Some customers are simply beyond help. Either they are way too demanding or completely make no sense. It is up to these heroic men and women to directly interact with these monsters and try to provide them quality service, despite the verbal and physical attacks they'll receive in return. This content was edited for clarity.
Large Vanilla Shake, Medium Cup
“I worked at Burger King in high school. I will never forget this. I was on drive-thru one night, and this lady orders a ‘large vanilla shake, in a medium cup.’
I ask if she meant a ‘medium shake, in a large cup,’ seeing as how physically, I cannot put more liquid in a container than it will hold. She gets INFURIATED and drives up to the window, screaming at me for not listening to her. In a loud, slow tone, like she’s talking to a deaf person, she says, ‘I. Want. A. Large. Vanilla. Shake. In. A. Medium. Cup.’
At first, I calmly explained to her that it was impossible for me to put a large shake in a medium cup. I tried using logic, which was my first mistake. She started yelling louder, giving me grief for working in fast food (I was 15 or 16). So I yelled back. She DID NOT like when I started to raise my voice at her. Or, apparently, tell her that a 15-year-old, working in the fast food industry, was smarter than she was. That’s when a manager tried to deescalate the situation. They calmly walked me away from the drive-thru window, telling me how much trouble I was going to get into for yelling at a customer, and they tried to fix the problem. It ended with my manager yelling at the customer, and kicking her out, and telling her to never come back. My manager and I bonded over how stupid this lady was.”
When A 6-Year-Old Has More Sense
“A few years ago, the community center had a ‘community garage sale’, so for $10 you get a table to sell whatever you want. I paid for the table so my 6-year-old son could get rid of a lot of his old toys and keep the cash (win-win). He had a ton of McDonald’s toys (the freebies in the kids meals), and he started selling them for 50 cents each. As the afternoon wore on and the good ones were all gone, he lowered the price to 20 cents. Some lady who came by 2 hours earlier and bought 2 toys wanted a refund now so she could pay the lower price. I told her all the money was going to the kid and he was trying to get rid of the last few that nobody wanted, so she of course starts yelling at him. My son tells me, ‘Dad, I’ll just give her the toys for free.’
Yup lady you won. You got a pair of free McDonald’s toys from a 6-year-old by being a total hag.”
The Chick With The Volvo
“I used to work at an oil change franchise, and we had some incredibly stupid people pull in. My favorite was ‘The Chick With the Volvo.’
It was a slow day when this woman pulls up in a fairly nice Volvo. She pulls up to a bay, we ask her what she wants, and she says an oil change. We get her info, take down the mileage (50,467, I will never forget that number), and pull her car into the bay while my manager talks up the extra services. Once over the pit, I pop the hood and open the oil cap.
Black, billowing smoke comes out.
I call down to my pit guy, ask him to pop the oil pan. He starts coughing.
Black, billowing smoke comes up from the pit.
I get my boss, and tell him we’ve got a problem. He comes out, sees the smoke, and says, ‘Don’t touch ANYTHING.’ He walks back into the office, and I follow out of curiosity. He looks at the customer and says, ‘Ma’am, there seems to be a very serious issue with your car. You might want to get hold of whoever did your last oil change and get their info for a warranty claim. Who did your last oil change?’
This lady looks him square in the eye and says, ‘Nobody. This is my first scheduled oil change.’
We both stare at her in shock. She’d gone over FIFTY THOUSAND miles without an oil change. My boss stares at her some more while slowly trying to explain that cars are supposed to be serviced every 3k-5k miles. This lady starts screaming at him. Who does he think he is, he’s not a mechanic (he’s ASE certified powertrain and electrical), he ruined the car, it even says so in the owner’s manual that it’s every 50k!
Well now.
So, we ask her to get the manual. She does, looking all smug, like, ‘Now I’ve got these morons,’ written all over her face. She whips it open, looks for the maintenance schedule, and finds the part we’re all waiting for. She’s not letting us look at it yet, and we can tell reality hit her, because her face falls a bit. Then, she has the nerve to tell us that we’re wrong anyway.
My boss looks at her and says, ‘Lady, here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna pop the cap back on, and leave the FACTORY FILTER on your car. We’re going to top off your washer fluid, and we’re not going to charge you anything. Then, you can go down to the Volvo dealership and tell them what you did to their $55k paperweight. Have a nice day, get out of my shop.’
The kicker is, we got a call from the dealership a couple of days later, and the service writer is laughing his butt off. Says this really mean lady came in and complained that our shop had ruined her car. They took one look at it, figured out what happened, and said they were going to have to charge her for a crate engine. She ranted to the service manager that they weren’t going to cover it under warranty!’
He “Bought” It That Way
“I work customer service at a home improvement store. A few months ago, a customer brought in a poop-smeared toilet seat. He claimed that he had purchased it this way, but didn’t discover the hershey stains until he had guests visit a week after the transaction. He claimed it was ‘egregious’ that we would sell disgusting merchandise, and that we owed him money and an apology.
In diplomatic customer service fashion, we explained to him that we could not return it due to the health hazards associated with it. He proceeded to shout at everyone at the return desk and the manager that had walked over (after seeing the commotion). He then demanded that we throw the toilet seat away for him. We explained that we could not do that for him since it was a) literally covered in poop and b) a serious health hazard and that he needed to throw it away himself. He stormed out of the building yelling obscenities.
A few minutes later, the store janitor came to customer service informing us that there was a toilet seat on the trash can outside. Our trash cans sit outside of the main entrances/exits and have ash trays on the top of them. The disgruntled customer had laid the toilet seat so that the ash tray was in the center of the seat, exposing the poo stains to entering customers, and the lid resting against the building. The coup de grace was that the customer left a note on the seat which read, ‘If it looks like poop, they won’t take it back.'”
Swim Team Nightmare
“I manage the front desk at a recreational center, in a relatively affluent area with lots of luxury SUV-driving stay at home moms. Just last week, a mom called up and ripped me a new one over the phone, claiming the swim lesson teachers somehow didn’t have her kids on their class roster on the first day of class, thus we were wasting her time and money and (somehow) traumatizing her kids. I checked with the teachers, who informed me that those kids WERE on the roster, but they hadn’t shown up for class. The second day of class comes and goes, and the teachers tell me the two kids didn’t show up again. So, being the semi-decent customer service provider that I am, I take it upon myself to call the woman back and try to figure out what was going on.
Turns out, after some investigation, she’d been taking her kids to an entirely different, unaffiliated facility all the way across town. Now, rather than thank me for taking the time to follow up and make sure her kids didn’t lose any more class days, she gets embarrassed and tries to blame me and my facility, claiming it’s our fault for ‘offering classes too similar’ to the other facility’s, AND she gets mad that we are ‘so much farther away’ that she can’t possibly be expected to actually come to the place SHE registered at. Our address is plastered all over our website and all over all of our class schedules, you can’t mess that up.
THEN she gets mad that I won’t refund her money per our very publicly published refund policy (even though she admitted the teachers at the other facility were letting her kids into their swim classes for free, probably to avoid the ire I was now receiving), continuously refusing to admit that she was the one who messed up, despite the fact that I told her we were still holding her kids’ spots in the classes.
Thankfully, I have a great manager who will almost always back me up in situations like this. As my manager often puts it, ‘If someone wants to behave like that, we don’t want them here.'”
Taco Bell Terror
“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 three-year-old. Their options were a hard shell, 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. And he wasn’t saying this quietly. I proceeded to wipe his order and start helping the next customer, because forget him.
Once his order was wiped, he knocked over our cup display and shouted, ‘Now listen here you piece of garbage!’
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 line and saying, ‘Show of hands, who here just witnessed this guy verbally assaulting my employee?’ Every single 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 kid’s meal. He got to the window and there stood my manager. ‘Not going to happen, keep driving loser.’
My manager was awesome.”
When A Bunny And A Laptop Love Each Other
“While working at the Apple Store genius bar, I was assisting another customer at the counter, when I heard an incredibly angry customer yelling at someone. Apparently this person delivered her bad news, and that set her off. I finished up and decided to go help her out and inquired about her problem. She said she was told she was going to have to pay a very large amount of money to repair her laptop due to liquid damage, but it wasn’t her fault, and she didn’t think she should have to pay for the repair. I was intrigued so I inquired who’s fault it was (dumb question, it’s always the company’s fault) and she immediately blamed the design of the laptop.
She explained that her ports are always open, and her bunny likes them ‘a little too much’, so he made a mess inside one. I immediately assumed the bunny peed inside the laptop, so I began to explain how unfortunate that was that the bunny peed inside the Ethernet port, when she stopped me.
‘He didn’t pee inside the port!’ she said indignantly. ‘He had his way with it! Gosh’ I bit my lip just shy of really hurting myself to stop from blasting out loud with laughter. She went on to complain that if the ports were covered, this never would have happened, and that this is all our fault. She kept demanding that we charge her nothing to fix the laptop. I somewhat calmly explained why ports are accessible, and that she will still be responsible for the cost regardless. That’s when she asked for a manager.
I very quickly ran to the back room to laugh and inform my manager of the situation. Needless to say, she said the cost stands and the lady took her ‘LoveBook’ away with her. I can only assume it is now a toy that her bunny loves to get intimate with.”
Starbucks Switchup
“I used to work at Starbucks. A lady ordered a mocha and I forgot to add the 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.’
Okay, I don’t know what else I can do, but sure I’ll 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 she 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 literally anything.”
It’s All Fine Until You Get Kicked Out Of The Pool
“I used to be a lifeguard. The pool wasn’t deep enough to dive anywhere. Some young teenagers thought they were too cool and need not follow the strict, NO DIVING rules. We catch them, tell them they have to sit out next time they do it. Of course, they think we were stupid and blind and they do it again. We sit them out for 10 minutes, kindly inform their parents why they are sitting out and if they do it again, we will kick them out. Parents will say, ‘Good for you guys. They need to learn their actions have consequences.’ Thank the lord! Somebody is on our side!
Well, 10 minutes is up. The first thing these kids do is dive headfirst into the pool. We tell the kids they have to leave for the day then turn to the parent and say, ‘I’m sorry, but your child dove headfirst again, we are going to have to ask you to leave the pool area for the day.’ Parents will then yell at us, ‘Are you kidding me?! I took the time to bring them to here so they could enjoy the pool! You guys are making this up! My kids are good kids! They would never do that! I am never coming here again!’
They came the very next day – rinse and repeat.”
No One Could Stop Her Rampage
“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 paid for. She claimed to have paid for 4 sets of boxers, but only 3 were in the bag. We looked up her receipt on our register and saw that we only charged her for 3. We even looked back at the security tape to see that she had only brought 3 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 4. We counted. 1, 2, and 3. Instead of accepting the facts, she ripped up the receipt and said that she paid for 4. 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.”
The Wasted Lady At Baskin Robbins
“During my sophomore year of college, I worked at a Baskin Robbins. While I worked there, I gained a little reputation as being the guy who gave double scoops for the price of one. Everyone loved it because, let’s face it, Baskin Robbins is a financial rip off for the scoop size.
Every Friday night around 7:30, wave after wave of parents accompanied by their loud messy children would come in and order copious amounts of ice cream. After about a month of working the same shift, I began to recognize the regulars. One larger fellow with his family would come in and order the Banana Royale, with just about everything on it. I mean everything! Nuts, gummy bears, caramel, peanut butter, various fruits, as well as whatever we had. If we didn’t have a topping out at the front, he would ask if I could check the back for whatever he wanted. Being the nice guy, I always checked, even if I knew that the store didn’t have any.
During one late Friday shift around 9pm, the larger fellow showed up with his family and ordered the usual. While he and his family ate quietly in the corner, a woman who was clearly wasted entered the store and proceeded to shout that she was ‘here’. After announcing to the world that she had arrived, she continued to scan the thirty-one flavors, taking no joke 15-minutes to pick a flavor.
Once she had finished ordering her ice cream, she asked if she could give me a tip. I directed her attention towards the small tip jar which had been filled throughout the shift. She looked at it for 20 seconds, and then she checked her wallet. After realizing that she didn’t have any cash, she asked if we accepted tips through debit or credit. Unfortunately the Baskin Robbins I worked at had a policy to not accept tips through any means besides cash. This was due to previous workers stealing from the people using credit cards to tip.
The woman, in her wasted state, attempted to convince me that our store policy allowed it. I politely stated that I was fine with not receiving a tip (the room is filled with parents who would tip me very well). It was as if she didn’t comprehend what I had said. The woman then erupted with anger saying that our store accepted tips through debit or credit. She then proceeded to scream ‘EFF YOU,’ and, ‘I’m reporting this to your manager!’
For two minutes she cursed me out, going through the entire list of vulgar words. I stood there listening to every word, attempting to calm her down, while the entire room was in silence. Some parents were beginning to approach the woman.
At the third ‘eff you,’ I was done with being nice. In the deepest and harshest tone, which I reserve for the monsters of the world, I bellowed, ‘GET OUT!’ She screamed out asking for my manager’s number. I ignored her request and continued to tell the witch off. I went through everything that she did wrong, explaining that it was inappropriate behavior, especially in the presence of children. The whole room was silent, even the woman was stunned. In a more calm and collected tone I said, ‘Get out.’
She collected her things, walked to the door, turned around and screamed ‘Eff you!’ one last time as loud as she could.
Once she left, all the parents thanked me for halting the verbal diarrhea that had assaulted everyone’s ears. As I began to start closing the store the larger fellow I spoke of earlier approached the counter and put an extra two dollars in the tip jar, then said proceeded to say that I had ‘done good’. It was single-handedly the proudest moment I’ve ever had while working at a minimum wage job.”
“Crazy Is Oozing Out Of Her Pores”
“I used to work at a casino. My favorite ‘face-palm’ interaction was with a black lady (this detail is important) who was playing a progressive jackpot slot machine. For those who don’t know, a ‘progressive’ jackpot slot means that for every credit/coin played, the jackpot goes up by some fractional amount. As this was a $1 machine, for every dollar played, the jackpot went up by one penny. When someone hit the jackpot, the top prize would reset to $1000. At the time of this story, the top prize was over $1300.
The lady at the center of the story was a known problem, but she was a very wealthy problem, so the casino execs fell over themselves to make her happy. This gave her an even bigger sense of entitlement, and she treated us employees like dirt.
One evening, she called me over, demanding to speak to our gaming officers on duty. These were the state regulators in charge of making sure the state gaming laws were adhered to. They don’t come out to talk to people. As is procedure, I ask what the problem is. She doesn’t want to talk to me, since I’m just an employee. I offer to call a shift lead, then a slot manager, then the property manager-on-duty. All get shot down, so I call a manager to handle her.
When the manager gets there, the lady finally realizes she’s not getting a gaming officer without reason, so she tells us.
‘This slot machine is racist. I have seen loads of white people win tonight, even on the machines next to mine. I have not seen a single black person win a jackpot tonight, and I want this machine shut down and investigated. If I take my players card out of the machine, I win. When I put it back in, I only lose. I want this racism investigated, and I want it done now!’
By this point, the crazy is oozing out of her pores, and my manager has the slot technicians come over. These guys don’t deal with customers, they deal with machines. The story gets relayed to the techs. They reach inside, flip the power switch off, look at the lady and tell her, ‘We’ll handle this, but since you made the accusation, we have to shut down the racism.’
She actually liked that answer.”
How Did He Always Keep His Cool?
“I was out shopping at True Value when this guy stormed in shouting about the fact that somebody hit his truck in the parking lot. He wanted the store to pay for it because it was their messed up parking spaces that resulted in the damage. The manager is called every name in the book, and the guy is angry that the manager insisted on seeing the damage first. He kept stopping the manager over and over, intentionally stepping in front of him to impede his forward progress. He even went so far as to grab the manager’s sleeve and turn him around.
This manager is my hero. Every time the guy cusses him out, the manager just dips his head and thanks him for pointing out areas he should work on, or compliments his creativity and language use. The guy is a total red neck, seemed slightly wasted, and was obviously very stupid. He kept getting upset that the manager insisted on seeing the damage before he will okay a pay out or not.
I follow them out, really curious about what is going on. Also, I wanted to help out if this sketchy dude tried to start something.
We get outside, the manager took one look at the man’s truck, and he tells him the store isn’t responsible and won’t be paying to have the damaged fixed. The guy parked in the middle of the lot where cars are supposed to drive…he basically choked the entrance from the street in parking where he had.
This customer starts threatening the manager, telling him he is going to kick his butt and really mess him up. The manager just chuckles and says that he probably needs one, and continues to thank him for his advice and suggestions, which only infuriates the man worse. This guy eventually leaves, angered to high heaven. I couldn’t have kept my cool the way that manager did. My new hero.”
The Biggest Conflict Over The Tiniest Drink
“I once had a customer buy a canned Mountain Dew drink, walk out the front door, and drop it. He then opened it right on his face, and once it had stopped spewing everywhere, he came back in and demanded another one. Apparently, the one I had sold him was defective and completely blew up on his face. When I called him on his irrational thinking, he flipped out, grabbed a new drink, and walked out the door. He totally ignored my threat of calling the cops on him stealing, so naturally I called them. About the time the cops arrived, he brought the drink back in unopened, and we all settled on him never coming back, or he’d be arrested on the spot. We don’t mess around over an 89¢ soft drink.”
That Sad, Soggy Wife
“This guy came up just yesterday in the movie theater I worked at and complained that he had ordered extra butter on his popcorn, but when he DUMPED IT OUT of the container, he got it all over his wife. He told me, ‘I asked for extra butter but there was too much butter.’
I failed to see the logic in the situation. He asked for extra butter, and he got exactly that. Then he knowingly dumped out the bucket onto the floor, and spilled out the extra butter. I had NO IDEA what he wanted from me because all he was doing was complaining about how the person working the concession stand had done EXACTLY what he wanted. Then he complained about his own stupidity.”
Wow…
Can you believe how outrageous some of these people are? It’s insane! But, if you want to read more weird stories like these, check out Storyblend.com!