About the only contribution I can make to this is that the yelling was probably a bad move.
There's a certain short term satisfaction in it, but as an employee in a store where managerial BS has alienated more than one customer and I've ended up on the receiving end, I can give an interesting perspective here.
- Yelling doesn't only make you out to be an asshole; it invalidates your entire argument. It's like the old saying about the first person in an internet argument to call the other a Nazi automatically loses. No matter how good your argument actually -is-, unless the person there has the patience of a saint, they won't hear anything said above that decibel level. You're just some raving lunatic that gets upset about a milkshake.
- The quiet ones are -scary-. If you keep an even tone of voice, maybe let a little tiny bit of anger creep into your tone, then the person there will still regard you as a logical, reasonable human being. They want to PREVENT you from exploding, because all that does is add more stress to their day. Thus, if you don't explode, they're more likely to be accommodating. Sure, it may not help your service be improved on average, but the nastier you are to a person there, the more likely they are to fall into the age-old "I don't get paid enough to deal with this bullshit" mood, at which point, they may not go out of their way to help you, and in fact stick to management dictated practices that they themselves think are stupid just to spite you. The minute you get the line "let me call a manager over here", that means that they're going to stonewall you so they can get to customers less likely to act like preschoolers that aren't getting chocolate before supper.
As someone that works at a place where, to rent movies, you're managerially required to ask for their ID if they use their rental card to make sure the card isn't stolen(every single time), I know all about stupid practices that they'd prefer not to deal with. But the less of a towering asshole you are to them, the more likely you'll be perceived as a rational human being worthy of sympathy and maybe a little extra effort to retain your patronage of their restaraunt.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
There's a certain short term satisfaction in it, but as an employee in a store where managerial BS has alienated more than one customer and I've ended up on the receiving end, I can give an interesting perspective here.
- Yelling doesn't only make you out to be an asshole; it invalidates your entire argument. It's like the old saying about the first person in an internet argument to call the other a Nazi automatically loses. No matter how good your argument actually -is-, unless the person there has the patience of a saint, they won't hear anything said above that decibel level. You're just some raving lunatic that gets upset about a milkshake.
- The quiet ones are -scary-. If you keep an even tone of voice, maybe let a little tiny bit of anger creep into your tone, then the person there will still regard you as a logical, reasonable human being. They want to PREVENT you from exploding, because all that does is add more stress to their day. Thus, if you don't explode, they're more likely to be accommodating. Sure, it may not help your service be improved on average, but the nastier you are to a person there, the more likely they are to fall into the age-old "I don't get paid enough to deal with this bullshit" mood, at which point, they may not go out of their way to help you, and in fact stick to management dictated practices that they themselves think are stupid just to spite you. The minute you get the line "let me call a manager over here", that means that they're going to stonewall you so they can get to customers less likely to act like preschoolers that aren't getting chocolate before supper.
As someone that works at a place where, to rent movies, you're managerially required to ask for their ID if they use their rental card to make sure the card isn't stolen(every single time), I know all about stupid practices that they'd prefer not to deal with. But the less of a towering asshole you are to them, the more likely you'll be perceived as a rational human being worthy of sympathy and maybe a little extra effort to retain your patronage of their restaraunt.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."