If you want to know what kind of person someone is, watch how they treat service staff. That's how we know that these people are some of the rudest, dumbest, and most entitled people in the world.
1. Flying Footlong
A seven-year-old girl came into my store to get the sandwich with a note listing the ingredients she wanted on it. At the cash, I rang in the sandwich, and the little girl passed me one filled-out Sub-Club card, which used to be good for a 6" sandwich with a purchase of a 28 oz drink. I cleared the cash and rang it in again, discounting half the sub.
I told the girl how much she owed me and she just stood there, looking at me. I asked her what was wrong and she said that her mom never gave her any money. I asked if her mom was outside and if she could go get her. This is where the nightmare started. The girl left and came back in crying, getting towed behind a raging mammoth of a woman who was demanding to talk to my manager about how she was being disrespected.
I explained to her the usage of the card and pointed out where the details were printed. She screamed, reached over the counter, grabbed the sandwich, and then threw it at my head. My manager later saw the security footage and called me laughing his butt off about it.
2. Fast Food PTSD
I went through a McDonald's drive-thru once and the place was slammed inside and out. After ordering, I was asked to park next to the curb and someone would bring my order to me as soon as possible. A girl walked up to my car visibly shaken and as she handed me my food, she said something that made my heart sink: "Please don't slap me." I said, "What?" Apparently, the last lady she delivered food to yelled at her and slapped her across the face because it took so long.
3. From Hero To Zero
I was working at a gas station a few years back on the graveyard shift. It was around 1 am when a really heavy guy walked into the store with a brown bag on his head. He came up to the counter and showed me the brick he had in his hand. He said that if I didn't give him the money in the register, he would beat me with it. Now, I am a pretty big dude, so I just smiled at him.
This set him off and he chucked the brick at me, but it flew right past me to the side. He then ran out of the store. I called the authorities and my manager. I told him what happened, and his response floored me. I ended up getting fired for not giving him the money...Apparently, it was policy to just give robbers whatever they ask for. I was a liability because I didn't follow the procedure. What made it worse was that my son was just born and I was the only one working in my family at the time.
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4. You've Been Framed
I used to work at an Applebee's. One of my tables was an elderly couple and what I assumed was their granddaughter. They ordered their food (steak, salad, and chicken fingers). In the kitchen, a random server, let's call him Matt, was running people's food because everyone was busy. Well, the table next to mine belonged to a server named Ashley.
Matt accidentally ran Ashley's food to my table. He asked the elderly couple if they were at the table that had ordered a chicken penne pasta, onion rings, and a chocolate dessert, all of which were completely different than what they had ordered. They said yes, then. proceeded to yell at the manager about how their food was wrong and how bad of a server I was.
I hate people.
5. When In Doubt, Smile
I worked in retail for a bit during my senior year of high school and sometime after. I once had a customer rudely ask me if I had gone to high school. She even had the audacity to say that I was probably a dropout towards the end of a transaction. I was so stunned, I didn't know how to react...then I just gave her an exaggerated shrug, a big, dumb smile, and I crossed my eyes as I handed her her bag.
6. A Splash Of Stupidity
I used to sell paint. A woman came in saying she wanted to paint her fence. I gave her advice and explained to her how to prepare the surface. Then, she asked, "Do I need anything to apply the paint?" I told her she needed a roller or a brush. Her response left me in disbelief. "Oh, I can’t just splash the paint on the fence?" She was completely serious.
7. The Hair Scare
I was a hairstylist at a salon when this lady in her late 60s came in. She said she wanted to go a shade darker than she had, so I picked out a medium blonde. When she left, she was happy. That was around 3 pm. Then, around 6 pm she called us and said she didn't like the color...She wanted to know if she could come back in at 8 pm to get it fixed. I told her she could come in first thing in the morning since we closed at 8:30 pm.
So the next day, at 8 am, she came in...but she was totally tipsy. Yet it was even worse than I could have imagined. While I was finishing up her highlights, she started screaming at me, telling me I made her look like "a freaking dog" and that her husband told her she couldn't come home until she got her hair fixed. The latter part was weird because she told me earlier that her husband was blind...
Anyway, I was seven months pregnant at the time and she pushed me up against the wall, telling me I better fix her hair or her son-in-law, who is a well-known lawyer in Houston, was going to sue me. She was acting so crazy that the other stylist was freaking out. The guy that was in her chair even got up and told her to screw off or he was going to call the authorities.
She got in his face and started yelling at him, and then she went over to my client and told her that her hair color was beautiful and that she wanted her to be the same color. My client's hair was actually darker than the lady's, and it was still blonde. Anyway, I ended up fixing her hair and she thanked me at the end of the night. I sat in my car crying for an hour.
I regret not calling the police on that witch. I also wish I was able to thank the guy who stood up to her for me.
8. And That's "Fax"
I used to work at a call center for a large bank. A customer phoned in while he was in one of the branches and said the queue was too long, so he wanted me to help him. I asked what his query was and his response caught me off-guard. He said the ATM was broken and he had to withdraw cash. I asked him how I could possibly help him withdraw some money from the bank over the phone, and he said, "Why can't you just fax it to me?"
9. He Was Missing More Than Just His Toppings
I worked at a Subway. We were out of lettuce, which was a problem for this one guy whose entire enjoyment of his sandwich revolved around lettuce. I told him we didn't have any, so he asked if I could go in the back and cut more up. I told him we don't cut it up and that it comes already shredded and packaged and reiterated that we had no lettuce anywhere in the store.
That's when his face turned red. He gave me an annoyed blank look and asked, "How can you open your store if you don't have all your product?" He couldn’t understand that we ran out of items because people like him came to eat the food and that we weren’t about to close the store over a missing topping.
10. In Her Defense
I was in a McDonald's during the lunch rush. This old guy in front of me started harassing the girl at the register who was obviously fairly new. He asked her where she was from and then asked her if everyone from her town was as dumb as she was. He turned to me after saying this and was just like, "Am I right?" I flat out told him right then and there that she was doing her best (during the busiest part of her shift, mind you) and that his jerk behavior wasn't making things any better or easier.
When I got up to the counter, I told her I was sorry she had to deal with pricks like that at her work.
11. Out Of Change
I worked at Chick-Fil-A when I was 16. I was a cashier working the counter during breakfast. The manager hadn't come back from the bank, so I didn't have a lot of change left in my drawer. I had a line of a few people in front of me and so did the other girl next to me. I let the guy know that unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to take his order at my register because I didn't have any coins to give him as change.
I told him that the girl next to me would have to take him. Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. He got super upset and started screaming at me, telling me how horrible and stupid I was. Apparently, I ruined his entire morning. He totally created a scene in front of everyone. On top of this, I was super emotional and I burst into tears. The owner came out and asked the guy to leave, telling him he wasn't welcome at that Chick-Fil-A anymore.
I moved over to the end of the counter and started portioning out cheesecake while trying to compose myself and a few ladies came up to me to tell me I was doing a great job. That kind of restored my faith in humanity.
12. Let Me Downgrade You
A young woman walked into the cinema I worked at, and as always, I was at the ticket office. I sold her tickets to the show she wanted to see. She then proceeded to the 'Candy Bar' and ordered a cup of coffee—black, not too hot—and I offered to take it into her theater for her, to which she said, "That would be great!" Before I took it in, I decided to upgrade her cup to a mug, which was the larger of the two containers we offered, as we were pretty much out of cups.
I made her coffee and headed up the theater stairs to give it to her. I handed it over to her and she stared at me as if I'd just ended her firstborn. She shrieked in the packed theater, yelling: "DID I NOT ORDER A CUP?" I was shocked, but I rolled with it and said pleasantly, "I upgraded your coffee for free," to which she replied, "I ORDERED A CUP AND IT'S WHAT I BETTER GET, MAKE ANOTHER ONE!"
So I grudgingly made her another coffee and brought it back to her. She then offered a snide remark: "Looks like you finally did it right!" Now, I know she ordered the cup and I was obliged to carry out her order for her, but for heck's sake, isn't a free upgrade a GOOD THING?
13. Sketchy Parenting
I worked at a local sports bar and I had two men come in with their dates...and their children. The eldest child was running around the restaurant picking food off of people's plates, while the middle child was changing the TV stations in the middle of baseball playoffs. The youngest child was sleeping on the table while the adults proceeded to drink margaritas.
I served them their food and as soon as the youngest child woke up to take a bite, he proceeded to vomit, covering the table completely. I attempted to be a hospitable server and I cleaned it up, expecting that the customers would be appreciative. Nope. They simply ordered more margaritas. At that point, I refused to serve them anymore (they each had two margaritas) because they were extremely disrespectful and I was not comfortable serving drinks to people who are responsible for getting children home safely.
That's where everything hit the fan. These women proceeded to stand up and scream at me from across the table, saying, "You don't know me, you want some?" Thankfully, I had my manager come over and kick them out. The kicker? Before they left, they poured out two full ketchup bottles underneath the table and left no tip.
14. The Wrong Drink?
In high school, I worked at a Dunkin Donuts, and iced coffee was brewed in large five-gallon containers. It’s similar to what they are brewed in now, but they were larger and sans plastic bags.
Anyway, it was busy at both the drive-thru and front counter, and the only other person on my shift with me was a new hire who didn't know anything. A lady was unhappy with her iced coffee that my co-worker made, so I made it for her again. Apparently, it wasn't made right, so she decided to cause chaos.
She threw the full cup on the floor and then walked over to where the counter barrier was, reached over it, pushed a freshly brewed five-gallon container of coffee off the countertop, and then walked out.
15. Decked Out
I worked the front desk at a hotel on the beach, and we had to close the pool at night due to the lack of a 24-hour lifeguard. So if you rented a poolside room, you had to stay off the pool deck after dark. Night swimming could get the hotel fined. Well, this middle-aged woman was in a group that rented a poolside room. When night fell, I went around the pool deck, locking things up.
She was on the deck, so I told her the deck was closed and that she needed to leave. She asked if she could finish her smoke and I said sure—I just made sure to close the deck in a way that it would be locked up behind her. Well, about an hour later, I got a noise complaint. People were apparently being loud on the pool deck, which no one should have been on at that time.
I went out and the woman had propped open the door to the deck. She was joined by the rest of her group and they had a stereo going while they smoked and drank. I told them the decks were closed and that they had to leave in the most polite but firm way. It was unlawful for them to be out there, so I was just looking out for them.
That's where the woman absolutely lost it. She wanted to smoke, but she rented a nonsmoking room, and if I didn't let her smoke on the pool deck, she told me she was going to smoke in her room. I told her that if she wanted to smoke in her room, I wouldn't be able to stop her, but the hotel would charge her a $200 dollar cleaning fee if she did.
She did not like that, so she said she was going to stay put on the pool deck. I then told her I'd have to call the authorities. She eventually gave in and went into her room. I thought that would be the end of it. Foolish me. About an hour later, she stormed up to the front desk, obviously tipsy. She was yelling and screaming at me for violating her right to smoke.
She claimed the cleaning fee was unlawful and she had called the authorities on me. She started banging on the front desk, claiming I was being prejudiced against females and "getting off on spraying my testosterone all over the place". Keep in mind that I was the only staff member in the building at this point. I started getting noise complaints from people that could hear her from their rooms.
Her friends came out and cheered her on; two or three guys, with open beers in their hands, encouraging her. This went on for most of an hour. Then the officers showed up. She actually did call the authorities. She started yelling at them to cuff me for some unclear reason. The officers were cool, but they had no idea what they'd just walked in on. They tried to calm her down to figure out what she wanted.
I couldn't explain anything because whenever I tried, she started yelling at me. Things were starting to get even more heated. The officers tried to get my side of the story, and they asked the woman to hush for a minute. And that's where she messed up. In her tipsy stupor, she decided that it was a good idea to scream "pig" at an armed and obviously frustrated cop.
And then she slapped him...fast enough to make his head spin. She was subdued, handcuffed, and stuffed in a squad car. We didn't see her ever again.
16. Fire In The Hole
I was working the drive-thru one day when a woman ordered a large orange Hi-C. She got to the window and I saw three other people in the car with her laughing pretty hard. I took her money, gave her the drink, and about two seconds later, I suddenly heard someone say "FIRE IN THE HOLE." As I was turning back to the register to take the order of a car that had just gotten to the speaker, I saw the drink flying at me, and I reached out with my left arm to redirect the drink back out the window and into her car.
The lid came off and it exploded everywhere. She even had the nerve to ask my manager for her money back. Needless to say, she didn't get her money back and was told less-than-kindly to leave.
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17. Midnight Madness
McDonald's always seems to bring out the worst in people. I used to be a manager at one right off the interstate. This was before they went to 24 hours or open late, so we closed at midnight. Around 11:45 pm, we had a family come in—three adults and one child that looked to be about seven or eight years old. When we saw them come in, we were all naturally dismayed (as we had already started cleaning everything for closing), but we still served them because, well, it was our job and we were still technically open. Turns out, I'd made a horrible mistake.
When I handed them their food, I already had it bagged up (so they'd take the hint that we were about to close) but they just took the bags of food to a booth, sat down, and started eating. Okay...no problem...maybe they'd been driving a good bit of the day and just needed a few minutes to relax. That was understandable. Midnight came around and I went to lock the doors.
As I went to the ones nearest to them, I told them as politely as possible that the store was closed and that we needed them to finish their meal as soon as they could so we could finish our closing routine. 12:10 pm rolls around and they were still eating. At that point, I really needed them to leave because I could get into trouble if one of my bosses or the owner decided to drive by (they were weird like that).
12:20 pm rolled around. Most nights, we were out of there by then, yet these people were still taking their sweet time. It seems as if they were doing it just to be jerks, and I was starting to lose patience. I went up to them, explained why I needed them to leave, and asked them as nicely as I could to get going. I can't remember what they exactly said, but the gist of it was "Screw you, we're customers, we'll leave when we want".
I took a deep breath, counted to 5, and calmly informed them that if they were not gone within five minutes, I'd have to call the authorities. They instantly went nuts—they started cussing at me, saying "Call em, we don't care" and so on. I felt bad for the little girl there, as you could see it in her eyes that she was scared and her parents were acting horribly.
So while they were in mid-rant, I turned around, walked back behind the counter, and waited for five minutes. Right at five minutes, that poor little girl came up to the counter and said, "Please don't call the authorities, we're leaving". My heart went out to her, but I could see that her family was finally leaving.
18. Polar Opposites
Just last week, at the restaurant where I work, I was serving a table of three people; two girls and one guy. I had already taken out the food to the girls, and I was bringing out the curry dish that the guy had ordered when I slipped. My shoes are flats that have next to no grip, and when one slid on the floor, I stumbled. His food was on the floor.
Of course, I apologized right away and said the chef would make him another immediately. The dish he'd ordered was also one of the easiest things on the menu to prepare, and I knew the chef would have another one ready in about two minutes. The guy said that was fine, and that he understood accidents happen. I was thanking my good luck that I'd gotten a friendly customer. I was so, so wrong.
But then, one of the girls said that if we were re-making his food, we'd have to re-make all of theirs because they weren't going to sit around "for half an hour" and let their food get cold while they waited for us to make another dish for the guy. I started explaining that the new dish would only take two minutes, and the guy started saying that they could go ahead and start eating without him.
That's when the two girls flung their ceramic plates loaded with hot noodles and sauce at me. One missed and shattered the glass cover on the table next to them, the other struck me in the forehead. I have a bruise from the plate now, mild burns on my face and chest from the hot food, and my nicest, most expensive white work shirt was ruined from being hit with a full serving of noodles.
The guy got furious with them. He was also nice enough to shout for my boss right away, call an ambulance, help me up, and make sure I wasn't seriously injured. He even offered to pay for all the damage that the two girls had done. My boss refused that offer after listening to what happened, insisting that the guy had done nothing wrong and that the girl was the one who would have to pay, not him.
Those girls got banned from the restaurant and had to pay a fair bit for all the damage they did. They're also paying my salary during this week off for recovery. The guy got his replacement meal free, and my boss told him to come back any time (without the girls) and we'd give him a nice discount on future meals.
19. Fishing For Pills
I worked at a pharmacy during the summer. The pharmacist was one of the nicest people I've ever met. He took pride in his job and made sure patients understood their medications well. In his spare time, he was always reading about new medicine and staying up to date in his career. We had a 30-year-old woman come in and she started to talk to the pharmacist really nicely.
The pharmacist talked to her for about 10 minutes and asked if she had a prescription. Then her real motive showed its ugly face. She said she was in a lot of pain and the doctor wouldn't write a prescription. She wondered if the pharmacist could give her 20 pills of a strong narcotic.
Obviously, he said no he couldn't, but he was nice and gave her suggestions to consider. The woman flips out. Calling him a pill counter who couldn't get a real hard-working job. She continued to rant before he said, "I think you should go". She left and knocked a bunch of items off the shelf.
I felt awful for the pharmacist because I knew how much pride he took in his work. He was still the same friendly person but it's clear that woman's words took a toll on him.
20. Don’t Break The Glass
I was working at one of the busiest bars in a major city in the Midwest, and this jerk can't stop pounding his empty glass on the bar, rolling his eyes, and yelling, "I'M EMPTY OVER HERE". It was 11 on a Saturday night and the bar was packed. There was a literal line around the block.
I told him I would get to him as quickly as I could and not 20 seconds later, I hear him slamming one of my glasses on the bar, AGAIN. I lean over the bar to tell him if he can't stop abusing my glassware, I'm giving him a plastic cup. His reaction shocked me.
This jerk proceeds to hock a loogie in my face. One of my regulars grabbed him by the back of his head and slammed his face into the bar, and a fight breaks out. After all that, at least 20 of my glasses ended up broken!
21. Feeling The Heat
A lady from the real estate agency next door ordered a chicken box, and then proceeded to drive an hour to her next showing. In the middle of summer, where it probably sits right in front of her AC unit in the passenger seat. Surprise, surprise; the food gets cold when left in the cold. Who knew.
Upon the shocking discovery that food doesn't stay warm, she called us to scream at my boss that we tried to serve her undercooked food. Because my boss is a pushover in the summer, he agreed to give her a new free meal when she came back. She came to get her free food—but things did not improve.
One of our chefs came to collect her cold food. While still in front of the window, he opened the box and fished out the uneaten biscuit. He threw the rest away but walked away with the bread. I presume he meant to eat it, but he went about it all wrong.
She started screaming about how we were "recycling" food, that she was good friends with the health inspector, and that she was going to see us in court. The histrionics brought my boss out of his office, and after chewing out the idiot chef, he tried to smooth things over.
I don't remember much, we were super busy, and since he'd taken over the drive-thru, I hopped onto another task. She wouldn't move forward, and the line was piling up. My boss was starting to get annoyed. They had stopped talking to each other. Her hot, fresh meal is up, and he goes to hand deliver it and tells her to get the heck out of the line.
I'm not entirely sure as I was halfway across the store trying to make drinks—but all I remember is a surprised gasp from our food runner. I looked up to see a box of steaming hot chicken come sailing through the window and scatter across the front.
My boss had barely stepped back in time. We could only stare as the crazy lady roared out of the parking lot, and my boss snapped at the first person stupid enough to still be making eye contact to clean it up.
22. Lacking Brilliance
I used to work at a fine jewelry kiosk in a mall. Our jewelry included gold bracelets and necklaces bonded to sterling silver, sterling silver rings with cubic zirconia gems, gold engagement rings with diamond chips clustered together rather than one large diamond, etc. I had a lot of regulars, and this one particular woman would come in often.
Every time for every item that she was interested in, she would ask the same blood-boiling question: “Is this real?” I explained what “bonded” meant and how we didn’t sell diamond rings for $25, but that the rings were indeed certified sterling silver with synthetic gems. I gave her information like this repeatedly, day after day, and she would follow up every explanation with, “Okay, but...is it real?”
23. Counting Chickens
I used to work at a grocery store deli. We had one customer who left me totally speechless. She asked me: “The eight-piece chicken...how many pieces are in it?" I said, "How many pieces are in the eight-piece chicken? Um. There are eight pieces in the eight-piece chicken". She was very polite and replied, "OK, I'll have that, please!" So, I packaged it up, and she went away happy.
24. Fighting Back
One time, I had a customer come into my workplace complaining that her breadsticks were cold. After putting up with about five minutes of vicious verbal attacks (she called me every terrible name under the sun), I finally told her that she couldn't talk to me that way. She responded with this absolute gem: "I can talk to you however I want, you're just a pizza girl". Well, snap. I lost it.
I was paying my way through university and I was holding down two jobs at the same time. I was tired and stressed. I didn't know until that point that "seeing red" was an actual thing. I literally saw red (I think it was probably my blood pressure). I proceeded to tell her that she was a small, spiteful, stupid woman, who would never amount to anything in life I also explained to her that work is work, and the act of trying to support myself was honorable in itself.
She ran away and sent her husband in. He threw the bread at me and a napkin holder off one of the tables. The security guard saw this, and he grabbed him while the manager called the authorities. He got taken to the station, but he was released later because I decided not to press charges. It just wasn't worth the stress. I'd never been so angry in my entire life.
25. With A Side Of Sass
When I was 17, I worked in a fast-food restaurant. An elderly man came up and placed his order which included french fries. We needed to drop some more in the fryer and it was going to be about a two-minute wait. When I informed him of this, he called me an offensive slur, then took the rest of his order and sat at a booth in the restaurant. I was stunned, to say the least.
When the fries were done, I walked them over to his table and just said, "Here," semi-slamming the food on his table before walking back to the counter. He sat there and ate his food for about a half-hour, then he got up and left. The real shocker came when I went to go clean his booth. This crotchety old jerk had smeared his food all over the booth and left a handwritten note on the back of a placemat that read: "Since you can't get your orders right, I won't be coming back to this horrible place!"
Well, good riddance. The only thing that makes me smile about the whole incident now is that I can take comfort in the fact that he's lifeless and rotting.
26. Grandma Gone Wild
Where I used to work, a grandmother came in with her granddaughter to purchase a bathing suit. They came up with a green, stripey swimsuit the young girl had on. The price was $18.99. The grandmother swore it was on sale, so I had an employee check the price on the other suits just in case that suit had gotten missed in the markdown. It was not on sale. When I told the lady this, she flipped her lid.
She paid for it anyway because her granddaughter was already wearing it and I wasn't about to be nice. As she was leaving, she stopped, turned around, looked at me, and said, "I do not wish you well in life." I was completely and utterly baffled that someone would go so far as to say something so cruel over a $19 bathing suit for a grandchild.
27. A Bad Example
The worst I've ever had was a customer telling me he was going "tear this freaking store apart" if he didn't get his way. I looked him in the eyes, looked down at his grandson standing by his pant leg who couldn't have been older than four, then looked back in his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair and calmed down enough to finish the transaction and get the heck out of my store.
28. I Should Go Elsewhere!
I worked at McD's in high school. It was about 10 minutes before closing, and our drive-thru was packed. At closing, there were usually only two or three people working. So we were on the run. A guy about mid-way in the line gets to the window. I'm a nice person and a human, so I understand waiting sucks.
I apologized to the guy about the line and asked him what I could get him. He wanted something that had a wait. Chicken probably. I very apologetically explained there was a four-minute wait on that and would he like to order something else or pull forward. He just laid into me like I ran over his puppy or something.
He then quips, "I should just go to Burger King!" I said, "I understand your frustration, if you make a left out of here, it's about a mile down the road on the left side. Have a nice night". Then I shut the window on his stupid face. My manager came over, asked what happened, then high-fived me, and the guy peeled out.
It was so validating in the face of his utter rudeness to a 15-year-old girl.
29. Drive-Thru Drama
I had a guy that was a germaphobe and had really bad OCD. He came through before and my coworker didn't want to deal with him. So, I went to the drive-thru window after washing my hands. I cashed out the order that was on screen and he reluctantly handed over his card. I then gave him the coffee that I cashed him out for.
He started yelling at me saying that it was wrong. Apparently, the person that took the order forgot to type something in. It’s unfortunate but it happens. He started yelling at the coworker that didn't want to take his order at the window.
So instead of just saying that it was the wrong order, getting refunded, and being on his way, he stayed in the driveway for 20 minutes telling my coworker that she was stupid and unprofessional and was unfit to be a supervisor.
He kept demanding that we get the phone number of our franchise owner, but apparently, the number was wrong and he kept yelling at us. When we came back to the window after 20 minutes of this, he left. My supervisor went into the back to cry. I felt so bad for her, she's the sweetest person.
Fast forward to less than a month later, he called the store to apologize and the manager made sure that my coworker never dealt with him again. He told the manager that his therapist told him he should apologize.
He spent a combined total of three hours on the phone with the manager, where he apologized and also blamed us for making him late to his appointment that day. But that's not the best part...At the end of the phone call, he asked if we were hiring.
30. Making Recommendations
I'll never understand why people make their dislike for a restaurant's food into a bizarre personal grudge against the server. I worked at a place that had good food except for this one dish: steak frites. It was a small hanger steak, cut into strips, served with fries. That's it.
The steak was always tough, under-seasoned, and wasn't a lot of food for the money. One day a guy asked me for some recommendations, so I made a couple. He apparently wasn't impressed by my suggestions, so he asked about the steak frites and said, explicitly, that I wouldn't recommend it. So that's what he ordered.
After taking a couple of bites, he pushed the plate away then asked me to call over the manager. He then complained to the manager. But I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. He whined, not directly about the food, but about me for giving him an awful recommendation.
31. Coupon Conundrums
I used to work at Kohl's department store. The bane of my existence was Kohl's Cash. For those of you unfamiliar, some weeks Kohl's will give $10 Kohl's Cash to customers for every $50 they spend. Unfortunately, some months, KC would overlap, meaning a customer could use their KC, have $10 taken off their totals, and if the total was still more than $50, they would receive another $10 to be used at another date.
However, KC is still considered a coupon, not a form of payment. So, hypothetically, if a customer were to use their KC and the total dropped below $50, they wouldn't receive more. I would get screamed at for these five to seven times weekly.
On one occasion, a woman began to call me "incompetent" and every other name in the book, because the KC took her total down to $42 and another KC didn't print for her. She then proceeded to take her change, just the coins, and hurl them at my face. And, I mean, she really whipped them hard. At this point, I began to cry because coins hurt, and my manager got involved. In the end, my manager printed her $10 Kohls Cash.
32. Over A Dollar
One of my delivery drivers took a run to this women's house. She was supposed to get like $17.61 in change. She wanted to tip $1.61, but since my driver had taken an order previously, he didn't have $16, he had $15. Needless to say, she was furious. He got back to the store and asks, "Has that lady from 'address' called yet?"
She apparently screamed at him for five minutes about how it was outrageous he didn't have that other dollar, and how terrible he was for trying to take money from her. Even after he told her, "I have no intention of taking your money from you, I just need to go get change, and I will be right back with your dollar".
So, five minutes later, she calls the store, "I NEED TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER!" Well... here we go again. She yells about how “YOUR DRIVER DIDN'T HAVE THE CHANGE FOR THIS ORDER (blah blah blah)” for a good five minutes. I listened patiently, apologizing and trying to calm the situation down.
However, when she said, "Your driver can go around not having the right amount of change so he forces customers to tip more," I almost lost it. I said "Maam, I'm sorry he didn't have the change for you, but he wasn't trying to take from you or rip you off, he just nee-" And she interrupts with: “I NEVER SAID HE WAS RIPPING ME OFF!!!!”
Yes, you did... You literally just said it. At this point, it was a lost cause. I said, “Well, I'm sorry everything was so terrible for you. He's bringing your dollar to you, please don't ever order from us again”. I made a note in the computer under her address and phone number to that effect.
I will do whatever I can to make an order right or keep the customer happy, but sometimes people just can't be reasoned with. Cut your losses and move on at that point.
33. Pizza Frizbee
My brother and I were working at Pizza Hut in high school. A lady rolled up to our drive-thru to pick up an order. He passed her the pizza, and when she looked into the box, she apparently wasn't satisfied with her order (I can't remember the specific problem). She passed it back through the window to my brother. While she was doing this, she told him she was going to get him fired.
That did NOT fly with my brother. He launched the pizza box back through her car window and told her to get the heck out of here. She bobbled the box trying to catch it and it careened off into the passenger seat. Now she was shaking like freezing a puppy. She started to yell, but she was not really sure what to say; just babbling really. She slammed the gas and peeled out of the parking lot.
She called later to complain to the manager, who apologized to her. Then he told my brother not to worry about it: "She's a witch anyway".
34. They’re MY Wings
I worked at a grocery store that had hot food to go and pre-prepped meals. I worked in that department for four years and had a lot of messed up customers. We used to joke that even the craziest have to grocery shop. We had a glass-covered counter with heat pads and lights to hold the food.
The counter allowed two people to be served at once which was handy in a rush, but could cause some issues. On this night, I started serving a lady who ordered something and the rest of the chicken wings. My coworker started serving the second customer in line who had heard the first order.
She wanted chicken wings as well, so my coworker told her she would have to wait about 5-10 minutes for the next batch to come out. She immediately flipped out saying that she ordered them first when she hadn’t and that her kids were hungry at home. She insisted that the other lady wait instead.
I finished packing my customers' wings and began handing them to her. The rude lady was saying something like, "Wow you couldn't leave ANY for me!?" But then she became even more deranged. She proceeds to shove the first lady into the counter in an attempt to reach for the wings.
She pushed her so hard that the glass case rattled and the baby the first lady had in a carriage began to cry. The second lady kind of snapped out of it and went to pay and leave. The lady I was serving was so stunned she didn't know what to do. We told her to call for help because she seemed to be in shock.
She agreed and went outside to see if she could get the other woman's license plate. Apparently, in the parking lot the lady who'd stormed out almost hit her as she was leaving. Authorities arrived and took everyone's statements. Afterward, I saw both ladies and after asking them, the lady who was shoved dropped the charges. What a crazy day though!
35. Well, Nobody Came
I used to manage a restaurant and hated those couple of times in five years of my working there when some entitled customers left without paying because "the waitresses didn't come to pick up my money". That's an awful move and a poor excuse when all you need is to grab a waitress's attention by simply talking!
Once it was a family of four who left the restaurant during a busy evening and we realized that the bill wasn't paid after some 10 minutes had passed. I checked the cameras and saw the father taking the bill, putting the money in, sitting there for just three to four minutes, looking around and taking the money back, and leaving with the whole family!
Luckily, our owner was a great guy and told me to simply ban the guy and his family. And to my surprise, that man came back with friends on a busy evening in a couple of months! I was very excited watching his face be embarrassed in front of his friends and customers sitting outside when I told him that he is banned.
When his wife started to get upset, I told them I remembered them and told them the whole story with me checking the cameras and seeing him taking the money back and all!
36. Zero Tolerance
A lady walked in with a phone in hand and slammed it hard on the table in front of me and my manager. We asked her, "How can we help you?" She yelled, "You can fix this dang phone. I have been in here three times and this piece of garbage still doesn't work thanks to you idiots!" He pointed at the door and just said, "Leave." Her face dropped. "What?" "Leave, and never come back." "I pay my phone bill here." "
Not anymore you don't. Leave or I'll call security." We ended up having to call security on her. They came and told her she wasn't welcome in our store anymore. She sat outside of our store for nearly an hour talking to a security guard. She's not been in the store since.
37. The Combo Guy
I worked at Wendy's through high school and part of college. One day, a man in his 50s, wearing a bright magenta suit, walked in and ordered a burger. I asked him, "Do you want a combo or just the sandwich?" He asked me, "What is a combo?" I explained to him that it was a sandwich with fries and a drink, but somehow he didn't understand. He looked at me blankly, I started to get annoyed.
He said, "I want fries and a drink, but what is the combo?" We went back and forth on this for almost FIVE MINUTES. I don't even remember if he ever figured out what a combo was or if he ended up getting it. However, I remember seeing him two weeks later in a different city at my other job training political canvassers. He was wearing the same magenta suit.
I was in such shock that I just stared at him, saying nothing, thinking, "It's the combo guy."
38. All On My Own
I worked at a bakery for two years, and I had to deal with honestly the most heinous and rude customers ever. I've worked in the food service industry my whole life and lived in Toronto up until three years ago, but I have never dealt with such entitlement.
One day, one of our staff members quit by text message five minutes before her shift, and 30 minutes before we were set to open at 8 am on a Saturday. We were hard-pressed finding someone to cover, so I was alone until a front-of-house person was able to come in, about an hour later.
I had one of the kitchen staff helping me, and all they could do was grab things and bag them as they weren't trained on cash or coffee. So here I am running around trying to help customers, make coffees, ring people through, and am clearly stressed.
This awful man was clearly annoyed that he had to wait, huffing and puffing, and eventually loudly exclaimed, "I'm not waiting for this," and proceeded to throw his bagged muffin at my head and storm out. I legit almost chased him down, I was livid.
39. Waiting For The Doc
I'm a receptionist. A patient shows up without an appointment and throws a fit. I tell her, "Wait until the doctor finishes with the patient he's seeing right now, and I'll ask him if he can see you today". There’s a rule in the office: I can't add anyone to the schedule once the day's full, without the explicit approval of the doctor.
She then calls her daughter, who calls the office to chew me out, calls me inconsiderate, says I'm toying with her mother's health, etc. I tell her the same thing: You gotta wait for the doctor's approval, because I'm not allowed to add her mother to today's list. Meanwhile, she throws another fit on the phone.
Doc finally exits his office and I ask him; he agrees to see the patient. I put her at the end of the list, but she and her daughter via phone complain about making her wait. My boss just goes along with them and she gets to cut in front of the patients who already had appointments.
After that, she was all sweetness, calling me dear and sweetie, etc. I just gave her the coldest shoulder I could, while still being civil. It made me so mad. And I can't stand the fact that my boss states, "the patient's always right," because they are NOT! Half of them are horribly rude, and his attitude is just fomenting that.
40. Exchange Of Fists
I used to work in the bakery department at Kroger. There was this one guy who was trying to order a steamed plate lunch. He wanted a certain piece of chicken and I kept getting it wrong every time I picked up a piece. He got mad after my second attempt to help him. I even grabbed a pen and paper so he could write down exactly what he wanted, but he declined. He then came behind the counter and hit me in the shoulder.
Let me tell you, he had this special strength. His punch sent me back a few steps, and right before I was about to take a swing back at him, security tackled him.
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41. The Wrong Crowd
In high school, I was heavily involved in a local church youth group. We gathered together for bible study every Thursday night. After service, a large group of us would drive to a nearby restaurant. They specialized in making anything that was greasy or grilled and could fit in a plastic basket. Well, one night, our group was larger than normal, so we split into two groups and for some reason, we chose tables on separate ends of the restaurant from each other.
We got our food, good times were had, and we stayed until closing time. The people at my table cleared our trash and left through the front door to the parking lot. I didn't really think about the other group standing around their table—they were in a corner, and in hindsight, they were acting suspiciously. After a few minutes, they joined us in the parking lot and we all started making plans to go to someone's house to watch a movie.
Suddenly, one of the employees burst out of the door extremely upset. The group from the other table ran to their cars and drove away. The employee walked the rest of us back into the restaurant. My jerk friends had filled up several paper condiment cups with ketchup and placed them face down on the table, so when you picked them up, the ketchup went everywhere.
They also littered napkins all about the floor and table, and as a coup de grace, they unscrewed the light bulbs just enough to make the lights go out. We offered to help clean up, but the employee was so angry she just told us to leave and never come back. I returned a week later and apologized again, but the manager was there and said that he had told his entire staff to call the authorities if we ever showed up again.
42. Just Leave Him
I used to work for my parents in a cafe they ran in our extremely tiny town. Since it was so small, everyone knew everyone. This one guy came in with his wife, who a few years earlier had been in a car accident, so she could hardly walk or talk. It was strange because I had known her for a long time previously and she was the nicest lady, but it was hard to even recognize her afterward.
Anyway, everyone in town, including his wife, was aware that this jerk had been cheating on her since the accident, but he still tried to keep up appearances for whatever reason and she couldn't do anything about it because he had control of her assets. So they came into the cafe for dinner one night and I waited on them. I took his order first, as he insisted, then I turned to his wife to take her order.
I asked her if she wanted the special that evening because I knew she had gotten it before and liked it. Before I could finish my sentence, this jerk exploded: "WHY DO YOU EVEN BOTHER ASKING HER, DO YOU THINK SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE WANTS? SHE CAN'T EVEN PUT HER OWN CLOTHES ON, JUST BRING HER A SALAD, SHE WON'T EVEN KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!"
Keep in mind that nothing was wrong with her mentally—she could understand everything anyone said—she just couldn't really respond. So I calmly told him that the week before she wanted the special and we had it again, and I asked her if that's what she wanted. She nodded, and this really ticked him off. He said once again to "just bring her a salad".
When I brought the food out, I did not have a salad, and instead, I served her exactly what she wanted. He was furious. He picked up her very hot plate and threw it at both of us. She started to cry and I began picking up the food that was now all over the floor. At that point, my mom came out and told him to leave and that he was not allowed to come back, so he stormed out the door, leaving his wife behind.
She had to sit there for about an hour while we tried to get another member of her family to come to pick her up. I have never in my life been so angry. The worst part is, after that, he started having his new girlfriend spend the night at his house...with his wife in the other room.
43. A Horde Of Karens
I delivered an EXCHANGE pizza since the first pizza had the wrong toppings. I gave them the correct order and asked for the incorrect one back. The whole family came out to the front yard and started yelling at me about how they deserved to keep the first, incorrect pizza, as compensation. THEN, they brought out two Pitbulls and threatened to send the dogs after me.
I told them to go screw themselves, then I got in my car and called the authorities. I now keep a lead pipe in my car, even though I don't deliver pizzas anymore.
44. Just A Wii Bit Dense
I used to be a manager at GameStop while in college. A guy called and told me the preowned Wii U he bought for his son stopped working. His son dropped it. I told him that we could give him another one, but since he didn’t buy the insurance, I could only replace it if the thing “just stopped working”. So, I said to him, “Well, maybe it stopped working before your son dropped it, and you can come in, and I’ll give you another one”.
I was trying to get this guy a free Wii U cause stuff happens, and I didn’t care. I would end up regretting being so kind. The guy proceeded to argue with me that it stopped working because of his son, saying, “No, I saw my son drop it, and then it stopped working. I’m positive”. Again, I said, “Oh, alright, well, maybe it wasn’t because of the drop. It probably just stopped working. I can’t exchange it if it broke because he dropped it, so I’m sure it was just defective. Bring it in, and I’ll swap it out”.
Again the guy insisted, “Nah, it definitely stopped working because he dropped it”. The dude came in an hour later and bought another one full price. The District Manager was in the store with me at the time, so I couldn’t say it outright, but I was shocked that this dude didn’t get what I was trying to do for him. I basically spelled it out.
45. Going In Circles
A full-grown woman asked me how big our pizzas were. I stuck out my fingers, eyeballed about a foot, and said, “Around this big”. She paused for a moment and finally said, “Oh, length-wise?” I thought perhaps she didn’t know that our pizzas were round, so I told her that our pizzas were circular; therefore, any point across was length-wise.
I went back to tell the other co-worker what I had just experienced. Right after I told her the punchline, “..any point across is length-wise,” she stared at me with this confused look on her face. Her response had me baffled. She smiled and finally said, “Okay, not all of us are Mr. Engineer over here!” I just walked away. I didn’t know how to handle it. I didn’t think I was a genius for knowing about the geometry of a circle.
46. Cilantro Complaints
I worked at a Vietnamese restaurant back in high school and I had a Viet family come in to eat. They gave me snobby vibes the entire time especially after I told them I couldn’t speak Vietnamese. They ordered regular pho but asked for no cilantro, so I rang the order in with “no cilantro”.
It came out with cilantro in it and I told the kitchen what the family asked. The kitchen told me they couldn’t do anything about it, so I told my manager and they told me to ask the family if they still wanted it. The family said yes, so I brought it out and they took out the cilantro and ate the entire thing.
At the end of the meal, they spoke to the owner and complained how I got their order completely wrong, got the food for free, and got their bill taken out of my pay. The owner told me I should’ve removed the cilantro myself.
47. The Handsy Manager
I used to work at HomeGoods where I set up furniture and rugs. I was a portly young lad, and I liked the lifting aspect of the job. I had one bizarre manager though. She was older and wore real fur coats with ridiculous eye makeup and lipstick that always smeared off the pink of her lips...like a plump and messy Cruella De Ville.
She creeped everyone out with the way she carried herself. She greeted people with a very slow and deliberate, "Oh. Hello". This was always followed by a lipstick-stained tooth smile. So one day I'm hanging a fairly heavy rug, one of the biggest ones we have.
I have to climb these mobile stairs roughly 20 feet to get this bulky beast onto the hanging rack. I'm kind of struggling with the awkwardness of the rug, but I'll get there eventually if I take my time. The oddball comes by and asks, "Do you need any help?" I'm thinking, 'Yeah if John or Billy were here, that'd be awesome'.
So I say, "Yeah, could you-" And before I could finish my sentence she goes, "Yes, let me spot you". And now both of her hands are firmly planted on my behind. It was everything in this world that makes you shake your head vehemently sounding out "BBBLLLUUUUHHHHHH!!!!"
I threw the rug off the side of the stairs with some new-found adrenaline. The tapestry landed with a bang. Every customer turned their heads in our direction. Fight or flight had surfaced in my being. My wide, confused eyes were fixated on this woman while my hands clenched to white.
Silence permeated the air. I stared her down for a moment that felt like a lifetime. To break this silence, she had the audacity to smile and say, "Keep up the good work". And with that, she left for her office. A co-worker of mine came up and comforted me with a bro hug. I think I'll always be slightly tormented by that memory.
48. All You Can Eat
I worked at a local chicken joint. Guy was trying to start up his wing restaurant. To help drum up business he made an “all you can eat” deal. The only stipulation was you couldn’t order one all-you-can-eat for multiple people. Seemed reasonable enough, I thought, and often it wasn’t an issue.
One evening as we were near closing, a couple of guys wandered in and one of them ordered this all-you-can-eat deal. He started sharing it with his friend and we told him that he couldn’t do that.
Since we were getting ready to close anyway my manager told him that we wouldn’t cook anymore for him because of it, but rather than throw out what we had already cooked he could just have that. This guy threw a tantrum after we turned our backs.
He threw the food across the entirety of the restaurant. French fries and ketchup everywhere. He kept the chicken though. My friend opened the next morning to find that they had vandalized the windows of the restaurant. Nothing serious, it was just giant toilet paper wads and stuff like that, but my friend said it was a huge pain to clean off.
49. Learn To Read
A customer came up complaining about the shoes that were supposed to be on sale for $29.99. I walked over to the fixture and showed him the sign which said the jeans were on sale, not the shoes. I then said, "Sometimes you have to read the whole sign." My coworker had to turn around and walk off so he wouldn't hear her laughing. I am really surprised I didn't get talked to about that.
50. Your Problem, Not Mine
I was on a call with a customer who was complaining and being absolutely ridiculous. I had only been on the job for a few weeks and I was becoming flustered. There was literally nothing I could do to calm this person down or get him to accept my answers. I was finally about to get him off the line when he made a sarcastic comment to the extent of "Wow thanks, you've been such a great help."
In my rush to say "No problem" or "You're welcome," I ended up saying "Your problem" and then hanging up. He called several times after that and I just ignored the calls because I was so exhausted.
51. I Owe You Nothing
I used to work in the H&M call center and this woman's package didn't arrive on the day our website said it would. By the way, this was an order for H&M basic items which came to about $50. She said that because she had to take a day off work, we now owed her lost wages which amounted to $850. I said to her, "So...you took a day off work where you would have earned $850 to wait at home for a package that is worth $50. Do you seriously expect me to believe that?"
Long story short, she hung up when I saw through the obvious lie.
52. I Don't Make The Prices, Lady
A woman got mad at me after I didn’t tell her that one of the items I rang up was full price. I told her, “Well, I can’t read your mind, can I?” She was so mad, like actually livid. But I wasn't about to act like I knew her budget or how much she wanted to spend. The screen was right there, and it showed her all the prices. And I would have been glad to take something off if she didn’t want it.
Anyway, I just quit my job in retail after five years yesterday, so cheers to that.
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53. That's NOT Okay
My girlfriend used to work at Dunkin Donuts in Miami and as you can imagine, she had to deal with many jerks. The customer that takes the cake is the guy who was unsatisfied with his coffee. When he got his coffee, it wasn't sweet enough, so instead of putting more sugar in it as a normal human being would, he opened it up and threw the boiling hot coffee at my girlfriend's shirt.
The guy then left and drove off. Her burns weren't too bad, but all she got out of it was the day off.
54. Checkout Time
I worked at a coffee shop where we sold two sizes, small and large. I was working the register, ringing up a girl. I asked her what kind of coffee she got, which was fine. However, when I asked her if she got small or large, she responded with a suspicious tone. “Why do you need to know?” I had to explain to her that one was a larger quantity than the other, and you had to pay for that extra amount.
She scoffed and grudgingly told me, “Do you think I’m tricking you?”
55. Watching Their Backs
I was the night manager of a grocery for years. Over the years, I worked with many teenage girls who were checkers. Creepy guys were always coming in and lingering around their check stands when it was slow but they always seemed to scurry away when I walked up. I never had to even tell them to leave or act tough.
Just another adult male presence would keep the creepy stuff away. So, I would always have a code word for my checkers. If they called the office or got my attention as I walked by, they just had to say "platypus" and no questions asked I would casually slide in and start talking to the checker and have her go do something or just start chit chatting with the creepy guy until they left.
There’d be no big scene, I would just make it seem like I was doing some good customer service. The weird part is, most creepy guys would catch on and just get that sort of "you win this round" smile. My checkers really liked it because the thought of calling a manager and making a big scene can make anyone nervous, especially a 16-year-old girl.
56. The Messy Mattress
I work in customer service in a furniture store. This lady calls in and wonders what we're going to do as we sent out our tech to inspect her mattress because she said it was sagging and she hasn't heard anything in a while. Anyways, I look at her account and all this happened almost six years ago.
When I read the comments, the awful truth became clear. They said, "Customer is too big to get off of the bed and cannot predict her time of the month, also stained with other bodily fluids, called the customer and advised that we cannot return".
Well, I tell her that any stains void the warranty, and then she yells, “They're all liars, I didn't even have a phone then! It's your fault it's stained! I'm going to sue you!" And then she hung up on me. I was literally sitting there in shock thinking to myself "...The heck just happened?" She's now a legend in the customer service department here.
57. Buckets Of Toppings
I worked at a pizza, ice cream, and sandwich shop in a small rural town. I was on delivery. We had this guy who ordered maybe once a week or so. This customer lived a solid half an hour outside town. None of us knew why the owner ever agreed to deliver to this guy in the first place, being that far out, but we used to wonder if the owner was being threatened into doing it.
The level of trouble the customer would raise if you didn't bring him cheese and peppers for his pizza was absolute madness. There was an incident where a delivery driver found the customer waiting on his porch, and the first thing the customer did was loosely point menacingly toward the driver and say, "Did you bring my cheese and peppers?"
We fully believe the customer would have hurt our driver if the answer had been no. As it was, the driver didn't have as much cheese and peppers as the customer would have liked. The customer called the restaurant and threw a fit. From then on, when we delivered to this customer—because the owner didn't cut him off —we were told to take a bucket of cheese and peppers with us.
I'm talking like one of those bulk ice cream buckets you buy at the supermarket. We all kept on in our trucks. But we had to start taking an extra just for this one customer. I wonder if the guy was even in it for the pizza.
58. Different Kinds Of Glasses
Used to be a bartender at this hybrid restaurant, bar, and movie theater. On big movie releases, the bar would get absolutely slammed and on this particular night, we had run out of glassware completely. The only glassware I had at the time were regular pint glasses that you would normally serve water in. It was a recipe for disaster.
This guy and his wife got lucky and caught a seat at the bar and he ordered a Jack Daniels. Having no other glassware, I put it in a pint glass and explained that we were running low on rocks glasses, assuming he would understand since it was absolute chaos everywhere you looked.
He took it and said “I’m not very happy” in a smarmy way and gave this annoying little grin. I apologized again and said, “Unfortunately we’re not making any more glasses back here,” and him and his wife acted like I reached across the bar and slapped him.
I just got my manager and told him to deal with them. He told them the same thing I had told them regarding the lack of glassware and gave them a free drink which they seemed happy with. I would’ve felt bad if there was something else, I could have done for them, but there wasn’t.
59. A Family Affair
I once worked at a gas station that served pizza. That night, I was the one making the pizza. It was only me and the person upfront working that night, so when it got busy, I was on my own. I got a bunch of calls for like 20 pizzas all within a half-hour. I got to making them, and after a while, people came to pick them up. But since there were so many in such a short time, and only so much oven space, not all of them were done on time.
One lady had her son come and get their pizzas, and when I told them it was going to be another five minutes, she CUSSED me out, saying: "Why are you such an idiot?" I politely told her that the sooner I could get off the phone with her, the sooner I could box her pizza up and get it to her son. Anyway, I boxed it up, went out to find him, and he was gone. So I set it up in the oven to keep it warm.
About 15 minutes later, I got another call from the same lady, yelling at me again! When I found out why, I wanted to SCREAM. Because her daughter, who I had never even seen, had been waiting to get the pizza. She was walking around the store and didn't tell me or anyone else she was there for pizza.
60. Piercing Comments
When I was still at my old job, I was a cashier. I remember one shift when it was rush hour and VERY busy. I was ringing a man through and he didn't pay much attention to me until I told him the total that he owed. He glanced over and immediately made a horrified face. I had a fair amount of piercings on my face, but nothing over the top. He just screamed at me: "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO YOUR FACE?'
And he just kept going and going and going. I just stood there, staring at him. He finally paid and left. I was about ready to cry.
61. The Dollar Dilemma
I used to be a shift manager at McDonald's. I was standing at the front counter and I watched a girl walk into the restaurant with a large cup, fill it with tea, and head towards the door, without buying anything. I called out to her and told her that it would be $1.07 for the tea she just got. First, she acted like she was just leaving, until the other manager working at the time got on the phone and called the authorities (it was just a dollar, but it was still stealing).
The girl walked out to a car, came back inside, and held her hand upside down over the counter. As soon as I got my hand under hers to take the money, she flung the $1.07 (in dimes and pennies) at my face. I almost threw my job away to get my revenge, but a crew member I was pretty close with was standing behind me saying, "She's not worth it; she's not worth your job". So I really couldn't do much but wish her a good day.
62. Changeroom Trauma
My friend was working in the changing rooms in Target. This cranky old lady came in to try on some outfits and my friend informed her that the maximum amount of items she could try on at a time was six. The woman flew into a rage, threw all of her clothes at my friend, and screamed, "WHAT THE HECK DID YOU SAY?" My friend was shocked and just repeated herself.
The woman said coolly, "That's what I thought you said, you dirty witch." Then she continued trying on clothes. My friend did not report her. The woman had already left the store before she could really act on it.
63. Serving Up Stupid
I used to be a barista at a coffee shop. I was working the register when a middle-aged man came through. He asked for a cup of decaf coffee, which we didn't have because company policy was to stop brewing anything but our light roast after a certain time in the afternoon (kind of ridiculous, but I just follow directions like the good little employee). He went ballistic on me, angrily asking if we were "in a kitchen," and if "I was serving up stupid".
I'm a really passive person who likes to avoid confrontation, and I even took his laced words in stride with a smile and apologized for something that really wasn't my fault. I then proceeded to patiently give him all the decaf options. No matter how much of a jerk this guy was, I wasn't ready to stoop to his level. The other barista on duty served him his drink at the bar (the irate customer begrudgingly settled for a decaf Americano) and winked at me when the guy made off with his drink.
I later learned he made him a heavily caffeinated drink with like six shots of definitely not decaf espresso. I actually got upset and told off my coworker it doesn't matter how much of a jerk someone is, it's just childish and petty to try and get revenge. And what if the guy had some condition that made him unable to have caffeine in his system? Not cool. There's no way that guy slept that night.
64. Café Customers
Oh, where to start. I worked in a cafe for a few years and while there were some bad one-offs, the WORST people were difficult regulars. There was one who would order the most popular thing on the menu but with a list of modifications a mile long, right down to what fruit to include with the side of fruit and how many inches tall to pile the turkey on the sandwich.
She would always get it to go and then would about 50% of the time, call the restaurant from home saying that the order wasn't correct and that she wanted a refund. However, my least favorite was this woman who would come in about an hour before closing and then stay until past closing—bugging you for little things piecemeal all the while.
I get that at sit-down restaurants, customers can generally come in whenever they want as long as the doors aren't locked yet, and then stay as long as they want. However, we were a small cafe, and I would kick everyone out when I locked the doors. She just wouldn't leave.
Once she was on the phone when it was time for her to leave. I ended up just shouting at her, loud enough for whoever was on the other line to hear, "IT IS TIME TO LEAVE THE CAFE NOW". People not wanting to leave was relatively common, although most people would leave right away when you asked.
Once a woman just wanted to "finish up one more thing" on her computer. One more thing turned into one more thing, which turned into one more thing. She was sitting by the open window, and there was no air conditioning in the cafe. So, finally, I just went and closed the window.
She gave me the dirtiest look, but she got out. The first customer I described was my coworker's worst nightmare and he always made me deal with her since, while she was super annoying, I didn't mind as much. The people who wouldn't leave at the end of the day made me so mad though.
65. I Need My Appointment Now!
I worked at a doctor's office, and this horrid woman came over an hour late for her appointment. She got told she had to reschedule, she threw a fit at the receptionist, and the nurse came out and told her she still had to reschedule. I couldn't believe what she did next.
She then stood at the door and tried to "buy" other patients' appointments from them as they walked in the door. Entitled much?
66. What Do You Mean?
Years ago, I worked at Abercrombie and Fitch. So many parents came in there and complained. The music is too loud, it smells in here, the prices are way too high. Everyone complained. I get it! It sucks in here and you’re angry your kids want this.
One day we had an extra obnoxious woman come in and start complaining to the point where we needed our manager. At the end of the ordeal, as she walked away, he said to her, "See you next Tuesday". She WIGGED. She turned around and demanded the number of the regional manager.
She kept saying I know what that means!! I think the manager ended up giving her a fake number and nothing ever came of it.
67. The Line Cutter
One dude would come into the cafe with his dogs that would hop on everything and bark at people. Even if there was a line, he’d just raise his hand and yell “coffee!” and just walk past the line and wait for his coffee, where he’d pay cash at the pick-up area.
One day, after he skipped a particularly long line, I refused to make his coffee. He started shouting at me and saying he’d get me fired, but eventually, he went to the end of the line and he had to order his coffee from me. Nobody clapped, but I felt like the people in line were clapping in their hearts.
68. Testing My Patience
I used to work at a restaurant that was quite popular with the organic/healthy lifestyle crowd. This particular lady asked me if we tested our water for ionizing radiation, making it clear that if we didn't, she would leave. Out of sinister curiosity, I told her, "Of course, we do. In fact, I'll test it right in front of you; just let me get my Geiger counter from the back".
My plan was brilliant—I downloaded a mock Geiger counter app and tested one glass of tap water in front of her. She completely bought it and proceeded to order a fruit salad and a water bottle. I told the manager, and we had a good laugh. I still can't believe I got away with it.
69. She Wasn’t Plugged Into Reality
I worked for Apple for five years at the Genius Bar. One day, a woman came in with a brand new Apple TV and said, "It's not working". She handed me the Apple TV, and I placed it on the bar. Before asking basic troubleshooting questions, I simply wanted to know if she had brought her HDMI and power cords with her; otherwise, I would have to get ours to plug it in.
I asked, "Did you bring your cables?" Her response had me dying of laughter inside. "What are you talking about? It's wireless." She thought the TV literally had no wires and thus didn't plug in the power cable or HDMI.
70. In Need Of An Upgrade
I used to work for an authorized Apple retailer. One day, this old woman, probably in her late 70s or 80s, came in to ask why her phone was acting up. It was a 4 GB iPhone 4 that had no storage left. She did not understand her smartphone and the upgrades that would be required. I did my best to explain that she would need to upgrade to a device with more storage so it would work the way she wanted.
I told her she could keep all of the pictures of her family; all she would have to do was transfer them through the iCloud system over the internet. That’s when she asked the golden question: “What’s the internet?” At that moment, she had tears running down her face as she genuinely did not understand a thing I had explained.
I had to take my lunch break, so I handed her off to my store manager to take over. When I clocked back in, she was still in the store. This time, at the checkout counter, with her brand new phone that my manager had sold her to meet a monthly sales quota. I’m sure he never told her what the internet was.
71. Sitting This One Out
I worked at an outdoor ski shop. In the summer, it was obviously slower, so they pushed tents, chairs, and general camping and hiking gear. We usually had some chairs on display outside the store as well as extra chairs inside for people to grab. One customer saw a chair, saw the same one inside, then came up to us and asked, "Do you have any of these in stock?"
It took us a few seconds to answer because we weren't sure if we heard right, and that was apparently too long for her. Her next move made our jaws drop. She stormed out of the shop, saying, "You people are OBVIOUSLY not good at your job. You should find something else to do with your lives!!" She even emailed and complained to head office, who asked us what happened.
We sent in the security footage, and they banned her from the store. She was someone who came in often but didn't spend much. One colleague went up to her once, smiled, and asked if she needed any help. She snapped, saying, "Yes, you can help me by leaving me alone," and stormed out of the store, leaving my colleague dumbstruck.
72. A Losing Game
I worked part-time at a video game store. One day, a soccer mom came in with her demon spawn and gave me grief for not having “that Sonic game” available. When I asked her which game she was talking about, as I wasn’t quite sure, she replied, “The one where you go fast! My child wants it, and you will not disappoint him”.
I told her if she was talking about Sonic Forces, it was available for pre-order, but it hadn’t been released yet. I said, “If that's the game you're talking about, you can pre-order it now and receive it at release”. But she wouldn't have ANY of it. She said, “My son wants it now. Look, I'll slip you a tenner if you get it for me; nobody has to know”.
She just didn’t get it. I told her again, “I'm sorry, ma'am, but we don't have any copies of the game. Even if we did, I would not be allowed to break the street date for the game. Once again, if your child wants the game, you can pre-order it now, and you'll receive it on the day the game is scheduled for release..” She then asked to speak to my manager and kept trying to get him to break street date for a game we didn't even have copies of.
73. I Scream For Ice Cream
A rather large woman told me I was stupid and would never amount anything because I didn't make her large ice cream cone big enough, even though I followed our store's guidelines. I reacted by giving her a huge ice cream cone because you know, the customer is always right. I assume if she does that everywhere, she'll die of obesity soon enough.
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74. When Push Comes To Shove
I work in a waterpark. We have a minimum height requirement for many of our slides, and most of the time, the parents get a little annoyed if their child isn't allowed on, but they generally accept it and move on. Just not this one time.
The dad came up with his son wanting to ride our biggest slide, and his son was short by about two inches. He went into a rage when I told him that his son wasn't tall enough, and talked about all the money he spent to get in there, etc. At that point, I blew the signal for the supervisor on my whistle. The dad continued his rant and then started insulting me, saying that I was going nowhere in my life and that I'd be working there my entire life.
For the record, I was a 17-year-old girl, and I was working that job to save up for university. He kept puffing his chest out like a teenager and moving forwards, so eventually, my back was to the slide with only a couple of inches of ground left. Just as my supervisor rounded the last flight of stairs, the man decided it would be good to give me a shove. I lost my balance and fall backward headfirst into the slide. Then everything went black.
I hit the slide with my head so hard that I totally blacked out, and only woke up about ten seconds later when I hit the water at the bottom. I was obviously very disoriented and the guard at the bottom jumped in for me and grabbed me. The staff was concerned about my neck, so I got the fun experience of being put onto the spinal board and having an ambulance come to pick me up. I had a concussion but nothing worse than that, thank God.
The man was apprehended by officers for assault, and he tried to countersue the waterpark. He lost. I didn't get any money, but I did get a nice promotion. I still work there, but not at the slides anymore. Now I'm just a lifeguard.
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75. Right Back Atcha
I used to work at a fast-food joint called Culvers. It's pretty much only around in the midwest. On my last day, I started my shift at the drive-thru. The customer was waiting at the window for a quart of ice cream with her order, which I made before she got her food because the food always takes a lot longer to make. I opened the window and tried to hand her the quart which she refused to take. She then started to yell at me.
"What are you doing? What are you, stupid? It's hot out! You can't just hand me my ice cream now, it'll melt by the time I get my food. Did your parents drop you on your head repeatedly when you were born?" Note: it was only around 80 degrees out. Seeing as this was my last day, I proceeded to say "Screw it" and I whipped out my thick southern accent. It was time to teach her a lesson.
"Why yes, I was, ma'am! How did you know? But ya see here ma'am, this here pint of custard comes in these handy dandy refrigerated bags, so they don't melt when it's blistering hot out or when it gets stuck in your rolls of fat, where your love life must have disappeared into". By this time, her food had been prepared and I threw her entire order into the passenger seat.
"Well, would ya look at that, yer grub is already here. Now ma'am, you can screw off and have yourself a wonderful day". She stared at me dumbfounded and drove off. It felt so good.
76. The Wrong Number
Back in college, I was working my first job as a front-of-house staff for an on-campus locally owned burger place. My main job was to call the order numbers out to customers and pass their food off. Easy enough. Well one night, we get absolutely slammed with to-go orders at closing.
I’m the only person out at the front and there were two cooks behind me working on the food. A man ordered two burgers. Cool! Well, we’re so busy I’m obviously not aware of what number goes with what customer off the top of my head, and I call out a number. A customer takes it and heads out.
Turns out the wrong customer grabbed that man’s order. Chaos ensued. He proceeded to yell profanities at me, calling me an idiot, demanding his food be free and that he gets free fries. This was all in front of other customers. I started crying. It held up everyone else’s food in the process. The manager had to remake his food.
77. Dropping Off The Kids
I was standing behind the register looking up a price for a customer when a young boy said to me, "Sir, my brother needs you". I politely asked him what he needed. He then tells me with the most serious look in his eyes, "I pooped". Confused, I asked him to repeat what he said.
He then says to me, "I pooped, it just came out". I look down to see that he had indeed pooped. It was a runny one too and it was all over my floor and everything. We then asked him where his parents were and I find out that he was dropped off by his mother. When we tried calling her, she wouldn't answer.
For two hours, this kid was in my store with poop all down his legs. Did I mention that he was wearing shorts? Because he was totally wearing shorts. I eventually asked him and everyone else in the store to leave so we could clean it up and get rid of the smell. To top it off, the kid was around 13 years old too.
78. Those Dang Kids
I worked as a server in a 24-hour diner in a small Massachusetts city. There's a prestigious school, Williston Northampton School, around the corner. Wealthy kids, but almost all of them were awful. The school does this thing called "button bucks," it's a pre-paid card, and many of the businesses in town accept them, including the diner.
Those kids treated us like we were subhuman. Snapping fingers, interrupting me while I was taking another customer's order, making a giant mess, cracking jokes about us—all sorts of awful things. THEN THEY DON'T TIP!
I had one group of boys order about 70 dollars worth of food, paid with a $100 dollar bill, and I brought them their change. As they walked out the door, they made a point to tell me, "Your tip is on the table". I could tell by the way he said it that there was something going on.
They put the 13 cents in a cup full of water, napkins, ketchup, half chewed fries, just a nasty cup they made just to be mean. The 13 cents on the bottom of the glass were my "tip". That's the only time I threw a glass in the trash because I refused to degrade myself further by picking through it.
It's been years and even now I feel rage just thinking about those Williston kids.
79. Do You Know Who I Am?
I was working in the clothing section of my campus store in college. An alumna came in with her band of seven children and asked me to find clothes for all of them. Of course, everyone wanted something different and specific. So I started helping, and all of the kids started running around, pulling clothing off hangers and racks, causing a lot of totally unnecessary chaos and destruction.
I asked the mom to keep her kids close to her and to ask them to put stuff back or at least stop touching stuff. Boy oh boy, this woman totally lost it. She started swearing at me, then she stormed out of my section with a huge amount of clothes, threatening to tell my manager about my attitude. She then proceeded to say, "Do you know who I am? I could buy and sell you! Don't make me take my business elsewhere." Shocked, I started to clean up my section.
An hour later, I was finishing up and found a piece of notebook paper folded in half with my name on the outside. She had gotten one of her kids to write "You can die" in crayon and leave it for me to find. And that's the meanest thing a customer has ever done to me.
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80. Picky Packer
I worked as a cashier for Wegmans. It was about 10 at night when this lady came through my line. I was express, so I could only ring up seven items, but she had about 10. I took her anyway. She had one of those burlap bags with her, and some frozen goods. Now, being a good cashier, I asked if she wanted the frozen goods in plastic. She said yes.
I made the mistake of putting her ice cream with frozen peas. She FLIPPED OUT! She started calling me nasty names and she reached over to fix the bag. I was so scared I didn't know what to do! I had to call my manager over to finish.
81. Veggie Confusion
I used to work at my parents' Japanese take-out restaurant. Some women ordered hibachi and thought the zucchini was cucumber. She walked up to the counter and started complaining about how she doesn't eat cucumber. I proceeded to tell her four times that it was zucchini, not cucumber, but she persisted. Finally, to end the argument once and for all, she tasted the 'cucumber' and found out it was zucchini...in front of 20 people who were staring at her.
They all gave her nasty looks. Instant karma, witch.
82. Not My Problem
I used to be a cashier at a department store. It seemed that whenever a customer was in a bad mood, he or she felt entitled to dump on the poor girl at the checkout. At one point, our store decided to add some reserved parking spaces for pregnant women, and one crabby male customer was checking out at my register. He snarled, "First you have handicapped parking, and now you add parking for pregnant women? What's next?"
I had the PERFECT response: "Parking for jerks. You can be the first one." I was so happy to leave that job.
83. The Quarter Lady
I worked at a grocery store for my first job. On one of my first few days on the job, a co-worker came over to me and said, "The Quarter Lady is here—make sure you count the quarters when she comes to your line." I didn't have much time to react as apparently she was already in the store for a while. She had a cartload of groceries and was coming to my line.
I proceeded to check her groceries and bag them (we had to do both) and I gave her her total (it was around $60 or $70 if I remember correctly). Then, my eyes got huge, as I couldn't believe what she was doing. She proceeded to lay out all her quarters onto the belt, counting them out quietly to herself. After she counted them out, she said, "Here you go" and then started walking away.
I replied, "I need to count this before you leave and get a receipt". Cue her temper tantrum. She got upset and proceeded to chew me out for not "trusting" her counting. Once again, I told her I needed to count her coins and give her a receipt, otherwise I would keep the groceries. Needless to say, I took my sweet time counting every quarter and putting them into piles.
My co-worker told me she would often come in, get quarters from the desk, rip them open, pay short, then leave without paying the full amount. She would apparently try this with every new employee and then rotate between the rest if she doesn't pull it off.
84. Last-Minute Altercation
I had to close my lane back when I worked at Target. This was when I was 16, and labor laws didn't allow me to work past 10 pm. So I rang up a lady even though my light was off and I checked my watch only to notice it was slightly more than a minute until 10 pm. As I turned away, a man dropped his electric razor on the conveyor belt. I turned around to give a polite "I'm sorry sir, but I have to punch out." Then I saw the large box fly past my head.
85. Officer, It Was That One
I work at a Baskin Robbins. We had this "usual" customer who was never devastatingly mean, but definitely most unwanted every time she came in. She was an old woman who quite frankly looked like Dolores Umbridge. She always ordered the same thing and would make snide comments about how her daughter would never work at our store because "that's where poor people work" (her daughter actually worked at a Pizza Hut).
One day, she ordered her usual shake. Jamoca almond fudge with Oreos blended in. she didn't like it, so I made it again. She didn't like it that time, either. I made it a third time, and after she took a sip, she looked me in the eye, tilted it, and poured it on the ground without breaking eye contact. She then threw the cup at me, calling me dumb for not being able to make a simple shake.
She did this while there was a line of people waiting behind her, and I was the only employee there as it was the early day shift. Luckily, one of the people behind her was an officer, so it was handled pretty well.
86. Toeing The Line
I served an old ex-military man around 80. He constantly tells me how pretty I am, not in the sweet grandpa way, but in a really slimy predatory way. He thinks he's got a right to pull this stuff because he's four times my age. Right before quarantine hit, he had the audacity to straight up put his hand in my face while I was minding my business clearing a table.
I know how ridiculous it must sound. but being a waitress for a couple of years, I can deal with stupid pick-up lines or some jerk reaching for my butt. With those people, you can either shut them down really quick verbally or kick them out. However, you can't just kick someone out for something as innocent as this guy does.
He knows that well and is always riiiight on that line where he could still defend his actions as innocent.
87. Tipping Troubles
There was a group of little old ladies that would come in every Sunday after church. All four would get the same thing. Every week. Iced tea and a half-grilled Asian salad with a senior discount, $4 and 19 cents. Every time they paid with four dollar bills and two dimes. The tip? Four cents.
While this sucked enough on its own, the fact that they were always super sweet to everyone made it burn even more. But on top of all that, on Sunday morning/afternoon, a really busy shift, they would sit there for several hours. So, on a busy day when you only had three or four tables, having one of those tables taken for hours with a guaranteed four-cent tip really sucked for your income for the day.
88. Is This A Joke?
Once I had a family of four come in. I work at a sushi restaurant, so of course, there's the open sushi set. And logically each person gets charged for it. The dad started joking around, trying so hard to make me charge him with two sets instead of four. I apologized and said that I can't do anything about it.
He got mad, and said bitterly, "Some respectful staff this company has. I want to speak to the manager". I told him there is no manager at this branch. So, he laughed like he didn't believe me then he said, "Gonna ruin your life for this".
Two days later, HR calls me and tells me that a man came in and said that I yelled at him, and that I was very disrespectful towards him and his family. They said I wasn't helpful or welcoming and I refused to be nice to him. I stood up for myself and told him what really happened.
HR proceeded to say, "I really don't know who I should believe," and hung up. Two days later, I'm fired.
89. Serving The Chef
My worst customer was the assistant chef, who after closing the kitchen bought a bunch of drinks and tried to pick a fight with me. He actually took a swing at me. I brought him in the next day and we had a long chat about his conduct. I let him keep his job provided he gave up drinking when on the premises.
A couple of weeks later, I showed up unexpectedly and he was at the bar drinking. The other cooks, knowing he should not be there, saw me coming through the parking lot, shuffled him off, and hid him in the kitchen before I could find him at the bar. I did find him, however.
He was passed out, standing up, in the kitchen, leaning against the prep table. His pants were around his ankles and he had messed up the kitchen. I fired him instantly and as punishment, the other cooks had to stay through the night to disassemble, deep clean, and disinfect the kitchen.
90. Caught Red-Handed
I work the customer service desk in a grocery store. Our policy says that we can return items without a receipt for store credit. I had this one cracked-out woman come to the counter to return about five recipe books without a receipt. The only issue was there were ripped out pages in all of the books. People do this all the time with stolen items.
I was unsure what to do so I called the manager. The manager politely refused the refund, which would have been about $100. The woman started screaming and called us all kinds of foul names. My manager asked her to leave or law enforcement will be called. With much hesitation, she finally left.
A few hours later I get a call from our store in another part of town asking if someone tried the same return. I said there was. Now, she is not allowed in any of our stores and we have security camera pictures of her all over the breakroom so we know not to let her in.
91. Please Eat OUR Food
We have a strict "no outside food or drink" policy in the cafe where I work. This woman bought a coffee and then proceeded to set up a meal with food from three other restaurants in the area. I kindly asked her to either put the food away or leave, which is our policy.
Her response was to scream at me for 10 minutes about how unfair it was, and that we don't live in Beverly Hills, causing other patrons to leave and me to almost break down and cry.
92. Betting On Bags
I currently work in retail and it is an absolute pain. During the Christmas 2012 rush, I had a customer buying two notebooks and two lightbulbs. I asked her if she needed a bag. She replied with, "Well what do you think?" I said, "I don't know ma'am. Some people want bags and some people don't".
She went on for a minute about how I was being "ridiculous" and finally just told me to throw it in a bag. I mean, I've seen people want a bag for less or not want a bag for more. I always ask if it seems like something that is in the gray area for needing or wanting a bag.
I never thought in my life that I would get yelled at for asking a customer if they wanted a bag or not.
93. The Bathroom Mess
I had a customer who would come in right after we opened and he'd order his coffee and then go to the restroom. This was the problem. Although he was friendly with us, he would leave a large puddle in front of the toilet.
Even though I knew it was him doing it because the restroom is cleaned and mopped at closing time, I wasn't comfortable with having this conversation with him. I had the idea of going in there myself when he came in and staying in there until he left. This worked a few times but he started to wait until I was done.
Finally, one day when he went in there, I quickly grabbed the mop and waited, in front of the restroom door, so he could see what I was doing. He still comes in, but he hasn't made a mess on the floor since.
94. Driving All The Way ‘Thru’
I work at a coffee shop that has a drive-thru on the south side of the building. In the middle of work one day, this woman who comes through at least twice a day and makes the same order decided to get her usual. However, when she reached the drive-thru window she handed me her money, and before I could give her back her change or any of the food she had ordered, she began to drive off.
Not wanting her to leave without all of her things, I put my head out the window and began shouting for her to come back, so she throws her car in reverse and almost backs into the guy behind her. She then begins screaming in the drive-thru window about how I tried to take her money and how if I am not fired, she is going to call head office and try and get our store shut down.
She refused to leave the drive-thru until we called the authorities and they escorted her off of our property, charging her with being a public disturbance.
95. Repeat Offender
I've always wanted to tell this story. It happened on my third day at my new job. It was at a cell phone store, and I already felt pretty comfortable working without any help. All of a sudden, this customer walked in, ignored the other customers who were waiting to be helped, and slammed her phone on the counter in front of me.
She said she had just bought this phone and then started talking about how it was not a really Galaxy S3. She was convinced it was fake. At first, I thought maybe she was trying to swindle us by swapping it or something, but when I determined she was just spewing nonsense, I apologized and told her there was nothing we could do.
She was not happy, so I checked in with the assistant manager who told me to give her the runaround because it was more than 14 days after she had purchased it. When I told her that we could not give her a refund, her horrifying reaction only intensified. She pounded her fist on the counter over and over again, screaming while she did it. After a few more pounds, she bellowed, GIVE ME MY MONEY”!
She then continued to scream and pound both of her fists like hammers as if she were Donkey Kong. I calmly explained that we could not give her a refund, but we were more than happy to exchange it without a restocking fee. She didn’t think that was good enough, though, so she started to act like Donkey Kong again, but this time she stomped her feet as well.
She then started telling me that she has three kids in her car right now, and she can’t take care of them with this garbage phone. She said she needed her money back so she could feed them. I told her our policy once again, and she grabbed the phone, screeched, and pushed the door as hard as she could. I thought it was over, but…
She left the store, still screaming at the top of her lungs. She then sped out of the parking lot and, instead of backing up out of her spot, she drove over the cement parking divider and floored it, spinning her wheels across the grass in front of the store. Alas, that was not the last of her. I encountered her again a few months later.
She was buying another Galaxy S3 because her son broke the other one. Then, three weeks later, she came in saying that the phone was “defective”. Since she couldn’t prove that it was faulty, we went through the same Donkey Kong routine again. This time, however, she wouldn't leave. She kept stomping her feet and screaming at customers about how we were ripping everyone off.
Eventually, it got to the point where the stomping was getting a bit scary, so I told her that she was making our customers uncomfortable and threatened to call the authorities. Just as I pretended to dial, she rushed out of there. I later learned more about her from another customer of mine who is her best friend. Apparently this maniac has also been banned from Walmart and several restaurants in the area.
96. If The Shoe Doesn’t Fit…
I work in a shoe shop. One of the services we supply is to check how well school shoes fit on our younger customers. Once a staff member has signed to say they are a good fit, the customer is able to bring them back if there are any problems. This one time, a mother came back in with her son a week after being fitted with a pair, loudly mouthing off that the shoes were too tight and causing blisters.
Even though she was being a psycho about it, we offered to get her a new pair. Once back in the kids department, she spotted the girl who fitted the original shoes and went crazy at her, demanding that the girl should be there while a better pair was fitted so she wouldn't make the same mistake again. Despite the mom saying some pretty degrading stuff about her, the girl agreed to sit in on the re-fit in an attempt to help out.
She remembered the customer, even to the point of remembering the child’s name, and was visibly upset about doing a bad job. Returning to the till, the fitter offered to put the exchange through as a final gesture of goodwill. She then froze, realization dawning on her. "These aren't your sons shoes" she said to the customer. They have a name tag inside saying Tommy, and your son’s name is Billy.
Turns out the kid had swapped his shoes with another boy in his class. Laughed that witch out of the shop.
97. Charity Case
I used to work for Hot Topic and they “sell” items for charity. What's really occurring is that you are making a donation and you get the item for free. The money does 100% go to the charity, but we had to start ringing them through the register because California changed their “donation” laws to charge tax. Jerks. Anyway, this lady came in wanting to return 96 of the charity bracelets.
This lady had bought 100 of them to SELL at a music festival because they said "music=life" on them. She didn't realize her target demographic shopped at Hot Topic and knew they were charity giveaways so they didn't buy them. I explained to her that she didn't really purchase anything, but she wouldn't give up. I gave her my manager’s number and from there, the story escalated. He turned her down flat, so she called the home office. Every day. For almost a month.
This finally gets around to the CEO at the time, who absolutely takes no nonsense from anyone. She finds out about this and calls the customer for her address. She sends her a personal check along with a note telling her that there was no way Hot Topic was going to take money away from a charity and she'd rather take the hit herself. But there was a catch. If the lady cashed the check she was never allowed in our stores again. I had heard about all this but the story was confirmed when I went to the home office and a copy of the letter was posted at one of the HR personnel's desks.
Wikimedia Commons, Scouts Canada
98. You Got Told
I worked at a restaurant that was very popular for brunch, and Mother's Day was probably our busiest day of the year. I had a customer call the evening before and ask for a table for six. He was incredibly rude when I informed him that this would simply be impossible. He kept getting more and more worked up, asking to speak to my manager.
At first, I didn't want to pass the phone over. My manager, Mac, wasn't the nicest guy and we were in the middle of a busy dinner shift. But Mac came up behind me and demanded to know why I had been on the phone for so long. I was like “Screw it, this customer isn't going to listen to me anyways" and gave the phone to Mac.
Mac asked how he could help, and listened for about 15 seconds before telling this dude something like, "So you're tying up my hostess in the middle of dinner even though she's already told you nicely that we can't fit you and your goddarn family in the night before our busiest day of the year? Screw you buddy!" And he hung up the phone.
99. Fusion Food
I worked at an Italian restaurant, and this guy ordered a salad. It seemed straightforward enough, but I was so, so wrong. When I asked what dressing he wanted, he kept going back to the pasta sauces and asking, “Sugo, that would be good on it, wouldn’t it! I’ll get that”. I tried to explain, “Sir, those are for pasta. You got the Mediterranean salad”. He responded, “You’re right; maybe carbonara,” another pasta sauce.
I couldn’t get what he wasn’t understanding. He seemed like a normal smart dude, but he couldn’t comprehend the difference between the dressings and sauces.
100. She Took Matters Into Her Own Hands
I worked at a popular restaurant. During dinner service, we usually had 30-40 minute long wait times. People were told about this by the hosts. There was this lady who got fed up with the wait after 10 minutes. She stormed into the restaurant, stood next to a table of four people, and literally asked them, "Are you guys done? We've been waiting for a long time now and would like to have the table if you guys are just chatting."
