Employee gets into a ‘shouting match’ with arrogant customer after they let their kid fool around with heavy products, saves child from potential injury: ‘What if he was still under there?!’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Dec 18, 2024 1:00 PM EST

There are many important things to remember as a customer service employee, but the first is to always keep your eyes peeled for customers who might cause harm to themselves or others. You are in charge of the establishment you work in and it's important to ensure the safety of your customers, old and young.

Sometimes it's uncomfortable reprimanding complete strangers, whether you're telling them to step away from a stack of heavy boxes or remove themselves from a shady customer. Either way, you've done not only your job but your civic duty to keep other human beings safe. Some customers have an ego so large that they can't even thank you when you go out of your way to ensure their safety.

The employee in this story reprimands a man for allowing his kid to play amongst heavy boxes in their warehouse. The man gets salty about it, but moments later, the boxes fall down where his child was playing moments before. Instead of thanking the employee, the man gets into a shouting match with them. Scroll to read.

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    "This guy has the AUDACITY to shoot back, 'He wasn't, though.' As if he has grounds to claim responsibility for his son not being between those boxes anymore."
    via Unsplash (Ruchindra Gunasekara)
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    I got into a shouting match with a customer
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    So this happened yesterday. It's my first real confrontation with a customer beyond the normal "please don't do that thing that's against the rules" conversation. I'll say up top, as an
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    employee, I should not have used the word "stupid." However, I didn't pause long enough to remember I needed to react as an employee, and instead reacted as a community member who
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    saw a child in a dangerous situation. I work at a furniture store. Swedish and blue. If you're not familiar, you buy the furniture in boxes and build it yourself. We have specific carts (flat
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    carts) to carry your heavy boxes on. So I'm trying to leave the warehouse floor to go to lunch. I see a young guy, who I thought was probably 16 with a much younger brother, running down an aisle pushing a
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    flat with two boxes and a young child. The setup is one box on the cart, one box leaning upright between the handles of the cart, and a 3-4 year- old kid laying on top of the bottom box but under
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    the leaner. Not a good spot. So I immediately react, "Aboslutely not!" The adult (almost adult?) stops the cart and leans down to the kid, "Oh, sorry buddy. You gotta get off now."
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    I then tell him, "And I need you to not be running around with a full cart." Now, honestly, I couldn't remember what exactly the guy said here if you offered me a million
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    dollars. But I know he pushed back on my stopping their "fun" because I responded by pointing at the cart and saying, "Because that's a stupid decision." (Talking about having a small child
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    lay down between two heavy boxes while you push it as fast as you can go.) He did not like my calling him out. "Okay. Hate all you want, but I would NEVER tell my son
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    something is a stupid idea." (Son?! I didn't see that one coming.) I started to walk away then but he follows me into the walkway yelling, "Great idea. Call your customers stupid."
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    He's causing a bigger scene than necessary so I turned back and told him, "I didn't call you stupid. I was telling you that that was a bad idea. What if he was under there and that box slipped and fell on him?!"
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    Y'all, I'm not exaggerating here. The SECOND I finished that sentence, the box in question slipped from is propped position and fell exactly where the kid had been laying. I have witnesses on that timing. At this
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    point, I'm imploring this guy to realize the risk he was taking with his kid's safety. I raised my voice above his tirade and gesture at the fallen box, "What if he was still under there?!"
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    This guy has the AUDACITY to shot back, "He wasn't, though." As if he has grounds to claim responsibility for his son not being between those boxes anymore. Like it wasn't entirely my doing. So I shouted back,
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    "Because I made him get off!" And then I walked away and left him yelling after me and trying to bring other customers into it. A coworker told me that he even turned to his kid and said, "Can you believe she called us stupid?!"
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    And that's what I have the biggest problem with. I didn't call anyone stupid. However you want to interpret my using the word in the first place is up to you. But this pre- schooler had no blame in
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    this situation and I absolutely didn't address him even once. That guy basically told his young. child that he was at fault and that a random adult called him stupid. If you're so concerned with your kid not being told
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    he's stupid, console him. Don't follow around and yell at a stranger then bring him into it like he's an equal participant. As I said at the beginning, I should have said "bad" or "terrible." But I won't feel
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    bad about keeping a young kid from getting very hurt. I told my manager exactly what happened and he basically said to pay attention to wording. But
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    he's never going to tell us not to say anything if we see a dangerous situation.
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    Raven Reisinger • 10h ago Unfortunately, most of the time, in customer service, you find yourself parenting people's children more than they seem to care to do.
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    p. • • 12h ago Edited 8h ago • When someone calls me out for doing something stupid, before responding, I ask myself if what I did WAS stupid. If so, no offense taken because they are right. You are NTA because you were stating fact in this instance.
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