To ask retail staff your worst customer stories?

5.10pm on Xmas eve, store open since 8am and 7 days a week all year. Staff absolutely shattered, trying to reset the shop after closing at lightning speed so we could get off for Christmas. Fella comes hammering on the locked door demanding to be let in - we'd ruined his Christmas, his wife would divorce him if he didn't get her this particular item etc etc.

Yeah, cos Christmas came as a complete surprise that year, and he didn't have 364 days to plan and purchase this gift...

I thought no worries was an Australian saying @Pokinganose? She was wrong on two counts

I work in a supermarket, used to work on customer services where I was often threatened with physical violence because I couldn't or wouldn't do exactly what the customer wanted, even if it was something I physically couldn't do even if I wanted to eg magic up a turkey, all the trimmings, the toy of the hear and 30 selection boxes ten minutes before closing on Christmas Eve

The final straw was when I asked a couple to please leave the store as we had closed at 10pm and it was now 10:40pm and they started screaming obscenities and waving their phones in my face as they were "going to report me to head office" so I pulled out my phone to call the police to report trespassers and the man then proceeded to punch me in the face before legging it out of the store with his partner. Reported it to the police but they did fuck all about it surprise surprise

Now I work in the pharmacy so we just get the occasional drug user threatening us if we don't jump to give them their methadone the second they arrive, even if other customers are waiting, and people kicking off because they put their prescription request in with the doctor 3 days ago and we tell them that we were only sent the prescription 2hrs ago (at which point it went to the bottom of the very long, and never ending, queue of prescriptions we are already working on) so we need another 20 mins to process and fill it (IE find it in the pile and bump it to the top) they're up in arms ... you've given the doctor 3 days to look at a form, say "Yes they can continue taking the same medication they have used for the same chronic illness they've had for the last 30 years" and send it to the pharmacy but you draw the line at giving us more than a couple of hours to actually dispense the medication?!

They’re definitely not! I think I worked in a particularly rough store to be fair but I did have plenty of lovely customers as well.

That was meant to quote Blahbie - not sure what’s going wrong with the quote function!

Ds worked in a shop that had an in-store pharmacy and it would regularly have drug addicts pop in and threaten the pharmacist with dirty blood covered syringes and other weapons.

@Lavender14 that's crazy awful, especially considering that many sales assistants are students who are working to fund their way through university or are working temporarily in school hols.

@SecondClassReturnToDottinghamPlease period blood? How minging! I couldn't have continued working in that kind of job after so much abuse. Definitely would have been a career change for me.

"See son, if you don't work hard and go to university you'll end up like this girl working in a pointless job like this. "

Urgh.

And I had a degree.

Wow the customer isn't always right!

So many! One who punched me because we didn’t have the specific loaf of bread in stock that she wanted. Another spat in my face because I refused to serve alcohol when she was clearly already drunk. A man who stood there shaking his leg until a shit fell out of the bottom of his trousers. A woman who threatened to come back and shoot me because I’d asked her to please make her way to a checkout as the store had actually closed half an hour ago. Someone also threatened my colleague with what he said was an HIV-infected needle. I’m very happy not to work in retail any more.

Cuntstomers

I worked in a bank not long after the last financial crash when the base rate was dropping quickly and got to 0. We had multiple customers screaming aggressively at us on the counter because their savings were earning a lot less than they used to. 1. Their previous monthly interest earned had been equivalent to my monthly full time salary. 2. It's very unlikely that me as a minimum wage counter assistant set the bank of England base rate.

Agree with @Aqua20 about football players. One of their wives came in and was horrible to everyone, demanding everything instantly that just couldnt physcially happen as quickly as she wanted. Was almost satisfying when she was done for fraud a decade later.

That's horrendous! Please tell me they were prosecuted for assault.

Worked in a TGI Friday’s inside a shopping centre when I was 17-20. I could write a book about my time there. A few that stick out are:

• I served a premiership footballer and he left me a 1 pence piece as a tip.
• Some guy threw a bowl of pasta at me because the plate was “too hot” for his child.
• Received a head office complaint for saying “hi guys” when greeting a table to take their order. They found it offensive.
• Someone left a used tampon in a takeaway box under one of the tables.
• A drunk guy at the bar refused to leave when the bartenders told him he was too drunk to be served. He got really violent and started threatening everybody. We had to call the shopping centre security and the police.
• A table I was serving left without paying the bill so I had to take the flack from management for not being more “on the ball”.

Worked in a few clothing stores when I was at uni and dealt with:

• A creepy guy phoning the store asking if we sold leather skirts and breathing heavily down the phone. He would do this on a weekly basis and called from no caller ID so we couldn’t block the number.
• A young girl bought a set of underwear (I told her they would be non-returnable before she purchased) and about 20 minutes later her father marched in and demanded a refund as £15 for 3 pairs of knickers was too much. I refused as I said underwear are non-returnable. He argued with me back and forth until I gave in and refunded him via card. I stated it would take 3-5 working days to go back into your account. Then he started complaining and shouting “why did you take my money immediately but it will take 3-5 days to come back?”

Supervisor in River Island when I was 17.

A woman came into the store wanting to return a pair of jeans. I can’t remember her reason for wanting to return it but she had no receipt so no proof of purchase. I said I could only exchange or give her a refund card. She said that was fine.

As I’m checking the jeans for any faults or anything like that, I saw that her dirty, stained knickers were still in the jeans. She snatched the jeans from my hands as quick as I’d seen her knickers and ran out of the store. I was so shocked and disgusted at the same time that I just burst out laughing once she left the shop.

I have so many other stories as I worked my way up to Assistant Store Manager in Office and Floor Manager at Gap before getting pregnant at 21. I’ve seen too many things😂 I’ll be back tomorrow!

Worked in a spar during uni days. There was a (thankfully) infrequent customer who, the first time I "experienced" him, my male colleague jumped right over the till/bagging area, to go upstairs to the toilets so that he wouldn't have to serve this customer. Said customer smelt like he hadn't washed in.. I dunno.. maybe 15 years. Was a young man, probably in his 20s.

When he came to the till I was almost wretching. The smell lingered in the shop for ages once he had gone. Other customers even commented on the smell in the shop a while after he had gone. Turns my stomach thinking about it.

Oh and I left that job after someone else spat in my face because we refused to give her a refund on an item that she had been told was non refundable and it was written on the receipt that it was non refundable.

Sales staff in shops like Superdrug don't get paid by commission so if a customer says no to their hard selling tactics the sales staff don't lose out in any way. I get that they are required to do the hard selling by their manager, and much as I hate it I actually feel a bit sorry for them having to go through that same spiel with every customer . It must be very boring.

The woman who bought a suit back for a refund for some reason, shouting and screaming at us for the poor quality of the jacket (which was on the top of the bag and so the item we got out). We gave her the refund to get rid of her and then took the trousers out of the bag after she left. Crotch covered in period blood 😡

I don't doubt that many retail staff have terrible soul crushing experiences with rude or batshit customers, however if this is a response to the "are you sure you don't want perfume" thread then I don't recall any actual rudeness or abuse directed towards the sales staff. I did think the assumption on the part of the customer that the SA thought she smelt a bit absurd and ridiculous though. Gave me a good chuckle that thread did.

Man came into the store where I worked and asked my colleague for 33 carrier bags to purchase. She questioned as to why he needed so many. We'd had a lot ofnthefts so maybe why she asked. He became very rude saying why shouldn't he have that many carrier bags and that it was none of her business so she called for the manager so the customer walked away.
Another customer was explaining why she was returning something, I said "no worries" she replied "I'm not worried, I'm not American!" in a snotty voice. I just stopped for a second, stared at her and then carried on in silence and she flounce off with her refund.

I worked in a high St bank, customer came in to withdraw £25k in cash so his gf can go shopping, I 'stupidly' asked for id, he shouted so loudly, what, how dare you, do you not know who I am?!

Apparently, he played football for Leicester City, how am I meant to know, dnt watch football!

Worked in retail briefly many many years back but it was so awful I just block it out and can't remember much.

A customer projectile vomited whilst I was serving her. It was on my forehead.