Having a car is great until you encounter that dreaded moment of running on fumes and just praying you can make it to a gas station in time to fuel up. Turn off the AC, turn off the radio and brace yourself to turn as soon as you see that bright neon sign signifying safety. 

As stressful as this experience is, we usually know that there’s no one to blame but ourselves. So when one gas station attendant was berated by a customer because her car ran out of gas, he ended up with quite the story to tell. Below, you’ll find the full tale that he recently shared on Reddit, as well as some of the replies amused readers left him.

During a busy shift, this gas station attendant found himself being berated by a customer

Image credits: Mike Mozart (not the actual photo)

But rather than backing down and admitting her fault, the woman insisted on escalating the situation for the next week

Image credits: Kindel Media (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Tim Evanson (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Reddit

Later, the employee responded to a few comments and shared more information on the situation

“I was happy when she banned, in fact I burst out laughing”

To learn more about this specific situation, we reached out to the Reddit user who shared this story, who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. The OP, who wishes to be referred to as Retailer After Dusk, told us that this is actually not the first time he’s posted this story on Reddit. “I watched an episode of Emkay on YouTube and realized I put the story in wrong subreddit,” he explained. He also shared that he encountered plenty of difficult customers while working this job, but this woman was by far the most ludicrous. The OP even added that he’s shared similar, frustrating stories on Reddit of other customers. “All are true.”

We were also curious what Retailer After Dusk was thinking when this woman was banned from the gas station chain. “I was happy when she banned. In fact, I burst out laughing,” he revealed. “I knew it would easily be enforced. The communication network for the company at the time was terrible. As far as I’m aware, it still is.”

And when it comes to why customers feel entitled to behave like this, the OP told Bored Panda, “I know this too well. Many people look down on retail workers and other in other services rolls. I believe a high number of Karens have never been employed in such rolls. As a retail grunt, I have empathy. I know there pain.” Retailer After Dusk also shared what he would like to say to his former principal, “Mrs. M, you made my early school years a living hell and unnecessarily more difficult than it was already.”

Running out of fuel while driving is actually quite a common experience

Image credits: Skitterphoto (not the actual photo)

Driving a car is a wonderful luxury until something goes wrong. A flat tire, an accident or running out of fuel can be extremely stressful, a huge inconvenience, can instantly ruin your day and, of course, can become incredibly expensive. The thing about running out of gas, though, is that it’s perfectly preventable. You could easily drive cars for 70 years and never have that painful, and slightly embarrassing, experience. Yet for some reason, in the UK, over 800,000 drivers a year run out of fuel on the road. According to the Daily Mail, a quarter of all drivers believe they can make it for more than 40 miles after the warning light comes on, but the truth is most models can only last somewhere between 25-40 miles.

While some drivers put off fueling up to avoid paying exorbitant gas prices and others simply forget until it’s too late, the American Automobile Association warns on their site that running out of fuel can be incredibly dangerous. Your car could suddenly slow down to a stop on a busy highway, with drivers behind you unprepared to slow down, and power steering and brakes can stop working if an engine dies. Not to mention the fact that running out of gas might lead to your car requiring costly repairs, such as replacing a fuel pump for about $500, or hiring a tow truck and dealing with the hassle and fees associated. 

Unfortunately, entitled customers treating employees poorly is a frequent occurrence as well

Image credits: Athena (not the actual photo)

The woman in this story obviously had no intentions of running out of gas, but deciding to take out her frustration on this station attendant was completely unfair. Unfortunately, however, it’s an experience that many customer service workers know well. Kate Morgan wrote a piece for the BBC discussing why so many customers feel the need to berate service workers, and she notes that ‘scapegoat theory’ and power dynamics definitely play a role. Reena B Patel, a San Diego-based psychologist and behavior analyst, explains that humans are notoriously inflexible, so when something goes wrong, such as our car running out of fuel, we naturally become anxious and start looking for anywhere to channel that frustration.

Patel told the BBC that we often don’t even realize what is making us so stressed, but the disruptions to our schedule that we’ve experienced cause us to lash out in unexpected places. We’re less likely to freak out in front of colleagues or loved ones, as we care what they think about us and have to see them tomorrow too, but we find “safer” places to let our anger out, such as on a random gas station employee who we’ll never see again. This is where ‘scapegoat theory’ comes in, “the psychological term for people’s tendency to look for someone to blame.” We look for a target who we can explode on, and bam. We’re suddenly yelling at a cashier or blaming them for problems we’ve caused that we can’t take accountability for.

Being annoyed does not justify demanding special treatment

Image credits: Julia Larson (not the actual photo)

It’s also dangerous when anyone starts to feel like they have more power over another person or that they’re more important than others, because it leads to this sort of entitled behavior. Susan Lahey discussed customer entitlement in a piece for Zendesk’s blog, and she explained that some of the happiest countries in the world, such as Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland, have a set of social norms that ensure that everyone is treated equally. They’re called the Jante Laws, and essentially the idea is that no one is more special than anyone else. Among the 10 rules are, “You’re not to think you are anything special. You’re not to think you are smarter than we are. You’re not to imagine yourself better than we are. You’re not to think you know more than we do. You’re not to think you are good at anything. You’re not to think anyone cares about you.” 

Perhaps this woman just needed a healthy reminder that we’re all equal, and nobody should feel entitled to special treatment, ever. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this story in the comments below, pandas. Have you ever had  to deal with a Karen customer like this woman? Feel free to share you own stories, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article discussing an entitled customer who needed to learn her place, we recommend checking out this story next! 

Readers shared their amusement and called out the woman for her appalling behavior

Some even detailed their own encounters with entitled customers

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