At one point or another, just about everyone has had a bad experience with a customer. Whether it's dealing with someone who just doesn't get it, or someone who doesn't think it's their place to pay attention to their surroundings, there are always people that are so dim-witted, it's a miracle they made it this far.
A Reddit thread recently asked people to share their best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) stories about dealing with customers who weren't the brightest. Take a look at some of our favorite stories from the bunch, and let us know if you think you've experienced something worse. Don't worry, we took the time to clean up the comments for the sake of clarity.
There Are Only So Many Ways You Can Explain To A Hotel Guest What All Is Included In Their Rooms
“I work at a hotel and I had a guest call and inform me that his room did not have a bathroom and that he would need to be moved to one which did,” wrote one Redditor. “I informed him of course that all of our rooms have bathrooms, and asked if he had checked the doors in the room. He had not…”
Although that guest was quick to realize that they were mistaken, it took a little bit longer for the guest in this next story to figure out what was included in their hotel room.
“I worked in a hotel for five years, and I can say that people don’t go on vacations to think,” wrote Dougdahead. “I remember getting a guest call about not having a TV in her room.
I got to her room, and she was huffy and wanted to be angry. I was still standing in the hallway as she was giving me the third degree about not having a TV, which was funny because from her door I could see the TV mounted on the wall above her fireplace. I waited until she finished her angry rant and asked her if she was sure she didn’t have one. She looked really angry like she wanted a manager when I told her I can see it from here. She turned around in a complete circle waving her arms like people do when they are angrily explaining something and said she still doesn’t see it.
I told her to look at the wall where her fireplace is, and she stood there for a second before looking back at me confused. I took the remote I always carried in my pocket and turned the TV on. Her face turned beet red and she smiled. She apologized profusely and said she thought that was some sort of picture frame.
I couldn’t help but laugh as I told her to have a good rest of her day and walked away,” they concluded.
Both of the previous guests could be considered rocket scientists compared to this next guest.
“I work at a hotel, and one day a client walked in and asked: ‘If I book a room, does it include the bed?’ wrote rggrd. “I was like, ‘No, sir, we only provide you a chair so you can sit down and wait until checkout time.'”
Here’s The Reason People Should Read The Instructions
Sometimes it’s best to read a product’s description before you randomly start sticking it in your mouth. That is unless you want to end up like the grandpa in this story.
“I was working at a museum where the main attraction is the dinosaur exhibit,” wrote ParrotChild. “We sell a lot of cheap products aimed at children, and we sell a lot of them… especially ‘Dino Eggs.’
One day, a grandfather (I presume) and his granddaughter (once again, I presume and hope) came into the shop, which was always busy and always cramped. He picked up a Dino Egg for her, handed it over, and quickly paid before saying, ‘No bag, no need.’ But just as the till drawer closed and I was pulling out his receipt to hand him, I saw him in the corner of my eye tear open the packaging of this ‘egg,’ smash open the lovely plastic shell, and take a big shard to his mouth. He began to chew as he turned slowly to me and only then did he think to ask: ‘Is this edible?’
‘No!’ I gasped. ‘No, sir. That… that’s not edible. You really shouldn’t eat that.’
The little granddaughter’s face sank further watching her grandpa spit out bits of plastic into her broken dinosaur egg; a fake dino-egg designed to be immersed in water so that the rubbery-dino toy on the inside could ‘grow and hatch.’
I gave him another egg. Well, I gave it to his granddaughter because I thought it was best to keep it away from him, he was clearly ravenous.”
And Then You Have The Drivers Who Are So Worried About Getting Somewhere That They Ignore Their Surroundings
“There was a bad collision down a narrow street in my city, so we had to close off the road to complete the investigation,” wrote BLDBL (a police officer). “I was positioned at a four-way intersection about 60 feet from the actual collision. I parked my car with all of the lights flashing directly in the middle of the roadway, and it was pouring rain, so the reds and blues were reflecting off everything.
Over the course of the 45 minutes that I was blocking the road off, I had about 15 cars drive directly up to me and ask: ‘Is this road closed?’ No, go ahead, I’m standing here like a fool soaking in the rain with my blinky flashlight on waving it in random directions because I like sweet rave parties.”
And it’s not just cops that have to deal with the stupidity of drivers. Just ask any construction worker whose handling a road project.
“My city recently had our street resurfaced, and our street can get kind busy,” wrote PicardUSS1701d. “Well, the construction guys had adequately barricaded off the entire width of the street with signs saying no thru traffic and had been using a blow torch of some kind to work on a crosswalk, and people kept weaving around the signage and waiting for them to stop torching so that they could drive through anyway.
“Luckily, the construction workers motioned for them to turn around every time, but I just sat on my front porch and watched for hours. What part of fluorescent orange signs blocking traffic, fire, and at least five guys wearing construction hats while standing in the middle of the intersection do people not understand?”
Someone Should Probably Tell This Woman That It Doesn’t Work That Way
One poor Redditor, who happens to work in soundproofing, had the displeasure of dealing with one temperamental customer. Despite the bad experience, they were kind enough to share the story.
“I had a lady call me up one day, and she asked me to help her block radio waves from entering her bedroom. I politely explained that sound and electromagnetic waves are two totally different things and that we didn’t carry products that block EM. It wasn’t the first time that’s happened, and hey, not everybody’s a physicist, no biggie.
Then she said, ‘You have to help me! I’m your customer!’
As politely as I could explain, I told her that, no, actually, you’re somebody else’s customer, I don’t sell those products.
‘I don’t understand why you aren’t helping me!’
After a bit of mental calculus, I reasoned that it would take less time to talk this lady off the edge than to explain to my manager why I hung up on her.
‘Ok, can you explain to me WHY you need to block radio waves from entering your bedroom?’
‘Well! To save my LIFE obviously!’
Houston we have a problem. I looked at the caller ID, yep, Florida area code. We definitely gotta whacko here. So, to make a long story short, I proceeded to help her to build a DIY faraday cage over her bed to block the satellites from controlling her brain. I’m not proud of this…I’m sure a mental health provider will admonish me for going along with the delusion, but at the end of the day she was thrilled somebody helped her, is probably sleeping very soundly now, and I got to have an entertaining 45 minutes or so on phone rather than the alternative.”
Is There Any Job Any Less Enviable Than A Technical Support Manager?
“I was working as a tech support manager for a dial-up ISP in the mid-1990s,” wrote CrazyOtto87. “A customer called to ask why his email wasn’t working and made me stay on the phone with him while he walked through it to prove it.
Lo and behold it didn’t work because he wasn’t online. Why? He was talking to me on his one phone line. All the other times his email didn’t work before, he had also been talking on the phone.”
One would think that as technology advanced and people become more accustomed to the ins and outs of their computers, they would learn a thing or two. But then there are people like the guy in this next story.
“Back when I did tech support, I received a call from a customer with a peculiar keyboard problem,” wrote donut2099. “It seems that he was having trouble with the shift key, so whenever he typed a letter with the shift key pressed, it gave him the upper case letter, but when he typed a number, it didn’t do that. Didn’t do what? Type the upper case number. I had to break it to him gently.”
And it doesn’t get much better for those poor souls who manage the technical support for phone companies, as seen below.
“I work for a major wireless cell carrier in the United States,” wrote quartpint. “I have stories.
Caller: ‘How do I make a phone call?’
Me: ‘Just press the application labeled phone.’
Caller: ‘Where?’
Me: ‘On the phone.’
Caller: ‘Right here? The one that looks like a phone?’
Me: ‘Yes.’
Caller: ‘Nothing is happening!’
Me: ‘Normally, when you want to make a phone call and you don’t have any contacts programmed into the phone, dialing a phone number is required.’
Caller: ‘If I wanted to waste time dialing numbers, I would have stuck with my landline!’
Caller (again): ‘What’s the difference between a call and a text? How do I turn the phone on? What’s my Facebook password? Do you have any cases that will stop the phone from giving me cancer? If I stop paying my bill, will they shut the phone off? Will my pictures (pronounced as pitchers) stay with my phone number if I delete them to make room for more?'”
It definitely sounds like that customer should just stick with their landline forever.
Man, This Guy Really Has To Deal With A Lot Of Stupidity
“I work at a corner store in one of the worst neighborhoods in America, so I get a lot of junkies, people that are high, and overall just uneducated people (not saying it in a demeaning way) coming into my store on a daily basis,” wrote one Redditor. “Here are some of my favorite things customers have said to me:
Customer: ‘Yo, how much is the Gatorade?
Me: ‘They’re $1.50.’
Customer: ‘MAAAN?!! They got em two for $3 at the gas station! ‘
Me: ‘You idiot, that’s the same thing!’
Then there was this guy:
‘How much is them 2 for a dollar bags of chips?’
And my personal favorite:
‘How much is them 25 cent candies?’
Customers are always asking me if they can just send their kids to come get their smokes for them.
After I closed the shop one night, I went down the street to my friend’s workplace. He worked at a place where you basically order your food, get it, and leave. It’s strictly take-out. A customer came in and asked for a blue and red slushee and lost his mind when he got a purple slushee and couldn’t figure out why in God’s blue earth he got a purple slushee when he asked for a half red-half blue slushee.
I’ve seen it all.”
Yup, it definitely sounds like they have!
Some People Don’t Always Walk Into Auto Parts Stores With A Full Set Of Tools
“I worked in an auto parts store for a while,” wrote streetmitch. “I got dumb questions all the time, but the one I remember the most is the guy who came in and said that he needed a sensor for his car. That’s it, that’s all the information he cared to share with me.
He didn’t know what kind of car he drove, or even what kind of sensor he needed. He was getting mad at me for not knowing what he needed, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Eventually, I just grabbed a random sensor and sold it to him.”
And that’s not the only story about people walking into an auto parts store without a full set of tools, as evidenced below.
“I was working at a car battery store when a customer came in with a receipt for a battery he had bought a couple weeks ago, asking for a refund,” wrote GrantRusticus. “I asked him if he had the battery with him so that we could take the battery back and refund him the money, but that’s when he said: ‘No, I don’t have it anymore, I put it in a car I just sold.’ Confused, I replied, ‘You want us to refund you for a battery that you don’t have anymore?’ He responded, just as confused, ‘Yeah, well, I don’t have the battery anymore, so why should I have to pay for it? You need to refund me.’
He did not leave the store happy that day,” they concluded.
Some People Just Don’t Know How To Use Their Eyes Or Brains
“A mother with a child came in once with a battle-ready look about her,” wrote Konaya, a receptionist at a driving school. “You know, that look a customer gets when they know they are in the wrong but decide to have a go anyway? She argued that she shouldn’t need to pay the $10 fee for missing her doctor’s appointment because she didn’t know the rules.
I told her that this is a driving school, as evidenced by all the posters on driving and the total lack of hospital decor, that the doctor’s office was next-door, and might I also suggest the optician the next floor down?”
Speaking of people not making use of their brains or eyes, another Redditor pointed out a story they’ll never forget.
“Once, while working at an eye doctors office,” Danwhodonit wrote. “A woman was upset because we were charging her to make new lenses with an updated prescription and asked: ‘Why do you have to make new lenses, just inject some more medicine in the ones I already got?'”
Some people…
It’s Unsettling How Little People Know About Their Pharmacy
Going to the pharmacy is rarely a pleasant experience. But what about the pharmacists themselves? How do they feel about being on the receiving end of ill-informed questions and verbal abuse?
“I work in a pharmacy, and I deal with so many people who do not understand that I can’t just ‘put pills into a bottle and give it to them,'” wrote sami_no. “There’s a process. And most of it is making sure the pills won’t kill you. And that hopefully you won’t be paying an arm and leg for them if you don’t have to. People have more than once asked if I could just give them one pill while they wait. Um, no, because one pill will take as much time as 30, so just go sit down and have some patience.”
Although this next question might sound dumb, it actually highlights what’s wrong with the healthcare system in the United States.
Redditor lacedwithlilacs said: “I worked as a pharmacy technician in the United States, and I once had an older customer ask me why his cholesterol medication ($500 for 90 pills) was cheaper with insurance than without. He didn’t understand the concept of insurance and kept saying: ‘That’s very odd, I’ll have to look into this.'”
And sometimes, people are just so fed up with dealing with their doctors and insurance providers that by the time they speak with a pharmacist, they just take it out on the poor technician behind the counter.
“I worked at a Rite Aid for years,” wrote DyscOffice. “What a nightmare that was. At least once an hour I’d get yelled by a customer about their own deductible for 10 minutes. Then they’d yell at me for another 10 minutes because they’re late, since they had to yell at me.
I later moved to a grocery store pharmacy with a relaxed environment and a supportive manager, which was a brand new world to me. For months, I had to do work to undo this weird Pavlovian reaction to customers where any innocent question was the start of an argument.”
Theme Park Guests Aren’t Always The Brightest… Or Most Patient
Millions of people visit theme parks around the world each year, but not all of those people are the brightest or most patient.
“My mom used to work in a ticket booth at Disneyland,” wrote Moonlight150. “It was an on and off rainy day, nothing terrible to ruin a day but still rain nonetheless. This lady came up to my mom’s window and asked: ‘Is it raining inside the park?’ My mom leaned forward inside her booth to get a better look outside and said: ‘I believe so ma’am” in the most sarcastic voice. ‘Well, when will it clear up?’ My mom just stared at her trying to comprehend the conversation she is having.
My mom told me how much she just wanted to say something like, ‘No, it’s not raining inside the park, it’s protected by an invisible shield made by Disney magic.'”
This kind of interaction isn’t exclusive to Disney. In fact, it seems like it’s widespread.
“I used to work at an amusement park at the prize games booth,” wrote theGabro. “A family with an elder came to play, and the elder fell on the ground, and I immediately took my radio and called the paramedics, jumped over the booth, and made sure he was not bleeding. While I was helping this guy, a lady tapped me on the shoulder, and so I turned around to hear her say, ‘Excuse me, we would like to play too.’
‘Just a sec,’ I told her, ‘This guy could be in danger.’
The paramedics arrived, and while the guy was taken to the paramedic’s room, I turned back and I saw the lady inside my booth moving the prizes until she found a Minion plush and screamed, ‘Aha! I knew they were here!’ The lady was removed from the park by the maintenance guys while her husband was standing in horror with their two kids. She never had her minion.”
Did She Not Understand How Advertising Works?
It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that most able-minded adults would understand that sometimes packaging isn’t meant to be taken literally, but then there are people like the cat owner in this story.
“I work at a healthy pet food store, and one of the foods we carry for cats has a cougar on the can to reflect your kitty’s true, savage nature,” wrote SlyOwlet. “This known-to-be airheaded customer stormed in one day with her messy granola bar in hand.
‘I have a bone to pick here. I bought this can and didn’t see the puma on the label until I got home. HOW COULD ANY COMPANY DO SUCH A THING?!?! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!! FORCING A CAT TO EAT ANOTHER CAT IS SICK AND I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU SELL SUCH A DISGRACEFUL PRODUCT. CAT CANNIBALISM IS NOT OKAY.’
She spat, complete with granola bar crumbs falling from her mouth and hand. I short-circuited a little so I just turned around and walked to the back room and left that for my coworker to handle.”
Smart move SlyOwlet, smart move.
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