Hey there, folks! We’ve all heard about those infamous “Can I speak to the manager” moments, right? Well, get ready to dive into some of the pettiest, most eye-roll-worthy encounters out there. From unreasonable demands to over-the-top theatrics, we’re about to take a hilarious journey through the world of customer service shenanigans. So, get ready to cringe, laugh, and maybe even relate to these fed-up managers and employees! All content has been edited for clarity purposes.
The Hashbrown Hangup
“I worked at a mall as a security officer. About an hour before my shift, I was standing in line at the Tim Horton’s in the mall to get a coffee and sandwich. I had earbuds in but took them out when I noticed a woman at the front of the line screaming at the top of her lungs. She was demanding to see the manager or owner.
I tapped the shoulder of the woman in front of me and asked, ‘Do you know what’s going on?’
She replied, ‘No, she just started yelling randomly.’
At this point, the whole store was watching this woman scream, and the manager was in the back yelling at her. The cashier was nearly in tears.
I decided enough was enough, stepped in, and said, ‘Can both of you be quiet for a second?’
The customer yelled, ‘Unless you’re the store owner, go away! You aren’t in this conversation!’
I politely identified myself as mall security and asked, ‘What’s upsetting you?’
The customer screamed, ‘The cashier asked me if I wanted a freaking hashbrown with my bagel and coffee. I DON’T WANT A HASHBROWN!’
I replied, ‘Ma’am, you aren’t required to get the hashbrown, it’s just a part of the combo.’
‘Don’t you ma’am me, boy!’ the woman said, ‘it’s rude and disrespectful for her to ask if I want a hashbrown. I want this cashier fired! WHY IS SHE ASKING ME FOR SOMETHING I DON’T WANT!?’
She then pointed at the manager and said, ‘I’m not going anywhere until I see the owner and get a full refund!’
I replied ‘The only place you’re going is out of this store. Right now.’
‘You can’t tell me where to go!’ she said.
‘Well, actually, yes, I can. I’m pretty sure I have at least two people, if not more, who are being bothered by your presence here.’ I turned to the customers in line and asked, ‘Who here will give a statement if I call the police?’
Every hand in the line went up.
At this point, the woman was livid. She screamed, ‘TO HELL WITH ALL OF YOU!’ then pointed at me and said, ‘I WANT YOUR MANAGER!’
I laughed and said, ‘I’ll happily walk you right to him right now if you want. You have ten seconds to leave this store before I call the police. Go. NOW.’
The customer stormed off into the mall area in a huff. Then, I took my place back in line. When I got to the front, both the cashier and manager thanked me profusely, and gave me my order for free. Upon exiting the store, the woman was seated at a mall food court table and snarled at me as I walked by.
I smiled at her and said, ‘Have a good morning, ma’am!’ while waving.
It was the weirdest reason why a customer wanted to see a manager I’ve ever heard. It was also among the strangest happenings I’ve had while working in security.”
“She Was Bonkers”
“I used to work at a department store. One night, I was working in the fitting room. A woman came through to use the bathroom. At my work, the bathroom was right across from the fitting rooms.
The next thing I knew, the woman came out of the bathroom livid because she tried to push the stall store in, instead of pulling it out. Because of this, she conked her head on the door and walked out of the bathroom screaming.
‘I DEMAND you call your manager over!’ she screamed.
I just stood there looking at this woman like she was bonkers. I had to resist the urge to bust out in laughter. There was nothing the manager was going to do about her ‘problem,’ and the issue was stupid to begin with.
When the woman’s little rant was over, I ended up calling the manager over. My manager told the woman it was her problem, not ours. Then, the drama queen walked back into the fitting room to try some clothes on and started yelling at me AGAIN. Like, what did she expect me to do?
Later, the manager came back to where I was and wanted to know what the woman said to me about her ‘accident.’ I repeated the general gist of the drama queen’s hissy fit, but her complaint never went anywhere.”
The Free Food Frenzy
“I was a manager when this incident occurred.
For an hour and a half or so, I had to fill in as a temporary manager for the Domino’s store where I worked. Why my manager picked me, a kid who just turned 18 years old, was beyond me. Apparently, she had a doctor’s appointment to attend, and the assistant manager was unable to clock in early. So, it was up to me to hold down the fort.
I did perfectly fine for an hour, as business was going as usual. All until some kid wearing a Civil Air Patrol blues uniform walked in and told me he ‘earned’ some free brownies.
And how did the kid supposedly earn free brownies?
According to him, he was walking down the street when one of the delivery drivers pulled up next to him and told him he could have some free brownies, solely because he was wearing the uniform. Allegedly, the driver wanted to thank him for his ‘service to the community.’
I knew it was a lie immediately. I knew all the drivers on shift, and none of them would ever hand out free brownies to anyone, no matter who it was.
And they weren’t going to pull up to some kid and tell him to walk to the store for some free brownies.
Anyway, I told the kid, ‘You have to pay for the food you want, or you aren’t getting anything.’
So, the kid left. Or so I thought.
A couple of minutes later, his mom walked in and demanded, ‘You need to give my son the brownies RIGHT NOW. Don’t you understand what he does for the community?’
There was no way in hell I was going to be a pushover for some entitled boy scout and his even more entitled Karen of a mother.
I explained, ‘I’m not just going to give anything out for free. You need to order something or leave.’
The lady didn’t seem pleased with my answer, so she yelled, ‘Go get your manager! I need to speak with her and negotiate!’
‘No, I’m the manager right now,’ I said, ‘Leave, or else I’ll be calling the cops.’
The threat of calling the cops scared the mom, so she grabbed her kid and they ran out.
I yelled, ‘Have a nice day!’ as they fled from the store.
I was shocked to see two people with such an irrational sense of entitlement, and it bothered me that people like them are out there.”
“The Owner Thought The Customer’s Complaint Was A Joke”
“I worked at an auto shop. We had a coupon on the back of a local grocery store’s receipt for a $19.99 oil change, not including taxes. A customer came in with her coupon, and she got pissed when she thought I didn’t give her a penny back.
She walked in, handed me a $20 bill, and tossed me her car keys. I didn’t ‘steal’ her penny. I also didn’t fail to give her change. What I didn’t do was charge the woman $1.25 in tax.
Instead of telling me what her problem was, the customer sat on our sofa flipping through TV channels before she jumped up and demanded to speak to a manager.
I asked if there was something I could do, but she said something along the lines of, ‘Well obviously not!’
I walked out back and got the owner. Usually, everyone in the company sent irate customers to me, INCLUDING the owner.
The owner came into the office and asked, ‘Can I help you?’ to which she motioned him to follow her and walk outside. While talking outside, I could hear the woman say how rude I was and how I didn’t return her change.
The owner thought the customer’s complaint was a joke. When a smirk formed on his face, the customer turned bright red.
The customer screamed, ‘I want a full refund, NOW! Not just my penny!’
What the customer didn’t understand was how I accepted her $20 instead of the $21.24 she was supposed to pay. However, she was being ridiculously rude about it, and we weren’t interested in dealing with psychotic people. After all, we were an auto repair shop, not a psychiatric hospital.
Luckily, the car ahead of her was being finished. So, I walked out, handed her $20 back with her keys, and told her to leave. The customer looked at the owner in amazement because one of his ‘subordinates’ just took control of the situation.
He looked her dead in the eye and said, ‘You heard the man! Move it!’
We’d rather not make the measly $5 on the oil change just to be treated horribly. That’s what I got for giving a discount to a moron who couldn’t read.”
“He Promised To Get Me Fired”
“Years ago I worked at a Sears store with horrible sales and even worse morale.
One morning before we opened, the store manager announced in a store meeting, ‘We ranked second from the bottom of ALL Sears stores in the United States in sales.’
The staff jokingly broke out into cheers and applause. The store manager wasn’t pleased.
But with such terrible numbers, we could tell changes were going to be made. The following Friday, the district manager showed up unannounced. He took the escalator upstairs where the office was located, and then told all department managers to report to the office. Immediately.
My department manager looked at us with dread in his eyes and went upstairs.
Half an hour later, security was called to the manager’s office. A few minutes later, our department manager, along with all of the other store managers, was being escorted by security out the side door.
Our department manager shouted to us, ‘They just fired all the managers! It’s been great working with you. Call me if you need a reference!’
By now, the store employees were all standing around just staring at each other. We were in shock.
Then, the district manager came downstairs, called us all together, and told us, ‘We’ve had to make a change in management. We’ll have a new management team in place on Monday,’ then walked out.
Shortly after he left, the phone rang. It was an irate customer. He demanded to speak to the manager.
‘Uh,’ I said, ‘We don’t have a manager right now.’
‘Oh, that’s BS. Put the manager on the phone,’ the customer demanded.
I replied, ‘I’m not lying, the manager was just fired. We just saw him get taken out the door.’
‘Then put the store manager on the phone. I don’t care,’ the customer huffed.
I told him the store manager was fired, too.
‘So who’s in charge of the store?’ You’re lying!’ the customer yelled.
‘Uh, nobody,’ I said.
‘Stop lying to me and put the manager on the phone,’ the customer said, ‘I am going to get you fired for this!’
I replied, ‘I can’t put the manager on the phone because we don’t have a manager. You can call back on Monday. Maybe you can call the Cherry Creek store where the district manager’s offices are. But the district manager just left here, and it will take him 45 minutes to get back to his office.’
Well by now the customer was screaming at me insisting I do something. He simply refused to believe me, and by now I was having fun telling this customer I couldn’t help him. After about ten minutes of this, he hung up, utterly frustrated and promising to get me fired as soon as he could get hold of my manager.
I never heard another word about the customer or the phone call. It was insane.”
“I Didn’t Owe The Scamming Customer Anything”
“On Veteran’s Day two years ago, our restaurant gave out free meals to any veteran with an ID. It’s created monsters.
Early in the morning, a lady came in who looked like a crazy bag lady with all of her restaurant bags. She came to the carry-out counter, where I happened to be working. She ordered five ‘vet’ meals to go.
I reminded her, ‘The special veteran meals are dine-in only. Plus, they’re only one per person.’
The woman rolled her eyes and flapped the six military IDs she had around her neck. She dismissively replied, ‘I have the IDs. We’ll take them to go.’
I said, ‘No, they’re strictly dine-in only. And the veteran must be present.’
She repeated having the IDs, and I repeated NO.
‘Is there a manager here I can speak with?’ the woman asked.
‘You’re looking at her,’ I replied, ‘And my answer’s still the same. Dine-in only.’
‘Okay, I’ll sit down and order,’ she replied.
When I brought her food out to her, she took one bite, waved her greasy fingers at me, and said, ‘I’ll take a box now.’
‘No, sit down and enjoy your meal. It’s dine-in only,’ I replied.
She said, ‘But it’s 11:00 in the morning. I don’t want chicken fingers until dinner.’
I said, ‘I’d be happy to take the meal back and you can come back and see me tonight. I’ll be here until we close.’
She ate her meal.
When she left, I saw her hook up with three other people in the parking lot, who suspiciously had a bunch of lanyards around their necks with cards on them, a lot of restaurant bags, and hats matching the ones sold at the nearby gas station where I filled up every couple of nights.
It was people like this who spoiled things for the people for whom the entire gesture was intended. I didn’t owe the scamming customer anything. But I did owe and appreciate the people who chose to go into the military. There were a lot of gracious vets out there, and I did military discounts all day long. Those weren’t the people who came out on Veteran’s Day.”
“It Was Hard To Believe Customer’s Demands”
“I used to work at CVS. One afternoon, I was working the check lanes. The store was packed and the lines at the checkout were extremely long.
As a customer walked up to check out, he asked, ‘Do you guys accept expired coupons?’
‘How expired is the coupon? Usually, we accept them if they’re only a couple of days old,’ I replied.
He said the coupon was one week expired, and I told him I couldn’t accept it. The register wouldn’t even scan it anymore.
He argued and yelled, ‘I want a manager up here, now!’
‘The manager will tell you the same thing,’ I replied, ‘I’m not going to bother him over something so stupid. He’s in the office and there’s a long line of customers waiting to pay.’
The customer just stood there in line for a while until the manager came up front to help someone with a different issue. When the customer spotted the manager, he called him over and asked about the coupon. The manager told him that we couldn’t accept it if the register wouldn’t take it, the same as I’d told him. If the guy had caused a scene, I would have called the manager up to deal with it. However, he certainly wouldn’t have gotten what he wanted if he had done it. He’d just have two frustrated employees and a line of customers wondering why he was acting crazy. Fortunately, he didn’t cause a major scene. However, he still acted ridiculous. It was hard to believe customer’s demands sometimes.”