In nearly any business setting, when dealing with regular bystanders on a daily basis, it is always important to follow the mantra, "The customer is always right." No matter how ridiculous a request may seem, whatever they say is the way it is and should be. However, 100% of all employees know that phrase is bologna. Reddit is full of first-hand accounts in which the customer was dead wrong and the worker reveled in their flawed logic. These are their stories.
Had She Never Been To A Movie Theater Before?
“I was working in a movie theater and a lady in her 50s came in. Our exchange went something like this:
LADY: ‘I’d like a ticket for [movie title].’
ME: ‘The one at 8:30?’
LADY: ‘Yes.’
ME: ‘That’ll be $12 please.’
LADY: ‘WHAT?! YOU JUST TOLD ME IT WAS 8.30!’
ME: ‘No ma’am. The movie is -‘
LADY: ‘YOU JUST TOLD ME IT’S 8.30!’
ME: ‘The mov-‘
LADY: ‘THIS IS RIDICULOUS! So, what is the price?!’
ME: ‘$12. 8:30 is -‘
LADY: ‘SO WHAT IS 8:30?’
I then saw my manager approaching, so I had him deal with it and I went back to making popcorn.”
When You Have To Explain How A Calendar Works, They’re Not Worth Your Time
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“I used to coach gymnastics for what were largely upper middle class and above clients. A dumb blonde housewife, who managed to find a way to talk about how much money her husband made in several conversations with me and others, told me her husband wanted to know why they were charged 13 times for the monthly tuition fees last year. I told her we charged every four weeks, not every month. This was made very clear in the contract they signed and on any of the literature about our class times and tuitions.
A couple of days later, her imbecile of a husband came in demanding an explanation as to why he was overcharged last year. He was unsatisfied with the explanation I gave his wife. He was a big powerful salesman or something, and I was just a dumb little girl who taught kids to do somersaults. He was so smug, thinking he was going to school me on being so dumb, or worse, doing sketchy business.
I, once again, explained that we charged in four-week increments, not monthly. I explained that there are 52 weeks in a year, and 52 divided by 4 is 13. He still did not get it. I had to pull out a calendar and count it out to him. He got huffy and walked out. That was about four years ago. They still bring their kids as far as I know.”
This Woman May Have Caused Blockbuster’s Shut Down
“I used to work at Blockbuster. This woman would repeatedly rent games and keep them until they cycled out of inventory and she would get charged for them. Then, she would complain about the charges, stating she returned the game weeks ago. My coward boss would always remove the charges. Then, the game would magically be in the drop box the very next day.
This happened all the freaking time with this lady. I even commented on her account every time it happened. Finally, one time, I refused to remove the charge and told her I was sick of her petty game. She called my boss, he listened to my side of the story, and told me to remove her charges. The next freaking day, the game was in the drop box. I told him it happened again and he transferred me to a different store.
Fast forward a few months later and a 10-year-old girl came into my new store to rent American Pie.
‘Sorry, kid,’ I told her with a laugh. ‘You gotta have an adult come in and rent this for you.’
She went out to her mom, who I could clearly see through the window. It was that same lady. She told her what I said. I got the evilest glare I have ever seen as she threw her car into reverse and left without a movie.”
Maybe This Guy Hit The Gutter A Few Too Many Times
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“I worked at a bowling alley. One Tuesday night, this dude and his family came in. Tuesday was ‘2-Fer Tuesday,’ so I went through the whole spiel with him when he asked about prices.
‘$2 per game, per person, and $2 shoe rental per person. We also have $2 slices of pizza, medium drinks, hot dogs, and domestic drafts.’
‘OK, can we do four games?’ he asked.
I asked, in front of his family and my boss, ‘Four games a person or one game per person? So, one full game or four?’
‘Just one,’ he replied.
Well, I’ll be darned if he did not come up 30 minutes later complaining his screen and lane were off. I rebooted the computer and restored his scores thinking maybe they threw balls early, which would register in our system and could shut a lane down early. Nope. They played an entire game.
I explained the prices again. He said he got ripped off and that he paid for four games each. He paid with a card. I asked for the receipt he was given.
‘You spent $16,’ I explained. ‘If you wanted the four games for each person, that would be $40 altogether. If you’d like to pay $24 more, I can restore everything and get you going.’
He kept losing his mind. I wrote it down on paper and broke it down for him. He took the paper, crumbled it up, and threw it in my face.
My boss was watching the entire time, came up, and told him to get out. The guy went and brought his bowling shoes up, threw them at me, and then said, ‘Meet me downstairs. I’m going to kick your freaking butt right now.’
‘OK,’ I said calmly. ‘Let me tell my boss I have to leave work for a minute to fist fight a grown man.’
I told my boss what happened and he chased him downstairs yelling at him the entire time. I miss that job, but I’m so glad I’m not there anymore. There were too many idiots, but a ton of funny stories.”
Honoring The Price And Honoring The Wrong Product Are Not The Same
“I worked retail in the early 1990s. We still had actual price tickets which were scanned and read an internal code. Initially, it would just bring up the code and the price on the screen. Well, we started having real problems with tag switching. For instance, people would take the tag from a $20 item and put it on a $300 item so it would scan $20.
This was a department store, so there was no one who truly KNEW all the items, just the ones in their own department. People would switch tags and bring the items to another department to be rung up so they would not be caught. The cashier would just assume the ticket was correct.
To combat this, the registers were updated so that it would show not only the code and the price but also a short description of the item on the register when you scanned it (i.e., 2574274 – $19.99 Esprit Blue Skirt). The customer could not see it, only the cashier could.
We got new inventory in and this woman brought all this new Jones & Co. apparel that we had received THAT day (and I helped put out on the floor) and switched all the tags on it so it rang up on sale at much lower prices. I knew what she was pulling, but I also knew she’d be a punk about it. She just gave off that vibe. I rang the first one, a sweater, but it reads that it was pants. Just for kicks, I tried another one. It was a skirt, but it read a scarf when I scanned it.
‘There seems to be a problem,’ I said to her. ‘It looks like the prices on these are incorrect.’
She looked at me square in the eye and said, ‘Absolutely not. If you mis-ticketed them, that’s your problem, not mine and you have to honor the price.’
At that point, I saw plainclothes security out of the corner of my eye, so I knew they must have picked up on the dumb wench on the cameras.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘when I scan your sweater, it comes up as pants and a different brand. Somebody must have changed the ticket on it and I’ll have to take it off the floor to be re-ticketed.’
She started to say something, but I had already scanned the next item and said, ‘Oh, weird. That one is ringing up as a scarf.’ Then I scanned another one and said, ‘Oh, look – socks.’
She started to look a little nervous at that point and just kind of muttered under her breath, ‘Oh, forget it. I don’t have time for this,’ and ran out of the store.
After she left, security came over and said they had been watching her for a while and asked me to let them know if I saw her again. I never did, but I’m not sure if she was ever caught. Stupid lady.”
Pet Shop Drama
“It was Black Friday and we sold out of a certain product. A woman told me to remove every advertisement because I am not allowed to advertise something I do not have. That’s not how that works. If she would have been at the location sooner, she could have purchased her awful product. I was sold out. She wanted me to go throughout a city of millions of people and take away the ads and, I guess, do a mass memory wipe so no one would ever know about the $39.99 pet bed. I would understand if I had a stand-alone ad, but she wanted all the fliers that were mailed out to be taken away. I had another location hold the stupid bed for her. She told me to get stuffed. Her daughter was embarrassed.
Fine, don’t get your stuff. Throw a tantrum like a spoiled brat. Oh, you want to speak to a manager? Yeah, I am the freaking manager, so how about you stop acting a fool and get the heck out of my store. I’ve seen actual wolves with better manners.
I once had a lady try to pull a slip and fall. Except, she was an idiot. She exited the store and then ‘fell’ in the parking lot. If it is not store property, it is not the store’s liability. We sent her a settlement offer of $0.00.
I also had a customer try to park his truck in my store. Yes. He said he was allowed to park there because it did not explicitly say ‘No Parking.’
Well, sir, your butt doesn’t explicitly say ‘No Parking’ either. How about you bend over?“
Greatest Hits? Not Great Enough!
“I work at a concert venue. I had a customer call the day after the show wanting a refund because the artist did not play his favorite song during the show.
It was a very obscure song by the artist, one that had only been played once or twice live. I understood why they were upset, but the venue has no control over what the artist plays or doesn’t play.”
You Just Can’t Argue With Someone In A Hurry
“I was working at a Volvo dealership. I came back from lunch a little early and a customer pointed to her car and asked if I knew when it would be ready.
ME: ‘The tech is at lunch and will be back in about 20 minutes to continue working on your car.’
CUSTOMER: ‘Well, I need to get going. Is it fixed yet?’
ME: ‘No, it’s not fixed yet.’
CUSTOMER: ‘Do you know how long it will be? I need to go.’
ME: ‘No, I don’t know what’s wrong as THE TECH who is working on it isn’t here to ask.’
CUSTOMER: ‘Well, I need to leave.’
ME: ‘OK. Would you like me to bring it up for you?’
CUSTOMER: ‘Is it fixed? I need to have my headlights working.’
ME: ‘No, it’s not fixed. You will have to wait for the tech to get back from lunch.’
CUSTOMER: ‘I need to have my lights fixed.’
ME: ‘Then, you will have to wait until he gets back from lunch to figure it out.’
CUSTOMER: ‘But, I need to go.’
ME: ‘You have three choices: leave the car and wait, take the car and come back, or get a rental car.’
CUSTOMER: ‘I don’t want to pay for a rental.’
ME: ‘Then you have two choices: leave the car or take the car.’
CUSTOMER: ‘But I can’t take the car if the lights don’t work.’
ME: ‘Well, that narrows your options to waiting then.’
CUSTOMER: ‘But I have to go.’
I walked her to the manager’s office and said, ‘Wait here. He will be back in a few minutes.’ I left.”
The Cash Register Was An Accomplice To A Lie?
“A guy came up and paid with a $10 bill and was given his change. He then turned around and said, ‘No, I paid with a 20,’ and the cashier (a manager) said:
‘No, sir, you paid with a 10.’
The customer, again, argued that he paid with a 20.
‘Fine,’ the manager said with a shrug. ‘I’ll count my drawer down and if the total is over, I’ll return the change.’
The customer agreed and she counted her drawer. It was even. The dude got irate and started yelling about how he was POSITIVE he paid with a 20 and that the manager was lying. I, also a manager, was standing there watching the exchange and told him I would also count down the drawer. I counted it aloud, adding up everything in front of him and, once again, showed him the reconcile receipt and the total on the calculator matched.
‘The drawer is even, sir,’ I said. ‘You paid with a 10.’
Then, he shook his head and said, ‘Well, I disagree with that.’
‘Sorry you disagree, but the drawer is even. Nothing else I can do.’
‘You’re wrong! I disagree!’
It got to the point where I had to tell him I wasn’t giving him any money and was not going to count the drawer again, as other people were waiting, so he left.
How the heck do you ‘disagree’ with an undeniable fact?”
Instead Of Pumping Gas, He Should Pump Some Sense Into That Customer
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“I was working at a gas station that had updated pumps, except for one. The one old pump had the thing under the nozzle that you had to flip up to turn the pump on. This lady came in.
‘My card is not working at the pump,’ she said. I explained to her that you had to flip up the lever for it to work.
‘Well, I already put my card in,’ she replied.
‘Ma’am, your transaction cancels after a short time to prevent inaccurate transactions.’
‘But I already put it in.’
I explained to her that I could see active cards by looking at the register, but this just was not computing in her brain and I was freaking busy. I explained to her two or three more times and she was still not getting it. At that point, there was a line of 15 people behind her. I looked past her to the next customer and said, ‘What can I get for you?’
She stormed out, got her gas, and came back in (looking peeved) to wait in the line she created. She got to the front and sneeringly says:
‘WHAT’S YOUR NAME?’
‘Patrick.’
‘WHAT’S YOUR WHOLE NAME?’
‘What’s your whole name?’ and she told me her whole name. I told her that it didn’t matter because I was the only Pat who worked there. She told me she would be making a complaint because I was very rude.
At that point, I put my line on pause for a second.
‘Lady,’ I said, ‘you came in, I told you what to do, you went back out and did WHAT I TOLD YOU, and got your gas. If I wasn’t busy, I would have come out and helped you.’
‘I’m suuure you would have,’ she said, and left.
I told my boss about it the next day. He said, ‘If she calls me, I’ll tell her you only have one leg.'”
Perhaps If It Was Church Camp…
“I dealt with a lot of dumb stuff as a camp director, but this one always sticks out in mind:
After the week was over, a mother came roaring up to me with murder in her eye. She was irate over the fact that her son told her that other campers were using foul and distasteful language in front of her son.
Assuming the worst, I asked which words were used. She leaned forward to me and whispered, ‘fart,’ ‘balls,’ and ‘butthole.’ Without trying to laugh, I told her I would discuss it with the staff. Did I mention that her son was a 15-year-old teen camper?”
What The Truck Was He Thinking?
“I work as an admin at a body shop. It should be noted that I am a woman, and I tend to sound super young on the phone. A guy called in wanting an estimate.
MAN: ‘I want an estimate to replace the sideview mirror on my truck. I got sideswiped and it took the mirror off.’
ME: ‘OK, sir. I can certainly schedule you for an appointment.’
MAN: ‘Can’t you just do it over the phone?’
ME: ‘We do prefer that you come in, just in case there’s damage that isn’t obvious.’
MAN: ‘Look, sweetie, I just want an estimate for how much it will be to replace the mirror on a Silverado F-150.’
ME: ‘Which one?’
MAN: ‘What?’
ME: ‘A Silverado or an F-150?’
MAN:’ I thought they were the same thing.’
ME: [overly polite and more than a little condescending at this point] ‘No, sir. A Silverado is a Chevy and an F-150 is a Ford.’
Freaking idiot.”
“How Dare You Lose My Reservation?!”
“I was working at a hotel. A guy came in and just slapped his ID on the counter without saying anything. I looked up his reservation and it was not in the system. I told him we did not have it and he flipped out. He started calling me incompetent and saying he was going to call corporate, etc.
Then, he said he been a Hilton Honors member for five years.
‘How dare you lose my reservation?!’ he exclaimed.
I just pointed at the large sign on the wall behind me that said HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS. He said nothing, snatched his ID off the counter and left.”
Making The Wealthy Pay
“I worked at a Hollywood Video in the town I where went to college. The wealthiest guy in town made his money in payday loans, literally earning off the backs of people he took advantage of.
His son was a frequent customer and was a real punk. He had the same first name as his dad and he kept taking his dad’s credit card to pay for stuff. He let that slip once and we told him he was not allowed to do that anymore. He tried this a couple more times, getting more and more belligerent each time.
Finally, his dad came in. I let him know that his son could not do this and he went off. It was literally the stereotypical ‘I could buy you!’ garbage.
‘My son can go out and buy a plane right now in cash,’ he said. ‘Who the heck do you think you are telling him he can’t buy a bag of popcorn?’
There was about five straight minutes of berating and talking to me like I was gutter trash. When he left, I was so angry I was trembling. I had to go to the back office for half an hour to calm down before I could deal with customers again.
I got my petty revenge. I happened to be a shift leader, so I commented on his account and every one of his family members that they would have to show ID and could never rent with a single cent of late fee on their account. The dude was rich but, by god, I was going to make him account for every dollar and seven cents and do it in public in front of everyone else.”
Instead Of Taking A Plane, This Guy Needs To Take A Hike
“I worked for an airline. A customer called in wanting to go to a city that we did not fly to. No problem! I told him we could fly him to another city and then he could take another airline to his final destination.
‘Are you new?’ he started screaming. ‘How can you be so stupid? I am on your website and you DO fly there!’
I explained that I had been employed a mere 25 years with that airline, but I was always learning! Then, I directed the customer to click on the connecting flight number, then read to me what it said.
‘Flight 123 OPERATED BY OTHER AIRLINE… Oh.’
We continued on and I made the reservation. This customer complained every time I had to ask for info or say a federally mandated notification. There was nothing unusual about that. I did politely ask him to keep his volume down because I could not help him with my ears ringing!
Then, I asked for the credit card number to complete the purchase. He started screaming again that he was not giving me his credit card because he was using his BANK MILES, which are miles that cannot be accessed by me or the airline. I explained that his bank took his miles then called us and actually purchased the ticket, with actual money.
Then, he went totally insane. Screeching! I let him know if he didn’t clean up his filthy language, I was going to hang up on him. He then asked for a supervisor, which I was. Yippee. The coworker whom I begged to take this call explained the situation calmly. I listened in.
Then the customer said, ‘I already tried calling the bank reservation line and they said I couldn’t do it! Then they hung up on me!’
Believe it or not, most of my customers were lovely. This one, not so much.”
Just What A Flight Attendant Wants To Do – Give A Science Lesson
“I’m a long haul flight attendant. I had a passenger on a flight once who had laid their 8 or 9-year-old on the ground to sleep. I asked the mother to politely pick her up as it was not safe, to which the mother informed me that it was safe and pulled the ‘I’ve done it plenty of times before’ line. Things escalated dramatically from there when I insisted she pick her child up.
It took 20 minutes of arguing, the waking of the entire aircraft, the captain, and the purser, and threats of restraint to calm her down. We eventually managed to get the child in the seat with a pillow I had found in the aircraft cupboard.
The reason we cannot have anyone on the floor is because in the event of sudden decompression, the masks cannot reach the ground level. A person has around four seconds of useful consciousness in a worst-case scenario, so the mother would not be able to take her mask off to bend down, pick her child up and put her on oxygen. This is also the reason we tell you to put your own mask on before assisting others. It is a heck of a lot easier helping your child with their mask while you are conscious.
To be fair, they were in a bulkhead row and laying in the floor space in front of the row. Parents often lay their children down but never have I seen someone kick off so much about it. Also, if we hit some clear air turbulence, who would be catching the mother’s child as she shoots upwards face-first at the ceiling?”
Leave That Horse’s Feet Alone!
“I’m a guide for horse trail. I was trimming my horse’s feet at work while waiting to take a ride out when a woman walked over and asked if I was hurting him.
‘No,’ I assured her. ‘It’s like trimming your fingernails and probably actually feels pretty great.’
The woman proceeded to insist that I was hurting him, while the horse was enjoying lunch not giving a single care at the time. She went as far as to trying to contact animal control. Animal control, whom I know pretty well, showed up and told the woman the same thing. The woman left in a huff, not even getting her money back for the ride she was supposed to go on.
One would think people would learn to leave animal care to those who know what they are doing but, to this day, I get calls from people about how terrible it is that my WILD mustang is ‘forced’ to live outside…”