I’m manning the registers with a few other coworkers of mine. I get a massive nosebleed right as I am finishing a transaction. I grab a tissue and quickly excuse myself to run to the restroom so I can try to get it to stop bleeding. This means that I can’t say goodbye to the customer and give the little spiel about how I am oh-so-grateful for her shopping with us.

After about ten minutes, I am finally able to get my nose back under control and head back to the registers. I see my last customer waiting to the side with a scowl on her face, arms crossed over her chest, the whole nine yards.

Customer: *Scoldingly* “You were very rude for not saying goodbye!”

Me: “I apologized; I had an unexpected nosebleed.”

Customer: “You should have tried holding it in! The customer comes first!”

I work in a restaurant. We have a deal where two kids eat free with an adult purchase of food on Thursdays. A lady comes in with one child.

Lady: “Can I come back Sunday and use the second kids-eat-free that day, since I don’t have two kids with me?”

I’m a doctor, working at a public night shift service. It’s kind of like an emergency room but for non-emergencies, to keep the hospitals clear of white codes. We treat anything from a fever to a sore throat to prescriptions for urgent treatments.

A woman walks in at 3:00 am asking for a prescription for hypertension drugs, which isn’t unusual, as people sometimes don’t notice they’re running low.

The law (not a rule, not my decision — the law) states that our service can only write prescriptions for potentially life-threatening conditions’ drugs for a maximum of seventy-two hours’ coverage, so if you take one pill a day, I can only prescribe you a single blister.

While I’m writing the prescription, she casually mentions:

Customer: “I’m an insomniac. I was cleaning the medicine cabinet and I realized I’m down to my last full blister.”

My pen stops and I ask her to repeat.

Me: “Full blister?”

Customer: “Yeah.”

I void the prescription and explain to her the law. She gets mad, starts yelling, and threatens to call the cops.

Me: “Go ahead.”

The cops come, and she triumphantly announces:

Customer: “He is refusing to treat me!”

I explained the situation, and they asked her if it was true that she had a full blister. She, of course, confirmed it. The cops looked at her — still with her look of triumph, waiting for them to arrest me — then at me, and then ask her politely to leave, as I was in the right. She was livid.

The day after, my boss called me and cracked up because she went back during the day to talk to “the manager”, and my boss told her the exact same thing. Never saw her again.

I work at a clothing store in the mall. People ask us all the time if they can keep the hangers, which is understandable; free hangers are nice. But per policy, we have to keep them for reuse.

Every time I tell this to people, they usually don’t mind at all, seeing as the majority of stores (especially in the mall) don’t give out free hangers. But then there’s this lady.

She walks up to my register with two of our jackets from the sale section. They are both nice jackets, but we have all coats on sale to make room for the summer season. Together, they are under $40 sale price.

Me: “Hello! How are you doing?”

Customer: *Ignoring me* “Can these be left hung?”

Me: “Sorry, we have to keep the hangers.”

I expect this brief Q&A to be over, but what I don’t expect is for this lady to gasp and look at me in such utter contempt. It’s as if I just told her I step on kittens for fun.

Customer: “Well, way to kick me when I’m down!”

She says it in such despair, it really does sound like I have ruined not only her day but her will to go on. I don’t know how to respond! It is my first transaction back from break, which I spent on the phone with the vet talking about my dog’s next surgery. I am already stressed out, and it really rubs me the wrong way that she’d be so dramatic about something so trivial.

Me: “Er… Yeah, sorry. It’s just the store policy.”

Customer: “Well, can you at least fold them nicely?”

She asks it so bitterly, as if I planned to fold them as horribly as possible! So, I make a big show of slowly and carefully folding them for her before putting them in the bag. They are a somewhat slippery suede material, though; I know that with one rustle of the bag they’ll come unfolded.

Me: “Receipt is in the bag. Have a good day.”

Customer: “Did you take the sensors off?”

Me: “Yup!”

There weren’t even any sensors on them, considering we don’t sensor items under $19.99, but I didn’t have the energy to even tell her that. With that, she walked away, of course not returning my polite good day. Typical.

My coworkers and I had a good laugh about it later, though, especially after I had some better customer interactions that lifted my mood. “Way to kick me when I’m down” will definitely be my go-to phrase whenever life mildly inconveniences me!

I am brand new to restaurant ownership, and this is one of the first requests I receive.

Customer: “You need to cut more holes in my daughter’s swiss cheese. My daughter won’t eat the sandwich if it doesn’t have enough holes.”