How to Deal With an Angry Customer [COMIC]
Sometimes diffusing the situation is the wrong thing to do, or at least it's less entertaining.
Basic Instructions is a twice weekly updating web comic that offers absurd advice on how to live your life. Some of those updates will be happening here on Cracked.
Find out How to Decide Whether to Tell The Painful Truth and How to Explain Men's Emotions with a Useful Analogy.
This was funny. It's easy to bash this strip when you've never been on the other side of the counter. All angry-up-front customers deserve a little passive-aggressive resolution service. It increases their IQ points.
ReplyI thought this was really good, I don't even care about the joke as a whole, but the back and forth dialogue is excellent. By the other comments, though, you'd think this was supposed to be a wine tasting or something.
Replymeh
ReplyDepressingly unfunny. I once saw a drunk guy s**t a better comic onto a c**ktail napkin.
ReplyI call bulls**t.
Was it Onstad?
This kind of thing is not funny to most people working in the service industry. people in general seem to flare up more at people like waiters and grocery store clerks, while these people are paid some of the lowest wages of any job in the united states while also being expected to provide the most service at the drop of a hat. the general populace has essentially been trained to act like spoiled kids and show absolutely no manners to get their way, and establishments are more than happy to grovel and apologize and offer free s**t in order to satisfy the corporate "the customer is always right because it's better for our bottom line" motto.
Replyon the flip side of this are the cable companies and banks and such that are able to accomplish quite the opposite, bulls**tting and sometimes flat out cheating people yet getting away with it by giving the customer the "run around"
the poor and uneducated get screwed both ways, essentially
Well, it's not always easy to keep clients happy, because, comparativly, positions involved directly with clients are a little stressful than others. Especially, someone else screw up in your job, who is day off at the time when clients back to rage a war against your company. I have simple theory to explain to clients, that they have the full right to be angry and complain. then I help them find out the cause of it, the solution to it. anyway it is, at the end, I have to lose a little bit for them. Everyone is right in their own shoe, but some clients are really dumb. and I tend to ignore most of their points except for which actually are useful to the situation.
ReplyStop. Stop this s**t. Please.
ReplyCracked! They are killing us! Get rid of this! Make DOB take over everything! PLEASE!!!!
I work in fast food and I find this hilarious. I am SO tired of having to try to keep the customer happy all the time. Why should I? Why should anyone? Especially the ones who are rude or disrespectful. If they don't like the service, then they can always go somewhere else where their behavior is accepted. Customers need to learn that they're NOT the boss and they're NOT always right. They need to be put in their places. Treat me with respect and I'll treat you with respect, but if you're rude, then prepare for me to be rude right back. Seems fair, doesn't it? It does to me.
Reply Hide All See All 7 RepliesIf you can't deal with customers you should have gotten a better job where you don't have to deal with the customers.
It's always easier to be nice to the customers because if you're nice, they tend to calm down or it makes the real jerks more angry which is great. I had a blast dealing with customers because I never took anything personally. Although if someone was a realy jerk, I'd always try to have sex with their daughter.
Once I cooked a woman's quesadilla a little longer than I should have because she made me angry and caught the building on fire.
It is understandable to be rude if, for example, your order gets mixed up. It's YOUR job and YOUR responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen, and people have a right to be pissed if that happens.
Sounds to me like you're someone who's never had to work a crappy job before. Yeah it is their job to not mix up orders but is it as easy as you seem to think it is to do that day in and day out for ungreatful p***ks who yell at you for the smallest mistakes? "YOU FORGOT TO PUT KETCHUP PACKETS IN MY BAG! No EONDER YOU CAN'T GET A BETTER JOB YOU HORRIBLE WASTE OF LIFE!" "Sorry sir I was taking 6 different orders at once and I haven't gotten much sleep in the past for weeks since I've been studying for my LSATs and this the only way I am going to be able to afford to go to law school."
Brad, there's no reason to be rude for a mixed up order. It's easily fixed. And guess what, people are human, and when you're making 4 separate orders simultaneously for hours at a time, mix ups are inevitable. Don't make such a big deal out of trivial matter.
Yeah Brad. Chill the f**k out. If your order get's screwed up, you get a free fresh replacement and/or a store credit, usually both.
Also, splint, we work the s**t jobs because we want to. We love being on the bottom. So just keep walking all over us and treating us like s**t. We love it. It's so f**king awesome to play along with your f**king tantrums for 10 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. That's right, 365. I have worked the last 4 Christmas Eves, Christmas Days, and New Years. I've quit drinking altogether because I don't have time. Hell, the only clothes I own are a few work shirts and a couple pairs of slacks. My health is deteriorating and I'm always on the verge of a meltdown and that's because I choose to be here. I love this life so phucking much.
Possibly the best day of my fast food life was hearing the store manager tell the customer at the drive-thru window (who'd just had a tantrum at my cashing partner) "Get the f**k out of my drive thru, you're not getting anything if that's the way you treat our employees." One shining moment in 15 months of pure misery.
These comics aren't funny at all. And yes, I get the humor, and no I don't need toilet humor for something to be funny. This just isn't very good imo
ReplyNot really that funny, especially for anyone that's worked in customer service or food service.
ReplyAt least as bad as the previous ones.
I guess I'd have to be one of those snowball team douchebags to think this is funny.
Reply Hide All See All 4 Replies"WELL SIR HAVE YOU PLUGGED IT IN?"
Go. To. Hell.
killchain, you know why they ask that question? Because they are told to. About 1/3 to 1/2 the time, that's the goddamn problem, so they are told to start with the dumb s**t like that, and work their way up to complex problems, not the other way around.
i second that... maybe chryos should write a comic about a bald douche and jeff foxworthy.
I thought the last panel was mildly funny.
Also: "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"
lol firepete. I love that show.
Joking aside, you wouldn't believe how often ppl confuse standby switches with power switches on tvs. Or after owning their cordless phone for 2 years they ask how to recharge the battery because the phone is not turning on anymore. You think you have problems being asked a question like that? it's much worse having to deal with the d*****ts that made that question necessary.
I liked the comic today so much you had me registering just to say this. The wit, it sparkles.
Reply(more than makes up for the last ones, in all honesty)
Give them a twinkie AND A STICK of Wrigley's Spearmint gum!!!
ReplyMan, I'm glad to see some actual wit returning to Cracked.
Replyfor all of these comics that I just don't get or don't find very funny, this one made it all up
ReplyDiffusing: present participle of dif·fuse (Verb)
Reply1. Spread or cause to spread over a wide area or among a large number of people.
2. Cause (light) to glow faintly by dispersing it in many directions.
Defusing: 1. To remove the fuse from (an explosive device).
2. To make less dangerous, tense, or hostile.
That said, great comic. There have been quite a few times I've wished I could react just that way to a rude, irate, entitlement-poisoned client.
wtf? Are you saying that he misused the word? Your own definition shows that it was used appropriately.
2. To make less dangerous, tense, or hostile
"Sometimes diffusing the situation is the wrong thing to do"
"Sometimes making the situation less tense is the wrong thing to do"
This is way late, but I don't care. uzetaab, check before you ridicule. The definitions up there are for two different words. He was pointing out that the author wrote "Diffusing" when they should have written "Defusing".
Diffusing does NOT mean "to make less dangerous, tense, or hostile".
Moron.
>.<
I love the ad at the end: WHO IS RIGHT? ARIZONA, OR OBAMA? Thank you for giving me the only two possible options in extremely black and white terms, or else I just wouldn't know what to think! Poor me, not knowing how to think for myself! Oh well, it's ok, because the government and big media companies will tell me!
ReplyHonestly, I quite like this one. It's subtle AND it elicited a few chuckles from me.
ReplyOMG the angry customer looks 100% like me, I feel like this comic has stolen my soul. Funny comic all the same.
Replyyour a very rude person
Not Cracked's usual style of humour, but still hilarious!
ReplyYeah. I'm still looking for a hidden dick or something...
You have to kinda look at it sideways. It takes awhile, but the dick is there