A male patron pushes ahead of other patrons, demanding service first.

Coworker: “Please wait your turn, sir.”

Patron: “Just serve me, b****!”

Coworker: “You might want to find another library if you’re going to treat women that way.”

Patron: “Call your boss. I’m getting you fired.”

The request goes to me, a manager, before going up to the boss. The boss, a happy yes-man, just refers the fellow back to me. Sure enough, Mr. Delightful calls up the next night and demands to speak with me.

I let him rant for a while and don’t say much because it would be a waste of breath to do so; he isn’t going to listen to me anyway. When he takes a breath:

Me: “I sympathize that it was a terrible thing for my colleague to ask you to have manners. However, I do not just have my librarian’s word on what you said to her, but also the corroboration of several patrons who said you were rude for no reason.”

Patron: “I don’t care! You need to fire her and demand that she write me a letter of apology!”

Me: “That isn’t going to happen, sir.”

Patron: “You need to do something about them fat b****es you got. They both hate men. You need to fire them, ’cause they are fat and they are b****es! I hate fat b****es!”

My last nerve has frayed completely.

Me: “Sir, I think you should be aware that if you want to deal with fat b****es, you are talking to the queen of fat b****es. If that’s how you are talking to my staff, I think you should be writing us a letter of apology. I will thank you to either behave yourself and wait your turn or, as my colleague suggested, find yourself another library in another town. Good night.”

I hung up and was sick to my stomach as I just KNEW he would call my supervisor to complain. I wrote up a quick report to email to the boss and went about my duties for the rest of the evening.

It’s been three years. I am happy to say that I never did hear from my boss about any complaints and, surprisingly, Mr. Delightful has been nothing but a model patron ever since.

Related:
Fat Chance Of An Apology

My friend makes one-of-a-kind accessories such as bags, belts, jewellery, etc., which she sells online and at local markets. I have one of her handbags which I use every day, and I often get random people commenting on it. 

One day, I’m shopping in a smallish independent clothing store. There are only two other customers, a mother and her teenage daughter, and the cashier in the shop.

Girl: “Oh, I love that bag.”

Me: “Thanks. I do, too.”

Girl: “Where are they? I want one.”

Me: “Sorry, but this isn’t from here. My friend made it.”

Girl: “Give it to me.”

She holds her hand out.

Me: “No, I’m not giving you my handbag. You can find similar ones at some markets, or she sells them online. Each one is a one of a kind.”

Girl: “No, I want that one. Give it to me now!”

Me: “Yeah, not happening.”

I turn away to look at something and she grabs hold of my bag and pulls on it. I just swing my body away, causing her to stumble.

Mother: “What the h***?! You just assaulted my daughter. Give her the bag now!”

Me: “Look, your daughter tried to take my handbag. I didn’t touch her.”

Mother: “So, she wants the bag. You need to give it to her. You can get another one.”

Me: “Lady, I’m not giving her my handbag. Now back off.”

Mother: *Screaming* “Help! This b**** just assaulted a minor and stole her bag. Help!”

Cashier: “You! You’ve both been warned before about causing problems in here. You both need to leave.”

Mother: “What?! She just assaulted my baby and stole her bag. Call the police. I’ll have you both arrested and the shop shut down.”

Cashier: “I saw the whole thing, and so did the cameras which also record audio. Now you both need to leave unless this young lady wants to press charges for attempted theft.”

The daughter started crying while the mother turned some interesting shades of red before pushing a display over and grabbing her daughter by the arm, and they both ran out the door.

I helped clean up the display but decided against pressing charges. After speaking more with the cashier who turned out to be the owner, I found out that they’d only just been allowed back in the store after harassing an older lady over a pair of glasses that the mother wanted. I was given a discount on my purchases and passed along my friend’s details. Now, the shop sells my friend’s accessories and I work part-time in the shop.

In this buffet restaurant, you pay as you enter, and then you can go up to the buffet as many times as you’d like. I’m working on the till on a Saturday night and the evening rush is in full swing with a massive queue of people

Me: “Welcome to [Restaurant]. That’ll be £16.99, please. Cash or card?”

Customer: “Card.”

He uses contactless payment, and I notice that his card is very beaten up and broken in places. The card is declined.

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, your card was declined. Would you like to try again? Please try inserting your card this time as the contactless sometimes plays up on this machine.”

Customer: “It can’t be a problem with my card! There’s over two grand on this card!”

Me: “I’m very sorry, sir. If you wouldn’t mind just trying again but inserting your card this time?”

He tries again and the card is declined again. This goes on for another couple of minutes without any luck. He gets increasingly angrier and starts swearing at me. 

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but your card isn’t working. Do you have any cash you can use to pay for your meal instead?”

Customer: “Am I going to have to go through all of this s*** every time I want to buy a drink tonight?! There is enough f****** money on my card to pay for this s***! It must be your f****** card machine!”

After yelling and swearing at me for a couple of minutes more, he pulled a £20 note out and used that instead. I processed the payment and sent him through, but before he left, he yelled at me some more about how it was my fault, all while holding up the queue.

I had just retired after twenty-four years in the military. I was done being a boss and just wanted to work without stress. Little did I know that retail is a nightmare. I worked for one of those big box stores as a product service associate. We did resets of merchandise on shelves.

I happened to be on the window blinds aisle when a very irate man came up to me demanding help. I calmly asked him what was wrong since he had a box of blinds in his hands. He started screaming at me.

Customer: “One of your coworkers messed up my blinds, and you had better motherf****** fix it or I will kick your a**.”

Me: “Please calm down.”

Customer: “I’m going to drag you out of the store and kick your motherf****** a** if you don’t fix it right away.”

Being hardened by my years of military work and somewhat taller than the man, I leaned over and said:

Me: “You’d better call a few friends first.”

Luckily, a manager had heard the commotion and came around the corner. As the guy went off on the manager, the manager told me:

Manager: “They need help in gardening outside; go help.”

So, out I went to an area I knew nothing about. Sure enough, a young teenager came up and asked me where the Salvia Divinorum was. As he finished talking, his dad walked up and asked the same thing.

Me: “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

Dad: “Why the h*** not? You work here, don’t you?”

Me: “I’m sorry. I actually work inside, but I’ll get someone for you.”

The employee I got was an agricultural specialist and he really knew his stuff.

Coworker: “What are you looking for?”

Dad: *Angrily* “My son is looking for Salvia Divinorum.”

Coworker: *With a huge grin* “We can’t sell that, sir. It is classified as a hallucinogenic by Mississippi and is illegal.”

All the garbage I’d taken in the last ten minutes was worth the death stare the dad gave his kid. Ah, divine Karma!

I work as a decorator at a bakery. It isn’t a chain place but it turns out to be a great place to exercise my decorating skills. Eventually, I plan to go back to school for more advanced decorating classes. I have been helping my boss interview for my replacement.

The candidates are two ladies around twenty-five and an older woman. The two younger ladies are lovely and make a really good impression, while the older lady acts really arrogant. At the end of the interview, she seems to be convinced that she has already gotten the job. My boss, sensing the same vibes, makes it very clear that no decisions will be made right away.

A few days later, before the boss man has made a decision about who to hire, the older woman calls back. She manages to speak to one of my coworkers, who was not part of the interview process. 

Coworker: “Hello?”

Older Woman: “Hi! I’m phoning to talk to your boss. He hired me a few days ago and I want to know when he wants me to come in.”

Coworker: *Oblivious* “Well, he’s not here right now. I’ll take a message so he can call you back.”

Older Woman: “Okay!”

[Boss] comes in, gets the message, and tells [Coworker] that he hasn’t hired anyone yet. [Older Woman] phones back before [Boss] gets a chance to call her.

Boss: “I’m sorry for the confusion, but you have only been in for an interview—”

Older Woman: *Interrupting* “Oh, no, I’m not confused at all. You hired me. Just tell me my starting date.”

Boss: “There is no starting date yet. I haven’t decided to hire anyone yet.”

Older Woman: “Don’t you remember me? I was here with my fiancée and you hired me.”

Boss: “Um, no, I didn’t.”

Older Woman: “Yes, you did. You shook my hand and told me that you would call me with my starting date, but you seem to have forgotten. Just tell me when to come in on my first day of work.”

Boss: “Ma’am, no one has been hired yet. Not you and not any of the other candidates. You’ve only had an interview. You still have to demonstrate your decorating abilities before you can even be considered for hiring.”

[Older Woman] gets very irate and hangs up. The boss puts NAGF (Not A Good Fit) in red ink on the woman’s resume and puts it away.

Later in the day, the woman’s fiancé calls. He’s basically screaming with rage, and it takes [Boss] a bit to get the guy calmed down enough to even understand who the heck he is and why he’s so peeved.

Fiancé: “You know you can’t do that, right?! You know it’s bad business practice to tell someone they’re hired and then not hire them!”

Boss: “No one has been hired. Your fiancé hasn’t gotten far enough in the hiring process to join the team yet.”

Fiancé: “Oh, I get it! You’re discriminating against her! You know it’s illegal to refuse to hire someone based on age! Let me lay it out for you: either you hold up your end of the bargain and tell my fiancé what her starting date is or we’re going straight to the labor board to report you!”

Boss: *Coldly* “You go ahead and try that.”

He hung up on the fiancé. Nothing came of their threats, and in the end, we hired both of the younger ladies, who passed the decorating tests with flying colors. I went back to school feeling glad that we had made the right choices for the bakery.