Store managers have seen it all and have dealt with the rudest customers imaginable. But little do some of those customers know, that they're actually speaking to the manager, themselves. And that's when things tend to get a bit awkward...
Calling From The Store Phone To His Cell Phone?
“I used to work in a convenience store during college. This convenient store didn’t have the classiest of clientele. One day this lady comes in and wants some cigarettes that we were out of. They were the cheap brand and so she goes on to say, ‘Well if you’re out of those the manager lets her have the premium brands for the same price.’ I laugh right into her face and say, ‘Do you want them or not, they’re gonna be the price they are?’
She gets upset, goes on this tirade and tells me to call the manager.
At this point, I was tired of her but I fancy her request. So I say, ‘Ok, I’ll do it.’ I pick up the store phone, call my own cell phone, let my cell phone ring for a few seconds, then answer my cell phone while still on the store phone and say, ‘Hey there’s this lady here and wants to speak to the manager.’ Then mad, then confused, then sad, then mad again face she made was the greatest of all comebacks I’ve probably ever come up with in my life.
It was all fantastic!”
And That’s How You Make A Customer Speechless…
“I worked in retail, specifically a specialist bra fitting shop. One day I was working the change room desk upstairs, taking bookings for fittings and helping the 10 or so customers in the rooms for people who didn’t need a fitting but needed me to just quickly check things sometimes and fetch different sizes etc. It was busy, and a woman came in on the lunch rush and demanded a fitting.
I politely told her that I was very sorry but all the fitters were booked and with other customers for the next hour or so, so I could help her a bit but can’t give 1-1 attention as I’m helping all the other rooms too, so if she wants the full thing she would need to pop back tomorrow or later.
She flew off the handle, telling me how busy and important she was, that she made a special trip, she can’t come back tomorrow, I should help her etc. She was really rude, aggressive and mean. I just politely repeated that I was very sorry but I couldn’t help her for the reasons above, we just had no free staff, she ranted a while but then left.
A few minutes after she went downstairs I got a call from one of the till girls saying a customer was complaining about the young girl on the fitting desk who refused to help her even though she could see spaces on the list, and had been rude and had been swearing at her and wanted to see the manager about it. It should be noted I was about 24 at the time, but looked really young – maybe 18. She clearly had no idea I was the manager. I told the desk girl I would be down shortly.
I walked down those steps so slowly with a huge grin to let the horrible woman slowly recognize who I was. When she saw it was me her face was just a picture. I played along asking for a description of the ‘girl’ who was so rude, as that is very much outside our standards I am shocked to hear such a thing happened, I was upstairs at the time and certainly would have intervened if I had heard such a thing etc. Huge grin on full power the whole time.
She had caused such a scene that all the people in the shop were staring at us. So she either had to admit she had been lying and trying to get what she thought was some poor shop girl fired, or she had to make up a description with me obviously going to be saying things like ‘hmm, no one here looks anything like that – try again.’
She just was at a loss for words, her mouth agape gasping for air, bright red, not making eye contact. I forget if she said anything at all but she stood there for a long while and just left.
I have never felt such satisfaction as I did walking down those stairs knowing what was about to happen.”
Bartering The Free Pizza For A Sandwich…At A Pizzeria?
“An old man comes in the pizzeria I manage. Doesn’t say a thing to me just hands me a piece of paper with numbers on it. We have a rewards program and I assumed it was his code for a free pizza, so the first thing I said was, ‘Hi! Is this your code for the VIP pizza?’ and he says, ‘Yeah but I want a sub with chips and a drink.’ So I said, ‘Sir, this code is only for a large pizza with two toppings,’ and he starts to throw a little geriatric fit.
So, of course, I stand my ground because screw this guy, and he starts looking behind the counter as if to get my insider’s attention and I quickly redirect him to me saying, ‘Uh and I’m the manager so you can talk to me if you have a problem.’ So he basically demanded his free sub and I wouldn’t give it to him because 1) as far as I knew this code was only for a free pizza and 2) he was one of the rudest human beings ever and I’m not going out of my way for him. Sure I could give it to him for free but how are you that old and still don’t understand courtesy and manners.
He ended up taking the pizza. Dang right.”
Hot Topic Clothing Sale Drama!
“I used to work at a Hot Topic and was the opening manager some weekday a few summers ago. This woman comes in with her 25+ y/o crust punk daughter and her boyfriend to buy them some clothes. They were pretty much regulars and I knew their faces.
Anyway, the shorts were on sale or something but you couldn’t mix girls shorts with guys. I let them know that and later when I’m ringing her out and she isn’t seeing the sale applied to the shorts she got she absolutely snaps on me. I explained calmly that I already told her that the sale couldn’t be applied as it’s an automatic button and I cannot physically honor it. She was getting really heated and starting to yell at me, basically just being an angry condescending brat. The conversation was like this:
Her: You can just change the price. It’s not that hard.
Me: I’m sorry but I can’t do that, it’s not part of the sale so I can’t actually do that. (Even if I could I’m not going to give you a discount you shouldn’t have if you’re a brat, sorry.)
Her: You clearly don’t understand how a register works.
Me: Ma’am, I cannot give you the sale. Either you can buy these two items as they are or you can put them away. Her (I kid you not, she actually said the following): Little girl, why don’t you run into the back and get your manager so I can explain how this works to her.
I ALMOST EXPLODED. I WAS SO EXCITED. I WAS SO READY TO FINALLY DO IT. So, with the smuggest smile, I simply said ‘I am the manager. What did you need me to explain?’
It was the best!”
Officially Banned From The Ice Cream Shop
“I ran and ice cream shop. I must have had to say, ‘Actually, I am the manager,’ at least once a week.
My favorite was this woman I eventually banned from the shop. She would come in with her husband and terrible children. Then she would try to order a large (three scoops) and ask me to put it in three single scoop cups, but only charge for the large.
I said no. You either order three single scoops or you order a large. The difference in cost is quite a bit, but it’s fairly standard for companies to do it this way. I wasn’t having it. She got really angry that I wouldn’t do it.
First, she said, ‘Well the manager let me do it last week.’
‘No I didn’t,’ I told her flatly.
‘Well then, whoever was working let me do it and they said they were the manager.’
‘No, they didn’t. I believe my workers over you.’
‘Well, I want to talk to the manager.’
‘I am the manager. You are talking to me. I said no.’
‘Fine!’ And she and her little family stormed out without any ice cream. No skin off my back. She was rude to me and my workers, I wasn’t going to let her treat us that way.
Then she proceeds to call the shop the next day when I am working again (as the manager, I worked a lot.) She said, ‘Hello, I need to speak to the manager.’
‘Speaking. How can I help you?’
‘I was in there yesterday and some little brat lied and said she was the manager, but she wouldn’t let me get what I wanted…’
‘That brat was me. You’re banned from our location. Don’t come back.’
Later on, she tried to call corporate to report me. Corporate outsources complaints to the manager with the highest rating in the area. Which was me. So when she called corporate to complain about me, she also got me. I wrote up the details of the conversation and forwarded all of her messages to the district manager, and he agreed with my decision and allowed me to send her an email officially banning her from the store!”
You Can’t Return An Aged Game Console!
“I was the manager at an EB Games back in the day. This was probably about 2000-2001. I was there for the launch of the PS2 and Diablo 2 (two biggest events I can remember).
We had an older lady come in one day and wanted to ‘return’ a system she had bought for her son. She claimed he had gotten bad grades in school and was returning it as a punishment. She handed me this ridiculously old and beat up cardboard box. I opened it to find a dirty, dusty, Cheeto fingerprint covered PS1. I knew that the original PlayStation launched in 1994 (…and now I feel super old), so what I was looking at in the box was at least 6 years old. I paused, looked back at her, and for whatever reason asked if she had the receipt. She actually did. Sure enough, it had the date printed on it, and it was from some time in ’94.
I still hadn’t said anything more, I was just looking at the mess in front of me when she spoke up and said something along the lines of ‘and I’ll just take the cash back, that will be fine.’ I laughed, which was probably my first mistake, and said: ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be able to return this, this is six years old, and clearly used.’
She tried to argue that she had bought it here at this store and the manager at the time told her she could return it for ‘any’ reason and then she went on this crazy diatribe about her kid being bad, etc, etc. It went on for a good 5-10 minutes. When she was done, I just flipped the receipt over and read her the EB return policy: ’30 days from the date of purchase for unopened merchandise… etc.’
She completely lost it. It escalated so quickly I contemplated calling mall security (ha!) and the police. She wasn’t having it. Then I told her she could ‘sell’ the system back to us (it was worth about $40 at the time), which would have given her something, but she wasn’t biting on that one.
She asked for the manager, demanded to see the manager, wouldn’t rest until she told the manager how rude I had been (I was pretty much a saint for most of this) and was going to get me fired. I just pointed to my name tag, and in the most satisfied tone humanly possible said: ‘Lady, I AM the manager, and there’s no way on God’s green earth that I’m returning an opened, 6-year-old, clearly used, dirty PlayStation.’
She stormed out, never to be seen again. It was glorious.”
Crazy Lady At The Pretzel Stand In The Mall
“I worked at one of those mall-pretzel stores back in high school. Not a busy mall, so there would be days where I’d open and close and be the only person there. The owner trusted me with everything, and I liked the cash under the table.
This was one of those days. This particular human was maybe my 3rd customer of the day, THAT’S how slow it was in this place during the week.
The woman walks up, orders multiple orders of pretzel nuggets, 3 large smoothies, and a pizza pretzel.
So then I tell her the total.
‘Oh nu-uh, I was here earlier and you all were outta the smoothie mix. I already paid and talked to the manager, he left a note in the drawer.’
Oh really now…
I open the drawer and grab a random piece of paper
‘OH! Yep, here it is…he even said he accidentally overcharged you and to refund you back some cash.’
Woman snaps her hand in front of my face, ‘YEP! That’s what happened. I forgot about that!’
I say: ‘Well, it’s going to take me a bit to get everything together as I’m the only person here, so you want to browse around and come back in about 15 minutes or so?’
‘YEP! And can you throw in some extra dipping stuff for the inconvenience? Y’all shouldn’t make paying customers to wait like this!’
She waddles off to the cheap costume jewelry place across the way. I close the register, take the key, put up my ‘Back in 20 Minutes’ sign and go out the back door for a smoke.
15 minutes later, one of the other mall employees come out to tell me about the woman screaming in front of the store.
As I walk down the corridor, I can hear it bellowing ‘HELLOOOOO YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE MY FOOD! I’VE BEEN WAITING ALL DAY! HELLLLOOOO PRETZEL GIRL!’
I come out of the back room ‘Can I help you?’
‘Girl! I wanna talk to your manager! He TOLD me I could have free stuff and then you run off without giving me anything. You are done. YOU ARE GONNA BE FIRED.’
‘Listen, lady, you’re a lying piece of trash. I’ve been here ALL day. I AM the manager as far as your concerned. And the ‘owner’ of this place wouldn’t let anyone get free stuff OR pre-pay. You want to come up here and waste my time, then I’m going to waste yours right back. If you don’t stop screaming at me, I’ll just have my friends in security remove you.’
20 minutes later, she was being led out by the ‘REAL’ police, and not just mall security.
Sadly, for as slow and empty as this mall usually was.. seeing someone getting escorted out by the local police wasn’t an uncommon sight.”
That Moment When The Rude Customer Ignored The Manager The Whole Time
Adam Gregor/Shutterstock
“I have so many but I’ll just tell this one for now
This guy comes up to my coworker and I, with a problem with his cell phone. So being familiar with the issue, I took the lead on helping him while my team member was listening.
Every time I would ask the customer a question he would look to my male coworker and answer it while trying to only speak to my coworker. The guy wasn’t taking my advice on the solution and essentially trying to go around me to get the answers he wanted.
Near the end of a brutal back and forth I asked my coworker to go to the back room, as this guy was being completely sexist and I needed him to pay attention to me. He demanded I let him speak to the manager, as HE will be able to give him what he wants. (Emphasis on the He)
I replied with: ‘Listen, I’ve tried to be pleasant, I am the manager. Everyone here answers to me, so what I say goes. If you go around me and try to get a different answer from someone else they will tell you to ask me. Nothing in this store happens without me knowing about it. I’ve given you the solution already if you don’t like it you can leave.’
The guy starts yelling about how I don’t dare speak to a man that way (blah blah blah) and I issued a ban from my store. He ended up getting banned from my OTHER store as well after going there thinking he could pull the same stuff because I wasn’t there at that moment.”
Attempt At A Not So Correct Price Match
“I worked as a manager in a sportsman’s warehouse for a few years. I started at 21, so I was fairly fresh still, plus I’m not particularly tall and I keep myself freshly shaven so I don’t look any older than 21 at this point.
Anyways, Had a guy come in who told me the price of some 3000$ pair of binoculars was selling on eBay for like 2100$ and wanted me to price match. I told him no we don’t price match from eBay, sorry. He starts having a huge fit and all of a sudden he puts his hands on the counter, stares at me and goes, ‘Do you really want to make this worse for yourself?’
Then he says: ‘Go get me your freaking manager.’ I looked that guy right in his eyes and stared at him, put my hands on the counter and said: ‘Sir, I am the manager.’ He proceeded to say ‘yeah right’ and so I pointed him to my name tag which literally said my name+ manager.
After he saw that he started yelling that he was going to call the better business bureau and all this other nonsense and that he was never shopping there again.
Saw him walk past me a week after that encounter. Screw retail.”
Back In The Days Of Blockbuster…
“I was a manager of Blockbusters when I was about 19 or 20 due to the previous manager getting involved in some stuff. She was fired and because I did the most hours and knew the system I was given the acting managers position awaiting training to become the actual manager.
A man came in wanting to trade in some old games, I went through all 20 games and every disk was scratched beyond belief and said, ‘These are all damaged sir, I can’t accept them,’ he assured me they work and to test them, so to appease him I ran them one after the other in the store’s Xbox 360 and every single one failed to recognize. He then said, ‘Well they work on mine fine.’ I said, ‘That may be sir but if we can’t play them then others might no to be able to also’ he then went on a rant saying how he needs the money for them right now (the cash was about £10.30 I think) he got quite irate and then demanded to speak to the manager to which I said, ‘I’m actually the manager, Sir, and I’ve said we can’t take them.’ Then he went on a tirade about how I’m too young to be a manager and I’m obviously some punk kid trying to be a malicious little jerk.
He stormed out with his 20 broken games and came back the next day while I was on a conference call in the back, he spoke to a Co-worker who was older than me about how some student part-timer was rude to him and how we wanted to see the manager, my mate came and got me and the guys face when I walked to the front desk was the probably the angriest face I’d ever seen, he stormed out again, never to be seen again!”
It’s Not The Employee’s Fault For Your Card Failure
Syda Productions/Shutterstock
“One time, as I was coming back from break I saw a man and his wife at the register starting to yell at our brand new 16-year employee (who I wouldn’t have even left alone if I weren’t legally required to take a break.)
When I walked over to see what was going on, they were furious because they could not pay their credit card with another credit card. I understood his frustration because we had previously allowed this, but since our credit cards switched to a new company, this was no longer an option. I explained this to them, and they asked if there was a manager they could talk to instead. When I informed him that I was the manager, he demanded to know why he wasn’t notified of this switch.
I asked to see his credit card, and it was the one he was issued through the new company. I kinda played dumb and said, ‘I see this is the new card you were issued. That’s really strange that it wouldn’t have come with some kind of notification. It is legally required to come with a booklet of information. It should have been stapled to it.’
He obviously knew he had no argument at that point, as he clearly hadn’t bothered to read it. But he was still mad, so I kinda was like, ‘I’m just going, to be honest, I really can’t do anything to help you. I don’t want our customers to be upset, if I could help you out I would. It is simply not our policy to break. There is nothing I can do to override it on my end, it simply isn’t going to accept it.’ I pointed out the customer care number on the back of his NEW card and told him I hoped they would be able to help him further.
He gave up and left, still angry lol.”
The Cupcake Customer Would Not Leave!
Mila Supinskaya Glashchenko/Shutterstock
“I was promoted to manager a few weeks ago actually. I work in a small bakery and we’re pretty well known in the surrounding cities. A number of people who cause drama over cupcakes are ridiculous. Seriously, it’s a baked good. Not the end of the freakin’ world.
Anyway, we’re normally pretty good about replacing a cupcake if we accidentally got your flavor order wrong, or giving a refund if there was something actually wrong with the food itself. Well, I was working the closing shift one night and it was exactly two minutes until I was allowed to close the store and lock the door. Cue crazy lady walking in.
She comes in with a dozen box of cupcakes and demands to speak with someone. Not telling her I was the manager, I ask what was wrong. She explained that the cupcakes she bought were horrible, not baked all the way, and all the flavored were wrong. I apologize and ask to look in the box, thinking most of them were still uneaten. I also ask to see the receipt, wanting to double check the order.
I open the box to find all the cupcakes more than half-eaten, and every flavor matches the ones on the label. I even pick up what’s left of one to check if it was baked. Everything was fine. I explain to this lady that there was nothing I could do. The order was correct, the cupcakes were baked, and she clearly liked them because they were all eaten.
After she screams at me, she demands to speak with the manager. I roll my eyes and walk into the back room, remove my apron and walk back out with a smile. ‘Hi! I’m the manager. What are you complaining about?’ The woman doesn’t believe me and wants to speak with someone else. I simply tell her to get out because we’re closed now and please never come back.
She refused to leave, saying she could stay as long as she wanted to because she NEEDED new cupcakes and a refund. I ended up calling the police and they actually dragged her out of the building. I gave the police free cupcakes for helping out. I haven’t seen crazy lady since!”