AITA for standing my ground ?
While helping her dad and little brother at the airport, a young woman encountered an issue with her dad’s boarding pass due to a spelling error. A staff member insisted on handling the situation but repeated the same failed process the woman had already tried.
When the woman pointed this out, the staff member accused her of being rude and even threatened to call the police. The woman stood her ground, staying with her dad despite the staff member’s insistence that she leave. Ultimately, the staff member ended up resolving the issue in the same way the woman had anticipated. read the original story below…
‘ AITA for standing my ground ?’
I was dropping off my dad and little brother at the airport and helping them with check in when we faced a problem, my dads ticket was wrong since the place we booked it had misspelled his name so we lined up in line to the customer service.
when out of no where this lady comes up and ask what we were waiting for I replied my dads boarding pass isn’t printing so I’m waiting in line she then asked for the passport and said she’ll do it I replied I’ve tried everything it’s not gonna work she then heads to the self service machine and does exactly what I did and to no surprise it doesn’t work.
so I said I told you so she then turns to look at me and says your being rude I looked surprised I said what do you mean I literally told you that I tried everything and it didn’t work she then proceeded to say you know I can call the police I looked at her in disbelief she then proceeded to say she’ll check in my dad
and I can leave I stood my ground and waited with my dad guess what she does, she goes in the same line same place and ends up going to the other worker to fix the boarding pass.
See what others had to share with OP:
SomeoneYouDontKnow70 − YTA. A worker was trying to help your dad out, and you stupidly antagonized them. “I’ve tried everything,” is a very ambiguous statement. It’s not like she’s an omnipotent mind reader who was looking over your shoulder while you were trying “everything.”
She’s obligated to go through the motions to verify what is and isn’t working. You didn’t have to act like a j**k while she was troubleshooting your dad’s issue. Instead of “I tired everything,” all you had to say was,
“The name on the ticket is misspelled.” You would have saved everyone lots of time and grief. Just be glad that she didn’t call the police on you. Being trespassed at an airport is no joke.
Just_a_lil_dwagon − YTA. Customer service reps are required by their bosses to start with their basics (“is your device turned on?”) because you might be surprised how often the problem *is* the basic thing. Your job is to be patient while they go through that first check.
We don’t have her side of what you actually said and whether it was more intense than what you’re reporting here, but even with what you describe, it’s clear you were being unnecessarily rude to someone with a difficult job where she’s exposed to a lot of anger about things that aren’t her fault.
We all get carried away though. I was an absolute AH to a pharmacist last week and didn’t notice until my wife pointed it out afterward. It’s hard to take criticism, but try and take the lesson for next time you encounter a frustrating situation. Customer service reps have extremely difficult jobs, especially when their employers make mistakes or have bad policies.
TheLaurenJean − YTA. That is rude, and it’s stupid to act like that at the airport of all places. Even if you are correct, that’s like one of the main places it doesn’t matter.
Couldthisnamebetaken − YTA. When airline personnel come in to assist, you step back, STFU, and let them do their jobs and help you. 1 they probably have a script they’re required to follow. 2 they hear the same story all day from customers claiming to have done “everything“ when it turns out they probably haven’t.. (Edit: formatting)
Kessed − YTAF**k. I did tech support for 10 years. I will NEVER believe a user who tells me they “tried everything”. 1 time in 1000 it might actually be true. But, I’m going to go with the other 999 times.
I will never forget the 5:30am emergency phone call from my office about a printing problem that had to be solved immediately so a sales guy could make his flight. I threw on clothes and got to the office by 6am. The problem? The printer wasn’t actually plugged into his computer.
And this was in the days of having to plug them in – no network capabilities for them. I plugged it in. The sales guy then printed his emergency important things…. Pictures of the front of the hotels he was staying at on his sales trip.
Apparently, the GPS he had wasn’t good enough. He had to have a f**king printed color picture of the front of the hotel….I may have decided to NOT clock out when I went home to sleep for a few more hours.
Aggravating-Item9162 − YTA. You had nothing to do with this flight. At this point, you didn’t even have any business at the airport. You WERE being rude.
mercy_fulfate − yta. She has a process that needs to be followed. She doesn’t know you or if you did it correctly or did it at all so she starts at the beginning which isn’t a bad idea. No need for the I told you so, she was doing her job and trying to help.
SuperPookypower − The worker was actively trying to help you, so you behaved in a confrontational and douchey manner. YTA
revdj − YTA: She doesn’t know who the hell you are, how competent and brilliant you are, and how honest you are. I’ll bet in the last few hours she had several people who said, “I’ve tried everything” and then the self service machine worked for her. Did the “I told you so?” give you satisfaction?
t3hnosp0on − Yeah YTA. This person didn’t book the ticket under the wrong name. That was between yall and the company. You didn’t fix the ticket, didn’t tell her what you actually needed when she was trying to be helpful, and didn’t communicate well.
This person did nothing to you except try to be helpful, albeit with limited success. You didn’t need to be rude. Matter of fact you didn’t need to be in that interaction at all. If you want to operate on the default mode of assuming you’re right and everyone else is wrong,
you’re going to have a terrible time functioning in society. Lines, traffic, call centers, and dealing with big business or government will always seem tedious to you. On the other hand, if you can view the world from a more understanding perspective you’ll be able to relax and stop being such a d**k. Have a good life.
Was the woman justified in standing her ground, or should she have handled the situation differently? What would you have done in her place? Share your opinions below!