I’ve basically grown up in my dad’s electrical store and work there now that I’m old enough. My dad has been sick and I’ve been in charge for a few days, and we have decided to close for stock take. A customer comes to the locked door and bangs on it.

Customer: “Why are you closed? What’s happening?”

Sales Employee: “We’re closed today for stock take.”

Customer: “You’re lying! I spoke to the owner yesterday and he told me to come.”

My dad hasn’t been to work the whole week.

Me: “The owner told you to come?”

Customer: “Yeah, he did. It’s my granddaughter’s birthday and I really need coloured globes; I came from really far.”

Me: “Are you sure, sir? We’re closed and aren’t serving today.”

Customer: “Yeah, he was wearing [description of what my dad usually wears].”

Me: “He’s actually sick and hasn’t been to work all week, I’m sorry.”

Customer: “He was here! Are you calling me a liar?!”

He starts ranting about how I’m lying, he’s going to get me fired, and he personally knows the owner, etc.

Me: “Sir, I can 100% assure you that my dad has been sick at home the past week and hasn’t even left his room. Would you like me to call home?”

He turned around and abruptly walked away.

Related:
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 14
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 13
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 12
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 11
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 10

A customer buys two studio monitors and as a gift, we include the audio cables for free. I personally inform him that the extra cables will be placed in one of the boxes. After two days he calls back:

Customer: “Hi, I just got the monitors, everything is fine but I see you didn’t send me the cables you told me about.

I start thinking that maybe the other guy who packed the order may have forgotten the cables so I ask him to check once more if possible just to be extra sure.

Customer: “Okay sure I’ll check again but I have the boxes opened so I don’t think the cables can be somewhere else.”

After a few seconds and while I’m explaining to him that if he checked again and there are no cables we will send new ones.

Customer: “Okay, thanks but let me check the one box that I haven’t opened yet.”

Guess what was in that box…

Related:
Not Thinking Inside The Box, Part 4
Not Thinking Inside The Box, Part 3
Not Thinking Inside The Box, Part 2
Not Thinking Inside The Box

I work at a small independent appliance store. All of us staff tend to do a bit of everything, sales, installs, etc.

An elderly lady phones and wants to replace her old cooker and kettle. I try to get the information regarding the size of the old one in order to find a suitable replacement, but she doesn’t really know. I take her details and it turns out we have another delivery near her that day. We agree to send a guy around to take a couple of simple measurements and take some brochures so that she can decide what she wants. The usual installers call me back later with the relevant sizes and specs that the lady would like and we agree on products, price, delivery date, etc. So far, so normal.

The day of the delivery comes, and the usual installation guys have been held up, so the boss says he’ll watch the shop while another colleague and I go to do a couple of deliveries. We get to the old lady’s house and go to take the old cooker out, and it is old — maybe forty or fifty years! And the kettle is the old type that boils on the hob, not a plug-in type.

We take the old stuff out and bring the new one in. All the while, the old lady is shadowing us, muttering under her breath.

As I am testing the new hotplates, the lady has filled up her new kettle behind me and goes to place it on the glowing hot stove. I quickly snatch it away before she melts it and possibly blows up her new stuff. I explain that this is not like her old one. I get the plug and base from the box and explain that it does not work the same as her old one.

Then, she wants to check that the cooker is working, so she proceeds to scurry over and try to place her hand directly on a glowing red stove! I again just manage to grab her arm in time and tell her she must be careful as this is very hot, and she will seriously injure herself.

I have to explain another few times that she must under no circumstances touch the cooker top while it’s on or place her old kettle onto it as it could blow up.

We finally get going to the next job after spending an additional half-hour with this woman, who we conclude must be senile. After about fifteen minutes, the boss phones us absolutely raging. He has a distraught old lady on the phone who has just nearly blown herself up after doing exactly what we just told her not to do, melting a full kettle and dumping two litres of water straight into the live electrics of the cooker!

I install car audio equipment for a large electronics retailer. A customer has purchased an auxiliary input adapter, which allows a phone or portable music player to be used with an older car radio that doesn’t have an input jack. She’s having it installed into her daughter’s car for a surprise birthday present.

When I check in the vehicle, I notice that it’s already equipped with a factory input jack, which makes her adapter unnecessary. In this vehicle, the jack is in a somewhat hidden location, so neither the customer nor her daughter knew it was there. I show it to the customer and refund what she paid for the adapter.

Me: “Would you like to go back into the store so you can pick out a different birthday present for your daughter?”

Customer: “Oh, no! I’m just going to show her the factory jack and tell her that I paid for it to be installed.”

I’m in line to be checked out at a store in the mall. An angry woman storms in, shouting and dragging a young boy by his arms.

Customer: “Manager! Now! I said, manager! Now!”

The associate checking out my line picks up the intercom and requests a manager to the front. A man appears from the back and tells her that he is the manager.

Customer: “I want that b**** fired now!”

Manager: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but can you fill me in on the details so I know the issue here?”

Customer: “That b**** in the food court made my pizza wrong and I want her fired! Now!“

Manager: “I’m sorry, but this is [Electronics Store] and we have nothing to do with the food court or any employees in it.”

Customer: “I. Want. Her. Fired. Now!”

Manager: “We are an electronics store and have nothing to do with the food court. You will have to go back to the pizza place and ask for their manager.”

Customer: “They don’t have a manager on duty, and you are the closest manager, so do your job and fire. Her. Now! I will be calling your corporate offices because you are being rude and unhelpful to me.”

Manager: “I’m going to have to ask you to leave as I have no authority outside of this store and you are causing a disturbance.”

Customer: “I will not leave until that b**** is fired!“

Manager: *On the radio* “Security needed at [Electronics Store]. Ma’am, I want you to leave or security will escort you out.”

Customer: “Fired! Now! All of you, every last f****** one of you, fired! Now!”

Security came and, after a physical battle, the woman was restrained and police arrived to remove her. I’m not sure what happened to the little boy, but he looked positively terrified as police took him also, separate from his mother.