Sometimes the customer isn't right, but usually, workers have to keep their mouths shut about it. Well for these retail workers, the customers pushed them over the edge, and they'd regret the next words that came out of their mouth.
(Content has been edited for clarity).
This Is Why You Read Between The Lines
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“A customer came up to me asking about the shoes that were on sale for $29.99. I walked over to the fixture and showed him that the sign actually said the jeans were on sale; not the shoes.
I then said, ‘Sometimes you have to read the whole sign.’ My coworker had to turn around and walk off so he wouldn’t hear her laughing. I am surprised I didn’t get written up for that one.”
This Is A Store, Not A Daycare
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“A woman’s kids were trashing an endcap. When I asked the children to stop, the woman grew angry and told me it was my job to clean it up.
My response didn’t go over well. ‘Your kids are annoying. That’s not an accident I have to clean up, that’s intentional damage, and you’re encouraging it.’
I got written up for mouthing off.”
This Dry Cleaner Probably Should’ve Stuck With “I’m Sorry For Your Loss”
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“In high school, I worked as a dry cleaner. A woman came in and told me her dad died. She wanted me to iron the suit in which he would be buried. I asked her what kind of starch she would like. She asked for my recommendation.
In all of my infinite wisdom, I said, ‘Well, I’m assuming he won’t be moving around much, so a light starch is fine.’ I then immediately apologized and mentally died inside.”
This Worker Could Write A Novel On Their Terrible Customer Experiences
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“Oh, my Christ, I have so many from when I worked at Comcast. While working at the retail center, I dealt with all sorts of abuse. I’m talking people swearing, spitting, and even threatening us. One woman took a dump on the floor. After a while of this level of insanity, you begin to stop caring and push back a little when people get irate.
I have several stories in no particular order of the absurdity I had to deal with:
1) My first week on the job, a morbidly obese woman comes into the store and is irate because we shut off her service. I’m reading the details on her account all while she’s screaming with such a raspy voice I am surprised she hasn’t had a stoma. ‘I pay my bill every month! I pay every month, look at my account.’ I look at the account, and indeed she’s paying every month…$50 on a bill that totals $156 and change. Plus she’s getting hit with late fees every month which at Comcast isn’t a flat rate; it’s a percentage of the amount you owe. So between the partial payments and the late fees that act like compound interest, her bill is in the $500 range. I try to explain this as calmly as I can before she starts screaming about being stabbed. ‘I was in the hospital! I got stabbed, I got stabbed. Look!’ She shows me a long scar on her arm that looks like a stab wound, but that doesn’t change the fact that she hasn’t paid a full bill in six months. After listening to that chorus for a full minute, I finally snap ‘Every month? Ma’am, where do you live, so I know to never go there.’ She storms out.
2) A white working-class man comes to the store and immediately launches into a tirade about how we doubled his bill overnight. Smelling bullcrap I pull up his account, and sure enough, he hasn’t made a payment in seven weeks. I try to explain this to him, and he’s obstinate, ‘How can you explain my bill doubling?’ I respond back with, ‘Let’s be real, you haven’t paid in two months.’ My use of the phrase ‘Let’s be real’ is what sets him off even further. ‘I don’t like your attitude, why don’t you go work for Wendy’s?’ He keeps on and on, but he pays the full balance.
3) A woman comes in contesting an outstanding balance. After looking at the account, I notice that a self-install kit was sent to her house three months ago. I ask about it, and she tells me she never set it up so she shouldn’t have to pay the balance. ‘Ma’am, why did you wait four months to return the equipment?’ She replies, ‘The UPS guy dropped it off on my porch, and I didn’t notice it. It’s not my fault.’ I push further, ‘If you didn’t notice it why didn’t you call up and ask where your package was? Why didn’t you use the tracking number?’ She replies again that her porch is cluttered and she didn’t notice it during the winter. Again, not her fault. So I summarize the situation for her. ‘So YOU ordered services, had the equipment delivered to YOUR house, YOU didn’t notice the box, and YOU waited three months to come here?’ She nods several times, ‘…and this is our fault?’ To her credit, she had the decency to not argue the point anymore after I said that.
4) Taxes are the bane of my existence. They’re not explained well to customers, and in my state, they can end up being an extra $35 on your cable bill. One afternoon, this woman comes in with her daughter and is irate about her statement. She’s just been kicked into second-year pricing which is $25 per month more than her introductory price. She demands to have the bill lowered, and I explain that there’s nothing I can do. Comcast’s billing system is designed to punish customers for trying to save money. Triple play customers who try to drop down a channel tier lose their promotional pricing. Customers who try to drop the phone will be put in a-la-carte pricing for the TV and internet. Either way, the bill is going to increase. She’s not happy with this answer and demands that I lower her bill. So I start going through the charges to show her where she can save money. She refuses to drop channels or boxes and finally starts nitpicking over taxes. Pointing to my monitor she yells out, ‘What is this crap? You mean I have to pay $23 in taxes every month!?’ I lose my temper and shoot back ‘Yes! God Bless Connecticut! You pay $23 a month in taxes.’ The entire store goes silent, and I can see a bunch of people, including her kid trying to hide their laughter.
5) I get a customer who’s upset because there’s now a $10/month modem charge on his bill. It turns out, two years ago he was using a crappy third-party modem, and when the technician came and replaced it with one of our modems, he entered it as a third-party device. So the customer was using our equipment for two years but wasn’t charged. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and Revenue Assurance found out about this and changed the codes on his account. Once RA makes a change, we can’t undo it. This guy goes nuclear. Not only is he demanding a credit but he also demands us to return his old modem. As if we have it just sitting in the back with his name on it. He is honest to God screaming, ‘Where’s my modem! I want my modem!’ I get fed up and tell him, ‘It’s probably on the bottom of a landfill in New Jersey. We don’t have it; it’s been two years!'”
This Lady Was The Real Jerk In This Situation
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“I worked at a gas station for a while. It was at an independently run service station, so it was admittedly expensive. Most people, if they commented on it, would have a bit of a rant but never at us, as they understood we don’t fix the prices.
Anyway, one night around 11 p.m, near the end of my shift, a woman came in and went off about the prices. She wouldn’t let it drop and started dragging out her transaction.
‘If you’re going to rob people, you should at least be wearing a mask in here,’ she said.
‘Sorry, I left mine at home today,’ I replied. That’s my go-to line, which I hear about six times a day, though people usually say their bit light-heartedly.
This woman, however, was serious. Oops. She launched into a rant about how she would never come back, how she couldn’t believe it, and asked how I slept at night. I told her that I don’t set the prices. She told me to let my manager know he was a thieving jerk. I told her he didn’t set the prices either.
By the time, the night shift guy had arrived. I was supposed to be handing the shift over and leaving, but she was still complaining, and a line had formed. She reiterated that the prices were abhorrent. I finally lost it.
‘Look,’ I said, pointing to the massive sign outside that prominently displayed our prices in bright lights. ‘The prices are right there. You knew how much it was when you came in. You also can use those terrific observational skills to note we’re only three miles away from a city with 24-hour supermarkets with gas stations. No one made you come in here, so can you hurry up and pay so I can go home?’
I knew I shouldn’t have said it but it was too late now. She threatened to report me, and I was like cool, OK, my name is on my badge. She also threatened to write a bad review, which my colleague and I laughed at when she left.
I left a few minutes later. Imagine my surprise when I saw her sitting in her car tapping away at her phone. The madwoman actually did it. I checked my review. Apparently, I am ‘a shockingly rude young man’ who ‘would benefit from a good talking to.’ Harsh words.”
Turns Out This Customer Really Did Need A Helping Hand
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“I was 17 and working at a Meijer. A slightly older gentleman came up with a basket on his arm, and he started unloading groceries. Nothing too unusual, except as I was packing the bags on the carousel, he was struggling to unload his little basket. He didn’t seem old enough to struggle like that, but I figured maybe something was wrong, and so I innocently asked, ‘Do you need a hand?’
The guy shot me a look and made full eye contact at me for what seemed like a minute. I was confused, thinking maybe he misheard me, or perhaps he was a little cognitively impaired. I opened my mouth to repeat myself. He smiled, pulled down the sleeve of his shirt, and revealed he, in fact, had a prosthetic hand.
I never understood the phrase ‘melt into the ground’ until that moment. I was almost in tears out of embarrassment, but fortunately, the guy recognized I wasn’t a glib jerkwad. I was just trying to help him, and he was kind enough to let me off the hook.”
This Manager Wasn’t Afraid To Tell Them To Take Their Business Elsewhere
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“I worked overnight at Kinkos. A customer came in used the self-serve station, and they went to the counter to speak to my manager.
Customer: ‘Across the street, they do copies for half your price. I want you to match that.’
Manager: ‘Sorry, I can’t do that.’
C: ‘What do you mean? You should match.’
My manager looked at them and then pointedly looked across the street. He gave his sickeningly sweet smile.
M: ‘You are free to use them if you want.’
C: ‘But they’re closed, and I need the copies before they open.’
My manager, still smiling, spread his arms and shrugged. The customer paid. He was my first manager, and, decades later, he is still one of my favorites.”
They Didn’t Have Time For Stupid Questions
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“I was a cashier at a supermarket, and a customer involved with a church asked, ‘Do you have a preacher discount?’ and I said, ‘Nah, we’re all pretty godless here at Super 1.’ His wife thought it was pretty funny, but he didn’t.
I also used to work at another large retail store, where we sold fish in the pet department. One of the tanks was empty, and a customer wanted whichever fish was supposed to go in there. She said, ‘You’re out of those? You don’t have any in the back?’ I said, ‘We used to keep them in the backroom, but they surprisingly died within minutes.’ She didn’t think it was funny.”
The Truth Hurts
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“I was working at a bookstore at the mall. It was toward the end of the night, and there were barely any customers, so my coworker and I were mostly slacking off. This guy came in and wanted to return something, but he didn’t have a receipt and started arguing with my coworker about it. We needed a receipt to process a return; the original receipt had to be initialed and turned into corporate, so we couldn’t handle his return without it. He was a jerk about it, but after several minutes of arguing, he finally seemed to accept that we weren’t processing his request and walked off.
‘Jesus,’ I said, believing he had left the store. ‘That guy was a real jerk.’ Just as the guy in question returned to the register to make an actual purchase.”
Sometimes It’s Best To Just Smile And Say “Thank You”
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“After the standard customer freakshow, ending with ‘And I am never shopping here again,’ I gave her a smile and said, ‘Thank you, we sure would appreciate that.’ She stood there with her mouth open while I moved on to the next customer.”
This Mother Didn’t Like This Piece Of Motherly Advice
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“I used to work tech support over the phone for CenturyLink.
Late one Friday afternoon, I got a call from a woman who was freaking out because kids were coming over and they didn’t have the internet.
I walked her through the troubleshooting, and it turns out she needed a technician. They didn’t do weekend stuff, so she was out of luck for the weekend.
‘WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY KIDS? I HAVE MY KIDS THIS WEEKEND. THEY NEED XBOX AND CABLE. OMG.’ And on and on.
So I accidentally blurted out, ‘Have you tried paying attention to them?’
The line went dead silent. And then she hung up.”
“Ma’am, Please Use Your Words”
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“I was talking with a customer on the phone and giving her answers she didn’t like. Then she just started whining. She wasn’t using words with a whiny voice but doing a ‘uuuuuhhhnnnnnnn’ kind of whining.
I’ve worked with toddlers a lot, so it was just instinct to say back to her ‘Ma’am, please use your words’ as if I was talking to a 3-year-old.
It did not go over well.”
All They Could Do Was Say “Happy Holidays” To This Grinch
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“One Christmas, a customer called my supermarket to collect her online order and asked us where our drive-thru window was located. I explained that we didn’t have one and that she could pick up her order at our service desk. She started yelling, and I tried to explain to her that our back dock was too dangerous for customers. She came in after 15 minutes and demanded that one of us help her with her trolley as she couldn’t do it because of her children. I said okay and proceeded to help her with her transport her order.
It took us about 15 minutes to walk her order over to her car on the opposite end of the parking lot. We finally got to her car, and I wished her a Merry Christmas. As I started to walk away, she scoffed and said, ‘Is that it? You’re not going to put it into my car.’ I explained I was technically not even supposed to be this far from my store and that I was not supposed to put them into the car for safety reasons.
She didn’t like this and started saying some unpleasant things. I snapped and said, ‘Are you serious? It’s Christmas. My store is busy, and you’re complaining about me following my store policies. I’m walking away now and have a good holiday.'”
Free Discounts?
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“A guy came into where I worked, and the first thing he said was something like, ‘Do you give discounts?’ Not any particular discount, he was being a cheap jerk.
Somehow, without skipping a beat, I said, ‘For what, showing up?’
I don’t think he was happy with that.”
If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say, Seriously Just Don’t Say Anything
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“At a bookstore, I had a customer complain because after asking me where about a dozen fiction authors were located, I pointed out that if he knew the last name all he had to do was know the alphabet and it was ok to sing it if he needed to.
My manager took the complaint the next morning and reminded me it was probably best I kept my snark to a slightly more inside voice.”
Once This Worker Showed Her How The Product Works Things Got Real Awkward
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“I was working at a pet store, and we sold those spray bottles for training dogs and cats. Anyway, a customer came in complaining that it was not working and how we were complete scum and con artists stealing her hard earned money. So I decided to test it out. I filled the bottle up with water, turned the lock on the nozzle (which the customer hadn’t turned), and proceeded to spray the customer in the face. I stood there for a few minutes with the customer in silence thinking, ‘Did I just do that.’ Then I said, ‘See, it works’ to try and break the tension. It made it worse. The owner tore me a new one, but the manager loved it and had the security footage saved to the desktop of the office computer.”
This Worker Wasn’t Afraid To Cut To The Chase
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“I used to work in the H&M call center, and this woman’s package didn’t arrive on the day our website said it was scheduled to arrive. She said that because she had to take a day off work, we owed her lost wages which amounted to $850.
I told her, ‘You took a day off work where you would have earned $850 to wait at home for a package that is worth $50, do you seriously expect me to believe that?’
Long story short, she hung up when I saw through her story.”
They Were Done Trying To Be Captain Obvious For This Customer
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“Well, I stupidly emailed a client who not only was a witch but a stupid witch, and I was already feeling salty with her because she shouted at me the day before.
The client was using our product online to create a test and was adding questions when she came across a question she had been hoping to use. However, she received a message stating, ‘This item is no longer available,’ because the question had been removed. The reasons behind the removal vary; maybe it had a bug in it and would break the test, maybe the other questions it aligned with were no longer used. Ultimately, it was no longer available. The client took a screenshot and emailed it to me and said ‘What does this mean?’
Well rather than investigating the reason and providing a detailed response, I just replied with ‘It means what the message says. That item is no longer available. Let me know if I can help you answer any other obvious questions.’ My boss was NOT happy.”
His Message Definitely Rang Loud And Clear For This Customer
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“I worked for Rent-a-Center a few years back, and part of my job was calling all the customers who were late on payments. I dialed ‘Big Rob’ and was unsurprisingly met by the answering machine; no big deal, I went into my voicemail spiel, but I was cut off.
This happened three or four more times until I finally flipped my lid and screamed at the answering machine ‘What is wrong with you, you stupid piece of crap? What a worthless waste of 10 minutes.’ I slammed down the phone and went out to run credit.
I came back, and my boss was staring daggers at me. Apparently, the answering machine decided to record the last time and ‘Big Rob’ had come down to the store personally to set me straight. We all laughed when I explained what happened, but they transferred the account to a different rep because the guy didn’t believe the story.”
She Wasn’t Going To Let This Screaming Customer Walk All Over Her
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“I was almost seven months pregnant with twins working at a call center, and I received a cold transfer from customer relations from a rude customer.
I greet him nicely, and he interrupts me to ask, ‘Can you see all my information and what I need or do I need to repeat it all over again?’
He starts yelling and rants for about three minutes. Being the sensitive ball I am at the time, I tell him, ‘Sir, this is the first time I’ve talked to you, you just got transferred, and I need time to read the notes, but it’s unfair that you’re treating me like this. I was being polite, and you’re yelling at me for no reason! I will place you on hold, and I’ll read the notes, ok?’
When I put him on hold, I am convinced that if my superior is listening, I am going to be in trouble because in customer service, they want you to let people walk over you, and this customer is going to complain about me. Surprisingly, when I come back from hold, he sounds ashamed. He apologizes to me and admits he has been a jerk to me for no reason and that he wants to start all over.”