18. “This guy orders a double cheeseburger with extra cheese. So I make him his burger with four slices instead of the usual two. I wrapped the thing up and forgot about it. Five minutes later, he was red-faced and having it out with one of the cashiers and my manager, demanding to see the ‘little prick’ that made his burger. So, I obliged him. He thrust the thing in my face and continued his rampage, asking if I thought this sort of thing was funny. Apparently, ‘extra cheese’ meant three slices, not four. Why he had to cause a scene about it is anyone’s guess…”
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19. “I had a customer call the store claiming that she had gone through the drive-thru earlier that day and asked for a large Coke with light ice. She told me there was definitely the normal amount of ice in this drink, and she demanded a refund, a new Coke, and a milkshake for her inconvenience. I was speechless.”
20. “I once had a family of four come in — a wife, husband, and two kids. The wife ordered a cheeseburger. Everything seemed to be going well. I asked if they liked their food and if there was anything I could get for them, and they said everything was fine. The wife finished her burger and got my manager. She told her that the burger was absolutely horrible and that she wanted a refund for the whole meal. My manager almost laughed at her and told her if she hadn’t finished the burger and had said something at the beginning, she would have gladly gotten her another burger, but there was no way she was getting a meal for four for free, nor was she getting hers for free because she, at first, told me she liked it.”
21. “I used to work at a hotel, and a guest said he had left his laptop charger in a room months ago during a previous stay and wanted to check the lost and found. I called down to housekeeping to check the lost and found and they said there were no chargers for his brand of computer. He then asked if he could go look to find a different one that would work on his laptop. I told him he could not because it was not his; he could not just take someone else’s charger because they may come back looking for it like he is now. He then went through a cycle of asking again. I would say no, he would just ask ‘why?’ like a child, and I would again explain that those chargers did not belong to him.”
“Then he started counting how many times I explained it, ‘That’s the third time you told me that…that’s the fourth time you told me that…’ in a very condescending tone as if I didn’t realize I was saying the same thing over and over. He thought he was making a point, but the only point he was making was that he was an asshole. After the fifth time, he asked for a manager who just gave him a random charger. I’ll never forget the guy’s face, and I hope to run into him in the future.”
22. “I was a hostess at a fairly popular restaurant close to a movie theater. This can attract some large families on busy nights, so we strongly suggest reservations in our advertising. It’s a Friday evening, and we’re already on a wait. This family of seven saunters in, and the father asks us for a table. I tell him that we do have about a 40-minute wait, but if they’d like to wait on the patio and order an appetizer, there is space for them. He frowns, whispers to his wife, then turns back to me. ‘Nah, we’re going somewhere else. Go fuck yourself.’ I almost didn’t believe I had heard it at first. Seriously? I was blown away that this father, husband, adult man felt like it was okay to say that to a 20-year-old hostess.”
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23. “While I worked in an all-you-can-eat restaurant, we frequently got customers who would eat, say, three or four plates of food, then go and fill up another five, leave them all full on the table, and claim the food was all disgusting and refuse to pay. One time in particular when a couple tried to do this, the managers got involved and were refusing to let the customers leave while they called the police. The woman in the couple tried to push past one of my managers, but he took hold of her arm to stop her from leaving. Cue shouts of assault and harassment, and male partner suddenly going ape shit shouting, ‘Don’t you fucking touch my woman,’ etc. Luckily, there was a full restaurant of people who were watching the show, so they couldn’t get away with it. Douchebags…”
24. “I work in retail. We sell soup that you serve for yourself at my job. I had a customer who wanted me to give him a discount because he filled the soup container half full, and he got mad at me because I wouldn’t give him a discount!!! He said I gave shitty customer service. Dude, you are the one who filled it halfway!!! The price is by container!!! Who wouldn’t fill it up?!!!”
“I’ve been in customer service for over nine years. The entitlement of customers and disrespect for service workers has never been worse. Just be glad I showed up for work. And people wonder why no one wants to do these types of jobs anymore for no pay and beyond rude customers.”
—Anonymous
25. “My first job was at a locally-owned video store. One busy day, with a line of people all the way to the door, a customer got to the counter and said the DVDs he bought were unplayable. He wanted to return them and get a refund. I apologized and said no problem, then asked to have a look, knowing full well that we don’t sell DVDs with scratches on them. The movies were basically destroyed. It was like he went to town on them with a box cutter and then got his cats to play with them. I told him I was sorry, but we couldn’t resell these in their state. Buddy LOST it and started raising his voice, asking what I knew, saying I wasn’t the one who sold them to him (I was, he just didn’t remember), and pointing his finger in my face. Keep in mind, I was a small 15-year-old girl, and he was a 50-something-year-old man. I kept stuttering out apologies for five minutes until he finally left.”
“The next customer came to the counter, after seeing the whole scene, and casually asked, ‘Miss, could you tell me where I might find the movie The”Jerk?’ Even if it was a coincidence, bless you, friendly customer. You restored my faith in people for a brief moment.”
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26. “I was the only vet in the clinic at the time (middle of the night), and I was dealing with a crashing patient. The receptionist went to tell the person waiting to be seen that I was dealing with another pet, who was basically dying, and the person respond with, ‘Well, that animal is basically dead, so why can’t he just come and see me?'”
—Anonymous
27. “I work in a grocery store bakery as a cake decorator and people really freak out over their cakes. I took this one ladys cake order and she wanted a transformers cake for her sons birthday but she didn’t like the two options we had. She could either get the cake decorated with the toy on top or the cake with an edible photo of the transformers on the cake. She kept showing me photos of other cakes on her phone and I had to keep telling her no because we are working under strict copyright laws and can only decorate what we have been given permission to decorate.”
“So she ordered the toy, or so I thought. The husband picked up the cake, said it looked fine, and took it. She called the store saying she wanted the image, the cake was ugly, and her six-year-old son was crying. She then rounded off the whole experience with, ‘I just want to come in there and smash the cake in that girl’s face!’ I had never in my 10 years of retail been threatened before, and for that threat, she did not get any sort of refund and got chewed out for making threats.”
28. “After we had closed, there was a family still shopping. I mentioned to them we were closed, and the older lady blew up and spent the entire time checking out, yelling at me how ‘We were coming to the register! You’re being rude and ignorant!’ Note that this was a dollar store, and we counted things by hand rather than scanning them. I had to count over 100 items while being yelled at. The cherry on top? Our machine didn’t accept the family’s card, so we had to put everything back.”
29. “A customer came out of his theatre ranting and raving about how ‘The images in the movie keep flying out at him.’ He had 3D glasses in his hand, so I told him, ‘Yes sir, the movie is in 3D. That’s what happens.’ He flipped out and demanded a refund.”
“I also had a woman complain that the movie didn’t make any sense, so she wanted a refund. I was confused, as it was less than five minutes after showtime (there are usually 10-15 minutes of previews), so I told her the movie hadn’t started yet…and that she was watching the previews. She said, ‘Ohh,’ and walked back to her theatre.”
30. “I work at a car wash. A guest came through and said since she had a car accident on the street in front of our building — which we had nothing to do with and were honestly unaware even happened — she deserved a free car wash. I had her repeat herself twice because I didn’t want to imagine her making such a dumb request. When I told her no, she threatened to call the police and threatened to bring her son next time so we could have a ‘physical meeting.'”
—Anonymous
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31. “Working in a furniture store, I got a call from a customer, who said, ‘I want to return my computer armoire’ (remember those massive things?). I asked why — ‘I bought a new computer and it doesn’t fit.’ He had bought it two years ago, and he had moved halfway cross country. And, yes, he expected us to arrange pickup and a full refund.”
” I just turned him over to a regional manager.”
32. “I worked in Hecht before it became Macy’s at the mall. On Black Friday, this lady came in with her own shopping cart filled to the brim with kids’ clothes. She then grabbed a handful of clothes, pointed to the size, and started yelling $7. These prices were not $7; I couldn’t understand where she got that number from. After a minute or two of her yelling at me, I realized she was trying to haggle with me. She thought the sizes on the garments were the prices and that she could do better.”
“This wasn’t even my department — I was in luggage on the opposite side of the store, and I had a full line of people in front of me. I pointed to the tag and said that seven was the size, not the price, but that didn’t stop her. She kept yelling at me for changing the prices and yelling out $6, going down like I was an auctioneer. Luckily, because it was black Friday, my manager was around, so they moved her over to a different register so I could deal with the line. But she wasn’t happy with them either and got even louder. My manager refused to haggle. I don’t know what happened, but at some point, she fainted/collapsed/sat on the ground. She must have bought some stuff because I remember a giant pile of clothes that needed to be put away the next day.”
33. “I worked at a self-serve frozen yogurt place about a year ago. It still shocks me how many people would walk up to me and place an order after we politely explained that they serve themselves and we simply ring them up. I mean, it said SELF-SERVE right on the goddamn door, but what do I know? Anyway, we had one man go completely apeshit, saying he didn’t understand why he couldn’t ‘just wait for one of you people to bring me my ice cream. Are you not competent enough to take orders?’ One of my managers overheard this from the back room and immediately came out and explained to him that it was self-serve, and after a long back and forth, she threw him out.”
34. “I waitressed in high school. This happened when I was ~16 or 17. A guy came in to eat with his family (a little girl and his pregnant wife). They were really friendly; at first, I thought it was a great table. The wife went to the bathroom, and the guy asked for the check. On the check, he wrote his phone number in the tip area along with ‘call me, baby.’ I ran his card, waited until his wife came back, and brought over the guy’s card and his receipt. I handed the receipt to the woman and told her something was wrong with the tip. She got SUPER upset, and I got in a lot of trouble with my managers for stirring shit.”
“In retrospect, I probably didn’t handle that the best way, but at the same time, I was fucking furious that some guy would come to eat with HIS PREGNANT WIFE (they were both wearing wedding bands, acting couple-y, 99% positive they were married, pretty much 100% confirmed when I gave the wife the receipt with the guy’s ‘tip’ on it) and try to hit on a girl half his age. Wtf. If he’s pulling that shit so brazenly, god knows what else he’s doing behind his wife’s back.”
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35. “I work at a local tourist spot as a food services supervisor, and we have a few different food outlets in the park. Near the very end of the day, a lady came up to our fish and chips window and ordered a four-piece chicken strip combo. She said that she wanted it split four ways for her four children. My co-worker said sure but informed her that since the combo just came with a small fries, each of those four portions would include just one chicken strip and a few fries. He repeated it several times, but she impatiently told him that was okay. You can probably see where this is going. When she came to pick up her order, she was irate. From the sounds of things, she wanted each portion to have at least two strips and a small fries — even though she was only willing to pay the price of a single combo. She screamed at my co-worker and told him he was incompetent.”
“The fish and chips place is in a remote location from the main kitchen, so there was no manager there — just supervisors. She wasn’t willing to pay more, though, and my co-worker wasn’t about to make her more chicken strips and fries for free, so finally, he told her the outlet was closed and that if she had any more issues, she should take it up with the manager. She left, and he closed the shutter, but then she came around to the side door of the building and screamed at him some more. Even when they closed the door, she waited for them and followed them across the park when they walked back to the main kitchen…where they met up with the manager, and she was asked to leave the park.
We don’t allow meal-splitting anymore — if customers want something split, we’ll give them plates and knives, and they can do their own portions.”
36. “I worked in a high-end resort. Think Gwyneth Paltrow, Bill Gates stay here, type of high-end. In hotels, a lot of guests ask to check in early. You can’t guarantee it, obviously, because you have a checkout time (usually around 11 or 12), and then you have guests who have late checkout requests or simply refuse to leave their room until whenever the hell they feel like it. This guest came in and said that he talked to someone who guaranteed him a 9 a.m. check-in. We told him, ‘I’m sorry, but we don’t have your room ready yet. We’ll be happy to hold on to your luggage.’ So he went to the pool and then came back; the room still wasn’t ready. He went to the bar area and then came back; the room was still not ready. And so on.”
“Finally, it’s around 12 p.m. at this point, and there’s a lobby full of people. His room was still not ready, but we were doing the best we could. He was very upset at this point. I watched him tense up for a moment, and then suddenly, he let out a GIANT fart.
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So here’s a grown man…standing in the middle of a hotel lobby that just went through a multi-million dollar renovation, which many CEOs, corporate bigwigs, actors, and politicians have graced with their presence…who has quite literally resorted to farting until he gets what he wants.
A manager had to come out and escort him outside. I’m not sure what happened after that.”
37. Finally, let’s end with a story where the horrible customer got what was coming to them: “I worked at a soup and sandwich cafe. We offered quick breakfast options — bagels and cream cheese, breakfast sandwiches and burritos, and a quick two-egg breakfast with toast, hashbrowns or grits, etc. We offered a $1 small cup of coffee because Starbucks was two blocks down, and my manager was like that. We broke even on the coffee, not really hoping to profit, just trying to get people in the door and serve quick, good food. A super-yoga soccer mom started coming in every morning to buy a coffee. She would bring in her own bagel and cream cheese. She would purchase the coffee and then ask us to toast her bagel and put her cream cheese on it for her — and expect us to run the food out to her like we did for every other paying customer.”
“It was not a big deal the first few times because the owner (a working manager) was trying to keep his customers happy all the time. However, this budding new cafe was starting to increase in business exponentially. This Bagel Lady started coming in every single day. The boss grew a little tired of her request because, after all, he didn’t see the benefit of selling her a $1 cup of coffee and having us prepare her food for her. She didn’t tip either. However, he allowed it because my boss always lived by the ‘the customer is always right’ rule.
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She came in on a Saturday morning once. Thinking she got special treatment because she was a regular customer, she skipped the line and put her bagel on the counter near the register. She then waited in line, purchased her $1 coffee, and noticed her bagel was right where she left it, untouched.
‘Excuse me, I expected this to be toasted and ready when I purchased my coffee. I come in all the time; you should know me by now. I am one of your most frequent customers.’
‘Yes, Ma’am. I apologize; I did not see it. Here is your coffee, and I will bring it to you in a moment.’
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‘I just don’t understand you people sometimes- so incompetent and rude to your customers. This is the kind of behavior that leads to disease and sickness in restaurants.’
I didn’t realize my boss was standing over my shoulder during this encounter. He sort of pushes me out of the way, grabs her bagel, takes a bite, goes to hand it to her, then drops it and asks her to leave with a mouthful of bagel. He goes to his office and closes his door, still chewing the bagel. He comes out and says, ‘Coffee is now $2.’ Problem solved.”
