She demanded to speak to my manager. I told her that she was welcome to call back tomorrow and speak with her, even gave her the name.  She continued to rant at me telling me how no other theme park in Orlando had made her bring food in for her daughter who is a Celiac. They had all been accommodating. It was simply unreasonable that this park would not accommodate her. After all, she hadn’t rented a car on her vacation and had no way to get to a grocery.  I didn’t ask her how she dealt with the dangers of airport food or even how she got to her hotel from the airport.  Or how she was going to get to the park.

She was demeaning and attempted to belittle me.  She didn’t say thank you after I told her where she could get food in walking distance of the park that would be safe for her child.

And she reminded me why I am extra nice to people in the service industry, when I am the customer.  If they are rude to me, I complain, but I never belittle the person.  After all, there are times when I am that person, like today. And three weekends a month during the summer.  I have no choice but to work a second, and sometimes a third, job to cover my bills.

I have a college education. I live with a roommate to keep down my expenses. I don’t buy clothes unless they are on sale. My car is as fuel efficient as I can afford.  So believe me when I tell you that I understand being on a budget and still wanting to enjoy your vacation.

Sometimes the reason you get horrible customer service is because you are just a rotten customer.

If you haven’t read this article, it is worth a read.

We assume sometimes that the people who are serving us do not have the intelligence to do anything else. We forget about the people like myself or my friend, Sonia, who is leagues smarter than me.  We work our buttocks off to pay our bills and take care of our families.  We do what it takes and, no matter what job we work, we do our best. We learned it from our parents and grandparents.

Maybe screaming and acting like a horse’s rear has gotten you your way in the past, but was it really worth it?  Did it make you feel good at the end of the day or did you tell yourself that the other person was an idiot or you pulled one over on the man?  Fast food workers have been ridiculed for asking for minimum wage to be doubled. People have asked why they have worked there as long as they have had or why they had three kids.  Instead of asking are they getting a fair wage?

Are they? Could you live on their income?

I know people assume that if you work at a theme park you are a moron.  They always seem to forget that if there weren’t people willing to work full time at these parks there would be no one to run them when the kids go back to school.  They forget that many of these people took jobs at their local parks when they were laid off from other jobs so at least they had a job.  The economy has been bad for a while and a lot of people have turned to the work they could find. There are also people like my Momma who worked at theme park for years because she loved it. When Papa retired, she took a job at Disney so that she could go to the park she loved everyday. (Momma is in Mensa by the way)  Some of these jobs aren’t bad except for the pay. Oh, and the customers who make unreasonable requests or the first words out of their mouths are simply horrifying.

Update: About an hour after posting this, I found this article about a company that is offering its fast food workers a living wage. Bravo!! I wonder if they have any gluten free options.