She Thought She Was Some Kind Of Sovereign Citizen
“Back when video rental stores were a thing, I’d occasionally get some friction from people who didn’t want to give any information to set up their rental account.
But one time, ooh this witch. She was not having any of it, spouting bullcrap from the AM radio financial gurus that she wasn’t required to give up any information and didn’t want to have her card scanned to authorize the account activation, that whole thing.
I never did set up the account, but she turned to her friend and said right in front of me, ‘He’ll understand when he has something of value worth protecting.’ I swear, blood could have shot from my eyes, I was so mad.”
He Was Teaching His Son A Masterclass In Misogyny
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“One time a man and his son came into the bank I used to work at, walked straight to my desk, and asked if we’d trade out his 1/4 of a $20 bill for a whole one. I told him I’m pretty sure that’s not going to fly, and he started telling me about how we’re ‘required to,’ blah blah blah.
I didn’t do enough cash handling to tell him the exact requirements with 100% certainty, so I told him he was welcome to go ask one of the tellers if he wanted a second opinion. Instead, he looked all around the branch and searched out the ONE man who worked in the entire building. Then he told his son, ‘We’ll go ask him, he probably knows more than SHE does.’
My coworker’s answer? ‘Probably whatever the girl at the first desk told you.’ He finally ended up going to another teller, was told the same thing, and punched the door on his way out while cussing all of us.”
‘It Isn’t Always People’s Words That Hurt The Most’
“I used to work for this credit card company’s fraud prevention department, so people who call in are typically pretty stressed. One day, an older man called in and he was fuming because his card was getting declined.
I remember this vividly because it was during the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. He was in Rio, so his card was being monitored even more closely so we can minimize fraud charges.
I went through the process of reenabling his card, apologizing profusely, and making him understand that we did it for his safety. He thanked me in the end and I sincerely believed he was grateful and was actually apologizing for being brash during the onset of the call.
Then he asked me where I was located because he thought I was from the West Coast. I replied, ‘I’m actually from the Philippines!’ in a very cheerful tone. The next thing I heard was a deep sigh and a very disgruntled goodbye, and then he hung up. It isn’t always people’s words that hurt the most.”
The Things That People Say To Pregnant Women…
“I was very pregnant and an old man asked me if it was a boy or a girl. When I told him she was a girl, he said I should drown her when she’s born because there are too many girls in the world.
Later during the same pregnancy, I was working a health event passing out samples and pamphlets to tell potential patients about our pricing. A man saw the vaccine pamphlets from the pharmacy woman, asked me if I was pregnant, and then told me if I loved my unborn child, I wouldn’t vaccinate them. He then went off about how unbearable his ex-stepson was, who was autistic. I told him my brother is on the spectrum and that I’d rather my child be autistic than dead from a preventable disease.”
No One Was Very Amused That Day
“I used to work at a major amusement park and one day I had a customer with a group of five that wanted to enter the park. They said they had bought tickets from their hotel and I should be able to view their tickets using their names.
Actually, no, the hotel would have either given them their tickets or a confirmation number. I didn’t say that, but I explained that I was familiar with the hotel and it seemed they forgot to issue the vouchers. I asked if they could call the hotel because then they could tell them a code to give to me.
I was called stupid and a host of other insults in Spanish. The person even took a picture of me claiming he’d post it all over review sites saying that I was the worst employee ever and that he’d get me fired. At that point, I had a manager speak with them, but after their conversation, the man told me I was a disgrace to my country and my people. He was also upset that I ‘refused’ to speak Spanish with him. I do not speak Spanish, nor do I have anyone of familial descent from any Spanish-speaking countries.
Eventually, after insulting me for over 20 minutes, the man called his hotel on speakerphone. They answered after a single ring and had his confirmation number in less than 30 seconds. He had his tickets printed in the next 15 seconds. Some people must just enjoy the confrontation or something.
That Kind Of Comment Can Destroy A Teenage Girl
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“This was my first truly rude customer, so it sticks in my memory. I was 16 working in the local gas station late at night when an old, obviously wasted guy came in. He looked at me and went, ‘Are you…?’ and made a curved motion from the top of his stomach to the bottom.
I asked, ‘Pregnant?’ and he said yes.
I told him no, I’m not pregnant, and he said, ‘Oh, well I guess I just thought so because you have a pot belly.’
I had recently gained some weight and was really sensitive to it. I didn’t know what to say, so I just rang him up and after he left, I went into the bathroom and cried. Ever since then, I’ve never let anything a customer says to me make me feel that bad.”
He Completely Went Off Without Knowing The Details Of The Situation
“A few months ago, our helpdesk got a call from the IT director of one of our customers who asked to speak to me directly. It was somewhat odd since I hadn’t recently touched his machines, so normally whoever was on call that day should’ve taken the case. But he insisted to speak to me, so he was transferred.
I said hello and asked him how I could help when he suddenly LAID INTO ME with the fury of a thousand suns and started accusing me of messing up his entire server setup. Nothing was working and it was obviously all my fault (‘You touched it last…months ago!’).
I remained calm and informed him that I’d be happy to take a look and see what I could do if he would just calm down and stop with the personal attacks. He refused and got even more irate, starting to hurl insults my way. I hung up and was immediately accosted by my superiors who were NOT happy that I had the audacity to simply end a customer’s call.
I sort of shrugged and told them I’d gladly do my job, just not under those circumstances, and that I didn’t feel like I ‘had’ to take that from anyone without very good cause. There was an agreement that another colleague would contact the customer in the afternoon and take things from there. About half an hour before my shift was scheduled to end, I was informed that the colleague hadn’t had the time to call so it would once again fall to me to contact the customer and see who had pooped in his cereal that morning.
I reluctantly placed the call, he picked up the phone, and I identified myself as I got ready for the butt-reaming of a century. To my utmost surprise, he was sweet as candy and friendlier than a cat in heat. He then proceeded to explain how he himself had somehow managed to bring down an internal server which caused all the other issues. None of it was explicitly related to our software, let alone my modifications.
I never really got an explicit apology from my own superiors, but the guy definitely groveled once he realized his mistake, so I opted to say, ‘Water under the bridge,’ and move on. But guess what? His tickets are now permanently marked as low-priority.”
He Was Bored An Had Nothing Better To Do
“I used to work in a Chinese takeaway restaurant as counter staff and one day I was training a new girl to about the prices and how to write orders, etc. This was in a small rural village, so you already know everyone was pretty backwards. A guy came in just being an all around meany and making a pest of himself as I was trying to teach the new girl, asking stupid questions on and on.
He eventually got annoyed with being the only customer in the shop and asked me why I wasn’t working. I explain that I was, in fact, working as I was training the new girl. He responded with, ‘You’re a woman, shouldn’t you be cooking or cleaning or something?’
I quickly responded with, ‘Did your mommy never teach you not to tick off people who can spit in your food?’ He sat down and didn’t say another word until his food was ready. My manager laughed.”
The Whole Establishment Was A Crapshow
“One time when I was waitressing and serving the owner’s cousin, I asked if he would like anything for dessert. He told me he would like to bend me over the counter for dessert.
Also, the owners were degenerates; the wife got wasted and peed outside the restaurant in broad daylight, and the husband was a pervert and would come in every morning and sit drink coffee and talk down to me like I was a piece of meat in front of the customers. After a while, I wouldn’t even acknowledge his comments.
I was eventually fired because the manager heard me tell another waitress, ‘This is bullcrap.’ As she was firing me she told me that she knew I just really wanted to spend some time at home with my three kids for the summer and that she was giving me that opportunity. I’m a single mom. Eff you Candice and eff you Bob and Pam. I still spit when I drive by that craphole. I was later told by another waitress that they miss me because I actually found work to do when it was dead instead of standing around with my thumb up my butt like half of their staff.”
He Did Not Take Kindly To Facing The Blame
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“Several years ago an old Eastern European man in his late 60s came into my store. He had recently purchased a laptop and brought it back in complaining that it was only displaying in some other language.
When you very first start up this type of laptop, it asks you what language to use. Once you select it, the setup process deletes all of the other language packages on the machine to recover some space for the user (that’s what Toshiba told us, anyway, which I knew because I had someone else do it a little while before this situation).
I turned the guy’s laptop on and saw that it was already configured with a user profile, so I asked him what his name was and it matched the profile on the laptop. Then I explained that because he selected the wrong language, there was nothing I could do for him. He’d have to speak with Toshiba to have them talk him through the process of installing the correct language packages.
I genuinely couldn’t sort the issue for him in the store even if I had the time, as we didn’t have an internet connection we could hook the laptop up to. He denied that he selected the wrong language, and I said that if he didn’t select the wrong language, the wrong language was selected somehow.
After a small back and forth, he leaned in a little, looked me in the eyes, and said, ‘If you call me a liar again, I’m going to slit your throat.’
I just smirked and said, ‘You take care now, sir.’ He picked up the laptop and walked out. Looking back, I probably should have reported it or something, but I just had a laugh with my colleagues.”
Not Who You’d Expect To Pass Extreme Judgement
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“One time I had to card a teenager in order to sell him an M-rated game. He either didn’t have his ID on him or was under 17 (can’t remember which), so his dad had to come to complete the transaction.
The dad was being a huge prick and complaining about how he had to get out of the car and how ridiculous the policy was. I apologized and told him that it was policy so if I didn’t follow it I could lose my job.
The dude guffawed and said, ‘Yeah, I bet you’re making such great money here anyway.’ The kicker was that this guy wasn’t even some snobby, well-off businessman. He was a hillbilly with a mullet.”
These People Had All The Money But Zero Class
“One time I was working as a server during a big tourist weekend. The restaurant was packed with a pretty wide array of diverse people, but the common factor was that this event attracted people with plenty of disposable income. A couple of middle-aged men simply would not let me leave their table. They kept regaling me with hilarious jokes about how, ‘You, me, and him are probably the only people here who work!’
Their intent was clearly not to call the other customers so independently wealthy that they could afford to come out and spend daddy’s money on such an event. Their presumption was that a bunch of hippies, cowboys, and racial minorities (of which I am one) were only able to be ‘out’ (on a Saturday evening) due to unemployed laziness.
I would also get, ‘You should go to school and learn math!’ whenever I counted back change in a way they didn’t personally prefer (not when given incorrect change, just didn’t count it back in whatever cutesy way they liked). I had a Bachelor’s at the time. I also had a few people explode in rage under the assumption that I did not give them back the correct change before they counted their change. Not saying I never made a mistake, but I have to say I was lucky enough to never make a mistake when this type of person was at my register. I could not believe the absolute disgust they expressed that the ‘young person’/’black person’/’stupid’ cashier was capable of doing basic subtraction and using the register.
The biggest thing for me, however, was comments about my coworkers or being rude to other customers (save for customers who were having tantrums). No, I really don’t need to hear your opinions on how my manager looks like a witch or how you’re ‘scared’ of the meat cutter’s Afro. I also don’t like it when you shove old people or pregnant ladies out of the way to be first in line. I am not going to join in your chit chat about how some other customer minding her own business is ‘trashy,’ and I am not going to kick the teenagers having lunch on the patio out because you are nervous around adolescents.”
It Was A Cowardly, Passive-Aggressive Move
“I was a server at a 24-hour pancake place and I worked the graveyard shift so I could still go to school full time. One time, I had a rude man come in with his wife, brother, and two kids and they were being totally obnoxious. After dealing with these crazy rude people, I was sweeping the dining room and doing other cleaning stuff since they were the only people in the restaurant.
The dad didn’t say this directly to me, but he said it loud enough that I could blatantly hear: ‘That’s why you two need to stay in school. So you don’t end up a dolt waiting table like her.’
I seriously had to go into the kitchen and cry. I was working so hard to afford my education and this guy had the nerve to insult me like that when he has no idea what my situation was. To add insult to injury, I got a $5 tip on an $80+ bill.”
It Was Clear That Her Dog Was Just A Fun Accessory
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“I work at a pet boutique and put up with a hilarious amount of garbage from entitled rich people and idiots. I am stupidly easygoing and nice about it, and bend over backwards for these people who I’m well aware don’t deserve it. In two years of working, I have only lost my temper at one customer, ever, and it was because she said the groomer (ten years experience, considered master level, also the sweetest person ever) was an idiot who didn’t know what she was doing. This was after several minutes of her freaking out on me and me taking it, but I’ll be darned if you insult someone I like and respect.
The most offended I’ve ever been on a moral level was some rich witch wearing all designer everything who haughtily asked to see a bag that was the fanciest one we sell. When she was told how much it cost, she laughed and said, ‘Um, I’ll spend $200 on me, not on my DOG.’
Honey…a bag for your dog doesn’t have to be that much, it’s only because of how it looks. The appearance of the bag is for you, not the dog, because the dog does not care. So you would be spending it on yourself. Obviously, I would never judge anyone for not having that kind of money (I certainly don’t) but there’s a clear difference between not having the means and not thinking your pet is ‘worth it.’ The way she said it made it clear just how much her dog was a fun accessory to her and not a valued family member. It was deeply disgusting to me.
I told her she was being a horrible person and that I’d gone out of my way to help her so she should think about her actions next time she treats someone like garbage. The whole reason she was in there being sassy was because she hadn’t mentioned that she wanted her cat’s hair cut during its grooming, despite me specifically asking her multiple times (she would just start rambling about some unrelated thing, it was wild). I was so done, I just told her to get out.”
It Was An Innocent Mistake That The Guy Took Personally
“The first job I ever had was working at McDonald’s during the summer before I started college. It was my last week there since school was starting soon, and it had been a long day so I was tired and ready to be done with work. Unfortunately, I was so tired that when I went to hand a guy his change out the window, I dropped a few coins on the ground.
I immediately offered to replace the coins out of my own pocket. The guy proceeded to open his hands up and just drop the rest of the coins on the ground while yelling at me about how nobody working at McDonald’s has an IQ over 8, and that I’m probably just a dumb tramp with multiple kids from different dads who will go nowhere in life. I am not proud to say that I lost it and screamed at him. I slammed the window shut and went and told my manager what happened. I’d like to say things worked out in my favor, but the manager sided with the customer and I just walked out. I did not finish my last week there.”