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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:
sonjadog · 04/10/2021 15:32

I used to work in the tourist information of in a large town in Norway. One day an American couple came in to complain in about people speaking Norwegian in the streets. Apparently it was very rude as they couldn't understand them. Stupid Norwegians speaking Norwegian in Norway...

bert3400 · 04/10/2021 15:33

@SweeneyToddler those are the best yet Grin

Bobsyer · 04/10/2021 15:33

Bank call centre.

Man complains because a man in an ad looks like him but with glasses and his mates are taking the piss.

One who made me cry by ranting at me that is was my personal fault that his father in law had stolen his child and cut all his fingers off. Clearly suffering a quite severe mental health break but he was really nasty to me. I had to ring an ambulance for him.

riceuten · 04/10/2021 15:35

As a shop steward of a union, you do get your fair share of pointless complaints that are beyond the ken of a union to resolve. Someone not inviting a colleague to their birthday party was one. Someone speaking to a relative on their mobile in a foreign language was another. Conversely, someone not being in work 15 mins prior to going on duty was tricky, but the employer didn't pay people to do this, and I think it was justified in defending them. I could fill a page with pointless management requests...

Drywhitefruitycidergin · 04/10/2021 15:36

When I was a grad trainee and had been working for about 3 months, I had to create some process documentation for my boss because he was about to take over a new team.
One of the team leaders made a complaint about me calling her an idiot.
Seemingly asking her to explain something in more detail so that I could understand it and because my boss had called it an idiot's guide which I had repeated to her meant that she was an idiot and I wasn't respecting her role and her x number of years with the company.
Was bricking it when my boss told me he had this very serious voice and face in formal until he laughed about it and suggested I went to apologise and explain for the sake of harmony rather than because it was needed.

december2020 · 04/10/2021 15:37

Not to me but a coworker.

A client and a coworker shared the same first name. The client thought this was too confusing and asked my coworker to be referred to as something else.

It's a short first name that couldn't be shortened. He literally asked my coworker to change his first name.

unsurehowtorespond · 04/10/2021 15:37

We didn't routinely supply English mustard as a condiment for the macaroni cheese, NHS hospital .

I did point out that they had more than adequate cupboard space in their room for their own jar if they were really that desperate (not unheard of, long stay patients quite often had eg Nutella or their own cereal choice), but that we were lucky to even get salt and pepper at times so mustard was definitely pushing it !!

Onlyfoolsandhorseswork · 04/10/2021 15:37

I had one where he asked me to marry him (he was a customer-im customer care)
I refused on the basis that I was too old (at the time was 42 and he was 17) and I have a partner
He'd got a ring and everything
He complained to head Office!
I just laughed when they told me

I did have another where the wife complained that my perfume was too nice and her husband had commented on it
From what I could gather it meant we where going to sail off into the sunset together,leaving her behind

People are bonkers

HarebrightCedarmoon · 04/10/2021 15:39

A customer complained that the (white) wine was too cold in the pub I worked in, in my late teens. Fair enough, I know (now anyway) that some fine wines might taste better left out of the fridge a little before serving. This was a £5 bottle of plonk in a pub though, he was just a pretentious wanker, and it wasn't the first or last of his complaints of that nature.

Phphion · 04/10/2021 15:40

The mother of a student at the university where I work complained that I "allowed" the students living in the house next door to us to have a party at which her daughter got drunk. She also complained that I drove her drunk daughter to A&E at 2am, as her daughter would have been happier if a lecturer from her own department had driven her, rather than a lecturer she didn't know.

riceuten · 04/10/2021 15:40

@MinnieMountain

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”.
I had a tenant who thought not paying her rent for November and December to buy her son presents was completely acceptable. She made a formal complaint that we'd issued her with a NTQ, that we'd suspended her Right to Buy, and she wouldn't be getting the (small) discount on her last month's rent for people who hadn't missed a payment. It was ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.
HunterAngel · 04/10/2021 15:42

Working on a deli counter, a customer got very upset because I couldn’t find him a (shop floor) cheese apparently designed by my employer to lower cholesterol. Not only could I not find it, I’d never heard of it. This was apparently inconceivable and clearly meant I was mentally deficient. Never did find out if it existed.

Lost count of the number of people who’d complain about us not stocking an item with ‘but Sainsbury’s sell it’. Funnily enough they never appreciated the reminder that they were not, in fact, in Sainsbury’s and might actually find said item if they started looking in the correct supermarket

Pallyum · 04/10/2021 15:44

I volunteer on a suicide helpline. One of my first calls was from a lady complaining that her washing machine didn’t work. I literally didn’t know what to say - our training hadn’t covered faulty household appliances …

KilledByWitches · 04/10/2021 15:50

Bumped in to one of DS's teachers in a pub once, bought him a pint. I felt he probably needed it 😂

HarebrightCedarmoon · 04/10/2021 15:50

When the kids were little and I had a working from home job I used to go to my local WI. It was a lovy branch and we had a creche set up for small children and a range of ages attending from 30s to 80s. One day I wrote and ran a quiz for them and was particularly sensitive about the music round, trying to cover lots of eras and didn't put anything in very up to date- I only went up to the 1980s. I also made a clue which linked the answers to help anyone who was struggling so they could have a guess. Got very nice comments and feedback afterwards though one lady said "The music round was a bit modern and you could have included more Frank Sinatra". Grin

Clovacloud · 04/10/2021 15:51

About 25 years ago I had a temp job in Uni holidays. It was working a cafeteria for a company. Apparently I made a bacon roll wrong for someone, so he had me fired. To this day I don’t know how shoving some bacon in a bap can be done wrong Hmm

deydododatdodontdeydo · 04/10/2021 15:54

In catering - lots of pointless complaints from customers. Food too hot, not hot enough, etc.

One woman complained she had drunk her coffee before her meal arrived and wanted another coffee as compensation.
Of course, we always gave another, and I think the customers knew that so tried it on.

immersivereader · 04/10/2021 15:55

Once had a parent call the school to ask us to tell her daughter that she would meet her in Starbucks after school Hmm

Worked in an engineering consultancy and one of the engineers asked if we had a protective coat for the... Protective coat. She wanted a coat to protect her safety jacket. To keep it clean. Mind? Boggled.

silverbubbles · 04/10/2021 15:55

@Badlytornfrube

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.

This one has made me LOL
londonmummy1966 · 04/10/2021 15:58

I had a holiday job on the Mary Rose when it first opened. Several people complained that it was only half a ship but one woman took the biscuit and complained that you couldn't walk on it - well yes that's because it was under the sea until a year ago and is very fragile....

ClawedButler · 04/10/2021 15:59

Used to work for a toy company. Some of the complaints we got were incredible. Apparently, it was our fault that the Alphabet Desk contained all the letters of the alphabet, because their older son was teaching the younger son to spell out swear words using the letters.
Child got its hand stuck in the shape-sort bucket. Did the parents get some washing-up liquid and try to free the child? No. Did they panic and go to A&E for them to sort? No. They got an electric hand saw and cut the plastic off from around the kid's wrist. Their complaint was that our toy was dangerous as "look at what it made us have to do"

Redredwiney · 04/10/2021 15:59

@Sleepyquest Haha I wonder if it was the same one! It was a very very weird place when I worked there!

oldperson1 · 04/10/2021 16:00

I worked in call centre for High St bank credit card centre.A woman called actually crying , complained she had received her renewal card but couldn’t possibly accept or use it as the expiry date was 2013.
Apparently she had a phobia about the number 13 so anything relating to13 was banned as far as she was concerned.
Was told to change the card and the expiry date for her 🤷‍♀️

Mylee · 04/10/2021 16:00

We had a very serious fire one evening at the campsite I worked at. Someone came into the office to complain that the fire engines and hoses were too noisy and that he couldn’t enjoy his evening

Olderkids · 04/10/2021 16:02

I was a teacher with two children of my own. A SAHM got a job in a hospital about 18 miles away. She asked me how long I thought it would take her to drive to work. I said she should allow an hour because traffic on that route could be heavy.
'So will you be here for me to drop the children off at 7:45?'
'No, I am sorry, if staff get to work early it is to prepare for the day.' (This was pre-breakfast Club days).
Months later an inspector shared with us parent comments on the questionnaire. Hers was:
'The staff at this school have no idea what it is like to be a working mother'
It gave me great pleasure to say, when she complained how tough it was to get to work at a parents' evening
'I know exactly how you feel. I have been doing it for 15 years'

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