I work for a brand known primarily for selling items such as newspapers, books, and stationery. We also provide a service where a customer can bring a parcel in to send via a particular delivery service, usually to other countries. They usually fill out some information online at home, print it out, and bring that paperwork in along with the parcel when they come into the store. However, this isn’t something I usually do; it’s usually left to either my manager or the two supervisors.

Yesterday, I was the unfortunate person who got to deal with the customer in the following story.

I was serving customers on the till and finished dealing with the queue, and then a very rude lady came up to me, threw an envelope on the counter, and said that she wanted it sent by [Delivery Company]. Obviously, I didn’t know how to process it, so I asked my supervisor if she could help me. The lady gave me the filthiest look ever, and this didn’t change as my supervisor proceeded to talk me through the process.

I got through most of the process, thanks to the help, but then my supervisor had to go help someone on the self-checkout. However, she told me how to finish up and I thought I’d be okay from that point. Unfortunately, a minute later, I realised there was some slight confusion as to what paperwork I had to insert into the envelope and what paperwork I had to give back to the lady. All I did was ask my supervisor to be sure.

Supervisor: “No problem, I’ll just finish helping this customer and I’ll come and check.”

Rude Lady: “No, you’ll come and do it now. I need this done. She—” *gesturing to me* “—doesn’t know what she’s doing!”

Supervisor: “I promise, I’ll be thirty seconds. I just need to—”

Rude Lady: “NOW!”

I have to give the utmost credit to my supervisor here for keeping her composure. She came over, finished helping me with the process — [Rude Lady] obviously glaring at us both throughout — and we thought that was the end of it. But then…

Rude Lady: “This had better get there with no issues. You—” *pointing at me* “—clearly don’t know what you’re doing. I’ve paid a lot of money for this, and if anything goes wrong, I’ll—”

Supervisor: “Actually, the only reason it wouldn’t get there would be if you entered any incorrect information when filling out the information you did at home. All we do on this end is process it through the [Delivery Company] website using the information you gave us. So, if by some miracle anything does go wrong, it won’t be my colleague’s fault or mine. Will that be everything?”

All the rude lady did then was smirk, give one last filthy look, and march out of the store.

Me: “Be right back, I need to scream… or throw something… or write my letter of resignation.”

Supervisor: “Not before me, you don’t!”

I had a customer at my register screaming about the price of something, claiming we had rung it up wrong, that’s not how much it said on the shelf, etc. The price difference wasn’t even that big.

We sent a supervisor to go and check the price, and wouldn’t you know it, she had read the wrong ticket.

She still insisted that we give her that price anyway because, somehow, her reading the wrong ticket was our fault. She kept making a big scene, and she turned to the guy behind her. He looked utterly fed up to be stuck behind this woman. She tried to give a speech about the principle of the thing, and the guy shut her down.

Guy: “I don’t give a f***. You’ve been holding the line up over 30p. Just pay for your s*** and get out.”

The customers behind him didn’t say anything but glared daggers at the woman, who promptly shut up, paid for her stuff, and scurried off.

Thank you, random guy, for saying what I wasn’t allowed to.

I’m talking with a customer who has made an online order with us. This order is delivered in three parcels, but they are missing one of the articles/parcels.

Me: “All right, could you tell me which article you are missing?”

Customer: “Yes, it’s a handbag.”

I checked the order, and guess what? The customer had only handbags. Close to ten of them. They didn’t know which brand or price.

We did figure it out, but still, please be prepared with needed information when calling customer service for help.

I work in a team store for a major university. This is THE official store for apparel and everything related to the school. Of course, other big box retailers in town carry much of the same stuff, which annoys us because it isn’t business coming to our store, but what are you going to do about it?

One day, an older guy comes in with a jacket — an expensive one.

Customer: “I bought this jacket here and I want to return it.”

That’s all well and good; it still has the tags on it.

Me: “Do you have the receipt?”

Customer: “No, I don’t.”

That’s not a big deal really; we can still work something out. I go to look at the tag to scan it and see what the system says. I don’t get as far as scanning it because the tag that is on this jacket is NOT one of ours. It is for one of the big box retailers in town, and the tag still has the name of that store on it.

Me: “This tag is from [Retailer]. I can’t take this jacket or give you a refund because you didn’t buy it from us.”

Customer: “What?! That’s ridiculous! I’m going to have you fired! In fact, I’m reporting you to the cops and the Better Business Bureau!”

He just kept yelling at me and threatening me. Eventually, he stormed out.

I still think about that very obvious attempt at getting extra money out of something.

I am working in Guest Services one day, and a lady comes up with a stand mixer.

Guest: “I was charged the wrong price for this!”

This usually comes down to a couple of factors. It could be an online-only item that was returned in-store, which has a 33% discount in order to clear it off the shelves faster. It could be an opened return that was inspected and in proper working order, also usually discounted at a similar rate for the same reason. Most often, however, the reason usually boils down to a clearance tag being placed on the wrong item, in which case, we might offer to grab the actual clearance item if we still have any in stock, or, with Team Lead approval, we might “make it right” for the guest.

This time, however, is not one of those times. She comes up with a very top-of-the-line stand mixer, worth well over $300, and I scan it with my device to confirm that it is, in fact, ringing up for the full retail value.

Customer: “But what about this price tag?”

The guest pointed to the “clearance” tag on the item, corners peeling away as if it had been removed from something and affixed onto the mixer in a hurry, reading, “Was: $7.99 Now $2.40”. I checked the item number on the tag to confirm what I had suspected; the clearance tag was for a pair of socks.

The discount was not honored, and she left the store without the mixer.