(As a manager at this restaurant known for it’s square meat and ice cream desserts, it’s my job to keep the pace fast and satisfy our customers. This happened as our dinner rush was nearing the end.)

Cashier: “Welcome to [Restaurant]. May I take your order?”

Customer #1: “Yes, I’d like a large chocolate ice cream and a small vanilla.”

(Cashier tells them the total and takes their money. Sometimes when it gets busy, we make mistakes. I accidentally upgraded her vanilla into a large. Thinking she’d be happy, I open the window and start giving her her dessert.)

Me: “Ma’am, I accidentally upgraded your dessert. However, you weren’t charged for it! I do apologize.”

Customer #1: “Just means more ice cream for me!”

(So I smile, wish her a nice day, and close my window to go and bag the next order. As I open the window, expecting the next customer, I’m surprised to see my last customer.)

Me: “Is something wrong?”

Customer #1: “Where is my small vanilla ice cream?”

Me: “I’m sorry?”

Customer #1: My small vanilla! You never gave it to me!

Me: “Ma’am, you were upgraded to a bigger size.”

Customer #1: “I want my damn ice cream! You’re trying to rip me off!!”

(I finally lose my patience as she is destroying my fast drive times and hold my hand out.)

Me: “Ma’am, you obviously don’t appreciate the free upgrade. I’ll take that large vanilla and replace it with a small.”

(Realizing I’m not backing down or giving her more free ice cream, she gives a fake smile and tries to make herself likable again.)

Customer #1: “It was a free upgrade? I’m so sorry, dear; I don’t know what came over me!”

(She finally pulls off, and the next customer pulls up.)

Customer #2: “My gosh! You’d think people would be happy with a free upgrade! Are all your nights like this?”

Me: “There’s always that one person…”

Shake off the week of bad customers… with even more bad customers! Find for your reading pleasure below, a roundup of the most popular stories of the last week (June 20th – June 26th 2016)!

• Sadly, There IS A Doctor In The House (1,028 votes)
• Alarmingly Good Service (888 votes)
• When Religion A-tax (877 votes)
• Brothers In Arms (845 votes)
• Like To Throw Their Weight Around (808 votes)

See more roundups here! Don’t forget to check out this week’s comic!

(I work at a live theatre in a small town, where most of our patrons are elderly and kind. One day, a young male customer comes through the front doors.)

Me: “Good afternoon, can I help you with something?”

Customer: “Yes! I just moved here, and I don’t know anyone. I have to ask you a question.”

Me: “Great, I’d be happy to help you.”

Customer: “I was walking by the theatre and thought that this might be the place to get help.”

Me: “Well, we’d be glad to help if we can. What’s your question?”

Customer: “I’m looking for marijuana.”

Me: “…”

Customer: “Weed. Green.”

Me: “Yes, I understand…”

Customer: “Great! So, do you sell it here?”

Me: “No, sir, this is a real business. I can sell you tickets to a show, but we do not sell drugs.”

Customer: *annoyed* “Well, you’re no help! You people are useless! I guess I’ll just go ask some random person on the street since your ‘business’ can’t help me!”

(He angrily stormed out of the store. My colleague and I looked at each other, dumbfounded.)

(I’m a shift manager at a frozen yoghurt shop. It’s self-serve, and we charge by weight – doesn’t matter if it’s toppings or yogurt, it’s all $0.42 an oz. We have large signs above the yogurt machines, toppings, and entrance advertising this.)

Customer: *grabs a bowl, bypasses the yogurt, and fills it 2/3 of the way with chocolate sauce before setting it on the scale*

Me: *calculates her price* “That’ll be $4.53!”

Customer: “What?”

Me: “That’ll be $4.53 for you today.”

Customer: “For chocolate sauce?”

Me: “Yes, ma’am. We charge by weight; it’s 42 cents an ounce.”

Customer: “I know, but don’t you charge less for the toppings?”

Me: “Everything is the same price.”

Customer: “You’re charging me $4.53 for chocolate sauce?!”

Me: “Everything is priced by weight, 42 cents an ounce, both toppings and yogurt.” *I point to one of our signs*

Customer: “I’m not paying over four dollars for chocolate sauce! [Local Ice Cream Shop] charges 50 cents for their chocolate sauce!”

Me: “They charge 50 cents for a scoop of chocolate sauce on your ice cream. We charge by weight for all our items. You got a bowl of chocolate sauce.”

Customer: *shaking her head vigorously* “I’m not paying this much for chocolate sauce.”

(Before I could say anything, she immediately threw the unpaid for bowl of chocolate sauce in our trashcan and turned to leave. Now angry, I started to say that she needed to pay for the food she got, but she just shot me a furious look and hightailed it out of there.)

(The company is implementing a new “extended training” program that required all employees to observe a sales transaction they weren’t a part of and critique the coworker who handled it. This particular incident happens on a really slow day, and I am the only one who has gotten my required number of observations for the day. So I [a woman] say I’ll take the next customer and my four coworkers [all men] can observe and get their reports done. An older, black gentleman in a nice suit comes into the store:)

Me: “Good evening, welcome to [Jewelry Store]! How may I help you?

Customer: *doesn’t speak right away, as he is already looking at the display cases, mumbles hello*

Me: “Are you looking for anything special today? A gift maybe?”

Customer: *finally looking at me* “Yes, I need a present for my wife’s birthday tomorrow.”

Me: “Wonderful! We have a great selection—”

Customer: *interrupts, looking past me at my four coworkers standing at the back of the store* “What are they looking at?!”

Me: “I’m sorry?”

Customer: “What, are they all staring because I’m a black man?!”

(Out of my for coworkers, two were white, one was Hispanic, and the fourth was half-Greek.)

Me: “Oh, no, sir! We’re required by our company to observe each other and offer critiques on our ability to work with customers. They’re looking at me, not you.”

Customer: *ignores what I said* “They’re just staring because I’m a black man and I’m being waited on by some white girl. A black man can’t go anywhere without…”

(This leads to a fifteen minute lecture on racism, that apparently I am also participating in just by standing there. He’s not shouting or calling me names, so I just try to smile and nod, and wait for an opening to talk.)

Me: “I’m very sorry you feel that way, sir. They really are watching me to critique my sales methods. You said you wanted something for your wife’s birthday?”

Customer: “Eh… yeah, yeah. You got any square onyx?”

Me: “Unfortunately, no, we don’t have much onyx in stock right now. We can definitely order a piece from our catalogue but it will take about a week to come in.”

Customer: “No, no! I need a square onyx and I need it in a gold ring like this one!”

(He holds up a VERY uniquely shaped ring. It’s obviously pretty old and worn. The gold is paper thin at the bottom of the ring shank.)

Me: “I’m afraid a ring that unique would require an individual casting by our custom jeweler. This kind of process can take up to 30 days, since they want to make sure everything is just right.”

Customer: “Ridiculous! You just won’t make the ring by tomorrow because I’m a black man!”

(He takes his ring and walks out of the store, saying a few other things about our staff being racist.)

Me: “Have a good night, sir!”

Coworker #1: “Hey, [My Name], you handled that really well.”

Coworker #2: “Yeah, we were going to step in if he got out of line with you but you did great.”

Me: “Thanks? I’m still not sure what just happened though.”

Coworker #3: “He’s probably just cranky because he’s buying his wife a birthday present at the last minute.”

(We let the manager know about the customer, just in case he called to complain. But to my knowledge he never did. All of my coworkers gave me 5 stars on my employee critique.)