It's also hard to deal with people who wait until the very last second to do something they could have done months ago, then come in demanding service as if their emergency caused by procrastination is someone else's fault or problem. Just about anyone who has every worked in any kind of customer service job can tell some war stories about those kind of people. They're usually the worst.
Yup. My first job was retail. Very first hour on my first day of running register, (after my trainer left me completely alone after about maybe 5 minutes of showing me the ropes), I had a customer yelling at me that if I didn't hurry up and get him through the line he was going to miss his bus. Then he kept whining about it the entire time I was ringing him up. First of all, rude. Second, distracting me isn't going to make me work any faster, and third, it's not my fault you didn't budget your time better ! Not to mention another bus would've come by in an hour ! He was in a mall, surely he could've found something to do.
In my experience working retail, the rudest customers were also the ones who could have easily figured it out for themselves - much like Dan and Roseanne. That stipulation was printed in the tax booklet (which we've all read). Not only did they waste their own time, they added fuel to the fire at the IRS office.
Thinking about it, it seems like retail customers who need the most help are the nicest, probably because they realize they actually need help and aren't just being jerks.
Honestly, Roseanne did this all the time. She was a hypocrite. Always mean and rude to her customers (even when it was her business). When she went anywhere she was the queen and everyone had to wait on her hand and foot. That's why I love when she gets hers.
I always thought it was crazy that they put that IRS clerk on the front line on TAX day when she mentioned she was 'new' at the job. That would be horrible.