We are a small team with only one supervisor. The rules are very vague regarding what we should do if a supervisor is away (meeting or sick) when a customer demands to talk with one. Therefore, we usually just make a temporary supervisor on the spot one is needed.

A customer calls because they have gotten two payment reminders with an extra fee on both on top of their invoice for the order. The payment is about one month late. They are speaking to a coworker.

Caller: “I want you to take both fees off.”

Coworker: “I can only offer to take one off, if you can pay right away.”

The customer isn’t happy and after some arguing asks to talk with a supervisor. One of our slightly older and “I don’t care” coworkers takes the call.

Older Coworker: “I will not waive the fees, and you should pay both.”

Caller: “I want to talk to the first person again. She could waive one of the fees.”

Our pretend supervisor then answers:

Older Coworker: “Yes, but you asked to talk with a supervisor, and I’m not allowing those fees to be waived.”

It might be petty, but both of them agreed that it felt good to throw this back at the customer after that long call.

I work for a company that sells different articles that a person can wear, be it clothes, shoes, make-up, etc. If some of these items don’t live up to the standard or break too fast after normal use, the customers are welcome to contact us and claim a refund.

Before the refund can go through, we most often ask the customers to send pictures of the articles and the defects.

This customer thinks some hiking shoes they bought are not watertight even if they are supposed to be.

Customer: “After two minutes of walking in wet grass, the shoes are not watertight anymore. I have attached a random photo since there’s no hole on the shoes, so you cannot see any damage.”

And the picture? A bunch of people gathered together outside. Not a single shoe was visible anywhere. Random photo indeed, but a bit more random than expected!

I moved three months ago and wanted to get rid of my old couch. Fortunately, the local waste station was about 300 meters (328 yards) from my new address. With some help from a friend and his van, we got the couch there. The worker there was a nice and humorous guy and only charged 5€ for the couch. He even joked about how he threw the catalogue away — don’t tell his boss.

A few weeks later, I bought a new bed. The old spring mattress was so worn out that I could roll it up and tie it with some string, so it was easier to carry. I then thought, “Why would I go in a car since it’s such a short distance?” I decided to carry it there.

The worker looked amused.

Worker: “Where did you come from?”

I just pointed toward the row house we could see from the waste station.

Me: “I didn’t feel like driving.”

He helped me throw the mattress into the garbage bin.

Worker: “I’m not going to charge you anything for this since you carried it here on foot.”

Me: “Thank you! Have a good day.”

This morning, a few weeks since the last time, my dog, unfortunately, peed on his bed. Fortunately, it was an ugly, large, and heavy armchair-without-legs-thingy the old tenants had left that I disliked and wanted to throw away anyway, but since my dog had claimed it I had been forced to keep it.

I didn’t want to put it in my car since it was covered in dog pee. So, after some huffing and puffing, I managed to get it in a wheelbarrow, and off I went.

The worker laughed when he saw me. He told me to park my vehicle next to the grey bin and helped me hoist the monstrosity into it.

Worker: “I should have gotten a picture of you so I could show my shift manager that people come to deliver waste in many ways, even with a wheelbarrow!”

He also didn’t charge me anything this time either, for the way I came in. I thanked him again, wished him a good day, and off I went with the wheelbarrow.

I’m talking with a customer who has made an online order with us. This order is delivered in three parcels, but they are missing one of the articles/parcels.

Me: “All right, could you tell me which article you are missing?”

Customer: “Yes, it’s a handbag.”

I checked the order, and guess what? The customer had only handbags. Close to ten of them. They didn’t know which brand or price.

We did figure it out, but still, please be prepared with needed information when calling customer service for help.

I work for an online store that sells to most of Europe. Since my department is having very slow times right now, we are also helping with customer service in the UK, answering emails.

During one slow evening, my coworker gets this surprising email from a customer.

Customer: “I want to delete my account. After I got a bottle of stale urine with my last order, I do not dare to order anything else from you.”

My coworker and I are shocked, to say the least. We have a hard time believing that this actually happened. But a small investigation into older cases shows that the customer did indeed receive a water bottle filled to the brim with urine in the last parcel. The customer sent a picture to show it. 

There was an investigation started in the older case, and they figured out what warehouse the parcel was shipped from. The worker pulling that “prank” is most likely not going to keep their job for long.

The first customer was understandably very angry about this. The other workers at the UK team had did their best to deescalate the case — a mission impossible in action — but one of the workers most likely didn’t pay too much attention, since they sent a voucher and wrote at the end of the email:

Worker: “We look forward to welcoming you back in the future should you decide to shop with us again.”

Would you be surprised that the customer exploded in the next email? They did get their order fully refunded — the absolute minimum of action to be done.

At that point, I was very happy that my coworker got the easiest part of the job: delete the customer’s account.