Think “The customer is always right.” is the worst thing that you can say to someone who works in a service industry? Think again.
Here are 50 of the worst customer complaints said to customer service employees.
1. I once had a shareholder complain that they only got their quarterly statement every three months.
JLSaun
2. We ran out of medium sized fountain drink cups at the place I work at, so we were giving out large ones instead for the price of a medium. A lady flipped out and demanded that she get the drink for free since it wasn’t the size that she wanted.
might_be_a_bird
3. I worked in a liquor store that was right next to a retirement home. The owner stocked some basic groceries because he was trying to be nice. He obviously made very little from the sales of eggs and bread. On a regular basis the tenants of the retirement home would complain that the grocery selection was terrible. It was a liquor store, what the heck did they expect?
string97bean
4. A guy accused me of harassing him because I kicked him out of the store after the third time he stole from us. He then called the cops…
MerryBastard
5. Was managing a restaurant years ago, and a woman came in complaining that the three prime rib dinners she got for take out last night, with baked potatoes, etc. was disgusting, and made her whole family sick.
Hostess called me over, I verified what she said. Then had to inform her that we have never sold prime rib, or baked potatoes, and I was calling the police. Never seen someone run that fast in my life.
-Intrinsic-
6. I used to work at Tim Hortons throughout university. We had a guy come in once very angry because we messed up his coffee when he came through the drive-thru. Instead of sweetener, we added sugar.
This wouldn’t have been a huge issue to fix and generally people are level-headed and realize that mistakes do happen. However, he was throwing a hissy fit claiming he’d a diabetic and that spoonful of sugar would have surely killed him had he ingested more than one gulp of the coffee.
Because he was freaking out like a rabid dog, my manager stepped in and offered him any other item on the menu for free (because he wouldn’t accept just a redo of the coffee.) Buddy decides he wants a dozen donuts. No problem. I pack up the dozen, hand it to him. He then proceeds to eat not one, not two… but THREE lard-sugar-fat glazed donuts in front of my eyeballs even though he just claimed he was severely diabetic. Ugh.
omfgcheesecake
7. Work at Gamestop. “Im a huge gamer, I probably know more about any of these games than you; but I’d like to complain that you don’t have any copies of Mario for the Xbox. Why can’t you do your job and put the copies out here for us.” Anyone who has ever played anything would know that Mario is only ever available on Nintendo.
503student
8. Working at a hardware store, overhear my manager and a little old lady having a conversation an aisle over.
Manager: “Can I help you ma’am?”
Lady: “I hope so, you’re all out of my size of air filter!”
Manager:” Which size was that ma’am?”
Lady: “10×20”
Manager: “Let me see here.”
Manager looks around the shelf. “Here you go.” Hands the Lady a 20×10 air filter.
Lady: “I said I need 10×20!”
Manager keeps quiet, takes back air filter, holds it out in front of him, rotates it 90 degrees, and hands it back to her with a grin. Lady leaves in silence.
Crowbar_Abortion
9. Used to work at Starbucks. A lady ordered a mocha and I forgot to add the mocha syrup. Dumb mistake so I fixed it of course. She put it back on the bar a couple minutes later and said “It doesn’t taste right, I want a new one.”
Okaaay I thought, don’t know what else I can do, but sure I’ll make a new one. I get started on it and she goes to the restroom. She gets back from the restroom before I’m done making it but sees her old drink on the bar that I hadn’t taken back yet and thinks its her new one.
She looks at and says “ah, it looks better already!” takes a big drink and says, “Now see, that’s perfect.” Then she leaves before I can tell her I didn’t do a damned thing.
I_hate_whales
10. Jimmy Johns worker here. One time a woman complained that we made her sandwich “much too fast” and refused to eat it.
theparsnips
11. A woman bought a white shirt. She then spilled red soda onto the shirt. To fix the stain she used a tide-to-go pen. She rubbed so hard it tore a hole in the fabric. Her husband tried to return it after they stained and tore the garment claiming that it must have been a manufacturing problem. No. Sir. That’s not how it works
celerykale
12. The opening of the movie Tropic Thunder had a bunch of fake commercials. Keep this in mind.
One lady came out of the movie, furious, wanting to talk to a manager. Not knowing the problem, and not wishing to get yelled at, we quickly called one over and hid off in a corner where we could hear the conversation (like responsible employees). Somewhere along the line we hear something about an offensive commercial for a product that YOU sell in your concession stand…” “Black girls half naked shoving their booties in my face”
The manager was a little confused, and asked her the name of the product. “Bust-a-nut Bar! I can’t believe you’d allow such filth to be sold.” We all burst out laughing.
The_Artful_Dodger_
13. I once managed the front desk of a recreational center, and this one parent yelled at me for a class starting without their kid. They were 45 minutes late.
[deleted]
14. During [the] NHL lockout, a customer was receiving no NHL scores (because there were no games) and demanded that we “unlock” the NHL.
hymie0
15. When I was in high school I worked at a video rental place. One day, a woman came in fuming over a DVD she had rented. It was porn. I got really worried at first, because we had a problem with teenagers putting the adult rentals behind movies in the kid’s section.
She told me she was really offended by what she rented. I said, “I’m so sorry, what did you intend to rent?” Thinking maybe she wanted the Brave Little Toaster and ended up with Horny Backdoor College Girls 18.
Nope. It turns out that she had rented something with white men and black women. She had actually wanted black men and white women. I was going to ignore her weird racial (possibly racist) fetish and just let her exchange the movie when I figured out that it was a week overdue.
I told her I would waive the late fee but she would have to pay to rent another movie.
[deleted]
16. I work at a library. Patron comes in and knocks books off their shelves. Turn to me and says “PICK THEM UP! I PAY YOUR SALARY!”
Ddres0605
17. Worked in a sandwich/wing place several years ago. Had a woman order hot wings for delivery. After they were delivered, she called raging that “those hot wings made her baby cry!” The manager politely offered to send her mild instead…
mrszoso
18. I work in a burger joint. One particular evening I had a table of college kids. Pretty standard for a Friday night.
Anyways, I take their order. Very simple. Single no tomato, double with cheese add pickle, large fry, few shakes. Lastly a blonde girl orders one of our specialty burgers, the ‘portobello and swiss’.
A while later I get the food dropped off and when I’m checking back on them the blonde, visibly upset, is demanding a different sandwich. I ask if there’s something wrong and she tells me her burger has mushrooms on it.
ShotRodner
19. I used to work security at a casino and a man and woman came up to me and told me there was a man following them. I asked if they knew him and they replied, “Yeah he’s the loan shark we borrowed $2500 from two weeks ago”. Needless to say they were escorted safely to their car then barred for a year.
604GT
20. I work at a bank inside of a grocery store. The customer was very upset that they couldn’t buy their toilet paper and Doritos at the teller window.
derdeutschbag
21. I work in a call center for a T.V provider and one supervisor call I had to take was a lady complaining because it took a second for the channel to change causing a problem when her child would walk in on her watching adult movies.
BigEasy520
22. We had a sale on organic cabbage for 85 cents a pound, and a week later a woman came in claiming we had our cabbage on sale for 25 cents a pound but she had been charged 85 cents. I told her it had been on sale for 85 cents a pound, but she wouldn’t have it.
She threw the biggest tantrum ever! “Even if I’m wrong, you should give me a dollar back! The customer is always right!”
And I’m just like, what? My assistant manager overhears her yelling and decides to appease her by giving her a dollar and a $10 gift card.
Awarding bad behavior is ridiculous. I wish everyone would unite and not give in to the ridiculous demands of terrible customers.
brienneoftarth
23. This is isn’t really a dumb complaint so much as a dumb expectation, but when I was really little, my mom and I ordered dessert at a restaurant. I wanted the chocolate mousse because I thought it would be an actual, small chocolate moose. When a little boring bowl of chocolate showed up, I was visibly disappointed. My mom didn’t complain, of course, because kids are stupid.
But the waiter noticed my moose-less despair, asked what was wrong, and then took the mousse back, poured it into tin-foil and shaped it into a little moose head for me. I’m sure he got a huge tip. I was very happy.
QuixoticRoad
24. Lady: Why wont you let my child swim in the deep end? That’s not fair.
Me: BECAUSE HE CAN’T SWIM. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
[deleted]
25. A woman managed to spill gasoline all over herself at the gas station I worked at and demanded we pay for new clothing.
Kowzorz
26. I work in the frozen department of a grocery store and one time a customer came up to me and asked me where the Uncrustables were, which we had recently moved an aisle over.
I showed her where they were and told her we recently moved them and she just flew off on a rant about how we, as a store, had for some reason decided to specifically target her and were moving around all of the things she comes in to buy and she really doesn’t appreciate turning her trip to buy Uncrustables into a GODDAMN SCAVENGER HUNT.
kbeef2
27. “This cappuccino feels like it’s half foam!”
ersatskwisatz
28. While working at starbucks lady ordered a venti carmel macchiato extra caramel and heated to 180 degrees. Long story short she eventually came in with her own thermometer and showed us that her drink wasnt at its optimal temperature; it was 175 degrees. For shame!
bobsacomano23
29. I was working the night shift at my dad’s diner because the busboy got hit by a car. Towards the end of my shift, an older lady complained that my smile was creeping her out, made me call the manager (my dad) and demanded a different busboy, forcing him to clean the table.
Danmish21
30. “I don’t want grilled chicken, I want fried, I’m watching my fat intake.”
Took all my self-restraint not to respond with “watching it go up?”
Wasn’t someone trying to bulk up with fats, legitimately thought fried was healthier.
MomentOfXen
31. My friend told Wendy’s he would like a round burger because it kept poking him in the face through the buns.
[deleted]
32. I had some guy actually yell at me because we had the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition on display at my register at a grocery store. He claimed that it is “pornography and should not be visible for children to see” and “I’m glad my kids are on vacation so they don’t have to be subjected to its perversion.”
I asked him where they went on vacation. “The beach.”‘
TheBoraxKid
33. Server here. I could write a book.
1. Someone once told my friend her popcorn shrimp tasted “too much like shrimp”. ….
2. A woman asked me to take back her son’s kid sized quesadilla so our chef could cut it into bite-sized pieces. Because most parents don’t, you know, do that themselves.
3. My favorite was when a man sent back his salad two miliseconds after I set it in front of him because he “wasn’t expecting it to look like that.” Our guests make me want to hulk-smash sometimes.
emilykrst
34. There was a woman that came in and used the restroom, then DEMANDED a discount on her DVDs because, and I quote, “The soap in your bathroom made my hands smell like flowers. I HATE when my hands smell like flowers. You need to offer a citrus soap option to your customers.”
I tried explaining that it wasn’t a public restroom, we can choose whatever soap we’d like, and that none of this had any bearing on her DVD purchase. She didn’t care.
After a half hour of this nonsense, my manager just gave her a 10% discount to get her out of the store for a whopping savings of $3.50.
MostlyBullshit
35. At a garden center. “Some of your plants are wet.”
Oh boy.
ZarquonsFlatTire
36. When I was a manager in a fast food restaurant, I took a phone call from a man who said “I would like to complain about the size of my pickle.” Assuming it was a prank, I replied “Don’t tell me about your personal problems” and hung up. He wrote a written complaint about me but when my boss tried to tell me off, he couldn’t keep a straight face so I got off.
lebrongarnet
37. Had a woman come in to our restaurant absolutely fuming and demanding a refund. Why? Because she couldn’t understand why a large meal cost more than a medium.
repoman042
38. I imagine this will be unpopular, but I work at a bank and hear this all the time:
“My interest rate is too high, so I’m just going to not pay back the 30,000 dollars I borrowed.”
Listen, you opened the credit card, you signed the disclosure with the agreed-upon interest rate, you decided to spend 30k on a bunch of useless stuff, and I know it’s useless ’cause I can see what you spent it on.
How anyone can feel justified in violating a contract and not paying back many thousands of dollars because someone is doing exactly what they agreed to do in a contract that you signed is beyond me. I don’t care if it’s a bank, credit union, friend, relative. If you borrow money, pay it back.
Kvothe24
39. I worked at a local ice cream store in high school and we always had some pretentious costumers. On summer afternoon a lady came up to me and showed me that her ice cream had melted and wanted another one free of charge.
I gave her another cone, but this time I made it sugar free.
broke_college_life
40. A woman wanted me fired from my job because she thought I photoshoped extra freckles onto the model in a photo she purchased. Why/how would I do that? She said I did it to deliberately make her angry when she was going through a family crisis.
Cthulie
41. I worked in a sandwich shop where we sold combos (sandwich, chips, and a drink) for about $6 a combo. One time this lady came and ordered a number one which was like pastrami, white bread, three cheese, lettuce and tomato. Then she asked for some changes to the sandwich (no problem) but by the end she not only replaced every item that goes on the number one, but she managed to make her order match our number seven down to the condiments. I point it out to her and she said she didn’t want a number seven we wanted the altered number one even though they were the same thing. In the end with all the things she added to her order her came out to about $15 where it could have been $6.
WYUYBDAAHNFIAGT
42. I had a woman swear at and yell at me because she wasn’t allowed to wear her giant cowboy hat on our water slides.
I’m a lifeguard, I have to maintain safety. Loose articles are not safe. Nuff said.
hockeychick44
43. I am a waiter. Last sunday, we had a kid who wanted a straw in her drink. Perfectly fine, right? So my co-worker puts a straw in her bottle of soda. Then she insists that we put the straw in her glass. While she could have just lifted up the straw, out of the bottle, and put it in her glass, she demands from us that we do it. Spoilt brats these days…
nevergonnagiveyaup
44. When I began working in a grocery store, a woman complained to my manager because I did not know where she could find horse meat.
I was not even working in the meat department.
Iwantav
45. Had a woman phone up in the office I work in, which is above a grocery store, to complain that she cut into her orange and as she did juice fell out. So she wanted a replacement.
jambojumbo
46. This woman calls really angry that we didn’t call her to let her know we didn’t receive her fax. I had to try and explain that there was no way we would know if she was attempting to send us a fax unless…we actually got the fax…
LLCRad
47. I worked at an Italian restaurant and we sprinkled the edges of our dishes with a dried herb…parsley maybe, I don’t really remember. We had one group of customers send an entire table of food back because the plates were “dirty” and wouldn’t believe us when we said the parsley was there on purpose.
rainy_dazed
48. I worked at an Italian restaurant and received a complaint that we didn’t have a burger and fries option on the menu.
FreeSoloing
49. Someone actually complained that I was too happy and polite. They were being serious. They were that grouchy.
MadniZilla
50. I had a woman yell at me, questioning why I had kicked her daughter out of the hot tub. I had to then explain to her, I had caught her daughter having sex with her boyfriend. She just wouldn’t have any of it. “MY DAUGHTER IS A GOOD CHRISTIAN GIRL!” At this point the whole building is watching her and my manager comes over and offers to let her watch the security footage of her daughter. Well she wouldn’t have any of that and just stormed off.
Daggerwoods
(Source)