I am so upset and my heart breaks to be told that I was rude to a customer and told I was racist.
Apparently I served a customer who interpreted my service as rude. She also went to another department who she claims was rude to her too. She then told her husband, who returned and told her received different service from us... because of his race.
I was devastated and offended. The passive aggressiveness by the way these two behaved was also upsetting.
I served at least 50 people between 7-10 AM. There was nothing I could think of or said that would make any interaction stand out. It has now gotten out through all departments about this so now I'm embarrassed as well as horrified.
Everyone was surprised when they heard I was rude, they even said I am always polite and engaged everyone in conversation. They even said that they didn't believe the accusation that I favourised one customer over another based on race, ever.
If anything, I've noticed covert racism between customers on a daily basis and often felt i had to apologize to customers for interactions.
My heart just breaks and all I can think of is the wife may have thought I wasn't serving her fast enough, that I wasn't as welcoming or apologetic enough to not have things available to her... Bakery vaguely remembers a woman who wanted bread sliced but didn't like the only 2 settings available therefore walked off. Then the husband comes back, didn't see anything wrong with the service and told his wife so.
I can't help but feel very upset about this and i really have no one to discuss this with.
The amount of rubbish that we put up with and have to take daily wears you thin and the fact we were unable to identify who this couple was, to even know what exactly occurred hurts.
My heart also hurts because i understand discrimination and lived it.
I just needed to vent. Thanks for listening.
10 Replies
I work retail as well. Unfortunately some customers come in with an agenda, you were just the unlucky soul who served her. I guarantee she'd have had the same complaint no matter who served her.
I got called racist once because I couldn't bend our returns policy. Like sorry, no I'm not racist because I can't refund your change of mind on clearly worn/soiled shoes you don't even have proof of purchase for 🤦♀️
I was in an Uber recently, my driver ran a red and cut someone off. That person yelled at my Uber driver that he was an effing idiot, driver turns to me and says "wow, what a racist". Yeah... pretty sure she was pissed because you nearly t-boned her not because she has a problem with your ethnicity.
Try not to take it personally xx
I can't stand people like this that blame every little thing on racism, agism, sexism, sexual orientation. Very few people actually care about those things these days lol.
Disagree 100%. You’re lucky if you haven’t lived it as it’s rife.
Are you saying that everyone else never experiences rudeness or things not going their way? I was once accused of racism because in our small town there's liquor restrictions. I could not sell alcohol before 11am, a customer came in just before 11am and I had to tell him no sorry because of liquor restrictions. Then another customer came in wanting alcohol, by now it was after 11am so I did sell it to them. The first customer accused me of being racist which was not the case at all, that scenario happened nearly daily with customers of all backgrounds. These are the things I mean. You can't go accusing people of racism for every little thing that happens.
Did you tell the first customer that you could serve them at 11 or just tell them no?
This happened to my friend when she was 16. Her first job. She couldn't have been a sweeter girl. She was the type of 16 year old who never swore or be rude to anyone.
A costumer went to manager and said had said for f*#^ sake when serving them!
Management came and spoke to her and she bawled her eyes out because she felt so upset that someone had claimed such a lie and that Management had spoke to her about it. She never forgot it.
Some people are just nuts. Ypu discover this in retail 😂They will make up shit because they like to seem like a victim. Try not to let it eat away at you. Your coworkers don't beleive it so don't you second guess yourself.
I had a complaint made against me once that I discriminated against someone because they were gay.
1) he wanted something that we simply do not do. I explained we do not do that, and directed him to the correct agency
2) I work in an emergency call centre. On the phones. How the hell could I possibly know that he's gay???
My manager wrote it off, of course, and explained to the man that I did exactly my job; that his request was ridiculous; I explained to him what he needed to do; and that I absolutely did not know that he was gay, and if he wasn't gay, the answer would have been exactly the same.
Some people are just never happy.
Most of my adult life in retail, most of it as a superviser. The race card gets pulled alot. It's sad really. People out there really suffering racial abuce, then people like this try and use it to their advantage. IV been called a white cunt, for not selling alcohol to a drunk person, I had refused many people that day, mostly white. We had to document every refusal. I ghost because I wouldn't sell smokes to a teenager. I lost it one day and called a customer a stupid old cunt and a descarce to his mob, because he abused me over a raincheck. He pulled the race card. Don't take offence, don't lose sleep on it. Don't over think it. You did nothing wrong
Our business was once accused of racism because someone booked in the wrong appointment time. Then they were accused of racism by the same person again because they were given the wrong address off another business. Some people just play that card again and again. It annoys the hell out of me as I've seen racism and it's so hard for those victims and they tend not to speak up and feel like they don't have a voice. People like this individual you encountered make it so much harder for genuine victims. I wouldn't give her another moment of your energy. You know you aren't being racist, everyone else knows too. Cast her out of your thoughts.
Working retail succcccks! It should almost be mandatory so people realise how to interact with others. It’s not hard to be polite but people are awful. Don’t give it another thought. She won’t be the last.