Hey there! We’ve all had those moments when the customer isn’t always right and employees have had enough. In this article, we’ll dive into some eye-opening instances when employees let their frustrations show and explore whether their reactions were justified or not. Brace yourself for some wild stories and get ready to ponder the age-old question: Is the customer always right? All content has been edited for clarity purposes.
“I Don’t Get Paid Enough To Deal With People Like You”

“I have worked in customer service for the past ten years. I have completed courses, earned qualifications, been a manager, minimum wage employee, and everything in between. I’ve done retail, fast food, and hospitality. I have seen a lot in the customer service world.
Fast forward a few years, and I worked in business administration with occasional sales thrown in. I still got rude customers, but not as many as in the past. Additionally, I worked part-time at a popular Pizza Hut I used to manage. Having two jobs was stressful, and I started feeling burnt out quickly.
A few nights ago, I was working a shift at the pizza place. My manager needed to leave for a bit, which I was okay with. Sure the store was busy, but I had plenty of experience, and I could manage. I was juggling all of the tasks, then the phone rang.
A man on the phone said, ‘Hey, I want to order a pizza from Domino’s.’
I hung up the phone because I figured it was just a prank call. Five minutes later, the same man from the prank call walked into the restaurant. He picked up a pizza he ordered and started going off on me for hanging up on him.
I told the customer, ‘To be fair, I thought you were just prank-calling the restaurant.’
Then he began screaming at me about how he meant to order from Domino’s but accidentally ordered on our website instead. Pizza Hut was one of the world’s most popular pizza chains. I found it hard to believe the customer went to our website and ‘accidentally’ ordered a pizza from us instead. Our logo was plastered everywhere on the website, and the customer would have noticed at least once.
The customer screamed, ‘You’re a witch!’ and I snapped.
Ten years of being abused, threatened, and spoken down erupted out of me. Something broke inside of me. The customer was swearing at me and leaning over the counter calling me every name under the sun.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, ‘Get the hell out of here! Get over yourself! Get out of my face and never come back again! I don’t get paid enough to deal with people like you! If you don’t leave, I’ll call the police!’
‘Call the police! I don’t care!’ the customer retorted.
The worst part? My manager sided with HIM. The customer then took his complaints to corporate, but thankfully, the executives supported me. Dealing with that customer was the moment I knew I was done bending over backward for people. At the end of the day, I didn’t get paid enough to deal with rude customers anymore.”
No Leash, No Service

“A customer regularly came into my work with his 4-year-old dog. I couldn’t stand the customer, but I thought his dog was cute.
I worked at a small restaurant and rest stop area with a lot of people being allowed in with their animals. People were good about keeping their animals on leashes or holding them in their arms. We all loved animals, so it made us smile. Customers just needed to make sure their animals didn’t walk into the food preparation area.
The first time the customer came into the store with his dog, the dog wasn’t wearing a leash. The dog ran around the store, jumped on everyone and everything, and barked at people. Worst of all, the dog ran back into the food preparation area.
I told the customer, ‘Your dog is a health hazard. Although she’s super cute, your dog cannot be back here.’
The customer didn’t take me seriously and just laughed. A couple of days later, he came in again. His dog ran into the kitchen again, but thankfully, my coworker stopped the dog. The customer called his dog, and she laid down for 20 seconds before barking and jumping on other customers.
I stopped working and said, ‘I’m sorry, but you need to have your dog on a leash when you come in. We can’t have her jumping on people and barking at them. Some people are scared of dogs.’
The customer got lippy and replied, ‘She doesn’t go on a leash. Ever. You don’t have to explain why it isn’t allowed,’ and took her outside.
When the customer came back in, he puffed up and angrily said, ‘She’s my military service dog. I need her because she helps me with my anxiety. She doesn’t need to be on a leash. Are you a manager?’
I explained, ‘We don’t mind having your dog in here. However, your dog can’t be running around everywhere!’
The customer reiterated his ex-military status yelling, ‘I was in the military!’
I rolled my eyes and loudly replied, ‘I don’t care! My fiance is in the military too! He has been for the past 10 years, and he has severe PTSD. Trust me, I understand where you’re coming from. We just can’t have your dog in here if you won’t bother to control her. It’s not an issue of your dog being a service dog, you just need to be a better pet parent!’
Afterward, he quietly waited for his food. After he left I apologized to the customers for any discomfort I caused them. Most of the customers were upset with me for apologizing and agreed with my stance.
At least some people didn’t think I was in the wrong.”
“He Had A Total Temper Tantrum”

“A while back, I worked at a coffee shop. I went to school with two of my coworkers, ‘Jake,’ and ‘Danielle.’ Jake happened to be the owner’s son, and he was a shift manager.
Sometimes, customers would come in and be angry about the stupidest little things. I have witnessed my fair share of people blowing up about nothing. I didn’t know if they were in a bad mood already and just looking for someone to take it out on or what. However, it was a lot to deal with. How sad did someone have to be to be a grown adult to take their anger out on high school and college kids?
One day, Jake and I were joking about having a little fun with the rude customers and hopefully getting them off our backs. Lo and behold, only minutes later, a customer came in and had a total temper tantrum.
The customer yelled, ‘You didn’t make the coffee hot enough! Are you stupid?’
In reality, I couldn’t do a thing about the customer’s coffee not being hot enough. It came straight out of the machine, so it wasn’t my problem.
Jake walked over and asked, ‘Sir, is there a problem here?’ and the customer began ranting at him, too.
So, with a perfectly straight face, Jake looked at me and said, ‘This is unacceptable. You’re fired.’
‘Please don’t fire me!’ I cried, ‘My family needs the money. I NEED this job. Please!’
Of course, the customer didn’t know we were joking around. Jake played up being a ‘mean manager,’ and even told me to take my apron off and leave.
The angry customer started to backtrack and said, ‘It wasn’t a big deal. Don’t fire her over the coffee. I didn’t mean it.’
Jake then flipped out on the customer and said, ‘No, we pride ourselves on the BEST customer service! This is what you wanted, right? You weren’t satisfied!’
Of course, after all that drama I still had my job, we were just acting. And we did it a couple of times, whenever a customer will lose their temper at Danielle or me, Jake would storm in and ‘fire’ us. And almost every time, the person who had come in angry will apologize and say they didn’t mean it.
It was kind of satisfying, making people realize their actions might have consequences.
A few of my friends and coworkers thought it was terrible to prank a customer like this. Honestly, I loved doing it.”
The Stolen Wallet Showdown

“I worked in retail for years.
The other day, an elderly customer came in shortly before the store closed. He started asking me questions, none of which were out of the ordinary. I went to the back to clean up before closing, and my coworker stayed on the sales floor with the customer.
Fifteen minutes later, I started hearing screaming on the sales floor. I rushed back in to find the customer yelling at my coworker because she ‘stole his wallet.’ I tried to calm the customer down and assured him he may have just misplaced his wallet. However, he wasn’t having it. The customer started yelling at me too, so I told my coworker to call the cops.
Luckily, the cops came quickly. The man started grabbing his chest, pretending he was having a heart attack. Then, the customer accused us of trying to steal from him.
‘I want all my stuff for free!’ the customer demanded, ‘It’s the least I should get after going through all of this trouble!’
Sure enough, the cops saw through the customer’s act and he was arrested. I felt so bad. To this day, I don’t know if I did the right thing or not. Maybe I exaggerated, but my safety was my priority.”