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

 

[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 (http://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.......

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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"

 

[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 (http://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.

 

[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 (http://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.