Last week’s “Most Embarrassing Moment” Contest was extremely fun to read! Thank you sharing all these priceless moments! And a special thank you to Benji for sharing her story which I incidentally read while eating! Check out the Most Embarrassing Moment stories here.
- Week 1 “memories” entries can also be read here
- Week 2 “Ways to Save Money” entries can be read here
This week’s contest is a FUN one again 😀
If you’ve worked in the services industry you know that most customers are nice and polite., however some are… well… to say it nicely… do not fit into that “polite” category. Tell us about your interesting stories working in the service industry! If you’ve never worked in the service industry tell us an interesting story from your office or whatever environment you work in!
ONLY 1 entry per person this week (but you are welcome to share as many stories as you like and comment on other’s stories).
New $10 gift card or paypal winner chosen daily. You can’t win more than once.
Winners So Far
- May 7 Winner: Week 1 Post 109 by Kitty
- May 8 Winner: Week 1 Post 105 by Connie Walsh
- May 9 Winner: Week 1 Post 25 by Maybe
- May 10 Winner: Week 1 Post 139 by Ivan
- May 11 Winner: Week 1 post 93 by vibrantflame
- May 12 Winner: Week 1 Post 104 by couponmom
- May 13 Winner: Week 1 Post 192 by Mommy of 3
- May 14 Winner: Week 2 Post 104 by FreebieChick
- May 15 Winner: Week 2 Post 106 FunShopper
- May 16 Winner: Week 2 Post 28 by Tammy Hynes
- May 17 Winner: Week 2 Post 4 by mummyto2
- May 18 Winner: Week 2 Post 161 by Nancy
- May 19 Winner: Week 2 Post 41 by layniejoy
- May 20 Winner: Week 2 Post 1 by Ann
- May 21 Winner: Week 3 Post 53 by ThatguyRob
- May 22 Winner: Week 3 Post 74 by buttercup
- May 23 Winner: Week 3 Post 24 by Sara
- May 24 Winner: Week 3 Post 27 by Amy
- May 25 Winner: Week 3 Post 33 by Weeeooojr
- May 26 Winner: Week 3 Post 51 by meee
- May 27 Winner: Week 3 Post 77 by Melody113
- May 28 Winner: Week 4 Post 44 by Adam
- May 29 Winner: Week 4 Post 12 by ginger150
- May 30 Winner: Week 4 Post 14 by tinkb
- May 31 Winner: Week 4 Post 3 by N.M.
- June 1 Winner: Week 4 Post 33 by Smartfood
- June 2 Winner: Week 4 Post 48 by julyprincess
- June 3 Winner: Week 4 Post 48 by Nettie
Winners Please send an email to [email protected] with “Date X Winner” in the subject, e.g. “May 12 Winner”. Let us know whether you’d prefer a gift card (and list some preferences) or paypal and the neccessary info to have the gift sent.
____________________________________________________
I’ll be giving away a $10 Gift Card or PayPal cash daily for the next few months. Everyday we’ll have a different winner (you cannot win more than once). This means that we’ll have over 100 different winners so you have an excellent chance of winning.
Here’s how the contest will work: Every week we’ll have a new discussion topic. You can enter the contest by leaving comments and participating in the discussion. You’re allowed a maximum of 3 entries per week but you are more than welcome to post more than 3 comments if you’re enjoying the discussion (they will count as 3). Any spammy comments that don’t add true value to the discussion will not be included as contest entries.
Everyday (at no particular time because my schedule is pretty hectic) a winner will be randomly chosen.The winner will be chosen from all entries since the beginning of that week’s contest. So you may have left a comment on Day 1 and you could still win on Day 5. The winner can choose a gift card for a national store like Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaws, Tim Hortons, MasterCard cash card, etc. or cash via PayPal.
A few more quick points…
I’m looking for sponsors
If you own or work at a company or in Marketing/PR and are interested in sponsoring a day or week of my contest I’d really appreciate that! Please email me at smartcanucks at gmail dot com.
How am I affording to pay for this?
I’ll be paying for this using the money I made from GoogleAds mainly. Hopefully I can get a few sponsors too.
Is this the same as the contest running on Smart Canucks Forum?
No, it is different.
Now onto the contest… 😀
This week’s contest is a FUN one again 😀
If you’ve worked in the services industry you know that most customers are nice and polite., however some are… well… to say it nicely… do not fit into that “polite” category. Tell us about your interesting stories working in the service industry! If you’ve never worked in the service industry tell us an interesting story from your office or whatever environment you work in!
ONLY 1 entry per person this week (but you are welcome to share as many stories as you like and comment on other’s stories).
Contest info: New $10 gift card or paypal winner chosen daily.
I used to work in HR, an an employee came in and proceeded to ask me for a pay raise. I explained that we at HR can’t do that, and he’d have to talk to his supervisor. He however would not listen and kept on pushing for a raise…to the point that he was disturbing our work. I left the counter and went to the back of the office in order to get away from him. He left shortly afterwards, but I was dumbfounded…keep in mind that I was about 19 and had not much experience dealing with rude people..so I kind of ran away..haha..even the other ladies at the counter did not know what to do with him.
ok here is the one that stands out most in my mind though I have lots of unpleasent stories I could share haha
I worked at tim hortons when I was 16 as a summer job and the one day I had a french guy come in, now I have nothing against where people are from and its not like he was the first french person to come in we have a lot of tourists all summer, and I def don’t discriminate against anyone no matter what so this is why this story stands out the most in my mind.
He came in and ordered coffee and a bunch of other drinks then he asks me very rudely what kind of donuts we have (they were clearly sitting right in front of him) but I read them out anyway and then he says very rudely “could you speak sloooowwwwwerrrr I can’t understand your accent” he made me read them out 4 times for him then all huffy he says “forget it you think your better then me because your english and you are being very rude to your french customers treating me like I’m retarded I don’t want anything” and he left…
I wasn’t being rude and I wasn’t trying to be rude I do speak fast normally and I really don’t think I have an accent and I did slow down and read them for him and then he accused me of treating him rudely for slowing down while I read them out LOL some people you just can’t please I think but man that one still irks me cause I know who I am and I know what he accused me of is not who I am at all…
I worked retail for a few years and I don’t have an incidents that stand out right now but I worked with a horribly rude co-worker. One day my old math teacher came into the store I was working for and my co-worker was serving him. He began to ask her for what he wanted and she started fiddling with the date on the wall ( We had to change it every nightapparently no one changed it the night before) the gentleman asked if she could do that later as he was in a hurry and it was kind of rude that she was doing it while she was serving him and not paying attention to him. She lost it on him and started yelling ” the date is supposed to be changed every night and no one did it…. this HAS to be done and it needs to be done now” at the customer LOL… There were plenty of other incidents were she was extremely rude but this was just one that stuck out. I’m surprised that she still works for the company she has had many many complaints.
I worked in the restaurant industry for too long and have too many ‘rude customer’ stories, because despite what the edict says, the customer is more often wrong. HowEVER, there was this one time when I thought that one of our guests was completely justified in tearing everyone around her a new one because a HALF-EATEN CHOCOLATE MINI-DONUT WAS IN HER NACHOS!!!
I know. That’s disgusting. She was having a birthday party for her 11-year-old daughter and all of the kids were grossed out and one of them cried.
What had happened was that one of the guys in the kitchen (who were all nothing if not subordinate) was eating while working and had bitten a donut in half and put the other half on a shelf above him to continue working. That donut had fallen into the nacho chips, which are sort of scooped up and thrown onto a plate without anyone paying them any real attention. Hey-presto, do-nachos.
Hilarious because it wasn’t my table, unfortunate because a little girl’s party was wrecked, and one of the few times when my miserly manager said Do WHATEVER it takes to make that table happy.
the best/worst retail story i have is from my best friend’s toy store that he owns. this woman had come into his store and bought a globe for her son as a christmas gift. or so she said. when she came back into the store a few weeks after christmas she said that the box that contained the globe had been ripped. my friend asked if she had it with her. she didn’t. she didn’t even have a receipt and he didn’t remember her ever coming into the store [although that doesn’t really matter]. so no globe, box it came in or receipt. he asked if the globe was damaged in any way. she said “no, i told you. just the box was ripped.” then she demanded not only a refund of the globe but the money she had spent on gas to and from the store both times. she said this was about $70 total.
“so you just want me to give you $70 in cash for nothing?”
“yes”
then he asked her to leave and not come back. 😛
a note to add to this, he told his story to some other store owners in town and apparently she had gone into 3 other stores and tried this same thing. [but with whatever they sold, not just a globe.]
I used to work the RETURNS desk at Ikea! So you can just imagine the number of incidents and episodes I’ve had with irate, rude, ignorant and sometimes insulting customers! People go to the returns desk EXPECTING to get a hard time, when in fact 99% of the transactions are straightforward and hassle free! But a few stories popped into my head when I read the contest description. I think this one is a good one.
I was working a busy Saturday afternoon. There was a sea of unhappy faces in front of me, each clinging to their Ikea item that hadn’t quite met their expectations. (Who knew a $12 lamp wasn’t great quality!?) I called the number for the next customer and out of the crowd steps this man. As he approached I noticed his disheveled appearance. Old tattered clothes, unshaven and as he got closer it became painfully clear that he hadn’t bathed in quite some time. He wasn’t carrying a book case, or a lamp shade, or a rug; he had nothing in his hands. “How can I help you?” I greeted him with a smile.
“I bought a bed here a while ago,” he began. “And it has bugs in it!” It was all I could do not to gag in front of the customer. I was dumbfounded! I tried, as politely as I could, to find out what it was he wanted Ikea to do about his infested bed. He proceeded to accuse the store of selling him a bed with bugs in it! I wasn’t really sure how to proceed with the customer. I assured him that none of our beds had anything living in them. But he was adamant that the bugs were in the bed when he bought it!
After a short, but quickly escalating discussion with the man. It became clear that I was going to need backup. I called my manager over and explained the situation to him quickly, but out of ear-shot of the customer. Apparently this wasn’t the first time a customer accused the store of selling infested beds and the company had spent a large sum of money investigating these allegations and the findings were that there is nothing, whatsoever, in Ikea’s beds or any other products that could support life! We explained this to the customer. Who still wanted Ikea to come to his house, with a truck and pick up the bed, bugs and all, and give him his money back.
He was soon escorted out of the store by security.
When I was 15 I worked as a hostess at a restaurant. We served buffet brunch on Sundays and it was always packed. I sat a couple at a table by the window and forgot to mark it down on the board at the front. Then when another couple came in I looked around for a free table and found one by the window. I had forgotten that I had already placed people there and they had gotten up to fill their plates at the buffet. They returned and there were people in their seats. The woman from the first couple yelled at me so much I had to excuse myself to go to the bathroom and I cried. Later on the manager also yelled at me to the point of embarrassment. I quit the next day. Such a bad experience and tainted the restaurant business for me.
I dont know if this one qualifies since i dont work at shoppers drug mart but i was standing in line when it happened.
it was saturday and butter and soft drinks were both on sale at ridiculously low prices. naturally, there was a rush and naturally the cashiers were a little stressed. so me and my sister were waiting in line for our turn and there’s this family in front of us. what they did was they ‘split up’. everyone in the family had individually gotten 2 butters and 4 cases of pop- the max limit. but they were still talking to each other and laughing, goofing off and basically making it very plain that they were indeed family.
so when the time came for scanning, the cashier said
“Umm, sir, you cant go over the limit.”
“But i’m not over the limit”
“Yes you are, sir. your whole family is over the limit.”
“Oh, we arent family.”
“I just heard you call him dad!”
LOL! my sister and i were trying to keep from laughing but i felt really bad for the cashier.
the conflict was resolved afterwards with the family storming off in a huff and the cashier looking like she was about to have an aneurysm.
some people will do anything for butter.
I worked as a cashier at a pharmacy and we did not have a public bathroom. Once a man told me that he had to use the bathroom, he was waiting for his prescription to be filled and I told him to go to the Burger King that was right next store. He begged me to use the bathroom, but we only had an employee bathroom and my boss did not want anyone using it because of insurance issues (did not want the guy to slip or a box to fall on him, since we were using the bathroom as a storage room as well). He started screaming at me saying that I was going to kill him since I was not letting him pee. He then pull down his pants and peed on the tile right in front of all the clients waiting for their prescriptions to be filled. I was shocked. None of the employees wanted to pick up the mess. I was mortified.
Well Boo you’ve opened up a real treasure trove of memories for me with this one! I’ve worked in the service industry for many years and I have countless stories I could tell. However, there is one man imparticular who was the nastiest, rudest customer I ever had to serve. Worse yet, he was a regular so I and my fellow servers would have to serve him many times a week. I was working at a very high end restaraunt in downtown Vancouver. This man would come in several times a week. He drove a fancy ferrari, which was always valeted out front, and quite often wore some sort of matching ferrari clothing item ie: shirt, hat, gloves. Therefore my fellow severs and I referred to him as “Mr. Ferrari” (only amongst ourselves of course, never to his face) So anyways, Mr. Ferrari had man”charming” things that he did. When I asked him how he was and how his day was going he would reply by barking his drink order at me. No niceties for this one, he really could not be bothered to listen you. If I happened to approach his table when he was having a discussion with his powersuit buddies, he would bark out that I was not to be listening to his conversation and make me stand 6 feet away from the table untill he was done talking (sometimes I would be standing there for 5 to 10 minutes! And if I tried to walk away to help someone else in the meantime, he would yell at me to get back there as he was not done with me yet!) Another lovely thing he would do is when his glas was empty he would raise it high in the air and rattle the ice around in the empty glass, while whistling and snapping his fingers for me to come, like I was some obedient dog or something. Occasionally if the feeling struck him that he was hungry, he would simply walk over to the pass through (for those of you who have never worked in restaraunts, this is where the food comes out of the kitchen) and help himself to anything that struck his fancy! No, no he did not feel that he needed to order food, Why? when he could just help himself to other people’s orders when he got hungry. I could really go on and on about this guy! I’d have to say that the rudest thing Mr. Ferrari ever did to me personally was this, He had ordered a very expensive bottle of wine (around $500, this was his usual). I brought it to the table with glasses for him and his guests. Now when serving a bottle of wine like this in a high end restaraunt, the presentation of the opening of the bottle must be very precise. I started by cutting and removing the foil, and then gently easing out the cork. I then placed the cork in front of him, for his inspection and poured a small taster of the wine into his glass for his approval. Normally someone would would test the cork by squeezing it to make sure it is not too dry, and then sometimes smelling it to try to detect and “Off” aromas. They would then try a small taste of the wine offered them and give their approval for me to continue pouring the wine for their guests. As you may of guessed, Mr. Ferrari is not one of those “normal” customers. I stood there patiently waiting for him to try his wine. Meanwhile my section was filling up around me, and I really needed to go talk to my other guests. I started franticly trying to make eye contact with someone, anyone! at the table to try and speed up up the whole process. Finally one of his female guests spoke up that she thought I might want him to taste the wine. He stops, looks at me, and says “oh, really” He slams back the wine in one big gulp, picks up the cork and proceeds to shove it down the front of my pants! I was humiliated!!! But worse still was the raucous round of laughter from his guests that resulted from his actions. ( typically I had learned to put up with this man’s outlandish behaviour, mostly because of management’s insistance that he was simply eccentric, and because he would spend thousands of dollars a week in our restaraunt, which resulted in hundreds of dollars in tips for me) But this time he had crossed the line!!! I stormed over to the computer, printed up his bill, over $1000 dollars, stormed back to his table and gave him the check. I said “It’s time to pay your bill and leave, come back when you learn to treat people with a little bit of respect!” I was furious!!! To hell with his tip, I didn’t care anymore! I was just so angry at the way he had just treated me and even more angry that the people with him just laughed along with him like his little puppets! How would they feel if it were they in my shoes? Well, he left alright. Screaming all the way that this was no way to treat him and that he would never be back. The next day I came into work I was approached by a manager who wanted to have a “chat” with me. Oh great! was all I could think, I better not get fired over telling this guy to get out. Mr. Ferrari had dropped by the restaurant that morning and told the manager what had happened. He asked the manager to give me something. I opened up the envelope and inside was an I’m sorry note and $500!!! I couldn’t believe it, first it was nice to get the $500, second I couldn’t believe that he had apologized!!! I was still super mad about the whole thing, but figured if he was big enough to say sorry to me, a lowly waitres, then I guess I could be big enough to forgive him. So Mr. ferrari remained a regular customer, and after that incident he would request to sit in my section everytime. He’s still a nasty, rude man that treats all people with contempt, but I will always remember how good it felt to stand up to him that one day. And I’d like to think that it may of raised his opinion of me, if only by a tiny bit. He is still rude as ever, but he never went beyond the line again after that.
When I was 16 or so I worked in a small restaurant in town. I had been promoted from dishwasher to busgirl and was being given an opportunity to mix and serve people drinks from the bar. I was very pleased with myself and very careful on mixing this one woman a Bloody Mary. I don’t honestly recall what the other people at the table wanted. I loaded up my tray with about six drinks and carefully started to walk around the table. Now, what you need to know is that i was wearing new dress shoes with no tread. This was unfortunate because the carpet cleaners had been in that day, so the carpet was damp. The table where this customer was sitting was in the middle of our “dance floor”. You can imagine what happened. I stepped off the carpet, onto the hardwood and my foot kept moving. I dumped the entire tray of drinks down this woman’s back. I was HORRIFIED. She was a cool customer though and very kind about it. Obviously her meal was free that night and we paid for the drycleaning. All I can say is that I’m not a waitress anymore.
I once had a customer over the phone tell me she was going to hunt me down and kill me if I couldn’t get her tickets to a certain event. I had one too many awful customers over the phone that day, so when she threatened me, I told her she should watch it, because she didn’t know anything about me, but I had her name, address, and credit card information in my computer. Then I hung up and immediately went to speak with my manager… And he laughed and said that maybe customers shouldn’t threaten my life. LOL.
This would be an incident of being rude and gross at the same time. I work retail one day as I escorted a lady to the fitting room I noticed flyers were all over the floor so I put her in another room as I entered the room with the “mess” there was a terrible funk I bent down to pick up the flyers at this time I realized what the funk was. Someone had decided that the changing room was a restroom….needless to say I never scrubbed my hands so much as I did that day I felt like a Dr. heading into surgery. And for anyone that does not know at this point what was left behind it was a lovely fantastic number two!
I worked at a movie theater for 5 years and was the girl who did birthdays parties for years. Now, the parents are supposed to stay in the party room and in the movie with their party at all times – it’s not our responsibility. I had a party of 30 kids (normally the parties was 10-12 kids) and the mother left at the beginning of the party! She said she was going to the bathroom and never came back.
So, here was me with all these kids. I think I handled it really well. I kept checking on them every 5 minutes in the theater and the birthday boy signaled me over at about halfway. He said his friend didn’t like all the movement in the movie and he wanted to come out. So, I took this kid back to the party room. He sat and watched tv for a little bit and then he asked for some water. I went to the concession stand and filled up a pitcher of cold water and grabbed him a cup and as I’m walking back I see the windows have stains on them…
…turns out, he puked all over the walls, windows and floor and left a trail of puke to the bathroom. Of course, all my co-workers told me that he was in my party so I was left to clean up all the puke and finish up the party with these 30 kids. The mother came back and said “Oh, I totally forgot about the party!”
Grrr.
I used to travel with the fair. During the many seasons with them I had some great customer stories….the best by far was at a fair in South Carolina. For whatever reason people constantly feel the need to come behind our food stands to pee, barf or chuck their garbage.GROSS. So anyways, I’m out in the back having a break, and this guy brings his son behind the stand to pee.ON THE STAND.IN FRONT OF ME. I just looked at them and said “um…excuse me? Do you like it when people piss on your house? Cus youre pissing on mine!” He just looked at me like “excuse ME??!!” I then asked if I could have his address so I could come over and take a dump on his front step. He didn’t evhen say sorry. Just “F off” as he left. WELL…Later on while we were crossing the parking lot we spotted the guy and his family getting into his SUV. I told my DH to go and pee on the drivers side door handle! And he did! The guys wife started screaming at him and my hubby just zipped up and walked away. Meanwhile the guy was getting out to after him,but then he saw me waving and laughing. He got back in his SUV without saying a word….a small victory in my eyes!
I once worked at a Call Centre for a federal office, providing information and mailing out information about the new licensing law for firearms. At first it was relatively quiet, not too many calls but once the law came into effect, the phone lines lit up and there would be hundreds of calls for us to answer. Some calls were pleasant, just asking for general info and for information packages to be sent out. Other calls, however, consisted of people calling to yell and swear at us, accuse us of being Nazis because of the new law. I lasted all of 4 months at this job – the pay was great and the overtime was great too, but when I got another job somewhere else with similar pay, I WAS OUTTA THERE! It was just a little bit too stressful to handle.
Not really a “rude” story, but a bit of a shock anyway.
As a server at a restaurant, I was taking orders at one table and I saw a customer who had his neck at an angle in such a way that I thought I had a mentally challenged person. Let’s call him Customer X. So I spoke very slowly and loudly, hoping that he would be able to catch every word I said.
Later, the companion of Customer X told me that Customer X was offended at how I spoke and told me that there’s nothing wrong with his mind. It’s his body that has the problem.
I meant no offense.
I encountered the angriest customer I ever had to deal with when I worked as a cashier at Canadian Tire. The man had a coupon for $0.20 off a bag of water softener salt. Unfortunately for him, the coupon was expired. I explained that it was expired and I would not be able to accept it. He began arguing with me, and I further explained that we would not give him the discount because our store would not be reimbursed by the manufacturer. He got SO mad. I eventually called over my customer service supervisor, who backed me up (thankfully!). The man refused to accept my supervisor’s statement that we would not accept the coupon, and he insisted that the store manager come down to see him. The manager came down and gave the man his bloody $0.20 off. I realize that it came down to just keeping the guy happy, and it was worth $0.20, but it ticked me off that the customer refused to believe that I was following the rules and performing my job correctly. Boo to him. lol
Quite a few years ago, I was an Undergraduate Secretary for an academic program. That simply meant that I had to screen students for entry into a program at university. The programs that I administered were very popular and had a deadline date. They were easily full by the deadline. Nonetheless, I would have hundreds of students lined up on the first day of university, trying to get in to a class that was already full long before. The abuse I had to take when I had to say “sorry you missed the deadline” was amazing. In many cases, I would have to take another load of abuse when they had their parents called me the next day.
I currently manage a coffee shop/bookstore, and I have a terrific guy customer we’ll call “Tim”…well before I managed THIS establishment, I was a supervisor at another cafe/restaurant, and there was another employee there names Amanda..”Tim” came in occassionally on Amanda’s shift and ordered a latte, however than particular day, he ordered his latte and went off to do a job (he’s a contractor) in a town 2 hours away…At the end of my day, “Tim” comes walking into my cafe, plucks his cold half empty latte on the counter, and proceeds to tell me & the other customers how disgusting, bitter, and gross his latte was, and that instead of throwing it out, he brought it all the way back to my cafe (this is at the end of HIS day) and tells me before “dishing out that crap, taste it first!!”…
Okay excuse me first off, I wasn’t the one who made it, and second of all, since when do service workers “taste” customer’s drinks/food before they serve it???? Nowhere I know of…
So I proceed to tell “Tim” that I am truly sorry (since really I believe the customer is ALWAYS right) and I would refund his money AND make him a new latte…and he proceeded to tell me to “shove it up my @ss, and he would never come back because we can’t make proper latte’s, especially when he is paying $4.25 for one.” That was in April of 2008….
Fast-forward to September 2008…I am just starting my shift at this new coffeeshop where I currently manage, and in walks “Tim”..and yep, he orders himself a latte….
Well being that I didn’t make the bad one in April, I proceed to make him a latte as per I usually make it.
So I ask him if it is okay, he tastes it, and proceeds to tell me “THAT is the best latte I’ve ever had”…
I never said a word…a few months later, after I got to know him better, I thought I would bring up the subject of good latte’s vs. bad latte experiences, and asked if he’d ever had a bad one..(still he never clued in that I was the supervisor at the last establishment).
He proceeds to recite the story of how bad of a latte he got from such-and-such coffeeshop/restaurant and that the “girls there don’t know shi*T about making drinks, etc….”
You should have seen the look on his face when I told him I was the supervisor who he shouted at and belittled infront of customers at the other establishment, and then he went about 10 shades of red…
Moral of the story: no matter how BAD the customer’s experience is, they will ALWAYS remember it and talk about it to anyone who will listen, even months later…
Always give your customers a good service experience and they’ll keep coming back!
PS: Tim is now one of my best tipper’s, LOL
I bartend part time to get out of the house. I think the best was when these two people that own another bar use to come in and rag on me for everything “our bar has this, why don’t you? We do it this way. Your not doing this right.”
BLAH BLAH BLAH
So one night I went out with all the other bartenders and we ended up at their bar.The pop was absolutely flat and warm. We didn’t even get ice for our drinks, I had to ask then she went to the back and handed me a styrofoam cup full of ice. Then I had to use the potty and the washroom had no paper towel or toilet paper and was uber dirty.
The next time they came in and ragged on me a huge smile came on my face and I told them I was at their bar and they really can’t rag on me anymore.
They didn’t have anything else to say.
When i was about 15 working at mcdonalds, it was my first day on drivethru, and i had a customer who happened to be of indian descent and after i handed him his food, he knocks on the window after i closed it, i opened it and he throws his bag of food at me, it hits me in the chest and falls to the ground. i stand there shocked. He then starts swearing at me calling me a racist saying i threw his food at him! So he calls my manager over tells him i threw his food at him and wants head offices number. At this time im terrified, i did nothing wrong. The manager takes care of it, then pulls me aside and asks what happened, i tell him and hes like dont worry, that guy was just an asshole, he wont call head office, we have cameras to prove you did nothing wrong. That put a smile on my face. I mean at 15 and my first job i didnt want to get fired over something so juveniline. Btw he didnt call head office 😛
When i was about 15 working at mcdonalds, it was my first day on drivethru, and i had a customer who happened to be of indian descent and after i handed him his food, he knocks on the window after i closed it, i opened it and he throws his bag of food at me, it hits me in the chest and falls to the ground. i stand there shocked. He then starts swearing at me calling me a racist saying i threw his food at him! So he calls my manager over tells him i threw his food at him and wants head offices number. At this time im terrified, i did nothing wrong. The manager takes care of it, then pulls me aside and asks what happened, i tell him and hes like dont worry, that guy was just an a-hole, he wont call head office, we have cameras to prove you did nothing wrong. That put a smile on my face. I mean at 15 and my first job i didnt want to get fired over something so juveniline. Btw he didnt call head office
I was working at Red Lobster (when I was 18 years old to pay for university) as a server and we used to have a promotion for all you can eat crab. I had been working a shift from 10 am straight through until close with a lunch break in the middle around 3 pm. Anyways, this family of 6 comes in at 10:45 pm (15 minutes before close) and wants to order the all you can eat snow crab. Great!!
However, before this the “Mom” wants to order a Big Berry Daiquiri. To those that have been to RL, you know this is an enormous drink. It has 3 oz. of liquor and about 2 lb. of daiquiri. I make the drink for her and she complains very rudely that there is no alcohol in it and to remake – which of course I do. I remake the drink and bring it back to her and she demands that there is no alcohol in it and to make it again. I suggest that perhaps the sheer size of the drink makes it difficult to taste the alcohol. She tells me to, “Stop trying to screw her and just put the alcohol in it.” I bring the drink back a third time and she yells at me quite loudly, “to put the f@#$#ing alcohol in it” I make the drink again this time with no alcohol and bring over 3 oz. of rum on the side and telling her to mix it herself. She turns bright red and tells me that I am a “b@#$# and a c#@#$!” I absolutely wanted to die because all this is going on in front of my other tables. I go and tell my boss that I refuse to serve her after her rude tirade. He says “I understand, I’ll take the order – you just bring out the food.”
They end up ordering the all you can eat crab – which I continue to refill for them. At midnight, I say “The kitchen is closing, how many more pounds of crab would you like and I will have them leave it in the steamer.” They say only 3 lbs. more so to be safe we leave 5 lbs. They eat through all the crab and then demand to talk to manager because it wasn’t really all you can eat crab!! I couldn’t believe it. They made such a commotion that my manager ended up comping almost their entire bill (not the alcohol). I wanted to quit on the spot. They left me a penny tip. However, the other tables around me felt really bad for me and all tipped really well. One table felt so bad they left me $100 tip and then to make matters worse I cried when they left it for me. I guess I was a little emotional and really appreciate their kindness after the table from hell.
I told my manager that I thought the way I was treated was grossly unfair and that they should have been asked to leave but he said that was against company policy. He did tell them upon leaving that because they perhaps they should go to a different RL as they had such a “bad experience”.
I worked for RL for 5 years while I went to university and was on the receiving end of so much rude behaviour and generally nastiness that to this day (years later) I still tip around 30%.
I work as a night auditor in a hotel. One night over Christmas I seen a police cruiser pull up to the door. About 3am. He proceeds to bring in a drunk hitchhiker he had picked up on the highway and told me the guy had 50 bucks and I was “to give him a room”.
I informed him that no rooms at our hotel were as low as 50 bucks and as a hotel “we reserve the right to turn away clients”. Which I was goin to do. He turned around and left the drunk guy half passed out on the couch in the lobby. I ran out the door and caught him and insisted he take the drunk guy with him. He eventually did but not without cursing me first. Our fine police officers 🙂
I’ve worked in various service establishments since I was 15, and reading these stories has brought back a lot of memories – some good, some really really bad! One of my best (worst?) ones is…
I was doing my first solo shift hostessing at one of the nicest restaurants in the city , and I had a table with two gentlemen that kept waving me over to talk to them. The were very well-spoken and nice, and we joked around a bit in between me seating other customers. As the end of the evening neared, one of the men handed me his business card (and was a senior executive for a national company), and essentially propositioned me. Even offered to fly me to Toronto so he could, ahem, take me out for the evening. It was then I realized that people don’t act better when they have more money, they just get to be inappropriate in classier ways 🙂
Lady – that reminds me of the one time when I was working and this one chick ordered the steeped tea (it was a fresh pot) then she came back told me it wasn’t hot enough make a new pot…I went and got her another cup from the drive through and she came back again and said it was cold make her a fresh pot (the second one was also a fresh pot) so I offered to microwave it for her or instead of steeped tea the bagged tea no she didn’t want it microwaved and she didn’t want bagged tea so then she threatened to throw it at me if I didn’t go make her a new pot right that second…the manager saved me cause I was ready to jump over the counter at her for being such a b*tch LOL
foxeh – ewwwwwwww I went to try something on at walmart one time and there was a used tampon sitting in the corner ewwwwwww
monkeyincowtown – I would have KILLED him LOL
saraL – dumb people amaze me…as if you would hand over cash when they have no evidence of even buying something from there haha
missbobloblaw – ahahahahahaha that’ll show him! haha thats the best revenge
I don’t actually have a terrible customer memory that comes to mind. But I remember a male customer who asked if any of the products we sold at Fruits & Passion were aphrodisiacs – he seemed quite disappointed when the answer was unfortunately no.
So when I worked at WalMart I had a lady bring up an item without a tag on it, therefore I had to call for a price check, while waiting she said “where did they have to go toronto” my response was “I don’t know did you hear the plane land”….I guess I was the rude one 🙂
I worked at a pizza place and I was a sub girl there. The subs were pretty good, very popular and I was able to make them cook them dress them and get them to the waitress in under a minute. Well one day I made a sub to code. This jerk off ate the whole thing then came to register and told me that he did not want to pay because he did not think it was worth 4.95. So I said did you eat it? “Yes I ate it but there was not enough meat on it to justify $ 4.95.” I told him if you eat it you buy it. He refused again and just stood there. So I got my manager and my manager acted like I had not put enough meat on it and let the guy walk out not paying a dime for his food or his service. She just did not want to deal with him. Personally I would have called the police on this weirdo for the principle. Does he think employees, the oven, providing a clean table, the ingredients and having his food brought to him cost nothing?
I had a job during university entertaining professional but lower level comedians prior to their performance on fridays and saturday nights. It was the coolest job ever. I got them drinks, gave directions, and paid them at the end of their show. Well one night some ass from Cincinnati came to town. He was pretty rude to me before the show ordered me around a lot more than anyone else and made fun of me a little. I told my friends typically three of us worked and they did not notice it so I ignored it and watched the show. Yep I got paid to watch comedy.
It was mothers night at the University and it went from bad to worse. He was a woman hater. I am alright with comedy that critizes woman but this guy was hateful and rude. He told clever jokes about fucking sluts and how the size of this bitches pussy was as big around as his arms could stretch and her asshole was the size of a grape fruit. He pointed me out and called out obsenities. The place cleared out. I left and did not pay him. Which also meant his transportation was not covered. My boss paid him through the mail but was pretty angry with the guy. I stayed on. Never had another comedian like that again.
This whole thread just proves that those of us who work in the service industry, put up with the NASTIEST stuff.
I recently had a customer threaten to call my head office (and took the business card with that number) because I didn’t know the prices at our competition.
Think about it..I’m trying to make a buck at MY store, I don’t feel it my responsibility or even in my best interest to quote my competitors prices!
Probably one of the most memorable experiences was a guy trying to return 3 items when he only had 2 in hand. What is that all about????
I worked in a retail store where the return policy was that you’re money was given back as a store gift card and not as cash. We have this policy written very clearly by the register, it’s printed on the receipt and we tell our customers, especially if it was an expensive item. Well I had a guy come in and try and return something that he had clearly used (it was a bar item that dispensed 4 different drinks) and he hadn’t even cleaned it properly when returning.
When I told him that I would return his money on a gift card he freaked out on me, started yelling and swearing really loud and said he was going to call the police because I was stealing his money and that I was thief. I tried to calm him down and even other customers in the store tried to calm him down but he wasn’t having any of it and just kept saying he was going to call the police. This yelling and threatening went on for about 5 minutes before I finally had it and I then started screaming and swearing back at him and told him to call the police I’d like to talk to them myself. He then said just to give him the gift card because he wanted to get out of the store and out of my sight but that this wouldn’t be the last I’ve seen of him.
I was practically in tears after this happened and I’m not one who usually blows up at people but something just came over me and I couldn’t help it. My co-workers and even a couple of the customers who tried to help calm the man down said that I did nothing wrong and that I was only human and had a human response to threats and verbal abuse. I was actually terrified of what he meant by ‘this wouldn’t be the last I’ve seen of him’ and had mall security walk me to my car for the next week. But thankfully I never saw the guy again.
This was while back when I was working as a cashier at GAP. We had this regular customer who bought items from us all the time, but store associates were usually annoyed with her because she will come back with the stuff next day to return it. She will have a very valid reason like it does not fit my child or me or my husband but in this instance she blamed her husband for buying under her credit card. This was much wired. She explained her reason for return as my husband stole my card and bought these items and we don’t need them, I took the items and scanned to figure out if we could even return them as there were no tags attached to the clothing, it even looked as items were worn few times. I asked the lady if these items were worn she said of course they were worn that was the purpose for them. But now she does not need them she wants her money back. I was puzzled and confused. I asked her to wait for me and I went to get the manager. I explained to him what she wanted and he took all the items and checked piece by piece if they were worn or not. He concluded with me that these items were worn and cannot be returned. We explained to the customer as well that our return policy is to have the tags and receipt and not be worn. She said the clothes are made to be worn how they cannot be worn. He tried to reason with the customer but she was not in a mood to listen. WE had to get security to come take her out of the store.
I worked at a Burger King for four years and one afternoon, while working on the drive thru, I had my worst customer. He ordered a whopper combo with a coke – as required, I read his order back to him and asked if he would like anything else. He confirmed his order and drove around. When he got to the window and I tried to give him his coke, he started yelling at me that he had ordered an orange pop not coke. Despite his swearing I calmly took the coke back and got him an orange pop. As I handed him the new drink (and all of this time I had not opened my mouth for fear of what I might say) he looked at me and said “I HEARD THAT! YOU JUST CALLED ME AN ASSHOLE – GET ME YOUR MANAGER!” Luckily my manager new me well and new that I would never say that to a customer so he closed the window on the guy. The guy then came into the restaurant yelling at us about how we were going to get fired and would never work in our town again because when he was at Burger King, he was the king…..all because he changed his mind about what he wanted to drink.
While going to university I used to work at the airport in Vancouver greeting the cruiseship passengers as they arrive and head to the pier for the Alaska cruise. One busy Saturday a lady in her early 40s comes out complaining of having to wait in the customs line up. I told her that it was a busy Saturday with a lot of tourists and sorry for the wait(not that I had any control over that) I tried to be pleasant and get her going and excited about the cruise. She was so angry and rude she was yellling “why do I have to go to customs in our own country”? and “Why do I have to carry a passport around”? and “When did president Clinton allow this”? I replied that she was in Canada and that the cruise would take her to Alaska. That president Clinton had no authority here in Canada. We are an independent country I told her. She yelled and screamed that she was already in Alaska and that I was stupid to think otherwise. I said okay lady, go and ask the capatian of the ship which country you are in when you get on board and he will tell you. She refused to listen to anyone even the other passengers were telling her she was in Canada. We all thought she was drunk but she really wasn’t.
She kept yelling and screaming even on the bus ride to the pier. Finally the bus driver pulled aside and told her that if she continued she could walk! The other passengers cheered and she kept quiet the rest of the way. When everyone was getting of the bus I wished them a safe and fun trip and she got off and said “are you sure this is not USA?” Yes I am sure you are in Canada but you will be sailing to Alaska which is in the USA so don’t worry. I replied back with a smile. Well she lost it, she started crying and yelling at me, swearing etc. that she wanted to go home. I got the port supervisor and security to control her. I don’t think she went on the trip. She was given the choice and told if she wanted to fly back home she could at her expense. What a nut case, she books a cruise and pays for it only to arrive at the pier and then turn around and go home.
I work at Starbucks in a very affluent neighbourhood. Some of our customers think nothing of handing us a fifty dollar bill to pay for their three dollar latte. Fairly recently, the company instituted a policy where we don’t keep anything higher than a ten dollar bill in the tills for security (we deal a lot in cash and don’t really want to be robbed). Most customers were cool with this, but a few weeks ago, a woman tried to give me a fifty for her order which was less than ten dollars. This is how it went:
Me:”I’m sorry, but for security reasons, we only keep $5’s in the till. If you pay with that, I’ll have to give you all your change in $5’s or you can pay with credit or debit at no charge” (keep in mind that I haven’t actually refused to accept her $50, just warned her).
Crazy Woman: “What do you mean? I want $20’s back!”
Me: “I’m sorry, I can’t….”
CW: “I am a VERY FAMOUS person in this neighbourhood! How dare you treat me this way!”
Me: “I’m not refusing…”
CW: (as she storms out of the store) “You low class trash! Clearly you don’t know who I am!”
And, no, I didn’t. Psycho.
OK, not a customer story but a boss story. One day my father-in-law died (RIP), and as thing goes usually you go see your mother and take care of the funeral etc…
When I went to tell my boss that I needed a few days off to do that, he turns around and ask: “Well, is it an urgent matter? Can it wait?”
I answered: “He is dead. What do you think, maybe he can wait a few days on the side of the road and hitchhike to get to the cemetary?!?”
I can’t believe the president of a company would ask such a stupid question…unbelievable!
Well, I have a story that could have wound up being extremely dangerous if it weren`t for my staff and my quick thinking.
I was in a ghetto part of Vancouver running a McDonalds. It was the evening shift, around 10 o`clock. In this area of the city we get all sorts, from kind people to taggers to junkies. Junkies are always the worst to deal with in our store, and since I was there to clean up the place I would not allow some things to happen there.
We had a common junkie come in a lot. In that last week I had called the police because he decided to nap in my resturant and i couldn`t wake him. I had caught him dumpster diving so we had to lock our garbage, and he would shoot up in the bathroom and drop his needles in the toilet. It is very frusterating to have to fish a needle out of a toilet, so easy reach grabbers (those claw thingies) and needle boxes were added to our store inventory.
So I was in the front of the lobby that day and happened to notice our resident junkie picking through the garbage can outside. I`ve seen many homeless people do this, and I don`t mind giving a coffee to someone who is polite. (For those of you who don`t know, if you have your cup you can get a free refill. People abuse this by saving their cup and bringing it back everyday, or fish out someone else`s cup just to get a free coffee) I decided that day I had taken enough crap from this guy and was going to refuse him service. In he came with his cup that he had just retrieved from the can and wanted a refill.
I refused. I explained that I had just seen him digging in the garbage for that cup. He denied it, and started getting irrate. Then he started screaming that he had just bought that coffee (which was funny since I was in the front since three that afternoon). I told him to leave, and he was banned from that McDonalds forever. Well, this made him so angry that he spat on me. I turned to my employee and told her to call the police. As soon as I said this I saw him swing a fist at me out of the corner of my eye. I managed to duck behind the counter before he could make contact with my face and came up with a screwdriver as my staff member ran to call the police.
I think he knew I was serious about running him through with that screwdriver, so he took off out of the store. I ran out and grabbed the security guard that walked the area and they proceeded to track him down.
I really don`t like excitment like that, but that is what happens sometimes. But the guy was arrested that night, and I wasn`t bothered by him at that McDonalds again.
This isn`t the most plesant story to tell for this contest, but it is the one that stands in the forfront of my mind when discussing bad customer service experiences.
I used to work in a bookstore. One day, a father and his teenage daughter came in to ask for a French Bescherelle. I went into the backroom to fetch a new one for them, as none were available on the shelf. After I handed the Bescherelle to them, the daughter took one glance at it and asked me for another one.
“Was there anything wrong with this one?” I asked politely.
“There are scratches on the cover,” The daughter replied. I reexamined the cover and noticed some tiny scratches on its hard cover, probably due to sitting on the shelf for a few months.
Still, I went and got another copy for the father and the daughter. This time they examined the copy for a long time, and then the daughter asked for a discount on the book.
“Sorry, we don’t have discounts on these items.” This time I was a bit agitated. If there were discounts then I would have informed you already, I thought.
The daughter then looked at her father, who wore a cynical smile on his hardened face. “Your store is so unprofessional and dirty. Look at the messy shelves, who would buy things here? Your books are rotting away but you refuse to give me a discount on these butt-wipers. What’s your name? I’m going to complain to your boss.”
I gave them my name without hesitation. My manager was working right beside me, incredulous as to how rude these customers were. Afterwards the father and daughter bought the book grudgingly, and my manager immediately called the owner of the bookstore to immunize him against these venomous people. Needless to say, they stopped causing us much trouble after the incident by not coming back, and both my manager and I were relieved.
WOW, monkeyincowtown, that mr. ferrari sounds like a nutjob. i’m amazed you continued to serve him. i’m sure the $500 “apology” helped a bit!!!
so my story – my first job was at mcdonalds. one day, my coworker was helping out a scruffy looking middle-aged man who smelled like he hadn’t taken a bath in months. my coworker and i were on tills side-by-side. when it came time for the scruffy guy to pay for his order, he became beligerent and jumped ONTO the countertop, yelling that somebody had stolen his money. my coworker and i just stared at the guy in shock until the manager came over and convinced the guy to get out of the store. the only way he would leave was with a free hamburger!
Working at my first retail job was an interesting experience. Winners is a great store, but because it is a “discount” store people try to get away with anything. One day a woman come into the store and tried to return a childrens outfit, which did not have the tags or a reciept. She swore up and down that she had just purchased it 2 days ago for 39.99 and demanded her $$$ back. She was causing a sceen when I told her politely that I could not take it back without the tag or reciept. She was getting very mad and very loud, until I pointed out to her that it was “JOE” brand (the store band of RCSS) and not a band that we EVER carry in the store…. that shut her up pretty quickly!
Well, all I can say as far as the healthcare industry goes, please “Don’t shoot the messenger.” Families are quick to blame the nurses for all the failures of the system (shortages, extra fees, etc). To keep it simple, if you want the best care possible, please don’t dwell on the trivial matters, and let’s focus on what matters (your friend/family well being). Unfortunately I cannot go into details about a particular incident because of confidentiality, but I do have to say, I cannot carry your guilt because you did not talk to your mother for 3 months.
Talk to your family, because you never know what may happen.
*Koala steps off her soapbox*
I’ve worked for different grocery chains for almost 11 years now and I’ve had my share of nasty, rude and downright appalling customers. One of the stories that sticks out in my mind involves an elderly man and his impatience. I was working the express lane which is normally very busy around lunchtime due to many business workers popping in for a quick bite to eat or do some food shopping. This particular gentleman (for lack of a better word!) was about the 5th person behind the customer I was currently serving. Near the end of the transaction, this gentleman piped up and said “This is the express line, it’s 12 items or less!” I replied with “he [the current customer] only has 13 items.” This must have pissed the guy off because I smiled and said have a good day to the customer, then he says “is that what they teach you here, to make fun of the customers?” And I said, “No I wasn’t laughing at you, I told the other man to have a nice day and I smiled.” So everyone in the lineup looks at the man like he’s crazy and each and every customer before him apologized on his behalf and said how sorry they were and what a jerk he was. By the time I got to his order, I rang it up and he refused to pay until I got the manager down there to speak with him. I said “could you please pay and I’ll have the manager come down right away.” He refused again and by this time the manager came by, sent me on a break and dealt with the man. Afterward I was told that guy had a bug up his butt about something and he unjustly took it out on me. They asked me after if I was ok and I said that I was, but truthfully I thought he was going to attack me, which frightened me quite a bit!
I was a nutritional health consultant before having my son. When i was first taking my courses, i worked in a Sangsters Vitamin/Herb shop in a mall. One day a man came in with his wife’s vitamin pills and explained to me that she would not have sex with him and he wanted to find some sort of aphrodisiac type pill that looked exactely like them so he could switch them. I tried to explain to him that not only was that more then likely all kinds of illegal, but that whatever was the problem between them that if she wanted, i would be more then happy to talk to her and try to find something to help her out.. but he just looked at me confused and left mumbling something about tryin the pharmacy.
Ok well my story to border on being criminal. I was in high school and working in a pharmacy that had a Kodak Picture Maker. The man asked me if he brought in a picture if I could help him use the machine since he has never used one before. And of course we would help. He came in my next shift and called me over. I told him to place his picture on the screen and press the scan button. When the picture showed up on the screen it was a picture of him sitting in a chair taking a downward picture of his penis. I was in shock and didnt know what to do. I was working alone which didnt help. He paid for the picture and then left. Of course when i told my boss it seemed so unbeleivable until we realized he had left his picture on the scanner. And as you can imagine he did not come back for it.
The Night I Lost it, but Gained my Self Respect
The summer after highschool I was waitressing in a real dive of a bar in a small village. (The kind where management believes the customer is right no matter what.) I waded througgh the sea of gropers carying fully loaded drink trays in both hands, when a wiesenheimer comes up and pulls the front of my shirt up over my head. He sat down to my left and was having a great laugh with his buddies.
I seethed. Politely turning to the table behind me, I sweetly asked, “May I set these here for a moment please?” I deposited my heavy load, whirled around, and backhanded the loser. Next thing I knew, he and his chair were laying on the floor. The entire bar stood up cheering and clapping. The guy appologized saying he wondered how much B.S. I would take before I stood up for myself. I lost my job, but gained my self respect and the respect of everyone in the bar.
Once I just simply told a customer (very politely) the total at a gas station and he was like, I KNOW!!!!! I was thinking in my head…okayyyyy, I am just making sure. Wow, somebody was in a bad way.
*this isn’t my entry*…but I just want to say, you are most very welcome!! LOL! Glad I made you laugh…um, or gag! LMAO!
I used to work for a clothing warehouse and i guess it’s been a while since there is a young teenage girl working there, so half the boys decided to tell me they have a crush on me. Then everyone in the warehouse found out and started making fun of me.
I used to waitress as a second job. One evening, there were two of us waitressing. A lady had ordered a poutine to go, and had asked for the cheese and gravy to be on the side. Apparently the cooks must have missed these instructions, because unknown to us, they put the gravy & cheese on the fries. When she came to pick up her order, the girl I was working with went back and grabbed the brown bag, which was her order and took it out to her. She took the order, paid and went back out to her car. She suddenly stormed back in, and threw the fries, cheese and gravy ON the other waitress, and started yelling at her, because the cooks messed up the order and put the two things on the fries. Unreal! I felt horrilbe for the other waitress, as she was covered in soppy fries & gravy. It clearly was not her fault.
I was 20 yrs old and a server in a high volume bar. I’d been serving a table of really loud, annoying younger guys. They’d ordered some shots and when I leaned over to grab the empty glasses one of the guys shoved a couple down my shirt! He then made a really rude comment and asked if my chest was.. uh.. real. I prompty went to the manager to have them thrown out. I dont miss that job at all.
I was working in this fast food take out place and there would always be this customer that comes to buy takeout around 7ish. Country Style is right across the road. Well each time he comes in and orders something, he would walk over to eat at Country Style. I don’t know why he would do that when we have a few tables for customers to eat. He did not look very plesant, he had this angry-grudge like face. I might’ve even heard him mutter how it was not clean enough..
Last time I went for dinner to the Keg restaurant, I found plastic wrap in my mashed potatoes!!! I immediately called our waitress over and took the plate away. She acted as if I had planted the plastic in my meal, and didn’t come back to apologize for the incident! She walked by our table and rudely asked if she could get us anything else, then slapped the bill on our table. The meal had been completely comped, however the whole experience and way we were treated sucked – won’t be going back again..
Another horror story I had at my first job.
I was 18 and working in an adult store. I loved that job so very much for the high discount on the corsets, and the fact that I could study when no one was in the store.
Well, it was five minutes to close, late at night. I locked the front door first and was walking to the back door to lock it as well when a man in his sixties comes in. “Oh good! You aren’t closed.” he said. I told him that we were closed but I would allow him to still look around as I hadn’t done my cash out yet. I was in no rush after all.
He walked down one isle then asked me where he could find the latex skirts. I led him to them, and figured he was just buying one for a woman, since many guys come in and do that. He was asking me about sizing and fit, and I showed him to the ones that would be the best. By this time I knew he was shopping for himself, not a woman. No biggie, I am not a judgemental person, so I directed him to the changeroom where he could try the skirts on. He looked around the store and said, “Well the doors are locked right? I just try it on here.” as he dropped his sweat pants and revealed his fishnet clad legs. And of course, just because it was my luck, he was not wearing underpants.
I quickly averted my eyes and told him he would want to go in the changeroom. When he asked why I said “Because the store is full of camaras and they will capture everything on video, so you might want to cover your shame.”
He went into the changeroom but kept comming out, asking what I thought about the fit on each skirt. I gave him my honest opinion each time, but was on the phone to my boyfriend to come to the store right away to pick me up early. I was getting nervous and he told me not to hesitate in calling the police should I need to.
He rushed over, and came into the store about ten minutes after I called him. He man heard a male voice, and promptly came out of the fitting room. He said he couldn’t find what he liked, and left the store.
I was so relieved that my boyfriend showed up, and after he left without buying anything we knew what he was really there for. I’m just glad it didn’t escalate to anything.
You’d think I have had only dangerous jobs by my stories, eh?
I used to work in a food stand at a major shopping centre. I used to have this awful man come by everyday and try to lay on the charm. His “Hi Honey” “Heya Babe” “Hows my Sweetie” everyday was getting to me. Finally I had enought and said “Im not your Honey Babe or Sweetie so get your @$#%$ out of here and dont come back. I dont have to take that crap from you”
Well, I got arrested a short time later(fake, dropped charge) for something stupid. Walked into the court and guess who was my judge? Yep the Honey, Babe, Sweetie Man. I thought I was going to get the electric chair.
I turned to my lawyer and told him what happened and asked that my case be turned over to another judge. The Judge just winked and said “No problem Sweetie”
OMG
btw…..the charges were thrown out!
I work at a clinic in a not very good part of town. One day a few months ago, a patient came in with a box, he handed it to a secretary and told her there was bomb in it. The police were called and and the clinic was closed down. Turns out the guy was mad because some doctor would’nt give him his drugs he wanted.
I manage a clothing store and as I’m sure everyone knows a clothing store is INSANE on Boxing Day. It was of course Boxing day and I had alot of staff on and things were running fairly smoothly. I was tidying up a table of T-shirts when this woman walks up and starts rifling through the piles. I offered to help her find a size (so she wouldn’t destroy the whole table). She refused and turned to me, leaned on the table and said “I’m going to make a mess on this table and you are going to clean it up because it’s your job” I was so pissed at her that I shot back “Actually no it’s not my job, my job is to manage this business and turn profits for the company” She looked stunned that I wasn’t just some stupid salesclerk that she turned and walked out of the store.
Oh and finding poop in a fitting room…that’s nasty…once we found a latex glove sitting in a fitting room on the little shelf. I was very, very scared of that one! What is that all about?
someone dropped a mercury thermometer at work…the whole place had to be quarantined for the day…
Working in drive through had some kids playing around by coming through with bikes or making bogus orders.
I worked at an internet media company a few years ago. Had the best job, best co-workers and bosses in the world. Until my boss left for a better opportunity in Toronto. Then the whole company changed, or so it felt. The company grew 10% every 2 weeks. So it was incredibly disorganized and new people, new management and new … everything came on so quickly. We knew there was bound to be a crash in the company. And there was.
My manager and I had a bit of a conflict going on from the very beginning. Eventually she started harassing me, but I was too embarrassed and too stubborn to show up to her, for fear of being fired.
This went on for months. I finally decided I was getting unhealthy, mentally from all of the abuse from my manager. I went to upper management. They told me they couldn’t do anything about it (not even transfer me!! WTF?)
I then gave them an ultimatum. Transfer me to a different “pod” or I will leave the company. Well, that had them in knots, I’m sure. Because they came straight back at me, a few days later giving ME the ultimatum.
Here’s the kicker: Leave TODAY (with severance), or we will put you on 3 month probation (after a year of working there) and then if I don’t do “better” with the manager, they would fire me within three months.
What the hell did I do? I got the *&^% out of that place, and never looked back. I took the money and ran. Alas, I was then out of a job for eight months panicking for work. Eventually, I found a better place to work.
At the beginning of my career I worked for Smithbooks. I was an Assistant Manager and I loved my job. I had good working relationships with the staff and I completely bought into being nice to customers NO MATTER WHAT. I’d been stalked by customers, yelled at, insulted and hit on by any manner of jerk. One day, one of our clerks was at cash. It was busy because it was Christmas and forwhatever reason, she made a mistake with a couple of people’s purchases. She was a new girl, maybe 17-18 and very skinny. She suffered a medical condition, which did not allow her body to absorb any fat she consumed as a result she got started at whispered about etc all the time. The customers in line were growing impatient and started murmuring to one another about her. I saw she was getting upset and went behind her to help work out the problem and reassure her everything would be fine. Then, the next vicious customer in line said to her “maybe if you ate something you could calculate change properly.” the poor clerk went pale and started to cry. I sent her to the back, took the purchase away from teh customer, gave her her change back and told her that Smithbooks didn’t need customers who can’t treat another human being with dignity and asked her to leave the store. I tell you it felt so good to tell this woman off i didn’t care about the impact.
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