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.

It just shows, some people really are sub-human.

I had a customer who not only used the changing room as a toilet, she also wiped her bum with a £40 jumper she hadn’t paid for. This was about 20 years ago.

How long ago was this?

I worked in a hotel where the whole Leicester city squad came to celebrate their big win.

It was about 2am and we stopped taking cash and would only take orders to be put onto their room bill.

Some woman comes up and demands to pay cash, can't remember her room number etc. Then I had the whole 'do you know who I am?!?!' (Apparently she was the girlfriend of one of the 'stars') I replied with 'No...no I don't' head tilt. Oh she had such a shit fit. It was glorious.

This was about 25 years ago

Worked at a bookies. Someone won big- like£10k.
he was raging because the safe was on timer and he had to wait 15 minutes for it to open and then a few minutes for us to count it out. slamming his fists on the counter - I told him the more he did that the longer it would take me to count- he soon shut up.
He was a regular so knew how it worked.

I worked in a bank and every week a woman would come in with a cheque made out to cash already signed, the policy was if they wanted to cash a cheque we had to witness them sign it, so every week I’d ask her to sign it again on the back and explain I had to witness her sign it, one week she came in with it signed on the front and back and kicked off when I asked her to sign it again on the back. I mean how difficult is it to understand someone saying to you “I have to witness you sign it”?

Guy in a wheelchair who had touched up a female staff member when she took him round the store to shop. He then demanded someone take him to the toilet, staff member refused so he took his penis out. He was removed by security and barred.

I personally ruined Christmas as no turkeys left at 10 minutes to closing. Store was closed etc.
Called a jobsworth cunt when I asked customer to hand me the things in the front of their trolley to scan (they were shoplifting !)
Had a bag of shopping thrown at me as my till was closed as I was already late finishing.
If a customer claimed a price was wrong on the till I had to get a supervisor to check. ‘Customer rights ‘ and ‘By law you have to give me the lower price’ would often be quoted at me.

Oh and one of my colleagues in the clothing department had a customer who was buying boots for his wife. He asked her to put them on so he could see how they looked.
She did and after she took them of he picked one up and put it over his nose and mouth and breathed deeply.
Disgusting pervert.

I did. I went off to clean myself but I couldn't cope and told them I was going home!!

Getting moaned at for the poor selection in the reduced section.

People trying to haggle the reduced food.

Dealing with 'customers' who would only come into the shop to pay bills (PayPoint), check lottery tickets, use the ATM, ask us to change notes. Yet none of them would actually buy anything from us. We eventually ended up closing as we just weren't making any money.

Sophomanical skanks trying to 'long change' the cashier.

Oh I have so many (worked in various designer outlet stores all my life, including through covid)

• Used tampon left in the changing rooms of our sister store, they’d clearly used a set of lingerie to ‘wipe’ and had left that on the floor too.
• Two unsupervised kids running in and out of the changing rooms, one shit on the floor and then proceeded to march it through the shop
• One kid pulled down and entire window display including hanging vinyl and mannequin (parents did march him back in to apologise to me but still, watch your damn kid, it’s not him I’m blaming)
• Had a customer spill their entire Costa coffee down the entirety of a denim wall display (ruining about 60 pairs of denim) and then used a cashmere jumper off the next display to conceal the spill on the floor, including their cup.
• had a customer scream in my face that they demanded a refund as the handbag they had just bought (I served them not 20 minutes earlier) was marked. I’d been and got a new one from the back and had unwrapped it in front of them before they purchased it. Pulled it out the bag and it was covered in spilled purple nail polish- they also had a small bag from the beauty store a few stores down which had a familiar shade of purple finger marks all over, as did her trouser leg.
• (Working in a popular watch/ jewellery brand shop) Had a customer throw their broken watch at me and demand ‘just fix it idiot’. The grotty thing was 20 years old, out of warranty and not like it had just been purchased. Needless to say, I said it would be an hour and when they came back I said it was tricky and would take another hour… rinse and repeat
• during covid when certain areas were in lockdown, had a man become very angry because we didn’t have his size (outlet, limited stock) and so he announced he was from a certain area with was locked down, pulled down his mask, coughed into the shirt and threw it on the floor before walking away.

I worked at Boots, and there were so many whingeing and uppity customers. I’ve had customers yelling at me specifically because I’d been the only one covering both normal and self checkout tills, opening and rummaging through gift sets then telling me to get an unopened one ‘from the back’. But they didn’t bother me as much as those who just had no shame. The worst two I remember:

A woman returned a used electric foot file, put it down on the counter in front of me and sprinkled a load of dry skin everywhere. She just stood there waiting for me to clean it up.

Another woman let her child piss in a potty, child then tipped the potty out in middle of the shop floor. The woman just looked and continued shopping, carrying the potty around. Just casually distributing droplets of piss as she went.

The management were no help though, and were all die hard believers of ‘bend to the customers will’. So accept any behaviour, do not question refunds, clean their filth up. But every so often, a manager would get hoisted by their own petard.

One customer brought £100+ worth of skincare back for a refund, complaining about allergic reactions. I asked the manager to step in, because I wasn’t comfortable without proof of purchase. She glared and sort of scoffed at me for daring to question it, and handed over the cash. Turned out customer had just picked it up off the shelf, opened the packaging and brought it to the till😂. That manager got suspended when the account manager for the brand got involved (over 15 years ago so it was a lot of money back then). That was one time I cheered the customer on tbh!

Just remembered another- this one made me furious at the time and still irks me now if I think about it 10 years later!

Working at the watch designer brand, we had fancy display tins that customers could chose from (free) but you could only have one if you bought one of the full price watches and not the clearance ones at the front (they had their own plastic boxes)

Guy walks in wanting a work watch, I assist him. He’s rude but curious, asking multiple questions about certain specifications which I gladly answer. Wife and 2 kids walk in a few minutes later and they start messing with the displays and the tins. They go off and shop and he eventually chooses a watch from the clearance bit. At the till he starts badgering me about wanting a tin. I calmly explain to him that the tins are only for the full price watches, apologising, but he won’t stop, getting more and more cheeky and irate. He wore me down and I begrudgingly said that he could pick one, just to get him out of the store even though I knew management wouldn’t be happy with me. He then turns to his kids and tells them to pick a tin EACH. I’m gobsmacked and can hardly finish the sale as I’m livid.

I had a shop for 8 years. If you’re of a sensitive disposition I wouldn’t read my post.

My worst experience was the lady who couldn’t / wouldn’t speak, who came in with a friend? carer? relative? who asked if she (the mute lady) could use my toilet. Of course I said yes, because I’m nice, although I did feel that something was a bit “off” as the mute lady wouldn’t look me in the eye and was generally looking quite shifty. Anyway, after a few minutes she came out of the loo and off they both went. I was serving a customer so I just waved and said “bye” and didnt think anything of it.

* Do not read on if you are eating!!!! *

My loo was at the back of my stockroom, so quite a way away from the shop floor, but after 20 minutes or so I could smell something really awful and went to investigate.

There was runny shit EVERYWHERE. All over the toilet, the basin, the floor, even up the walls.

To this day I don’t know how she did it - did she bring a load of bags of the stuff in with her, concealed under her clothing? How did she get it up the walls?

I had to get a professional cleaning firm in to sort it, and I had the loo and basin replaced. I never let customers use the facilities again after that. I assume the lady had a neurodiversity or mental health condition, and I don’t actually blame her, but the lady who was with her and who must have known what was going to happen??? - how can she live with herself?!

I've worked in retail for the last 7 years-im known got being cheerful,sorting out any issues with a smile

I've been sexually assaulted 6 times-and called a liar on here

A bloke walked in pissed out of his skull-he went to the toilet,had a shit-and smeared it all over the ceiling,walls,toilet etc
I mean it was falling off in lumps-I didn't know a human could create that much
He came in the next day and had a fit because he was now banned

Punched at least 8 times

A bloke came in and as I passed him his coffee I asked if he'd like any sugar
He lost it-he was going to come back once my shift had finished and 'rape your burnt corpse' (I think he'd been watching too much Depp v's heard)

Screamed at over nothing-at least once a shift

A family came in the other day Just as I'd gone on my break
They got their food and walked out-only to come back in screaming that we'd only given them half their order
The new manager doesn't take any shit and double checked
They had got all their order and where trying it on
He refused to give them free food so the dad upended a table,tried to punch the manager and stormed out
Only to see me sat at a table just outside,so he went for me
I managed to get away with a few bruises and a sore eye as he stomped off screaming that 'you don't know who your dealing with!'

The family of 5 who came in,made the biggest mess I've ever seen and fucked off into the toilets
I went in after them and they'd all shat next to the toliet-not one had aimed at it-5 lots of shit all over the floor-and it was all crawling with threadworms

A woman who went upstairs when it had been closed (clearly marked as closed) and deep cleaned by me (so I could go home) and refused to move downstairs as 'my children want this table' (she'd made a massive mess and the kids where running round,dropping food over my clean dining area)
When asked again if she could please move downstairs for reasons mentioned above,she went for me
Seemed surprised she was banned when she came back a week later,and she kicked off again

The bloke who threw his food at me-it was too hot for him

The family who came in,sat down and started eating
The little girl stood up,pissed all over the floor and sat back down again
They didn't bat an eyelid

The family who came in and ordered
Mum and dad where loud,rude and entitled-all 'Get me this' and 'I want that'
The kids where mute-they didn't say a word-just a row of 5 mute kids
The following week they where in the papers-theyd smoked that many fags,one sparked and burnt their house down-4 kids dead-the youngest survived
Made the news-they lived round the corner to me-ss admitted the kids should have been removed due to other concerns,but 'lessons will be learned'

The bloke who grabbed me by my hair-ripping loads out

Injecting drugs in the loo

The amount of men who seem to shit their pants in the gents,and leave their boxers behind the u-bend for me to sort out is unreal

People having sex in the toliets-all ages-and all sexs-at least once a week
Sometimes they leave the used condoms for me to find

The bloke who threatened me as we'd (not me) forgotten his dips
He was going to 'batter me'
I just handed him his ketchup and he stormed out

The bloke who tried to break our windows by headbutting it

During eat out to help out,two families got into a fight over covid
I had to get in-between them-and got a few thumps for my trouble
Oddly,it was the little old lady doing the thumping-the 6 foot 6 bloke who could have knocked me out just by looking at me,was calm and collected-and very polite,checking to see if I was OK afterwards

I mean 99% of my customers are lovely-can see I'm overworked and tired but I try to sort out problems quickly and with a smile

But there is always one...

@Pebblesflintstoneandbambamrubble I believe you! I’m so sorry. I’ve been groped, shoved, had my breasts grabbed and been threatened with rape by customers. Also had them shooting up in my toilet (before I stopped letting people use it) and shagging in the changing cubicle. I used to say that 99% of people are lovely but some of them hide it well; now I honestly believe that a LOT of people are horrible and they are the ones who (sometimes) hide it well 😓
I think I know which family you were talking about re the fire - it was all over the news at the time. Those poor kids. RIP.

@Aqua20

If that happened to me, I think I'd probably end up getting the sack because my instinct would have been to reply with "I don't know who you are but I know what you are. A twat,".

When I worked for a national supermarket open 24 hours, we had someone come in during the night and use the changing rooms as a toilet.

I was also sworn at by a delightful gentleman because we didn't have any breaded ham available in a 400g pack and he didn't see why he should have to buy two 200g packs for a lower price instead 😂

I later moved into clothing retail and got sworn at for not having a size 12 dress available in the Boxing Day sales.

People are horrible.

Thank you
I swear it's all true-as you know!
Retail is a thankless job sometimes

Oh I could write a book!

Started working in pharmacy right before covid hit. A woman wanted to buy four boxes of co-cocodamol (so I had to refuse) She told me she hoped I caught COVID and died. Christmas day many furious customers as we didn't have a lot of Christmas gift sets. Someone furious because I wouldn't set their broken finger. A heroin user wanted me to check his infected injection site, it was on his arse and was covered in shit. And lots of times people generally hurling abuse and threats because I wouldn't give them prescription medication without a prescription. Oh and all the people who came into the pharmacy with covid and told me they weren't starting their isolation until they'd been to the shops to get stuff.

Several years in retail of people screaming abuse at the window of the shop after closing telling me I was ruining Christmas because I wasn't letting them in to buy gifts. Shoplifters that we'd caught waiting outside to threaten us when we left at night. Customer taking a shit on the shop floor in the middle of a busy Saturday afternoon.

It was a busy Sunday afternoon and I was working one of the little basket tills they used to have at supermarkets before self scan checkouts came in to play.

The basket tills were busy with people paying for their few items, and the main checkouts were also busy with people paying for their full shops.

This woman comes to me with a massive trolley full of shopping. She obviously didn’t want to queue up at the main tills. I told her she has to use the main checkouts for that amount of shopping, but she said she isn’t budging and proceeded to pile her items on the teeny little shelf where the basket would go. Again I told her she really shouldn’t be on this till and snapped that she knows someone high up and she will do what she wants. Her shopping kept falling on to the floor off the shelf and she blamed it on me.

Honestly I felt like logging off and walking away to leave her stranded. Even my supervisor just told me to serve her and it’s ok and didn’t back me up. Made my blood boil how she thought she’s too important to queue like everyone else.

From the ages of 16-20 I worked for a big supermarket on the checkout. (Late 2000’s)

a man came to my till with a huge trolley load of shopping and just had a terrible attitude. He was moaning about the prices and queried the price of one item - when I told him the price and that we couldn’t discount it he threw a cabbage at my head and started screaming at me - like full on screaming. The whole line of checkouts went silent and he was escorted out by security.

I have so many fun retail stories 🤣

A man came in shop asked for change , company policy not allowed to change any money throu tills !
i was polite and explained this , came back 10mins a later and bought a packet of gum with a £50 note 😩

Oh and I forgot the lady who demanded my help on the kiosk-clicked her fingers in my face

I cheerfully (through gritted teeth and a cheerful smile) helped her place her,her 2 grandsons and adult dds order-she was rude the whole way through

I got her to the 'please insert your card' part and was just about to walk away when she leaned over and hissed at me to 'now fuck off,you thick bitch'

Her cokes with no ice got extra ice and her smartie ice creams got one smartie topping rather than two-i know it was petty but I'd had enough

I swear I'd done nothing to trigger her

I work in a bookies and we get at least one aggressive customer a day. Two nights ago we had a man threaten to hurt us (myself and my colleague who are both 20 year old girls, we are the only staff there) and smash stools into our TV screens, knock things off the wall and say he was going to wait for us outside at close (it was already 7pm and the shop was empty so you can imagine how scary that was). All because my colleague very politely asked him what he had written on his bet!

In our call centre we had some serial offenders.

One guys with a sexual fetish would call and sound genuine until he got around to his real reason for calling. We had a high turnover so he'd always find new staff to dupe into helping him get off on the call.

Another was a serial bully and would scare and threaten staff, I know where you work, I'm going to follow you home and find out where you live - kind of stuff. He's always call with a complex problem then twist the staff's words and try and make them feel stupid and small. He was really, really nasty.