Not all customers are created equal. Some are great, appreciative, and courteous. Others are not. These poor retail workers had to deal with customers who were the bottom of the barrel. As soon as they sensed they weren't getting their way, they got over-the-top angry.
She Thought She Was Important Enough To Have Staff Shop For Her Via The Drive Thru
So, I looked her address up on the pharmacy computer and then got about 200 magazine subscription postcards from the magazine racks over the next week or two. I printed up some labels and voila! Enjoy your new magazines.”
He Cornered Her With His Strange, Creepy Requests
“When I was about 16 and working in the store alone, a middle-aged man came in and told me all about how he just bought a farm with plenty of space but had no wife or kids to help out with things. He then proceeded to ask if I wanted to ‘go out the back for a quickie,’ as I had an ‘ideal figure’ and looked the type to do ‘that sort of thing.’
This conversation went for about an hour until my manager came in and the guy finally left the store.”
His Dogs Would Mess In The Store And He Couldn’t Care Less
“I used to be a lead cashier at PetSmart. There was this guy that would bring his two dogs (who were about 100lbs each) in once a week. He wouldn’t buy anything, he would just walk his dogs around the store and let them mark everything. He wouldn’t clean it up. He’d just walk in, take a 15-minute loop around the store, then leave. Finally one day, I got fed up and stopped him on the way out. I offered him two rolls of paper towels. I didn’t ask if he’d clean it up, I just said, ‘Here, take these for the mess.’ He stopped, looked at me, laughed in my face, and left. I also had the usual cashier things, like people holding up a finger to tell me to be quiet while they were on their cell phone, being angry their coupon had expired, that kind of thing.”
The White Trash Ladies Strike Again
“I used to work at Dollar General in Indiana a few years back. I lived in a small town, so I saw the same customers all the time. After a few months, it became rare to see a customer that I didn’t know.
There were these two women, total white trash. They always came in together. They wore the most obnoxious, revealing clothing despite the fact that they both were overweight. Bright lipstick, bright eyeshadow, obviously fake nails. It was disgusting.
So they came in and bought a $50 prepaid phone card, which was something they did every month. So it’s not like this is a new concept to them. I rang her up and said, ‘That’ll be $53.50.’
‘What do you mean? It’s a $50 card; it should cost $50.’
‘The card does cost that, but there’s also sales tax.’
‘What? They don’t charge us sales tax at the Wal Mart!’
I tried to explain to them that everything except for unprocessed food is subject to sales tax, even their phone cards. Even if I agreed with them and wanted to remove the sales tax, I couldn’t because my register doesn’t have a ‘remove sales tax’ button. After a few minutes of them whining back and forth to one another, I buzzed my manager. She explained the same thing to them.
They eventually left the store, shouting things like, ‘Eff you! This is the worst service I’ve ever received! I’m filing a complaint and never coming back!’
Of course, they were back the following week for their cheap plastic face paints.”
She Thought She Was The Only One In That Section
“I had someone come up behind me while I was stocking shelves and grab me abruptly by the arm.
It scared the crap out of me because the only other person I was working with was in the back room. I thought I was about to be carried out of the store over someone’s shoulder and sold into slavery.
It was just some middle-aged woman who proceeded to start making small jabs in the form of questions at the fact that I have a few tattoos on my arms. I lightly jerked my arm back and asked her as politely as I could, to at least ask if she really feels the need to touch me. She also exaggerated her facial expressions to make sure I knew just how much she disapproved of what I had done to myself.”
“Teen Night” Was Always A Huge Headache
“Back in high school, I was a big shot manager at the local roller skating rink. On Saturdays, we had a 5-7:30 ‘family session’ that was cheap and tailored to younger kids. After that ended, we would close down for 30 minutes, clean up and re-open for the 8pm-12am ‘teen night’ which was more expensive and basically a ‘club atmosphere.’
As was common, we’d usually get some teens coming in to pay the $2 ‘family night’ admission and then they’d try to hide in the bathrooms or in the back to avoid the ‘teen night’ admission surcharge. Since we had an off duty uniformed police officer, these situations usually handled themselves. One night, I caught a couple kids hiding in the back and escorted them out.
Their mother showed up about 30 minutes later, demanding to speak with me, yelling and cursing at other employees in the process. I called her over to the window and told her why her sons would have to pay. She said she didn’t know, etc. I told her I’d take 50% off the teen admission, but that we told every single person who paid during family night that it ended, and the next session was more.
This mom wasn’t having any of it!