If you've ever had a retail job, or any job dealing with the public was part of the equation, is there one customer (or person you dealt with) who stands out in your mind as the worst you ever dealt with?

I worked in retail many years ago & had this one woman who came up with an attitude. She started demanding that I watch out & fold the clothes a certain way, bag them this way, she didn't want to have to iron them when she got home, blah blah blah...yak yak yak...I set part of the counter aside & suggested she fold them so it would be done the way she liked it. I thought the husband was going to fall on the floor laughing. As for her, not so much. lol

I have not worked retail but did witness a really bad one. In a small knick nack shop in a tourist town, a lady accidentally knocked something off a shelf, and they were telling her she had to pay for it. She was refusing, and they called the cops.

Yeah, but I really don't have the energy to get into detail right now.

Nystyle709 wrote:

Yeah, but I really don't have the energy to get into detail right now.

Here ya go....


Now spill.

My friend's Mom was a HORRIBLE customer! This one time, her daughter bought something and the sales assistant gave the girl the wrong change. My Mom's friend went up and reamed the girl out, yelling at her that she was trying to cheat a child and what a horrible person she was and so on. After she finished her ridiculous tirade, some of the other assistants came up to comfort the girl and my friend's Mom ripped into them, as well.

I worked in a coffee/donut shop just after graduation and had this one customer come in and INSIST that she be given a particular type of bagel that had JUST come out of the oven. We weren't to sell the bagels until they'd had time to sit for five minutes, as they needed time to set and finish cooking after they were pulled out of the oven. I explained that to the customer and she had a hissy fit and insisted on being given the bagel right then and there and then asked to see the manager because I hadn't given her the unset bagel. A co-worker who was an absolute bitch handed her the bagel, which was still super hot and unset, and the snotty lady then refused to have anything to do with me. This co-worker was a prissy nut who thought she knew better than our manager. The customer walked away with a bagel that should not have been sold and could have gotten us all in trouble had this bitch complained, which I'm sure she would have. Anyway, I'd love to have found out where this lady worked and then gone and given her some of the exact treatment she dished out. I should have reported the co-worker, but she was so nasty that most of us stayed clear of her.

When I worked at Office Max, I had a lot of rude customers. This one in particular wasn't in my lane, she was in the next lane and was being a bitch to my co-worker. The other customers behind her were looking at her like she was a maniac. She said something rude and the other cashier calmly and condescendingly explained whatever to her. Then the cashier says to me "Robbie can you give this customer whatever." I go to hand it to her and she angrily grabs it from my hand. This pissed me off and I told her that the snatching wasn't necessary. We all sort of laugh at her. She gets all flustered and starts cursing and as she walks out the door she threatens to call the head manager or whatever.

I ended up feeling sorry for people like that - idiots who had nothing better in their lives than to make other people miserable. People like that are so pathetic. I got to the point of walking away and thinking how grateful I was that I didn't have to go home to them and REALLY feeling sorry for their families.

i remember this one lady, its been several years so i cant really remember wat she was so angry about, any way she kept yellin at me about her room, and she would pound on the desk. everytime she would it would make me jump. any way she left the office, i called my supervisor and told her bout situation. this supervisor had my back so it was all good.

I never had anyone as bad as some of the above - not exactly "from hell". In general, though I was disgusted at how many "customers" would use the store as one big garbage can. We used to find all sorts of crap laying around. You wouldn't like it if someone came into your home and acted like a pig. We sold this tchotchke bookmark that read,"The customer is always right! Mis-informed, perhaps, inexact, stubborn, fickle, ignorant, even abysmally stupid, but never wrong."

I used to sell shoes a while back and there was this one customer who was a total ass. First off, she wanted a certain pair of shoes for her kid. They weren't out on the sales floor, so I checked in back for her. When I didn't find any, I told her and she gave me the dirtiest look I have ever seen. But it didn't stop there. Soon afterwards she bought a size 3 pair of shoes for one of her kids. Soon after that she returned the shoes with no receipt and told me "You sold me a size 3", even though she's the one who picked them out. What a bitch. Talk about someone who has nothing to do with their life!

When I was 18, I worked at Blockbuster. That was probably the worst when it came hellish customers. Any time you have a job that involves telling people they owe (late fees) or that certain things (movies) are all out, it's bound to get crunk at some point. I had a bunch of annoying customers....regulars....whose faces I couldn't stand, and I used to exact my revenge by deleting their accounts....which meant that the next time they came in and tried to rent, they'd have to go through the hassle of reactivating them.

Anyway, every month the company gave out a different promotional gift with the rental of new releases. One month they gave out free packs of popcorn. Then the next month came and a different item was given out. We still had a lot of popcorn packs left and the manager wasn't a stickler when it came to this, so his attitude was "If they want the popcorn instead of this new item, give them the popcorn." For some reason that just annoyed me, because the customers were becoming demanding when it came to their free popcorn....so when this one regular customer (who was tight with the manager) rented a new release, I go to hand him that months item and he says he'd rather have popcorn. I'm like "Sir, we're not giving away popcorn this month," and he very arrogantly says "Yes, you are....I talked to Daryl [the manager] and he says that if we still want popcorn we can have it." That annoyed the fuck out of me, but I didn't argue and just gave him his punk ass popcorn.

A month or so later, Daryl leaves and we get a new store manager. The guy comes in and again rents a new release, and I again go to give him that months complimentary gift....but this time he more courteously asks if he can have the popcorn instead. He didn't have a buddy in charge anymore, so this time he watched his tone.

Did he get his popcorn Marc?

^ Yeah. I gave it to him. That he this time had to more humbly ask for it was enough to satisfy my ego. I didn't mind giving popcorn to the customers who nicely asked....it was the dicks who demanded it that bothered me.

Marc™ wrote:

^ Yeah. I gave it to him. That he this time had to more humbly ask for it was enough to satisfy my ego. I didn't mind giving popcorn to the customers who nicely asked....it was the dicks who demanded it that bothered me.