dear blog, i'm venting!

tonight i learned a new dimension of "the crazy customer," oh how i love friday nights and dealing with crazy people.

here's what happened:
i take the customer's bill to run her card.
i run the card.
the card is denied.
i run the card again.
the card is denied, again.
i go to the customer and say "i'm sorry this card isn't working, do you have another card i can try?"
customer says {rather sharply} "why isn't it working?"
i say "i ran it twice and it is being denied."
customer says "it shouldn't be denied."
i say "i'm sorry, here is the slip that says it's denied. that's just what the computer is telling me."
customer says "does the computer run cards as debit or credit?"
i say "credit, but debit cards usually work just fine."
exasperated, she tells me to run the card again.
i run the card again and it is denied again.
i put the card in manually, and it magically works.
i return the card to said customer and say in my fake cheerful server voice, "well it worked the 4th time, here you go."
customer says {undeniably rudely} "yeah i figured."

as the customer is walking out, she looks at me and says "i want to talk to you. you could have handled that situation a lot better than you did." since my manager is standing right there, he asks her what happened.  she goes on - yelling, i'm not kidding, yelling {for approximately 3 whole minutes} - about how she knew her card should not have been denied and how i just stood there and argued with her about it, refusing to run her card again.  I said, "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to argue with..." she cuts me off and says, "see! she's arguing with me right now!" and goes on to say over and over again how the customer is always right and how it would do me good to remember that.

the customer is always right the customer is always right the customer is always right the customer is always right the customer is always right the customer is always right. your tips are going to suffer. that was so wrong what just happened.  storms off before anyone can even respond.

let's not forget she was yelling and pointing her finger at me the whole time.  let's also not forgot how nice she was to me when i greeted her. "oh i love your name, what a beautiful name, that's such a lovely girl's name, i've only met one other person with your name blah blah blah."  bipolar?

seriously? how can ANYONE think it is okay to treat another human being in this way?  i don't get it, something weird must happen when a person enters a restaurant and becomes a customer.  i wonder if she realized a massive earthquake hit japan today...

i realize this is a rambly post, i just feel like venting and i'm crossing my fingers hoping i never have to deal with someone like this ever again!