Going back a long way here...
Here's a top tip for anyone who wishes to avoid being a Customer From Hell; A name-badge is not an open invitation for you to use that name.

In my time I've had a few jobs which have come with a sparkly name-badge. Not a problem in itself (I even coped with having no stars on one of them). What I did have a problem with was the occasional pompous arse who'd come in, eye the name-tag and instantly begin "Good afternoon Costas, yes you can help me Costas, what I'm looking for, Costas, is a pair of shoes. Are you following me, Costas? Now Costas, they need to be size ten. Got that, Costas? Now Costas, they also need etc" and so on for the duration of the visit.

DON'T. I have no idea why some jobs need name-badges, beyond letting the customer know who to report in their complaint (which makes the name-badge feel like something of a bulls-eye). I don't know about anyone else, but I always felt strangely violated by this. And not in a good way either.
(costas, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 13:31, 12 replies)

name badge
I've always used the persons name from the name badge - never excessivley though, always thought it polite and good to know who I was dealing with. Honestly never thought of it likehow u just put it, I think you've made me realize I've been a customer from hell more times than I realize.
(One_Winged_Angel Ich Dien, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 13:59, closed)

An alternate strategy
is to roll with the name badgeness and pick your own name. You're not limited by John, Steve or Fred. In fact, it doesn't even have to be a name. I've been Vinod, Margaret, Sainsburys (whilst working at an ASDA) and Shoe.
Once upon a time I had a thick wodge of these ... wanders off to go look for them.
(roar, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 14:08, closed)

I thought
You worked at Costas coffee house and they thought it was your name. D'oh...

My old name badge used to say

Gin'll fix it
Inversnecky*

*Our name badges had our place of birth on for some reason, HR didn't question whether Inversnecky was a real place as opposed to Inverness!
(gin'll fix it, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 14:14, closed)

In a similar vein
My mate's job was to repair faxes at clients places of work. His surname was "FLICK", and he had to wear his badge when he was in the workplace.

It was quite remarkable how a little bit of Tippex fluid always managed to splash up on his badge to join the 'L' and the 'I' together at the bottom.
(smells-like-victory-v's, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 14:31, closed)

Aye
I hate that.
Particularly when people chavs spy it and start calling me by my name in a thinly-veiled attempt to buddy up to me so i'll go, y'know what, sure, have £100 off this phone.
Pricks.
(Sundayturkey has the biggest mug of tea, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 14:32, closed)

In training
Oh hell yes. I HATED that when I was working at a restaurant where we had name badges. However, you get better tips and less complaints and generally a better life if you use the "In Training" badge.... which I kept. For most of the time I was there. Genius.
( Bathory, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 14:46, closed)

My
dad is a train driver. The badges have their name in big letters and their job underneath, in my dad's case, "driver". They wouldn't let him change his name to screw. The gits.
(GONEism, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 15:02, closed)

Try working on a fish counter
with your first name being 'Rod'.

I was sick of the jokes in my first week!
(Roddimus_Prime Should be revising, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 17:17, closed)

@One_Winged_Angel
Nooo! I'm sure you're not that bad. I was fine with people using the name in passing (especially if they make it clear they're getting it from the badge - you know, add in a little dramatic pause before saying it). It was when they crowbarred it into every sentence as if it were some sort of punctuation mark that drove me nuts. If they did the same with their friends, I'm sure they'd get locked (or duffed) up in no time.
(costas, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 17:37, closed)

I quite like it...
It maybe just the way I work or the fact that I seem to get a nicer cross section of customers here, but I quite like it when someone takes enough interest to use my name.

To hear 'Thanks 442' is just that bit more personal and appreciative than a general 'thanks'

On the other hand, I can see why people that use your name when there is no need for it at all could get annoying, luckily I haven't seem to have met much of those...
(442, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 21:13, closed)

@roar
Hehehe we used to do this too. At Argos, you HAD to wear a name badge or the world would end. Well, not really, it was in case the mystery shopper came in. But our manager said she didn't care what name we had as long as we wore one. So we used to invent more and more ridiculous names each week. And customers still used to use those names without a hint of realisation...
( El Lazarus is calm now, Ish,, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 21:43, closed)

Halfords.
When I started, the badges had first AND surnames on them.
I dont bloody well think so. Im not having these nutter chav psycos knowing my full name.

Soon enough they were changed to just first names, but even these were rarely worn.

They would say "dave said I could have 20% off" to the till girl or "Dave said I could return this old crap with no box or recipt when I called earlier" after they had walked into the store and spotted a badge at random and then spoken to someone else etc etc. which was always bullshit, but had to be checked, so we stopped the badges and all that sort of shite ended.
(dave likes cheese, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 21:49, closed)