Customer Service

Hello, let me introduce myself.  For all intents and purposes, my name is Astrid Hava, I am a college student, and I have worked in customer service for over 10 years.  I Started out as a tween delivering newspapers and moved up to fast food preparation and super market bagging in my teenager years.  Then in young adulthood I embarked on jobs as a server, barista, and my personal favorite (and the one I currently hold)- a front desk agent at hotels.  Throughout all of these jobs the most important thing I've discovered is a deep revelation of human nature- the amazingly good and the awfully bad.  I've received a $100 tip and good advice from a patron while making his latte when he discovered that I was embarking on a trip to Louisiana to volunteer after Hurricane Katrina despite my financial shortcomings.  I've come face to face with racism when I returned from that trip to work as a server and had a customer tell me that everyone who died in the disaster got what they deserved- I refused to serve him and lost my job (good riddance). 

People can be extraordinary, both in positive and negative senses.  I see myself well adjusted and experienced in dealing with customers, but some (re: most) people are simply insatiable when they are on a roll of trying to obtain the title of worst customer ever.  I am also a quite positive person, this blog is not a rant, but an enlightenment of just how extreme some human behavior can be.  I will be sharing stories of ordinary everyday customers, and their extraordinary behaviors- both the good and the bad, but a fair warning- I've come across more bad than good situations. 

As you read these tales, I hope you find yourself amused and enlightened by human behavior and what some are capable of.  Feel free to share any of your own tales in the comments after the posts.  Finally, this I urge all to always keep in mind as they receive service from others: In no way is a server ever deserving of any less respect or kindness than a customer or anyone else; treat everyone as you also expect to be treated  Enjoy:)