Unfiltered Story #196220

This was when I worked at a local movie theater. We worked regularly with the other local movie theater and honored their customer memberships and discounts for tickets and concessions. This woman (probably late 50’s) would come in about once a month, claiming to have a membership when she in fact did not, and then would throw a fit when we couldn’t find her in the computer system.

Me: (She does not have a membership card to show me so I have to look up her name in the computer ) I’m sorry ma’am, but I cannot find your name in our system. Are you sure the membership has not has expired? We can renew it for you if you like.
Customer: NO!NO!NO! I told you I’ve been traveling and I took my membership card out of my purse!!! I have a gold level membership!!! (She then proceeds to spell out her name very slowly in a very condescending tone. My name is (very common name)! I live on (street name)! Look it up again!!
Me: (retyping the information) I’m sorry I’m still not finding it. Could it be under a different name?
Customer: (Screaming and slamming her fists on the counter) NO! NO! NO! My name is (name)!! I have a gold membership!! I get a free ticket and free popcorn!!
Me: (getting irritated at her childish behavior): I understand, but I am not finding your information in the computer. (Even if she was actually a member, her name was extremely common, and we must have had at least 60 customers with the same exact name. I had to scroll about 5 pages just to confirm that I did not have her in my system)
Customer: (more screaming and slamming her hands on the counter). I already told you I have a membership!!! I’ve been traveling and I don’t have my card on me! This happens every single time I come in!!

This goes on for a while with her yelling and then repeating her name, spelling it out over and over again, and insisting that I look up the information again.

Me: (giving up) Let me get my manager
My manager eventually just gives her the free ticket and popcorn and the customer walks off in smug satisfaction.

I was informed later that she does this all the time and uses the same story every time, that she’s been traveling and took her membership card out of her purse. She’s behaved the same way with almost every employee. What’s sad is that she is apparently a very prominent and wealthy member of the community, and yet she throws temper tantrums in public and tries to scam local businesses. Way to set a good example!