Hot Mess Express: These Customer Service Stories Bring The Drama
All aboard the hot mess express! Customer service workers, waiters, and more took to Reddit and spilled the tea on their most insane customers.
From rage freak-outs over literal cents to public proposals gone nightmare-vision wrong, these hot mess stories bring the drama.
1. Shattered Dreams
A customer came into my store while in his cups. We refused to sell bottles to him and he flipped out. Ended up throwing him out, so he went down the street to another store.
Then as he walked back past our store, he yelled some very mean things at us—and immediately tripped, shattering the bottle he just bought on the sidewalk. Glorious.
2. Their Culture Isn’t Backwards, You Are
I was the hot mess in this story. I was in Montreal for a hockey game and wanted to buy a Canadiens jersey. They're a little pricey at the arena, so I was walking around downtown looking at sports memorabilia shops.
I found one, walked in, and bought a Canadiens jersey. It was one of the nice lace-up ones, for almost half retail price. So I put it on to wear out of the shop.
Before we hit the door, I ripped the tags off and my dad noticed that the 'NHL' insignia was backward, and said 'LNH.' I got in the clerk's face and said, rather loudly, "You sell fakes! This is a bootleg! This is supposed to say NHL!"
The clerk's English wasn't great but he ensured me, "These are the new ones. LNH is the new logo." I replied "Yeah, ok, the NHL changed their name. I believe that."
He wouldn't do a refund, and finally, I left the store feeling defeated. On the walk back to the hotel, I saw another Montreal jersey with the LNH insignia. And another. I pulled my phone out and googled it. It stands for la Ligue Nationale de Hockey. The new Canadiens jerseys had LNH on them to celebrate their French Canadian heritage. I could feel myself burning with shame.
3. Salad Hound
I have a buddy who has a great Olive Garden story. He was a bartender and he noticed this lady was super obnoxious, so he cut her off. She made a huge fuss about it, and my friend decided to get her a salad at no charge to get some food in her.
Well, she asks for red wine vinaigrette dressing for her salad, then chugs the entire decanter. She was then thrown into a taxi and driven home.
4. Argument Derailed
My hot mess moment was in Munich, Germany. I was on a train and a conductor came around to check for tickets. I give him my ticket, and immediately he starts explaining something about how I hadn't paid and he was gonna write me a fine. I was like: "
You have the ticket that I bought in your hand! Are you crazy? How can you give me a fine?"
He keeps explaining I didn't pay and so he needs to give me a fine. I keep getting more irate at this obvious idiot. How could he possibly say that? I point to him that the value I paid for the ticket is on the thing!
I start mentioning/insinuating is he doing this to all tourists, to scam them.
By this time we've reached the next station and he gestures to me, while getting off the train with my ticket, and sticks it in a machine on the platform that goes "ka-ching." When he gave it back to me, he looked me straight in the eye and said "
Now, you've paid." I felt like a complete idiot.
