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?

Visitor-facing role at the Big London Dinosaur Museum. All sorts of horrible people:
The men (always men) that want to explain at length about their Very Own Take on the theory of evolution and/or creationism... Always cornering young women staff members.

Many, many people insist they get their own private photo session after closing time - and there's the people who come back for a second photo because the first one you took for them isn't good enough (it's not a photography job).

The rude people who try to bribe you to skip a queue. Being friendly and offering a sweet goes a lot further than being rude and offering £20.

Those who won't leave: Yes, you must leave the museum at closing time, because as you've seen in Night At The Museum, do you really want to risk the T Rex coming alive at night and eating you?

Cleaner here... Once got told not to come back as the customer refused to believe her floor could be clean using any of the numerous cleaning products I had and if I wasn't in my hands and knees with bleach and a scrubbing brush it wouldn't be clean.
She complained to a mutually known woman I was a disgrace!

I used to work taking calls for a private health insurer.

Some highlights:

A severe storm was imminent so we were all sent home. Next day we received a complaint from a member who wanted to know why nobody was available to answer his calls. It was explained about the storm etc to which he replied that he too was sent home but didn't think such care and consideration should have been given to the likes of ourselves as we "only answered phones all day" so, presumably, we were expendable.

The woman who called in to demand to know why we declined her claim. I explained that the claim reference didn't appear to be one of ours. She said she knew that as she was with one of our competitors but, as she was waiting on hold too long, she rang us to get it sorted for her. I explained about us being different companies but was told I was talking nonsense as "You're all in the same line of work aren't you?"

The man who had his claim declined because he wasn't covered in that particular hospital. He wanted to know how he was supposed to know all that sort of thing so I explained about his policy documents and that he could have called beforehand and asked if he was covered. He replied that he had undertaken this surgical procedure on the advice of "a mate down the pub".

Then there was the never ending stream of why we didn't pay out on all manner of outpatient receipts to which the answer was we didn't cover the cost of washing machines, dishwashers, pet medicine, a three piece suite, etc amongst other things, and umpteen non-prescription items from a chemists such as buckets and spades, energy bars, hair accessories etc.

@FuckingFabulous

MF, you ordered it!!

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I think a lot of people are so entitled and egocentric that it doesn't properly occur to them that, as well as supplying the goods that they want/need to buy, shops are also businesses on which many people's livelihoods depend.

In their heads, shopping is like an Enid Blyton story, where a travelling pixie is walking through the woods, looking for a new home, stumbles on a sweet little empty cottage and just moves in straightaway.

Sometimes I think it does occur to them and they simply do not care, in the case of some people it really does seem like it's a way of feeling important at someone else's expense. This thread is really quite funny with some of the stories, but it does have a serious side and being treated that way a lot, as some people are has a real negative effect. Plus in a lot of customer service positions the employer treats the staff like crap, and so customers follow suit, there's not going to be any come back, they're in the position of power and know that no matter how unreasonable their demand or behaviour, if it's not met (and even if it is in some cases) they're likely to come out with at least an apology, if not some form of compensation too - to shut them up, when it actually makes the person think they've been reasonable all along. I think companies need to start being the ones who respect their staff, back them up when they're right and not apologising to unreasonable and rude people, and stop treating their staff like a piece of equipment and treat them like humans.

Not that it'll ever happen of course!

Sometimes I think it does occur to them and they simply do not care, in the case of some people it really does seem like it's a way of feeling important at someone else's expense.

I think it may be a mixture - some who really don't care and others who just remain blissfully oblivious. I can't think of any other reason why people would even think of going to Curtain Shop A and expect them to 'refund' or replace unwanted goods bought from entirely unconnected Curtain Shop B, just because it's all apparently 'The Big Curtain Industry'. I'm in no way excusing the many arseholes on this thread, but I do think that some of what we've read on here might stray into mental unwellness territory.

What is the difference really between demanding a 'refund' for a well-worn 20yo jumper from a clothes shop that is completely unassociated with the one you actually bought it from and just going into a chip shop and demanding they hand over £30 from the till?!

We had a woman who went in the swimming pool during fun swim and then then complained her hair got wet, her hair had recently been bleached, I was so shocked it threw me into being lost for words

@FannyCann

My DD1 has had some horrible angry complainers at the pub she manages, they try everything to get a FULL refund of the whole meal. She banned one couple as the staff told her they come in regularly pulling the same stunt for a free meal and they threatened to call the police and sue her for libel.

On the other hand, when DD2 was working in the same pub she walked past a row of diners with the plate slightly tilted and spilt gravy down the backs of four diners, including one with a £2500 suede jacket.

She said they made such a fuss she couldn't be bothered to apologise and blamed the chef for putting too much gravy on the plate!

I'm secretly in awe of her sang froid.

She ‘couldn’t be bothered to apologise’ after she’d poured hot gravy over the diners and ruined a £2.5k item of clothing? I hope she got sacked.

Some of these "complaints" are rage-inducing, but I think the unreasonable complainants being backed up and pandered to by management are even worse!

So this thread has made it to the news......!

My aunt took over a hotel/bar in Spain in 2009. In 2012 they had a booking for a couple who has stayed around 5 years previous (under the old owners) who had an argument with the two staff members behind reception because she had lost a backing to her earring the last time she was there and it wasn't in lost property.

@honeylulu

Me and our son took the piss out of him the rest of the holiday.

😂

Years ago I worked in a off licence. We had a regular customer who would come in and berate the staff for selling him alcohol, because it made him get drunk.

I worked in McDonalds as a student.
Nearly put me off dealing with the general public.
Gave up trying to understand people on the day, a woman asked for a cup of boiling water with ice in it.

I overheard a woman very loudly saying she wanted to speak to a manager because the staff were honouring the 2 minute silence on Remembrance Day and she was in a hurry and needed served!

😆

I used to work for an engineering firm. We built items but the parts to build them came from all over the world. Companies would place orders, they'd be given a rough date of when they could expect the items from the salespeople, (often a few weeks) then the customers would phone me to try to see if I could get the items any sooner (like the next day.)

One particular customer was particularly shouty and annoying (his colleagues were lovely thankfully) One day he phoned first thing demanding I get an item to him the next day. I said that wouldn't be possible as we didn't have the parts, they were on a shipment from America but I said I'd phone the American suppliers as soon as they opened (about 2pm our time) to see if they could fly any items over by DHL so we could get him the part by the end of the week.
This wasn't good enough. He demanded an answer there and then. I (patiently) explained again I couldn't give him an answer as the American office was shut.
He shouted that he needed an answer on his desk in the next hour. Then he put the phone down on me.

I spoke to my boss.... Then on my bosses orders sent him a fax saying I would give him an answer to his enquiry shortly after 2pm when the American office opened.

He also got extremely shouty and angry when I couldn't give him a similar answer on September 11th. I asked if he'd seen the news about the World Trade Centre. He apparently that was no excuse for us not to get parts flown from around the world for him, even though flights worldwide and especially into and out of America were grounded for days.

He got sacked for something eventually and his colleague phoned me with great delight to inform me of the fact.

I wonder if she can prove she didn't just eat it.
I also imagine the manager's response was sorry to hear that but nothing we can do. Good day to you madam

I just thought of this. I did payroll for a company and an ex employee complained to HMRC that we had failed to pay her maternity pay.
We were sent a warning and a threat of a large fine. We had a short amount of time to respond.
When I got through to speak to the correct person we worked out she had left our employment when approximately 6 weeks pregnant (so we owed her nothing).
The woman in question also rang to complain that she had gotten pregnant whilst working for us so we owed her.

@AwkwardAnnie

What a butt that customer was!

@PumpkinKlNG

Oh she had pictures as well apparently to prove it 😂

Oh, i replied straight to the OP and missed that. Manager's hands were still tied, I'm sure. "I shall make sure to pass on your concerns about our packaging. Now get out"

@MidsummerMimi

I worked in McDonalds as a student. Nearly put me off dealing with the general public. Gave up trying to understand people on the day, a woman asked for a cup of boiling water with ice in it.

I once overheard someone in McDonalds ask for a “cheeseburger without cheese” the staff member said “so a hamburger then?” the reply was “No, a cheeseburger without cheese”

@purplebunny2012

Totally. He was the only customer we had phoning us on 11th September who was aware of the news. There were a few early on who we told, then the phones stopped ringing for the rest of the day and were very quiet in the days following... Except for him.

It took me years after leaving that job to stop swearing at any phone whenever it rang.

I worked for Interflora for their call centre as my first job back in my early 20s....😭 I'm 45 now.

Can still remember a woman phoning up to complain her flowers were naff and half dead. She was sending to someone in the family. I swiftly apologised and said we'd get the florist to resend the flowers ASAP. Customer was then screaming down phone that it's wasn't the florists fault 🤷🏼 I said that the bouquets were made up at the florist... All I got was ''I know that, do you think I'm f*cking stupid? "!!
Well actually, I did think that 🤫

When we were in Cornwall last week someone was complaining to the cafe on the beach we were at that seagulls had ate their sandwich. They were actually really angry with the server. The server replaced their sandwich for free and calmly told them to not leave their food unattended whilst sat outside.