For any business to be successful, it has to live by one mantra—the customer is always right. Satisfied customers are what keeps any enterprise going, and keeping a customer happy is always the priority of any manager. But what happens when a customer is totally bonkers? Not just a little crazy, but completely out of their mind?
Well, it can lead to many different results, depending on how the manager chooses to deal with it—but let’s just say that the customer can sometimes be wrong, after all! Here are 42 wild stories of some of the craziest times when unsatisfied customers asked to speak to a manager.
1. You’ve Got Female
I once had a super old guy come into my shoe store to buy a pair of shoes, but he refused to let my employee help him because she was a female. Now, this employee has lots of tattoos and piercings, so I thought that she may have been overexaggerating and perhaps the guy was just offended by her appearance. He asked to speak to the manager, and then I came out to talk to him.
I'm also a female. Needless to say, he didn't buy any shoes.
2. Mooving On
Customer to manager: "This bacon is so raw, I can still hear it mooing!"
1. It was pre-cooked bacon.
2. I know for a fact that his bacon never mooed.
3. Show Me the Money
A sign was accidentally left up in our shop from earlier in the week advertising men’s Levi's as “Buy one, Get one half off”—so for two pairs, it would be roughly $90. The current sale was to get two pairs for $70. I had a lady pitch an absolute fit over the fact that we weren’t ringing her pants up as “buy one, get one half off.”
She claimed that we were ripping her off, even though she was paying less this way. The cashier tried and tried to explain to her that we had accidentally missed a sign, but that she was actually getting a better deal at the current price. She wouldn’t have any of it. She demanded to speak to the manager. The store leader comes out and tells her the exact same thing, but the lady still will not listen and is adamant about getting them at the price on the sign. The store leader finally gives up and tells me to just go ahead and do a price override, and charge her the extra money.
The lady leaves smugly, like she thinks she’s just worked us over big time, and makes some stupid comment on her way out about how I need to learn to listen to customers in the future.
4. Get Pumped
I’m the manager at a gas station. A woman once asked to speak to me because she had somehow managed to spill gasoline all over herself at the pump, and wanted us to pay for new clothing.
5. Screaming For Ice Cream
I once had a woman call up to tell me that she had spent the wrong amount on an ice cream cone. We had a special the day before that was something like two scoops in a waffle cone for five bucks, and for some reason, she had only gotten one scoop and said she didn't know about the special (despite there being signs all over the shop about it). She claimed that my worker didn't offer it to her.
I apologized to her, but I also said, "What exactly do you want me to do about it? This happened yesterday, so I'm assuming you already ate the ice cream and can't return it." She wanted a refund anyway for the inconvenience. I asked if she had a receipt, and she said that she didn't. I said that there was nothing I could do without a receipt. She said she wasn’t given one at checkout.
I explained to her that in my state, we’re not required by law to give a receipt for cash purchased food service items—so if she didn't ask for one, it’s tough luck, unfortunately. She still kept pressing, saying that she demanded to speak to the manager. I explained that I was the manager. She then asked if there was another manager she could speak to. I told her that no, I was the end of the line and no one else was going to tell her anything different.
She huffed and puffed, and told me that she would be by shortly to "discuss it in person." She never came in.
6. Not the End of the World
I used to be a manager at a fast food chain, so I dealt with a lot of nonsense. However, nothing was worse than the guy who yelled and threatened me because some high school kid making his burger put mayo on it by accident.
Get over yourself and be respectful.
7. This Little Banker Went to Market
I work at a bank that is located inside a grocery store. A customer once got very upset and asked to speak to our manager because we wouldn't let them pay for their toilet paper and Doritos at the teller window.
8. That Didn’t End Well!
I worked in a nice little geek shop that sold used books, games, memorabilia, and guitars. One time, these two kids were shopping in the books section and I overheard one of them say, "I wonder what the wall is made of!" So I jokingly said "The Wall? It's made of people! The wall is made of people!" They both laughed since they either got the Soylent Green reference or at least thought it was a funny thing to say.
Well, their grandma didn't like my comment one bit and after they paid and left, she came back in furious—demanding to speak to the manager about the guy who "gave away the ending of the book." I came over to see what the problem was, and she shouted, "If I find out that you spoiled the ending of that book, I will have you fired!" I apologized and explained that I was making a silly joke and didn't know the first thing about whatever book the kids had been buying.
The incident was never brought up again, and those kids looked SUPER embarrassed.
9. Endless Theft
I used to be a waiter at Red Lobster. A lady once said to me: "I am about to feed my child with endless shrimp. Now, you may think that you are going to charge me, but don't bother. If you charge me, I will just call corporate, make up something to complain about, get a bunch of free gift cards, and come back to eat again." I responded, confirming that we would be charging her—and informing her that my manager would be right over to speak to her about this.
All I know is that we did indeed charge her. No idea if her little scheme ended up working afterward, but either way I lost a lot of respect for humanity that day.
10. Who Cut the Cheese?
I once worked at a grocery store, and oftentimes at the customer service counter, which typically handles refunds, exchanges, complaints, and other odds and ends (like cigarettes and lottery tickets). This man once came up to me openly brandishing a big block of cheese, still in its package. I asked how I could be of assistance to him. Our ensuing conversation went something like this:
Customer: Where’s the manager?
Me: I am the manager. How can I assist you today, sir?
Customer: This is the wrong cheese.
Me: Alright. Would you like to exchange it for another kind of cheese or would you prefer a refund?
Customer: I don't want it.
Me: Ok, I'll put through the refund for you.
[I proceed to take the cheese, enter the refund into the computer, and hold out the money we owe him]
Customer: What’s this for? Where's my cheese? I don't want a refund!
Me: So, you want your cheese back?
Customer: Yes.
[I proceed to ring the cheese back into the computer, put the money back in the till, and give him his cheese back]
Customer: Where's my money?
Me: You said you wanted your cheese instead of a refund, so I rang it through again.
Customer: But it's the wrong kind of cheese.
Me: So, you want to exchange it?
Customer: No. I don't want to bother with it. I'm just telling you it's the wrong kind.
Me: So, what do you want me to do?
This still perplexes me, but he ended up responding by just throwing a little hissy fit and taking his wrong cheese home again.
11. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Plants
I work at a garden center. Someone once asked to speak to our manager because "Some of your plants are wet." I guess she has never heard of rain…
12. When It All Came Crashing Down
I was running a coffee shop by myself one day when this dude walks in and orders an egg sandwich. No big deal, right? I start making his sandwich and, in the meantime, the next customer asks for a BLT. I start warming the bacon on the skillet next to first customer’s egg. The first guy says nothing as I cook the two meals beside one another right in front of him.
Then, once the sandwich is made and I ask him to pay, he suddenly starts to freak out. He now suddenly tells me that he needed his food to be halal, meaning that it should not have come into contact with the bacon. He is demanding that he not have to pay because of this. Now, he never mentioned anything to me beforehand about ensuring that his food didn’t mix with bacon, nor did he stop me from preparing it that way as I was doing so right in front of him.
I found it very suspicious that this suddenly became an issue for him the second I asked him to pay. I told him that we could not give him the sandwich for free, and he started to scream his head off at me. He demanded to speak to the manager. Unfortunately for him, I was the manager. I told him that I would call the owner of the establishment up and see what she had to say about this matter.
As I’m beginning to dial, the guy grabs my phone right out of my hands, throws it to the floor, and runs out the door.
13. Pumped Up
I used to be the manager at a gas station. A customer once came in, red-faced, and stood at the counter. I greeted him, and he starts spouting off a tirade about how we had "cheated him" on the price of gas. Since he didn't come in and pay cash, I assumed he had paid credit. I explained to him that credit is a few cents more than cash.
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT! THERE'S NOTHING SAYING THAT ANYWHERE!" I gently explained that the LED sign has "cash" written next to the price, as well as a sign on top of the gas pump itself breaking down the cash/credit prices. It's a fairly large display. He adamantly refused to believe that the signage was out there. So, I left the counter, walked him out to his car, and pointed to the sign above the pump.
"THAT WASN'T THERE BEFORE! YOU'RE TRICKING ME!" He then threatened to call the police and report me for fraud. Uh, sure, go ahead sir. I'll be inside. The police came, dutifully listened, wrote a report, and then sent him on his way. Obviously, nothing came of it, but...wow. He was so angry.
14. Telephone Tag
I've had unhappy customers call up and ask for the owner of my company by name because they Googled it. I explain to them that that person is technically an owner, but has nothing to do with the business on a day to day basis and doesn't even live in the same state. I then go on to tell them that I’m the manager, and I try and solve their problem with whatever authority I have.
Meanwhile, I am actually that owner of the company they were looking for. Never show all your cards when negotiating.
15. Sacked
I was busy around Christmastime at an old job sorting out wrapping paper and things like that. The lineup at checkout was getting large, so I jumped on the till. A customer approached me and complained about having to pay five pounds for a plastic bag. She said that she wasn't going to pay, so I charged her for the rest of her bill and asked for the next customer.
She moaned that she wouldn't be able to carry everything without a bag. I asked for five pounds. She asked to speak to my supervisor. I said I would go get him. I left the tills, turned a corner, waited a few seconds, and then reappeared, informing her that I was in charge. The look on her face was priceless.
16. Unlucky Strike
I worked at a bowling alley. A little girl of about seven years old had $20 tucked into her sock, and she somehow managed to lose it. Her dad was RAGING and asked for the manager. He demanded that we reimburse her...For the random sock money that she managed to lose...
17. Sounds Like Someone Has Had Too Much Caffeine
I used to work at a nice little coffee shop in Seattle. The worst incident there was when a woman came in and asked for a macchiato. So, I made her a macchiato. It was not what she was expecting it to be, and she FREAKING LOST HER MIND!! Apparently, she thought that a macchiato was basically the same as a caramel vanilla latte.
She was so pissed that I genuinely thought she was going to hit me. I grabbed my manager and the woman was quickly escorted out of the shop.
18. A Costly Mistake
I am a 21-year-old female, and I was 19 at the time when this story happened. I used to work at a popular fast food chain and was once listening to one of my crew members interacting with a customer at the drive-thru. The customer was asking a lot of questions about prices on meals with and without drinks, but wasn't really listening and was starting to ask the same questions over and over again.
My crew member, I'll admit, definitely had a sassy attitude, but part of the reason I was listening in on them was that she was being so patient with this customer for once! At one point, my crew member accidentally said the wrong price. You know how often you jumble up words when you're speaking off the top of your head!
The customer then gets really quiet, before aggressively saying, "You think I don't know you're lying to me right now?!" She proceeds to start screaming into our drive-thru speaker, asking to speak to the manager. Out I came to see what I could do. I took over on the headset and tried to explain to her that my crew member had accidentally said the wrong word and that her meal without the drink would indeed be cheaper as she had hoped.
She wasn't having it. She cut us off and came closer to the window, still going off. She asked me, "What the hell is wrong with you?" I had ZERO idea what she was so angry about, so I asked her “What do you mean?” She says, "I MEEEEAN, what the HELL is wrong with you?!" This process repeated several times before everyone behind her started honking and she just gave up, threatening to call corporate on us as she drove away.
When the next car pulled up to the window, the customer in the driver seat immediately said, “Damn, that woman was crazy!” That made the whole thing worth it.
19. Why Is Everyone Always Talking About Me?
I was working in a restaurant a few years ago. It was pretty late after closing one day, and I was waiting for the last table to finish eating so I could clean up. In the meantime, I was doing some other closing work on the other side of the restaurant, talking to a coworker, and glancing occasionally over my shoulder to see if they had left yet.
The lady at the table comes up to me, demanding to see the manager. I say okay, not really grasping how angry she was. I went to go get him. When he arrives, she begins to rant about how my coworker and I were laughing about how she and her friends were "dogs." In actual fact, my coworker and I had been talking about how he was looking after another coworker's pets while they were out of town.
In the empty restaurant, they had overheard a few random words, and pieced together their own little false puzzle, believing that my coworker and I had nothing better to do than talk smack about them as they were eating. It says volumes about their self-image, I suppose. She unloads on our manager, who doesn't believe for a second that my coworker and I would even think, much less say, anything like that about these women.
Knowing that there has obviously been some misunderstanding, he calls us over. I proceed to explain how we were having a conversation about a coworker's pets. I swear I saw a look of utter embarrassment flash over her eyes, but yet she still continued flipping out. My coworker and I left the scene so that the manager could cool her down, but after calling us rude names for the better part of five minutes she eventually just walked out without paying.
Her friends followed her out a minute or two later, saying that they weren't paying for her meal, but that we'll "probably just force it through" on one of their credit cards anyways. That whole thing was probably more embarrassing for her than out and out dumb I suppose, but as far as stupid customer complaints go, that one was pretty over the top.
20. Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
I used to work at a fancy Italian restaurant and my manager once received a complaint that we didn't have a burger and fries option on the menu.
21. One Minor Problem
I am the manager at a swim school.
Lady: "Why won’t you let my child swim in the deep end?"
Me: "Because your child can’t swim!"
22. Mistaken Identity on All Sides
I used to manage a liquor store in a nearby college town. People would always ask to speak to a manager because we wouldn't sell them alcohol without a proper ID. They would often try to show me a school ID, as if that would mean anything to me. I also got some social security cards, birth certificates, or other forms of irrelevant pieces of paper like a picture or photocopy of their ID.
The best, though, was when I would work up at the front registers to help out and people would ask me to go get a manager. I would take about two steps, do a 360, then say, “Hi, now get out!”
23. Getting Down and Dirty
When I was still a young 19-year-old girl, I was the manager at a poorly run restaurant in a strip mall. Two doors down, there was construction going on. One of the construction workers came into my restaurant one day for food. He was slimy looking and obnoxious. I took his order and started to prepare it. He then asked me for WiFi access.
I told him that unfortunately, our restaurant didn’t have any WiFi access available. He then said that that was too bad because he had wanted to use it to watch “dirty videos” while watching me work. I was horrified and asked him to leave. Not only did he not leave, but he asked to speak to the manager and claimed that I was lying about not having WiFi. I told him that I was the manager and that he had to leave right away.
A few weeks later, he returned. I quit shortly after that.
24. Throwing Shade
I was the assistant manager at a retail store. We were relatively small and our actual manager bounced between our location and another one, so she wasn't around every day. If she wasn't around, all "Can I see the manager?" questions went to the acting manager—i.e. yours truly. Most of the time, conflicts were easily resolved and we didn't need to call our actual manager.
One day, our young employee, Jen, was on the floor and I was the acting manager. This angry woman came in demanding a new pair of high-end sunglasses because the screw had come undone on her pair, causing the lense to pop out. This happened while she was in a parking lot, so when the glass lense fell out, it shattered.
Her one year warranty was up, so we could only offer her 20% or so off of a new pair, or she could contact the manufacturer directly to see if there had been a faulty part. She was not happy about these options, so she went off on poor Jen. She then asked to see the manager. When I came out and asked her what the problem was, she was fuming.
She didn't believe that I was the manager, and called me a bunch of names. She asked if Jen was actually the manager, and had only said that I was to get out of dealing with the situation. I kept repeating the options to her, and she just continued to scream. Finally, she left—but only after throwing her $300 sunglasses on the ground as she walked out.
They were definitely beyond repair or warranty now.
25. I Think She Was Told There Would Be Sandwiches...
I used to work at a concession stand at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. We had snacks like potato chips and candy, as well as pre-made sandwiches from a local sandwich shop. We only got a certain number of sandwiches for each day, so when we ran out, that was it. This one lady, who was in a wheelchair, came through my line, telling me how she was diabetic and needed to eat a meal.
I showed her that we had trail mix, candy, and chips, but she absolutely COULD NOT eat any of that because she was diabetic—it HAD to be a sandwich and nothing else. I told her that we literally did not have any sandwiches left, but she just kept repeating about how she was diabetic and WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE SANDWICHES. She was being incredibly rude to me and was making a scene. She said "I was told there would be sandwiches!" about ten times.
By this point, there was a long line forming behind her, watching this scene play out. She asked for the manager, so I told her she could step out of line and wait for the manager, but she wouldn't budge. The manager came over and told her the exact same thing that I had said. She eventually calmed down, moved out of the line, and agreed to have the chips and candy (for free.)
I don't know who the hell told her about our sandwiches, but I want to slap them.
26. Fool Me Thrice, Shame On Me
A guy once complained and asked to speak to my manager, accusing me of harassing him—because I kicked him out of the store after the third time he had tried to steal from us.
My manager then called the cops…
27. Behaving Like an Animal
I work in the admissions department at a zoo. We work closely with the membership department and are really friendly with each other. When people purchase a membership, they get a card that says their name, how many adults, how many children, if they are allowed to bring in guests, etc. The card says clearly that you must show ID for each person on the card, though sometimes we are friendly and/or lazy and only ask to see one ID for the whole group.
Well, a week ago, some guy didn't have his ID. I don’t know how he drove to the zoo, since you need a form of ID on you to drive. We told him that without an ID, we could not let him in. The guy got mad and started screaming at us, before demanding to see a manager. Our manager came out and explained to the guy that without a piece of ID, we could not let him in. She also showed him on the card, where it explains this policy clearly.
The guy then screamed at her and demanded to be put in touch with someone higher up. So, she gave him our corporate number and he drove off. Good luck with that, buddy!
28. What an Incredible Statement
I work in the investor relations department of my company. I once had a shareholder complain and ask to speak to a manager because he had only been getting his quarterly statement every three months.
29. Dog Days
I am the manager of a pet service company. We offer a few free services to fancy apartment buildings in exchange for them marketing for us. We do dog walking, pet sitting, training, that sort of stuff. One of our free services is a dog playgroup. Lots of our customers get walks and enjoy the group, but then there are some people who just come for the free stuff. That's fine, we expect that. But some people take the free stuff and also use a different dog walking/doggy daycare company.
It was playgroup day and this customer said she wanted her dog to come to the free service, but his regular walker was coming at noon—so we MUST have him ready for pickup at noon. We took him to play and then made an effort to get the dog ready right on time. Our employee saw his other walker coming into the building, so she brought the dog up to the front to wait.
Apparently, that dog is normally crated while waiting to be picked up, but our employee didn't know that. The regular walker called the owner later and told her that the dog wasn't crated. The owner FLIPPED. She called me up saying that her dog "could have died." Umm, unless this woman regularly leaves poison on her floor, the chances of that are zero. So, in her fury, she asks to be taken off our client list and wants nothing to do with us. But when the time comes a week or so later for another free service that she sees her neighbors getting, she's furious that her dog didn't get one.
Just...ugh.
30. A Steak in the Matter
I was a waiter at a small restaurant for a number of years. Our worst incident involved a group of six to eight guys, all in their late teens or early twenties. They went all out, ordering expensive drinks and cocktails. Everyone ordered a steak as their entree. One guy, who had seemed suspicious to me right from the start, ordered his steak medium well, with every sauce available.
They stayed for over two hours, racking up the bar tab after they had cleaned off their plates. Some of them were even literally licking their plates at one point. Well, they eventually called for the bill and I dutifully brought it over to their table. The suspicious guy pulled me aside and informed me that he would not be paying for his steak.
Intrigued, I asked him to explain. Apparently, in his opinion, the garlic butter was frozen, rendering the steak that he had happily wolfed down “completely inedible.” I looked him dead in the eye and said, “Dude, the garlic butter doesn't even stay in the freezer, there's no way it could've been frozen.” The guy took offense to this and demanded to see my manager.
I went to the back office and explained the situation to him. As we were going through the kitchen, he stopped and asked if their plates were still in the unwashed stack. They were, and every plate was empty. The manager and I walked back out to the table. He asked what seemed to be the problem. The guy pointed at me, saying that I had an attitude problem.
He demanded that his inedible steak be taken off the bill. The guy then explained that he goes to some of the best steakhouses in the city, and knows a lousy steak when he sees one. The manager then looks at our customer, looks over at me, turns back to the customer, and plainly says: “What kind of freaking moron orders all three sauces on one steak?”
A screaming match ensued, with the entire table telling the manager that he was an idiot. The manager told them to get the hell out of his restaurant.
31. Proof of Purchase
This guy yesterday asked for my manager because he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that we can't print out a store receipt for an order from our website.
32. Baby, Baby, Baby, Ouch!
I used to work at a sandwich and wing place several years ago. I once had a woman order hot wings for delivery. After they were delivered, she called the restaurant enraged that "those hot wings made [her] baby cry!" The manager politely offered to send her mild ones instead, and didn’t bother to comment on the stupidity of feeding spicy chicken wings to a baby…
33. Taxation Without Representation
I used to work at the front desk of a hotel. I once had a woman throw a complete temper tantrum because the state that we were in charged a six percent room tax. She absolutely DEMANDED that I remove the tax from her bill. I told her that we had no control whatsoever over taxes. She still wouldn't accept the reality of taxes, so I printed off the contact information for her state representative and told her to direct her complaints to them. She did not like that at all. She started screaming at me, so I got my manager. My manager basically repeated what I had already said.
The woman grabbed the bowl of mints on our counter, threw it at my head, and stormed out. We had her credit card on file and charged her for the full amount.
34. Calling Out His Racism
I used to work in a call center doing tech support for a home broadband company. One member of my team, Victor, was a lovely fella. He was absolutely one of the nicest people I've ever met. He was also from Niger and had the thickest West African accent you've ever heard. Anyways, he was helping this one customer who just wasn't having it. The guy was flipping out left, right and center. He asked to speak to a manager, so I got pulled in:
Me: "Hello sir, what's the issue?"
Guy: "This idiot I've been talking to refuses to fix my broadband!"
Me: "Well, sir, Victor has just told me about the issue, and it seems that you will need an engineer to come and take care of it in person."
Guy: "AND ANOTHER THING, why am I speaking to an Indian?"
Me: "I beg your pardon?"
Guy: "Why am I speaking to an Indian?"
Me: "You're not, sir, I'm English."
Guy: "Not you, the idiot before! He was Indian!"
Me: "Well, not that it's important, but Victor is actually African."
Guy: "Pfft, they're all the same color anyway!"
It was at that point that I hung up and forwarded the call to our legal department. Screw that guy!
35. Oh, Man!
Several years ago, I worked as a supervisor at a call center. It’s important to note that I’m a woman. This jerk of a customer was once referred to me because he wasn't happy with the answer he was given by one of my workers. He asked me for the "manager" again. I told him that I was the manager. He said "I said I wanted the manager. M - A - N, manager! Now give me somebody with short hair and a tie!"
I hung up immediately. Then I secretly died of laughter.
36. Sick of Seeing Her
I was once managing two stores while one of our other managers was on maternity leave. That day, I had a terrible cold and there was nobody available to replace me. So, I went to the store, opened it up, and went to take a nap in the back, leaving everything in the hands of my salespeople. That same day, this one woman showed up who always seemed to be returning whatever she had last bought, whether or not there was anything wrong with it.
Lo and behold, that was the reason she had come in this time too—she wanted to return some clothes. She walked in and immediately demanded to speak to the manager, screaming about how the salespeople could not be trusted. That was a big mistake. Imagine my face, red with fever, not wearing any makeup, and hair undone. I was scary looking.
I took back the clothing from her, then escorted her out of the store saying that I never wanted to see her again. I angrily informed her that she was a waste of my time and that our store no longer cared about satisfying her feelings by taking back her unwanted clothing. A couple of weeks later, I was at the other store—and guess who I saw? Yup, that woman.
She took one look at me from outside the door and immediately started walking away. Don't mess with me when I'm sick.
37. She's Got it in the Bag
While working in retail, a woman came in demanding to speak to a manager. She was furious that we had not bagged one of the items she had paid for the day before. She claimed to have paid for four sets of boxers, but only found 3 in the bag. We looked up her receipt on our register and saw that we had only charged her for three. We even looked back at the security tape to see that she had only brought three to the register.
After giving her a call back saying that she had only purchased and paid for three, she blew up. Racial slurs, profanities, and threats were made about how we were all scamming her. 20 minutes later, she showed up at the store with her receipt to prove that she had paid for four. We counted together. One, two, and three.
Instead of accepting the obvious facts, she ripped up the receipt and reiterated that she had paid for four. She started knocking down clothes on our racks and then stormed out. The owner asked her not to come back again.
38. Anything You Can Do, She Can Do Better
I'm a female and I work in a video game store. One time, some guy walked right up to the counter and asked if there was a male around that he could speak to. At first, I thought that he had said manager, so I went to get my male manager. The guy’s mother then explained to me that he just didn't think that a girl would know what to do about his problem.
He refused to tell me the problem for over 10 minutes, as our manager was busy with something else and not ready to see him yet. When he finally gave in and described the problem, I was able to immediately tell him what was wrong straight up. He refused to believe me and insisted on waiting for the manager to come out. Finally, our manager came out a few minutes later, the guy explained the problem again, and our manager said the exact same thing that I had just said.
It was nothing short of pure bliss seeing this customer’s face register the fact that I knew more about his freakin’ Xbox than he did!
39. Connecting the Dots
One of the heads of a radiology department was infuriated when there was a network outage in his area. He stormed up into our support area, screaming for a manager. That manager turned out to be me. I listened to him rant and rave for a bit, then finally decided to take a walk down there to see what I could actually do to help. I started looking around and found a bunch of $10 network hubs splitting one PC connection to 8 PCs.
I started laughing and asked who put these hubs in. He said, "I did, what’s so funny?" I explained that he was the source of his own problem. I started disconnecting the hubs and, guess what? The network came back up right away! I confiscated about seven hubs from him and told him that if he ever needs more connections, he has to contact engineering and have them run more lines on his behalf.
He was not amused.
40. Having Your Chocolate and Eating It Too
I worked at an independent chocolate shop that sold various flavors of truffles, brownies, and drinks. We also had non-dairy options, vegan options, and nut free options available. A woman demanded to speak to the manager because we did not have a “dairy free, nut free, sugar-free, vegan” option. Luckily, the owner literally just laughed and said, “We do have one, it's called water.”
I have never seen such entitled rage in my life!
41. Sir, I’m Afraid You Are Mistaken!
At our local Red Lobster, someone once grabbed the "manager" to tell him that his shrimp was cold and that he wanted a free beer as compensation. He even went as far as to exclaim that he could get better fish by fishing. This "manager" was actually just my dad, who was there to pick me up from work, but apparently looked like an authority figure since he had a tie on.
My dad replied, "That's cocktail shrimp, you moron!"
42. If It Clucks Like a Chicken...
I once brought out an order of chicken parmesan to a lady at the restaurant I work at. The lady took one bite, called me over, and asked if there was really chicken in the chicken parmesan. I told her that of course there was. She immediately broke down crying because she is a vegetarian, and asked to speak to a manager.
43. In the Garden of Pettiness
I grew up in a smaller town right on the cusp of its big growth boom. We knew our town had finally made it when we got an Olive Garden. We used to eat there 2-3 times a month. My mom and I would always split an entree, and my dad would get his own. We knew the rule: if you’re splitting an entree and you get more than one of the family-style bowls of salad, you’ll get charged an extra $4 for the extra person.
Welllll one day, my dad decides he wanted more salad. Only he wants the additional salad, but the waitress said if she refills the bowl, we'll be charged the extra $4. Lo and behold, my parents' threw the biggest tantrum because only HE wanted the additional salad. They demanded to speak to a manager, and the manager explained the rule (which we knew), but offered to comp the extra salad just to get my parents to stop yelling...and they did.
When our bill came, the manager comped my dad’s entree and the additional salad fee. Well, my mom got up. Interrupted the manager while he was talking to other guests, threw the check in his face, and asked, “What’s this?!?!” She was furious that he comped my dad’s meal. He ate the meal, therefore we would like to pay for it.
She wouldn’t stop raising her voice until she was allowed to pay for the meal (but not the salad). The manager was confused but obliged...when they brought the change, the manager slipped a few free appetizer coupons. My mom ripped them up and threw them on the ground as she left. Safe to say, I didn’t eat out with them for at least a month and I still refuse to go to Olive Garden with them.
44. You're Fired
I was 19 shopping with a friend. She was (still is) a smaller person than myself. She was trying on a shirt and needed a size up so i took it back out to find a bigger size. I couldn't locate it so I ask a sales girl if she could help me find a bigger size. She takes the shirt in a gruff way. I ignore it. She comes back with a hat and hands it to me. I say, "Um what's this?"
She said, "This is the only thing in this store that will fit you", contempt dripping from her lips. I'm like, oh I see. I go to the dressing room, tell my friend we need to leave now. She gets dressed. Tries to clean her mess I tell her leave it. We walk out, I go to the register with the hat, it's busy. My friend asks what's up with the hat. I say loudly, "
According to that girl this is the only thing in the store that fits me." My friend, shocked, lost her mind. Because her parents owned the store. That's how I got a girl fired because I was feeling petty. Saw that girl later that week where I worked. I smiled and showed her what customer service should be.
45. Ready, Aim, Fire
The number of cashiers who my father demanded the manager fire because they were too slow, rang us up wrong, etc., including one they actually did. I'll never forget that girl taking her Home Depot apron off and walking away sobbing. To his credit (I guess?), my dad seemed surprised that it actually worked. He must have felt at least some level of guilt, and never did it again.
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