Dealing with customers can be pretty rage-inducing. But some moments are just so out there that you're left completely perplexed—and probably wondering how quickly you can quit your job and move far, far away from other people. From mega meltdowns to moments of complete confusion, these customer service nightmares are so out there, they're unforgettable.
1. What A Hot Head
I was working at a restaurant when a nice-looking family of four came in. The parents ordered a sizzling fajita plate for two. When I brought out the fajitas on the skillet, they were sizzling like they are supposed to be. That wasn't hot enough for them. They asked me to go back and make them hotter. So, I took it back to the kitchen where the kitchen manager decided to pull out a blow torch.
He heated the iron skillet up to burning red, then threw the fajitas back on the skillet and sent me back out there with them to the table. The father at the table was not very pleased with the profuse amounts of smoke billowing from the plate, and his next move was absolutely appalling—he decided to throw the thing at me.
Luckily he had bad aim and missed me. He just broke a window. The manager got his information, told him to get out, and we would be contacting him about replacing the window he broke.
2. Hear No Evil
I worked at Burger King when I was a teenager. We’re short-staffed one day, and the girl on the drive thru was on break, so our manager stepped in to cover her. He was pretty old and didn't have the best hearing, so most customers were pulling around to the window to talk to him as he was struggling to hear the orders.
One guy got to the window and yelled, "I want a large Big Mac meal with a coke please! Is that so hard?!" My manager very calmly said, "My apologies, sir, that won't be difficult." He leaned out the window and then proceeded to give this jerk a taste of his own medicine. He pointed down the road, "There's a McDonald's about three miles in that direction. They'll be able to help you.”
He finished with, “Have a nice day, sir." Then he just closed the window and walked around the corner out of sight. I laughed so hard!
3. Always A Good Time To Advertise
I work in a small town health food/supplements store. I’m a cashier that sells vitamins and bags of dried goods during slow times. Back at the beginning of December, a man came in asking about probiotics. I handed him the brand pamphlet that explained the differences better than I could because again, I’m a cashier. He looked at it, then asked me which was the strongest.
I directed him to the one with the highest number. He asked how many he should take. I took out the bottle and read the packaging, and mentioned if he’s trying to maintain a healthy gut, probably just needs the lowest dosage, the others are there if you’ve been instructed to by a doctor after a round of antibiotics. This man looks at me and asks me a question that was so disturbing, that it’s impossible to forget.
He asks me: “I’m going to level with you, sometimes I bleed from my butt…will this help”? “Sir, I am a cashier”! I responded “I’m not sure, but you should speak to a doctor”. Then, 30 seconds later, while I’m still trying to convince my eyebrows to lower to a sane position, this fine gentleman asks me: “Are you a pizza girl? You like pizza”? Literally terrified by the entire conversation I managed an “I guess”?
And he comes back with “I’m a business owner, I own one of three local pizza places that deliver, you should try it sometime, it’s really good”.
4. I Didn’t Order A #2
I worked nights at McDonald's and was at the drive thru. I was taking an order for a bunch of wasted girls when I overheard one of the girls say that she seriously needed to poop. Her friends apparently did not care and told her to go outside. So, she stepped out of the car and knelt down in the bushes next to the car.
The bushes were in plain view of the security camera. Everybody inside the place saw her, and it was a full-blown mess. So, I told her through the service window that everyone could see her. The look of sheer horror the girl made through the security feed made everyone burst in laughter including her friends. Poor kid.
5. She Was A Whiner
I worked a 13-hour shift catering to more than 6,000 people—all bankers and their families. Towards the end of my shift, I was going around collecting all the glasses from the tables. I reached forward and picked up the glass sitting in front of an unhappy-looking granny figure. Her head snapped up, and she started shouting that she hadn't finished her drink.
When I offered it back to her, she claimed that I had touched it with my fingers, so I offered to get her another glass of red. She agreed. So I brought it over and set it down in front of her, smiling amicably. But no smile could appease her—she started shouting again, this time that I had taken too long to get her drink and that she wanted to talk to my supervisor.
I walked around to look for one, but they were all busy working. Hence, I came back and told her that they would come and see her as soon as they could. Without a word of warning, the old woman threw the contents of her glass at me.
6. He Keeps Coming Back For More
I worked for an online retail chat company. Basically, where customers scrolling a site get a prompt popping up asking if they need help; those who click yes launch a chat popup to talk to an associate. One day, we got this customer...I don't want to give his actual name, so let's call him Moe. Moe came into chat on my line.
When I picked up and gave my greeting, he launched into a rant about how the chat prompt popping onto his screen gave him such a surprise that he jolted and the special sauce from his burger spilled onto his nice tie. Now, we are used to people coming in and saying "your job is bad and you should feel bad”. It’s usually either people who went online so they wouldn't have to be bothered by employees or people spouting off conspiracy theories that we must be stalking them because we knew what item they were looking at.
After I tried to calm him down and he stormed off in a huff with a bad review, I thought I’d seen the last of Moe—but my nightmare was just beginning. One to three times a day for months on end, people in our call center would mention getting Moe coming in and yelling at them on chat. He put the same name and email in every time, everything was on his chat history. It was definitely him.
I don't know why or how he found the inclination to go to a site that had online chat and harass the chat employees that often for daring to exist. He was a household name in the office for years after the fact.
7. All Choked Up
I was waiting on a couple at the steak restaurant where I worked. Suddenly, the man stood up and held his throat. He was obviously choking. He started turning different colors and was in need of help. I began giving him the Heimlich maneuver, and after several tries, some steak popped out and the man could breathe again.
It was a big spectacle. The customers and wait staff were shaken for a couple of minutes. Without even saying thank you, the wife of the choking man asked me to box up the uneaten portion of their meals. But it gets worse—there was a crust of Texas toast left on the plate that I didn't remember to include in their to-go box. The woman yelled at me for not including it and did not leave a tip.
8. We Are Not The Same
One time this older dude rushes up to order and slams a coupon on the counter saying “I want this”! I picked it up. It has menu items for KFC. I asked him “What exactly would you like to order”? He instantly gets disgruntled with me for not reading his mind and shakes his finger at the coupon and says, “Well, whatever is on the coupon, obviously”!? in a condescending tone.
When I looked down, I nearly burst out laughing. I just look at him for a minute and say, word for word, “Sir, this is McDonald’s. I don’t know what you want me to do with this KFC coupon”. He looks at me dumbfounded. Then looks behind me at the menu and around the store, yells “Aw, nuts”! like this isn’t his first time walking into the wrong establishment, grabs the coupon, and storms off.
9. Silver Platter
While I was working at McDonald’s, every single day at the exact same time, this old guy would come in and order his food. He came so often that most people knew that he wanted a special order – overcook the life out of the patty. It started up right when he walked in. That was the easy bit. The problem was the guy was forgetful and always asked for a plate.
Actually, he would demand a ceramic plate to eat on every time he was there. That’s when we would explain to him that this was a McDonald’s and we didn’t have plates. He’d usually be okay with it. But sometimes he'd rant and rave. One day, I watched the guy have an absolute fit. One of my co-workers stepped outside the breakroom with a plate of food that she’d brought from home. When he saw that, he screamed, “I knew you scoundrels had plates!”
We just could not convince him otherwise ever thereafter. The moral of the story: Keep it in the breakroom.
10. She Needed To Pipe Down
I was around 18 years old and working in the lumber department at a home improvement chain. I was on the second story rack, standing on the forklift forks and trying to handle a solid-core front door, which was extremely heavy, out of the shelf to bring down to the floor for a customer. I had it halfway out of the rack, precariously maneuvering it onto the forks when a little old lady walked up.
She asked sweetly, "Excuse me, sir! Can you point me to the plumbing section?" I replied, grunting, because the door was heavy, "One moment, ma'am. Let me get this door down, and I'll show you." Her response took me by complete surprise: "You idiots never have a product labeled right! I'm tired of this store's garbage! Way too expensive, too!" I froze, staring at her with my mouth agape.
The original customer I was helping actually put his hands over his son's ears. She was Jekyll and Hyde personified. Luckily, right when the old biddy started her rant, my manager happened to walk by. He stopped, walked right up to the lady, and said, "I don't care who you are, but no one deserves to be talked to like that. Leave the store NOW." It was perfect timing.
11. See You At Church
I worked as a Dominos Pizza delivery driver when I was 17. It was a normal day at work, delivering to a house pretty far out of the suburbs and this was my first stop. I had three deliveries during that run. I pulled up, rang the doorbell, and stood at the door like a statue waiting for him to answer. Out steps this hermit crab of a man, dressed in a nightgown and belly sticking clearly out well enough to cover up the fact he clearly isn’t wearing pants but isn’t showing me anything explicit.
I try to remain professional and exchange complimentary small talk, while I pass the pizzas to him since he paid over the phone. In typical small talk you’re not prepared for long conversations, I give him the classic “hey mate, how are ya.” What happened next was gut-wrenching. He starts to sob as he explains he’s mentally not well and only rang up for pizza to talk to someone.
I explained to him I wish I could stay and talk to cheer him up but this is my first job and I've got deliveries waiting. But I did give him the phone number of a pastor at my church and told him he can help a lot better than I can.
12. Getting Through To You
I was a shift manager at a McDonald’s in the middle of a mall. A guy came up to the counter with several McDonald’s bags of food and then said, “My wife came through your drive-thru, and you messed up the order!” I asked, “are you sure she came through our drive-thru?” He went, “Yes! She told me she went to the drive-thru. When she got home, she realized the order was wrong. Y’all need to give us our money back and give us the proper food,” he requested defiantly.
Confused, I looked around the mall and asked, “Did she drive through Sears or JC Penny to get here?” He finally realized he was in a mall, then grabbed his bags, and left.
13. Suited For Trouble
I was the sales manager at an electronics retail store. I was helping out on the sales floor when a young couple came in. The guy was probably about 6’5” and built. They were looking for a new computer, so we started talking about what they were going to use it for. The guy excused himself to use the restroom, and I kept talking to his wife.
Then, a young guy in a business suit came up behind me while I was still talking, grabbed my shoulder, and said, "Excuse me, I need your help. Do you have 'Software X' in stock?" I told him that I didn't think we did, but that I was in the middle of helping another customer and that he could go check upfront if he was in a hurry.
I turned back and continued speaking with the lady I was helping. About two minutes later, I felt a shock through my body. I felt someone grab my arm from behind me, twist it and start pulling me backward. The lady I was helping had a horrified look on her face as I got dragged away. I finally spun myself around and realized it was the guy in the business suit dragging me over.
He then grabbed the back of my neck, pushed it forward, and said, "See? You have the software in stock, and it's right there. I want your manager and I want you fired." I was too dumbfounded to speak for a second. Meanwhile, I saw the husband of the lady I had been helping return from the bathroom.
He dashed towards me and the customer who had me by the back of the neck. He grabbed the guy in the business suit by both arms and whipped him around and against the wall. He put one of his massive hands on the guy's shoulder and pinned him against the wall so he couldn't move, and with his other hand, he pulled out his badge. It was pretty awesome.
14. Back In My Day…
I've had a “Sir, this isn't the 70s” moment. A bloke sent his kid, no older than 14, into the shop I was working at to buy him smokes, twice. The first time I told him he needed ID. About an hour later he came back with a little note, like that would make any difference, and I sent him packing. But it didn’t end there. Ten minutes after that, the guy who wanted the smokes in the first place came in and had a go at me.
Like it was my fault that his son was a minor. I tried explaining that I would've lost my job while insisting that no one that worked there would serve his son, even with a note. He didn't care. He still shouted at me for 15 minutes straight.
15. Prequels or OG?
When I worked at McDonald’s, a man drove up and instead of ordering, talked on his cell phone and explained the entire plot of Star Wars, talked about how his intimacy wasn't negatively impacted by being Asian, and bragged about owning "multiple beautiful electronics." He then put the phone on speaker. Dude was on hold the whole time. Then he remembered he was at McDonalds, asked for free coffee, didn't get it, and left.
16. Looking For Pleasure
I worked in this small-town grocery store. One day, when I was first starting at the store, a stereotypical neck beard walked in the store and asked if we sold toys for adults. I told him that we were a family friendly grocery store and didn't have those items. All he ended up buying was hot pockets and ice cream. Never saw him again.
17. Holey Bread
I’d been working at a popular deli chain restaurant for a few years and was working in the back one day when a new trainee came rushing over, absolutely bawling, so I immediately knew something was seriously wrong. I had her stay in the back to calm down and alerted the head manager so we could deal with the situation.
I went to the register and found a petite Korean lady shouting very loudly and demanding the trainee come back and saying she was trying to cheat her out of her money. She also kept shouting what I can only assume were crude Korean insults. The manager looked at her with a “lol nope” expression and took over the line.
I got the pleasure of dealing with Korean Karen. Somehow, I managed to keep a cool head and told her calmly to explain her problem. She was screaming, yelling, and rambling about how upset she was and said the cashier didn’t give her any change and that the bagels she wanted were too expensive. I redid her transaction.
The entire time I was packing up her bagels, she's still angrily waving her arms around in a fit—until she bumped a customer next to her. He very politely, but also very sternly said, "Excuse me!" She decided to take this opportunity to spit on him. While this was going on, the assistant manager had already made a call to the authorities.
An officer came in while I was finishing slicing this monster-lady's bagels and tried to ask her questions very calmly like what was the problem, what’s her name, things like that. When he asked to see ID, she went ballistic. I couldn't believe my eyes. She shoved him and then spat at him! The whole time he had kept his hands to himself. This, clearly, was the breaking point. The officer grabbed her wrists and started to cuff her.
He was ordering her to put her hands behind her back, and out of nowhere, she let out this howling scream and started trying to fight with the guy. His partner came in and saw the commotion. He immediately jumped in. She went so nuts that he had to tackle her onto the ground. They took her out to their car in cuffs and came back inside to pick up her personal items that were dropped in the fray and asked me if anything else was hers, and I gladly handed them her change and bagels.
18. Put Out To Dry
The cash register where we entered the food orders was situated about ten feet away from the bathroom. As I was entering someone's order, this dude walked out of the bathroom, came up to me, and he did the most disgusting thing—he started wiping his hands on my arm. "You're out of paper towels," he said and walked out of the restaurant. I was so shocked I couldn't even say anything before he was gone.
19. The Devil’s Numbers
I used to work at a Starbucks drive through and I shall never forget this one Karen. Me: “Hello! Welcome to Starbucks, your total is $6.66”. Karen: “WHAT?! Target should not be giving out devil numbers to people! I thought this was a family store”! Me: “…Ma’am, it’s your drink plus tax”. Karen: “Well it goes against my Christian beliefs! I need to speak to the manager about this”!
Me: “Ma’am, this Starbucks is not associated with—”. I tried. But she kept yelling at me. My shift supervisor was amazing.
20. Practice What You Preach
I owned a bed and breakfast in a little southern town. It was a small business— just three rooms in an old farmhouse that was built in 1835. During the off-season, which was late fall through mid-spring, we would give away three-day packages for charity events, such as auctions. We were never in charge of the money that was collected.
A man and his wife booked for a weekend in late March. They showed up on Friday afternoon with their gift certificate from the charity auction, which we gladly accepted. I greeted them as Mr. and Mrs., to which the guy responded, "It's PASTOR." I proceeded to show them their room, inform them of our policies, and explain that there was going to be another couple arriving that evening.
The next morning, I served both couples breakfast, and after the other couple left, the pastor said to me, "I don't think it's a good idea to have more than one couple here at a time. Why did you schedule us both?" I told him that we were just like a hotel and it couldn’t be expected that we should only take one room at a time. He didn't like that answer, not one bit.
He said he found out the other couple was not married, and he was bothered by the idea that we would promote "immorality.” It got worse. We had a huge farm with wonderful little gardens and nice spots to sit and enjoy the country. I walked out to the grounds and found the pastor, sitting on a plastic folding chair, right in front of the entrance to the farmhouse.
I wondered about it, but I didn't say anything. Later that night, the lady of the other couple came to my door and told me that they were leaving because the pastor had blocked their entrance to the house and began to preach to them about being immoral. I apologized and offered her almost everything I could think of to have her stay.
She was lovely and told me that she knew it wasn't my fault, but that their weekend was ruined. The following day, I was getting breakfast ready, and I saw the pastor putting his luggage in their car. They had another night left, so I was kind of confused. I walked out the driveway, and I said, “I think maybe there is a miscommunication; you have another night.”
He said, "Your air conditioning is broken, so we are leaving.” I told him that I could check on it since it might just not have been on. It was still cool out, and, in fact, the heat might have been on. He looked at me and said, "No, it was too hot last night, and YOU should have known that. I want my money back!" For SOME reason, I was still trying to keep the whole thing friendly.
I explained to him that I didn't receive any money from him, that the certificate he used was from a charity auction, so I am not even sure what he paid, to which he responded, “Well, I paid $110, and I didn't pay that to sleep in a hot room next to sinners, so you better write a check." I told him that I would not be issuing a check since ONE night at our regular rate is $100.
Therefore, his nightly rate was less than a third of that, and I didn't receive any of that money. I walked back inside and began to shut down, making breakfast. About five minutes later, he came back to the door and he caught me completely off-guard. He said, “We'll be taking our breakfast and my check now." I explained that I would be happy to put his breakfast in a box, but I was not giving him any money.
They left, and there was a letter in his room to me, telling me that he was going to call his lawyer. Two weeks later, I got a package in the mail with their name on the return address. I was both scared and intrigued to open it. It was a letter from his wife, whom I didn't hear more than two words from during their trip.
She apologized for her husband's behavior. She told me she knew I had not done anything wrong, that the room was charming, there was no issue with the heat. She said that since her husband had become a born-again Christian and an online minister, he had become a complete terror. She included $200 in cash and asked that I not contact her since she was trying to get officially separated from him.
21. Tag Session Showdown
I worked at a laser tag center in an indoor amusement park. If we weren't busy, customers could start a 15-minute session right away. But if we were busy, customers would have to leave their names on a list, and I would tell them when their session would start. I would call it on the loudspeaker five minutes before it would be scheduled.
It was a Saturday mid-day, and the place was packed. A woman had a day-care group of at least 20 kids, and she was the only one watching them. She put her party's name on the list. I told her when their session would start. The time came, and she and only about five of the kids showed up. She told me to wait for the rest of the kids to get there. This put me in an awkward situation.
Twenty minutes passed, and the next group was waiting to play. Another ten minutes passed, and there were fewer of the woman's children there than there were before. I let the next group in and told her that her group would be the first ones in once they were all together. My manager interrupted the game I was attending to send me home. The woman screamed at me, saying I was discriminating against her. I quit after that.
22. His Stunt Made Zero Sense
An older man came in by himself and ordered dinner and a drink for a total of $30. A table of college kids also came in and sat a few tables away, and they ordered dinner and appetizers for a total of $150. My service to the old guy was sharp. I was professional and attentive—all was well. When I asked him how everything was, he was very curt and didn’t even look at me.
He ordered another martini, stopped me, and said, "I want you to add those kids' bills to mine anonymously, and I want you to tell them not to pay you or tip you. And I want to hear you say it to them." His demeanor was still terse and cold, but no problem. I had been doing this for a decade and I was cool with whatever.
The other table was about five feet away, across an aisle. I told them the news, and they were psyched. The guy asked for his check, and I brought it. The total bill for both tables was about $185. He handed me a credit card, and I rang him up. I placed the check holder in front of him, thanked him for coming, and began to walk away, at which point he said, "Wait. I want you to see this."
He made a big show out of signing a big ZERO on the tip line. He looked at me square in the face, stone-cold, like someone daring you to say something smart. It had been clear that this guy was weird from the start, so I said in a sincere tone and with proper courtesy, "Have a nice evening, sir," just as I would have if he had tipped me appropriately.
He stared me in the eye for a fraction of a second, which felt much longer. He reached into his breast pocket, pulled out a fifty, and said, "That's for you." I thanked him. He got up, put on his cowboy hat, and walked out—not a word to the kids whose dinner he'd just bought, not another word to me.
23. This Isn’t Walmart
I worked at an adult store for years, we had a really strict no return policy for obvious reasons. Once you bought a toy and walked out our doors, it was yours. We made this very clear to everyone. Anyways a guy comes in and wants to buy a pump, no problem. I ask him if he's absolutely positive that this one is the right size for him and let him know that there's no returns, even if it's not. I had no idea what kind of whirlwind of a customer service nightmare I was walking into.
I ring him up and he leaves with it. The next day he comes in and tries to return it because it was the wrong size, then proceeds to get aggressive when I explain for now the third time that we can't take it back but he can purchase a new one. He doesn't like this, he decides to scream at me and demands to speak to management.
My manager walks up and explains why he can't return a fourth time. At this point ole dude LOSES it and starts screaming "IF THIS WAS WALMART AND I BOUGHT A GALLON OF MILK, TOOK A SIP AND WANTED TO RETURN IT, THEY WOULD LET ME"! Without missing a beat my manager just yelled: "SIR, you don't screw a gallon of milk, and this isn't Walmart"!
The customer is red faced and irate at this point, as we cackled at him. He then smashed the pump to pieces in front of us then stormed out. I miss that job sometimes…
24. No Catch
At Panera, a guest called from their car with a chorus in the background giving orders for pickup. First order was simple, but the next order was something we didn’t carry; it had salmon. Some regional Paneras did have or have had salmon, but we were not one of them. So I politely said, “Sorry, but salmon is not an item we carry.”
Just as I was about to suggest an alternative for the customer, the person on the other end of the phone cut me off and started getting really aggressive, "Yes, you do! You do!" they screamed. But we don't. We just don't. Then I'm like, "Hey, maybe you're thinking of another chain. We are very similar to..." and then I listed off some other places.
But, again, they cut me off screaming, “I know you have the salmon! I just ate it the other day!” And, by now, I was just being honest with them and said, "Hey man, I don't really need this attitude. We don't have salmon. I can't make the dish for you. You got us confused with something else." Then there was this very long, ominous silence.
Finally, someone who wasn’t the person who had been yelling about salmon, said, “Wait, this isn't *insert some totally not Panera sounding place that I don't remember here*?" I went, "No,” and then immediately everyone in the car started yelling at each other, and then I hung up. Customer service is the absolute worst.
25. Misogynistic Mayhem
A family of four came in, and the dad started slamming drinks. He probably had four or five before they got their appetizers. The couple was a little rough around the edges in general—loud, blunt, and without good manners. The two daughters, who were about eight and ten, were quiet, though...and I could quickly see why.
As the dad got more and more intoxicated, he was really touchy with the girls. He made them sit on his lap, etc. They were visibly uncomfortable. I felt so terrible for them. I brought out one of the appetizer dishes, but the other one took a little longer to cook. I had alerted them of that when they ordered. The dad got angry, saying that the appetizers needed to come out together.
The dad started yelling at me, pointing at me, and calling me a terrible server while the daughters and their mom stared at their laps. He asked to see my manager, so I went to get her. She came out to talk to the guy. He was furious that there wasn’t a "male boss" available. He was spewing gems like, "Are you kidding? I need to speak with a man about this. You're telling me that the only manager here is her?" I had never dealt with such an insulting, crude person before.
26. Bible Brunchers
I worked in a restaurant. On multiple occasions, I served a Sunday post-church brunch crowd and they told me the most peculiar thing—apparently, I was going to rot in heck for working on a Sunday. The funny thing was that it never occurred to them that I wouldn't HAVE to work on Sunday if not for them coming in to eat. Not only that, but they would proceed to leave me Bible tracts instead of money as tips.
27. A Frosty Reception
I had a family come in for their daughter's birthday with a handful of her friends. They ordered a round of drinks that I promptly brought to the table. When I gave the father his pint, he requested that I bring his drink back in a frosted mug, not a frosted pint glass. I informed him we didn't have any mugs in the house, which sent him into a rage.
He called me a liar, flipped the table—breaking several of the gifts, and punched the wall on the way out. This left me, the family, and all of the patrons in a state of shock. The daughter started to cry, and the mother apologized profusely. She said they would pay for the drinks and leave. I tried to be as graceful as possible and suggested they stay as it was still the daughter's birthday.
I got someone to bring fresh drinks, got help cleaning up the mess, and took their orders. I told the kitchen and management what happened, and everybody pitched in to make the evening better. Their meals were comped, and I made a dessert bonanza for the daughter. By the end of the meal, it was as if the father was never there.
28. Bye Bye Birdy
I work in a pet store. One of my coworkers got a call one day from someone who found an injured wild bird and wanted us to take it. Being a pet store, we can't and won’t take in wild animals, especially not birds, due to the migratory bird act, and we don't sell birds so we didn’t even have anywhere to keep it.
So she tells the woman this and gives the name of a wild bird rehab center nearby, and the woman just loses it. I couldn’t believe her reasoning. She said it's "our duty as Americans" (yes, seriously) to take this stupid bird from her because she is a customer. My co-worker just says, "I am very sorry, but as a pet store we cannot take wild animals", and hangs up.
29. Laws Aren’t One Size Fits All
I used to work customer service for an online furniture retailer. Last year, they’d been having a ton of trouble with their supply chain (like every other retailer), and people were flooding the office with angry messages over the delays. This one guy asked for a refund on his order, but his order was already on a delivery truck, bound for his address.
I explained that, per our policies, we don’t refund orders that have left our supplier’s warehouses. Customers can wait for the product to arrive, and just cut and run without paying or returning the product. The guy then sends me an email, citing some specific trade law that, he explains, means we are required to issue a refund if he asks for it.
Well, that wasn’t a normal response to that conversation. It seemed odd to believe that the company would be just unaware of such a relevant law. So I googled it by the name he gave me in the email. Turns out, the law wasn’t a US law, it was British, and therefore not relevant to his order. I proceeded to explain the error, and restate that he’ll have to wait for the delivery company to get his package to him, after which we can process him returning it to us for a refund.
As you can imagine, he was not impressed that I one-upped him.
30. Maybe She Meant Another Dealership…
A friend of mine worked at a car dealership as a receptionist. One day some lady called and started trying to make an appointment for issues concerning her vaginal mesh. She wouldn’t let my friend talk and just kept talking over her. Finally, after hearing a good deal about this lady’s issue, she just pulled the phone away from her ear and yelled into the receiver “MA'AM, THIS IS A CAR DEALERSHIP”!
The lady quickly apologized and hung up.
31. Seeing Is Believing
This happened at Wendy's. I once had a woman come through the drive thru and try to order macaroni and cheese. I politely informed her that we didn’t have that. She insisted we did. I told her we definitely did not. She got angry and yelled that yes, we did. I said to her, "Ma'am, I have been working here for three years. We have never had macaroni and cheese. It’s not something we serve. Would you like to order something else?"
She swore and said, "Yes, you do! I can see it on the menu board! It’s right there right in front of me on the menu!" I told her I wasn’t sure what she was looking at but we definitely didn’t have mac and cheese. I told her that if it really did say mac and cheese on our menu board then that meant someone vandalized it. She disagreed and said that it was definitely part of the menu board, and it’s real and, we did have it, and she wasn’t leaving until she got her mac and cheese. It was almost ten minutes of this back and forth.
All the while, she was holding up the drive-thru line. I finally got the manager to come and deal with it. Even with my manager there, this lady absolutely refused to accept that we did not have mac and cheese. She also refused to order anything else and she wouldn’t move her car until we gave her the mac and cheese that we didn’t have. It was such a mess, but it wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot.
We had a line of cars wrapped around the building now, and everyone was annoyed. It’d been half an hour, and the line had not moved. The manager told her that if she didn’t leave, he'd have to call someone. Then she screamed at him, still going on about how she could clearly see mac and cheese on our menu board right in front of her. I decided enough was enough. I exited the building to go see the board.
I walked along the outside to the drive-thru order screen where this woman's car was. I asked her to please show me on the menu where it said the words "macaroni and cheese" anywhere. She pointed and confidently said, "right there," with all the conviction of someone who’s absolutely sure of themselves and being right. I looked to where she was pointing. I saw it. I sighed heavily as a bit more of me lost some hope for humanity.
I composed myself and told her as politely as possible that, “ma’am, that is a picture of the orange slices that come with the kid’s meal. We do not serve mac and cheese. Please drive away." She was confused. Then she looked at the menu board again. The realization finally dawned on her, and she drove off without another word. I went back inside and screamed in the walk-in freezer for ten minutes.
32. Taking Too Long
Around eleven years ago, I had just gone into management at McDonald’s, and they sent me to “practice” running this location inside a Walmart. Two older ladies, probably in their 70-80’s, came in, and while one came up to my register, the other sat down about fifteen feet away in a booth. They looked and sounded frail.
I greeted the first one in line, and she went, “Yes, I’ll have the lunch meat combo.” Caught off guard, I said, “I’m sorry. What?” She repeated that she wanted the lunch meat combo. I apologized to her and told her that we didn’t have it. So, she asked, “Well, what do you have?” I started listing, “Well, we have burgers, fish, chicken…”
She stopped me and said, “Wait...what is this place?” I told her McDonald’s. She turned to her friend in the booth and shouted, “They don’t have the lunch meat combo here!” Her friend couldn’t hear her, so she repeated herself. This happened back and forth twice. The lady ordering said, “Give us just a couple minutes.”
I told her to take her time. But, at that point, I had to step away because the interaction reminded me so much of the Spongebob episode with the older ladies and the chocolate bars that I was about to choke laughing and had someone else take over the register. I told them to promo their meals since they’d made my day.
33. Soup Or Salad?
I used to work at a cafe that had this spinach salad with a hot bacon dressing. The dressing was repulsive. It came in a giant tub, and it looked like a spicy, greasy gel that we put in the microwave for about two minutes until it had a nice film on top. Then we would give it to the customer in this side monkey bowl, and they would pour it on their salad.
One day, this HUGE GUY came in and sat at one of my tables. He ordered three cokes off the bat and the spinach salad with hot bacon dressing. I was pretty busy with other tables, so I tried to economize my time by running his dressing over a minute before the cook put his salad in the window. When I swung back to drop off the salad, I noticed the dressing bowl was empty.
I just put the salad down and didn't say anything. As I was walking away, his face turned tomato red. He screamed out loud to me in full volume, "Waitress, where is my dressing?!" I walked back over to him, and I just said, "Sir, you ate it." He retorted, "I thought that was my soup!!" I told him he didn’t order any soup.
He was so angry he was turning red. He screamed, "Well, bring me extra for my salad." I brought it out and later saw him drinking it like soup again.
34. What A Nut!
I used to work at a roadhouse grill in Texas, and we kept full buckets of peanuts on the tables. One night, a family came in five minutes after closing, and my manager sat them in my section. I was okay with it, but I had already swept up the peanuts and cleaned my tables. So, I told them, "I hope y'all don't mind, but I've already swept the peanuts."
The guy flipped out and yelled, "What do you mean we ain't getting no darn peanuts? Why do you think we come to this hole?" To avoid confrontation, I said, "It's not a big deal," but he'd make me soon regret it. He then replied angrily, "You’re darn right it's not." As I walked away, he said, "And bring some of them darn buttered rolls while you're at it.”
The night went on like this until he paid but not before he went off on a tangent about what a terrible server I was. He even went as far as to call me a name. On his way out, he dumped the bucket on the floor, scraped the peanuts over the floor with his feet, cursed at me, and said, "Have fun cleaning that up." Easily the worst guest I ever served.
35. Church Chump
A well-dressed older man and his family came in for lunch on a Sunday morning. It was evident that they had just gotten out of the church. I heard yelling, and I asked if I could help since I was both the cook and the manager. He said, "I want to speak to your manager!" I told him, "You're looking at him. What can I do for you?"
He pointed to the waitress and said, "This hussy here is giving me lip and COLD FRIES. I want to speak to your MANAGER!" Apparently, I was too young-looking to be anyone important, so he just blew his top and threatened me. He told me, "I'm going to make you wish you'd never been born. You'd better watch your back!" I had my waitress call the authorities and throw him out.
36. But My Research!
When I was in college, I worked at the main desk in the university library. We checked out books to patrons, handled fine payment, and other stuff. I had an old lady, a grad student, try to check out, but she had some fines due. She reaches into her purse and hands me a JCPenney charge card. Not a Penney's branded Visa or something, a store charge card.
I told her we couldn't accept a store card for fine payment. Her reaction was infuriating. She goes off on a rant about how nobody else has a problem with that card, and how we were preventing her from doing research for her thesis, and more.
37. Explain It Again
I worked at McDonald’s. We would always get people that would ask for a Whopper either seriously or trying to be funny. We’d always give the exhausted response, "Sorry ma'am, we don't sell Whoppers. We have the Big Mac." Usually, we’d get an, "oh, right. Okay, one of those.” It was fine—until one day when a complete idiot ordered at the drive-thru.
He asked for a large Whopper meal and got the instant response, “Sorry sir, we don't sell Whoppers here. We have Big Macs or Quarter Pounders or McChickens." He replied, "No, I don't want that. I want a Whopper." I explained, “My apologies, sir, we don't sell those. This is a Mcdonald's. The closest equivalent to a Whopper is the Big Mac.”
“If you want an actual Whopper burger, you need to go to Burger King." He just angrily swore and gave me his order again. I said, “Okay, sir, I can't give you a Whopper meal here, but I can get a Big Mac Meal for you. The Big Mac is the closest equivalent we have, but it is not a Whopper. Are you happy enough with that?"
He went, "Yes! was that so hard?!" We gave him a large Big Mac meal, and sure enough, ten minutes later, he was back through the drive-thru screaming into the speaker that he hadn't gotten his Whopper burger.
38. Whatever The Cost
I was the manager on an overnight shift at a burger place. People who’d been drinking were always trying to order pizza and other dumb stuff. One time, a dude insisted he wanted a pizza, so I said alright, but it would be $100 dollars and take like an hour. He was like cool, came around, and gave me $100 at the window.
There was four of us there, so I told the dude to park and sent a worker to the grocery store across the parking lot to buy a frozen one. They brought it back, and we cooked it in our oven and brought it out to the dude, who by this point had fallen fast asleep in his car. The four of us just split the other 95 bucks that he had given us.
39. Poor Craftmanship
I worked at Dunkin Donuts. One day, a customer came through the drive thru and complained to us that the drive-thru was built in a way that made it hard to drive through. She started yelling at my co-workers, so I just stopped what I was doing and told her, “Ma’am we cannot change the construction of the building. We're just here to make sandwiches and serve donuts."
40. I Got Shaken Up
I was called into work one day because they were busy and needed help, so I went in the clothes I was wearing at home. When I arrived, they handed me a fistful of tickets for people who needed drinks and ice cream. I immediately started drilling through the list, getting everything as fast as possible so I could return home.
I took a set of shakes out to a family, and upon giving one customer the shake she asked for, she threw a fit and totally raged. She pulled the lid off the cup and threw the shake all over me. I had caramel, hot fudge, milk, and ice cream all over me. I never did food service ever again after that.
41. Award Winning Wiseguy
I managed an upscale steakhouse in a resort town. This couple, who had been there before and always caused trouble, walked in. We sat them at a table, but no one wanted to wait on them. I put up an offer to my staff to try and entice them, and my best waiter took the deal. The meal seemed to go without a hitch. The waiter dropped the check, picked up the credit card, and a few minutes later ran it. The couple signed off and left.
The waiter showed me the credit card receipt. Above the signature line, where it says, "Tip", the guy wrote a rather rude statement, and it was completely uncalled for. "YO MAMA!" I congratulated him on doing such a good job with such a lousy customer. I took a copy of the receipt, framed it, and hung it on the office door with a note that said, "Congrats, Steven! You win the Biggest Idiotic Customer Award!"
A week later, the couple came back. They put their name on the list and had a seat at the bar. The bartender, who was a BIG guy, came back and informed me of their presence. I told him to let them know that they were not welcome at our restaurant in no uncertain terms and to get their butts out now. I watched as he told them. The guy turned two shades lighter while his wife got a look of shock on her face. They walked out and were never seen again.
42. I Wanted To Throw The Book At Her
When I was in high school, I worked in the children's room of my local library. The library had an amnesty month every year. People could return overdue books for one month with no fines or fees. Of course, on the last day of amnesty month, the library was packed. People were coming in and returning bags and boxes full of books. It was an absolute mess.
I was scanning books when the phone rang. A woman called and asked if I could renew her books over the phone. If the library wasn’t crowded, I would've been able to. However, the library was packed, and people just kept dumping books on the counter, so I didn't have time to renew her books over the phone. At the time, the computer system wasn't capable of renewing a bunch of books all at once.
Therefore, if you didn't have the physical book, you had to manually enter each book's title, author, or ISBN number. I told the woman that I just didn't have time to return her books over the phone. She started yelling about how it was amnesty month, how she couldn't afford to pay her fines, and how I had to renew the books for her because she couldn't come in.
I was getting frustrated but tried to remain calm and polite. She kept yelling and cursing at me and finally said, "If you don't renew my books, I'm never coming back! You'll lose a valued customer!" To which I replied in the most epic way possible: "You're not a paying customer. The library is free. If you want your books renewed, you have to come in yourself." And then I hung up. Later, I got yelled at by my supervisor, but it was worth it.
43. The CIA Wants YOU
For my 15th birthday, I got a worker's permit so I could start working right away. I got a job at a nearby McDonald's and was only limited to running the front cash register due to some archaic labor laws from the early 20th century that apply to 15-year-olds. One afternoon, a very disheveled middle-aged man came in and began ranting and raving.
He went on and on about how he was a recruiter for the CIA and was looking for young male talent to groom early. He showed me business cards, held a briefcase but refused to show me what was inside, and eventually was told to leave after he wasn't ordering any food and the managers caught on to what he was doing. He then sat in his car for about another 30 minutes, before he finally drove away.
Never heard anything from him again, but it almost certainly was a scam. My stupid young self halfway believed him back then. I wonder what kind of weird shenanigans I ended up avoiding.
44. Tale Of The Rail Scale
I used to work at a specialty model railway store called [Local Area] Scale Rail. Scale, as in scale model, and rail, as in railway. I answered the phone one day: "Yeah, do you folks have a railway scale"? Ah! A well-known company makes the first plastic version of one I've ever seen. It's how a company would weigh freight cars coming into or leaving their property in order to know what weight they're shipping out.
"I believe Walthers makes one; let me check if there's one in stock....Yes, we have one left", and I give him the price, $30 or whatever. "Huh? You mean 30 grand"? "No, it's an HO kit for a railway scale". There's some back and forth before he's sure I'm talking model trains. He's not happy: "You call yourselves [Local Area] Scale and you sell model kits"?!
"No, sir, we're [Local Area] Scale Rail”. "But you're in the phone book as (Geographic area) Scale...". Then the phone clicks. If he's too busy to read properly, he's too busy to say "My mistake"! I guess.
45. Something to Say
I was a cashier at Walmart. I was finishing the checkout of one woman’s order when another older woman came up behind her on a motorized cart. The first woman said some kind of pleasant greeting like, “Oh hi, how are you?” to the second woman, which somehow developed within the space of two to three minutes into a full-blown monologue.
She went on about how she was really mistreated by her mother as a child, but her mother was now gone, and she still missed her even though she also severely neglected her, which brought on the plethora of health problems she’d suffered starting in her teens with abnormal puberty and after that, life only got worse from there because of various awful men.
The first woman looked at me like, “Uh oh.” She quickly finished paying, picked up her order, invented an excuse, and got the heck out of there, abandoning me to listen to the rest of the second woman’s woes. Turns out she also had children who were all ungrateful and just never wanted to have anything to do with her even during the throes of her worst illnesses and health issues.
Some of them completely cut her off, and it’s all her former husbands’ fault because she was too nice of a person, too loving, too giving, and she loved her children too much and gave them too much. She sat on her motorized cart just continuing her speech about her life of torment looong after I was done preparing her order. At this point, I was standing there waiting for her to pay, but she just wouldn’t shut up.
She couldn’t take a clue. The line was backing up behind her. She still wouldn’t shut up. She was talking about how her husbands made her work when she shouldn’t have had and her kids hurt her. Her son threw her out of his house for just no good reason. She was just trying to help. I wasn’t even saying anything to her. Like, what exactly was I supposed to say? “I’d diagnose you with a latent case of narcissistic personality disorder, intelligence-lacking type, perhaps histrionic personality disorder except I can’t because I’m a Walmart cashier and not a psychiatrist.”
But I was a pretty scared kid at that time and felt really awkward and on-the-spot to say anything. I couldn’t even manage a peep of, “Ma’am, could you please pay?” It only ended when the guy behind her loudly said something like, “What’s the hold-up? This isn’t the place, lady,” that she finally switched to grumbling. She quietly mumbled about how rude he was while she begrudgingly got her wallet out and then somehow left, and it was over. All because the first woman tried to be nice.
46. Similar Signatures
Back when I worked at Burger King years ago, we always used to get people coming in and ordering Big Macs and other stuff from McDonalds. The cashiers just said, “Screw it,” and put in orders for Whoppers or whatever the closest parallel was for whatever they ordered. It happened so often that eventually, my manager put conversion charts by the registers.
47. Old Crow
I went to KFC for dinner one night only to walk in on a customer ranting at the clerk. I overheard a bit of the conversation and realized the guy was screaming about the old NES game Castlevania II. He was saying it was such a scam! The entire game was designed that you couldn’t play it without buying the Nintendo Power strategy guide!
The Gen Z Clerk asked, “What’s that?” I saw the pained look fall over the clerk’s face as she immediately regretted asking that. The man then launched into the history of Nintendo Power. Luckily, the clerk saw me and formed her exit strategy, “Sir! You need to wrap this up. We’ve got a line forming!” He saw me and went quiet.
48. I Checked Out After This
I worked at a home improvement store. One night I found myself with a line of five or six customers, each with a sizable order. There were no more available cashiers. I was busting my butt to get everyone checked out quickly. When I got to the last person in line, I relaxed slightly and proceeded to scan all of their items.
When the lady tried to pay, she wrote out a check that had obviously been printed at home. It wasn't necessarily fake, but we had a policy not to accept computer-printed checks. I told the lady such, and she threw a fit. She started yelling at me. She told me that she had to leave because she was already 30 minutes late to pick her children up in a town that was 30 minutes away.
She accused me of deliberately slowing down and scanning her items as slowly as possible. I tried to calm her down. She didn't. She was absolutely raging. She said, "Don't you know who I am? You'll never work in this town again!" She yelled at me to get my manager because I still wouldn't accept her check. The newer assistant manager came up and told me to go ahead and take the check.
I tried to remind her of the store's policy. She then talked to the lady in front of the store for another five minutes or so. After that, the manager came back, gave me a look, and went back to her office. She promptly came back with a slip telling me that she had written me up. I quit not long after.
49. Girls Gone Wild
Back in high school, I was delivering pizza. I got this delivery about an hour before closing. I pulled up to this house, and four girls answered the door. They were about 14 to 16 years old, and I had just turned 18 at the time. They started flirting with me. I was pretty shy back then, so I just smiled, handed them their pizza, and waited for them to get their money.
They came back with a check but no tip. One of the girls said, “Wait, let us get your tip.” They came back with a huge jar of change, and what they did next completely disgusted me. Three of the girls took out a handful of change; the fourth one grabbed my belt and started to pull me in the door while the other three put change into my pockets and down my shorts.
I broke loose from the one holding my belt, and they just started grabbing at my shorts. They were all giggling, change was going everywhere, and I heard a man's voice say, “What are you girls doing?” One of them said, “Nothing, daddy.” I freaked out, ripped their hands off of me, and ran back to my car. However, my shorts started falling off due to the weight of the change.
I got in my car when I saw the dad was walking towards my car. I got out of there ASAP. On the way back I called my manager, to warn him about what had just happened. He ended up having to give these people free pizza due to my supposed harassment of the girls. He also had to tell the guy I would be fired.
50. He Sang The Wrong Tune
I worked at a small electronics retail store when I was in high school. A guy had come in asking me to give him a quote for a couple of different karaoke players. One was $249, and the other was $374. I gave him both a printed and verbal price quote. He came in the next day with his family and talked to one of my co-workers, who proceeded to tell him the same thing I told him the day before.
His eyes widened, and he blew into this raging fit. I was stocking CDs when he pointed at me and shouted, "HE SAID IT WAS $249 and $274 YESTERDAY! HOW CAN YOU FORGET THE DARN PRICE! IT'S NOT LIKE YOU SELL MANY THINGS IN THIS DARN STORE. I WORK AT COMCAST, AND I GET MY PRICES RIGHT ALL THE TIME! IT'S NOT RIGHT!" My manager knew I could not have made such a stupid mistake, and the written quote proved it.
She still told the guy that "people make mistakes" and "maybe one of us misheard each other." The guy kept going on about how staff should be properly trained in a store with such little inventory. At that point, his wife was mouthing apologies to my manager. My manager quietly told him to take his business elsewhere, and he stormed out.
51. She Was No Bed of Roses
I worked at a small, family-owned pizza place in the suburbs that was fairly popular. For some reason, Mother's Day was a BIG day for this place, and as a thank you to the moms, we were supposed to give every mother, grandmother, or special woman a rose with their dinner. One Mother’s Day, I opened the restaurant with only one other server, two cooks, and no highchairs or tablecloths because a sister restaurant had borrowed them.
I hadn’t had a food break, so by the end of my seven-hour shift, I was pretty beat. I had a table of two adults, who seemed totally pleasant and lovely...until I brought them their check. The woman looked at me and asked why so many people had roses. I explained the whole Mother's Day thing, and she got a look of total rage on her face. Her response was totally unexpected: "How rude of you to assume we don't have kids!"
It had honestly slipped my mind to ask. She continued, "I can't believe you would be so horrible! I want to talk to your manager." At that point, she started yelling loudly, and people were staring. I apologized to her and got my manager. He tried to appease her, but she started yelling how she wanted their meal comped.
My boss wouldn't comp anyone's meal short of it coming out on fire or something extreme, so he politely refused. He offered to comp their drinks, but that's it since I had apologized and didn't mean to be so thoughtless. I brought her a rose and apologized again, but she just wouldn't let go of her hatred. She proceeded to throw it back at me and declared she didn’t want it. She said that they were leaving and never coming back.
She stormed out, leaving her husband behind to pay the bill. He paid it and left me no tip, pointedly telling me that I had completely ruined Mother's Day for his wife. He said he hoped I was happy being a worthless person and that he would call the owner and tell him just what a horrible waitress I was. I spent the rest of my shift crying in the back hallway between serving tables, convinced I was going to be fired.
52. Petty Princesses
Three girls came in a few hours before our dining area was about to close. They were all in their 20s and they looked prissy. Even though I had just finished a long day, I toiled for a good two hours, getting them food and drinks. I was kind to them, tried to crack a few jokes, and made them feel at home. It was rearing down to the last half hour, so I let them know that our dining area was closed, but they could feel free to move to the bar.
A half an hour later, I realized that they had no intention of doing so, so as the cook left and the lights were dimmed, it was just me watching these girls and bringing them drinks. At this point, it was about 11:30 pm, and I was tired. However, we are expected to stay and serve until the last group lets out. The three girls were joined by their two friends, who promptly ordered drinks even though we had already closed the dining area.
They finally called me over to let me know they were ready to pay. This is when they really got on my nerves. Their bill was over $50, and they paid with a credit card. When I got the receipt back from them, next to the tip was written $0.45. I was so furious I wanted to smack them all. I expect that kind of behavior from kids who only have a few quarters in their pockets, but not from five 20-somethings with credit cards and designer purses.
53. Their Attitudes Were Out Of Focus
I used to work at a camera store. I had customers who would come in, listen to my assessment of their camera's problems, and then ask to speak to a male salesperson instead. The men would then tell them exactly the same thing I said. I guess it's just easier to believe a man knows how cameras work than a silly little woman.
54. What’s Wrong With My Money-Eh?
I was working the register during a fairly normal Sunday morning. After ringing up this guy's subs, he tried to pay with Canadian money, while the shop we were in was in the United States. I refused the foreign currency, and the guy threw a hissy fit. I tried to calm him down, and he started ranting about everything that could be ranted about. He knocked over the cookie rack and left. The other customer in the line left me a few dollars as a tip and made sure to tell me it was the correct currency.
55. Do You Know Where You Are?
I was a hostess at Carrabba's. I answered the phone, and a woman asked if were we located at such-and-such intersection. I told her no and gave her the correct directions. She insisted I was wrong and that we’re located at such-and-such. I told her that I think she had us confused with another Italian restaurant chain.
She still disagreed and tried to argue. I finally just basically said that I am standing in the building where I work in five days a week and that I was pretty sure I know the location of my physical body and hung up.
56. Clean Up Crew
I worked for Taco Bell, and a woman ordered three of those taco twelve boxes, and, of course, she wanted sauce. So, I gave her one of those small bags that had four generous fistfuls of each of the sauces. The bag was packed because I did not want any sass from this woman. She came back ten minutes later with her food.
She dumped the bag out in front of me and pointed to one of the sauce packets that was a little crusty since sometimes they pop. She gave me a lecture about how unsanitary we were. Then she asked me why we didn’t take the time to wipe off each individual packet before distributing them. I gestured to the sauce packets.
“Well, we sell a lot of food. If this is how many sauces we gave just to you, imagine how much we go through a day. There just wouldn't be time," I explained. She still huffed at me and asked me to clean the dirty packet. Since I was her sauce slave and I needed to keep my job, I did.
57. Not So Fast
I worked at a small-town Dunkin Donuts just off the highway. We get a lot of out-of-staters coming through. They’d ask for Starbucks items and sometimes the Aroma Joe's rush drinks too. Once, I had a mom that came asking for some sandwich that turned out to be from the Sonic drive-ins. Those don't really exist where I'm from. The three of us working were super confused by what she meant because we'd never heard of it before.
She asked to speak to our manager. We told her the truth; the manager had gone home for the night, but the assistant manager was in at six the next morning. She demanded to speak to a manager right then and there and told us we needed to call her and put her on over the drive-thru speaker. Both went right to voicemail.
We said we couldn't reach them, and she screamed, "This is the worst Sonic I’ve ever been to!” At this point, our jaws just drop. Like what just happened. My co-worker literally asked what a Sonic was. Not to annoy her or be funny or anything but because she literally did not know what a Sonic was. The woman freaked out even more.
She yelled, “I will go to corporate, and I will have this location shut down! I knew a Sonic up here wouldn’t be any good!” We said, "Ma'am, this is a Dunkin Donuts. What is a Sonic?" There was a pause, and then she said, "I'm so embarrassed." Then it sounded like she was starting to whimper a bit before she drove off.
58. Wrong Place, No Time
I worked at O'Reilly Auto Parts, and we frequently had people try to return stuff they bought at AutoZone or advance. This was usually an understandable mistake because it was almost always a mechanic that just forgot where they bought something or even just drove to the wrong store by mistake. Except for this one guy.
This one guy came in talking on the phone and asked me for a return. He handed me a receipt and turned around to continue his conversation. I immediately realized that he had the wrong receipt and tried to get his attention making me look like a jerk for "interrupting" his conversation. I said it was the wrong receipt.
I got his phone number to look it up. While I was doing that, I overheard him say, "yeah, I'm at AutoZone returning that part," so I looked through his profile and sure enough, he’d never bought it here. I tried to interrupt him again to tell him, and he just waved me off. The conversation was obviously more important.
I let him finish. I helped more customers, and after hearing him say, "I'm at AutoZone,” again, I loudly said, "you’re at O’Reilly’s, dude. AutoZone is down the street!” He just ignored me. The dude spent a good 15 minutes on the phone before coming over to the counter and said, "alright, did you return the thing yet?"
59. She Was Half-Baked
When I was in high school, I worked at a supermarket bakery. A woman came in and started looking at the pastry case. I came over and asked if she needed help, and she looked at me and smiled. Then her smile changed to a look of pure horror. I got scared that maybe there was a spider on my face or something and asked, "What?"
She demanded that someone else help her. I thought, fine; she is just kooky, and I'll get someone else. After she got her pastries, she walked right over to the store manager, and I could see her pointing at me. After a few minutes, she left, and the manager came over to me. I knew I was in trouble. He said the woman had told her that I walked right up to her and said, "What do you want?" in an angry tone.
She also said that I refused to help her and insulted her children and her parenting skills. The manager let me know that he knew I hadn't done that because SHE DIDN'T HAVE KIDS WITH HER. Of course, she had demanded I be fired, and when the manager said he wouldn't fire me, he had to appease her with free merchandise and coupons.
60. The Calm Before The Storm
I was a cashier at Walmart, working the late shift. It was around midnight, and the store was pretty empty. An Amish family came through my line. They bought a lot of groceries, and the total was well over $200. When it was time to pay, his credit card was rejected. Upset, he asked me to try it again, so I did. No dice. At that point, he started taking out his frustration...on me. the guy started yelling at me, telling me that I must be doing something wrong.
My manager, who had been watching the whole thing unfold, stepped over to the man and tried to calm him down. The guy wasn't having any of it, and I just stood there helplessly as I watched him get angrier. He was in my manager's face screaming at him and calling us all idiots. The next thing I knew, this Amish dude punched my manager right in the face.
They started brawling, and his wife and daughters were horrified, screaming at their dad to stop, one of them began crying. My manager's glasses flew off his face at one point. Finally, security came and broke it up. They held down the guy until he was tired of fighting. The authorities showed up not too long after. A stocker had to come and put all of those groceries away.
61. In-Flight Meal
I used to work at a Papa John’s Pizza. One day, this crazy lady came in and ordered a pizza. When asked if she wanted another one for half price, she flat out refused, paid, and left to go to the shop next door. I thought that was the end of it, but I was wrong—Ten minutes later, she was back, moaning that she didn't get a second pizza. She said that she had ordered one, which she hadn't. I was chopping a pizza on the table when a pizza box came flying through the air. It opened up mid-flight, and I got a whole scalding hot pizza down my front.
62. This Woman Needs To Get Carted Out
When I was a kid, I worked at a local grocery store. I had to bag groceries and help people take them to their cars. This notoriously rude woman would always come into our store and treat everyone like trash. One day, I had to help her take out her groceries. It was pouring rain out, so she ran to her car, jumped inside, and popped her trunk without saying a word to me.
So, I loaded up her car while getting soaking wet, and I brought the buggy back to the lock-up. I figured she had left by that point, so I pocketed the quarter from the cart like I always did. As I walked back into the store, I heard a car horn BLARING behind me. I turned around and saw the woman still parked there, honking her horn and flashing her lights.
Once she had my attention, she stuck her hand out her car window with her palm facing the sky, wanting her quarterback. So I took the quarter out of my pocket and tossed it as hard as I could right at her windshield, and went back inside. I was shocked she didn't come back inside to chew me out. She had made a few cashiers cry in the past.
63. Karen’s Worst Nightmare
I was working at a Family Dollar and I was ringing this lady out. I proceeded to take a sip of water and she got so offended saying I was unprofessional, a disgrace, and how no customer service worker should do that and basically just telling me how my life will suck, that I’m just a “lowly” cashier, “you should give me top-notch service”, and I’ll become a single teenage mother, etc. All because I took a sip of water.
I legitimately said, “Ma’am this is a Family Dollar”, and she demanded to see a manager. I looked at her, said, okay, did a little swirl, pointed at my name tag, and told her “I am the manager”…and then I kicked her out because I had a line.
64. Can’t Touch This
I used to work the late shift at a bar on Friday and Saturday nights. I had several tattoos, one being on my chest. This guy came in with his girlfriend. I walked up to the table to get their drink orders, and he noticed the tattoo on my chest. He asked me what it was, but before I could even say anything, he did the most abhorrent thing—he sat up and proceeded to try and rip my shirt open!
I jumped back and told him if he touched me again, he would be out of there. I stood about five feet back from that table for the rest of the night.
65. Blockbuster Blowout
I worked at a small Blockbuster Video, so we knew the regulars pretty well. One busy night, we had a large group of thug-looking guys show up who I had never seen before. Luckily, as the manager, I had to deal with them. They were incredibly loud and obnoxious. They were the type of customer you knew would be a problem before they even utter a sound.
They cut to the front of the line to say they wanted to rent a bunch of movies. Fine. The account wasn’t in any of their names, but we could work around that. None of them had any sort of ID. I informed them that to rent, especially on an account that is not theirs, they have to have some kind of valid ID. I told them that I would hold their movies for them if they wanted to grab some ID.
They freaked out and puffed out their chests, looking for a fight. As luck would have it, the salesperson next to me was letting an old lady rent on her daughter's account without the old lady having any ID. The guys picked up on this, and it set them off even more. They began yelling and screaming at all of us, telling us how discriminatory we were.
I informed them that the sales rep had made a mistake and should not have rented to the lady, but it was too late, and I would not let them rent. After threatening to call the authorities, they left the store. Minutes later, as the same sales rep was pulling movies out of the dropbox, the plate glass in the front of the store by the dropbox shattered.
Glass flew all over the checkout desk. The sales rep got cut up to the point where his hands were bleeding steadily. We looked out the window and saw the guys piling into a truck and leaving the parking lot. At this point, I began a search and saw that nothing had entered the store, so whatever broke the window was still outside.
After getting things settled, we closed the store and waited for the authorities. While waiting, I looked outside. There was a well-kept lawn with no rocks or loose objects. The shape of the hole in the glass made it look like something hit it straight on, leading me to think that the guy who broke the glass more than likely did it with his fist.
66. He Was A Dog-Gone Pain
I used to work at an office that had an obnoxious guy come in. We openly advertise that we offer free water and coffee/tea to our customers, as we have a huge fridge at the reception and a coffee machine just behind it. He walked in demanding to speak with the most senior person. Unfortunately, that was me. He sat down, and I came over to introduce myself.
He straightaway handed me his coat to hang up without even saying anything. That was his first strike. Then, as I went to go behind the reception desk to hang up his jacket, I heard a whistle. I didn’t think too much of it as I was trying to make room for his coat. Then I heard it again, along with a click of his fingers.
I turned around and saw this guy beckoning me over, and now he had my attention. He said, “Oh, and I wouldn't mind a cappuccino while you're up.” I stormed over, gave him back his coat, and ushered him out the front door. He demanded to know what was going on, so I told him, “If you are looking for your dog, you ain't gonna find it here.”
The look on his face was priceless. The complaint that came in afterward was hilarious, and my telling him off was completely worth it.
67. Doughnut Ask This Of Me!
I used to work at Burger King and with our drive through the person speaking had a headset on but there was a speaker in the kitchen so you could hear the customer and start making the sandwiches before the order taker pushed the buttons. A dude pulled up and the high schooler on headset greeted him. "A dozen chocolate doughnuts".
Literally everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the girl on headset and just waited. She said, "I'm sorry"? "A dozen chocolate doughnuts", was the reply. "I'm sorry sir, we don't have doughnuts here". The man goes silent for a few seconds then says, "Where am I"? "This is Burger King". There's a few more seconds of silence then we hear, who we presume to be his wife in the passenger seat, start cracking up.
They sit there for a couple seconds, her laughing the entire time, then slowly drive off. There's a coffee shop a couple buildings down, we can only assume they were trying to go there.
68. Oops!
I used to work at Target and they hired a new girl (who had previously worked at Walmart) to work the fitting rooms—and by default the intercom system. A few days after she started she was about to make an announcement over the intercom. That’s when she made a hilarious mistake. I guess habit took over because she started the announcement with “Attention Walmart shoppers...”. She realized her error and made a good recovery with “...you are in the wrong store”.
69. If I Were A Betting Man
I worked at GameStop for a couple of years. One day I answer the phone and the guy on the other end goes "Hi, do y'all have video gaming"? I pause for a moment, pretty baffled, and reply "Y-yes...we're GameStop. We sell video games". The dude goes "No, I mean video gaming”. I pause again and hesitantly tell him yes again.
I can then hear the excitement in his voice as he goes "Really?! Like slots"!? I finally realize he's talking about freaking gambling and say "Oh! Sorry, no...we're a video game store. Like games you play on your TV", and he angrily goes "Oh. Well that's misleading", and hangs up. Man actually thought GameStop was some sort of casino.
70. Keep The Change
I was taking orders at McDonald's pretty late in the evening. It was quiet at that time so I had no customers until one dude came into the store and approached me at the till. He asked, “do you mind if I give you some coins to get a bill off of you?” Our policy is not to exchange money but I thought I'd do him a solid.
I assumed it was probably just $10. Nope. I was so wrong. He then opened his bag that had a massive bag of coins stored in bank counting bags. He stacked up $10 in 2 cent coins and then another stack, and he got about five stacks in when I had to stop him and say I couldn't do that big of an exchange. Well, he was not happy. He took his coins.
He calmly put each back one at a time and said, “you've wasted my time. You've embarrassed me terribly. You lied to me. Good for nothing. That's for your trouble." He left a $10 stack of two cent coins on the counter and left. We’re not allowed to accept tips in McDonald's, but my manager saw everything and said I could.
71. Missing A Little Pepper
I worked at Chilis, and it always amazed me how many times people mistake us for a completely different restaurant. One day, I had two different people come to pick up food and get incensed at the fact that we didn't have their name on our list. Of course, they then insisted that it was us who must have screwed up. I’d ask what their order was, and they’d list meals that were clearly from Outback Steakhouse.
Yes, it's next door, but how do you miss the giant pepper on the side of our building and walk in expecting steaks with an Australian theme? They’d just say nothing and leave the restaurant.
72. Mean-Spirited Mamma
In high school, I worked as a waitress at a pizza place. The manager would hire mentally challenged people to wash dishes and bus tables during the weekends. One weekend, we were swamped, and things were getting a bit crazy. A woman with four or five kids was sitting close to the waitress station. It wasn't my table, but I could tell she looked angry.
One of the mentally challenged workers was busing tables and walked by her. The woman grabbed the worker’s arm and swung her around. She yelled at her for not bringing out the appetizer or something. I walked over to the woman, told her that the woman was not one of the wait staff members, and asked what I could get for her. Her reaction shocked me.
She then got out of her chair, called the worker a name, and walked off. I was speechless. I felt horrible. I don't think the woman knew what she had just said. Then one of the woman’s children told me, "Sorry about my mommy. She is mean." I told her, "It's not your fault," and patted her on the head. The woman came back, grabbed her kids and coat, and left. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to tell the woman that her daughter was more grown-up than she was.
73. A Big McPain
I was working at McDonald's, and during one of my first days there, an old man and his granddaughter came through my line. He wanted a Big Mac without this and with extra that. I was just learning the register, so I had him repeat the order several times. I apologized constantly and I could feel the sweat gathering at my brow.
He started mumbling, "Idiot," and, "What a bunch of morons they have working here," as I fumbled for the right keys. He finally got his sandwich, and they went to eat. A while later, the granddaughter appeared in my line, and my heart skipped a beat because I thought I would have to deal with her grandpa again. She said, "I wanted to apologize for my grandpa's behavior." It makes me mad that she felt responsible for the old man’s bad manners.
74. Bodyguard Bodyslam
I was working as a valet and bellman for a lower-end hotel. One night, LL Cool J was playing at the club down the street and staying at the hotel for a night. I was working the mid-shift when he and his entourage returned in a limo. One of the women from his group came up to me and explained that her husband was wasted.
She told me that he would probably come down sometime later and try to drive. LL's group had left, so I asked for her last name so I would know who he was if he came down. She told me her last name and said that her husband was one of LL's bodyguards. I said okay, figuring he wouldn't come down. A few hours passed and I had nearly forgotten about it when the biggest man I had ever seen came stumbling through the lobby.
As soon as he opened the front doors, he screamed, “HEY, VALET.” He stumbled over and shoved his ticket in my face. He exclaimed he really needed his car, but I looked at his ticket to confirm that it was the right guy. Not wanting to risk getting stomped into the ground by telling him that he was too trashed to drive, I took his keys and ran towards the parking lot. That's when things started to get heated.
I looped back around through the bushes to a house phone on the side of the hotel and called security. I could see him through the bushes getting angry that it was taking so long. He started walking toward the valet lot, screaming, “VAAALET, HEY VAAALET!” I looped back around and met him. I apologized and told him that I thought his car was in the other lot. He cursed at me and told me to give him the keys.
I told him to wait and that I would have it right up. He was having none of it and he came after me, missing my shirt by only a few inches and almost falling on his face. I ran toward the valet desk while he gave chase. Luckily, I was able to make it around the other side of the desk. We then proceeded to play ring around the Rosie while he swatted at me across the desk with his five-foot-long arms.
Finally, the head of security showed up alone, and his eyes popped out of his head when he saw what was going on. He passed some code on the radio to call the authorities and managed to calm the guy down a little bit. The guy argued with security for a few minutes while lunging at me for his keys every so often. Law enforcement finally came screaming in, and the guy bolted for the door and the elevators.
The two officers were no match for the guy. He threw one of them to the ground while they tried to cuff him. While the one man was down, the elevator door opened, and he got in while the other officer drew his taser. Four more officers showed up while the one with the taser yelled something at the guy in the elevator. He then lit him up, and then I heard a thud.
I saw the guy's feet kicking out the end of the elevator. All the officers stormed in, cuffed him, and dragged him out. They struggled to carry him. While carried out to the cruiser, he saw me sitting at the valet desk with his keys still in hand and cursed at me as he was stuffed into the back seat. I just smiled at him until they drove away.
75. What A Muslim Girl Wants
I worked at Victoria’s Secret and I’m visibly South Asian (Pakistani) and I was working at the cash register when a Pakistani hijabi auntie came to cash out. She started asking me all these questions and then hit me with the “Are you Pakistani”? And I was like, “Yeah…” and then she proceeds to go on a rant about how “good Muslim girls” aren’t supposed to be working at a place like Victoria’s Secret.
I was staring at her like, “Ma’am, I’m a university student…it’s not that deep..it’s all girls here”. And once she was done her rant I was like, “What about good Muslim women? They shouldn’t even be inside of Victoria’s Secret”. She gave me a dirty look and left.
76. Password?
When I was working at the cinema there were always people who came out of the theater (to use the bathroom or buy food) without their ticket, and I'd urge them to go get it because if they go away for more than five minutes there's no way I'll remember who they are when so many people pass by, and I can't let them through.
I found myself arguing very often with some aggressive customers, so I came up with a strategy. Every time someone would aggressively argue, I'd say "you know what? When you come back, whisper to me the word [random word] so I know it's you". I kept track of them in my phone and everything, it was flawless. One day this lady comes out and she's definitely not happy.
We argue, I say, you know, what, just say “papaya” when you're back so I can identify you. She agrees and leaves for more than an hour, the movie's almost over. She rushes back in, but I don't know who she is. She starts screaming the names of random fruits in an aggressive way, and I was just so confused. Who are you, lady? Why are you doing this?
And I started fighting back. "Apples!" "Banana”! She just kept going. It took me a couple minutes to figure out who she was. My supervisor, looking from the side, was very confused as to what was happening. It was that day I realized the hole in what I thought was a genius plan.
77. Fed Up
I used to work at an ice cream shop that gave away free samples on little spoons. I would usually scoop a little of the desired flavor and hand the spoon to the customer. Some freaks, however, took it to another level—they would eat the ice cream off the spoon while I was still holding it. It was as if they were babies and I was feeding it to them! It didn't bother me when kids would do it, but when grown men would, it was just awkward.
78. Standing My Ground
I had a lady who got mad because she’d put her coffee on the roof of her car, and it spilled. So, because she was a regular, she believed she deserved free coffee. We said no. She said she was calling our owner operator. We just got bought by another corporation so we gave her the store number. I pretended to be a secretary. After an, ahem, acrimonious phone call, she went to drive off. This is where the story goes off the rails.
As she's trying to drive out of the parking lot, her car broke down. She couldn’t afford a tow, and for some reason, the store manager absolutely refused to help her out and call anyone. So, she literally ended up living out of her car in our parking lot for the next two weeks until my manager finally made the call. Crazy times.
79. Sweet Guess
As a former Taco Bell worker, here is the one order I will never forget. A lady at the drive-thru ordered a meal, sat for a second, then asked, “How many Cinnabons come in the dollar two pack?” Oh honey.
80. Let Chill
My family runs a concessions trailer at fairs. We serve one item and one item only: Empanadas. As a hint that this is what we sell, we have a huge empanada on our sign and the trailer has a giant 16-bay steam table directly in front of the serving counter. Despite all this, one day, when we were extremely busy and it was hot and we were all soaked in sweat from the steam needed to make the empanadas, a customer came up to the window after standing in line for probably fifteen minutes, saw us with soaked shirts and headbands and steam pouring out of the trailer and asked, "What flavors of ice cream do you have?"
81. Motherboard Mangler
I worked for a company that made computer gaming cases and accessories. A guy claimed that one of the internal fans in one of our cases caused his motherboard to explode. He shouted at me, demanding a refund for all the components he purchased. I was cool-headed and didn't yell back. I tried to understand his situation as best I could with his bad temper.
He called himself a "computer god" and said he knew our fan somehow caused it to explode. After about half an hour of putting up with his excessive shouting, he yelled at me that he was coming to our office since he lived nearby. We thought he was joking, but we were so, so wrong. A half-hour later, he stormed into our lobby and slammed his burnt-up computer on our receptionist's desk.
We noticed that it was not our computer case or fan, there were pencil shards inside the power supply, and the PCI-E power cord was jammed into the motherboard’s four-pin power port. There was also goop seeping into a few of the pin ports. We attempted to explain to him that what he brought in was not one of our products.
However, he was stubborn and insisted that it was. We even pointed out the manufacturer's website that matched the logo on his case and fan, but he still refused to believe it. After an hour or so of him shouting nonsense, we had to call the authorities. When officers arrived, the guy quieted down. They took him outside to question him about the situation, and things took another turn.
The guy immediately became furious again and started shouting complaints to the officer. After five minutes of questioning, we showed the officer that this wasn’t our product. The officer already knew the guy wasn’t exactly "stable," so he warned him to go away and not bother us anymore. The guy shouted threats and eventually drove off.
82. I Got Tipped Off
When I was in college, I worked at an Italian restaurant. A family of five came in and ordered appetizers, some drinks, and food. When I brought out the bill, the wife took it and paid in cash, leaving me a tip of $3 and some change on an $80 bill. The service was good, so I was pretty angry about the tip. A minute later, I noticed the husband and kids standing by the front door.
They were waiting for the wife to use the restroom. I walked up to the man, said, "Excuse me, sir, you forgot your change," and held out the $3. The husband looked at me and took me by surprise. He said, "Is that all that woman left you?" He then reached in his pocket, pulled out $30, and said, "There you go, sorry about that."
83. He Was Bad Till The Last Drop
I went to clear a guy's glass that had about seven atoms of booze left in it. I grabbed the glass and he called me a slur and screamed. I had already moved past him when he bellowed at me again. As I began to turn around and return the drink to him, he was glaring, his face red, and he was clenching and unclenching his fist.
As I always do in this situation, I returned the glass to him and watched him pretend to "drain" it into his mouth even though there was nothing more than a microscopic patina of fluid left within it. When he held up the glass, having "finished" it, I pointedly turned away from him without taking it. That's when things immediately escalated—the glass clipped my shoulder and smashed into the wall in front of me.
The guy had just hurled the glass at me, full strength, for having the audacity not to grovel in response to his rudeness. The glass shattered with incredible force against the wall in front of me, and shards of glass went everywhere. It was a crowded balcony, and it was an absolute miracle that no one even got a minor cut. Security wrestled him out.
84. This Customer Got Served
I worked as a supervisor for a company that sold party stuff and costumes. A lady called in, and the call escalated to me. While I was on the phone with her, she told her kids to get a good education so they wouldn’t end up working in customer service. I handled this in the pettiest way I knew how to—by conducting the entire rest of the conversation using the highest vocabulary level I was capable of. She wasn't exceptionally bright and could not understand what I was saying.
It wasn't too extreme. Probably the most complicated term I used was “fiduciary capacity.” She explained that she was confused by the words I was using. So, I suddenly went from being extremely patronizing and asked her. “Is perhaps someone there that might be better able to understand the nuances of returning an order, like perhaps your husband or a parent? Do you have any neighbors that might be able to explain things to you, or perhaps a social worker?" She was mortified.
85. This Was Not A Barrel Of Laughs
There were two gay guys who worked at a Cracker Barrel in the deep South with me. None of the staff had any problem with them; they were just ordinary guys who happened to be attracted to other men. The managers were sort of prejudiced, though, and didn't like them. One day, two regulars came in to eat.
These regulars were notorious for requesting a million things before the meal even got there. They were annoying, but at least they tipped decently. One of the gay guys accidentally told the regulars something about his boyfriend. They went ballistic and asked him if he was gay. He told them he was. Then, one of the two regulars grabbed his hand and forced him to sit at the table. They then crossed the line—they proceeded to lecture him for about a half-hour about how he was going to the underworld for eternity.
I was watching this from another dining room and could not help him out because we were swamped. So, I got my girlfriend to help cover his tables because every time he told them he had to go, the man would grab his arm and physically force him to stay put. I finally got the manager, who simply said, “Well, he needs to hear this stuff anyway." and refused to do anything about it.
Eventually, after about a half-hour, once the regulars realized they couldn't convince him to give up his "sinful" ways, they said, "Well, we're going to need back every tip we ever gave you. It's okay if you can't remember exactly how much; just give us back an approximate amount. I think $200 should cover it. We can't be supporting the gays."
86. He Was A Regular Creep
I had a repeat customer who started watching me for hours at a time as I worked. He walked over to me one day, told me how beautiful I was, and asked about my love life. I decided to transfer to another store when he started asking me to come over to his place for the weekend because he would be alone. When he found out I was leaving, he did something I'll never forget—he grabbed my hair and started to cry.
87. Prime Prejudice
I was waiting tables at a popular steakhouse when I got a party of six seated in my section. There was an older couple, who sat nearest me, and two younger couples. The older gentleman requested an eight oz. prime rib. I asked him how he would like it cooked, and he gave the most shocking reply: "I want it your color." His wife gleefully laughed as if it was the joke of the century, but I was taken aback.
My immediate response was, "So you don't want any pink on it?" I informed my manager of this offensive remark, and he asked if I wanted to kick them all out. I told him that I would bite the bullet this time, but I wasn't too happy to serve anyone who would think that was an acceptable answer. I believe they knew they offended me because they ended up leaving me a 30% tip. I guess taking the high road was the best road in this case.
88. She Thought The Service Was Subpar
I was working at a sub sandwich shop with my manager. We had just finished cleaning everything up, and my manager had his hand on the door lock when a woman desperately came running to the door screaming, "WAIT! WAAAAAAAAAIT!" My manager gave me the most "Oh God, I'm SO sorry" look and let her in. We proceeded to unwrap ALL of the sandwich-making material.
This involved pulling plastic wrap off of EVERYTHING, re-filling sanitation sinks to wash any dishes we dirty, and basically having to completely re-do all of our closing procedures. The woman ordered somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 sandwiches for ten different people. It sounded as if it was for a party because for each separate sandwich, she had to talk to a different person.
She was shouting into her cell phone and breaking into random bits of other conversation while my manager and I were sitting there trying to get information from her on what to put on the sandwiches. We got her sandwiches done about 25 minutes later and waited for another 10 minutes for her to finish her phone call and come up to the register to pay. But it gets even worse.
She only had a $100 bill, for which we didn't have proper change. She became exasperated, flustered that she had to use her credit card. Finally, we got everything sorted out, and she gathered up her sandwiches, looked at the clock overhead, and said in the most condescending voice I've ever heard, "Don't you think you guys could have made my sandwiches a bit quicker?
“Now I've missed 10 minutes of my TV show! No tip for you!" She then walked out the door. It took us another 20 minutes or so to re-do all of our closing procedures. My manager felt so bad about being the one who let her in that he gave me the full share of the evening's tip, which was usually split 50/50. Still, people like that lady make me SO GLAD I don't work in food service anymore.
89. I Wanted To Pan This Nini
I worked in a cafe on the Jersey Shore during the summer. A nice-looking woman, who was obviously one of the “summer people,” came in and asked me about our sandwiches. She wanted to know if they were paninis. I told her that we press them on a panini grill, but the bread is just sub bread, not the kind generally used for a panini.
She asked, "So, it's like a panini?" I said yes...but when she got her sandwich, she surprised me with her next move. She opened it up and threw it at me. She started screaming to speak to a manager. When he came out, she told him that I had lied to her and told her it was a panini, and she refused to pay and wanted me fired. The manager just quietly told her to get out of his store.
90. Take Two
I was working at Wendy's during lunch hour. Usually, I would be on grill or fry duty, but I was on sandwiches this time, which was not my strong suit. An aggressive young businesswoman ordered a junior burger with onions, pickles, and mustard. I made it and was about to put it in the bag when she told me I had made it wrong.
I repeated what she ordered and told her that was what I had made. She told me that I had made something different. I was about to argue with her when my supervisor walked by and stopped me in my tracks. He tossed my sandwich in the trash and rapidly made an identical sandwich. The lady was now finally satisfied.
91. No Cents In Figuring This Out
I was serving a table with two people—one was a woman, and the other was a person whose gender I couldn’t quite determine. I took the woman's order and turned to the person of indeterminate gender, and they said nothing. Not a word. I asked, “And what can I get for you?” I waited, but there was no answer. I figured I had a 50/50 shot, so I said, “Sir?”
That was a huge mistake on my part—it was a woman, and now she was angry. She proceeded to tell me just how awful a person I was. They stayed for the whole meal, saying terrible things to me the entire time. They tipped me six cents—in pennies. The girl I was working with that night had been into Wal-Mart and told me that the same woman worked there in the women’s clothing section. So, we went, took clothes off the hangers, and put the six pennies she left me on her fitting room desk.
92. Nothing You Want
A customer came in to the Pizza Hut mall kiosk where I worked and asked, "You don't have tables?” I said, “Nope.” So, they said, “Okay, I'll just have the general chicken then.” I reminded them that this was a Pizza Hut. Their response was baffling. They just sighed and went, “Fine, just a few egg rolls then.” I asked, “How about a pizza?” "Why would I order pizza at a Chinese restaurant?" You're right. That would be dumb.
93. Je Ne Sais Quoi
I worked in a UK clothing chain. One day a lady came in to return an item; she put the item on the counter and handed me a receipt. The item was from the right shop but the receipt was from another clothes shop. So I hand the receipt back to her and say "wrong shop" or something along those lines, but it quickly becomes apparent she's French and barely speaks a word of English.
I start pointing to the logo on the receipt and trying to convey that it's a different place. I was pointing to anywhere that says the name of my shop and eventually she has a lightbulb moment and bursts out laughing. She gets the right receipt and I'm able to give her her money back. She must have been so confused because she did everything right in her mind.
The item wasn't worn and still had the tag, she was well within the return limit, and she gave me the receipt. Glad she finally got it because it was getting to an awkward point where I was running out of ideas.
94. From One Set Of Bars To Another
I’m a former bartender. One night some time ago, this couple was having a flirty date at a table close to my bar. They were two rounds in and having a great time; laughs, kisses, flirting, the whole thing. Then, a lady came in and sat at the bar. She seemed off. She stared at the bar menu for a good five to ten minutes. The menu was upside down this whole time.
I figured out that she was there watching the couple behind her through the bar mirror. I went over to greet her. As soon as I got close, I saw that she was wearing a wig. A bad one. She took her sunglasses down and I noticed that she had been crying. At that point, I was intrigued. She was not getting a drink until I got her story. It turned out the couple behind her was her husband and his mistress.
For the next hour, I had to give her a play-by-play of her husband's date. So awkward. She was devastated but kept wanting details. Then, she handed me forty dollars to buy them one round. What the heck? But it was a $22 tip for me, so okay. I sent the drinks to the table with my compliments. They waved thanks. I went back to the bar.
Later on, she asked me to send another round. I did it, knowing the couple would be intoxicated at this point. The couple finished up and left. They even stopped by the bar on the way out. He shook my hand and said thank you for all the free drinks...right next to his wife sitting there! They left. I then saw the wife's plan unfold, and it was epic.
She pulled out her phone, called the authorities, and reported an intoxicated driver. She gave his car description and license plate number, saying he was on the road she knew he would take home. Brutal, but deserved. It would also be his fourth DUI charge, so that meant he would have to be spending some time behind bars.
95. The All-Seeing Pie
Several years ago I was running pies for the Hut. We had a particularly nice house that I always seemed to get. It was a nice couple with three kids and a big house. They had money and always had large orders and tipped well. One day, I get routed to their address but I notice the order is very different than normal. It’s about double what they order and the name on the order is not the father’s name.
Interesting, so I take the order to their house. The house is literally bumping. Mom and dad’s car is nowhere in sight. I get their oldest daughter, roughly 15, to answer the door. Now mind you, I don’t care at all if the kids are having a good time, but she made an enemy of me that day. She proceeds to complain that I took forever in a condescending tone, make fun of my uniform, and stiff me on a $100+ order.
I didn’t say anything at the time, but I got my revenge. About two weeks later the house orders again. Normal order, normal name. And I magically get their order. When I arrive, her father is at the door and I can’t help myself. I ask him if they had a good time at the party. He’s clearly confused, so I remind him of the great party they had two weeks prior.
He sits and thinks for a minute. Then he hands me a freaking $50 tip and says, “Thank you very much, I’m sure we enjoyed the party a lot.” After he closes the door, all I hear is him yell “Brooooookk get your butt down here right now.” It was a jerk move sure, but nah, be nice to your driver—and tip them.
96. No Connection
A very grumpy high-society woman came to the store saying her brand new 3,000-dollar Microsoft Surface bought by her husband was defective because she could not get internet when she was on the move. I quickly realized she was talking about Wi-Fi, so I tried explaining to her how Wi-Fi actually works. Boy, was that a mistake!
I told her that she could not use her Wi-Fi outside her house, but that she could share her smartphone internet connection. She would have none of it. She said I was lying to her and making fun of her. She even asked to speak to my manager, who then proceeded to tell her the exact same thing, almost to the word. She left screaming.
97. Buy Me A Drink First
My friend is a manager at a popular tapas spot. One night she received a call from a man whose girlfriend was currently dining in, asking to send a bottle of his girlfriend’s favorite red to her table and to pay her tab over the phone. He made a point to make sure that the server knew it was from him, her boyfriend. There was a disturbing reason for this.
Turns out that the girlfriend was on a date with another man, and he knew. The server knew this, too, but told them anyway that her boyfriend had paid their tab and sent the bottle over. Apparently, “Their facial expressions and abrupt exit were priceless.” God, I wish this could’ve happened when I worked. This is the karma all servers would love to watch.
98. Some Assembly Required
This happened several years ago. I was the nighttime charge nurse over the ICU. I’d just finished a 12-hour shift at my hospital that had turned into a 14-hour shift. I was exhausted and had to return for a fourth shift in nine hours. All I wanted were some items to drop in the slow cooker so I’d have something to eat when I got up later that night.
I stopped at a well-known big box store that sells groceries, clothes, electronics.. the works. I’m wearing royal blue scrubs, a name badge with a big RN under it and forgot to take my stethoscope off so it’s hanging around my neck. The employees here...well...don’t wear that. As I’m walking towards the store I see an elderly couple struggling to load a large box in their SUV parked at the front of the store.
And I mean old. 90+ Shaky hands. Teetering around with limited mobility. No way would his hips take the weight without snapping...and I’ve worked enough tonight. I approach quickly and address the female half of the couple offering help. It was gladly accepted and I got their TV loaded with very little difficulty. It was more cumbersome than heavy.
I’m chatting with the woman who is explaining it’s a gift for their son and her husband hadn’t wanted to wait for help. I’d wondered why an employee wasn’t helping. That’s when it happened. This woman yells, “Hey! Hey!” at me. Startled, me and the nice lady stop our conversation and look over. It’s a lady in her 50s dressed in a cheap-looking beige pantsuit with a “get your manager” hairstyle standing about 15 feet away with a hand on her overly broad hip.
She says, “IF you are ABOUT done. I need help over here.” She then points to her cart with two boxes of bookshelves…some assembly required. I realize she thinks I work here. I start to say, “Oh sorry. I don’t work...” and she cuts me off, yelling: “You are already making me late! Just get it done! ...and DON’T scratch my paint up.”
The elderly lady and I exchange looks of disbelief and I try again. “I don’t work he—” but once again, she cuts me off and says, “Just get it done!” She then steps away from her cart to grab her purse grumbling about “stupid idiots” and is digging for her keys when disaster strikes. The cart rolls further away and one wheel goes off the curb.
The entire uneven load causes the cart to topple over. I instinctively jump forward to try to prevent everything from falling...I was unsuccessful. This awful woman, who has now turned to see her particle board bookshelves spilled out on the cement. Corners of the boxes crushed and one has torn open with a few pieces and packaging now exposed.
The awful woman completely loses her mind and begins raging. She’s swearing at me and yelling: “You moron! Pick them up! ARGH. I’m going to have you fired! You owe me new bookshelves! And I’m late!” At this point, I’m done. I yell: “Pick them up yourself! I DON’T WORK HERE!” I then turn to go inside when I feel her grab my sleeve and try to yank me around.
I jerk my sleeve out of out of grip and turn to face her now violently red face. She opens her mouth to start screaming again but I put my finger in her face and say: “No! Don’t touch me! Shut your mouth! I do not work here, and even if I did. I’d quit before I help you clean up your pile of garbage!” She stands there speechless.
Like a bottom-feeding fish, her mouth opening and closing. She is absolutely sputtering in shock that I’ve dared raise MY voice at HER. That’s when the manager and an employee come out. As this awful woman sees the manager and finds her voice. I couldn’t believe what she did next. She says: “Are you the manager? This man damaged my bookshelves and is refusing to pay for them.”
I just stare in shock. Seriously?! She’s finally realized that a man in bright blue scrubs with a stethoscope and a big RN badge really doesn’t work here. But instead of apologizing, she chooses to double down on the craziness and now accuses me of breaking her stuff. Before I can voice my denial, the elderly gentleman I’d helped earlier steps in and explains the situation to the manager.
The awful woman is still voicing complaints but the manager realizes the real situation and apologizes to me and the couple. I’m still standing by watching angrily as the manager deals with the woman and inspects the bookshelves. They are not damaged. He offers her two new boxes but she is now done with the whole situation. She says no.
She’s already too late because of me. Just glares over at me and says to the manager, “Just load them. I’m already late enough because of this!” The manager and employee then lift the boxes up and get them wedged into the woman’s car. As I shake my head and go to enter the store I’m stopped by the elderly lady I’d helped earlier.
She says: “Sir. Thank you so much for helping us with the TV. I’m so sorry some people are so rude.” She then reaches for my hand to shake. As she folds both her fragile hands around mine, I can feel something in her palm she’s giving me. She whispers: “Don’t look yet. Wait till she leaves.” I slide the package into my scrub pocket and the nice lady walks away.
The terrible woman then gets in her car and, without apologizing or thanking anyone, peels out and drives away. I finally enter the store to grab my food items. When I reached into my pocket and pulled out what she’d given me, I was utterly astonished. It was a plastic bag with a bunch of screws and hardware. I realize immediately that the sweet little old lady took advantage of the commotion to take the hardware out of the terrible woman’s ripped box.
I couldn’t believe it. I had the biggest grin on my face as I did my shopping. And I have a new petty revenge hero to idolize.
99. Every Office Needs An Otis
A while back I was working in an office that allowed dogs. It was an open floor plan and since customers never came into the office, we kept the dog food and water bowls right by the front door, just because it was the most convenient space and no one else would see them but us who worked there. Of the six of us who worked in the main office area, I was the only one who didn’t have a dog and I always felt horribly left out.
To make matters worse, across the way was a doggie daycare. One day, a very frantic woman came in and she had an absolutely massive Basset Hound with her. Usually, the only people who came into the office were associates who had appointments with someone working there, but it was rare they brought their dogs. She ran up to me and said, “Do you work here?”
I said, “Yes, how can I help you?” And she said, “I wasn’t sure if you took walk ins but I read online I could just drop him off? I tried to call but no answer.” I didn’t know what she was talking about at that point and I said, “Come again? Who did you call exactly?” Thinking if I could just saddle her off to whoever she came to see, I wouldn’t have to decipher her problem.
She said, “Well it doesn’t matter now. Look, something urgent has come up and I really need to leave him here. Here’s his food he likes and I’ll be back in a few hours and—" At this point I wasn’t thinking of the doggie daycare. I thought maybe she was a friend of someone here. I said, “Well alright, can I get your name please?” And she said her name and then asked if I needed her to sign anything.
I was so confused at this point I just said, “Why would I need you to sign something?” And she left almost immediately. So I took Otis (the dog) to the back and showed him to my coworkers and no one knew the woman or dog. I was worried she wouldn’t come back, but at the same time, my wish for an office dog had been granted! And Otis was supremely chill.
All he did all day was lie around and drool onto his own ears. I just freshened him up every now and then, took him out every couple hours, and he was happy as a clam on a big cushy dog bed we thankfully had an extra of. He just loved attention from anywhere he could get it. At the end of the day the woman, thank God, came back. She said, “Thanks, you’re a lifesaver. How was he?”
I said, “He was a champ.” And was about to say “But why is he here” when she said, “That’s a relief. Most kennels say he gets anxious around other dogs. I heard you operated at a much higher capacity, I was thrilled to see you had so few clients in the room at one time. So, how much do I owe?” It honestly took me this long to realize what had happened.
She thought we were the dog daycare. Now, I probably should’ve corrected her. But I loved my day with the office dog and I did want to get paid for supervising this strange dog all day. I just threw out the number that sounded fair and appropriate “That’ll be $20.” I said. She replied “Reaalllly?!” In this very high tone, and I couldn’t tell if I’d overshot or undershot.
But she paid me and left. My coworkers were laughing hysterically when they realized what had happened and we thought it would just be a good story for the future. Wrong. The next week...she came back! She said we were so much more affordable and less overcrowded than her other place, and that she was happy to use us. I was glad for the company so just took him.
I didn’t think there was any way she couldn’t have at least some idea we weren’t a dog daycare. The whole ordeal was so strange I just figured, “don’t question a good thing.” I was much younger and dumber then. Not long after, Otis started getting dropped off two, sometimes even three or four days a week. I was in heaven. He was such a love. And he made fast friends with the delivery guys and visitors.
One day, we took our office Christmas card photo and Otis was over that day, so we included him. In a Santa hat. It was pretty great. But it turns out Otis’ owner was friends with one of our clients who I guess happened to have the card out on her table or was kind enough to display it alongside her other holiday cards. Because one day, Otis’ owner came in holding the card and walked up to me and said, “I can’t even believe I’m asking this but... is that my dog in this photo? This isn’t a dog daycare at all. This is just an office, isn’t it.” I froze in my tracks.
She said it with a note of surprise, as though she was looking around and putting it all together for the first time. No coincidence that this was the first time she wasn’t in some crazy rush either. She was like, “Then who are all these other dogs?!” And I explained. I was terrified she was going to demand her money back, or worse, take some sort of action against us for misrepresenting ourselves as a dog care business, or complain to corporate.
Instead, she basically said, “Why didn’t you ever say anything!” And I explained we just really liked having Otis around. She stopped for a minute and seemed to be thinking and said, “Is that right?” And I said yes and told the story of how I was the only one in the office without a dog so loved the company. She seemed a little flummoxed or hesitant, understandably, because the whole thing was so weird.
She turned to my coworker and asked if I was telling the whole truth. I don’t know why she thought my coworker, also a stranger to her, was any more trustworthy than me, but hey. Strange times. Coworker backed me up. So she said, “Well, I wish you’d said something sooner. Could’ve saved me a lot of embarrassment with my friend back there. Alright, I have to get going. See you at 4:00.” And she left Otis!
I couldn’t believe it! I said, “So he can stay?!” And she replied, “Where else could I find someone to watch him one on one all day for $20?” And off she went. Otis stayed my office dog until his family moved away, luckily right around the same time I took a new job.
100. Thanks For The Shirt
My boss went to an outlet mall for Black Friday shopping, and told me this one today. Some random woman asks her: “Excuse me, do you have more of these?” My boss ignores her, continuing to look through the rack. The lady literally throws this sweater across the rack and into my boss’s face, yelling: “I asked you a question and you can answer me right now!” My boss’s reply was legendary.
She says “Thanks!” and decides to buy this sweater just to irritate this lady, and leave the store. After checking out, the crazy lady is screaming over the crowd, “Stop! Where the heck are you think you’re going with MY sweater!” She runs after my boss and grabs her bag, screaming like a madwoman. She’s slapping at my boss, calling her all sorts of things—and insisting she gets fired!
My boss just kept saying, “I don’t work here!” “GET AWAY!” etc. Security shows up to pull the lady away, and she SCRATCHED at their faces!! She gets restrained, falls to the floor and tries to fake a seizure saying, “You’re making me have a seizure,” ‘cause that’s how seizures work. She also yells, “Call 9-1-1!” Well, officers show up, and the madwoman is loaded into the back of the car, AND SHE SPITS ON THE WINDOW! My boss made her statement, and wore the sweater to work today. It’s her new favorite.
101. The Mighty Karen
I worked the seventh circle of Hades for a few years, AKA the Walmart service desk. A woman tossed an armful of clothes on the desk, slammed down a receipt and said, "I have a receipt for all of this, so don't try to worm your way out and give me the clearance price". I pick up the receipt and after a quick look, I tell her I can't use it.
She begins making a scene about how I WILL take the clothes back, I WILL give her every single penny she paid, and she WILL be telling corporate about how she was treated. I wait for her to run out of steam. When she finally stopped, I knew exactly what to say. I told her: "I would be more than happy to refund you, if I worked at Kmart, which is where this receipt and merchandise is from".
She opened and closed her mouth, snatched the receipt from my hand, started to say something, then stopped. She snatches everything off the counter, calls me a witch, then storms off. As I'm helping the next customer in line, she flounces back in with a manager, complaining about me. The guy I was helping wasn’t taking it, though—and I was so surprised by what he said next.
He turned to the manager and said, "If you give this woman any type of compensation for her horrible behavior towards your employee, I will be calling your district manager, who happens to be my brother". The manager asked what happened and the man told him. The manager had my back, for the first and only time in my whole career with them, and it was nice to see her flounce out in a huff.
Sources: Reddit, , , , , , , , , ,
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