To want to hear your stories from customer facing jobs?

[TillyMint81]

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..

Our signs: "Items from $30! Prices as marked!"
Customer picks up an item that is marked at $40 and brings it to the counter.

Me: "That'll be $40! Cash or card? "
Stupid Customer: "It was on the $30 rack."
Me: "Apologies, it must have been in the wrong place. It's marked at $40."
SC: "But it was on the $30 rack! It says items from $30!"

Sometimes customers pick things up and put them down in the wrong place. We tidy as much as we can, but we can't stop people picking things up. That doesn't mean you get to claim the prices you feel like paying based on the wrong place you found it. What's to stop YOU from picking up a $70 jacket and putting it on the $5 rack, and pulling the same crap?

Me: "It also says 'prices as marked'."
SC: "Oh, but that's the FINE print."

So because you chose not to read it, it becomes null and void? Because you're too stupid to read it, you don't have to abide by it?

raspberry just as long as your friend then didn't have a 'go' at the waitress for not knowing how much everything cost because 'you work here, you should know what the prices are!'

We get that in the shop a lot. As well as 'what's the difference between 'real blue' cigarettes and 'bright blue'? Why don't you know? You should know, you sell them!' I don't smoke and I don't intend taking it up to find out...

A friend who worked at the restaurant told one about a customer who ordered potato salad, but didn't want potatoes. She wanted only stuff around the potatoes

Aww, why did my story get deleted? Was it because I said middle aged women were a nightmare?

No she didn't have a go at the waitress just walked away muttering that if you worked somewhere you should at least have working knowledge of the entire place!
Bless her

My first job was in Brantano, many years ago.

A customer had a go at me because children's sizes stopped at 6, and she had to buy more expensive adult shoes for her teenager.

I told her that I didn't personally have any say in what size the kids shoes went up to.

One last night from someone looking for a member of staff to help them 'this one here isn't doing anything'
I was doing a full redress on a section so no, I'm doing nothing

just walked away muttering that if you worked somewhere you should at least have working knowledge of the entire place!

I'm a museum curator and I get this all the time. I work in a big museum with hundreds of thousands of objects, and I don't even know every object in my specific area. I often get stopped walking through the public galleries and asked to direct someone to .

Most people are quite understanding when I smile apologetically and direct them to our uniformed front of house staff/information desk. But you do occasionally get someone who gets very indignant and outraged that you work in the museum yet don't know every single object and gallery inside out.

Don't even get me started on people who come up to me to complain that a toilet cubicle has run out of loo roll.

I worked in a video rental store many years ago and was working on the afternoon of Princess Diana's memorial service at which Elton John played his new version of Candle in the Wind.

I had over 30 separate customers that afternoon having a go at me because they wanted to buy a copy of the song that minute. Apparently I should have recorded it off the telly and sold that version.

Not a problem bit quite sweet - once was giving out my email address to a client who had trouble understanding my Northern accent, so I was spelling in out for them.

'...so that's S for sugar, dot, [email protected]' type of thing.

Oh what a lovely name they say on the phone, and then send me an email starting Dear Sugar!!

I used to work for a tour operator; not in customer services but our department spoke to them regularly as we were on the other side of the wall from the call centre. We had some great complaint letters over the years. One that stuck with me was an older lady who wrote in to complain that the sand at the beach where she stayed was a different colour to the brochure. The brochure showed white sand and it was more golden...

TheCygnet no! Those people really exist? I thought it was a joke.

Afraid so. There was a sweet, again older - in her late 70s/80s - lady who used to call weekly to ask when the new cruise brochure came out, but really it was just to have a chat because she was lonely. Customer Services always made time to speak to her and said she was lovely.

Back to the garden centre job I also got the "well you work here why don't you know?"
I was 16 years old on the tills and people quite often choose to not ask the experienced people working in the actual plant bit but they would wait to ask me at the tills. After this had happened a few times I just picked the label out of the plant and read it to them and put it back with a smile.

TheCygnet's story about the sand complaint reminded me of another (more justified) story where customers weren't getting quite what they expected.

I used to work at a hotel in Leeds city centre. We suddenly had a spate of guests looking for a castle and finding a very very different hotel, or thinking we were near said castle. Turned out that a booking agent had put a picture of Leeds Castle on their page for our hotel- I suspect the idea was to show some local attractions, but given that Leeds Castle is in Kent, that wasn't very helpful either! However, as the photo used showed the castle surrounded by vast greenery and water, I did wonder about the people who were expecting to see that from a hotel clearly marked as city centre and just off the ring road...

Many a Boxing Day being told how we had ruined a Christmas Day. It's a fucking mobile phone.

I work in a pub chain and a man told my colleague that it was illegal for us to be reserving tables for customers who'd booked. I'm assuming it isn't actually illegal since I've never once been apprehended for it in all the time I've worked there we did all have a good laugh about that one.

We apparently ruined Christmas by being closed. One day a year we're shut.

I worked in Woolworths years ago and while I was walking through the shop floor to go to the stockroom a customer stopped me by pulling my hair. She couldn't find the doll she was so desperately looking for.

I'll always remember the time working in a music store and during the really busy Christmas period, a woman came up to my colleague (let's call her Emma) and asked for a refund on a CD. Emma went to get the refund book from the other counter and came back, asking the woman for the receipt.

The lady went beserk. Absolutely ape shit screaming that emma had stolen the receipt, that she'd just given it to her she saw - asked everyone on the store to witness the awful receipt-stealing-shop girl, how ducking horrible she was, liar, their etc etc. She just wouldn't stop the tirade. Emma tired to be as polite as possible, but she lost her composure and ran out the back crying. I didn't see a receipt either...

Horrible woman.

Used to work on cruise ships. Regular guest questions/complaints:

"There's no where to go on seadays"
"What time is the midnight buffet?"
"Do these stairs go up or down?"
"Does this lift go to the front or the back of the ship?"

Genuine conversation between my friend and a guest
G: so do you all sleep onboard too?
F: no we get the helicopter home each night
Guest complained at the end of the cruise because they were kept awake each night by the helicopter.

"The ship is swaying too much"
"I felt pressured to attend the practice drill and it was a waste of time as we didn't even have any emergencies while on board"
"It's not right that the crew get to stay on the ship when they aren't paying like we are"
"I'm a platinum member so I should be allowed in crew areas"
"You have to tip the Filipinos as they get paid less than you English staff"
"Too many foreign staff"
"Not enough natural light in my central cabin and no porthole"
"Couldn't open the window" (was a deck 2 cabin with a porthole)

G: how much is this?
M: $50
G: no, how much is this in real money?
M: do you mean in pounds?

Guest kept taking things from shops without paying "i paid for an all inclusive cruise, I shouldn't have to pay extra for things"

Oh and my favourite. I'm from Gateshead, I got wrong off a guest for not speaking English.

However having a degree or studying doesnt make you some better class of retail assistant. Noone should be spoken down to. People always brandish their degrees around on these threads

Dead right, Fanjo - and having shedloads of cash, a smart address, a posh voice, a profession as opposed to a job or a fancy address doesn't make someone a "better" person, either.

(BTW - I am aware that not everyone with these advantages is a tosser, and that there are many underprivileged wankers in the world, too, before anyone starts.)

Everyone is entitled to respect and consideration unless they throw it away by being an arsehole. Our society needs the people who go down the drains in but rubber boots as much, if not more, than the merchant bankers. We should all remember that.

I worked in my local co-op when I was about 17.

There was an offer on the beef,say £4 per kg.
A man who looked like he was in his 40s came to the till with a large joint of beef.when I scanned it and said "that will be £18.56" (or whatever the price was) ,he started shouting at me saying "no!its £4"
I calmly said that it was £4 per kilogram,and that joint was over 4 kilograms,whilst helpfully pointing to the weight in the pack.
But he just would not get it and kept trying to argue his point,he even said that as it was priced wrong he should have it for £4 anyway.

My boss came to the till and when she refused to sell him the beef for £4, he stormed out shouting that he would never shop there again we were like phew

I honestly don't know if he was that thick not to get it,or whether he thought he could try it on as i was young. (Even though i couldnt reduce the price of things on the till.a manager had to do that)

Snotato yy! I worked on counters for a while and it did seem to confuse people. I had to explain it a few times.
One store I worked in was in a affluent neighbourhood and it was where I was spoken to the worst.
Sadly the teenage kids were the worst. Not all of them obviously but a group of them with the girls being the most rude and foul mouthed.