40 Stupid Customer Complaints These Employees Had To Deal With And Facepalm While Staying Calm
Interview
The cliché that the customer is always right has become so rooted that nightmarish buyers are often getting better treatment than they deserve. Sadly, it's the service industry workers who have to take in their negative emotions, unreasonable expectations and ridiculous demands. And they have truly seen it all.
Reddit user Jing_Yuan_Lu asked fellow members who worked in CS, "What’s the dumbest thing a customer has gone out of their way to complain about?" From buyers who kicked up a fuss when they couldn't find milk in an electronics store or when their Himalayan salt stone lamp "disappeared" after they put it in the dishwasher, thousands of replies started pouring in, each one better than the last.
Some of these comments are truly eye-roll-worthy, so scroll down and check them out yourself! Make sure to upvote your favorite ones and share your experience in the comment section below.
This post may include affiliate links.
Many years back, worked for a store chain which sells all products related and connected to Nature. Among them, the Himalayan salt stone lamp. It's a stone made of salt that encases an electrical bulb. It is supposed to help for regulating ions in your home/office.
A customer called us to complain that their stone disappeared at home, and asked for a refund. As open mind as I can be, I however tried to understand what she meant exactly by "disappeared".
Story is, customer removed the stone from the bulb and put it in her dish-washer to clean it...
I had to be super nice with her to make her realizing that salt dissolves in water.. Specially in hot water.. Without her getting upset and getting offended... It was a lonely moment..
Bored Panda reached out to the author of this post, Jing_Yuan_Lu, to talk a bit more about their experience, difficult clients, and how to deal with them. According to the user, there are plenty of reasons why people have so many stories of customer entitlement and their lack of empathy.
In retail and customer service, "you are dealing with the general public and we have this mentality that 'the customer is always right', the user explained. "Unfortunately, a lot of people use this as an excuse to try to get whatever they want."
There’s also the problem with certain people assuming that working in a retail store or at a restaurant is not a "real" job or that the employees "exist to serve the customer and get a sense of self-importance and entitlement that they might not normally have."
That our parent company said that a portion of every purchase goes towards the So The World May Hear foundation for poor kids hearing aids. He wanted that portion of his purchase refunded to him. I told him that the parent company had every right to do with their profits off every purchase that they wanted and most people were happy that instead of profiting as much they made a donation instead. He didn't care. He was mad that his money was helping brown kids hear. F**k that guy.
Yep, big eye opener to me the first time I heard something similar. I used to manage a branch of national chain of off-licences (Threshers, to any Brits old enough to remember them) that started selling plastic bags instead of giving them away, and the profits all went to a charity called Radio Lollipop, which organised children's hospital radio around the country. Bear in mind that this was before tablets, mobile phones, even the world wide web. Hospital radio was important, especially for long stay patients. Fairly inoffensive, you'd think. Nope, one man did demand to know whether it was going to help black children, and when I pointed out that any child in hospital could listen he declined a bag. I mean really? Struggle home with arms full of glass bottles of drink just to make sure a couple of pennies of your money don't help a poorly black child be entertained?
I hope he dropped a bottle, it rolled into the street, and he followed it, only to be hit by a bus, but didn't die, just suffers eternally.
Load More Replies...
How do people like this exist/sleep at night/think they are good people??!
Oh, they usually belong to some kind of evangelical church and are convinced they'll go to heaven just because they do big dramatic prayers on Sunday morning.
Load More Replies...
This is the sort of person who votes against universal health care in the 'States because "socialism". By which they mean they don't want "those" people getting health care paid through taxes. Of course when they get very sick they crank up the "GoFundMe" because they don't have health insurance, but at least they kept "those" people from getting any health care on their dime!
Surr dude, no universal health care sucks ask any canadian who comes across the border to get surgery, equipment an appointment etc.
Load More Replies... 
OK, re-wire the hearing aid so that each time he has a racist, sexist, homophobic thought it tasers him in the ear......I can design that.
Although, he is a complete asshole, if you want, your donation to really reach those in need, search for local charities, where you have instant feedback, what are they doing with your money, or food-items, what you donate. And, I repeat, the guy was a total asshole.
I'd send him a response that the company decided to send ALL of his money as a donation!
Oh, I've dealt with his kind before. VERY toxic. Made me literally sick to be around.
Im amazed to see that so many people lose great opportunity to shut up!!!
Wow. You know what's worse? A company claiming to donate 15% of all October sales to the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer research. I was the bookkeeper for almost 5years and not ONCE did we send them a check (looking at you Rosanna).
I hope one day this racist piece of isht receives an organ or blood transfusion from a BIPOC.
Shitpile asshole fucktard psycho curse on the multiverse rotten garbage unnatural disaster tragic accident putrid bitchweed toxic monster cuntpie impractical joke waste of atoms!!!
I will refrain what's REALLY in my head regarding this guy, just know that BP would have to do more than just censor it if I posted it.
The best thing that could happen to that f*****g asshole is losing his vocal cords somehow—-and in a way that has no gadget that can restore his voice or talk for him. With him totally mute, the world will be a much more pleasant place for the rest of us, especially every single one of the brown kids getting hearing aids from this company.
"Thank you for self-identifying as a totally inhumane person of no particular value."
wtf f**k thats just racism to the extent of being the biggest asshole
Someone has clearly never worked in customer service...
Load More Replies...
Besides, there's always the possibility that customers are having a bad day and are looking for someone to take it out on. Jing_Yuan_Lu mentioned that, typically, they enjoy helping people but every so often, the interactions can become a bit overwhelming: "Sometimes customers can get to be too much and I don’t think that they realize that we are people too, with thoughts and feelings and emotions."
"I tend to try very hard to help customers out but sometimes they just try to take advantage of that. They get so wrapped up in how they feel about the product/service and expect us, as the representative of whatever brand, to be able to fix everything right away," the user said. "When we can't, it’s taken as a personal affront rather than an objective policy or procedure."
A guy asked if I was the manager.
“Can I help you with something?”
Angrily: “Yeah, three Saturdays in a row now I come down here at 4:30, and every f**kin’ Saturday you close at 4.”
“Uh...yeah. We close at 4.”
“F**k you.”
At least he left then. The worst ones don’t leave. They just keep going.
When it comes to dealing with rude customers, it can get quite tricky since often you don't know how to react to their demands and all the emotions that come with them. The user has a few tips to share and mentions that everything depends on the situation. "Sometimes you just kind of have to say okay and nod your head and say 'I understand.' In these cases, the customers really just want to vent and feel heard," Jing_Yuan_Lu said.
However, if you sense even the tiniest bit of violence or aggression, involve your manager. "If you are the supervisor in the situation, you have to be firm (which is hard sometimes) and say something along the lines of 'I would like to help you but I am unable to do so until you stop yelling.'", the user advised.
"It's always difficult though because you never know how they're going to react. Having a good relationship with your supervisor or knowing that your supervisor will back you up in those situations is probably the best way to help handle anxiety."
Worked in an electronics store to put myself through college. I worked in the computer department but was sitting at the loss prevention desk upfront to cover while the LP supervisor took a quick lunch break. An old lady comes in, asks where the dairy section is, and help finding the milk. I told her, kindly, that we weren't in a grocery store. She looks confused and leaves. A couple of minutes later her (presumably) son walks in and starts chewing my a** because I wouldn't help her find the milk. When he was done b**ching, I slowly waved my arm across the store and asked him which one of those aisles looks like they might have groceries in them. He stares for a good few seconds and then starts b**ching me out saying that I'm an a**hole, and he wants to see a manager.
So I paged the loss prevention supervisor up to the front. The LP supervisor invited the guy to never come back to the store.
That dude would be outsmarted by bread... Used to work in a book store in a shopping center, the amount of people coming in and wanting to have their remote control fixed or buy clothes, croissants, a pillow, whatever was mind-blowing. Also funny, the amount of people trying to figure out if we sold some sex magazines (we did!) without asking directly... Dude comes up to you looking embarrassed, just point him to the section high up on the shelf in the back and then keep an eye on him in case he is also too embarrassed to pay at the counter for it .. 😂😂😂
It’s always “x has it cheaper”
Go there then. You are hurting literally nobody’s feelings.
Happened to me when someone wanted software but it was cheaper elsewhere. Person bought it somewhere else and called me because they couldn't get it installed properly and the other company wouldn't help them. I said "that was included in my price, now it's 40 euro's an hour" goodbye!
The author of the post would like to remind you, dear Pandas, that not all customers are terrible, some of them are actually really great: "We tend to just get heated and riled up by the awful ones and we can all commiserate having dealt with certain types of customers but it's not all bad."
"I still really like helping people. I think if everyone had to work in the retail or food industry for even a few days at least once in their life, people might be more considerate and empathetic when they decide to go out shopping or dine out."
Worked at a coffee shop that wasn’t Starbucks. Frappuccino is a trademarked word for Starbucks blended coffee drinks. When customers would ask for frappuccinos we would just put in the order as what we called it and let them know the name for it at our store so they would recognize it when the barista called it out. Had a woman get so upset she was screaming, all over the word frappuccino. According to her, it was the traditional Italian word for a blended coffee drink (it’s not) and we obviously thought she was stupid to tell her otherwise and how dare we insult her like that. Tried to calm her down and just say we called them something else but it would be a similar drink...didn’t even correct her about the rest. She continued to flip out and literally looked up and called our corporate customer service line in front of us, holding up the rest of the line, to have them tell her the same thing. She then started screeching to demand to talk to the president of our company and started knocking stuff off our countertop. That’s when we called security to escort her the f**k out of our store.
I used to work at a pizza place with a small dining room. So many people would complain that their pizza was too hot to eat. Of course, it is. It just came out of the oven. This is why you chose to drive your dumba** here to eat instead of having it delivered. Because it's fresh. Fresh pizza is hot, ffs.
omg....i had sm1 ask me to heat up their ice cream just enough to not hurt their teeth.....people are weird
We also reached out to Alexander Kjerulf, author of The Chief Happiness Officer Blog and founder of Woohoo Inc., a training company specializing in happiness in the workplace. When it comes to thinking about ignorant customer demands and complaints, he said that it’s partly because some customers have been getting worse.
"Especially in America, there's been an increase in entitled belligerent jerks who think they can get whatever they want if they yell loudly enough about it." Kjerulf provides another reason: "It's also because employees finally have online forums where they can share their stories and support each other."
Not sure if this is really a complaint but more sheer stupidity...
At my first IT job, someone was returning a computer monitor and insisted on speaking with someone from the IT department rather than just leaving it in the cage as they were asked.
So I came down to talk with them to see what was going on and she was very adamant that I "double-check" the monitor to make sure all of her information was off of it...
This lady literally thought all of her icons, files, and folders were saved directly to the monitor itself and wouldn't leave unless I powered it on to show her.
I didn't even bother trying to explain it to her, she seemed extremely rude and it wouldn't even be worth my time. So I literally plugged it into the wall, didn't connect it to anything, and powered it on.
"See, it's completely blank. Your good to go"
She smiled, said thank you, and left.
At 18 I was working at a gas station. It was a busy day, I was the only one there and had a huge line. A woman comes in and skips the line and throws a $20 at me saying "$5 on pump 2." Since she acted like that I chose to make her wait to have money put on the pump. When it would have been getting turned in line I put the $20 onto the pump since she didn't wait around. About 5 minutes later she comes back complaining that the entire $20 was pumped.
I told her straight out that it's not my responsibility to keep track of her money, and I placed it on the pump for a record of the funds. If she hadn't walked away from the pump or had waited in line she could have completed her transaction like everyone else. She then tried calling the cops because I refused to give her a refund. When the cop got there and got the story he looked at her and told her to grow up and be responsible for herself.
If customers are being completely irrational or throwing insults at the employees, it’s the boss’ job to deal with them. And one advice Kjerulf gives to the supervisors: kick those customers out. "They're bad for business, they cost a lot of time and money and they will never be happy no matter what you give them," he explained. "In fact, if you give in this time, they'll be back soon with even stupider demands."
We have a drink special in the morning. Drinks are a dollar until 11:00 am.
A lady called to complain that her daughter's drink only cost a dollar. When we explained to her about the special, she said her daughter should have been charged full price regardless.
I once had a customer come in and the following ensued:
Customer: “Hi I am here to return this power washer”
Me: “Sure you have your receipt?”
C: “Well I bought it “As Is” two years ago. I used it for the first time last year and it didn’t work. I saw it this weekend cleaning the garage. I’d like my money back”
M: “Ah yeah we can’t do that. This product is 3 years old and was sold as is”.
C: angry tone “Oh yeah buddy? What kind of f**king store is this then? Let me talk to a manager.”
Manger proceeds to give them store credit for the amount of a brand new one. I put my two weeks in shortly after.
Often, unreasonable buyers can really take a toll on your emotional and physical well-being. Even in the most stressful situations, it's the worker who tries to remain calm and has to take in all the negative reactions. "We know for a fact that having to fake emotions is stressful. And on top of that, it feels deeply unfair to see the worst customers get the most benefits through the brattiest behavior," the author and speaker told Bored Panda.
The store manager was walking by my register as a customer was walking up to check out. My manager said I had to take my break in 15 minutes to which I said, "Okay" The customer complained that it was unprofessional for the manager to speak to me and that I was unprofessional to respond when a customer was approaching the register because I needed to be focused on her and greet her appropriately.
That I was using a cash register instead of “using my brain” to calculate the money
edit: someone complained I was Asian and I shouldn't be working here because of that
Alexander Kjerulf leaves us with a couple of thoughts: "It's about time that companies realize that coddling the worst customers is a terrible idea. It costs time and money AND it frustrates your employees. Stop doing it."
I work for a popular roadside assistance company and had a guy call in wanting to get roadside assistance for his daughter who was stranded. His daughter was not on his membership and there was no room to add her because he already had his wife added. So I suggested he remove his wife for now and add his daughter so she can get roadside assistance and then switch them back afterward. Apparently, this was the most outrageous suggestion. He went and told my supervisor that I was "making him choose his daughter over his wife and no father should have to make that kind of decision" lol.
I worked at a shoe store and I had a guy come in and ask where he could get some books packed up for free and shipped. I said I wasn't sure and that made staples would do it because they have an ups area there. He said he already tried there and then he called me a fat a** (I wasn't fat. Just very pregnant) because I couldn't be bothered to get off the ladder to help him.
I was like dude. I sell shoes. I don't know what you want from me.
He storms out of the store and like 3 years later I'm still super confused about the whole situation.
I work at a bakery and we sell pigs in a blanket for breakfast. A few years ago one of the kinds was a spicy blueberry sausage (it had blueberries inside the sausage link). One day some lady got one (knowing it was a blueberry sausage link), bit into it, and noticed some dark looking things inside the sausage link (surprise, it was a blueberry) but for whatever reason, she thought that a flake of black gunk from inside our oven somehow managed to get inside the sausage link (even after said link was rolled in a croissant). She called the health department on us and tried to get $50+ of free food.
My boss asked her what she ordered, he brought out a link of the sausage to show her and she immediately shut up and left the store. Unfortunately, we stopped selling that kind because "if one idiot is gonna think that then others will", which is sad because they were pretty good.
I work in a library and I had a woman that was livid that we had a book of short stories in our Young Adult section about LGBT issues among teens. She was like "this is disgusting, this is giving their young minds a false impression of how normal people should live, this is awful". My boss is a lesbian and was the one listening to her rant.
I worked for a cable company and I had people call in and complain because they got free unlimited calling to Mexico with our phone plans.
"Well, I don't want to call Mexico!"
"Then may I suggest that you simply don't do that? It's not mandatory."
"Oh, no problem. We can change it for Outer Mongolia. I would imagine that you must have many friends in Ulaanbataar."
I’m not sure if it counts as complaining but a woman once called to know the status of her case and confirm when she would be getting her money, pretty normal stuff until I said: “Yeah let me help-“ and she cut me off and said: “I don’t want to hear you talking. Don’t say a word to me, I don’t want to hear you, just do the damn thing.”
I was like “ma’am this is a call center, I can’t help you without speaking to you” and she goes: “girl bye” and hung up.
A lady ordered a sandwich and then canceled her order because she thought it took too long. Someone else from the party she was having called and made an order. We made it and delivered it without issue. The same lady calls back APPALLED that we would allow one of her guests to order from us after she made it very clear she wanted to cancel her own order. It's not my business if other people at her party want to order food and I had no idea it was her party anyway. I told her it was very common for multiple deliveries to go to the same house party, why wouldn't we make them sandwiches? She then told me I would obviously never amount to anything in life and she was going to make a formal complaint against me. It was such a weird complaint. It was probably 10 years ago but it still bugs me sometimes.
I'm a bartender and just last night a came in and I knew something would happen.. they are sitting at their TABLE and ask for some margaritas. I go make them and bring them out to the table. He proceeds to tell me "here's a TAFFER tip; if someone orders a cocktail you should make it in front of them" I replied, well if you were sitting at THE BAR I could do that... Do you want me to bring the blender out to your table and make your frozen drink for you there!? WTH one of the dumbest things I'ver ever heard.
I never understood why people would buy spicy food and then say it's too spicy.
Like, when I worked in the deli, it was no problem to serve a sample slice, but no, they'd order a pound of pepper jack or spicy chicken, then come back the next day wanting a refund with like half the package gone.
My manager always told them no. It was glorious to witness. People never expect to be told NO at retail.
I’m not exactly in customer service, but I once had a customer call me and demand I sent a different electrician to his house because the one I sent “looked shady”, after a bit of back and forth I figured out the issue was actually that he was Cuban.
I worked in a restaurant for years. People would always ask for broccoli as a side
“I’m sorry, we don’t have broccoli here”
Yes, you do! I get it every time I come. You’re just new
“I’ve been here 6 years ma’am, and at no point have we had broccoli “
You don’t get it, I know Mr. (Name of Restaurant). My husband plays golf with him.
“(Name of Restaurant) is a slang Italian word meaning ‘lively’. There is no Mr. (Name of Restaurant)”
People were always asking for broccoli as a side? Why wouldn't the restaurant start selling it????
Had a woman call me racist because I asked her if she needed utensils for her take-out.
For whatever the f**k reason, people tend to drop 50 IQ points and become chaotic evil when making purchases. This one woman will forever live in embarrassment. When I was 17 and lived in a place that had frequent and hard rain. This b**ch comes in and complains that... the parking lot... is wet. It was currently pouring.
I had a guy call in and complain that the CEO's name sounded Jewish. I merely replied that I do not have an opinion, and I hung up.
Ah I got a great one. So I have a small retail business with my mom that's strictly brick and mortar. Normally our return policy is within 21 days for store credit. During the holidays we extend it so that anything purchased between Black Friday and December 24th can be returned up until the end of January.
A few years ago this guy came in around the end of April trying to return Christmas gifts on DRY CLEANING HANGERS. When I told him I wouldn't take it back, even for a store credit, he blew up on me and cussed me out in front of other customers in the store. He then proceeded to leave a 1-star review and bash the store saying how he's "never been treated like that before at a store". How tf do people like that exist?
Unfortunately big department stores have allowed this sort of behaviour, and small businesses cop the flak for, quite rightly, not allowing people to do crap like this.
When I was at DirecTV I received a call from a man whose sole purpose was to complain that this is the United States and there should not be a Spanish option in the automated call tree.
I had to remake Marilyn's caramel macchiato 3 times because the caramel "kept sinking into the foam". CONSULT YOUR PHYSICS TEXTBOOK, MARILYN. IT IS CALLED GRAVITY.
Starbucks makes their employees remake the drink over and over until the customer is happy. Worst place to work!
Somebody called head office to complain that they heard a Michael Jackson song in our store.
I was a lifeguard for 2-3 years in high school. Every day I would get people complaining about the pool temperature as if I could do something about it. “Ma’am, the pool does not have a heating system, I’m sorry. Larger bodies of water hold their temperature longer, which is why it’s so cold”. And they would complain ALL. THE. TIME. “This is your job, you need to fix it!” I’m sorry lady. This isn’t the 4 Seasons Hotel, this is a f**king community pool. It was never young people, always the old ladies who would come in at 5 am to do water aerobics.
We sold bonsai trees which can be kinda tricky to keep so you got a care leaflet with them. The leaflet said to water the tree you should immerse the pot entirely until soaked and then allow it to drain completely (disclaimer: I have no idea if this advice is actually correct). Anyway, the customer comes in with a dead tree in a pot with zero soil left, ranting how the advice was terrible and demanding a refund.
Turns out rather than fill a bowl and immerse the pot she'd run a bath and immersed the whole damn tree, right to the tips of its poor little branches. Soil dispersed, the tree died.
Seriously at what point during this process are you not thinking "I have to run a damn bath every time? I know bonsai are high maintenance but this seems extreme"
I guess this wasn’t really an official complaint but it was pretty dumb. I was running the register at the grocery store and this couple got in my line. I could tell they were together because they were talking and interacting with one another. However, they had two different baskets and left a small gap between their respective items without placing them down the divider. So I wasn’t sure if they were paying for everything altogether or separately. I say the generic things, hi, how are you, did you find everything okay, etc and then politely asked, “together or separate?” The lady gave me a death glare and said “why on earth does it matter?” I gave her a blank stare and slowly said “so.... that I know whether to keep ringing you up...or cash out the order....” All I can think is they must have been having some relationship problems because she jumped right to that, haha.
I owned a computer biz for a few years. The one that always got me was this chick that brought in her computer slammed with viruses, spyware, etc. so bad it wouldn’t boot. Got it all fixed up and she picked it up. Brought it back the very next day with the same thing. I asked what sites she visited since she picked it up and she, completely unashamed, said “oh my bf and I are on porn all the time”. Um, ok. I told her I would go ahead and clean it again for free but if she visited those sites I couldn’t do it again without charging. Picked it up the same day. Back in the next. Me: “did you get back on the porn sites” Her: “of course”. I could not make her understand why this kept happening and would continue happening so I just asked her to go somewhere else.
Had a lady call me racist because she came in to buy glasses, and I asked if she has been to our store before or if she has her prescription with her. She even told her young daughter to watch out for people like me... Uhhh...
just hand her a dictionary and reading glasses.......let her know the meaning of the word racist
Restaurant with open kitchen, so customers and us cooks can converse freely. The customer wanted crispy fish. Made it really crispy. Not done enough. I cooked a new one, literally like 15 minutes on the fryers; I cooked three or four other orders around it. She then complained that it was too hot and she didn't want it.
Open kitchen, had a nice conversation with a pleasant woman who was ‘allergic’ to salt (you’ll literally die without it). After explaining some of our prep work and menu items, she settled on the cheese omelette, and thanked me on the way out for my time and consideration. I’ll leave it up to you to look up the sodium content of cheese…
In a hotel, they complained that someone else had slept on their mattress so we had to buy a new one. And then 4 more new ones for the other hotels they were going to stay at.
I was working at OfficeMax during back-to-school season. This woman comes up to my register with a few things and I start scanning it in. She notices that one item rang up less than she was expecting. She actually got an attitude with me because we hadn't had a chance to print new shelf tags for that aisle yet. I told her I would wait if she wanted to get more. She declined and continued complaining to me about it. I said, "well I can override the price to what the shelf label said." I realize now that I was being a bit of a b**ch by saying that. She politely declined that as well, paid with her card, and rushed out the door with her things.
Obligatory "I don't work in customer service" but my dad is a f**king nightmare about complaining for stupid reasons, usually in restaurants. The other day he sent me this message that his mate has sent to IKEA customer service, complaining about how there are TOO MANY DIGITS IN THE CUSTOMER NUMBER. They seemed so proud of themselves for it but all I can think about is how it's a waste of everyone's time and such a stupid thing to get worked up about.
"Hello, I recently purchased a lot of kitchen stuff and decided it would be a good idea joined IKEA Family beforehand. The membership number issued is 19 numbers long. I would like to point out that the estimated world population is around 7.8 billion people. Written in longhand, 7.8 billion is 10 numbers in length. [...] So my question is, why do you need to create a membership number which is approximately: Eight hundred and two million, five hundred and seventy-six thousand, five hundred and seventy-six times more than the whole world population?"
Do they think they just started with 1 and go all the way up to however many clients they have? lol
Classic one from my younger days
Was working escalation support at a regional ISP (Basically the people who if you demand a supervisor you'd get sent to escalation)
Call notes from previous agent, elderly person very angry issues with their bill and can't find the account.
Within thirty seconds of talking with them I determined that their issue was not with phone or internet (What we sold) but with their cell phone (Which we don't sell or provide) a hardware issue with their cell phone. They can't pull an account because they don't have service with us.
It took me ten minutes to get this old man off the phone and only because he gave me a great line to respond to.
Old Man: What do I even pay you people for if you won't help me with this?
Cptadder: Sir you don't pay us I'm pretty sure because we don't provide service for or sell any cell phones. We do home phone and internet only at (Regional ISP) we don't provide service for cell phones.
Old Man: Angry noises threats of BBB complaints
Cptadder: I understand your frustration sir but if Papa John's gets your order wrong it won't help you to complain to the Taco Bell manager
Old Man: Dawning comprehension, mumbled comment about I should be nicer and hang up sound
I worked at a subway and a guy reached into the tip jar to grab money to pay for chips... When I told him no those tips are for my employees he threw the chips at me and squared up like he wanted to fight.
Working pizza delivery. One time a guy called in, threatened to kick all our a**es and more because we put sticks in his pizza. I told him I would be happy to come to pick it up and examine it (we got a LOT of fraud calls, people trying to get free s**t every day). When I got there his tone changed (I am 6 foot, 270 pounds) and he showed me the "sticks" in his pizza. Do you know what they were? He ordered thin crust, and some of the crust broke off onto the pizza. He was nice as can be after I pointed that out.
I had one lady call the store to complain that her pizza was cold and she wanted a new one. Now, her house was maybe a half-mile from the store and I took her pizza first on my run and it was the last one out. So when I delivered it, it was maybe 5 minutes out of the oven and probably still the temperature of molten lava. My manager tells me to take her a new one, but to get the old one which of course she doesn’t have because she f**king well ate it.
“I can’t give you this one unless you give me the other one.”
“We threw it out it’s in the trash.”
“Show me”
“I’m not letting you look in our trash”
“Then I’m not giving you this pizza.”
“ I’m calling your manager.”
“Go ahead, but I have other pizzas to deliver.”
I left and did my thing.
Manager tells me that she’s getting a refund and tells me to take it back to her. So I do. After delivering my other pizzas to actual customers. I also tell her she’s on the banned customer list.
She called the store and complained again because I didn’t refund her $2 tip. Manager tells me to give her back the $2. Even offers to just give me $2 just to make this lady go away.
I go to the cash register and buy 4 rolls of pennies and unwrap them. When I pull up to her house, she comes out on the front porch and has one hand on her hip and the other one out for me to hand her $2. She was not expecting change and definitely not 200 pennies dumped onto her hand. Of course, her hand was too small to hold that much change anyway and they immediately fell to the ground and went everywhere. I just got in my car and went back to work and told my manager what I’d done. He wanted to be mad at me because he thought he was supposed to be mad, but he just started laughing. He did put her on the banned customer list.
I worked at a campus coffee shop in college. It had multiple locations, and my position was to fill in for people who didn't show up.
One morning I ended up having to open a location I had never been to by myself. A woman came in to buy her regular coffee and yelled at me because I had put the milk and sugar out on the wrong side of the room.
Had a customer complain that my voice didn’t sound excited enough when they called. 400 phone calls a day all asking the same damned question and they want over the top excitement. God I hate idiots .
Working in a coffee shop, I had an incredible amount of people ask why the toilet door was locked. Had to explain to them that it generally means someone’s in there.
The best is always people who aren’t using your services or paying you for anything but demanding your time and attention.
Work at a vets office part-time and every shift someone calls in asking about some random medication or another vet clinic when we are insanely busy (we see roughly 40-50 pets a day) and demand that I look up phone numbers and pricing for other clinics, people act like smartphones and the internet aren’t at their disposal.
The best was one time this lady called because she found a wild rabbit and wanted us to give it an exam. Explain to her to put the rabbit back outside as it could have a number of diseases and it’s not safe to keep a wild animal in your house, also we don’t see anything other than cats and dogs. She then demanded I look up a vet's office that did take wild animals, told her “ma’am, we are very busy and this is a personal issue and you aren’t a client. I will not do research for you. Have a great day.” She then left us a one-star yelp review and tried to write a complaint to the better business bureau.
At my first job at a big retailer, some old guy angrily returned a can of cashews at the customer service desk because the box stated they were full cashews but some of them were broken.
A few years ago I was a cashier at a retail store. A pregnant woman came up and said that she was trying to leave but couldn't get into her car because a truck was parked very close to her. I paged the driver of the truck up to the cash desk.
The truck driver, a middle-aged woman, came up, and she and the pregnant woman got into an argument because truck lady didn't want to leave her shopping to go move her truck. I didn't get involved and continued to cash out customers, and eventually, truck lady moved her car so the pregnant lady could go home.
Later as I was cashing out the truck lady, she asked to speak to my manager. Afterward, my manager told me that she was complaining about me because at some point she said it looked like I nodded, so I was clearly siding with the pregnant lady. My manager said "I told her I'd talk to you about it, so here I am talking to you about it" and just left it at that.
I once got a call from a customer who had dined in the week before and wanted a refund because she thought it was too expensive.
Costco ex employee here. One guy came back with 1 orange and ask to get his money back. Back then we sold oranges in a boxe of 24.
Another came back with a little shrub because it was growing too fast.
One lady wanted us to find her the same lunch bag that she had bought 15 !!! years ago. "Maybe they could make me one?"
I met so many crazy people that when I first started I thought I was in some sort of candid camera show.
I now volunteer at a cat shelter and recently a woman called us and ask that we "loan" her a cat during Covid. She also had no money to pay for cat litter and food. WTF!
there's a rescue by us that pairs up older people with senior cats/dogs and the rescue handles all the expenses through their charity. It's a lovely program.
That we asked them to pay us. They were past due almost $200k for over a year, and when we finally sent our lawyer at them they paid the next day and delivered us a letter saying that they were going to tell everyone how we mistreated them.
I mean, they didn't say our invoices were invalid or the product was bad or broken. They just said they thought we were rude for asking them to pay us that way. And before the lawyer I had been calling them weekly.
So they didn't complain but were trying to return.
They came in an dropped 2 gallons of tea on the counter asking for a refund. I asked if there was any particular reason for their return. Dude seriously says, "ya just saw that they expired". Me thinking maybe he meant if he bought them expired asked if he has a receipt, he didn't say he bought them a long time ago.
This dude actually thought that when your food expires you can just get a refund. Customer service really spoils idiots, man.
I worked at Subway in high school and a customer demanded to speak to a manager because her $5 footlong was not exactly $5. I tried explaining to her that sales tax is normal and $5.35 is the price of anything after tax that is $5 she continued to yell and cuss at me. She even specifically stated she does not have to pay a tax. It was at that moment I accepted that there was no being rational with some people...
When I worked in a second-hand charity shop in the UK, there was this old Russian couple who used to come in about once a week, just before closing and waste everyone's time browsing and grumbling about prices and rarely ever buying anything. One evening, the old woman actually bought something but had a massive rant about how it was naked profiteering that we (a reputable charity) were asking 5p for a plastic bag (as per the law, intended to discourage people from using them for environmental reasons).
The kicker: she was buying a small handbag. You don't even need a carrier bag for it, it's got handles.
I've had people where I work want bags for small things like nail scissors they could put in their purse or their pocket.
I had one lady complain that her pancakes were cold. And granted that is a valid excuses for a complaint, however she ate them last and asked gave the waitress a bad attitude about it. She then asked to talk to a manager. Sadly for her, her waitress was the person in charge that night. She was not having that. Now we remake pancakes all the time and we're more then willing to redo them but she needed to make a seen. She took her pancakes up to the host stand waved them at everyone and said " THIS IS COLD"! She then threw the pancake causing a pancake explosion her and the party of 5 then walked out without paying. People never cease to amaze me
Former bookstore employee here.
The one that stands out most in my mind is the guy who complained that we weren't stocking a particular book anymore. For context, it was a $90 art book; we had never sold any copies of it, so we had returned our one copy to the publisher to avoid eating the loss.
I explained this to the gentleman and offered to order a copy for him if he wanted. He explained that he didn't want to buy it, he just liked coming in to look at it sometimes.
I did my best to explain that we were a retail establishment and couldn't afford to keep expensive books on our shelves if no one was buying them. He then wrote a letter to the owners complaining about me.
Not quite customer service, but I work for a contractor and take care of any warranty work that may arise (fix leaks, replace blown off shingles, loose siding, etc.) I am amazed at the leaps in logic people make trying to get us to fix/replace things around their house that have nothing to do with the work we have done there, my favorite was someone wanted us to replace their washing machine because it broke after we put a new roof on their house.
Working in sales I had to deal with stupid people on a very regular basis. The worst was a very well-off middle easterner who owned several fast-food restaurants in our area. 7 of them were all from the same chain... he came in twice a week for 13 months and complain that we were lying about the prices we had and that we were a**holes for ripping people off on their new cars.... month 13 he came in saying he could get a new 2017 Corolla (I knew the sales guys at the local Toyota dealership well, and we all got along!) for less than our 2018 Civic Touring... Yeah no s**t! It was a base model! They were cheaper! I walked into my manager's office closed the door and asked if I could have the use of my one “get the f**k out, and don’t come back” for the quarter. He looked at me and said your call. I walked out told the guy that he could either buy a car from me or get the f**k out and not come back because I was done being jerked around and having my time wasted when I could be dealing with real qualified customers... he bought a car from me that afternoon. 3 years later he still has it.
Work in produce delivery. Had a lady complain that the pit in her avocado was too big. She followed up by asking if she could come in and pick her own items before we delivered them and I kindly reminded her that grocery stores exist.
I had a lady demand to speak to a manager because she showed up at our store at 5:00 p.m., saw the sign that said we closed at 4:30 p.m., and called Tech Support to demand we change the store hours. I explained the store hours are on her bill, the website, the store, our phone service's message and that while I apologize for her inconvenience, yelling and screaming at us over the phone was not terribly kind.
I work for a bank and legit had a call the other day where the lady complained that we refunded her too much money from a dispute she'd filed with us and sent her a replacement card too quickly. We refunded the full amount she requested and she asked us to overnight the new card to her.
We couldn’t get a 5$ coupon to scan so we just took it off in another way and she ranted and raved because she didn’t like how it was going to look on the receipt. Legit yelled at one of my cashiers for this. I’ll never understand
Once had a customer complain about the lack of windows and natural sunlight in that part of the store. We were in the basement.
Our cafe got a bad review because we have no sea view. “Sorry, we will move the house next time”
I used to drive a taxi and I knew the city like the back of my hand. More trips = more money, but every drunk thinks we rip them off with longer trips. I cannot count the number of times people would tell me to take the freeway instead of the direct route because they "didn't want to get ripped off"... The freeway takes just as long because it's 3 a.m., not rush hour so the direct route means clear streets and easy lights...and sure you can drive faster on the freeway, but that means the trips now cover 120% of the distance and will mean your trip costs more, but you're the customer...
I had a LYFT driver try to take me 20 miles away from the direction of where I needed to be. I stopped her before she had a chance to take the route she wanted to. When she demanded to know why I made her go a different way, I said give me 10 minutes and I will show you. 10 minutes later we drove past the bridge we would have spent hours on in bumper to bumper traffic, I pointed, said “see that?”. She said “oh” then tried to drive the long way round from where we were. I let it slide because I wanted to get to my destination ASAP for an appointment. I called LYFT and left a not so good review. They apologized, said it wasn’t the first time.
I work for a relatively small floral company, in a rather wealthy area of Illinois. We have a regular customer who has us pick up her orchids and rearrange them to "look better". We do this every 2 weeks. Without error. Without complaint.
Well, she calls so i assume she wants us to pick up her plants and she GOES OFF about us moving her +300lbs cement decoration in her front yard.
Double checked with dispatch, and the driver we sent over there to deliver her orchids is 83 years old. WHAT?!
The long-winded conversation later, we send 4 drivers to move this damn thing NOT EVEN A FOOT.
A week later she calls again, this time saying it was her lawn service that moved the decoration and not us. Not a sorry, not a "thanks for helping anyways".
It was, "My lawn service moved the decoration and not you. Just don't move my stuff, Just the plants."
I was a manager at White Castle. The one that sticks out is someone got 19 chicken rings instead of 20. Regardless of whether or not it was true I usually don't care and just replace it but the way he told me made me so angry....
"White Castle how can I help you?"
"Yes, what size do your chicken rings come in?"
"They come in 6, 9, or 20."
"Well, how come I got 19?"
What am I supposed to say to that? Just ask me to give you a replacement or something don't be a jacka**.
the lemon ice cream I made tasted too much like lemon. sigh
Some guy told me it was in "bad taste" for our store to be so empty. Even though it's a pop-up shop and the season is about to end. Like, where were you at the beginning of the season?
I had a family call me racist because I sat them at the last remaining table in the restaurant which happened to be in the back corner on a busy Sunday morning
I’ve worked at a few call centers, and only at one could I see the customer reviews. I was already on the phone with this lady for a long time, and she was having trouble using a coupon. She had to have a minimum of $20 in her cart to use it, but she wanted to use it without buying $20 worth of stuff first. Baffling.
She was being a huge b**ch already, but I was keeping my cool until I misheard what she said and said “sorry, could you repeat that?” She then starts railing on me for “not speaking English” (I was born and raised in central Florida and English is my native tongue), so at this point I sort of half jokingly offer to switch to Spanish if she’d be more comfortable with that, since I speak decent Spanish too.
It ended up with my supervisor being the one to calm her down and hang up, and her review said something like: “reps don’t speak English! Disgusting!!!!!”. The worst part is it still counted against me even though it was a flagrantly bulls**t review and this c**t still ended up getting her way in the end.
I ended up quitting on the spot a short time later, and I was already considering throwing myself in front of a bus that stopped at the bus stop outside the building just to avoid another day of working there. Don’t work at call centers kids (if you can help it).
Used to work in the H&M UK call centre. For such a small island there are so many accents that it's hard to believe they were all speaking english when they spoke fast. East London accent was one of the most difficult to understand therefore they'd go off on me when I asked them to repeat.
Not entirely stupid, but I was working retail at a pet store. A customer had a suggestion for the business. To be fair, It actually was a great idea but outside of the scope of the store. I told her that and that she should pursue it herself. The conversation basically devolved into a screaming match of, "f**k you, why don't YOU implement this million-dollar idea. More funny than anything.
Other than that, people who don't properly train their dogs because they feel that it is mean.
Or people who totally underestimate what they need to take care of a fish, then complain that their fish always dies.
She tried to file a complaint because the cashier gave her a 5 cents coin-back instead of 4 cents.
I work at a bank and a customer took the time out of their day to call and ask for a supervisor to complain that they weren’t greeted or thanked at the drive-up window (because we were really busy inside). She felt that our customer service was lacking. We got her deposit done in a timely manner and if she really wanted customer service she could have either hit the call button and we would have talked to her, or she could have come in.
Ice cream, half eaten, lactose free ice cream. They called up the store I worked at and demanded we take it back bc after she ate almost all of it she realized it didn't taste that well. Despite my efforts to explain that we can't take back food she already had opened and eaten she still insisted we gave her back her money. After 10 mins I just told her to come to the store and talk to the manager. Not only did he refund the money but he also gifted her two packages of ice cream. And I was drilled to never refund food.
Edit: Also one time, while I worked as a call- center- agent: a woman yelled at me for 20 minutes bc she made a mistake and her credit card got declined and bc we had bad reception. She was calling from a train. That was something else.
Again, why give a refund when it wasn't the stores' fault? Plus then the manager chews them out for doing nothing. I don't get it.
I worked for a Wireless ISP, meaning point to point wireless, big antenna on your roof pointed to our tower. Lady calls in and complains that her PC won't get online. After talking to her, we realise she has no router, no WiFi adapter..... but since it's 'Wireless' it should work and she's mad at us somehow.
Same customer a day later: Daughter calls in to say they bought the 'WiFi' device and installed it in the PC. I ask some questions, they bought a PCI Wireless card, screwed it into the case without mounting it on the PCI slot at all, and again said it should work, because it's wireless.
By the end of the call, they were telling me the Sales team told them it would just work and it would "All be wireless."
This woman wanted to fight me because there was no vanilla syrup in the self-serve coffee machine. I worked at a gas station.
I do tech support for the military, we have a policy of "we are break/fix only, IE, you break it we fix it." therefore we don't do training. we constantly have customers calling in complaining they don't know how to use some software and want us to remote into their machine to train them on it. 1) f**k no that jacks up call times, with high call times no one's issue is getting solved any time soon 2) it's their manager's responsibility to train them on the software so their manager is failing them 3) read the above. break/fix only. 4) some of these customers shouldn't be working in the position they are in and shouldn't hold security clearances.
Their ice cream they bought from McDonald's had melted on the way there. We are 12 miles from any McDonald's
Milk was kept in the fridge which was down the first aisle. She really wanted to squeaze past and push over a child. Last two times she was in, she pushed over a pregant lady and an old lady.
I had finished my shift. They didn't care who they got served by, nor was it busy, they just didn't like seeing me having finished my shift. They followed me around the store loudly complaining to anyone who listened. They were told to either leave me or leave the store. They complained to the manager about that and the fact that I had finished. I've not seen them since
Best of all, a customer took the lid off the paint they just purchased but didn't put it back on properly and casually threw it in his boot. I was not in for the aftermath
Once had someone complained that we didn't have the same kid's activity mats as pizza hut, we weren't a pizza hut.
Ooh, once had someone complain about my manager because she wouldn't leave the restaurant during a rush to see if the pub across the road was open.
I work at a call center for a mail-order pharmacy and I’ve heard people complaining about a prescription we never sent out to them because it is with another pharmacy- at least once a week
I bet they are using a search engine to locate the number, unfortunately many search engines do not give the searcher the number they are looking for but a paid or sponsored places number first. If the caller is not paying attention or is distracted, I could see this happening a lot, I have almost called the wrong place myself but caught it.
Ages ago, when I worked the video game department at Best Buy, a customer pointed out a game that was $29.99 and stated Wal-Mart had it for $29.97. I paused for just a moment before noting that we price matched. She responded with "Well, you're not the 'best buy' then, are you?"
Working at a fast-food chain described as “hospital food with a French accent”
The woman asks for my recommendation- I suggest a bacon turkey sandwich.
The woman marches up to me angrily after receiving her sandwich. Her complaint?
“I’m allergic to bacon!!”
Maybe she misinterpreted it as turkey bacon? I mean, still no need to get angry, and you'd think she'd double check before ordering, but might be an explanation. I'm not sure what allergic to bacon really means. Either she's allergic to pork or she reacts to the chemicals used in curing bacon - I think there are sulphides, and some people do react to them.
One time, a customer complained that he hated our Frank Sinatra hold music and demanded he had to speak to a manager about it. I hung up.
That we didn’t have the brand of hot sauce that they like. That sucks that we don’t have it, but there is literally nothing that any of us can do about it.
Had an old woman come in screaming at us because there was mayo on her sandwich.
She was allergic to mayo, and assumed that because she ordered it to-go that the mayo would be left on the side. She said we should have a big sign letting customers know about how we serve our sandwiches
I always make a point to state, No sauce, mayo or condiments of any kind, no cucumber just lettuce and tomato.
I had one of my customers ring me to tell me he hoped I got fired , because he had issues with one of the engineers and thought it was my job to “control” people
Used to be the manager of a tire and lube shop. Had a customer bring in their car for a battery change. After it was completed he leaves only to come back not more than 30 mins about his car leaking water... from a battery change. He claimed that we had damaged his vehicle and demanded that we fix the issue. So I turned his A/C off, but being in Texas it didn’t stay off long.
I could write a book on this, but unfortunately, this one isn't one that happened to me, but my co-worker complained about it and "had to tell me about" at a restaurant she went to. My co-worker went to a chain restaurant in my area, not the location that she normally goes to, and ordered a piece of lasagna. When she got the slice, she immediately started complaining to the waitress that the slice was "too small" and that when she goes to another location she can "easily get 3 meals out of the slice and with this one, she'll BARELY get 1 and a half meals out of." When she was told this is a standard slice of lasagna, she was OUTRAGED and told everyone in earshot that she will NEVER go back to this one. She has proceeded to tell many of the customers that she talks to at my job, which has NOTHING to do with restaurants, about this "travesty."
It is difficult for a European such as myself to understand why you would expect to have more than a meal portion worth of a serving at a restaurant. From my experience in the USA, it seems single portions are already huge to what we get over here.
A guy came in to the ski store where I worked and tried to fight me because he had rented a board at 2:30 pm and the hill closed at 3:30 pm.
The sun had gone down so I'm not sure how he thought the hill was going to stay open
I kinda agree with the customer and feel like it needs more information about the post. Such as: 1: What time is the rental equipment due back? 2: As a matter of good faith, they shouldn't rent equipment for full price a hour before the hill closes, how would anyone have time to enjoy it? 3: Wouldn't they want equipment turned in when the hill closes, that seems like a appropriate return time? 4: All information should be posted and transparent for everyone to understand. 5: This information should be in the rental agreement and signed by the customer. We don't know any of these things tho, the story doesn't tell us enough.
I need a thing
I'm sorry ma'am, we don't have that thing
WHY?
Unfortunately, some items aren't carried in stores at all times; inventory levels are based on sales, so more than likely that item needs to have a few more units in sales to be carried in stores on a permanent basis.
That's stupid, this place has horrible customer service
I got an idea, just send your US Karens to us in France, we will re-educate them in customers expectations. Retail workers take abuse, but have the right to answer back, and the customer isn't always right ! We don't have that reputation of grumpiness for nothing !!!
Oh yes please. I know some of the stories are "enhanced" for dramatic effect, but really? These people have severe mental health problems.
Load More Replies... I am baffled that these people think they could treat people like that. Even weirder is the managers that give refunds etc even though the customer is in the wrong. Surely that is what causes this 'Karen' culture where the cycle just continues. They take 'the customer is always right' completely out of context and to extremes!
It's better to lose a few dollars but keep a customer. Being right is often not worth it when you're running a customer-service type business.
Load More Replies...
This is definitely true: "If customers are being completely irrational or throwing insults at the employees, it’s the boss’ job to deal with them." Don't dump dealing with such people on low-wage, inexperienced employees. But this is terrible advice: "kick those customers out. They're bad for business, they cost a lot of time and money and they will never be happy no matter what you give them." I work for a non-profit, and you wouldn't BELIEVE how many people go from being furiously angry at us to throwing money at us ONLY because they feel like someone treated them like a human being. Keep in mind that with Boomers, you're dealing with people who are used to being able to call their local bank or pharmacy or supermarket and talk to a real person, and now everything is automated, off-shored, and if you reach a real person, odds are that they'll often have a script which is far more infuriating than anything else. You can go SO FAR making someone like this feel listened to.
When I worked at Barnes & Noble, I had a woman complain the water in the restroom was too hot. Her reasoning was a child could hurt themselves. Balancing the logic of her theory against Yeah hot water is hot, I explained, the sinks were too high for a child to use by themselves, and any child young enough not to know the differences between hot & cold water wouldn't, or shouldn't, be in the restrooms unattended.
my mother unfortunately has very high expectations in stores, and there were two awful times where i was just embarrassed to be there: 1. i was trying on jeans in a mall store and my mom yelled at an employee for helping me find my right size instead of the jeans she wanted me to try on (3 sizes too small) 2. she was mad that a hostess couldnt add more tables to a dining room to fit our dining party. the poor girl was probably only 19 or so. my mom stormed out and i had to awkwardly apologize for her.
Customer service is part of my job as well, and I thank all the deities that we do this only in written form, not in person. I would've been deported for violence otherwise, some customers seriously need a slap. I can even forgive the genuinely oblivious yet kind ones, but, dammit, when you get ignorance + entitlement + racism.... These people need a software upgrade.
I would and did last about two min at a cafeteria! Pop in those days was kept in refrigerated water located behind the till, to open the can you would use a church key- this guy shook the can behind me and opened it aimed it at my back just to be funny , I took a can opened it went to where he was sitting and poured it over his head. After the round of applause I walked out of the building never to work in any kind of retail or food service again!
I had many people try to bargain with me about prices. Even more often I get the, "It's cheaper on amazon" yes but your paying for the convenice of having it now.
Working as a cashier at a grocery store, it was a super busy night. I had a customer come in and purchase a single item. It rang up $.99. He handed me a $1 bill. I returned his change of a penny. He looked at the penny in his hand and said, “That should’ve been $.97.” Well, we had those registers that would only open if a sale was processed…and since I had already completely his transaction…I knew I couldn’t just open the register back up. So, without saying a word, I reached into my smock pocket, where I had some change stashed, and handed him another 2 cents. That’s when he went off! He began yelling and berating me, because I was somehow insinuating he was cheap by handing him my own personal money, instead of getting it from the register. He ended up throwing the 3 cents back at me and stormed off.
I always have people try to entice me to take their donation (after I refused it) by threatening to take it to goodwill. Ok? Do what you want with your stuff?
Am Dutch, live in Portugal where we rent private houses to tourists. Lots of complaints. Some valid, some less, up for debate. Got call from a German lady once, asking me if I speak German please. I do a little. Car broke down in the middle of a street somewhere. Tried to establish her connection to our company. There was none, she just saved my number years ago as 'someone who speaks German' after speaking to a colleague about renting out her villa in PT through us. Asked me if I could come over to help her. Answered no because A) don't know you & am 30 min away home alone with baby and B) what am I going to do there? - call police or your insurer. Lady got angry at me for not coming over. Eventually looked up some road assistance and police contacts and sent them to her. Answered me 'ok', never thanked me. You're welcome.
Who to blame? PARENTS!!!! Stop rtaising your children to be entitled twits. They are not the best. They are NOT special. They are not above the rules and laws. Especially the rules of civility. I guess parents these days feel that schools are responsible for teaching everything. Even Please and Thank You.
These are grown-a*s adults harassing employees. They're old enough to know better. No one to blame but themselves at this point in life. Sort of like your misplaced rant.
Load More Replies...
So, this doesn't really count, I guess, but when I moved into my neighborhood, this little old lady came up to me walking a huge German Shepard. I was about to head to work but wanted to be polite, so we chatted for a bit; she asked when I moved in, told her recently. She then remarked that "it's so nice your grandparents let you live with them"..... wtf? Not wanting to be rude, I said "no ma'am, I live here. I bought this house". She looked at me like I was crazy. I don't look like a kid, my house is NOT a mansion. It was the weirdest conversation, bc 1) it's also not an "older" community and 2) why would grandparents be the 1st thing that popped into her head??
Maybe she got you confused with another new neighbor?
Load More Replies...
When CVS stopped selling cigarettes, my dad moved his prescriptions from Walgreens. Cool. Fine. But one day checking out with OTC stuff at the front register, something didn't go the way he liked, and he yelled at the cashier that the only reason he was there is because Walgreens still sells cigarettes.
Another from Barnes & Noble. I never heard the actual complaint but I was working in the Music/Movie section and had a woman ask for Pinocchio. I typed it into the computer and asked if she wanted the live action version or the animated? She looked at me as if I had just asked her if she shaved her legs with grape jelly. She just walked away without a word. I saw her go to the manager on duty and say something to her. I know she complained because the MOD came and asked "What happened?" & I relayed the story. I never did find out what she said though. I bet that would have been interesting.
I wonder what she THOUGHT you said. She may also have simply misunderstood "live action" and thought you were picking on her? After all, "live" used to mean broadcast live on TV as the actors performed it.
Load More Replies...
My one short-lived experience in clothing retail: Woman brought in item for refund. No receipt, no record of purchase, nothing, but manager gave her store credit, and I'm like, "This store is a brand store, that's not the store brand, wtf?"
I get people all the time that google search for a car part and then click the link to my company's web site. Well, google lies. You can put in your year make and model and what you want, and it will show some random part. But since they eventually got to my company's web site, they want that part even though it wont fit their car, all because it is cheaper.
Mine still tickles me. So after living in the USA for a few years I worked in an animal shelter and occasionally answered the phone to people looking for a lost animal, for directions etc. One morning an older guy called asking for directions. Not being from the area I asked if he had a GPS we could put the address into. This made him incredibly mad. He then proceeds to shout at me down the phone telling me I should go back to where I came from and learn to speak English because he can't understand a word of what I am saying. Okay dude, let me just go back home to ENGLAND.
Isn't the true quote, 'The customer is always right IN MATTERS OF TASTE'. Ie if that lady wants to buy that hideous pink and orange polka dot number you're not to judge.
That's not what's being discussed here. And the customer is usually wrong in every way.
Load More Replies...
why do i have a feeling that all those cases where AMERICANS? (sorry if i miss spelled something, not my first language, not my second language either)
Are all these in America? Do people in other countries have the same issues with idiot customers?
France - Germany here. I am a customer service manager in a big logistics company. In the past we had some rude customers, mostly older people, style "I will tell you how to do your job!" It was my privilege to deal with them :-). Today, most of our customers are more professional about it. Once, I had to throw out an aggressive customer who threatened an employee (what a pleasure!) and once another one wanted to come over to shoot me because of a delayed shipment... I called the police and they locked him up...
Load More Replies... There should be regular IQ tests to keep your legal documentations valid, including Birth Certificate, Citizenship for a country, etc.
I got an idea, just send your US Karens to us in France, we will re-educate them in customers expectations. Retail workers take abuse, but have the right to answer back, and the customer isn't always right ! We don't have that reputation of grumpiness for nothing !!!
Oh yes please. I know some of the stories are "enhanced" for dramatic effect, but really? These people have severe mental health problems.
Load More Replies... I am baffled that these people think they could treat people like that. Even weirder is the managers that give refunds etc even though the customer is in the wrong. Surely that is what causes this 'Karen' culture where the cycle just continues. They take 'the customer is always right' completely out of context and to extremes!
It's better to lose a few dollars but keep a customer. Being right is often not worth it when you're running a customer-service type business.
Load More Replies... This is definitely true: "If customers are being completely irrational or throwing insults at the employees, it’s the boss’ job to deal with them." Don't dump dealing with such people on low-wage, inexperienced employees. But this is terrible advice: "kick those customers out. They're bad for business, they cost a lot of time and money and they will never be happy no matter what you give them." I work for a non-profit, and you wouldn't BELIEVE how many people go from being furiously angry at us to throwing money at us ONLY because they feel like someone treated them like a human being. Keep in mind that with Boomers, you're dealing with people who are used to being able to call their local bank or pharmacy or supermarket and talk to a real person, and now everything is automated, off-shored, and if you reach a real person, odds are that they'll often have a script which is far more infuriating than anything else. You can go SO FAR making someone like this feel listened to.
When I worked at Barnes & Noble, I had a woman complain the water in the restroom was too hot. Her reasoning was a child could hurt themselves. Balancing the logic of her theory against Yeah hot water is hot, I explained, the sinks were too high for a child to use by themselves, and any child young enough not to know the differences between hot & cold water wouldn't, or shouldn't, be in the restrooms unattended.
my mother unfortunately has very high expectations in stores, and there were two awful times where i was just embarrassed to be there: 1. i was trying on jeans in a mall store and my mom yelled at an employee for helping me find my right size instead of the jeans she wanted me to try on (3 sizes too small) 2. she was mad that a hostess couldnt add more tables to a dining room to fit our dining party. the poor girl was probably only 19 or so. my mom stormed out and i had to awkwardly apologize for her.
Customer service is part of my job as well, and I thank all the deities that we do this only in written form, not in person. I would've been deported for violence otherwise, some customers seriously need a slap. I can even forgive the genuinely oblivious yet kind ones, but, dammit, when you get ignorance + entitlement + racism.... These people need a software upgrade.
I would and did last about two min at a cafeteria! Pop in those days was kept in refrigerated water located behind the till, to open the can you would use a church key- this guy shook the can behind me and opened it aimed it at my back just to be funny , I took a can opened it went to where he was sitting and poured it over his head. After the round of applause I walked out of the building never to work in any kind of retail or food service again!
I had many people try to bargain with me about prices. Even more often I get the, "It's cheaper on amazon" yes but your paying for the convenice of having it now.
Working as a cashier at a grocery store, it was a super busy night. I had a customer come in and purchase a single item. It rang up $.99. He handed me a $1 bill. I returned his change of a penny. He looked at the penny in his hand and said, “That should’ve been $.97.” Well, we had those registers that would only open if a sale was processed…and since I had already completely his transaction…I knew I couldn’t just open the register back up. So, without saying a word, I reached into my smock pocket, where I had some change stashed, and handed him another 2 cents. That’s when he went off! He began yelling and berating me, because I was somehow insinuating he was cheap by handing him my own personal money, instead of getting it from the register. He ended up throwing the 3 cents back at me and stormed off.
I always have people try to entice me to take their donation (after I refused it) by threatening to take it to goodwill. Ok? Do what you want with your stuff?
Am Dutch, live in Portugal where we rent private houses to tourists. Lots of complaints. Some valid, some less, up for debate. Got call from a German lady once, asking me if I speak German please. I do a little. Car broke down in the middle of a street somewhere. Tried to establish her connection to our company. There was none, she just saved my number years ago as 'someone who speaks German' after speaking to a colleague about renting out her villa in PT through us. Asked me if I could come over to help her. Answered no because A) don't know you & am 30 min away home alone with baby and B) what am I going to do there? - call police or your insurer. Lady got angry at me for not coming over. Eventually looked up some road assistance and police contacts and sent them to her. Answered me 'ok', never thanked me. You're welcome.
Who to blame? PARENTS!!!! Stop rtaising your children to be entitled twits. They are not the best. They are NOT special. They are not above the rules and laws. Especially the rules of civility. I guess parents these days feel that schools are responsible for teaching everything. Even Please and Thank You.
These are grown-a*s adults harassing employees. They're old enough to know better. No one to blame but themselves at this point in life. Sort of like your misplaced rant.
Load More Replies... So, this doesn't really count, I guess, but when I moved into my neighborhood, this little old lady came up to me walking a huge German Shepard. I was about to head to work but wanted to be polite, so we chatted for a bit; she asked when I moved in, told her recently. She then remarked that "it's so nice your grandparents let you live with them"..... wtf? Not wanting to be rude, I said "no ma'am, I live here. I bought this house". She looked at me like I was crazy. I don't look like a kid, my house is NOT a mansion. It was the weirdest conversation, bc 1) it's also not an "older" community and 2) why would grandparents be the 1st thing that popped into her head??
Maybe she got you confused with another new neighbor?
Load More Replies... When CVS stopped selling cigarettes, my dad moved his prescriptions from Walgreens. Cool. Fine. But one day checking out with OTC stuff at the front register, something didn't go the way he liked, and he yelled at the cashier that the only reason he was there is because Walgreens still sells cigarettes.
Another from Barnes & Noble. I never heard the actual complaint but I was working in the Music/Movie section and had a woman ask for Pinocchio. I typed it into the computer and asked if she wanted the live action version or the animated? She looked at me as if I had just asked her if she shaved her legs with grape jelly. She just walked away without a word. I saw her go to the manager on duty and say something to her. I know she complained because the MOD came and asked "What happened?" & I relayed the story. I never did find out what she said though. I bet that would have been interesting.
I wonder what she THOUGHT you said. She may also have simply misunderstood "live action" and thought you were picking on her? After all, "live" used to mean broadcast live on TV as the actors performed it.
Load More Replies... My one short-lived experience in clothing retail: Woman brought in item for refund. No receipt, no record of purchase, nothing, but manager gave her store credit, and I'm like, "This store is a brand store, that's not the store brand, wtf?"
I get people all the time that google search for a car part and then click the link to my company's web site. Well, google lies. You can put in your year make and model and what you want, and it will show some random part. But since they eventually got to my company's web site, they want that part even though it wont fit their car, all because it is cheaper.
Mine still tickles me. So after living in the USA for a few years I worked in an animal shelter and occasionally answered the phone to people looking for a lost animal, for directions etc. One morning an older guy called asking for directions. Not being from the area I asked if he had a GPS we could put the address into. This made him incredibly mad. He then proceeds to shout at me down the phone telling me I should go back to where I came from and learn to speak English because he can't understand a word of what I am saying. Okay dude, let me just go back home to ENGLAND.
Isn't the true quote, 'The customer is always right IN MATTERS OF TASTE'. Ie if that lady wants to buy that hideous pink and orange polka dot number you're not to judge.
That's not what's being discussed here. And the customer is usually wrong in every way.
Load More Replies... why do i have a feeling that all those cases where AMERICANS? (sorry if i miss spelled something, not my first language, not my second language either)
Are all these in America? Do people in other countries have the same issues with idiot customers?
France - Germany here. I am a customer service manager in a big logistics company. In the past we had some rude customers, mostly older people, style "I will tell you how to do your job!" It was my privilege to deal with them :-). Today, most of our customers are more professional about it. Once, I had to throw out an aggressive customer who threatened an employee (what a pleasure!) and once another one wanted to come over to shoot me because of a delayed shipment... I called the police and they locked him up...
Load More Replies... There should be regular IQ tests to keep your legal documentations valid, including Birth Certificate, Citizenship for a country, etc.
