UPDATE (26 Jul): McDonald’s said they are aware of the incident and called the police to assist in resolving the dispute. You can read the full update below.
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Customer service is a difficult job, especially if you work in the F&B line.
As many Singaporeans are stressed out due to the pandemic, some are liable to lose their temper when dapao-ing food.
Frontline service staff unfortunately have to deal with this often, and it’s a credit to them when they don’t lose their cool.
That’s why a manager at a McDonald’s outlet in Punggol won praise from netizens over how she handled an angry customer who verbally abused her.
She never lost her temper despite him using vulgarities on her, but still remained firm.
The incident was captured in a 50-second video posted by a netizen in the Complaint Singapore Facebook group on Saturday (24 Jul).
It starts off with the altercation already in motion and a man can be heard saying “Enough!” in a loud voice to a female manager.
From the receipt he’s holding, it seems like he’s waiting for a takeaway order.
While it’s unclear how or why the incident started, from the man’s tone of voice it’s clear he’s quite agitated.
His raised voice is also attracting the attention of the rest of the staff members, who’re all looking at him.
The female manager, on the other hand, is talking calmly and clearly to him.
However, it’s obvious her patience is getting nowhere, so she asks him why he’s being abusive.
She then mentions that she can call the police.
The man responds by flinging the receipt on the counter, and says she can call the police.
However, when she follows him up on his dare, and asks him for his name or phone number, he refuses to tell her.
That’s because if he gives her his number, the police will call him, he said.
She responds that she only wants his details because he’s being very loud.
To that, the man rudely points to her, saying,
You are not listening to me, that’s why I’m loud.
She replied that she’s listening to him, but he’s just getting louder.
She then handed the receipt over to a male colleague.
It seems this customer has been to this McDonald’s outlet a few times before, as the female manager then tells him that “everytime you come in, you’re like this”.
To which he replies crudely, “everytime your a**, everytime?”
The staff then tells him,
You don’t have to say the ‘F word’ sir.
The man then proceeds to use the “F word” on her, very clearly.
The male manager nearby is clearly startled to hear it, as he looks up.
At this point, it’s also worth nothing that there’s a small child hanging around nearby.
The female manager again asks him for his number to call the police, and he refuses to give it to her.
She then finally walks away, telling him to explain it to her male colleague.
All the while, she never stopped calling him, “sir”.
Check out the whole video here. Warning: It contains vulgar language, do exercise discretion.
In response to MS News‘ queries, McDonald’s said they are aware of the incident that took place at around 2pm on 24 Jul.
Our restaurant manager attempted to manage the situation calmly and had called the police to assist in resolving the dispute. However, the customer had left the restaurant before the police arrived.
More importantly, while our employees strive to do their best every day to serve our customers with care, we also hope that any unintended misunderstandings can be resolved amicably. We believe that under any circumstances, our employees – just like any human being – should be treated with graciousness and respect, and do not deserve to be shouted at in the manner portrayed in the video. We ask for everyone to show a bit more compassion to all service staff across industries who are doing their best every day, especially during these challenging pandemic times.
Though it’s not certain what caused the customer to be so agitated in the first place, it really doesn’t matter.
No matter who’s at fault, vulgarities shouldn’t be used on anybody, period.
If the man’s a regular customer of the branch and has done this before, it’s even more concerning as we can’t imagine what the staff there have had to go through.
Kudos to the female manager for handling him politely, yet firmly.
MS News has reached out to McDonald’s regarding the incident, and will update this article when they respond.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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