You Think Your Job Sucks? Then Take A Look At These 40 Employee Conversations With Clients From Hell (New Pics)
Everyone who has worked in retail knows that for every good customer, you get 2 horrible ones pulling up in the parking lot. It's a law. Like gravity.
But some people are so rude, so annoying, and so malicious, it's like they're on a quest to make as many workers miserable as possible. And sometimes they succeed.
When someone like that ruins your day, there's only one thing you can do. Vent online. I mean, you can't punch the jerk or anything—you're still in uniform. Pull off a stunt that damages the reputation of the company you're working for and you're out the door.
Bored Panda has compiled a list of these stories to show you that people in retail really deserve our respect; they go through these situations every day. For more similar experiences, check out our older pieces here and here.
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Glory hounding. Trying to do the right thing for the sake of appearances whether it kills anyone or not
In our piece on some of the most ridiculous customer demands ever, we mentioned one study that's relevant here as well.
Turns out, people treat retail workers worse when they're looking for bargains than if they were less price-conscious. The University of British Columbia (UBC) Sauder School of Business paper, which was published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology in 2017, looked at several factors to determine how customers treated employees.
One variable researchers analyzed was the words customers used when speaking to customer service workers.
"When shoppers focus only on paying the lowest price, they become less attuned to understanding the human needs of others, or even recognizing them," Johannes Boegershausen, a UBC Sauder Ph.D. student who co-authored the study, said in a press release.
Researchers also analyzed customers' feelings towards the employees by showing them pictures of a flight attendant in the Ryanair (bargain) uniform, the Lufthansa (luxury) uniform, and a neutral uniform. Customers viewed the Lufthansa and neutral flight attendants as equally human, but they saw the Ryanair flight attendant in a poorer light.
"We simply varied the brand, and found that people ascribed lower capabilities for experiencing emotions and feelings to the Ryanair flight attendant," Boegershausen explained, adding that this subtle dehumanization can take many forms and is not necessarily intentional.
Another experiment had participants communicating in a live chat with a rude customer service representative. They were then offered the chance to punish the employee through a complaint. The researchers found participants were 18 percent more likely to give a rating that would lead to disciplinary actions against the employee when shoppers were adopting a price-conscious mentality than when they were not.
The researchers say the findings could help owners and management of discount stores, as the problem could affect their employee retention—previous research has shown that employees who experience rude and inconsiderate customer behaviors report higher levels of emotional exhaustion, job dissatisfaction, and burnout.
Judging from these posts, retail employees deal with a lot of dumb stuff. At least they're strong enough to laugh from their misery.
Ohhhh I've been there. I really have. There is genetic variation within every race... You can't say "you're not caucasian, because your nose is too big". I don't appreciate idiots who think they know your race better than you
It's so sad... Even if you don't like lgbt, you could at least be civil enough. Surely there is some area between best buddies and worst enemies. I know this because I met people who believe i am going to hell, but they're still my friends :)
This happened to my girlfriend once, when she was running a retreat center. They had weekend retreats, that included all meals. This woman wanted to attend... Woman: "I have allergies for [insert very long list of food allergies]" My GF: "Sorry, with this amount of allergies we can not cater for you during the weekend. Maybe you can bring your own food?" Woman: "Oh, I will eat what you serve. It's only for a weekend, I'll be fine."
I was in line to buy bagels. The guy in front of me was ranting and railing that his one dozen bagels were stone cold and not fresh, and how dare they sell him such a bad product. The clerk decided to replace the bagels and counted them out of the bag. He noted "Sir, there are only 10 bagels here. What happened to the other 2?" The customer sheepishly confessed: "I ate 2 of them because I was hungry."
People love to say they're "allergic" to things they just don't like. It's infuriating, and makes it so much more difficult for people with sensitivities or actual anaphylactic responses to be taken seriously. Perhaps we could just start giving these people a quick, light jab to the face?
See this all the time at restaurants. People complaining about food after they've consumed the majority of it. If there's a problem, you know it on the first bite or sooner. They do it just to get it for free. If I were manager and IF I comped their meal I'd also show them the door and ban them.
Customer: "The food is terrible and the portions are too small." Waiter: "Sorry, sir. We can get you a larger portion of the terrible food."
The stupidity. I don't understand how they ordered how green peppers
Maybe the client is calling from the emergency room, looking like Michelin Man , who knows?
they are having an allergic seizure by talking about it that stupidly
That's fine, but you better answer the door looking like Will Smith in Hitch.
Your misogynistic comments are NOT appreciated. Please cease and desist.
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When I worked in a garden center, a really friendly customer laughed and told me he had just embarrassed himself at another garden center by asking employees there, “Do you have chlamydia?” He said they just stared at him for a moment, so he followed up with, “Do you know where I can find chlamydia?” He then realized that he meant to say “clematis” and immediately turned around and left. I helped him find our clematis, and, as he was leaving, said, “At least you didn’t say you were having trouble finding the clitoris!”
Ok, we'll rename this fee to education-fee and raise it by 50%. The lesson you've learned is that you don't pretend to be rich when you haven't got a dime to spare.
Note: this post originally had 65 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Are any of these real? What is the point of this thread? (I've only read the first few so far...)
Me too, I had to stop because it's difficult to believe these are real, however, when you think about it, people can be pretty stupid, so who knows? (I read about four, and yeah, they just get worse and even more difficult to believe that some people are THAT stupid)
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Customers can suck. My mother received a call from an African American lady, a person she made a cake for. The cake was said to be cut on a Saturday. She received the cake on a Friday. She called again to say the cake was uncooked and that's why they wanted her to keep it in the fridge, now she wants a refund. What actually happened was she ate a slice of the cake. It was totally fine, and then she took a 4 day trip to Vegas without putting it in the fridge as suggested. Since the cake contains butter, when she came back, the cake was collapsing. My mom tried to tell her this, The lady called my mother a fraud and that the "real" restaurant was owned by a white man.
Jeez some people are like Neanderthals when it comes to common sense. I was like 😵🤦♀️ the whole time reading this. 9_9
I can handle naively dumb. I qualify there frequently. But mean, self righteous and stupid? We had a president like that. He’s gone. Let’s keep the likes of him under a large Boulder please.
I work in customer service - these are not fake. I had a man two days ago demand a refund and repurchase using "mall gift cards" tell me I could do it while he was outside my store during a lockdown. He didn't understand that I can't use my register for any reason. My registers are closed: I am a fulfilment centre only: as his order clearly states.
I know, I read a few then stopped cos I already read these on their website. And yes, to those saying they're a bit unbelievable, sorry to say customers really can be that entitled, which is why they started this vent site in the first place!
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It's natural for us to ridicule and scoff at those who do stupid things. But, friends, those people are still human. The more intelligent we are, the more responsibility we have to understand that those who are less intelligent need help, support, and patience, not ridicule. Just because "everyone" laughs at these, doesn't make it right to do so. Bored Panda, I love you but you make fun of people all too often, and that is not only cruel, it sets poor standards for readers.
Not a client but a vivid memory of me and my brother. I asked him to help clean up before our mo got home and he said no. I offered him a piece of gum if he did help clean up he agrees. We clean up and I have music on, I toss a book into the hallway asking him to put it away. No response, I look up. He's not there, he sitting in his room with his laptop. I ask him why he isn't cleaning, he says, "Yeah I did." We go back and forth, I never gave him gum and mom was on my side saying he had to clean up till it was all clean and THEN he would get gum.
It's entertaining yes but I sincerely hope most of these are made-up. I would lose too much faith in humanity otherwise.
Fair point. I am glad that these are probably fake.
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Some of these give me headaches, some of these are obviously fake, and some of these make the customer seem like an idiot when in reality they really aren't.
This entire thread could be titled: "Life In A World With Boomers"
Are any of these real? What is the point of this thread? (I've only read the first few so far...)
Me too, I had to stop because it's difficult to believe these are real, however, when you think about it, people can be pretty stupid, so who knows? (I read about four, and yeah, they just get worse and even more difficult to believe that some people are THAT stupid)
Load More Replies... Customers can suck. My mother received a call from an African American lady, a person she made a cake for. The cake was said to be cut on a Saturday. She received the cake on a Friday. She called again to say the cake was uncooked and that's why they wanted her to keep it in the fridge, now she wants a refund. What actually happened was she ate a slice of the cake. It was totally fine, and then she took a 4 day trip to Vegas without putting it in the fridge as suggested. Since the cake contains butter, when she came back, the cake was collapsing. My mom tried to tell her this, The lady called my mother a fraud and that the "real" restaurant was owned by a white man.
Jeez some people are like Neanderthals when it comes to common sense. I was like 😵🤦♀️ the whole time reading this. 9_9
I can handle naively dumb. I qualify there frequently. But mean, self righteous and stupid? We had a president like that. He’s gone. Let’s keep the likes of him under a large Boulder please.
I work in customer service - these are not fake. I had a man two days ago demand a refund and repurchase using "mall gift cards" tell me I could do it while he was outside my store during a lockdown. He didn't understand that I can't use my register for any reason. My registers are closed: I am a fulfilment centre only: as his order clearly states.
I know, I read a few then stopped cos I already read these on their website. And yes, to those saying they're a bit unbelievable, sorry to say customers really can be that entitled, which is why they started this vent site in the first place!
Load More Replies... It's natural for us to ridicule and scoff at those who do stupid things. But, friends, those people are still human. The more intelligent we are, the more responsibility we have to understand that those who are less intelligent need help, support, and patience, not ridicule. Just because "everyone" laughs at these, doesn't make it right to do so. Bored Panda, I love you but you make fun of people all too often, and that is not only cruel, it sets poor standards for readers.
Not a client but a vivid memory of me and my brother. I asked him to help clean up before our mo got home and he said no. I offered him a piece of gum if he did help clean up he agrees. We clean up and I have music on, I toss a book into the hallway asking him to put it away. No response, I look up. He's not there, he sitting in his room with his laptop. I ask him why he isn't cleaning, he says, "Yeah I did." We go back and forth, I never gave him gum and mom was on my side saying he had to clean up till it was all clean and THEN he would get gum.
It's entertaining yes but I sincerely hope most of these are made-up. I would lose too much faith in humanity otherwise.
Fair point. I am glad that these are probably fake.
Load More Replies... Some of these give me headaches, some of these are obviously fake, and some of these make the customer seem like an idiot when in reality they really aren't.
This entire thread could be titled: "Life In A World With Boomers"
