To ask retail staff your worst customer stories?

@Lalanbaba

What have we become, when such a high proportion of people are doing this? They can't all be very vulnerable - in fact, I'd assume that most of the vulnerable people for whom this may be normal behaviour wouldn't be out without a carer.

Don't people who happily smear poo up walls for some kind of sick joke realise that THEY have to touch the poo as well as their victim?

@FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper
I have seen it in pubs, coffee shops and even in top shop in Oxford Street!
You also get the ones that leave a little parcel of shit wrap up in toilet paper in the floor. Inside the toilet cubicle! This one always puzzled me.

I worked at a popular London fc as a steward after leaving school and yes I was paid a pittance despite having to basically herd groups of football fans safely in and out of the football stadium. Hated football then and hate it even more now. Glorified players kicking a ball around a field and people going crazy over it. No thanks!

Too many to mention! But the highlights;

worked in a chain pub at 16, guy who was raving drunk came in (before my shift started) ordered a steak, it wasn’t cooked now he requested so he proceeded to call me from a pig to a dog and threatened me with the steak knife….:

worked in a well known retail store. Was supervisor on the changing rooms when I discovered a massive 💩 in one of the cubicles

same shop someone had snotted in a load of towels then refolded them….yak!

A different retails store…..some lovely woman told me I ruined her child’s Xmas as when she came in at 3.55pm on Xmas eve we had sold out of the best selling toy for Xmas that year.

so glad I haven’t worked in retail for 10 years now

What is with all of these horrifying stories of people smearing poo everywhere? I always understood it to be a very rare behaviour by people with the most challenging mental health issues or severe learning difficulties; but going on this thread (and many other similar ones), you'd think it was a regular lifestyle choice made by about 20% of all people.

I finally managed to get her out,the mummies left-leaving a huge mess,2 shitty nappies and dirty baby wipes on the table (the baby changing was 5 feet away) and a massive puddle of baby vomit dripping off a stool

Wow, that really is extreme chutzpah - doing that and then calling the other woman a 'dirty bitch'!

Was at work yesterday-I only work 7 hour shifts due to arthritis (rather than 8)

Ugh

One kid came in a few weeks ago with a winning monopoly sticker (I thinks she's won the double cheeseburger/6 nuggets combo)

The gambling rules state,clearly,that you have to be over 18 to play/redeem-i can't let her redeem it,but I can allow an adult

Cue her bloody mother coming in every single time I've been on shift since,just to scream at me for not breaking the law and allowing her dd to redeem the bloody thing

I've told her that I'll cheerfully serve her,but that's not good enough-i shouldn't have personally served her dd the winning ticket (I didnt),I should work out who's underage and not serve them the stickered food (I really don't have the time for that-she needs to speak to head office and they need to pay for another member of staff,whos job is to solely do this) and she is convinced I personally came up with the gambling laws just to spite her (I do agree its not fair for a child to win but not to be able to redeem but as a mother myself,I'd claim and give it to my child)

Honest to God,all she had to do is give me the sticker herself and I'd put it through with no issues and she can then give her food to whoever she bloody well likes

But nope,I'm the target for this hate campaign and have been for the last few weeks-the managers have been fantastic and she is now banned but doesn't stop her marching in to scream at me and sods law means they are normally dealing with someone else whenever she starts

It's a fucking cheeseburger/nuggets-not the crown jewels

Another bloke put in a complaint because I handed him his cup of tea(in rush hour-it was heaving-i had 15/20 pending on the screen)-but didn't add his milk and sugar for him-the only thing he didn't want me to do is drink the bloody thing

He rang head office to complain!

The local junkie came in,off her head as normal (when not off her face,she's lovely-its when she has taken something,she's not)

She's known for being violent and carrying needles-so my manger and i are trying to get her back out (I mean I don't want to have to deal with her either)

Cue a table full of mummies screeching at me to 'get her out','if you don't,ill leave a bad review and I'll phone your head office' and 'what a dirty bitch' which of course,wound her up further-It's no fun dealing with someone who's off their heads,isn't exactly listening to me and is taking swings at everything

I mean,I wouldn't want to see this either,but I'm on min wage,I'm not trained to deal with her,they could see we where trying to deal with her and the police couldn't give less of a fuck,so don't bother showing up when we ring them

I finally managed to get her out,the mummies left-leaving a huge mess,2 shitty nappies and dirty baby wipes on the table (the baby changing was 5 feet away) and a massive puddle of baby vomit dripping off a stool

Someone else shat in the gents,5 minutes before hometime-smeared it all over the walls,(i think he was trying to write his name in it) which meant I was 20 minutes late going home and in agony from my arthritis

I got home and cried

When I was 19 I was a supervisor in a small shop. A teenager (I'd say 16 or 17) came in and made a purchase. Half an hour later he is back with his parents. Dad screaming and shouting that I shouldn't have sold him anything without a parent present. Even though they had taken him to a shopping centre and let him walk around on his own. Totally nuts. He wanted a refund. Of course the shop had a no bloody refund policy. Stupid and annoying cbviously but I did not make the policy and had no control over it. But still, it was my fault. After half an hour of verbal abuse the dad threw the item at me and cut my face.

Turns out he was a policeman. Scary.

Honestly working retail is the worst job I have ever done.

Christmas in retail/hospitality really is like being in another world.

I’ve been lucky in the retail side of things- nothing massively awful has happened to me personally, but from my hospitality job while at uni- I could write a book on things that happened on the lead up to Christmas.

We always dreading seeing groups of work ones out for their staff do’s, weirdly even though they were more mature than the typical students who came in, they were always much more poorly behaved.

Groping. Fighting. Spilling drinks everywhere. Shouting at each other the whole night rather than taking. Insisting on standing in doorways and blocking entrances and exits for some reason. Talking to bar staff like they’re dogs. Clicking fingers. Refusing to leave at closing.

The students could be boisterous at times, but they typically would listen if you asked them to move or to calm it down. These groups of people just laughed at you and continued on. I presume because most of the staff were early twenties.

Funnily enough, when we sent our rough-as-fuck manager out to tell them to wise up or leave, they did simmer down after that. He was many things, but we always respected the fact that if his staff were being terrorised, he didn’t give a fuck about reviews or customer service. He’d quite happily go over and tell them they were getting fucked out in the bluntest way possible.

Worked at a football stadium briefly after leaving school for what was basically pocket money every other week. Food kiosk, two hours of gradual build up, a very quiet 45 minutes, then absolute bedlam.

The lack of patience your average Joe has with 16 year olds trying serve hundreds of people as quickly as possible never left me. Not getting food quick enough, not counting change quick enough, not having change, having to go and get change, not keeping an eye on who's actually next because people can't queue properly, running out of items because you have a finite amount of perishable stock, not having enough ketchup sachets because everyone has been busy serving...

Wish I could have slapped them all.

i got called a c**t by a customer because we didn’t have any advent calendars left. It was like the 6th December and he seemed to think I’d brought them all for my own greedy selfish gains. 🤣

I worked retail well over a decade...
I have been assaulted twice working, both in coffee shops, one visibly pregnant.
I have had to clean poo out of walls, in 3 occasions
We had a regular pissing in walls until we caught him.
I have been shouted that I kill people because pinenuts were not marked as allergen (they were listed as ingredient)
I have been named in an angry complaint 2 pages long because I greeted them with, How can I help you? (I used a "tone") I kid you not HR didn't know what to say...
Then you have the usual, cold/warm drinks after hours of these being served. Spicy food that shock horror it is actually Spicy!. Theft accusations. Blatant lies to get free stuff. People complaining for getting IDd to get alcohol.

I promise there were good moments too 😅

A customer took his penis out in a shop full of customers, started playing with himself and literally nothing has been done about it. I had the mispleasure of witnessing it, reporting it and now I feel like it's not been taken as seriously as it should have been.

My DH worked security at the 24 hour Asda whilst at university. It was Christmas Eve and the shop was closing at 8pm and wouldn’t reopen till Boxing Day. He apparently ruined a woman’s Christmas as they didn’t have any turkeys left 15 minutes before closing.

Asda has two entrances a pedestrian entrance at one end and the car park entrance at the other. Both entrances can be safely reached by pedestrians without walking beside the road. At 8pm they would lock the pedestrian entrance leaving just the car park entrance open as they would also reduce the number of security staff on. A customer broke the pedestrian entrance by throwing himself against it as he didn’t want to walk round the building to the other door. They also had customers swearing at them and demanding they open the pedestrian entrance as they didn’t want to walk the length of the building.

I got sworn at by two women after the barman cut them off and I couldn’t sell alcohol on the till in the children’s play area.

We had a 28 day return policy but would allow a few days grace ie: If they bought it on June 1st and returned it on July 1st we would still refund the item. I had one customer slam his fist on the counter and stamp his feet because we wouldn’t refund something he had bought 13 months before because it no longer fitted his child.

I used to work in a large pet store & a customer commented on a bit of dirt on a bag of cat food she bought (easily wiped off btw) asking why it wasn’t marked down. I politely explain it’s just a bit of dirt from the transfer from warehouse that morning & I’ll get a wipe. The women seemed fairly nice, building a rapport & seemed to be happy so as she was leaving I made a passing joke like “as long as cat doesn’t eat the bag you’ll be sound”…the customer went f**king mental! Full of screaming at me. I was genuinely speechless. Wasn’t sure to laugh or smack her to calm her down. It was like Jekyll & Hyde

Sooooo many! 1.Worked in a cinema. Found used condoms all the time. Once stood on one and the "matter" went on my shoe. I also had a milkshake thrown at me because it was "too lumpy". I also worked in a shop and got called a stupid, fat, little bitch for telling a client I couldn't do a 10% student discount for her without a student card.

There is no excuse for rudeness

I used to work on the bakery and pizza counter. We used to operate till 8pm but they changed our hours to 6. The signage hadn't been took down as we needed the proper people to come in for h&s reasons. This woman comes up to me, by this point I'm not in my whites I'm in normal store uniform and she goes is there anyone making pizzas. Now my reply was going to be no but if you don't mind waiting I can make you what you want. I was then going to explain to her that it as changed to 6 so some days until the signage as changed their may not be anyone trained to make the pizzas or more importantly use the wrapping machine after 6pm. All I got out was no but, her eyes got wide, voice raised and she pointed to the sign. It says pizzas till 8pm, absolutely disgusting this is, you're taking the fucking piss. At this point I said the sign can say what it wants but the bases weren't delivered today (they totally were) so unfortunately we can't make any hence why the counter is empty. She backed off and left. Don't be rude to the person who can solve your problem! Be nice, we are people too. Im not being spoke over and talked to like that then helping you. Fuck that. Manners and kindness cost bugger all. Counter to this I was working on the csd and a lady purchased a card that was about 75p and paid with a £20. She was really apologetic about it cos lets be honest it is annoying. Her teenaged son went I've got loads of change I'll get it. She said I need a £10 for the card and the ATM only has £20s in it. I heard her and gave her a nice brand new not crinkled £10 note. I said seeing as it's a gift have a nice new note! She turned to her son and said hope you've learned a lesson in being nice to people, they do nice things back.
I have to say 99.9% of people you encounter in a day are lovely, but you tend to forget them. They don't make interesting stories!

I'd be here all night if i were to list everything.

I was spat at after refusing to give a man his girlfriends bank card that he had left in a card reader.

I was sent an email by a customer telling me they hoped I died of cancer all my family suffered a list of horrible things and calling the a cunt and a whole
other list of names after I had refused to accept liability for an incident that happened in store that they caused. (I had moved to head office after the spitting incident)

I saved his email address/home address and phone number and used them to sign up to every spam/porn sites, gave it to scammers who called me etc etc

Being screamed at by a woman as she had to wait 10 minutes in a busy queue at Christmas for a piece of tinsel she was buying

About 30 years ago (eek) i was working the late shift in a little chef/ burger king restaurant. Cleaning the toilets before we shut for the night....some bloke walked into the gents with his bits out. Despite the toilets being closed and a female cleaner in attendance sign up 🤣🤣

I'm meant to be a bloody mind reader

Not even just that, as it was presumably his own mind that guided him to ordering the unwanted sauce!

You are expected to be able to read his mind into the future - and all for NMW!

I'm in the Midlands
Wasn't much better when I worked up north to be fair
I have a fish burger thrown in my face (first shift) because he wanted it without sauce (but had ordered it with the sauce)
I'm meant to be a bloody mind reader

A lot of these comments also seem to me to be one very clear reason why a lot of businesses don't allow non-customers to use their toilets - and are much criticised whenever we have MN threads about the topic

I do agree. I am one of the ones who always says people shouldn't withhold access, but these stories have opened my eyes.

I have no idea why people can't just go to the loo, wipe their bottom, flush the loo and leave!

That said, if there aren't enough loos, you can't then blame people for urinating (or worse) outside. But that's for another thread.

Reading this thread I’m glad my customers are not living people 😂😂🙈

I do some shifts covering a live chat and social media platforms. So, fortunately I am a looong way away from the actual customers and, on the whole, they're pretty good... but..

One user was unhappy with a moderation action I took on SM - she broke the rules she agreed to on joining (the free group!), her comment removed, she was advised why.

She posted on the same thread, complaining - this was also removed. Then I put her on mute for 24 hours to calm down (knowing damn well it would not calm her down!)

She then messaged in-app to complain... typing in angry caps about how awful X (me!) was and how she'd been wronged. I politely pointed out I am X, I was upholding group rules. She demanded a refund and I had to tell her I couldn't give her a refund. Before I could tell her how to get a refund (app store!), she rang our freephone line...

I know this, because on shift, I answer the phone, as well as the live chat and SM...

She was so angry to find it was STILL ME on the phone, she swore, then hung up and then deleted her account without finding out how to get a refund, and probably thought that would cancel her pending subscription. Ah well, she'll have found out eventually!

We occasionally get people determined to hurl abuse at us, blaming us for awful advice on our specific topic that it then turns out, they read somewhere else and was nothing to do with us! I ask them to copy and paste where they got it - to date, it has never been anything we've published!

The ones that make me laugh are the refund requests that start 'I forgot to cancel my free trial'... I know we all do it, sign up intending to cancel before we have to pay... but they don't realise they're not talking to chatbots, and then they realise how cheeky they actually sound (some, not all... some couldn't give a flying fuck!).

Reading this thread, I am SO glad the worst that has happened is I've had mildly angry people on the phone or the lady who wanted to ring me for an hour EVERY NIGHT and treat me like her new best mate... I couldn't work customer facing IRL for a million quid!