Tonight at top pub one of the regulars yelled at me. This is the first time I think I've ever been yelled at by a customer anywhere. When it happened I'm pretty sure I was more stunned than anything that I was being yelled at by a grown woman for making a very simple mistake. Here's what happened:
The customer came up to order a Captain Morgan and coke. When I was trained on my first day I was taught that when a customer orders a drink at our bar our standard drink is a double. With this in mind I put in two nips of Captain and then filled the tall glass up with coke. I put the drink in front of her and asked for $8.40, the cost of a tall double. She wasn't paying attention when I told her the price so I took the $10 bill lying in front of her and made the change for her drink. I then handed her $2.60 cents in change and that's when the fun began. She first couldn't believe that I have only given her that much money back. I proceeded to explain to her that a drink cost $8.40 but she insisted that a "single Captain and coke" only costs $4.80. I replied by saying "I didn't realize you wanted single" and then that set off a rant on the fact that I should never pour a double unless someone asks for it, never ever ever, she worked in a bar for 8 years and never poured double unless someone asked, etc... As this was happening I didn't really know what to do. I obviously gave her the change she wanted, $5.20 not $1.60, but then just waited for her to finish. I couldn't really believe that I was being yelled at, she really did have her voice raised and was very angry with me, over $3.60. It's not like I'd refused to fix my mistake, or that I'd done something that could've hurt her or something. I gave her too much alcohol, something I have to imagine people rarely complain about at a bar. Anyways, once she'd finally finished my co-worker, Aimee, chimed in to explain to the customer that at our bar a double is standard and that I was just doing as I'd be trained. Aimee told the customer that since the other bartenders know that she only drinks a single they know how to make her drink but that I didn't know because I hadn't made her one yet. The customer wasn't satisfied with any of these explanations and proceeded back to her table to complain about me. I eavesdropped on her conversation and to my glee found that the people she was sitting with informed her that no, a double was standard and that you must specify if you want a single. She then proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the night and Aimee said she'll likely do the same tomorrow. I just can't imagine how difficult everything in her life must be if being "overcharged" by $3.60 and getting more alcohol than you ordered can make you this mad. She even got to keep the drink I made as a double!
Later in the evening Aimee told Julianne, my boss, about the incident and Julianne totally had my back. I wasn't worried that she wouldn't but when you're dealing with regular customers it's always trickier than having a rude one time customer in your establishment. Julianne simply told me that next time I am to take the drink back, offer to make a new one, but remind the customer that there is no reason to be rude. And that's exactly what I'll do.
In other news, I think I'm on for pig hunting next Saturday, February 15th. I have the day off at the cafe and Hunchy, a friendly regular at the bar, said he'll probably go out that day. I'm going to have to buy hunting clothes (which I'll probably get use out of later as well - I'll explain below) at the bizarre - something I can get dirty and not care about - for our time chasing pigs through the bush. How exciting!
I also finished HP #6 today. Spoiler alert: Dumbledore dies! I am not happy at all. When he died, like maybe 30 pages from the end of the book, I got so upset I had to walk away from the story for like 2 hours before finishing. I finally did finish, in hopes he wasn't really dead, but it appears he is. Phoebe (England) here at the cafe told me he doesn't come back to life. I'm not sure I even want to read the 7th book if Dumbledore's not in it. This sucks! I'm mad at you, J.K. Rowling.
Lastly, I think I may be visiting a dairy farm here in NZ (this is where I can re-use my hunting clothes). My uncle knows a kiwi guy, Nigel, who I believe was an exchange student at my high school years ago, who lives on a dairy farm here and may be interested in hosting me for a few days. Nothing's been finalized yet but I'll keep y'all posted. If it all works out I can put a video of my milking a cow on my blog. I wonder how similar it will be milking goats.... And I wonder how many animals I can learn how to milk before I die. Do any other animals even get milked? If I remember correctly they talk about milking cats in Meet the Fockers, right? I'm not sure I'd enjoy that so much though....
Okay, enough for tonight. This post is starting to deteriorate into weirdness pretty quickly.
Stay warm back in MN everyone.
Best!
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