Retail workers- Whays the rudest thing a customer has done or said to you ?

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I work in retail and provide good customer service and always help customers.

Last week I had one go in to a full blown rage as we did not have any hand sanitizer and it was apparently all my fault. So I said dont speak to me in that manner and turned around and walked away from her.

Therr are many other moments I could mention but we would be here all day
So what is the rudest thing a customer has done or said to you?

I volunteer in a charity shop. Whilst working in the back I could hear raised voices from the shop floor, I went out to find a woman shouting and berating the staff as in her opinion a sheet was marked as the wrong size. She called us all incompetant and said we needed disciplining . The sheet was 2 bucks. She bought it, then hissed at the 80 year old volunteer on the till that she would remember her face, after shouting that she used to work in a charity shop and would not stand for this. We were all 😮😮😮

As a 17 year old Saturday girl in a chain newsagents I had a right nasty old cunt make me cry. She tore a strip off me as the till rang up the barcode incorrectly and made personal remarks about me wearing glasses and being a ‘simpleton’, it was actually so bad that another customer said ‘woah mrs do you not think that’s a wee bit harsh on the lassie?’ She stormed off as my manager cane up to use his key to sort the till. He could see I was upset and asked what happened. The man who stuck up for me said ‘the poor lassie is just doing her job and that woman had a go at her for wearing glasses it was uncalled for!’ I burst into tears at that point. It was a learning curve and I never let anyone make me feel like that again.

What I didn’t know was that my older brother who had seen it as he was in the shop followed her and told her she was an old ugly bitch (It wasn’t his finest moment but he was ready to actually knock her out). He said she nearly shat herself when he grabbed her shoulder and was confronted by a 6’3” bloke who was holding himself back from roping her head from her neck for upsetting his little sister. He’s usually very very shy.

I was on the tills at Christmas in a high street health and beauty shop. Serving a woman and her mother shopping. I had rung up the shopping packed the bags and then was handed a 3 months out of date voucher. Apologised and said it was out of date only to have the woman screw the voucher up and throw it in my face! First and only time I ever refused to serve someone. She then argued the queues were too long to go to the next till and I should serve her anyway. Thankfully her mother took my side and said she’d never been so ashamed of her!

There are people with narcissistic personality disorder everywhere, unfortunately

I was packing bags for charity as part of a group I did. I think i was around 8 at the time, can't have been any older than that. I started packing as the items came down and this lady started shouting at me as I'd put some tins on top of something, nothing that would have been damaged by doing so but she was saying how stupid I was and was really intimidating. Luckily I was a confident 8 year old who just said sorry and walked off but if it had been any of the other girls they'd probably have been in tears and really messed up by it as they were all younger than me.
Not me but I was working at the time, some kids come into the shop and say "oh if only sells x" and my boss says "oh haven't you seen y". She can be aggressive but this time she was actually really polite. Anyway these kids go outside and I can hear them telling their nan about the mean lady who snapped at them so in comes this woman shouting and going about how her grandkids are crying outside and my boss is totally confused, explains what actually happened etc but this woman carries on shouting at her and in the end my boss reverts back to her aggressive state and starts shouting back. Silly woman then said something like "I'm going to leave a review on trip advisor/Facebook/google" and my boss just laughed in her face and said "see if I care, now get out of my shop". Never did leave a review.
I volunteered in a charity shop when I was younger and this woman used to come in who reminded me of a bird. Anyway she'd always try to get a discount on an item. She'd find the tiniest fault on an item, things you'd expect on a second hand used item such as a tiny mark on a glove or some loose buttons on a coat. Wouldn't buy an item unless we gave her a discount, and my manager bless her would always try to lower the price by a reasonable amount that meant we'd still get a decent amount of money from it, but this woman would haggle off of that price as if we were trading at a car boot or something.
I've also had people treat me as if it's my personal fault we charge for carrier bags, or we don't accept card payments under a certain amount, or if we don't accept cards etc. I also refuse to do any refunds/swaps nowadays as customers would get funny when I'd be checking the quality of an item to make sure it wasn't worn or damaged, and the one time I didn't check because I knew the lady wouldn't have used the item so shouldn't have left the bag i took it out and it stunk of smoke and grease. It was truly vile, and I'm a smoker and have worked in a fish and chip shop so have a higher tolerance for those smells.

My mum had a complaint against her, she worked in a major supermarket. The shop didn’t take it seriously as apparently she swore at a customer on a Tuesday afternoon. My mum always had a Tuesday off and only worked 7-12. We never did get to the bottom of who complained and why.

I work in a bar so you can imagine the things I’ve been called.

The most recent was I wouldn’t serve a guy who was drunk and becoming abusive and he called me a fucking boot and a fucking cow! I laughed and I asked him if that was the best he could do, he left soon after. I’m certainly not going to stand and take abuse and not answer someone back who speaks to me like that!

I couldn't do it. I'd not be able to tolerate it.
Big respect to those that can and do 👍

Sorry I should add, and to customers that are ill mannered do fuck off and tell your attitude.
Told you I wouldn't last.

Work in hospitality- I’ve been handed tissues covered in bodily fluids by entitled mums with PFB’s. Literally dripping in phlegm, sometimes baby vomit. But you don’t realise until the said gooey item is in your hand. Absolutely revolting.

DD2 was threatened with a knife a couple of days ago as the shop had run out of toilet paper. It wasn’t exactly her fault but the male customer decided she was an easy target for his rage.

She very calmly pulled out her phone and called the police while he was screaming abuse at her then pressed the alarm for help.

The whole world has gone mad.

I live in aus, naturally we speak english.
Working at a market in my carnie days, i was told to learn chinease by a woman who was pissed off i didnt understand her chinease speaking mother. Told me i had no right to be working if i couldnt talk to all in their native tongue.
I laughed at her and told her and her mother to leave and go find some common sense and respect. On a market stall we had a little more freedom to tell people to politely fuck off

@Likethebattle, nice bit of ageism. It does make your Brother threatening to physically assault a woman, worse though i suppose, because she's older. Is male violence against women a thing in your family?

In my previous job, we had a woman come in looking for a bra. We didn't have exactly what she wanted in the size she wanted and explained about sister sizing, to which she threw a strop. She then asked a question (which I can't exactly remember now) and the colleague who was dealing with her looked at me to confirm if we could do what she wanted. Apparently that was my colleague rolling her eyes and she stomped out in high dudgeon, saying she was going to complain. We gave the manager a head's up about it and sure enough, within 10 minutes head office called, asking about the incident. They, of course, fobbed her off with a discount voucher for the online side of the business, but didn't object to the woman calling my colleague a 'fat Yankee cunt'. The whole incident was caught on camera and it was clear to see that my colleague was about to ask a question of me, not rolling her eyes.

If the customer hadn't been rude the brother wouldn't have said anything. Do you think it's okay for shop workers to be verbally assaulted then!

I was pulled over the bar by my hair by a drunk customer many years ago.... Wish I had called the police on him. I certainly would now! He was a solicitor!!

One person i know was told to go die and then nearly run over in the car park by a lady who was asked to wait while he moved some heavy cages off a broken delivery lorry outside

I worked in Brantano as my first job. I had a customer yell at me because boys shoes stopped at size six but her young teenage son was a size seven so she had to pay for adult shoes.

Obviously this was completely beyond my control.

It does go the other way too. I once need to top my oyster card up years back. My baby was 6 weeks old and my son was 2. We went in a newsagents I'd not used before, and when I looked in my purse i only had 50p.. I was exhausted and the walk home was 40 mins. The newsagent refused to top it up for me as it was under £1. ( That was his own rule not TFL) I begged and said he could top it up with just 20p which is all I needed and he could keep the other 30p.. he thought for a moment and refused. Then his wife came out from the back, and asked what was going on and I got a bit upset, she said 'we dont know you!' And she refused..we had to walk home. I was so upset but angry too at how uncharitable people can be. My baby was in the buggy sleeping and I managed to put the 2 yr old on the hood and held him while he slept. Always wished I'd gone to the local papers about that one...

Get me the organ grinder, I've had enough of the monkey. That was over the phone at a Customer Service job.

Not retail, but too good not to share.

I worked for a large housing maintenance company. One of their subcontractors was furious (probably because we hadn't paid them) so called me and repeatedly called me a "fucking fat bitch" (I was sat there thinking 'how does he know?'). He then hung up, called me back and told me to "fuck off". He didn't like it when I pointed out he was the one who called me.

My director had a zero tolerance policy for that kind of behaviour towards his staff and the stupid twat hadn't withheld his number. A bit of internet digging and I found his company. He was removed from the system and we no longer worked with him. He tried to worm his way back in a few times.

When I worked in fast food a man who felt I had been insufficiently servile threatened very seriously to rape me and then stood outside for some time, leaning against the window and holding a screwdriver.

My manager laughed; I quit my job. Ahhh the 90s.

Just last week I had a woman be really vile to me completely unprovoked .. she was being served to my colleague and I walked past her and told her something ( we are very busy and have to multitask and do so much stuff at once ) so it wasn't about her night out or whatever .. and she just launched at me telling me I shouldn't speak to her while she was serving me and how dare I bla bla .. I didn't say anything because I was so shocked and I just said sorry.. I really wanted to tell her to fuck off .. she had such a horrible angry look on her face and frankly an ugly aura I felt sorry for her for having such a miserable life she felt then need to have a go at me ..
The thing that annoys me is if we were not in the situation we were I would have been able to retaliate and stand up for myself but hey ho .. retail innit 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I worked in an office for 30 years and dealt with the public. Never any rude people.

I then went into retail. The first week opened my eyes to how rude (and stupid) some people are.

I managed 8 years in retail and am now so glad to be out of it. I found that the level of rudeness and condescension depends on the shop you work for. When I worked in Wilkinsons lots of customers were very rude but when I worked in Waterstones it was far less common. I know someone who works in McDonald's and they say they get rude comments and insults all the time