First mean customer encounter, ended up surprisingly positive?
TLDR: Customer made me cry, was promptly yelled at by other associates for being mean to me, then called the store later to apologize.
I'm still trying to gather my thoughts about this fully. I am a VERY new associate, aka I started about three weeks ago, and I had only ever worked one job prior. I am also a very sensitive person who is struggling dealing with feelings of incompetence as I learn the ropes.
It was HORRIFICALLY busy. As all front ends are, it was also wayyy too understaffed for the amount of people. I was solo on self-checkout when I was flagged over by a woman who was trying to pay for her order. Noticing she was trying to pay using an online wallet, I notified her we only take Walmart Pay for those types of payments.
She grew EXTREMELY irate very quickly, asking me "What the hell am I supposed to do!? I have a 200 dollar order here I need to pay for!?" It was already quite stressful as we had so many people waiting for the self-checkout to go through, so i quickly tried to get Walmart Pay working for her on her phone. As I tried to help her I flagged a Greeter over as I had never dealt with the app before, who then in turn flagged another associate I had never met over to see if she knew. The entire time she is ranting about how ridiculous it was and mocking what I said in a high pitched voice, "I'm sorry, we don't take apple pay, we only take Walmart pay! Walmart pay!" while turning to other customers and complaining. I am trying to calm her down and get the app downloaded, but the associate nearby could either hear in my voice or see that I was starting to cry.
She came over and told me that I was alright and to move to the side for a moment. Walked a bit away and she started laying into the customer. Saying that she is still going to try and help her but that she has no right talking to somebody that way and making them cry. I got pulled over to calm down and was given some advice by an older associate who has been training me and our team lead for that day. I went back to self checkout once I had calmed down and proceeded to have a good rest of my shift, if not a bit watery since I'm a messy crier and it tends to linger. Was informed a little later that two others also scolded the woman when she was taken to customer service for more assistance on getting her payment through.
As I was clocking out (and promptly embarrassed for not realizing that I needed to wait until someone dismissed me instead of clocking out right when my shift was over, whoops 😭) my team lead told me the woman actually called to apologize?! Apparently it was the first time that had ever happened at our location. I was very shocked, but now I have been so stuck on this interaction all day. I wish I could have heard the apology, or at least I hope ill be able to talk to her in the store one day. She seemed to be having a bad day before I came over, so I'd like to let her know that I forgive her and that she is MUCH better than any of the other typical mean customers since she actually felt bad. Powers of being a rather pathetic crier I guess 😭
But yeah, positive experience in the end. Have any of you also had a customer apologize for something like this before? I'd also love any advice since I still am very clumsy and getting used to working.