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34 People Who Had The Misfortune Of Crossing Paths With Entitled Karens
No matter how kind or polite you are, every once in a while you’re bound to run into someone who, for no reason at all, goes out of their way to be rude. Whether it’s a minor inconvenience or full-on drama, one thing’s certain, they’ll ruin your day. Online, these people have earned a name: Karens.
And of course, Redditors have no shortage of stories about their run-ins with them. Below, we’ve gathered some of the most patience-testing encounters people have shared. Scroll down to read them all—and maybe vent a little, too.
Discover more in 46 People Who Had The Misfortune Of Crossing Paths With Entitled Karens
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#1
Best Karen story: I used to be a butcher and was having a really stressful day at work last year around Thanksgiving time,when my mom stopped into my store because she was in the neighborhood and on a whim decided to bring me my favorite food: Lamb Rogan Josh and a Mango Lassi. It made my day
My mom's name is Karen
She is not a Karen
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#2
He was a man, but such a Karen...
I was a manager, and they wanted to disconnect the client. Totally justified. He hadn't paid in almost 4 years... He wanted to pay in installments, but the internal rules were that after a certain level of warnings, it wasn't possible anymore.
The point is, the guy first wanted to see a manager. That's where I came in. After the information, he stood up and started yelling. Police... we'll be reported. I tried to calm him down, where he could go, there are state agencies here that provide support, protection, etc...
It was during Covid, by the way.
Then the guy grabbed, recoiled to spit. He needed momentum. Then he realized he was wearing a mask... pulled it down. Spat again, like a cobra. It landed on the plexiglass.
That's when I asked him if he wanted me to go to the other side of the plexiglass so he could spit on me.
He couldn't answer because the security guard had had enough and dragged him out of the office in a chokehold.
He didn't come back to complain!
#3
Man Karen: bought a PC Star Wars Battlefront, in 2015 and comes back the next day to get his money back immediately, saying this doesn't work. Did he activate the code? Don't take me for a fool? I said we can't take back PC games if the code's been activated. Well, he'd already tried activating it with his IT expert friend, the code's no good, it won't download, it won't run, and besides, he's got a law degree and he's gonna sue us. This went on for five minutes. I said thanks, but we still can't take it back, but let's have a look, show me what you activated?
He takes one of the two papers from the box and shows me: this. I look at it: I said, this is the pre-order DLC code. Look, here's the PC activation code, it even says so right here, this is what you need to activate.
#4
There was an older but actively aggressive woman who kept calling me by mistake, I guess she wrote down the wrong number. For God's sake, she didn't understand that I'm not Ferenc Horváth... she did this on a daily basis. By the way, I'm a woman...
#5
Worked as a bank teller. I was there maybe a month. This lady comes in. Says she wants to withdraw some cash. I said ok no problem. Just insert your bank card and punch in your code.
"I lost it. And need a replacement too."
"That's no problem. I need some I.D. and if you sign this I can verify your signature."
Big sigh.
"No. Im sick of this. Every time I come here its a new teller. This has been my bank for years!"
"I just started here last month and I have never helped you before so I can't circumvent procedure."
"I don't care."
"So you don't want me to verify your identity before I take money out of your account and give it to you?"
I just sat there staring until she gave in.
#6
Not an exact re-enactment but it went something like this.
I was stocking a shelf and a bag of sweets fell on the floor.
Some guy: it fell, pick it up
Me: sure, once my hands are free (I still have merchandise in my hands while it's happening)
Guy: pick it up.
Me: (hands still full) yeah will do asap, no worries
Guy: I said pick it up at once! You lazy piece of s**t
Me: ????
Guy: if I were the store manager I'd fire you right on the spot
Me: I'm sorry sir, but you're not my manager
Guy: I own a store
Me: not this store
Guy: walks off in a huff
Guy's wife who was apparently watching the whole thing: yeah your behaviour is unacceptable and I'd totally get you fired.
#7
Ugh, I was the Karen, unfortunately.
I was uploading documents for an OTP online loan application, and they sent it back for resubmission a second time. I misunderstood them, I thought my bank statement wasn't good enough for them, so I wrote a super arrogant letter saying I also work at a financial company, and it's not true that they won't accept it because it's perfect for income verification, and they should know what they're doing.
Then I realized I sent them their general information sheet instead of the statement. Twice.
#8
Once, a customer wrote in the complaint book because one of the entrances wasn't working, and on the sign that said "Dear Customers!" we wrote "customers" with a lowercase letter... bUt YoU sHoUlD wRiTe It WiTh A cApItAl LeTtEr
#9
I'm pregnant, and lately, I've been sitting down on the bus because I'm struggling with nausea. Today, I got a really humiliating comment from a woman, saying I was rude because I didn't give up my seat. I even apologized and told her I was pregnant and not feeling well; otherwise, I wouldn't have sat down. She said I was lying because it didn't show. I didn't quite understand what she meant by that. Doesn't show = not pregnant?!
#10
Had a Karen threaten to report me to my manager for talking with other customers I was serving.
#11
She didn't get that when printing, we look at the side, not the page, and double-sided printing costs 200 forints, even though it's one sheet. She pulled out all the stops, saying she'd call my boss (who she doesn't even know) and report me to the tax authority (!) etc. In the end, she said she'd write in the complaint book. When I offered it to her, saying "Here you go," she stormed out, offended. It was a magical 20 minutes.
#12
I was still in high school, on the 4-6 tram, the old version with steps. It stops, I stand by the door so people can get off. Our Karen stood right in front of the door, they could barely get past her. When everyone who wanted to get off was off, I hopped in front of her and sat down in the first seat, and she started yelling at me, saying things like "these young people nowadays," etc. (by the way, there was another seat two away)
#13
I worked in a restaurant. The mom and her daughter brought back the food they bought from the buffet, asking for a refund because the cheese was spicy, the nachos were tasteless, and the popcorn was cold. Yeah, but they ate everything. They practically licked the cheese clean. When I said I couldn't give them a refund for that, they got outraged and wrote in the complaint book.
Seriously, if something's [bad], why eat it?
#14
I'm sitting on the number 49 tram at Astoria, just staring into space, when suddenly a woman stops in front of me and asks me to give up my seat. I look around; there are at least four or five empty seats nearby. I ask her if those aren't good enough. She starts freaking out, calling me rude and lazy! She says those seats are facing the wrong way, that I should just accept that she'll get sick, that she can't travel like that, and she went on a rant about how awful the world has become and the lack of respect for the elderly, etc. Fine, I moved, she sat down, and she kept going!! Everyone was staring at me, it was incredibly awkward. It looked like I'd kicked a puppy or something
#15
An older-sounding woman complained to me that the color of our cars is scary and we should change it because it causes her anxiety.
#16
I worked as a cashier in university. A woman came with a package of coffee, I scanned it, and told her the price. She said it couldn't be that much because it was on sale. I said that's what the machine showed, so I called the head cashier, who confirmed the price. The woman didn't believe it, and started giving me a hard time, saying I should know about the sales and prices, that I was doing a bad job, etc. Finally, she went to the head cashier, they gave her some money back, and she came back to me and said she was right. At the end of my shift, I asked what happened with her, and they said they didn't want to listen to her complaining, so they gave her a 10% discount. That was probably less than 300 ft in total, to be honest.
Oh, and she was one of those well-dressed, elegant 50-something women who looked like she'd just come from the hairdresser.
#17
Latest incident: An old lady comes into the pharmacy with receipts to show that she paid 300 Ft once for a medicine, but 850 Ft twice, and wants us to give her the money back because we deliberately overcharged her, as she's entitled to a discount. Obviously, I can see on the receipt that the more expensive one is the regular price, and the other one has an increased subsidy. I tell her that if the doctor didn't prescribe the medicine that way, I can't give her a discount. (Luckily, our Karen is also as deaf as a post, so the whole pharmacy and the other patients could listen to her confusion.) But she insists that we give her the discount, give her the medicine for free, call the boss, etc., she just kept going on. After 5 minutes of confusion, she was willing to give me her and her husband's social security cards so I could check what the problem was. It turned out that they both take the medicine, but only her husband has a specialist's recommendation for it, so it's prescribed for him at a discount, but the old lady doesn't, so it cost her more.
#18
I worked at Michael Kors and a Karen tried to return a watch (that had been sized which makes it final sale) two YEARS after purchase date. She could not handle a "no" and freaked out...continued to freak out and yelled at everyone in the store....employees and other customers lol and at some point called me stupid. I told her she had crossed a line and is no longer welcome in our store and I called mall security and they gladly escorted her out.
#19
I was working in a call center for a health related company. Received a call from a woman complaining that she didn't receive her test results, which she paid to be delivered at home. I checked to see if everything was in order with her delivery and found that the company would not deliver in time for some reason or other. She starts screaming at the phone, saying she won't accept something like this, says she's a lawyer and that she'll sue the company and make me lose my job. Because she needed her test results so badly I eve presented a different solution to her problem, which she immediately denied. I told her that if she didn't want to get her test results through the internet she would have to wait for the delivery to me made with a delay. She didn't accept any help I wanted to give her and just kept on screaming until the end of the call.
I quit that job a few days later and I'll never work with customer service again.
#20
I worked at a Subway in England.
There was this woman who came in every few months with a bunch of kids, saying they ate rotten meatballs at our place and the whole family ended up in the hospital, so they wanted free meatballs 🤣🤣🤣 I loved it.
When we didn't give them free food for the umpteenth time, they went to the other Subway nearby. The problem was, we were in contact every day, the boss was the same, and by the time they got there, the other team already knew the story.
#21
Was at the park with my daughter(she was 3 at the time). Her and a couple other kids started to play together. Then she attempted to use the monkey bars(she’s a very adventurous child). About mid way through, she fell. I didn’t do anything because she’s fallen before and I want her to learn to get back up on her own and not be scared to try again. Anyway, one of the boys was about to get on the monkey bars too, until I heard a woman run toward him screaming to stop. She picked him up and looked at my daughter. Told her it wasn’t “smart” of her to go on the monkey bars if she wasn’t fully ready because then others might get that same idea. That’s when I got up and went to my daughter’s defense. Sternly told the woman to not speak to her that way and it’s no fault of hers that she wasn’t scared to try something new. She took her kid and left.
#22
There was a man who kept calling me by mistake. In fact, once he announced that he could see me through the window from the bush and was watching me. I congratulated him, especially since I was sleeping on the 9th floor.
#23
So I’m currently in the hospital for some heart issues. There’s this very good looking nurse that I can hear bullying the other nurses out in the hall. Mainly the ones that don’t fit that “perfect figure” look.
Anyways back to me. Every time she had to come take my vitals, adjust my leads or touch me in any way, I can see in her eyes that she is just disgusted.
Guess who had to give me a sponge bath this morning? Bwhahahahaha
I hate bullies.
#24
Work at an auto/tire shop. Lady comes in the other day for a flat repair. Tech pulls car in, notices she has a wheel lock which we'll need a special "key" for. Some people keep them in the glovebox, but a lot of them are in with the spare. Key wasn't in glovebox so tech starts looking in the trunk where the spare is. Lady sees this through the window and comes up quickly to my counter demanding to know why my tech is looking through her trunk. I explain the key. She tells me that she's had tire rotations done before and no one ever asked her for a key. I explain that they probably just grabbed it and got it done just like he's doing, but tell her if it makes her feel better I'll go check myself. Note that she and I are both white. The tech in question is Hispanic. I go out to the bay and my tech immediately knows what's up as he saw her staring him down through the window. He fixes it while she watches him suspiciously the whole time, we give her the keys and she leaves. Next day she comes back with another flat and she had to wait longer because the same tech was there and he refused to touch the vehicle (and I don't blame him) so she had to wait for the other tech to finish the vehicle he'd been working on when she came in.
#25
I used to work in a clothing store, the kind where you have to schmooze the customers, tell them how good something looks on them, suggest what would look better, offer this and that, take everything off for them, hold their clothes while they get dressed... I helped a woman for 30 minutes, and I'd only been working there for a day or two, so I was fumbling at the cash register, having trouble activating the discount. In the end, the woman freaked out, saying she didn't have time or patience for this, and wanted to leave. I guess she had time for the half-hour of browsing...
#26
An elderly lady came, I was scanning the products, but the bag ripped with the potatoes. I put them on the scale without the bag, weighed them, then put them in a double bag, thinking I'd be nice. Then she started yelling at me, saying I was robbing her because I weighed more than what it was and that I must have pressed the scale. I put the potatoes on again, and the second time it showed even more (the weight of 2 bags + a few grams). She threw the paper money at me and left
#27
I worked at Kisboltban, a nice customer called my boss to say I put a bad peach in the bag with the others.
#28
I was driving my car in a huge open parking lot for half a minute when our hero came over and started banging on my window.
Saying I should turn off the engine, that it's carcinogenic, poisonous, his family will get lung disease from me. Okay, I let it go, didn't pay attention to it, and drove off. But!
He walked back to a car that was exactly the same brand, a 1.4 diesel, just about 2-3 years newer than mine. It was running, and his wife was standing behind the car. In the "carcinogenic smoke"....
#29
When I worked at a bakery, Karen bought a chocolate cupcake and ate half of it. Karen then asked if she could return her half-eaten chocolate cupcake...not because she didn't like it, but because she wanted to exchange it for half of a vanilla cupcake, "something less decadent."
Like most bakeries, we did not sell cupcakes "by the half." She became offended when I asked if she wanted to purchase a vanilla cupcake.
#30
When I moved into my apartment, I didn't know anyone yet. Karen made me a bunch of copies of keys (front door, back door, trash chute, indoor-outdoor gate, common door) then waved them around, saying it would be 17,500. I looked at her, because I'd never seen her before... "Who's the lady?" She was deeply outraged that I hadn't paid her for something I didn't even ask for.
#31
I was in a store during Covid, already standing in line at the checkout, nicely keeping the one and a half meters distance, when the woman in front of me started hassling me because the toe of my shoe shouldn't be on that line (which, you know, was taped to indicate the one and a half meters), because my foot is there, but my toe is closer to her. At first, I tried not to pay attention to her nonsense, but she bumped my shopping cart into me several times, saying she didn't want to end up on a ventilator because of me, and that I was selfish, and I should get out of line and go home.
#32
The maintenance guy/gardener at my workplace back then was the husband of one of our colleagues who worked in the same office with us. His wife initially tried to present herself as a quiet, withdrawn, deeply religious, cute lady, but aside from proving to be a real pain in the a** and constantly hindering our work, it turned out over about three months that she was a true hypocrite, sneaky, and a scheming troublemaker. She would talk back, gossip, and constantly try to stir things up, an average public sector troublemaker.
My then-boss (who was a really great guy) had enough of this and let her go on a beautiful autumn day. The woman went out to cry in the garden, and I guess she spoke to her husband too because about half an hour later, the guy burst into the office with a RAKE in his hand and started yelling at us, cursing, and threatening. The best part was when he tried to hit my boss and was swinging the rake around, but thank God my boss caught his hand and kicked him out into the hallway after the first shove 😅
I think I'll remember the stunned silence and shock after that incident for the rest of my life.
#33
I used to work at a movie theater where you could call a server to take your order from your seat. I was working the box office on New Years and we were a little busy to say the least. I get through the rush of people only for one of the couples to come back and inform me that some people were in their seats. I called a manager to sort the issue out and didn't think anything else of it. Until Karen marched out of the theater with her son and his friend trailing behind and demanded to buy tickets.
What had happened was instead of waiting in line like everyone else she thought she could bypass everyone and order her tickets from her seat. That's not how we do things here. My manager calmly walked into the booth and stood behind me. Manager tells me to refuse service to Karen for her yelling at me and Karen was not having it!
Karen begins throwing what I can only describe as a tantrum infant of everyone including her son and his friend and was asked to leave. It got to the point where I had to call the police, although she bolted as soon as they were called. I have so many stories from that job.
#34
A customer called and stated she had shopped at my store the weekend prior and made a huge purchase, but didn’t realize the whole store was going to be 20% off the next weekend (Black Friday) and therefore she wanted me to refund 20% of her prior purchase back to her card since she had paid full price and that was unfair. I silently laughed, said no I’m sorry I’m unable to do that, so she got mad and hung up
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