Most ridiculous complaint

[PumpkinKlNG]

I was in McDonald’s today (I know 😬) and a woman came in to complain to the manager that her food had dropped on the floor yesterday and was demanding her money back, she said it happened on the way home. Aibu to think this is the most ridiculous complaint? I was amazed someone would actually come back the following day to complain about that, has anyone else heard of a more ridiculous complaint?

Worked in a five star resort in Scotland. One year we had a particularly cold snap, night time temperatures dipped into negative double digits for about 4 days in a row with daytime temperatures never going above -5. We contacted all guests to warn them of problems, but one dick still called and demanded I brought the manager to see him because the pipes to his lodge were frozen so there was no water. We had provided bottled water and extra heaters/blankets and were waiving electricity charges for the week, but this guy was not happy. “It isn’t even that cold” he said. As if we had somehow deliberately frozen the mains water pipes just to piss him off.

He was luckier than most too, his lodge was only a few minutes walk from the clubhouse which was warm and had as much running water as he wanted.

The manager was brilliant at putting him in his place, but still making it seem like we were sympathetic to his plight.

Not me, but witnessed this the other day in my local shop.

An older man asked for cigarettes, and the woman serving asked him which brand he wanted. He asked her to pick for him, she tried to explain she doesn't smoke, has absolutely no idea what to recommend cigarette wise, he couldn't make his mind up. The woman serving on the till next to her, eventually tried to help (as the queue got longer and longer), and said she doesn't smoke either, but these seem to be pretty popular.

He said those would do, so she scanned them , handed them to him, and told him the price. He opened them, pulled one out, inspected it, put it back, then said no no these aren't right, I want different ones. This led to an an argument, she was trying to explain he could have changed them if he hadn't opened them, but now he has he'll have to pay for them, he was having non of it. In the end he stormed out in a rage, (without paying).

I think she asked him at one point what he normally smoked, and he gave her this face and said cigarettes.

When I was a student dental nurse an elderly lady came in and went into cardiac arrest, the dentist did chest compressions and she lived. The family sued the hospital because the dentist broke the ribs of the 90odd year old woman, and they won.
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Ridiculous timing, rather than content.

A man rang me to complain that an ambulance crew had been rude to me. Not inherently ridiculous, except that:

it was 2 o'clock in the morning

on Christmas Day

and he'd rung A&E.

In those happy far off days before recorded calls, I told him not to be so bloody silly and put the phone down 😀

I used to work in public liability claims.
Favourites are
Man in shoe shop.bent down to look at shoes on a perfectly ordinary shelf and somehow headbutted the wall. How thar was the shoe shops fault he couldn't explain but thought he should have compensation...
Ditto woman who cut her hand with a sharp kitchen knife she had bought. It even had warning on it " this is a sharp knife and you can cause injury using it".
More recently" the uber driver braked suddenly and I smacked myself in the face wit my phone". Yes, drivers do have to break suddenly to avoid hazards, love.

A school receptionist received a formal complaint that she’d not replied to an email sent late Sunday night before 7.00 a.m on Monday morning. The auto reply said her working hours were 8.30-16.30 Monday to Friday.

A Headteacher was off work for one day sick and received Twitter DM abuse and a formal complaint because she personally did not deal with a parent complaining about something that happened on the lunchtime of the absence day. The Deputy had dealt with it and when questioned why it was being dealt with by her explained the Headteacher was poorly and not in school- and that she was able to deal with the incident (name calling by both children) in her role. The rant via Twitter DM (10 p.m at night) was that the Headteacher was deliberately ignoring the parent and did not immediately ring when found out. The Deputy was called incompetent for not telling the Headteacher at the time of the incident. The parent threatened to take her three children out of the school and “go to the press” if the Headteacher did not come in to speak to her by 9.00 the next morning.

@AColdDuncanGoodhew my totally weird post was cat related I made the basic error of leaving my beautiful cat Callie alone with the keyboard, how could I be so foolish?

Many years ago a bloke from New Zealand rang up to book a hire car in France. This was during a period of time when relations between the two countries wasn't very good. He insisted he didn't want a French car and also insisted that I put a note on saying as much. I explained that whilst I could physically do this , I didn't think it an awfully good idea because this might upset the French staff and there might be repurcussions. He insisted that he wouldn't book unless I followed his directions.
4 weeks later he rang up to complain, that the French staff had given him a ( not French) car that was filthy, full of rubbish, low on fuel, with numerous ominous noises.

I am a professional cleaner. I did a 4 hour clean for a new customer and she complained I didn't make carpet lines in her carpet with the vacuum. No.1 she didn't ask me to do this at the quote or ask me to use her specific plug in vacuum that makes the carpet lines (as I carry my own Handheld vac) I worked my arsed off cleaning and removed around 20 large stains off her carpet for her. Obviously she would prefer an obviously stained carpet but with carpet lines in 🙄

*Demanded a full refund on an 18 year old cardigan because a button had come loose

Lands End come pretty close to this. The zipper on my DH's 26 year old Lands End winter parka failed. He rang them to buy a new one, mentioned the problem and they offered him a $40 credit and 50% off of a new one. They couldn't replace it as they had stopped making that style years ago.*

Tilley come even closer; my hat wasn't quite as old as your husband's coat, but it was starting to fall apart. The label inside said it would be replaced if anything happened to it - it was. I just had to pay p&p

@Shirleyphallus

I can’t believe that a waitress spilt gravy all over 4 customers’ jackets and then laughed and refused to apologise! That’s awful!

Can't believe the poster, she seemed almost proud that her daughter was a complete arsehole

I've also worked in the disputes department in the bank I still work at. Some of the things people try to claim refunds for are brilliant. We've had people trying to claim back dating agency fees because they didn't meet anyone and we've had claims on holidays people said were ruined become of poor weather, too many loud children, rude German tourists and "foreign" food

Friends DH bought morning rolls (butteries) anyone from NE Scotland will know what they are. He noticed they were a bit smaller than usual but fatter. When he put (rammed them) into the toaster they got stuck and went on fire so he went back to the shop to complain. They must have had a laugh that day but we were cringing when he said he wasn’t going to let it go if they ignored him. The stick he gets from pals.

I used to work somewhere that had ridiculous complaints.one that sticks out is I remember one year we had heavy snow , so bad majority of staff couldn’t actually get to work , schools shut even public transport not running one day it was that bad . Some people who managed to walk or dig their car out made it in . Obviously as it was so bad we couldn’t get any deliveries sent out so we had a ridiculous amount of complaints because and I quote ‘it’s not snowing here’ . This was the north of England customer was down south . I think some people think the weather is the same all over the country if it snows in Manchester it must be snowing in London .

You've made the news @PumpkinKlNG

I forgot my favourite one ever. Working for a go karting company that had a minimum age of 8yo plus a minimum height for insurance purposes. Absolutely non-negotiable and made very clear whenever kids go karting was booked.

One Saturday I get a call from the track (I was at head office) from one of the marshalls to say that a kids party had turned up, he’d conversationally asked when the child had his birthday and the kid piped up with - “not until next week” meaning he was 7 and unable to drive.

I spoke to the parent who demanded I take out temporary insurance, he didn’t care what the price was, he would do anything to get these kids on the track. I explained that it was absolutely impossible, we’d tried many times to lower the age limit and no insurance company would allow it for the power of karts we used. He then said this was booked through the office of the editor of The Sun by one of the best PA’s in the country and it was clear she wasn’t told the correct information at booking. I forwarded him the email that he’d signed confirming all the children would be 8yo while also Googling his name and finding that he was the editor of The Sun. He then threatened to run a story that might not portray my company in a favourable light and did I want to take a few minutes to reconsider my position. I was on slightly above minimum wage, hadn’t had a day off in 16 days and couldn’t give a toss what some entitled prick wrote in his shitty newspaper.

The kids went go karting a couple of weeks later when they were old enough.

@movpov

I remember a few years ago reading about a customer who tried to sue McDonald's in America I think because she had bought a tea or coffee, took it into her car and put the cup between her knees to put her seatbelt on. As it was a paper cup, obviously it burst and she sustained burns to her legs. Her grounds for suing was that nobody had expressly warned her it would be hot.

The case was thrown out. Some people really are stupid.

Actually there is a documentary about this called “hot coffee” which gives the fuller picture. The woman was a passenger in a car and took the lid off the coffee when the car stopped and it spilt on her lap. She had 3rd degree burns and needed skin grafts and surgery over a 2 year period.

www.clarklawnj.com/hot-coffee-documentary/

@IveGotASongThatllGetOnYNerves

If only managers/owners would say no to ridiculous customers, we wouldn't see so much of this. The customer is not always right. The customer is sometimes a twat. If you reward twats, they continue to be twats

This does remind me of a time I worked in retail when I was about 17. The shop manager was an absolute arsehole. Used to hit on all the young female staff members and slag off customers behind their backs. Also homophobic and sexist.

One day he told me the customer was always right.

I said, really? Because that last bloke told me you were a twat.

Not on topic but it amused me to remember his face.

We had a woman write in to complain that she hadn't been told that she could encounter a vaginal tear with childbirth and it had come as a great shock to her when she required some stitches post birth.

Also complained of the cord being around baby's neck and she also hadn't been told this was a possibility.

The public never fail to surprise me.

Customer returned a toilet brush and holder after a year as it was cracked to a well known Department Store. It was leaking brown water in the bag and all over the counter and floor 🤢🤮. She was allowed an exchange by Manager much to staff bemusement but told to take away the item and dispose of it. It was at this point she kicked off saying WE had embarrassed HER! No embarrassment at bringing in your dirty shit-filled brush for a refund then?

We had a customer return from his holiday and came in to complain that the sea wasn't deep enough as he had to walk too far out before he could swim. Didn't really know what to say to that one.

Oh god, certain members of the general public make me laugh, despair, or dig a very deep bunker. Or just bang my head against a brick wall. Repeatedly.

Worked in a boarding kennel. Shut half of one day a week to allow the staff working 10 hours a day on the other 6 days a break. ‘Well why can’t you open for me? I’m not going to pay for an extra days boarding while you just have a holiday!’ Said by woman who was well aware of the terms, every time. And went away for 6 or so weeks 4/5 times a year, leaving the poor dog with us (he had a great time btw, we looked after him like he was ours) but still...

Second hand bookshop: ‘this price says 79p, I’m not paying £2.50, you have to honour the cover price!’

Me: ‘this book was published in 1963. If you’ll sell me your house for what it was worth in 1963 then we’ve got a deal’

Petrol station: ‘The fuel is 1p cheaper down the road’(fill up there then 🤷🏻‍♀️)

‘No, it’s £20’ ‘Sir, you’re the only car out there, and it’s 20 litres’ ‘well you should make it clear, it’s deliberately misleading’

It’s in letters 2 inches high...

We used to have an ice cream machine... now sometimes the mix would be a little soft, cone was piled too high, replace, no problems.

If the mix was perfect, still always mentioned to kids and parents ‘now hold it upright so you don’t lose it’

Parents would literally watch their kids run around the shop, jumping up and down, and ask for free replacements when it inevitably ended up on the floor. Er, no.

@Thedogscollar

We had a woman write in to complain that she hadn't been told that she could encounter a vaginal tear with childbirth and it had come as a great shock to her when she required some stitches post birth.

Also complained of the cord being around baby's neck and she also hadn't been told this was a possibility.

The public never fail to surprise me.

As much as this woman probably went about it the wrong way, so many women are kept in the dark about possible birth injuries from their midwives/HCP and a lot don’t realise how common it actually is, birth injuries are minimised and most maternity care is quite poor in the UK really so can’t say I blame her.

Also had the ‘you have to accept these book tokens, you’re breaking the law, I’ve asked a lawyer and you HAVE to take them, I’ll report you and make sure your managers know about this’

1. They were Waterstones vouchers. We were an independent second hand bookshop

2. I was the manager. She only went away when my male shop assistant told her the same thing.

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My niece works in McDonald's and has been called a fat cunt and had food thrown at her. Shocking!