Aibu to ask for the most "WTF" complaints

[HouseholdPlantMurderer]

You have ever received?

I will start. Not the most ridiculous one, but in my top 10.
Woman demanding that I check in the back for a certain colour of a dress she wanted otherwise she will have me fired. After 5 minutes of her moaning she can't get it anywhere and me trying to explain that it's because it's not even made in the colour she wants, I went. I needed a toilet anyway 🙈

A customer ordered spicy italian sub. It's on a picture. It has a description there, he watched me to put pepperoni and salami in. Came back few minutes later FUMING that it's not vegetarian.... Sent a complaint to a head office about it too.

My Uncle owns a caravan park and the kids club is only available during school holidays, he had a family who regularly booked the last week of the holidays in one of their cheaper statics, never had a problem with them, kids used the kids club etc, until one year they realised the following week was cheaper (mainly because schools were back) they decided to book it for that week keeping the kids off School, and my Uncle explained that there there was no kids club, which was fine with them. During the holiday they kicked off because not only was there no kids club but non of my Uncles teenager daughters would babysit their children. They had assumed that because there was no kids club and they knew my uncle had teenagers who babysat for their older siblings kids that they could look after her kids too. Despite not knowing them. They complained to my Uncle who told them his daughter wasnt insured to babysit customers children and they had been told that there was no club, they then took it too the company the booked through and also added to the complaint that they expected the caravan site to refund their holiday and also pay the fine they recieved from the schools for removing thier kids in term time because they hadn't told them they could be fined and they wouldnt have booked it if they had known there was no child minding services.

Many many years ago I was a customer service officer in a bank. A lady came in brandishing her statement and demanding to know why we'd taken an extra £50 off her at each of her supermarket shops that month. It turned out that when cashback had first been mentioned to her, she'd asked what the maximum allowed was and been told £50, so she'd asked for the same on subsequent shops. She had however assumed that the supermarket were giving her the money. For free.

Genuinely no idea how I kept a straight face or failed to utter the words "wtf?!"

So many, but my all time favourite was the guests at the hotel I worked in a few years ago complained in person by email and on TA about me 'not upholding professional standards'. I'd seen them in the local supermarket after my shift finished for the day and I'd picked DD up from school, and I was getting my shopping on the way home - apparently they don't need to see hotel staff doing their shopping and we should shop well away from the hotel in case we were seen by guests. Even my manager who usually sides with customers full stop regardless of the complaint couldn't really do anything about that one.

A parent who was 90 minutes late picking her 5 year old up from school and un-contactable by phone. Apparently she wanted to do some shopping in peace and didn't think we would mind.

And one who yelled and swore at the admin office staff because we had recorded her child's absence as unauthorised. She said it was unfair because she had phoned in the first day to say her child had outgrown her school shoes and the second day to say they were going shoe shopping for the day-despite being told that the child could come to school in any shoes, we didn't mind!

Sorry, missed a bit! The first parent complained that the class teacher had been abrupt when she eventually picked her child up and that her child seemed upset, the teacher should have cheered her up!

A friend told me once she has a complaint in a cafe, (with a small play area) for customers. A woman had approached her complaining that her 5 year old son was deaf and that the sign language play assistant had disappeared and left her son alone in the play area unable to communicate with the other kids.

Now my friend was slightly confused because it was her Auntie's buisness and they definately didnt have a sign language play assistant, in fact the play area is close to tables and a "parent and guardian supervised" play are that can clearly be seen.
My friend questioned the lady and turned out this assistant was a 12 year old who had known sign language and had been friendly while also playing with his sister, but they had since left. The woman assumed that the cafe had hired a kid to come in who could sign. Regardless of the fact there is only 2 members of staff and ten tables in the place. When she realises her mistake inatead of been embaressed she insisted they did hire such a thing just in case they were to return. My friend told her they couldn't do that and that there were clear signs up that parents must watch their own children, as it seems this woman had sat at the furthest point she could away from her child.

Ex mental health nurse- I once got told it’s pretty women like me bringing down the NHS. Sadly I couldn’t give a 6 hour appointment, and provide Red Bull and Pringles ( this was said persons husband making the demands, patient was lovely)

I work in an office outside of which there is plenty of on street parking. There are also a couple of disabled parking spaces.

I was called to the door once because a lady was complaining that I had parked in one of the disabled spaces. I knew I hadn’t as I have never parked in the disabled spaces. She was insistent that I move my car. I repeatedly told her, it is not my car. She got arsier and arsier, telling me to move my car from the disabled spot. I kept saying. - it’s not my car in the space. I was lectured on how unfair it was for me to use a disabled spot I was not entitled to use. I agreed it was unfair to use a disabled space if you weren’t allowed to - but it was NOT my car.

Eventually I just walked away from her. There was no convincing her it wasn’t my car in the space as apparently I’m the only person who drives a black car.

Another one - we sell items of different colours but tell people that colour online can never be guaranteed so they can get a free sample sent for matching or send an example in with their name/phone number and address and we'll recommend the closest colour. At least once a month we get sent a envelope stuffed with various items of differt colours. No cover letter, no return address, in fact no identifying features at all. Very rarely do people follow up. It's bizarre. The ridiculous thing is they probably think we are the idiots.

The number of people who don't know their address and post code is astounding (we can usually look it up if one or the other is right but if both are wrong/missing there's really nothing we can do), typically they are also the ones who don't leave a phone number 'for data protection reasons' then call after a week or so ranting that we haven't sent their package or been in touch.

It's been reassuring to read that lots of customers complain the the wrong company about faulty goods/things they want to return. I was starting to think we needed a stronger brand. Clearly it's quite common!

My mum rang me in error once, I answered and she was surprised it was me. She said, somewhat indignantly, 'I dialled xyz number' to which I said she couldn't have done and must have mis-dialled. She barked back, 'if I'd dialled the number wrong, why did you pick up?!'

Working as a bespoke milliner, I dyed feathers, ribbons and so on to match customers' wedding clothes. Customer arrives with frock to collect hat, purrs with delight at the colour match, pays and leaves. She returned a week later spitting nails, wanting a refund because it didn't match at all. How did it not match? 'I wore a different outfit and this hat you made looked terrible with it.'

I had a really awkward one once.
I ran a venue which served alcohol behind a bar, a staff member came to me really uncomfortable and quite upset saying that they think they're in trouble.
A young trans teen/young adult approached the bar to buy some wine. Staff member had asked for ID as they did look quite young and we were challenge 25. Young person refused to show ID because their ID didn't reflect their chosen gender. They apparently had kicked off and threatened staff member with SM shaming and going to the papers. I had to go over and explain that we couldnt care less what sex was on their ID, we needed proof of age and I was not convinced that they were in fact old enough to buy alcohol anyways. I explained that if we were caught serving to someone underage, not only would we have a personal fine, but potential loss of licence and employment termination. I was quite frank and said that it wasn't worth my job to serve them, and if they went to the papers I would happily explain the situation.
They ended up coming back to the bar with their care worker who asked if I could just take her word that the person was old enough. Again, I explained why I couldn't do that. She offered to look at the ID and "give me the nod", again i explained why that wouldn't work.
They ended up storming out but on the way they thrust their ID at me and asked if I was happy now. They were 17.

@Biancadelrioisback

They would have outed themselves as trans if they gone to the papers!

When I worked in a shop when I was about 17 the phone rang so I answered it as you do. Next thing this bloke came in and had a go at me for ringing the police on him for shoplifting then threw and empty sandwich pack at me. Which is what he must of stolen as he never purchased it. The only thing was if he never said oat I wouldn't of even known he stolen anything. 😂

I do electrical inspection and testing for a living and had one lady complain on several websites that I 'did not do what was agreed'

I had been asked to do a EICR (wiring check) and smoke detectors, we did not do the smoke detectors (and did not charge for them) as her flat was dangerous.

She left me a bad review that I have on my website and it has got me several thousand pounds of work as when people read it they laugh, it breaks the ice and they know I am a safety first type of guy.

In a pub I worked in I had a lady order the salmon, ate the whole thing and then wanted a refund because it was too fishy.

An email in a customer service roll asked how many napkins were in the "set of 6 napkins?"

I feel sorry for any sales assistant that had to deal with my late Mother.

She'd turned into the old girl that says "I'm 85 you know".

I took her to Tesco, she picked up a very ripe bunch of bananas & complained to the till assistant that they were going black & should be discounted. I'd picked up a block of parmesan for myself, & she reckoned we shouldn't have to pay for the bit of rind on the end.

The shop handled it very well, the manager gave her the bananas for half price, & reduced my my cheese (after I was found trying to hide under the counter).

A customer who didn’t turn up for a booking asking me why I hadn’t rang him asking where he was!

Same customer asking me to compensate him for bringing his Dad’s vehicle in (when we rebooked the apt) his Dad had a minor operation and couldn’t drive. Stipulations of the warranty are that it must be carried out at a dealership. He was an arse and he seemed to be royally pissed off that his Dad has asked him to help him out!

My favourite recent one - this customer was doing a feedback survey on how I'd handled her complaint

Not happy that I hadn't contacted her & on next line, complained that I'd tried to phone her during the day while she was at work.

Complained that she still hadn't received my letter (it was returned by the current home owner who's lived at the address for 12 years 🙄)

I'm an older geezer, and I know there are newer ways of complaining these days.

But in the days when telephone complaints were the only way really, I developed a penchant for listening to daft people ranting on the phone for about 30 seconds, and then gently put the phone down on my desk and walked away.

The caller had no one to rant at then, and I didn't hang up on them either. Best tip from a colleague ever.

Oh the days.

Oh yes ny00025 the ones that expect post when they’ve not informed us of their change of address/email/tel number!

At the start of a new school year I met my new class of 30 children- including the "new girl" who'd come from a small rural school. I can honestly say that in my 46 years of life I have only ever truly disliked one child. The new girl. This child and her mother spent the entire year relentlessly complaining to me and about me regarding the education I was failing to provide. According to the new girl, at her old school (most sentences began with a very superior rendition of "At my old school...") she had been deemed so clever that her teacher had had to devise an entirely different curriculum for her as her genius was so superior to all the other pupils. Now she was bright. She was just about top of the class, by a whisker. She was not exceptional and she was not top of the year group of 120 pupils. It did not matter how many times I (and my head of year) explained that a class teacher with 30 pupils cannot (and should not) run an entirely different curriculum for a single pupil- especially when that pupil doesn't need it. We had perfectly well differentiated work to stretch the most able as it was. She was just used to being the star of the show and was fuming when we refused to let that continue.

My one smug moment (can't believe I was so pleased to get one over on a 9 year old!) came when we were doing a science write up for an experiment we'd just done. She gave me hers with the bored, disinterested and slightly disdainful look she had perfected and I noticed she hadn't filled in the section that said "What I found out" (or similar- it was quite a few years ago). When I challenged her, she informed me she had found out nothing as she already knew it all. I grabbed a pen, put a cross through the words "found out" and replaced them with the word "proved", explaining to her that she was obviously ready for the next step as a scientist because real scientists often think they know what an outcome will be but they have to prove that outcome over and over. And sent her back to complete her work properly...

I worked in a community building where we rented rooms including an office to run children’s activities. The building also rented out rooms to other companies, franchises etc. One time I was in the office doing some training with an apprentice and a parent came and knocked on the door to ask where the activity that normally ran in one of the rooms was. I explained that this activity wasn’t associated with us, the company rented as did we, so I really didn’t know anything about it. The parent then went on to quiz me relentlessly - “is she not coming?” “Is it on today?” “so is it cancelled?” “How do I find out if it is cancelled?” “Do you have her number?” “Can you ring her to find out?” On and on and on she went, with me repeating that I really didn’t know as it wasn’t anything to do with me. (I wasn’t being deliberately unhelpful - I just honestly didn’t know!)
Eventually she huffed out of the office. Fortunately the apprentice was sitting at the desk with her back to the door as by the end of this exchange she was trying so hard to not laugh!

When my daughter worked at an extremely upmarket restAurant on Skye a customer complained that she was ‘low class’ and she expected a higher standard of waitress. I nearly died of rage related apoplexy.

Daughter is many things but low class (who says that?) isn’t one of them.

WE have a modest village house in rural Andalucia. Sun beds are kept under cover but outside - guests apparently couldn't use them because they had spiders on them!