A terrible attitude has a domino effect on people. Negative energy can ruin one person’s day after the next. It can be bothersome to have someone working in customer service be rude as they help. Perhaps they won’t even help at all. Here, these customers shame the rude employee that ruined their day.
All stories have been edited for clarity.
“We’re Human Too”
“I went to a big chain department store with three hours to spare before they closed. I had a box containing an item I purchased online and wanted a refund for.
When I went inside, there was a line. I was two steps away from the end of the line when an employee pushed a cart in front of me and said the line was closed. Stunned, I explained to the employee I had just walked thirty minutes with this box for a refund and I couldn’t carry it back. But the employee dismissively said, ‘No, we’re closed.’
I then witnessed as she then jokingly told the customer in front of me to turn away anyone who tried to join the line for customer service. The other customers in the line let out a weak laugh. Without further acknowledging me, the employee walked to the counter and started processing customer requests.
At this point, I was frustrated because she clearly saw me two steps away before she closed the line, and then dismissively told me to go away.
I decided to wait a while at the end of the line, hoping that at least I can politely beg her to help me out when she was finished. I chatted with the guy before me in the line, and he clearly seemed uncomfortable that he had been tasked with turning people away. As the line cleared up, I decided to walk past the cart and officially line up, so that at least I can speak with her before she leaves once she was done with the other customers and hopefully get my refund.
When the employee saw me at the back of the line she told me to go away in front of all the other customers. I once again told her I spent 30 minutes walking to the store with the box and had no car to take it home with.
‘It’s not going to take you that long,’ I persisted.
The employee again refused and told me to go away in a snappy tone. I asked her what time customer service closed and she said ‘eight’.
I was so frustrated with the employee. Every part of me wanted to report this incident to corporate because the website never said customer service closed at eight. The employee was dismissive of my request which would have taken literally one minute of her time. The employee then made it into a joke with the other customers even though she saw me two paces away from lining up.
I asked her if she know the number to corporate. Shrugging, the employee said ‘no’ and turned away. I then asked her for her name, but she refused to tell me. The manager then came and I explained to her that I needed to return an item.
The manager also informed me that they closed the customer service desk at eight and couldn’t help me. At this point, I was extremely angry at how dismissive the other employee was. I couldn’t think properly. I asked for the manager’s name and she refused and asked me why.
‘It’s fine if you don’t want to help me. I’ll call corporate to suggest extending the customer service hours at this store’ I said.
The manager didn’t react. She then said if I asked the other employee kindly, she would have served me, to which I responded, ‘I did. She told me to go away.’
The manager then told me to wait and that she would help me personally. Thankfully she did once she was done with all the other customers. When it was my turn, I apologized for earlier and said that I was frustrated because the way the other employee treated me was unacceptable.
The manager apologized, then said other customers at checkout were cussing and yelling at the employee earlier and that employees are human too.”
“All Over A Burger”
“One morning I was hungry after taking my kid to school. I didn’t want to cook so I decided to stop at a fast food spot to grab something. I placed a mobile order and pulled up to the drive-thru microphone to wait. I waited, and waited but no one ever acknowledged me.
I sat there for 5 more minutes or so and nobody answered. I thought, ‘Maybe their speaker is down or something.’ So I pulled up to the window. After looking in, I knocked a few times and waited a few more minutes.
Nothing happened.
At that point, I assumed they were not operating the drive-thru for some reason. I then decided to park and go in. When I approached the door it was locked. I knocked again, but there was still no answer. The lights were on, the chairs were down, and there was a car in the parking lot. It was obvious somebody showed up this morning and opened the place, but I couldn’t see anyone inside.
I called the store phone number but no one answered. There was no sign indicating the restaurant was closed. Confused, I went back to my car to figure out what to do next.
A few cars pulled up to the speaker but were left to wait. I called out to them and told them that no one was answering. An older gentleman pulled up and said that the whole situation seemed really weird. He then expressed concern that something happened to whoever is inside
He went on to say he suspected they may have gotten robbed had a medical emergency. Coincidentally, we saw a cop sitting in an adjacent parking lot. The old man went over and asked the cop to check and make sure everything was okay.
After the cop came over and knocked, a random employee finally showed up and opened the door. The cop tried explaining that people were worried because the lights were on but nobody was answering. The employee seemed annoyed as she told the cop that everything was fine and she was waiting for another employee to finish opening the store.
We were all relieved but confused about why the employee hadn’t just come to the door or put up a sign. After the cop left, I started walking to my car but stopped dead in my tracks when the employee came back out hollering and carrying on at me for ‘calling the cops on her.’
I tried to explain that nobody called the cops. ‘He was already in the parking lot next door,’ I tried to explain. ‘We just wanted to make sure you were okay.’
But the employee continued yelling and cussing at me about how I was ‘petty for calling the cops over a damn burger.’
I AGAIN tried to explain that nobody called the cops on her and nobody was upset or thought she had done anything wrong. The employee didn’t listen at all. She continued screaming at me.
I finally lost my patience and told her that she had nearly two hours from when they normally opened to put a sign up that said they were closed. I then pointed out how she could have easily come onto the speaker, to the window, or to the door and just said they couldn’t open. She had chosen not to, and that was on her.
I finally got in my car and left as she was still carrying on. I never went back there again.”
I Don’t Understand…
“Once a week we take my mother-in-law out to do her shopping. She’s ninety-three, lives on her own, and doesn’t drive. But she still needs to get to the store once a week. My wife and I were out of town for the week so my son stepped up to take Grandma to the Wal-Mart.
At the Wal-Mart in our town, the employees are often less than helpful. This day was to be no exception.
My son and MIL were picking up the items on their list. One of the last items was batteries for her hearing aid. It was the ‘coin cell’ type he needed.
Not seeing any on the shelf, my son decided to ask an employee for help. The encounter did not go as planned.
‘Excuse me,’ my son said. ‘Where can I find hearing aid batteries?’
The employee gave him a blank look and uttered, ‘No habla.’
However, my son was in his 4th year of taking Spanish in high school.
So, my son proudly said: ‘Lo siento. Dónde están las pilas para audífonos?’
My son said he was so sure he was in for a wholesome moment. But the employee shrugged and said, ‘Sorry, I don’t speak Spanish,’ before turning around and walking away.
My son was stunned as he watched him walk away. It wasn’t worth the effort to call out the employee or even find a manager so he moved on. What did he do instead? He called us to relay the funny story because what else was he going to do when an employee faked not knowing his own language twice just to get out of helping a customer?”
