Anyone that has or is working in customer service knows how ridiculous customers can be. And when they’re not happy, the absurdity gets worse. Here are a few BS customer complaints we’ve seen this week. Content has been edited for clarity.
Breakfast Order Gone Wrong
“I worked as a server at a breakfast restaurant. Toward the end of my shift (3 p.m.), a couple came in and ordered. He ordered the French toast, she ordered some pancakes and bacon. Fine, not a tricky order. We could squeeze it in before the kitchen closed.
I punched in the order, the kitchen made it, and I delivered the food. In a few minutes, I returned to check on the table. The woman gave me a death look and pointed at the guy’s French toast.
‘He doesn’t like eggs!’ she said. ‘That toast is COVERED in eggs.’
My mouth flopped open.
‘I—umm—French toast is made with eggs.’
She just looked at me, unrelenting. ‘Take it back! Get him some pancakes.’
I didn’t argue, because the customer is ‘always right,’ even when they are not. I took back the French toast, and the cooks were furious. They had already shut down the griddle and now had to fire it up again to make pancakes.
I told my manager the situation, and he shook his head and said, ‘When I was a server, I once had a guy send back an omelet because there ‘were eggs in it.’
Human beings are doomed.”
Customers Are Everywhere, Even On Your Lunch Break
“I worked at Walmart for just shy of 3 years before I left retail. There are tons of stupid questions and complaints, however, there is one that sticks out in my head. Walmart actually has some good policies if they are followed correctly. One of these was to NEVER work off the clock, not even so much as pick up a piece of garbage. My managers expected us to follow this.
One day, I was on lunch, off the clock. I had my nametag in my hand and was wearing street clothes when a customer asked me to walk them all the way across the store and show them something, even though I was not even 5 feet from the time clock. I told the customer in my best customer service voice, ‘I am on my lunch, if you could please give me 30 seconds to clock back in, I will be right with you.’
This was apparently the wrong answer, and she stepped in front of the time clock to block my path and started yelling at me to show her where the item was at. I told her I couldn’t and that I would get in trouble if I didn’t clock in first.
This lady ended up making me clock in 10 minutes late, and was screaming and yelling that I was abusing her and needed to be fired. Then she went up front to customer service and complained to the manager. He told her that I did everything right, she was in the wrong, and she needed to leave. She started screaming and yelling at him and eventually tried to slap my manager across the face. The cops ended up coming very quickly after that, and she was charged.
She could’ve stepped 2 feet to the side, let me swipe my badge, and I would’ve walked her to what she wanted. Instead, she ended up wasting over an hour of her time, getting banned from every single Walmart in the United States and getting charged for threatening/assaulting several people, and walking out in handcuffs.”
Welp, That Escalated Quickly
“I owned and operated my appliance repair business for 39 years. I worked alone – no employees, only several of my other personalities, and had customers who would go to the laundromat if their washer or dryer wasn’t working, waiting till I got back rather than calling someone else because I had done things without charge for some of them.
One day, a woman called who could have acted the part of a dumb blonde Karen without rehearsing. She called about her washer, and as I often do, I discussed it with her. I didn’t mind helping some without going there and charging them. I suggested several things that might be wrong with her washer and told her that I couldn’t be certain without actually doing a hands-on diagnosis. She said, ‘Thanks,’ and we hung up.
A month later, I got a summons to a small claims court. ‘Karen’ was suing me to recover the cost of the part and shipping she bought. She got up there to do her Jerry Lewis routine and told the judge that I told her a few things that might be wrong with her washer, and that she wanted me to reimburse her for buying the wrong part – from another place!
The judge asked her if I came to her house to diagnose it and if I said, ‘It IS this part.’
She said no, but stuttered, mumbled, and gave some BS.
The judge asked, ‘So YOU made the decision to buy this part on your own?’
She said, ‘Yes, but, mumble, stutter.’
The judge asked me how much I charged for my time and how long I’d been waiting in court. I told him an hour. He ordered Karen to pay me for my time, and her case was dismissed. The judge and I made eye contact and had to stifle our laughter.”
Bike Dilemma
“This incident took place when I used to work in the toy section of Walmart. I’m sure at some point, everyone has removed a sticker from something, and residue was left behind. Well, one of the bicycle seats had a small square of residue where a sticker had been at some point.
A customer approached me and said, ‘I want this bike, but it has something ALL over it, and I don’t know what it is.’ Well, that sounded like a simple enough problem, so I followed him over to the bike to take a look. The disgusting substance ‘all over’ was a small 2-inch square of sticker residue on the bicycle seat.
‘Sir, that’s just sticker residue. It will come right off.’ ‘No, it’s not. I don’t know what that is, and I’m scared to touch it.’
‘Look, it’s nothing,’ I said, rubbing it with my thumb. When you rub sticker residue, it clumps up and turns white because, you know, it’s an adhesive substance and whatnot. ‘Stop, don’t touch it, you’re making it worse. I can’t take this bike; that stuff might hurt my kids.’ ‘Well, if you want, I can check for one in the back. You can take it in the box, or tomorrow our assembler will put it together for you.’
‘I don’t have time to wait. Just give me this one, but I need a discount.’
‘I’m not authorized to give discounts.’
‘Then find someone who can. I don’t want a bike covered in whatever that poison is.’
This was nighttime, which meant there weren’t many managers on duty. So, I had to go to electronics to call for a manager. The manager showed up and told the guy the same thing I had told him. Then the manager went and grabbed a cloth and cleaner, and handed them to me.
I sprayed the bicycle seat and began cleaning it. The customer started screaming at me for doing it wrong and making things worse. My manager took the cloth from me and suggested I go see if electronics needed help. Then the manager cleaned the sticker residue off the seat and got rid of the nightmare customer.
My manager apologized to me and told me that the next time a customer was being that ridiculous, I should just walk away from them.”
Sales Call
“I couldn’t answer how long it would take XXX shipping company to deliver their package.
I worked as Help Desk for a cell phone company. We had a sales team that would take your order and eventually (a few days later) your phone would arrive in the mail.
The Salesperson made the sale and then transferred to Customer Support to answer the question about the phone delivery. Sales didn’t handle customer complaints, so they would always cold transfer the call.
This particular agent sat next to me, and I noticed that she was getting more and more upset on the call. Now she was in tears and really upset.
I got a call and noticed that she was the one that was calling Help Desk. I told her, don’t explain, just transfer the call. I waved to a supervisor to come over and help the agent.
Customer: I want to know, how long will it take before I get my new phone.
Me: Since it is shipped by XXX ground shipping, you will get your phone in 5 to 6 business days.
Customer: Not good enough.
Me: Excuse me?
Customer: Are you hard of hearing? I asked you when I will be getting my new phone?
Me: You will be getting your delivered by XXX shipping company, in 5 to 6 business days.
Customer: Not good enough. I want to know EXACTLY when I will be getting my new phone.
Me: Well, since we are under contract to ship using XXX shipping company and they state they will deliver within 5 to 6 business days, then I would think, you will have your new phone within 5 to 6 business days.
Customer: How come you can’t tell me when I’m going to get my new phone?
Me: I’m sorry, what do you mean? Everyone has told you that you will be getting your new phone in 5 to 6 business days.
Customer: How stupid are you? Look, I just want to know, when I will be getting my phone.
Me: In 5 to 6 business days.
Customer: I want to ask you a question.
Me: Sure. What’s the question?
Customer: Are you sterile?
Me: Yes I am. I didn’t want to have any more children, so I was sterilized about 20 years ago. (Now, being in the Navy, I’ve heard about every insult you can give a person. I know that this would go, are you sterile? No. Well you should be, as you don’t want to breed children as stupid as you. This is why the previous agent was crying)
Customer: silence (Got ya)
Me: What does me being sterile have to do with XXX shipping company, delivering your phone in 5 to 6 business days? (Now at this point, I’ve been looking up this person on Google and his address. I’ve known that they work for shipping company XXX located in Chicago)
Customer: You’re still not able to tell me when I will be getting my phone.
Me: I have a question for you. Since you work for shipping company XXX, how long would it take you to ship a parcel from Chicago, Illinois to San Francisco, California?
Customer: I don’t know.
Me: Then, how can you expect any of us cell phone agents, who don’t work for a shipping company to be able to answer your question about shipping? You work for a shipping company, and you can’t even answer my question.
Customer: Let me speak with your manager.
Me: No. Not today. My manager is trying to help the other agent that you have reduced to tears. You wanted an answer about shipping, and I’ve given you the answer. Anything else I can help with today?
Customer: No (and with that, the call got disconnected)
This person did call back. They got other agents upset and crying. The manager put the word out, if this person was calling back, we all have permission to disconnect the call. Eventually this got to the corporate office. There was a big disclosure on this person’s account that stated agents were able to disconnect the call on this person (this NEVER happens in a call center, caveat to this by a comment below, RARELY happens in a call center).
All because we couldn’t give a more specific delivery date. I’m pretty sure this person goes through life trying to “one up” everyone.
Friggin meaningless.”
