A lady and her daughter come in looking for a specific sweatshirt. The manager finds one in the right size, but it is on a tall display rack. She’s shorter than me, and I’m not exactly tall.

While my manager goes in the back for a ladder, she asks me to see if I can grab the sweatshirt. As I attempt to pull it off the hanger, I quickly realize there’s no way I can get it. So, I flick it back.

Me: “Yeah, we’ll have to wait for the ladder.”

I go back to the register.

Customer: “I didn’t realize we were inconveniencing you! That was really rude!”

Me: “Huh?”

Customer: “The way you handled the sweatshirt — that was so rude of you!”

I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything and just stared at her.

Here are a few things to know about me: I have a serious RBF (Resting B**** Face). I don’t have a “customer service” voice. My tone and enunciation are the exact same as if I was talking to anyone.

Call me rude because I don’t smile? Fair.

Call me rude because I sound rude and annoyed? Totally reasonable.

But I’m rude because I flicked a sweatshirt I couldn’t reach? I’m gonna assume they were stressed about holiday shopping, and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I’m going back in tomorrow, and I won’t be shocked if we get a survey about how I handle clothes.

My parents and I decide to stop at an ice cream store. Because it’s starting to get a little busy, my dad gives us his order and goes to get a table while my mom and I stand in line.

Our turn comes up, my mom orders what my dad wants and the employee turns to start making it. A second employee comes up.

Employee #2: “Is this everything for you guys?”

Mom: “We’ve got a couple more items. I’d like [order], whatever my daughter is having, and three waters.”

Me: “Can I get [specialty ice cream]?”

Employee #2: “Okay.”

[Employee #2] starts making my mom’s order

Meanwhile, [Employee #1], who has been making my dad’s order, puts that order on the counter, so I grab it and take it over to my dad. While that’s going on, my mom grabs three waters out of the cooler, and [Employee #1] starts ringing us up. I come back to the counter.

Employee #1: “Okay, so just [my dad’s order] and the waters?”

Mom: “No. We’ve got [my dad’s order], [her order], and [my order] along with the waters.”

[Employee #1] is clearly new and starting to panic. I’m not sure if we confused her, she is really, really, new or what, but she starts looking around and asking for help. [Employee #2] is busy, and I can’t tell if she is just not paying attention or is deliberately ignoring [Employee #1].

[Employee #1] finally excuses herself and goes into the back, coming out with what I’m guessing is a manager, who comes straight to the counter.

Manager: “Okay, so just [my dad’s order] and the waters?”

Mom: “No. For the third time, we’ve got [my dad’s order], [her order], [my order], and the waters.”

Her order gets placed on the counter at this point.

Manager: “Ma’am, there’s no need to talk to me like that. I just got out here.”

Mom: “I understand that you just got out here. But your other two employees have been out here this whole time. [Employee #1] asked for help several times and was ignored. And no one has even started making [my order] yet.”

The manager got quiet at that point and finally rang us up correctly, but she was side-glaring at my mom the whole time. I still don’t understand what was so complicated about that order.

I work in a hotel. We had a guest staying with a woman that he said was his wife (it wasn’t) in a room for a few days. We never saw this lady, and the man said she was ill and kept extending his stay each day to give her more time to recover. At one point, the man came into the lobby.

Guest: “I need to have the sheets changed in my room. My wife soiled herself in the bed by accident.”

The head housekeeper went to the room with fresh sheets. What he found there was disturbing. Yes, the bed was covered in feces, but there were empty plastic vodka bottles strewn about the room, and the place smelled heavily of cigarette smoke, which is not allowed in the hotel. The woman remained in the washroom the entire time the housekeeper was there.

When the housekeeper told us about this situation, I made the decision not to allow them to extend another night if asked. I had already agreed to let him stay that night. The guest came into the lobby later that day.

Guest: “Can I extend my day one more night?”

Me: “I’m sorry, but we’re sold out. You’ll have to check out tomorrow morning at 11:00 am.”

Guest: “I understand.”

The next morning, the man left abruptly at about 9:00 am — without his “wife”. I sent the cleaner up to the room to see what was going on.

At the bottom of the stairs from the rooms, we have a courtyard. In the courtyard, there was a huge pile of the woman’s stuff: backpacks, shoes, garbage bags of clothes, etc. She was nowhere to be found and the room was empty. Assuming the man would be coming back for the clothes and stuff, I sent the housekeepers in to clean the room.

While they were cleaning the room, the woman arrived, walked into the room with a giant bottle of vodka, took off her pants, and laid down on the couch, refusing to leave. It was now past checkout time, so I was called to deal with the situation.

When I arrived, the woman was naked except for an open blouse, revealing a heavily tattooed, sixty-ish-year-old body that had seen some years of heavy drinking.

Me: “Ma’am, I’m afraid I have to ask you to put on some clothes and leave the premises. You do not have a room booked here for tonight, and it is well past checkout.”

Woman: “I’m not going anywhere. I need a nap.”

Me: “Ma’am, if you refuse to leave, I will have to call the police.”

Woman: “You go ahead and call the police.”

She poured herself a drink of straight vodka and shot it back.

I went back to the office and called the police.

Me: “Officer, we have a woman that refuses to leave a room she is not booked into. She isn’t staying here tonight, but she won’t leave.”

Officer: “Is she naked?”

Me: “Ummm… yes. How did you know that?”

Officer: “Oh, she’s a regular. We’ll come get her.”

And that was that. They came and took her away, but the belongings were never retrieved by anyone.

I work in a pet store as an assistant manager, and I am also in charge of the aquatics department. Most of my shifts leave me as the “manager on duty” because I close, and the manager opens or works mid-shift. The general manager, district manager, and I are all female; the only male manager for the store is the warehouse manager, and he does not outrank me when it comes to selling any of the animals, including feeders.

I’m working on stocking when a woman asks for some fish. She’s acting a little weird but nothing too out of the ordinary.

Customer: “I want that plant.”

Me: Okay, are you getting anything else tonight?”

Customer: “Yes.”

I wait an excessive amount of time for her to continue.

Me: “Okay, so, more plants, or do you want fish, too?”

Customer: “I want fish.”

I again wait for her to continue, but she doesn’t.

Me: “Okay, how big is your tank?”

The look on her face goes from pleasantly blank to irate.

Customer: “You can’t ask me that!”

Me: “What?”

Customer: “That’s a violation of my privacy!”

I am confused, wondering if maybe she misheard me or I misspoke.

Me: “Uh, I can’t ask you how big your fish tank is?”

Customer: “No! That is a violation of my privacy! You don’t need to know anything about my home! You just need to sell me fish!”

Me: “Well, I can’t sell you fish if I don’t know how big a tank you have.”

Customer: “Why do you need to know how big my tank is?!”

Me: “I need to know if you’ve got enough space for the fish you want, to make sure you’re not overstocking it and risking the fish you intend to buy — and any you already own — dying by crashing your cycle adding too much. Also, some of our fish get up to two feet long and weigh up to and possibly over ten pounds. Fish can also get aggressive if they don’t have enough space to create their own territory, especially if there are pre-existing fish in the tank.

Customer: “You can’t ask me questions! I’ve talked to people! They said you aren’t allowed to ask me that question! They said you just have to sell me fish! They said I just tell you what I want and you give it to me!”

Me: “I don’t know who ‘they’ is, but I’m allowed to refuse a sale if I’m not comfortable with it. These are live animals, and it’s my job to make sure they get an appropriate home. No one you’ve ‘spoken’ to is going to tell you anything different.”

Customer: “Where is the manager?! This is an outrage! I’ve talked to corporate, and they told me you can’t ask me questions and that you have to sell me fish!”

Me: “I’m the manager.”

Customer: “No, you aren’t! I know the manager! He says you can’t do any of this! He’s going to sell me fish! Go get him!”

Me: “Ma’am, if you can’t answer the most basic questions, I’m not going to feel comfortable with this sale. I’ve asked you the most basic question, one that any and all fish stores should ask before even considering a sale, and I would have asked you even more before selling you fish because I decide who gets them and who doesn’t.”

Customer: “This is ridiculous! What qualifies you to outrank me?! I have sixty years of experience raising, breeding, and selling fish! I know you don’t have that much experience!”

She then proceeds to ask me rapid-fire questions about my fish experience and what qualifies me to ask questions without giving me a chance to answer any of them.

Me: “Ma’am, do you want me to answer any of those questions?”

Customer: “I’m just trying to prove my point about how invasive your questioning has been.”

Me: “Ma’am, I work here. That makes me qualified to sell animals, and I may not have sixty years of experience, but I don’t need that to know you shouldn’t belittle the person doing a service for you. Also, you asked me thirteen questions, all of which I’m willing to answer, while I’ve asked you one, which you’ve refused. So, I’m just going to refuse to sell you fish and hope you have the night you deserve.”

She stormed to the front of the store and asked my coworker if he could get her fish. When he said he’d get the fish person, me, she screamed and stormed out of the store promising to complain directly to corporate about me.

I am a pharmacy tech at a fairly large retail chain on Long Island. While most of our customers are lovely, we have quite a few rather wealthy customers who are just… out of touch with how normal people work.

I had a person ask me over the phone to grab a whole laundry list (about forty items) of items from our front end. When I explained that I couldn’t do that but would ring him up at the pharmacy instead of the front end, since this time of night was never busy, he casually offered me $200 to do it. When I was quiet for a second, wondering if this was a prank, he upped the offer to $300!

I apologized and again told him that I couldn’t do that. (Corporate policy, apparently, says that we cannot sell front-end items out of the drive-thru, so it wasn’t just my own discomfort.) He sighed, said they would shop elsewhere, and thanked me for my time.

When he and his wife came to pick up their prescriptions, they were quite nice but insisted on trying to tip me $40 for ringing up their prescriptions. My pharmacist genuinely had to go up and tell them that we were not allowed to accept tips but we thanked them for visiting [Store], after my “thank you, but I can’t accept this” didn’t deter them!

All around, they’re very sweet people, but my goodness, it’s always a rollercoaster with them.

This happened during my second week as a pharmacy tech, and six months later, they still ask me (and all of my fellow techs) if we’re SURE we can’t accept anything.