Please give it up to those that work in industries that require customer service. These heroes are the ones that make sure you get your refunds and exchanges and have someone to vent to when you're frustrated because your coupon is expired. Working in customer service does come with the unfortunate reality of coming across some of the most heinous people out there.
They write:
1. ItsEarthDay says:
I once asked a customer the standard, 'Hey, how are you doing?' as I started to scan his purchases. He responded with, 'Pretty good d*ckhead,' and then robbed me at gunpoint.
However, that wasn't even the rudest thing a customer has said to me. It was the woman standing behind the robber that took that cake. She stood there and watched me, a scrawny teenager, have a guy pointing a gun at my face for several minutes.
After he walked out with his gun still pointing at me, she approached the register and demanded I ring up her merchandise because she was running late for something. I was so shocked at what had just happened that I completed the transaction while still trembling.
She then asked me if I was just robbed, and I said, 'Yes, I think so,' she said, 'Wow, that's crazy,' and left. Right after she left, I realized I should probably call the police. They came pretty quickly. Unfortunately, nothing came of it, and they never caught him. I did get to go home early that day, though, which was nice, I guess.
2. ResurgentClusterfuck says:
Working as a cook at Waffle House, you get some doozies. It's probably the drunk guy who said if I wanted a tip, I'd need to come around the counter and suck his d*ck. I told him to get the f*ck out of my restaurant.
3. LavvyJack says:
When I worked retail at 18 in a party city, a group of grown women cussed at me and called me a bulimic b*tch because the store didn't have the right-sized gift bags they wanted.
4. Princess_Piggie says:
I used to work in university administration. A woman called and gave me her daughter’s name because she had questions about her account. I couldn’t find the student. Tried EVERYTHING.
Name, social, student ID number- nada. She begins to assault me and claim I’m useless verbally. It turns out she has two daughters. She called the wrong school for the daughter she was asking about.
5. MinAlansGlass says:
I was stuck on a register for eight hours at 16 years old and had to pee. Like, was going to need a change of clothes in three minutes levels of urgent.
Lady stopped me after I abandoned my register and wanted something we didn't sell refunded immediately. I declined, citing my epically urgent need to pee. I offered to be back in five minutes or less. She twisted her face into an ugly spoiled grimace and said, 'What use are you even then?'
I bet she never wagered she would haunt my urination efforts for the next 20 years. I still ask myself how long she'd been wearing diapers that my clear NEED TO PEE elicited zero sympathies from her.
6. VladimirPutin2016 says:
My first job out of high school was overnight Tech Support at a tech startup, it was the night of the Super Bowl. Someone gets transferred to me, and I can tell they're sh*t-faced. I still don't even what the issue was to make them convince our vendor team to transfer them.
The lady immediately goes on a huge rampage and gave me every reason to hang up, but it was funny and meant I didn't have to do real work. They called me many Indian slurs and talked about how I'll never leave my sh*t-hole country even though I'm a white guy working in Austin, TX.
I talked about how I was too stupid to go to college, even though this job was putting me through an electrical/computer eng degree on the companies dime (although I never graduated, so point them, I guess)
But to top it all off, she asked me to repeat my name. I repeated it and spelled it (it's a weird name), and she said, '[my name]? well, at least my parents didn't name me [my name]!' I died laughing and hung up shortly after. No topping that. Her name was Kayseigh (Pronounced like Kacey).
7. vankirk says:
I have been in customer service for 30 years.
Customer: 'You are the most ignorant, stupid person I have ever talked to. You do NOT know how to do your job. I want to speak to the manager.'
Me: 'I am the manager.'
F*ck people who think they know more about your job than you do.
8. Jesterhat906 says:
A man accused me of being on drugs in front of corporate because I was tired because I stayed up all night studying for my test at school.
9. tigrovna_ says:
My close friend died in a real bad accident. We lived in a small town and she was young, so it made front page news. Some random woman came up to the window, shoved the newspaper in my face, and was like 'look at this beautiful young woman, such a shame she passed away, she looked so kind.'
I started crying, shut to window and walked away. You'd think she would put two and two together and realize that the girl who passed was my friend, but nope the grief vulture made a formal complaint about me being 'heartless' for not listening to her gush about my dead friend, who she never met.
10. Obi-DoneKenobi says:
Got screamed at by a customer because we'd gone to takeaway cups half an hour before we closed the cafe. Amongst the screaming was the comment 'At least I can afford the coffee instead of having to work for the company!'
I sh*t you not, when he eventually realised he wasn't going to win, he used a voucher for a free drink from his place of work.
11. Good_Layer says:
Had a car salesman go from 0 to 100% real quick. Guy was having issues with software/printer called in to help. All smiles until I had to verify his store code, which unfortunately ended up being BONG.
I said each letter individually which led him to say it together, which got him embarrassed cause he had clients in the room. I got an earful and then he talked to my sup.
12. Bokuden101 says:
A woman wished me a good night after an otherwise uneventful interaction. I smiled and said, 'I shall endeavor to persevere.' She turned back, smiled cheerfully, and said, 'ohh, talking above your education.' Then she left. It was such a shock, it took me a few minutes to realize I had been insulted.
13. wanderingstorm says:
Worked in an inbound call center and a woman called in mad because she’d called in shortly before and been hung up on (later found out she’d been verbally abusive to that person too) - she insisted I’d been the one to hang up on her (wasn’t) and said I was just being a b*tch because I was on my period. I was even more insulted that a woman would say such a thing. She got hung up on again too.
14. -astronautical says:
When I was younger we had a guy come in and try to sell us drugs. when we politely declined he went into the bathroom, pissed like a gallons worth of pee onto our floor, then announced his deed to us before flipping us off and calling us p*ssies.
15. RubySoledad says:
Used to drive for Uber. Had one male rider ask me (a woman) if I thought I was some kind of genius. Confused, I asked him why.
He went on a long rant about how God created men to be more intelligent than women, and how I'm not as smart as he is because I'm a woman. I almost dropped him off on the side of the road.
16. I_DRINK_ANARCHY says:
I worked in a jewelry store that had a jeweler on site every day, but would be scheduled to leave about an hour before closing. One evening a customer came in just as the jeweler was leaving, and begged him to repair the thing that night.
Since it was a simple fix, the jeweler agreed, but joked with the customer if he was late for dinner, the customer would have to be the one to explain why to the jeweler's wife.
The customer (an older dude, I'd guess 50's or 60's) said something along the lines of the jeweler being in a great position to always make it up to his wife. He turned to me and said something to the effect of 'You're a woman, you know, your husband just has to give you sparkly things and you'll forgive him.'
I pointed out I was just engaged, and my ring was the only piece of jewelry I had received or wanted from my fiancé. I was just happy walking side by side with him, being equals.
Well, the customer looked me right in the eye and said 'Oh honey, you will never be equal to him. He's always gonna be ahead.' I was flabbergasted, and he kept going. I told him very quickly that he was a customer and I liked him, but he needed to stop talking and keep it that way.
He kept insisting that the natural order of things was for me to be less than any and all men, especially my future husband, and I shouldn't be mad about it. I finally said I was going on a smoke break (code for 'I need to get out of here before I lose my cool' since I don't smoke) and walked out for a breather.
I've since dealt with much worse bullsh*t, but at the time I was young and had never experienced such explicit sexism that was so casual and not intended to be mean. Like, that dude was really just trying to 'help' me understand how the world worked and wasn't trying to insult me.