There is always someone out there ready to complain about something. These employees share the prettiest one yet! Content has been edited for clarity purposes.
The Restroom
“A couple of years ago, I was working in the junior department of a mall department store, and a gentleman asked me where the bathroom was. I only vaguely knew where the men’s restroom inside the store was, as it was in the men’s department where I spent very little time. I did however know there were both men’s and women’s restrooms right outside of the store inside of the mall. So I gave the gentleman both options, and he chose the mall option as the directions were much clearer. He thanked me and headed off in that direction.
I finished my day and then came back the next day. As I was ringing up a customer, a woman approached us and asked if I had directed a man to the bathroom the day before.
I was puzzled but replied, ‘I direct many people to the bathrooms every day.’
The woman began screaming at the top of her lungs about how I should never direct anyone to the bathrooms in the mall. I was very confused as I used that bathroom often myself, rather than go upstairs to the women’s bathroom in the store. I called my supervisor and continued to ring people up while this lady freaked out and threw a tantrum. Apparently, the man was her husband and she didn’t like how there was a hallway to get to the bathroom.”
Company Policy
“At the Subway store I worked at, we couldn’t take bills larger than a $20 bill. We were in the middle of a pretty bad dinner rush, and this particular gentleman ordered six sandwiches and some chips. His total came out to $50.47, and he tried handing my coworker a $50 bill.
He must not have seen the sign two feet in front of him stating, ‘We cannot take bills bigger than a $20 bill.’
My coworker said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, company policy dictates we cannot take this money.’
The man stared at my coworker in utter disbelief. He then shouted, ‘Why the heck not?’
Keep in mind, there were still lots of people inside and listening intently to this exchange.
My coworker repeated again, ‘I’m very sorry. It’s company pol-‘
The man snatched up his things and yelled in my coworker’s face, ‘You just wait here for five freaking minutes while I go get your freaking money!’
As he left, he slammed the door so hard that the kids inside started crying and the other adults just stared in shock. It also chipped the paint on the outside of the frame. We then tried to resume making people’s food in order to recover from that verbal exchange.
True to his word, the man came back with the $50 bill split into two $20 bills and one $10.
He stared me down with murder in his eyes and snapped, ‘You know you legally have to take my $50, right?’
In fact, federal law states that any kind of private business can choose to accept whatever type of currency they’d like. Subway is actually privately owned by franchise managers, so I politely informed the gentleman that it was not our decision, but our franchise managers.
In response to that, he threw the money in my face and told me, ‘Shove a footlong up yours!’
I smiled back as he left and said, ‘Don’t bother coming back if this is how an adult like you acts in public.’
He turned back around, glared at me furiously. He slammed the door yet again and left spewing curses like the child of a sailor and an engineer.
Please treat fast food employees with respect, because we can tell when you are trying to be a prick!’
Flashy Buttons
“You see, I like buttons. And since I have to wear a nametag on a lanyard, my boss okayed my buttons. I change them out sometimes and questions get asked about them, usually simple things as to where I got them and how much I paid.
So one day, I was busy handling another customer and their 2K gas purchase (diesel). Then I saw a customer out of the corner of my eye walk into an end cap because she was texting and had her phone buried in her face. I said nothing but smiled inside because I thought it was kind of funny. She didn’t get hurt or damage anything so I thought she’d just walk it off and giggle about it. Boy was I wrong.
The customer yelled, ‘I want a manager now!’
I turned around to spot the manager on the other side of the store, and said loudly, ‘Hey, Manager! Do you mind helping this customer that’s wanting a manager? I’m trying to get this piece of junk receipt thing to work.’
My manager walked toward the customer and said, ‘I’m the manager, what can I do for you?’
The customer said, ‘First of all, how dare he ask for you like that across the store? Second of all, why is he wearing so many buttons? Third of all, that peon (she really emphasized that) caused me to walk into this and hurt myself.’
My manager turned in my direction and asked, ‘Hunter, what have you been doing?’
I replied, ‘Trying to finish this gas purchase on this stupid receipt machine. Can I just toss it out the window?’
The customer shouted, ‘How dare you?!’
My manager said, ‘Ma’am, please calm down and explain exactly how he caused you to do this.’
The customer mentioned something about how my buttons were distracting and brightly colored. She said, ‘So as you can see them being brightly colored caused me to walk into this thing because I was distracted and now my ankle hurts.’
My manager questioned her, ‘So you’re telling me that a bunch of buttons distracted you?’
The customer replied, ‘Yes. What are you going to do about it?’
My manager said, ‘File an incident form.’
The customer then went off on a rant.
My manager said, ‘I don’t care.’
The customer continued with her rant, even commenting on my manager’s looks.
My manager replied, ‘Does that make you feel better to make those snarky remarks? Look, I’m filing an incident report and this will be included.’
Meanwhile, I had just finished up the transaction and was glaring angrily at the receipt machine. I then said, ‘This is going to be a long day because somebody has to have an attitude.’
The customer screamed about how I was insulting her by breathing too loudly. So I breathed even louder on purpose.”
Refund
“I worked at a Burger King from 2004-07 and during that time, we got new cash registers. Any time someone ordered a sandwich, fries/onion rings/hash browns, and a drink, the register automatically combined the items into a combo meal, even if it wasn’t on the menu.
So a lady ordered several items, some of which were a sandwich, fries, and drink separately. She came to me later with her receipt, pointed out one of the combo meals, and questioned it.
I explained, ‘At some point, you ordered the items separately and the register automatically made it a meal. It also comes out cheaper that way.’
She replied, ‘But I didn’t order a meal.’
I said, ‘I understand, ma’am, but the register automatically does that and it saves you money.’
She kept complaining and eventually walked off.
I thought, ‘of all things to complain about.’
Another time, a couple came through the drive-thru and ordered two combo meals. After they paid and I gave them their drinks, I was told there was a two-minute wait on fresh fries which I relayed to them.
They said, ‘We are in a hurry, so we don’t have time to wait. Can we get a refund for the fries?’
I voided their ticket, re-rang it as two sandwiches and two drinks, and gave them the difference which was maybe a dollar and something (plus their sandwiches).
They asked, ‘What’s this?’
I told them, ‘That’s your difference for us taking off the fries.’
They asked, ‘Why is it ‘only’ this amount for two orders of fries?’
I explained, ‘Because it went from two combo meals to two sandwiches and two drinks. What I gave you is the difference.’
Apparently, they thought they should be refunded the full price for the two orders of fries, but they didn’t pay full price for the fries, to begin with.
I thought, ‘Y’all don’t have time to wait two minutes for the fries but you have time to question why you ‘only’ got that amount back?’
They asked for a manager, so I went to the manager and took my time explaining the situation. She sided with me and as we headed back to the window, the couple had already left.”
Holiday Shopping
“I worked in the bakery at the Fresh Market some years ago. I’ve worked in many customer service positions, so I’ve heard and seen almost it all. This one takes the cake though. It was Thanksgiving Day and a Karen in her 60’s I’d say, was taking a pie off the counter and asked me what time we closed. We usually close at 9 pm but it being Thanksgiving and all, we were closing early around three or four pm.
I informed her of this, and she lost it.
I thought,’ Uhm, hello?! It’s Thanksgiving! What do you think?’
She clearly knew that from the contents of her cart and the extremely crowded store of people mainly picking up their pre-ordered, and pre-prepped dinners, which we offered every Thanksgiving and Christmas. But yeah, she just lost it.
She started screaming at me, ‘And so how are people (and by people she meant her because by looking in her cart it looked like she hadn’t prepared for the holiday at all prior) to get their last minute items for our parties and dinners?!’
I apologized for the inconvenience, and mentioned how it was our standard policy for closing hours on all major holidays and had been stated so on signs on the front of the store, and all around inside it for the entire month of November.
I also said in a very friendly manner, ‘But you are here now so you won’t have to worry about us closing early!’
She continued screaming about how this was completely unacceptable and what if she forgot something and had to come back. Everyone was looking at her like she was nuts, so she got more fed up, especially after she realized what those people were in line to pick up — their pre-ordered items.
She then asked for a manager and I was happy to oblige. I didn’t want to deal with that Karen for another second. I called over the intercom for a manager needed in the bakery. Then I informed her someone would be right there to speak to her. At least she moved out of the way so I could help everyone else waiting graciously and who pretty much all apologized for me having to deal with such a horrible person.
When I saw the manager, my heart dropped. It was Toby, my favorite and the absolute sweetest person in that place. Everyone loved him. But I could see where this was probably going to go.
When my manager approached and introduced himself to this woman, she immediately started laying into him. She said we were all rude and so inconsiderate for not being open until our regular closing hours to accommodate our customers.
Toby, though obviously more than a bit perturbed, responded with, ‘Well Miss, I’m very sorry you are upset but all supermarkets close early today, as it is a National Holiday.’
She got so red in the face with her eyes bulging wide, and literally screamed in the middle of the packed store and in his face, ‘I can’t believe they sent a wimp out here to speak to me.’
You could’ve heard a pin drop in the whole place. From my vantage point, everyone’s jaws dropped to the floor just staring at her with their jaws closing and looks of disgust replacing them.
But my manager, Toby being the professional he was had the perfect response.
‘Well ma’am, then you should’ve planned and prepared for your meal much earlier than Thanksgiving Day. All of the employees that are here took time out of the day of this holiday to assist our customers, even ungrateful ones like you. Every employee here right now has loved ones they want to spend their Thanksgiving with also. We all have a family to celebrate with and we plan to do so!’
Then he turned on his heels and walked away from her.
She ended up leaving without buying anything which was fine with all of us. I hope it ruined her party.”
Busy Check-Out Line
“Years ago, I worked at Foot Locker, and we had two registers at the counter. One day, we got unusually busy, so in an effort to keep the line moving, the salespeople would line up customers’ items on the back counter, push them along and add theirs next, so they were in order. I would grab the first set in the line, ring it up on one register, then while that credit card was going through (it took a minute at that time), I’d ring up the next set of items on the other register. As soon as the receipt popped up on the first, I’d have them sign their receipt and give them their bag and then finish the other transaction. And rinse and repeat.
I got in a rhythm, so I was bouncing back and forth.
When I grabbed the next set of items and started ringing them up, this lady started yelling, ‘I’m next!’
Now, each transaction was one to four items. It took me about 30 seconds to scan and bag each customer’s things. I only had one item left on the current transaction, so as I scanned it, apologized, and asked her if the next set of items were hers.
As I ran the card through the strip, she yelled, ‘Yes! And I should have been rung up first! Why did you ring him up first?! I was next!’
So I briefly explained how I just went in the order the items were lined up. In the meantime, I had rung her things through and ran her card. But she wasn’t done.
She yelled again, ‘Well, I was next and you should have rung me in first!’
At this point, I was giving her the receipt to sign, and she was still yelling at me as I handed her her bag.
She yelled, ‘What the heck?!’
Then she pointed to the guy I had rung up just before her, who was staring at her while waiting for his receipt. She continued, ‘Is he your boyfriend or something?!’
I don’t know what my face looked like at this point, but for whatever reason, she felt the need to stay to keep yelling. As I finish ringing up the guy, my manager came behind the counter and told me to take a break. As I went into the back room, I could hear him speaking angrily to her, about how he won’t put up with customers treating his good employees like that. I don’t know what her reaction was, but my manager was awesome.”
McDonald’s Scammers
“Working at McDonald’s, I had one customer who came in and let two people order food. You could tell they were homeless. The guy paid for the food and left. The couple got the food and sat down. I believe it was two quarter pounder meals with fries and drinks.
About 45 minutes later, the couple came up and talked to the manager, complaining how their sandwiches and fries were cold. He ended up giving them a complete refund of almost $20.
I whispered to him how the couple had gotten their food over 45 minutes prior and didn’t even pay, someone else paid. If he had looked at the receipt they showed him, he would have seen the time of the order.
All he told me was, ‘f a customer complains, I have to give them their money back.’
I said, ‘Wow! This couple is slick. Get someone else to pay for their meal, then complain a long time later and get the money back that wasn’t theirs, to begin with.'”
Angry Mother
“Imagine the five pm lull, a few customers entered the store every now and again but the drive-thru was a ghost town and most orders were to go. At my job, we used this time to do a thorough clean of all the equipment and made sure the kitchen and restaurant were tidy. I had about half an hour left on my shift so I stood register to keep an eye on the front.
A lady and a young boy walked in. As soon as the boy got inside, he started running around the tables like it was a race track. When the woman approached the register, I asked her politely to calm her child down as I wouldn’t want him to get hurt.
This lady then started yelling at me, ‘Did you just threaten my son?! I demand to talk to your manager right this instant or I will call the police!’
Shocked, I went out the back and got him. When we came back, we saw her cradling the little boy on the floor by one of the tables.
When the manager asked her to explain the story from her point of view, she twisted my words.
She said, ‘Your employee threatened to hurt my little boy! Now he is crying because he was scared of her, and that caused him to run away from her into a table. I will sue and get her arrested if she isn’t fired on the spot and if I don’t get a free meal!’
My manager, having enough of the women, crouched down and asked the boy, ‘Are you scared of my worker? And that’s why you got hurt?’
‘No, my flip flop fell off and I tripped,’ the boy confessed.
At this point, my manager told her, ‘Ma’am, your son should not have been running in the restaurant’ and pointed to the clearly visible sign on the door. ‘My worker is very trustworthy, not liable to pay you anything, and would never threaten a child.’
At that moment, my own children came through the door and greeted me cheerfully as they always did. The lady quickly mumbled about never coming here again and that was that.
A friend of mine worked at a subway nearby and told me how a lady and boy of the same description demanded a free meal from them recently as well. What was really petty about the whole ordeal for me was how she tried to get me fired and arrested just for a free feed. I don’t know what her financial situation was but honestly, I would have offered to pay for her meal if she hadn’t then lied about how her son actually got hurt. As a mother, it just really upset me.”
Wrong Move
“I once worked in a grocery store as a cashier and one person came through with a lot of meat. I noticed after they left the belt was really gross, so I started spraying the belt and my area where I thought all the leaking meat might have touched. I then grabbed some paper towels and started wiping them up. I had just started wiping when a woman came up to my register with a basket.
I asked her, ‘Give me just a minute to finish wiping up the belt because there had been some leaks from the previous transaction.’
She started yelling, ‘Hurry up then! It’s my turn and I shouldn’t have to wait for you to wipe up.’
‘Okay,’ I said.
All her stuff got meat juice and bleach cleaner on it. Stupid woman.”
Ma’am, This Is Not Costco!
“One day I was standing at the customer service counter when a woman in her 50s came up to me in visible distress. According to her, the cashier had withheld the sales receipt from her and as such, she would not be able to exit the store. I looked over at my cashier, who was pleasantly ringing up the next customer, and I immediately saw two problems: One was I couldn’t reprint the receipt since he had already started the next transaction, and two, the trash bin was devoid of receipts.
So, this woman was under the impression she paid for a week’s worth of groceries in vain.
‘Ma’am, I’m sorry that the cashier ‘has your receipt’. You would like to exit the store now, right?’ I asked.
‘Well of course! Who would want to spend time in this dump?’ She said.
‘No problem ma’am. I’ll just call my security and you can rest assured that you can get it safely,’ I said.
‘No, but I can’t get out without the receipt!’ She exclaimed.
Bear in mind, my store has an open entrance. It is not like Costco with receipt checkers.
As I retrieved the bin and showed her, I said, ‘Ma’am, since neither you nor the cashier has the receipt, why don’t you just head out and security won’t bother you.’
She said, ‘Are you kidding me? Why are you making me pay for my groceries twice!?’
I replied, ‘Not at all ma’am. You don’t need to pay again, you can j-‘
As this woman pulled out her Ziploc bag of bills, something fell out of her pocket. I saw it was the receipt.
She said, ‘You need to train your cashiers better. I shouldn’t have to pay for my groceries twice whenever I come here.'”
“Take It Out”
“A customer came running into the store yelling, ‘Take it out! Take it out!’
I asked him if I could help him.
He said, ‘I put the wrong gas in my car! Take it out!’
I said, ‘Sir, you only got a pennyworth of premium, so your car will be fine.’
Responded by demanding I take it out again. I had to explain to him that any gas he put in, was now mixed with the other gas, and there was no way to remove his pennyworth of gas.
The guy was an executive for a computer firm.”