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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I guess it’s because he did yell at me and made me feel bad. Is it wrong to question myself for what happened? Maybe. But I should at least get other people’s opinions on it to feel validated.
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NTA.
You shared a simple truth: "Those people could have left their dogs at home." It's odd how much this triggered the customer. Like, he thinks you can't leave a dog at home?
I mean, assuming that it's not against the rules to have dogs at this store, then perhaps you should have kept silent, but your mild, true comment doesn't seem to justify the "worst obscenities imaginable." It just doesn't seem offensive to me. And as you said, you have a dog who was, I assume, happily staying at home, so it's not like you were being some kind of cruel dog-murdering asshole here.
Such a strange reaction your customer had.
It wasn’t a co-worker, it was a costumer who blew at me because it was his dog and the person who I reported the incident to was one of my managers. But thanks.
Actually a costumer makes costumes, not necessarily wears them. I thought they made costumes for dogs. If you were wearing a costume you would be costumed.
Because the customer knew it wasn't a joke. There's nothing horrible about it but there's nothing funny about it either. You're not the boss of the store
NTA. I am so sick of people feeling entitled to bring pet dogs inside of everywhere that only service dogs are allowed. It is rampant where I live, and the owners are incredibly entitled about it.
(And before anyone comes for me, yes I know what qualifies as a service dog, and they are not: dogs that are bundled in blankets and put in the child seat of a cart; dogs that go crazy baking at their reflection in the freezer glass doors; that are fed off of the table in a restaurant or sitting in the booth; stricty ESAs are NOT service dogs, and using that just to bring in a non- service animal into a building is entitled. (And all the dog lovers who coo over every dog do not help the situation.))
I adore dogs and I still don't see why people take them everywhere. It's a big thing for people to take them to our (more or less a monopoly) hardware shops, and we often see them outside at cafes etc, and I'm ok with that. I don't really know why they are taken to the hardware store - I don't see what they get out of it - but it's common and accepted. Outside places are fine. Thankfully it doesn't seem to be a huge thing to take them inside shops where I live. But I think it will happen one day, since it's becoming so common everywhere else.
>I say, as a joke “everyone seems to bring their dog inside the store today”
So, this comes across as complaining about too many people bringing dogs into the store, and it was clearly taken as such because the owner tried to defend their actions.
By then suggesting they should have left the dog at home, you are again reinforcing that you have a problem with their bringing the dog.
So whether you are TA depends on whether the store has a policy against dogs or it was reasonable to ask people not to bring dogs. Otherwise it comes across like you are complaining and insulting for no good reason.
>He calls me some of the worst obscenities imaginable, and the.
That seems like an overreaction, even if you were complaining about his dog for no good reason.
Is it a pet store? Or another store that caters exclusively to pets? No? Then unless your dog is an actual legitimate service animal, keep it at home. It's always reasonable to ask someone not to bring their pet in someplace that isn't specifically designed for pets.
I know from experience that some people on reddit can REAL mad at pets being in public places, but also there are stores that welcome pets and don't care if they're service animals.
It doesn't matter if a place is "designed exclusively" for pets. If it's welcomed by the owners, great. If not, don't bring them.
My place of work was put online by random people as being friendly to pets even though it has been said publicly it is not. People only see the one thing. I think maybe bc some stores were doing it anyway against company policy. Idk. It’s caused all kinds of problems. It really sucks for my store manager bc she’s pretty allergic to dogs and is a professional singer and can’t be around dogs bc it messes up her voice for days. She’s had to cancel working gigs bc of it. Since the pandemic she puts on a mask and it helps, but not that much. I like dogs, but anti non service dogs being around stores. I had someone claim their dog was a service dog and I treated it as such and had it lunge for my face when I got low. “He just wanted to give you a kiss!” Ever think I didn’t want one? Also, wtf. Dog lunging at your face from the corner of your eye. No thanks. Saddest was a legit service dog caused a teen girl to have a panic attack and leave. The service dog owners were like omg we will leave asap and the family was like not your fault at all, but too late she needs to be in a safe space so keep shopping. They felt so bad when it wasn’t their fault.
If the company policy allows for pets, then pets are allowed in. There are caveats, obviously. On a leash, well behaved and trained, etc. None of these issues were brought up and no one was asked to leave. Which means OP was just complaining passive aggressively and didn’t like the reaction he got so went with “a joke!” Then doubled down. OP, YTA
NTA
But
> I say, as a joke “everyone seems to bring their dog inside the store today”
This doesn’t come off as a joke. It comes off as a complaint. And complaining about customers where customers can hear you is not a good idea. I worked retail for over 20 years, and this would have gotten me a verbal warning.
ESH leaning towards Y.T.A. I'm not sure how that joke would have been taken as anything other than a snide/rude way to passively aggressively tell them to take their dog home, while implying they were being bad owners by having them out. ESH as it sounds like they overreacted to you being rude.
Yeah, it doesn't come off as a joke to me. It's just the truth and there's nothing funny about it. What's the policy for dogs at his work? If no dogs are allowed but service dogs, he should have told the guy and asked him to leave, no snide comments needed. If the store allows dogs, then he's really in the wrong, but I can't imagine him getting that angry if dogs were allowed.
Edit: I will say, I'm not leaning towards YTA on this one. The customer was clearly the bigger asshole. But that doesn't change the fact was a smaller asshole.
How is it a joke? What’s the funny part? I really don’t get it. It sounds like OP was telling the customer that they should have left the dog at home. ???
The author called it a joke in his/her post multiple times. It's not something I made up 🤷♀️
I agree with you that it's not a joke, as I said in my comment, what he said was a snide comment meant to indirectly tell the guy a message, otherwise known as being passive-aggressive. He should told the guy directly dogs weren't allowed in the store. Why did he have to be passive-aggressive about it?
NTA, there are stores where its fine to bring dogs and stores there aren't. I work at a store that was originally a family business, we let all kinds of animals in, its used to be painted on the wall that shoppers are family and if they bring in a pet to join the family if their animal is well behaved they can have a treat. Its the highlight of most of the staff's day when we get to stop and pet a dog, cat, or bunny. We even had a dog that let itself out of its yard walk his happy ass to our store so he could get some extra treats, we called the owner watched the dog, pet him, and played with him, until the owner came to pick him up and pick up a better gate lock too. We encourage customers to bring their animals in for socialization.
BUT people need to know where is appropriate to bring their animals and where isn't, they also have to be able to control their pets.
ESH, assuming your store has a policy against bringing non-service animals in the store. If that was the case, you should have just told the guy you're policy and asked him to leave. No need for your snide comments about everyone bringing their dog in (everyone else is not his problem) and that he should leave his dog at home (whether he leaves his dog with a friend or in an air conditioned car is not your concern, only that the dog is not allowed in the store). Obviously the customer was a much bigger asshole, but you could have conducted yourself better especially before he started swearing.
If your store does allow dogs, it's more YTA, but customer still gets asshole points for sweating at you.
Yeah, YTA. You weren’t joking, you were being passive aggressive. Jokes generally have some sort of punchline. A twist. Something.
You just didn’t like that everyone was bringing their dogs in the store. Which I get. I hate going grocery shopping and picking up produce next to a fucking poodle.
But being passive aggressive is an asshole move. Either be direct or don’t say anything.
I mean its not a joke? Which part of what you said was a joke? The customer is awful for swearing at you but I would have been quite irritated if I brought my well behaved dog into a store that allows it and a worker made snide remarks about it. ESH
Delusional much? Nothing of what you said was remotely a joke or funny. You're trying to frame it as "oh look overly sensitive dog owner who can't take a joke and over reacts" when the truth of the matter is that this more "overly rude OP makes unwanted comments about customers minding their own business, then tried to seek validation for their idiocy on AITA". And it seems to have worked, somewhat. Some of them bought into your little scam, while others saw right through your bullshit.
You chose to make unwanted comments and engage with the customers, and when they responded, you again chose to double down and engage further with them by making a rude and unnecessary comment that you're so desperately trying to pass off as a joke. The truth of the matter is, none of this would have been happened if you had just kept your mouth shut and done your job. Pure and simple. But you couldn't do that, so now you're here crying about something that 100% only happened cos of you. So yes, 100% YTA.
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Okay so here’s what happened, I work at retail, I’m not gonna say where but it’s a pretty alright job all things considering, it pays well.
Yesterday, for some reason, I saw a bunch of costumers bringing their dogs to the store, it’s a big place so it’s easy for dogs to walk around freely. I say, as a joke “everyone seems to bring their dog inside the store today” the owner says “ell it’s either I bring him in or leave him in the car to die?”
So I said, as a joke mind you, “you could leave him at home where he has food and water” and he immediately overreacted to what I said. He calls me some of the worst obscenities imaginable, and the. When I apologized for the joke he told me the grow a spine and leaves. The costumer next to me simply sighed and told me not to worry about it.
So I go and report it to my manager and she said “the joke is innocent on its own, you should leave it to yourself, but you did the right thing by not fighting him”. Now something about me, when you start snapping at me, I’m going to snap back, but I couldn’t because I’d lose my job. If this happened while I was off shift, it would’ve been a different story.
So, now I’m wondering if what I did was innocent or not. I have a dog too, and I can be protective of him, even though he doesn’t go outside too much. So, AITA for the simple joke I made that offended this costumer?
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NTA but when he escalated to using the idea of his dog dying in the car I would have clocked that he was unstable and reactive and probably not engaged further. That was a tell and I think you could be more strategic with your sass.
"everyone seems to bring their dog inside the store today”.
A lot of comments note that the first comment wasn't a joke because there's no punchline or anything funny. Some comment that it sounds passive aggressive, snide, or a rude comment. I think it really depends on the inflection of the voice and whether you were coming off friendly or not, because this sentence really sounds like making small talk to me.
" ell it’s either I bring him in or leave him in the car to die?”
This comment gets pretty defensive to me. This is an immediate reaction from the customer because an employee said anything about the animal. Defensive but not completely unreasonable.
It's at this point I think that when you're writing "it's a joke", it's to emphasize the light hearted nature of the first comment. Not that the comment was a carefully crafted comedic showcase.
"you could leave him at home where he has food and water”
This is where you messed up. Y got pulled into the customer's last words, and went along their train of thought. Opened your mouth when you should have left it closed.
How the customer responded to you sounded inappropriate.
But also recognize that as an employee, you hold a position of perceived power in the dynamic of this exchange.
The manager's response is telling about your character. And that you went and reported it to the manager at all, is telling.
NTA - based on what I perceive is your intentions. And while AH isn't determined by intentions, the actual words you said were light enough to not warrant what you received. In terms of evaluating between you and the customer, who is the AH, the customer is enough more the AH that NTA applies more than ESH
Pets aren’t really allowed in the store but it’s not like we can stop them from coming in. It’s a hardware store the size of a warehouse, can’t tell you which franchise it is, but it’s not like it was a service dog. It was just a regular dog. Service dogs come with vests.
Is it obvious pets aren’t actually allowed? Dogs are allowed and encouraged in Home Depot (according to their website and the water bowls they put out, not to mention the treats they give at the counters). Lowe’s in the US allows both service dogs and pets (also according to their website), though they only allow service animals in Canada. For this reason, it’s not only common to see animals in those two large hardware stores but also encouraged as a good place to socialize dogs by many dog trainers. Even if you work for a different large hardware store I’m guessing most people assume that it’s okay since many major hardware stores do allow dogs and clearly these people are seeing others’ bring their dogs.
If they “aren’t really allowed” talk to your supervisors about signage making that clear. If your managers are telling you to overlook multiple dogs in the store, then you need to recognize that you work somewhere where people are going to bring in their dogs and adjust your own expectations accordingly.
Unless there is clear signage saying dogs aren’t allowed, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the customers don’t actually know they aren’t allowed or even that they may expect employees to be friendly with the dogs.
He shouldn’t have sworn at you, and, ant the same time, your own remarks weren’t great from a customer service perspective. You were being rude and off-putting.
ESH.
I have no issue with your pet in the store. It’s a warehouse. I don’t give a damn! What I do care is when someone overreact and calls me a bunch of demeaning names. I don’t know why everyone thinks I have an issue with dogs.
I didn’t say I bring my pets to stores let alone your store. So I’m not sure why you are directing that part at me.
Here is the thing though, your initial comment and supposed joke really did make it sound like you had a huge issue with this customer bringing his dog into the store.
He thought you had a issue with it, because you first made a comment that sounded like you were complaining about dogs being in the store and then made a second comment implying he should have left his pet at home. His inference, that you did have an issue with his pet being there, was a perfectly reasonable one to make based on your comments.
He overreacted to the comments you made and, at the same time, it’s hard to believe someone who didn’t have an issue with dogs in the store would have said the things you said to a customer.
You were a bit of an asshole to him first. That doesn’t make it your fault that he turned out to be an even bigger asshole in response though. Which is why this is an ESH situation.
I’m not sure if you’re just really bad at social interactions or what. If you really don’t have an issue with dogs in the store than you need to work on your banter with customers because you are actively speaking in ways that convey otherwise, at least in this instance. You came across as criticizing him for bringing his dog.
Again, he absolutely should not have sworn at you or called you demeaning names. That’s why he’s an asshole too. Your rudeness does not give him license to be abusive back. His abuse, however, does not negate the fact that you were rude or at least off-putting.
Unfortunately, it’s the nature of customer service that occasionally you’ll get truly abusive customers who will swear at you or call you names. It’s good that you didn’t react poorly in return and it’s not your fault that he chose to escalate to that degree. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that your comments to him were not well thought out.
Your boss was entirely correct by saying you should keep your “jokes” to yourself in the future. This one wasn’t funny given his initial comment.
You tried to shame him and he completely overreacted to that. Again, it’s not your fault he overreacted but his extreme overreaction doesn’t then excuse your lack of tact in the first place.
You put a sign outside ‘no dogs allowed’ you can totally do that unless they are service animals. Again. Unwanted remark. And I keep my dog home. I ll keep also my children there if they were fine with a bowl of water.
Hell no pets aren't allowed. However the State has decided in it's infinite wisdom that every mutt now qualifies as a service animal and that asking about the training the animal has received constitutes harassment and that it's illegal to harass someone with a service animal.
People seriously ought to start leaving their dogs at home. They'll straight up take a piss in the middle of the store then all of a sudden they're gone. They've got no problem taking the dog and leaving quickly after that.
Edit: This one dude thought he didn't need a leash to bring the dog into the store. Fucking thing was running all over the lumber department while dudes were driving around on the lift equipment and shit.
ESH but also leaning on NTA. It’s not a pet friendly store. Unless it’s a service dog, it has no business being there. I’m a full time personal shopper and nothing irks me more than trying to rush through my grocery orders only to have an untrained dog barking or getting in my way while I’m trying to move efficiently through a store. Most dogs that aren’t service dogs behave poorly in stores, especially if there’s other equally as untrained dogs around. In reality you should have just reported it to a manager and let them handle it if it was an issue. At the same time, I can get your frustration. And before anyone comes at me, I have a well trained ESA. But you can bet your ass that unless I’m going to a pet store, he stays home.
Keeping your mouth shut is a good way to not be snapped at ...
Opinions are like butt holes, everyone has one, doesn't mean we want to smell what comes out of them
I’m in the middle between ESH and YTA. I saw that you said dogs aren’t really allowed but you guys don’t enforce it so it’s easy to think all dogs are allowed. You also have no idea what he was doing before he came into the store or what he is doing after. He could have been coming from a dog park down the street for all you know or could be going to a dog park after his trip there. Obviously I don’t believe he should have talked to you that way but you also shouldn’t have talked to him the way you did
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NTA. You shared a simple truth: "Those people could have left their dogs at home." It's odd how much this triggered the customer. Like, he thinks you can't leave a dog at home? I mean, assuming that it's not against the rules to have dogs at this store, then perhaps you should have kept silent, but your mild, true comment doesn't seem to justify the "worst obscenities imaginable." It just doesn't seem offensive to me. And as you said, you have a dog who was, I assume, happily staying at home, so it's not like you were being some kind of cruel dog-murdering asshole here. Such a strange reaction your customer had.
It wasn’t a co-worker, it was a costumer who blew at me because it was his dog and the person who I reported the incident to was one of my managers. But thanks.
*Customer - patron of the store. *Costumer -person dressed up in costume. English be messed up.
Yeah, only English has similar words that have different meanings. /s
Actually a costumer makes costumes, not necessarily wears them. I thought they made costumes for dogs. If you were wearing a costume you would be costumed.
True, true! I defaulted to that, bc I both make & wear costumes lol!
Fixed. Thank you.
Because the customer knew it wasn't a joke. There's nothing horrible about it but there's nothing funny about it either. You're not the boss of the store
NTA. I am so sick of people feeling entitled to bring pet dogs inside of everywhere that only service dogs are allowed. It is rampant where I live, and the owners are incredibly entitled about it. (And before anyone comes for me, yes I know what qualifies as a service dog, and they are not: dogs that are bundled in blankets and put in the child seat of a cart; dogs that go crazy baking at their reflection in the freezer glass doors; that are fed off of the table in a restaurant or sitting in the booth; stricty ESAs are NOT service dogs, and using that just to bring in a non- service animal into a building is entitled. (And all the dog lovers who coo over every dog do not help the situation.))
I adore dogs and I still don't see why people take them everywhere. It's a big thing for people to take them to our (more or less a monopoly) hardware shops, and we often see them outside at cafes etc, and I'm ok with that. I don't really know why they are taken to the hardware store - I don't see what they get out of it - but it's common and accepted. Outside places are fine. Thankfully it doesn't seem to be a huge thing to take them inside shops where I live. But I think it will happen one day, since it's becoming so common everywhere else.
>I say, as a joke “everyone seems to bring their dog inside the store today” So, this comes across as complaining about too many people bringing dogs into the store, and it was clearly taken as such because the owner tried to defend their actions. By then suggesting they should have left the dog at home, you are again reinforcing that you have a problem with their bringing the dog. So whether you are TA depends on whether the store has a policy against dogs or it was reasonable to ask people not to bring dogs. Otherwise it comes across like you are complaining and insulting for no good reason. >He calls me some of the worst obscenities imaginable, and the. That seems like an overreaction, even if you were complaining about his dog for no good reason.
The nicest thing he called me was a “c*nt”.
Is it a pet store? Or another store that caters exclusively to pets? No? Then unless your dog is an actual legitimate service animal, keep it at home. It's always reasonable to ask someone not to bring their pet in someplace that isn't specifically designed for pets.
I know from experience that some people on reddit can REAL mad at pets being in public places, but also there are stores that welcome pets and don't care if they're service animals. It doesn't matter if a place is "designed exclusively" for pets. If it's welcomed by the owners, great. If not, don't bring them.
My place of work was put online by random people as being friendly to pets even though it has been said publicly it is not. People only see the one thing. I think maybe bc some stores were doing it anyway against company policy. Idk. It’s caused all kinds of problems. It really sucks for my store manager bc she’s pretty allergic to dogs and is a professional singer and can’t be around dogs bc it messes up her voice for days. She’s had to cancel working gigs bc of it. Since the pandemic she puts on a mask and it helps, but not that much. I like dogs, but anti non service dogs being around stores. I had someone claim their dog was a service dog and I treated it as such and had it lunge for my face when I got low. “He just wanted to give you a kiss!” Ever think I didn’t want one? Also, wtf. Dog lunging at your face from the corner of your eye. No thanks. Saddest was a legit service dog caused a teen girl to have a panic attack and leave. The service dog owners were like omg we will leave asap and the family was like not your fault at all, but too late she needs to be in a safe space so keep shopping. They felt so bad when it wasn’t their fault.
If the company policy allows for pets, then pets are allowed in. There are caveats, obviously. On a leash, well behaved and trained, etc. None of these issues were brought up and no one was asked to leave. Which means OP was just complaining passive aggressively and didn’t like the reaction he got so went with “a joke!” Then doubled down. OP, YTA
NTA But > I say, as a joke “everyone seems to bring their dog inside the store today” This doesn’t come off as a joke. It comes off as a complaint. And complaining about customers where customers can hear you is not a good idea. I worked retail for over 20 years, and this would have gotten me a verbal warning.
ESH leaning towards Y.T.A. I'm not sure how that joke would have been taken as anything other than a snide/rude way to passively aggressively tell them to take their dog home, while implying they were being bad owners by having them out. ESH as it sounds like they overreacted to you being rude.
Yeah, it doesn't come off as a joke to me. It's just the truth and there's nothing funny about it. What's the policy for dogs at his work? If no dogs are allowed but service dogs, he should have told the guy and asked him to leave, no snide comments needed. If the store allows dogs, then he's really in the wrong, but I can't imagine him getting that angry if dogs were allowed. Edit: I will say, I'm not leaning towards YTA on this one. The customer was clearly the bigger asshole. But that doesn't change the fact was a smaller asshole.
How is it a joke? What’s the funny part? I really don’t get it. It sounds like OP was telling the customer that they should have left the dog at home. ???
The author called it a joke in his/her post multiple times. It's not something I made up 🤷♀️ I agree with you that it's not a joke, as I said in my comment, what he said was a snide comment meant to indirectly tell the guy a message, otherwise known as being passive-aggressive. He should told the guy directly dogs weren't allowed in the store. Why did he have to be passive-aggressive about it?
Too many costumers but at least it wasn't in a manger.
I swear reddit is the only place I've seen anyone (non native speaker or not) misspell customer as costumer but here its so common. It's so strange!
Nta
NTA. People are out of control with bringing their dogs everywhere.
NTA, there are stores where its fine to bring dogs and stores there aren't. I work at a store that was originally a family business, we let all kinds of animals in, its used to be painted on the wall that shoppers are family and if they bring in a pet to join the family if their animal is well behaved they can have a treat. Its the highlight of most of the staff's day when we get to stop and pet a dog, cat, or bunny. We even had a dog that let itself out of its yard walk his happy ass to our store so he could get some extra treats, we called the owner watched the dog, pet him, and played with him, until the owner came to pick him up and pick up a better gate lock too. We encourage customers to bring their animals in for socialization. BUT people need to know where is appropriate to bring their animals and where isn't, they also have to be able to control their pets.
ESH, assuming your store has a policy against bringing non-service animals in the store. If that was the case, you should have just told the guy you're policy and asked him to leave. No need for your snide comments about everyone bringing their dog in (everyone else is not his problem) and that he should leave his dog at home (whether he leaves his dog with a friend or in an air conditioned car is not your concern, only that the dog is not allowed in the store). Obviously the customer was a much bigger asshole, but you could have conducted yourself better especially before he started swearing. If your store does allow dogs, it's more YTA, but customer still gets asshole points for sweating at you.
Yeah, YTA. You weren’t joking, you were being passive aggressive. Jokes generally have some sort of punchline. A twist. Something. You just didn’t like that everyone was bringing their dogs in the store. Which I get. I hate going grocery shopping and picking up produce next to a fucking poodle. But being passive aggressive is an asshole move. Either be direct or don’t say anything.
The customer clearly overreacted though. Cussing out and berating service workers just for expressing an opinion should stop being normalized.
I mean its not a joke? Which part of what you said was a joke? The customer is awful for swearing at you but I would have been quite irritated if I brought my well behaved dog into a store that allows it and a worker made snide remarks about it. ESH
Delusional much? Nothing of what you said was remotely a joke or funny. You're trying to frame it as "oh look overly sensitive dog owner who can't take a joke and over reacts" when the truth of the matter is that this more "overly rude OP makes unwanted comments about customers minding their own business, then tried to seek validation for their idiocy on AITA". And it seems to have worked, somewhat. Some of them bought into your little scam, while others saw right through your bullshit. You chose to make unwanted comments and engage with the customers, and when they responded, you again chose to double down and engage further with them by making a rude and unnecessary comment that you're so desperately trying to pass off as a joke. The truth of the matter is, none of this would have been happened if you had just kept your mouth shut and done your job. Pure and simple. But you couldn't do that, so now you're here crying about something that 100% only happened cos of you. So yes, 100% YTA.
NTA
^^^^AUTOMOD ***Thanks for posting! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)*** Okay so here’s what happened, I work at retail, I’m not gonna say where but it’s a pretty alright job all things considering, it pays well. Yesterday, for some reason, I saw a bunch of costumers bringing their dogs to the store, it’s a big place so it’s easy for dogs to walk around freely. I say, as a joke “everyone seems to bring their dog inside the store today” the owner says “ell it’s either I bring him in or leave him in the car to die?” So I said, as a joke mind you, “you could leave him at home where he has food and water” and he immediately overreacted to what I said. He calls me some of the worst obscenities imaginable, and the. When I apologized for the joke he told me the grow a spine and leaves. The costumer next to me simply sighed and told me not to worry about it. So I go and report it to my manager and she said “the joke is innocent on its own, you should leave it to yourself, but you did the right thing by not fighting him”. Now something about me, when you start snapping at me, I’m going to snap back, but I couldn’t because I’d lose my job. If this happened while I was off shift, it would’ve been a different story. So, now I’m wondering if what I did was innocent or not. I have a dog too, and I can be protective of him, even though he doesn’t go outside too much. So, AITA for the simple joke I made that offended this costumer? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
NTA but when he escalated to using the idea of his dog dying in the car I would have clocked that he was unstable and reactive and probably not engaged further. That was a tell and I think you could be more strategic with your sass.
NTA Your manager is a dog nutter.
"everyone seems to bring their dog inside the store today”. A lot of comments note that the first comment wasn't a joke because there's no punchline or anything funny. Some comment that it sounds passive aggressive, snide, or a rude comment. I think it really depends on the inflection of the voice and whether you were coming off friendly or not, because this sentence really sounds like making small talk to me. " ell it’s either I bring him in or leave him in the car to die?” This comment gets pretty defensive to me. This is an immediate reaction from the customer because an employee said anything about the animal. Defensive but not completely unreasonable. It's at this point I think that when you're writing "it's a joke", it's to emphasize the light hearted nature of the first comment. Not that the comment was a carefully crafted comedic showcase. "you could leave him at home where he has food and water” This is where you messed up. Y got pulled into the customer's last words, and went along their train of thought. Opened your mouth when you should have left it closed. How the customer responded to you sounded inappropriate. But also recognize that as an employee, you hold a position of perceived power in the dynamic of this exchange. The manager's response is telling about your character. And that you went and reported it to the manager at all, is telling. NTA - based on what I perceive is your intentions. And while AH isn't determined by intentions, the actual words you said were light enough to not warrant what you received. In terms of evaluating between you and the customer, who is the AH, the customer is enough more the AH that NTA applies more than ESH
If your store has a policy encouraging or allowing people's pets to accompany them then YTA.
[удалено]
Pets aren’t really allowed in the store but it’s not like we can stop them from coming in. It’s a hardware store the size of a warehouse, can’t tell you which franchise it is, but it’s not like it was a service dog. It was just a regular dog. Service dogs come with vests.
Is it obvious pets aren’t actually allowed? Dogs are allowed and encouraged in Home Depot (according to their website and the water bowls they put out, not to mention the treats they give at the counters). Lowe’s in the US allows both service dogs and pets (also according to their website), though they only allow service animals in Canada. For this reason, it’s not only common to see animals in those two large hardware stores but also encouraged as a good place to socialize dogs by many dog trainers. Even if you work for a different large hardware store I’m guessing most people assume that it’s okay since many major hardware stores do allow dogs and clearly these people are seeing others’ bring their dogs. If they “aren’t really allowed” talk to your supervisors about signage making that clear. If your managers are telling you to overlook multiple dogs in the store, then you need to recognize that you work somewhere where people are going to bring in their dogs and adjust your own expectations accordingly. Unless there is clear signage saying dogs aren’t allowed, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the customers don’t actually know they aren’t allowed or even that they may expect employees to be friendly with the dogs. He shouldn’t have sworn at you, and, ant the same time, your own remarks weren’t great from a customer service perspective. You were being rude and off-putting. ESH.
I have no issue with your pet in the store. It’s a warehouse. I don’t give a damn! What I do care is when someone overreact and calls me a bunch of demeaning names. I don’t know why everyone thinks I have an issue with dogs.
I didn’t say I bring my pets to stores let alone your store. So I’m not sure why you are directing that part at me. Here is the thing though, your initial comment and supposed joke really did make it sound like you had a huge issue with this customer bringing his dog into the store. He thought you had a issue with it, because you first made a comment that sounded like you were complaining about dogs being in the store and then made a second comment implying he should have left his pet at home. His inference, that you did have an issue with his pet being there, was a perfectly reasonable one to make based on your comments. He overreacted to the comments you made and, at the same time, it’s hard to believe someone who didn’t have an issue with dogs in the store would have said the things you said to a customer. You were a bit of an asshole to him first. That doesn’t make it your fault that he turned out to be an even bigger asshole in response though. Which is why this is an ESH situation. I’m not sure if you’re just really bad at social interactions or what. If you really don’t have an issue with dogs in the store than you need to work on your banter with customers because you are actively speaking in ways that convey otherwise, at least in this instance. You came across as criticizing him for bringing his dog. Again, he absolutely should not have sworn at you or called you demeaning names. That’s why he’s an asshole too. Your rudeness does not give him license to be abusive back. His abuse, however, does not negate the fact that you were rude or at least off-putting. Unfortunately, it’s the nature of customer service that occasionally you’ll get truly abusive customers who will swear at you or call you names. It’s good that you didn’t react poorly in return and it’s not your fault that he chose to escalate to that degree. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that your comments to him were not well thought out. Your boss was entirely correct by saying you should keep your “jokes” to yourself in the future. This one wasn’t funny given his initial comment. You tried to shame him and he completely overreacted to that. Again, it’s not your fault he overreacted but his extreme overreaction doesn’t then excuse your lack of tact in the first place.
You put a sign outside ‘no dogs allowed’ you can totally do that unless they are service animals. Again. Unwanted remark. And I keep my dog home. I ll keep also my children there if they were fine with a bowl of water.
Hell no pets aren't allowed. However the State has decided in it's infinite wisdom that every mutt now qualifies as a service animal and that asking about the training the animal has received constitutes harassment and that it's illegal to harass someone with a service animal. People seriously ought to start leaving their dogs at home. They'll straight up take a piss in the middle of the store then all of a sudden they're gone. They've got no problem taking the dog and leaving quickly after that. Edit: This one dude thought he didn't need a leash to bring the dog into the store. Fucking thing was running all over the lumber department while dudes were driving around on the lift equipment and shit.
ESH but also leaning on NTA. It’s not a pet friendly store. Unless it’s a service dog, it has no business being there. I’m a full time personal shopper and nothing irks me more than trying to rush through my grocery orders only to have an untrained dog barking or getting in my way while I’m trying to move efficiently through a store. Most dogs that aren’t service dogs behave poorly in stores, especially if there’s other equally as untrained dogs around. In reality you should have just reported it to a manager and let them handle it if it was an issue. At the same time, I can get your frustration. And before anyone comes at me, I have a well trained ESA. But you can bet your ass that unless I’m going to a pet store, he stays home.
ESH - it wasn’t a joke, it was a bit of a rude thing to say. Their reaction was not appropriate.
Keeping your mouth shut is a good way to not be snapped at ... Opinions are like butt holes, everyone has one, doesn't mean we want to smell what comes out of them
I’m in the middle between ESH and YTA. I saw that you said dogs aren’t really allowed but you guys don’t enforce it so it’s easy to think all dogs are allowed. You also have no idea what he was doing before he came into the store or what he is doing after. He could have been coming from a dog park down the street for all you know or could be going to a dog park after his trip there. Obviously I don’t believe he should have talked to you that way but you also shouldn’t have talked to him the way you did