45 Times Dumb Customers Really Pushed Retail Workers To The Limit With Their Questions
Interview
No, no, no—The customer is not always right! Ideally, everyone walking into any shop would be patient, polite, and well-versed in common sense. Unfortunately, those qualities are in short supply these days. This means that the staff has to smile, stay professional, and avoid facepalming, even when dealing with completely delulu shoppers.
The retail workers of the r/AskReddit online community recently opened up about the “dumbest things” that they’ve ever had to explain to their customers, and this is a whole other level of cluelessness. We’ve collected some of the most interesting stories to share with you. Scroll down to have a read, and don’t forget to upvote the posts that blew you away the most.
We got in touch with the person who sparked the interesting discussion, u/Fragmented-Rooster, and they were kind enough to share some thoughts about surviving in the retail world. They told us that it's vital to remember that "no job is ruining your mental health over." You'll find Bored Panda's interview with them below.
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(Phone call when I worked in a hardware store)
"Good morning,
"Hi there. I'd like to refill my prescription"
"Oh, I'm sorry - I think you have the wrong number. This is a hardware store"
<5 second pause>
"So you won't help me refill my prescription?"
"What sort of prescription?"
"My birth control pill"
"OK well we're a hardware store, so we don't have birth control or any other medication"
"You're not being very helpful at all"
And then she hung up...
I might have done society a disservice by not helping prevent her from procreating, come to think about it...
“You do have to stay professional at all times, but at the end of the day, the customer ISN’T always right, and you’ve got to stick to policy,” the author of the thread, u/Fragmented-Rooster, told Bored Panda how it’s best to react to clueless customers.
"Keep your remarks until your break later and laugh at their ridiculousness over a coffee," they suggested.
I didn’t make your drink wrong, Amy. You ordered a large hot drink, and immediately after paying the barista put out a small cold drink and yelled “Jennifer.” Then, Amy, you picked it up and *took a sip* before realizing it was not your large, hot drink.
Shift lead sent me on break before I had a chance to fully explode.
Dumbest thing, or customer, I had to explain is that there is no such thing as "lo cal" or lo calorie honey. It's f*****g "local" for cryin out loud. F*CK.
The author also had some practical advice for surviving in a retail job for anyone who's completely new to this line of work. “Your first job probably isn’t going to be great. Stick at it, and if it’s bad, search for a new job while you’re still working. That way, there’s no dip in your paychecks,” they shared some practical advice.
They added that it's always worthwhile to make some friends with the staff. "Always remember no job is worth ruining your mental health over. Stay chill and talk to someone about it. If it’s not for you, then it’s okay to quit,” they advised.
According to the OP, they were inspired to start the discussion after having a conversation with a friend about the very worst customers they both had ever dealt with. Even though u/Fragmented-Rooster hoped the thread would get attention, they never expected the question to get so much traction.
"Why are you shut tomorrow?"
"Uhh...because its Christmas day?"
"But what if I need something?"
"You...youre in the store now? Just buy it now?"
"But I dont *need* it now!"
"......".
I used to run a feed store in an affluent area. We sold baby chicks, which were only females, for egg laying.
This guy comes in and is adamant about needing a rooster for more egg production.
That's not the case. I explained how the reproductive, egg laying process was. He just wasn't getting it. I was at my point, and plus, the fact I couldn't order just 1 rooster, I could only order roosters in a batch of 50.
I had to put it extremely bluntly to him, and I asked him,
"Sir, does your wife need you around every month to get her period?" His jaw drops and says, "OH my, how foolish could I be. "
Another customer asking "Where is the mother chicken?"
Me, "They don't need the mother hen."
Her, "How can they survive without their mother? You buy chicken breast at the store. She needs to breastfeed!"
Me, "That's not how it works.".
A chicken is an animal. Therefore it's not vegetarian.
Worked in a vitamin store in college and was explaining to someone that vitamin D is extracted from lanolin in sheep's wool, so it depended on if you were vegan or not.
And they hit me with fish and birds are not animals.
The specific thing she said: "What about a chicken? It's not an animal, it's a fowl!"
My assistant manager told her something like, "Oh well remember the 20 questions game? Is it animal, mineral, or vegetable? A chicken isn't an a mineral or vegetable."
They left in a huff and made huge complaints about us. Me in particular because I couldn't believe how stupid they were (and I have no poker face).
I was not/am not cut out for retail.
If you’re working in retail, sooner or later, you will have to deal with someone who’s completely clueless, irritable, rude, or trying to pull the wool over your eyes. It’s part of the job. Any position that requires you to interact with a large number of people is going to show you just how varied humanity is. Sure, most of your customers are probably going to be decent folks. But a small handful of them are probably going to try to ruin your day, whether they mean to or not.
One important thing for retail workers to do is to try to figure out whether their problematic customer is simply having a bad day or if rudeness and entitlement are part of their character. To put it bluntly, after a bout of bad luck, many of us have probably snapped at a stranger when we didn’t mean to. An insightful employee who’s well-versed in empathy is going to be able to recognize that.
Used to work in a computer store, someone asked me once if a mouse mat would work with Windows 7. I worry about some people on this planet..
As a cashier when someone is paying cash: "hey if you can give me a penny, or a nickel I can give you a whole paper dollar back as change."
If your total was $19.10 and you gave me a $20. Give me $20.10 and I can give you a dollar bill for change rather than you carrying pesky spare change around.
This was back in the late 90s or early 00s. I know this confused people back then, it would totally explode someone's brain now.
I know that situation, but the other way round. Meaning I as a customer give 20.10 on a 19.10 purchase. That confused some cashiers, especially in the US. In my experience German cashiers were much more used to that
Same here. The cashier usually just stares at the bill and coin for a moment, then tries to hand the coin back to me before making change for the bill alone. 🙄
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I have found it very helpful to explain, here is the extra amount, so you can give me whatever bill as change. Or my favorite, is when it ends in .87, when you give them 12 cents so they can give you a quarter... Many cashiers seem to rely on putting in what you give them and seeing what the machine tells them as change...
I mean the relying on the machine is true. But they can still enter 5.12 to the machine so you get your quarter.
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When I was a little kid, I thought there was some sort of contest or game having to do with change and that my mom must be really good at it. She would hand the cashier money and then say, "Hang on, I have the penny," and dig around in her purse until she came up with the penny and then the cashier would hand her some money. I thought it was a prize for having the penny.
Most people now can't make change if the cash register doesn't tell them how much.
Laughs in Aldi 😅 Respectively Hofer in Austria, but we do the maths by head, not by computer. So we don't panic getting 23,56 for 18,56 and handing out 5. But we don't have to enter the amount we get, so we can open the till while customers are still searching for the money, which makes us quicker than somewhere else.
My Gen Z kids barely know what dollars are much less change for a dollar
I have said this to a McD's worker who was about to graduate HS, she couldn't figure it out....
I’ve said it to a gas station cashier who was pushing 60 and I broke her brain. My total was $27.00 even so I gave her $32 in cash and asked if she could give me a $5.00 bill back, because I needed it. I felt SO bad about how confused she was. In the end she just gave me my $3 in coin change, I put another $2 in my hand and handed it to her and said “ok, now can you exchange this for a $5 bill?” She breathed a sigh of relief because that made much more sense to her. 😂
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I managed a convenience store once and, even though it was not on the "corporate approved" interview worksheet, I always asked prospective employees simple change making scenarios to test how well they could do math in their head. For example, the total came to $13.26 and the customer gave you $20.01, how much change do you give. Saved me a lot of headaches later.
Also discrimination for those of us with a form of dyslexia that makes doing simple math in our heads difficult.
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Yeah, after I give them cash and then realize that I have the exact change, they say this to me every single time..." It's ok, I already put in what you gave me so I will give you the change". I would tell them again that I have the exact amount and the look on their face is unbelievably confused! WTF!! Nowadays, you dont have to know 1st grade math to work at retail or fast food jobs!
Please either have the FULL amount you wosh to pay ready or round up. Ex. For an order of 19.64 either A. Pay the 19.64 B. Pay 20 or C. Have 20.64 ready do NOT give me $20 and as i hit the $20 button go "oh hamg on i thing i have change to round it" no. Have it ready BEFORE i cash out. We habe the computers to the math for us for a REASON
Yep. I bought a milk shake last weekend- it came to 5.41 (very small local burger place). I gave the guy a penny with my $6 and he gave me $0.90 back. We argued back and forth a little, he maintained he was right so I tossed extra into the tip cup to make up for extra money he gave me. He did the same thing to my husband but hubby didn't give the money back til I made him do it. I didn't want the guy to be penalized for having a short till.
And/or have a form of dyslexia that gets everything all jumbled up in our heads so it takes us much longer to figure it out.
Load More Replies... It confused people in the 70s when I worked retail. Being able to count back change without a calculator on the register telling you the answer was the norm. Today I don't think most people could do it on a dare.
I've actually saw a cashier at a fast food place refuse to take the nickel for a purchase of $3.05. The customer gave her a five dollar bill and a nickel.
I gave a cashier 20 bill and a dime for a 5.10 purchase she looked at me so confused. I had to explain it to her that I was owed $15 back. I want to be shocked, but honestly I'm not anymore. Was just happy to have a real human at the checkout line.
I did this otday with a restaurant bill, they handed me a device with a STATING tip of 15% should I pay w. a card; Nope, I paid w. cash and know how to decide on a tip. Cash is always king. Carry $200, the western part of N. America system went down once, grocery stores could accept cash only. Lesson learned.
Oh, no, you can't expect the cashier AND the customer to both be good in math. Something's got to give or there'll be an implosion.
In Australia, we just pay the extra specifically to not get the change - it's accepted and expected. It makes cents when coin pockets are so small in your wallet!
In Germany we use coins far more regularly than Americans do. It is common to have to wait for the person in front of you to dig through their entire coin purse before paying.
I've had cashier's where I've had to show them how to count back change as their till was broken.
I've given the extra cents so I can get paper back on several occasions. People can't handle it, especially if you tell them the amount paid before you offer.
A very common thing in Poland (back in the days when people were actually still using real money), you were almost expected to give "the ending" (końcówka) to the cashier so they could give you less change. I tried doing it in the UK, cashiers had no clue why I was doing it and how that would help them... The cash register counts for them so they don't have to, and seems like most of them can't x_X
This happened to me as I found that “dime” after the transaction, but i caught her in time before she closed the till, talk about a deer caught in a head light, I just said never mind
The pharmacy nearby usually gives cough drops instead of returning the change
If they have codeine, I'll accept.
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Also, most cash registers now do the calculations for the cashier, so giving them 20.10 is confusing !
If you enter your PIN in wrong 5 times for an EBT card, it will lock up and you'll have to call the number on the back to get it unlocked. This isn't something the cashier does, or the store, it's the cards way of protecting itself I guess.
The amount of people who would scream at me, insult my intelligence, swear at me and call me names, all because they locked their card up, was insane.
And there wasn't anything I could do but void the order or let them pay with another form of payment. Sometimes I warned them after 2 or 3 tries, but that seemed to make them angrier when it happened.
F**k the public, man. People are so rude and hateful now days. .
Broadly speaking, when working in retail, it’s vital to stay professional, no matter what happens. Your company likely has a guidebook where it lists what it expects all its staff to do when faced with unhappy customers. There’s often a clear protocol. Some businesses also invest in training their workers, teaching them how to de-escalate tense situations. Though roleplaying some common scenarios can be a good teaching tool, it still might not prepare you for the real thing.
In real life, your customers can throw you some curveballs and behave in completely unexpected ways. They might be unwilling to hear you out, even if you’ve got the solution and you’re trying to help them. If the situation is getting out of hand and it’s too much to handle, there’s no shame in asking for some help from a senior employee or your supervisor. They likely have more experience with handling these super-niche scenarios with problematic customers.
I've had to explain to customers that their coupon has to actually be for the product they're buying. Yes, a $3 coupon for a skin care product is a good coupon, however I cannot apply it to your cereal purchase.
Had an older (though not senior citizen) man who was 100% certain that were stealing money from his bank account because it kept showing $100 "charges" to the ATM at our location. After a series of questions he stated he sends his son in to pick up his prescriptions and gives him his debit to pay. Pointing out to him (from his own bank statement) that the $100 charges match the dates of the prescription pickups made him only more emphatic that someone from the store was using his card to steal his money.
Even pointing out that his bank statement specified the $100 as coming from an atm did nothing to sway his mind.
He stood at the front door staring at us for 20 minutes before finally leaving.
Sorry dude, your kids a d**k and you're an idiot. I cant fix either of those.
Back in the day I worked at Safeway and a woman walked up to my meat counter and started asking me where a specific sale item was, like $1 a pound chicken or something. I tell her that’s not sale we have. And she starts SCREAMING. “ YOU PEOPLE ALWAYS DO THIS! YOU BAIT AND YOU SWITCH! YOU ADVERTISE ONE THING AND THEN REFUSE TO HONOR THE PRICE! EVERYTIME SINGLE TIME I COME HERE AND IM SICK OF IT!”
She then shoves the store ad in my face and aggressively points at the $1 a pound chicken on sale.
“ Ma’am this is Safeway. That’s a Kroger ad”
She looks at it and says “ oh. Oops” and walks out as I stand there just freaking baffled at what just happened.
Also working meat department every Thanksgiving morning I would have to explain to at least 5 people that you cannot thaw and cook and 20 pound turkey by this evening.
First one doesn't sound legit. Who ever heard of a customer admitting their mistake?
Once your colleague or manager steps in to help, pay close attention to what they say, how they say it, and what their body language is like. It’s very likely that they’ll exude an aura of confidence and calm. They’ll probably try to offer the customer some solutions, apologize a bit, and thank them for their concerns.
Politeness can be a very powerful tool in your arsenal, especially when facing overwhelming rudeness. You have to try to resist the impulse to raise your voice and insult the customer. That being said, if they are being abusive, you do not have to tolerate their behavior: you or your manager can ask them to leave. Good companies will have protocols in place to protect their staff in these scenarios.
I spent 20+ minutes arguing with a middle aged woman trying to return a XXL stack of men's underwear (against policy once opened). I explained that if her husband had a 32 inch waist like me she needed to buy him Medium size underwear.
She eventually and angrily shouted "Look, he's got a huge c**k and he needs XXL pants for it but these keep falling down when he wears them!!!!"
She would not accept my explanation that the tag size related to his waist not his junk. she raged out of the shop leaving the stack of pants behind.
I work in a deli. We've gotten some doozies. "What flavor are the plain breaded wings?" "Chicken." -from my wife.
My personal favorite that happened to me, went as such:
Customer: "Hi, I'd like some sliced chicken lunch meat, what you got?"
Me: "We carry oven roasted, buffalo, and garlic & herb."
Customer: You're not understanding me boy! I want sliced chicken lunch meat, now what you got?"
Me: "Oven roasted, buffalo, or garlic & herb."
Customer: "You're still not gettin' me son, I want sliced chicken lunch meat! Now tell me what you have, dammit!"
Me: "Oven roasted, chicken lunch meat. Buffalo, chicken lunch meat. Garlic and herb, chicken lunch meat."
Customer: "Oh. Uhhhhh gimme some balogna."
Still don't know how I didn't get in trouble for sassing that f****r.
Call me stupid, but I've never encountered buffalo chicken lunch meat in my entire 40-odd years on this planet.
That the lamp she was trying to return did not have a defective cord, but had a protective plastic cap over the plug that needed to be removed.
I actually have one for this.
Worked in car parking customer service for a few years.
Had to explain to a lady why she was being charged for an hour and a half, instead of letting her out for free under the "half an hour free" rate ... When her vehicle had been in the car park. Parked. For an hour and a half.
Her reasoning ?
"I only intended to stay 20 minutes"
"My system shows me you were here for an hour and a half"
"Yes, but I only intended to be here for 20 minutes"
"But.....you were ACTUALLY here for an hour and a half..."
Ended up having to explain over 5 minutes how rates work, and how you get charged for the time in the park.
Wild.
If I order a cheesecake and eat the entire cheesecake, I do not expect to be charged for the cheesecake IF I didn't want it. Absolutely sound logic. Also I want cheesecake now, but this hardware store won't sell it to me.
Back when I was in college I worked at a McDonald's I spent tne better part of 30 minutes explaining to a person that a cheeseburger with no cheese was in fact just called a hamburger.
You can't return this TV because it has a cracked screen, if I can see the boot print.
Dude threw a punch at me over the counter in front of his wife and infant daughter.
That watermelons don't grow on trees. And this was back in the days before these personal-sized seedless watermelons...back when they were like 20lbs. A woman was complaining that all of the watermelons were flat on one side and kind of yellow. I told her that was the side that was on the ground. She looked angry and surprised and asked, "What do you mean, 'on the ground'?!" like I was admitting to some secret that we leave the producing sitting on the ground out back, or something.
I, as a Walmart stocker, do not control the chemicals inside kids' toys.
It smells like dirt because it’s a greenhouse and that’s where we plant the plants.
Also sun loving means it loves the sun. .
Why is the front of my dishwasher blue??
…did you remove the protective film?
I worked at a grocery store in college. The local warehouse workers went on strike, meaning we were getting no product in and our shelves were getting more and more bare.
After getting yelled at by customers for a week for being out of stuff, I finally had it one night. This lady was berating me because we didn't have any chicken breast in the case. I said, "Look, there's nothing I can do about it. The warehouse is on strike and until it's resolved and they start delivering food again, I can't help you." She started screaming at me even more, saying how dare I blame the warehouse, her husband works there and if they would pay him a decent wage he wouldn't strike, blah blah blah. She immediately complained to the manager and I got written up.
Like.....tell your husband to go back to work if you need your family pack chicken so bad? I was the person with the least to do with situation here, yet she got me written up for it.
Back when printers at home were rare I had a woman come into my store asking for t-shirt transfer paper. I explained to her multiple times how to use them. Print on the paper then pin to shirt then iron.
30 minutes later she came back with the printer and paper wanting a refund because the shirt got stuck in the printer.
The elevator had a sign that read 'out of order', Customer asked if it was out of order on all of the floors.
Customer: What's the difference between the 17-inch monitor and the 19-inch monitor?
Me: Two inches and 40 dollars.
Customer: But what's the difference?
Me: This one is bigger by two inches, measured diagonally, and more expensive by 40 dollars.
Customer: No, but what's the *difference?!*
This went on for several minutes. He left without making a purchase.
"Putting that washing machine on the roof of your Golf is a bad idea."
No exaggeration, it happened.
I was a Maytag repairman. A customer brought in a multicolored felt mat and asked for a new one. I had to explain that was lint from the lint trap.
During covid: Some high stolen items were locked up and for some reason the salesfloor manager gave me; the pharmacy technician lead keys to said merchandise. A customer refused to let me touch the merchandise because of germs even though I was the one who stocked it less than 5 minutes earlier. When I explained that I touched everything in that case already she yelled at me for being gross and walked off without the product. I went back to the pharmacy and continued with my life without the product being stolen.
Quite common. In my supermarket days there was a customer who insisted we put plastic bags over our hands before we checked him out, and I never had the heart to tell him that his tins and veggies had been handled by process workers, stockers, and god knows how many customers before they even got to me.
I was in a shop that just did (amazing) toasted sandwiches and 2 guys asked for a cheese toastie without the bread. The poor girl behind the counter explained over and over what a toastie was, but these 2 guys insisted. Hope they enjoyed their pile of melted cheese.
Not retail, but general tech support. Turning the monitor on and off doesn't actually turn the whole pc on and off.
The amount of times I've gotten a call about a computer not working and all that was "wrong" was that it wasn't turned on, is staggering.
I guess this would make more sense these days, but this was over a decade ago and desktop computers were everywhere.
That if you tell the self-checkout 'No, I don't want my receipt, it won't print out your receipt.
I used to work in a high-end liquor store that had a massive wine section and one day a lady came into the store and asked me where our "grape" wine was. I did not know how to respond. So I asked her some questions like was she looking for a specific type or brand, like a Chardonnay or a Cabernet, Pinot Grigio, Mad Dog, ripple? "Ma'am, unless the label says it is made from some other kind of fruit, this is all grape wine." But she just kept repeating that she wanted grape wine and got so mad at me and frustrated that I just did the motioning across entire aisles movement and walked away.
She wandered the aisles and finally found what she was after: Mogen David. Mogen David Concord was what she wanted.
Former retail worker. The store I worked at through college would do a “friends and family” event twice a year. If you had a membership or received one of the discount cards, you received 30% off your entire purchase. The receipt showed the breakdown over each item for the discount.
There was one woman who would come in EVERYRTIME trying to return one item and would argue with our staff about why she wasn’t getting “what she paid for it.” We’d point to the item and the amount subtracted to it from the discount and she wasn’t having it. Insisted on asking for a manager everytime and causing a huge scene. She could never get it through her head that she didn’t pay full price for the item. It happened so often that staff would sigh when she’d come into the store because we knew she was going to pull the same stunt. It was exhausting.
I used to work at a Goodwill. Guy rolled up with a 5 bag donation of mowed grass clippings and told me very nonchalantly to just "take 'em".
Used to run auctions and fundraisers to do missions in Nicaragua (home building, family support, stuff like that). Can confirm people would actually Tell us they had something of value they were going to donate and then when we arrived expect us to take truck loads of garbage from their house. Actual garbage.
A woman tried to tell me yesterday PO Boxes no longer exist lol. I didn’t even bother. I was just like “oh, very strange” 🤣.
So any bills in my PO BOX are really not there? I wish someone told me this 17 years ago
The number of customers to whom I've had to explain the difference between left and right is greater than zero.
These have all been adults. I wish I were kidding.
Retail banking:
Had to explain to a costumer why the balance that was printed on his receipt from Friday afternoon after a deposit wasn’t the same the next morning after he bought a pair of jeans. .
Is "customer" being replaced with "costumer" a common autocorrect thing? how often do people talk about costumers & cosplayers for this to happen?
A coupon for a free gift with purchase, mailed out in April, said “now - May 15th”. Customer came in June looking for his free gift and was pissed we didn’t have it anymore. He kept saying “but it says now!”.
I had to explain 3 for 2. If you bought 2, you could get a third one free.
They couldn't understand it. It was really bizarre.
The amount of times I had to explain that any Euros can be spent the same in any country that accepts Euros and there aren't separate or specific notes for France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Austria etc etc it's scary.
I took a phone call and answered all the questions that she scrolled by on our google profile. She said, “I will call back later and see if you’re busy. What’s your phone number”. I replied, “the exact same number you dialed that lead to the conversation we are having now”.
In the old days (in the UK at least) people might have been connected by directory enquiries - so it was possible to not know the number of the person you're speaking to on the phone. Shout out to those who remember the annoying 118 118 adverts.
Back when checks were popular, an older lady mistakenly wrote her check to Walmart when she was actually shopping in Kmart.
Instead of making the correction, she wanted to argue that she was shopping in a Walmart and that Kmart had gone out of business many years ago.
Shelve of milk bone bare, offering a clear view of a completely empty cooler. "Are you out of milk?" I have no idea how I kept my job that day with all the smart a*s responses I gave. Also, a woman cursed me out on the phone because we didn't have a product. I explain that we have not carried that product in over a year. She exclames she has one in her fridge she bought last week and asked if I was calling he a liar. "No mama, but I am the dairy lead and that product when we got it came in with a three week shelf life and we haven't received any for over a year so if you bought it last week I would recommend you bring it back for a refund cause it is far out of date.".
Saw "milk" and "bone" next to each other and at the beginning, I thought this was gonna be about dog treats lol
If you put standard definition signal on an HD television it looks like s**t. Garbage in Garbage out!
This isn't entirely true. Better quality TVs have better upscaling algorithms. So it really depends on how the signal is being processed before display. It's never going to look as good as something mastered in true 4k. But you can get a pretty decent HD version of SD content with a good scaler.
Often read comments from people saying "this must be fake, no one is that dumb", I can guarantee after working in the food industry for 15 years people are most definitely that dumb. Wealthy people seem to be the worst.
I was at a cafe the other day and a lady asked the owner "What's in the egg and bacon roll?" and he said "two rashers of bacon and a fried or poached egg" and she said, as though he'd offended her, "I don't LIKE eggs!". So yeah. People are dumb.
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Where I work drivers have to prepay for fuel. The number of people who don't know whether their car is petrol or diesel blows my mind. One lady asked me to just hit either one as "It doesn't matter." I had to explain to her why it really really does matter. Thankfully she wasn't being rude, she seemed nice but just a little confused. If she was being nasty I may have just let her roll the dice with her engine.
Gary Delaney: I mistakenly filled the Escort with diesel. She died.
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I needed some partical board cut in 10cm strips at the local DIY. The smallest board was 60cm wide and I needed 3 strips. He refused to cut it because they are not allowed to cut less the 23cm. What if, I asked to cut the board to 50cm, would you cut it? Yes he affirmed. So they would be a 10 cm strip left over. I could see the smoke coming out of the top of his head.
Reminds me of Jack Nicholson trying to order a plain omelette in Easy Rider..LOL https://youtu.be/hdIXrF34Bz0?si=hUsE03gQEpZ3zSDJ
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Before I started working, I greatly overestimated the intelligence of the general population.
The amount of times people seem to think I, a (former) cashier set the store's prices is WILD
A student from the TAFE over the road came into the library to photocopy some overhead projector sheets - these are transparent. It took longer than you'd expect to have her understand that if you photocopy a transparent sheet onto white paper, it won't be transparent. In the end I had to photocopy "air" to prove that transparent isn't an ink colour.
You can photocopy OHP film onto transparency film too though. Just need to buy the film and load it into the copier instead of paper (assuming your copier supports it of course).
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had a man at a buffet climb over the wet floor sign and fall, then when the paramedics came he was angry because he had slipped on a wet floor and wanted to sue. When I explained to the police what I saw, they asked me twice because they thought they misheard me.
When I worked at a big box electronics store in college, a man came up to me at the customer service desk to complain about the interest rate on his store credit card, thrusting his card statement in my face! It was like 190%! I don't know if that's even legal now (it was early 2000s), but it took forever for me to explain that the bank issuing the card (was the biggest in the world, if not still, but definitely still a major bank) set the rates - not the store, and certainly not my $9/hr student-a*s!
I worked at a gas station in college and we have a rewards card people can scan to get 3 cents off per gallon of gas. I'm supposed to ask each customer if they have their rewards card, but we're a large station so we get busy and sometimes I forgot. I didn't ask this one lady and she came back in SCREAMING after pumping her gas that we didn't scan her card. She demanded a refund. Eventually my manager just gave in and we gave her like 42 cents out of the register. Her face when she got back a few coins was absolutely priceless and she skulked out of the store while a big line watched her sorry a*s leave.
Working in retail as long as I did, I'm still amazed I managed to not bludgeon myself to death in front of customers.
Watch the movie "Idiocracy." It's no longer the future, it's happening now.
I had a customer screaming at me because her booking number wasn’t one of our booking numbers. I finally worked out that she was booked with a completely different airline. She screamed at me because both airlines names started with the same letter. How was she supposed to know, we should just be able to look up each other’s bookings. Er, what? I’m still waiting for the logic of that to make sense. I’m just glad she was booked with another airline. I will lay odds that she complained about the window not opening at 30 000ft.
I can relate to sooo many of these! My word, it's a miracle my smart mouth never got me fired! 😂😂
I had to explain customer that he can't buy alcohol or cigarettes with food stamps. He was angry, yelled at me and wanted to speak with my superior. I had to call superior, who told him exactly the same thing. Guy spend next 30 minutes arguing with my superior and then left store, still angry.
We had a regular, we called him “banana man.” Back then, food stamps came like Monopoly money and they could get cash back if it was less than one dollar. So, every morning he would buy one banana with his food stamp dollar, get the change, then go buy one can of beer.
Load More Replies...
My husband and I operate a wedding venue on our massive farm. I once had to explain to a bride why she could use one of our rescue kangaroos as a ring bearer. She refused to believe an animal raised on a farm could be feral.
I worked at Victoria's Secret for a bit after college. The product of the store led to some interesting exchanges in of itself but my favorite has to be the guy that came in and asked if we sold lingerie. I looked to my left and right at the walls and tables filled with lingerie and simply said, yes sir we do. Lol
When I was younger I though the average person was reasonably intelligent, you know, they could find their a*s with two hands. Now that I'm much older...
Recently, I had to explain to a new cashier at the grocery store that the bundle of stiff green things was a bunch of celery. I wish I was kidding but she had never seen it before it was cut up.
The amount of emails I receive going "Hi, can I order *list of codes from our e-shop*" with or without all necessary info for making an order is astounding. Like, you took the time to browse the e-shop but couldn't be bothered to "add to cart" and checkout? Instead you write an elaborate email, wasting both your and my time to make that order for you? I get repeat customers, can't be bothered to go through the same ordeal but first timers? It's the same amount of effort ffs, maybe even easier online...
A friend worked at a camera shop in the 80s. A lady came in to return the video camera she had rented for her grandson's birthday party. She asked my friend if he could develop the tape so she could watch it, much in the way film had to be developed from point-and-shoot cameras back in those days.
There are soooo many stupid people i deal with in a grocery store. "I thought the lunchables would be in dairy not meat dept" ...looking in ice cream for meatballs...etc
I had someone come in with dead fish and some water to test. Water parameters were not great but not bad enough to kill their fish. We went through the usual stuff and they mentioned that their tank was 98 degrees Fahrenheit because their heater was broken and stuck on. I advise them that isn't OK and will kill 99% of fish that are available . They say they understand and bought some more fish just to come back an hour later with them dead in the bag. I felt the bag they were float acclimating them in and guess what, it was as warm as a hot tub. They never removed the broken heater, cooked the fish before they could release them and demanded their money back. Some people are f*****g hopeless.
I've been working at Tesco supermarket for 6 months, and I like to collect all the stupid questions I get asked. I haven't had anything monumentally bad yet, it's mostly a toss up between customers asking me where really obvious things are ("Where are your sausages?" is a regular occurrence. They're in the aisle that has a massive sign at the end saying "Sausages"), and those who seem to think I carry a massive inventory of every item in the superstore in my head - *pointing to the other end of the aisle* "How much is that chicken down there?" "All of our [at least 20 different] chicken products have prices on the shelf". "Which of your ready meals can be microwaved?" "Which yogurts are runny?". People get very confused over store card prices. I once spent at least 5 minutes trying to explain to a man that the cheeses that had the price label saying 3 for £6 were 3 for £6, the ones that didn't... weren't. My favourite was last week, a man called me over to the promotional shelving, where the price tags show the original price and the store card discount price, and asked whether the discounted price (which said clubcard price below) was the price or the discount. I refrained from saying that no store in my experience displays the discount instead of the price, and also from pointing out that, even if it did, the amount of a 50% discount and a 50% price are the same.
I actually have one from earlier tonight! I work in fast food. Today I was in the front window, handing out orders. I had an order for a large soda, and nothing else. The car pulls up and it's a guy driving, and a girl in the passenger seat, presumably his partner. Both looked like their hobby was picking at their faces, and in addition hadn't bathed in a month. Old, bear up car, filthy inside. But hey, whatever, I'm not here to judge, just to give you your order. However, the guy's attitude was as trashy as he was. I hand him his soda, and he says, in a very huffy tone, "I would've been here-" [at the front window] "-a lot sooner, if I'd gotten my two cents back." I literally didn't know what to say. I blinked, and then I was like, "I'm...sorry?" And the guy huffs, "Not half as sorry as I am!" And speeds away. I was literally flabbergasted. All I could think was, 'Yeah, you're right. Because I'm actually not sorry at all. But if you really got that salty over TWO PENNIES, the you are indeed the sorriest m**********r I've ever seen in my whole life.' Some people's kids, man. 😂 Then again, I guess every penny counts when the meth bill is due...
I would like to note that "The customer is always right" is a misquote. The actual quote is, "IN MATTERS OF TASTE, the customer is always right." Retail employees would have much easier lives if this were widely known.
Being in Flooring next to Millworks at Lowe's I sometimes had to help people with doors and window questions. One perfectly normal-looking guy was asking about replacing patio doors and I said that all we had in stock were 5-foot doors so if he needed a 6-foot one it would have to be ordered. "Wouldn't you have to duck to go through a 5-foot?"
On one tech support call I took, I had to explain to an adult (helping his mom with the website I was supporting) the difference between Shift and CAPS LOCK. There was a reason I kept Advil and antacids at my desk.
Somewhere someone is goofing on you for the stupid things you did in their store.
I'm so glad that I've never had to deal with the public for my job. For those of you who do, I have even more respect and admiration than I did before reading this list. If I had to deal with these people, it's 50/50 whether I have some fun or tell them, "Don't be a c**t all your life, have a day off."
Often read comments from people saying "this must be fake, no one is that dumb", I can guarantee after working in the food industry for 15 years people are most definitely that dumb. Wealthy people seem to be the worst.
I was at a cafe the other day and a lady asked the owner "What's in the egg and bacon roll?" and he said "two rashers of bacon and a fried or poached egg" and she said, as though he'd offended her, "I don't LIKE eggs!". So yeah. People are dumb.
Load More Replies... Where I work drivers have to prepay for fuel. The number of people who don't know whether their car is petrol or diesel blows my mind. One lady asked me to just hit either one as "It doesn't matter." I had to explain to her why it really really does matter. Thankfully she wasn't being rude, she seemed nice but just a little confused. If she was being nasty I may have just let her roll the dice with her engine.
Gary Delaney: I mistakenly filled the Escort with diesel. She died.
Load More Replies... I needed some partical board cut in 10cm strips at the local DIY. The smallest board was 60cm wide and I needed 3 strips. He refused to cut it because they are not allowed to cut less the 23cm. What if, I asked to cut the board to 50cm, would you cut it? Yes he affirmed. So they would be a 10 cm strip left over. I could see the smoke coming out of the top of his head.
Reminds me of Jack Nicholson trying to order a plain omelette in Easy Rider..LOL https://youtu.be/hdIXrF34Bz0?si=hUsE03gQEpZ3zSDJ
Load More Replies... Before I started working, I greatly overestimated the intelligence of the general population.
The amount of times people seem to think I, a (former) cashier set the store's prices is WILD
A student from the TAFE over the road came into the library to photocopy some overhead projector sheets - these are transparent. It took longer than you'd expect to have her understand that if you photocopy a transparent sheet onto white paper, it won't be transparent. In the end I had to photocopy "air" to prove that transparent isn't an ink colour.
You can photocopy OHP film onto transparency film too though. Just need to buy the film and load it into the copier instead of paper (assuming your copier supports it of course).
Load More Replies... had a man at a buffet climb over the wet floor sign and fall, then when the paramedics came he was angry because he had slipped on a wet floor and wanted to sue. When I explained to the police what I saw, they asked me twice because they thought they misheard me.
When I worked at a big box electronics store in college, a man came up to me at the customer service desk to complain about the interest rate on his store credit card, thrusting his card statement in my face! It was like 190%! I don't know if that's even legal now (it was early 2000s), but it took forever for me to explain that the bank issuing the card (was the biggest in the world, if not still, but definitely still a major bank) set the rates - not the store, and certainly not my $9/hr student-a*s!
I worked at a gas station in college and we have a rewards card people can scan to get 3 cents off per gallon of gas. I'm supposed to ask each customer if they have their rewards card, but we're a large station so we get busy and sometimes I forgot. I didn't ask this one lady and she came back in SCREAMING after pumping her gas that we didn't scan her card. She demanded a refund. Eventually my manager just gave in and we gave her like 42 cents out of the register. Her face when she got back a few coins was absolutely priceless and she skulked out of the store while a big line watched her sorry a*s leave.
Working in retail as long as I did, I'm still amazed I managed to not bludgeon myself to death in front of customers.
Watch the movie "Idiocracy." It's no longer the future, it's happening now.
I had a customer screaming at me because her booking number wasn’t one of our booking numbers. I finally worked out that she was booked with a completely different airline. She screamed at me because both airlines names started with the same letter. How was she supposed to know, we should just be able to look up each other’s bookings. Er, what? I’m still waiting for the logic of that to make sense. I’m just glad she was booked with another airline. I will lay odds that she complained about the window not opening at 30 000ft.
I can relate to sooo many of these! My word, it's a miracle my smart mouth never got me fired! 😂😂
I had to explain customer that he can't buy alcohol or cigarettes with food stamps. He was angry, yelled at me and wanted to speak with my superior. I had to call superior, who told him exactly the same thing. Guy spend next 30 minutes arguing with my superior and then left store, still angry.
We had a regular, we called him “banana man.” Back then, food stamps came like Monopoly money and they could get cash back if it was less than one dollar. So, every morning he would buy one banana with his food stamp dollar, get the change, then go buy one can of beer.
Load More Replies... My husband and I operate a wedding venue on our massive farm. I once had to explain to a bride why she could use one of our rescue kangaroos as a ring bearer. She refused to believe an animal raised on a farm could be feral.
I worked at Victoria's Secret for a bit after college. The product of the store led to some interesting exchanges in of itself but my favorite has to be the guy that came in and asked if we sold lingerie. I looked to my left and right at the walls and tables filled with lingerie and simply said, yes sir we do. Lol
When I was younger I though the average person was reasonably intelligent, you know, they could find their a*s with two hands. Now that I'm much older...
Recently, I had to explain to a new cashier at the grocery store that the bundle of stiff green things was a bunch of celery. I wish I was kidding but she had never seen it before it was cut up.
The amount of emails I receive going "Hi, can I order *list of codes from our e-shop*" with or without all necessary info for making an order is astounding. Like, you took the time to browse the e-shop but couldn't be bothered to "add to cart" and checkout? Instead you write an elaborate email, wasting both your and my time to make that order for you? I get repeat customers, can't be bothered to go through the same ordeal but first timers? It's the same amount of effort ffs, maybe even easier online...
A friend worked at a camera shop in the 80s. A lady came in to return the video camera she had rented for her grandson's birthday party. She asked my friend if he could develop the tape so she could watch it, much in the way film had to be developed from point-and-shoot cameras back in those days.
There are soooo many stupid people i deal with in a grocery store. "I thought the lunchables would be in dairy not meat dept" ...looking in ice cream for meatballs...etc
I had someone come in with dead fish and some water to test. Water parameters were not great but not bad enough to kill their fish. We went through the usual stuff and they mentioned that their tank was 98 degrees Fahrenheit because their heater was broken and stuck on. I advise them that isn't OK and will kill 99% of fish that are available . They say they understand and bought some more fish just to come back an hour later with them dead in the bag. I felt the bag they were float acclimating them in and guess what, it was as warm as a hot tub. They never removed the broken heater, cooked the fish before they could release them and demanded their money back. Some people are f*****g hopeless.
I've been working at Tesco supermarket for 6 months, and I like to collect all the stupid questions I get asked. I haven't had anything monumentally bad yet, it's mostly a toss up between customers asking me where really obvious things are ("Where are your sausages?" is a regular occurrence. They're in the aisle that has a massive sign at the end saying "Sausages"), and those who seem to think I carry a massive inventory of every item in the superstore in my head - *pointing to the other end of the aisle* "How much is that chicken down there?" "All of our [at least 20 different] chicken products have prices on the shelf". "Which of your ready meals can be microwaved?" "Which yogurts are runny?". People get very confused over store card prices. I once spent at least 5 minutes trying to explain to a man that the cheeses that had the price label saying 3 for £6 were 3 for £6, the ones that didn't... weren't. My favourite was last week, a man called me over to the promotional shelving, where the price tags show the original price and the store card discount price, and asked whether the discounted price (which said clubcard price below) was the price or the discount. I refrained from saying that no store in my experience displays the discount instead of the price, and also from pointing out that, even if it did, the amount of a 50% discount and a 50% price are the same.
I actually have one from earlier tonight! I work in fast food. Today I was in the front window, handing out orders. I had an order for a large soda, and nothing else. The car pulls up and it's a guy driving, and a girl in the passenger seat, presumably his partner. Both looked like their hobby was picking at their faces, and in addition hadn't bathed in a month. Old, bear up car, filthy inside. But hey, whatever, I'm not here to judge, just to give you your order. However, the guy's attitude was as trashy as he was. I hand him his soda, and he says, in a very huffy tone, "I would've been here-" [at the front window] "-a lot sooner, if I'd gotten my two cents back." I literally didn't know what to say. I blinked, and then I was like, "I'm...sorry?" And the guy huffs, "Not half as sorry as I am!" And speeds away. I was literally flabbergasted. All I could think was, 'Yeah, you're right. Because I'm actually not sorry at all. But if you really got that salty over TWO PENNIES, the you are indeed the sorriest m**********r I've ever seen in my whole life.' Some people's kids, man. 😂 Then again, I guess every penny counts when the meth bill is due...
I would like to note that "The customer is always right" is a misquote. The actual quote is, "IN MATTERS OF TASTE, the customer is always right." Retail employees would have much easier lives if this were widely known.
Being in Flooring next to Millworks at Lowe's I sometimes had to help people with doors and window questions. One perfectly normal-looking guy was asking about replacing patio doors and I said that all we had in stock were 5-foot doors so if he needed a 6-foot one it would have to be ordered. "Wouldn't you have to duck to go through a 5-foot?"
On one tech support call I took, I had to explain to an adult (helping his mom with the website I was supporting) the difference between Shift and CAPS LOCK. There was a reason I kept Advil and antacids at my desk.
Somewhere someone is goofing on you for the stupid things you did in their store.
I'm so glad that I've never had to deal with the public for my job. For those of you who do, I have even more respect and admiration than I did before reading this list. If I had to deal with these people, it's 50/50 whether I have some fun or tell them, "Don't be a c**t all your life, have a day off."
