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Original poster

To want to hear your stories from customer facing jobs?

205 replies

TillyMint81 · 14/08/2017 23:44

I work in retail. Customers are for the most part lovely but there are some absolute idiots out there.
Like the one who brought back a pack of bacon because it said four slices and it had five. Or the one who complained about the oranges on Bogof because she only wanted one pack not two. and, oh, by the way, could she have the free one?
We also had a bloke who would walk round looking for low stock on the buy one get one free lines. If he found one that was down to one item he would ask if we had any in stock. If we did he would walk away but if we didn't he wanted that one for free..

OP posts:
Polarbearflavour · 18/08/2017 15:51

I worked in retail whilst a student and had the "this is what happens when you fail to work hard at school line" a few times. I always said with a smile that I was doing my A-levels and going to uni after them.

Not that it matters, it's just rude of customers to say it. Some people like working retail, other workers find it fits around child care. I don't look down on anybody working or think less of people.

I can't think of any particularly annoying customer stories right now!

somanylovelyearrings · 18/08/2017 16:55

I constantly get: "What are you doing working in here?
"You are wasted on here"
"Have you got a degree?"
"Ooo, wearing a skirt to show off your legs?"
"If l was younger..." Wink
"Nice hair"
"You need to take the popcorn off the shelf- it burnt in my microwave"
" The battery exploded in my pocket - l want a refund and head office informed"
The battery was fine.

madja · 18/08/2017 17:05

I remember an ex teacher of mine coming into dept store restaurant where I was working over summer before uni. I'd had a gap year, so when he came in and sneered at me, he said ' this is where you are working now is it. Suits you well!'
I was really upset, but replied ' well, I'm going to Manchester uni in September, but if it makes you feel better to take the mickey, fine' He was horrid.
I did also point out that even if that's where I end up working full time, a teacher looking down on an ex pupil like that and belittling them them said more about him than me, and I wished him well in his bitter life. I walked into the kitchen and got someone else to serve him. His face was a picture!
It was one of those moments when you really get to say what you really think of someone, and I managed to say all the things I'd wanted to say but never could. It was great!

MummaTwinkleToes · 18/08/2017 17:09

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius My lovely manager who was a very big ex footballer had to be retrained from kicking the shit out of the ladder guy who to be fair was very apologetic and very upset as he 'didn't think I would actually fall' Hmm

Original poster
TillyMint81 · 18/08/2017 18:07

Mumma retrained or restrained? The retrained sounds much more fun! GrinWink

OP posts:
ElsieMc · 18/08/2017 18:21

My sil is always, always returning goods. In fact just about everything he buys and then stresses about the said return. My poor dd2 gets really sick of it.

Latest embarrassment was a few weeks back when he was dissatisfied with his jeans from River Island. The Manager there is my friend's lovely son who my dd knows. Sil went to the counter and handed the jeans back saying they were faulty and he wanted a refund. Manager asks when he bought them and sil said only recently. Manager looks at him strangely but remains polite as ever and refunds when he does not have to.

DD said when they got home, they found the jeans he had meant to return in the RI bag with the receipt. The ones he returned were about three years old!

sonlypuppyfat · 18/08/2017 18:39

Woman got really cross I wouldn't weigh her punnet of strawberries that she'd picked up at the stall outside, it took a lot of explaining that the fruit shop was next door and I was a newsagents

Original poster
TillyMint81 · 18/08/2017 18:41

We had a lady who ripped a load of leaves off a basil plant and then when stopped told us that we could just weigh it for her and charge her that way. It wasn't a weighed item it was a growing basil plant!

OP posts:
Bananamama1213 · 18/08/2017 18:42

My DH was once accused of swapping someone's sausages when he went to check the price for them!

WhirlingTurkey · 18/08/2017 18:47

I used to work in a chain DIY shop.

My "favourite" one was probably a man who tried to return a toilet seat, that must have been 10 years old, because it had (inevitably as it was approaching antique status) fallen apart. He didn't have any proof of purchase and the seat was absolutely filthy. Confused

Original poster
TillyMint81 · 18/08/2017 18:53

Turkey that is grim!
And sausage stealing?? Why??

OP posts:
MummaTwinkleToes · 18/08/2017 18:57

@TillyMint81 Hahaha! Sorry restrained not retrained... bloody autocorrect

Original poster
TillyMint81 · 18/08/2017 18:59

Twinkle, maybe that's where retail is going wrong? Maybe we should be retrained in some sort of self defence/kicky type thing Hmm

OP posts:
teaandcakeat8 · 18/08/2017 19:01

A woman brought a full roast dinner in on a plate because she thought the beef was dry and demanded I try some. I declined and politely suggested it might have been the way she cooked it...

VinsArmy · 18/08/2017 19:05

I have worked in a restaurant I will give you a couple of things I have heard over the years.
Excuse me, I asked for my steak bleu and this one is red.

My gammon is pink it is undercooked!

My icecream is too cold.

My scampi tastes fishy.

I then had to respond to all these complaints in a none patronising way.

teaandcakeat8 · 18/08/2017 19:06

Should have added; she brought her roast dinner back to the supermarket!!

newmumFeb17 · 18/08/2017 19:15

I work in a well known cosmetics store, I have had customers on two occasions (!) come in, whip their shoes off, put a foot on the table and ask me to clip their (really ganky) toenails!
You can test pretty much all of our products before you buy, but definitely not the nail clippers 😂

MummaTwinkleToes · 18/08/2017 19:18

Tilly, when I was in management this woman came in trying to return a pair of 'faulty' trainers that she admitted to the guy on the till were 3years old, also with no receipt. When he obviously said he couldn't do a refund she became extremely abusive so I took over. She then haulked up and tried to spit at us. I was so disgusted I lost my temper and made a grab for her, she shit herself and ran out of the shop.

blackcherries · 18/08/2017 19:28

Years ago I used to work in a customer support call centre for a telecoms company. I had an American lady who wanted to pay for a certain service using her US calling card but it was only valid for domestic use. So I explained to her "I'm sorry but that card is for calls within the United States only, you can't use it when you're abroad". Well, she went absolutely batshit crazy, screaming at me that she had never been treated like this before in all her life, wasn't going to stand for it, was going to get me sacked etc etc. The reason became clearer when she ranted something along the lines of "who the hell do you think you are calling me a broad?"

This is brilliant.
The roll-one deodorant and leather trousers ones made me disgusted and sad in equal measures.

CigarsofthePharoahs · 18/08/2017 20:01

The warehouse/stockroom we had in my old job was a health and safety nightmare. We were supposed to use a mobile platform to get to the high shelves. It was broken before I started, was never fixed. We managed with A frame ladders which were ok as long as the floor was clear.
It usually wasn't. One manager we had was so badly organised that the big weekly delivery we had rarely got put out on the shop floor. It just got shoved straight in the warehouse.
After a month of him being the manager you couldn't even get in the warehouse. You could just about open the door, but unless you were an Olympic gymnast, you weren't going to get to anything useful.
It was very embarrassing to be with a customer and know full well that the product they wanted was indeed in the warehouse, but you hadn't a hope in hell of getting it for you as between you and it were heaps of boxes, random bags of crap and umpteen metal stock cages.
We were all glad when he was moved to a different store.

We had one 'customer' who used her 8 year old daughter to distract me whilst I was working on the till so she could fill her younger child's buggy with silk flowers and walk out the door with them.
The woman who came up to me in floods of tears wanting a refund on an item as she'd bought it for her young son who'd died suddenly. She had no receipt.
I believed her, up until the moment she told me she'd ring the manager who told her she could have a cash refund rather than a credit note. I played along, asking her about exactly who she'd spoken to.
She described someone, even named them. He had indeed managed the shop but had left two months before. I was very Hmm at this point. Called the current manager, who put his foot down and said credit note only.
She accepted the credit note, but was then seen in the car park trying to sell it on for cash.
We checked the CCTV after she'd gone and she'd taken the item off a shelf and put it in a carrier bag.
Some people will try anything to shoplift. It sickens me.

PavlovianLunge · 18/08/2017 20:14

DP was paying for something is a department store as a guy was complaining (not loudly or aggressively) at the next till about some 'faulty' Levi's. DP said they were torn, filthy, and looked years old. The store gave him a refund. Bonkers.

Polarbearflavour · 18/08/2017 20:27

I worked in a now defunct bookstore chain store which had a Starbucks inside.

The fire alarm went off one day and although there was smoke, several customers insisted they would not leave as they wanted to finish their coffees. Hmm

c3pu · 18/08/2017 20:37

I used to work in Woolies. A really nice young gay guy worked there too, he'd recently been slashed on the neck with a bottle in a homophobic attack and had just returned to work. Had rather obvious scars.

A customer saw this as the chap went about his work and said to me that it looked as though he had been badly assaulted... As it had very little to do with me or my work I just said yes and carried on... The customer then launched into a massive rant about it, asked what I was going to do about it, became extremely aggressive and then had to be ejected by security.

I had to explain to the manager three times what had happened, and it was clear he didn't believe me. Thankfully another member of staff was stood right next to me and explained that it was all completely true.

Manager was extremely worried that it would look like a complete and utter pile of bollocks on the form he had to fill out.

sunnydalegottobedone · 18/08/2017 20:51

Loving this thread, it's bringing back a lot of memories.

Waitressing in a rural pub (a few decades ago...)
The local cricket team used to come in regularly for lunch, and one of the sods always tried to make me spill a tray of hot food - from bottom pinching, bottom slapping to just shouting behind me .... Ha ha ha only trying to scare you. I never dropped the tray, and may or may not have executed revenge or on one or more or no occasion Grin

Supermarket deli
Regularly being shouted at as there wasn't the exact ham, cheese, olive paired with the correct dressing ...
The customers who refused to speak to anyone and would point to what they wanted, yes mam is this what you want.... Instead of no or just saying what they wanted, they would start slamming their hands and jabbing even more at the glass. And yes they did speak and speak English, as they would mutter and tut tut to the person need in the queue.
Just why!

SweetEnough · 18/08/2017 20:58

Nothing to add, just a sincere round of applause 👏 for all those who work in retail. I couldn't do it.

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