[quote=Touch of Insanity]
Alright, today at work (I work at McDonalds and go to school full time) a place I’ve been working for over a year, I’ve gotten my first death threat. It’s something I never saw coming. I work the drive thru, and yes I’ve dealt with my fair share of angry people, but nothing like this. 

The lady had ordered two coffees. I handed her the first and then the second. The way the lids are set up, there is a little spot that will sometimes get coffee on the lid. Being stupid, she turned the coffee on its side enough that it had a little drop on her jeans. She FLIPED OUT. I start to help her, trying to calm her down. I don’t even get the manger thinking I can handle this. However, when she turned to me with a calm but angry look in her eyes and said “I’m going to fucking kill you” I didn’t know how to react. So I stood there with this lame smile on my face, trying not to really take in what just happened. My brain thought to get my manger right away, but I didn’t want to freak out. I wanted to handle it myself. 

A moment later she drove off angrily and I turned to my manger and told her I just got a death threat. Just telling the manager, seemed to send my emotions into a kick. I started to tear up. It wasn’t that I was scared, but I was freaked out. I see myself as an overly nice person, never got in fights, hates conflict, a people pleaser. 

So my questions are, have you ever gotten a death threat? How did you react? Also feel free to comment on what happened in my story as well.

~Touch of Insanity. 

[/quote]

Be bold, be confident, but also remember that your customers inherently know more about you than you them. Besides the name on your tag, they also know where you work, and generally speaking, when. When someone makes a threat, take it seriously, but also remember that they're probably just too stupid to be able to communicate their frustrations properly. In my industry we get a ton of the same responses too. Because of my position I am happy to tell people off from time to time, but I'm also not too proud flag a person with our security when they start making threats. 

Words have power and if people don't get that, they should learn to appreciate the repercussions. A 'death threat', no matter how nonchalant, isn't okay in the situation you described.