Reddit, what's the worst/sneakiest/most annoying way a Customer has tried to screw you over?

jreckers · 3 months

In high school I worked a service desk at a supermarket. Whenever somebody returned a small appliance, we always cut open the box to make sure all the parts were with it. One day a guy showed up looking to return an air conditioner. Cut open the box, and there was nothing but a rock inside. He ran out of the store pretty quick.

day5rocks · 3 months

I worked at a grocery store a couple years back. One day, this really fat older woman comes to my line, buys only a pack of Reese's peanut butter cups and pays with a $100. Before I can count her change back to her, she snatches it out of my hand and walks out. A few minutes later, she comes back in and claims that I shorted her $80 (I think she said 80, it was some ridiculous amount). Most of the cashiers in the evening were teenagers (including myself) so she probably just assumed that they would be stupid and give her the money, but I called the manager over and asked him to count my cash drawer. Of course, the woman asked if she could go outside for a smoke in the meantime and didn't come back.

She actually came in again a few months later and tried the same thing. This time when she grabbed for her change I kept it out of her reach and slowly counted it back to her. She didn't come back in.

TomPalmer1979 · 3 months

Worked at GameStop years ago...little old lady brought in her grandkids and told them to pick out whatever they wanted from the Used PS2 wall (which at the time was still 1/3 of the store). She asked us for a used PS2, with extra used controllers. These kids must've picked out 20 games. She bought and paid for all of them. As she was leaving, we reminded her (as we had to, it was policy) that everything used could be returned within 7 days for any reason.

"Oh I know. My grandkids are only staying with me for five days. I'm bringing all this shit back on day six! Cheaper than renting!"

There was absolutely nothing we could do.

bruthaman · 3 months

I manage a restaurant and deal with the slickest customers ever on a regular basis. Just a few hours ago I had a large table with split checks that were really treating the server horribly. We were glad to see them go. Instead of waiting at the table to pay for the multiple checks, they all stand around in a group at the front while we work out the bills. In the cluster-fuck of chaos they cause, one of them (a mother with small child no less), casually walks out the front door without paying. We notice that the bill is still unpaid as they all leave, and the group assures me that she went to the bathroom. 1 minute later, after checking, the entire group is headed down the road. I confront them and they tell me that she wasn't with them and they didn't even know who she was. Fuck me, and where the hell is a cop when I need one.

smeenatchu · 3 months

This lady used to come into my job and order this HUGE breakfast all the time. Same one, every time. And every time, about a third of the way into it, she would say something was the matter with it, it was inedible, and didn't want to pay for it. We complied many times. After personally seeing this happen a few times, I started to wonder how she got a bad breakfast every time? And WHY did she keep coming in and ordering it, considering what bad luck she kept having.

Come to find out, a regular customer knew her. They told us she had gastric bypass surgery and could no longer eat very much. So this bitch would just come in, eat till she was full, which wasn't much, and then complain that it was bad. Being that she hardly ate it, we always believed her, and didn't make her pay.

Next time she came in, I refused her service. She FREAKED out. When I asked her why she continued to come in even though her meal was ALWAYS bad, her response was: "I'm waiting to get a good meal".

throwaway19111 · 3 months

University IT Helpdesk - Someone was annoyed that I wouldn't break policy and let them back on the network after they were kicked off for a month due to repeated, blatant piracy resulting in DMCA complaints sent to us.

They then asked to go talk to my boss about it and I told them where their office was and continued working.

Five minutes later, he comes walking out with an odd grin, with my boss following behind and looking like she's trying really hard to be serious and not being successful. Boss comes over to me, and says "He says you ignored him to play a computer game, and then were rude and insulting to him."

Customer has a look on his face like "ha, you're going to get fired now!". My boss then goes "Of course, I know you're one of our best employees, so I figure that he's either making it up, or he deserves the treatment, which one is it?". Never seen someone's face go so quickly from happy to "oh shit".

I explain what he's mad at me for, and then she tells me she's going to lock his account for the month out of our control to make sure he can't try to bully any other helpdesk employees into letting him back on.

KnickersUpKettleOn · 3 months

'Steve', a trusted regular at my bar - this guy had been coming in for twenty years, in his mid forties - started hanging out late until after I did the cash drop and leaving with me. This meant I'd leave the bar unattended for a minute while I ran to the office. Crafty little jerk used this opportunity to lean over the bar and steal a bottle of Grey Goose, twice. He knew the place so well he did it only when I was off the next day and our one kind of goofy day person would open, correctly guessing she wouldn't realise it had been stolen and just restock it; and he knew where to stand to be in the blind spot on our security.

My night porter gave me the heads up the third week he was hanging out late, just as I was thinking to myself 'Why so late every Wednesday? He usually leaves two hours earlier.' I was SO MAD. So I told him he'd have to leave before I dropped the cash, basically 'I know what you've been doing. I can't prove it, but I'll never leave you alone again in here.'

He correctly guessed the porter had told me, went straight into the freshly cleaned bathroom and spat gobs of phlegm-y mucous grossness all over the damn place. Came out and told my porter in his native language 'Clean it up, bitch. That's your job.'

I tried to be nice. 'Hey, 'Steve', we've all done stupid things when we've been drinking. Clean it up yourself, you can come back tomorrow like nothing happened. You don't, you will never drink in here again.' Of course he didn't clean it despite me and his friends practically begging him to - 'Whatever bitch I've been coming here longer than you've been alive. I'll be here tomorrow, you'll be looking for a new job if you try to bar me.' 'I'd rather leave than serve you a beer ever again, but we'll see.'

My boss made the right decision. And a week after I left that bar (three years later) 'Steve' wiped out on his motorcycle and died, so to my knowledge he never did drink in that bar again.

TL;DR - Bar customer steals; bio-hazards up the bathroom, is barred, dies. Dying probably unrelated.

FerociousPenguin · 3 months

Oh jeez. I work for a grooming salon and we are supposed to verify that the customer has paid for the services before we give them the dog. Harsh, I know, but some of these grooms run upwards of $100 and the store doesn't want to lose that (plus I don't want to lose my commission!).

Anyway, a lady comes back from supposedly paying, shows me a receipt; it's a little crinkled but nothing I believe is out of the ordinary. I give dog. Turns out she had shown me the receipt from the previous time the dog had gotten groomed. I didn't check the dates or anything.

I felt like a total dumbass while explaining it to my manager the next day.

kittenburrito · 3 months

Mine isn't terribly interesting, but it pissed me off.

I used to work at McDonald's. This particular night, I was handing out orders to the cars at the second window. This woman had ordered a couple of value meals and a happy meal. We got the happy meal done first and I handed it out. She looked in the bag, then looked up at me and very sweetly said, "I'm so sorry, but they put fries in this bag, and I wanted apple dippers."

So I apologized, took the bag, and replaced it. The manager on duty happened to be nearby and said to me, "But the order said fries." I told her, "I know, but she told me she wanted apple dippers."

An hour later the store gets a call, and said manager goes to answer it. She comes back some time later and says, "Remember that order where you replaced the fries with apple dippers? She just called and complained that she got apple dippers in her happy meal when she clearly ordered fries, which is what her receipt shows. She was wanting a couple of free value meals to make her happy over this "screw up."

My jaw just dropped. I was only 17 at the time, and hadn't really seen just how fucked up people can be yet. I said, "Xochi, I swear to you, she looked me in the eye and told me to replace the fries with apple dippers. I wouldn't have changed that if she hadn't." Luckily I didn't get in trouble, she believed me, but I was so angry that there was this customer who seemed so nice when she was there in front of me, then called back all bitchy and tried to get me in trouble. Just so she could get ~$10-$15 worth of free food.

haterhipper · 3 months

I worked at a grocery store and this guy returned an item everytime he came into the store. one day we followed him while he going through the store. he was grabbing something off the shelf that he bought the last time and bringing to the register. Even after we caught him and told him we wouldnt accept any of his returns he tried everytime. He would look for new cashiers and go to them.

redditsetgooo · 3 months

I am a waiter, and I remember serving this family. I walked up and greeted them politely, but they didn't acknowledge me. I was sat again so I told them that I would be right back, and the man lifted his head up and said, "You are a waiter, right?" I said, "Yes..." He responded,"Then you wait."

Scenro · 3 months

This isn't necessarily a customer taking advantage of a company. In fact I was downright stumped with this one. Working at Macy's two years ago., a woman walks in with her bag of clothes. I greet her as she walked in with a previous shopping bag. I assumed she was making a return. Instead she picks up an item from her shopping bag, she shows me a pair of expensive jeans and says "I forgot to pay for these, Can you point me to the nearest register?"

To say the least I was absolutely shocked at the honesty. And the sensor was removed, so obviously who ever rang her up had already removed it and had just forgot to scan the item.

fietsvrouw · 3 months

I worked at Burger King in Hamburg Germany while I was studying there. We were slammed at lunch with people backed out the door and this guy paid for his lunch with a 20 mark note. He waited 20 minutes, then came back in and demanded another 30 marks in change claiming he had given me a 50 mark note. I had no way to prove to the customer or my manager what he had paid with so I had to give him the 30 out of my drawer. At the end of my shift my till was 30 marks short. Same manager who made me give him the money docked my pay 30 marks. Took me 6 hours of work to earn that.

GitsAndShiggles · 3 months

Background: I work at a movie theater connected directly to a mall.

You know those pens you use to make sure a bill is real and not fake? I marked a $100 bill with one and it passed. It was right color, though it seemed a bit darker than usual. I just assumed it was because the pen is really old and dry. So I call the manager to get change for it (it was a new shift, so i had a new register [not enough change]). I hand it to my manager (the big GM who rarely works where I do, he is usually at other stores).

He begins walking to the back, and holds the bill up to the light right before he turns the corner. He stops in his tracks. He comes back and says "We can't accept this.. it's a $5 bill." I am standing there with a blank expressions, but on the inside I am freaking out. The customer says he got it from some check-to-cash place in the mall. My manager says "Alright, we just have to call the police and tell them. You can wait here so we get it figured out." The guy walks out. Police are called, "Secret Service" dude shows up, SS guy checks the bill for everything ever in a big book he has with him, and everything gets sorted out. Theater didn't lose any money, guy who came in probably lost $5.

Now, I check EVERY $100 bill for the security strip and watermark. I'd never heard of someone re-printing on a different bill to trick the pen. So, if you handle cash at work and use a pen to check it, always, ALWAYS check for the security strip and watermark. I'm glad I didn't get written up or fired because of that.

gmcculloch · 3 months

Well, this is only kinda on topic, but it happened yesterday and I'm really proud of myself so here goes: Last year at this time my old college roommates starting getting calls from a collection agency about a power bill that they claimed I hadn't paid. I called up and settled it, no big deal. Yesterday my friend texted me to say he started getting calls again. So I called up the agency and asked for their address, leaving out the part that it was for a cease and desist letter. I guess they get that a lot b/c the guy said "I'm not authorized to give that out." So I called again, and this time I said I wanted to send a check to pay the bill. The woman gave me the address right away. She flipped out at me when I told her what my call was really about, I guess they don't like their own tricks used against them.

Edited for clarity

kalashnikitty · 3 months

I was working at Old Navy and we had just gotten in the "Rockstar Skinnies" and they came in an array of ghastly colors.... A woman comes up to my register holding a bright blue pair. It was very obvious these are the pants that are in the front of the store, on display everywhere. I ring her up, tell her "that'll be $34.94" and she promptly says "No, they're on sale". I look at the back of the tag I scanned, and there's a sloppily slapped on clearance sticker reading $2.95. I explain that it must have been a mistake, these are brand new pants, if they were on sale it would show up in my system. She demands a manager and my sup calls bullshit, which made the woman storm away grumbling about how Old Navy is lame.

We potentially would have honored a sale sticker if it made it on there somehow (even though it was obviously her) if she would have at LEAST put a realistic price on there. You really think you're going to get away with paying $3 for a pair of jeans?

F33N3Y · 3 months

I work at a fine dinning restaurant and every year we have a truffle dinner. It's amazing, we make cocktails desserts and 13 courses all with different types of truffles and a wine pairing per course. Needless to say the price for a ticket is steep. It's usually over 200$ per person some years more. 98% of the people who come here are valued regulars or friends of the owners or chefs so we let people pay at the end. Well this year we had one couple go out for a smoke and just never came back. We figured out who they were in the reservation book and quickly called the number thinking they were drinking a lot they probably made an honest mistake. Well both numbers were fake and they had dined and dashed on us.

vamosvamos · 3 months

Being a klutzy server, I once dropped a stack of oyster plates on my first day. My table joked oysters came on their own plates anyway. As I was laughing it off with them, we heard a shriek from a few rows of tables over.

A woman insisted some rogue sharp piece had ricocheted over and cut her leg. I see her pinching her cut to "drain the blood." Her husband has her elevate her leg on to a chair and she starts deep breathing. My manager rushes out with a free bottle of wine and to gauge the wound. The woman isn't in my section, but when I go to check in on how she's feeling, she responds, with wide eyes, "I FEEL LIKE I'VE BEEN SHOT."

Shortly after comping her meal and twenty minutes into overapologizing and babying her, my manager realizes she is displaying a shard of glass as the culprit. The plates were ceramic.

geekgirl82 · 3 months

I work in insurance and one of my coworkers took cash from a customer, put it in an envelope behind the counter and turned around to grab the paperwork. While their back was turned, the client reached around the counter and grabbed the money. We did not notice until later in the day. Thankfully we had video cameras and my boss threatened with police action and they came back and paid.

limpdickskit · 3 months

Had a customer come into the store to buy two 42 inch LG TVs. He paid half cash, half credit with a card that didn't have a signature on it and was badly damaged on the front. We asked him the name on in it, he said that it was his. We asked to see his ID (as is policy for credit card customers) and he showed us an ID with a different name on it than from what he said. When I told him that we couldn't ring up the transaction, he immediately gets pissed off and tells me that I have "lost a customer" and that I "should be ashamed of myself" for following policy. I shrugged and told him he didn't have to buy the TVs from us. He got even angrier, but paid with cash.

Fast forward a week later, he comes in and tries to steal two pre-owned games by taking them into the bathroom and breaking the clamshells on them. He comes out and we nail him for it. Turns out he had warrants out for his arrest and he had stolen four credit cards and used them within the last month. Boom, headshot.

TheKloKloYo · 3 months

I work in customer service for a major cell phone company. "I never received the phone I purchased" happens all the time. It's actually very amusing, because then I can do this.

"Oh, gosh Mr Derp, I'm so sorry that you didn't receive your phone. The tracking number indicates that it was delivered to the address you requested about three days ago. Have you possibly checked with a neighbor who may have retrieved it for you?"

Mr Derp: "Nope, no one has the phone. It must have been stolen. I'm going to need a new one."

Cue troll face from me: "Hmmm okay then, Mr Derp. The reason I'm asking is because I'm pretty concerned; The serial number of the phone we sent you is actually showing as being in use for 3 days on the same line you're calling me from right now."

Mr Derp: CLICK

Ikarus3426 · 3 months

I used to be an assistant manager at a pet store. One day when I was responsible for the store for an afternoon, this guy comes in pissed. He came in and started to yell at the cashier, who was a very kind high school girl that deserved none of his anger. And when I was manager, you didn't fucking yell at my co-workers for any reason. So we already started on a bad foot. I pulled him away from the cashier and asked him his problem.

Turns out he bought a Pedigree individually packaged dog bone (about $2). He got it home, left it with the dog on the outside porch over night, then brought it inside. That next day he was shocked to find bugs all over the bone and now inside his house. He came to the pet store pissed because, clearly, there were insect eggs inside the bone that hatched when the package was opened, burrowed out of the bone, and infested his home like some kind of tiny trojan horse warfare army.

I couldn't help but smile slightly, which only pissed him off more. I said I'd take the bones in the back and stop selling them (he insisted), but I kept trying to tell him that bugs will get on dog food, so he should seal it up when it's not in use and definitely don't leave it outside. Nope, this didn't make sense to him, the bugs had to have been sealed inside the bone.

He wanted a refund for $2. Normally I would have done it just to keep a customer happy, but he nearly brought my cashier to tears, so I wasn't giving him anything. He left completely pissed off, and a few minutes later came back in just to yell some more. I had moved the bones back to the store because there was nothing at all wrong with them, but this pissed him off even more. I told him he will get nothing and that he needs to leave before I call the cops. He left the store and yelled some more in the parking lot.

He later called and tried to complain to the store manager, but I had already explained what had happened to her and she just kind of shrugged him off. So much anger over $2.

auditory · 3 months

I worked as a cashier in high school and this one time a guy wouldn't let me lift a box out of his cart. He was an elderly guy and tried to be real gentleman-like about it saying things like, "Oh sweetheart I don't want you to hurt your back, it's a heavy box" He didn't account for two things: 1) policy 2) I'm stubborn/willful and when someone implies I'm too weak to do something I'm 500% more inclined to do it anyways. Anyways, I lift up the box, it's supposed to be like some decor or something a one piece deal and instead of hearing nothing, like you'd expect from a styrofoam packed single item in a box, I hear what sounds like a large collection of items jumbled together. Call my manger over. Turns out he was trying to steal a fuckton of electronics stuff and DVDs. And he seemed like such a nice old man...

Herborist · 3 months

I work at a gas station my uncle owns, and I had a guy come in and try to steal donuts, but this guy wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. He stuffed three jelly-filled donuts under his shirt, and tried to pay for gas and leave before I noticed. Suffice it to say that I had a fun time watching him explain the giant, growing jelly stain on his shirt.

BeckyBoo122 · 3 months

I used to work as a shift leader at a chocolate shop that served fondue. We'd serve bananas among other things to dip in the chocolate. One time we had gotten a bad batch of bananas that we had to throw away early because they got so bad so fast. So we were telling customers that they would get extra of everything else but we had no bananas. Well a lady came in and wanted a fondue, and we gave her the no banana speech and she was totally okay with it. As soon as we took the fondue out to her she went bat shit crazy and freaked out about not having bananas! Her son even said, "they said they didn't have any!" and she just shushed him and continued yelling at me. I don't know what happened but the next thing that came out of my mouth was, "Well Ma'am I told you we had no bananas, if you want them so bad we have some spoiled ones in the dumpster out back. Feel free to help yourself." My co workers busted out laughing behind me but she wasn't so happy. She ended up calling in to our push over manager and got a free fondue, not because of what I had said, but because there were no damn bananas!

tarekiswhat · 3 months

I used to work at a place called Jumpstreet - an indoor trampoline amusement park in my city - where I held the title of 'bouncer'. I was practically a lifeguard on trampolines, along with fifteen other first job teenagers who monitored the safety of our guests.

It is easily the most dangerous idea for a public general entertainment business for bored teenagers; we would get multiple injuries a day. Some people sprained wrists and others broke bones, but it was uncommon to go hours without having injured guests. (Maximum occupancy was near 540 people, all bouncing on twelve lines of trampoline simultaneously between the ages of 3 and 55.)

One time, a guy was doing back flips across a mat and a young girl ran by and, well, messed him up and he fell on his neck and was unconscious with a nosebleed. I had to have >350 people all sit down perfectly still and wait until an ambulance arrived. I had a firefighter sitting next to me, who begged to help and I said I didn't want him to be liable for anything in case something bad happened, and the ambulance had already been called. I won't lie, I was ready to shit myself because I had no clue what to do. We were never trained for situations like this. So I followed the firefighter's orders, which involved making physical contact with the guest (big mistake?!).

The paramedics arrived and took him away, the accident report was filed, and the firefighter and a paramedic I was reporting to both told me that I handled the situation well, and could have been a great help for what I did. (which was, well, very little.) So I went on my break and a lady asked my name, and I told her. Turns out she had planned to sue me for my life's savings, (which was my next $7.25 paycheck) and asked my manager to fire me. She was also terrified, and she did fire me, but luckily for me, the kid signed away almost all of his rights when he first entered the building in the form of a consent waiver. I met him later that year over Facebook; nice guy. Still pisses me off, I tried to do the right thing and lost my job for it.

tl;dr: I called 911 when a kid fell at work, listened to a firefighter in attempts to keep him up, and lost my job for it.

cute_monkey · 3 months

One night a lady comes in with 2 teenage girls and asks for a product. She's all over the place changing subjects left and right (most likely trying to confuse me). She finally decides on a product and she pays with a 20. I count out her change and before I hand it to her she says nevermind I don't want it anymore. I hand her back a 20 and literally 2 seconds later she's holding a $1 bill and said I only gave her a 1. I look down at the register and for some strange reason I had a photographic memory image of which way the bills were facing and I knew 99.99% that I gave her back the 20. I remembered when I put her 20 in it was facing right but the 20 in the drawer was facing left. She was threatening to call the police but I knew I was right. We have cameras in the store so I said lets review the tape. As I'm rewinding, she leaves in a fit saying she's calling the cops. I watch the tape and I can clearly see her pull out the 1 but I can't for the life of me figure out what happened to the 20 I handed back to her because there was no time for her to stash it. After much review of 3 cameras from different angles I see her drop the $20 and one of the teenage girls takes off her shoe, picks it up with her toes and slides it back into her shoe all in a matter of seconds... total con.

TLDR - lady tries to con $20 out of me.

scotsman81 · 3 months

Another : I had a customer come in with his laptop, opens it up and it clearly has viruses. I tell him this, and he agrees, and buys a virus removal service. 2 days later he comes in to collect it (I wasn't around) and suddenly claims it didn't have a virus, and we didn't have proof that it did. We did have proof, but as soon as he said the word 'corporate' my manager caved and refunded it. Very annoying, however I have since refused to deal with this customer, and always pass him to someone else

AintNoCrimeToRhyme · 3 months

Many years ago I worked at a little dingy movie theater in my hometown. It was my first job, super easy and lax. Of course you get some angry customers, but nothing too serious. However, we did have this one guy who came in every single weekday for the first show (he was probably in his mid-50's) and I opened box office every day of the week. This guy used to come, and not even joking, for almost every single movie would walk out 30 minutes to an hour in and come up to me and demand a refund because "his movie was awful". I had to then call my manager Corey in every time, Corey would talk to him about it, had to follow procedure and then refund the guy. One day this son of a bitch doesn't show (thank God). It's about 1 p.m. and a little bit of a crowd picks up, I'm the only one in the box office and trying to get through the line, then this guy comes up. But it's a little different now. He has a ticket from another movie theater (I'm not joking, not even a theater in OUR chain. Just a theater nearby). So he starts ranting about how he went to that theater, the service was awful, the movie was awful, he slides the ticket to me and says "I want a refund" I'm too flabbergasted, I don't know what to say. I TRY to explain we can't refund theater but our own, even if it's one in our chain. This guy starts cutting me off mid-sentence while I'm trying to explain, there's still a line and stuff and impatient customers, he starts raising his voice and saying it's bullshit because he's "Been a patron for years!" so I say hold on, let me call my manager. He comes in knowing very well what to expect. I start taking other customers while Corey is dealing with this guy. After the line dies down and it's a break between shows he's still talking to him, it's been about 20 minutes. The guy is still demanding that he should at least get in for free because he spent money on the ticket to the other place, all this shit. Finally my manager tells him he's not going to do it, and then said "I really don't care if you never come see another movie here again" but a little...nicely put. The guy throws the ticket at him and tells him to fuck off, and luckily never comes back. Guy was a motherfucker.

jeanthine · 3 months

A couple of people tried to get refunded for items that had our competitor's branding on them. Every time somebody tried that shit I would just point to the supermarket's name in giant letters on the wall, then back down to the label with our competitor's.

the_muchness · 3 months

When I was a kid, I worked at this mom and pop deli/grocery store. It was a small town so I knew virtually everyone that walked through the door. One day, we were really busy and there was actually a line of customers. The store was set up so like a bodega, so the cash register was just in front of the store by the door - not like a supermarket check out line. Anyway, there were about six or seven people waiting to get stuff when in walks a teenager that I hadn't seen before. She's pretty attractive, and very smiley. She grabs a pack of cigarettes and puts it on the counter, very nonchalantly, while I'm trying to get everyone settled. I start calling out prices to people of what they had in their hands - "Bill - $4.75, Chris - $5 bucks, You (girl with the cigs) - I need ID"

"Oh, I don't have any. I just need this pack though, is it ok if I don't show ID this one time?"

"No it's not ok." I take back the cigs, like a bau5 - tell her to go get ID and come back.

Three days later the owner comes to me and thanks me, as she received a letter from the state licensing board stating that her cashier denied a minor from purchasing tobacco, and that the girl was part of a sting to try to catch stores violating the law. If I let her slide it would have cost the store thousands in fines and possibly losing their license to sell cigarettes.

The owner wound up giving me a raise instead.

tl;dr: Denied minor cigarettes, got raise.

Scheisser_Soze · 3 months

When I wouldn't give in to his repeated bullshit demands, I had a serial complainer go above me and tell my boss that I had made racist remarks to he and his wife. Now, I'm white as snow, but my family looks like a microcosm of the fucking U.N. I've never been so fucking pissed at a customer. An accusation like that could not only cost me my job, but could put my future in jeopardy. Luckily, my boss knew the guy was full of shit and the guy has since been banned from our establishment.

Antiblematic · 3 months

I worked a grocery store. On a particular busy day I was in the express line when this middle-aged guy hands me his money. Somehow, the money fell out of my hand when I was handing his change back. He then berated me for this, insulting me in front of a line of customers. I knew something was up because why would he even care?

He must have forgotten something, because he came back in my lane with another item. This time, when I handed his change back, I held onto it longer after he reached for it, and felt him grab it, and release it again. I made eye contact and he got all red-faced and took his change and left. I don't know what kind of person gets satisfaction from all this, but I only have pity for him.

FrenchMyToast · 3 months

Mine is lame compared to a lot of these, but just very aggravating. I work as an Tech Support rep for a cable company. I basically take calls and troubleshoot internet failures and cable issues. It's a very easy job, we were provided on job training and decent pay ($11) with bonus opportunities. The job is meant to get me through school. Anyhow, a man calls in and just wanted to complain that his internet service was out the day before. It was about 10 o'clock, and our customer service dept closes at 8pm. I tell him this and ask him if his service is on now. He says yes, but he wanted to lodge a complaint, so I said it was understandable but that h'd have to call in the morning and that I couldn't help him unless there was an issue with his service.

So he says, "Oh, well ALL of my stuff is off then. How does that sound?"
Then he laughs at me like I'm an idiot. So I said "Sir, you just said all of your service is working fine. Are you just saying that to keep me on the line?" So he curses at me and I escalated him to a supervisor. I found out later that he told the supervisor that I threatened him and refused to troubleshoot his issues. And that I refused to get him to a supervisor. So I simply said to replay the call. They did, and laughed hard at how idiotic the guy was.

tl;dr...If you are an asshole, everyone will find out you are an asshole. Titty sprinkles.

wobuxihuanni · 3 months

I was managing afternoon tea at a really nice hotel in my town. There was a table with two women (one of whom was employed as a manicurist in the spa) and a child around 5 years old playing on a DS. They enjoy their petit fours etc. and when we present them with the bill they start complaining that the DS was stolen from their table when they went to the restroom. I explained that none of my staff had seen it nor had they taken it. Fast forward 30 minutes and they are demanding that we comp their bill (around $30 per person) and replace the missing DS. The whole time the little girl is squirming and looking like she wants to say something. Next thing I know she looks at the lady making the fuss and says she is sitting on the DS. Sure enough everyone stops talking and the woman looks defeated. She was sitting on the DS case the entire time and was aware that it was there. It was bullshit to say the least.

edit: e

CribbageLeft · 3 months

My dad is a watchmaker. He's been doing it since he was like eight years old and he learned from my grandfather. Suffice it to say he's about the best watchmaker in all of California at this point.

Historically, when you fix a watch you make a little personal mark with the date on the inside of the back of the case so that if the watch broke down you could give the customer a warranty.

One of my dad's customers who was a jeweler, kept bringing watches back. My dad would look at the movement (motor) and it would look like it hadn't been serviced in years. You can tell because the oil is dried up and there's dust and stuff inside. But when he looks inside of the case back; there's his signature and date from only a few weeks before.

This kept happening so my dad starts to write the watches' serial numbers down and it turned out that for every service this guy paid for, he would just switch the watch back and bring in another watch. What's worse is that this guy was a multi-millionaire and my dad was just a laborer. He was stealing my dad's life. Fuck that guy.

I work with him now and we have a computer database for that stuff. People still try that shit but we quickly call them on it and they usually shut the fuck up.

babyabraham · 3 months

I know my sister worked out American apparel and apparently they had a no confrontation policy. She said she would just have to sit there as girls would go into changing rooms and obviously walk out of the stores with merchandise under their shirts. No wonder the company was hemorrhaging money.

yenoomk · 3 months

One customer bought a little bottle of masking fluid(for water colour) that came in a little cardboard box. They came back a few days later saying the bottle was empty. There was residue left in the bottle but we refunded them anyways.

Strahz · 3 months

Actually, when my Pop was about 17, he worked at a restaurant supply store. Basically, it was a store that carried all of the basic supplies/appliances a restaurant would need, and also some industrial sized packages of food.

Well, this guy comes in and asks for a huge jar of mayonnaise, which my dad sells to him. A while later, the same guy comes back and says that his boss told him to return the mayo since it was the wrong brand, and he apologized that he opened it before being told this. My dad figures 'hey, no problem' and takes the jar to throw away before he gets the brand the guy wants, no charge.

So apparently my dad was very familiar with the approximate weight of a giant jar of mayo at the time, and immediately realizes something's up. He opens up the jar in front of the guy, scoops out some of the mayo only to reveal that he had filled the rest of the jar with sand in an attempt to get more for his money.

This being 1964, he looks at the guy and tells him to fuck off and never come back. The guy looks at the owner, who tells him the same thing.

Sphinx111 · 3 months

A friend is a waitress and this happened to her. She works at a very creative and reputed fine dining restaurant. A man came in around the holidays with giant shopping bags full of Christmas presents and had a big expensive meal. He mentions later that he forgot his wallet in the car so he was going to run out and get it to pay, but he'd leave all his stuff as collateral. Twenty minutes later no guy yet... Waitress goes and checks his stuff to see what's up, and they're... empty boxes, all elaborately wrapped as presents with bows and all. The meal came out of her pay for the day, and some asshole spent hours wrapping boxes to get a stolen meal. WTF?

Sybs · 3 months

When I was about 19 I worked in a bar. My first customer service job, I was really nervous but I thought I did OK.

A guy ordered a drink for him and his friend and said "and get one for yourself too!"

I said "Thanks very much!" and kept £2 from his money to get myself a drink after my shift. Note: I was allowed to do this since he offered.

When I gave him his drinks and his change back he noticed it was short and said "Where's the rest of my change?"

"But, you said I could have a drink myself."

"Oh. But, I didn't mean it."

So I gave him all his money back and spent the rest of the day in a silent rage.

cokeandasmile · 3 months

I think my best one, which I have now coined a term that I use with a lot of my friends and other customer service related things to this day, was back when I was 15 or 16 working at Dunkin Donuts.

This woman came through the drive thru with her 3 little monsters in the back, ordered 50 munchkins and a large ice coffee. About an hour or so later, she comes into the store with about 1 inch of iced coffee left (probly mostly just water from the melted ice) and a box with 2 and a half munchkins in it. (Yes, 2 and a half.. it still had teeth marks in it)

She complained that the munchkins were stale and unedible and that her iced coffee was old and that she wanted her money back... I stood there completely dumbfounded, asking her why she ate 47 and a 1/2 of the munchkins before deciding that they were "unedible" and why she also finished her iced coffee completely before deciding that it was old and no good?

She totally freaked out on me, screaming over the counter and saying all sorts of obnoxious things directed at me and the staff. I remember just getting the manager who came over and gave her the money back just to get her out of the store and told her to never come back...

That was my first run in with completely and total douchebags in this world and I realized how shitty some people are.

Unrelated to that, growing up my family went out to eat a lot, about 3 times a week a restaurant, and I would see families or couples pull every single stunt they could to get a free meal. The entire table would complain about every single little thing with their meal, demanding to speak to a manager and ultimately would get a free family dinner out of it.

In my entire time going out to eat about 3 times a week with my family over the course of years, the only complain we ever had was when my mother ordered a lobster and when she cracked it open, the entire lobster was hallow. They apologized and gave her something different for free, but we didn't even request anything free we were just pointing it out. The other time was when a waitress accidentally spilled all of the clam juice and guts all over my Dad's lap when she was clearing the table... He wasn't too happy about it but never yelled and we eventually joked with her. She asked him if he wanted to speak to a manager and he said no, it wasnt a big deal and still paid full price and tipped her, recognizing it as an honest mistake and an accident.

Thats how I was brought up, so it makes me irate when I see people constantly complaining and trying to work the system for free stuff. Those people are no different than common thieves in my opinion, but mask their actions behind a corporate system that they feel they can take advantage of.

There are times when the customer is right. For instance, I sometimes don't check my food before leaving a drive thru for Burger King or something, but my mother always does. I remember bringing my Nephew out to Burger King and I got a whopper (those things are delicious) and i got my mom and niece a bunch of stuff. When i got back home, everything was there except for the whopper, which was on the receipt.. Thing is, even in those situations its not even worth it for me to drive the 10+ minutes back to the store, but my mom insisted and went back, she said they didn't believe her but gave her the whopper anyways...

It can be tough sometimes for retail employees, because there are so many scum bags in the world that try to abuse the system, so it forces you to be skeptical of all customers when they ask for stuff.

b0jangles · 3 months

I worked at a small bike shop in high school. I had a guy come in once and try to return 5 or so U-Locks with no receipt. This, coincidentally, was the number of that type of U-Lock we tended to keep in stock, and the store was small enough that I could look over and see that the rack was empty. So I tell him I can't do anything without a receipt. He goes out to his car to get it, leaving the locks on the counter, and never comes back. So he pretty clearly had walked in, grabbed them off the stand before I had gotten out there from the back, and tried to "return" them. I'm still not sure what I would have done if he had tried to take them with him...

annemg · 3 months

A lady came in to the department store I worked at, wishing to return something without a receipt. The item was an expensive piece of clothing... that had just come in that morning, and I had stocked it personally. (Store also had strict rules about when the high end lines could be "released".) The store had been open 10 minutes tops.

Checkers10160 · 3 months

I don't remember the exact amounts, but this is basically what happened

I deliver chinese food, and a few weeks ago I had an order that was like $62, and I had about $40 on me for change. When I get to the house, the customer hands me a hundred and asks me if I have change, and I say I think I have just enough. As I'm fumbling with another member of the household (The customer's brother/husband whatever) by handing them bags, I go to take out my money, and she takes it out of my hands and says "Oh I'll do that for you". Kinda rude, but a nice gesture I suppose since I'm somewhat busy. "Oh this will do" she says and closes the door. I know I had a few dollars over what she needed, so not only did she not tip me, I actually lost a couple bucks. It was a fairly far order too, but I'm not going to start trouble for such a small amount, but it sure did piss me off

blue_zoidberg · 3 months

I was working at Macy's and this lady would come in all the time and buy brand new merchandise that we had just put out of the floor, but the ticket would be wrong and marked down to almost nothing. We honored the price the first time but she kept doing it over and over, even after we told her no. So one day I followed her and she had actually brought a reticketing gun and was switching the tags of the brand new merchandise with clearance tags. So she was escorted from the store.

Also, their was this other lady who would come in and want me to wait while she tried on clothes for hours. She started coming in right before the store was closing and asking for me. Then finally one day she came in asking "where is my friend?", and I went and hid in the stock room and told another employee to tell her I had switched shifts. Never saw her again.

MisterCurtis · 3 months

Job 1: I was punched in the chest over envelopes. I'm a scrawny guy and was 21 managing a paper/craft supply store. He was about 60 grumpy looking guy who I think ran a print shop. Anyway he ordered custom envelopes which were sold by the "Box" (A box with 10 boxes of 500env). He placed the order, reviewed the invoice, I told him how the quantities worked for "1 Box" (5,000env) and custom orders have no return policy he understood and paid in advance.

The order arrived a week later and he picked them up without issue. A few days later he comes in claiming he wanted 1 Box, 1 box of 500. It was when I questioned why he paid hundreds of dollars and picked them up without issue, then waited days to voice this concern, was when he leaned over the counter and punched me in the chest. He looked horrified and took a few steps back and left. I suspended all his accounts with the company and flagged all his future orders with a zero return policy.

He continued to do business with me but never looked me in the eye again. Found out after an angry call from his wife that he lost his temper towards a client and lost the deal. So they were stuck with thousands of dollars of unpaid custom ordered products/supplies.

Job 2: Xbox 360 (Classic model) in a new Slim box and tried to return it. Claimed it came that way and that's why he was returning it. After pointing out several things that alone would make it ineligible for return such as past return policy, information on the 360 suggesting it was years old, serial number on the packaging wasn't the same as receipt meaning it wasn't even the same packaging purchased. After some yelling and such. A higher up in a separate department came in wondering what was going on and with the authority to do so ok'd the return. Pointing out that he just gave $300 cash to a customer returning product we didn't even carry didn't phase him. So I guess that one was screwed from both ends.

3 months

[deleted]

Ramquat · 3 months

I was on my lunch break at a retail job and I was a supervisor type position, but not a manager and we had 2 managers on duty. Anyhow I was on lunch and eating some quick food in my car (it was a nice day out and crowded inside).

So here I am eating, and all of the sudden my car gets a jolt from behind. The person behind me, while parking, bumped my car (not had but hard enough) and I look up to see this older woman get out and start walking away. I get out and ask her where the hell she thinks shes going, and tell her what she did. She DENIES IT and her damn car was STILL TOUCHING MY CAR! So I took a quick camera pic, and then ripped her a new asshole for being the dumbest idiot on the planet. She was EXTREMELY pissed at me but she hit my SUV with her tiny car and dented her car on my tow hitch so no damage to my car other than me just being pissed off at her claiming stupidity. I move my car and finish my lunch (i told her she shouldn't move shes already put enough people at risk by just driving here and it was safer if someone qualified to drive moved their car)

Fast forward to 20 minutes later when I'm back inside working again and i'm at the customer service desk... Guess who walks up to me for help? The lady who just hit my car and denied it. She walks up and starts asking without looking up to see who shes talking to, and then mid sentence looks up to see me. Now when I ripped her a new asshole 20 minutes ago I had no signs of my employer on me, we wore business casual with a name badge that signified our employment there. So she sees me and immediately flips out and gets mad and starts to try yelling at me so I tell her to stop yelling at me or i'll kick her out of the store until she can act civil to the myself and the employees there. This of course tips her over the edge and she demands to speak to the president of the store(because he waits around the store just for occasions like this... riiiigggghhhhhtttt)

So I go and get the highest ranking manager on duty, explain them the situation in FULL, how i treated her in the parking lot, that I wasn't wearing my badge so I wasnt identifiable to the store at that point in time. I showed the manager the picture of her car still in contact with mine and the manager grinned and told me they'd handle it.

The manager let the stupid customer rant, asked her if she could help her with anything else, and then promplty kicked her out of the store. The manager told me that the customer demanded for me to be fired and asked for the corporate line to complain about me. My manager wrote a pre-emptive email to the corporate line to ignore anything from the crazy lady, and if it came up they'd speak further about the situation. She called corporate but got shut down because of the early warning and I went away happy.

TL:DR: Dumb lady ran into car in parking lot, I yelled at her. She went in store to get help, found out I worked there and she tried (unsuccessfully) to get me fired

Ghede · 3 months

Let's see...

There was the woman who came to my register with a whole bunch of large cuts of meat. I went to scan them automatically, but when i grabbed the label, it moved. Thank god for slightly damp meat packages. She had taken the labels of old cuts of meat she bought/dug out of the trash. There were $20 cuts of meat with $7 labels! Called my manager over, we never directly accused her, but it was obvious it was her. She made up a weird excuse like "It's my birthday so i want my steak" and paid the $20 per package instead of the $7. Tell me, if you picked out meat you thought was $7, would you pay $20 if you found out someone had tampered with the label?

Then there is the one that actually got me. I was just starting on register, so I was easily cowed. This evil witch of a woman, who has since been banned from our store for harassing cashiers and generally being unpleasant, angrily declares that the bag of pretzels rang up wrong. Now, I had a line, and my manager wasn't to be seen, and she was making a really big deal about it, so i fixed the price and shrugged it off. Then later, when I had a moment, i checked the price. Not a single goddamn pretzel bag was on sale. A small theft, but no less annoying.

TrickyWon · 3 months

I'm an automotive service advisor. I had a customer refuse to pay for his car after repairs were completed. He told me he was going to step outside to make a call, when he got in his car with a spare key and started it. I stood in front of the car to tell him he can't leave without paying. He proceeded to try and run me over, when I sidestepped car I broke his windshield with the back of my fist. I called the cops and had him arrested, to which they brought him back and I said I wouldn't press charges if he payed his bill and never brought his car back. He payed and left, I felt like a boss. 5 months later I get served with a subpoena as he wants to sue me for $4,500 and he wants to sue the shop for $7,000. He lost the case with prejudice (due to the batshitcraziness of this kid), but I learned its actually ILLEGAL for me to try and stop someone from leaving with their car and not paying. Oh, and I was invited to take the case on Judge Mathis but I didn't want to take time off. I know I covered a lot and skipped a lot of the story, ask away. TL;DR: Customer tried to run me over, I broke his windshield, tried to sue me

JadedArtsGrad · 3 months

I could write a book on these... I'll just write one of my favorites, which happened to one of my co-workers.

Guy buys an RC helicopter and comes back a few days later with just the box and controller, wanting a refund, because the "helicopter went up and it never came back down."

Clerk says, "So... where is it now??"

Guy snaps, "You're not listening! It went up!!"

Clerk: "Soooooo.... you're saying it's still up there?"

Guy: "I don't like your attitude!!! Where's your manager??"

He got no refund that day.

klappy89 · 3 months

Literally "screw" me over...

I was in high school, working at a Panera Bread. It was in the middle of a dinner rush, and I was on the sandwich line. I made a turkey sandwich for some man, and I put it up on the counter as he thanked me. Less than a minute later, the guy comes back up to the counter with the top slice of bread turned over and two shiny screws sitting on top of the sandwich. He claims the screws were in his sandwich. WHAT THE FUCK. We don't have screws anywhere on the sandwich line, and they were clearly shiny and new. The dude got like $60 worth of free food.

I hated that job.

pantisflyhand · 3 months

Used to work retail computer repair / sales for a local business. I've had several people have me do major repairs, then come back in when im off work, claiming it was a different price. One guy tried to say i quoted him $120 to replace a laptop mobo, when the actual price was like 600 ( the board itself was like 500ish). Got that shit a lot.

flipfontaine · 3 months

worked at a bank, customer comes in with fist full of cash demands change, i give her the smaller bills. bitch starts complaining saying she gave me $100 more dollars and asks to see my manager. I checked my drawer and my drawer balanced out...still complaining i pick up the phone and tell her well let the cops decide, she runs out the door. bitch

blankey2 · 3 months

30 years ago, I worked for Domino's pizza as a delivery guy. At the time, if you didn't get your pizza 30 minutes after you placed it, you could get the pizza for free. There was this one black dude (I mention race for a reason, as you will see) who was at the VERY limit of my delivery area. I mean, it took 25 minutes almost just to drive there.

So, he always would call and order a pizza one half hour before we closed, like at 1:30 in the morning if we closed at 2:00.

So, the first time I delivered pizza to him, I was late, and he got the pizza for free. (You had to ask to borrow his phone and call for permission, which I did.) No tip.

He orders again. Again because of other deliveries and traffic, I'm late. Free pizza. (No tip.)

He orders a third time. This time, I'm ready. The car's warmed up and ready to go. I make sure his pizza is first in the oven, first to come out. His pizza is the only one in my car--I'm not chancing trying to deliver anyone else's pizza in the same run.

I get it there on time. He then launches into the most longest, hate-filled, racist rant (I'm white) I've ever experienced. In fact, the only one I ever experienced. I just stand there and take it, and then I leave.

From that time on until the day I quit, I could always expect him to order at 1:30 am on a Friday night. And I would always be in a race to deliver the pizza to him on time. Most often I would be on time; sometimes I would be late, and he'd get a free pizza. When I was on time, I could expect to get yet another racist rant/diatribe hurled my way.

I never lost my cool, I wish I could say because I was stronger than him, but because I'd grown up with an abusive father and knew how to take it. Well, in a way I was stronger because though I was silent, I still was thinking to myself how much an asshole he was (just like I did with my father).

The end!

Panthersfly · 3 months

About 5 years ago I was working at guest services at the mall. A man in his mid 20s walked in. He had a $500 mall gift card and he wanted cash for it. I explained that there was no way that the I could give him cash for the card. He replied with a story. "Well, my fiancé got me this card for christmas and a week later she dumped me. She's not talking to me so I can't give the card back and having this card just makes me think of her." I was really suspicious, and couldn't refund him anyways, so I asked him "Why don't you just use the card?" He starts up, "Like I said if I use it then I'm thinking about her and the things I buy will make me think about her." I asked, "What's the difference with cash? How would buying things with cash make it better?" He smiled in a nervous way, but it was a joyful smile. They type of smile that a broken man could never make when his fiancé had dumped him a week after christmas. He was happy, and that didn't make sense to me. "You're lying." I stated. He nervously chuckled, "My dad got it for me for Christmas, and I just wanted cash instead." He left right after, didn't say goodbye. After a few seconds of being stunned, I realized he left the card on the counter. I couldn't help but swipe it to check the balance, because after all that, how could I trust that there was really $500 on it? There was no money left on the card. I guess he thought he could use a sob story to get me to give him the money without checking on the card. TL;DR- called out someone trying to scam me while working at the mall.

[deleted] · 3 months

Damn. I feel like an angel of a customer. I should shop more.

Femaleontheinternets · 3 months

Before I was laid off at a store similar to GameStop (where I worked previously), but we bought dvds, vhs, cds, games, consoles, etc. This guy comes in and says that GameStop is selling their 20GB harddrives for $30, but he would prefer to buy from us and asks if we could price match. Well I happened to have GameStops number in my phone and a simple 30 second call confirmed he was full of shit and we sold them at the same price GameStop did. He then walked around being all tweeker and picking at his ear and face and bought some shitty movies and left.

samisdead666 · 3 months

I worked at a sex store and this creepy customer would not stop talking to me. He would walk around a few aisles, and come back and bullshit some more. I thought he was suspicious so I did a walk through and found several empty packages. I casually went up to the register. In passing I saw he had a pump for an inflatable butt plug in his cargo pants. I asked him to empty his pockets,he got offended and then complied. He ended up having 4 kinds of butt plugs and "Polly the clit diddler" in his pants. Easily over $200 worth of crap that would have come out of my paycheck. Such an asshole.

TLDR; customer at sex store distracted me so he could steal inflatable butt plugs.

jerpsonderpson · 3 months

As a cashier at a west coast favorite low cost grocery store (employee owned and proud of it...gross) you really do get the worst of the worst in low lifes trying to fuck you over

Anyways, I was working in a checkstand further away from the other checkers, probably around 8 or 9pm and this older decently dressed guy comes up to my checkstand and buys a pack of gum and one other thing, a small order by any means. As he's about to pay he hands me a $50 for an order under $5, something cashiers hate anyways, and I count out his change as usual. But as swoon as the change is in my hand he says "oh wait I meant to hand you a $5" and he hands me that and I put the change back in my till. Now in my confused state of him switching the money I paused and did the simple math in my head to give him his new change which instead of being something like $45 is more like .50¢ After I've gotten this counted out he used a common tactic where you pretty much just mindfuck a moneyhandler into handing you the bigger change; he just acted like he just wanted to pay with the $50 that he first handed me then switched back to wanting the small change, then back and forth again till I don't really know what change I was supposed to hand him. In my confused state I ended up handing him something like $40 and he walks away with a smile on his face like any satisfied customer. I understand at this point I'm a target for "you're an idiot" and all that but it was a busy day and I really just wanted this guy out of my checkstand. Needless to say a day later I got talked to for my till being off and I knew ring away it was that same guy.

All in all this isn't that elaborate of a story as most of these on here are but it's my scummiest story because I cannot for the life of me figure out why someone would willingly risk someone else's job for a few extra bills in their wallet. $40, really? You would put a college kid out of a job just to get that little? The guy ended up getting arrested at one of our bigger stores up north for the exact same thing so he got what was coming to him. Motherfucker.

Erythorbic · 3 months

I work at a cosmetic store, with a very lenient return policy. We try to inspect the items as best as we can. There has been a couple different customers trying to return skincare products ( they can be pricey, up to 150$ for a 1 oz bottle). When I open the bottle to inspect them, I normally sniff them. Usually they're legit, but sometimes, they will be filled with Olay, or some other cheaper drugstore brand.

sessyda · 3 months

These three little douchecock highschoolers came into the pizza place I served at about a year ago. They were loud, obnoxious, and very keen to be noticed. This led to me watching them like a hawk to make sure they don't damage anything. Well, come time to pay, the guy paying "realizes" he "forgot his card in his car". So two of them go to retrieve the card, and the third goes to go to the bathroom. At the back of the store. Right next to the rear exit.

I'm not stupid. I go to my manager and tell him these jerks are trying to pull one over and dine and dash. We both keep an eye out towards the back, and you can see this third kid trying to find the right time to leave. He's hiding by the bathrooms, texting his friends, and starting to look really really nervous because we aren't letting up. There weren't any other customers at that point so it wasn't like we had anything else to do. The kid left in the store comes back to his seat eventually and mumbles something about not knowing where the hell his friends were.

After about 35 minutes from the time they left the store, the other two come back, looking pissed as hell, and actually pay. They said they parked far away.

fibsville · 3 months

The awful background info: back in 2003 in Toronto, an adorable 10-year-old girl named Holly Jones was kidnapped, raped and murdered. Everyone in the city was talking about Holly, and her picture was everywhere.

I was working at Blockbuster in a very iffy neighbourhood at the time - lots of shoplifting. An older woman (about 60) came in with a bunch of still-wrapped movies and games that were obviously from our store. She said she had no receipt but that these were all gifts she had bought for her neighbour, Holly Jones, and, you know, now that Holly had been brutally raped, strangled and dismembered, she wanted to return them.

There was something really off about her, so I told her I'd have to check that the items were actually sold from our inventory before I refunded her. To my extreme not-surprise, the computer told me that everything she brought in was actually supposed to be on my shelves. She'd lifted them during the previous shift and was now trying to return them for cash.

I had a lot of really awful customers during my 10 years in a videostore, but no one ever came close to her level of tastelessness.

TL;DR A woman tried to return shoplifted goods by claiming they had been bought as gifts for a murdered child.

Lovethecubbies · 3 months

At the gas station I work at we sell cups of soup during the winter as I live in Wisconsin and it can get quite cold. Soup costs $2.99. (When I say 'cup of soup' it's more than a measuring cup, it's probably 12 fluid ounces". Well this old guy comes in everyday and buys soup. And everyday he complains how expensive it is. A couple days ago he comes in and buys soup. He comes up to the register and hands me $2. So I ring up $2.99 +tax and it comes out to about $3.15ish. Then he gets all flustered because he thought he saw a sign that said it was $2.59 a cup even tho he knew damn well it was $2.99.

Let me run that by again. He thought something cost $2.59, gave me $2 when he knew damn well it cost ~$3.15. It was pathetic and half hearted but I had to chuckle.

Purple_Drank · 3 months

Had a customer come in and wanted to "return" two lightsaber toys. Didn't have a receipt, nobody remembered him. After a fairly long conversation trying to find out what his deal is, he decides to "come back later". He then leaves with said lightsaber toys. Well, after further investigation, not 30 seconds after he left we found out he didn't, in fact, buy two lightsaber toys from us. Oh no, what he did was much worse. It turns out he just walked into the store, grabbed two of our lightsaber toys, claimed he bought them and wanted to return them. He then walked out with them after the whole "we can't find the transaction" conversation. He told us he'd be in tomorrow, but of course, he didn't show.

TL;DR Guy claims he bought two lightsabers from us, but he actually stole them.

nevereverwhere · 3 months

I worked for AAA a while ago and we are not allowed to send a tow truck unless the person whose name on the card is there. Many, many times I would have people calling for a friend or family member and it would always kill me when they gave it away that they were not physically there, because I would have to refuse to send a tow truck. I had someone call from France because his daughter was broken down and the entire call when fine until he mentioned he was in France. I hated having to refuse service but my supervisor made me. People would flip out at me, and I totally understood their anger and couldn't do anything about it.

bzeimen · 3 months

I was a lifeguard for a few years. One day some dumb ass middle school kid got tired of us telling him not to dive into 3.5 foot deep water, so he went behind one of the low walls and took a shit on the floor and ran.

edit for clarification: On the floor, not in the pool.

King_shmoo · 3 months

I worked at a retail store that would email customers a $10 off coupon for signing up for email alerts. The rule was that only one coupon could be used per transaction. We would have a large family (husband, wife, 3-4 adult children) who would come in regularly with up to 20 coupons, trying to use them on a single transaction. Their favorite place to do this was fine jewelry. They would come in several times a week, until a new employee who had never dealt with them was working. Then they would all get in this cashier's line, refusing to move to another line, even when we offered them help (and the store wasn't busy).

Another one that I got A LOT was customers coming in with gift cards they had used, claiming that they were never activated. They were often embarrassed when we would come back onto the sales floor with the exact times, dates, and amounts the cards were used.

iloveghoti · 3 months

gah, this makes me hate people even more.

My parents own a restaurant and there are just too many stories about punk ass people who are always trying to get free food. My favorite ones are those who would call a few days later to complain about their meal and demand a refund.

DigitalJesus · 3 months

I use to work for Apple, as an AppleCare senior advisor. I get this guy that says that his Macbook Pro has been running slow since he upgraded his OS. He's reinstalled and done all that stuff and also been to an Apple Authorised Service Provider who said they identified an issue but didn't know how to fix it. There's no notes from the service provider so I need a second opinion, So I send him to a local Apple Store. He needs to get the this fixed because he's going back home to India in a few days.

He calls me back angrily, saying that the Apple Store reinstalled the OS and did nothing else, So I give the Apple Store a call, They found nothing apparently wrong wih the machine but reinstalled the OS anyways to be sure. Now I still want to help this guy out, he's only got a couplle of days left on his warranty and I want to make sure his shit is fixed, so I grant warranty exceptions to force the replacement of the main board, HDD and RAM and send him back to the same Apple store. the guy tells me he's pushed his flight to India back a few days to get this fixed.

He calls me back the next day, pissed again. He outside the Apple Store and says the Apple store people wanted to charge him even though I had granted the exceptions. I talk to the genius that spoke to this guy and she tells me that they were happy to repair the machine at no cost, he stormed out when he heard it was going to take over night to complete. I tell the guy the way it works but he refuses to go back to that Apple store, after 30 minutes of arguing I get him to go to another Apple Store to get the work done that day.

He calls back again, the machine hasn't been repaired, unfortunately I can't remember why. I'm just about to give this guy a new computer when I decide to call the last Apple Store to tear them a new asshole, they tell me that he never entered the store, at all, his genius bar appointment was marked as unattended. WTF!

Then it clicks, this mother fucker is lying to me, the guy has obviously played the game before and knows we'll give him a new computer if he gets screwed around enough.

I call both Apple stores again just to confirm their stories, I track this bitch down on facebook, it's active but mentions nothing about going to India, I call the original service provider he apparently went to and they had never heard of him. I can't tell him he is lying to me, so i send him an email stating that a fault MUST be found before I replace the computer, I fill our case notes with a point form version of whats occurred and I stop returning his calls.

Luckily for me, I left Apple 2 days later, apparently he never did get a new computer.

TL;DR - Worked for Apple, guy tried to lie to me to get a new computer, he failed

Kytescall · 3 months

I've got nothing interesting in my experience, so I'll just leave this here: The Acts of Gord

Quepster · 3 months

I used to work as a housekeeper/maid in a hotel (Not a particularly fancy one, about £110 per night), and we'd frequently have people whinge and moan about something. We've had people switch rooms 6 or 7 times during their 3 night stay becuase "it's too hot" "it's too cold" "Bathroom's too small" "bed's too small" etc...

We had one man and his dog stay in the annex building (the three smallest, coldest, shittiest rooms), and I had to service the room. I did. The next day, I see a small dog running around the main building and ask reception why. He'd complained bitterly about there being no tea, coffee, spoons, towels or toiletries in the room. I got the blame, he got the biggest room free of charge for an extra week. Course he didn't think to shut his suitcase, so we quickly worked out that he had taken everything. Stil got the room for free.

TL;DR: Man steals stuff from hotel room, blames house keeping, him and his smelly dog get biggest room for free.

videogamezkillu · 3 months

Put a gun in my face. D:

That was tonight.

Misguidedvision · 3 months

I work at an amusement park type place that uses a system of cards (like credit cards) that we swipe at each attraction. You can pay by the hour or by the attraction, as long as it flashes green on my scanner your good to go. We regularly have customers that buy a one hour pass and then try to share it with 5 people. So 5 people get on the ride at the same time for the price of one. Usually by sneaking the card through the bars and back into line. Luckily our scanner flashes red if any time limit cards are scanned More than once in 5 minutes, so as to stop the sharing. Then we have to explain to the often adult people that this is wrong and they cant ride. Usually causing a fuss and threats and name calling towards me or my coworkers. Fun times

Edit: Fixed some horrible iphone app spelling errors

sgily · 3 months

Cashier at store, lady would come in once a week with about 500 items all attached with some type of coupon and I'd always see her the next day returning everything demanding for full refunds.

I personally didn't care, but I hated if I had to ring her up. She would get annoyed that I would read every detail of the coupons and she'd claim "If I take any longer to ring her up I'll make a complaint to your manager and get me fired".

Eh, why not put more details. Floor manager loved how I would handle the situation and started giving me better hours. So I guess in hindsight it was only annoying because it would take about an hour to ring everything up and her disrespectful attitude when she was scheming money out of an honest company.

JohnCthulhu · 3 months

Nearly ten years back, I worked for a short while in a toy shop and would often be the one who dealt with videogame purchases.

Anyways, one day this woman comes in and says that the game she picked up for her boyfriend (some PS2 rugby game) wasn't working and that she'd like a refund. I open the case to check the disc and, sure enough, its underside is absolutely riddled with deep scratches.

Now, I instantly recognise this lady as I remembered selling her said game earlier that day. I always made sure that I would check each and every disc before handing a game/DVD over to a customer (we filed the discs behind the counter) and I knew for a fact that when I sold her the game, it was in perfect condition. There was no way in hell that I would have taken money off a customer for a disc like the one she handed me.

So, I point this out to her but she is insistent that the disc was scratched to all hell when she brought it home and, as a result, wanted a refund. I knew I was going to get nowhere with her, so I ended up calling the manager to come out and listen to my side of the story.

Unfortunately, my boss was very much the 'customer is always right' type, but reached a compromise with the customer by telling her that she could take another brand new copy of the same game as a replacement.

Fast forward an hour or so; surprise, surprise: she's back. She complains that the replacement copy is suffering from the same problem that the previous disc did and, sure enough, she hands me a disc that is scratched to bits. However, I had made certain that both she and my boss had seen with their own eyes that the replacement disc was in perfect condition.

Again, I call the boss and explain the situation to him; I point out that he had seen the disc with his own eyes. Nope. He ends up relenting and telling me to give her a refund.

Experiences like that are why I hope to never work in retail again, if I can help it.

morgueanna · 3 months

I used to work for Hot Topic and they 'sell' items for charity- what's really occuring is that you are making a donation and you get the item for free. The money does 100% go to the charity, but we had to start ringing them through the register because California changed their 'donation' laws to charge tax. Assholes.

Anyway, this lady came in wanting to return 96 of the charity bracelets. This bitch had bought 100 of them to SELL at a music festival because they said "music=life" on them. She didn't realize her target demographic shopped at Hot Topic and knew they were charity giveaways so they didn't buy them.

I explained to her that she didn't really purchase anything but she wouldn't give up. I gave her my DM's number and from there, the story escalated. He turned her down flat, so she called the home office. Every day. For almost a month.

This finally gets around to B, the CEO at the time, who absolutely takes no shit from anyone. She finds out about this and calls the customer for her address. She sends her a personal check along with a note telling her that there was no way Hot Topic was going to take money away from a charity and she'd rather take the hit herself. But there was a catch- if the lady cashed the check she was never allowed in our stores again.

I had heard about all this but the story was confirmed when I went the home office and a copy of the letter was posted at one of the HR personnel's desks.

goirish2200 · 3 months

I used to work for Outback Steakhouse. One time, a gentleman came in and ordered Prime Rib. Now, it is store policy to remind people that "Prime Rib" does not constitute a rack of ribs, because people are stupid.

This gentleman proceeds to become incensed that we would dare impugn on his intelligence, and haughtily orders "the best prime ribs you have." /facepalm.

A runner subsequently brings out his "prime ribs." Sure enough, about 15 minutes later, he begins protesting aggressively that he ordered RIBS and demanding that an order of ribs be prepared for his obviously refined palate.

However, as if that weren't bad enough, this gentleman had actually eaten about 3/4 of his "prime ribs" before staging his con.

ಠ_ಠ

TL;DR: guy orders "prime ribs," gets upset when it isn't ribs. Attempted petty pork larceny ensues.

BrilliantHamologist · 3 months

I had a woman outraged that I made her pay for a stuffed toy that she had given to her baby, who was strapped to the front of her, and then watched him stick the whole thing in his mouth. When I caught her trying to put it back, I told her she had to purchase it. First, she told me she thought our merchandise was there just for kids to walk around with. No. Then she told me it was ridiculous because he's just a baby. I said that is why adults need to supervise their children. Then she said that the policy was outrageous and there were no signs posted saying that she had to buy it. I told her there were no signs because, for most people, it's common sense. Then she told me she had never had this problem before. At that point I told her that other stores had probably never seen her do it. I asked her if she would give her child anything that had been in a stranger's mouth and that there are no stores that allow this kind of behavior because it's a health hazard. Five dollars later (I wasn't letting this woman go!), I wanted to follow her to the next store and lick every shoe she wanted to try on. After all, it's no big deal, it's just a little spit!

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