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.

No , because we have to Cancel The Cheque first

And check the rental contract about political posters...

didn't understand why I couldn't accept the BALLOON as proof of her age

I had someone try to use empty tobacco pouches as proof of age

The fire thing gets me. I was in a theatre, 5 mins before curtain up, and fire alarm went off. I stood up to leave and my friends and H wouldn’t move or get out of the way (I was in middle of long row). Apparently I was making an unnecessary fuss about nothing. No-one else in theatre moved either! It took an announcement over the tannoy saying it was a real fire to get everyone out and people were still taking their sweet time about it. Seriously do people not know how quickly fire can spread?

As it was fire brigade came and sorted it out within 30 mins so we were able to go back and see the show. People were still moaning about the late start! Don’t know if anyone officially complained though.

Lostflipflop- your manager gave a Refund on a Tesco product when you actually
Worked in Sainsbury’s? Sounds like he should be the one leaving his job.

Titania it's hard to get GPs appointments in the rest of the country too. In this small northern market town, you have to call up at exactly 830 when the lines open or you have no chance. This is definitely not just a 'London' problem.

Anne Robinson?

MrsHathaway were those calls from a Mrs and Mr Dursley, by any chance?

Several yards ago I was volunteering, answering the phones to take donations, for Children in Need, on the evening of the big TV appeal. A guy rang up to say that his pub had collected XX amount for Children in Need, but he was really angry that the BBC weren't showing much from his region, and if they didn't start showing more from his area then they weren't going to donate the collected money!

I explained to him that I was a volunteer working taking donations and that was couldn't influence BBC editorial policy, but he just shouted at me that I was an overpaid BBC employee and carried on ranting that if we didn't sort it out then the charity would not be getting the money. What an arsehole!

Saw someone in A&E who seemed to have broken a bone. XRay didn’t show anything but because I felt it was broken I got orthopaedics to see the person. They, and the radiologists all agreed that they couldn’t see a break but it likely was broken. Explained to the person that quite often you can’t see break when it’s fresh so we would treat like it was and recheck in one week. Repeat X-ray showed the fracture, exactly where I thought it would be. Patient complained that I had missed the original fracture AND that I had put them in a cast for a week when ‘there was no fracture’.

Another complained that I explained that my diagnosis of pneumonia and their GP’s diagnosis of chest infection were the same thing. Apparently I was wrong and the GP should be sued for misdiagnosis.

Yet another came into resus where we were trying to restart someone’s heart to complain that that person had bunked the queue.

Gotta love A&E!!

'Years ago' no 'yards ago'!

The cappuccino I made them went flat after 15 minutes and they wanted a refund.

I was only 16 and scared, lucking the CF didn't know my boss was on site, making cakes, and came out and did the bossly thing - "DO not shout at my staff, here is a to-go cup, GET OUT"

Used to work in the bar of a restaurant, where a couple would come for dinner every weekend. The woman always asked for a Sheridan's after the meal, and then would always complain that I'd given her a short measure.

It's impossible to measure Sheridan's in a drinks jigger because of the stupid double-nozzle pouring spout so I had to guess. When she complained, I tried pouring a standard measure of water into one glass and using it to gauge how much I was pouring into her glass. She watched me with a scowl, accepted it...and then next time she came in asked for it poured over ice so I couldn't use that method. Again, she complained I'd not given her enough (and I'd definitely been over-generous in my estimation).

In the end the boss just told me to fill her glass, and when it was gone we didn't replace the bottle. She complained about that too, but we pretended it was a problem with our supplier.

@Coloursthatweremyjoy is that "Letters from a nut" that you mentioned? Where he writes to a restaurant asking if he can always be seated by the bins in future?! I love that book.

People com0lained parking in their area was bad and getting worse, then complained when I looked into getting a car park put in. Same people, same place. I think they want to be the only ones who live there.

I've cancelled the cheque and recalibrated the machine! Aren't I good? 😇

Whattodo

A customer complained to my manager that I was "far happier than I had a right to be" confused

What a twat! Male?

passemoi I only have problems with GPs' receptionists who think they know more about CF than I do, telling me that DS1 didn't need a repeat prescription for antibiotics when he has to take them twice a day, every day, for the rest of his life. I actually had to start crying before she put the request in for me.

Oh God could write a book.

Worked for large insurance company in their call centre. Man rang up to complain that his insurance certificate was too big and proceeded to give me the exact measurements vs the one from his previous insurers (again, exact measurements) and he expected us to adjust it accordingly.

Was in hospital last year, on the day before I was discharged a vile woman was moved into the same room as me. She called the nurses to "move my fork across the tray," (woman was perfectly mobile btw, rang the bell at 3 AM for them to make her cups of tea, screamed at a nurse that she should "look at me when I am talking to you woman!" complained that it was too cold outside and how dare they open a window. Wanted the window shut and the heating on, ward was already boiling and I had specifically been moved to that room because it had an opening window, then proceeded to tell me that I would have to be the one to compromise and have all the windows shut and the heat on. She's very lucky I was being discharged or I would have told her what I thought.

A family member worked for the call centre who dealt with orders for some tat catalogue back in the day. She took a call from someone who wanted to complain that the Klingon alarm clock didn't speak accurate Klingon and he should know as he was descended from three generations of Klingon speakers. .

Walking through a hospital corridor in uniform a young man stopped me and asked me where his grandad was.
Me thinking I was being helpful, thought I would take him to the help desk to see if they could find the chap.
I asked what grandads name was...."grandad" was the utterly exasperated reply, followed by a phone call home asking his dad what grandads name was because they are all fucking stupid at this hospital....

True story.

Oh I have loads, I'm a nurse.

When I worked in a hospital an elderly lady lost her false teeth (we think she threw them in the bin). We bust a gut to get her some new ones made as quickly as possible, so she could eat. After her discharge the family complained that we hadn't gone through all the clinical waste bins by hand to find her old teeth as her new ones were too shiny.

Working in a GP surgery and a man collapsed in the waiting room - I started CPR and my colleague grabbed the defibrillator. One receptionist called 999 and the other one started herding people out of the waiting room into the corridor to give the poor man some privacy. As I'm kneeling on the floor in front of the desk a woman steps over me and the dead bloke I'm working on, interrupts the receptionist on her call to the ambulance service to ask if this means her appointment with me is going to be very late and will she have to wait much longer.

A woman attended for a smear, she hadn't been called, wasn't due and the lab won't screen the samples if not due - they just get destroyed without testing. I explained this and suggested she make an appointment when she receives the letter from the Cervical Screening Programme later in the year. She went ballistic and was screaming and shouting at me, said she was hoping to get pregnant and if she got pregnant then developed cervical cancer before her smear was due (in 6 months) and had to have an abortion it would be all my fault and I would be responsible for killing her baby. It was awful, despite being kind and patient up to that point I got quite upset.

She then went out to reception and filled in a complaint form about me there and then. The practice manager and GP wrote to her quite sternly and suggested she apologise to me or she'd be removed from our list.

Many of these complaints on this thread make me laugh - the general public can be bonkers!

A little off topic but talking about all the doctors receptionist, before we moved away from greater London i took D's who was just over a year old at the time down the surgery to see if there were any appointments available that day. I didn't demand an appointment or anything like that I'm always conscious to be polite. Ds was visibly very unwell he couldn't breathe properly and he just was not well. I was literally shouted at by the receptionist and told how dare i have the audacity to come down without an appointment and i had to go home and call up of i wanted an appointment. I was quite young back then and didn't really stand up for myself. I went and sat in the car and called up only to be told by same lady there were no appointments left. D's ended up in hospital that day with pneumonia. The same receptionist has done similar to family and friends

Oh God I remember once hunting through hospital for a specific hearing aid battery for an elderly lady. Fifteen wards and we found one, sorted it out and the lady complained as she hadn't wanted to hear us anyway.

As a patient I was quite ill after a coil fitting, fever, vomiting , severe pain, heavy bleeding. Was already in hospital. The nurses kept coming round to me overnight - the elderly lady opposite repeatedly asked them to shut up and go away, shouted at me for making a noise... hellish night. She reduced a student nurse to floods of tears the next morning. When I blacked out in the shower she was none too happy at the staff coming in either.

A customer sent feedback after an event we had a table at. They said the woman on our stall was ugly and we should hire somebody more attractive to avoid putting people off buying. I was running the stall.
Not the worst I've had but it stuck with me. General angry verbal abuse just bounces off most of the time.

What a twat! Male?

No, middle aged woman.

When I worked in a department store perfume section I had a man trying to return a half used bottle of aftershave. He said that he wasn't aware it was a splash on and he'd wanted a spray one. How he hadnt noticed this before he'd used half I have no idea. He had his receipt. He'd bought it four months ago and even if he'd been within the 28 days for a refund- he'd used half the bloody bottle!! He went mad at me when I explained this, swearing at me, calling me a bitch!! I told him I wasn't willing to serve him any longer and went off to find my manager - who GAVE him the fucking refund as it's a department store who prided themselves on customer service. She made me look so stupid. He then put in a lovely complaint about me refusing to give him a refund, forgetting to include the part about it being a half used, four month old bottle, and his aggressive and sweary attitude.
Needless to say, I left there as soon as I could and have so much respect for people working in shops.
It seems the posher the shop, the ruder the customers.