Life at work: Fast food 3

I cannot believe that one stupid customer can ruin my entire day. I don't think I've ever felt this way at work before. I've encountered many problems and ignorant customers at work but I've never EVER felt this way in my 5 years working in fast food....

As usual, I took a customers huge order and my partner helped me prepare everything. It turns out that the customer did not want the coffee as it was made, they said they wanted a 'Regular' and in standard, a 'Regular' means one cream and one sugar and it was made like that. It was a misunderstanding because the customer wanted it black and thought 'Regular' would just mean Black coffee. I was being very polite and I told the customer that for the future, if you want it black, just state you want a Black coffee and don't say 'Regular' because this is what you'll get. 

In the middle of explaining it to the customer, a person whom the customer was with jumped into the conversation and began firing at me. He began to tell me that I was wrong and that a 'Regular' coffee means a Black coffee. I was being very calm and all I wanted to do was to explain to him that it does not work like that here and that we go by certain rules set by our management. I was keeping my posture and attitude very professional until he continued to fire at me and raising his voice. Without hesitating, as soon as he began to raise his tone at me, I raised mine right back at him because I felt that I was being mistreated for something I was not a fault for. 

After arguing back and forth for a few minutes, another customer who was in line waiting to be served couldn't take it anymore and jumped into the situation. He told this 'angry' customer that I was just doing my job and that I was trying to explain to him nicely what a 'Regular' coffee is. This 'angry' customer fired at him and he was kind enough to continue to defend me. Big thanks to him. 

This argument continued for a while and even with my supervisor and co worker stepping in to help settle the situation, it was unable to be put at rest because I did not want to let it go. He continued to raise his tone at me and then resulted to calling me rude and that I need to calm down. Again, with no hesitation I fired back, I told the customer that HE was being rude to me first and that he needs to calm down. I think he was a bit taken back because I didn't think he'd expect me to talk back to him like that. But it was true, he was being very rude first, all I wanted to do was to explain to them how the coffee is typically made if they say they want a 'Regular' coffee. 

In the end, this was put to rest because I did not want to deal with his stupidity anymore. At that time, I did not know what was going through my head. I felt the need to talk back because I didn't want to accept the way he was treating me. Although I work at a fast food place, I do have the right to be treated with respect by everyone. I know that in the business world, they always have the motto that "customers are always right" but can we really go by that motto when you feel like you're being attacked, mistreated and disrespected by customers for no reason? Especially when you're no where to be at fault? I cannot accept that and refuse to accept it. 

I know this was such a small problem that slowly progressed into an argument. At that time, I felt so upset and angry to the point that my body was not in its normal state. I don't know why and for what reason but as I was defending myself, my body was really off. My hands were shaking, my entire body was shaking, I could not control it or stop it. I felt so emotional that after walking away from the argument, I felt like I needed to go and just cry but I didn't. That would be weak of me and I refuse to let anyone see that and especially in front of him. This honestly killed my mood and ruined my entire day.