Ridiculous work complaints - tell me yours!

[YourFinestPantaloons]

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

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?

@entrytohr

I worked for a theatre.

Man rang to complain that cilla the musical was misleading as it hadn't had Cilla Black actually in it. Had to apologise and explain that she was dead.

He still didn't seem to see the issue 🤦🏼‍♀️

😂😂 this is brilliant.

I have many.. this is just one .. got a dirty look from a colleague twice my age when i said goodnight see u tomorrow!! So next morn I walked past without saying goodmorning and she called a meeting with the manager... turned out she gave me a dirty look as she'd had a disagreement with a different girl who I'm friendly with so took it out on me too... (odd) but couldn't handle it when I gave it back

I feel your pain. I remember the confusion at infant school when, while doing a class project on sweets, we were asked to name famous confectionary families. After the usual Cadbury, Terry, Rowntree etc. I said, “Mars”. “No”, the teacher said, “that’s a type of chocolate bar.” “Made by the Mars family,” I insisted. She wouldn’t have it. It was when I first realised that adults, and teachers in particular, are not infallible. Though it did make it easier to work out that they also fibbed about things like the existence of Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy, God etc.

One one of the petrol shortage threads, someone said they didn’t understand why so many teachers refuse to live in the same towns they worked in. I think this thread demonstrates why!

@LoveMyBusPass

Sorry to be a killjoy to the original poster, but I once worked for the Probation Service. It was explained very clearly at our induction that we should immediately leave a pub or restaurant if we saw a service user in the same place. If we wanted to let our hair down, we were expected to go to a nearby town where we would not be recognised. Same rules should apply to teachers I would say.

A ‘service user’ when you are a teacher is probably underage and shouldn’t be in the pub at night anyway. Their parents are adults and should have more sense and realise teachers are also adults who go out.

Another thread said teachers should live near school, so assume can never go anywhere or do anything in case a child sees them. Can’t win.

@Maximum71 - I sympathise. I had a full on snotty ugly cry when pregnant with DS (16 next month) because the lady in the cafe ignored me when I said I liked my toast very lightly done. She put it through the revolving toaster thingy again so it was really dark. I can't eat toast like that even when I'm not pregnant.

I didn't shout or anything - I just burst into tears warbling 'I'm sorry I can't eat that!' Manager was so flustered he did my toast again free and gave me some jam and large tea on the house.

I went & apologised the next day.

My most favourite anecdote! Though it’s borrowed from a friend who used to work in a call centre for large company. The company had previously sent out a load of free CDs to their customers. My friend was taking the call of a man who wished to complain. Apparently he had rung in prior to this to complain that his free CD had been addressed to Mr Smith but in fact he was Dr Smith and had complained about the use of the incorrect title and requested a new CD be sent out addressed correctly. The employee who took the previous call had tried to explain that it was just a free CD which he could use or not use. But Dr Smith was insistent and demanded a new CD addressed to Dr and not Mr. Anyway my friend took the second call from Dr Smith who was incandescent with rage. He had indeed received his new CD. Addressed to Dr Cunt!

@iklboo I feel ya... haha hormones are hard! Xx free toast tho.. hmm not bad

Once had our sons teacher in year 1 take us aside to complain in the strongest possible terms about the language DS1 had used it a story. I can't remember exactly but it was something like "scurvy knave!" but for some reason she took deep offence to it. We called DS1 over to explain himself who promptly explained that he had copied the phrase out if a book. In fact, out of the book the teacher herself had given him to read that morning....

[quote iklboo]@Maximum71 - I sympathise. I had a full on snotty ugly cry when pregnant with DS (16 next month) because the lady in the cafe ignored me when I said I liked my toast very lightly done. She put it through the revolving toaster thingy again so it was really dark. I can't eat toast like that even when I'm not pregnant.

I didn't shout or anything - I just burst into tears warbling 'I'm sorry I can't eat that!' Manager was so flustered he did my toast again free and gave me some jam and large tea on the house.

I went & apologised the next day. [/quote]
Funny as this reminds of if when I was pregnant and my partner made me toast and I started crying like a baby because it wasn't cooked enough for me. I like my toast quite well done.

We still laugh about it now!

@Lickedmylollyandneversaidsorry yup my DH came home to find me in a full on over dramatic tearathon whilst 8 months pregnant.

I had dropped a plate... there wasn't even anything in it.

I work in the bakery of a supermarket
Very very occasionally we get an odd number of jam doughnuts come in. Doughnuts are boxed in 5's but if there is ever and odd one we just check it into one of the random packets. We once had s customer complain that they got 6 doughnuts instead of 5 Ike it says on the packet. They weren't happy with the free doughnut....put in a complaint about our department.

@LoveMyBusPass

Sorry to be a killjoy to the original poster, but I once worked for the Probation Service. It was explained very clearly at our induction that we should immediately leave a pub or restaurant if we saw a service user in the same place. If we wanted to let our hair down, we were expected to go to a nearby town where we would not be recognised. Same rules should apply to teachers I would say.

I don't think it's the teachers fault when an underage child is in an adults only space.

@LoveMyBusPass

Sorry to be a killjoy to the original poster, but I once worked for the Probation Service. It was explained very clearly at our induction that we should immediately leave a pub or restaurant if we saw a service user in the same place. If we wanted to let our hair down, we were expected to go to a nearby town where we would not be recognised. Same rules should apply to teachers I would say.

Surely that was for your own safety, not because they thought your average parolee would be mortally offended by seeing someone drink a beer in a pub.

Once she complained that they'd go out for coffee without her. They kindly decided to include her in future her even though they were terrified of her finding something else to complain about.

She then complained they were being 'fake' by suddenly inviting her out for coffee.

Oh, we had a work colleague like that - hard work!
She complained that we didn't have flexi time if someone needed to leave early, they should be able to start early.
It was pointed out we did have that, and in fact she had done it several times.
She complained it wasn't clear that this was policy.
An email was sent out making it clear.
She complained about the "aggressive" email.

The "hard" coll. posts reminded me of the only one time I formally complained about another employee working on my project. I feel really ashamed by it to this moment. I was totally wrong, obnoxious and a twat. I really wish I will cross paths with that person in my life again and get to apologize.
(Thankfully my then boss was an adult and never took it further)

[quote Badlytornfrube]@boqq A teacher drinking on their own time is completely fine.

Who else, in your opinion, should have their free time controlled? Doctors, nurses, firemen, council workers, MPs?[/quote]
Police officers and high street solicitors have to be very careful where they go in their free time I would have thought. And yes I know their jobs are not the same as teaching, I’m giving examples of jobs in which you can’t do exactly as you please in your free time.

Work in a busy highstreet pharmacy. Man complained that noone served him. He was stood next to the door, on his mobile phone, with a child (ie where someone would stand if they were waiting for someone inside to do their shopping) and not anywhere near the queues for the 3 available tills.

Police officers and high street solicitors have to be very careful where they go in their free time I would have thought

I am pretty sure that they go wherever they like! I suppose if there's a particular regular offender who frequents a regular pub they might avoid it.

Anyway high street solicitors don't just do police station work, they do the full gamut of work.

@LoveMyBusPass

Sorry to be a killjoy to the original poster, but I once worked for the Probation Service. It was explained very clearly at our induction that we should immediately leave a pub or restaurant if we saw a service user in the same place. If we wanted to let our hair down, we were expected to go to a nearby town where we would not be recognised. Same rules should apply to teachers I would say.

Really ? So teachers need their behaviour policed in case one of the under age pupils comes into their pub? Maybe teachers shouldn't be LGBTQ+ in case a parent objects on religious grounds?

I did once have a parent reject a place at a school because the form teacher was male and (I quote) "All male primary teachers are pedalos [sic]"

All male primary teachers are pedalos [sic]

It's so awful and so funny, both at once.

Worked in a call centre has a lad ring up and threatening me because his internet was turned off, he hadn’t paid the bill in 4 months but it was my fault it had been off for 3, also had a lady ring up crying saying her husband was the bill payer and he had died and she couldn’t get into the account to cancel as she didn’t know the password, was her name, manager came on said to change account name over we’d need a copy of death certificate. She shouted at us down the phone that we were making it more difficult etc. I checked the account the next day the husband had rang up and had a note that his ex wife was trying to cancel his account and not to give her information and he changed the password to ex’s name his a cheating bitch lol

For a short time I took customer calls for BT, what fun.
One new broadband customer complained he was paying for 72mbps and only getting 67. The small print makes it clear it's up to whatever mbps your contract says. And I did ask if he was having any issue with his devices because of the missing 5 mbps. He confirmed he wasn't but still wanted his 72. In the end I fobbed him off pointing out with a new customer the system slowly increases the amount of mbps to check the line can handle it and perhaps if he waited another week or so he gets his missing megs. He wouldn't have.
We all loathed wifi issue calls. At the time we only guaranteed service to the hub and could check if it was okay. We could take customers through a few things to check but the system in their home was not our responsibility. One thing to try would be to turn off all devices and then put them on one by one to try isolate what the problem might be. One charmer told me if I thought he was going to go up and down the four floors of his townhouse and switch his 13 devices on and off I could fuck off. He hung up, saved me doing it.
A lot of customers could only have a very basic service due to their location. One caller wanted me to do something about the fact he was in the middle of nowhere on the end of a long copper wire. No amount of explaining that we couldn't help satisfied him. He demanded to speak to my supervisor. She'd heard my side of the call as she sat opposite so, to her credit, she just said 'What Laughing said' and terminated the call.

I like reading this thread but it’s a reminder we are all such dicks when we are “the public”.

Actually only the other day a client snottily told me not to call her a very common shortening of her 4 syllable name - I had done so as on all her emails she had used the short version 🙄🙄.

Quite depressing that I would think clients lovely but the support staff would say they were vile. So smarmy nice to me then rude to my secretary / receptionist 🙄.