In nearly any business setting, when dealing with regular bystanders on a daily basis, it is always important to follow the mantra, "The customer is always right." No matter how ridiculous a request may seem, whatever they say is the way it is and should be. However, 100% of all employees know that phrase is bologna. Reddit is full of first-hand accounts in which the customer was dead wrong and the worker reveled in their flawed logic. These are their stories.
Making The Wealthy Pay
I got my petty revenge. I happened to be a shift leader, so I commented on his account and every one of his family members that they would have to show ID and could never rent with a single cent of late fee on their account. The dude was rich but, by god, I was going to make him account for every dollar and seven cents and do it in public in front of everyone else.”
Honoring The Price And Honoring The Wrong Product Are Not The Same
“I worked retail in the early 1990s. We still had actual price tickets which were scanned and read an internal code. Initially, it would just bring up the code and the price on the screen. Well, we started having real problems with tag switching. For instance, people would take the tag from a $20 item and put it on a $300 item so it would scan $20.
This was a department store, so there was no one who truly KNEW all the items, just the ones in their own department. People would switch tags and bring the items to another department to be rung up so they would not be caught. The cashier would just assume the ticket was correct.
To combat this, the registers were updated so that it would show not only the code and the price but also a short description of the item on the register when you scanned it (i.e., 2574274 – $19.99 Esprit Blue Skirt). The customer could not see it, only the cashier could.
We got new inventory in and this woman brought all this new Jones & Co. apparel that we had received THAT day (and I helped put out on the floor) and switched all the tags on it so it rang up on sale at much lower prices. I knew what she was pulling, but I also knew she’d be a jerk about it. She just gave off that vibe. I rang the first one, a sweater, but it reads that it was pants. Just for kicks, I tried another one. It was a skirt, but it read a scarf when I scanned it.
‘There seems to be a problem,’ I said to her. ‘It looks like the prices on these are incorrect.’
She looked at me square in the eye and said, ‘Absolutely not. If you mis-ticketed them, that’s your problem, not mine and you have to honor the price.’
At that point, I saw plainclothes security out of the corner of my eye, so I knew they must have picked up on the dumb wench on the cameras.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘when I scan your sweater, it comes up as pants and a different brand. Somebody must have changed the ticket on it and I’ll have to take it off the floor to be re-ticketed.’
She started to say something, but I had already scanned the next item and said, ‘Oh, weird. That one is ringing up as a scarf.’ Then I scanned another one and said, ‘Oh, look – socks.’
She started to look a little nervous at that point and just kind of muttered under her breath, ‘Oh, forget it. I don’t have time for this,’ and ran out of the store.
After she left, security came over and said they had been watching her for a while and asked me to let them know if I saw her again. I never did, but I’m not sure if she was ever caught. Stupid lady.”
Pet Shop Drama
“It was Black Friday and we sold out of a certain product. A woman told me to remove every advertisement because I am not allowed to advertise something I do not have. That’s not how that works. If she would have been at the location sooner, she could have purchased her crappy product. I was sold out. She wanted me to go throughout a city of millions of people and take away the ads and, I guess, do a mass memory wipe so no one would ever know about the $39.99 pet bed. I would understand if I had a stand-alone ad, but she wanted all the fliers that were mailed out to be taken away. I had another location hold the stupid bed for her. She told me to get stuffed. Her daughter was embarrassed.
Fine, don’t get your crap. Throw a tantrum like a spoiled brat. Oh, you want to speak to a manager? Yeah, I am the freaking manager, so how about you stop acting a fool and get the heck out of my store. I’ve seen actual wolves with better manners.
I once had a lady try to pull a slip and fall. Except, she was an idiot. She exited the store and then ‘fell’ in the parking lot. If it is not store property, it is not the store’s liability. We sent her a settlement offer of $0.00.
I also had a customer try to park his truck in my store. Yes. He said he was allowed to park there because it did not explicitly say ‘No Parking.’
Well, sir, your butt doesn’t explicitly say ‘No Parking’ either. How about you bend over?“
Greatest Hits? Not Great Enough!
“I work at a concert venue. I had a customer call the day after the show wanting a refund because the artist did not play his favorite song during the show.
It was a very obscure song by the artist, one that had only been played once or twice live. I understood why they were upset, but the venue has no control over what the artist plays or doesn’t play.”
What The Truck Was He Thinking?
“I work as an admin at a body shop. It should be noted that I am a woman, and I tend to sound super young on the phone. A guy called in wanting an estimate.
MAN: ‘I want an estimate to replace the sideview mirror on my truck. I got sideswiped and it took the mirror off.’
ME: ‘OK, sir. I can certainly schedule you for an appointment.’
MAN: ‘Can’t you just do it over the phone?’
ME: ‘We do prefer that you come in, just in case there’s damage that isn’t obvious.’
MAN: ‘Look, sweetie, I just want an estimate for how much it will be to replace the mirror on a Silverado F-150.’
Now, with any other customer who hadn’t tried to belittle me, I would have reacted more professionally. Instead, I chose to take the time to expose this jerk for what he really was.
