I was shopping in a grocery store when I heard this.

Woman’s Voice: “Hannah? Hannah? HANNAH!”

She sounded panic-stricken. I was about to approach her when I saw the store’s manager walking up to her, so I backed off and eavesdropped.

Manager: “What’s the matter, ma’am?”

Woman: “My little girl! She was right beside me, and now she’s missing! Please help me!”

Manager: “Don’t worry, ma’am. We’ll do everything we can to find her.”

Shortly afterward, the store’s doors were locked, and an announcement came over the PA to be on the lookout for a six-year-old girl matching [description]. The mother grew increasingly hysterical, sobbing that her daughter must have been kidnapped. Then, five minutes later…

Woman: “HANNAH! OH, THANK GOD!”

She hugged her daughter, and all was well… until five minutes after THAT:

Woman: “HANNAH! WHERE ARE YOU? SOMEONE HELP ME! MY DAUGHTER’S GONE!” *More hysterical sobbing*

I’m a mother myself, and I know how difficult it can be to keep an eye on small kids, but losing your little girl twice in one hour?

I answer the phone.

Me: “Good afternoon, [Company], how may I help you?”

Caller: “I need to speak to [Owner].”

Me: “He is unavailable at this time.”

He’s actually sitting at the desk on the opposite wall to me, but I am paid in part to screen calls.

Me: “Is there anything I can help you with, or would you like to leave a message?”

Caller: “That is not the right way to handle this call! If [Owner] is unavailable, you are supposed to offer callers an appropriate time to call back or give them an alternate means to contact him.”

Me: “I apologize, I am not sure what would be a good time to try to call him. I can give you an email address if you like.”

Caller: *Very sarcastically* “I guess, if that is as close as you can come to actually doing your job, you should give me the email address.”

I provide the company email address.

Caller: “No! That is not his email address; it is a generic email address that someone like you reads, and that is not the appropriate way to give out someone’s alternate contact details. You provide the private, personal contact information for people, so that they can conduct their business properly and professionally!”

Me: “Well, that is the email address we encourage people to contact us on. If you would like to speak to [Owner] personally the best option would be to leave a message and he could call you back. Would you like me to take a message for him?”

Caller: “I told you, that is not appropriate! You are being extremely difficult and not doing your job properly. Now, tell me, at what time will I call back when [Owner] will be able to speak to me? I guess I need to make an appointment now to phone people as well as tell you how to do your job!”

My boss is in the background gesturing at me to just hang up.

Me: “I am unable to provide a time when [Owner] will be available by phone. If you don’t wish me to take a message—”

Caller: *Cutting me off* “YOU ARE NOT HANDLING THIS CALL CORRECTLY! I AM GETTING UPSET, AND NOW I NEED TO SPEAK TO YOUR BOSS TO MAKE A COMPLAINT ABOUT YOU!”

My boss is of course the owner, who I am not supposed to get to the phone until I know who is calling and why, and he agrees to talk to them. Normally I would hand over a complaint to him, but not when it’s obvious this caller won’t give me their name or purpose for calling.

Me: “I am sorry you feel that way. I am handling this call as I have been instructed. If there is nothing else I can do for you I am going—”

Caller: *Cutting me off* “WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU TO HANDLE THIS CALL CORRECTLY?!”

My boss, having heard the last two interjections through the phone from the other side of the room comes over and grabs the phone from me:

Boss: “This is [Boss]. I’m sorry my staff didn’t get your highest priority memo for how conversations are going to go. If you want to send me a transcript for approval you can send it to [Company email address], because that is the only email address we give to people who we DON’T WANT TO DEAL WITH! GOODBYE!”

I later found out the caller was the new site supervisor for one of our best clients, and he had a legitimate and pressing need to speak to the owner to get a change order approved ASAP so the materials could be ordered and the project wouldn’t have been delayed.

He could have gotten the owner’s direct cell and email from 1) any of the quotes that had been sent, 2) the side of the truck that was sitting on his site at that moment, 3) any of his workers he directly supervised, most of whom had called the owner or the manager (the owner’s brother) many times for previous issues or 4) any of our employees who were currently working on his site.

Or he could have just said who he was when he phoned, I would have put him on hold for a second, told the owner who was on the phone and the owner would have taken that call.

Instead, he threw a giant tantrum.

When his boss called my boss to complain about the delay in the change order, my boss explained what had happened with the phone call. It was the end of the new site super’s short leash, as he had been causing problems with his personality from day one, and he ended up lasting less than a month at his new job.

The first time his new replacement called, he said, “Hi, it’s [Replacement] from [His Company] calling. I’m looking after [Site] now and have to ask [Owner] about some additional work. I don’t seem to have his cell number, could you text it to me?” Which I could, and did, and it took almost thirty seconds.

Related:
Calling Is Not Their Calling, Part 3
Calling Is Not Their Calling, Part 2
Calling Is Not Their Calling

This story is part of our ‘Clients From Hell’ roundup!

Read the next roundup story!

Read the roundup!

I’ve been working at the same hardware retail store for three years in customer service. In our store, our return policy is that you must bring the item back within ninety days unopened and unused to get a full refund. Otherwise, it will be an exchange. Simply, if we can resell it, the customer can get their money back.

Me: “Hi there! How can I help you today?”

Customer: “I want to return this.”

He passes me his clearly used item and a receipt for the same company but another brand.

Me: “Okay, so our return store policy is ninety days unopened, unused. I will just have to exchange this for you.”

Customer: “No, it’s defective. I want my full refund.”

Me: “Unfortunately, I am unable to as it was opened and used. I can only do an exchange.”

Customer: “No, give me a store credit, then!”

By this point, he is getting the attention of other customers and I really don’t want to make a scene.

Me: “Let me call a manager to discuss this with her and I may be able to give another option.”

I call my manager and she wants to see it herself. She comes up to examine the product and receipt as the man is blabbering about how horrible the product is.

Manager: “Like [My Name] said, we can only provide you an exchange, sir.”

Customer: “This is ridiculous! I’ve returned defective items here before without an issue!”

He is now shouting and gathering the attention of our long line of customers.

Manager: “How long ago was that?”

Customer: “I don’t know! A year ago.”

Manager: *Points to a sign on the counter* “Our policy clearly states—”

Customer: “I don’t care! It’s defective! Give me my refund!”

My manager has had a long day; she is exhausted and is clearly not up for arguing.

Manager: “Okay, we will give you a refund. But for future reference, we will not make this exception again.”

Customer: “About time!”

My manager leaves as I process the refund. The customer begins telling me how ridiculous our refund policy is.

Me: “Okay. If you want to insert or tap your card, you will be getting $21.00 back on it.”

Two male customers are walking out at this point and they clearly have heard the whole conversation.

Customer #2: “Excuse me?!”

He shouts from the exit to me and I look over, prepared to get yelled at again. The other customer holds up the toilet paper he just bought.

Customer #2: “If I use this, can I get a refund?”

Everyone who heard the interaction, including customers, employees, and managers, began laughing. I tried to hide my laughter the best as I could.

The man rolled his eyes, sarcastically laughing, before taking his receipt to leave.

It was definitely the highlight of my day.

Related:
Refunder Blunder, Part 58
Refunder Blunder, Part 57
Refunder Blunder, Part 56
Refunder Blunder, Part 55
Refunder Blunder, Part 54

I work for an American company’s Canadian call centre that provides support for a major American electronics retailer. We don’t support the customers; we provide support for the systems in the stores — Point Of Sale, printers, etc.

One day, I get the following call. This takes place when Wi-Fi is fairly widespread, but all the company stores still use wired Ethernet connections.

Caller #1: “Our department printer isn’t printing any jobs we send to it.”

Me: “Okay, let’s just make sure it’s connected to the network. Is the network cable securely plugged in?”

Caller #1: “I don’t know anything about that. Can I get the head of our computer technicians department to talk to you?”

Me: “Sure, put them on.”

Caller #2: *After a minute* “Hello.”

Me: “Hi there. Your coworker called me because their network printer isn’t printing. Can I get you to check a few things for me?”

Caller #2: “Sure.”

Me: “Okay, great. The first thing I want to check is whether the network cable is securely plugged in.”

Caller #2: “You lost me, chief.”

I eventually talked him through troubleshooting and got the printer back up and working, but I was shocked that someone who was responsible for fixing customers’ computers didn’t even understand what a network cable was!

Just prior to my starting at this company, the founder decided to take a step back from running it due to failing health. He sold it off to the head designer and master electrician, both of whom had long tenures there. The following narrative takes place across my entire time there.

The new owners were great at first but soon started cutting corners and trying to save money in the strangest ways while doing other financially irresponsible things. One example was that they decided to save wire nuts that came with one brand of fixtures we used because they were twenty-five cents each, but then they printed out twenty copies of a twenty-page single-sided employee handbook that could have easily been sent in an email. They also told us not to take the paid highway they’d registered the trucks on, even if it got us back significantly faster. Also of note, the head designer used it the most out of anybody by at least threefold. We spent one afternoon before our winter shutdown throwing out unused, multi-hundred dollar fixtures still in the packaging, but if we wanted to use any of them at home, we were expected to pay, even though it was literally going to waste.

We chalked a lot of this stuff up to being new to their duties as owners and figured they’d find their footing. Then, our year-end reviews came.

My foreman brought it up first.

Foreman: “Did you get any weird, nitpicky feedback on your review?”

Me: “I did. The only complaint they could make about me was that I don’t say, ‘Good morning,”’ to them every day and I’m not friendly with them in the mornings.”

Foreman: *Laughing* “I’ve never known you to be unfriendly!”

He told a similar story about his review.

By now, we were all feeling that things were off the rails a little. I now had a more senior role, so I’d taken on more responsibilities. Thus, I’d been exposed to a new aspect of the owners: dishonesty.

We had a few clients managed by a single agency who stipulated that we use long-life halogen bulbs in all outdoor fixtures instead of the standard life halogens — this was on the cusp of LED really taking off. I was assigned a maintenance call with one of these clients, so I inquired about the long-life bulbs. The owner shrugged it off saying I didn’t need to use them.

On the way there, I got a “reminder” text from the owner.

Owner: “If they ask about the long-life bulbs, just say that they are.”

The other big scam they pulled was stopping the use of underground conduits. While this was to code as long as the wires were rated for direct burial, the conduit had multiple long-term benefits from damage protection to easier repairs.

They decided that it was too expensive and took too much time to lay the pipe and pull our lines through it, so we were to just dig trenches and lay the wires in. However, they still told the clients conduit was being used and charged for it.

We ended up mutually parting ways the following year and I went into another industry. I reconnected with one of the foremen about a year later and he informed me that most people, him included, had quit. I don’t know how the company is doing now.