Random Retail Workers Describe Customer Encounter That Nearly Made Them Lose It (15 items)

• (#1) Woman Orders Large Drink In A Small Cup

  From Redditor u/PB_PB:

  Had a woman come in and request a large drink in a small cup. I asked her to repeat that. She reiterated she wanted a large drink, but in a small cup. I told her that wasn't possible. This went on and on, her yelling that it wasn't that difficult to understand, I'm trying to tell her that they're different volumes. Eventually I filled up a large, got a small cup and dead-eyed her while pouring the large in until it overflowed and went all over the counter.
• (#2) It's Not Stealing, It's Borrowing Without Permission

  From Redditor u/mimieieieieie:

  I used to work in a perfume and makeup shop. An old Karen walked in and spent some time in the store, and then left with a lipstick that she didn't pay for. The security guy immediately went after her and told her that this counted as stealing, and if she doesn't pay for it, he would have to call the police.

  Karen came back shouting and saying some awful sh*t to the security guard, making a huge scene. The manager came down, and Karen told her that she just wanted to see the color of the lipstick in the daylight, that's why she walked out (note that it wasn't a tester, it was a product), and the security guard harassed her.

  At this moment the manager actually apologized, and told Karen that the guard made a mistake.
• (#3) Customer Complains About Bones In His Bone-In Fish

  From Redditor u/ASLane0:

  Used to work at a supermarket customer service desk. Guy comes over SCREAMING that his wife choked on the bones of fish that he bought from the fishmonger and was demanding to speak to the store manager. The store manager absolutely was not someone you bother for a rando customer issue without good reason, so I try to get more info.

  "Sorry to hear that sir, was it a fillet of fish?"

  "No."

  "Boneless?"

  "No."

  "....Was it a whole fish?"

  "Yes."

  :-O

  ...I noped out and called the store manager.
• (#4) Woman Hits Cashier For Doing Their Job

  From Redditor u/Sid-Biscuits:

  When a woman set down cash on the counter and I went to count it, but she slapped my hand HARD because she was looking for the change.
• (#5) Customer Destroys Movie Rental Store For Charging Her Late Fees

  From Redditor u/CaptainWisconsin:

  There was a woman who not only absolutely refused to pay her late fees (which were legitimate), she became so enraged that she threw her stack of tapes at me, hitting me in the face. She then marched around the store and knocked every cassette, DVD, and coverbox that she could reach off of the shelves (some with her hands, some by swinging her purse), while shouting obscenities. My manager got on the phone and called the police. When Angry Lady finished trashing the store, she demanded to know which cars out on the parking lot my coworker and I drove. When we refused to say, she spit at us and knocked all of the candy/shelf talkers/etc. off of the counters, and began stomping on them.

  Oh, and the late fee she owed? $12.
• (#6) Lady Casually Forces Herself Into Store After It Closes

  From Redditor u/Rihsatra:

  One night we were closing up and had our gates lowered halfway so the last person checking out could still leave the store. A lady lifts up our gate and comes in and starts browsing. I ask if she needed any help which she declined. I let her know we're closed and that's why the gates were down but she brushed that off too saying she wouldn't be long. I can't imagine giving that little of respect to other people.
• (#7) Woman Demands Same-Day Delivery On The Night Of Christmas Eve

  From Redditor u/Rasberryblush:

  Worked for an upmarket UK toy company. Customer is furious we don’t offer same day delivery, at 5pm on Christmas Eve. Ruined her child’s Christmas as “this was gift from Santa” and threatened to write an article about me personally for “refusing to do anything to help." Honestly, the products we sold were mostly overpriced but it attracted a very entitled and graceless clientele. Mostly I had to stop myself from laughing at how ridiculous some of the requests we had were.
• (#8) Angry Customer Throws Change Directly At Cashier's Face

  From Redditor u/All_Them_Armadillas:

  This crazy woman was already a known problem customer in our store. Being one of the managers and a longtime retail veteran, I usually helped her when she came in.

  One particular day, she came in wanting to return a clearance item she'd bought 3 MONTHS AGO. I knew she knew our return policy and pointed out the "Final Sale" note on her crumpled receipt.

  After more back and forth, she asks that I let her just exchange it. As she's giving me a headache, I agree, inform her that the exchanged item WOULD NOT be able to be returned or exchanged and reminded her of how much credit she had.

  She comes back with another item and slams it onto my counter. Lo and behold, there's a dollar and change difference between her original item and the new one. She's furious, shouting that she shouldn't have to pay it and don't I know she's suffering! I firmly insist she coughs up the difference as THAT'S HOW EXCHANGES WORK.

  She responded by pulling a fistful of change out of her purse and throwing it at my face. A nickel bounced off of my glasses. I saw red but calmly counted up the change, slid the excess across the counter (which she threw onto the floor) and she stormed out.
• (#9) Woman Rips Her Own Stocking On A Chair, Blames It On Waitress

  From Redditor u/casool:

  I was working as a waitress, and a woman stopped me as i was passing her table.

  She told me she got a rip in her stockings from one of our chairs. This was according to her 100% my fault, because i did not warn her about our chairs.

  She got very angry, wanted to talk to someone else who could fix her stockings. I got my manager who also said sorry but there is nothing we can do about you stockings. He got told the same as me: "How can you not warn people about the chairs?!"
• (#10) One Man's Dedication To A Free Tank of Gas

  From Redditor u/AnneFrank_nstein:

  I worked in a gas station where we had a notorious customer we referred to as "can guy". Every month our station put coupons in the paper for $1.00 of free gas. One coupon per customer per visit. Can guy would collect these coupons and then come park his car on the adjacent street and then go post up on one of our pumps and get gas. One dollar at a time. He'd pump a dollar, come in and give us the coupon and go walk out to the sidewalk(off the property) and then turn around and do it again....for hours. As a pump attendant we have to approve every pump by pushing a button. So every 3 minutes for hours at a time we'd be stuck standing at the till, doing the same transaction over and over. The longest I clocked him doing this for was 2 and a half hours. Corporate added an addendum to the coupons because of him pulling that sh*t.

  He was called can guy because he did all this with a one gallon red gas can.
• (#11) Man Hands Cashier Bag Of Poo

  From Redditor u/avoidance_behavior:

  I was handed an actual bag of warm, fresh dog sh*t by a customer at the pet supply store I worked at. "I've gotta go meet my wife in the back to talk about the dog's food. Can you handle this? He got excited." 

  He hands me a plastic baggie full with a paper towel-wrapped wad of dog poop he barely schmeared off the floor right in front of the registers. The line is about ten people deep in each register, so neither I nor my coworker at the cashwrap has time to clean the mess or go dump the bag of refuse in the doggy doo disposal out front on the lawn patch we have specifically for this god**mn issue. We would've liked to, but my boss was an absolute stickler (as was corporate) for helping at the register first above all else. We were short-staffed and it was during the holidays, so aside from warning people not to step on the streaks, we had no choice but to ring people up while the stench grew from the bag that was sitting on the floor in the corner of the cashwrap. Our store was without blinds (well, between blinds as we were remodeling) and so the sun beating in through the windows was not helping mask anything. When I finally got a break in customers (who were all pulling faces and looking at me like it was either me or at least my fault), I ran that bag outside faster than any fat girl has ever moved before, and I will never forget that dumbsh*t's face or the smell of that godforsaken parcel of molten dog droppings. It was nearly a decade ago and I still remember it all.
• (#12) Cashier Gives Customer Exactly What She Ordered, Then Gets Yelled At

  From Redditor u/lawstudent51318:

  One day I'm working the drive through and a lady comes through and orders a spicy chicken sandwich. Alright, I read it back to her. She said it was fine. I read it back to her again when she got to the window, again she confirmed that she ordered a spicy chicken sandwich. I think I even said it one more time when I handed her the food.

  She drives off and parks in the parking lot, which is an "oh sh*t moment." The lady comes up to our front window (we were drive-through only) and begins to scream about how she hadn't ordered a spicy sandwich. I told my manager that she did but whatever.

  The kicker was that she was pregnant and accused me of trying to kill her baby as if a spicy sandwich would do that. We just gave her a free regular sandwich and she went on her way.
• (#13) Woman Yells At Cashier With Toilet Paper Stuck To Her Butt

  From Redditor u/2PlasticLobsters:

  A woman stomped into the office supply store I worked in and demanded to use the restroom. I pointed her toward it and rang up a couple other customers.

  A few minutes later, she stomped back to the counter. There was a HUGE knot of toilet paper protruding from the back of her pants' waistband. It looked like some fake-flower crafting project gone horribly wrong. I had my mouth open to inform her, when...

  "I HATE THIS STORE! [B**CH B**CH CARP CARP YOU SUCK BLAH BLAH!]"

  Normally a tirade like this would've pissed me off. But I so enjoyed the thought of her walking around with a giant TP flower on her butt, it was all I could do not to laugh.
• (#14) Customer Demands Online Order From One Month Ago

  From Redditor u/voodootwinkie:

  Holiday season is pretty gruesome; items don’t last and people can order online and pickup in the store but only have 3 days to come pick up or else the item is refunded and put back on the floor.

  Lady comes the night before Christmas Eve and offers me her order number from a month ago.

  I explain she was well past the pickup window and that the item was refunded.

  She starts cursing me out and calling me ridiculous, lazy, and incompetent. I was working a double that day.

  The lady came to the store to pick up a simple doll. That was what she ordered. A doll.
• (#15) Retail Customer Leaves Mess Right Before Store Closes

  From Redditor u/kaiterlyn:

  One night I was on the closing shift, where you spend pretty much the entire shift zoning your assigned area. For me, that meant folding clothes for 5 hours. Around 8pm a woman, probably in her late 40s, approached me. She asked if I could help her find maxi skirts. I happily walked her to where they were. She then asks my opinion on which skirts I liked the best. Again, I happily told her. She grabs every single print we offer in the skirt. Then she asks me to come back to the fitting room with her. When we get back to the fitting room she wants me to stand outside the dressing room as she tries the skirts on. She comes out after each one and spends about 5 minutes going back and forth on “does this look good?” “Is it the right size?” “I don’t like it.” “Actually I do like it.” She asked me to fetch different sizes for different prints. She also has an attitude while she’s doing all of this. This went on until about 9:30. She now has about 20-25 skirts in her dressing room. She leaves them all sprawled out in the room and proceeds to tell me that she doesn’t want any of them. Then she tells me to have a good night and leaves, leaving her mess behind. It took everything in me to smile back and to say have a good night as well.

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