Tell me your most ridiculous complaints

[Bumbaglina]

I’m fed up today, I work for a solicitors and I’ve got a client who whatever I do it’s not good enough, it’s a perfectly normal file, nothing unusual all going along as most other files do.

First I told her something would take approximately 6 weeks, it came back in four and she complained I’d upset her because she thought it would take 6 weeks, why didn’t I tell her it would be four? I told
her something else would probably take a couple of months but I was very clear I don’t know exactly how long and it was only an estimate and on the 2 month mark she’s on the phone screaming and shouting why hasn’t it come back yet, I said a couple of months and this is 2 months exactly! The she sent something to me in the post and I received it a week later, why didn’t I receive it sooner? As if I have any control over Royal Mail? And so on and so on, it’s at the point that when I see her name pop up on my email I brace myself for what will be her next complaint.

Make me feel better with your ridiculous customers!

I worked in a high street bank when I was younger. One day a customer walked in and presented their card for the bank next door. I politely pointed out he had presented his Bank A card and asked for his Bank B card (a relatively common occurrence).

He looked at me annoyed and said, “don’t be so ridiculous just get on with paying the cheque in” I politely explained that I could only pay cheques into Bank B accounts and that Bank A was next door if he needed to place a cheque in that account.

He became quite irate and shouted in my face “I KNOW WHERE I HAVE WALKED IN!!!!! Pay the cheque in NOW!! I calmly replied that indeed I might know which bank I was employed by. He again told me it was definitely Bank A and I was wrong so I turned and pointed to the giant “BANK B” sign behind the cashier desk.

This was the first moment he seemed to realised he had walked into the wrong bank and clearly had gone too far. So he stormed out ranting and raving that I was an incompetent bitch.

As yesterday was a BH, it reminded me of this moaning cow.

Worked for a bank branch for 8-9 months. There was a bank holiday - it was the first May one. Obviously we were closed.

The following day, a moaning cow complained that we were closed yesterday. She thought it was disgraceful that we did this and wanted to close her account and go elsewhere. Well she would experienced the same problem with her new bank at the end of May……

It's amazing how very few people (and there was one mentioned upthread) will accept and concede that they were an idiot, once the penny drops. Even when they've shown themselves up to the shop/bank/whatever worker and everybody else in earshot, they still have to get their little dig in in to try to make out that it was the worker's fault and not theirs - like Jay from The Inbetweeners!

Unless he was genuinely that thick, and - like the people who think that 'a shop is a shop' and so any shop will merrily refund a faulty or unwanted item that was bought at a completely unrelated shop - he thought that 'a bank is a bank' and it simply didn't occur to him that only his own bank actually handled his account?!

A lot of retail and leisure-type places do open on bank holidays; but there is rather a large clue in the name 'bank holiday'!!

He was absolutely convinced he was had walked into Bank A and that I was just being difficult. It wasn’t that he thought Bank B could pay cheques into Bank A accounts.

He was a very posh middle aged man and I think he couldn’t quite accept he had made a simple mistake. And he certainly wasn’t going to be told he had by the silly cashier girl. Perhaps he didn’t normally do the banking himself or he was distracted when walking up the high street.

It was most bizarre he would rather dig himself into a big hole and create a scene rather than just simply say ‘ah yes, I have’ and walk next door. But as you say it’s amazing how many people would rather do that than admit they were wrong.

My place of work once had a section with a regional name.

one customer asked me what the fuck was a Scottish person doing answering the phone and demanded someone from Leeds

Ah, fair enough - my pondering there was misguided then!

But why would he be so self-assured in his error that he wouldn't even stop to check, or look at the signs in the bank?! I'm baffled as to why he thinks a bank teller would actually prefer to deliberately start an argument with an aggressive buffoon, rather than just do a routine part of her everyday job?!

It kind of reminds me of the old Two Ronnies sketch where the man goes into the wrong premises, next to the opticians where he's really wanting to go.

"Yes, I can read that letter - it's 'I'."
"No, Sir - that's a coat stand!"

I do my best not to be an idiot when dealing with retail workers, receptionists, other people - but if I do slip up, because I am human, I always say something like “I am so sorry - I’m such a numpty!”

I also hope I would step in if someone else was abusing someone.

That's the thing, everyone makes mistakes now and again, and I don't think people are idiots for doing so, and I genuinely don't think people go through life thinking they never make a mistake.

Some people just can't handle how it makes them feel when they do though, and especially not when someone there to serve them has the unfortunate task clueing them in to their mistake and they then feel like they need to redress the balance somehow.

I can handle the ones who are determined to make it my fault, because it's blatantly obvious it's not, it's the ones who will as a last ditch attempt to redress the balance, say you were rude about it, I have no doubt some are, but it's funny how when it's something someone doesn't want to hear, suddenly the delivery is rude, no matter how politely it's delivered.

@SprayWhiteDungI just got the impression he wasn’t used to being told he was wrong in day to day life. It was a very well to do area so if I had to guess, I’d say he wasn’t used to doing the banking himself got confused, doubled down and threw a strop.

Saying that, some of the general public can be really weird to deal with. I fainted in my office at the bank once and knocked myself unconscious, colleagues called an ambulance and the paramedics decided to take me to hospital as my heart rate was really high. As I was being walked out, supported by two paramedics at each side of me, I had a customer complain that the queue was long and told me to “get behind the counter and serve as he had better things to be doing”. I was so shocked I mumbled something about being taken to an ambulance so couldn’t do that (and by this point that wasn’t even my job at the bank anymore). He told me to get someone who could before I went off to the ambulance.

Fundamentally, the some members of the general public don’t seem to comprehend that people serving them are actual human beings.

Goodness me, that’s awful!

Ah, but that kind of thing is really annoying! It’s like photos of birds being labelled wrongly.

@Creu I had an asthma attack in the kiosk at the supermarket where two colleagues and a paramedic were attending to me. I got a customer who complained about having to wait longer because the supermarket chain should not be recruiting asthmatic people! If she applied that to other medical conditions that get attacks etc - there would be hardly anyone in the store!

My boss once complained to the police that a wide load with a police escort was holding him up on the motorway on the way to the airport . He demanded the wide load move over to let him pass .

A customer escalated a complaint about me to my boss in another job, because I told him the delivery date of his bespoke product , which he wasn't happy with. The advert, brochures, order forms , order confirmation all confirm estimated 8-12 week delivery from order. His estimated delivery date was the 8th week. He threatened to sue me personally and the company jointly because he needed the product immediately within a week because it was holding his building project up and he was going to sue me for the builders costs and delay costs etc. We managed to get it delivered on 5th week - no thank you or anything. 7 MONTHS later , he rang to say hes just opened the product and it was damaged (which has been lying on a building site for 7 months ) . He didnt get a replacement product but kept his complaint going for another few months.

My colleague was on holiday in another part of the UK. She visited the store of the area. A customer who shops at our store was also on holiday. Customer saw my colleague asking a product location. My colleague said this is the first time she has visited the store. Customer wasn’t impressed.

Customer rang the head office customer service number to put a complaint against my colleague. My manager said my colleague was a customer

Only just today had this complaint at my dental practice. Pt has an infected and impacted wisdom tooth that requires extraction. It’s in a tricky position so we have had to refer her to the hospital service to get it done by a specialist.
she was issued antibiotics yesterday and painkillers and other local measures have been done. It will be a few days likely before the antibiotics take affect.

she came in today demanding that we call the oral
surgery dept at the hospital and demand that she is seen today, immediately. We explained that there is a waiting list and NHS waiting lists are entirely beyond our control as it’s an entirely different organisation.
I really sympathise as I know she was still in pain but she initially took it all out on our poor wee nurse who really was at a loss for words as to how to pacify her. we were called many abusive names and she shouted and ranted very very loudly in our waiting room in front of a room full of people.

Customer wanted to buy nail varnish remover, we didn't sell it, I suggested a shop two doors down that I bought mine from. Complained to head office that 'I shouldn't tell her where to spend her money.' No good deed, etc.

There was a power cut at my previous workplace. The back up failed. About 1300-1400 properties and businesses were affected. Power cut lasted about an hour.

Customer complained to head office that she wasn’t able to buy her tv guide. The other shops in the area also had power cuts