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.

These CPR stories remind me of once when I was queuing to pay in a department store. A team of medics in bright orange jackets and holding a defibrillator rushed up to the lady behind the till and asked (shouting) where Till 4 was. Obviously (to me) someone had cllapsed there. The lady behind the till didn't even look up properly, rolled her eyes at their shouting and gestured off vaguely in another direction. I don't think she had any clue what was going on at all. People can be very blinkered when concentrating on something.

I've just remembered one from when I used to work in a restaurant. I often would also work behind the bar and make the drinks, including hot drinks using a coffee machine. One day a family come in and one of the children want a hot chocolate. So the mum comes over (once it's been ordered) to reiterate it's a CHILD'S hot chocolate (as was written by the person who took the order) and it can't be too hot. So I say, "Ok, I'll make it half and half with hot and cold milk but it won't be very warm then." That's fine. I make the hot chocolate, it is warm but only just. Cue the mum coming back, hot chocolate is too cold.

Of course. So I agree to heat up the hot chocolate (using the milk steamer) but they may have to wait for it to cool down. Send off now nicely hot hot chocolate... Next complaint? You guessed it! Too hot! I was a bit exasperated by this point and suggested they wait for it to cool down! She flounced off at this. All my colleagues and manager were pissing themselves by this point, so I didn't get in any trouble, but really!

It's really quite difficult to gauge temperature when you can't taste something so I thought initially it was better to err on side of caution. Unfortunately we had no thermometers- that would have made it all a bit easier I suppose lol.

I work in a small upstairs office. The entrance is on the ground floor and is literally a door (always locked) that leads to a staircase. We don't have visitors/meetings there and the only people who ring the bell are delivery/couriers. One day I was coming into the office and saw a man I didn't recognise trying to get in the door. I asked if I could help him (wondering if he was in the wrong place or was actually coming to see a colleague). He said he didn't need help, but he needed to get in the door to visit a company with a name I didn't recognise. I explained that this company wasn't here, and that we were the only organisation with an office here. He wasn't having any of it - tried to get in the door, said I was lying, he had to be right, began swearing etc etc.

I was polite, but firm, and shut the door in his face. He banged on it repeatedly and refused to accept that he wasn't in the right place. Bizarre.

I used to work for a financial services organisation. Some of the payments to the financial advisers would be made by cheque. One day I took a call from one of the FA's to say that he'd locked his cheque in the drawer of his desk and left his keys at home and had intended to bank it that day. As he couldn't unlock his drawer (due to his own oversight) he wanted us to transfer the money into his bank account instead on a same day transfer. Wouldn't hear that he had been paid and that all he needed to do was to bank the cheque he had already received.

I only worked in retail for a few years but had so many stupid complaints and rude customers it was untrue.

Having worked in an office for almost 30 years previous to that and only ever having one rude client it opened my eyes to what people dealing with the public have to put up with.

Me and DH went on holiday earlier this year to Sweden. It was light literally 24 hours. The manager of the accommodation we stayed in said he fairly often received complaints about people not being able to sleep because it didn't get dark!

What made it worse was that quite a few of the complainers apparently have been Swedish, there were blinds in all rooms that blocked most of the light out and he offered them sleep masks (which they refused)

Retail here. A customer complained we were overstaffed! The team weren't standing around chatting, nor had the customer been over approached. There were just too many staff in her opinion. Madness!

I worked in the school that my children attend and had to discipline a child who had kicked someone in the head and then told him to fuck off.

Two days later I'm sitting in front of my boss because the Mum of the head kicker has complained. Her very sensitive child is now emotionally damaged from being told off for his violent behaviour. My boss said,"she's one of those parents, don't worry about it."

A couple of weeks later I was at the supermarket and came out to find that someone had parked in my boot. I went in and had a word with the customer services guy who called out the reg number over the tannoy. This fella turns up, all cocky dickhead, and I show him the picture and he gets very aggressive and tries to shoulder barge me on the way to move his car.
There's a decal on the back of his car advertising a business and I've taken a picture of it so I have a Google and the business is owned by his wife who is complaining mother of head kicking fuck off boy (no prize for guessing where he gets the attitude from).

It capmed down after this and I just avoided them at school pick up until two months later when their youngest child was put in my son's clsss at school and now I get to see them every day of the week. I've been hexing them with a pox for eighteen months but it hasn't worked.

Summer I think we worked at the same branch of department store... I once saw a man get a refund on a pair of 7 year old trousers because the crotch had gone though wear.... he expected his pants to come with a lifetime guarantee

I’ve been enjoying this thread since I no longer work with the public. I think 6 months waiting tables should be mandatory for school leavers. Show you how to behave (or at least how not to behave)
I didn’t think I had anything to add but then there’s this. Working in a huge call centre. Talking to a lovely grandad about reducing bills. He was joking about the cost of grandchildren, he clearly adored them and spend money on them. One of the things we were told to say was why don’t they spend their pocket money on this (entertainment upgrade). He howled with laughter at the thought and suggested other things he could do to save money (cutting down his suits etc). I said shame you can’t put them up chimneys anymore.
Yup, pulled up by my supervisor for supporting child slavery. I had to explain why child labour was bad. It sounds made up. I wish it was.

I was that complainant once, I'm ashamed to say. I'd been trying for weeks to get a letting agent to remove its board, which was abandoned on my property long after the flat was let.

After several phone calls with no result, I marched into the office and demanded that they take action immediately. They looked a bit bemused but said they'd look into it. I got home, looked at the board - and realised I'd been lecturing the wrong agency. I should have gone back to apologise but was too embarrassed.

Former flight attendant.

Woman complaining that we didn’t serve a hot meal or sandwich on a 1 hour flight and her poor children were literally starving to death. When the crew were eating their crew meals started shouting and saying we had stolen her children’s food.

Short haul flight - sandwich lunch offered. No special meals. Passenger went off on one about how he was gluten free and how the airline was discriminating against him. He was offered a plain crew salad and turned it down saying wasn’t there any food in business class? He got a bit huffy and then demanded a sandwich and then wanted seconds.

Passengers screaming and wailing that we couldn’t fly in a snowstorm. Yes. It’s annoying. But being delayed is better than death. Airlines can’t fix the weather!

Passenger who wrote into complain that I wouldn’t lift her heavy bag into the overhead and was rude to her. What actually happened is I politely said it was too heavy for me to lift and I could have it put into the hold for her.

I worked in a pizza shop and made a delivery to a customer who called back to the store and complained the pizza delivered was too hot (as in just out of the oven). We all had a good laugh.

Polarbearflavour

It's bad enough having an obnoxious customer who fucks off after five minutes but it must be awful being stuck on a flight with some total dickhead who you can't get away from. I mean you could open the doors and push them out but then other people would start complaining about the draught.

User that sounds like the same place!
Their Christmas advert never gives me the same warm fuzzy feeling as it seems to give everyone else

I rent out a flat. Got phone call one morning from the police asking if I own (flat address).
Sergeant explains that my tenant had complained I'd been harassing her. Apparently asking her not to smoke cannabis in said flat was harassment. Yes, she'd told the police that I was harassing her by not accepting her use of illegal substances.

Police response was to tell her "that would be a civil matter" and to advise me to get rid of her. Which was a fun process as every letter she got led to her calling the police at 2 am claiming to be terrified by my harassment of her - luckily they only woke me once.

I used to handle FOI requests for central Government. Got lots of annoyed people insisting we hadn't released info that didn't exist (chemtrails and aliens, usually).

I was tempting as a PA for a very large bank at their Canary Wharf HQ.

I didn’t have much to do so I asked another PA if I could help her out. Her manager came over and said “why on Earth would you her if you could help her.”

I explained and she said it wasn’t her fault I didn’t have enough to do and I had to stop speaking to her PA.

I spent the next few weeks on the Internet not talking to anybody all day.

TEMPING not tempting!

Come on summer and user which store is it?

Working my rounds as a district nurse in the 80s an elderly lady complained that I had knocked on the front door and in future I should use the tradesmans enterance.

Ds worked as a kitchen porter during A levels and uni and this same fat customer would complain that her pudding portions were not standard. Another woman complained her soup was too hot.

A student complained that I was insufficiently respectful of Vladimir Putin. My all-time favourite piece of student feedback.

An old friend used to work in the insurance dept of a major retailer.

A man called one day to complain that a product he had bought from them had blown all of his electrics and gutted 2 rooms with a fire.

He was a 'qualified electrician' who had wired up his carpet sweeper with a cable and plugged it in!!!

Retail here. A customer complained we were overstaffed! The team weren't standing around chatting, nor had the customer been over approached. There were just too many staff in her opinion. Madness

To be fair I sometimes think that too. If people are milling about and keep asking you what you want every 2 minutes, there are too many staff.

Of course, in most places it's exactly the opposite. And if someone does ask you if you need help and you say no thanks I'm just looking, and then 5 minutes later you need help woe betide you, everyone will have melted into thin air.

Though if they were all busy and leaving the customer alone, that was a bit mad.

It seems the posher the shop, the ruder the customers

Oh definitely.

And I've noticed it on planes too. A few years ago DH and I were in business class (cheap upgrade) and it was a short flight. We were in the last row of business so the people in front were being served drinks etc first. No problem with that.

What I did have a problem with was that every single one of them had some sort of demand or want that took the cabin crew ages to deal with. It was getting to the point where I was about to stand up, tell them all to shut up and stop being demanding just because they could, and would they let the cabin crew get to us so we could actually get our meal/drink before we landed. There were only about 5 rows in front of us and it must have taken half an hour for the cabin crew to get to us - on a flight that only took an hour or so.

It really felt like "oh we're in business class so lets be as demanding and obnoxious as possible" Bloody people.

@Floellabumbags I'm confused about your car one. Couldn't you have moved forward? Sometimes if you both have long cars they do fill the spaces (although not denying the bloke sounds an arse!)

Our dog was sitting quietly at hubbies feet, another dog walker shouts at him "can't you control your dog".....