Customer Service: a euphemism for “Dealing With Idiots”

Via The Invisible Library I see this article (who in turn found it via Jessa Crispin) about the problems faced by your typical worker at Barnes&Noble. Funny, and scary….these customers are the same kinds of people who would call me at Pizza Hut, order a Veggie Lovers’, and then call back to complain because it had no pepperoni on it.

As for B&N, one thing I’ve noticed is that male customers think nothing of taking reading material into, well, the store’s smallest room, much as they would at home. Every time I see a guy doing that – and it happens quite a bit – I have to resist the urge to say to him, “Hey Buddy! Can you tell me what title you’ve got in there? ‘Cause I don’t want to risk picking it up later.”

Borders actually has a set of “merchandise detectors” just outside the bathroom. That seems sensible to me.