Worst customers you've had?

[GlitterMoon 225]

Has anypony else here worked with retail? If so, what are some of the most annoying customers you've had?

I once had a customer call me stupid because I didn't understand what he meant at first and once I worked at a toy store and there was this toddler that kept throwing everything on the ground and the parents couldn't care less.

Edited March 3, 2019 by NightmareLuna1996

[cuteycindyhoney 13,283]

I once worked at a grocery store. My job was to clean the meat and seafood departments so they would be ready in the morning. A lady asked me to reprice a bag of shrimp. I politely told her that I didn't know how to work the system to do that. She got mad and yelled, and threw the bag of shrimp at me! (She missed!) I got scared and hid in the back room until the manager straightened it out.

I hated that job. I met my husband there though, so it wasn't all bad!

[SharpWit 2,472]

This isn't all that bad, but I had a customer once who I feel like was putting together when of those fake giant kinder egg surprise videos that get millions upon millions of views because they were going to get a ton of these small mystery toys on top of several other types, but they costs more than they thought they did, so I had to remove 40 or so items from their purchase and then go put them back. This happened on my first day cashiering and we were really low staffed that day so time was wasted, line was building up, and I would have to go put these all back.

[Denim&Venöm 16,510]

There were quiet a few.

Had a customer that wanted all his meats packaged together. Policy says we can't do that due to issues of cross contamination. I notified him of this and I was told that *insert store here* can "Go fk itself."  Now I'm not a fan of my old employer, but to tell the store that was effectively telling me to do the same. One of the few times I didn't wish a customer a nice day and one of the few times I stormed off from the counter to cool my head. 

Had a lady who wanted to tip me for helping bring groceries to her car. Our policy on tips is a bit hazy, but I didn't want to risk anything. I'd rather the money be donated to one of the Salvation army bell ringers. Plus I just wasn't comfortable with the practice. I was insistent on it, but she got offended and yelled at me over it. YOu'd think she would've been happy to keep the cash instead. 

Finally, there was a woman who either had her card declined or her coupons expired or bought something after a sale ended or was given an accurate price check on her goods. Either way, she pretty much went "Fk this." and stormed out without her groceries. We held them for an hour in case she came back, which she never did. So all the work I put into bagging and stacking her full cart of groceries? I got to undo all that by performing shop backs, walking the cart around the store and returning every item right where it belonged. One of my more preferred jobs at the store actually. Get a bit of time away from the masses and play a little game of figuring out where everything goes without having to double back to different isles. 

And while not a specific customer or two, there was the infuriating habit of customers abusing the shopping carts. Customers leaving cars on parking blocks. Carts on the grass or in the snow. Carts jacked up on curbs. Carts filled with trash. Carts with the toddler seats locked in. Carts in the McDonald's parking lot. etc.

 

Anyone who's ever said "The customer is always right" has obviously never met one. 

 

 

[PoisonClaw 8,153]

I used to work customer service at a call center, so even though I never had to actually meet the customers face to face, I still got yelled at constantly by people who expected me to fix all their problems, which resulted in me having no end of stories about it after only six months working there. To start, there was the woman who threatened to go to the media and complain (never do this by the way, it doesn't work...) after we refused to supply a service the company not only no longer offered, but hadn't offered since 2012 to the point there was literally a section in the training manual about what to do if ever faced with this situation.

Then there was the woman who yelled at me for ten minutes after we charged her for a service her insurance company refused to cover, so despite me telling her over and over again to take this up with her insurance, she expected us to deal with it. Seriously, it was like talking to a brick wall...

And then there was also the woman who "supposedly" worked for the bank and expected me to just hand over confidential customer information despite the fact she couldn't produce any proof that the customer in question had given her permission to access said info. When I tried to turn it around on her and asked what she would do if I just walked into her bank one day and requested confidential information without authorization, she called me an idiot and spent the next five minutes calling me every curse under the sun.

Finally, there was the guy who outright threatened my life and asked for my name and our address so he could come down there with his gun. When I told him I was under no obligation to tell him our address, or my name and that I would call the police, he got even angrier and screamed at me some more before hanging up. Luckily nothing ever came of that, but I was pretty rattled for the rest of the day after that.  

Seriously, I've got pages of these, I could go on...

[KillerKingBakudan 702]

Too many to choose from. But the one that comes off the top of my head is this racist bitch who accused me of stalking her. All I did was ask her if she needed help. She said no. So I went around asking everyone else in the room the same thing. They also said no. I basically did a full circle talking to people like salespeople are supposed to do. As soon as I got back within maybe a few feet of her, she turned around and started cussing me out, saying I was harassing her and raising her voice so everybody's attention was drawn towards me. She said if she was white, I wouldn't have "treated her that way." She kept demanding an apology. Anytime I'd say something, she'd just cut me off over and over, and tell me to admit fault and apologize.

Not one of my coworkers stood up to her. Not even the assistant manager, who actually just made it worse. She complained to him and said I was profiling her, and he just took her word for it without question. He assured her that the "problem" would be addressed like the virtue-signaling tool he was. That's the only reason she finally left. He got on my case and asked me why I kept following her. He'd know that I didn't if he cared to check the footage recorded on the store camera. But he wouldn't listen. He didn't care for the facts, just the narrative. So then he said he would issue a write up. It was at that point that I decided to just walk out of the store that day. And I never came back.

[Twilight Luna 30,940]

I’ve been doing technical and sales support for about 10 years now. There have been too many stupid people to count. One person wanted a video and written instructions on how to open a box. Another complained that a car alarm wasn’t working. Instead of describing what the problem was, he kept saying “It no working”. After a few tries to get him to explain the situation, he opened an eBay dispute saying it wasn’t as described. 

One time, a woman called yelling about a problem she was having with some equipment and tried to act all superior to me. She was very condescending and tried to turn everything I said into an insult against her. Finally, she asked for my name, how much I make, and what my position was with the company. I told her that I was a regional sales and support rep. She laughed and asked to talk to someone with a brain. So I transferred her over to my boss. She asks him what his position was with the company and he said that he owns it and asked what her issue was. She tried to pretend that I was the one being condescending and insulting her. He wasn’t buying it because he was in the room with me at the time. He told her that all calls are recorded and he had been monitoring the conversation. She immediately changed her tune. 

[Envy 5,999]

Just a month and a half ago or so this happened. I was in the cereal aisle and some jerk middle aged man came down the aisle. The family size Cheerio's were all out except for one box that was a little dent on the top of the box. Note: There was an entire row of smaller sized Cheerio's boxes fully stocked just a row below it. He shouted out to me "Where are your ****ing Cheerio's?" I'm sarcastically like "Oh great" in my mind. I point to where they are and he just looks at that single family size Cheerio's box and is like "What, this beat up *** ol' thing?". He then yells "Put up some ****ing Cheerio's!" and walked away.

Normally, I'll go back and check and see if there are any of the missing product for the customer. However, this particular man clearly had no interest in the actual Cheerio's, but instead just wanted to throw a temper tantrum.

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

Working at a Burger King for two weeks, I've only had to deal with one particularly annoying customer, who looked and talked like a stoner, who kept complaining about overpaying for his meal when I knew for a fact he didn't and lying to the manager about me "yelling" when I was clearly not. Thankfully, the manager sided with me before he stormed off proclaiming to never come back. The only things that had me sympathizing with him was the fact that I couldn't reprint his receipt and the possibility that his girlfriend could've egged him on. Still, the fact that I was genuinely worried about getting in trouble for something completely out of my control irked me. One experience like that is all it took to teach me that the key to surviving in customer service when someone is rude to you is just to stay quiet. 

[TBD 17,228]

While I do expect good customer service.. but, that will another story for "worst customers service you've ever had." I had worked from offices, to hospital, to retails that "worst" is nothing to me. They're all the same and just as annoying as the next guy. I'll say this though.. I currently work as a salesman and while trying to be the honest one, the people who tries to get smart like a dumbass with me are the worst ones. If you're not planning to buy move along so I can speak with the next customer who might be interested in the item instead.

[Tao 6,729]

I've been working for a while,  from being a paper-girl to Walmart and food service for a college.    Yet one of my worst moments was when I working my weekend job at a burger joint and we got some Mexican people to come in.  Now not one of us spoke Spanish at all and I had this one lady YELLING at me and calling me  "estúpido" and a "la puta" due not understanding Spanish in trying to take her order with her family.(looked up those words later on my cell)  Just thankfully we had a woman behind her step in and act as a translator.   Even when she got her food,   she kept glaring at me and then went on to bug our cook/manager about how bad the burger was and saying she should not have to pay for it and wanted one free and we should give back her money.

It was a very nerve-racking hour to say anything of the least. 

[Venomous 18,813]

I have never worked in retail but I did work at a pizza restaurant; specifically working the phones. A woman had called asking for delivery order. The phone, however, was terrible and I could just barely hear her. I had to ask for her last name many times but no matter how slowly or loudly she said it, I could not hear her. She became extremely frustrated and demanded that she speak to a manager. She didn’t understand that I couldn’t hear her even though I stated that a few times. 

At the same workplace, I recieved a call from asking if the restaurant had outdoor seating. Now, remember that because it’ll become important later... It did! However, it was raining that day so outdoor seating wasn’t available. The manager found me later on and asked if I had spoken to anyone asking about outdoor seating. I confirmed this and she became angry; saying that the person was told that she could eat outside. I did not say that, remember? All she asked was if we had outdoor seating and that’s it. She didn’t ask if she could actually sit out there.

[The Historian 515]

I don't work in retail but I work for a point of sale software company in the support department. More than once, customers have yelled and screamed, acted like jackasses and flat refused to listen to anyone in tech. There's one customer, however, who is a passive aggressive twat on email but lacks any balls so he doesn't act like a jerk over the phone. I run the ecom department for my side and I was helping said customer on an ecommerce issue. This customer likes to whine incessantly about the software I support, calling it "immature" or some other such insult. His complaint was that ecommerce orders created a billing and shipping contact for an in-store customer, even when they were identical and he asked about a cleanup. I told him that wasn't really as easy as he wanted and I could end up deleting things he wanted to keep. When I told him that, he came unglued. He replied with a long tirade about how terrible we are, how awful our product is and how immature and amateur our product is. I didn't dignify him with a response.

The other things that happen are the misogynist customers we've got. There are a small few who just refuse to work with women. And no, it's not men who act like this - it's primarily women! There's some other things. Oh right, like the time I had a customer threaten to sue the company because he didn't use our Magento integration properly, or the time we had to sue a customer. Good times in the world of retail support.

[Clawdeen 12,110]

When I worked retail we had someone come in and throw merchandise at our manager which lead to cops being called and her forced removal from our store. We were also robbed before.