In this intriguing collection, service workers reveal their most empowering experiences of shutting down rude customers once and for all.
From clever comebacks to assertive actions, these encounters showcase the power of standing up to disrespectful behavior and maintaining professionalism in the face of adversity.
Get ready to be inspired by these tales of reclaiming dignity in the service industry.
All content has been edited for clarity.
That Came Back To Bite Her
“Back in high school, I worked as a cashier at a busy grocery store. One Saturday, an older lady came through my long line with a cart full of groceries, including a prepackaged piece of meat from our deli department. The meat didn’t have a price sticker, and in the midst of the rush, I decided to estimate the price and set it on my scale.
‘Looks like it’s almost a pound, so… let’s say… $2.77? Does that sound fair?’ I rang it up as a miscellaneous item.
Well, she didn’t take it well. ‘No, it does NOT sound fair!’ she yelled. ‘You need to get that priced!’
The line behind her groaned as I quickly found a bag boy to fetch the price sticker. A manager came over to see what was going on, and the lady explained the situation. I defended my decision, explaining the hectic situation at the time. The manager, perhaps unsurprisingly, sided with the customer (we had a good laugh about that later), and the lady accepted the apology. But the awkwardness didn’t end there – we stood there, avoiding eye contact and twiddling thumbs, waiting for the price.
Finally, the bag boy returned and handed me the priced pork. I couldn’t resist a smirk as I showed her the price.
‘$2.78. Huh, I would’ve saved you a penny!’ A man behind her chimed in with a chuckle. And just like that, she disappeared from my line forever.”
Yeah That Checks Out
“I used to work at a gas station in a wealthy part of town. One sunny summer day, a prime example of the d-bag variety drove his super-expensive Lamborghini in, demanding in that haughty, ‘I’m-rich-so-you-must-do-what-I-say’ voice to fill it with premium fuel. Now, in Oregon, you can’t pump your own gas due to state fire law.
The attendant began filling the car, but the guy snatched the nozzle away and insulted him, claiming he was ‘too stupid’ to do it properly. As expected from a d-bag, gas spilled all over his flashy car. His anger reached a new level, and he stormed into the store where I was working as the cashier and de facto manager. He demanded to speak to the owner and insisted we’d pay for repainting his car and give him the gas for free.
Trying to defuse the situation, I did my best to reason with him, but his rage wouldn’t be tamed. Meanwhile, I noticed a local police officer about to enter the store. An idea struck me.
‘Sir, since you pumped the gas yourself and it’s in your tank, you’ll have to pay for it,’ I calmly said.
Then, at the perfect moment, he exclaimed, ‘So what if I just get in my car and leave?’
Thankfully, the police officer had stepped inside and heard him. I seized the opportunity, ‘Well, I personally can’t do much, but the nice Police Officer standing behind you might arrest you for 2nd-degree theft.’
The d-bag turned around, only to see the officer with a predatory smile nodding in agreement. He quickly quieted down, paid for the gas, and vanished from our sight forever.”
That Sounds Like A User Error
“I used to work at a photo printing lab, and it was not uncommon for people to come in claiming we had messed up their pictures and calling us stupid.
One particular incident involved a woman who had brought in 800 vacation pictures for printing. The images were of bad quality—dark and out of focus. However, upon picking them up, she vehemently insisted that we had ruined them, even though they were perfect in her camera. She argued that her camera was very expensive, so there was no way the pictures could be dark or out of focus. Despite knowing we had done nothing wrong, we decided to refund her money to resolve the issue, even though it cost us a considerable amount of time and paper.
The surprising part came when she called us just 30 minutes later, claiming she was at a store across town where they had reprinted all her pictures. According to her, the new prints were beautiful, in focus, and brightly colored. However, I had to break it to her that the same person owned both our store and the one across town. Moreover, it would have taken several hours to reprint 800 pictures, and their printer was actually down that day, so they couldn’t have printed anything. Despite my explanation, she simply hung up on me.”
The Nicest Way Of Calling Him An Idiot
“During my time working in retail, a customer wanted to return a computer that was approximately a year old. When I asked him what was wrong with it, he simply said, ‘It just don’t work.’
Curious, I powered on the computer and everything seemed to be functioning properly. It got into Windows, connected to the wireless network, and went online. I even opened Office to check if there were any issues, but I couldn’t find anything wrong. I showed him that the computer was working fine and asked again what the specific problem was.
‘It just don’t work,’ he repeated.
Perplexed and wondering why someone would return a computer a year later without any clear issue, I asked for more details about what was not working.
He replied, ‘It just don’t work. Are you saying if a car don’t start, it works fine?’
At this point, I had reached my limit with his vague responses:
‘No sir, I’m saying if there was a car, and everyone except one person could start it, I wouldn’t blame the car.'”
