This Tumblr Thread Goes Viral After Proving That Asking For A Refund Doesn’t Necessarily Make You A Karen
There she is, an enraged suburban white woman calling on the National guards on the underpaid Target employee simply for refusing her refund. Shrieking, stabbing the air or calling for your manager after you politely ask them to put a medical mask on. They want what they want when they want it. Try to tell them any different and you might just get yourself into ‘a Karen situation’.
Fed up with the joke that all Karens must be these entitled and hysteric Medusas with ponytails, visors and high-pitch voices ready to attack, people all over the internet started sharing their stories countering this silly (and occasionally absurdly entertaining) female archetype. As the Tumblr user ‘ruffboijuliaburnsides’ explains in her post that quickly went viral, there’s a big difference between being reasonable about the problem at hand and having a fit every time Starbucks’ employee serves you oat milk instead of an almond one with your Frappuccino.
This is how the entire conversation goes. And if you’re hungry for more Karen content – check this out.
A couple of Tumblr users started discussing reasons why the Karen meme is still alive and kicking
Image credits: Ümit Yıldırım
Then one Karen shared her ‘unusual’ story and the whole thread went viral soon after
Image credits: kyraneko
Words are haunting. Just ask Chad or Becky. Hearing your name used as an insult has become a norm to them. Still, when a few white self-entitled ladies in their mid-50s have a power not only to call a military on you for being a person of color or simply wearing a mask; but to drag the name down to pre-Depression levels in terms of its popularity in the US — it doesn’t sound like a harmless meme no more.
A lot of folks couldn’t agree more
I don't think anyone was saying you're automatically a "Karen" if you ask for a refund. The world at large understands pretty well what "normal customer behaviour" and "entitled customer behaviour" is.
Exactly. I thought the whole 'Karen' thing was about asking for a manager unnecessarily, usually because even though the staff are perfectly capable, they want someone more senior because they see themselves as so important or the staff as automatically beneath them. Utter rubbish like that. Refunds if you haven't the goods or services that you have paid for are fine. Asking for senior staff when anyone can deal with it, not fine but obviously if they can't then you have that right. Also not fine is being rude. Be polite, let staff do their jobs. If it's more serious or they can't handle it then management can be involved. I've been the manager that people asked to talk to - usually unnecessarily as my team could deal with things. Though I never minded being a resource for my staff to use if people were being unpleasant. Hope that makes sense (migraine just starting... 😕)
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I remember posting something here on BP about me asking to talk to the hotel manager about something and I got slammed and downvoted to hell. It could be an American thing that asking for the manager is wrong but I have had to do this in Thailand (friend fell through the deck around a pool - not funny) and in France (dirty bathroom). If done politely and with good reason it's ok.
Oh I feel you. It's surprising that far too many people take a binary view to life. It's either you agree or disagree. Completely. Apparently gray isn't a thing. There are nuances and context to everything. And in order to really observe these, you need to place yourself in the other person's shoes. The alleged "victim" or "aggressor". I would like to think, we as a society has that much intellect to actually process empathy into objective thoughts. I'm still hoping. But I ain't holding my breath.
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I got dissed on Bored Panda for mentioning that I had requested a refund on delivered food that was wrecked because it was packed poorly.
Sounds perfectly reasonable - the refund request, not the dissing!
Load More Replies... I don't think anyone was saying you're automatically a "Karen" if you ask for a refund. The world at large understands pretty well what "normal customer behaviour" and "entitled customer behaviour" is.
Exactly. I thought the whole 'Karen' thing was about asking for a manager unnecessarily, usually because even though the staff are perfectly capable, they want someone more senior because they see themselves as so important or the staff as automatically beneath them. Utter rubbish like that. Refunds if you haven't the goods or services that you have paid for are fine. Asking for senior staff when anyone can deal with it, not fine but obviously if they can't then you have that right. Also not fine is being rude. Be polite, let staff do their jobs. If it's more serious or they can't handle it then management can be involved. I've been the manager that people asked to talk to - usually unnecessarily as my team could deal with things. Though I never minded being a resource for my staff to use if people were being unpleasant. Hope that makes sense (migraine just starting... 😕)
Load More Replies... I remember posting something here on BP about me asking to talk to the hotel manager about something and I got slammed and downvoted to hell. It could be an American thing that asking for the manager is wrong but I have had to do this in Thailand (friend fell through the deck around a pool - not funny) and in France (dirty bathroom). If done politely and with good reason it's ok.
Oh I feel you. It's surprising that far too many people take a binary view to life. It's either you agree or disagree. Completely. Apparently gray isn't a thing. There are nuances and context to everything. And in order to really observe these, you need to place yourself in the other person's shoes. The alleged "victim" or "aggressor". I would like to think, we as a society has that much intellect to actually process empathy into objective thoughts. I'm still hoping. But I ain't holding my breath.
Load More Replies... I got dissed on Bored Panda for mentioning that I had requested a refund on delivered food that was wrecked because it was packed poorly.
Sounds perfectly reasonable - the refund request, not the dissing!
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