i've been watching a lot of r/slash lately and remembered this story from my days working at a hotel. the details are a little fuzzy now, but i remember the gist of what happened that day.
a few years back, i want to say in 2018, i was working full time at a hotel chain that honestly had the worst possible working conditions ever and i would not recommend to anyone to work there.
i had been on vacation that entire week and returned to work on a saturday. little did i know the shit show i was about to step into during my 7am to 3pm shift. i must add, on saturdays i worked COMPLETELY alone. no manager, no other coworkers. just 100% alone with the housekeepers who spoke very little english.
i guess because i was new to this guest she thought she could easily manipulate and intimidate me into getting her way, which i believe she wanted a full refund as part of a scam to stay for free. she approaches me that morning, she is a lady i believe to have been in her forties, long-ish brown hair, with an australian accent. she explains to me that her husband suffered an accident while staying here because of the hotel's lack of handicap accessibility (which i admit the hotel had very shitty handicap accommodations but i digress…). she begins to explain that my manager had given her a refund for a few nights but the money was not back on her card yet. again, this is a saturday morning and as i'm sure everyone is aware, you usually don't see refunds for about 3-5 business days to begin with, and refunds will DEFINITELY not pop up on your bank account during a weekend. i explain this to her and she says, “no no no NO, she gave me the refund YESTERDAY. i spoke to the bank last night. it was friday. it should be there already! it obviously did not go through.” again, i explain to her that she will see the refund in her account. she begins to absolutely SCREAM at me about this refund i have no control over and then begins to say, “there are these four numbers right here. how am i supposed to know that this refund is actually going to MY card? these four numbers can belong to anyone's card. i want you to print out a receipt that has my full credit card number so i know the refund is actually going to my card.”
and i'm just like, “um, yeah, i can't actually do that. there is absolutely no way because of privacy laws.”
she absolutely LOSES her mind when i say this. she begins to tell me she's had other businesses print out receipts with her entire credit cards numbers before and she accuses me of just not wanting to help her and being dishonest. she continues to absolutely berate me. i was not the strongest mentally at the time, nor was i as brave to actually put people in their place like i do now, and i begin to feel tears well up in my eyes but i think to myself, “she just wants to see she's getting to you. don't give her the satisfaction.” so i hold back my tears as best i can and try to make it seem like she's not getting to me as best as possible.
meanwhile, as she's berating me i'm having people check out and apologize to me and tell me they feel bad for me and asking where my manager was. yet, no one stepped in to defend me or tell her to stop, lol
i then suggest to the lady to call her bank if she's concerned and she actually takes my advice and calls her bank. while she's dialing and on the phone, i take this opportunity to look up the non-emergency number to the police and step in the back to call. i tell them what's happening and they tell me that a couple of officers will be there in a few minutes to help me out. meanwhile, i hear the crazy lady calling my name because she wants me to talk to the lady from her bank that she's currently screaming at for some reason i still don't understand but i ignore her while i'm on the phone with the police department.
once done, i go back up to the front and she has now hung up with the person from the bank and begins screaming at me for not coming when she called and begins her bs about wanting me to print a receipt with her entire credit card number on it for proof that the receipt is really showing a refund going to her card. a couple more minutes of back and forth with this lady and the police step in. they look at me and i look at them, crazy lady hasn't even noticed them as she is still too busy screaming at and i just nod my head to the officers to say, “yeah, it's her.”
they approach her, tap her on the shoulder, and ask her to step outside. they bring her outside and suddenly, the maintenance guy walks into the front desk says he caught the very end of it. he then tells me, and SHOWS ME via our security camera, that the “accident” the lady's handicapped husband experienced was not an accident at all. this guy had literally went out our front doors on his little scooter thing, stopped, and THREW HIMSELF OFF THE SCOOTER. apparently the lady and her husband had told my manager he fell off while trying to open the front door but yeah, no, he faked it all. my manager didn't see the video until after she had given the lady the refund and actually showed crazy lady, in front of her husband, how he had thrown himself off his scooter and CL apparently apologized to my manager and began to berate her husband for faking his accident. i guess her berating him was all for show, lol
i hear her screaming at the officers and the officers are literally just laughing at her, telling her the same things i told her (refund won't show up until monday, no way to print a receipt with a full credit card number, etc.) eventually, one of the officers comes in and asks me, “we asked her to leave immediately and told her she's banned from ever coming back here. do you want us to escort her to her room and out the hotel so she doesn't harass you anymore?” of course i said yes and thanked them for offering to do that.
i begin just going about my usual morning duties, and take a break to text my best friends in our group chat what i just experienced, until i see the officers with the lady, her husband, and i'm guessing their young daughter being escorted out of the hotel. the lady yells at me, “IT WAS TRASHY OF YOU TO CALL THE COPS ON ME.” oh how i wish i would have responded to her that it was actually trashy of her to yell at me over things i could not control, but somehow that response just did not pop into my head at that moment. sad.
i honestly lasted a year longer at that job (how i even lasted a year longer i have no idea). i left the hotel industry to work full time in a mortuary, where i'm still VERY HAPPILY working. the customers i get now never complain about anything. ever. every time i enter my office, i'm met with pure, dead silence…..