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35 Times Service Industry Workers Celebrated Moments Of ‘Instant Karma’ After Dealing With Extremely Rude Customers
They say there are no bad customers, only wrong attitudes. But anyone who's ever worked in the service industry will tell you that’s far from the truth. Customers who rant for hours on end, who snap their fingers at you, and forget to treat you as a human being are just a few things from the list. Unfortunately, dealing with irrational behaviors is nothing new, and there’s often not a thing you can do but respond in a respectful manner.
If you are lucky, though, you get to experience the moment when karma quickly catches up with extremely disrespectful people and puts them in their rightful place. Well, at least there's one thread over on Reddit full of these delightful stories.
Created by a now-deleted user, it reached out to retail and service workers: "What's the best instant karma you've seen happen to a rude customer?" The post quickly flooded with responses that prove the universe sometimes works in mysterious yet glorious ways. So, buckle up because we gathered some of the best answers from the thread. Upvote the ones you liked most and if you have a similar tale to share, tell us about it in the comments below!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Repost as I've told this story before.
It was about three years ago. An employee, we'll call him Dave, was working at my retail store when two customers walk in at about the same time, one black, one white. Dave was being trained on register after being there for only a month or so with the manager standing behind him. The two customers get to the register at about the same time, but the black man beat him there. The black man then has the audacity to ask how good the product was before he bought it, and the white man behind him said,"Do I really have to wait for this f*****g n****r to be done?" The black man was unfazed, but Dave said "Sir, please don't use slurs like that or I am going to have to ask you to leave."
White man: "Oh, big man? you going to make me leave, big man? Because I called this n****r a f*****g n****r?"
Dave(6"5'): "Yes, I am a big man, and you have to leave now."
White man: "F*****g fight me then, big man! I'll f*****g destroy you!"
Dave: "Alright, I will. Let me clock out and grab my stuff and I'll meet you outside."
The white man was a little surprised by the fact that he accepted. Dave turned to the manager and said, "Thank you so much for the opportunity, but I'm afraid I have to quit."
Manager: "Dave, I get it, but you don't have to do this."
Dave: "Yes I do."
The white man was getting himself pumped up outside as Dave clocked out, grabbed his coat and his Pepsi, and walked outside where he sucker-punched the white man in the cheekbone, sprawling him out onto the curb. Dave drove off.
TL;DR: Dave politely quit so he could knock a racist customer out with a single punch.
RELATED:
#2
As a teenager I was working part time at a convenience store. I was being trained by the late night cashier. This dude comes in and grabs a bunch of cans of vegetables and such, and comes to the counter and stacks the cans in a very specific way, like a weird kind of pyramid on the counter.
As the experienced cashier (my trainer) takes each can off the pyramid and rings it up, she reaches the end of the stack and we realize that the weirdo has his c**k out and has it laying on the counter behind the cans.
Without saying a word, the trainer grabs one of the big heavy metal cans of beans and slams it down as hard as she can on the guy's d**k. He screamed an incredible scream of searing pain, grabbed his c**k, and ran out of the store.
**She to me:** (calmly) "You get all kinds on the late shift."
#3
Used to work at a check cashing/credit card cash withdrawal booth at a Native casino. One guy was really drunk and being a real twat about how long it took me to get his cash told me I needed to 'hurry the f**k up' or he would make sure I lost my job. I did hurry, and I hurried through the balance on 5 credit cards as he kept coming back because he was getting his a*s handed to him at the craps table. I guess at some point during the night Visa realized this person had blown through about 10k at a casino in a matter of hours so they put holds on every one of his cards(meaning the merchant has to take the card from the customer); I know this because I ran and kept every single last card he had on him. Not happy at all.
Another guy who was also a drunk(had a limited Interlock Device license) used to come in all the time and act like a s**t head. Taking it out on us if he was having a bad day at the tables. One night he comes in with a taxi driver in tow; he was meaning to stiff the driver, but the driver just got out and followed him. He cashes a check and counts out what to give the driver but is so drunk he hands the driver the cash he meant to keep(the remainder of $500 probably about $450-475), the driver looked me in the eyes and with my eyes I motion for him to go he turns around and walks away and the drunk is none the wiser that night. A few night later and a little more sober he comes again and asks how much he got out; I tell him and mention that he gave it to the driver. He is pissed and asks why I let him; I say 'Well you were really drunk and being a major shithead to him, I just figured you were making it right by giving him cash.'. 'F**k, I guess that is fair; I need to quit drinking so much...' he replies and walks away and I never see him again, I hope he did get it together.
Now to even it out. There was a guy who comes in with his mom one day. He says that his dad was a really strict christian and would never allow his mom to gamble. Now that dad died he brought his mom to experience something new. Takes out $200 and gives his mom $180 and says 'I love you mom, now go have some fun.' He then takes the $20 and puts it in this 'Wheel of Fortune(game show)' Machine that sits right next to the booth. He pushes the button, and I hear it hit a Jackpot. Dude won almost $20k. Such a cool thing to happen to a cool guy doing something good for his mom.
First off, let’s give a big round of applause to all the retail and service workers who continually go above and beyond in helping us out with our questions. After all, it’s no secret they’re doing a tough and thankless job. It takes patience and strength to deal with the challenges they face, whether it’s ignorant managers, long shifts, low pay, or terrible attitudes they have to take in daily. Still, time and again, customers show a complete lack of respect for their efforts but still expect that their rants and tantrums will be met with a smile.
Stories from this Ask Reddit thread prove that the old cliche "the customer is always right" is far from the truth. If fact, sometimes they’re just straight-up rude and have to be taken down a notch. While workers themselves are sometimes too polite or perhaps fearful or the customers going into full-on berserk mode, karmic fate sometimes takes the stage and shows these disrespectful people what the universe really thinks of their actions.
#4
More than a few decades ago I worked at Denny's. I had two male customers that decided to dine and dash. Got their license plate number and reported it to the cops and jokingly mentioned that they didn't even tip! Later that night they got pulled over for DUI, cops recognized license plate number from the report, brought them both back to the restaurant and forced them to pay the bill. After he was done paying, the cop just stood there and looked at them and said well? The guy sheepishly handed me my tip.
#5
Lady lays into me for the amount of the bill, called me every bad word in the english language. Says we overbilled her, she requested I go through her order. Come to find out we underbilled her by a $ 1000 dollars due to a misplaced zero. The silence on the other line was so beautiful.
#6
Currently at a consignment shop. We have two stories of furniture, and it's only things people bring in for us to sell for some of the profit.
A lady came in her with her son (he was 5 or 6) and she looked around. We had two bar-stools and she came up to the desk and said "I'd like to order two more of these bar-stools" I smiled and said "We can't do that, those belong to someone and that's all they had to consign with us." She looks back and says "Well why the f**k can't you order ones like this?! I'm sure you can find them online!!" I clench my teeth and smile again, saying "Ma'am we really can't do that. If you'd like to go online you are more than welcome to look for yourself, but I can't help you and I'm sorry." She huffed and started walking to the door, talking about getting me fired.. Making a horrible review of this place..
She then got a nice big face-full of door. It's a push door and it was locked. She looks at me and screams "*WHY THE F**K IS THIS LOCKED?!*" I have no idea. Then her son looks at her and says "Mommy you were mean to that lady and I don't wanna go till you say sorry".
Best. Kid. Ever.
Alexander Kjerulf, the creator of The Chief Happiness Officer Blog and founder of Woohoo Inc., a training company specializing in happiness in the workplace, previously told us that some customers have been getting worse. That's partly why we see so many stories about their disrespectful and ignorant behaviors shared online.
"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. But it's also because employees finally have online forums where they can share their stories and support each other," he told Bored Panda.
#7
I'm not sure if being a public defender counts as a retail or service worker, but considering that I provide criminal defense to indigent clients facing deprivation of their rights and freedom, I'll consider it service nonetheless.
I was representing a scumbag client who was a massive meth head who got high and beat the hell out of her eight year old daughter with a belt after she accidentally broke mommy's meth pipe. She was charged with child cruelty and possession of meth, and, given her criminal record, the DA's plea offer was three years of prison. Needless to say, my client didn't want to go to prison for "giving that c**t what she deserved" and started freaking out at me when I told her that's the best offer I was going to get from the DA, and it was either accept that offer or go to trial. I further pointed out the mountain of evidence against her, primarily: the photographs of her daughter's injuries, the bloody belt that was recovered from her bedroom, the broken meth pipe w/ meth residue in it, and the fact that her daughter was going to testify against her at trial.
After she was done cursing me out, calling me a "public pretender," and every other derogatory name she could think of, she fired me and somehow managed to hire a private attorney for the low price of $8,000 (I still don't know how she managed to come up with that, but I have plenty of reliable guesses). The private attorney "guaranteed" her that he could win her case at trial, and that's exactly what she chose to do.
Long story short, the private attorney clearly never even read this woman's file before trial. The trial lasted roughly three hours, the jury was literally out for only five minutes, and the judge sentenced her to ten years of prison.
It was a good day.
Milady Blue 2 years ago
Best of all, that child was now protected from her abusive meth head "mother."
#8
Worked at Best Buy 10 or so years ago, this happened on Black Friday. Most of the customers were in bad moods since they'd been waiting hours to come in and stand in more lines.
But this one lady was a raging b***h. After yelling at everyone in my department about how she NEEDED the laptop that was on sale despite it being sold out, she proceeds to tell us she'll have the store closed down because she "works with the city and knows the fire marshall and we have too many people in the store."
So she calls him, we tell her to leave, and nothing happens to the store. However we called them as well to report what she'd said, and she got fired from her job for abuse of power.
#9
Standing at the counter of the pizza place I work at. Lady storms in and slams a pizza down on the counter.
"This isn't the f*****g pizza I ordered, what the hell are you going to do about?" She asked.
I look at the pizza then at my buddy Nick and turn back to her and say, "Nothing".
She then goes on a long rant telling how we are going to be fired, how stupid and incompetent we were, she actually told me I must be r******d, then asked why the hell we weren't going to do anything?
I said "Because that pizza came from the pizza shop across the street."
I think she actually managed to shrink in size and slink out looking so pathetic and beaten I almost felt bad for laughing till tears dripped down my face as she slunk off.
According to him, when the customers are throwing accusations and insults at the staff like there’s no tomorrow, it’s the boss’ job to deal with them. "My advice to bosses is to kick those customers out," Kjerulf said. "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. In fact, if you give in this time, they'll be back soon with even stupider demands. Kick them out!"
#10
Let me preface my story by saying I work near Baltimore. Yeah.
So, I manage a plus size womens clothing store. We actually get a surprising amount of...lets call them 'non-traditional' customers. Guys who need a dress for a charity show, cross dressers, genderfluid people, transgender women, and drag queens aren't unheard of.
So a drag queen comes into the store to pick up some shoes they ordered online. They must have been either coming from or going to a show because they were still in full makeup. I get their name and during our conversation another customer walks in. I call out a greeting and say something like, "I'll be right with you."
I go to the back room, and it takes a minute to go through all the web orders. I find the one I need and am on my way back to the counter, when the new customer throws her arm out to stop me from passing.
She then says, "I am a new customer and I've been here for 20 minutes and no one has spoken to me."
A.) I greeted her when she came in and
B.) She had only been in the store for 5 minutes at that point
I resigned myself to groveling, but before I could say anything the drag queen stomps over, glares at the customer, and says, "B***h, she said *hello* to you."
Complete with sassy finger snaps.
The Queen then made a big show of thanking me for getting her package, and gave me a big sparkly kiss on the cheek before she left.
The other customer sheepishly paid for her Spanx and didn't make eye contact when I told her to have a good day.
#11
Working the window at Mcdonalds late night. Guy orders whatever and pulls up to the window. I'm cooking and handling the window, so I wasn't there when the customer pulled up. When I walked up to the window, I didn't see the f****r with trash in his lap. I open the window to take his card/cash and he throws a bag of trash at me. I take a step back, bothered that I just got trash thrown at me, and I watch his car speed off. I'm pissed, but there's nothing I can do. A couple seconds later I hear a small bang of metal on metal. I walk to the lobby and look out the windows. The douchebag slammed into a police cruiser who was about to loop around and use the drive thru himself. Of course I also went to tell the officer what just happened inside.
#12
Worked at a telecom in Canada (I am no longer an employee thank god)
Lady comes in with a broken iPhone is demanding to get a new one for free. If you don't know, in Canada the iPhone 6s is going for about $400 upfront on a two year contract at a minimum $80 plan. She had a good plan, but wanted it for free. She called up our loyalty team in store and spent the next two hours screaming at them. Finally, they agree to a deal, and she is getting it for zero. She looks at me and goes I do not want a case, and AppleCare is a scam. (We work on commission, so this essentially meant I was getting nothing and ruining my numbers). She keeps telling me to hurry up through the setup and I was trying to get them out of the store with everything transferred over and set up. She grabs the phone and starts marching off saying I was a terrible employee. She gets three steps out of the store and drops the phone. Shattered screen, and white screen of death. She ran back in asking what I can do. I shrug and went 'Sorry, but AppleCare sure would have helped eh?'
EDIT: The cell phone dream got me gold... Thank you kind stranger
We have long heard that good customer service includes leaving your personal troubles at the door and trying to help people leave with positive experiences they would later share with anyone who will listen. However, speaking to buyers with a forced smile and manufacturing your emotions can take an emotional and physical toll once you head home.
When your job involves meeting every client’s need with friendliness, no matter how unreasonable it may be, you’re experiencing something called emotional labor. According to Keren Levy’s article for BBC Worklife, the term was first coined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild. It describes the work we do to regulate our emotions to create "a publicly visible facial and bodily display within the workplace". In short, it’s when we put up a front and express emotions we don’t genuinely feel.
#13
I worked for an online banking help desk and this 18yr old lad phoned up saying he had seen a transaction for £7 to allpay.net and because he didn't recognise it, he decided the bank were robbing him of £7 and that I was in on it and I was a "thieving little prick." Then he gets his dad on the phone who stuck up for his s**t of a son, saying I was a pathetic scumbag for stealing £7 off an 18yr old boy, even though it was a debit card transaction and I simply worked in the department which helped people use online banking.
But anyway, I phoned our debit card services to see if they could give any more information, and boy could they. I then had the pleasure of relaying back to this little s**t's equally shitty father the following:
"Hi sir, thanks for holding. I've checked with our debit card services team and I now understand why your son would not have recognised the payee 'allpay.net'. That's a deliberately vague term used for discretion when the customer has subscribed to online pornography. That's what it was for. Your son has been paying for online pornography. Would you like to pop him back on the phone so I can tell him it's a payment for his pornography, or will you pass on the information?"
The father just muttered that the issue did not require any further investigation, thanked me for looking into it and hung up.
#14
Guy comes in and is being a complete a*****e. Not wanting to show ID to buy beer even though he looked 20 at the oldest, constantly yelling and swearing. He also had parked in the handicap spot despite not having handicap tags or plates on his car.
One of my regular customers, who is a sheriff's deputy, was also in the store. Saw how the guy was acting. Saw where he was parked. Went out, got his ticket book, and wrote the guy a ticket. Guy realized he wasn't getting his beer, went outside...to find he was getting ticketed. I could not stop laughing.
#15
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 asked for a table for six and he was incredibly rude when I informed him that this would simply be an impossibility. He kept getting more and more worked up, asking me to speak to my manager. At first I didn't want to pass the phone over (my manager wasn't the nicest guy and we were in the middle of a busy dinner shift) but my manager came up behind me and demanded to know why I had been on the phone for so long. I was like "f**k it, this customer isn't going to listen to me anyways" and gave the phone to Mac. Mac asked how he could help, 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 goddamn family in the night before our busiest day of the year? F**k your buddy!" And hung up the phone.
When employers expect a specific behavior from their staff when communicating with customers, employees may start to feel workplace anxiety. Especially when they have to deal with poor attitudes while feeling worried or frustrated themselves. "This continuous regulation of their own emotional expression can result in a reduced sense of self-worth and feeling disconnected from others," clinical and occupational psychologist Lucy Leonard said.
#16
Warehouse worker here. Customers have to show a card to shop, and even though we're not technically a grocery store, we don't allow pets. One dude tried to power walk past the employee at the entrance door holding a big pit bull puppy on a leash. We stopped him and told him he couldnt bring his dog inside and he LOST IT. He's our best customer and he's here 5 times a week and he owns stock, blah. Whatever.
He demanded to know why we don't allow dogs. We explained how it's a food safety issue, especially with an untrained puppy. At this point our manager came over and just waved him through (bc no backbone/customers always right). Well not even 5 minutes later this dog squats in the middle of the main aisle and pees, followed by poop. The man turned so red and dragged the dog towards the exit, abandoning his groceries. We stopped him and asked him nicely to please clean up after his pup. "that's the reason we don't allow them, sir"
#17
It couldn’t have been more obvious that a guy was trying to return stolen merchandise. He “lost” the receipt, didn’t know when it was purchased, paid with cash so we couldn’t just easily look up the transaction on a credit card...
He said he would call his friend to ask if they knew when it was purchased, and then he took out his iPhone and without pressing a button started to talk on it. I was like...I can clearly see the home screen with no call happening.
When he “got off the phone” I got a little bold and in my best retail manager voice said something to the effect of, “oh that’s cool! Is that a new update where you can talk to someone without actually calling them?”
He left after that.
#18
Late to the party but whatever.
Back when I worked at a Blockbuster we'd occasionally deal with thieves. The standard was just to let them go, not endanger employees or customers.
One time this guy Grabs some stuff and bolts. My manager runs after and points him out to two cops that had parked in our parking lot. They give chase. This guy dodges and weaves through people and traffic. He successfully crosses the street with cops on foot. Desperate to lose them, he jumps down some stairs to gain a lead but breaks both legs.
Alexander Kjerulf agrees with this line of thinking. "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," he told Bored Panda. "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."
#19
It wasn't the customer, it was the manager. She was AWFUL. She was rude, intentionally picked out favorites and gave them presents in front of everyone (even when they didn't like her and tried to avoid it), messed up schedules on purpose for people she didn't like, etc etc. Worst manager ever.
So there was a huge storm coming in, and people were really worried about it. Like the news telling people to stay home, other businesses closing, etc. So it was up to her to either keep our store open or close it. Of course, she kept it open. Because schools closed only half our scheduled employees showed up, the rest called in - and she called her favorites and told them they didn't have to come in. Well as the like 5 of us who showed up were standing there, watching out the front windows (there were ZERO customers) she starts yelling at us, threatening to write us all up etc, and we are like - no one is here, all the work is done, we are watching the wind BEND TREES OVER and worried about if we are safe/will be able to get home.
Right about this time we hear a SUPER LOUD crashing noise. CAHCHUNK - CAHCHUNK - CAHCHUNK - CAHCHUNK - WHAM! As the industrial air conditioner on top of the building got BLOWN OFF. Like it rolled along the roof, then went flying into the parking lot. - Right onto her car. It was so perfect it was surreal. Dead center, smashed her car flat. Like if she had been in it, she would have died. And it only happened because she parked right up by the building, where we had SPECIFICALLY been told not to park. All our cars were out in the farthest corner of the lot. We later found out it her car wasn't paid off, it was some stupidly expensive BMW or something, and her insurance didn't cover the damage because it was an "act of god".
#20
I work at an auto parts store. This one guy stole some $60 headlights and literally sprinted out the door. We went to look outside to try and get his license plate, just in time to see him speed off, hit a curb, and blow out his tire. Called the cops and the dumbass got arrested and had to have his car towed.
#21
I was waiting at a hotel reception while a young staff member checked me in. A really obnoxious woman flounced over, interrupted what the girl was doing and proceeded to b***h about the standard of the kettle in her room. She ranted on and on about only having a "normal kettle" until I told her to wise up and get in bloody line behind me. She shouted that she had been travelling all day and that the room was not a suitable standard. I pointed out it was a f*****g airport hotel, we'd all been travelling all day and that she should just get lost. By now the girl at the desk was blood red and tearful. The woman banged her fist on the desk, demanded to see a manager, and then had a fit of coughing. She promptly shat herself all through her beige trousers. She didn't hang around after that.
#22
This tale takes place roughly 22 years ago at a community college bookstore.
As with any college bookstore, the start of the semesters were incredibly busy. In order to help ease the insanity in our small store, we set up a table outside the front door for doing returns. And that's where I was stationed for the day.
People got in line. The got to me. I processed the paperwork for their return and sent them inside for the cashiers. This is an important point. I had no cash, no ability to process cards. Just me, a table, a stack of paper, and some pens. That's it.
Well, a middle aged lady gets to me. She is obviously not lacking in funds. Her son has dropped all his classes and she is returning his books. Ok. Cool. I do all the paperwork, hand her back the document and direct her inside.
And she goes BALLISTIC that she has to wait in line again. I mean starting nuclear wars ballistic. The customers in line behind her actually went to my manager to file formal statements about her behavior. Not mine. Hers. Because they knew.....
I take a break and shake it off. Everyone has bad days. And I know that I have the customers's statements to back me up. A few days pass and the manager gets a call.
It's the president of the college. With a complaint. THE WOMAN CALLED THE PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT ME. So my manager and I head off to a meeting with the president and the woman. We walked in calm and polite.
The woman tells her tirade, still screaming and cursing. My manager pulls out the statements and without a word, hands them to the president. The president calmly read them. I don't remember exactly what he said, but I do remember watching the woman turn more and more red. I do remember the word "entitled" used a whole lot. And I do remember him saying "Don't waste my time ever again." before he showed her the door.
Janet Graham 2 years ago
That is rare to have the college President stand up for you. I am guessing that she was not a major donor to the school.
#23
Once I saw a woman being really terrible to her kids. They were maybe 6 and 9 but she was swearing at them (things I have never heard said to an adult) and calling them names they were both crying hysterically just trying to eat their pizza.
The only other table in the place was a trio of construction workers sitting behind them. I had asked the woman several times to calm down but she would just say she wasn't hurting anyone and basically to butt out. She would swear at me and threw a piece of chicken at me as I walked away. I called my manager up but he didn't like to remove customers so he wanted to wait and see if this continued.
Then she smacked one of the little girls on the back of the head. Before my manager of I could react one of the construction workers walked over and He asked the mom to join him at the bar.
I think she thought he was hitting on her cause she was all smiles and flirty. As soon as she was away from the kids he told her:
"If I see you lay a finger on those kids again I will do the same thing to you but 10 times worse. Have a nice evening."
She immediately left and they followed her to the door. I can only hope she learned something.
#24
I was a cashier at a grocery store. This guy with a full cart bitched and bullied employees until he was allowed to use my express checkout because he didn't want to wait in the regular lines, and my line only had two people in it. As soon as my floor manager allowed him and he had his cart unloaded, a tiny old lady with a walker who could barely stand got in line behind him. Everyone gave him dirty looks. He realized he f****d up and tried to make a joke about it. Dead silence. I hope his saved time was worth being an a*****e.
Fiona Parky 2 years ago
Here people get waived to the front of the queue if there’s a reason. If you see someone from the emergency services, you step back and waive them to the front of the queue, they may get another call and be rushing to grab a bite to eat. If you see someone elderly or who has obvious trouble standing to queue, they get waived to the front. People with young babies will get waived to the front because they’re probably trying to rush shopping while little’un is asleep for once. There’s loads of other examples but it’s just considered polite.
#25
was working at a restaurant and there was this family who were extremely trashy and didnt look like they had a lot of money despite ordering a bunch of expensive steaks and drinking a bunch of drinks. They were rude the whole time treating me like i was their butler or slave. Then asked for a manager to tell the manager that their steaks tasted rotten (after they finished) and their drinks didnt taste like they had any alcohol in them (again, finished).. just trying to get free food. My manager noticed the way they were treating me and knew they were full of s**t and refused to comp their meal like they were demanding. The began yelling and cussing and him and me and ended up trying to leave without paying. Only to have their car not start in the parking lot and my manager called the police and one of them got arrested for disorderly conduct and drug possession and the rest ended up walking after having their car towed.
#26
I used to return customer credit cards by setting them on the Square podium used to swipe them so they ended up right by them when I swung the screen around from them to sign and such. One lunch rush (take out restaurant) one lady decided this was an offense of the highest order and yelled at me for not placing it directly in her hand.
I stupidly engaged her and tried to explain that I did that for everybody which got me a continued lecture about how she is the customer and good service is doing what she wants and so on. There were about of dozen people eating at our tables and five people in the line behind her so she was straight hamming it up, making sure everyone saw her putting me in my place.
Unfortunately for her, the dramatic performance proved to be a bit too distracting and she stormed out without her infant. This was of course noticed by pretty much everyone in the building since she had just made herself the center of attention. One of the customers even had to run after her and stop her from driving away. For the record there is no real subtle way to pick up a full size child carrier.
TL;DR : Woman shows full restaurant that she values her credit card over her child, performs walk of shame.
#27
I was 18 and worked at a local grocery store in the produce department. Beyond regular duties, we made fruit trays on weekends - nothing fancy, just a variety of cut up fruit in large red bowls.
Dude comes in after 10:00pm (we close at 11) and asks for a tray with specific fruits. I tell him we unfortunately don't make custom trays. The 16 year old dude who is also on shift with me overhears and tells him it's slower tonight so he can do it for him. He says "Ok good", no gratefulness displayed at all. This co-worker of mine is legit always extra kind to customers, it's legitimately admirable.
20 minutes later my coworker comes out of the back room and presents it to this customer. He immediately starts screaming at him about how bad it looks. He yells things like "That looks like absolute shit! Fuck, are you an idiot!?" I run over to see what the problem is. The fruit tray looks absolutely standard but this guy isn't having it. He smashes it on the ground and keeps screaming about how we are "retarded" and how we have wasted his time. I snap. I tell him to "Get the fuck out".
He postures up (keep in mind this guy is like in his 40s, ready to fight some teenagers over a fruit tray). Numerous other employees run over and yell for him to get out. He says "I'll be back for all of you retards" and runs toward and out the sliding doors.
All this on camera luckily so management calls the cops regarding his actions and that last threat. They ended up arresting him later on because apparently he also had some warrants. Hope the fruit was worth it, asshole.
#28
Not exactly retail, but food service. At a college football game, my coworker was chewed out by an alumni because the hot chocolate wasn't "chocolaty" enough. All she and I could really do were sit there and apologize because there was nothing we could really do, until the bartender chimed in. This bartender is a former High School teacher, currently a substitute school teacher for all grades K-12, and the look she shot this man could have immediately shut up the cockiest of teenagers. Anyway, she put on her scolding face, and warned him "If you continue yelling at these girls over something they can't control, I'm going to have to ask you and all your friends to leave. I will not tolerate anyone abusing my coworkers." The guy immediately clammed up and hurriedly walked away with his tail tucked between his legs.
#29
I used to be a night time manager at a pizza place downtown. We were literally around the corner from a direct competitor. They had a carry-out window and offered that service all night. We did not and closed our doors at 10:00 and only offered delivery service after that. It's worth mentioning we were quite friendly with the local PD and they frequently sat in our parking lot at night to catch up on paperwork, watch for drunk drivers, etc... One night at about 11:30 I had a woman and a man start banging on our door. I politely(but loudly) told them through the door we close carry out at 10. The woman goes ballistic and starts screaming and hitting the door while the man just stands there watching trying to look hard. I ask another employee to keep an eye on me in case the situation escalates, and step out another side door, in order to be able to actually converse with them. This woman is absolutely nuclear at this point, screaming, cussing... I let her finish and I inform her that if she called and ordered it was probably our friendly neighbors with the carry-out window. I get accused of calling her stupid, and ask her to check her phone and tell me which number she called. She says "I don't have to, I know I call y'all and YOU took my order!" At this point I informed her that there is absolutely no way I took a carry-out order after we closed carry-out. At this point the man joins in and starts taking a very aggressive posture and tone with me and informs me I "better let them in and get their food." I flat out said no. At this point the man shoves me and I stumble back about three feet, he goes to swing at me, and misses, and I kindly repay the favor and connect knocking him on the ground. At about the same time the woman attempts to rush me there is a sound of "WOOOP WOOOP!" and flashing blue lights behind them. This doesn't stop them from continuing to try to assault me, however the two uniformed police officers that happened to have just pulled in take care of that very quickly. Another squad car shows up, the two have been cuffed and placed in the cars, the officers have been given a copy of the security footage, and I ask the officer I'm talking to if, for the sake of curiosity, he could possibly try to convince her to tell him the phone number she called. He walks me back out to the car she's in and somehow convinces her to do this. She recites the number while glaring at me, with so much vitriol and hatred in her voice. "XXX-XXX-7272 you stupid f*****g honkey." I smile at her and inform her "Our number is XXX-XXX-3030. We are Domino's. That's the number for Papa John's. That's why 7272 spells out Papa."
#30
I worked in this fancy clothing store in this posh town at the seaside. It was a busy saturday when suddenly a very pretentious girl walked in with her boyfriend, ignoring us as we greated her and even giving my collegue a demeaning look. She went on to browse around in the store and eventually took some clothes with her in the changingbooth.
After a while I notice a heated conversation arising from the booth between her and her boyfriend. I see the boyfriend running back and forth between the booth and some clothing racks, in the mean while me and my collegue where being chased away by her (she refused any help and didn't leave the booth) as if we were a couple of ebola patients.
So me and my collegue continue working and helping other costumers. I was working the register when suddenly the girls turns up next to me, completely pissed off, and she starts ranting about "how our store/brand really should work on the fitting of our clothes and how we were complete f**k ups". I was completely caught of guard and right when I wanted to ask her what the exact problem was, I see my collegue looking at the girl while bursting out this horribly loud laugh, tears and all. What had happened was that the girl had taken with her a clothingpiece she thought was a strapless dress. Well, it wasn't a dress. It was a skirt. The girl had tried on all sizes and got completely fed up, yelling at us and her boyfriend because the FREAKIN "DRESS" WON'T FIT. So she walked out in a crowded store, making a scene, with a skirt pulled up to her tits.
I have to admit, after she left I laughed till crying.
#31
I had a woman come into my bank one day years ago in Mid-August and try to cash a check. Said check looked like it had been written by a four year old. We went through the protocol as mandated by our organization, calling the issuer and verifying all data. While we were going through this procedure the woman goes off on a tantrum. She's ripping the little pens with chains from the little desks, throwing deposit slips around, demanding she speak to the president of the bank and verbally abusing all the employees. Likewise, she looks to have done enough speed to stay up for a week straight.
We are finally able to get ahold of the issuer of the check, lo and behold, it's a good check. We cash it. Thank her for her patience. As she's storming out cursing, two officers walk in and identify her as the owner of a car in the parking lot. Said car had a small child, no more that two, locked inside the entire time. 20 minutes, in August. Some good people called the cops, broke out the window and rescued the kid and had that b***h arrested. I hope to god that that little kid has found a new home or that its' mom has cleaned up her act.
#32
Former cell phone industry worker.
We *HAVE* to pitch insurance and a case every time you get a new phone. we have to. You can actually be fired from some carriers for refusing to partake in making these suggestions.
During a normal new-line set-up, this insanely rude woman is hostile about every part of the every part of the exchange. Her credit is absolute dog s**t so she has to pay a gnarly deposit and more of the phone up front and that's somehow my fault. Finalizing everything before shes completely rung up, I casually offer the same thing I do to literally everyone getting a new phone: Which insurace plan were you interested, and what kinds of cases have you looked at?
Apparently that was the most offensive thing she'd ever heard in her life. She immediately raises her voice and makes it really uncomfortable for me because apparently I'm only accusing her of being clumsy since shes black, and I didnt charge her white friend near as much and Im just a racist blah blah super fun. I kept my composure and tried calmly explaining everything, even try to let her know that I **HAVE** to offer that to everyone and I couldnt get anything across. Eventually my coworker lets me know he's got this, we swap places and finish each other's sales. As she steps out of the store looking down at the Galaxy Note 3 she had just spent a total of 500 something dollars to get, she trips, eats s**t, and smashes the screen.
Comes back in asking for help after raising hell and we got to be all ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Janet Graham 2 years ago
You have to feel bad for her, but not until you have a good laugh and remember her 'after' face.
#33
I was a server during college at an upper scale restaurant. I rarely had problems with customers and am overall genuinely friendly. I had a table for 4 with only 3 patrons there, an older couple with their adult daughter. I served them beverages and was told we were to wait for patron #4 the son.
about 40 minutes and 2 refills go by. I say "I bet you guys are starving by now, would you like me to bring you our lettuce wraps they are small enough to not ruin your appetite, Or are we still waiting for **my buddy**?"
father said "we are going to wait, and he isn't you buddy. frankly you dont know him, hes a hard working man and will be respected"
"You're right sir, forgive me."
"He actually has a real job."
"I understand sir, it wont happen again."
when i come back for refill number 3 the son was arriving. the son happened to be an old high school friend, before taking a seat he gave me a hug right in front of his dad.
I looked at the father and said "small world huh, I can't believe your **my old buddy [name]'s** family im suprized we've never met before with [name] and I spending so much time together in high school "
It's too bad our restaurant didn't serve crow.
#34
Working drive thru at a Tim Hortons and some a*****e in a massive black truck parked too far away from the window and expected me to lean super far out to give him his change. He was real impatient and just really rude. I just shook my head and so he gets all pissed off and finally gets out of the truck and the door shut behind him. It was locked and he sat there for like 15 minutes and we had to call a tow truck. Sure it pissed off everyone behind him but at least they were all pissed off at him and not us! He acted like it was the biggest embarrassment of his life.
Nimues Child 2 years ago
There are a suprising amount of a******s from Canada on this thread. Who knew?
#35
This didn't happen with a rude customer but with a rude *coworker*.
I work in a store with ten different check-out lines (two are express, two self-checkout) but only one of which has all the cigarette/tobacco products in lockable glass cases behind it meaning that if you want to buy that stuff you either go through that line or you go through another line with a cashier (not self-checkout) and ask the cashier to go get you your cigs for you at which point they go to the cigarette line, ask the cashier on it to get the smokes, or use their key to get them their self in case the line isn't open. I have more than a few co-workers who smoke and they have to buy their cigs the same way as customers do. Employees are *not* allowed to get out their own cigarettes and check them out their self, they have to have another cashier ring them up for them.
So one day, early morning, I'm working the check-out with the tobacco behind it and I notice this woman who works as janitor/stocker hovering around behind me near the cigarettes. I know she isn't supposed to be near there so I ask her, "can I help you with something?". She tells me that she just wants to get some smokes and I'm like okay, no, if you want cigarettes you have to get in line and buy some that way like everyone does. She gets pissed and asks me why I won't just let her get her own cigarettes and I tell her again that I can sell her whatever she wants if she'll just get in line and pay for them. She huffs, rolls her eyes at me, and storms off.
For the rest of the day she totally has it out for me. Throughout the day, I have other cashiers telling me that she's talking s**t about me in the break room left and right. My manager comes up to me and says that the woman made a complaint that I refused to sell her cigarettes because she's black, I go WTF and explain what actually happened and go on with my job. Then at one point there's a big lull in business and I take a quick break, putting on my 'away' light at the register and making sure to lock up the cigarette cases when I go as is policy, so I can go to the bathroom and this woman comes out of nowhere and blocks the door, refuses to let me in and shoves the handle end of her mop into my chest and tells me I'm not allowed to use the bathroom and some s**t about how I think I'm "so much better than her" because I'm a cashier and she's a janitor. I'm like, "you realize there are security cameras right in this hallway, right?" and she jumps and takes off again and I go pee. And this s**t just carries on ALL DAY and she gives me these nasty looks every time she comes by, which is often enough and more than usual that I think she's walking by my register just so she can glare at me.
But the day ends and I give my register to someone else and go home.
Next day, first thing in the morning, as soon as I get in to work another cashier informs me that the woman was fired late last night because apparently she'd been caught on camera stealing a few packs of cigarettes out of the tobacco case when the cashier who relieved me at the register eventually took a break herself but didn't lock the cases up. The cashier who didn't lock up got a warning but didn't lose her job.
What do you think ?
IlovemydogShilo 2 years ago (edited)
I was in a computer store in my home town a few years ago and a man walks in as fired up as hell. He demanded that I let him go in front of me in the queue and with the mood he was in I wasn't going to argue. He let rip with the poor sales clerk calling him every name under the sun and demanded to see the manager who he proceeded to tell that he had just bought his laptop only a couple of months ago and now it wouldn't work. They had a place in the back where they had in-store computer technicians and he got one of them to try and get the computer to work. In less than 5 minutes one of the technicians came out and opened up the computer in front of everyone and said they had found out the problem" and showed the manager and the customer (and everyone else in the queue) the inside of the laptop. It was full of coffee. The customer had obviously spilled coffee over his laptop and then got upset that it didn't work. He left without the new computer he was hoping to get.
Tonk Terrier 2 years ago (edited)
I used to manage big box retail stores and have a few similar stories. Probably my favourite was a guy who started screaming at a staff member on boxing day about a faulty Xbox. I was trying to calm him down (as he was losing his marbles) when the guy behind him told him to "shut the f**K up" in no uncertain way. Xbox boy tried to be a macho man but the other customer pulls out his COP ID and tells him he is disturbing the peace and needs to leave and not return. Then walks him out in front of everyone... Bliss X
Charles Chamiux 2 years ago (edited)
I'm going to add an experience I had working for an American health insurance company - The customer called the service number (so, you do know, that the 1-800 number is usually only manned by 4 people, often with little training) to complain that his policy didn't cover the drug test he forced his teen to take (not covered at all, even with a Dr prescription or court order) because he believed his child was on drugs. He was upset that we, his insurance provider, didn't pay for the test. It came back negative, and he wanted (us) his insurance to pay for the test AND the tickets to a concert his teenager didn't attend because he believed they were using illegal substances and had "grounded" his teen until the test results came back. I had to put him on hold while I regained my composure from laughing.
IlovemydogShilo 2 years ago (edited)
I was in a computer store in my home town a few years ago and a man walks in as fired up as hell. He demanded that I let him go in front of me in the queue and with the mood he was in I wasn't going to argue. He let rip with the poor sales clerk calling him every name under the sun and demanded to see the manager who he proceeded to tell that he had just bought his laptop only a couple of months ago and now it wouldn't work. They had a place in the back where they had in-store computer technicians and he got one of them to try and get the computer to work. In less than 5 minutes one of the technicians came out and opened up the computer in front of everyone and said they had found out the problem" and showed the manager and the customer (and everyone else in the queue) the inside of the laptop. It was full of coffee. The customer had obviously spilled coffee over his laptop and then got upset that it didn't work. He left without the new computer he was hoping to get.
Tonk Terrier 2 years ago (edited)
I used to manage big box retail stores and have a few similar stories. Probably my favourite was a guy who started screaming at a staff member on boxing day about a faulty Xbox. I was trying to calm him down (as he was losing his marbles) when the guy behind him told him to "shut the f**K up" in no uncertain way. Xbox boy tried to be a macho man but the other customer pulls out his COP ID and tells him he is disturbing the peace and needs to leave and not return. Then walks him out in front of everyone... Bliss X
Charles Chamiux 2 years ago (edited)
I'm going to add an experience I had working for an American health insurance company - The customer called the service number (so, you do know, that the 1-800 number is usually only manned by 4 people, often with little training) to complain that his policy didn't cover the drug test he forced his teen to take (not covered at all, even with a Dr prescription or court order) because he believed his child was on drugs. He was upset that we, his insurance provider, didn't pay for the test. It came back negative, and he wanted (us) his insurance to pay for the test AND the tickets to a concert his teenager didn't attend because he believed they were using illegal substances and had "grounded" his teen until the test results came back. I had to put him on hold while I regained my composure from laughing.
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