I work in retail. I am sitting at my register, thinking that I should do a drop soon. I open the drawer and see that I have a great many one-dollar bills, which prompts me to count them; after accumulating a certain number of them, anything above the opening amount of ones is added to the next drop.

As I am halfway through the stack — twenty-four out of forty-nine — a woman walks in the front door.

Customer: “Do you work here?”

I am behind the counter, sitting at the cash register, with both hands LITERALLY full of money.

Me: *Bewildered* “Um… yeeessss.”

The response going through my head was, “No, the store just allows random people behind the counter so that they can take money out of the register!”

I seem to be facing an increasingly moronic general public.

There’s a chain pet supply store a few blocks away from my home. The staff is usually very friendly and helpful. This time… not so much.

I was looking into buying some pet food that I found on their website. The online sale price was 10,99€ a bag, and I needed six of them. They weren’t deliverable for another couple of days, so I decided to walk over to the store. They happened to have it in stock, but for 12,99€. Most of their stock is slightly more expensive than the online store, but I don’t mind; the store generates jobs and I’m happy to have a place nearby where I can get good quality food.

So, I dragged my bulky, heavy stuff to the counter to pay, and I was shocked at how much it rang up to.

Me: “Is that right? They rang up as 39,99€ a piece! They were 10,99€ online, and your sign says 12,99€. Is there some kind of mistake in the system?”

Cashier: “Yeah… maybe.”

Me: “Could you look it up, please? That’s quite the difference.”

Cashier: “Sure, I will look it up later. 239,94€, please.”

Me: *A bit surprised* “Could you please check now?”

Cashier: “I will look it up later.”

I assume the cashier had some kind of brain fart; he’s always been great otherwise. I left the store empty-handed and ordered the food online a few days later for about 66€.

A customer tries to pay by check, but this customer has had two checks bounce before.

Me: “Sir, we cannot accept payment from you by check.”

Customer: “That’s racist!”

Me: “No, sir, it’s because your last two checks had bounced, so we can no longer accept checks from you.”

Customer: “It’s because I’m [Race]!”

Me: “Could you call your bank to verify the funds while you’re still here?

Customer: “You’re racist for wanting to check with my bank!”

We end up calling the bank while he is talking with someone else. There are insufficient funds for the check to clear, so we give it back to him and tell him why.

Customer: *Pulling out a credit card* “This is so racist!”

His credit card is declined.

Customer: “You’re racist for declining my credit card!”

A customer is purchasing a bottle of bottom-shelf rum. She isn’t really clear on how she wants to use her card, so the cashier ends up running it as credit instead of debit. When she gets handed the receipt, she immediately flips out.

Customer: “You stupid cashier! I didn’t want credit! This is going to screw up my bank account!”

Cashier: “I’m sorry, ma’am. Let me do a return for credit, and I’ll re-ring the transaction as a debit.”

Customer: “Not good enough! Now I gotta go to the bank straight away!”

She leaves, yelling.

Me: *To the cashier* “She’ll probably be back in ten minutes yelling about how we screwed up her bank account.”

It’s five minutes.

Customer: “You scammed me, and you’re cheating me over the rum!”

Yeah, we’re cheating her over a ten-dollar bottle of cheap rum. This is the point when I step in; the cashier is busy with other customers and doesn’t need an ear beating because he did everything right to rectify the problem.

Me: “Do you have a statement from the bank saying that the charges came from here?”

Customer: “I don’t need a statement because I know how much money is in my account, and now I have over $120 less after being at your store!”

Whenever you use a card in any store for anything, it puts a hold on your account, so even if the transaction is reversed, the money isn’t immediately returned to your available money. It has to clear first and either post or get reversed.

I calmly begin to offer this explanation but am rudely interrupted.

Customer: “I work hard for my money, and I don’t need your explanation because I know you’re scamming me out of my money!”

After trying this dance two or three times:

Me: *Losing patience* “Leave. Just leave. If you don’t want to hear my explanation, and all you want to do is yell over something you clearly know nothing about, then just get out of my store.”

She kept yelling as she was leaving. I told her to have a nice day, and she told me to f*** off.

I have just been promoted to a customer service manager position at a large chain retailer. On my first 5:00 am shift, I am counting the money at one of the registers before it opens when an elderly man in a long coat approaches.

Man: “I need to buy this.”

He puts a gallon jug of juice on the register.

Me: “Hello. I’m sorry, this register is closed right now, but there are two others just behind you that are open.”

Man: “I need to buy this.”

Me: “No problem. One of the ladies behind you can help.”

Man: “Give me my g**d*** juice!”

He grabs the jug and slams it on the counter with enough force that the lid pops off, juice going everywhere. The man then splashes juice on me and spins around, still sending juice flying, before stepping back and opening his coat. He is wearing fishnet leggings underneath. Nothing else.

Man: “F****** w***e!”

He throws the jug at me and sprints out of the store. I stand there, covered in juice, trying to figure out what exactly just happened. One of the other customer service managers comes up.

Me: “Uh… there was a… a man in fishnets and—”

Manager: *Casually* “Oh, yeah. He comes in sometimes. We just let him have the juice so he leaves.” *Looks me over* “Gonna be a long day for you. I gotta go take [Child] to school, but [Manager #2] will be in at 7:00 am.”

I asked my superiors if I could go home and change, even if I had to wait until the next manager came in. They said no; I should have avoided the conflict entirely and I had to work in my juice-dried clothes all day as a lesson on customer satisfaction.

I quit the same day.