Customer Service at international airports.
I'm going to tell you right now: if you're ever desperate for a job, and customer service really is the only thing open to you, do NOT get a job at your airport. just don't.
You see, working at, y'know, your local mall or restaurant--sure, you get your share of the morons that inhabit the area, but you're mostly getting the LOCAL morons, y'know?
But if you're working at the airport, you're going to get your fuckload of LOCAL morons AND the INTERNATIONAL MORONS too. Plus a side of traveler's irritation, frustration, feelings of superiority towards airport workers, and lack of common sense.
So, for the restaurant I work at, we seat customers in rotation ie. seat in the "green" section, then the "blue", then "yellow", then "patio" section, and that's the rotation we try to maintain. Some woman accused me of being prejudice or some shit because I had sat her outside on the patio section i.e. the open part of the restaurant that's right next to the food court seating of the airport.
Some people don't like sitting on patio because it's too close to the food court and they think that sitting inside the restaurant would be quieter and less hectic, and because sitting outside is the equivalent of being sat in a food court, despite having menus and getting your orders taken by servers. frankly, they don't understand shit because inside the restaurant, you have your people talking, cooks shouting back and forth to one another, and music blaring. and really, it's a whole lot stuffier inside and because of construction, the windows at the back that used to see out onto the airport run ways are all boarded up and there is a really bad draft coming in from there.
So this one colored lady, I had sat her outside because it was the patio rotation of the seating, and she didn't make a fuss about it when I put down her menus. usually, when customers don't want to sit outside, they tell me immediately, and I seat them somewhere inside. no problem
5 minutes after seating her, she comes back in and asks for a seat inside, and i'm like "sure, no problem!". I seat her at a booth, and before I could walk away, she pulls me aside and asks rather rudely "so why'd you seat us outside in the first place?".
I'm looking at her like "i'm sorry, what?" and i'm trying to explain the rotation system to a non restaurant worker, and she doesn't get it. I tell her that it was the patio's "turn " to be sat, to keep the seating arrangements of the restaurant equal, and she argued that i wasn't seating anyone else outside, just her. I tell her about rotation, AGAIN, and she's like "well, I don't see any rotation".
She went on accusing me of seating
her outside and no one else, DESPITE the fact that the patio was half full, and that there were many families of different cultures casually having their meals. Alright then. I'm apparently prejudice to all races, and I work at an international airpor. Gotta love it.
I told her I had no intention on offending her, and if she didn't want to be sat outside, she could have just told me, and i'd be more than happy to seat her inside (you know, because the faster you please your customers, the less irritation you tend to feel towards humanity.). She wouldn't accept my apology, so I just did the standard "your server should be right with you" and walked away.
Mmyes, and just to add salt to the wound, around 2ish, a group of 7 tourists came in and asked for a table. At this time, the restaurant was already full, and the patio was no longer taking seats because the server in that section would be off duty very soon. So I told the apparent leader of the group that it'll be 15-20 minutes for a table to open up. She asked me why I couldn't seat them outside, and I tell them the patio isn't open. She demanded me open up the patio for them and I tell them there would be no server outside to help them regardless if I do or don't. Then she asked for a table inside, and I tell her that it'll be 15-20 minutes wait because the restaurant is full. She said what other restaurants are there, and I tell her that there was another Milestones post-security. She didn't want to go past security right now, so I tell her there's another restaurant in the International side of the airport. She told me she had wanted to eat at this specific restaurant, and that she didn't want to go back to international. Then the manager came over, and told her the exact same thing: patio isn't open, it'd be a few minutes for a table etc etc.
she openly said "well, we would like to sit down and eat right now. Please make it happen."
In a few minutes, we had a horseshoe booth that's only built to hold 6 adults max stuffed with 7 adults. the guys at the end were half hanging out, and the dishes that they ate overlapped one another because the table wasn't big enough.
Tough luck, bitch.
Oh, and finally, it's the rude fuckers who are really attached to their luggage carts who can really get under one's skin.
There was a man who came in with two pieces of luggage. I had kindly told him that the luggage can come in, but it was restaurant and security policy that the carts remain outside. The brought the cart in anyway. I told him again that you can keep the luggage at the front of the restaurant or take it to their seats, but the CART itself has to be outside.
So he shouts "who the hell makes these rules?"
my co worker and I answer "security."
and he grumbles about shit, moves the cart outside and telling the other waiting patrons to "move aside, I need to get this cart out because I don't make the rules".
I seat them down. 10 minutes later, he comes back up with his server/one of the managers trailing after him, telling him that he's not gonna eat here 'cause he didn't want to leave the luggage at the front and that the restaurant holds such a stupid policy
the rude son of a horse bitch.
Yup. I feel better now *lah dee dah*
Oh, and I want to choke the motherfucker who got me sick.
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I need food.
Fuck chemistry.
