The worst complaint you have ever received

[planetclom]

I’ll start.
Someone complained they when they arrived early for an appointment I saw them early, they did not want to be seen early ...
Someone complained that I was only interested in box ticking and in the next sentence complained I spend to long trying to sort out their issue...

Work in the NHS if that is relevant, I suspect it is.

Working as a barmaid was certainly excellent training for being a doctor. Dealing with aggressive and nonsensical demands from people in a very low-stakes environment.

(Obviously the majority of patients, like the majority of pub customers, are perfectly nice. But it was nice to already have a thick skin for dealing with the minority who are twats)

The Weakest Link?

Raindrops I did consider of course which was why I took the time to check and double check because I knew she did not have an appointment with me but she was adamant she did have An Appointment.

What I think in my head and what I say out loud are poles apart.

If I'd been uncaring rude NHS dragon I'd have said "No, nothing to do with me , go back to the Main Reception"

But I went out of my way (when I had 101 other things to do) and why when she said about seeing a 'Proper' member of staff I was but didn't tell her I'd already done my level best.

Trust me , the way some patients speak to us NHS staff they are protected by us being in our NHS Uniform,( we are like Ceasers Wife ). If I encountered the type of shit I have to contend with in a Real Life situation, I'd give em both fucking barrells !

And she still complained BTW !

Oh and for every badly behaved child= "They might have SEN" there seems to be a 'every rude entitled older person'= "they might have dementia" then?

Or no, there might just be a lot of rude, entitled "shout loud and get what you want/ squeaky wheel gets the oil" people.

I worked as a junior in a hairdressers when I was a teen.

My job was to wash hair before they won’t for their cut/blow dry. The woman’s hair I was washing was crawling with lice.

Protocol was to finish the stage if shampooing and to let owner know, which I did.

The boss had a polite word in private at the back of the salon. The woman kicked off, screaming at my boss that I must have given her head lice as she didn’t have them coming in and that I was embarrassing her. She was absolutely crawling with them so would have had them for a while.

I was mortified.

The customer who complained that I had ruined her Christmas as I couldn't provide her with two pairs of the largest and most expensive curtains the shop sold. At 3.30pm on Christmas Eve when we (and the several other stores within any reasonable driving distance) had sold out and the next delivery wasn't until the 28th.

Nothing would convince this woman that we would have loved to make a nigh on £1000 sale on Christmas Eve and really weren't trying to make her look like she hadn't thought about her Christmas decor until the last minute...she ranted almost non stop for an hour until we were closing up, bought no curtains despite liking the alternatives we offered and put a complaint in to head office about the thoroughly unhelful staff who ruined her Christmas.

I could pootle round to my local Tesco (other supermarkets are available) and tell them that as they claim to sell a "turkey for everyone" I need a live one because I'm vegetarian.

See how long it takes till I'm barred from every Tesco store

I worked at kfc when I left school and got plenty of complaints, one person had a chicken drumstick and said she wasn't eating it because the chicken had cancer (it had a lump of that white gristle stuff) and wanted a refund

Another ate a mini fillet then claimed, less than 5 minutes later That it had given her food poisoning

I miss working there

Titanis I try and get to know the regulars so I know when they genuinely need a same day appointment and when they're trying it on. And if you told me it was for mental health reasons I'd have you in within the hour as I know how serious MH can be.

I love my job and take pride in my work. Apart from this man I've never had a compliant in 6 years so I think that's good going - helps I work in a small but quite friendly town and I also live there.

I went on maternity leave for a year and on my first day back in the office (when I had been there about 10 mins or so) a customer rang up to complain. She went on an absolute rant about something that had happened the week before, was screaming down the phone and verbally attacked me and told me how incompetent I was. Then... after her massive rant she said "oh welcome back by the way" 😳

I have been complained about for:
Being short
Being female
Standing around doing nothing (whilst observing a role that i wasnt allowed to do anything until i had shadowed for a week.)
Touching my hair in an irritating manner
Being too quiet
Having a weird accent
Not being atttactive
Having a facial piercing
Sitting on a chair (after 7 hours standing)

Theres more these are just top of head.

Customer once phoned the shop I worked in and told my manager I hadn't charged for one of their greetings cards. They bought a pile and i missed one. I could understand if I over charged. Twat. Manager couldn't give a monkeys and found it funny

Oh i have had a complaint for having a foreign hard to spell name...its not hard to spell at all

I have a few. One from the top of my head that I still remember:

Busy pub. Two people standing next to each other waiting to be served. I asked who was next. Person 1 turned away from me talking to their friend across the room. I asked again. Person 2 told me their order. In the middle of person 2's order, person 1 decided to acknowledge me and complain asking if they were invisible. Well I was clearly invisible to you as I asked twice and you ignored me

Oh i once worked in a designer expensive store. I was dealing with a snotty customer anyway and he demanded i check a £500 dress top to bottom ro make sure there was no marks. Little did i know there was a needle stuck in it and i pricked my thumb and bled everywhere but not on the dress itself. That man yelled at me and asked for my manager.

This is all well and good but have you all tried recalibrating the machine?

This is all well and good but have you all tried recalibrating the machine?

No , because we have to Cancel The Cheque first and you know what a pain in the butt that can be !

A first year student complaining that the music in the student bar (when it was on) was too loud. He had measured the decibels.

When I worked for a service that works on the phone supporting people emotionally I lost count of the number of complaints I received. Some of them stick out more than others though!

One man rang up saying that his television needed retuning and could I do it for him from my computer. I said that it wasn't possible for me to do from a computer and that's not what our service was for, cue shouting/swearing and telling me how unhelpful I was, my favourite line 'but I'll give you my fucking address so you can do it!!!!!'.

Another caller telling me that it had taken him 4 hours to get through and it was a ridiculous time to wait and our service should be shut down. I checked on my computer and the longest wait time was 5 minutes, explained that he couldnt have been on hold for 4 hours as nobody had waited longer than 5 minutes. Said that I was a liar and calling him a liar also, that he had waited so long his problem had now been sorted out but he was just calling to tell me how ridiculous it was to wait 4 hours. Turns out he didn't wait on the line and called every 30 minutes for 4 hours, I explained if he had waited a couple of minutes he would have got through to speak to someone.

Finally a lady that said it was illegal for out calls to be recorded and that I was breaking the law by recording her. I said that it's our policy and she didn't have to use the service if she wasn't happy. Said that she was calling the police about me

I've worked in retail at Christmas, in call centres, in childcare, in front line MH services with criminals and extremely violent and dangerous people.

10000000% the hypothetical national service should be in NHS GP reception.

There's honestly nothing like it. Everyone that hates their GP receptionist, go and work a day in our shoes - I promise there's nothing like the abuse you get from other jobs. Especially when it's from people who could be friends with your mum. Perfectly well people. Who if they're annoyed about the waiting times for appointments/ prescriptions, should be fuming at the government - not the person on the front desk on minimum wage doing their best. And at my surgery we always have same day appointments, or routine ones for a day or two in advance. Don't know how I'd hope working for a surgery with appointments 3 weeks in advance people love to get angry at the people at the bottom, like we make the rules.

Cellardoor23

I have a few. One from the top of my head that I still remember:

Busy pub. Two people standing next to each other waiting to be served. I asked who was next. Person 1 turned away from me talking to their friend across the room. I asked again. Person 2 told me their order. In the middle of person 2's order, person 1 decided to acknowledge me and complain asking if they were invisible. Well I was clearly invisible to you as I asked twice and you ignored me hmm

Happens a lot that does! Along with huffing and puffing and complaints about the wait (5 mins max usually - obviously someone will die if they don't get their pint within a minute or 2!) And then looking blankly at you and having to ask everyone what they want to drink because they haven't bothered to find out before they get served. Or the person who moans about the wait, then wanders off with the first few drinks, has a good old chat and does it a few times and then spends 5 minutes locating their money - because being prepared and even knowing where your money is when you're buying a round is just too simple.

Freddie you sound like an absolute sweetheart. I don't think people outside of London get how hard it is to just get a drs appointment. I have some unpopular political views because of this. At my gps if you don't get through before 9 m you can't get an appointment. The receptionists are also just not very nice. I have stayed with a friend of mine in Wiltshire and gotten an emergency appointment and prescription on the day we called. And everyone was so nice. I was amazed quite frankly.

Wrong sex, Nettle and Katie.

Don’t Get Done Get Dom? That Matt bloke??