Worst Kind of Customer Part 2

          I am now going to give you my number one choice for the worst customer. I can almost guarantee none of you saw this pick coming. So coming in at number one we have, Mentally Handicapped People. Now I understand that sounds like a mean and cruel thing to say, but please give me the chance to explain my reasoning.
          First off, I am very sympathetic to those that suffer from any medical condition, especially those that suffer from mental disorders. I cannot stress enough that I am in no way picking on anybody, but after my time at the theater I have learned of the potential problems that they can present. This is in large part due to their lack of self control. I don't want to give any of my personal stories away yet, so I will tell you about two other cases I know about. One happened one day while my mom and I were at blockbuster.
          We had picked out our movie and had gone up to the register to check out. The kid behind the counter fumbled with what he was doing and looked a bit shaken up. After taking a bit longer than he should have, he looked up at us and apologized for taking to long. He than explained that before we had walked through the door, a mentally handicapped guy had come in looking for a movie to rent.
          When it was explained they didn't carry the move he wanted, the guy completely flipped out. The poor kid explained that he didn't know what to do and that he thought the guy was going to take a swing at him. Fortunately, they were able to get the guy out without anybody getting hurt. After hearing the kids story a sympathetic smile came over my face. As I went to grab the movie I said "It's OK bud, I know how you feel".
          I can say first hand that it is SCARY when your a worker and a mentally handicapped adult flips out on you. You are worried that they may hurt you, someone, or damage something and you have little chance of talking them down. If you try to stop them using physical restraint, than you are looking at a potential lawsuit on your hands for touching them. The only saving grace is that the person they are with is able to stop them. Another case I heard of was a story on the radio.
          Ironically, this story took place at some other movie theater. What happened was a family had gone to see a movie and brought along someone that was mentally handicapped. During the movie, people would come out and complain to the manager that the mentally handicapped person was interrupting the film by making noises. After taking so many complaints the manager gave in. He walked into the theater and told the family that they had to take their mentally handicapped family member out of the theater.
          Of course the family considered this request to be extremely offensive. I don't know for sure, but I believe the family took legal action against the theater, which is why their story caught the attention of the media. So than of course everyone all of a sudden comes running to the mentally handicapped persons defense and they basically crucify the manager saying that he is a mean and heartless person for what he did. This of course led to him getting trashed on the air.
          What makes mentally handicapped people such a dreaded customer is that it is nearly impossible to know what to do when something goes wrong. Especially when you know that if you make the wrong move, you may end up being the bad guy or girl because of it.

Worst Kind of Customer Part 1

          For this post I will be giving you a list of the top three worst kinds of customers my fellow workers and I have had to deal with while working at the movie theater. I am making this list up based on my own experiences, as well as from stories I've heard from others. As a fair warning some of you may find some of my choices to be offensive. But after years of work I cannot deny that when these people arrive, trouble tends to follow. With that out of the way I can begin.

          Coming in at number three we have Teenagers. I think it's fairly obvious why teens would be put on the list. The worst teens are the ones that try to act cool for their friends and do so by being rude, making a mess, and being loud while a movie is playing. Than after getting into trouble with us, they call mommy and daddy to complain. Thankfully the number of teens that cause this kind of trouble are few. And when they do cause a problem, they usually back down when one of us confronts them about what they are doing.

          In second place we have Senior Citizens. I tell you, there is no in between with old people. They will either be the sweetest customers you can have or they can make your life a living hell. If there is something they don't like, they won't hesitate telling you about it. Than they will continually harass you until you fix what is wrong, even if the problem can't be fixed. This includes things such as lighting, temperature, foods, drinks, bathrooms, smells, sounds, other workers, and other customers.
          I understand that at times these may be valid complaints, but when they are the only people complaining about something it becomes ridicules. If they feel that their movie theater experience hasn't met their expectations, they will ask to speak with one of the managers to let them know of their dissatisfaction. In many cases they have yelled at employees, other customers, and of course the managers.
          Lastly, in rare cases they have threatened to take legal action against us due to accidents that occurred because of their own lack of awareness. With all these problems I was strongly tempted to put them at number one. The only thing that saved them was that it is a 50-50 gamble that they will be a problem. My number one pick is almost guaranteed to bring some kind of trouble when they arrive. I will give you my number one choice in my next post.

Big Mouth Part 2

          About ten minutes after the kid called his mom, I saw some wild driver come flying into the parking lot. This lady was yelling before she even stepped out of the car. As she walked towards the ticket booth she was screaming and cursing at me. When she was close enough for me to hear her clearly through the glass window separating us, she asked me why her son had been kicked out of the theater and why he couldn't get his money back. I didn't know why he had been kicked out, but I tried to politely explain why he didn't get his refund.
          Not satisfied with my answer she demanded to speak to my manager. So I got on the phone and asked him to come out and talk to her. He told me he would come out as soon as he finished what he was doing. I put down the phone and told her he would be out in a little bit. "No!" she yelled "I want to talk to him right now!" Not wanting her to get anymore hysterical than she was, I said that I would go into the back office to get him. I asked a friend to watch the ticket box for me, than made my way for the back.
          The mother than charged through the front door and started following me. I had to turn around and explain to her that that only employees were allowed in the back for safety reasons. She reluctantly stayed where she was, but continued yelling at me. As I neared the door I heard her yell, "Yea, not such a tough guy now are ya!" At that comment I nearly whirled around and gave her a piece of my mind. The only thing that stopped me was my fear of losing my job and possibly ending up in court for what I wanted to say to her.
          So I stepped through the door to find my manager at work on the computer. I asked him to come out and talk to the mother. He tried asking me to get her to wait longer, but I argued that she was getting hostel and was refusing to leave until she spoke to him. So he dragged himself away from the desk and followed me outside. I took my spot in the ticket booth, while he asked the mother what the problem was.
          When she started yelling about what was wrong, he asked her to step outside with him so she didn't disturb the other customers. He than gave her pretty much the same explanation I gave her about the refund. After basically telling him the reasoning was stupid and yelling at me again to validate her story about what happened, she asked why her son always seemed to be getting into trouble with us. When he tried to tell the mom her son had a history of causing trouble at our theater, she again flipped. Now I understood why I wasn't allowed to give the kid his refund.
          Deciding that there was nothing else he could do to calm this lady down, he told her he was done talking with her and tried to walk away. But she continued to press on with her argument. As a last resort he told her that if she didn't get off the property, he was going to call the police. As she walked off with her son, she gave us the middle finger and yelled "F-ck you and f-ck this whole place". What a wonderful role-modal for her son. After she left my manager apologized to me for having to deal with that. I told him it was alright.

Big Mouth Part 1

          I'm sure that anyone that has gone to the movie theater enough have dealt with this situation. Your watching the movie and some obnoxious teenager or teenagers are making a bunch of noise and interrupting the film. So you wait for a theater employee to kick them out, but no one comes to have them taken out of the theater. This is because when it comes kicking people, especially teens out of a theater, it has to be done very carefully. The reason for this is that the customer can become extremely hostile when they are asked to leave.
          They will keep fighting until it gets to the point that you need to call the police to have them  removed from the theater. Or in some of our cases, they called the the police on our theater and instead got themselves into trouble with the officers. The worst people to kick out are teens. The reason for this is that about eighty percent of the time they will call their parents for help. So then we have to deal with mom or dad who throw threats at us because they think their child was treated unfairly. I want to share about a time when a mother threw tantrum at me and my manager.
          At the time I was working in the ticket booth, which was located at the entrance of the theater. It was in the middle of shows so no customers were approaching. I watched as a fellow worker had two boys escorted out the front door. He than told me that they weren't allowed to come back into the theater because they had been kicked out. They hung out on the side of the building for a bit, than they both approached me and demanded a refund for their tickets.
          After telling them I couldn't give back their money, one of the boys walked away threatening to call his parent. I honestly don't remember who made the call, but I ended up on the phone with my manager who was in the back room. I told him about the kid who was now about to call his parents. He than told me to just give the kid his money because he was too busy to deal with some angry mother or father. I than asked what I was supposed to do with the other kid. He replied that I was to only give a refund to the kid who threatened to call his parents.
          Now I knew that was a very bad idea and that it would have very bad results. I briefly tried to protest, but he again gave the order to just refund the one kid. So I hung up the phone and called the kid over. I gave the boy his money and as I expected, the other walked up to get his money. I told him that I had only been given permission to give the other boy his money. Sure enough the kid walked away and immediately got on the phone with his mom. As luck would have it, I was the one that would have to deal with this ladies fury. This story will be concluded in the next post.

Blocked

          This story is about an event that took place during my earlier days at the theater. It was the first time during my time there that we had to call the police to deal with an unruly customer. Though I was not directly involved, it was amusing to watch. The trouble started when a mother decided to take her son to see the movie Talladega Nights starring Will Ferrel.
          About one third of the way through the movie she came walking back out with her son and demanded a refund for her ticket. After asking what was wrong she said that the movies content was too inappropriate for her child. My manager explained to her that he couldn't give her a refund because she sat through a portion of the movie, but he would be willing to give her two of our free passes with money towards food and drink. She said that wasn't good enough because they didn't live close by and ordered him again to give her a refund. But due to our policy, my manger couldn't hand her back actual cash. So she angrily took the passes and walked out the door.
          We all thought the drama was over and went back to work, but than our other boss came bursting through the main door cursing. After asking what was wrong he told us that the lady had parked her car at the entrance of the lot in an attempt to keep people from getting in. He than went to the back office and called the police to get their help. Meanwhile, this lady kept her car parked at the entrance until the police arrive.
          The police than came into the theater and questioned my manager about what had happened. They than went outside and made the lady leave for home with her passes. My manager thanked the police for their help and they left. That was my first taste of the exciting events that I would deal with during my time at the theater.

My First Real Job

          This post will serve as an introduction for future stories about my old job at a movie theater which I worked at for three years. I would have had stories about my old job posted much sooner, but every time I would think of one I would have another story that I would want to post instead. I'll start off by explaining how I came to work there. It all started when my parents decided that I needed to get a real job so that I could start paying for my own things.
          At this time I was working for my dad at his business, but they wanted me to get a job somewhere else so that I could be an actual employee and be paid at least minimum wage, which is more than what my dad was paying me. So one day my mom told me to get out of the house and to not come back without a job. So I left the house and drove to the place I always dreamed of working at, Game Stop.
          Unfortunately, they were already filled up for the summer so they couldn't take me. Than I tried Block Buster, and they weren't hiring anyone either. I tried another place, but I don't remember where it was. So I decided to drive back home and tell my mom I had no luck, but than I saw the local movie theater across the street. So I drove there and asked for an application to fill out.
          The truth is that at the time I didn't want to work there, it was just my last resort at trying to find a job. So I was a bit unprepared to hear from them that they were willing to hire me. During my years there I developed quite a reputation. I was known as someone that didn't mind doing gross jobs and wasn't concerned about being caught in a heated situation. I imagine this put some value on my head since most of the others hated doing the jobs I was willing to do and most were afraid of getting yelled at by the boss or customers.
          Unfortunately, I had to leave three summers later since I was going to a new college out of the area. Last I saw of the theater it was a pile of rubble, along with the stores next too it. The chain of stores went bankrupt so the whole thing was destroyed. It's a shame because I had some good times there, even before I became an employee. Fortunately I have many fond memories of the place. I left that job with enough horror stories to keep anyone out of the retail business. I hope you enjoy them.

Civilization vs The Wild Part 2

          I've found that kids aren't the only ones that share this fear. I've also heard adults voice their concerns about going into the wilderness. I remember in one of my college classes a teacher of mine told the class that she would never go camping in the woods and thought that people who did so were crazy because that's where all the killers are. "Is this lady serious?" I thought to myself "Clearly someone has been watching too many horror movies." What made her statement even better was that there were actually people in the audience that agreed with her.
          In another course I took, a kid sitting next to me made the comment that he would never go into the wild because it is dangerous. Just for the sake of starting a friendly argument I decided to speak up. "What are you talking about?" I asked "Just what exactly do you think is going to happen to you if you go in the wild?" He than started naming off different animals that could attack you while there. I'm pretty sure that some of the animals he mentioned aren't even located in the US, unless of course you happen to see them at the zoo.
          I than asked him how often he's heard of someone getting attacked by an animal in the wild. After getting his answer I than asked how often he's heard of people getting attacked by other people in society. I than went on to say that I think the reason the wild gets a bad rap is because of movies, overreactive imaginations, and media hype.
          When I say media hype, I am referring the over exaggeration of the troubles that befall people in the wild. When a case does come up where a person gets attacked by an animal or injured in the wild, they make it sound like the worst thing possible. Allow me to give you an example of what I'm talking about. Let's say an anchor comes on the TV and presents the news to you like this (Please be aware that I am making this all up to make a point)
          "In todays news two people were shot and killed for their jewelry while walking down the street, after that a group of teens murdered an elderly man, also a woman was beaten to death in her apartment for cheating on her husband, not too far from there a local food store was robbed and two people were taken hostage, while three others were killed. Now in our most horrifying story of the day, a group of hikers in the woods just outside the city had their picnic destroyed when a bear decided to interrupt them. Fortunately, the bear was only after there food, so after it grabbed a sandwich out of there hands it ran back into the woods. The group suffered some minor cut's from branches when they went running for help. The police have taken immediate action and are banning anyone from entering the woods until the bear is found." turns to co-anchor "Wow, that must be scary having a dangerous animal like that so close. I think the safe thing to do would be to stay out of the woods for at least two weeks just to make sure everything is OK." I swear, it is unbelievable how people react.