(I work for a large, well-known department store. One day a middle-aged woman came up to me, frowning, with two blouses in her hand.)

Customer: “Why are these different prices?”

Me: “Excuse me?”

Customer: “These tops! Why is this one more expensive than the other one?”

Me: *looks down at the two blouses that are nothing alike* “Well, ma’am, these are different items.”

Customer: “But they’re the same brand! They should be priced the same.”

Me: “Yes, ma’am, these are both from [Brand], but they are still different items. The price for each item is going to be—”

Customer: *cuts me off* “Oh! This one is from the petite section! I see. It must be cheaper because there’s less fabric.”

(She wandered off, satisfied with her logic, while I stared after her.)

(I work at a large, well-known department store. A middle-aged woman has been stubbornly ignoring me every time I politely tell her that the plus sizes she wants are upstairs in the women’s department, and has continued uselessly shopping in the misses department, getting more and more frustrated.)

Customer: *brandishing a blouse at me* “Where are the larger sizes for this?”

Me: “That’s an XL, ma’am, which is the largest size we have in misses. We do have that brand upstairs in women’s, so we might have that same blouse or something similar. Would you like me to check for you?”

Customer: *scowls and walks away*

(A few minutes pass, and she comes back waving around another blouse, still looking angry.)

Customer: “Why don’t your clothes come in larger sizes?! I need this in a bigger size!”

Me: “Ma’am, the misses department goes from XS to XL, and 2 to 18. The larger sizes are all upstairs in the women’s department. We have a lot of the same brands up there, so I’m sure we can find you something you like.”

(The customer harrumphs and leaves again. For some inexplicable reason, she starts shopping in the petites department. After a while, she storms up to me again, clothes draped over her arms.)

Customer: “Why are all your clothes so small?! I need these in a bigger size!”

Me: “Ma’am, this is the petites department, so the clothes are going to be smaller. The larger sizes are all upstairs in the women’s department.”

Customer: *scoffs dramatically and dumps the clothes on the floor* “FINE! I’ll just go find something to wear in juniors.”

(She charged off towards the teenager section, leaving me with a pile of clothes and a dropped-open jaw.)

(I’m running the self-checkouts during a busy time and this man calls me over.)

Customer: “Do you think I can scan this, even though the clearance sticker is covering the barcode?”

(He holds up a big Santa plate.)

Me: “Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem. If it is, just remove the clearance sticker a little so the lines of the barcode are exposed.”

Customer: “Well, you should just do it for me, since you clearly know how.”

Me: “Uh…”

(I look around to make sure no other customers are having issues, quickly scan it, and hand it back to him so he can decide how he wants it bagged. It is quite fragile, and I’m not sure.)

Customer: *looks at the plate after taking it back* “So, you got anything to bag this in?”

Me: “We have plastic bags.” *points at the plastic bags on the self-checkout*

Customer: “Okay. You bag it, then!”

(I wonder if he wanted me to pay for him, as well.)

(I am manning the self-checkouts when this woman dressed in all camo calls me over.)

Customer: “These underwear are not ringing up right! All hunting clothing was supposed to be 50% off!”

Me: “Huh, maybe it didn’t include underwear. Let me call back to the department to find out.”

(The customer scoffs at me while I go over to the phone to call back to the hunting department.)

Me: *on phone with coworker* “Hey, do you know anything about all hunting clothing being 50% off? A customer of mine says they are, I can’t find them in the ad, and her camo men’s underwear is not ringing up that way. I was curious if maybe the underwear wasn’t included?”

Coworker: “Uh. I don’t know. I’ll walk over there.” *a moment later* “Yeah, I don’t see what she’s talking about, sorry.”

Me: “Some of her other hunting clothing rang up that way, so there’s got to be some sort of sale tag.”

Coworker: “Yeah, I don’t see anything, sorry.”

Me: “Uh… okay… thanks…”

(I hang up, knowing this isn’t going to be easy since the woman was already mad at me. So, I walk back over to her.)

Me: “I’m sorry, it looks like he couldn’t find the tag you were talking about.”

Customer: “SO. You’re saying that I have to walk over and take a picture of it myself for you?! IF I do, then you better fix it for me!”

(She leaves for about five minutes and comes back waving her phone at me.)

Customer: “HERE’S YOUR PICTURE.”

(I try reading it but the picture is so blurry that any information on the tag is illegible.)

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I cannot read the print on the tag. Any information as to what’s not included would be there, but the picture, unfortunately, is too blurry for me to read.”

Customer: “UGH. This is just a waste of my time! I need to be somewhere! You should just call a manager over and have them fix this! It would be much faster!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but I would still have to find out what’s going on before I get a manager involved. They wouldn’t know, either, unless we call the department. I’ll call him back and try again.”

Customer: “This is a waste of time!”

(I quickly go back to my phone to call my coworker back and see if he can find it again.)

Me: “Hey again, so she took a picture of the tag, and it’s illegible due to blurriness. It’s [brand] of clothing.”

Coworker: “Oh, okay. Let me look. Oh. Well, the tag doesn’t say anything against underwear not being included. But, the underwear doesn’t have the 50% off tag on it. Just give it to her, though.”

(I quickly access her computer from mine and change the price.)

Me: *to customer* “He said he wasn’t sure why it wasn’t working, so he said just to give it to you.”

Customer: “WAS THAT SO HARD?”

(I’m currently working the self-checkouts when a woman calls me over.)

Customer: “Hey, I’m having a problem over here!”

Me: “What’s wrong?”

Customer: “These vitamins rang up wrong! They’re supposed to be buy one, get one free!”

Me: “Looks like they’re ringing up at buy one, get one half-off. Let me check the ad.”

(She has eight bottles of vitamins; two are a different brand from the rest. Her two brands, however, are clearly listed as buy one, get one half-off. The ones that would be free are an entirely different brand.)

Me: “Okay, here they are.” *shows her the ad* “The ones that you have are half-off; these other brands are the free ones.”

Customer: “Well, your signs say differently! The ad must be wrong! I’m going to go back to look at them!”

(She storms over there, leaving her three sons with me. After a few minutes, she comes back with two vitamins from the brands that were free.)

Customer: “I need you to take all those vitamins off; I’m getting these, instead.”