It’s always uncomfortable to be there when an irate customer starts acting abusively towards a service worker. Do you step in and confront them , even if it’s none of your business? What’s the best course of action?
Of course, when you’re the worker who’s getting yelled at, the experience is much worse. But if you can capture the audio of the unreasonable customer, you can at least go viral on TikTok.
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This incident went down at a hotel.
TikToker @localtumbleweed works the front desk at a hotel. This means she helps check guests in, gives them answers about the hotel, and deals with any of their concerns.
It’s safe to say a recent customer had more than a few concerns.
She recorded the whole interaction.
The customer explains that he’s part of a family unit: two kids and two adults. He seems to want a bigger room or a suite, but @tocaltumbleweed explains that he booked a king suite, which means he’ll get a king-size bed and a pull-out couch.
The customer isn’t having it.
Even though it’s explained that the hotel is sold out and the only available room is the king suite that they booked, the customer says, “Okay, I get that. So what do you expect us to do? That’s my question.”
Two choices: check in or cancel.
This wouldn’t be a big deal if the hotel wasn’t sold out, but it is. The man asks her if she can check him into a different hotel (???) and she explains that she can’t do that.
He just won’t accept the circumstances.
To summarize: the room he booked is available. No other rooms are available. Despite the clear explanation, he can’t quite seem to accept the second part, and insists that a hotel guest give up their room for his family.
Another customer chimes in.
After the interaction has gone on for a few minutes and other customers have been kept waiting, one said, “You have a king bed and a pull-out, right? You have two beds and four [people].”
The dad responds that it’s none of the guy’s business, but has no real rebuttal.
The customer is instructed to take it up with booking.com.
They reach an impasse. The guy isn’t going to back down, and his only real option is to cancel. Since his beef is with booking.com — the website where he made the reservation — he seemingly accepts this conclusion.
She handled herself well.
While her video makes the job of a front desk hotel employee look like utter misery, she can take solace in the fact that she remained calm and stuck to her guns. Someone looked bad in this interaction, and it certainly wasn’t her.
She provided a follow-up.
In an update video , @localtumbleweed explained that the guy originally booked a room with two queens, then cancelled and opted for the single king. She suspects he was just looking for a free upgrade with his tirade.
What should we call male Karens?
Kyle? Kevin? Darren? I’m not sure, but we need a word for the men who combine the entitlement of a Karen with toxic masculinity.
Let us know what you think of this story in the comments section.
