Please or to access all these features

Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Aibu to ask for the most "WTF" complaints

532 replies

HouseholdPlantMurderer · 17/08/2019 10:49

You have ever received?

I will start. Not the most ridiculous one, but in my top 10.
Woman demanding that I check in the back for a certain colour of a dress she wanted otherwise she will have me fired. After 5 minutes of her moaning she can't get it anywhere and me trying to explain that it's because it's not even made in the colour she wants, I went. I needed a toilet anyway 🙈

A customer ordered spicy italian sub. It's on a picture. It has a description there, he watched me to put pepperoni and salami in. Came back few minutes later FUMING that it's not vegetarian.... Sent a complaint to a head office about it too.

Aibu to ask for the most "WTF" complaints
OP posts:
Alb1 · 17/08/2019 19:15

Working in a cafe in a tourist place, customer complained that the weather was terrible and it had completely ruined their day, they left a bad trip advisor about it too.

Outsomnia · 17/08/2019 19:13

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

HouseholdPlantMurderer · 17/08/2019 19:13

There should be a "Kindly go fuck yourself, sir/madam" day when all staff can say that to customers who are behaving badly😁

OP posts:
70isaLimitNotaTarget · 17/08/2019 19:11

I had one from a male domicillary patient that I was wearing trousers (our uniform) and not a "nice dress that the District Nurses wear"

I am not a DN
He was , I suspect a lechy creep

LadyRannaldini · 17/08/2019 19:05

Store too busy (on Christmas Eve)

Asda, Christmas Eve, 10 minutes before closing, a woman was screaming at a young lad tidying the remains of the vegetables 'What do you mean you have no fresh sprouts, bloody disgrace of a shop, don't they know it's Christmas? They should make sure they order enough'. A few of we amused by-standers broke into Don't They Know It's Christmas, which didn't lighten her mood at all.

LadyRannaldini · 17/08/2019 19:00

An escorted tour of India, after a couple of days one of our number demanded that the company send him and his wife home, refunding what they'd paid, because no-one in the company had told him that India was hot, dusty and he would be see extreme poverty as we were driven around! The company generously moved him, and his long-suffering wife, to the final hotel of the tour, what they did there for two weeks I don't know! This was the same idiot who had his wife stand at his side as he took photos making notes about place, exposure etc., this pre-dated digital cameras.

ErinO · 17/08/2019 18:54

A woman once asked me to call a taxi for her as she was late for something. I happily obliged but the taxi company said that it would be around a 30 minute wait. I relayed this information to her and was met with a torrent of abuse and she told me to get her a manager. I work in a shop. I'd literally just rang the taxi as a favour.

Another time when I worked as a barmaid we used to put tealights on the tables in the evening. I did it one night and a man flipped and told me he wasn't a 'fairy' or 'gay' so why would he want a tealight?

sueelleker · 17/08/2019 18:51

A friend of mine worked for John Lewis many moons ago and a customer rang and complained that her John Lewis furniture had not been delivered in a John Lewis branded van (she wanted her neighbours to know where she had got her bookcases from)
Very Hyacinth Bucket!

sueelleker · 17/08/2019 18:50

That reminds of the story of the American diplomat who asked why the Queen has built Windsor Castle so close to Heathrow instead of somewhere quieter Probably apocryphal, but I really hope it’s true!
Hisinitials weren't DT were they?

SouthwarkSkaters · 17/08/2019 18:45

I couldn’t move the delivery!

SouthwarkSkaters · 17/08/2019 18:43

Used to work in a big DIY store.

Once a lady rang saying she had bought a bbq “a few months ago” but was only putting it together now and the grills were missing but she didn’t have the receipt and had paid cash so couldn’t prove she bought it. I explained there was no way for us to locate the transaction and we wouldn’t be able to refund but if she came into the shop, brought it in the box and spoke to the duty manager, they could see if there was anything they could do for her. She then demanded to speak to the manager, and I hand the phone over. Half an hour later, manager brings me the phone back and says she had bought the bbq more than 2 years ago! No idea how she found out, mind.

Another remarkable one was someone who rang on the day of a delivery, when she realised her things were being delivered in two separate days - the day she rang and the next day. When I said I could move next day’s delivery to today - 1. because it was too close to change, and 2. because the delivery didn’t come from the shop but from the warehouse - she accused me of actual taking food of her children’s mouths.

Third one was just some CF-ery: could I keep the shop open until 10 past 9 because they were 10 minutes away and wouldn’t make it for closing time.

Happy days Grin

AnnaMagnani · 17/08/2019 18:34

Disturbing rather than weird is the number of times the young girls who I work with get hit upon by male customers

The healthcare equivalent is the large number of male patients who have itchy penises or similar vague complaints that need the newly qualified female doctor to go and look at their willy.

All mysteriously resolve when you cop on to this and start sending the male doctor instead Angry

furrybadger · 17/08/2019 18:25

When I was a waitress someone complained because I hadn’t cut up their childs food before bringing it out to the table and they had to cut it themselves 🤔

Gigis · 17/08/2019 18:23

A parent complained that I had set their son back a year and caused huge knock to his confidence because he failed his end of year 7 exam.
Same parent had taken son on week holiday week before the exam. Parent said his son would now be playing catch up for the rest of his academic career because of my ineffective teaching and that he would hold me responsible for any loss of future career prospects. He did graciously concede that there was nothing 'legal' he could do about all this, but he just really wanted me and my head of department to know that as far as he was concerned it was all my fault.

Think my head of department had all her christmases come at once responding to that!

EllenOlenska · 17/08/2019 18:18

@monst3ra Oh my! I think I may dealt with a call from that customer when I worked for them! And seconded, never ever worked anywhere, before or since with that level of entitled batshittery.

TotheletterofthelawTHELETTER · 17/08/2019 18:12

Worked in the job centre, someone couldn’t log on to their online jobseeking journal. They asked me for me help to remember their password. I suggested he reset it but he insisted i help him remember as it was a memorable date... When they’re set up the default is the persons DOB. He’d changed it. To his mum’s DOB. Which he’d now forgotten. This was obviously my fault. He raged at me for ages, then accosted my manager to tell them I was incompetent as I couldn’t tell him his mum’s DOB. Hmm

ThanosSavedMe · 17/08/2019 18:12

There really is no point in arguing with stupid people

SD1978 · 17/08/2019 18:10

Guy complaining that the wait time on ED had juts extended and when was it his turn.......to the staff doing CPR in the waiting room on another patient.......and tweeting about the ridiculous wait........

Goldenknightsnights · 17/08/2019 18:10

Not my experiences, but DS’s whilst working at M&S:

Customer1: ‘I don’t want a pair of shoelaces, I only need one. What are you going to do about it?’

Customer2: ‘I’ve finished shopping, call me a taxi’

I also work in retail and lots of customers are just plain weird and/or entitled.
Also, disturbing rather than weird is the number of times the young girls who I work with get hit upon by male customers 🤮 it’s so creepy.
Sorry, didn’t mean to derail or turn thread into a rant.

Gonegrey31 · 17/08/2019 18:08

My dh when a law student was doing work experience in a drop in legal centre in London. A man walked in and said he’d just seen Hitler on the New Caledonian Road and what was my husband going to do about it ?
My dh has never forgotten this bizarre moment !

Lostandinsane · 17/08/2019 18:07

Oh, one from retail:

Working for a store which sold pre-boxed gift sets for Xmas in a variety of price ranges. Xmas Eve at 15:30 myself and my colleagues get treated to a rant from a well dressed businessman type about how incompetent we/our manager was because we only had the either the less-than-£5 gifts or the +£100 gifts left. He didn't want to pay £100 and he had been away on business donchaknow.

Pjsandbaileys · 17/08/2019 18:05

Tesco as a student guy complained the apple pie didn't taste like his mother's demanding a refund Grin

Historydweeb · 17/08/2019 18:05

I work in a (large) castle. I frequently get asked if there are many steps Confused and we have several poor trip advisor reviews saying that the towers are not suitable for the less physically able.

SirJamesTalbot · 17/08/2019 18:01

Oh, I used to have to meet and greet people for meetings. Often they were late as they'd not allowed enough time for parking as we were based in a reasonably big shopping area and the best (nearest) car parks filled quickly. One December, about a week before Christmas, an attendee was something like 45 minutes late for a 2-hr meeting. They complained to me that the car parks in town were all full and it was a disgrace that we didn't have spaces reserved for people attending meetings. There wasn't parking onsite for anyone.
They'd come from an organisation about 2 miles away so probably would have had an idea regarding the level of traffic congestion normally, let alone days before Christmas.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 17/08/2019 17:58

When I worked for Tesco, our depot was just across the road from a Sainsbury's. The managers of both regularly got complaints about each others HGVs "it's the same company innit?".
I was promised the sack for not letting a customer onto my vehicle to search for a specific product. I wasn't even at the shop, but in a service area having a break.
My vehicle was too brightly coloured and the reflection made her make up look funny.
HGVs should be banned from Suffolk, it's far too pretty.