No matter the position, you should always try your best with customers. A simple and courteous apology would've sufficed, but through joking that way, you opened yourself up to that remark. Professionalism goes a long way.

I bet you're just a bundle of fun arent you?

Work is one thing, outside is another. I work in a high end fine dining restaurant, so I have to be professional at work. That has nothing to do with my overall personality outside. You're there to do a job, and to do it exceptionally well.

I work at a job that requires me to be upbeat and joking and a fun person, so saying something like "it's my first day" in a joking manner would be something I would say if I did something like that. Not every job is a serious "high end" restaurant job. You're allowed to joke around with the customer while being professional, and that's what OP was trying to do but got shot down.

I don't understand what op was hoping she would say. If he told her it was his first day why wouldn't she believe that? Especially seeing as he didn't know the sale properly. She's not thinking an assistant manager won't know the sales. I think this is a ydi. He made the joke (that she would obviously think he was serious about) and got a comment back. He opened himself up to that.

@10

I was making a reference to my personality not being related to how I am at work because he was assuming that I was upright and boring.

how do you know for sure he didn't apologise as well?

I would rather an employee of anywhere joke around with me and use humor then just a stotic, generic, "professional". The customer sounds rude, of course I don't know the tone or anything so it may have been more lighthearted than I am imagining.

I hate customers who are so inconsiderate and expect everyone to be perfect.

Which is why everyone should work in costumer service at least once

If everyone worked in some sort of customer service job for one day I feel like the world would become a better place.

I don't think she was expecting him to be perfect. She would naturally expect an assistant manager to know about the conditions of the sale, and the fact that he said it was his first day seemed to explain the error.

She was still rude. The polite response would be something like "don't worry everyone makes mistakes" or even "its no problem Im just glad everything got sorted out." Just because you open yourself up to rude comments doesn't mean that they are any less rude.

If you were in the restaurant industry and worked as a server then the "it's my first day" would have worked because people feel bad and will most times tip more.

If you have to rely on lying to get good tips, you are a bad server. Yes, some people are just shitty tippers but if you are a good server the majority of people will tip accordingly. I would never lie to a customer, but you do you.

The fact that you're assistant manager and don't know these things is kind of your own fault.

You'd be surprised how often upper management fails to communicate with the folks below them in a retail environment

It clearly says that he had been previously told that it was online only.
So there is definitely a communication break down and OP can't be blamed for not questioning it to begin with since it's such a common thing to have online only special deals.

Actually GM's fault because they didn't communicate the new information in a timely matter.

I really don't get why you think lying is the same as joking. You made a mistake, which happens, but own it.

Exactly. Why wouldn't she believe him if he told her it was his first day? That would explain why he didn't know the conditions of the sale.

I think you mean, "assistant TO the manager." please don't mix the two up. it's important.

.....that's kind of what the term assistant manager means. Your not the general manager, and not a normal shift leader/manager. Your the manager that assists the GM in their duties.

well.....you did deserve it......

If only there were some easier way to convey that very sentiment… like – I dunno – a button, maybe?

I hate asshole customers but I hate smart ass retail employees more.

I don't think that meets the criteria to be considered a smart ass. You sound like one of "those" customers. You do realize most places are training their employees to be upbeat and fun, making jokes and actually talking to the customer right? The reason is most people like it.

Having fun with other human beings is enjoyable to most people, and service employees are human, not generic service robots.

Hmm. I say that often and I'm a paramedic and a nurse. People always laugh. Maybe it was your delivery?

Contrary to popular opinion, customers are rarely right. Do your best to help them out, sure, but at the end of the day you should never forget that nine times outta ten, you know best...

For some reason people take the term "the customer is always right" literally. No. It means that even if the customer is wrong, you should still find a compromise to help them or just fix the problem without arguing or incident.

Like if a customer ordered food from a restaurant and ordered wrong or forgot to specify something, and the food they got wasn't quite what they wanted (wanted extra pickles or add some sauce to their burger or something and didn't get it because they forgot to actually tell the person taking their order) and come back to complain, just fix their food. It's not worth the possible loss of customers, especially if they told their friends and family, they told theirs, it happened again to one of those people and it reinforced the honesty of the story they heard so they told their friends, ect.

In short it means the customer pays 100% of your paycheck so just apologize and make it right.