Our company has changed which company we deal with regarding cell phones. A customer comes in wanting us to activate his phone, which he bought over three months ago.

Me: “Sir, we’ve changed providers. Please use this dedicated number, which you can call to get your phone activated.”

Customer: “What?! You should have done it before!”

Me: “Sir, we do offer that service at the time of purchase, but I can see it clearly stated on your receipt that you declined us doing it.”

Customer: “Well, I am asking now!”

Me: “Sir, as I have said, it’s literally impossible for us to activate your phone, as we now deal with an entirely different company.”

He starts to storm out of the store, mumbling under his breath.

Customer: “Yeah, because you’re f****** stupid.”

I’ve dealt with my fair share of unruly customers. They almost always complain about service (of which I always give my best) or complain about the company, etc. — stuff I can’t control. Normally, I just roll with it, and they leave.

This one, the way he says it… seems personal, so it gets to me.

Me: “I’m f****** stupid? No, you’re f****** stupid.”

I then reiterated, in a stern manner, all the reasons I’d previously explained about how he’d declined our service and the many options that were available to him. My coworker stood there stunned, watching this unfold. The customer stood there shocked. The guy’s buddy, who never did anything for the entire visit, stood there laughing, and then they left. It took me a while to calm down.

I have just spent half an hour going through selling a customer an iPhone, setting up a payment plan, and helping them activate and set up an Apple ID.

After all that, the customer hands the phone back to me.

Customer: “I don’t like the art on this phone. I want to replace it with a different one.”

Me: “By art, did you mean the background? We call that the wallpaper.”

Customer: “Yes, well, I want a different one. I didn’t know it would look like this.”

Me: “You can change the wallpaper to anything you want, ma’am. What do you want it to be?”

She is still trying to hand me the phone back, not really understanding.

Customer: “Here, take this one back and show me all the other ‘wallpapers’ you have in stock. Honestly, you should really show your customers all the options available before you sell them one!”

That was a painful conversation, to say the least.

A customer has purchased a phone from us, and she is excited as it’s her first time owning a smartphone and having regular access to the Internet. It’s not part of our service, but we also help get her set up on Facebook as she says she wants to keep in touch with her grandchildren and see all their updates. All in all, it is a very sweet and chill experience.

A couple of weeks later, the customer comes storming back in, recognizes me as the person who helped her, and slams her phone on the counter in front of me.

Customer: “This thing is rotten! Rotten to the core! It’s making me so angry!”

Me: “What do you mean, ma’am?”

Customer: “I’m trying to see pics of the grandbabies, but I also keep getting these stories about scary people and the president and all these other things!”

Me: “Can you show me what you mean?”

The customer opens her Facebook app, and within five seconds of scrolling, she shoves the screen into my face. It’s a Buzzfeed-style listicle article titled something like “Ten [Political Party Members] Who Want To Eat Your Babies” or something equally outrageous.

Me: “Yes, sadly, you get a lot of those. They’re called clickbait, as in they bait you to click on them, and then get you angry, so you spend more time on their post. My advice is to ignore them completely and just focus on what your friends and family post.”

I’m about to show her how she can adjust her settings to see less of this kind of content, but she’s off again.

Customer: “I don’t understand! Why are they saying these things?!”

Me: “Every time you click something on the Internet — or in this case, Facebook — from a company and not from your friends or family, that company makes a little bit of money. They write articles designed to inflame the readers and force them to leave comments.”

Customer: “I did! I learned how to leave comments, and then other people started saying bad things about me!”

Me: “Yes, ma’am. That happens. As I said, they will create content just to make people like you engage and make more money.”

Customer: “So, you’re saying that they say these things to just piss people off!”

Me: “Essentially, yes, ma’am.”

Customer: “Well! Then I’m going to leave a comment to tell them just what I think about them!”

And the cycle repeats anew…

Related:
Sooo Not Ready For The Internet, Part 8
Sooo Not Ready For The Internet, Part 8
Sooo Not Ready For The Internet, Part 7
Sooo Not Ready For The Internet, Part 6
Sooo Not Ready For The Internet, Part 5

I am passed to a customer by my manager. She has already worked with someone and got too fed up and angry to deal with them, so she was sent to me.

Customer: “I need a phone without a contract because I’m taking it out of the country. It’s a gift for a relative!”

Me: “Okay, I can help you.”

Customer: “Good, because the last man to help me was so stupid! He didn’t know what he was talking about! I’m going to get him fired! You’d better know what you’re doing, or I’ll get you fired, too!”

Me: “I am sorry to hear that, ma’am. I’ll do my best to—”

Customer: “I know the manager. He will be fired!”

She then turns to her son and points him back to the department she came from.

Customer: “Go get the nametag of that man who couldn’t help us before! He’s the dark one with no hair. Go find him!”

I’m beginning to learn why my coworker got fed up with this customer.

Anyway, we get to the payment part, about $700, and her card is swiftly declined. She flies into a rage.

Customer: “The last man to help me stole my card number and locked up my account! He’s sooooo getting fired!”

It makes sense to me that he might’ve tried to swipe her card for the transaction too many times and her bank or credit card company put a hold on the card. She eventually has to call and berate her husband and leave to get cash out of the ATM.

She never comes back. I did feel the need to check in with the coworker who helped her though, and I explain what happened.

Coworker: “Huh, I never even got to the payment part. I didn’t touch her card.”

Me: “Oh, so why did she come to me, then?”

Coworker: “The thing that pissed her off was the fact that she had to pay sales tax. In her mind, she shouldn’t have to pay sales tax to America because she was taking the phone and using it out of the country.” 

She tried to get both of us fired. She did not succeed.

Related:
The More You Read, The Worse It Gets, Part 9
The More You Read, The Worse It Gets, Part 8
The More You Read, The Worse It Gets, Part 7
The More You Read, The Worse It Gets, Part 6
The More You Read, The Worse It Gets, Part 5

I am working in a phone store, and an older lady comes in with her teenage granddaughter.

Granddaughter: “Hi. Can you help my grandmother with her phone? I’ve shown her how to fix it, but she needs to hear it from a professional.”

Me: “Uh… sure. How can I help?”

Grandmother: “Well, I got this fancy new phone, and it’s useless! I think something’s wrong with my phone. It’s all black.”

I show her where the “on” button can be located, and the phone powers up.

Grandmother: “This is too complicated! My last phone didn’t always need to be turned on!”

Granddaughter: *To me* “Her last phone was a Nokia brick. The battery lasted very long and she always kept it plugged in.”

Me: “Was activating the phone the issue, or…?”

Grandmother: “No! I need to be able to call people, but it won’t let me!”

Me: “Okay, I can show you how. What number did you want to call?”

Grandmother: *Freaking out* “I didn’t have to do this on my old phone! I just had to pick a name!”

Granddaughter: *To me* “I started to set her contacts, but she stopped me and kept asking me what I was doing.”

Grandmother: “Why would you do that? Doesn’t it already know?”

Me: “Since you’re moving from an older phone to your first smartphone, no, it wouldn’t automatically know. You would need to enter the contacts manually.”

Grandmother: “No! My phone should automatically know all the names and numbers! It’s my phone!”

Granddaughter: “And how would it know it’s your phone, Granny?”

Grandmother: “It just should!“

Granddaughter: *To me* “And now you see why I am here. Good luck.”

I tried explaining a few more times, but nothing could convince her. Eventually, I gave up and the granddaughter turned the phone off, causing the grandmother to freak out because she couldn’t remember how to turn it on.

That was a long day.