Customers hate Christmas

Hello there my lovely readers. How are you this holiday season? There are a bunch of holidays coming up so I am sure this applies to anyone reading. If not...well take advantage of all the sales that will be going on soon or right now. XD Make it a holiday for yourself.

Where I live a few different holidays are coming up/going on yet many of my customers are not in the holiday spirit. Of course people should be treated with respect/kindness/bare minimum social norms on a daily basis but nothing can kill YOUR holiday mood more than people being nasty or trying to take advantage of people around this time. We are all working to have a nice holiday season so try to treat everyone with a little more...whatever the situation calls for. Between shopping, hosting out of town guests, making big meals, and other holiday stress we all need a bit more smiles in our lives.  

Our pizzeria has a coupon out in a certain magazine. I won't state what the coupon is but people would be a fool not to use it. There are actually several coupons that have varying degrees of savings but at least one coupon is worth anyone's time. The problem is this magazine gets released all over my part of Florida. We tried to localize it but it still gets sent out to people way, way out of our large delivery area.

This pisses people off to no end, finding out that our shop is more than 5 miles away from them. Well I have gotten people pissed off at me for being 1 mile away but those are different kinds of special. We get people calling all the time asking where we are located because they have never heard of us and I know they are going to use this coupon. They are going to come in, use the coupon, and never see us again. Advertising that is not working. I say this with confidence because these people are over 30 minutes away. It would not be worth their time to come back over and over again. It just takes so much time to explain where our restaurant is in regards to where they are. Especially when people are like “how do I get to your place?”. Well how about you tell me where you are. Or use this little thing called the internet and look it up? Because while I am good giving directions from nearby places IE places we deliver to I am not a map for the entire 50 mile radius this magazine gets released.

Then there are people who can't read. This coupon clearly states on it EXCLUDING delivery. I have had people argue with me that excluding means included, like they didn't know there was a difference in the words. I have no words for people like that. Well I do but obviously they aren't nice. I have had people tell me they will just pay the difference when the driver gets there. How generous of them! Only no. Thanks for not making the rules. And then I have people who are told their totals over the phone, tell us how they are going to pay (cash or charge), and when the driver gets the door they hand them this coupon. Like um no you said you are going to pay cash and while this coupon is printed on paper we are going to need U.S. currency. Either way I end up hearing about it, because I was the driver on the delivery or I answer the phone when the customer calls complaining that they have no money and how dare we not warn them about this rule. In case you are wondering this print is not tiny at the bottom. It is same size as the rest of the print on the coupon. Please be reading.

Speaking of reading...does anyone else in the customer service industry experience such problems? I have worked in various jobs in customer service and this job seems to have the worse customers. Like a person might experience 10 percent bad customers, 80 percent normal customers, and 10 percent friendly/lovely/amazing customers. At this job it seems like I have 10 percent good customers, 30 percent normal customers, and 60 percent awful customers. Like didn't pass 2nd grade because they can't read, have horrible comprehension skills, and are ready to argue any point no matter how wrong they are. I think these people have been cast from society, that everyone else has agreed to stop serving them. They have all made their way to our shop because no one else will accept them. X___X Please take them back. 

Case in point is this coupon thing. It clearly states it cannot be used in conjunction with any other coupon/offer and people can only use one coupon per table. So people come in and want to use 3 coupons and I am like....no. You can only use one. Then they run outside to get their kids/whoever was in the car and say okay one coupon per person. Unless your 5 year old can pay the bill no. And it says per table. Are you and your husband going to sit at different tables? I didn't think so. So....why are you trying to argue with me on what this offer clearly states. When I go out and use coupons I make sure to actually read the rules. Like if it states 20 percent off anything in the store excluding purses I am not going to buy a purse and argue that it is a backpack and demand to speak to a manager. Coupons/offers always have rules and I think ours are lenient and clear enough that people should accept them. We are actually in a business to make money. We are not a soup kitchen.

But the biggest offenders of my last comment seem to be schools and churches. For some reason they think just because they are nonprofit they deserve everything for free. With schools we might not have a choice as many pizza places offer them discounts and we have to do the same to stay competitive. They do push my limit and patience though when our discount is not good enough. Its for the kids! Well since it is 2 o clock in the afternoon and all the kids have gone home I am thinking it is for you. Also how can you cry poor and ask for a discount when you don't tip your driver? I mean it might be common sense if they are working in a budget they might not have enough money to tip. But tipping should be considered IN the budget. If you go out to eat and your meal is $19.99 you bring enough money to cover the stated price, the tax, and the tip. Also if teachers are complaining they don't have enough money do they ever stop and think HEY I actually make more than a delivery driver? No? Just thinking about yourself? Pick your pies and stop feigning ignorance. 

I guess I just get pissed off that people at churches are asking for a bigger discount than we already give them. Funny how these people keep crying non profit non profit but have paying positions at these churches and think that 10 percent is good enough for god/state but zero percent is good enough for the drivers. At what point do they think the drivers are making money if the church is paying half of what everyone else is charged for carryout when they are getting delivered? Do they think I make the rules and thus are punishing me by not handing out a tip? Well if I made the rules there would be a whole lot less discounts. While I have been commenting a lot about my job I have noticed while being out and about people in general have been in such a rush this holiday season and unnecessarily rude to others. Cars taking up two or more parking spots. People cutting in lines and pretending like they didn't see the mass of people standing before the register. Complaining that things are out of stock when really you wanted until the last minute to buy something. People who decide they no longer want a gallon of milk so they decide to leave it in the stuffed animal section with the toys. Just things like that make me think...okay maybe it just isn't our customers but society as a whole becoming less and less considerate.

In closing because I don't want to be too negative so close to Christmas....be kind everyone! We are all busy and broke and trying to squeeze as much Christmas fun into our full schedules. People need to stop acting like their actions don't have consequences and that they are the only ones late, on the road, and behind on everything. Take a deep breath, realize that two of 20 jeans aren't worth beating someone up over, and eat a Christmas cookie. Now that all of this is off my chest....time to get back into the Holiday Spirit. WOOHOO The Grinch is on and there are cookies to eat. Can't let customers get me down all time right? XD