I'll Sue!

[Ghel]

I've read lots of stupid reasons here that customers threaten to sic their lawyers on us, but yesterday's was the stupidest one I've heard in person.

Customer's husband/SO/live-in boyfriend told us he was going to sue us because Customer was charged a $33 overdraft fee. When she really was overdrawn. Through no one's fault but her own.

What's the stupidest reason a customer's threatened to sue you or your workplace, that you've personally experienced?

[Titi]

I once had someone threaten to sue the store and get me and a coworker fired because she was in a bad mood and we had the nerve to be smiling and laughing. She flat out said that if she was in a bad mood then we were not allowed to be happy because we worked at store and were their to satisfy her.

[bloo]

I worked for Domino's Pizza 25 years ago and a young man with a ponytail came in to drop off a filled out application. I knew he wouldn't be hired because the owner required men to have short hair (at the time) that did not touch the collar. Tucking into the hat was not an option at the time for men like it was for women.

I thanked him for the application and explained I'd give it to my boss.

He then threw me for a loop. He said, "And I hope the fact that I have long hair isn't an issue because if I don't get hired because of that, I'll sue for discrimination."

Me: I see. Ooookay.

So when I handed the application in to the manager (the owner's brother-in-law) and shared his threat to sue because he had long hair, he balled up the application and chucked it into the 'circular file' and told me next time not to even bother him with someone like that.

Twenty-five years ago the owner didn't allow earring, visible tats and long hair for men. Women could wear non-dangling, single-hole earrings, no visible tats and hair had to be restrained under a ballcap-style hat.

Things have probably changed since then. Maybe they did actually get sued.

[EricKei]

At the newspaper, quite recently, actually -- I was called out to take pics at a local day-care (really just a repurposed house) where there had been a hostage scare of some kind (I didn't get out there until after the cops had dealt with whatever it was). A guy working with the place told me to make sure that we don't run any stories about it, nor pictures of the place, because "it was bad publicity." He threatened to sue us if we did.

Naturally, my reaction to that was to tell the boss as soon as I got back (we had a good laugh over it), and wonder if we couldn't get the story in on the front page. We ended up not running it (that week...) because we had more than enough real stories anyway. A shame. I was kinda hoping they'd run it, threat included.

[taxguykarl]

A couple threatened to sue the tax office because of their own shenanigans.
Specifically, they denied having several 1099's including two unemployment 1099's. These "oversights" meant a large refund. Just one problem: Copy A goes to you-know-who.
Well the IRS caught up with them, they were assessed about $1500 in penalties and interest and $5500 in back taxes.
As we are contractually obligated for (at most) their interest and penalties (come to think of it, that only applies if we screw up--our guarantee does not cover custy shenanigans), they were not pleased at the news that that they are on the hook for the full $7k.
Needless to say, they threated to sue. Good luck on that...especially since the contract has an arbitration clause.

[judecat]

Just last night I had a customer threatening to sue me, and have me fired for being racist. For daring to not sell them a "chocolate cigarillo" without ID .
1st guy comes in, no ID, so he goes out, hands money to friend, and friend comes in asks for the same, also no card, friend calls out the door "does anyone have ID so I can get a 'rillo". I then told him he wasn't getting a rillo at all on my shift, because the person who wants the rilli is the one who needs to be ID'd, not some random person getting gas. After several minutes of both of them yelling that they were 18 and me not caring at all, came the threats.

So I'm an old meany and a racist because he can't get his 'rillo. So he was going to come back today with a lawyer and talk to my boss. Good luck with that sonny boy.

[earl colby pottinger]

I bet

So I'm an old meany and a racist because he can't get his 'rillo. So he was going to come back today with a lawyer and talk to my boss. Good luck with that sonny boy.

If he does show up how much you want to bet he still has no ID?

[Argabarga]

Too many times to count, usually comes in 1 of 3 flavors.

1. Accusing us of "predatory" tactics. (I parked, and then you came along AFTER me and TOWED ME! That's ILLEGAL!!!)

2. For just plain old towing, (You CAN'T tow me for illegal parking! That's ILLEGAL... because, well.... I didn't want it to happen or something)

3. Arguing that we now owe them for "inconvenience" or "loss" because, since we took their car, now they can't get to work/school/a meeting/the hospital for a vague medical emergency, you name it, anything goes here really.

[Mriswith]

My favorite so far is the lady who rented a room in my hotel and decided that sitting in the middle of the bed was the best place to dye her hair hot pink. As you could guess, the bottle of dye got knocked over and spilled out onto the sheets and a pillow. Customer panics and tries to clean the mess up...with our towels. She got charged $150 to replace all the linens in the room, and threatened to sue us if we didn't refund her. We laughed.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

A contractor who supposedly lost $30 000, because he couldn't sell his spec house, the sale fell through because we put a lien on it when he didn't pay.

Good luck with that.

[raudf]

We got threatened with lawsuits all the time at MW repair. Stupidest was because the guy who backed his truck up to our unloading area... but didn't back up ENOUGH and drove his own lawn tractor off the back of his truck and right onto the ground.

Our usual was a customer beating the crap out of their product, hoping to get it replaced under service contract. Nope. We charged 'em to fix it. Contract had a "customer abuse" clause in it for a reason, folks. Not our fault that you didn't read it when you signed it.

[MoonCat]

We once had a man who not only threatened to sue, he wanted to speak to a supervisor, then a manager, then the manager's boss, then HIS boss, then the publisher and I suppose then the owner... all because he was incapable of understanding that running an ad for 7 days starting on Sunday means your ad expires on the following Saturday, NOT the following Sunday.

Sorry, dude. You can talk to anybody you want all the way up to God, but the fact remains that you only get ONE Sunday in a 7-day period. Thanks for playing, bye now!

[Plankton78]

I had one tonight. I accidentally dropped a 56 oz glass jar of spaghetti sauce. The sauce obviously splattered everywhere and a few drops landed on a customer's shoe. He threatened to sue me, my store manager, the whole dang store, the company who made the jars, the company who made the sauce. Umm. Okay. I'm really sorry about your shoe, but it looks like I cut my arm open and I need to stop the bleeding. At least let me wash it off before you get your lawyer!

[bainsidhe]

I accidentally dropped a 56 oz glass jar of spaghetti sauce.

Ugh, these types of accidents are the worst. Doesn't matter what you dropped, you'll be finding splatters and possibly bits of glass for days/weeks to come. I'm still finding splatters from a whoopsie from nearly two weeks ago. I thought I cleaned up everything, but it's amazing just how FAR those splatters go!

[Lace Neil Singer]

A woman threatened to sue me after I refused to let her in the petrol station after closing time. XD Good luck with that.