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40 Stupid Customer Complaints These Employees Had To Deal With And Facepalm While Staying Calm
Interview
The cliché that the customer is always right has become so rooted that nightmarish buyers are often getting better treatment than they deserve. Sadly, it's the service industry workers who have to take in their negative emotions, unreasonable expectations and ridiculous demands. And they have truly seen it all.
Reddit user Jing_Yuan_Lu asked fellow members who worked in CS, "What’s the dumbest thing a customer has gone out of their way to complain about?" From buyers who kicked up a fuss when they couldn't find milk in an electronics store or when their Himalayan salt stone lamp "disappeared" after they put it in the dishwasher, thousands of replies started pouring in, each one better than the last.
Some of these comments are truly eye-roll-worthy, so scroll down and check them out yourself! Make sure to upvote your favorite ones and share your experience in the comment section below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Many years back, worked for a store chain which sells all products related and connected to Nature. Among them, the Himalayan salt stone lamp. It's a stone made of salt that encases an electrical bulb. It is supposed to help for regulating ions in your home/office.
A customer called us to complain that their stone disappeared at home, and asked for a refund. As open mind as I can be, I however tried to understand what she meant exactly by "disappeared".
Story is, customer removed the stone from the bulb and put it in her dish-washer to clean it...
I had to be super nice with her to make her realizing that salt dissolves in water.. Specially in hot water.. Without her getting upset and getting offended... It was a lonely moment..
Bored Panda reached out to the author of this post, Jing_Yuan_Lu, to talk a bit more about their experience, difficult clients, and how to deal with them. According to the user, there are plenty of reasons why people have so many stories of customer entitlement and their lack of empathy.
In retail and customer service, "you are dealing with the general public and we have this mentality that 'the customer is always right', the user explained. "Unfortunately, a lot of people use this as an excuse to try to get whatever they want."
There’s also the problem with certain people assuming that working in a retail store or at a restaurant is not a "real" job or that the employees "exist to serve the customer and get a sense of self-importance and entitlement that they might not normally have."
RELATED:
#2
That our parent company said that a portion of every purchase goes towards the So The World May Hear foundation for poor kids hearing aids. He wanted that portion of his purchase refunded to him. I told him that the parent company had every right to do with their profits off every purchase that they wanted and most people were happy that instead of profiting as much they made a donation instead. He didn't care. He was mad that his money was helping brown kids hear. F**k that guy.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
Yep, big eye opener to me the first time I heard something similar. I used to manage a branch of national chain of off-licences (Threshers, to any Brits old enough to remember them) that started selling plastic bags instead of giving them away, and the profits all went to a charity called Radio Lollipop, which organised children's hospital radio around the country. Bear in mind that this was before tablets, mobile phones, even the world wide web. Hospital radio was important, especially for long stay patients. Fairly inoffensive, you'd think. Nope, one man did demand to know whether it was going to help black children, and when I pointed out that any child in hospital could listen he declined a bag. I mean really? Struggle home with arms full of glass bottles of drink just to make sure a couple of pennies of your money don't help a poorly black child be entertained?
Besides, there's always the possibility that customers are having a bad day and are looking for someone to take it out on. Jing_Yuan_Lu mentioned that, typically, they enjoy helping people but every so often, the interactions can become a bit overwhelming: "Sometimes customers can get to be too much and I don’t think that they realize that we are people too, with thoughts and feelings and emotions."
"I tend to try very hard to help customers out but sometimes they just try to take advantage of that. They get so wrapped up in how they feel about the product/service and expect us, as the representative of whatever brand, to be able to fix everything right away," the user said. "When we can't, it’s taken as a personal affront rather than an objective policy or procedure."
#3
A guy asked if I was the manager.
“Can I help you with something?”
Angrily: “Yeah, three Saturdays in a row now I come down here at 4:30, and every f**kin’ Saturday you close at 4.”
“Uh...yeah. We close at 4.”
“F**k you.”
At least he left then. The worst ones don’t leave. They just keep going.
When it comes to dealing with rude customers, it can get quite tricky since often you don't know how to react to their demands and all the emotions that come with them. The user has a few tips to share and mentions that everything depends on the situation. "Sometimes you just kind of have to say okay and nod your head and say 'I understand.' In these cases, the customers really just want to vent and feel heard," Jing_Yuan_Lu said.
However, if you sense even the tiniest bit of violence or aggression, involve your manager. "If you are the supervisor in the situation, you have to be firm (which is hard sometimes) and say something along the lines of 'I would like to help you but I am unable to do so until you stop yelling.'", the user advised.
"It's always difficult though because you never know how they're going to react. Having a good relationship with your supervisor or knowing that your supervisor will back you up in those situations is probably the best way to help handle anxiety."
#4
Worked in an electronics store to put myself through college. I worked in the computer department but was sitting at the loss prevention desk upfront to cover while the LP supervisor took a quick lunch break. An old lady comes in, asks where the dairy section is, and help finding the milk. I told her, kindly, that we weren't in a grocery store. She looks confused and leaves. A couple of minutes later her (presumably) son walks in and starts chewing my a** because I wouldn't help her find the milk. When he was done b**ching, I slowly waved my arm across the store and asked him which one of those aisles looks like they might have groceries in them. He stares for a good few seconds and then starts b**ching me out saying that I'm an a**hole, and he wants to see a manager.
So I paged the loss prevention supervisor up to the front. The LP supervisor invited the guy to never come back to the store.
Yvonne Dauwalder Balsiger 3 years ago
That dude would be outsmarted by bread... Used to work in a book store in a shopping center, the amount of people coming in and wanting to have their remote control fixed or buy clothes, croissants, a pillow, whatever was mind-blowing. Also funny, the amount of people trying to figure out if we sold some sex magazines (we did!) without asking directly... Dude comes up to you looking embarrassed, just point him to the section high up on the shelf in the back and then keep an eye on him in case he is also too embarrassed to pay at the counter for it .. 😂😂😂
#5
It’s always “x has it cheaper”
Go there then. You are hurting literally nobody’s feelings.
Caro Caro 3 years ago
Happened to me when someone wanted software but it was cheaper elsewhere. Person bought it somewhere else and called me because they couldn't get it installed properly and the other company wouldn't help them. I said "that was included in my price, now it's 40 euro's an hour" goodbye!
The author of the post would like to remind you, dear Pandas, that not all customers are terrible, some of them are actually really great: "We tend to just get heated and riled up by the awful ones and we can all commiserate having dealt with certain types of customers but it's not all bad."
"I still really like helping people. I think if everyone had to work in the retail or food industry for even a few days at least once in their life, people might be more considerate and empathetic when they decide to go out shopping or dine out."
#6
Worked at a coffee shop that wasn’t Starbucks. Frappuccino is a trademarked word for Starbucks blended coffee drinks. When customers would ask for frappuccinos we would just put in the order as what we called it and let them know the name for it at our store so they would recognize it when the barista called it out. Had a woman get so upset she was screaming, all over the word frappuccino. According to her, it was the traditional Italian word for a blended coffee drink (it’s not) and we obviously thought she was stupid to tell her otherwise and how dare we insult her like that. Tried to calm her down and just say we called them something else but it would be a similar drink...didn’t even correct her about the rest. She continued to flip out and literally looked up and called our corporate customer service line in front of us, holding up the rest of the line, to have them tell her the same thing. She then started screeching to demand to talk to the president of our company and started knocking stuff off our countertop. That’s when we called security to escort her the f**k out of our store.
#7
I used to work at a pizza place with a small dining room. So many people would complain that their pizza was too hot to eat. Of course, it is. It just came out of the oven. This is why you chose to drive your dumba** here to eat instead of having it delivered. Because it's fresh. Fresh pizza is hot, ffs.
ShriSha Kamboj 3 years ago
omg....i had sm1 ask me to heat up their ice cream just enough to not hurt their teeth.....people are weird
We also reached out to Alexander Kjerulf, author of The Chief Happiness Officer Blog and founder of Woohoo Inc., a training company specializing in happiness in the workplace. When it comes to thinking about ignorant customer demands and complaints, he said that it’s partly because some customers have been getting worse.
"Especially in America, there's been an increase in entitled belligerent jerks who think they can get whatever they want if they yell loudly enough about it." Kjerulf provides another reason: "It's also because employees finally have online forums where they can share their stories and support each other."
#8
Not sure if this is really a complaint but more sheer stupidity...
At my first IT job, someone was returning a computer monitor and insisted on speaking with someone from the IT department rather than just leaving it in the cage as they were asked.
So I came down to talk with them to see what was going on and she was very adamant that I "double-check" the monitor to make sure all of her information was off of it...
This lady literally thought all of her icons, files, and folders were saved directly to the monitor itself and wouldn't leave unless I powered it on to show her.
I didn't even bother trying to explain it to her, she seemed extremely rude and it wouldn't even be worth my time. So I literally plugged it into the wall, didn't connect it to anything, and powered it on.
"See, it's completely blank. Your good to go"
She smiled, said thank you, and left.
#9
At 18 I was working at a gas station. It was a busy day, I was the only one there and had a huge line. A woman comes in and skips the line and throws a $20 at me saying "$5 on pump 2." Since she acted like that I chose to make her wait to have money put on the pump. When it would have been getting turned in line I put the $20 onto the pump since she didn't wait around. About 5 minutes later she comes back complaining that the entire $20 was pumped.
I told her straight out that it's not my responsibility to keep track of her money, and I placed it on the pump for a record of the funds. If she hadn't walked away from the pump or had waited in line she could have completed her transaction like everyone else. She then tried calling the cops because I refused to give her a refund. When the cop got there and got the story he looked at her and told her to grow up and be responsible for herself.
If customers are being completely irrational or throwing insults at the employees, it’s the boss’ job to deal with them. And one advice Kjerulf gives to the supervisors: kick those customers out. "They're bad for business, they cost a lot of time and money and they will never be happy no matter what you give them," he explained. "In fact, if you give in this time, they'll be back soon with even stupider demands."
#10
We have a drink special in the morning. Drinks are a dollar until 11:00 am.
A lady called to complain that her daughter's drink only cost a dollar. When we explained to her about the special, she said her daughter should have been charged full price regardless.
#11
I once had a customer come in and the following ensued:
Customer: “Hi I am here to return this power washer”
Me: “Sure you have your receipt?”
C: “Well I bought it “As Is” two years ago. I used it for the first time last year and it didn’t work. I saw it this weekend cleaning the garage. I’d like my money back”
M: “Ah yeah we can’t do that. This product is 3 years old and was sold as is”.
C: angry tone “Oh yeah buddy? What kind of f**king store is this then? Let me talk to a manager.”
Manger proceeds to give them store credit for the amount of a brand new one. I put my two weeks in shortly after.
Often, unreasonable buyers can really take a toll on your emotional and physical well-being. Even in the most stressful situations, it's the worker who tries to remain calm and has to take in all the negative reactions. "We know for a fact that having to fake emotions is stressful. And on top of that, it feels deeply unfair to see the worst customers get the most benefits through the brattiest behavior," the author and speaker told Bored Panda.
#12
The store manager was walking by my register as a customer was walking up to check out. My manager said I had to take my break in 15 minutes to which I said, "Okay" The customer complained that it was unprofessional for the manager to speak to me and that I was unprofessional to respond when a customer was approaching the register because I needed to be focused on her and greet her appropriately.
#13
That I was using a cash register instead of “using my brain” to calculate the money
edit: someone complained I was Asian and I shouldn't be working here because of that
Alexander Kjerulf leaves us with a couple of thoughts: "It's about time that companies realize that coddling the worst customers is a terrible idea. It costs time and money AND it frustrates your employees. Stop doing it."
#14
I work for a popular roadside assistance company and had a guy call in wanting to get roadside assistance for his daughter who was stranded. His daughter was not on his membership and there was no room to add her because he already had his wife added. So I suggested he remove his wife for now and add his daughter so she can get roadside assistance and then switch them back afterward. Apparently, this was the most outrageous suggestion. He went and told my supervisor that I was "making him choose his daughter over his wife and no father should have to make that kind of decision" lol.
#15
I worked at a shoe store and I had a guy come in and ask where he could get some books packed up for free and shipped. I said I wasn't sure and that made staples would do it because they have an ups area there. He said he already tried there and then he called me a fat a** (I wasn't fat. Just very pregnant) because I couldn't be bothered to get off the ladder to help him.
I was like dude. I sell shoes. I don't know what you want from me.
He storms out of the store and like 3 years later I'm still super confused about the whole situation.
#16
I work at a bakery and we sell pigs in a blanket for breakfast. A few years ago one of the kinds was a spicy blueberry sausage (it had blueberries inside the sausage link). One day some lady got one (knowing it was a blueberry sausage link), bit into it, and noticed some dark looking things inside the sausage link (surprise, it was a blueberry) but for whatever reason, she thought that a flake of black gunk from inside our oven somehow managed to get inside the sausage link (even after said link was rolled in a croissant). She called the health department on us and tried to get $50+ of free food.
My boss asked her what she ordered, he brought out a link of the sausage to show her and she immediately shut up and left the store. Unfortunately, we stopped selling that kind because "if one idiot is gonna think that then others will", which is sad because they were pretty good.
#17
I work in a library and I had a woman that was livid that we had a book of short stories in our Young Adult section about LGBT issues among teens. She was like "this is disgusting, this is giving their young minds a false impression of how normal people should live, this is awful". My boss is a lesbian and was the one listening to her rant.
#18
I worked for a cable company and I had people call in and complain because they got free unlimited calling to Mexico with our phone plans.
"Well, I don't want to call Mexico!"
"Then may I suggest that you simply don't do that? It's not mandatory."
Paul Ellis 3 years ago
"Oh, no problem. We can change it for Outer Mongolia. I would imagine that you must have many friends in Ulaanbataar."
#19
I’m not sure if it counts as complaining but a woman once called to know the status of her case and confirm when she would be getting her money, pretty normal stuff until I said: “Yeah let me help-“ and she cut me off and said: “I don’t want to hear you talking. Don’t say a word to me, I don’t want to hear you, just do the damn thing.”
I was like “ma’am this is a call center, I can’t help you without speaking to you” and she goes: “girl bye” and hung up.
#20
A lady ordered a sandwich and then canceled her order because she thought it took too long. Someone else from the party she was having called and made an order. We made it and delivered it without issue. The same lady calls back APPALLED that we would allow one of her guests to order from us after she made it very clear she wanted to cancel her own order. It's not my business if other people at her party want to order food and I had no idea it was her party anyway. I told her it was very common for multiple deliveries to go to the same house party, why wouldn't we make them sandwiches? She then told me I would obviously never amount to anything in life and she was going to make a formal complaint against me. It was such a weird complaint. It was probably 10 years ago but it still bugs me sometimes.
#21
I'm a bartender and just last night a came in and I knew something would happen.. they are sitting at their TABLE and ask for some margaritas. I go make them and bring them out to the table. He proceeds to tell me "here's a TAFFER tip; if someone orders a cocktail you should make it in front of them" I replied, well if you were sitting at THE BAR I could do that... Do you want me to bring the blender out to your table and make your frozen drink for you there!? WTH one of the dumbest things I'ver ever heard.
#22
I never understood why people would buy spicy food and then say it's too spicy.
Like, when I worked in the deli, it was no problem to serve a sample slice, but no, they'd order a pound of pepper jack or spicy chicken, then come back the next day wanting a refund with like half the package gone.
My manager always told them no. It was glorious to witness. People never expect to be told NO at retail.
#23
I’m not exactly in customer service, but I once had a customer call me and demand I sent a different electrician to his house because the one I sent “looked shady”, after a bit of back and forth I figured out the issue was actually that he was Cuban.
#24
I worked in a restaurant for years. People would always ask for broccoli as a side
“I’m sorry, we don’t have broccoli here”
Yes, you do! I get it every time I come. You’re just new
“I’ve been here 6 years ma’am, and at no point have we had broccoli “
You don’t get it, I know Mr. (Name of Restaurant). My husband plays golf with him.
“(Name of Restaurant) is a slang Italian word meaning ‘lively’. There is no Mr. (Name of Restaurant)”
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
People were always asking for broccoli as a side? Why wouldn't the restaurant start selling it????
#25
Had a woman call me racist because I asked her if she needed utensils for her take-out.
#26
For whatever the f**k reason, people tend to drop 50 IQ points and become chaotic evil when making purchases. This one woman will forever live in embarrassment. When I was 17 and lived in a place that had frequent and hard rain. This b**ch comes in and complains that... the parking lot... is wet. It was currently pouring.
#27
I had a guy call in and complain that the CEO's name sounded Jewish. I merely replied that I do not have an opinion, and I hung up.
#28
Ah I got a great one. So I have a small retail business with my mom that's strictly brick and mortar. Normally our return policy is within 21 days for store credit. During the holidays we extend it so that anything purchased between Black Friday and December 24th can be returned up until the end of January.
A few years ago this guy came in around the end of April trying to return Christmas gifts on DRY CLEANING HANGERS. When I told him I wouldn't take it back, even for a store credit, he blew up on me and cussed me out in front of other customers in the store. He then proceeded to leave a 1-star review and bash the store saying how he's "never been treated like that before at a store". How tf do people like that exist?
Oopsydaisy 3 years ago
Unfortunately big department stores have allowed this sort of behaviour, and small businesses cop the flak for, quite rightly, not allowing people to do crap like this.
#29
When I was at DirecTV I received a call from a man whose sole purpose was to complain that this is the United States and there should not be a Spanish option in the automated call tree.
#30
I had to remake Marilyn's caramel macchiato 3 times because the caramel "kept sinking into the foam". CONSULT YOUR PHYSICS TEXTBOOK, MARILYN. IT IS CALLED GRAVITY.
Sarah Sparkles 3 years ago
Starbucks makes their employees remake the drink over and over until the customer is happy. Worst place to work!
#31
Somebody called head office to complain that they heard a Michael Jackson song in our store.
#32
I was a lifeguard for 2-3 years in high school. Every day I would get people complaining about the pool temperature as if I could do something about it. “Ma’am, the pool does not have a heating system, I’m sorry. Larger bodies of water hold their temperature longer, which is why it’s so cold”. And they would complain ALL. THE. TIME. “This is your job, you need to fix it!” I’m sorry lady. This isn’t the 4 Seasons Hotel, this is a f**king community pool. It was never young people, always the old ladies who would come in at 5 am to do water aerobics.
#33
We sold bonsai trees which can be kinda tricky to keep so you got a care leaflet with them. The leaflet said to water the tree you should immerse the pot entirely until soaked and then allow it to drain completely (disclaimer: I have no idea if this advice is actually correct). Anyway, the customer comes in with a dead tree in a pot with zero soil left, ranting how the advice was terrible and demanding a refund.
Turns out rather than fill a bowl and immerse the pot she'd run a bath and immersed the whole damn tree, right to the tips of its poor little branches. Soil dispersed, the tree died.
Seriously at what point during this process are you not thinking "I have to run a damn bath every time? I know bonsai are high maintenance but this seems extreme"
#34
I guess this wasn’t really an official complaint but it was pretty dumb. I was running the register at the grocery store and this couple got in my line. I could tell they were together because they were talking and interacting with one another. However, they had two different baskets and left a small gap between their respective items without placing them down the divider. So I wasn’t sure if they were paying for everything altogether or separately. I say the generic things, hi, how are you, did you find everything okay, etc and then politely asked, “together or separate?” The lady gave me a death glare and said “why on earth does it matter?” I gave her a blank stare and slowly said “so.... that I know whether to keep ringing you up...or cash out the order....” All I can think is they must have been having some relationship problems because she jumped right to that, haha.
#35
I owned a computer biz for a few years. The one that always got me was this chick that brought in her computer slammed with viruses, spyware, etc. so bad it wouldn’t boot. Got it all fixed up and she picked it up. Brought it back the very next day with the same thing. I asked what sites she visited since she picked it up and she, completely unashamed, said “oh my bf and I are on porn all the time”. Um, ok. I told her I would go ahead and clean it again for free but if she visited those sites I couldn’t do it again without charging. Picked it up the same day. Back in the next. Me: “did you get back on the porn sites” Her: “of course”. I could not make her understand why this kept happening and would continue happening so I just asked her to go somewhere else.
#36
Had a lady call me racist because she came in to buy glasses, and I asked if she has been to our store before or if she has her prescription with her. She even told her young daughter to watch out for people like me... Uhhh...
ShriSha Kamboj 3 years ago
just hand her a dictionary and reading glasses.......let her know the meaning of the word racist
#37
Restaurant with open kitchen, so customers and us cooks can converse freely. The customer wanted crispy fish. Made it really crispy. Not done enough. I cooked a new one, literally like 15 minutes on the fryers; I cooked three or four other orders around it. She then complained that it was too hot and she didn't want it.
Pungent Sauce 3 years ago
Open kitchen, had a nice conversation with a pleasant woman who was ‘allergic’ to salt (you’ll literally die without it). After explaining some of our prep work and menu items, she settled on the cheese omelette, and thanked me on the way out for my time and consideration. I’ll leave it up to you to look up the sodium content of cheese…
#38
In a hotel, they complained that someone else had slept on their mattress so we had to buy a new one. And then 4 more new ones for the other hotels they were going to stay at.
#39
I was working at OfficeMax during back-to-school season. This woman comes up to my register with a few things and I start scanning it in. She notices that one item rang up less than she was expecting. She actually got an attitude with me because we hadn't had a chance to print new shelf tags for that aisle yet. I told her I would wait if she wanted to get more. She declined and continued complaining to me about it. I said, "well I can override the price to what the shelf label said." I realize now that I was being a bit of a b**ch by saying that. She politely declined that as well, paid with her card, and rushed out the door with her things.
#40
Obligatory "I don't work in customer service" but my dad is a f**king nightmare about complaining for stupid reasons, usually in restaurants. The other day he sent me this message that his mate has sent to IKEA customer service, complaining about how there are TOO MANY DIGITS IN THE CUSTOMER NUMBER. They seemed so proud of themselves for it but all I can think about is how it's a waste of everyone's time and such a stupid thing to get worked up about.
"Hello, I recently purchased a lot of kitchen stuff and decided it would be a good idea joined IKEA Family beforehand. The membership number issued is 19 numbers long. I would like to point out that the estimated world population is around 7.8 billion people. Written in longhand, 7.8 billion is 10 numbers in length. [...] So my question is, why do you need to create a membership number which is approximately: Eight hundred and two million, five hundred and seventy-six thousand, five hundred and seventy-six times more than the whole world population?"
What do you think ?
Mat O'Dowd 3 years ago
I got an idea, just send your US Karens to us in France, we will re-educate them in customers expectations. Retail workers take abuse, but have the right to answer back, and the customer isn't always right ! We don't have that reputation of grumpiness for nothing !!!
Jill Bussey 3 years ago
Oh yes please. I know some of the stories are "enhanced" for dramatic effect, but really? These people have severe mental health problems.
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Huddo's sister 3 years ago
I am baffled that these people think they could treat people like that. Even weirder is the managers that give refunds etc even though the customer is in the wrong. Surely that is what causes this 'Karen' culture where the cycle just continues. They take 'the customer is always right' completely out of context and to extremes!
Heliocracy 3 years ago
It's better to lose a few dollars but keep a customer. Being right is often not worth it when you're running a customer-service type business.
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Mat O'Dowd 3 years ago
I got an idea, just send your US Karens to us in France, we will re-educate them in customers expectations. Retail workers take abuse, but have the right to answer back, and the customer isn't always right ! We don't have that reputation of grumpiness for nothing !!!
Jill Bussey 3 years ago
Oh yes please. I know some of the stories are "enhanced" for dramatic effect, but really? These people have severe mental health problems.
Load More Replies... Huddo's sister 3 years ago
I am baffled that these people think they could treat people like that. Even weirder is the managers that give refunds etc even though the customer is in the wrong. Surely that is what causes this 'Karen' culture where the cycle just continues. They take 'the customer is always right' completely out of context and to extremes!
Heliocracy 3 years ago
It's better to lose a few dollars but keep a customer. Being right is often not worth it when you're running a customer-service type business.
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