Most bonkers complaint/dispute you’ve had at work?

[ChooseYourLameName]

Someone rang me today to complain I’d sent them a letter in an envelope I’d licked!

I don’t have any envelopes to lick. They all have a sticky bit you expose by removing the seal.

I couldn’t quite believe it. When I said it really wasn’t licked, he said ‘‘I can smell mouthwash you know!’’ Only satisfied when I said although I really didn’t lick it, I would post any future letters with tape to avoid misunderstanding. The strangest professional call I’ve had to ever take, bloody hell.

What’s your most bonkers dispute?

I once had a colleague complain that my bap was too close to her drink in the fridge and she was vegetarian. I quickly agreed to move it to another shelf but she still didn’t seem pleased it was still close by!

@toria658 Did they warn you about the dangers of paper cuts too?

@Soontobe60

Slightly different but I once had a parent of a child in Reception write to the Chair of Gods to complain about me as I refused to send her child (aged 5) home by himself as she couldn’t get to school to pick him up. I’d phoned her about 15 mins after the end of the day to see where she was, she was at a funeral wake, sounded drunk and wanted me to send him home because ‘someone would be in to meet him’. They lived about a mile away across a busy main road.

@Soontobe60 Loving Chair of Gods (Late to thread)

@MedusasBadHairDay

longtompot Well she went around the store pretending to pick clothes to try on before heading for the changing rooms, in that time she could have walked a couple of doors down to the public loos, so I don't think she was driven by desperation.

Clearly a self entitled and rude woman. I'm always shocked to read there are actual real people who do these things

I have a business in the health sector and have a million examples of general bat shittedness. will try not to be outing.

An employee was accused of taking drugs so I duly investigated and found no evidence of this, however they were dismissed for a different reason shortly after.

The employee's drug dealer then emailed me to complain that I'd sacked them as they owed him money and now they couldn't pay, then continued to harrass me by phone and email. I had to get the police involved. He then submitted a complaint to our regulatory governing body for investigation about my conduct. The guy ended up being arrested and sectioned as a result of all this.

I have also depressingly had various complaints over the years from families that their vulnerable relative is getting cared for too well and we are keeping them alive when they want them to die quickly so they can get their inheritance. I wish I was joking.

One even called a social work review to discuss the fact that their relative hadn't died yet despite asking us to make this happen and stated that it was ridiculous all this money was spent keeping 'these people' alive. It was pointed out to him that it wasn't costing him a penny as was a funded placement, but then that led to a rant about what a waste of money it is keeping the elderly and disabled alive and in comfort when he's been waiting years for a new kitchen in his council house.

@VWGolfmk2 that's truly shocking

This thread is great.
I’ve had complaints and been sworn at for evacuating a train that was on fire.
I’ve had a shopkeeper complain that he had “business to run” and when was I going to reopen the High Street? ( unfortunate deceased RTC pedestrian in the road was affecting his trade).
I’ve had an official complaint by a 6’9” (seriously), built like a brick shit house drug dealer that I was rude and intimidating ( I’m 5’2”).
I’ll have to think of some more. The general public can be very challenging!

Answered the phone to this guy a few years back:

Guy - I am absolutely fuming with your company.
Me - I’m sorry can I help?
Guy - you are offering a 25% discount if I buy this product through you.
Me - that’s correct.
Guy - I don’t want to buy it through you, I want to buy it direct.
Me - Well why don’t you?
Guy - and pay FULL PRICE! You are taking away my choice by offering it at a discount.
Me - Err...
Guy (now screaming down the phone) I WANT TO BUY IT DIRECT. HOW DARE YOU DISCOUNT. I AM REPORTING YOU TO THE POLICE FOR MAKING ME OUT OF POCKET.

draughtycatflap

That's way beyond normal craziness - he must have been seriously mentally ill.

I wonder if these people who threaten to call the police over absolutely nothing actually go ahead and do it, or just say it because they think you'll be scared and give them what they want. Even so, what possible interest could the police have in a company offering a price reduction?

I remember on the news a while ago where they were talking about time-wasting calls for ambulances. Alongside the sick hoaxers, there are some who must have severe mentally health issues. The 'winner' called and asked for an ambulance over 18,000 times in the given year - that's five times every single day

We have a business on a beach..with a really sandy beach...customer came into the office to complain that were too many stones on the beach and could we remove them!
Someone else complained about seaweed and said we should remove it daily!

I was once pulled at up for for taking a day off that had been booked, authorised and on the work calendar for some time.
Also pulled up for being on sick for one day (i had zero absences for 2 years) when it was the same manager who had told me the day before not to come in if I was still feeling unwell.

I worked for a travel agents and did all the aftersales and admin as well as complaints. A customer had gone to a resort in Antigua and complained there were too many black people in her hotel, that whilst it was acceptable to have black members of staff cooking, serving meals and bringing her drinks by the pool she didn't think there would be any locals there. Turns out an office full of solicited were on a team building trip to the same resort. According to the client there were thousands of them half naked on drugs, upon checking out the Instagram account I discovered that there were only 20 middle aged solicitors having a very civilised time.

Racist cow wanted money back and everything. She got a very strongly worded response back telling her there would not be a penny coming back!

I work in travel, where shall I begin?

The woman who recently wanted me to help her rebook her voucher online, that was only able to be done offline by an agent due to complexity. When there was extra money due she wouldn’t give her card details because I’d steal all her money.

The man who complained that Goa airport was like one in a fucking third world country. When I explained that India is a developing nation he lost his shit at me, because he hadn’t been to India you stupid woman. He’d been to Goa.

The man who told me to go fuck myself because his flight was cancelled. Yes, Covid related and the airport was closed to international travel.

Walking down the hospital corridor I was stopped by a man.
“Can you tell me where my grandad is, he’s called grandad” says he..
“Grandad?” Says I..
Guy tutts & rolls his eyes and repeats as if I’m stupid..”yes, grandad, where is he?”

I checked my pockets, no old fella called grandad in there..
guy stomps off down the corridor I could overhear him on his phone asking his mother what name his grandad goes by other than grandad!!!

Shit you not..!!

One more - the couple who were denied boarding because they were blind drunk. They physically assaulted staff members, verbally abused us, verbally abused the attending police (including racist remarks), were taken to court and complained they weren’t refunded the cost of their tickets.

When I worked in website support many years ago, I had a very cross email from a customer asking why we uploaded all our information leaflets as full colour PDFs because she was using up so much of her printer ink printing them all out.

I replied, pointing out she could select the print in black and white option on her printer to save her coloured inks. Strangely I never heard from her again .

@TriSarahTops

“Someone wanted X to get a written warning for breaching the company Health & Safety Protocol on COVID because they’d allegedly seen X’s husband not wearing a mask. X’s husband doesn’t work for the company, and this alleged incident didn’t happen on company property.”

All I can say is that someone is obviously 🙄 jealous of X and trying to pull X down. A true hater. To go so much out of their way to want to see the other person discipled for non work related issue. That’s a lot of resentment and hate. They’re probably also, nuts and complain about every little thing and anything they can about X.

They’re life must be miserable. I’m tired of working with people like that. Narcs, Sociopaths and psychopaths that make working life so, unbearable for others.

I makes me wonder if that idiot that invaded X’s privacy was also, stalking X. Long post off topic but yeah...

@hamptonmummy

“I worked for a travel agents and did all the aftersales and admin as well as complaints. A customer had gone to a resort in Antigua and complained there were too many black people in her hotel, that whilst it was acceptable to have black members of staff cooking, serving meals and bringing her drinks by the pool she didn't think there would be any locals there. Turns out an office full of solicited were on a team building trip to the same resort. According to the client there were thousands of them half naked on drugs, upon checking out the Instagram account I discovered that there were only 20 middle aged solicitors having a very civilised time.

Racist cow wanted money back and everything. She got a very strongly worded response back telling her there would not be a penny coming back!”

She sounded like a total lowlife seeking some type of supply to boost her ego. Glad the Travel firm did not support her delusion complaint which would have caused an even bigger injury to her fragile ego.

We have a business on a beach..with a really sandy beach...customer came into the office to complain that were too many stones on the beach and could we remove them!

I remember reading some time ago about some British holidaymakers in Jamaica who got talking to some of the Americans on vacation at the same resort, bought from the same holiday firm, same package. Upon discovering that the Americans' flights to get there had been much shorter/quicker than their own from the UK, they were utterly disgusted and complained that they had been actively discriminated against by not being given the same level of service as those from the (much closer) US

Well we’re in a pandemic and he was obviously weary of any germs that might have been spread by saliva. The vegetarian is completely fine to be worried about cross contamination as well. Just laugh and move on you can’t beat everyone up for values they hold

Once upon a time when working the till at Woolies, I had a customer. Nothing out of the ordinary until she noticed that one of the other members of staff had a nasty, fresh scar on his neck. She asked what happened, and said that it looked like he had been badly assaulted. There was no denying it as that was indeed the case.

Things went sideways and then she started kicking up a fuss and demanded to know what I was going to do about it. Unsurprisingly I didn't have much to offer, which only made matters worse in her eyes. Try as I might to de-escalate the situation, things went from bad to worse, another colleague called for security and she was forcibly removed from the building.

My evening didn't stop there though, as I then had to explain the entire batshittery of what happened to my manager, who couldn't understand it. Thankfully a bunch of my colleagues saw the entire thing and backed me up. I can still remember my manager reading the transcript of the interview back and saying "but this doesn't make any sense", and my colleague Karen saying "just leave it how it's written because it just shows she was fucking crazy!'

It's the most bizarre thing that's happened to me to date.

Pickypolly

Was that actually a grown adult? Considering that most children aged 3 or over know that their close relatives have an actual name as well as what they call them within the family, that is bizarre beyond words!

I had a complaint that I charged 5p for a bag (it's called the bag tax) apparently I failed to understand her needs as as a customer!

@Mooselaurels that's insane! So she made a scene about your colleague having a scar on his neck ?! And what did she expect you to do about it? Total bonkers woman!

[quote Sunmoonstars77]@Mooselaurels that's insane! So she made a scene about your colleague having a scar on his neck ?! And what did she expect you to do about it? Total bonkers woman![/quote]
Yup, it really is as mad as it sounds. When I think about it I can still hardly believe it actually happened.

Working as a student in Tescos many moons ago, I had everything. I used to dread the Saturday shift because it seemed to bring out the worst customers. I've had:

• the customer who shouted that I was "too quick" at processing her stuff through the checkout
• on Christmas Eve (30mins before closing), complain that we had run out of the specific veg and cheese board they wanted.
• argue that the sales price should be lower because they're a regular customer
• I've been followed around the supermarket because someone thought I was doing the reducing stickers (I wasn't).