I work in a reasonably high-end shoe store. Most of our shoes retail for ~$100+ and are really good quality. This man comes in about five minutes after I finish my shift, but I still have to walk out past him so I decide to ask what he wants.

Me: “Hello there Sir! What can I help you with today?”

Customer: “Well I bought these shoes about two months ago and they’re completely ruined!”

The customer takes off his shoes and passes them to me. I notice they are one of our higher brand, retail at $160, and it looks like someone has taken a knife to the sole and cut a hole in it. The shoes look at least a year old.

I nod and encourage him to continue this story. I smile at this point.

Customer: “DO NOT laugh at me. This is a real problem. I have been walking with these shoes for two weeks now. It is unacceptable.”

Me: “Sorry sir.”

Customer: “I do NOT want to enquire about a warranty, I just want to tell you not to buy these shoes!”

As a woman with small feet, I am not able to but this brand. Our shoes do not come with a warranty, only a refund if not worn & within 2 weeks of purchase. The customer walks off and I go out the back to retrieve my things and go home. As I’m walking past my manager, I see the same man speaking to her.

Customer: “I cannot believe the service here! I came in to ask about getting an exchange on these shoes and all I got was this girl laughing at me!”

I left the store quickly, hoping he hadn’t seen me again. I spoke to my manager the next day and she said that nothing came from it. The customer was not within his rights to get a refund or exchange.

(I work at a members’ bar inside a well-known stadium. A “footy” game is currently on, and the home team doesn’t seem to be doing well, thus making everyone at the stadium cranky. Which is not fun, especially when you’re serving drunk people.

I should also note that Brisbane has a local beer brewery called XXXX and we stock three different types of their beer: XXXX Gold is a mid-strength beer and is the most popular product in the bar, XXXX Bitter is a dark lager, and XXXX Summer is a pale ale.)

Me: “Hi, what can I get for you?
Customer: “Get me XXXX!”

(Since most customers ask for the XXXX Gold, I grabbed a bottle and uncapped it for him.)

Me: “That’ll be $7.50, Sir.”
Customer: “No! Not that! XXXX!” *pointing angrily to a different side of the fridge*
Me: “Oh, did you mean the Bitter, Sir?”
Customer: “No, that’s XXXX! This is Gold!” *pointing to the opened bottle of XXXX Gold in front of him*
Me: “Very well, Sir. $7.50 please.” *uncaps the XXXX Bitter*

(The customer paid and left. We ended up having to throw away the opened XXXX Gold bottle because we closed up not long after that customer left. Luckily my supervisor was very understanding and wrote it off as spoilage because “the bottle was broken”!)

My better half booked a two-week cruise for us both. She is fastidious when it comes to paperwork. We board after showing our tickets and are directed to our room.

While we are unpacking, there’s a knock on the door. We open it to see one of the cruise workers and a lady. The lady reminds me of an owl by the way she is peeking around the employee, looking into my room. I shut the door a tad so she can’t peer in, and I am informed that there seems to be an issue with the booking.

The employee asks if I could make my way to the purser’s desk with any paperwork we may have. We get the folder containing the paperwork and I head off with Mrs. Owl to get this sorted.

After ten minutes of listening to Mrs. Owl complain how unprofessional everything is, we get to the front of the line and are asked by the purser for any documentation we may have to help clear up the matter.

I hand her the folder saying, “This is every piece of correspondence between my partner, me, and your company, in chronological order starting with my partner’s first inquiry up until yesterday morning confirming our room number.”

The purser looks to Mrs. Owl. Mrs. Owl hands her a sticky note with a handwritten number on it.

Ten minutes later, I’m back in my room with my feet up drinking an extremely alcoholic cocktail.

Not sure what happened to the Owls.

Caller: “Can I get a [premium service] taxi?”

Me: “Well, we do require a half-hour notice for that and—“

Caller: “But it’s my wedding day!”

Me: “…”

Me: “Hi folks, we’re very sorry but our coffee grinder is currently not working, so we are unable to serve coffee for another 2-3 hours while we wait for the repairman to get it fixed.”
Customer, a female in early 20’s: “So… you can’t do any milkshakes?”
Me: “…”