Working in public service is no joke. Customers will make it a point to come in, wreak havoc and then asked to speak to your manager. Where is the logic?
To all you service workers out there...thank you.
(Content has been edited for clarity)
The Customer Lied About Everything They’d Agreed On Earlier
“So, at work today, a customer called me up and asked if we have a certain product in stock. I told him we did and what the price was for the item. He then went on to ask if we price match items, so I told him, ‘Yes, but we would need to verify with the store, either by phone or online stock check.’ He then asked what time I was at work until, because he ‘liked dealing with the same person,’ so I told him what time I got off.
Fast forward two hours after I’d finished work. My manager started texting me, asking me to call her about a price match issue. I called her and she told me the customer had come back and was claiming we didn’t need to check anything, that I’d given him many options. He also told her I’d agreed to a lower price than we had mentioned, and that I’d already checked it.
This was jerk tried to pull one over me, but I could have gotten into some serious trouble, and all over $10.
As it turns out, my manager matched the price the customer claimed, completely ignoring what I said to her…le sigh.”
“He Tried To Get Me Fired!”
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“I worked at a university information technology helpdesk. Someone was annoyed that I wouldn’t break policy and let them back on the network after they were kicked off for a month due to repeated, blatant piracy, resulting in DMCA Take Down Service complaints sent to us.
They then asked to go talk to my boss about it and I told them where their office was and continued working.
Five minutes later, he came walking out with an odd grin, with my boss following behind and looking like she was trying really hard to be serious and not being successful at it. My boss came over to me, and said, ‘He says you ignored him to play a computer game and were rude and insulted him.’
The customer had a look on his face like, ‘Ha, you’re going to get fired now!’
My boss then went, ‘Of course, I know you’re one of our best employees, so I figure that he’s either making it up, or he deserves the treatment, which one is it?’ Never seen someone’s face go so quickly from happy to ‘Oh, crap!’
I explained what he was actually mad at me for, and then she told me she’s going to lock his account for the month. It would be out of our control to make sure he couldn’t try to bully any other helpdesk employees into letting him back on.”
He Nearly Ran The Poor Guy Over!
“I’m an automotive service advisor. I had a customer refuse to pay for his car after repairs were completed. He told me he was going to step outside to make a call and once he did, he got in his car with a spare key and started it. I stood in front of the car to tell him he couldn’t leave without paying. He then proceeded to try and run me over when I sidestepped the car, I broke his windshield with the back of my fist. I called the cops and had him arrested, after which they brought him back and I said I wouldn’t press charges if he paid his bill and never brought his car back. He paid and left, I felt like a boss. Five months later I got served with a subpoena as he wanted to sue me for $4,500 and he wanted to sue the shop for $7,000. He lost the case with prejudice, but I learned it’s actually ILLEGAL for me to try and stop someone from leaving with their car and not paying. Oh, and I was invited to take the case on Judge Mathis, but I didn’t want to take time off.
The funniest thing was, when the guy lost both cases, we went wild and were nearly held in contempt of court. The bailiff asked the owner and me to wait until he gave us the go ahead that he had left the building to avoid confrontation. When we left the courthouse, we saw a box of pencils and a stack of papers thrown about, saw police talking to him in the parking lot, and the officers suggested we try and submit for a restraining order. The owner was told that we didn’t have any direct threats, so we couldn’t get one, instead, he gave me a taser I keep in a drawer at my desk and we had a camera system installed.”
“There Were Insect Eggs Inside Of That Bone!”
“I used to be an assistant manager at a pet store. One day, when I was responsible for the store for an afternoon, this guy came in, already mad. He came in and started to yell at the cashier, who was a very kind high school girl that deserved none of his anger. And when I was a manager, you didn’t yell at my co-workers for any reason. So we already started out on a bad foot. I pulled him away from the cashier and asked him what his problem was.
It turns out he bought a Pedigree individually packaged dog bone which was about $2. He took it home, left it with the dog on the outside porch overnight, then brought it inside his house. That next day he was shocked to find bugs all over the bone and now inside his house. He came to the pet store because, clearly, there were insect eggs inside the bone that hatched when the package was opened, burrowed out of the bone, and infested his home like some kind of tiny trojan horse warfare army.
I couldn’t help but smile slightly, which only ticked him off more. I said I’d take the bones in the back and stop selling them (he insisted), but I kept trying to tell him that bugs will get on dog food, so he should seal it up when it’s not in use and definitely not leave it outside. Nope, this didn’t make sense to him, the bugs had to have been sealed inside the bone.
He wanted a refund for $2. Normally I would have done it just to keep a customer happy, but he nearly brought my cashier to tears, so I wasn’t giving him anything. He left completely ticked off, and a few minutes later came back in just to yell some more. I had moved the bones back to the store because there was nothing at all wrong with them, but this pissed him off all over again. I told him he wasn’t going to get anything and that he needed to leave before I called the cops. He left the store and yelled some more in the parking lot.
He later called and tried to complain to the store manager, but I had already explained what had happened to her and she just kind of shrugged him off. All this anger over just $2.”
He Stole A Bottle From The Bar, But That Wasn’t The Worst Part
“‘Steve’ was a trusted regular at my bar. This guy had been coming in for twenty years and was in his mid-forties. He started hanging out late until after I did the cash drop and leaving with me. This meant I’d leave the bar unattended for a minute while I ran to the office. This crafty little jerk used this opportunity to lean over the bar and steal a bottle of Grey Goose, twice. He knew the place so well he did it only when I was off the next day and our one kind of goofy day person would open, correctly guessing she wouldn’t realize it had been stolen and just restock it and he knew where to stand to be in the blind spot on our security.
My night porter gave me the heads up the third week he was hanging out late, just as I was thinking to myself, ‘Why does he stay so late every Wednesday? He usually leaves two hours earlier.’ I was SO MAD. So I told him he’d have to leave before I dropped the cash, basically ‘I know what you’ve been doing. I can’t prove it, but I’ll never leave you alone again in here.’
He went straight into the freshly cleaned bathroom and spat gobs of phlegmy mucous grossness all over the place. He then came out and told my porter in his native language, ‘Clean it up, that’s your job.’
I tried to be nice, ‘Hey, Steve, we’ve all done stupid things when we’ve been drinking. Clean it up yourself, you can come back tomorrow like nothing happened. If you don’t, you will never drink in here again.’ Of course, he didn’t clean it up despite me and his friends practically begging him to.
He said, ‘Whatever, I’ve been coming here longer than you’ve been alive. I’ll be here tomorrow, you’ll be looking for a new job if you try to bar me.’
‘I’d rather leave than serve you a drink ever again, but we’ll see.’
My boss made the right decision. And a week after I left that bar (three years later), Steve wiped out on his motorcycle and died, so to my knowledge he never did drink in that bar again.”
She Wasn’t Too Upset About That Seven Day Return Policy
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“I worked at GameStop years ago and a little old lady brought in her grandkids and told them to pick out whatever they wanted from the used PlayStation 2 wall (which at the time was still a third of the store). She asked us for a used PS2, with extra used controllers. These kids must’ve picked out 20 games. She bought and paid for all of them. As she was leaving, we reminded her (as we had to, it was policy) that everything used could be returned within seven days for any reason.
‘Oh, I know. My grandkids are only staying with me for five days. I’m bringing all this crap back on day six! It’s cheaper than renting!’
And there was absolutely nothing we could do.”
“You Shortchanged Me”
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“I worked in a retail store. Anytime someone tried to pull the ‘You shortchanged me’ card, I’d stop dead center and get a manager (after a while, I was the manager) to bring up a fresh cash drawer, reset the till count, and take the old till to the back and count. If the customer honestly thought they were right they could wait the 10 minutes it would take to get their money back, or even come back later to claim it. But I would cease all operations right then and there for that crap.
Also, here in the U.S., it is illegal for an employer to dock your pay based on drawer shortages, the most they can do is fire you and then go for some sort of legal action if they think they have enough proof you did some sort of blatant negligence or a criminal action. Where I worked, if it happened often enough (out of sheer employee stupidity or whatever) we would write them up, and then after enough write-ups fire them since they were clearly are a liability.”
People Will Tell All Sorts Of Lies To Get Their Way
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“I work in customer service for a major cell phone company. People call in and say, ‘I never received the phone I purchased’ all the time. It’s actually very amusing because then I can do this.
‘Oh, gosh Mr. Derp, I’m so sorry that you didn’t receive your phone. The tracking number indicates that it was delivered to the address you requested about three days ago. Have you possibly checked with a neighbor who may have retrieved it for you?’
Mr. Derp: ‘Nope, no one has the phone. It must have been stolen. I’m going to need a new one’.
Cue troll face from me: ‘Hmmm okay then, Mr. Derp. The reason I’m asking is that I’m pretty concerned. The serial number of the phone we sent you is actually showing as being in use for three days on the same line you’re calling me from right now.’
Mr. Derp: Click. Tone dial_.” _
She Got Tricked By An Old Receipt
“I work for a grooming salon and we are supposed to verify that the customer has paid for the services before we give them the dog. Harsh, I know, but some of these grooms run upwards of $100 and the store doesn’t want to lose that, plus I don’t want to lose my commission!
Anyway, a lady came back from supposedly paying and showed me a receipt. It was a little crinkled but nothing that I believed to be out of the ordinary, so I gave her the dog. It turns out she had shown me the receipt from the previous time the dog had gotten groomed and I didn’t check the dates or anything.
I felt like a total waste of space while explaining it to my manager the next day.”
“Sir, You Just Told Me That All Your Services Are Working Fine”
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“I work as a technical support representative for a cable company. I basically take calls and troubleshoot internet failures and cable issues. It’s a very easy job, we were provided with job training and decent pay with bonus opportunities. Anyway, this job is only meant to get me through school, so it’s great for the time being. Anyhow, a man calls in and just wanted to complain that his internet service was out the day before. I told him that was something that customer service could handle and asked him if his service was working at the time. He then said, ‘Yes’ but that he still wanted to lodge a complaint, so I said it was understandable but that I’d have to call him in the morning as I couldn’t help him unless there was currently an issue with his service.
So he said, ‘Oh, well ALL of my stuff is off then. How does that sound?’
Then he laughed at me like I was an imbecile. So I said, ‘Sir, you just said all of your services were working fine. Are you just saying that to keep me on the line?’ Then he cursed at me and I sent him to a supervisor. I found out later that he told the supervisor that I threatened him and refused to troubleshoot his issues. And that I refused to get him to a supervisor. So I simply asked my manager to replay the call. They did and laughed hard at how idiotic this guy was.
And for your information, If you are a jerk everyone will find out you are a jerk.”
It Wasn’t Even His Credit Card
“I had a customer come into the store to buy two 42 inch LG T.V’s. He paid half cash, half credit with a card that didn’t have a signature on it and was badly damaged on the front. We asked him the name on it and he said that it was his. We asked to see his I.D (as is a policy for credit card customers) and he showed us an I.D with a different name on it than what he’d said. When I told him that we couldn’t ring up the transaction, he immediately got ticked off and told me that I had ‘lost a customer’ and that I ‘should be ashamed of myself’ for following the policy. I shrugged and told him he didn’t have to buy the TVs from us. Then he got even angrier but paid with cash.
Fast forward a week later, he came back in and tried to steal two pre-owned games by taking them into the bathroom and breaking the clamshells on them. When he came out, we nailed him for it. It turns out he had warrants out for his arrest and he had stolen four credit cards and used them within the last month. Boom, headshot.”
No Way That’s The Right Price For Those Jeans
“I was working at Old Navy and we had just gotten in the ‘Rockstar Skinnies’ and they came in an array of ghastly colors. One day, a woman came up to my register holding a bright blue pair. It was very obvious these were the pants that were in the front of the store, on display everywhere. I rang her up and told her ‘That’ll be $34.94.’
She promptly said, ‘No, they’re on sale.’ I looked at the back of the tag I’d scanned and saw there was a sloppily slapped on clearance sticker reading $2.95. I explained that it must have been a mistake and that they were brand new pants. If that were the right price, I explained, then that’s what it would have rung up for in my system (if that were the case). She demanded a manager. My supervisor called nonsense on this whole thing, which made the woman storm away grumbling about how Old Navy was lame.
We potentially would have honored a sale sticker if it made it on there somehow (even though it was obviously her) if she would have at LEAST put a realistic price on there. You really think you’re going to get away with paying $3 for a pair of jeans?”
The Watches Would Look Like They Hadn’t Been Serviced In Years
“My dad is a watchmaker. He’s been doing it since he was like 8 years old and he learned from my grandfather. Suffice it to say, he’s about the best watchmaker in all of California at this point.
Historically, when you fix a watch, you make a little personal mark with the date on the inside of the back of the case so that if the watch broke down you could give the customer a warranty.
One of my dad’s customers who was a jeweler kept bringing watches back. My dad would look at the movement (motor) and it would look like it hadn’t been serviced in years. You can tell because the oil would be dried up and there were dust and stuff inside. But when he looked inside of the back of the case, his signature, and the date from only a few weeks prior were written there.
This kept happening so my dad started to write the watches’ serial numbers down and it turned out that for every service this guy paid for, he would just switch the watch back and bring in another watch. What’s worse is that this guy was a multi-millionaire and my dad was just a laborer. He was stealing my dad’s life. Screw that guy.
I work with him now and we have a computer database for that stuff. People still try that stuff but we quickly call them on it and they usually shut right up.”
That’s What Waivers Are For
“I used to work at a place called ‘Jumpstreet,’ an indoor trampoline amusement park in my city, where I held the title of a ‘bouncer.’ I was practically a lifeguard on trampolines, along with fifteen other first job teenagers who monitored the safety of our guests.
It is easily the most dangerous idea for a public general entertainment business for bored teenagers; we would get multiple injuries a day. Some people sprained wrists and others broke bones, but it was uncommon to go hours without having injured guests (maximum occupancy was near 540 people, all bouncing on twelve lines of trampoline simultaneously between the ages of 3 and 55).
One time, a guy was doing backflips across a mat and a young girl ran by and, well, messed him up and he fell on his neck and was unconscious with a nosebleed. I had to have 350 people all sit down perfectly still and wait until an ambulance arrived. I had a firefighter sitting next to me, who begged to help and I said I didn’t want him to be liable for anything in case something bad happened, and the ambulance had already been called. I won’t lie, I was ready to crap myself because I had no clue what to do. We were never trained for situations like this. So I followed the firefighter’s orders, which involved making physical contact with the guest, which could have been a big mistake.
The paramedics arrived and took him away, the accident report was filed, and the firefighter and the paramedic I was reporting to both told me that I handled the situation well, and could have been a great help for what I did (which was, well, very little). So I went on my break and a lady asked my name, and I told her. It turns out she had planned to sue me for my life’s savings, (which was my next $7.25 paycheck) and asked my manager to fire me. She was also terrified, and she did fire me, but luckily for me, the kid signed away almost all of his rights when he first entered the building in the form of a consent waiver. I met him later that year on Facebook and he was a pretty nice guy. Although, it still upsets me off that I tried to do the right thing and lost my job for it. “