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.

@WickedWitchOfTheEast87

We're okay now Sounds about right, even down to the managers! Lucky me, I've got a 12 hour tomorrow so we'll see what abuse crops up then.

And we definitely should get danger money. The £11 is not worth the absolute creatures we have to deal with.

I used to work in a clothing store and had a customer came in; walked around the whole shop and back out again

Didn't think much of it ...

Until the smell hit me

She had urinated around the whole shop - everywhere!!!

Had to close and disinfect everywhere - I cried for the rest of my shift

DD worked in RI from 16-19, she said attempted returns of trousers with cruddy gussets were common place.

must be the area we live in or RI customers!

A woman I went to college with was a manager at Morrisions

She told the story of a woman who came in and wanted to return something but for some reason,they couldn't give her the refund

The woman stood there,reached up her skirt and pissed all over the floor before storming out

Sadly,I can believe it

Dd worked in Primark (for the record, they were an excellent employer), and was shouted at by a customer when she politely explained that, no, Primark didn’t do wedding dresses. She offered to show them the hen party accessories, but was roundly abused as the woman knew that Primark sold wedding dresses.

I’ve heard from others that Primark is a good employer. Also McDonalds.

The best retail employer I ever had - of four - was Sainsbury’s.

Working in a pub - generally vile place anyway - always told to unbutton my shirt to give the customers a treat etc by boss - gritted my teeth because I needed the money.

The day Nelson Mandela was released from prison it was on the TV in the snug - several locals, including an ex Liverpool FC player, started on the most vile racist rants - it was just disgusting - I didn't need the money that badly, I opened the bar and walked out

DD1 has worked in retail since she was 16 - had some vile customers including one who low level stalked her - ringing the shop demanding to know her shift pattern (never given out) and waiting for her after work - telling her he thought about her in 'pretty dresses' all the time - thankfully good management - she was never 'allowed' to serve him again after the dress comment and if he came in her manager sent her to the back room. She's been sworn at, threatened and, during Covid, repeatedly coughed on on purpose - and then there are the customers that 'need' to press themselves firmly against you to get passed or reach things - ewwww

I worked in Next one Christmas, years ago.

Someone pooed in the mens' changing rooms 🤢

Oh so so many.

There was the woman who put her pin in incorrectly three times and the card was locked. I did warn her after the second failed attempt that if it was put in wrong again the card would lock but she just shouted that it was the correct pin and our tills were wrong.
So the card locked. She was irate and getting quite loud. Wouldn't accept that at this point we could do absolutely nothing about it and she needed to go to her bank to get it sorted out. She kept screaming it was our fault.
I asked for another method of payment. She only had enough cash to cover about half of what she wanted. I told her that she could pay for some now and we'd put the rest aside for her if she wanted to come back with more cash or a different payment method.
This was not what she wanted. She wanted to take everything as it was needed NOW and she would come in later to bring the balance in cash, but she was taking everything as it was, according to her, our fault her card didn't work.
Manager had to step in at this point as she just kept shouting. In the end she left with nothing whilst screaming she'd complain to management about how awful we were. We did put her stuff aside for a while in case she came back, but she didn't.
The sheer number of people who'd get irate when it was well after closing and we'd ask them to make their way to the tills and exit. No I don't get paid overtime actually.
I have also personally ruined many a Christmas due to the shop running out of a particular toy or "must have" craft item on Christmas eve. No we can't order it in for today. Oh, and have fun contacting head office to complain, they all knocked off yesterday.
Customers who wanted very large amounts of an item with very little notice. Ribbon was a common one for this. We sold over 100 varieties of ribbon by the metre and rarely carried more than one spare reel of each in stock. Each reel would contain between 20 and 50 metres. So if you want 200 metres of a particular shade of peach for wedding orders of service for this very weekend.... well you can pretty much guarantee we wont have enough. Some people were sensible to order several weeks in advance, some wouldn't. If they were nice, sometimes we'd phone other shops in our chain and see if they could post some, but if you were a loud, shouty and rude person, we wouldn't.
I swear some customers thought our stock room was like the warehouse and the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Got called a retard because I gave her king-size cigarettes and not superking.

Worked in a camping and outdoor shop. Young kid (under five) running around with a mallet. Mum not bothered.

Another day, another young kid was wrecking the displays, pulling out the sleeping bags, getting shoes out of shoeboxes. Area was out of sight of tills so we didn’t see it until another customer told us. Dad was quite posh. I concluded he was charge of his son for the day and didn’t know how to handle him.

I know it’s not retail but my friend worked in a restaurant as a chef and someone complained the ice cream was too cold 🙄🙄

When I worked on retail (New Look and Topshop) my issues were more with the managers. They were all horrible controlling people who enjoyed the power too much and loved declining holiday requests and just had a constant look of disappointment at everything I did. I then moved to waitressing and had a much happier time.

Got told off last week because all the bread out, was yesterday's, now I work in a big supermarket so I was super confused ,we get pulled upstairs if anything is out of date, she was proper angry and almost threw her bread at me, when I looked it was the correct date, when I told her she was wrong, I had to show the date on my phone because she wouldn't believe me😂.

A lady ordered a pizza and complained because it had tomato sauce on it.... as do all pizzas unless otherwise stated

@MBeat that is appalling!!!

Not personally but two colleagues I work with at a large supermarket retailer

1. A man asked where the condoms where. She showed him and he said " can I use them on you "
2. A man said to a woman " you'd look better pregnant love"

I find the majority of my customers to be lovely. If anyone is rude, I speak to them extra politely which sometimes takes the wind out of their sails. One guy was thoroughly obnoxious the whole way through the transaction so I piped up breezily “ Have a wonderful day”! The next customer commented on how well I had handled him. Another guy bit my head off when I told him I wasn’t allowed to open the till & give him change. “ Remind me never to come here again”! The worst place to work in our store is Customer Services as they get loads of abuse, both verbal & shockingly sometimes physical. One colleague got a boxed Hoover thrown at her! We don’t have a security guard but really need one. And some of the language!

I get verbal abuse daily in my job, I have had someone threaten to slit my throat and another said if he sees me on the estate he will stab me..

More recently I had a cust want me to sort out an issue she was having with her neighbour..fine....thats my job so I replied that I would talk to the neighbour.

Oh no, she doesn't want me to talk to her neighbour, I'm a disgrace for even suggesting it. So I advise if I cannot tall to her neighbour, I cannot help resolve their dispute..

She repeats, she doesn't want me to speak to her neighbour, she just wants me to "do something and evict her"

Let me get this straight, you want me to evict your neighbour, which I can't do, only a Judge can. But not even be able to tell her why?? When I pointed the logic out to her she went mad at me. Called me all the names under the sun, she was going to hunt down my family and make sure they all died a horrible death, yadda, yadda, yadda!

GTFO of here you crazy bitch!

DH is police and he once had someone purposefully stab him with a used needle as he walked past, then gleefully tell DH that he had HIV and the "pig" could go die of a "fagg*t disease". It was horrible whilst we waited for his results.

Oh and I once had a tenant smash my car window with a broom because I wouldn't buy her a mop.

Years ago when the London Tube had ticket offices I was working in one underneath a National Rail terminal. This older man came to the window and was just unpleasant. He wanted a specific ticket which is fine but took time to issue. He started saying I was too slow, too incompetent, and very stupid. He commented on my appearance and asked me if I was married, because who would want me? He carried on with his insults and called me a stupid fat pig. I just burst into tears. 😭

My colleagues took me off the window and I was put in a back room with some sweet tea. They pulled the curtain down on the man and rang the station supervisor. The man complained to the supervisor saying I was rude and slow and rubbish at my job. Luckily for me I had a good track record and the supervisor backed me up. The man was told by the supervisor to leave and never return. 😲 The man was shouting and cursing the supervisor & staff by then but he realised he wasn't going to get anywhere and left.

I've worked on the Tube for over 20 years and have loads more stories but that was one that has stuck with me.

I worked in Matalan when I was a teenager, this one happened to be in a bit of a dodgy area which I think caused some of the (literal) shit we dealt with.

The worst thing that happened was a man wanted my opinion on some clothes and when he came out he was pitching a tent in some pyjama shorts. He kept asking me what I thought of them with a creepy smile on his face. I muttered “they’re fine”, walked off and used the radio to request a male staff member to join me. Management didn’t seem at all concerned.

People trying to get a refund for things that smelt of fags or sweat and swearing blind that they’d never been worn.

One charming lady called me the c word because I wouldn’t refund the full price when she had paid the sale price.

Used to work making desserts at a pub restaurant. Large order came through (v memorable as it was for 8 people - most orders were only 2-4 people).

A while later, manager came over and accused me of not making the order. I said I knew I had, and told him which waitress had taken it out. Apparently the table was complaining they hadn't received them.

Turned out that they HAD received them, and eaten them, then hidden the dirty dishes and cutlery under the table to try and get more for free.

Most recently, a customer called me a fucking stupid slut and whore.

I've had customers threatening to wait for me outside.

Had my arse touched.

Customers refusing to leave.

Customer calling police because we wouldn't give him money that wasn't his.

General rudeness mess making and arguments.

Piss/shit on floor in Toilet

Drugs in the toilet.

Gotta love retail

My favourite was the phone call I took complaining that her coffee was too hot.

When I went to chat to the cafe manager. He rented her clearly because she insisted that he always served the coffee too cold and demanded after making he put in in the microwave for 90 seconds.
He told her that would be way too hot, and She replied that she knew what she wanted and he has to do it.
He put it in for 30 seconds and handed it to get saying "be careful it's far too hot to drink".I

She told him that the customer is always right.

I think the behaviour and entitlement of the general public has worsened over the past few decades. I started work in the 70s and have worked in retail, hospitality, betting shops, care homes, community care etc.
There was always the odd shitty customer who would usually get short shrift off the manager and escorted off the premises, but nothing anywhere near how is seems to be nowadays
Over the years I grew less tolerant of rudeness by people and being treated like some lesser being.
We often got customers who, when not getting what they wanted, would storm off, loudly declaring that they would never shop here anymore. I would respond, with a big cheesy grin "bye then, see you next week" 🤣
I never understood why these rude and unpleasant people think threatening never to shop with us again will have any effect, usually once the customer had left, us colleagues would punch the air in joy 🤣🤣