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?

@maddiemookins16mum

I used to work in travel complaints. We had one, never forget it, it even went to court. Lapland holiday (we realise how special and expensive they are so were very open to trying to appease her). The complaint: …….we should have employed people of restricted growth to ‘play’ Santas Helpers. Santa did not look like the one on the back of the Coke lorry And It was too cold.

This went to court! Please tell us more.

I once said to a colleague that she should go for the assistant manager's job as I thought she would be good at it. She said something non commital so I thought she wasn't bothered and we carried on doing the washing up. I thought nothing of it and she was perfectly friendly and normal afterwards.

The next day I was given a disciplinary for breaching confidentiality. I didn't understand why and apparently the colleague had actually applied for the promotion, thought I had found out somehow, reported me and it was upheld! I was basically given a disciplinary for saying something nice.

A customer called me a slag because she couldn’t have a refund because she had no receipt,nice!

A customer who complained she was unable to return her TV to a well known department store 5 years after having bought it....nothing wrong with it....her complaint was that the store hadn't told her 3D tv might be available one day 🤷‍♀️

Loving reading these. My current headteacher complained to me that having my second day off with a bad back was unsustainable and I'd better do something about it so I didn't have more time off....2 days!!! I've worked there since January and suffer with chronic pain. These are the only 2 days I've had off.

She is a bitch 🤷🏻‍♀️

I work for a house builder. Customer complained that his garden was north facing and so it didn't get much sun. It's a new build, he'd have been told it wasn't south facing and would have seen plans!

My parents used to run a newsagents shop. We lived in the flat above it. One customer came and knocked on the front door at 8.00 in the morning complaining that he hadn't had his newspaper delivered and wanted to know why the shop was closed...
It was Christmas Day.....

Head walked in to my class of thirty 5 yr olds for an unannounced lesson observation.
No teaching assistant as her working week had finished.
The time was 2.30 pm on a Friday afternoon.
We were 'tidying up' !
I got told off on the following Monday morning for ' the look on my face when he had walked in.
I was not welcoming enough !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

working welfare in a high school -

• a mother complained because her daughter had come on her period, had no supplies, and was given sanitary towels from our supply. I had not called mum to check whether her daughter might be allergic to that particular brand. Actual official complaint. My boss suggested to her that perhaps she could ensure her girl had her own supplies in future.

• a child sat down on the school field into fox poo. Mum demanded a brand new PE kit as she could not possibly be expected to wash something so awful.

• during lockdown a mum who refused point blank to provide masks 'if you want them to wear them, you buy them'

It was a daily litany of complains and whining. Soul destroying.

I work in a petrol station.. last week i had a young woman scream and shout at me and tell me i was a useless human being because i wouldnt let her fill up 4 big empty water bottles with fuel.. needless to say, last week i had many of the same types of situations. New rule introduced of a £45 limit per customer so if you wanted to put fuel into your car and a jerry can, you would have to do for example 35 into your car, 10 into a jerry can. This caused major outrage as that wasnt good enough. And how dare we allow ambulance and police to fill up £45, pay, then do another £45. Someone literally shouted "why are they priority?!" I give up with humans.

I had a complaint against me (teacher) because I set an art homework once and wasn't setting full blown literacy essays. I was teaching year 1. They were 5 or 6 year olds. And the child whose parents complained was distinctly average, definitely not a child prodigy.

I had a customer complaining to me today that M&S doesn't have bus timetables..

I don't work in M&S and we don't even have a store in the town I work

@kwiksavenofrillsusername

That one went to the woman who didn’t get her new bath mat in time and pretend sobbed down the phone. I could imagine her sitting in the corner crying on Xmas day while her family exchanged gifts and enjoyed themselves.

😂 😂 😂 😂 😂

I worked in a pizza takeaway when I was in my teens. A customer called after seeing a deal in the yellow pages. Since it had been printed, that deal had gone up 20p in price (it’s worth mentioning at this point, the advert included small print saying that prices are subject to change and deals can change at any time). The guy absolutely RAGED at me down the phone, particularly when I pointed out the small print to him. I could have knocked off the 20p for him but refused out of principle particularly as he was being so vile! A standout comment was “if I wanted to be taken for a ride I’d take my kids to Disneyland” 🙄
He lived in a large house in a nice part of town, he could definitely afford 20p!

I work for social services now so get complaints on the daily 😅

When I worked at M&S, a customer brought back breaded chicken packaging for a refund, they had eaten it the previous night for their dinner, and were complaint saying it was disgusting and must have been off.

Turned out they hadn’t cooked it and so had eaten it raw!

When working as a primary school teacher

• Why had I sent a book home to read and times tables to practise, I shouldn't be expecting parents to do this as it was my job, oh and I should have also taught his son how to tie his shoe laces to.
• Why had I allowed nits into the classroom and what I was going to do about it. Parent was so disgusted that in the end she cut all her daughters long hair off and blamed me for her daughter now looking like a boy. (she still got nits!)
• Parent complained when she was not chosen for school trip to zoo, apparently she had always wanted to go to the zoo - she went to governors and demanded that it was unfair.
• Teacher friend had got back from holidays to find a complaint that parent had spotted her on holiday drinking. (teacher had to actually remind parents that she was on holiday and not there to babysit their daughter!)

I could go on....

I’m a teacher. A parent called the Head up and complained that I had made her daughter pick up some paper rubbish from under her desk that wasn’t hers. I mean, seriously.

I thought of another payroll one. Another leaver who rang on the 25th January because she hadn’t received her ‘full pay’. Her last ‘working day’ was Jan 5th and she started new job on Jan 6th.
She thought because she had ‘worked’ in January she would get a full months pay. She had complained to her new workplace too for taking 5 days off.
It took a lot of explaining and she was upset as she had spent at Christmas expecting 2 full pay-packets.
She was a senior employee.

Parent forgot that it was school photo day and sent their dc to school wearing a polo shirt rather than shirt and tie. Shirts and ties were made available in school for the purposes of the photos but the dc didn’t want to get changed into them. Parent went ballistic, verbally abused school office staff for not wrestling their dc into shirt and tie, took their argument to social media, tried to go to the press, and made a complaint about the HT to the chief executive of the local authority. It was everyone’s fault that she didn’t have a P1 school photo of her dc wearing shirt and tie, and nothing at all to do with her forgetting. Probs 10 or so years ago now and yes, she continues to be ‘that’ parent.

I worked in a bridal shop and had a complaint that I made a fuss of the baby the brides friend brought along instead of oohing and ahhhing over the bride.

Not mine but someone I know had this. They worked in IT for a time, got a complaint from someone about their mouse. He went to their office to see what the issue was. She was complaining because she was left handed and the mouse was on the right side of the computer, so she was struggling to use the mouse and could he work out how to fix this issue. My friend picked the mouse and the attached wire up and over to the other side of the computer - "there, all fixed." She did at least have the good grace to be mortified!

I used to work for a charity that supported a particular client group. One of the many things we did was to liaise with local businesses and grant making bodies to obtain support and goods.

Once, we obtained a rare grant for a carpet for a client. She glared at me and demanded, “So who’s going to carpet the rest of my house for me, then?” Another time, we had a brand new bike donated so ran a free raffle just before Christmas. The bike was passed to the winner for his son, I then received a letter of complaint that he would have to pay someone to adjust the saddle and handlebars to be at the right height for his son.

@OhYeahyeahyeah

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

This whole thread is bonkers but I think this is my favourite!

What's the fishy dish??

Community midwife.

I was on sick leave as my mum had died of covid. A patient wanted to know my name and complained to the NMC that I’d ruined her pregnancy by taking time off.

I only missed one appointment - her first one. The complaint went in before I even met her.

I set a deadline for my college students to hand in their assignments. One girl's parents complained that i put too much pressure on their daughter by setting a deadline.