Like it or not, the world is full of Karens.

#1

Ok, so I have a story about a “kid Karen”. This girl, named Emma, used to follow me around the mall when I was around 12. If I picked up an off brand item, she would snort or gasp. Or, she would say in a really loud voice “You must be SO poor to have to get that! Bet ya don’t even got the money to pay for it!” She did this whenever she saw me in the mall (she spent all of her free time there; she worked at a small shop there) so one day I was really fed up with her, I spun around and said “Ya gotta be really desperate to follow me around” so she stopped after that.

Report

#2

Other kids mums at school were karens some of them told their kids not to play with me in case they caught autism 🤦🏻
also dog shows! I thought it would be fun to show my dog so he could meet other dogs but it was awful! The other dogs were lovely but the owners were all karens, they refused to let me enter my dog as they didnt believe he was pedigree because hes an unusual breed, they kept arguing he was just a mutt even tho i took his paperwork so i just left, i thought it would be fun! 😕

Report

#3

Kid Karen. We were at the swimming pool. I think she was 8, I was 12. There was a diving board. One of the rules was no running in the board, but people break that all the time. I ran off, did an awesome dive, and surfaced. Karen is like no your not suppose to go off the diving board like that. NO RUNNING. I got to the ladder, she does the weakest pencil dive ever. (She held her nose.) k point to the sign that says no swimming in the diving well. She swims over Abdul made her look like such an idiot. Get OWNED Karen.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT
#4

I worked in Pizza for 10 years and have been in the service industry for what feels like forever. We had repeat 'Karen's', one of whom we'll call Mrs. Karen. Yes, pizza places can and will black list you and that is a list that is associated with your phone number and almost impossible to get off of. You have to be really bad to get on it, but it exists. Mrs. Karen really should have been blacklisted but we never did because of her boyfriend. Mrs. Karen was an alcoholic who lived in a trailer in a eh part of town. Her trailer had both doors on the same side at either end of the trailer this will be important information. Here's what usually happened when Mrs. Karen ordered, and she ordered at 2-3 times a week:

1 - Calls and orders her food, despite the exact same order every single time this takes at least 15-20 minutes depending on how intoxicated she is.
2 - Calls back within 4 minutes of the order and says she called an hour ago.
3 - Calls back within 4 minutes of the prior call to tell us it's been over an hour, what terrible people we are, how we're being mean to the elderly (she was in her late 40's).
4 - Repeat the above calls until the driver pulls up to her trailer.
5 - Depending on her level of intoxication depended on what happened when the driver got there. To be fair to Mrs. Karen she only thought one of my drivers was trying to kill her and poison her food. Usually she would state in the order which door of her trailer to deliver too. 90% of the time she'd play door tag giggling like a kid running up and down the length of her trailer to answer the opposite door the drivers were at. 9% of the time she flirted with the drivers, didn't care about sex she flirted with me three times. 1% of the time we were trying to kill her, bomb her trailer, or some other thing we weren't doing and she was threating to call the cops on us.

Bet you're wondering why she was never blacklisted when she was such a bad customer?

Well that was my drivers. I wanted to black list her and every driver we ever had (except one but he was silenced by the majority, legit one of the guys dragged him off and informed him he could stop taking her delivery order, which he did) threatened to quit if I black listed Mrs. Karen. She was one of the best tippers we had, especially if her boyfriend was there when she ordered her pizza. $10-$40 every order. She never tipped less than $10, ever. Usually the tip was between $20 - $40, it was so bad one night her boyfriend slipped the driver a $50. By the time I left she was down to 1 time a week. She's the one I remember the real name of. I'll never forget that woman.

Also had a really big guy shouting at me and wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise. He was probably the same size as Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, he was huge. I'm all of 5'3", I stepped around the counter and asked him calming if he would stop yelling at me. They deflate when you do that, most of them do, because on the other side of the counter they have the 'I'm right, I'm the customer' mentality. Join them on that side and they game changes. I wouldn't suggest doing that if you're not good at reading body language and knowing how to dodge if someone lunges at you though. Stay safe.

I have so many stories....

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
#5

My first job was at a kids play place/restaurant/arcade. I grew up in the North East of the US so during February we had so many people trying to come in. One Feb day we reached our maximum capacity. On this day, it was 16yo me’s job to stop letting people in. One lady that was a full blown Karen was yelling in my face about not being able to come in. Then she said, “so we can’t come in because you reached your maximum captivity?” To which I replied, No ma’am but we have reached our maximum capacity. Then on cue the best lady ever laughed soo loudly and said what a stupid a**. I love that lady to this day.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#6

Woman held up a line for 20 minutes trying to get her coupon to work, but apologized so :)

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#7

Oh dear lord do I have a story for you

A little backstory. I work at a 4* hotel and I have worked here for almost two years, and before that I was also working woth customer service. I'm 30 and I have had my share with Karens, but this one is kinda hilarious.

So I'm at work friday night, it's a slow night and I'm just minding my own business until the phone rings.
"This is *bip* hotel how can I help you?"
"I need a room. Quick. Or I have to sleep on the street."
Now from her voice I clearly could tell that she was pretty drunk , and do to former experiences with drunk guest and smashes hotel rooms, there was no way I would book her a room so I simply said that I'm sorry but we're booked. Five minutes go by and she calls again to ask me what other hotels she could book that weren't fully booked. I named a couple of hotel in the nearby area but also said that there was no guarantee that they would have available rooms. She said that. that's really something I should know and ended the call.

Now everyone who has ever worked with customer service know when they aren't even close to be finished with that one Karen, and at that point I knew it too. And boy she did not dissapoint.

A few minutes later she called again telling me that she was able to book a room through a booking platform - and I cursed a little bit at myself, 'cuz I did hope she would be to drunk to book a room that way. My mistake.

I withdraw the money from the CC that's attached to the booking and say that she can come, but she needs to bring a valid CC and ID in order to check in (Hotel policy). And that was the point when she grew fully Karen.

First call after that:
She couldn't show me anything since she didn't bring those things with her, her wallet is at home.
*different insults from A-Z followed.

Second call:
Suddenly the room was for her friend, and she booked the room for her friend, which in her world means that her *friend* shouldn't have to show anything - again insults followed - the call ended with "Well since you have to be so difficult it is now your fault that my friend has to sleep on the street and will be hit by a car."
I tried to hold in a laugh here.

Third call:
"I want my money back! Now or I will come and punch you (Yes she
threatened me a couple of times) I told her since it was a non-refoundable booking I couldn't do that - and that I thought it was a bit strange to come all the way down here just to punch me - since it was her friend who should stay at the hotel right? *Beep beep beep*

She ended up calling a total of 12 times in the span of two hours! It's midnight and I'm finally of work, I told the night receptionst the story about her, and didn't think much about it.

Turns out though the did come to the hotel later that night - not her friend, HER - and demmanded to get her room. At that point my SV was still here and told her that she couldn't check in unless she could give us an ID and CC. Apparently she threw a tantrum and mu SV told her to get out of the hotel.

Now you would think that was it right? NOPE! She actually went and booked another room for the next saturday . kinda wish I worked that evening. (Status update - she didn't show up) However she also managed to call another 4 times and yell at my co-workers that weekend.

The next morning my shift begins with a lovely email from Karen caption: *This hotel is the disgrace of the country* - No I'm not kidding, that's what she actually wrote. I read the email and started to laugh out loud. The audacity of this person was insane! According to her I was one of the most irresposible and selfish person in the world, and that I under no circumstances should work in a reception, and that I should be fired after I lied to her? Me? Okay?!
She then went on an on about how she demanded her money back now(!) or she would go further with it. Further to where? I have no idea either. My boss and I had a good laugh about the email though.

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#8

First gf, I was only just 11 so nothing big but apparently I was her soulmate and it was my duty to protect her, she literally tried to get me to fight people who pissed her off, even when my friend made a your mom joke she wanted me to beat him up. Lets just say we made it two days. Even though we didn't.

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#9

My real name is Karen, and I'm always polite to service people and tip well when tipping is indicated, because I have both sympathy and respect for people who work hard and have to deal with the public.

Can't everyone find another name for "obnoxious white woman"?

Report

Add photo comments
POST
sharkdragon345 avatar
liam mckirdy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

look saying karen is not calling people like you an obnoxious white woman its just a term same as negative nancy not saying people called nancy are negative its just a term

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu