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.

*got palpitations when I declined to refund her.

Took great pleasure in finding her transaction on my system after she'd given me deliberately vague dates and being able to prove to her that she hadn't paid full ticket price (she'd had sale stock unmarked from stockroom). Reassured her I had copies of all her paperwork including her previous exceptional goodwill exchange (including notes from the manager dealing with her that she was aggressive, rude and wasn't getting a refund to which she wasn't entitled as no receipt). Scamming bitch.

BH (of E17) lives across the road from me and is indeed very strange and troubled. The baked potato incident wasn't on his own drive as he doesn't have one, it was on a nearby side street!

Oh I have so many!
One that stands out was a man who complained that he couldn't have an old savings style pass book with a current account. Told him he'd need to visit brunch multiple times a day to have it updated due to the nature of transactions on a current account. He went ballistic.
Had a woman complain that our institution was sexist because her statements had her husbands name first - there was literally no order to it, just whoever's name was entered on the application first
I could go on for hours at the risk of outing myself and some of the customers... I've worked at a major high street bank for 23 years!!!

Can I say thank you one and all? Wonderful and yet depressing stories x

I am just popping in here to say that DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops isn't wrong about DS Hathaway.

I have only once got my own back on a demanding customer, since I am often a people-pleaser and also usually want to keep my job. I once worked in a large canteen-style cafe in central London, and had one of those groups in which are very clicky-fingers, do-my-bidding, even though it was a self-serve place. (Food was both very good value, and nice with it.) Final straw was "this is not hot enough - make it really hot", so I bunged her plate in the microwave, exactly as it was, and nuked it until it was steaming. There was salad on the plate, too, which I'd left there exactly as it had been returned to me, and by the time it came out of the microwave it was all welded to the plate. I dumped it in front of her and went back to the counter. Amazingly, I got no more complaints after that, and even more amazingly, I did not lose my job.

I'm a bit about FannyGallops because I've had this name for ages and he's mine all mine. Also sexier as DI than DS.

Not received but heard. Was in Waitrose the other day and some woman complained that her free coffee was not as big as it used to be. Where I live they are a bit up themselves.

ticketytock what bank do you work for ?
Every bank account, and mortgage me and my husband have taken out I have been applicant 1 as I've arranged and filled out the forms. Literally all DH has had to do is sign the form.

But every statement or letter is always addressed to us with his name first ! It can't be due to place in alphabet as my first name comes before his in the alphabet or by age as I'm older.

Sorry totally derailed the thread !

working at Asda at Christmas. We closed at 8pm on Christmas Eve. Loads of people complained there was no turkeys left by the afternoon.
But when we eventually managed to get the shop closed and leave, people were driving up to the doors and screaming at us to reopen as they needed to buy Christmas stuff. You've had weeks to buy things, it's the same date every year.

Another time we had run out of bags due to a manager cock up. It was before the bag charge, so the free carriers. We gave out all our bags for left etc for free to customers.instead.
One complained that the bag for life were no good for using as a bin liner and what did I expect her to use for her rubbish ?

But when we ran out of bags we offered customers cardboard fruit boxes instead. One customer threatened to sue me personally as carrying one would break her nails or hurt her back. I said that the box would fit in her trolley or she could put her shopping back in the trolley and then put the empty box in her car and fill it there. So no lifting of the box with items in it. She swore at me then and said she would report me to head office as I was rude !

I work in an opticians, had only been there a few months, straight out of university. A patient came in demanding we replace her lens in her glasses. When she put the glasses in the case at night both lenses were in there, but when she opened the case in the morning one was missing! Obviously my fault, I explained that if it had fallen out in the case over night of course I could put it back in for her, but apparently the lens had magically been removed as it wasn't in the case with her glasses.
I rang the area manager as she was shouting at the top of her voice that it was all my fault that the lens had disappeared over night (store manager and lab manager's day off :-() the AM obviously gave her a free lens, but then there was no one in the lab to glaze it, and she must have it there and then for work as she couldn't see a thing without them (really, really low Rx) and didn't like her spare ones so couldn't wear those.
I ended up glazing them, luckily had been shown how the week before but then she took offense that it might take me longer than the "hour" advertised on our sign.
Had a great complaint letter from her, written on a torn out page of a note book, filled with spelling mistakes and called me "that girl" she knew who I was as we had worked together when I was a Saturday girl in another store. She still glares at me if she sees me in town over 15 years later.

MrsHathaway I had not connected your Hathaway with that Hathaway! (I think I was vaguely thinking Shakespeare.) We shall all just hope that the good DS is willing to share his charms about, should he ever grace MN with his presence.

I'm not greedy - one night a week would do me lovely.

He's my inexplicable crush. I think it's the voice

Remembers another couple from a previous boss. She travelled for her role and I booked her accommodation. Two separate weekends in a row she was in a particular place but, because it was holiday season, I had to book her into different hotels.

She phoned me on Sunday afternoon while I was at a family christening that I'd 'really fucked up this time' and failed to book her anywhere as the hotel had no trace of her. Really screaming at me.

When she paused for breath I asked her what hotel she was at. She'd turned up to the wrong one. Apparently that was my fault as well. I told her I'd sent her an email on the Friday reminding her. 'I don't read emails, that's not my job'.

Second one - she was in Belfast and lost. She phoned me in Manchester for directions. 'I'm outside the hotel, facing a red brick wall. Where is the venue?' Who did she think she was, Anneka Rice? This was before Google Earth so I couldn't look so I asked her for the street name she was on 'I'm too busy to look for street names. Where am I? In the end I just thought I'd risk the flak and told her to get a taxi, said I had an incoming call from our Head of Section and put the phone down.

I had closed a road after a very serious road traffic accident where several members of the same family had died. Someone approached the cordon (on a busy roundabout) and asked why he couldn't go that way. I explained why and asked if he lived along that stretch of road. He replied no but he wanted to go and play golf at the country club. I again stated that there had been several fatalities and that the road would remain closed for some time, and that his round of golf would have to be postponed. He practically turned purple when i said i couldn't Just let him 'nip through'. Wanted to know my name and number, and said he would speak to a senior officer that he 'knew from the country club' about my attitude and then sped off nearly crashing into another motorist as he didnt look before pulling off. Never did hear anything more about it, But I imagine if he had raised it he would have been told where to get off!

She still glares at me if she sees me in town over 15 years later.

At least she can see you Shakespeare'ssister

He's my inexplicable crush. I think it's the voice

I like him too - but it's he fuzzy bumble-bee haircut . . .

The town where I work has a one way system up the high street, from the beginning of December every Tuesday they close the high street to run a Christmas market. One year a van was stuck at the barricade trying to drive up the high street (would have been difficult as some of the stalls had already been set up). He was really kicking off. The funniest thing was he was trying to drive the wrong way!

Person phoned into work, said they'd listened to my answer phone voicemail over the weekend. That they were ringing to tell me that I sounded really miserable, also the message was far too long!
This person then insisted I phone their phone to listen to how a voicemail should be recorded.
I duely did, their message began with them singing the the Proclaimers Sunshine on Leith ... which took for ages
Oh we're both in the EastMids

Misskitty nat West
But also worked at Lloyd's... same practice!

I think the worst I've ever had levelled at me was the man in B&Q who shouted and swore and went more and more red when I refused to let him walk out of the store with an entire kitchen he couldn't prove he'd paid for. My supervisor refused to step in or complete the paperwork the man required, meaning I had to leave the tills to find another member of staff. He continued to shout at me the entire time we were waiting, even when I excused myself and served another customer (I was manning the self service machines)

I witnessed plenty in a jeweller's over Christmas though. Like the man who accused my manager of being of a lower social standing than him because she couldn't get his watch fixed there and then, or the very drunk man who told her that he could afford to buy her as a prostitute when she couldn't get him exactly what he wanted (because it didn't exist). Then there was the man who stood and shouted at all of us over a watch repair before walking out and getting his wife to call and complain about how abusive we'd been to her husband. Several other customers had stopped what they were doing to check my manager was OK, such was the volume of strength of his rant.

I've done retail, food service and bar work. I now work in dispatch for a small company that do mail order. I never have to speak to anyone other than my colleagues. It's bliss.

SteamTrains, I had a very similar experience on a paper round but this was long pre 'customer service' (back in the days of pounds, shillings and pence) and the newsagent knew the bloke was a prick. No dog involved though: just complaints every Sunday that either (1) the whole paper was left on the mat (in a block of flats, so not outside) or (2) the various sections had been put through the letterbox (at ground level) separately. Others, houses without letterboxes, complained if the newspaper wasn't placed inside their locked front door, or if it rained had got wet because there was no shelter to leave them under.

And folks who live in Acacia Cottage or No. 17 or whatever but have nothing outside the house to say so (at least with numbers you have some chance of working it out) and complain when a paper is misdelivered.

I have taken a keen interest in letter boxes and house numbering ever since...

Ooh here’s another one from the archives....

Was once in Safeway, woman shopper had a grand mal seizure . Current husband and I scrambled to get her into the recovery position and keep her as safe as we could. Firstborn aged about 18 months is sat in the trolley A female shopper moves the trolley, reaches over me and woman having seizure to get some dried spaghetti from the shelf. I suggest she might like to come back. She complained at my attitude and said I should be helping her rather than the seizing woman as she paid my wages. Current husband tells her that I didn’t work there and is on the phone to 999, she starts on him telling him that I am obviously a plain clothes shop assistant as she’s seen me there many times. Paramedics arrive and take lady. Manager offers us a cuppa in the restaurant as we were in a bit of a state.and as we pass customer services, she’s there complaining. She points at me and says I should be sacked.

Remembered another from many years ago. More ridiculous and funny than awful.

I worked in investment banking. One of my jobs was to do some preliminary checks on proposed customers that the various desks sent up to our team. Manager of the Spanish desk (herafter 'SpanMan') brings up a client form and leaves it in my in-tray as I am on the telephone to a colleague in another department. He could have given it to any of the other four people in the team, but whatever.
I finish the call and find a message left by SpanMan, telling me his client is 'urgent' and I 'must deal with it straight away'. There is an email in my inbox to the same effect.
I check the details and note that the customer he's trying to get approved is resident in country A, but he has stated that they are authorised in country B. I call him to try to explain this but he won't listen.
He comes to my desk and shouts. Very loudly. He jumps up and down on the spot. Literally. People turn around and look at a grown man who is bright red in the face behaving like a toddler.
My manager comes out of the office and asks what's wrong.
"She won't approve my client. It will cost us millions of euros if we don't do this deal, etc. etc."
My boss "What's the problem?"
Me: "I was trying to explain. The client is in country A. The form says they're authorised in country B."
My boss (to SpanMan) "Go away. Come back when you know who your client is."

@MrsHathaway I think he's all yours although perhaps you'd share with @ArcheryAnnie and me? He's also just as sexy irl - he came into my shop one time and I got to serve him!