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It’s not easy working in the service sector. Dealing with entitled customer demands can break even the strongest of spirits. In fact, 75% of frontline employees reported feeling stressed and overworked in 2024. After you’ve seen some of the entries on this list, you might get the idea why.

Today, we’re shining the light on some of the most insufferable and annoying behaviors from customers that workers had to deal with. From wreaking havoc in supermarket isles to expecting to get stuff for free, some people just deserve shaming. So, join us in calling out inappropriate customer etiquette and have a chuckle in the process!

#1 This Extremely Sticky Dollar Bill A Customer Gave Me That Left Residue On My Hands That Won’t Wash Off

Image credits: meat_uprising

#2 Someone Doesn’t Understand What “Client” Means

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#3 Retail Reality

Image credits: reddit.com

#4 This Grouch Thought It Was Ok To Pop A Squat On The Buns! She Then Proceeded To Yell At Me For Stealing Her Spot In Line At The Deli Courter

Image credits: criscotwisterqueen

#5 This Lady Resting On The Apples At Walmart

Image credits: visuallymessy

#6 When You Need Help Finding Something But Can’t Find An Employee

Image credits: Lalalalanay

#7 Why Would You Post That?

Image credits: onilamo

#8 Just A Mother Teaching Her Son How To Spray Paint On The Store’s Floor

Image credits: _Jester_123_

#9 Member Wanted One From The Middle And Decided They Didn’t Need Help

Cause the middle ones are freshest ya know.

Image credits: VixxenFoxx

#10 I Work Closing At Target, Every Single Night I Have To Push 3-5 Carts Full Of Shopping Trips Abandoned By Customers

Image credits: SandwichesANDMilk_

#11 Customers Wanted To Inspect Cupcakes By Flipping Them Upside-Down

Happens to cakes as well. At least a few times a week someone will flip the package over (to inspect the bottom of the cake I guess?) and they typically put it right back on the table after ruining the icing and decorations. Not the end of the world, but mildly infuriating for me.

Image credits: Notsonorm_

#12 I Work In A Small Natural Foods Grocery Store. We Have A Regular Customer Who Steals Dates Then Leaves The Pit In Random Places Throughout The Store

We’ve found pits on shelves, in cold cases, sitting next to fresh baked goods. It’s so gross. It’s been going on for years and no one seems to know who it is.

Image credits: life-is-thunder

#13 Client Tries Getting Out Of Paying By Offering Free Cupcakes To Their Diabetic Marketer

Image credits: Desuka15

#14 Found A Total Of 6 “Gift Baskets” Today On The Shelves. Please Stop Doing This

The only reason I know why this even happened is because my coworker said there’s a trend on Tiktok to make gift baskets in retail stores and leave them on the shelves for people to buy and get for their partners, friends, etc.

Idiotic, nobody is going to actually pick these up and buy them. You just made me and my coworkers day so much worse in the middle of our busiest day of the week. These take so long to put away and its utterly pointless.

Image credits: allrightsimp

#15 The Parents Walked Away

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#16 I Have No Words

This was an hour before closing by the way.

Image credits: Waterslay3r

#17 Even With Good Service They Still Complain

Image credits: CityCautious4033

#18 You Just Can’t Make This Up

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#19 To The Customer That Did This, I Hate You

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#20 The Things You See At Walmart

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#21 Leave Your Kids At Home

Parents are financially responsible for every hole your kids poke in our ground beef.

Image credits: SouthernDietsausage

#22 I Don’t Understand Members Sometimes

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#23 Come On, Really?

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#24 Banana Peel Left In A Basket In Walmart

Image credits: berkel-is-a-madlad

#25 What A Waste

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#26 How A Customer Left My Local Target

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#27 The Way Customers Leave The Fitting Rooms At My Job

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#28 They Really Tried It

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#29 Karen Leaves 1 Star Review After Trying To Use Voucher For A Different Restaurant

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#30 Going To NYC For The First Time So I’m Looking At Restaurants On Yelp, Only To Come Across This Gem

Image credits: LordOscarthePurr

#31 This Grown Man Left A Review On The Facebook Page Of The Mcdonalds I Work At And Put A Picture Of Me In It

I have special needs due to having asperger’s syndrome and anxiety. This person doesn’t know anything about me and had no right to post this.

Image credits: GhostlyGamer124

#32 This Lady Using Bread As Kneepads So That She Can Look At Other Bread

Image credits: Draygoes

#33 Male Karen Believes It’s His Right To Drive Off With The Walmart Electric Cart, Berates Employee For Trying To Stop Him

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#34 People Who Constantly Block The Isles Of Stores To Stand Around And Chat

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#35 A Customer At Work Asked Me If This Register Was Open

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#36 When Clients Try To Dictate Your Prices

Grinds my gears when clients do this. We priced his property at $240+tax per month – and this is our pricing for him since 2021.

Last winter, he decided that he wasn’t gonna hire us. This year, he called to book the service for the season. I told him on the phone that it will still be the same price as before to which he just said “okay”. This is our conversation the following morning after our phone conversation.

Image credits: hotshots724

#37 My Dad’s A Photographer, This Is His Most Recent Client

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#38 When Clients Think This Is How Commissions Work

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#39 And People Ask Why I Hate People

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#40 Maybe Don’t Come In 5 Minutes Before Closing To Buy Cat Food

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#41 Is It Really That Hard To Stack Baskets Properly

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#42 I Got This Google Review Left About Me

This is a small local shop, often with only one employee closing so we’re instructed to close up shop if no one is in the store at about 9:55pm, so that we’re out the door at 10pm.

This dude called at 9:30pm asked if we’re open until 10pm and then says his GPS was giving an ETA of 10pm on the dot, I said well we normally lock up around 9:55 to start closing down if no one’s in the store but as long as they’re in the door before 10pm and they knew what they wanted to buy I’d check them out. He said well can’t you just wait to close until I get there? And I said I’m sorry sir but we do close at 10pm, and he hung up on me.

Thankfully the owner is a nice dude and I didn’t get in trouble for this but are you serious dude, you could cost someone your job for that.

Image credits: gnorcgnexus

#43 There’s A Special Place In Retail Hell For People Who Sit On The Clothing Tables

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#44 A Lady Tried To Play Me With A $300 Worth Of Counterfeit Bills

So a lady tried to load her Cashapp for $300 and when she gave me the money, I immediately knew that the bill felt off so I grabbed my pen and boom, it turned black. I delayed her by telling her my computer was moving slow and I called the manager up front and she tells her “Ma’am this money fake.” She tells my manager and I that her baby daddy gave her the money and she quickly left the store.

Image credits: Dry_Lavishness_353

#45 I’ve Started Taking Pictures At Work Of Messes Customers Leave Behind

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#46 I’ll Just Leave This Here

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#47 You Can’t Make This Up

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#48 Total Badass Leaves $300 Worth Of Groceries At The Checkout

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#49 Karens Will No Long Buy Coffee

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#50 The Cashier Touched My Bottle

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#51 When Someone Says They Were Only 2 Minutes Late, They Meant At Least 20

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#52 A Very Annoying Customer Left An Annoying Review At My Store And This Was The Response From My Owner

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#53 The Customer Is Always Right

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#54 To Be Fair, Every Customer At This Theatre Is Either 6 Years Old, Brain Damaged, Or Both

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#55 This Lady Got Mad Walmart Didn’t Have Any Great Value Vanilla Cookies So She Made This Mess At The Kokomo Walmart

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#56 Karen Is Angry That The Store Didn’t Serve Her. When They Were Closed

Image credits: Other-Cantaloupe4765

#57 Customer Playing With Her Large Dog In Front Of The Hot Deli Counter At The Grocery Store

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#58 The Way Customers Have Taken Bricks From This Pallet

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#59 I Sincerely Hate Our Customers

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#60 It’s Always Like This Around Christmas Time

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#61 I’m Building Custom PCs For People On Facebook Marketplace And I Get This Tool

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#62 Got This Bad Review Because I Went On Break. How Are People So Stupid?

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#63 Creepy Guy Thrown Out

Context: was closing at my job with a 18 year old still in high school coworker. We have a regular guy who comes in all the time, and he’s clearly a little not right in the head. It’s about 9 at night so it’s dark too.

I’m checking the guy out, and he sees my coworker mopping nearby. He shouts out “oh there’s my tiny girl! Where are you going prey? I’m gonna stalk you, I like scaring people!” For a couple minutes and is actively looking for her, and I can see by the way she’s shuffling away that she’s uncomfortable.

I page for my manager to come up and wait for the gentleman to leave the store, and then tell her that I was uncomfortable about that guy and didn’t like the way he was talking to a teenager. My manager has always told me she had my back, and she literally chased the guy out and told him not to return or we’ll call the cops.

All is well ends well, right? Nope. Corporate called the owner mad over the review he left – where he literally admits he was saying weird stuff. I don’t know the history with this customer, but a couple other coworkers have come up about being uncomfortable around him.

Image credits: JustARandomer-

#64 I’d Love To Ask The Lazies Who Do This If This Is The Same Way They Store Milk At Home

Image credits: KatakanaTsu

#65 Parents Who Just Let Their Kids Run To The Toy Dept And Tear It To Shreds While They Shop Are So Annoying

Image credits: Local-Butterfly-8120

#66 What Do You Mean I Don’t Get The Sale Price After The Sale Has Ended

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#67 Karen Accusing A Local Business Of Scamming Customers By Taking Out Good Cards

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#68 Two Kinds Of Regular Customers

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#69 A Customer Did This And Left It

For some unknown reason she was backing out of the aisle and crashed into the Colgate display, looked at it on the ground and left it, I cleaned up her mess and then told someone about it.

Image credits: Plant-Based-5G

#70 Swapping Your Nasty Shoes With New Ones At The Store

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#71 Someone Let Their Kid Bedazzle A Floor Tile In This Mall, Then Just Left It And The Packaging

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#72 My Neighbour Stealing Shopping Carts To Take Groceries Home

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#73 Someone’s Been Shopping

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#74 Amazing Park Job From A Customer With 3 Kids At My Job

Right by the front, too.

Image credits: SwagDaddy125

#75 Customer Just Left This Review Of The Place Where My Girlfriend Works. The “Main Dude” Says He’s Never Seen Him Before

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#76 First Time For Me! I Edit And Customize Videos For Clients. Keep In Perspective A 30 Second Clip Can Take 4-6 Hours

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#77 My Friend Is A Student Artist, Saving Up For A PC. This Was An Interaction She Had With A “Client”

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#78 I Worked About 6 Hours On A Very Detailed Custom Logo That The Client Really Liked. I Put A $100 Price Tag On The Final Piece. Here’s What I Got Back

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#79 Someone Wants Airbnb Host To Cancel Existing Reservations Because Their Plans Changed

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#80 People Just Turning The Store Into A Trashcan – From When I Worked In Retail

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#81 This Is Ridiculous

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#82 Despite Eggs Being As Expensive As They Currently Are, Lazies Are Still Gonna Lazy

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#83 The Sweet Taste Of Getting Minimum Wage Workers In Trouble

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#84 “The Nerve Of This Restaurant!” – Karen

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#85 Why? Seriously Why Are Some People So Lazy And Unethical?

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#86 Open The Schools

Today, our busiest day of the week, we were understaffed in the rotisserie so naturally we were a little behind. Instead of answering 100 different peoples questions of when the chickens would be done I wrote this sign, propped it up out front and went into the back to skew.

At about 2pm, after that batch had been out and was long gone, a manager came back and asked me why I was “selling chickens for a buck” (I doubt he got the pun) but I guess people were telling the cashiers that I had a hand written sign advertising chickens as 1 dollar? Are people illiterate?

Image credits: TurquoiseTrailmix

#87 A Customer Called The Cops The Other Day Cause The Receipt Printer Wasn’t Working

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#88 Three Flat Carts Full Of Furniture, Returned By A Customer Who Joked With Me “We Didn’t Need Any Of It After The Holidays” As We Waited In The Returns Line. I Didn’t Laugh

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#89 Customer Didn’t Want To Purchase Three Separate 6 Packs So He Just Cut Two Plants Off Each

We sell a pack of 6 plants for $2.99. A customer decided he only wanted 2 broccoli, 2 cauliflower, and 2 brussel sprouts, so he cut them off their packs and tried to hand me $3.

Image credits: succulentwench1988

#90 This Customer Struggling With The Concept That Employees Have Lives

This is an account note of a conversation I just had with a customer. The regular manager is off today on PTO but I guess he forgot to get his time-off approved by this customer.

Image credits: Robdul

#91 I Work At A Lab. This Client Has To Be Messing With Us

Yes, it is frozen in a block of ice. This must be some knew shipping method I haven’t heard of. It’s still wrapped in bubble wrap, after all.

Image credits: Asbeaudeus

#92 Buy A $5,3m Brownstone? Done. Start A $700k Remodel? Sure Thing. Having To Pay $11000 For An Architectural Upgrade? Too Expensive, Let’s Get A Discount For The Whole Project

Image credits: aintnohollybeck

#93 Oh They Big Mad

Image credits: CityCautious4033

#94 Apparently Working Here Means I Know Big And Little

So these are our registers for self checkout. I’ve had people stare confused at the smaller screen (pin pad) and try to figure out how to proceed, when they need to look at the big screen.

I’ve told customers this in a polite and friendly way, even showing them the screen when I say “hey, gotta hit the button on the big screen.” A good number of them look between the two screens as if they cannot decide which is bigger, and I’m trying to logically deduce how they can be confused. But then a few of them have gotten angry: “You work here so it is easy for you!”

Easy for me… to know the difference between BIG and LITTLE…Because I work at a retailer?