Customer called my staff a "clown" and "dickhead" because she asked if his Prada jacket was authentic. AITA for asking him to leave?
I run a dry cleaners in London. Yesterday a new customer came in with a bin bag of clothes. He kept saying - these are expensive clothes, as my front desk colleague was sorting through them.
She spotted a Prada jacket and asked, fairly casually, "is this an original?" — the reason being that designer items get cleaned with a different process and we charge accordingly. We have instructed our staff to make sure they get this detail right. It's a standard question in this trade.
He who was relatively calm erupted fro that moment. Started shouting "is this a joke?", calling her a clown, a joker, a dickhead, going off about "do you know how much these clothes cost, do you know who I am." She froze — she's relatively new and had no idea how to handle it. I was working in the back, heard the noise and came out. I tried to calm him down- but he contnoulsy spewing these abuses even when she disappered to the back room. He only got louder and more abusive. I had to tell him we wouldn't be serving him and asked him to leave the premises.
He left, still shouting - showing rage - throwing bags .
My colleague is still shaken. I've told her it wasn't her fault. But she's a young woman who got verbally hammered by a grown man over a routine question, and that doesn't just shake off- she told it was the worst interaction she ever had with a human being.
Worst customer interaction I've had in years. Curious whether anyone else in retail / service has dealt with someone like this, and how you handled it. Also — is asking "is this an original?" really that offensive? Genuinely want to know if I'm missing something, because to me it's just due diligence.