Those working in customer service have to deal with so much daily. When a customer isn’t having a good day, it’s not uncommon for them to take it out on the staff. A Utah barista working at a boba store says that a “customer made her cry at work.” As a barista, she thought she’d seen it all. But a mother came into the shop with her young daughter and wasn’t happy with anything on the menu from the get-go. From there, she decided to make her problems the barista’s problems, too.
Lilly (@seriouslyaddisonscousin) is a barista at a Utah boba tea store. She was working alone one day when an already irritable mother and her young daughter came in for tea. Lilly said the mom was angrily asking her daughter what she wanted. When it came time to order, she chose a drink that was actually three in one. Lilly tried to explain that those were three separate drinks, and it wouldn’t really be possible to do that. This already set the mom off, who thought you could combine everything.
After trying to find a drink she wanted, the mom settled on a mango matcha, telling Lilly it sounded “literally disgusting.” Lilly knew she probably wasn’t going to like the drink, but moved forward with their order. When it came time to pay, the woman rolled her eyes over the price as well. On top of that, she berated Lilly over the fact that she apparently wasn’t being quick enough with another customer’s order, even though she was waiting for it to cook.
In the end, the woman wasn’t happy with the service Lilly gave her, even though Lilly was incredibly kind and understanding, despite her bad attitude. The mom told her, “I am not okay with the way you’ve been treating us” and asked to speak to Lilly’s manager over phone. She called Lilly “disrespectful” and “unprofessional.” When Lilly asked her what the problem was, the woman told her it was because Lilly kept giving her drink opinions she “didn’t ask for.” Weird behavior, but okay.
Unfortunately, this happens far too often when customers think they can treat those in restaurants or retail poorly. It’s as if they look down on them, and that needs to end. One commenter suggested, “Normalize telling rude customers to LEAVE.” Another stated, “Biggest red flag is being mean to minimum wage workers.”
