The cliché that the customer is always right has become so rooted that nightmarish buyers are often getting better treatment than they deserve. Sadly, it’s the service industry workers who have to take in their negative emotions, unreasonable expectations and ridiculous demands. And they have truly seen it all.

Reddit user Jing_Yuan_Lu asked fellow members who worked in CS, “What’s the dumbest thing a customer has gone out of their way to complain about?” From buyers who kicked up a fuss when they couldn’t find milk in an electronics store or when their Himalayan salt stone lamp “disappeared” after they put it in the dishwasher, thousands of replies started pouring in, each one better than the last.

Some of these comments are truly eye-roll-worthy, so scroll down and check them out yourself! Make sure to upvote your favorite ones and share your experience in the comment section below.

#1

That our parent company said that a portion of every purchase goes towards the So The World May Hear foundation for poor kids hearing aids. He wanted that portion of his purchase refunded to him. I told him that the parent company had every right to do with their profits off every purchase that they wanted and most people were happy that instead of profiting as much they made a donation instead. He didn’t care. He was mad that his money was helping brown kids hear. F**k that guy.

Image credits: EmberHands

#2

Many years back, worked for a store chain which sells all products related and connected to Nature. Among them, the Himalayan salt stone lamp. It’s a stone made of salt that encases an electrical bulb. It is supposed to help for regulating ions in your home/office.

A customer called us to complain that their stone disappeared at home, and asked for a refund. As open mind as I can be, I however tried to understand what she meant exactly by “disappeared”.

Story is, customer removed the stone from the bulb and put it in her dish-washer to clean it…

I had to be super nice with her to make her realizing that salt dissolves in water.. Specially in hot water.. Without her getting upset and getting offended… It was a lonely moment..

Image credits: blissbali2020

#3

Worked in an electronics store to put myself through college. I worked in the computer department but was sitting at the loss prevention desk upfront to cover while the LP supervisor took a quick lunch break. An old lady comes in, asks where the dairy section is, and help finding the milk. I told her, kindly, that we weren’t in a grocery store. She looks confused and leaves. A couple of minutes later her (presumably) son walks in and starts chewing my a** because I wouldn’t help her find the milk. When he was done b**ching, I slowly waved my arm across the store and asked him which one of those aisles looks like they might have groceries in them. He stares for a good few seconds and then starts b**ching me out saying that I’m an a**hole, and he wants to see a manager.

So I paged the loss prevention supervisor up to the front. The LP supervisor invited the guy to never come back to the store.

Image credits: 2buckbill

#4

A guy asked if I was the manager.

“Can I help you with something?”

Angrily: “Yeah, three Saturdays in a row now I come down here at 4:30, and every f**kin’ Saturday you close at 4.”

“Uh…yeah. We close at 4.”

“F**k you.”

At least he left then. The worst ones don’t leave. They just keep going.

Image credits: woodenman22

#5

I used to work at a pizza place with a small dining room. So many people would complain that their pizza was too hot to eat. Of course, it is. It just came out of the oven. This is why you chose to drive your dumba** here to eat instead of having it delivered. Because it’s fresh. Fresh pizza is hot, ffs.

Image credits: BOOMkittykitty

#6

Not sure if this is really a complaint but more sheer stupidity…

At my first IT job, someone was returning a computer monitor and insisted on speaking with someone from the IT department rather than just leaving it in the cage as they were asked.

So I came down to talk with them to see what was going on and she was very adamant that I “double-check” the monitor to make sure all of her information was off of it…

This lady literally thought all of her icons, files, and folders were saved directly to the monitor itself and wouldn’t leave unless I powered it on to show her.

I didn’t even bother trying to explain it to her, she seemed extremely rude and it wouldn’t even be worth my time. So I literally plugged it into the wall, didn’t connect it to anything, and powered it on.

“See, it’s completely blank. Your good to go”

She smiled, said thank you, and left.

Image credits: maxdps_

#7

I work at a bakery and we sell pigs in a blanket for breakfast. A few years ago one of the kinds was a spicy blueberry sausage (it had blueberries inside the sausage link). One day some lady got one (knowing it was a blueberry sausage link), bit into it, and noticed some dark looking things inside the sausage link (surprise, it was a blueberry) but for whatever reason, she thought that a flake of black gunk from inside our oven somehow managed to get inside the sausage link (even after said link was rolled in a croissant). She called the health department on us and tried to get $50+ of free food.

My boss asked her what she ordered, he brought out a link of the sausage to show her and she immediately shut up and left the store. Unfortunately, we stopped selling that kind because “if one idiot is gonna think that then others will”, which is sad because they were pretty good.

Image credits: Scamperillium

#8

The store manager was walking by my register as a customer was walking up to check out. My manager said I had to take my break in 15 minutes to which I said, “Okay” The customer complained that it was unprofessional for the manager to speak to me and that I was unprofessional to respond when a customer was approaching the register because I needed to be focused on her and greet her appropriately.

Image credits: Unique_User_name_42

#9

Worked at a coffee shop that wasn’t Starbucks. Frappuccino is a trademarked word for Starbucks blended coffee drinks. When customers would ask for frappuccinos we would just put in the order as what we called it and let them know the name for it at our store so they would recognize it when the barista called it out. Had a woman get so upset she was screaming, all over the word frappuccino. According to her, it was the traditional Italian word for a blended coffee drink (it’s not) and we obviously thought she was stupid to tell her otherwise and how dare we insult her like that. Tried to calm her down and just say we called them something else but it would be a similar drink…didn’t even correct her about the rest. She continued to flip out and literally looked up and called our corporate customer service line in front of us, holding up the rest of the line, to have them tell her the same thing. She then started screeching to demand to talk to the president of our company and started knocking stuff off our countertop. That’s when we called security to escort her the f**k out of our store.

Image credits: functionalsock

#10

I work for a popular roadside assistance company and had a guy call in wanting to get roadside assistance for his daughter who was stranded. His daughter was not on his membership and there was no room to add her because he already had his wife added. So I suggested he remove his wife for now and add his daughter so she can get roadside assistance and then switch them back afterward. Apparently, this was the most outrageous suggestion. He went and told my supervisor that I was “making him choose his daughter over his wife and no father should have to make that kind of decision” lol.

Image credits: noodles_the_food

#11

I work in a library and I had a woman that was livid that we had a book of short stories in our Young Adult section about LGBT issues among teens. She was like “this is disgusting, this is giving their young minds a false impression of how normal people should live, this is awful”. My boss is a lesbian and was the one listening to her rant.

Image credits: wooztheweb

#12

I once had a customer come in and the following ensued:

Customer: “Hi I am here to return this power washer”

Me: “Sure you have your receipt?”

C: “Well I bought it “As Is” two years ago. I used it for the first time last year and it didn’t work. I saw it this weekend cleaning the garage. I’d like my money back”

M: “Ah yeah we can’t do that. This product is 3 years old and was sold as is”.

C: angry tone “Oh yeah buddy? What kind of f**king store is this then? Let me talk to a manager.”

Manger proceeds to give them store credit for the amount of a brand new one. I put my two weeks in shortly after.

Image credits: reddit

#13

I worked in a restaurant for years. People would always ask for broccoli as a side

“I’m sorry, we don’t have broccoli here”

Yes, you do! I get it every time I come. You’re just new

“I’ve been here 6 years ma’am, and at no point have we had broccoli “

You don’t get it, I know Mr. (Name of Restaurant). My husband plays golf with him.

“(Name of Restaurant) is a slang Italian word meaning ‘lively’. There is no Mr. (Name of Restaurant)”

#14

At 18 I was working at a gas station. It was a busy day, I was the only one there and had a huge line. A woman comes in and skips the line and throws a $20 at me saying “$5 on pump 2.” Since she acted like that I chose to make her wait to have money put on the pump. When it would have been getting turned in line I put the $20 onto the pump since she didn’t wait around. About 5 minutes later she comes back complaining that the entire $20 was pumped.

I told her straight out that it’s not my responsibility to keep track of her money, and I placed it on the pump for a record of the funds. If she hadn’t walked away from the pump or had waited in line she could have completed her transaction like everyone else. She then tried calling the cops because I refused to give her a refund. When the cop got there and got the story he looked at her and told her to grow up and be responsible for herself.

Image credits: captain-_-hindsight-

#15

That I was using a cash register instead of “using my brain” to calculate the money

edit: someone complained I was Asian and I shouldn’t be working here because of that

#16

I’m not sure if it counts as complaining but a woman once called to know the status of her case and confirm when she would be getting her money, pretty normal stuff until I said: “Yeah let me help-“ and she cut me off and said: “I don’t want to hear you talking. Don’t say a word to me, I don’t want to hear you, just do the damn thing.”

I was like “ma’am this is a call center, I can’t help you without speaking to you” and she goes: “girl bye” and hung up.

Image credits: belleandblue

#17

It’s always “x has it cheaper”

Go there then. You are hurting literally nobody’s feelings.

Image credits: Smellmyhand

#18

I was a lifeguard for 2-3 years in high school. Every day I would get people complaining about the pool temperature as if I could do something about it. “Ma’am, the pool does not have a heating system, I’m sorry. Larger bodies of water hold their temperature longer, which is why it’s so cold”. And they would complain ALL. THE. TIME. “This is your job, you need to fix it!” I’m sorry lady. This isn’t the 4 Seasons Hotel, this is a f**king community pool. It was never young people, always the old ladies who would come in at 5 am to do water aerobics.

Image credits: queen_in_the_north17

#19

We sold bonsai trees which can be kinda tricky to keep so you got a care leaflet with them. The leaflet said to water the tree you should immerse the pot entirely until soaked and then allow it to drain completely (disclaimer: I have no idea if this advice is actually correct). Anyway, the customer comes in with a dead tree in a pot with zero soil left, ranting how the advice was terrible and demanding a refund.

Turns out rather than fill a bowl and immerse the pot she’d run a bath and immersed the whole damn tree, right to the tips of its poor little branches. Soil dispersed, the tree died.

Seriously at what point during this process are you not thinking “I have to run a damn bath every time? I know bonsai are high maintenance but this seems extreme”

Image credits: TrypMole

#20

Somebody called head office to complain that they heard a Michael Jackson song in our store.

Image credits: PersonMcNugget

#21

We have a drink special in the morning. Drinks are a dollar until 11:00 am.

A lady called to complain that her daughter’s drink only cost a dollar. When we explained to her about the special, she said her daughter should have been charged full price regardless.

Image credits: reddit

#22

Had a woman call me racist because I asked her if she needed utensils for her take-out.

Image credits: DietyBeta

#23

When I was at DirecTV I received a call from a man whose sole purpose was to complain that this is the United States and there should not be a Spanish option in the automated call tree.

Image credits: Nick_J_at_Nite

#24

Had a lady call me racist because she came in to buy glasses, and I asked if she has been to our store before or if she has her prescription with her. She even told her young daughter to watch out for people like me… Uhhh…

Image credits: AfterSchoolRed

#25

I owned a computer biz for a few years. The one that always got me was this chick that brought in her computer slammed with viruses, spyware, etc. so bad it wouldn’t boot. Got it all fixed up and she picked it up. Brought it back the very next day with the same thing. I asked what sites she visited since she picked it up and she, completely unashamed, said “oh my bf and I are on porn all the time”. Um, ok. I told her I would go ahead and clean it again for free but if she visited those sites I couldn’t do it again without charging. Picked it up the same day. Back in the next. Me: “did you get back on the porn sites” Her: “of course”. I could not make her understand why this kept happening and would continue happening so I just asked her to go somewhere else.

Image credits: tuscabam

#26

I worked at a shoe store and I had a guy come in and ask where he could get some books packed up for free and shipped. I said I wasn’t sure and that made staples would do it because they have an ups area there. He said he already tried there and then he called me a fat a** (I wasn’t fat. Just very pregnant) because I couldn’t be bothered to get off the ladder to help him.

I was like dude. I sell shoes. I don’t know what you want from me.

He storms out of the store and like 3 years later I’m still super confused about the whole situation.

Image credits: Omfgimaweirdo

#27

I’m a bartender and just last night a came in and I knew something would happen.. they are sitting at their TABLE and ask for some margaritas. I go make them and bring them out to the table. He proceeds to tell me “here’s a TAFFER tip; if someone orders a cocktail you should make it in front of them” I replied, well if you were sitting at THE BAR I could do that… Do you want me to bring the blender out to your table and make your frozen drink for you there!? WTH one of the dumbest things I’ver ever heard.

#28

Ah I got a great one. So I have a small retail business with my mom that’s strictly brick and mortar. Normally our return policy is within 21 days for store credit. During the holidays we extend it so that anything purchased between Black Friday and December 24th can be returned up until the end of January.

A few years ago this guy came in around the end of April trying to return Christmas gifts on DRY CLEANING HANGERS. When I told him I wouldn’t take it back, even for a store credit, he blew up on me and cussed me out in front of other customers in the store. He then proceeded to leave a 1-star review and bash the store saying how he’s “never been treated like that before at a store”. How tf do people like that exist?

Image credits: alphalegend91

#29

I was working at OfficeMax during back-to-school season. This woman comes up to my register with a few things and I start scanning it in. She notices that one item rang up less than she was expecting. She actually got an attitude with me because we hadn’t had a chance to print new shelf tags for that aisle yet. I told her I would wait if she wanted to get more. She declined and continued complaining to me about it. I said, “well I can override the price to what the shelf label said.” I realize now that I was being a bit of a b**ch by saying that. She politely declined that as well, paid with her card, and rushed out the door with her things.

Image credits: AwkwardSara

#30

I’m not exactly in customer service, but I once had a customer call me and demand I sent a different electrician to his house because the one I sent “looked shady”, after a bit of back and forth I figured out the issue was actually that he was Cuban.

#31

A lady ordered a sandwich and then canceled her order because she thought it took too long. Someone else from the party she was having called and made an order. We made it and delivered it without issue. The same lady calls back APPALLED that we would allow one of her guests to order from us after she made it very clear she wanted to cancel her own order. It’s not my business if other people at her party want to order food and I had no idea it was her party anyway. I told her it was very common for multiple deliveries to go to the same house party, why wouldn’t we make them sandwiches? She then told me I would obviously never amount to anything in life and she was going to make a formal complaint against me. It was such a weird complaint. It was probably 10 years ago but it still bugs me sometimes.

Image credits: ashlie_ren

#32

Restaurant with open kitchen, so customers and us cooks can converse freely. The customer wanted crispy fish. Made it really crispy. Not done enough. I cooked a new one, literally like 15 minutes on the fryers; I cooked three or four other orders around it. She then complained that it was too hot and she didn’t want it.

Image credits: slapthefatcat

#33

I worked for a cable company and I had people call in and complain because they got free unlimited calling to Mexico with our phone plans.

“Well, I don’t want to call Mexico!”

“Then may I suggest that you simply don’t do that? It’s not mandatory.”

Image credits: Painttheflowers

#34

I had a guy call in and complain that the CEO’s name sounded Jewish. I merely replied that I do not have an opinion, and I hung up.

#35

Working pizza delivery. One time a guy called in, threatened to kick all our a**es and more because we put sticks in his pizza. I told him I would be happy to come to pick it up and examine it (we got a LOT of fraud calls, people trying to get free s**t every day). When I got there his tone changed (I am 6 foot, 270 pounds) and he showed me the “sticks” in his pizza. Do you know what they were? He ordered thin crust, and some of the crust broke off onto the pizza. He was nice as can be after I pointed that out.

Image credits: shartnado3

#36

I worked at Subway in high school and a customer demanded to speak to a manager because her $5 footlong was not exactly $5. I tried explaining to her that sales tax is normal and $5.35 is the price of anything after tax that is $5 she continued to yell and cuss at me. She even specifically stated she does not have to pay a tax. It was at that moment I accepted that there was no being rational with some people…

#37

I had to remake Marilyn’s caramel macchiato 3 times because the caramel “kept sinking into the foam”. CONSULT YOUR PHYSICS TEXTBOOK, MARILYN. IT IS CALLED GRAVITY.

#38

At my first job at a big retailer, some old guy angrily returned a can of cashews at the customer service desk because the box stated they were full cashews but some of them were broken.

#39

Not quite customer service, but I work for a contractor and take care of any warranty work that may arise (fix leaks, replace blown off shingles, loose siding, etc.) I am amazed at the leaps in logic people make trying to get us to fix/replace things around their house that have nothing to do with the work we have done there, my favorite was someone wanted us to replace their washing machine because it broke after we put a new roof on their house.

#40

Their ice cream they bought from McDonald’s had melted on the way there. We are 12 miles from any McDonald’s

Milk was kept in the fridge which was down the first aisle. She really wanted to squeaze past and push over a child. Last two times she was in, she pushed over a pregant lady and an old lady.

I had finished my shift. They didn’t care who they got served by, nor was it busy, they just didn’t like seeing me having finished my shift. They followed me around the store loudly complaining to anyone who listened. They were told to either leave me or leave the store. They complained to the manager about that and the fact that I had finished. I’ve not seen them since

Best of all, a customer took the lid off the paint they just purchased but didn’t put it back on properly and casually threw it in his boot. I was not in for the aftermath

#41

Obligatory “I don’t work in customer service” but my dad is a f**king nightmare about complaining for stupid reasons, usually in restaurants. The other day he sent me this message that his mate has sent to IKEA customer service, complaining about how there are TOO MANY DIGITS IN THE CUSTOMER NUMBER. They seemed so proud of themselves for it but all I can think about is how it’s a waste of everyone’s time and such a stupid thing to get worked up about.

“Hello, I recently purchased a lot of kitchen stuff and decided it would be a good idea joined IKEA Family beforehand. The membership number issued is 19 numbers long. I would like to point out that the estimated world population is around 7.8 billion people. Written in longhand, 7.8 billion is 10 numbers in length. […] So my question is, why do you need to create a membership number which is approximately: Eight hundred and two million, five hundred and seventy-six thousand, five hundred and seventy-six times more than the whole world population?”

#42

I once got a call from a customer who had dined in the week before and wanted a refund because she thought it was too expensive.

#43

That we asked them to pay us. They were past due almost $200k for over a year, and when we finally sent our lawyer at them they paid the next day and delivered us a letter saying that they were going to tell everyone how we mistreated them.

I mean, they didn’t say our invoices were invalid or the product was bad or broken. They just said they thought we were rude for asking them to pay us that way. And before the lawyer I had been calling them weekly.

#44

the lemon ice cream I made tasted too much like lemon. sigh

#45

I worked at a subway and a guy reached into the tip jar to grab money to pay for chips… When I told him no those tips are for my employees he threw the chips at me and squared up like he wanted to fight.

#46

I used to drive a taxi and I knew the city like the back of my hand. More trips = more money, but every drunk thinks we rip them off with longer trips. I cannot count the number of times people would tell me to take the freeway instead of the direct route because they “didn’t want to get ripped off”… The freeway takes just as long because it’s 3 a.m., not rush hour so the direct route means clear streets and easy lights…and sure you can drive faster on the freeway, but that means the trips now cover 120% of the distance and will mean your trip costs more, but you’re the customer…

#47

Once had someone complained that we didn’t have the same kid’s activity mats as pizza hut, we weren’t a pizza hut.

Ooh, once had someone complain about my manager because she wouldn’t leave the restaurant during a rush to see if the pub across the road was open.

#48

Working in a coffee shop, I had an incredible amount of people ask why the toilet door was locked. Had to explain to them that it generally means someone’s in there.

#49

So they didn’t complain but were trying to return.

They came in an dropped 2 gallons of tea on the counter asking for a refund. I asked if there was any particular reason for their return. Dude seriously says, “ya just saw that they expired”. Me thinking maybe he meant if he bought them expired asked if he has a receipt, he didn’t say he bought them a long time ago.

This dude actually thought that when your food expires you can just get a refund. Customer service really spoils idiots, man.

#50

I had one lady complain that her pancakes were cold. And granted that is a valid excuses for a complaint, however she ate them last and asked gave the waitress a bad attitude about it. She then asked to talk to a manager. Sadly for her, her waitress was the person in charge that night. She was not having that. Now we remake pancakes all the time and we’re more then willing to redo them but she needed to make a seen. She took her pancakes up to the host stand waved them at everyone and said ” THIS IS COLD”! She then threw the pancake causing a pancake explosion her and the party of 5 then walked out without paying. People never cease to amaze me

#51

Not entirely stupid, but I was working retail at a pet store. A customer had a suggestion for the business. To be fair, It actually was a great idea but outside of the scope of the store. I told her that and that she should pursue it herself. The conversation basically devolved into a screaming match of, “f**k you, why don’t YOU implement this million-dollar idea. More funny than anything.

Other than that, people who don’t properly train their dogs because they feel that it is mean.

Or people who totally underestimate what they need to take care of a fish, then complain that their fish always dies.

#52

Costco ex employee here. One guy came back with 1 orange and ask to get his money back. Back then we sold oranges in a boxe of 24.

Another came back with a little shrub because it was growing too fast.

One lady wanted us to find her the same lunch bag that she had bought 15 !!! years ago. “Maybe they could make me one?”

I met so many crazy people that when I first started I thought I was in some sort of candid camera show.

I now volunteer at a cat shelter and recently a woman called us and ask that we “loan” her a cat during Covid. She also had no money to pay for cat litter and food. WTF!

#53

That my name is Tobias and my voice sounds feminine

#54

Work in produce delivery. Had a lady complain that the pit in her avocado was too big. She followed up by asking if she could come in and pick her own items before we delivered them and I kindly reminded her that grocery stores exist.

#55

For whatever the f**k reason, people tend to drop 50 IQ points and become chaotic evil when making purchases. This one woman will forever live in embarrassment. When I was 17 and lived in a place that had frequent and hard rain. This b**ch comes in and complains that… the parking lot… is wet. It was currently pouring.

#56

I guess this wasn’t really an official complaint but it was pretty dumb. I was running the register at the grocery store and this couple got in my line. I could tell they were together because they were talking and interacting with one another. However, they had two different baskets and left a small gap between their respective items without placing them down the divider. So I wasn’t sure if they were paying for everything altogether or separately. I say the generic things, hi, how are you, did you find everything okay, etc and then politely asked, “together or separate?” The lady gave me a death glare and said “why on earth does it matter?” I gave her a blank stare and slowly said “so…. that I know whether to keep ringing you up…or cash out the order….” All I can think is they must have been having some relationship problems because she jumped right to that, haha.

#57

Our cafe got a bad review because we have no sea view. “Sorry, we will move the house next time”

#58

Once had a customer complain about the lack of windows and natural sunlight in that part of the store. We were in the basement.

#59

Ages ago, when I worked the video game department at Best Buy, a customer pointed out a game that was $29.99 and stated Wal-Mart had it for $29.97. I paused for just a moment before noting that we price matched. She responded with “Well, you’re not the ‘best buy’ then, are you?”

#60

Ice cream, half eaten, lactose free ice cream. They called up the store I worked at and demanded we take it back bc after she ate almost all of it she realized it didn’t taste that well. Despite my efforts to explain that we can’t take back food she already had opened and eaten she still insisted we gave her back her money. After 10 mins I just told her to come to the store and talk to the manager. Not only did he refund the money but he also gifted her two packages of ice cream. And I was drilled to never refund food.

Edit: Also one time, while I worked as a call- center- agent: a woman yelled at me for 20 minutes bc she made a mistake and her credit card got declined and bc we had bad reception. She was calling from a train. That was something else.

#61

I work at a bank and a customer took the time out of their day to call and ask for a supervisor to complain that they weren’t greeted or thanked at the drive-up window (because we were really busy inside). She felt that our customer service was lacking. We got her deposit done in a timely manner and if she really wanted customer service she could have either hit the call button and we would have talked to her, or she could have come in.

#62

Had a customer complain that my voice didn’t sound excited enough when they called. 400 phone calls a day all asking the same damned question and they want over the top excitement. God I hate idiots .

#63

I had a customer complain that I gave them too much in their burrito bowl.

#64

I need a thing

I’m sorry ma’am, we don’t have that thing

WHY?

Unfortunately, some items aren’t carried in stores at all times; inventory levels are based on sales, so more than likely that item needs to have a few more units in sales to be carried in stores on a permanent basis.

That’s stupid, this place has horrible customer service

#65

That we didn’t have the brand of hot sauce that they like. That sucks that we don’t have it, but there is literally nothing that any of us can do about it.

#66

We couldn’t get a 5$ coupon to scan so we just took it off in another way and she ranted and raved because she didn’t like how it was going to look on the receipt. Legit yelled at one of my cashiers for this. I’ll never understand

#67

I do tech support for the military, we have a policy of “we are break/fix only, IE, you break it we fix it.” therefore we don’t do training. we constantly have customers calling in complaining they don’t know how to use some software and want us to remote into their machine to train them on it. 1) f**k no that jacks up call times, with high call times no one’s issue is getting solved any time soon 2) it’s their manager’s responsibility to train them on the software so their manager is failing them 3) read the above. break/fix only. 4) some of these customers shouldn’t be working in the position they are in and shouldn’t hold security clearances.

#68

Former bookstore employee here.

The one that stands out most in my mind is the guy who complained that we weren’t stocking a particular book anymore. For context, it was a $90 art book; we had never sold any copies of it, so we had returned our one copy to the publisher to avoid eating the loss.

I explained this to the gentleman and offered to order a copy for him if he wanted. He explained that he didn’t want to buy it, he just liked coming in to look at it sometimes.

I did my best to explain that we were a retail establishment and couldn’t afford to keep expensive books on our shelves if no one was buying them. He then wrote a letter to the owners complaining about me.

#69

I work for a bank and legit had a call the other day where the lady complained that we refunded her too much money from a dispute she’d filed with us and sent her a replacement card too quickly. We refunded the full amount she requested and she asked us to overnight the new card to her.

#70

Had an old woman come in screaming at us because there was mayo on her sandwich.

She was allergic to mayo, and assumed that because she ordered it to-go that the mayo would be left on the side. She said we should have a big sign letting customers know about how we serve our sandwiches

#71

Working at a fast-food chain described as “hospital food with a French accent”

The woman asks for my recommendation- I suggest a bacon turkey sandwich.

The woman marches up to me angrily after receiving her sandwich. Her complaint?

“I’m allergic to bacon!!”

#72

I had a family call me racist because I sat them at the last remaining table in the restaurant which happened to be in the back corner on a busy Sunday morning

#73

The best is always people who aren’t using your services or paying you for anything but demanding your time and attention.

Work at a vets office part-time and every shift someone calls in asking about some random medication or another vet clinic when we are insanely busy (we see roughly 40-50 pets a day) and demand that I look up phone numbers and pricing for other clinics, people act like smartphones and the internet aren’t at their disposal.

The best was one time this lady called because she found a wild rabbit and wanted us to give it an exam. Explain to her to put the rabbit back outside as it could have a number of diseases and it’s not safe to keep a wild animal in your house, also we don’t see anything other than cats and dogs. She then demanded I look up a vet’s office that did take wild animals, told her “ma’am, we are very busy and this is a personal issue and you aren’t a client. I will not do research for you. Have a great day.” She then left us a one-star yelp review and tried to write a complaint to the better business bureau.

#74

When I worked in a second-hand charity shop in the UK, there was this old Russian couple who used to come in about once a week, just before closing and waste everyone’s time browsing and grumbling about prices and rarely ever buying anything. One evening, the old woman actually bought something but had a massive rant about how it was naked profiteering that we (a reputable charity) were asking 5p for a plastic bag (as per the law, intended to discourage people from using them for environmental reasons).

The kicker: she was buying a small handbag. You don’t even need a carrier bag for it, it’s got handles.

#75

One time, a customer complained that he hated our Frank Sinatra hold music and demanded he had to speak to a manager about it. I hung up.

#76

A few years ago I was a cashier at a retail store. A pregnant woman came up and said that she was trying to leave but couldn’t get into her car because a truck was parked very close to her. I paged the driver of the truck up to the cash desk.

The truck driver, a middle-aged woman, came up, and she and the pregnant woman got into an argument because truck lady didn’t want to leave her shopping to go move her truck. I didn’t get involved and continued to cash out customers, and eventually, truck lady moved her car so the pregnant lady could go home.

Later as I was cashing out the truck lady, she asked to speak to my manager. Afterward, my manager told me that she was complaining about me because at some point she said it looked like I nodded, so I was clearly siding with the pregnant lady. My manager said “I told her I’d talk to you about it, so here I am talking to you about it” and just left it at that.

#77

I worked at a campus coffee shop in college. It had multiple locations, and my position was to fill in for people who didn’t show up.

One morning I ended up having to open a location I had never been to by myself. A woman came in to buy her regular coffee and yelled at me because I had put the milk and sugar out on the wrong side of the room.

#78

In a hotel, they complained that someone else had slept on their mattress so we had to buy a new one. And then 4 more new ones for the other hotels they were going to stay at.

#79

She tried to file a complaint because the cashier gave her a 5 cents coin-back instead of 4 cents.

#80

I work at a call center for a mail-order pharmacy and I’ve heard people complaining about a prescription we never sent out to them because it is with another pharmacy- at least once a week

#81

I worked for a Wireless ISP, meaning point to point wireless, big antenna on your roof pointed to our tower. Lady calls in and complains that her PC won’t get online. After talking to her, we realise she has no router, no WiFi adapter….. but since it’s ‘Wireless’ it should work and she’s mad at us somehow.

Same customer a day later: Daughter calls in to say they bought the ‘WiFi’ device and installed it in the PC. I ask some questions, they bought a PCI Wireless card, screwed it into the case without mounting it on the PCI slot at all, and again said it should work, because it’s wireless.

By the end of the call, they were telling me the Sales team told them it would just work and it would “All be wireless.”

#82

I had one of my customers ring me to tell me he hoped I got fired , because he had issues with one of the engineers and thought it was my job to “control” people

#83

This woman wanted to fight me because there was no vanilla syrup in the self-serve coffee machine. I worked at a gas station.

#84

I had a lady demand to speak to a manager because she showed up at our store at 5:00 p.m., saw the sign that said we closed at 4:30 p.m., and called Tech Support to demand we change the store hours. I explained the store hours are on her bill, the website, the store, our phone service’s message and that while I apologize for her inconvenience, yelling and screaming at us over the phone was not terribly kind.

#85

Some guy told me it was in “bad taste” for our store to be so empty. Even though it’s a pop-up shop and the season is about to end. Like, where were you at the beginning of the season?

#86

A guy came in to the ski store where I worked and tried to fight me because he had rented a board at 2:30 pm and the hill closed at 3:30 pm.

The sun had gone down so I’m not sure how he thought the hill was going to stay open

#87

Used to be the manager of a tire and lube shop. Had a customer bring in their car for a battery change. After it was completed he leaves only to come back not more than 30 mins about his car leaking water… from a battery change. He claimed that we had damaged his vehicle and demanded that we fix the issue. So I turned his A/C off, but being in Texas it didn’t stay off long.

#88

I was a manager at White Castle. The one that sticks out is someone got 19 chicken rings instead of 20. Regardless of whether or not it was true I usually don’t care and just replace it but the way he told me made me so angry….

“White Castle how can I help you?”

“Yes, what size do your chicken rings come in?”

“They come in 6, 9, or 20.”

“Well, how come I got 19?”

What am I supposed to say to that? Just ask me to give you a replacement or something don’t be a jacka**.

#89

I could write a book on this, but unfortunately, this one isn’t one that happened to me, but my co-worker complained about it and “had to tell me about” at a restaurant she went to. My co-worker went to a chain restaurant in my area, not the location that she normally goes to, and ordered a piece of lasagna. When she got the slice, she immediately started complaining to the waitress that the slice was “too small” and that when she goes to another location she can “easily get 3 meals out of the slice and with this one, she’ll BARELY get 1 and a half meals out of.” When she was told this is a standard slice of lasagna, she was OUTRAGED and told everyone in earshot that she will NEVER go back to this one. She has proceeded to tell many of the customers that she talks to at my job, which has NOTHING to do with restaurants, about this “travesty.”

#90

I’ve worked at a few call centers, and only at one could I see the customer reviews. I was already on the phone with this lady for a long time, and she was having trouble using a coupon. She had to have a minimum of $20 in her cart to use it, but she wanted to use it without buying $20 worth of stuff first. Baffling.

She was being a huge b**ch already, but I was keeping my cool until I misheard what she said and said “sorry, could you repeat that?” She then starts railing on me for “not speaking English” (I was born and raised in central Florida and English is my native tongue), so at this point I sort of half jokingly offer to switch to Spanish if she’d be more comfortable with that, since I speak decent Spanish too.

It ended up with my supervisor being the one to calm her down and hang up, and her review said something like: “reps don’t speak English! Disgusting!!!!!”. The worst part is it still counted against me even though it was a flagrantly bulls**t review and this c**t still ended up getting her way in the end.

I ended up quitting on the spot a short time later, and I was already considering throwing myself in front of a bus that stopped at the bus stop outside the building just to avoid another day of working there. Don’t work at call centers kids (if you can help it).

#91

Classic one from my younger days

Was working escalation support at a regional ISP (Basically the people who if you demand a supervisor you’d get sent to escalation)

Call notes from previous agent, elderly person very angry issues with their bill and can’t find the account.

Within thirty seconds of talking with them I determined that their issue was not with phone or internet (What we sold) but with their cell phone (Which we don’t sell or provide) a hardware issue with their cell phone. They can’t pull an account because they don’t have service with us.

It took me ten minutes to get this old man off the phone and only because he gave me a great line to respond to.

Old Man: What do I even pay you people for if you won’t help me with this?

Cptadder: Sir you don’t pay us I’m pretty sure because we don’t provide service for or sell any cell phones. We do home phone and internet only at (Regional ISP) we don’t provide service for cell phones.

Old Man: Angry noises threats of BBB complaints

Cptadder: I understand your frustration sir but if Papa John’s gets your order wrong it won’t help you to complain to the Taco Bell manager

Old Man: Dawning comprehension, mumbled comment about I should be nicer and hang up sound

#92

I never understood why people would buy spicy food and then say it’s too spicy.

Like, when I worked in the deli, it was no problem to serve a sample slice, but no, they’d order a pound of pepper jack or spicy chicken, then come back the next day wanting a refund with like half the package gone.

My manager always told them no. It was glorious to witness. People never expect to be told NO at retail.

#93

I had one lady call the store to complain that her pizza was cold and she wanted a new one. Now, her house was maybe a half-mile from the store and I took her pizza first on my run and it was the last one out. So when I delivered it, it was maybe 5 minutes out of the oven and probably still the temperature of molten lava. My manager tells me to take her a new one, but to get the old one which of course she doesn’t have because she f**king well ate it.

“I can’t give you this one unless you give me the other one.”

“We threw it out it’s in the trash.”

“Show me”

“I’m not letting you look in our trash”

“Then I’m not giving you this pizza.”

“ I’m calling your manager.”

“Go ahead, but I have other pizzas to deliver.”

I left and did my thing.

Manager tells me that she’s getting a refund and tells me to take it back to her. So I do. After delivering my other pizzas to actual customers. I also tell her she’s on the banned customer list.

She called the store and complained again because I didn’t refund her $2 tip. Manager tells me to give her back the $2. Even offers to just give me $2 just to make this lady go away.

I go to the cash register and buy 4 rolls of pennies and unwrap them. When I pull up to her house, she comes out on the front porch and has one hand on her hip and the other one out for me to hand her $2. She was not expecting change and definitely not 200 pennies dumped onto her hand. Of course, her hand was too small to hold that much change anyway and they immediately fell to the ground and went everywhere. I just got in my car and went back to work and told my manager what I’d done. He wanted to be mad at me because he thought he was supposed to be mad, but he just started laughing. He did put her on the banned customer list.

#94

I work for a relatively small floral company, in a rather wealthy area of Illinois. We have a regular customer who has us pick up her orchids and rearrange them to “look better”. We do this every 2 weeks. Without error. Without complaint.

Well, she calls so i assume she wants us to pick up her plants and she GOES OFF about us moving her +300lbs cement decoration in her front yard.

Double checked with dispatch, and the driver we sent over there to deliver her orchids is 83 years old. WHAT?!

The long-winded conversation later, we send 4 drivers to move this damn thing NOT EVEN A FOOT.

A week later she calls again, this time saying it was her lawn service that moved the decoration and not us. Not a sorry, not a “thanks for helping anyways”.

It was, “My lawn service moved the decoration and not you. Just don’t move my stuff, Just the plants.”

#95

Working in sales I had to deal with stupid people on a very regular basis. The worst was a very well-off middle easterner who owned several fast-food restaurants in our area. 7 of them were all from the same chain… he came in twice a week for 13 months and complain that we were lying about the prices we had and that we were a**holes for ripping people off on their new cars…. month 13 he came in saying he could get a new 2017 Corolla (I knew the sales guys at the local Toyota dealership well, and we all got along!) for less than our 2018 Civic Touring… Yeah no s**t! It was a base model! They were cheaper! I walked into my manager’s office closed the door and asked if I could have the use of my one “get the f**k out, and don’t come back” for the quarter. He looked at me and said your call. I walked out told the guy that he could either buy a car from me or get the f**k out and not come back because I was done being jerked around and having my time wasted when I could be dealing with real qualified customers… he bought a car from me that afternoon. 3 years later he still has it.

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