To hate customers

[rahjama]

Somewhat lighthearted.

Working in hospitality/retail, what things do customers do that really, really annoy you when you're working? I'll start

• Booking for 6 people and then saying "Hope it's okay we're now a party of 194"

• Paying in cash but they're 1-20p short. "Can you cover it?" No I cannot

• Sitting on tables that are dirty/unset/in the process of being cleaned when there are clean and set tables literally next to them. Then complaining about the lack of cutlery.

• Buying the cheapest pint, saying it's flat/doesn't taste right, then swapping for the most expensive pint.

• Picking up an allergen menu and then saying "is this all you do?" No that's all we do GLUTEN FREE it says at the top!!!!!!!!!

Oh there was another woman who would always claim to bake for the elderly (even though she looked like she was in her late 70s) and demand she has the eggs for free for that reason!

Closely followed by "it's not on the menu but could I have X?"

I forgot about this one... one of my worst. Someone asked me for a ham and cheese toastie. We don't even do anything close to that.

The worst thing for me was people that would put napkins/paper into used cups/glasses🤢 those people deserve a special level of hell!

started keeping a work diary years ago, and it turned into a record of my favourite cuntomers, could have a full thread or even a book

There was the time an elderly gentleman berated me in a garden centre and swore at me because I wasn't immediately able to tell him where a particular product was. Sorry mate, I don't work here, I'm with the specialist plant society doing a demonstration today. All the many members of staff are wearing orange. Find an orange person and ask them.

Oh and when I worked in a bank, a woman was furious when I refused to sell her some postage stamps. She was livid, and how very dare I refuse to serve her. Try asking at the post office next door.

Same bank, and many wisecrackers: "Got any free samples?"
No, fuck off.

sorry but i cant stop laughing what did you say

I did many years in retail. I hate everyone.
I’m amazed we’ve not had the ‘well of you don’t like serving the public then get another job’ because it’s that easy.

I used to hate:
’do you sell x’
‘no sorry, have you tried Other Shop’
‘I did and they said you sell it’ - customer carries on standing there staring at me as if I’m going to magic the item from my arse.
’sorry but we don’t sell it’
‘but they said you did’
continue until the heat death of the universe.

Lucille!

I don't work in retail but I absolutely hate it if I'm out for a meal with several friends/family, the waiter/waitress is clearly approaching the table with plates of food and says "I've got a steak" or whatever, and friends just carry on chatting, completely oblivious. Especially when it's clearly the meal they ordered! Have some awareness of your surroundings!!!

<breathe>

I haven't worked in retail in years but I have so so many but one of my biggest pet hates while packing a shelf or standing behind a counter in a uniform with name tag that also had the store logo on it was "do you work here?"
No I just loved their clothing and have nothing better to do than hang around for 6 hours...

I did many years in retail. I hate everyone.

I very much like the direct way in which you put your cards on the table.

I only worked in retail for a bit, in a Saturday job in my teens. It was awful. Every third person wanted to know where the nearest loo was. In a shop that didn’t have them. Or they’d complain that they didn’t like the clothes and look at me accusingly. As if a sixteen year old was in charge of buying for the entire chain.

i don’t know how anyone works in retail or hospitality. Even worse now that the people who do are sometimes made to ask you to complete an online survey rating them personally, writing their names on the receipt. Insult to injury.

The amount of staff who come out with 3 plates of food and MUMBLE what they are but get annoyed when you dont immediately understanding they said is unreal. So maybe allow for some customers not actually hearing your meal summaries, rather than thinking your customers are being that stupid that they can't remember what they ordered! Admittedly some customers probably do forget but I have encountered a lot of staff who talk very fast or lack clarity of speech in noisy settings.

I said it once and the look of disdain on the cashier’s face made me realise I must never, ever say it again!

I previously worked in a charity shop and the amount of people who would ask ‘have you got this in a size 12 in blue’… wtf, it’s a charity shop, not Debenhams!

OMG are you in Scotland? A ex-boyfriends mum returned a loo seat from his student flat after a similar time because the hinges went. It was a 4 bed flat with loads of visitors, the toilet was also too near the wall so you didn't sit on it straight. 2 of the residents were obese so that seat took a lot of strain.

She bloody got her refund too, bloody knows how!!! She was an awful person though, so that's probably how!

@notprincehamlet that comment above was for you, I'd genuinely love to know if it was the same grotty toilet seat!!!

Working in a bank when a rude customer tells you 'I'm gonna close all of my account'.

Please do, I couldn't care less.

I have been working with the public for 27 years in various one on one roles. Every single person in the world should be made work with the public akin to national service, we might see a diffence then!

So many. I know some of these have already been said but I might as well get my full list off my chest. Retail manager, here.

• Whining about the price of bags like it’s the 16 year old cashier’s decision
• Arriving before opening/after closing and being annoyed we won’t let them into the shop
• Showing up to services similar the the customer service desk which have set operating times and being annoyed that we won’t just open it up again for them even though it closed 40 minutes ago and the opening times of that particular service are clearly advertised online and all around the store
• Customers with no receipts, proof of purchase (ie a bank statement), or even the ability to say what time or day they were in the shop at wanting refunds for generic items that are sold in about 8 other supermarkets
• Customers who come in to do a full weekly shop 5 mins before closing
• Customers who for some reason refuse to lift a basket, then fill their arms full of shopping, proceed to drop it on the floor, shattering items then walk off without saying to a member of staff or even saying sorry about that
• Ones who are a few pennies short but cheekily ask if you’ll let it go even though you can see notes in their purse and they just don’t want to break a fiver or similar
• The inane jokes that are told to us 20 times a day (didn’t scan so must be free, etc etc)
• When people decide they don’t want items anymore so they just leave them at their hole in various locations around the shop, even worse when it’s frozen or fresh items so they just have to be binned
• People who steal items (I’m not talking about someone stealing basics like bread, milk, or baby food etc. It’s always cans of energy drinks and chocolates or expensive gourmet pizzas etc 😑)
• People who tower over you when you’re reducing food items for the day. Then they lean over you and grab whatever you’ve just set down- absolutely no respect for your personal space
• Obviously any abusive customers, drunk customers etc are a nightmare to deal with
• Customers who insist you check out the back even though you’ve told them that you absolutely do not have the item.
• Customers who buy heavy items like coal but then park their car at the opposite end of the car park and sit in it waiting for a, usually, small female staff member who has to carry it over to them. Never get in their car to move it or offer to lift it themselves. This happened when I was heavily pregnant once, I was absolutely furious

There’s probably a million more but that’s what immediately springs to mind. However, 9 times out of 10, customers are generally lovely and you only really get a “bad” or “annoying” one every few weeks or months depending. If it was like that every day I would have quit long ago.

It’s ridiculous how entitled some people are. We had someone complain to a customer advisor recently that they were now going to be boycotting our store because we have a Ukraine donation trolley.

That reminds me of a time where I was working the bar in a music festival and a man tried to pay for his beers with a train ticket. Ended up having to get him removed from the queue by security as it didn’t matter how many times I explained to him that a train ticket is not currency, he did not get it…

Although at least this guy probably had the excuse of drink and drugs.

Absolutely spot on. And the morons who want a £14 packet of cigs and your cheapest lighter "the 90p one not the the £1.29" FFS what difference does 30p make when you're spending all that on fags.

I stay fairly close to Glasgow and used to have this conversation at least once per week.
"And a lighter please."
Grabs lighter.
"Not a green/blue one!"
You're a grown adult and you don't want a lighter because of the colours of your football team?

Also, "and a scratchcard"
"Which one?"
"A winning one! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!"
Fuck off.

@nancy75 🤮 did you take the money?

Me too...

What about the next person to sit there Tothepoint99? Not many places leave a load of mess under the table for the next person to tread in.