To ask retail staff your worst customer stories?

[JaneTheVirgin]

There's been an influx lately of people complaining about the most minor perceived slight from customer service staff when in reality what they deal with on a daily basis is 99% of the time worse than not kissing your backside for buying a £5 chicken or £2 nail polish.

So, current and former retail staff - who was your worst customer? What shit do you put up with daily?

*Disclaimer for the whiny and chronically offended, I'm not talking about ACTUAL terrible service, which does happen but at a much lesser rate than terrible customers treat staff on minimum wage.

Cuntstomers

So many! One who punched me because we didn’t have the specific loaf of bread in stock that she wanted. Another spat in my face because I refused to serve alcohol when she was clearly already drunk. A man who stood there shaking his leg until a shit fell out of the bottom of his trousers. A woman who threatened to come back and shoot me because I’d asked her to please make her way to a checkout as the store had actually closed half an hour ago. Someone also threatened my colleague with what he said was an HIV-infected needle. I’m very happy not to work in retail any more.

Wow the customer isn't always right!

"See son, if you don't work hard and go to university you'll end up like this girl working in a pointless job like this. "

Urgh.

And I had a degree.

@SecondClassReturnToDottinghamPlease period blood? How minging! I couldn't have continued working in that kind of job after so much abuse. Definitely would have been a career change for me.

@Lavender14 that's crazy awful, especially considering that many sales assistants are students who are working to fund their way through university or are working temporarily in school hols.

Ds worked in a shop that had an in-store pharmacy and it would regularly have drug addicts pop in and threaten the pharmacist with dirty blood covered syringes and other weapons.

They’re definitely not! I think I worked in a particularly rough store to be fair but I did have plenty of lovely customers as well.

That was meant to quote Blahbie - not sure what’s going wrong with the quote function!

I work in a supermarket, used to work on customer services where I was often threatened with physical violence because I couldn't or wouldn't do exactly what the customer wanted, even if it was something I physically couldn't do even if I wanted to eg magic up a turkey, all the trimmings, the toy of the hear and 30 selection boxes ten minutes before closing on Christmas Eve

The final straw was when I asked a couple to please leave the store as we had closed at 10pm and it was now 10:40pm and they started screaming obscenities and waving their phones in my face as they were "going to report me to head office" so I pulled out my phone to call the police to report trespassers and the man then proceeded to punch me in the face before legging it out of the store with his partner. Reported it to the police but they did fuck all about it surprise surprise

Now I work in the pharmacy so we just get the occasional drug user threatening us if we don't jump to give them their methadone the second they arrive, even if other customers are waiting, and people kicking off because they put their prescription request in with the doctor 3 days ago and we tell them that we were only sent the prescription 2hrs ago (at which point it went to the bottom of the very long, and never ending, queue of prescriptions we are already working on) so we need another 20 mins to process and fill it (IE find it in the pile and bump it to the top) they're up in arms ... you've given the doctor 3 days to look at a form, say "Yes they can continue taking the same medication they have used for the same chronic illness they've had for the last 30 years" and send it to the pharmacy but you draw the line at giving us more than a couple of hours to actually dispense the medication?!

I thought no worries was an Australian saying @Pokinganose? She was wrong on two counts

5.10pm on Xmas eve, store open since 8am and 7 days a week all year. Staff absolutely shattered, trying to reset the shop after closing at lightning speed so we could get off for Christmas. Fella comes hammering on the locked door demanding to be let in - we'd ruined his Christmas, his wife would divorce him if he didn't get her this particular item etc etc.

Yeah, cos Christmas came as a complete surprise that year, and he didn't have 364 days to plan and purchase this gift...

another Christmas one - I was working in a supermarket deli dept & taking an order for a customer wanting several cooked hot chickens. When I asked her what time on Christmas Eve she wanted collection I was yelled & abused at - she wanted them on Christmas Day, hot & ready for her family lunch.

Like my Christmas plans totally involved going into work & cooking for her 3 chickens on Christmas Day morning. Not.

Nooo oh my word I'd have to go home immediately

I have shared this story before. Working in a supermarket, a customer approached me to complain that she came earlier in the week, and the 3 packs of mini trifles were 2 for £2. They were now on a different offer, £1.80, BOGOF. I tried to explain that it was a better offer, but she wasn't having it. In the end , I said I would honour the original offer AND give her an extra 10% as a gesture of goodwill. She left happy.

I'd be here for days if I listed every incident with abusive and batshit crazy customer I've dealt with so I've listed the worst below.

I worked in a betting shop in some rough areas and my god I near enough went mad from customers telling I was wrong and they had been betting since before I was born to try and con me into paying them out.

The worst was a customer who spat in my face because he was pissed off he had to wait 2 mins for the toilet to be opened as my cashier was serving a customer and I was counting cash out back. Customer started screaming at my cashier so as I was managing I went out to support my colleague the guy then started screaming at me to give him "the fucking key" banging his fists on the counter I calmly refused and told him to leave as we don't tolerate that behaviour. He bent down spat through the bars and aimed it right at my eye level and I got a face full of spit!

Another customer was pissed off with a price change on a football match and demanded the original higher price, my colleague politely explained we can't do that we aren't allowed to and we could lose our job if we did that. Customers response was to call my colleague a stupid black cunt and make gorilla noises at him. Funnily enough when I told him to get out because we won't be serving him he called me a fat cunt and demanded to speak to the manager I replied "you just called her a fat cunt and my staff a black cunt so fuck off back to whatever gutter you crawled out off you ain't getting served" he was incredibly offended and said thats why women shouldn't be in this job we're too emotional!

Another customer spat on the gaming machine because he lost his money then accused me of fixing the machine and stealing his money so demanded it back. I said no so he cashed out what was left and started smashing the machine up and refused to leave until I paid him his money. I called the police so he got cocky trashed the shop turned the stools over and threw the betting slips everywhere it was like the stock cupboard exploded! He laughed whilst doing it saying he was gonna enjoy watching me having to clean it up. I called the police and then sent photos to the area manager who called and told me not to pay him and don't go out on the shop floor until the police removed him.

The police came he told lie after lie and then looked sheepish when I said our camera's would have recorded it and by the way security were aware and were watching and listening to him as it all happened as I pressed our panic alarm.

The police gave him a heavy fine for criminal damage and made him clean up all the mess he made or they would arrest him for threatening behaviour and I would be pressing charges. I grinned like the chesire cat watching him clean up all the mess the rare time a customer got instant karma 🤣🤣🤣

@peakedatseven my god thats shocking and I've seen some appalling behaviour from customers in my time! Actually that reminds me of another incident it didn't happen to me but manager in another shop a customer threw water in her face when she was locking up and told her that was a warning next time it would be acid 😱😱

I also had a customer who had shit himself and sat there in it until other customers smelt it and told me I tried to have a quiet word so as not to humiliate him and he kicked off at me saying he was well aware of it and didn't I understand he was sick and coming to the shop was the only thing he did so what was the problem! At this point it was running down his legs was all over the chair and floor I again calmly and compassionately explained that in the current climate (lockdown had just been lifted) it wasn't hygienic and others could get sick. He was massively offended and said if he left now he would miss the next race and surely the customers wouldn't mind him staying another half an hour until the race was finished. I'm sympathetic that he was sick but I honestly couldn't understand how he thought it was right to sit there in his own shit getting it everywhere and the other customers should put up with it because he was sick. He was completely not bothered about it only that he wanted to watch the next race. I had to clean that mess up it was horrendous even the customers who weren't fond of me actually showed me sympathy!

This is beautiful 🤣 You're a diplomat!

@WickedWitchOfTheEast87, sounds like betting shop staff should get danger money 😲

I worked in a game store and was selling a PlayStation to a guy who was flirting with me. I worked partly on commission so was playing along to upsell come controllers with it.

His girlfriend sees this from outside the store and comes charging in, knocking things off shelves and screaming at him for flirting at me. She got to the till and started throwing match everywhere at him for flirting with me. I ran into the back and let my big burly male managers deal with her. Police came and she was taken away.

I worked at M&S when I was 18, scanned and folded some trousers. The customer then scolded me for folding them wrong, showed me how she wanted them folded then threw them at me and said ‘now do it properly’. Horrible woman hope she has a miserable life!

I used to work in Tesco and a customer went to the toilet in the Photo Booth. There were perfectly clean customer toilets too. Could also write a book about the people I experienced there!

Anyone buying a microwave with grill and oven function
Anyone buying a camcorder
Anyone being so awful, we’ve had to call police or security to remove
Anyone making a member of staff cry, because something out of bour control went wrong with a delivery
Anyone rude or condescending speaking to any staff in store

As a 16yr old working in Next, a man came in at christmas to buy underwear. He rubbed himself up, when I showed him the underwear. I refused to continue with sale and got laughed at.

M&S at chrsitmas, when I worked there at 18. There was a mad rush for fresh turkey's and I saw a collegue get pushed over into a chiller counter and no one helped him. The customers just focused on buying their turkeys.

When working at a small sainsbury's we had trouble with a group of men stealing meat, they would fill up baskets with meat and walk out the shop. They were big scary men, once on my shift they came in and I didn't chase them etc just called the police. My manager made a complaint against me. I remember advising that him £8.20ph is not worth my life chasing a group of men and that Sainsbury's maybe should hire security. I left shortly after and haven't returned to retail since.

I've also met some lovely customers. At the same sainsbury's a women would come in every were with a handmade curry spice jar. As I once told I loved spicy food and her daughters were not local anymore so she made the spices for me and another colleague and gives us amazing receipes for food.

My DD works in a high street store selling women's fashions. They regularly get customers come to the changing rooms with arms full of clothes at five minutes to closing (when changing rooms are already closed off) who get abusive when told they are too late as the shop is about to close.

On more than one occasion DD has been tidying the changing rooms and found a customer has used the cubicle as a toilet 🤮

I had a retail shop that did the warranty repairs for Samsung and Nokia.
I came in late one morning and a colleague was on the counter with a very irate man, I went to see if I could help "apparently the bitch wouldn't repair his phone under warranty as it had a cracked screen" I tried to advise him to go down the insurance route as warranty is for manufacturers defaults, he was screaming and shouting at he that the phone was faulty an the screen broke itself, I pointed to the impact mark and he point blank refused that the screen broke due to an impact, apparently it he never mistreats his phone and the screen broke on its own, I told him that if we repaired it under warranty then we wouldn't be paid for the part of our work as we have to send the faulty part back and the part is smashed , he then threw his phone at my face.
Ended up with a black eye and a bloody nose but we had his details on the system and the police did F.A.

Worked in a leisure centre so not quite retail but very much public facing.

Had a man throw rocks and spit at me for removing his free swimming/gym card (issued by the council to children in care, he was no longer a child FWIW so it was definitely out of date anyway) because he consistently broke rules, abused the facilities, and was rude and aggressive to staff. Council policy was to return the cards to them if the customer didn’t abide by the rules. Management didn’t even ban him though.

Had a man with a membership come in and rant at me for 10 minutes (whilst I had a queue) about how much worse our facilities were than another leisure centre. I replied with ‘your membership does include (place he preferred) so maybe you’d like to swim there?’ And he absolutely lost his shit. Swearing, squaring up to me etc. Duty manager backed me up and threw him out but general manager bollocked me for being rude! I literally have no idea what they expected me to say to him.

People injecting heroin in the changing rooms.

A homeless man living in a store cupboard.

A man that used to waltz in and expect to use the facilities for free who started being really unpleasant to me when I realised he actually wasn’t a member and expected him to pay. Used to grab my hand and stare me in the eye when I have him his change. Again, management did not give a fuck.

LOADS of vomit and shit incidents. Used pads and tampons left in cubicles.

Carpark was an ongoing drama too. People were absolute cunts about paying £1 to park in the centre of town.