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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:
ClawedButler · 04/10/2021 16:02

Another complaint at the toy factory we had TWICE was from people who genuinely believed that we had recorded an evil message (think along the lines of "do drugs" or "hurt yourself"), had it speeded up, and then used it for the sound effect of the puppy dog barking

One guy was going to "prove it" and take us to court. Still waiting for that summons...

Gilmorehill · 04/10/2021 16:02

When I saw the title of this thread, I knew it had been started by a teacher! Complaints about teachers in pubs made by parents also frequenting the pub are pretty common!

SickAndTiredAgain · 04/10/2021 16:03

I spent a summer working on a campsite in France where they had static caravans (a keycamp/eurocamp place), the campsite was in a very wooded area which was clear when booking it.
Someone complained that on the decking outside his caravan there were sometimes squirrels, and they scared his children. By his own admission these squirrels would run away as soon as they opened the door to go outside (so these weren’t some sort of weird breed of aggressive squirrels that attacked his children, they were normal squirrels that avoid humans). He complained regularly throughout their two week holiday that this wasn’t being dealt with, I think he wanted us to put down traps. On one occasion he shouted at me and called my manager a cunt for not having dealt with it.

ladymalfoy · 04/10/2021 16:04

A parent complained that I'd accused her DD of plagiarism.
We were studying An Inspector Calls for GCSE Drama and the DD had cut pasted her essay from Sparks Notes or somesuch.
The proof?
She'd left the hyper-links in.

ClawedButler · 04/10/2021 16:04

@SickAndTiredAgain - that's what the squirrels WANTED you to think....

He was onto them.

riceuten · 04/10/2021 16:09

Appropriate for these times, but when I was 16, I worked at a petrol station and the routine was when a tanker arrived that you closed off the entrance to the garage with cones, waited till everyone on the forecourt had finished filling up, cone off the exit and put "petrol station closed" signs up, turn off the "price tower", and then the tanker would fill up the station.

You would ALWAYS, ALWAYS get some lippy eejit who would move the cones and "station closed" sign out of the way, and then attempt to fill up (we would block the pumps in any case) and then stalk over to the shop and massively kick off. I would either direct them to one of the 3 other petrol stations within 5 minutes drive or ask them to wait 15 minutes, and inevitably, threats of violence or damage would be made, and complaints made to head office.

Ceebeegee · 04/10/2021 16:10

Their painted fencing was "too blue". They had picked the colour of the metal fencing from a swatch. It was painted to the exact swatch. They wanted it re-painting a more "professional" colour blue. My boss gave the customer the swatch pack , and the customer chose the exact same colour again. It took a lot of explaining...he kept it in the end.

In another job, we fitted TV aerials and satellites etc. A new customer rang at around 10am saying their TV signal had been lost. I said we could get someone out to them that afternoon (which I thought was a reactive turnaround) - she made a complaint because she had to wait until 2pm (which I had explained to her) and that it had caused a lot of distress to her toddler going without the TV for several hours.

TonyThreePies · 04/10/2021 16:11

@CharityDingle

Used to issue feedback sheets at the end of training courses, where there was space to input comments. One might expect suggestions/ comments on the facilities/ what part of the course worked particularly well/ not so well/ something they would like to see included. And that's mostly what was received.

One memorable one, a participant stated that there was purple gravy on her dinner...

No, me neither. Grin It was in an establishment that had a particularly good reputation for its food. There were options to choose from, on the menu. She chose whatever it was, and nobody could recall seeing the purple gravy there, before nor since. I don't think it was even worded as a complaint, more so a comment.

I'm glad I worked so hard delivering that course. Hmm

We stopped giving feedback forms where I work because they were nearly always about the food!
youvemademyshitlist · 04/10/2021 16:12

I worked in a pub when I was a teenager. One lunchtime, someone ordered apple pie for pudding. I asked whether they wanted custard, cream or ice cream, they opted for ice cream.

They then complained that the ice cream was too cold...

BubbleBathBitch · 04/10/2021 16:13

I work in print and a customer (who was a celebrity, as it happened) complained that his printed envelopes "weren't easy to lick"

Cervicalflop · 04/10/2021 16:13

Pharmacy- hysterical patient shouting at me because the tablets the doctor had put her on were orange and apparently the colour orange is bad luck.

Orangecrisp · 04/10/2021 16:14

I worked in a supermarket as a student. One Sunday a woman brought in a whole roast beef lunch on a plate wrapped in clingfilm and complained the meat was dry. She wanted me to try some but I politely declined. It felt too rude to suggest it might have been her cooking that had dried it out so I just issued a refund.

Finfintytint · 04/10/2021 16:16

I had a complaint from a member of the public stating I had severely disrupted her rail journey and she’d missed connecting trains.
I’d evacuated the train because it was on fire!

CookPassBabtridge · 04/10/2021 16:16

@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”.
Oh that's standard! I've heard that countless times in every job I've had involving money, they actually think that's a good reason Grin
Redbirds · 04/10/2021 16:16

I single handedly ruined Christmas for a family once ..... as I hadn't made sure her daughter's headdress was straight during the Nativity Play.

Nocutenamesleft · 04/10/2021 16:17

I had a letter written about me with 67 billet points as to why I should be fired

What did I do to deserve this?

I was female. In an only male company and they found out I was paid more than them!

Houseofvelour · 04/10/2021 16:21

DH is a dentist and one Christmas Eve, got LOTS of complaints for wearing a Santa hat 😂
Every year people complain that he has Christmas music on in his surgery (during the festive season).

I used to be a manager in a charity shop and I had a horrible woman come in. She said "you should get a real job! Being a volunteer, no doubt you're on benefits and scrounging off the rest of us". When I told her I was the manager, so a paid member of staff, she complained that I was stealing money from a charity by getting wages from them 🙄

TheFoundations · 04/10/2021 16:23

@alloalloallo

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

I love this Smile

CookPassBabtridge · 04/10/2021 16:24

Shocked at all these about teachers drinking. Do they really think teachers can't go out and socialise and have fun when off duty!?

TheFoundations · 04/10/2021 16:26

@CookPassBabtridge

Shocked at all these about teachers drinking. Do they really think teachers can't go out and socialise and have fun when off duty!?
I thought there was a shed behind the school that the teachers were tidied into for evenings and weekends.
Gilmorehill · 04/10/2021 16:30

@CookPassBabtridge

Shocked at all these about teachers drinking. Do they really think teachers can't go out and socialise and have fun when off duty!?
Oh yes. We never do staff dos in local pubs or restaurants for that reason.
HideousKinky · 04/10/2021 16:30

At the theatre where I work as a volunteer I was berated by an angry man who said, "YOU told us YOU would email the tickets and YOU didn't do it" with a stabbing gesture at me with his finger on each YOU.

(We volunteers have nothing to do with sending out tickets which is done by Box Office)

cricketmum84 · 04/10/2021 16:33

@Finfintytint

I had a complaint from a member of the public stating I had severely disrupted her rail journey and she’d missed connecting trains. I’d evacuated the train because it was on fire!
Lol I would have left her on it!!
Ratonastick · 04/10/2021 16:36

I heard a disciplinary once. Chap brought in his union rep and very belligerently announced that the rep was “going to sort me out”.

I explained that the disciplinary was because he had removed the safety barrier and overridden the dual hand use on a machine. To which he explained that yes he had done so and would do it again because the safety standards were “bollocks”. He went on to tell me that he has been telling the apprentices to do the same! He then turned to the rep (who was looking a bit pale at this point) and instructed him to tell me why it was all ok and why I couldn’t do anything about it because he was in the union. The rep explained that overriding safety features on machine tools is generally not a good idea and teaching apprentices to breach H&S is also not a good thing. At which point the bloke leapt to his feet, told me to stuff my job and the rep to stuff his union dues, bellowed that we had no idea about engineering and stormed out never to be seen again.

The rep and I then had a very off the record chat about the fact that the chap was missing a finger and whether it was connected to his attitude to machine safety.

Heathofhares · 04/10/2021 16:37

As a travel agent a man kicked off because the flight times to his chosen destination didn't suit him (3 daily direct flights) and that I was being completely unreasonable for not calling the airline and asking them to change the flights to suit him.

Another man who was incensed because our emergency helpline (for rearranging flights - sorting out issues with hotels etc) couldn't arrange for pumping out flood water from his privately owned second home in Spain...