For a while, I worked for a small company that rented aquariums. Instead of having to purchase the tank, the equipment, and the fish, and make sure the water was right, we’d do it for you. All you had to worry about was feeding the fish every day.

Most of our work came from businesses that wanted pretty fish displays, but eventually, we also rented out to individual persons and homes. This happened because one day in late November we got a phone call from a lady who was very upset. As a Christmas gift, her workplace had given her a fish.

This lady knew nothing about fish except, “Fish DO NOT belong in bowls!”

After listening to this lady talk about how gifting living creatures was an absolutely awful idea, but now that she had the fish, he was her responsibility, my boss agreed to rent and set up an aquarium for her new fish in her house.

At first, she paid the more expensive business fees, but as time went on, with her paying dutifully every month and offering us snacks and drinks whenever we came to check her setup, he created a new price scheme for individual rentals.

We later went on to reuse this option for two of this lady’s friends whose kids wanted a fish, after she suggested to their parents that rental might be a good idea to test if they were ready for the responsibility.

After several years of watching us, asking questions, and helping out with her fish’s setup, it got to the point where our lady customer was doing most of the work herself and our check-up was really just a check-up. Then, it got to the point where we stopped charging to come by every fortnight and instead only came in if she called.

Eventually, she and my boss came to an agreement for her to buy her tank and equipment outright, and she stopped hiring us.

I don’t think this lady actually LIKED her fish. But I’m sure Alpha the Betta fish is still being treated like the king he is, regardless.

This customer is an amazing pet owner, who did the research and gave her fish a happy life, unlike those found in these 10 Shocking Stories About Customers Who Have No Business Being Anywhere Near A Fish Tank!

I’ve been a housekeeper at various hotels for many years. I don’t have children, but anyone who has ever been a child, met a child, or had to clean up after a child knows that their messes can get pretty destructive. I can instantly tell when a child has been in any hotel room I’ve had to clean — fruit gummies, cracker pieces, snack crumbs, and questionable sticky smears all over the floors and usually every other surface, etc.

One day, I’m at work and I have a lot of rooms to do, and they are pretty bad today. A hockey team has just come through and booked most of the hotel, and the hockey crowd is usually pretty messy. 

I’m in one of the rooms cleaning up the ungodly mess when I see a little boy, maybe eight years old, exit the room across the hall from the room I’m in. He just stands there all bundled up for the winter, presumably waiting for his parents to follow him out of the room. Pretty soon, the room door opens, and out follow his parents along with two younger siblings:  another boy about six years old and a little girl who is around three or four.

They leave with their luggage — which housekeepers always keep an eye on because when waiting for rooms to free up for cleaning, there’s not a moment to lose — so I pop my head out and check the room number they’ve left from. I reference my list of rooms to see if it’s assigned to me or a different housekeeper. It’s my room. 

I groan internally, anticipating the enormous mess I’ll have to deal with from three young children once I get into that room. I finish the room I’m currently working on, close the door, and take a deep breath before letting myself into the next room — the one I know will be trashed by the three young children.

I open the door, bracing myself for a bloodbath of piles of trash, scattered food, sticky messes, and other forms of chaos children on vacation leave in their wake. To my absolute shock, the room is one of the tidiest and cleanest I have ever stepped foot in, in all my years of housekeeping.

There is zero trash anywhere other than a few discarded items in the provided trash bins, surfaces are crystal clean, there are zero floor crumbs, and there is not one gummy candy, fish cracker, or juice box to be found. They even tidied both beds to where they almost looked freshly made. They used only a couple of towels and stacked them neatly next to the bathroom door. (Most families use every single provided towel and washcloth and leave them in a giant sopping wet pile inside the bathtub, which is a nightmare to pick up, because it’s extremely heavy, not to mention kind of gross.)

I’m flabbergasted, to say the least. It takes me record time to thoroughly clean and sanitize the room for the next guest(s), and I’m very grateful to the family for being so conscientious and for the immaculate state they left their room. If I hadn’t seen the family with three young children in tow physically leaving the room with my own eyes, no amount of convincing would have gotten me to believe that there had been anyone in that room other than one single neat-freak adult.

Thank you, random family, for making my otherwise rough day that much easier. You rock.

I am a technician, and I travel to various stores to work on their point-of-sales machines. This means I’m often behind their counters.

I’m working at a store when a lady comes up to the counter with her items.

Lady: “I’m ready to check out.”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I don’t work here. I’m just here to fix this machine.”

Lady: “Oh! I’m so sorry!”

Me: “It’s no problem, ma’am. I get that all the time.”

We joke about it for a moment, and then she has a brilliant idea.

Lady: “Oh! You should get a shirt that says, ‘I don’t work here, lady!’”

Related:
I Do Work Here, Does Not Work Here
I Don’t Work Here, Does Not Work Here, Part 46
I Don’t Work Here, Does Not Work Here, Part 45
I Don’t Work Here, Does Not Work Here, Part 44
I Don’t Work Here, Does Not Work Here, Part 43

I have just served a table of twelve, and they have been the absolute worst. Literally every one of them went out of their way to find something to complain about, from the food being brought out too quickly, to the waters being refilled too slowly, to the lighting being too dark, to the music being too loud, etc.

I finally bring them the bill, hoping to never see any of them again in my life after this. The lead harpy of the group starts shrieking in my direction.

Customer: “What the f*** is this?!”

I see where they’re pointing on the bill.

Me: “That’s the gratuity. It’s automatically added for groups of eight or more.”

Customer: “Take it the f*** off, right now! We’re not paying any gratuity for the terrible service we’ve received tonight!”

Me: “Only the manager can approve that, so I’ll just go get her.”

I’m about to go fetch her when I see her already standing behind me.

Manager: “I’m the manager, and I have heard every word you’ve been saying all night. So has the rest of the restaurant. It’s been that loud.”

Customer: “Well, I—”

Manager: “All of your food has been prepared two or three times to suit your tastes. [My Name] here has been running herself ragged to give you some of the best service I have ever seen in this restaurant. I also heard you telling your group to complain about everything tonight because you didn’t want to pay the gratuity.”

Customer: “That’s a lie! That’s—”

Manager: “I was hosting earlier, and I’m the one that sat you. I heard you. Do you realize that you’re not a very quiet person? Now, I am willing to take the gratuity off, but [My Name] here has still worked very hard to serve your table, and you owe her a tip.”

The manager comes back with a reprinted bill. The customer grabs it and scribbles something on the tip line while I get the card reader.

Customer: “You are incredibly rude, and I will be calling your general manager about this! Plus, I am putting in a bad Google review!”

Manager: “The amount of f***s I give is relative to the amount you tipped.” *Looks at receipt* “That’s what I thought. Get out before I start taking f***s back.”

Customer: “You are so fired!”

Manager: “I am so the owner of this place. Nice try. F*** off.”

They f***ed off!

The manager/owner explained to me that I was supposed to be told that the table was going to be trouble but there was a miscommunication with some staff. Obviously, no tip was provided, but the manager told me to bring my family in for dinner on my next night off, and we all got a nice big meal on the house instead!

Sometimes it’s shocking to see customers blatantly lie to get stuff cheaper or for free. Sadly, it happens all the time, just look at these 10 More Satisfying Stories About Lying Customers Getting Caught to see what we mean!

I work for a pet daycare. Clients are occasionally late, and we have no choice but to stay late waiting past closing with their dogs. One lady comes in ten minutes after we close.

Manager: “Ma’am, we closed ten minutes ago.”

Client: “Oh, sorry, I was on the phone out there for about twenty minutes.”

Manager: “Well then, f*** you very much, ma’am.”

Client: “I beg your pardon?!”

Manager: “You kept us all past closing because you thought your phone call was more important than all of us going home on time. F*** you. You’re no longer welcome here.” 

Client: “I will be calling your manager about how you’ve spoken to me!”

Manager: “I’m the visiting district manager. Buck stops with me. Your dog is lovely; be more like them in the future. Bye now.”

 The manager locked the door behind them and reminded us we could do that to any customer that admitted to being late for no good reason.