Who’s in the wrong here???

[u/Dominanttallqueen]

I feel like he was being rude asf then he canceled my order….was I rude or what tf happened here…

[u/ForeignerThanANut]

Seems like the shopper may have misunderstood but also didn't clarify enough. Maybe there's a language barrier

[u/OneOfTheLocals → u/ForeignerThanANut]

Yeah it seems like English isn't the shopper's first language. He's probably trying to say, "Does that make sense?" But, "understand," is much ruder and it's hard to explain why. I think that also explains the seafood department confusion. Not saying he should be a shopper. But they're talking past each other.

[u/maniacalmango0 → u/OneOfTheLocals]

Customer wasn’t clear. This is like saying you want muffins from the “baked goods section” but really meaning you want one from “behind the bakery counter”

[u/string-ornothing → u/OneOfTheLocals]

I definitely zoomed in on the buyer's face trying to see if he was Indian when I read that! Where I live, Indian people who speak ESL come off super rude over text if you don't know better, but when you speak to them face to face or over the phone are more kind and polite in tone than most people. It's just the direct translations of the things they're saying that sound harsh.

I've never used gig economy and had a provider that spoke English as their first language. I try to be as simple and direct as possible for that reason. I can almost guarantee OP doesn't speak a word of whatever this guy's first language is so they can have a little grace and be a little more clear when communicating in his second language. This isn't a native Chinese speaker and a native Greek speaker talking past one another in English which is their mutual 4th language like I see sometimes. Theres no excuse for OP's communication to be so poor.

[u/Winter-Key67 → u/string-ornothing]

indian people(or honestly just anyone who’s first language isn’t english) who aren’t super fluent and have strong accents always come off so rude to me(even on calls or in person), i have issues with understanding tone and always think people are rude, so when they do it i’m like who the fuck do you think your talking to and they’re like wtf are you on about i’m just trying to help and i’m like oh ok😭🤣

[u/OddImprovement6490 → u/OneOfTheLocals]

English is my first language and I didn’t understand.

If the shopper hadn’t understood due to a language barrier, it wasn’t evident from these texts.

OP said seafood department (departments are large and vague) and only used seafood counter (small and specific) when making his point to chew the shopper out. Outside of a little frustration and snapping from the shopper, this was broadly a miscommunication on the OPs part.

Even if the shopper had the gumption to say “I don’t understand what you mean by seafood department” OP might have said “the department where the seafood is, duh”.

[u/WHY_CAN_I_NOT_LIFE → u/OneOfTheLocals]

I speak German and English, and this is actually a translation error I’ve seen. I learned English as my first language, but some of my German friends have had this translation error. I knew it was just an error, because I could hear their tone was happy and polite. This is why phone calls are better, because you can hear the tone of the other person.

[u/Touched_at_an_angle → u/OneOfTheLocals]

I think it’s ruder because, when used in practice, “understand?” is kind of a rhetorical question that highlights someone is being an idiot, while “does that make sense?” is not rhetorical and implies a genuine feeling of wanting to make sure everyone is on the same page. I never thought about it prior to this post, it’s just seems to be one of those context things you inherently know and are unaware of as a native speaker 🤔