These employees have dealt with a number of unpleasant customers, but some customers aren't always the most logical of people, especially when it comes to their negative feedback.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
Some People Don’t Know How To Correctly Count
file404/Shutterstock
“While working in retail, a woman who had come in the day before was furious that we had not bagged one of the items she had purchased. She claimed to have paid for four sets of boxers but only three were in the bag. We looked up her receipt on our register and saw that we only charged her for three. We even looked back at the security tape to see that she had only brought three to the register.
After giving her a call back saying that she had only purchased and paid for 3, she blew up. Racial slurs, profanity, and threats were made about how we were scamming her.
In 20 minutes, she came to the store with her receipt to prove that she paid for four. We counted. 1, 2, and 3. Instead of accepting the facts, she ripped up the receipt and said that she paid for four. She started knocking down clothes on the racks on her way out and demanded her set of boxers. The owner just gave it to her and told her not to come back.”
Another Ridiculous Mocha Order At Starbucks
Flickr/Calgary Reviews
“I used to work at Starbucks. A lady ordered a mocha frappucino and I forgot to add the extra mocha syrup. It was a dumb mistake, so I fixed it of course. She put it back on the bar a couple minutes later and said, ‘It doesn’t taste right, I want a new one.’ Okaaay I thought, don’t know what else I can do, but sure ill make a new one. I get started on it and she goes to the restroom. She gets back from the restroom before I’m done making it but sees her old drink on the bar that I hadn’t taken back yet and thinks it’s her new one. She looks at and says: ‘Ah, it looks better already,’ takes a big drink and says, ‘Now see, that’s perfect,’ then leaves before I can tell her I didn’t do a dang thing.”
The Interesting Delivery To The Women In The Trailer Park
Philip Lange/Shutterstock
“I used to deliver for a pizza place. I took an order to the scummiest trailer park I’ve ever seen. I get to the lot, and naturally, it’s two obese redneck women. I tell them their total, and they start flipping out. ‘What?! We already paid with the credit card! We called up there and gave the card number and everything!’ I tell her that there was no credit card placed on this order; perhaps it didn’t go through. Just hold on one second for me and I can call the store and give them your credit card info. I guarantee you won’t be charged twice. I asked if they remembered who they spoke to. ‘It was some girl!’ I walk back to my car to get their ticket while they mumble obscenities. ‘Buncha freakin’ morons up at that place. What the heck? Y’all are so stupid!’
I retrieve the ticket and look up in the top corner where it says who took the order. Sure enough, right there in bold letters was the word ‘internet,’ meaning these awful women ordered online and never spoke to anyone at the store and did not give us their card number. I interrupt them in the midst of calling us idiots with: ‘Um…ma’am…it says right here you placed this order online.’ They both quickly shut up and sulked inside to retrieve the card.”
The Pettiest Pizza Customers Anyone Has Ever Had To Deal With!
“I am now a manager at a local restaurant/café, and though it is a much more refined environment than a fast food chain, I still get the stuck up people once in a while. I’ll share a story that happened just a few weeks ago.
It was a busy night, especially for pizzas. It was clear to customers ordering at the counter that we had our hands full. Two women came in with two kids, a young boy, and a girl. They ordered two specialty pizzas and only those two pizzas. They said they would be dining in, and the kids were commenting about how hungry they were. I told them it would be just a bit of a wait but that we would bring the pizzas out as soon as they were ready. The women sat within eyesight of our pizza maker and the oven. They could see the cooks and the pizzas coming in and out of the oven.
Again, it was a hectic night, and it wasn’t hard to overlook something and make a small mistake. Our pizza maker misreads the ticket for their order and thought it was to-go so he had two pizza boxes open and ready to put them in. I saw him doing it but didn’t know it was for their order, otherwise, I would have said hey those are for here. He took them out of the oven, slid them each into a box, and put them on top of the oven. WITHIN 30 SECONDS of this happening, one of the women approached the counter and got the pizza guy’s attention, and inquired about the ticket number asking if they had been their pizzas. He checked and saw that it was their order for here and sincerely apologized, saying he would bring them right out. The woman said ok that’s fine, and sat back down. He got out two stands and trays and put the pizzas on them, still piping hot and delicious and melty. Even my mouth was watering. Another server and I carried both pizzas out and set them on their table, and the kids were so excited that the food was there and they were reaching out for it. One of the ladies pushed their hands back and told them to wait, and I watched her sit there and poke the pizza with her fingers. I asked if everything was ok, and she said in the brattiest tone: ‘Ummm, yeah. We’re not going to eat these.’ I asked why and she said: ‘Because they’re going to taste like a box now.’
I couldn’t believe it. I asked her to clarify what was wrong because I couldn’t comprehend that she was actually saying this, and she said that the pizzas were both going to taste like cardboard because they had been in a box for not even 30 seconds. She didn’t bother to taste it. The kids started crying and asking her to keep them but she demanded that I take them back and remake them. I had to grit my teeth and bring them back, and they made those kids wait another 20 minutes because, by that time, there were even more pizza orders our pizza guy had to get to. I couldn’t believe how snooty they were, hundreds of pizzas are made to go daily and picked up in boxes and enjoyed at home, how could you possibly believe being in one for not even a minute destroys it?”
The Displeased Customer At Target And Her Negative Review
Flickr/JReed
“I work at Target. I have been there for about three years and am considered a reliable and integral part of my team.
The other night, I received my first ever complaint from a ‘guest’ to the manager for reasons I am not sure of. Basically, I was training a new team member and we were going through and straightening the baby aisle.
A guest asks me if I work there.
Me: ‘Yes, can I help you find something?’
Guest: ‘Does this baby swing vibrate?’
Me: ‘Um…Well… I am not sure about the product details, but the box might say if it does. Let me see.’
Me: ‘No, I don’t think this one does, I don’t see anything saying anything about vibration.’
Guest: ‘Ok, do you have this one in stock? I don’t see it out.’
Me: ‘Let me run and grab my PDA and I can see if we have it in the back.’
Me: ‘It says we have one out, let me check around and see if it is in the wrong spot.’
Me: ‘Here it is! This is the one.’
Guest: ‘…’
Me: ‘Do you want me to go ahead and put it in the cart?’
Guest: ‘(Playing on the phone) No, I need to see if the other one vibrates.’
Me: ‘Well I don’t think that one does…but I’ll go ahead and set this one here for you when you’re ready.’
Guest: ‘…’
Me: ‘Is there anything else I can help you with?’
Guest: ‘No, you’ve done enough.’
So I left and continued training the team member. I was pulled aside by the manager later, who told me the guest said she was ‘so disappointed’ with my guest service and that I ‘wasn’t very helpful’ and ‘didn’t seem like I wanted to help’. WHAT?!”
Some Demands Of Retail Customers Are Absolutely Insane!
Mangostar/Shutterstock
“I work in retail.
During our big annual sale one year, we were slammed with customers. Phones ringing off the hook, raining cats and dogs, endless lines of: ‘SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY,’ the works.
In the middle of the madness, I stop for a second to pick up the phone. ‘WHY THE HECK ARE YOU SELLING PRODUCT XYZ FOR $299!? What the heck is wrong with it? Is it broken?’
‘Uhh, it’s on sale for $299 because we’re having our annual sale. Come in and buy one.’
‘I just bought that exact same item from your competitor last week for $500, what the heck do you plan on doing about that?’
‘Excuse me? What do you expect me to do?’
‘I want you to refund me my money back! That’s not right!’
‘Let me get this straight. You want me to give you money back for a product that you bought from my competitor for almost twice what I sell it. And what’s in that for me?’
‘I’m giving you my business! I want you to return it so that I can go ahead and buy one from you at $299! Don’t you want to make your customers happy?’
‘Sorry, have a good day.’ Click”
Those Adults That Try To Cut In Line
“When I was a cashier at my dad’s business, a lady was trying to cut in front of a line of about 8 people. I asked if she was in line, and she said: ‘No, I’m just moving my items around.’ I told her: ‘Whenever you’re ready just move over there’ and pointed at the end of the line. She finagled in her cart for another two minutes and then came up to me and said: ‘I’m ready.’ I said: ‘I’m sorry miss, but these people are in line.’ She then goes off about how she’s been waiting for 20 minutes and demands to see my manager.
I look over and just said: ‘Hey Dad, this woman wants to speak to you.’
My dad just said: ‘You’re right, but don’t worry about it. If you get to the back of the line you’ll be out of here within a couple minutes.’ As she starts walking to the back of the line he quips: ‘Just like they taught you in kindergarten.'”
Maybe She’s Not Mature Enough For A Laptop
Slawomir Fajer/Shutterstock
“I used to work at Staples, a customer called and complained the disc drive in their new laptop wasn’t reading any discs. I asked a few questions over the phone like: ‘Is the disc upside down?’ and ‘Does the disc work in other computers? ‘She yells back at me: ‘I think I know what I’m doing! I’m not an idiot! I want this fixed!’ So I tell her to come in, we can replace it since it’s under the 14-day return policy.
Mind you, I’m angry since I tried to be helpful over the phone, and she yells at me. So she comes into the store and puts the laptop on the counter saying it doesn’t work. I asked: ‘Can you just show me what you’re doing so I can make sure?’
She turns on the laptop, opens the disc tray, puts the CD on top. She doesn’t even snap it into the tray! Just lays it flat on top and says: ‘See! It doesn’t work! I want a new one!’ I snap it into the tray, close it and tell her: ‘Your laptop is fine,’ and walked away. My coworker standing next to me had to finish it up. I was so dumbstruck.”
The Overly Sugared Iced Coffee Order Was Not Up To Par!
“When I worked drive-thru, we would have someone (a female and her boyfriend) come through almost every night and order a large iced vanilla coffee with extra cream, extra sugar, and extra vanilla.
We would hand it to her exactly as she ordered it, and then two seconds later, she would come up and have her boyfriend tell us that it was made wrong. We would make it again, slightly different. They would come through again and be all angry at us, so we would make it how we did the first time (aka the correct way). Then they would leave.
It got to the point where as soon as we heard her voice, we made up three iced coffees. Two to act as decoys, and the third to hand out. All made exactly the same. She didn’t keep the other coffees either. We made sure to take those away.”
The Cheese Refund Drama At The Grocery Store
“I once worked at a grocery store, and oftentimes at the customer service counter, which typically handles refunds, exchanges, complaints, and other odds and ends.
This man comes up with a block of cheese still in its package. I ask how can I help him. Then, our conversation goes something like this:
Customer: ‘This is the wrong cheese.’
Me: ‘Alright. Would you like to exchange it for another kind of cheese or would you prefer a refund?’
Customer: ‘I don’t want it.’
Me: ‘Ok, I’ll put through the refund for you. (I proceed to take the cheese, enter the refund into the computer, and hold out the money we owe him).’
Customer: ‘What? Where’s my cheese? I don’t want a refund.’
Me: ‘So, you want your cheese back?’
Customer: ‘Yes.’
(I proceed to ring the cheese back into the computer, put the money back in the till, and give him his cheese back).
Customer: Where’s my money?
Me: You said you wanted your cheese instead of a refund, so I rang it through again.
Customer: But it’s the wrong kind of cheese.
Me: So, you want to exchange it?
Customer: No. I don’t want to bother with it. I’m just telling you it’s the wrong kind.
Me: So, what do you want me to do?
This still perplexes me, but he ended up throwing a little hissy fit and took his wrong cheese home again.”
The ‘After Church Rush’ At Taco Bell Was Never Pleasant!
“I’m working at Taco Bell during the Sunday after church rush, and we have a line so long people are waiting outside the store. A family of three make it to the counter.
Despite the fact that they had plenty of time to look at the menu board, the parents didn’t know what kids meal to get their 3-year-old. Their options were a taco (hard shell or soft shell) or bean burrito. They kept changing their mind after I rang it up.
I can tell my manager is getting annoyed as she is working the hot table and knows we have a mass of people waiting. I tell the family: ‘If you don’t know what to order, please step to the side and let me know when you have decided. I can’t have you holding up the line.’
That set off a storm. Father, dressed in his Sunday best, started tearing me a new one in front of the entire crowd. He started calling me a low life degenerate, a college drop-out who probably can’t make change, etc. And he wasn’t saying this quietly. I proceeded to wipe his order and start helping the next customer because screw him.
Once his order was wiped, he knocked over our cup display and shouted: ‘Now listen here, you piece of crap.’
My manager walked from the line at that point and told him to get out of the store or she was calling the cops. He said: ‘Oh yeah, what are the cops going to do?’
The best moment of working fast food was my manager turning to the coral and saying, ‘Show of hands, who here just witnessed this guy verbally assaulting my employee.’ Every customer raised their hand. My manager then told him to get out and not to come back.
He tried to come through the drive through about thirty minutes later. He ordered the same combos and a kids meal. He got to the window and there stood my manager. ‘Not going to happen, keep driving, idiot.’
My manager was awesome!”
He Didn’t Seem To Understand That It Was A ‘Donation’ Bookstore
“At a used bookstore, I was in charge of the donations for a local children’s hospital. People could bring in all kinds of kids’ books for the library at the hospital, but we asked that they be new, or in perfect or like-new condition. They couldn’t have any writing inside or stickers or anything like that. I had to go through all the crap people dropped off and it was usually stuffed their kids had drawn all over, had ripped pages, or smelled like cat pee, which I didn’t understand. It doesn’t seem charitable.
Anyway. There was this one guy who used to come in all the time and just browse for hours, never spent any money. He brings a stack of children’s books to our ‘buy’ counter one day and all of them have stickers on the front that say, ‘Donated from the Library of (his name).’ I get called up to explain to the guy that not only can we not accept his donations (because he’s put big stickers right on the front with his name), but he also isn’t going to get to write this off on his taxes, because he also wanted us to make him up a receipt for charitable donations. He starts to get more and more angry as I explain that our bookstore isn’t like a 501(c)(3) organization, that the library service we do is just for sick kids at the hospital to have something to read, and his ‘donation’ is kind of offensive because the children don’t need to be reminded that they’re being given charity.
He ended up spitting mad, like, red-faced, spit flying out of his mouth while he fumed and screamed at us for ‘screwing around,’ as well as his ‘elderly, wealthy mother’ who, he claimed, spent tons of money at our store and would no longer be coming in.”
She Came Back To Brag About The Free Gift Card She Got?
Alexander Kirch/Shutterstock
“I work at a rather large chain store that sells costume jewelry in Australia.
A lady came in, said she wanted to exchange a necklace (would have been about 20-$30 value). Fine, no problem. She presented the necklace and it wasn’t from our store but rather a rival store. That was calmly explained. She started to raise her voice and say that the staff was making fun of her. That she got it from here and she wanted to exchange it for a bag she saw last time. We don’t sell bags but out rival store does. That was also explained.
She lost it. She went on a rant about our horrible service, insisting that the bag and necklace were from our store. We didn’t refund her and, eventually, she left vowing never to return again. Fine by me.
She came in a week later with a gift card that the head office sent her. She didn’t recognize me (I was in the store at the time but wasn’t serving her). She said, ‘Your store wouldn’t give me a refund, so I called customer support and they gave me a $30 gift card. I’m just here to rub it in your faces.’ And laughed. I later found out that after going to our store, she pulled the same stuff at another one of our stores who did refund her because they knew head office wouldn’t stick up for them.”
Angry Over A Sears Washing Machine?
“I used to work for Sears, and a co-worker told me this story. He sold a top loading washer to the gentleman and a five-year service agreement. The service agreement covered most things except customer negligence.
He came back into the store about a week later, absolutely livid. He was complaining that the washer wasn’t working correctly, it was all off-balanced, and the drum was ruined. So a service call was scheduled for the technicians to figure out what the problem was.
A few days later, when the technicians went out to his house, they were shocked at what they found. Now, this is according to the technicians as none of us were there, but the drum was cracked, and the machine itself barely ran. Apparently, it in no way resembled a brand new washer. The technicians refused to do any type of repairs or order new parts for free (which is part of the service agreement), citing evidence of customer abuse.
So the next day, the man returns to the store even angrier than he was before. During a long argument between the man, my co-worker, and department manager, the man revealed that the first thing he did with the washer was washing a bowling ball. Apparently, he did not realize that would be bad for the machine.
His service agreement, of course, was void after such a blatant display of negligence. And of course, he did the customary vow to never shop at our store again.”