Worst SC Experience

[purplecat41877]

The dirty, filthy, vile woman who got me suspended for 3 days from my job at the grocery store.

She was trying to pull a scam. When I called her on it, she threw a tantrum of soap opera like porportions about how she is on food stamps and how I was taking food out of her children's mouths. Yep, I'm taking those Doritos and Pepsi bottles right out of their mouths.......get real lady.

I hope that bitch enjoyed her gift cards and books of coupons!

Personally, I think the manager should've banned the customer from the store and backed you up. You were doing your job the way you were trained.

[Lace Neil Singer]

This is the thread in question: http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...er+made+me+cry

I was off the till for 10 minutes cuz I was so upset. I don't see why people feel they have to take out their rage on defenseless cashiers.

[rerant]

I've had so many bad ones that it's hard to choose the worst.
The first one that comes to mind is the woman and her three daughters that came to lane when I worked at Wally World.

It was about an hour to the end of my 10 hour shift and I had spent the last five minutes listening to Rosemary's baby behind me.
Wally World + 10 hours + screaming child = next to know patience.
Anyway, the woman approaches and starts loading her things onto the belt.
Granted, I didn't so much as greet her as I grunted and forced a smile.
So I start ringing through her items and when it came time for the clothing I was setting it on the side table, folding it and leaving it there so I could put it all (she had a fair bit) into one large bag, keeping it separate from her other non-clothing items.
Well while I was removing the hangers from something, Rosemary's baby let out a shriek so shrill and so blood curdling it hurdled my already limited patience right out the in-store McDonald's window.
I threw the hanger on the floor in a silent fit of rage, rather than putting it in the bin.

Woman: "What the fuck is YOUR problem?"
Me: "Long day. Very tired"
Daughter #1: "Maybe you should chill the fuck out."
Daughter #2: "Yeah it's not like your job is hard or anything."
Mother: "We all have bad days you know. You don't have to be such a bitch."

Through this whole exchange I was ignoring them and continuing to ring through their items. By the time they had finished yapping I had swiped the mother's CC.

Me: "Here's your CC slip to sign."
Mother and daughters, all talking at once: "Don't sign it til she says please. I don't like your attitude. You're just a stupid cashier." etc etc.
Me (here's where I lose it. This is also the first time I ever cursed at a customer): "Just sign the fucking slip already!"

Shocked, she signs it and I slam my drawer shut and walk away. I went into the back, got my stuff, swiped out and left without telling anyone where I was going.

My next shift they asked what happened, I told them, and my CSM's only response was, "Oh."
Nothing ever happened.
That location was always desperate for employees that they would have never fired me for such an act.

That was the day I reached my breaking point. Since then I've learned to let whatever customers say roll right off my back.
Barely anything phases me anymore.

[GayleShy]

It's sort of a three way toss up.

There was an evil woman who thought that, just because she was tax exempt and working for a charitable institution, she should be treated like royalty. She actally told my CSM that she "had NEVER been so insulted in all her life." Because I told her I didn't have three arms and therefore, could not push the credit key while I was loading her crap in her cart. I never waited on her again after that, and the CSM thought it was funny and it was high time someone told her off.

Then there was a woman in the Layaway department who picked at every thing I did, right down to the fact that I had to open her boxes to make sure nothing had been taken out by people working in the back. Hey, it had happened before, so it was store policy. It protected her, but she didn't see it that way. She then had a fit because I asked to see her ID. I got the old "I shop here ALL the TIME!!! Where's So-And-So? So-And-So knows me! She would NEVER make me show my ID!" And finally she flew out the window when I asked her, politely, to sign on the line. Oh no, I did NOT just ask her to do something so common-place! She glared at me, signed up the side of the ticket, bitching about how if I had a name as long as hers, I'd sign up the side too. (News flash, I DO have a name as long as hers, I leared how to write in letters that are lass than an inch tall.) The kicker, just to spite me, she signed on the line and gave me the smuggest, snottiest smirk I'd ever seen. I told the CSM then and there that if I ever saw that woman again, someone had better cover for me, because I was not going to wait on her.

And this lovely woman in this last story stands out as one of the worst simply because she made me cry in front of a whole line of customers. It was Christmas season and I'd started working at Wal-Mart not five months before. My line was very long and things kept either scanning wrong or not scanning at all. The woman in question kept huffing and puffing, sighing and looking at her watch in a very exaderated "I'm in a hurry" sort of way. When it was finally her turn, she spent the whole time yelling about how she was in a hurry and I was making her late... blah, blah, blah. The sort of thing that, if it were said to me a year or so later, would have just made me roll my eyes and make fun of her in my brain, because no one should ever come to Wally World on a week end, in the after noon when they are in a hurry. But I hadn't developed a thick skin yet, and I took her words to heart and started to cry. Thankfully, I did wait until she was gone to do so. And the couple after her was very nice. I met up with them a few days later in Fred Myer, and the lady actually hugged me and told me she had to hold her husband back, because he was about to fly off the handle at that bitch.

[BookstoreEscapee]

One that still pisses me off, years later, for some reason:

Woman wants to return a book, which happens to be a study guide that is updated yearly. It is the previous year's edition, therefore it is out of print and we can't take it back. Of course she has the receipt, which is 18 months old. If she didn't have the reciept I would have stood my ground more, but she argued with me and I pointed out the 30-day return policy, and that her receipt was a year and a half old, and the fact that the book was out of print and therefore unreturnable. She still argued and got an attitude and was getting really annoying. I was already tired and just wanted to go home and I just got so pissed off. I ended up taking the book back which pissed me off even more, and I just couldn't hide it from the customer, either. I did not handle it well and consider myself lucky there was no one else around to hear it, since it was not my best moment. In retrospect, I should have called the manager up to deal with it, but then hindsight is 20/20, isn't it. Really it was a small thing; I've taken back plenty of books that shouldn't have been returned, all in the name of customer service, but this one just stuck with me for some strange reason.

Another one that drove me nuts:

I think this woman had some mental issues, but she had been in the store for quite a while, had some shopping bags (ours) and we think she was stealing stuff but no one actually saw anything. She was looking at things and was sitting on the floor near the front of the bargain section. It was closing time and we told her she needed to leave, and she kept saying to give her a minute, she wasn't done. I couldn't close my register until she was gone, and another employee was waiting by the door to lock it behind her, and she had a section to clean as well. 15 minutes after closing (while my manager is in the back waiting to close down the computer) and we're still trying to talk this woman into collecting her things and leaving. I told the manager at least 4 times that this woman was still there and she never bothered to come out from the office and help us get rid of her. My coworker finally lost it and yelled at her that it was nearly 20 minutes after closing and we wanted to go home. I don't know what this woman's problem was but we finally got her to leave. She picked up her bags and looked around and yelled at us "where's the door, I just want to get out of here" (or something like that) - as if we were the ones holding her up...she was standing not 15 feet from the door - it was pretty hard to miss.

[KamenRiderOsaka]

This reminds me of the psycho ex-marine who hates women.

Back when I used to take escalations, I had a rep, who is the sweetest person in the world, escalate a call to me. She looked very upset and was on the verge of tears when she told me she had an upset customer. So, I get on the line, introduce myself, all that. The guy was calm for about...3 seconds. Then he launches into a tirade of name calling, screaming (like, at the top of his lungs.) I found out that the rep had waiting like, 3 minutes for him to come onto the line when the call came in (rather than the standard 20-30 seconds) and I told him she went above and beyond waiting for him. That was the last thing I was able to get out before he began screaming again.

The rep's manager came over, looked at us, and then scurried off to her desk. Now, this manager and I have not had a great history together, but she really gained my respect after the call. She dialed in and listened to the guy berate me and the rep when I tried to get information from him. She then came over, and took over the call.

While he was a major ass to her, she turned it right around and was a complete bitch to him. It was awesome. He kept ragging about the first rep and she was like "THANKS, your opinion means squat to me. Now, can we finish?" He ended up escalating to her manager. When he got on the phone, his tone took a 180 and he was all "buddy-buddy" with this manager.

Turned out, the guy treated every woman he spoke to horribly after checking his notes. Our business services team (who deals with obscene callers) was notified to monitor his account. The reps manager was pissed because her manager gave the guy credit. I was pissed because he was treating the first rep like crap. Today...thinking about the story pisses me off.

[Daphne]

My worst patron experience happened when I was working circulation. It was about 15 minutes until closing on a Sunday. Here's the set up for the story. The line was incredibly long, and this bitch is chatting with a friend she found in line when I call her to the counter. She comes up and doesn't have her card or id. I tell her I can't check anything out to her without either her card or her id. She gets irritated and goes out to her car to get it. I decide to wait for her instead of calling the next patron because I don't want to piss her off. She comes in after taking forever to find her card, and this is what ensues:

She hands me her overdue dvds, and I check them in. After I check them in, this is what she says:
Her: I want to renew those.

Me: I'm sorry but popular DVDs cannot be renewed.

Her: If I knew that then I wouldn't have returned them.

Me: It's printed in our brochure. Besides that, even if I could check them out to you, I couldn't because your fines exceed $4. Also there is a not on your card indicating that you returned a DVD box set with a DVD missing. You won't be able to check out anything tonight. *Note that registers close at quarter til closing. There are signs indicating this, and an announcement is made both at a half an hour til closing and fifteen minutes before closing warning patrons.

Her: That's not right. l would have never returned them if I knew that.

Me: If you have a problem, I can get someone to take over. (Mind you I said this as politely and diplomatically as possible).

Her: (She turns into the ghetto classless pig that she is right here) Problem????? If I have a problem????? Yeah, there's a problem.

Me: I'm going to have to get someone else. (I go into the back and get the full time person who is used to handling morons. We'll call her A.)

A to her: You can't check anything out.

Her: That girl is rude. She seems soft spoken, but she told me if I had a problem, I'd have to talk to someone else. That is rude.

Me: (I go to say something and she says that I am interrupting her. A tells me to go to the sort room.)

A: We're instructed to say that. You need to leave.

I hope that bitch rots in hell. It still bothers me when I think about it. I cried the entire way home. I've never been rude to anyone in my life, and this pig behaves in such an uncivil manner towards me. Then she had the nerve to say I was rude for enforcing policies. It's people like her that make librarianship miserable. I can't wait to get away from working with the public.

[MrSunshineState]

This one stands out for me. From my days at the movie theatre. Now at the time I was a box office cashier and barely ever went upstairs unless it was to clock out or buy change.

Anyway I sell this lady a ticket (she had an attitude when she came to the window, I could tell) and she goes into her theatre. Our set of shows begin so I exit the box office to assist an usher with wiping down our windows. I have my bottle of Windex and roll of paper towels. Now this lady's movie is scheduled to start at 7:00. It was 6:59 by my watch but according to hers it was 7:05.

Me:
BL: Bitchy Lady


I am wiping down the windows BSing with the usher when all of a sudden we hear a lady whistleing and snapping her fingers!

BL: HEY GUYS! *finger snap*
ME: Yes?
BL: Less window cleaning, more movie!
ME: Mahm, your movie is scheduled to start in one minute, I do not work in projection
BL: Don't get smart with me, I am the customer, you do as I tell you!
ME: *thinking* wow, this woman is a major biatch
ME: I'll see what I can do.
BL: That's more like it

*BL storms back to her theatre*

*Not 2 minutes later she comes storming back. I am in the box office*

*BL BANGS ON THE GLASS!*

BL: *throws ticket down* Refund, now!

*At this point I did not even care about her 'problem' I just wanted BL out of my life*

*I take her $7 out of the drawer and forcibly put it under her extended palm*

ME: Have a great night.

*BL snatches her money off the counter and storms off to harass the people at JC Penny*

[MadMike]

There are two that stand out, and I can't really say which one was worse. So, since each one happened at a different job, I'll post both of them.

I was mainly a stocker at the supermarket, but I had been trained on register, so I got stuck on that from time to time. This story takes place on one such night.

Shortly before the end of my shift, an old lady came thru my line. I rang up her items, including two cake mixes. After I totalled her order, she told me, "Those are suppose to be buy one, get one free!"

I took a second look, and recognized them as items that were indeed BOGOF, but you had to have a coupon from our store flyer to get that, and politely informed her of this. Then she reached into her purse and pulled out the needed coupon.

OK, that one was partly my fault. If I had been paying attention, I might have noticed that they were one of the items on special, and asked her if she had the coupon. Also, we were supposed to ask that before we rang up the order anyway, but sometimes I forgot. Normally, that wasn't a problem anyway, as we refunded the coupons from the total anyway. Unfortunately, for this particular sale, we weren't even supposed to ring up the second item at all. We had to just ring up the one and pass the other thru. I don't know why we couldn't just refund the other one out like a regular coupon, all I know is I was told we couldn't. So I had to call the manager for a void.

When she saw me calling for the manager she asked me if I couldn't just ring it up like a regular coupon. I explained to her that I was told that it had to be done that way. When the manager got there, she asked him the same thing, which got me a little more pissed off than it should have. Something about being second-guessed like that gets to me, I suppose. And of course, the mananger told her exactly what I had.

He gets the other item voided and leaves, and everything's OK, right? Wrong! Now, she wants to pay with a payroll check, and get the difference in cash. This wasn't a problem, as we did cash most types of checks for people, but if they didn't have one of our check cashing cards, it had to be approved by a manager first. Think she had one? Of course not, that would be too easy! So I have to call the manager back up. He comes back, signs his approval, and goes back to whatever he was doing again. And we're good to go. Or are we...

The check was for something like $130. Upon opening my drawer, I find that the only way I can cover it is to give her the hundred in my drawer that someone paid with earlier. She starts whining like a 2-year-old over the big bill, and I, barely restraining myself from going off, tell her thru clenched teeth that it's all I had in my drawer. By this time, I was tired, cranky, and already past the scheduled end of my shift, and needed to get out of there before I ripped someone to shreds, so I told her they could break it at the customer service desk.

I guess she wasn't really sucky, just kind of annoying.


I worked in the lumber department at the home improvements store. One of the free services we offered was to cut pieces of lumber that customers bought at our store. One day a woman asked me to cut a board for her to a certain size, so I took it into the cutroom and cut it like she said. When I came back out and handed it back to her, she freaked over a knot that was in it, and told me I should have cut it from the other end so she wouldn't have the knot.

OK, she could have told me that before hand. I'm not psychic. If I was, I'd have bought a winning lottery ticker, and sure as hell would not be working in a place like that. Second, to cut it from the other end, I would have had to cut thru another huge knot, which could cause the saw to get stuck, or even throw the board. I tried to explain that to her, but she told me that "Common sense should have told me to cut it from the other side!"

OK, now I was pissed. She basically implied, if not flat-out stated that I had no common sense. I shot back with, "Common sense would also tell me not to try to cut thru that knot right there!"

The next part is still kind of hazy. When I get that way, my mind tends to race, and I have trouble recalling all the details later. I don't get that way easily, but when I do, it can take me hours or days to calm down. All I remmeber is going back and forth a few times, when the department manager happened to come by, and noticing me on the verge of a meltdown, stepped in the defuse the situation.

We both explained our sides of the story, and while he offered to let her pick a new board, he also backed me up, saying that I was right not to try to cut thru the not, and that aside, I had no way of knowing which side to cut from if she didn't tell me. She picked a new board, and he walked back to the cut room with me, with me ranting about that bitch every step of the way. I'm sure I was shaking at that point, and I'm surprised I was able to cut straight.

When I came out of the cut room, he apparently decided it would be best if the customer was nowhere in my sight, because he took the board and said he'd take it to her himself. When he came back, he handed me a dollar that he said she offered as a tip.

It's possible that she realized what a bitch she was being and wanted to make amends, but for some reason, I saw it as her trying to "buy me off", which just infurated me more. I think he ended up sending me on break so I could cool off.