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Customer Service Employees Share 20 Encounters With Clients That Left Them Speechless
Probably most of you will agree that even if you have never experienced working in customer service, you know that it’s the field where you meet quite a lot of interesting people. I am pretty sure that all of us have heard stories, seen videos or read about rude, entitled, weird customers and how workers have to deal with them. Hey, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of really nice customers, but that’s a story for another time.
Recently, one Reddit user started a thread online asking community members to share some of the weirdest customer interactions that they had to experience at their work! Scroll through the stories, where you will also find an interview with Marlon Joseph, who is the creator of The Modern Waiter Podcast!
More info: Reddit
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#1
I work at a library. A woman came to the desk with all the seasons of Game of Thrones on DVD that were out at the time, sat them on my desk and proceeded to tell me that she hated how violent the show was but she recognized that it was important to learn our history even if it was sometimes hard to watch. I didn’t even know what to say.
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#2
I worked at a convenience store near the state fair grounds. One year a clown in black and white makeup came in at 1 in the morning and tried to pantomime what kind of cigarettes he wanted. after three minutes of me being the worst charades player ever he got frustrated and tried to come behind the counter to I guess pick them out, but that freaked me into broom grabbing defensive mode. he kept trying to get in, I kept trying to tell him he couldn't come behind the counter. just when I thought I was about to get into a fight with a mime he finally blurts out LOOK MAN GIMME SOME MARLBORO MENTHOL LITES.
#3
A coworker screaming at me for leaving food to rot in the shared fridge. It was my first day there and I hadn’t even unpacked my belongings yet.
#4
At an Italian restaurant and the woman at table next to ours asked the server what was the ratio of chicken to cheese in their Chicken Parm. The server thought really hard about it for a second and then replied "I'd say it's about normal".
And the woman was satisfied with that. She ordered the Chicken Parm, and ate it without further comment.
#5
A woman called into my job and refused to provide us with any identifying information. I told her I cannot assist her if I don't know who I'm speaking to. She said we were going to steal her information and sell it to migrants. I wished her a nice day and disconnected the call.
#6
I think I was the victim of a social experiment one night. I was bartending, we had a couple come in once a week, usually order the same thing every time. One week, they were 30 minutes late, when a couple who looked exactly like them came in, sat at their seats, and ordered pretty much the exact same stuff. When I say they looked exactly alike, I mean all the guy did was have on a convincingly good looking fake mustache, everything else about him was a dead ringer for our guy. Normally the couple would be happy and chatting with the bartenders, but this couple sat in silence and didn't make any small talk with the staff.
Towards the end of their meal, I confronted them "Hey, you're so and so, right? Is this a joke or something?" to which the guy replied "I'm sorry sir, you must have us confused with someone else."
The "original" couple didn't come in that night, but they came in next week for their normal dinner, and when I asked them about it, they denied it being them, and we never got them to even hint that it may have been them, and everybody pretty much acted like it never happened and wasn't them, but I was serving them, too many coincidences for it to not be them... their wardrobes, their appearance, the time and date they came in, their order....
Yeah, weird, to say the least.
#7
Working at Gamestop had a guy come in to return something 10 days after the returns window was closed. Didn't tell him "no" just explained that the manager would have to approve the return and he didn't come to work for another 2 hours.
The man stood in my store for just shy of 2 hours and berated me, yelling that I wasn't a real man, I was racist, I was a corporate fool. Asked me to let him steal an equal value amount of merch, to just do the return... left and came back 10 minutes later with a friend and they yelled at me in stereo.
Then about 10 minutes before the boss was due to arrive, the customer left.
#8
I wouldn't immediately call this weird, but I think of it very often.
I worked at a farm supply store for a while. Once a year, baby chicks are delivered and we kept them in a corral in the middle of the store. One night, a exceptionally tall (probably 6'9"-7') man comes in. He was very pale, had dark hair and dark eyes, and was wearing a very long, black trench coat. He walked in and gazed at the chickens for a while. I remember thinking, "This dude is TOTALLY a vampire lol" before he walked up to me.
He asks me "May I ask you an unusual question?"
"Sure!"
"I breed reptiles and I notice you have baby chicks. My pets need to eat and those are much too small for the animals I have. Do you perhaps have larger ones out back? Closer to full grown?"
I was a bit stunned but hey, I know animals need to eat and there wasn't a rule stating we couldn't sell them for *animal* consumption. We sold meat birds for human consumption constantly. Coincidentally, one of my regulars came in earlier asking me if I knew anyone who wanted 50-100 full grown quail, as she had too many.
"Uh, no, I don't have any larger ones out back. But I may know of someone who has something similar for sale, how many are you looking for?"
"Well, how many do they have?"
"She has 50-100 full grown quail."
"I certainly don't need all of those at once, but maybe I could buy a coop and keep the quail on hand... can you show me your coops? And do you have her contact info?"
This man went on to buy almost $1000 in coop supplies, food, bedding, etc. He told me that he breeds snakes mostly, and has a secure room in his house with a $15k biometric security system with climate and humidity controls for his snakes. He had a 17' Burmese python that he would let hang out with him on the couch, and even showed me a photo of his toddler son sitting with the Burmese watching tv. He had various other large snakes that he showed me photos of too.
I realize that reptile breeding really isn't strange, and lots of people do it. But I was NOT expecting that one random evening in the middle of a small farm town. I know from speaking with our regular, that he picked up 50 quail, and planned on picking the other 50 up at another time. I never saw him again.
#9
I used to work at a retail store as the onsite IT guy. Think Best Buy/Office Depot/etc. Anyways, the guy comes in and he got a virus on his computer. We charge money to remove the virus.
He was upset that we wouldn't do it for free despite spending "a lot of money on the laptop" ($300-ish dollars) but he had refused any sort of antivrus software and he seemed like the kind of guy to click on any sort of popup.
He gets upset and he's yelling but we hold firm. He turned around, takes a few steps forward, and then throws his laptop to the ground. It's nothing impressive, the guy looked like he was in his late 60's so how much strength could have possibly have to do any real damage, but we just stand there and watch. After a few seconds of nobody saying anything, he picks it back up and leaves.
#10
About 25 years ago, I worked at a liquor store in a shopping mall. This one disturbed guy would walk in every day and ask me a strange question, and then leave without buying anything. Once he asked me if there was a difference between bitterness and rage. Another time he asked me if you could buy glasses that would blot out the sun completely. Always wierd stuff like that. I'd always answer him as honestly and accurately as I could. I wish that I wrote down his questions every day, there was some good ones.
#11
One i always remember... I used to work in a bank call centre, in Australia. A guy calls up and I ask for his name and account number. He says, in a ridiculously over the top posh British accent, "my name... is Ronald... McDonald " and gives a number. I thought for sure this is a prank call, but hold my laughter and look him up just in case I get audited or whatever. HE WAS A REAL PERSON. Poor dude. Might as well have been a clown though with a name and voice like that!
#12
I was ringing up a customer and making small talk being my usual goofy self. She looks at me then says “you remind me so much of my son” pauses for a bit and then says “ I miss him so much”.
I guess it’s not the weirdest but has stuck with me over ten years.
#13
One time I had a customer who insisted on paying for their groceries entirely in pennies. They brought in multiple heavy bags filled to the brim with pennies and spent hours counting them out at the checkout counter. It was definitely an unusual situation, and it caused quite a commotion in the store!
#14
A lady hit me in the face when I told her she had to leave my store if she wouldn't stop harassing other customers.
#15
I sell high end marble for countertops and a couple with a project in palm springs came in. They said they needed about 22 slabs. Now that’s a lot, so naturally I asked for more details about the project. They showed me the plans and it was a compound with 9 master bedrooms, all with their own kitchen. Don’t know if they were swingers or cult leaders but it was the strangest encounter I’ve had so far!
#16
I work at a grocery store deli, and there is this girl who comes in nearly every single day.
For a while just to talk to me, she was ordering a single slice of cheese nearly every day I was working. She also basically asked where I live and compliments me an unnatural amount.
I recently found out she flirts with almost all the guys in the produce department (as well as asks them on dates), even boys in their teens. She is around 40. She went on a date with the supervisor of that dept., which was a veteran, and he said it was the biggest mistake of his life.
She has also stolen bok choy among other things.
#17
A customer walked to the front desk and asked me if I believed in ghosts. She then explained she was running late because her mother’s ghost was stuck in her house and she was trying to chase it out.
She immediately explained that she had never really liked her mother. After that she asked where I wanted to be buried. She explained she wanted to be buried in a historic cemetery so that people would come visit her.
Then her phone rang and she groaned and walked out of the store and never came back. I never said one word during this encounter. .
#18
Banker at the time. Girl roughly my age (25ish) comes in and is giving me the whole sob story of why she has so many overdrafts and if there is anything I can do to help her out? I had already cleared 3 of her overdraft fees (my max) a sentence into the story, blah blah blah.
I let her know and she immediately responds "oh my goodness I'm so happy I could kiss you right now!
Me: "No stress at all, super easy have a great day!"
her: "No seriously I could kiss you right now..."
She doesn't immediately get up and just keeps looking at me and I have no idea how to politely get out of this situation without awkwardness lol.
#19
Had a guy ask me where the exit was, when I worked at a Walmart, he was like 15ft away from the exit. Had to be high as a kite.
#20
Helped a woman with getting a huge dental claim paid and forgot about it. Months went by and I'm on a call when someone is tapping my shoulder. It was her and she's hugging me while all these admin people were dragging her off.
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