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Original poster

Ridiculous work complaints - tell me yours!

522 replies

YourFinestPantaloons · 04/10/2021 12:59

I'm a teacher and Head told me this morning that a parent has complained because she saw me last Saturday night in the local cocktail bar having shots.

Apparently it's despicable that an educator of her child would behave in such a way and lead such a terrible example to pupils - as it turns out, her underage DD was with her (must have been at 11pm IIRC) in the adults-only pub and was 'appalled' at Miss Pantaloons' behaviour GrinGrin

Thankfully my Head is normal and we just laughed our heads off about it. these complaints happen very frequently. A colleague once got a complaint because she was seen with penis paraphernalia in town on her hen do. I think some people think teachers are just robots that turn off at 4pm and have to stay in the classroom over the weekend.

What's the most amusing complaint you've ever got at work?

OP posts:
MinnieMountain · 04/10/2021 13:06

A client who completed his house purchase a month before the first SDLT holiday last year was even announced, complained to my TL that he hadn’t benefited from it. She suggested he complain to HMRC Grin

SirChenjins · 04/10/2021 13:12

Many years ago I worked in a banking call centre for a bit. Customers could apply to take a mortgage break for 2 months every year, but as it required their mortgage amount to be recalculated they had to give notice - 28 days or something, I can't remember.
Anyway, this man phoned one night saying he wanted a mortgage break as he was going to propose and wanted the money saved from not paying the mortgage. We had a lovely chat about it until I explained about the application process timescale - he got very upset, told me he wasn't going to be able to afford the ring now, and that I had singlehandedly ruined their engagement Confused

NotPersephone · 04/10/2021 13:15

This reply has been withdrawn

Message from MNHQ: This post has been withdrawn

MinnieMountain · 04/10/2021 13:15

Not a complaint exactly but I used to work in the legal department of our local water company. Heard that a customer couldn’t pay his water/sewerage bill as “it’s Christmas”.

ACNHMAMA · 04/10/2021 13:19

I once got blamed by a customer for her getting beaten up by her dad because she had maxed out her credit card. I'm not quite sure to this day where I fitted into this exactly, other than having the misfortune to answer her phone call to the bank that day.

Macaroni46 · 04/10/2021 13:21

A parent once complained that I looked too pregnant and that it was typical of a teacher to have her due date in September 😂

middleager · 04/10/2021 13:23

A parent at a play centre complained that my knee length skirt was too short.

I was there with the business team for a meeting, not working on the 'shop floor' with children.

JustAnother30Something · 04/10/2021 13:26

Customer complained she was being unfairly penalised for choosing to pay her bill via cheque.

She wasn't, cheque payment is fine. But if you're not going to post the cheque until the bill due date - its going to be paid late. Which comes with a fee 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

NatMoz · 04/10/2021 13:31

I used to work in complaints and there was an issue so I offered £150 compensation. Fair enough you'd think as it wasn't a huge error.

No the complainer wanted £250,000 in compensation. He took it to the Financial Ombudsman Service and after it went to the highest level, it was agreed that my original compensation offer was fair and reasonable Grin

alloalloallo · 04/10/2021 13:33

I remember years ago being asked to sign a petition demanding my DD’s teacher be sacked as she had been seen drinking cider at our village’s firework night party. I refused, but was surprised by how many signatures were on it.

I’ve had a complaint today that I didn’t send an email last week - customer emailed his complaint by replying to the email he was complaining that I hadn’t sent

Geordieoldgirl · 04/10/2021 13:35

When I worked in a coffee shop one very irate customer complained that her coffee was far too hot for her to drink before catching her bus.

BearSoFair · 04/10/2021 13:39

I couldn't tell a customer what model her printer at home was to confirm if she was buying the right ink for it. Manager agreed that she'd need to check her own printer, seeing as, y'know, we didn't live with her, she threw the ink at us and stormed out. Manager got an email from head office a few days later, she'd emailed them about our 'shocking lack of training and unhelpful attitude' Confused

AChickenCalledDaal · 04/10/2021 13:39

As part of my job I sometimes man public consultation events. Guaranteed at every event there will be someone that storms through the door complaining that "no one" knows the consultation is happening.

Asking how come they knew where and when to turn up and complain generally doesn't go well, so we smile and nod.

Namechangedforspooky · 04/10/2021 13:40

I’ve had more than one complaint about patients being seen too quickly in A&E so that they had to call their lift back soon after leaving

It was a while ago, would be a rarity now!

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 04/10/2021 13:40

I work at an overseas jobcenter. We are in teams according to branches of employment and I have public sector workers. A LM complained last week that a colleague and I had referred half of our caseloads to him after he sent out a mail saying he needed 3 teachers, 1 prof childcarer and 3 childcare helpers. I asked him to confirm that his complaint was that we were doing our jobs too thoroughly? Yes. I high fived my colleague.

OhYeahyeahyeah · 04/10/2021 13:40

At my workplace, Customers often complain their fish dish is 'too fishy' Confused

Bullsh · 04/10/2021 13:42

A woman walked into the government department I worked for to complain that while she was waiting for us to open at 9am a stray dog weed over her feet.

I have no idea what she expected me to do about it. Confused

ktjb39 · 04/10/2021 13:42

A parent complained at school that her child was sweating in the PE lesson Hmm

CheeseCakeSunflowers · 04/10/2021 13:53

Working in a supermarket cafe I got moaned at for taking the customers meal out to him too quickly. Apparently he had not yet got settled and the food might be cold by the time he was ready.

InTheNightWeWillWish · 04/10/2021 13:55

I worked in a soft play centre and I got quite a few complaints whilst there.

First was that I told a child off for biting other children in the play area.

Second was that I was rude when a customer asked where the milk was for his tea. I answered that the milk was on the counter (pointing to the counter) along with cutlery. He asked “what? That white stuff in the jug?” The rude bit is apparently because I answered with a simple yes and a slightly puzzled look.

Third was from a mum of a one year old who had a birthday party. She complained that I didn’t play musical bumps with a bunch of one year olds who don’t understand the concept of musical bumps and birthday boy cried when I turned the music off Hmm

home2012 · 04/10/2021 13:55

I used to work in a high st bank. One day a woman came in and was extremely angry at us.

The reason was, someone had left her kids 250k, but it was placed in a trustee account that she could not access and the children couldn't either until they where twenty five.

The woman was blaming us personally, and was saying we had talked the person into putting the money into an account like that just to get at her! She was going to take us to court, she was going to protest outside! She was going to every paper

The entire thing had been set up by solicitors and the dead person. We had never even met the person.

I can only assume she was expecting an inheritance that was bypassing her and she wanted Someone to blame

Hardbackwriter · 04/10/2021 14:03

I used to teach a university undergraduate module called 'Politics and religion in [time and place]'. A student complained in the end of module feedback that they hadn't realised the course would be about religion and that they didn't like that.

Another student for a different module wrote on the feedback form that I should wear more brightly colored clothes, which wasn't exactly a complaint but annoyed me greatly. I knew which student it was because she'd already offered this feedback in person!

Badlytornfrube · 04/10/2021 14:05

I had a mum complain that her daughter’s knickers were filthy and I should teach her to change them more frequently.

The girl was 12 and I was her history teacher.

SameToo · 04/10/2021 14:05

Not me, but my Ex. Worked in a 5 star restaurant where a lady complained her carrots weren’t soft enough then cried and complained that she didn’t expect the poached pear dessert to be hot 🧐

Justbecauseofit · 04/10/2021 14:10

Someone complained about my face once, I got the feedback during my PDR.

Apparently the way I look at people can be very 'intimidating' (I'm a nice person honest! but I think I do have one of those 'faces') and they felt threatened around me because of the way I look at people.

Then my supervisor proceeded to tell me that she's noticed that she can 'tell if I don't like something' and if I can 'try to control my emotions not appearing on my face' that was my only PDR criticism of my work performance that i had to work on.

I apologised for my face and then later wondered if it was my actual supervisor that had the complaint as the rest of the staff I got on well with.

Now that time has passed the more I think about it the funnier and more bizarre it actually is. I was born with a resting bitch face but it doesn't mean I'm a bitch/hostile and I certainly am not going to waste anytime at work worrying about if I'm controlling my face or not.