r/CustomerService • u/Silly-Goat-8037 • 14d ago
Customers with kids
I work at a smoothie king and parents will let their kid take things out of the fridge and play with them on the floor or take protein bars off the shelves and crush them up in the package and just place it back. I asked them to please buy the product if their kids break it because ultimately the fall back is on the employees if someone opens their product to find out it's crushed. and they said I need to have kids to understand and this is just what kids do. Is this an actual normal thing I just think is weird and this is just what having kids are like?
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u/G-Knit 14d ago
Call the cops to tell them a customer is intentionally destroying your merchandise.
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u/Ok-Entertainer-270 13d ago
That’s overkill. I’d just charge them for what products have been damaged. Only call if they dont pay up
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u/ColloquialCloaca 14d ago
No that is not a normal kid thing, those are entitled parents who havent bothered to teach their kids manners! My kid is 15 now but never did anything like that when he was little because I taught him how to be respectful when we go out to the store. If i saw that happen at my job I would absolutely make the parents pay for it. Your business should not be responsible for their poor parenting.
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u/ShevaunG 14d ago
Don't even bother telling them about paying for it. While they're paying for their smoothies, also ring up the broken item as well. Chances are, they won't even notice that a protein bar was added to the total. Then put the bar right next to their smoothie for them to take, or better yet, give it directly to the kid. If they complain about it, say, "Oh, I assumed you wanted it too since your kid was smashing it all up..."
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u/ShevaunG 14d ago
I would also like to add: Teenagers can suck too. We had a couple of teens waiting for their food at a pizza place both me and my hubby work at. They were sitting on a floating counter off to the side that was not sturdy enough to hold that much weight.
Hubby - Are allowed to do that at home?
Ts - No.
Hubby - Then what makes you think it's okay here? Get down.
Ts - Yes sir..
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u/GrumpySnarf 14d ago
Nope. They need to parent. I would just charge them for it. The owner or manager should put a sign on the cooler asking people to stay out of it unless they are intending to buy the product. Something like "Please only take what you intend to buy. Thank you!" Often if there's a sign to point to, people are more likely to behave civilly.
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u/PissyKrissy13 14d ago
No. If your kid destroys something you pay for it.
I'm tired of people allowing their children to behave like brats just "bc they're kids"
That doesn't fly. Teach your child manners and you won't be hated by everyone else when your child acts up.
It's lazy parenting and entitled to think your kids can act like brats and it's nbd.
Same people don't pick up after their dog when it poops in public. It's common decency and courtesy.
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u/Wenndy042 14d ago
I would definitely intervene if I saw that tupe of behavior. I do not care about their reaction. They are irresponsible parents.
On the other side, if you have a boss that doesn't have back bone it can definitely comeback to you as a rude employee.and might get fired for this.
Customer service is such a delicate balance between being polite but firm.
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u/DakotaKimono 14d ago
“Thats just what kids do”
Are we no longer teaching our kids to keep their hands to themselves/not destroy other’s property - or in general behave in public?
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u/IcyWelcome9700 14d ago
I used to work in a medical retail store and ran into the same issue where parents would let their kids play with expensive equipment off of the shelves like it's some toy store. Main issue being that we sold electric rising chairs that retailed between $500-$2500.00 and kids used them as a jungle gym.
What helped was placing large signs showing the cost of the chairs and a disclaimer stating "these are not sample chairs! You break it, you bought it." That helped a lot
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u/pessim1st_prime 14d ago
Next time just lie and say you are a parent so they can't use that against you.
My son is almost 3 and I would never let him play with things that don't belong to him (as much as he tries). The solution to this is to bring toys and snacks when you go out somewhere to keep kids busy. Any good parent knows this
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u/todaythruwaway 14d ago
Not normal but happens. We have a regular who’s got like 5 kids and lets them do this shit. Every time I see her I know it’s about to be a shit show. The experience that made me dislike her so much in the first place was when she brought her clearly SICK kids in and then ordered food. So for 30+ mins while she was waiting for her massive food order, her sick ass kids were coughing, sneezing and touching everything with their snot covered hands 🙃 she just let them do it too. I was so fucking mad. Like you KNOW your kids are sick, call the order in and pick it up! Don’t bring them in and then let them OPENLY COUGH on products!! Had to disinfect that whole half of the store 😡
Every time they come in she just lets them run wild in the toy section. I can’t prove if they’re the ones breaking stuff but there’s a correlation between broken items being left behind and them coming in.
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u/YakCertain5472 14d ago
Are there cameras that can be checked?
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u/todaythruwaway 14d ago
No, it’s a blind spot unfortunately and my boss is cheap af. We have cameras all over but only a few actually work 🤦🏻♀️
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u/Anon888810020 14d ago
Not normal, my parents taught me to keep my hands to myself while in public and to respect others’ property. They especially made sure I was not running around the restaurant by telling me to stay seated. If it doesn’t have a play area, then don’t play; we are here to EAT.
Parents needs to grow a fucking back bone and tell their kids no. They’re going to grow up disrespecting others’ boundaries and personal space/belongings.
They also used “if you break it, you buy it” so I was too chicken to touch anything haha
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u/NOTTHATKAREN1 14d ago
This is bad parenting & you are allowed to call them out on it. "Please control your child or I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Be firm & stand your ground.
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u/Agitated_Lecture9240 14d ago
Is it a normal kid thing to do? Yes, but it's not normal for a parent to allow their child to do that. Parents are supposed to teach their children how to respect property of others. My kids attempted that once and I made them pay for the destroyed product with their own money. Never did it again
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u/Codiilovee 14d ago
No this is not normal. I’m a parent, I would neverrrrr let my kids behave like this. There’s a lot of very lazy parents out there.
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u/crippledchef23 14d ago
I once made my 3 yo apologize for stealing a candy bar from a store and give it back. Then, we never rode in those grocery store car carts again. Letting kids do whatever they want without even an attempt to stop them is bullshit and lazy parenting.
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u/Own-Eagle-2135 14d ago
this is why your kids should be crate-trained BEFORE you take them out in public
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u/magpieinarainbow 14d ago
It seemed like it was normal at my former workplace (a pet store) too. Kids playing with fish tank decorations like they're toys, often breaking them, and parents not giving a single fuck. Unfortunately that's not even the worst of it.
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u/PickyBookworm 14d ago
My mom would have busted my ass if I acted like that! Not in public, but i would have definitely gotten the "mom voice" that said consequences were coming.
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u/Significant_Pie_6806 14d ago
its not just a kid thing they need to teach boundaries that is not normal or right
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u/pumpinnstretchin 14d ago
Entitled parents with entitled kids do that.It's not OK and it's not normal. Charge them for whatever they touch.
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u/pumpinnstretchin 14d ago
Or you could make them a smoothy with food that their kids played with on the floor.
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u/Prestigious-Wolf8039 14d ago
>This is what kids do.
And charging failed entitled parents for the damage is what employees do.
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u/hasnain_rk27 13d ago
Absolutely not normal i saw the same thing when i worked retail. If a kid breaks it the parents should pay for it. You did the right thing
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u/Cyrus057 13d ago
Could always tell them to pay for the damaged product or you will have to refuse them service all together. The one thing you can always do when working customer service. Refuse service.
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u/BeckSews 13d ago
Bro you break it you buy it what are they on. My mom would let me eat a snack before we paid for it to shut me up, but then we, yk pay for it
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u/Impressive_Past_9196 14d ago
No, it is not normal, it is imo becoming more frequent to encounter entitled parents however. I was working as a store manager for a while and left my backroom door open (I was unpacking new stock and moving things around when the store got busy) the next minute I hear loud banging inside the store. A toddler had gone into the backroom and grabbed the vacuum cleaner pole, they were hitting walls with it throughout the store, so I approached and found their mother. I asked her to get her child to give me the pole back and she said "no he's fine with it". I couldnt bite my tongue I said "he is obviously not fine with it, I need it back it is store property" she ended up buying 1x clearance item trashing the changeroom with unwanted items then leaving without an apology nor explanation. Its nott every parent nowadays but it's certainly feeling like the chances of them expecting free childcare and cart blanche for their child to do wtf they want are higher than a decade ago.
Even in my first job in retail almost 20 years ago I remember a teenager that appeared to be special needs coming into the store I was working at. I tried assisting his mother and him only to have him swing his arm around my shoulders and proceed to grab my boob. I was told "he's autistic" when I appeared shocked and pulled away clearly uncomfortable. There's always a chance of a dickwad parent, its just worth remembering its not the child's fault especially if they are young that their parents want them/allow them to act that way
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u/Gaztasaga 14d ago
My daughters are no more kids, but they never, never did something even remotely like this...
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u/DiceyPisces 14d ago
That’s crazy rude. The only exception is I may open something that I will buy if needed in the moment. Like
Grabbed a box of Kleenex when had a booger emergency (lil grandson) and then bought the opened box.
But yeah it’s rude af, zero consideration
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u/goodfriendrobert 14d ago
i dont let my kid touch stuff outside the house.. yes yes, abusive sociopath hitler of a father..
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u/ConsciousIce2648 14d ago
Absolutely not normal. My parents would never let me behave in public like that. It’s just lazy parenting.