I have done this exactly once in my lifetime, two years ago. Maybe in another few decades, I’ll do it again, if I live long enough.
And yes, even if your name is Karen but you had a good reason to ask to speak to the manager, you can also reply
I have social anxiety, so this is never happening. 😂
Yeah the one time I asked to speak to the manager the first person I spoke to at their call centre (who was really trying her best to be helpful) did exactly that. It was her manager that was obstructive and dismissive, and that when I asked to speak to their manager in turn - who was even worse
Yes. I went to a Burger King and ordered a burger. I sat there waiting for 15 minutes while the tray sat on the counter with my receipt with order number, fries, a cup, but no burger. Finally, I asked the blonde lady taking orders where is the burger so I can go to my seat.
Her response: “you ate it.” I was confused. I told her no burger was filled for the order and the tray had been there the whole time.
“No, you ate it.” Now, I wasn’t fat or even chubby, so it wasn’t some kind of fat phobic thing. I am a different skin color than her, though. I was confused what her problem with me was, but she kept insisting I ate the burger and wanted a free one. I was dressed business casual, with a white shirt and dark pants, so I doubt it was my clothing that made her think I wanted free food. I even showed her some cash and told her that if I wanted another burger I can buy one.
I finally asked to speak to the manager. He listened to my complaint. Made me fresh food and told her to shut up and get out of the way, pointing to the door while she protested out loud the whole time, throwing a fit.
I seriously don’t know what was wrong with her or why she was so insistent that I wanted free food. It was weird.
Yup. I’m quite mild-mannered (or so I believe).
Bank signed up my grandmother for a service she couldn’t possibly use. Called customer care, they gave her useless response. Drove with her, customer care agent was busy chatting with a friend, and there was a long queue of people with complaints. Walked (at least I did, grandma was in crutches) to the branch manager’s office. I didn’t ask to see the manager, I asked where his/her office was. Walked in (without the courtesy of knocking), aired grandma’s frustrations (albeit mixed in with mine). Matter was resolved in less than 5 minutes. Didn’t care to know how the customer service agent was reprimanded.
It’s one of the few times I remember being out of character, apart from the avocado incident (irrelevant here).
The only one I remember for sure is nice. My kid was about 8yo and decided they wanted to go shopping for our Christmas gifts by themselves. So we went to Target and my husband and I gave them some cash and instructions about not spending it all to allow for taxes. We parked ourselves at the front of the store so we saw them checking out and we could see there was some kind of issue, but it got resolved. After we got home, our kid explained that they did indeed spend every bit of the money we gave them, forgetting about taxes, but the cashier “found” a coupon so they didn’t have to put anything back.
Later that evening, I called the Target and asked to speak a manager. I explained what happened and I said I was sorry that I didn’t know the name of the cashier but I described them and their checkout lane, and wanted to send them my praise and thanks. It would’ve been so easy to just make a kid put something back or get their parents, but this lady was very kind and patient, and it really made my kid’s day. (My kid was very proud of themselves for buying their parents’ gifts all by themselves for the first time.) The manager was so relieved and said she was very grateful to get this kind of call because at that time of year they don’t always hear a lot of positive feedback.
Isn’t this a double edged sword? Depending on the manager or company, an employee can get fired for skirting the rules to accommodate that case, even it it was out of kindness. The customer ends up ratting out the employee for going against the company rules/policy. I guess you were lucky enough the manager was kind.
