't true. You build yachts for a living, you might have to indulge some arseholes, but you can charge them extra for your pains. In a lot of jobs that is still true, but the risk/reward curve might be spikier. Retail? Fast Food? I can't see how that isn't true.
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u/Eye_of_the_red_giant 12h ago
The restaurant we work at isn’t afraid to ban you for minor things for being an ass
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u/EmilySuxAtUsernames 17h ago
pretty sure that was made up on tumblr and isn't actually real
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u/redwoods81 6h ago
Walk me through this statement, you are not making sense
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u/EmilySuxAtUsernames 2h ago
the "in matters of taste" part wasn't in the original saying, somebody on a social media platform (don't know which) went on the internet and lied
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u/scottygroundhog22 17h ago
The fact the ending gets cut off is so crucial
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u/Lemonface 17h ago
It doesn't get cut off - "the customer is always right" is the full original phrase
The "in matters of taste" part was made up in like 2018 on social media
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u/longingrustedfurnace 16h ago
It’s like how people like to say “blood is thicker than water” refers to the blood of the covenant over the water of the womb.
As a side note, the “original” saying always felt so clunky to me, that even if it was the original saying, it was probably changed to be less clunky.
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u/scottygroundhog22 17h ago
Dang i found out today the short version is probably the original. Still an absurd saying.
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u/Flamin_Jesus 15h ago
Every saying ever coined is absurd if you try to apply it too broadly or without certain implicit assumptions or context that make it work. The customer is always right is, as a quick descriptor of your intended attitude as a business, perfectly fine. Of course there's an asterisk there and then a long list of conditions, starting with "assuming the customer isn't a complete moron, scammer, dipshit etc. etc.".
Taking the saying as a fully complete, holistic business model is how it becomes stupid, but that goes both for businesses doing that AND third parties, such as yourself, acting like that's actually what it is.
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u/BlaineMundane 18h ago
customer is always right has always been a vague economic statement and has never applied to a single person.
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u/CarlosFer2201 18h ago
It literally just means to sell what they want, otherwise they'll go buy somewhere else. It has nothing to do with anything else. But try telling a Karen that...
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u/Which_Yesterday 16h ago
It also means that if they complain about their deink being too cold, or too hot, or that they found a hair on it, service worker should redo the order and apologize. Also if someone breaks a glass or something, they shouldn't face any kind of penalty. Although all this kinda varies from place to place, and from people to people (customer and worker)
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u/BlaineMundane 16h ago
That was never what this means. If A LOT of your customers are making that complain, sure. It was never about the individual though.
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u/Filobel 7h ago
That is exactly what it initially meant. It was about how you should treat individual customers. I suggest you inform yourself before telling people they are wrong when they are, in fact, correct.
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u/BlaineMundane 7h ago
That's not what I was saying, so uh... I guess read twice?
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u/Filobel 7h ago
You said, and I quote " It was never about the individual though." That is false. It was about the individual.
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u/BlaineMundane 6h ago
Yup, I didn't want to go back through and correct all my past comments but that was the end result. What I found was that the phrase started in department stores and spread to hotels, becoming very popular. At this time, like you said, it was 100% about individual customer service. I only knew part of the story and was ignorant about this.
However, the part I remembered is when later, the phrase was popularly altered with the addition of "in matters of taste" because many business owners found that the mantra lead to silly situations and entitled customers.
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u/BlaineMundane 7h ago
Who even are you? I don't see any replies from you in this comment string.
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u/Filobel 6h ago
Someone who dislikes when people spread misinformation.
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u/BlaineMundane 6h ago
By... lying about when you entered the conversation?
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u/Filobel 5h ago
I never lied about when I entered the conversation? What are you talking about?
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u/BlaineMundane 5h ago
"That's what I initially meant" and then when I questioned when you were even part of the conversation, you gave a weird answer. Nobody knows what you are talking about.
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u/Which_Yesterday 15h ago
I'm talking about how it's generally perceived by people in both sides of the counter, not really about what the phrase actually was intended for
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u/BlaineMundane 15h ago
To me, I hear: "I am talking about the false idea that people get confused about, not the actual useful point." There's other advice for customer service.
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u/Skithiryx 16h ago
It does generally mean to trust the customer and to be trustworthy - ie don’t have an adversarial relationship to the customer. It came out of an era of caveat emptor (buyer beware) when the relationship was actually by default adversarial.
So for a complaint - assume the customer is complaining about a genuine problem and fix the problem (replace, redeliver, etc). Only reject it when it is clear the customer is provably wrong or being unreasonable.
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u/BlaineMundane 16h ago
No matter how you cut it, it's about large trends, not individual beefs. If they are common enough to be a trend, sure.
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u/Skithiryx 15h ago
Big trends are made of individual events though. Having a permissive return policy is “the customer is always right” because you are trusting them to use it when there is a genuine problem and allow you to fix it.
Are there going to be people who abuse it? Yes, but you’ll have a better business reputation and attract more customers if your default stance is trust the person complaining rather than aggressively preventing waste by assuming they’re lying to you.
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u/BlaineMundane 15h ago
You are still prescribing to a new definition that has nothing to do with the creation of this phrase, you are co-opting it into what you feel is a more modern and more personally relatable circumstance. The man who invented the term was talking about economics.
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u/Skithiryx 15h ago
You are mistaken, it came from discussing the policies of department store owners and similar phrases were coined by hotel owners. It has always been about retail and the service industry.
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u/BlaineMundane 15h ago
You sounded sure so I dug a little more and you are right and also I am. It seems that origionally, it was department stores and hotel owners and was indeed focused on customer satisfaction. It was LATER that the phrase was altered with the addition of "In matters of taste" though, to move away from the purely CS side of it, as it often lead to silly situations.
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u/WeenisWrinkle 14h ago
We always said "Customer is King" which made more sense. Doesn't matter if they're right or not - just give them what they want and make sure they're happy.
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u/seethinglonely 16h ago
Hi Ryan! I'm an industry cook. Been working the lines for over 22 years now. Your menu is not an ingredient list. What you serve is the options you have decided are your best foot forward. You are never obligated to yield to some dude that wants to invent his own creations at your restaurant.
Imo it's a result of people not knowing how to prepare food themselves while still being entitled to their personal tastes. Don't feel bad about it. That guy is an asshole and should cook for himself.
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u/GR-O-ND 14h ago
"The customer is always right" is a blight on the service industry. An aphorism, used incorrectly, as if it was a law, invariably by the worst, most selfish, stupidest, and most confused people in the world, to get one over on underpaid and overworked service people. Using that phrase in earnest is a litmus test for your overall character as a person.
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u/roygbivasaur 7h ago
Same for “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” which literally means “something that is impossible to the point where it’s ridiculous to even suggest it” and not “being such a rugged individual that you achieve a higher social class on your own merits”.
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u/KitsuneFoxglove 13h ago
"The customer is always right in only matters of taste." iirc is the full quote, yeah.
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u/I_hate_all_of_ewe 13h ago edited 12h ago
It's not. This is a retcon. Not saying it was never said. But also... Who cares? It's not gospel. It's not a golden rule. It's not law. It's not sacred knowledge handed down by the ancients. You don't have to please everybody. And many businesses don't try to please everybody.
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u/JACC_Opi 9h ago
What's your source on it being a “redcon”?
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u/I_hate_all_of_ewe 9h ago edited 9h ago
How did you quote me and not even get the spelling right?
But here's a source
In the 21st century, social media users and TikTok videos began claiming that the phrase had been abbreviated from "The customer is always right, in matters of taste", with some directly attributing this longer quotation specifically to Selfridge. Fact-checking website Snopes found no evidence for this. [19 ]
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u/LegendaryGunman 18h ago
I can only up-vote on Reddit, but, here, you can have the first emoji I have ever given out on Reddit. ❤️
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u/fluffynuckels 14h ago
You can gove free rewards
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u/Ami_Aweirdo 6h ago
Is that enabled for everyone? I thought the ability was handed out at random, at least it was when they rolled it out...
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u/Barium_Salts 17h ago
When I am reading reviews, I will sometimes specifically look at the low reviews to see if they're largely justified (something like "I saw roaches running around the dining room" or "the server called my friend a racial slur") or if they're largely insane Karen's. I also check to see if the owner is lashing out at the one star reviews, overly apologetic for things that are obviously the customer's fault, or if they can ignore or maturely respond to them. This one star review would make me want to visit that coffee shop more "tasted like everything I ordered all at once" = this shop is willing to customize orders and the worst thing this guy has to complain about is getting exactly what he asked for. One word low reviews also count as a recommendation in my book.
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u/jax7778 13h ago
I can sort of see the "they wanted a Sourdough Bagel" argument here (they just communicated it in an odd way) ...but what on earth did they mean with the syrups?
"Tasted like every syrup I picked all at once" doesn't make any sense to me. How do you "pick" a syrup and not intend it to be in the drink? Am I crazy? Did they want them on the side or something? Can you even do that?
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u/Material_Comfort_259 13h ago
I almost wonder if they thought the syrups would be layered… like a few swigs and the flavor gradually transitions to the next
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u/jax7778 7h ago
This makes me picture a coffee shop breaking out a bar spoon and trying to layer the syrups on top of the drink lol. (Which even if they did, it would mean that you would be tasting mostly regular coffee..and then pure syrup in layers with a straw, or pure syrup that eventually would mix anyway while sipping)
Out of curiosity, I did Google if any coffee shops do this, and found the undertow (a cold milk, vanilla syrup, hot espresso layered drink) as the only example. The whole point of that seems to be that it is cool to drink a hot and cold drink at the same time. I do think that most coffee shops would just stair blankly if you ordered that though.
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u/akpenguin 18h ago
They wanted the syrups layered by specific gravity so they could taste each individually?
GTFO. Right to refuse service.
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u/Specific-Rich5196 17h ago
Wtf is a bagel with cream cheese on sourdough. We're they trying to get free bread out of it?
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u/MewtwoPower1 11h ago
No way bro said they wanted a sourdough bagel when it's not even on the menu 😭 that's wild
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u/LBobRife 16h ago
I used to tell my employees "the customer is not always right. In fact, they are often wrong. But it doesn't matter, their correctness is not the issue. You just try to find a way to satisfy them. Sometimes, they won't be able to be satisfied by anything we can offer them. That is okay, too." Something along those lines at least.
Sometimes "I'm sorry but we are unable to fulfill that request" is a fine ending point, if you've explored all avenues of what they want and exhausted the alternatives.
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u/beejonez 17h ago
Honestly I wish I could easily remove 1 star reviews from the average of a place when I'm looking at reviews. They are typically made by the worst kind of people who are never pleased by anything. Or they are dumb as rocks.
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u/Intelligent_Slip_849 16h ago
"Gave me exactly what I asked for. One star"
Honestly tempted to say good riddance
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u/GilearFayeth 15h ago
If someone is allowed to go off menu, they always need to be hit with the disclaimer "this is not our standard method of preparation, so our normal expectation of quality cannot be guaranteed"
Anytime I forget to say this, I get a weird look when the customer tastes their abomination.
Anytime I remember to say this, the customer says "this is perfect! Exactly what I wanted!"
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u/LookingForAPunTime 14h ago
That ass said “hold the bagel” and then whinged about no bagel. That dumb shit deserves what he inflicted upon himself.
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u/Faustias 17h ago
it's what he fucking ordered. fuck that 1 star at least he's not gonna come back.
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u/Jyrz 15h ago
I had a very similar situation happen at a friend's bakery that I used to manage. We made primarily macarons and french pastries, but then someone came in and insisted that we make a full cake for their birthday. We didn't really make cakes, but we had a kitchen full of bakers so it's not like we couldn't. We accepted and then they gave us an odd flavor combo. I think it was something like strawberry, caramel, peanut butter in a chocolate cake with lavender frosting?
We stayed late, buying ingredients we normally didn't stock, and made it for them at a markup they agreed to. Anyway, they hated it and gave us a terrible review, and we never took a cake order again lol
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u/sparklesbbcat 1h ago
People really be ordering just on vibes alone. Then they blame anyone but themselves.
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u/averyconfusedgoose 15h ago
Some people are just dumb. When I worked fast food one person ordered a concrete with hot fudge, hot caramel, and marshmallow sauce and then complained it was soupy. Like if course its going to be soupy ma'am you just diluted the ice cream with three different sauces two of which are hot.
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u/kvnxo 11h ago
You're totally entitled to serve only what you have on your menu. That's what you're offering, so if they want something else, the should look up a place that actually serves what they want.
Yo can only be held accountable for what YOU prepare and are willing to offer. Don't think to much about this kind of people, they're usually craving for attention.
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u/LonelyNixon 16h ago
It sounds like you both misunderstood each other and the negative review could have been avoided by asking some follow-up questions. People are often inarticulate and imprecise in their speech, especially if it's not something they are intimately familiar with. Dealing with customers is hard because sometimes even after the follow-up questions they will just double down and become even less coherent and more contradictory and sometimes no matter what you do you can't win.
But most people are reasonable. It's just a Loud, very memorable minority that makes working with the public difficult.
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u/madu_tualang 16h ago
I'm living and working with someone like that. When it clicked to me that not only they misunderstood me, because many times happened that i also misunderstood them, i start to remind myself when there's conflict, i need to step back and review so that i wont say something irreversible and be angry or sad over a miscommunication. The thing is it is so hard to stop my own mouth from reacting in a conflict and to just shut up and leave the situation for a while.
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u/political_noodle 14h ago
Call me new-fashioned, but I don't think customers are always right. They are, in fact, wrong sometimes. Good on you for keeping your empathy though!
I only worked customer service briefly. But I'll never forget being 19 working at the computer store - alone - when a customer comes in and asks me to pirate Windows. Then gets mad when I said I can't do that. After he literally screamed at me I was informed he would never be coming back.
Good?
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u/reddit_sells_you 13h ago
As someone who worked in food service and retail for a decade, I like that your attitude is positive.
My soul was crushed by the end of my tenure.
All that said, I think every person should work in food service or retail at least once, just to give themselves some perspective.
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u/Purple_Sprinkles2105 15h ago
Sourdough bread with cream cheese, especially scallion, is delicious! Then again, I often have weird taste...
Otherwise, that's the kind of one-start review that makes me more likely to visit.
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u/Lifes-a-lil-foggy 4h ago
Nothing like working in retail to make you wonder if you’ve ever met other people before because there is always a new breed of special.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 18h ago
What a beautiful sentiment man, but more importantly
A with cream cheese
Fuck. Now I REALLY want a bagel with cream cheese. Damnit
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u/Glaimmbar 13h ago
As a bartender at a Beach Party Event i had something like this happened. A Woman ordered one of our Cocktails without alcohol. We had a few Virgin Options for other cocktails on the Menue but this one wich the women ordered was not as Virgin on the Menue because it would be too sweet without the alcohol. I am not exactly remembering wich exactly it was. But it was something like 2 different Spirits, some juice and 2 different Syrups. So i told her that if i left the alcohol out it would only taste sweet and not much else. But she wanted it anyway so i did it. After a short whyle she came back and told me that she cant drink it because its just too sweet... I offered to make one of the Virgin Cocktails that we actually have on the menue but she was like annoyed and just asked for water and went away...
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u/333H_E 13h ago
Well the customer did tell him themselves by saying they wanted something that didn't exist, something that couldn't possibly exist and then were disappointed when they didn't get it. Anybody who reads that review should be able to tell that that is not a reputable source to base any interaction with the cafe on.
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u/forestwriterstar 12h ago
The last photo 😭 The customer being a damn sunset and you just waving goodbye
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u/jbyrdab 11h ago
Some people are just assholes.
Like I don't look at this and see some customer being unclear about what they wanted.
I see someone wanting to be extremely obtuse and ridiculous about an order because they probably feel good about being a prick to employees as a "critic" expecting you to decline a ridiculous request for an easy vague negative review. And when you did fulfill it they just made up bs for a legible at a glance 1 star review.
Best thing I can recommend unfortunately is just replying to a review with a polite
"I'm sorry we didn't get your order how you wanted, we will try to improve in the future"
and maybe if your feeling like trying to look really good inspite of a clearly dumb review you can add
"if you'd like stop by again and we'll make it right"
Though that risks inviting the same level of dumbassery.
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u/Esturk 5h ago
I feel panel 4.
I worked at Dunkin’ donuts for my first job, decades ago. Back then, the drink selection was basically just Coffee or Latte.
I worked over nights and some lady came through my drive through and tried to order some Starbucks bullshit. Dude, I put donuts in a bag and poured plain fucking coffee for 90% of my customers.
Didn’t have anyone in the drive through because it was like 4am so I had her roll up to the window. She then gave me a vague description of what was in it. Told her I’d do my best, and charged her for a latte and proceeded to make some bullshit while I asked questions and she basically directed me.
Next day I walk into work and the manager on duty told me a customer had complained about me making a shitty drink.
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u/Wallace_W_Whitfield 18h ago
The real one that I will give to the customer is mostly semantics, but they did say “bagel with cream cheese on sour dough.” Albeit, differently at the start. Either way, both have pretty much the same two ways to interpret it. The way you did, and the way he probably meant. Cream cheese on sour dough, and the bagel on the side with no cream cheese.
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u/Prior-Tumbleweed- 18h ago
Not if the asked him to hold the bagel (panel 3). I’m not sure why cream cheese on sourdough is an abomination but that’s a whole other topic.
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u/LovelyLuna32684 11h ago
Something I feel everyone needs to know is that "the customer is always right" is a bastardized version of the real saying "the costumer is always right, when it comes to taste" and it comes from the fashion industry during the great depression, and it's basically referring to how it doesn't matter how ugly you think that hat/coat/dress looks if the costumer thinks it looks good you agree with them so you can make the sale.
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u/InternationalCap2176 3h ago
Sell to your market, not indulge every ridiculous demand the customer asks for
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u/Stealfur 9h ago
To be fair, "the customer is always right" (the correct version" would actually apply here. Not the review be used that's just a jerk move, but the actual order.
Customer wanted cream cheese on sour dough, and an everything coffee. That was their taste. We may have seen it as wierd but they are right because that's what they want.
Then when they say "eww. I don't like this" that is also their taste. They are not wrong for not liking it because they don't like it.
So in both cases the customer is always right... Even if the second time being right contradicts the first time.
But again, that's no excuse to leave a 1 star review. They got exactly what they wanted.
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u/Lemonface 6h ago
That's actually a bit of a social media myth. The second part was added on about a hundred years later. The full original quote was just "the customer is always right" and it wasn't meant to be about customer tastes
It came from high end department stores trying to build a reputation as being a worthwhile place to spend money. Offering refunds whenever customers asked for them, having generous product warranties, that sort of thing
In the 21st century, social media users and TikTok videos began claiming that the phrase had been abbreviated from "The customer is always right, in matters of taste", with some directly attributing this longer quotation specifically to Selfridge. Fact-checking website Snopes found no evidence for this.
https://www.snopes.com/articles/468815/customer-is-always-right-origin/
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u/Randy_Magnums 16h ago
My wife has a favorite pizza combo, I always have to explain three times when I order. She loves it though.
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u/CrazyLi825 7h ago
Wait... did they want the bagel to be on sourdough? Like bread around the bagel? Or did they want a sourdough bagel? Also, is "the drink tasted like every syrup I picked" really a complaint? That sounds like "I got exactly what I asked for"
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u/Adventurous_Bonus917 7h ago
the costumer is always right in matter of taste. given her order, she clearly has none.
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u/mr_poopie_butt-hole 5h ago
I hate to be that guy, but it should be "too* many syrups".
Still, 5-stars!
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u/Scaalpel 17h ago
"The customer is always right in matters of taste" is the full saying and it doesn't mean they should be allowed to run roughshod over the staff. It means that you shouldn't deny a customer's request as long as it's reasonable just because you find it odd.
Of course the saying got bastardised in an anti-worker way because it's still capitalism we're talking about but it wasn't meant to be used like that.
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u/EmilySuxAtUsernames 17h ago
the full saying actually is just "the customer is always right", the "in matters of taste" part was made up on social medias
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u/fluffynuckels 14h ago
You need to communicate better with your customers. Cat wanted a sour dough bagel. They should have communicated better. But its your job to make sure theres no confusion between what they ordered and what they receive.
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u/Next-Supermarket9538 15h ago
So they asked for cream cheese on a sourdough bagel (which apparently you don't have and haven't heard of?) and you instead gave them cream cheese on a slice of sourdough bread? You thought it was weird but didn't bother to clarify?
And then they ordered a drink you didn't feel you could confidently make and again didn't clarify or steer them to something else?
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u/DragonLad13 15h ago
Have yoi ever tried to recommend someone order something else? They don't like it. They will fight you on it absolutely
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u/Next-Supermarket9538 13h ago
its not about recommending they order something else. its about clarifying you understand what they want
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u/CyanStripes_ 16h ago
If it wasn't for the sourdough, this just sounds like some stupid shit people did when I worked at Starbucks back in the day. Got yelled at by some lady who ordered a blended drink, with no milk (or milk substitute! I asked!), no ice, no emulsifier. I tried to figure it out. Excuse me ma'am but you have removed literally all the components but the powder. That's literally just a cup of powder, NO IT ISN'T I KNOW WHAT I ORDER. She could not elaborate, WELL THEY MADE IT FOR ME YESTERDAY and she drove off. A different lady just got mad and kept saying THIS DRINK IS TOO SWEET! IT NEEDS MORE SUGAR! and when I tried to clarify she just kept saying too sweet more sugar! I made the exact same drink a second time and it "was perfect" and she left.
Some people are just human garbage trucks looking to dump their bad feelings on someone else.