The customer isn't always right! In fact, sometimes they're just downright rude and they need to be taken down a peg. Whether that's by a worker who's totally over their entitled attitude, or just karmic fate, these terrible customers got their just desserts and these lucky workers got to see it all go down. They took to Reddit to share their stories and, boy, are they sweet, sweet revenge.
Content has been edited for clarity.
Crime Doesn’t Pay
“Way back when I used to be a retail slave, I worked at an electronics retailer. We had some guys going around trying to lift DVDs. They were cutting the barcodes off to remove the sensors so they wouldn’t go off on their way out. LP notices and starts sending over floor reps to see how they are doing, if they need help, etc. Finally LP goes over and just hands them a hand basket. Because they had nothing in their hands, it was a move showing them that we knew. So they start wandering around ditching the DVDs as they go and as soon as they drop one, an employee comes up and grabs it. So they start freaking out. They dump the rest and just book it towards the door, full speed. No one chased them because they ditched all the merchandise. As they exit, one of the dudes turns around and starts flipping everyone off, yelling, ‘Eff [store name]!’ As he’s doing this, he steps off the curb into the front driveway in the parking lot and promptly gets hit by a car…
It was in the lot so it was only hard enough to knock him over, but he had to scramble to his feet and keep running.”
“Told Ya So”
“I used to work at Target. We were always told if a parent has their kid STANDING in the cart, we should ask the parent to have their kid sit down. Most of the time, the parents are fine with it. This one lady was not having it.
She was outside and had just put her kid in the cart. At the entrance, the ground had shifted a bit and there was a small lip to get into the store, and of course the kid is standing at the very front of the cart. I politely warned the customer of the lip and tell her the kid should sit down because there’s a very high chance he’ll fall out. She tells me to ‘go eff yourself. You can give me advice about my kid when you become a parent yourself,’ while pointing her finger at me. Alright, whatever. We can’t do anything after that. She walks towards the door, kid still standing and hits the lip. Kid flips out of the cart and bashes his face on the floor. If anyone knows about the ‘carpeting’ in the entrance vestibules, it’s basically like having a piece of paper draped over a slab of concrete. There’s no padding what-so-ever. Kid had GIANT lump on his forehead and must have hit his nose too since he was bleeding everywhere. I told my managers and the lady got the help she needed for her kid, but she was still being extremely rude. Told you so.”
Creeps Beware
“As a teenager, I was working part time at a convenience store. I was being trained by the late night cashier. This dude comes in and grabs a bunch of cans of vegetables and such, and comes to the counter and stacks the cans in a very specific way, like a weird kind of pyramid on the counter.
As the experienced cashier (my trainer) takes each can off the pyramid and rings it up, she reaches the end of the stack and we realize that the weirdo has his privates out and has it laying on the counter behind the cans.
Without saying a word, the trainer grabs one of the big heavy metal cans of beans and slams it down as hard as she can on the guy’s junk. He screamed an incredible scream of searing pain, grabbed his privates, and ran out of the store.
She to me: (calmly) ‘You get all kinds on the late shift.'”
“The FREAKIN Dress WON’T FIT!”
“I worked in this fancy clothing store in this posh town at the seaside. It was a busy Saturday when suddenly a very pretentious girl walked in with her boyfriend, ignoring us as we greeted her and even giving my colleague a demeaning look. She went on to browse around in the store and eventually took some clothes with her in the changing booth.
After a while, I notice a heated conversation arising from the booth between her and her boyfriend. I see the boyfriend running back and forth between the booth and some clothing racks. In the meanwhile, me and my colleague where being chased away by her (she refused any help and didn’t leave the booth) as if we were a couple of ebola patients.
So me and my colleague continue working and helping other costumers. I was working the register when suddenly the girl turns up next to me, completely ticked off, and she starts ranting about ‘how our store/brand really should work on the fitting of our clothes and how we were complete mess ups.’ I was completely caught of guard and right when I wanted to ask her what the exact problem was, I see my colleague looking at the girl while bursting out this horribly loud laugh, tears and all. What had happened was that the girl had taken with her a clothing piece she thought was a strapless dress. Well, it wasn’t a dress. It was a skirt. The girl had tried on all sizes and got completely fed up, yelling at us and her boyfriend because the ‘FREAKIN “DRESS” WON’T FIT!’ So she walked out in a crowded store, making a scene, with a skirt pulled up to her chest.
I have to admit, after she left, I laughed till I cried.”
Her Threats To Shut Them Down Backfired
“I worked at Best Buy 10 or so years ago, this happened on Black Friday. Most of the customers were in bad moods since they’d been waiting hours to come in and stand in more lines. But this one lady was a raging witch. After yelling at everyone in my department about how she NEEDED the laptop that was on sale despite it being sold out, she proceeds to tell us she’ll have the store closed down because she ‘works with the city and knows the Fire Marshall and we have too many people in the store.’ So she calls him, we tell her to leave, and nothing happens to the store. However we called them as well to report what she’d said, and she got fired from her job for abuse of power.”
He Was Done With Her The Moment Her Accusations Started
“I’m a former cell phone industry worker.
We HAVE to pitch insurance and a case every time you get a new phone. We have to. You can actually be fired from some carriers for refusing to partake in making these suggestions.
During a normal new-line set-up, this insanely rude woman is hostile about every part of the exchange. Her credit is in the dumps so she has to pay a gnarly deposit and that’s somehow my fault. Finalizing everything before she’s completely rung up, I casually offer the same thing I do to literally everyone getting a new phone: Which insurance plan were you interested, and what kinds of cases have you looked at?
Apparently that was the most offensive thing she’d ever heard in her life. She immediately raised her voice and makes it really uncomfortable for me because apparently I’m only accusing her of being clumsy since she’s black, and I didn’t charge her white friend near as much and blah blah, super fun. I kept my composure and tried calmly explaining everything, even try to let her know that I HAVE to offer that to everyone but I couldn’t get anything across. Eventually my coworker lets me know he’s got this, we swap places and finish each other’s sales. As she steps out of the store looking down at the Galaxy Note 3 she had just spent a total of 500 something dollars to get, she trips, eats it, and smashes the screen.
Comes back in asking for help after raising a ruckus and we got to be all, ‘Love to help you, but can’t.’
She was furious but its not like dropping an ice cream cone where we would give her another and it not be a big deal. She refused to talk to me but ended up getting really terrible ZTE phone to hold her over. “
Maybe He Won’t Be So Cranky Next Time
“I used to sell mattresses, which no one really wants to buy. No ones jacked about buying mattresses; they do it because they have to. I get it; everyone that works there gets it.
One Saturday, this cranky old dude comes in, and before anyone can greet him, he’s complaining about literally everything. We’re trying to help him, but he shoos anyone who approaches him away. Of course, then he turns around to complain about no one helping him.
Dude is old, like I said, and he can’t get around well. We recommend he not lay down on an all foam mattress if he won’t let anyone help him up. He says something rude and blows us off. He hobbles over to a foam mattress, one that is right next to a wall. This wall also has a TV display sticking about 8 inches out from the wall, and it constantly plays ads.
Old man lays down on the bed and immediately hates it. He sits up, and he realizes it will be difficult for a man in his condition to get off the bed, but he won’t ask for help.
Dude launches himself off the mattress and straight into the TV display. My manager loses it. The guy tries to bark at us, but everyone else is too busy trying not to laugh, so he gives up and cranky-walks out of the store.”
Dine And Dash Mega Fail
“Was bussing tables at a large and very busy theme restaurant. Was clearing a table right after the customers left and saw that they left behind the check…meaning it was a dine and dash.
While these idiots were so intent on slipping out on their tab, they also left behind a pretty expensive 35mm camera. I immediately notified a manager, so he had me clear the table, put the unpaid check back on the cleared table, then set the camera on top of it….then we both hid around the corner and waited.
Sure enough, one of these pricks came back to the table, looked around, grabbed his camera, then turned around and started back out. The look on his face when my manager (built like a wrestler) came up behind him and firmly grabbed his shoulder and spun him around was priceless…..but wait, there’s more!
He walked the guy outside to the parking lot, where his friend was waiting in the car, made them both pay up, only to find out that they were a whole $1 short…so the manager made them give him their licenses, took down their info, then told them they had 24 hours to pay up the difference, or charges would be filed!”
Her Check Was Good, But There Was Something Else…
“I had a woman come into my bank one day years ago in Mid-August and try to cash a check. Said check looked like it had been written by a four year old. We went through the protocol as mandated by our organization, calling the issuer and verifying all data. While we were going through this procedure the woman goes off on a tantrum. She’s ripping the little pens with chains from the little desks, throwing deposit slips around, demanding she speak to the president of the bank and verbally abusing all the employees. Likewise, she looks to have done enough speed to stay up for a week straight.
We are finally able to get ahold of the issuer of the check, lo and behold, it’s a good check. We cash it. Thank her for her patience. As she’s storming out cursing, two officers walk in and identify her as the owner of a car in the parking lot. Said car had a small child, no more that two, locked inside the entire time. 20 minutes, in August. Some good people called the cops, broke out the window and rescued the kid and had that hag arrested. I hope to god that that little kid has found a new home or that their mom has cleaned up her act.”
The Husband Was Fine, It Was The Wife Who Was A Problem
“In the auto repair business, we must deal with a lot of passive-aggressiveness from people displeased with having to shell out money for their cars.
Once, a couple arrived to pick up a car which was parked in the first spot nearest the street. The husband was great, and had approved the needed repairs in stride; the wife was a raging witch, debating every line item of the estimate, asking pointless questions, demanding a cheaper price, threatening to take the car elsewhere or ‘just get a NEW one!’
Anyway, the man made his way toward the office, but the woman made a beeline for the car, found the keys stashed inside, threw the plastic seat cover to the wind, then started it up and drove off (before the bill had been paid), cutting the turn too sharp and scraping the ENTIRE passenger side of the car badly on the low concrete planter. I saw this happen; the husband didn’t. Never saw them again.”
Worth The Clean Up
“I work Customer Service for Kmart. Lady screamed belligerently at me for refusing to return some food she bought just before Christmas (it was March, returns are for thirty days and the Christmas platters are final sale after Xmas). It was a Christmas cracker meat and cheese platter, the kind that is fine at room temperature until you open it. She yelled at me, screamed the food was rotten and had bugs. I refused and quoted policy. She demands to talk to the manager, who tells her the same. She screams about how she will call corporate and have us all fired. She stormed off and proceeded to almost plow into a small child. She stopped in time, but the halt somehow made her throw the box in the air, the OPEN box, which fell back onto her, causing rotten meat cheese and bugs to cover her and get into her hair and mouth. It was worth having to clean it up.”
Big Dave Doesn’t Take Kindly To Slurs
“It was about three years ago. An employee, we’ll call him Dave, was working at my retail store when two customers walk in at about the same time, one black, one white. Dave was being trained on register after being there for only a month or so with the manager standing behind him. The two customers get to the register at about the same time, but the black man beat him there. The black man then has the audacity to ask how good the product was before he bought it, and the white man behind him said, ‘Do I really have to wait for this effing [n-word] to be done?’
The black man was unfazed, but Dave said, ‘Sir, please don’t use slurs like that or I am going to have to ask you to leave.’
White man: ‘Oh, big man? You going to make me leave, big man? Because I called this [n-word] an effing [n-word]?’
Dave (6″5′): ‘Yes, I am a big man and you have to leave now.’
White man: ‘Effing fight me then, big man! I’ll destroy you!’
Dave: ‘Alright, I will. Let me clock out and grab my stuff and I’ll meet you outside.’ The white man was a little surprised by the fact that he accepted. Dave turned to the manager and said, ‘Thank you so much for the opportunity, but I’m afraid I have to quit.’
Manager: ‘Dave, I get it, but you don’t have to do this.’
Dave: ‘Yes, I do.’ The white man was getting himself pumped up outside as Dave clocked out, grabbed his coat and his Pepsi, and walked outside…where he sucker-punched the white man in the cheekbone, sprawling him out onto the curb. Dave drove off. The white guy just kinda slinked off when he came to.”
Best Plot Twist Ever
“This was the best! I work security at a large retail store whose primary color is red, right? I get called up to Guest Services because a lady is being denied for a cosmetics return with no receipt and is getting really aggressive.
I arrive and find her screaming that she wants her return process but it clearly states on a 3ftx5ft board that no receipt returns can be denied. I call a manager up to the front and they try to calm her down to no avail because she still wants her return done. We offer her an exchange? No. We look up her receipt for when she said she bought the items? Not good enough. She’s still cussing and yelling up a storm.
At this point my manager is fed up and tells her to leave because he’s not dealing with her. She refuses to leave and pulls the race card. We call local law enforcement to remove her. She’s fine with it so she can report us for harassment. Officer arrives after 10 very awkward minutes.
Officer speaks to the lady, getting her drivers license. Runs her information through dispatch. Turns out, lady has an out of state felony warrant for her arrest in the excess of $100,000. Officer proceeds to put the lady under arrest and removes her from the store. Best plot twist EVER!”
She Doesn’t Understand What A “Consignment Shop” Does
“I currently work at a consignment shop. We have two stories of furniture and it’s only things people bring in for us to sell for some of the profit. A lady came in her with her son (he was 5 or 6) and she looked around. We had two bar-stools and she came up to the desk and said, ‘I’d like to order two more of these bar-stools.’
I smiled and said, ‘We can’t do that, those belong to someone and that’s all they had to consign with us.’
She looks back and says, ‘Well why the eff can’t you order ones like this?! I’m sure you can find them online!’
I clench my teeth and smile again, saying, ‘Ma’am, we really can’t do that. If you’d like to go online, you are more than welcome to look for yourself, but I can’t help you and I’m sorry.’ She huffed and started walking to the door, talking about getting me fired, making a horrible review of this place. She then got a nice big face-full of door. It’s a push door and it was locked. She looks at me and screams, ‘WHY THE EFF IS THIS LOCKED?!’ I have no idea.
Then her son looks at her and says, ‘Mommy you were mean to that lady and I don’t wanna go til you say sorry.’ Best. Kid. Ever. This kid was so stern.
She didn’t look at me and she was embarrassed. But she said sorry.”
“That’s The Reason We Don’t Allow Them, Sir”
“Warehouse worker here. Customers have to show a card to shop and even though we’re not technically a grocery store, we don’t allow pets. One dude tried to power walk past the employee at the entrance door holding a big pit bull puppy on a leash. We stopped him and told him he couldn’t bring his dog inside and he LOST IT. He’s our best customer and he’s here 5 times a week and he owns stock, blah. Whatever. He demanded to know why we don’t allow dogs. We explained how it’s a food safety issue, especially with an untrained puppy. At this point, our manager came over and just waved him through (because no backbone/customers always right). Well not even 5 minutes later, this dog squats in the middle of the main aisle and pees, followed by poop. The man turned so red and dragged the dog towards the exit, abandoning his groceries. We stopped him and asked him nicely to please clean up after his pup. ‘That’s the reason we don’t allow them, sir.'”
He Was Waiting For Him At The Door
“I used to work at a RadioShack in my area during college. It was never really busy on Sunday’s, so I was generally the only worker there.
On this particular Sunday morning, I was incredibly tired from the night before, so I was kinda ticked about having to come in on a day when no one was going to show up. I got even more ticked when I pulled into the parking lot and was instantly greeted by a man who proceeded to start yelling at me. I put on my sales associate smile and kindly asked what the problem was. ‘I’ve been waiting here for 30 minutes and you are late!’ I wasn’t late, I was actually 15 minutes early. He then followed closely behind me to the door and was screaming at me the whole way. ‘I’m never coming back to this store,’ and stuff like that. When I finally got the door open, I let him know that I had to turn the alarm off and count the register before I could help him. This also made him angry…but at this point I didn’t care. I was nice enough to try and help him 15 minutes before we opened…least he could do was not be a prick.
Anyway, I finally get to help the guy out and he wants to know about batteries. Cool, easy. I proceed to show him our batteries and their prices. He goes off. He starts screaming and yelling about how everything was outrageous and the prices were terrible and apparently I had treated him like garbage. He started to pound his fist on the counter and started yelling again about how we didn’t have any name brand batteries (we did) and how RadioShack was communist by trying to push their batteries on their customers.
I calmly told him that there was nothing I could do and asked if I could help him with anything else. This man waited to yell at me for batteries that he didn’t even buy. The RadioShack was right next door to a Big Lots and walking distance to Walmart.
He stormed off, punched a battery display, and proceeded to slam face first into our door. Turns out that since he was yelling and screaming at me while I was unlocking the doors, I forgot to unlock the other one. He quickly looked around to see if I had saw him. I just waved and told him to have a great day. He spun out of the parking lot and I never saw him again.”
Her Rant Fell On Deaf Ears
“I worked at a Pier 1 Imports as a teenager, outside Birmingham, AL. This was about 20 years ago and transgender folks weren’t on my radar at all. Anyway, it’s near Christmas, I’m at the register with a line of customers waiting. There’s a woman huffing about something near the end of the line. By the time she gets up to pay, she’s being very loud about the customer behind her. ‘It’s a man! It’s a pervert in a dress!’ The person behind her was very obviously born a man but was in fact wearing a dress. It didn’t really phase me as much as this woman who was doing her best to shame this person, who looked very hurt and embarrassed. And this lady was doing it while buying Christmas decorations, no less. Anyway, she’s trying to convince me how wrong and gross it is, how this person shouldn’t be in the store, etc. As she’s ranting, I run her credit card. Declined. I try again. Declined. I have rarely in my life experienced the satisfaction as I did at that moment, looking up at her, smiling, and saying that her card had been declined. Her face got red and she really just went off. ‘THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE! TRY IT AGAIN! YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!’ At this point, she has the whole store looking at her. I try again, and very loudly say it is, in fact, declined. She stormed out of there, knocking over a poor Santa statue by the door. I shared a smug grin with the customer behind her.”
Luckily, She Had A Queen In Her Corner
“Let me preface my story by saying I work near Baltimore. Yeah.
So, I manage a plus size women’s clothing store. We actually get a surprising amount of…lets call them ‘non-traditional’ customers. Guys who need a dress for a charity show, cross dressers, genderfluid people, transgender women, and drag queens aren’t unheard of.
So a drag queen comes into the store to pick up some shoes they ordered online. They must have been either coming from or going to a show because they were still in full makeup. I get their name and during our conversation another customer walks in. I call out a greeting and say something like, ‘I’ll be right with you.’
I go to the back room and it takes a minute to go through all the web orders. I find the one I need and am on my way back to the counter, when the new customer throws her arm out to stop me from passing.
She then says, ‘I am a new customer and I’ve been here for 20 minutes and no one has spoken to me.’
a) I greeted her when she came in and…
b) She had only been in the store for 5 minutes at that point.
I resigned myself to groveling, but before I could say anything, the drag queen stomps over, glares at the customer, and says, ‘Lady, she said hello to you.’
Complete with sassy finger snaps.
The Queen then made a big show of thanking me for getting her package, and gave me a big sparkly kiss on the cheek before she left.
The other customer sheepishly paid for her Spanx and didn’t make eye contact when I told her to have a good day.”