@ Raspberry Tea:
Well, I guess maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she was just having a dumb moment. Sometimes I have those in front of people and then when they leave I'm like..."Wow, what was wrong with me? They must think I'm a complete idiot."

That's awesome that you got some great customers to make up for it. It does seem like you're always very friendly and considerate to your customers.

@Fullmetal Phantom:
That lady sounds terrifying! The good thing about my bad customers is that I almost never see them again. You should try to get your break in whenever she walks into the store.

I know what you mean about wanting to just give people your change. I don't carry any with me, but once when I worked at JC Penney I had a really difficult customer come in at closing time. Long story short, she was trying to trick me into giving her more money, so she was claiming that I didn't give her all her money back when she did a return.

So I calculated it all out and she was arguing about 27 cents that I did not owe her. By the end of the transaction, I was getting more annoyed than I've ever been with a customer. I called management up and said "Can I just give her 27 cents?!" Geez it was out of control.

@ shellthabunny:
That's cool, I wish I got tips. Well...sometimes people let me keep a penny or something that's their change, but I just give it to a customer that needs it later. Did they give you large tips?

@ Somercy:
Ugh, I HATE it when people look at me like that! It makes me feel the same way(on the verge of tears). I especially hate it when I didn't do anything wrong. You definetely didn't do anything wrong.

@ Skailer:
Yeah, it's weird. Usually with jobs like this you make less money even though you have to deal with all those psychopaths. It's completely unfair.

Good thing that guy got fired. Sounds like he had severe anger management problems.

@ DreamEmpress:
You have to wonder if some of those people can speak english, but pretend not to understand when it's convenient for them. I mean, some people would have just gotten fed up with trying to explain and let her return the wrong shoes.

I know what you mean about people who appreciate you being a lot easier to help. Once I had a customer in my store 30 minutes after we closed. It would have upset me except for the fact that she was so friendly and appreciative.

Putting my thread back on the first page...

I know it's off-topic, but, you really shouldn't be piercing with a piercing gun. They're really the worst things ever, pretty much.

Anyway. I work in an independent restaurant in downtown Toronto. I don't usually deal with customers directly, but I HATE people that come into the store and make complaints to me about their particular orders. Sorry dude, I didn't make your eggs and I didn't make the fresh squeezed orange juice. If you want to complain to me about how fast I served you or how clean the bathrooms are, I can help you with that, but complaining to me about your meal (which you ATE ANYWAY) won't do anything.

Also, we have Monin syrups that are sometimes used as flavour shots for coffee drinks or sometimes for smoothies. They're not used much, though, so my boss doesn't often replace them as quickly as she might replace, say, the liquor stocks (the place doubles as a bar at night). A customer YELLED AT ME because I didn't have any vanilla syrup to put in her coffee. I tried explaining what I just wrote to her, but she kept yelling ;A;;;

Generally, though, our customers are pretty nice. We have a few regulars that are just too sweet to be true ;3;

Every time I go into a restaurant or coffee shop now now, I'm extra-patient with my servers. Unless they're just bad. (You can tell the difference between someone having a shitty day and someone who's just shitty.)

This thread makes me scared to ever get a job.
I've heard so many horror stories. XD

One of my friends, she used to work at Einstein's and was always talking about the bitchy customers she got.
I hear some amusing ones about McDonald's customers too.

@ 8bit Girls Bravo:
I have never had a problem with a piercing gun. I've had all of my piercings done with one and I've pierced 100s of peoples ears. What specific problem are you talking about? I hear a lot of people say that about piercing guns, but never really understand why.

That's insane that someone yelled at you because you didn't have vanilla syrup. I have no clue why it would be that big of a deal. I hate people that are just never satisfied and she sounds like one.

@ everyone:
Ok, so I got back from one of the most up and down days at work. I had this guy came in who built the Claire's that I work in, which was really cool. He was nice and interesting to talk to.

Then I was piercing a little girls ears. I was by myself in the store, so I put a sign on the counter explaining that I was doing an ear piercing and would be right back. Anyway, I finished the piercing and was handing the little girl a lollipop so that she wouldn't cry. This customer(who I had helped a lot earlier) comes up and yells "I NEED TO BE RUNG UP!". I kept apologizing and explained that I was alone in the store, but she was too bitchy to care.

Then this group of people came in and they were such scum buckets! They were asking me a million questions at once and I could tell they were trying to distract me so they could steal. I think they got some stuff, but they stopped stealing when I called security...and they spent $150.

I hate my job right now, I desperately need a new one. The way that Claire's works disgusts me.

Ok, so absolutely everything went wrong at work today. Our registers are supposed to tell us how much we've made per person and in total and how many items we sold per person, but it wasn't working today. It tried to tell me that I sold 1/2 an item to someone. So we had to keep track of all the sales manually, which is harder than it sounds.

Then our phone line stopped working so we couldn't accept charge cards, debit cards, or gift cards. It was really inconvenient for the customers. We made signs to put up, but some of the customers didn't see them until they were at the register. Luckily, the customers were really understanding for the most part. We were apologizing our butts off though.

I worked retail for two years at the end of high school/start of college, and I honestly never had that many problems aside from a few extremely chatty customers who felt honestly COMPELLED to tell me his or her life story. o_o;

Then again, I worked in a kitchen store, so yes. XD

Huh, maybe I should look into working in a kitchen store. I wonder if all of them are that calm. Do people ask you questions about cooking all the time? I know nothing about cooking.

I usually don't mind if customers who tell me their life story as long as I don't have other customers waiting to be helped. It can be terrible when they don't understand what an appropriate topic is and what's not though. I once had a complete stranger going into minor details about her sex life...yuck!

Wow, the worst customer I've had.
D: There's just soo many, but I do know who I'm going to chose for this one.
I was up front at one of the registers cleaning some shrimp off the floor. Apparently someone had busted one of the bags and of course didn't bother to do squat about it. Yea, they don't pay Me to clean it up either. >.>
But there I was down on my knees, picking stinky shrimp up off the floor.
And this woman comes up to me, well, that's putting it nicely, she almost stepped on me. She looks down at me and goes, "Is this register open?" I had to resist telling her, "yea, I'll just ring up your stuff from down here."
I told her no, it wasn't open and she gets all pissed at me, gives me this smug look and goes, "Well, when are you gonna be open?!"
And of course, the sarcastic voice in my head is going, "When they make me a cashier, genius." But, I couldn't say that, so I just told her I wasn't on a register. Then she got even more mad at me. x.x And talked about how I apparently didn't want to work.
Oh no, I'm down on the floor, cleaning up fish because I enjoy it oh so much. *eye roll*
She finally walked off, and I went to the stock room and cursed out a box of Cheerios. <.<

What is the worst customer you've ever had?

Okay, the worst customer I've ever had, well I guess this is more funny than worst, but this French guy, who probably just learned to speak English, went through my line (at Kmart) and he bought a crock pot. It came with a one year warranty plan, so I asked him if he'd like to purchase one for $4.99. He's like WHAT!? I'm like, "Sir, WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE A ONE YEAR REPLACEMENT PLAN FOR $4.99!" He's still didn't get it, so I asked him about seven times in a row and by then the line across from my desk was looking at him and giggling. My friend who was at the other desk starting laughing as well. Finally, I got it through his head and he didn't even want to purchase one. Grrr to him! haha story.

What about the best one?

I liked this lady that went through my line and gave me her change which was five dollars. For some reason, she didn't want it. 0.0

Oh my now this is a topic I can relate to.
I have worked at Woolies now for over a year, for those of you who don't know what Woolies is it is basically a huge chain Supermarket that really only sells food and kitchen stuff though we do sell shoddy electronics as well.
Anywho I have a lot of customers now who know me and who always come threw my register either because I am friendly or because I am fast yet good at packing the bags. For these people I will do almost anything since they make my day pretty easy and they never complain about anything.
However I have had a lot of bad customers as well some who ask me to lower the prices when I just can't or people who seem to think everything that goes wrong in the store can always be resolved by the person up front.
I had a really bad customer once who came threw the express lane with 35 items (express is a max of 12) and she was really picky on how her vegetables where packed and she was saying how 'You Woolies people always squish my vegetables here I am paying quality money and whenever I get home my vegies are always squished' and it was just so rude since the bags I had where tiny and could only fit three items in them to begin with and it was so contradictory since the first item she put threw where her eggs.
(though I will admit that if we get a particularly evil customer we dig our fingernails into their melons or what not so she may have suffered this a few times, especially if she started saying that sorta things to them) Also chances are it wasn't our fault in the first place. They may get battered around in the car or the trolley god knows what happens to them after we pack them in bags.

I used to work in a hardware store and over Xmas break I'll be going back. D:

Anyway, I hate it when people come to return stuff they've already opened. Sadly, we take returns when they've been opened as long as all the stuff is there...but it still leads to a bunch of crap. So anyway, the worst thing is when people return doorknobs. BEcause those are SO HARD to repackage.

And then once a lady yelled at me because she wanted to get full price on something she was returning that she got on sale. It doesn't work that way. >:(

And then the crazy drunken homeless lady who couldn't walk so she's ride our only ride-on cart and kill tne battery. >o<

I can't think of any good customer there. >o<

people just expect you to bend over backwards like that. Plus they are always trying to get more money back then they paid.

Yup. And that hardware store doesn't pay enough. I'm really not looking forward to having to go back...but college won't pay for itself. >_<

I do tech support for computers and have dealings with warranties. Needless to say, I totally believe it is in the consumers best interest to READ WHAT YOU FREAKIN BUY!If you happen to be one of these special individuals who buy something at the word of a 15 yr old sales man working on commission, that makes you an idiot.

I get lots of angry callers. I'd give you an example but with my luck one of the special people that have called me will recognize their story and try and get my happy rear fired, and I hate my job, but I love my paycheck. Anyway, most of the frustration people have is because they have this mind set that whatever 15 yr old Timmy store employee says about the warranty that's how it should work. They don't even bother tto verify the information themselves! So in essence it's really the customer's fault... twice.

My vote was for an ID10T Error clause. It should state "If you are too damn stupid to troubleshoot your computer per the T&C of your warranty, this warranty can be null and void" but then I'd never get a call >_<

Ohh. . I do not envy you tech support- my friend works with compuiters and has to help faculty sometimes and the stores he brings me make me shudder.


I used to work a 2nd job at Boscov's over the holidays - and one year on Christmas Eve this guy was screaming at me and the other employees of the accessories department for not having the slippers he wanted in his wife's size - eventually the manager came over and told him to leave the store and that's what he gets for waiting till the last minute to shop for his wife.

I think the man was dumbfounded that he was told to leave.


I also used to work at ACME (grocery store) and we had this one customer who would come in all the time complaining and wating money back - after having them come in for months and constantly getting refunds for stuff they shouldn't the CSR told them if they hate the store so much they can leave an not come back, then they walked them to the door and pointed to the Giant across the street and said "There's Giant, get out and don't come back"


One winter day I was working in the melon bar and a guy wanted watermelon - we don't sell whole watermelons in the winter and a lot of the ones I had been cutting open had been bad - I told him this and cut one in half to make sure it was good, wrapped it and brought it to him. He freaked out and started screaming that I was trying to rip him off by cutting the watermelon and going on and on about how I must be stupid because he never said cut it, and the customer is always right.

The manager got called and when I explained that I cut the watermelon because I've bene having to throw out 1/2 of the ones i open for being bad he explained this to the customer (which I had laready done) and the dude kept mumbling about customer being right and I shouldn't do anything he doesn't ask me to do.

He was a jerk and wanted me to be fired - manager told him I would not be punished because I was trying to help him - and then the manager took him out of the store. The whole thing was really upsetting- I cried after being screamed at and went home - told the manager I would never, ever, help that man again if he came into the store.

I did see the guy again later, I looked at him and then turned my back on him and walked away, ignoring his 'excuse me' because he was asking for help. I didn't see him again after that.

I wanted to scream back at hima dn throw the damn watermelon in his face- it was all I could do to go into the back room and kick boxes to get out my frustration. I am so glad I don't work retail anymore, and I don't have to deal with parents too much in my job.

Ugg.. people suck.

Ok, I have to put this thread back on the first page. I'm sure with all the Christmas shopping/eating people have some good and bad stories.

I have so many crappy stories that I wouldn't know where to start with them. I've been working at a bookstore for over a year now, and to tell the truth, at first I thought we'd get better customers because they'd have to be literate to buy stuff from there. While that remains true with the majority of them, though, there are still a ton of jackasses and morons.

I guess I'll just tell one of the funny shoplifting stories tonight, though. I'll fill in on the more catastrophic events in later posts, considering I want to end tonight with a good note and I need to get to bed in just a few minutes here since I have work in.. well, not very many hours.

There was these three teenagers (or maybe they were in their twenties, I couldn't tell, but I knew they probably never shoplifted before or even attempted it by the way they decided to do things that night) that were in the store one night. It was around eight thirty, maybe closer to nine, and the mall was nearly closed. We stayed open for an hour after the mall, but keep in mind this was probably either late to mid August, beginning of September at the MOST. So there were maybe three or four other people in Borders that night, and very few stragglers out in the actual mall itself.

So these three people were in the CD section, I was at the cash register in the front (I switched with Todd, my co-worker, because he hates register and I happen to actually love it), and my manager Janice was in the back watching the cameras. It was absolutely hilarious what came next. Janice called for Todd over the headset, telling him to "ask the customers in the CD section if they needed help". So he went and asked, and when they said no, he acted like he was fixing CDs around the corner in the next eisle. Then he realized that one of the girls had a jacket on that seemed to be getting bigger, and upon further inspection, realized that they were shoving CDs down her jacket and her shirt was tucked in so they wouldn't fall out the bottom. So Janice told me to call mall security, and told Todd she'd be right there. Of course, I called security but they weren't there until AFTER everything went down (they're always like that, lazy bastards), and Janice cornered them one way and Todd did the other. Then two of them bolted and the third took off last. She dropped the CDs that were in her arms at the door to the exit (we have a mall exit and a regular store exit into the mall... of course they chose the outside exit), and bolted out the door.

Now we never had anything like that happen before, so Todd was completely dumbstruck. He didn't know what to do but knew there were hundreds of dollars worth of CDs down the girl's shirt. So he took off out the store after her. xD When he was about twenty car spaces out into the parking lot, she dumped the rest of the CDs and kept running. All the merch was picked up by Todd and my manager, and of course only then the security got there. And then my manager called my general manager and Todd got yelled at because he wasn't supposed to bolt outside after the girl (safety.. he could've gotten shot had they had a gun on them or something).

It's probably going to be one of the most memorable moments of my working there. ^^

I find this thread fun to look through.
Makes me happy that I can't work yet. ^_^

• I used to work at Claires too. :3 But I never had customers like that. And I didn't stay long enough to pierce ears. XD
  

Hmm... I can tell a few stories... lol

Oh.. THE WORST ONE EVER: McDonald's story, this thing from hell drove up to the window one night and placed her order and one of the guys heard her wrong. (Hey sometimes it's the headphones people.) But when she drove up he asked her what she said. And she was like look you f*ing nigg** you better not **ck my order up, you f*ing nigg**s never get my orders right and I'm f*ing sick of it. She ordered a Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese and he has her sandwich and the mayo gun and he looked at me because I was the manager and I was like I REALLY don't blame you AT ALL. So he put like five pounds of mayo on her burger and wrapped it. I put it in the bag and she pulled up to my window and like didn't even look in there and she was like you better tell that f*ing nigg**r to straighten his s*hit up and I was like, I really don't know what you think gives you the right to talk to someone like that and she got in my face and screamed f*uck you bi*ch! I was like half way out the window screaming every obscenity I could think of while she pealed off. I turned around and everyone started clapping. It was great. She never came back. She probably figured someone would kick her ass.



Back when I was a manger at McDonald's this woman came in and started arguing with one of my girls, something about her food.

This woman was nasty and called her stupid and a few other things I'm not going to go into on here so I asked her to leave.


She asked to talk to the other manager in the back office, who was counting down the tills for the night. I told her that we're not allowed to leave the office when we're counting down.

This is 75% true, we can leave but we've got to lock everything up and I wasn't going to have the other manager come out and deal with the woman so I just told her to leave again.

Well ten minutes later I get this phone call. surprise. She asks if I'm the manager in the back and I was like, "Yes I am, how can I help you?"
She goes, "I was just in there and the other manager called me a hillbilly and made fun of my speech and I was really upset." I was like oh, I'm sorry I'll talk to her and hung up. I hate people who lie to try and get people fired. Like for all she knew I could be living in an apartment with a kid and she's trying to get me fired. I kind of hope someone hit her with a car. :D

When I was at Meijers I had this couple try and pull a scam. They brought up two items that were on sale and twenty that weren't. Well most of the stock people in back hate being bothered by cashiers and I got this guy who didn't even want to look for the price and he was like just give it to them. Only problem being he wasn't a manager and I can only change $5.00 worth of crap. So I told her I was like look I can't give you this, it's not on sale. She called me a cu*t and walked out.

I also had a guy who would try and rip McDonald's off for $1.00 sandwiches at night. He'd drive through and say he had a credit, but his credits were mysteriously never in the book. One night he came through and said he'd talked to a manager and I asked him who. He said I don't remember the name it was some guy though and I was like look bitch, the only people who work the third shift here (manager wise) are female and I work five nights out of seven so gtfo. :D

Oh, there was also this little old lady who came into Media Play and wanted this DVD that was on our list as a February release. She tried to tell me that I was full of it because they told her at Best Buy that it was out. I was thinking then why the hell didn't you get it there you crazy bitch. She wouldn't even listen when I showed her the list.

There was a guy who wanted an animated movie that started with the letter K. I told him I can look in Anime for you and in Cartoons and he was like... no I don't think that's it and I'm thinking what you want me to look in every section? He's like can you put it in the computer. I was like, you want me to look up the letter K? He was like it couldn't hurt anything. I'm like you realize there are a billion movies that start with K... jackass. He finally found it in Sci-Fi the last section... but seriously if you have no idea what the movie is just look for it. I mean I think he could read so he really didn't need me to look through every section of K videos in the store. >.<

Oh... and there was the time some guy pooped on the floor in the bathroom and I had to clean it up... yeah that was fun.

Then there were the usual jerks guys in their fifties who called me kitten ect...

@ IshokuOsero:
That is so crazy that they weren't even being stealthy about it. They must have tried to take a bunch of CDs if it was altering the appearance of her coat.

I can't believe they yelled at Todd for going after them. I know you're not supposed to apprehend shoplifters, but it's not like they looked like skilled people who'd carry weapons. And it's not like anyone else was going to go after them.

Out of curiosity, what kinds of CDs did they take? I wonder if they grabbed the ones they liked or were just randomly grabbing anything they could.

@ Jaina Solo:
Ugh, that first one you talked about is awful. I've never had someone cuss at me so directly. Too bad you had to serve her anyway. At least you guys can get revenge with the mayo gun.

I hate it when people do lame things like calling the people that are serving them stupid. I've had that happen to some new girls when they're still training. I always feel terrible for them...It's hard enough to start a new job without people being assholes.

That's funny that you picked up the phone and she was making up lies about you to your face. People can be so vicious.

Wow, you've worked in a lot of different places. I can't believe someone wanted you to look through all the Ks at the video store. Did he want you to read them all to him and wait till one sounded familiar? That would've taken all night.

I agree with your first post as far as stores always changing prices to appease people, as it just makes them say, "Oh I can step all over people now!"

I had one lady I was trying to help? She insisted that she didn't want to bother at that moment with ordering something from another store. I politely told her to come in any time and we would order it for her, so she would have the curtains enough for all her windows and not be worried about having mismatched windows. She refused. She said she was going home, I'd fucked up everything for her (uh, after five minutes of trying to help her?!) and then stated that my store had ordered stuff wrong and blah blah blah...and then she goes on to say she wants to call back and give me her credit card over the phone and have me order everything. All her personal information, over the phone, so she doesn't have to be in the store to do it. While she sits on her fat, stay-at-home-with-no-kids-and-too-rich-and-bored ass on the couch. Uh, NO. I told her politely that it was store policy that she be in the store so we can verify identification for credit cards.

She flipped, and told me I wouldn't have a job if she didn't pay my paycheque. Uh, she returns stuff and that's actually NEGATIVE on a store, not positive. My company pays my paycheques. Even the cashier rolled her eyes at this woman.

I was nice to her, but you can imagine with the nasty comments I've left in reference to her, she didn't leave me with a good impression. o.o;

I also had a guy slam a metal pipe on my cash register at my first job, for my having to do a price check. I'd been working less than a week, and it was a computer-related issue having nothing to do with me - I apologized and that's what I got. I about walked out in tears with a mental breakdown. His wife about did too...

I also got some guy who yelled at me for stealing American jobs because I'm a dirty Mexican. THAT pissed me off. I'm so glad I'm not even Mexican, because if I had been, I would have punched his lights out for saying such AWFUL things. This guy was like in his 60s or more... And I don't think how long my family has been in America counts for ANYTHING, but my family goes back a few generations.

I laughed at him. He got angry at me and bitched more, and I went into hysterics.

Originally Posted by juniper_silver

@ Jaina Solo:
Ugh, that first one you talked about is awful. I've never had someone cuss at me so directly. Too bad you had to serve her anyway. At least you guys can get revenge with the mayo gun.

Yeah, those are usually the worst ones, the people who cuss at you. I always feel like you never know what someone's situation is so even if someone screws up, like at a restaurant, I'm really patient because I always think they could be new or maybe they have a sick family member or something... but some people just go at it with a nasty attitude.

I hate it when people do lame things like calling the people that are serving them stupid. I've had that happen to some new girls when they're still training. I always feel terrible for them...It's hard enough to start a new job without people being assholes.

That's funny that you picked up the phone and she was making up lies about you to your face. People can be so vicious.

I really wasn't surprised. People lie all the time. They decide they don't like you, so they're going to try and get you fired. My father was driving his truck out on the highway the other day and he had like six car lengths so he started to pull over to get to his exit. Well this car behind him came flying up on his ass so he pulled the truck back over. He pulls up next to the car in front and the guy was on his cell phone. It turns out he was the guy in back's father and his son was following him, he got pissed when my dad pulled in the middle so he used the number on the side of my dads truck to call his work and tell them that my dad was speeding. Fortunately my dad's truck has a speed limit it can only go up to a certain speed and my dad's been there for like 20 years so they knew the guy was full of it. But I was furious because that guy knows nothing about us, like that my dad has two kids and he's helping me pay for college, or that he's diabetic and relies on his insurance to pay for his medications. He's just trying to get my dad fired for going between him and his son on the highway, god forbid.

Wow, you've worked in a lot of different places. I can't believe someone wanted you to look through all the Ks at the video store. Did he want you to read them all to him and wait till one sounded familiar? That would've taken all night.

Yeah, I worked for a year in high school at a bowling alley and then when I moved north to go to college I worked at Meijers because it was within walking distance. Then when I moved back down here I was part time at McDonald's until they started the 3'd shift and I went full time and became a swing manager. Then when that finally got too stressful and I had enough money to go back to school, I left there and took a part time job at Media Play where one of my friends was a lead. So I guess I've done a little of everything. :3

I didn't have to read them to him but he like loomed over me while I flipped through them, like he couldn't even be bothered to flip through them himself. >.<!
Some people require that little extra dose of patience. I normally loved helping people at Media Play. My favorite people were little old people who were Christmas shopping and couldn't find Aqua Teen Hunger Force or something, they always acted like it was a Christmas miracle that I knew where all of the "weird" stuff on their list was at. lol But every once in a while you're get a special one. xD

My worst customer was a woman (or a man). I couldn't really tell the gender of the person. And anyways, he/she, said, that this was the slowest wait she has ever had. And just started yelling at me, about how her fries were cold, and how she should call up the store owner and file a complaint, and was wondering what I was going to do about this, and saying that she could have choked on a french fry and that, so I all did was say I'm sorry and replaced her fries, and said "If there's any other problems just let me know", and she was fine with that. So she left.


-My brother had a seizure because a lady was furious about the fact the she didn't have her chicken snack wraps, and the refund codes were not working. And was continuing to yell as my brother was on the floor convulsing.