Horrid Customers

[No1451]

So I work at a fairly lame part time job at a fast food joint to help pay for school, and was working cashier on saturday and had a customer that I just do not understand.

She comes up, completely ignoring the line(6 people waiting to be served) and immediately launches into her order. I politely tell her that there was a line and she will need to wait, at which points she complains of "bad service" and swears at me. She takes her place in line and waits, once she gets back up she says "you already know what I want". At this point I'm wondering what world she lives in where 5 minutes later I still remember the multiple special burgers she wanted.

She acts all exasperated when I ask if she could go over it again to make sure I get it right, and finally we get to the payment. She hands me a $20 and I give her the change, thinking that I'm done with her. Food is received and it all looks good, then she comes back to the counter and starts throwing money down on the counter, claiming that "this isn't the right change for a $50".

We don't accept $50s because of all the counterfeits going around which I tell her but she refuses to listen, claiming that her "money is missing and I stole it". She can't understand that I don't have any $50 bills in my till and demands to speak to a manager. This is where things get really fun since I'm management and inform her of such and that I can handle any issues she has.

She starts swearing at me so I ask her to please leave my store as she is disturbing other customers. She finally leaves(still swearing) and says she will be filing a complaint with the company.



So I just....like, what the hell? Has anyone else dealt with an idiot like this and if so, how do you handle it? I almost completely lost my composure when she called me a thief, by far the worst customer I've had to deal with in a very long time.


/rant....feels good man

[dukebound85]

karmas a bitch. i feel for you op

[yg17]

I worked at Target while in high school and some guy was upset and yelling at me and a couple other people, comparing our return policy to Iraqi government policy (this was pre-fall of Saddam era). I haven't figured that one out to this day :rolleyes:

[dsnort]

One of the most fun discussions in sales: "I'm sorry, but it's broke because you did something both I and the Owners Manual specifically told you not to do. It's not a warrantable issue!"

Loads of laughs!

[MrCheeto]

If there was a god, I have a feeling he'd be considerate enough to give us all a banish-to-hell button soez that we could blast these hee haws.

*sigh* I guess .45 pistols and Molotov's will have to do =\

[notjustjay]

My favorite website for these kinds of stories is Not Always Right (www.notalwaysright.com).

I had my share of strange people when I worked retail too.

[Ttownbeast]

Even if you don't work directly in the non food end of the retail business it's only going to get worse come black Friday, sure the department stores are going to take the brunt of the idiocy and perhaps there may be more injuries and deaths than last year in those places, but fast food joints and grocery stores won't be completely immune the wave of retards that will hit the Mcdonalds, Burger King, Jack in the box and the grocery chains after the majority of their holiday gift shopping has ended and continue to spread the joy of the psychotic holiday season. happy ****ing holidays boys and girls

[No1451]

Even if you don't work directly in the non food end of the retail business it's only going to get worse come black Friday, sure the department stores are going to take the brunt of the idiocy and perhaps there may be more injuries and deaths than last year in those places, but fast food joints and grocery stores won't be completely immune the wave of retards that will hit the Mcdonalds, Burger King, Jack in the box and the grocery chains after the majority of their holiday gift shopping has ended and continue to spread the joy of the psychotic holiday season. happy ****ing holidays boys and girls


We might get hit but hopefully not too badly, I still don't get the deaths from last year. Were the people in that mob brought up on charges of manslaughter? They really should have been

[leomac08]

You don't deserve that OP.....no one does....... :D

[Doctor Q]

Has anyone else dealt with an idiot like this and if so, how do you handle it? I almost completely lost my composure when she called me a thief, by far the worst customer I've had to deal with in a very long time.
Maybe this is her scam, and she does it regularly, sometimes getting change for a $50 after spending a $20. Being obnoxious and intimidating might be paying off.

[Big-TDI-Guy]

Can you do me a solid? Next time she orders a burger - be sure to soak it in something to render her sterile.

As we all know, that's the exact person who will have 8 kids and expect society to pay their end. :rolleyes:

[No1451]

Maybe this is her scam, and she does it regularly, sometimes getting change for a $50 after spending a $20. Being obnoxious and intimidating might be paying off.

Quite possibly, we have this one guy who tries to scam us every month or so....for $15! It's kind of funny tearing apart his hopes every few weeks.

[joepunk]

While working for Disney we would get quite a few "guests" who would act in a similar horrid manner. Demanding everything under the sun even when they know that we can't do it that way. Heck, even disney employees act like jerks and I was called some nasty things from employees/family of an employee (it's a long story, might as well tell it).

It was free access for employees at Disney Quest (Downtown Disney, FL) through a special holiday promotion that disney does every holiday season. I was working at the ticket window (opens 30mins before main entrance) and managers are the ones who print out the special tickets for special access. Well, a family of an employee comes to my window and thinking that I can access those tickets for them. Well, I can't and told them that I wish I could just for them. After a few minutes of back and forth. they were p*ss*d at me.

Most people who demand to speak to a Disney Manager are trying to scam you and or trying to get something for free.

[Zombie Acorn]

Yes, and it always came from either a) rich people or b) poor people. The middle class tends to know their place as they have usually "been there", poor people tend to feel entitled, and rich people, lets not forget the only way I know you are rich is that you mentioned it, tend to think they are better than everyone else.

Imagine my surprise when I got my first job dealing with nationwide calls back in my freshmen year of college and figured out that the rest of the nation was 23.9% more rude and douchier than they are here. :D

[63dot]

She's not rude, or stupid. She's a professional con woman.

This is what is referred to as a diversion scam.

Her first trick was to get you off balance so you would possibly forget what you were doing. In the confusion, she thought she might fool you with the $50 instead of $20 trick but luckily you guys had the policy against $50 dollar bills.

A good google would be on looking up simple cons and scams, or on criminology in general.

When I worked for the family store, and later at a major Fortune 500 franchise, we were taught to keep their money outside the register until after we handed them the change and they accepted it. Just in case, the cashier made the mistake, or the person was a con or genuinely mistook, this was a good idea for proof.

It may be a good idea to tell the other people in your organization's chain/area of this woman and her scams. Next time she may hand you a $10 and claim it was a $20. I hope you guys have a camera, as it could be used for evidence if she does it over and over. The FBI loves these types.

[Consultant]

It's a scam.

I saw a guy scammed 2 free burgers last month. Some BS story which he keeps changing, but the guy dealing with the scammer is not smart enough to realize it's a scam.

Maybe this is her scam, and she does it regularly, sometimes getting change for a $50 after spending a $20. Being obnoxious and intimidating might be paying off.

Yeah.

[Rapmastac1]

What a (female dog)! I feel your pain though, I'm a manager at a sit down restaurant where they pay before they get their meals. We always train our cashiers to be VERY OBVIOUS with the money, calling it back and such. Leaving the money out on top of the till until the change has been dealt with. Even if you do that, it wouldn't have helped you in this case because you had already given her order to her.

We have cameras though and you can see the bills when zoomed in all the way, pretty easy for us to prove them otherwise. If we get bills over 20.00, we "make a big deal" of them (needing to get a manager for change, holding it under a black-light, etc).

[nonocei]

I cannot stand rude customers at my store. Once while I was working at gamestop, a customer returned a brand new wireless 360 controller saying it didn't work at all. I returned it for him and gave him a new out of generosity. Well this guy comes back pissed saying the controllers don't work. I kindly explained how to sync it properly but the guy couldn't understand why he couldn't sync it and threw the controller at me (it missed).

He stormed off with nothing and my coworker and I were just confused. :confused:

[kroeks]

I work in a fastfood store myself too.
This sounds really familiar!

I've been sweared to, called a thieve, I've been threatened by some costumers and some people think I should die.

I don't understand those people, we're trying to give them what they want, we're not trying to take anything away from them or so.

[sysiphus]

Sorry to hear about it...it does sound like it might have been a scam.

A couple summers ago, I worked a telephone tech support job--my favorite argument was that because the software didn't install properly on a pirated copy of Windows, that we should buy them a new copy because "we broke it" and "it'd never been a fake copy until our ***** software was installed" :cool:

[No1451]

She's not rude, or stupid. She's a professional con woman.

This is what is referred to as a diversion scam.

Her first trick was to get you off balance so you would possibly forget what you were doing. In the confusion, she thought she might fool you with the $50 instead of $20 trick but luckily you guys had the policy against $50 dollar bills.

A good google would be on looking up simple cons and scams, or on criminology in general.

When I worked for the family store, and later at a major Fortune 500 franchise, we were taught to keep their money outside the register until after we handed them the change and they accepted it. Just in case, the cashier made the mistake, or the person was a con or genuinely mistook, this was a good idea for proof.

It may be a good idea to tell the other people in your organization's chain/area of this woman and her scams. Next time she may hand you a $10 and claim it was a $20. I hope you guys have a camera, as it could be used for evidence if she does it over and over. The FBI loves these types.


Not a bad idea, I usually keep the bill I accept in my hand while handing out change, can't do it 5 minutes later when she comes back unfortunately.

I really have to wonder if these sorts of scams ever work, because people have tried various scams with me before, we even had one guy who called both the store I work at and the other that is quite literally 5 minutes away(and of course we collaborate whenever we get customer complaints in case it IS a scam). He had the gall to call both stores and arrange to get his refund from both(pending a receipt of course) within a 10 minute time frame.

We let him come in and then told him that he must have made a mistake as there was no refund waiting for him. Damn did he look pissed.

[Unspoken Demise]

My favorite website for these kinds of stories is Not Always Right (www.notalwaysright.com).

I had my share of strange people when I worked retail too.

Thank you for this site. Its kept me and my coworkers entertained this morning. :D

[Consultant]

The scams do work sometimes for various reasons.

Plus it's only 10 minutes of the scammers time for a potential jackpot. However maybe the stores should take photos of these people and pass it to other stores.

[sysiphus]

My favorite website for these kinds of stories is Not Always Right (www.notalwaysright.com).

I had my share of strange people when I worked retail too.

Wow, that's a great site!

[notjustjay]

The scams do work sometimes for various reasons.


Well, generally we like to think people are honest, and most of us (well, me, at least!) are a bit self-effacing and don't like confrontations. If someone tells us we made a mistake, it's much easier to rationalize "well, I know I do make mistakes sometimes, and he wouldn't be telling me so if it wasn't true" than it is to say "no, I am absolutely sure that *I* did not make a mistake and therefore it is YOU who must be mistaken, either that or you are a liar".

The rudeness at the beginning is designed to play up on that, to make you nervous, off-kilter, and thus that much less willing to be confrontational when they make their play since they've already established themselves as willing to be aggressive and loud. It probably helps their case if you conclude that this person might even be suffering from some kind of mental illness.

[Sdashiki]

Fast food, frequented by old people (take your pick, it doesnt matter):

I was getting the food for an older couple. The wife goes and sits down, on her way to the table she grabs an empty cup we keep by/behind the registers, and fills her own soda (self serve).

So I continue to get the food and hand it to our cashier, mentioning to look at his wife over there already enjoying a large drink.

"Would you like anything else sir?"

"Yes, a large drink."

"That'll be $xx.xx"

Well he looks confounded, does magic math in his head and asks why it costs so much more?

"Thats X, Y, 2 Z's and 2 drinks"

"What!? I didnt order two drinks, just one!"

"Sir, your wife sitting down already has a drink. You asked for another."

"I only wanted the one she has."


Not a scam really, but to play it like we made the mistake? Come on old man!

[instaxgirl]

People who work for places like Starbucks always have the best stories about annoying customers, or customers who can't grasp the cup size system etc etc

She can't understand that I don't have any $50 bills in my till and demands to speak to a manager. This is where things get really fun since I'm management and inform her of such and that I can handle any issues she has.

My friend's a supervisor for Starbucks. I think her favourite part of the job is when she gets to go "actually I'M running the store today" to problem customers. Or when they're still a problem and she gets to tell them never to come back.

Quite possibly, we have this one guy who tries to scam us every month or so....for $15! It's kind of funny tearing apart his hopes every few weeks.

There's a Victoria Wine next to my friend's flat where every day this guy comes in and tries to shoplift. He opens the door and the staff say "get out" and just turns around and walks out again. Funny the first time it happened and we just turned to the staff like "what?"

I worked part time in a clothing store in a shopping centre for almost 5 years. Mid 40's, roughly 6ft 2, middle class guy came in, pulled something out a bag with another store's tag on it (not one of the stores in the centre) and asked me to take the tag off. Told him I couldn't do it. He was a dick. Told him no one in the centre would do it as it was completely against centre policy. Advised him to return to the store he bought it from. He was not very nice about this but I'd worked there for years so there was no way I was backing down just 'cause a customer was being mean to me.

Guy left, came back 20 minutes later, got up close to me then just yelled at me for lying to him about centre policy. Some **** for brains teenager in another store had taken the tag off for him (tbf he was quite intimidating). He just stood and shouted at me and then stormed out while another customer gawped at him.

Both times my manager was in the stockroom. Both times she came back and I was standing there all OH MY GOD!! I was furious because that idiot man had thought he had the right to intimidate me just because I was a skinny 18 year old girl and he was bigger and uglier than me. He was the worst customer in over 4 years.

A similar situation once a customer came in with a scarf she'd bought in the centre. We were open late, the other store wasn't and the tag was still on the scarf. My manager made an exception and took it off for her. The woman was all very grateful then went "I actually felt quite sorry for the girl who served me. She was very nice and everything but you know, she was black" in a voice like "aah she couldn't help being too stupid to take a tag off."

Me and my manager just gaped. Especially seeing as how that manager was half egyptian.

[notjustjay]

Mid 40's, roughly 6ft 2, middle class guy came in, pulled something out a bag with another store's tag on it (not one of the stores in the centre) and asked me to take the tag off. Told him I couldn't do it. He was a dick. Told him no one in the centre would do it as it was completely against centre policy. Advised him to return to the store he bought it from.

A similar situation once a customer came in with a scarf she'd bought in the centre. We were open late, the other store wasn't and the tag was still on the scarf. My manager made an exception and took it off for her.

My parents have been on the other end of this, unfortunately. We live in Canada and occasionally make the drive south of the border to shop at outlet malls in Buffalo, Waterloo, Syracuse, NY, etc. At least twice someone has forgotten to remove the security tag (or remove the obvious one, but overlook a less-obvious one hidden inside a jacket pocket or whatever) and they didn't find out until after they got home. The mall they bought it from is hours away so they went to stores closer to home trying to get the tag removed. They ask nicely and explain and usually people are willing to help. The one time the saleslady kept looking at all of us suspiciously, and I'm sure she was trying to detect signs of deception, but couldn't find any.

I don't understand why so many people seem to have such a hard time with "if you are friendly and nice to the salesperson, they will be too".

[harperjones99]

People who work for places like Starbucks always have the best stories about annoying customers, or customers who can't grasp the cup size system etc etc





To be fair they did choose to use non standard names in some effort to be "unique". Unless someone goes there all the time and knows the system I don't see how not innately knowing their labels is the customer's issue. If some smug little cashier was giving me grief because I don't know their "system" that is not intuitive or common and that they deal with every day, they can go choke on it.

It's like when you say you want a large something somewhere and the person smugly says "We don't have "large" ...don't you mean the Uncle Dan's Super Mega Size?" "Is that the same thing as a large?" "Yeah" "Then that's what I mean smartass" :D

[mscriv]

I've been a DJ for over 10 years and boy have I seen some stuff go down between vendors, family, guests, etc. It's crazy sometimes how people act. One of worst was after I finished a wedding at a facility. This guys comes up and asks are you the DJ? "Yes sir, I am, how can I help you?" "You've got 10 minutes to get your stuff and be out." I had no idea who this person was as he had not been present at all during the event. I kind of chuckled and said I would be out as soon as I could. (our routine set up takes about an hour to get all the gear broken down and loaded out)

Well, it turns out he is the owner of the facility and didn't not like my response. Before I know it, he's in my face, yelling at me, saying I'm the worst DJ they've ever had and that the event was horrible. On top of that, if I don't get my stuff out in the time frame he demands then he's going to have security escort me out of the building and I can pick up my gear the next business day. I never lost my composure and kindly asked him to lower his voice. I then explained that I would be more than happy to work as fast as possible and that if his goal was for me to finish quickly then I would suggest he allow me to get started unless there are more insults and yelling needed. He walked away continuing to pop off as he went. One of the event staff came over and apologized for him.

The security guard showed up a few minutes later and supervised my break down. The guard explained that the owner's policy is that his staff can not leave until all vendors are out of the facility and it is locked for the night. The catch is that he pays them by the hour and thus he's on the hook to pay his staff while the vendors wrap up and leave. That's why he makes such unreasonable demands on vendors.

Can you believe that? This hothead, makes his staff stay while he goes home and then gets upset and rude at vendors because he doesn't want to pay the expense required to follow his own policy. The good facility owners I've worked with send their staff home after clean up and then they stay personally to see the vendors out and lock up the facility. That's good business and it builds relationships.

And in case you're curious, the bride and groom, their families, and the guests thought it was an awesome party. :D

[No1451]

I am greatly enjoying that site with the bad customer stories, I really wish that I could treat some of my customers this way. The only time I've actually raised my voice to a customer was when they were threatening one of the cashiers. I mean really, who threatens a 16 year old girl?

Make me wish I had cause to let off some steam at customers a bit more often.

@instaxgirl: I hate people who do that, go to where you bought it idiot, no other store has any responsibility for it.

[notjustjay]

Can you believe that? This hothead, makes his staff stay while he goes home and then gets upset and rude at vendors because he doesn't want to pay the expense required to follow his own policy. The good facility owners I've worked with send their staff home after clean up and then they stay personally to see the vendors out and lock up the facility. That's good business and it builds relationships.

Sounds to me like a good excuse to take your leisurely time, shoot the breeze with the security guard, etc. :D

[question fear]

My favorite scam story from Borders:

I was a manager, I had a supervisor (keyholder) who reported to me working with me one night. We had a cashier on registers who was very sweet, but dumb as a box of rocks.

The cashier calls the supervisor over, and explains she is processing a return of several expensive leather journals (totalling around $125.00). The cashier says she inputted the receipt information and that the customer paid in cash. The supervisor plugged in her approval code and the customer got her cash and left.

The supervisor walked past our display of journals, etc a few minutes later and noticed an awfully suspiciously large hole where the high end leather journals had been. She called me over, and we went to talk to the cashier.

I asked the cashier for the receipt from the journal return, which should have been in the register. She explained the customer told her that while she didn't have her receipt, she wrote down the information on a random piece of paper. Immediately I pulled the cashier off the floor and started quizzing her on what happened...the customer gave the cashier a crazy sob story about buying the journals as favors for a wedding party, but then someone was in accident and they called off the wedding, blee blah bloo. And so my dumb as rocks cashier let a scammer walk off with $125 worth of cash for returning our own damn leather journals to us.

And as badly as I wanted to believe dumbo was in on it, we reviewed with other stores who turned down the same scammer. And we didn't have any similar incidents with her.

[63dot]

Not a bad idea, I usually keep the bill I accept in my hand while handing out change, can't do it 5 minutes later when she comes back unfortunately.

I really have to wonder if these sorts of scams ever work, because people have tried various scams with me before, we even had one guy who called both the store I work at and the other that is quite literally 5 minutes away(and of course we collaborate whenever we get customer complaints in case it IS a scam). He had the gall to call both stores and arrange to get his refund from both(pending a receipt of course) within a 10 minute time frame.

We let him come in and then told him that he must have made a mistake as there was no refund waiting for him. Damn did he look pissed.

It's amazing what works. I am Asian and I was born here, but increasingly, the majority of Asians I see literally just got here and often seek employment in a 7-11 or similar store.

The worst case was when some customer brought in a bill magnified at 2x and passed it off as real to an Asian immigrant who thought it was real. The law in California does not prohibit photocopying money if it's not actual size.

[No1451]

It's amazing what works. I am Asian and I was born here, but increasingly, the majority of Asians I see literally just got here and often seek employment in a 7-11 or similar store.

The worst case was when some customer brought in a bill magnified at 2x and passed it off as real to an Asian immigrant who thought it was real. The law in California does not prohibit photocopying money if it's not actual size.

Crazy, I have turned down bills before for being fake(yeeha RCMP seminar) and the people always give me dirty looks, like they think that just because they got screwed by being given fake bills I should accept them:confused:

[MacRy]

Horrid customers? I've had a few.....today. I work in a Jobcentre and a significant portion of my customers are horrible, ignorant, arrogant, smelly, abusive, vile, violent and just downright rude. Only today we had to call the police for someone who kicked off because they failed to attend an interview (which they requested!) and when told they would have to rebook it went absolutely mental for no good reason and threatened violence towards me. I've had things thrown at me, been spat at, sworn at, shouted at and threatened on a regular basis by people who we are giving free money to and without provocation. You want horrid customers? Come to work with me for a week! ;)

I find the best way of dealing with horrid customers is to get security to escort them out of the building (if they are not physically restraining them) and get the police to mace them outside :p

[mscriv]

Only today we had to call the police for someone who kicked off because they failed to attend an interview (which they requested!) and when told they would have to rebook it went absolutely mental for no good reason and threatened violence towards me.

So are you going to hire him/her? Sounds like they've got real passion.

[MacRy]

So are you going to hire him/her? Sounds like they've got real passion.

Seeing as how she threw a can of coke at a colleague a few weeks back and also kicked off when told she couldn't park her car on the pavement outside the building a few weeks later, i'm going to guess that she's pretty unemployable. She wasn't coming for a job interview anyway, she was applying for a government loan because she had spent all of her giro and had no money to live on. I think the word i'm looking for here is.....erm....scumbag.

[63dot]

Crazy, I have turned down bills before for being fake(yeeha RCMP seminar) and the people always give me dirty looks, like they think that just because they got screwed by being given fake bills I should accept them:confused:

The US is one of a small handful of countries with bills the same size. So when an immigrant comes from a country with different sized money, they may be easier to fool. I didn't see the need for different sizes of currency until somebody told me that it is for the blind so they can tell the difference.

[greygray]

She sure is one hell of a wretched bitch. :mad: Rude, uncultured and bitching in the purest form!

[rebeccamartin]

my god thats really bad. i think its quite common for all those who are handling customer directly. i too have many such incidents from my friend who was working in a call center.

[MacRy]

Today's update: Threw two people out of the building today. One for swearing at and threatening me and one for shouting abuse at the security guard. Apparently i'm the C word :rolleyes:

[MacRy]

...and so it continues. Yesterday had me physically parting a security guard from two racially abusive pikeys and throwing them out. Being shouted at for no good reason by a rude customer who got threw out by security and witnessing a fight outside the front doors which the police were called to. Just another day in your friendly neighbourhood Jobcentre. Thank F its the weekend!