A ‘Karen’ by definition is someone who is obnoxious, angry, entitled, and throws adult temper tantrums if they don’t get their way. At this point, I’m sure you’ve heard the term used to describe someone’s behavior at least once. Most of these scenarios occur between an angry customer and a store or restaurant manager, but that isn’t always the case. People share their experiences when the roles reversed and the ‘Karen’ was the manager. This content has been edited for clarity.
Pizza Hut Vs. Dominos
“I ordered two pizzas from Pizza Hut and they took over an hour to arrive. They tasted like cardboard as they cooled with a horrible acidic smell. The food was not satisfactory so I called and said I wanted a refund or new pizzas. He was a shift manager and said he could only send new ones. The next two pizzas came over an hour later. They were equally grim and cooler.
If they had just shown up on time, I would have been fine. With the long delay, I was not sure the shift manager had not ‘done something’ to the pizza. My stomach did a flip-flop with that thought. I still wanted pizza, so I ordered from Dominos and it was delivered in a half hour with no drama.
On Monday, I called to talk to the Pizza Hut store manager.
‘Nope, too bad. You had two pizzas and we remade them. We are done,’ he said.
Pizza Hut had an online complaint system that didn’t work as it froze on the city name. It wouldn’t allow a complaint to be submitted. They had an 800 number as well but I called that number three times with no regional-level response.
The pizza was not good and the shift manager, store manager, and regional manager all failed to do their jobs. Their management structure was horrible and hidden. Do your own research into calling their corporate office. Most contact information is vague and people do not answer their phones.
Ten days went by and Pizza Hut continued to be unresponsive. I decided to up my game and remembered two of the pizzas were still uneaten in my fridge. I mailed them to Artie Starr, the CEO of Pizza Hut, with a letter.
Twelve days passed after mailing the pizza and I still had no response. Luckily, I talked to my bank about reversing the charges and they found it was in my favor.
What was tragic was they lost a loyal customer of 45 years.”
Bye Bye
“I took my family to a fast food restaurant. We placed our order, paid, and sat down to wait for our order to be called. Twenty minutes went by and everyone who had ordered before us had been served. I went back up to the counter to find out what was going on.
A different cashier had taken over and asked for my receipt. I explained that I didn’t have it because receipts come out with the orders and I hadn’t gotten mine yet. She then accused me of never having ordered it in the first place and I started getting upset. I knew the situation could be resolved because I had worked at the same place in the past and knew the order history could be checked. I asked for the manager.
The cashier refused at first, telling me the manager would say the same thing.
I replied, ‘That may be so, but I’d like to talk to him or her anyway.’
The cashier was still sputtering and a line was forming behind me when the manager saw me and came over on her own. I explained the situation to her and she also tried to say I never ordered. Finally, the cashier who originally rang me up walked by and confirmed that yes, I had ordered, she remembered ringing me in. The manager finally checked the history and found our order. She apologized and promised to get us our food quickly.
After she got the kitchen started on it, she came back to tell me it would be about four minutes. While I waited, I saw the area manager walk in. I’d worked with him before and he was a good fellow. We made small talk for a moment, and he asked how our meal had been. I explained that I was actually still waiting and what had happened. He frowned and went to talk to the manager.
I stayed put as I knew he would handle it. After a few moments, I saw the manager, the cashier, and he go into the back of the restaurant. My family’s meal was finally ready and we had just started eating when the cashier came back up front, purse in hand, leaving, red-faced and teary-eyed. Soon after, the shift manager came back and was also clearly distraught, but kept working.
To clarify, the second cashier, the one who refused to get a manager, was the one fired, not the original order taker.
The area manager came back to me and quietly told me the cashier had been let go and the manager had been reprimanded. I felt awful that I inadvertently got a 16-year-old girl fired, I only wanted the food I’d paid for.”
Burger Time
“Years ago, I had heard a lot about a certain burger joint whose name involves a certain number of ‘guys’, so my husband and I decided to try it. We got our orders and with the first bite of my burger, I chomped painfully down on a piece of bone, sending pain radiating in my jaw.
I picked out the piece of bone, waited for the pain to subside a little, and took another bite — another piece of bone! And it hit the same spot. I was in agony! I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt in situations like that but wanted to let them know so that they could maybe improve their bone-removing processes which were clearly faulty.
I notified the manager and what struck me first was they didn’t apologize at all. They made excuses and tried to make it seem like I’d made it up. I was so upset after the phone call, I decided it needed to be escalated. I contacted one of their head offices both to report the incident with the food and the manager. When the district manager called me back, he was just as defiant and rude to me. I couldn’t believe it! He actually asked,
‘What do you want me to do about it?’
I remember being dumbfounded and having to answer, ‘You need to look into how you’re removing pieces of bone from your meat because they could really hurt a lot of people just like they hurt me!’
The funny thing is, it wasn’t as if I was lying or trying to get a freebie because I was clear I didn’t want to ever go back there. But they never offered anything free or discounted as a form of apology as any other company probably would have. The complete lack of concern or desire to make things right in any way made that fast food place blacklisted in my books.
Oh, and I’ve had a lot of trouble with pain in those teeth ever since. I now have a crown on one of them. I’m only 39!”
Mansplaining
“I ordered three bottles of an expensive cleaning product (Product A) online from a company I’d never heard of but had decent reviews. A few days later, I got a call telling me Product A was indefinitely back-ordered with no explanation for why the company’s website still said it was available. They wanted to sub it out for a better product (Product B) at no extra cost to me. I said okay.
My bottle of Product B arrived and was not what I needed or had been told it would be. I checked the company website and could find no listing anywhere for Product B. I had no way of confirming whether, as the sales rep had told me, it really cost more than what I had paid for three bottles of Product A or if I had just gotten massively ripped off. I called and asked to speak to a manager.
The manager immediately began condescendingly talking in circles around me and telling me I didn’t know enough about cleaning products to understand that I didn’t have a complaint. I finally lost my temper and said,
‘Please keep mansplaining. I could listen to that all day. I love it when men talk to me like I’m stupid.’
There was a moment of stunned silence and then he apologized and offered me a full refund.”
Tune-Up
“A few years ago, I ordered a tune-up kit for my lawn mower: air filter, fuel filter, spark plugs, and oil. The cost was about 40 dollars on Amazon Marketplace and was fulfilled by a small company in Chicago.
When the kit arrived, it was missing the air filter that was worth about 10 bucks. It was a little annoying, but no big deal. I’d just have to wait for the company to send the missing item. I took a photo of the box exactly as I received it (which I noticed didn’t even have room for an air filter) and emailed it to the company the next day, asking them to send the air filter.
Here’s a summary of that email exchange:
Mr. X: ‘No way the air filter was missing. I packed that box myself.’
Me: ‘Um… hello, customer here. Are you calling me a liar? I have no reason to lie about a 10-dollar item. I even sent you a photo of the box and how it was packed. Can you please send the air filter?’
Mr. X: ‘You’re mistaken. Maybe someone else opened the box at your house.’
Me: ‘I live alone. No one else touched the box. I sent you a photo of exactly what I received. There was no air filter, and it looks like one wouldn’t fit in the box anyway. Are you going to send me what I paid for?’
Mr. X: ‘Either you’re lying or just trying to get a free kit. If you want to complain, call Amazon.’
I don’t know about you, but I hate being called a liar. I did plan to take the guy’s advice and call Amazon. But first, I was gonna call his boss.
Here’s how that went:
Mr. Y: ‘Hello?’
Me: ‘Hi, Mr. Y. I wanted to bring to your attention an incident with one of your employees.’
Mr. Y: Long pause followed by a sigh, ‘Okay.’
Me: ‘I ordered a tune-up kit that was missing a—’
Mr. Y: ‘I already heard all about this.’
Me: A little surprised, ‘Oh, so you know your employee suggested I was lying because I asked for what I paid for?’
Mr. Y: Clearly irritated, ‘People are always saying they didn’t get what we sent. They complain and Amazon gives them their money back and they keep the shipment. They’re just trying to get their order for free. It costs us a lot of money and we can’t afford that in today’s economy!’
Me: ‘Listen, Mr. Y, I’m just asking for what I paid for. How you run your business is up to you, but it sounds like you have a fulfillment problem. If it were me, I’d want to know if one of my employees had a problem with packing orders or dealing with cust—’
Mr. Y: Shouting now, ‘If you want something for free, call Amazon. I don’t have time for this!’ and he hung up.
I called Amazon and they kindly refunded my money. Then I felt bad because I actually did receive a free kit after complaining, exactly what they’d accused me of trying to do.
After a little thought, I took the box, packed everything back exactly as I had received it, and inserted a note,
‘Dear Mr. Y, Since I’m not a liar or a thief, I’m returning what your company sent me, exactly as I received it. Next time a customer wants to tell you about a problem with your business, you should probably listen. It might help you recover some of that money you’re losing. A little bit of customer goodwill goes a long way, especially in today’s economy.’
I shipped the box back to Mr. Y’s attention and gave them one-star reviews on every available social media platform. Did it make any difference? Probably not.
Then again, maybe? I just checked and their Google rating is 4.9 stars. Maybe they decided not all their customers are liars. Or maybe they just fired the guy who can’t pack boxes.”
Price Tag
“My husband was trying to make up for the fact he’d ignored my birthday, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day. When I finally exploded, he bought me a spa day package from a local salon as an apology. When it arrived, the envelope was addressed to me, so he handed it over thinking it was packaged as a gift. I was very excited but then noticed they’d inserted their price list in the back of the card.
He spent WAY more than I’d have expected. When I called to make my appointment, I mentioned to the receptionist I was shocked they included the price list when sending the gift directly to the recipient. She agreed with me but said they were mailed directly from the main office. I wasn’t angry but wanted them to know they’d essentially sent me a receipt when that should have gone to my husband.
She suggested I call the main office to let them know what had happened and gave me the number. I called the main office and talked to one of the biggest dolts to ever work in customer service. I explained I’d been given a gift and they must have accidentally included their price list in the package.
She replied, ‘No, we send that with all of our gift certificates.’
I told her it was disappointing because I’d have enjoyed the gift more had I not known how much my husband spent. She laughed and asked if I’d prefer he were a cheapskate. I said no but that the point was you’re not supposed to leave price tags on gifts. She tried to tell me that it wasn’t the same thing because it was only a price list.
She literally couldn’t understand my point so I asked to talk to her manager. The woman didn’t bother to put me on hold while she explained to her manager I was complaining about ‘the tiny card with our prices on it in her gift.’ The manager then got on the phone and told me I should just accept the gift and use the price list as a bookmark if I didn’t want to buy anything else. It was such a low-class response.
I took my spa day, left reviews everywhere, and told every coworker at the very large hospital I worked at all about it. This was back in the days when company reps had loads of money to spend taking people out to lunch or whole spa days. I managed a medical practice with roughly 60 physicians and told every single doctor, every representative, and every other practice manager what happened.
I’d say 90% of them were shocked the salon couldn’t understand why they shouldn’t send price lists with their gifts. Many of the male foreign doctors I worked with said they’d be horrified if their wives knew how much they spent on their gifts. I seriously tried to just let them know it was a weird thing to include with a gift, but they made me so mad by the end of it all.”
Big Scam
“I was nearly scammed by a water filter company. I bought a sink water boiler online for almost 800 dollars. I waited a few weeks and nothing arrived. I looked up the company and it seemed I bought from one subsidiary of a parent company, all with similar names. The number on the website was disconnected and emails were not responded to.
I finally got through to the parent company and was told,
‘You have to call the number on the website again but we’ll do our best to contact the other company.’
‘Yeah, right,’ I thought.
I started calling daily saying, ‘Hi Chad, still no email response or refund. Where’s my money?’
After more than a week of the run-around, I finally asked to talk to someone above him. He put me through to the warehouse manager who proceeded to yell at me, threatened to sue, and called me an idiot who was trying to ask for a refund from the wrong company. Ha!
I’d already traced the phone numbers to link three different company names, so I knew it was all one company. I yelled back at him, called him a dirty scammer, and hung up. I contacted my credit card company to initiate a charge back, initiated a claim through consumer affairs, and posted about the company on every review site I could find. I got my money back but they are still in business, unfortunately.”
Change Please
“Several years ago, I pulled into the drive-thru at the McDonald’s nearest my office. I ordered my usual lunch which came to five dollars and some change. I paid with a twenty dollar bill and a one dollar bill with the intention of receiving a ten and a five in change.
The cashier handed me the ten, but kept the five!
Think about how that would work for a second. To receive ten dollars in change from an order that was a little more than five dollars, I would have had to hand the cashier sixteen dollars in the first place! I asked for the rest of my change, but the cashier rudely claimed she already handed me my change. I picked up my food from the next window and pulled into a parking space to have a little chat with the manager.
Well, this particular manager was very insulted that I dared to question the mathematic abilities of her cashiers and told me I was simply mistaken. As patiently as I could, I explained that I handed the cashier twenty-one dollars and showed her my receipt indicating the cost of the order. All I wanted was the rest of my change.
‘Well, what do you expect me to do? Count out the cash drawer?’ she asked in a rude tone.
‘Umm, yeah. If that’s what it takes for me to get the rest of my change!’ I said.
The manager huffed and disappeared into the back long enough to count out the drawer at least twice. When she came back, she was holding a five-dollar bill.
I’m not sure where they store the apologies for trying to help their employees steal money, but she clearly couldn’t find one of those in the cash register because I didn’t get one!”
Pregnant And Hungry
“I was seven months pregnant as was my cousin and we were a group of nine ordering in a restaurant. When everyone got their food, mine never came out. I asked the waitress and she made up some excuse. My food still didn’t come. I asked a few more times if it was coming. At that point, my family had finished their food.
I asked again and the waitress accused me of already eating it. I told her there was no empty plate and she said someone else must have taken it. I said it wasn’t something I would lie about to have a second meal because from what I saw, it didn’t even look good.
She went and got the manager who was really angry with us and he slammed down a refund in coins. Bear in mind, it was getting late and I still hadn’t eaten. I think I said something like,
‘You’re happy to leave a pregnant person without a meal rather than apologize and resolve the situation.’
My sister said, ‘This is ridiculous. How can you do that? along with a few obscenities.
The manager flew off the handle and screamed, ‘I won’t have you swearing at my staff!’
We apologized for swearing and explained we were frustrated they didn’t want to fix the situation. He went and got a refund for the cheeseboard my cousins had ordered, slammed it down on the table, and told us to go. I still hadn’t gotten any food the whole time we were there. My cousin put a complaint in and was invited back for a free meal but I was given nothing.”
Pin Number
“I went to a popular convenience store chain to buy my mother those phone cards for minutes for her cellphone. When you bought the card, the cashier was supposed to give you another receipt that had the PIN number. The user of the card would use this PIN number when adding the minutes to their phone. After completing the transaction, the cashier handed me the store receipt only for the purchase, not the other receipt with the PIN number my mother would need. I didn’t realize this until I got home. Luckily, home was very close by, so I was able to return to the store within five or ten minutes.
I entered the store and found a store employee that ended up being the manager. I explained to him what had happened, and told him that I couldn’t use the card unless I had the receipt with the PIN number on it. I explained how the cashier didn’t give me that receipt. He insisted that was impossible and the cashier would have most certainly given me that receipt. He just stared at me and was unwilling to budge. I realized after a few more of his comments that he thought I was trying to scam the store.
He said, ‘If you want another PIN number, you’ll have to buy another card.’
I was hot by then. I told him, ‘Look, I come in here all the time to shop. I’m not trying to get something for free. I already purchased a card and I’m not going to buy another one.’
I told him to go up to the register I used and see if it was on the floor or something. He refused! He wanted to believe I was scamming the store and pretty much kept implying that’s what I was doing. I charged to the register, waited until the cashier wasn’t busy, and explained I had just been there and purchased a phone card. She remembered me. I said I never got the receipt with the pin on it and asked if she could check around the counter for it.
She did and what do you think she found? My receipt on the floor behind the counter. Apparently, when the receipts were printed out, she had only handed me one receipt. The other one had been torn off the printer and fallen to the floor. With the receipt in hand, I went back to the manager, shoved it in his face, and told him it was the receipt I was telling him about. I told him he should have checked before accusing me of lying. He just looked at me, didn’t say anything, and didn’t apologize. Nothing.”
