Creating a glowing customer experience is something that every business strives for. Yet, if you ever worked in the service industry, you know it’s a hard task. Meeting dozens of people every day and dealing with their irrational and senseless demands while still keeping a smile on your face can certainly test your limits.
Sure, not every person you encounter on the job is dumb, some are very understanding of your position. But when a customer makes a complete fool of themselves in front of you, it sure does make a great story. That’s why many client-facing employees came to r/AskReddit to share their experiences.
Bored Panda has collected the most unbelievable answers from several viral threads, so grab a seat and get ready for some genuine laughs! Also, don’t forget to check out our previous posts about bizarre and silly things that came out of customers’ mouths right here and here.
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The ice dispenser broke at the fast food joint I used to work at. As a temporary fix while we waited for the repair guy to come take a look at it, we set out a giant serving bowl full of ice with tongs, so people could still ice their drinks. About 10 minutes after putting out the ice bowl, a customer comes up to me to complain that the machine isn't dispensing ice.
I tell him, "We know. A repair guy was called, but he's not here yet. In the meantime, there's a bowl next to the soda fountain, so you can still get ice."
The guy immediately gets an attitude about it. "How do I know that ice hasn't been sitting out there all day?"
I stare at him for a good few seconds before saying, "Because it's still solid."
"..."
"If left out at room temperature 'old ice' would just be water."
"I want to speak with your manager."
I worked at Borders Books and a lady at the info desk asked where are our BBQ's. When I told her we don't carry BBQ's she got very angry and said, "well you carry books on them, right? Why wouldn't you have them in stock?" I replied, "We have books on nuclear weapons but I don't keep those in stock either." I was written up later that day. B*tch...
We reached out to user monieo who asked fellow members or the r/AskReddit community to share the dumbest thing a customer has said to them. They told Bored Panda that they previously worked in retail themselves.
Apparently, as a staff member, you really do get “the cream of the crop” when it comes to the variety of clients that walk through the door.
“It really isn’t a proper workday unless you get some very ignorant or rude customers,” they said. It seems that many people believe that retail staff will do anything they ask and will bend over backwards to fulfill their every need.
Not to me but I saw it happen to my coworker. I work at a fairly nice restaurant as a server. As with any restaurant we get cheap people who want things for free.
Couple comes in. Busy Friday night. They were sat at a table that had just been cleaned. They sit down, coworker comes out to say his greet. Before he gets a word out the guest begins flipping out. How dare they sit her at a dirty table. My friend has to actually move around the table to see a smudge from the light reflecting off it.
Woman is now irate that he offered to clean it instead of giving them a free appetizer.
She looks at him, 7pm on a Friday rush and says, "if you do not give us our entire meal for free, including alcohol, we're leaving." Keep in mind they haven't even ordered a beverage yet.
Coworker looks at them and says "then leave."
They then try to backtrack and say they want to see a manager. My friend said "no. Get out." And they left.
My friend has worked there for 10 years. Went right to the managers and told them, I backed up his story, we laughed
'Would you like some jalapeños with your nachos?' 'No, I'm massively allergic. I could die.' 'Oh, then you shouldn't have any of this then, the cheese and salsa dips you asked for both contain jalapeños' 'Oh; don't worry. I'm not actually allergic. Just not a fan'.
You f*cking thundering bag of d*cks, I wasn't going to force them down your throat. Say 'no thanks' and we're done.
I was a cook. We got a lot of "I'm allergic to lettuce" and other such. Just say you don't want it.
“A lot of the time, they don’t realize you’ll probably make fun of them behind their backs with your co-workers due to some of the most absurd requests or conversations. Retail staff is bored and the customers give light entertainment to fill in the gaps,” they revealed.
Yet, monieo added that dealing with irrational customers and their demands is seriously challenging. They said that “customers don’t actually believe you’re a living breathing person with feelings and having them yell or abuse you willy-nilly for the hell of it can really wear you down after a while.”
Used to do tech support for Verizon and a lady called in yelling at me for shutting down her wifi.
Asked for her account info - she doesn't have an account.
Asked her why she called us then and she described the screen that shows up when you don't pay your bill.
She continued to adamantly claim she has no Verizon account and it is illegal for us to shut down her wifi because we don't own the air.
Finally helped her log into her router to get some info and pulled up an account with a different name on it.
She recognizes that name as her neighbor.
Spent the next while trying to get her to understand that she'd been using her neighbor's connection but the neighbor didn't pay the bill so there was nothing I could do. (probably not supposed to discuss the neighbor's billing issue without permission but I'd already told her that screen was from unpaid bills before we figured out it was her neighbor)
Don't think I ever got her to stop telling me I was violating her rights by not allowing her to use the WiFi in her own home...
That call happened to be randomly recorded for QA... My manager, entire team, and multiple training classes thereafter got a good laugh out of it...
Surely this moron did know she was not paying for wifi? By the way how do I get my neighbor to pay for mine with of course her not knowing?
I used to work in a store that sold stuff for getting organized and we carried step ladders for people who might be putting stuff up on high shelves. We had two different models which were completely identical except one had two steps, and the other had three steps. And the larger one cost like $5 more.
One night the store was completely dead when this guy walks in and asks if we have step ladders, so I show him the two choices. He asks all these questions about which one I think is better and whether I recommend one or the other and a bunch of other inane stuff and all I can tell him is that the ONLY difference is the extra step and about $5 in price. So the guy says, "Ok let me think about it for a minute." So I leave him to it.
He ponders this life-altering choice for an hour. He calls his wife to discuss it four times. After endless hemming and hawing he ends up not buying either one, and leaves us with the parting words, "I don't know. I think three steps may just be a little too much ladder for me."
I honestly don't know how someone that indecisive even manages to dress himself in the morning.
“You also can’t tell them off or what’s really on your mind because you’re the face of the brand so to speak.” The author of this thread revealed that there had been many a time when they wanted to tell people to get lost, to put it mildly.
Monieo told Bored Panda that they primarily worked for a large office supply company. From their own experience, they once had an elderly customer come through the door and make a beeline for them at the register. The person demanded that they tell their colleague to “stop texting their friends and get back to work.”
Ran a lawn mowing service. New customer asks about the process.
"Do you come to my house to mow it?"
No. We pick it up and haul it to our special mowing center then bring it back.
Gas station.
"Hey, the bathroom door is locked. Can I get a key?"
"There's no key, if it's locked there's someone in there"
"How does it know?"
"How does... what... know... what?"
"How does the bathroom know someone is in there?"
"People.... people go in and then they lock the door while they're using it."
[5 second pause]
"Ohhhh"
“My co-worker was using a digital product gun checking stock,” the author explained. “It clearly wasn’t a phone, nor looked like one. Even after I explained to the customer, she said I was a ‘very stupid girl’ and told me she’d never buy here again. My co-worker and I found it absolutely hilarious and talked about it all day.”
On a final note, the user told us that they certainly don’t miss working in retail: “In fact, I quit as soon as I graduated university. But the bizarre customer interactions sure make me look fondly back on it.”
I once had someone complain that the self-checkout machine was being racist because it was giving her the usual errors and warnings.
"please place the item in the bagging area! please remove item from the bagging area! The bagging weight is not correct. The attendant has been notified and will assist you."
(It's not racist, for the record; it hates all humans equally.)
"Does this room go all the way to the back wall over there?"
She pointed a finger out towards the end of the shop-floor, past all the shelves and merchandise.
"That white wall? The one furthest away at the end of the room? Yes."
"That is part of the room too?"
"Yes, this room contains all of itself."
"Thank you."
".... what the f*ck just happened?"
Working at callcenter, asking people to pay their old bills. Naturally some responded angrily.
'So this is what you do all day? You just call people who haven't paid their bills?'
'Yes.'
'So if I paid my bills you'd be out of the job?'
'If everybody paid their bills, then yes.'
'Ha ha! Good. You just f*cked up by telling me this. I'm going to pay my bills right away. When you're unemployed then see how you like getting calls about your bills!'
The futility of eradicating a job that relies on the existence of poor people by making me poor escaped them.
Be proud honey, you got this veggie brain to pay her bills good job! Maybe you could use this as a bill paying tactic!
I work at an Italian place right now. We call our Italian menu items by Italian names with English descriptions. I get a lot of questions, but I don't mind a hair because I get paid to talk about food.
Not too long ago though it sort of went slapstick. It's not that they asked a dumb question, but they kept asking it. "Pollo e penne?" "Oh, that's chicken and pasta with..." "Does it have meat in it?" "The chicken pasta? Yes, pollo is Italian for chicken." "Can I get the chicken but not the pollo?" "Pollo is just Italian for chicken, if you want chicken it's really good..." "No, I like chicken but I don't want pollo." I kind of lost it for a split second.
It's a good thing ths person never needed to learn a second language. Because they would have died.
"My laptop won't turn on!"
"Did you plug it in and charge the battery?"
"NO! This is a laptop! It doesn't need to be plugged in!"
"Ma'am, the battery still needs to be charg..."
"LISTEN! This is a laptop!"
I used to work at Red Lobster. A lady asked me for suggestions on something healthy. I suggested grilled salmon. She promptly turned down the idea, saying she heard it was full of fat. She then ordered a fried seafood platter with double butter and sour cream for her baked potato and double ranch dressing for her salad.
I had this insane woman flag me down at a Chinese Restaurant I used to manage.
She very loudly told me she found a hair in her Mongolian lamb, and showed me a long sauce covered blonde hair. For reference, I had short black hair at the time and the entire kitchen and wait staff on that night had relatively short black hair. The woman had long blonde hair.
Instead of letting her cause more of a scene, I apologised and got the kitchen to make her a new serving to replace the meal (even though she and her kids had essentially eaten the entire serving already.)
The part where sh*t started to really go down was when she came up with her family to pay. She refused to pay her ENTIRE bill due to the "HUGE THICK HAIR I FOUND IN MY FOOD" which she loudly announced to the room. At this point, the restaurant owner came out and started having a screaming match with the woman for trying to rip us off. Her kids appeared to cry on cue.
I sent my boss back to the kitchen and said I would figure it out. I turned to the woman and explained calmly that I would be happy to take the Mongolian Lamb off of her tally (despite the replacement serving) so long as she paid the other $90+ for the rest of the bill.
She refused and called the cops because my boss had yelled at her. No joke.
Best bit was the cops ended up telling the woman she needs to pay her full bill and that emergency services shouldn't be called for such petty reasons.
Happy I'm not in that industry anymore haha...
TLDR; Lady tries to use her own hair to get out of paying for her table's food. Aussie Cops provide quality sass.
Excellent story but the kids probably weren't crying on queue mom probably does this to them all the time. Can you imagine I'd be so GD embarrassed!
Worked at a gas station. I watched a customer pull up, whip her door open and slam it against the large, shiny silver pole that protects cars form running into gas pumps. She then proceeds to furiously get out, scream with her head facing the heavens, and run into the gas station telling me I need to be more careful where I place those.
The thing has been cemented into the f*cking ground for over twenty years.
You obviously should have placed them more carefully 20 years ago then
Used to work at Starbucks. A lady ordered a mocha and I forgot to add the mocha syrup. Dumb mistake so I fixed it of course. She put it back on the bar a couple minutes later and said "It doesn't taste right, I want a new one." Okaaay I thought, dont know what else I can do, but sure ill make a new one. I get started on it and she goes to the restroom. She gets back from the restroom before I'm done making it but sees her old drink on the bar that I hadn't taken back yet and thinks its her new one. She looks at and says "ah, it looks better already!", takes a big drink and says "Now see, that's perfect" then leaves before I can tell her I didn't do a damned thing.
I work at a hotel and I had a guest/customer call and inform me that his room did not have a bathroom and that he would need to be moved to one which did. I informed him of course that all of our rooms have bathrooms, and asked if he had checked the doors in the room. He had not..
Worked at Burger King, had a really busy rush, line all the way to the door. This guy comes in and gets in line, real sh*tty look on his face. He waits in line for about 5-10 minutes (anger building), gets up to my register and screams while waving a Taco Bell bag at me " You forgot my sour cream"
I was dumbfounded at how the guy could have waited in line, with all the pictures of burgers every where, and the completely different color scheme. So I told him I would go get my manager (she was a real old and crankier kind of lady, rough around the edges.)
As I come back I can see the guy has this odd look on his face, like its starting to sink in, my manager comes up and I tell her " We forgot the sour cream for his tacos". She looks at me, rolls her eyes harder than I have ever seen anyone roll their eyes, and turns around and walks back to her office.
The guy looks at me, he is starting to look nervous, his brain knows something is wrong.. I point out the window, he looks out the window, sees the Taco Bell next door. He was out the front door fast, bright red, not a word.
As a UPS driver
Customer: what's in the package?
Me: no idea you ordered it
C: Can I keep these indoor plants outside?
M: Well, they are tropical plants and we live in Canada so they would be fine for the summer, but you would need to bring them inside during fall and winter.
C: Ok, but what will happen if I just leave them outside for winter?
M: ...They will die.
C: Ok, but what can I do to keep them alive?
M: ...
I worked at REI a few years back (large outdoor sporting goods co-op, just in case you haven't heard of it), and we sold bear spray (pepper spray for bears). A woman came in with her two kids one day and bought a canister because they were going camping. She gets to the front door, then comes back to the register as an afterthought, and asks if she's supposed to just spray her kids from head to toe with it.
I once managed the front desk of a recreational center, and this one parent yelled at me for a class starting without their kid.
They were 15 minutes late.
I hate parents...
Top the anger off by telling her there is a late fee! Watch the fireworks!
Library. Once I checked out several books to a woman and told her the return date. She looked at her friend, then back at me, and said, shocked, "You mean I have to bring the books BACK?"
How these kind of people are still alive? Better question! How their ancestors managed to be alive enough time for procreation in the stone-age?
Customer: "$11.50?!? The deal says any two footlong sandwiches for $12!"
Me: "Yes, but one of the sandwiches you got had a regular price of $5.50 so it was cheaper any--"
Customer: "Thats ridiculous!! I want to see a manager- actually forget it. I'm never coming back!"
Worked in a scooter repair shop. This customer was well known for being beyond stupid, every time we saw them.
This time, she had lost her keys. She had us pick up the scooter, cut her a new key, and came in to pick it up.
Walks in, pays, goes outside to drive home. Walks back inside.
Customer: “um, when I dropped my bike off, there were like.. a lot more keys on here..” holds up key ring
Coworker: “you had us pick up you scooter... because you lost. Your. Keys.”
Customer: eyes go wide after several seconds of confusion “oooohhhhhh thaaatsriiiigghht......!!”
we all stare at each other as she leaves, wondering how she functions in society
I made lentil soup for the kitchen I worked in as a teen, but I put the carrots in later than I should have and so they still had a slight crunch when the first customer bought a cup. He stormed back in after a few minutes and demanded his money back because he was going to get food poisoning from eating an uncooked carrot.
C:"Your computer you sent me is broken, fix it!"
M: "We don't provide computers to anyone, this is (company name)."
C: "I got a computer from you guys to use for school 2 weeks ago. Give me a new one NOW."
M: "Where did you get it from?"
C: "YOU"
M: "What was the company name?"
C: "My god you are so annoying. I got it from (Different Company Name)."
M: "You'll want to contact them. This is (Company Name) and we don't provide computers."
C: Brief silence. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT." Hangs up
One of the dumbest calls I have ever had. Was a few years ago and glad I don't deal with those kind of people anymore.
Maybe its a good thing he wanted the computer for school -I assume reading is not his strong suit!
"Your total comes to $32.23"
"I only have $20."
"...."
"Can I still have it?"
"....no."
Vet tech. A lot of people think their dog's nipples are ticks. A lot. One man even pulled a "but he's a boy!" on us.
My MIL tried to remove the "ticks" from my cat, and the little idiot was just lying there, letting her pull his nipples.
A woman came into my restaurant clearly looking for her friends who were already sitting down.
The restaurant is small, and you can see every seat from the front door. I hand her a menu, and say: "Go ahead and take a look for them - they've gotta be here somewhere."
She looks at me, then down at the menu she holds in her hands with what can only be described as a look of both fear and confusion. I ask her if there's anything the matter, to which she responds: "How do you have a map of where everyone is sitting???"
She thought we live-printed maps every time someone new came through the doors.
Bonus: She, later that same night, asked me what duck was.
C1: "I'm allergic to anchovies, so no anchovies on my Caesar salad."
there's anchovies in our caesar dressing, what would you like instead?
C1: No there's not, I had it last week and I didn't taste them.
I grind anchovies into that dressing Every. Single. Day.
In New York State, you have to have your car inspected for safety. If it's not safe, you can't drive it. I failed a woman's car because her brake pedal goes to the floor, and the car barely stops. She LOSES her sh*t, calls her husband who b*tches me out.
"You don't know who I know, I'll have your job by the end of the month!" etc.
After about 20 minutes of arguing, the lady calms down and accepts her fate. The conversation goes as follows.
Her: "Are the brakes something the collision shop would check after an accident?"
Me: "Sure, but it depends on where the damage was."
Her: "Hmm, okay. I just got my car back, and they didn't say anything. I crashed into a building because the brakes didn't work."
Me: "Huh, weird."
Tip, auto mechanics have a lot to do and won't check every inch of your car for free. That little computer is not a tell-all it doesn't just say everything that's wrong with the car it just directs the mechanic to the right spot. So make sure you tell the mechanic what you want them to check.
Had an argument with a customer that there is no such thing as a uppercase "5". So when he was typing in his email password, he was typing a "%" in his password instead of a "5".
Me to my mum patiently: "No you leave the mouse on the table. No, just gently move it. Leave it on the table. OK, now when you gently move it do you see a little arrow moving on your screen? No gently mum, very very slowly.... What? No, leave the mouse on the table. Shall I log in and pay the bill for you. Love you too." :D
When the Nintendo DS was released with the Brain Training games we had several middle aged and older customers come in to buy the game but didn't own the Nintendo DS "No I don't want the Nintendo thing I just want the game." I started asking "What colour DS do you have?" to find out
After confirming she didn't own a DS, one lady told me "I used to work in sales, I know you're trying to upsell, it's not going to work."
Most of the time they thought they could put it in their computer somewhere or ask their children for help.
I used to work as a bank teller. A lady came up to me and asked to withdraw money. I informed her that she couldn't withdraw money, because her account was overdrawn. She was immediately upset, so I had her account checked for fraud. She then explained that all those charges were hers and she wasn't expecting any payments. She was spending money she knew she didn't have.
She then asked me why we couldn't just give her more money.
Worked at a PF Chang's and had a guest order the hot and sour soup. She sent it back because it tasted sour. And just the other day best friend who works at a fried chicken place had somebody complain about being charged for extra sauce. My friend told him that it says clearly on the menu extra sauce costs extra and the guy angrily says "I shouldn't have to read the menu!"
Back when I did tech support, I received a call from a customer with a peculiar keyboard problem. It seems that he was having trouble with the shift key. When he typed a letter with the shift key pressed it gave him the upper case letter, but when he typed a number, it didn't do that. Didn't do what? Type the upper case number. I had to break it to him gently.
Someone once told me she can’t have eggs since she was lactose intolerant. I told her to not worry’s since there was no dairy in the dish but I can still do it without eggs. Her response “Did you not just hear me say I can’t have dairy?”
This was an old grumpy lady who seems to think eggs, or anything from what we think of as “farms”, are dairy. So no, the customer is not always right.
I went to dinner once at a Chinese restaurant in Missouri and a woman at the table next to ours yelled at the waiter, "Where is the other sauce? We are supposed to get Sweet and Sour Sauce and we only got one sauce!"
Note: this post originally had 108 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Not exactly a customer, but I was stuck in a line at the DMV, behind a woman who couldn't understand that she wasn't getting her license because she failed the vision test. She failed the vision test because she hadn't brought her glasses, the ones she was required to wear while driving. She hadn't brought her glasses because she didn't want the picture on her license to show her wearing glasses. The poor examiner could not convince her that just because she wore glasses during the driving test, she didn't necessarily have to wear them for the photo. She never really got it, and I couldn't help but think that maybe she didn't need to be driving anyway.
Asking the customer if he wants to donate €1,- to a childrens-charity "no, I'm on a diet"
Why is it when some people are customers their IQ drops by 50 points, it's a very wierd phenomenon :o.
Not exactly a customer, but I was stuck in a line at the DMV, behind a woman who couldn't understand that she wasn't getting her license because she failed the vision test. She failed the vision test because she hadn't brought her glasses, the ones she was required to wear while driving. She hadn't brought her glasses because she didn't want the picture on her license to show her wearing glasses. The poor examiner could not convince her that just because she wore glasses during the driving test, she didn't necessarily have to wear them for the photo. She never really got it, and I couldn't help but think that maybe she didn't need to be driving anyway.
Asking the customer if he wants to donate €1,- to a childrens-charity "no, I'm on a diet"
Why is it when some people are customers their IQ drops by 50 points, it's a very wierd phenomenon :o.
