A large grocery store in my hometown is undergoing some pretty major renovations. Management has kept the store open during the renovations, because it’s the only real grocery store around — yay, rural food deserts! — so if they close, people are forced to drive half an hour to a larger town for anything more than convenience store snacks. This means that, on top of having to figure out the ever-changing stock locations, shoppers also have to dodge ladders, shelving units, racks of stock, and other hazards associated with such renovations.

Being a small town, most customers take the inconvenience in stride, with only mild grumblings of complaint, but one woman sees an opportunity and takes it.

I’m shopping at the store when a middle-aged woman enters the same aisle. We are the only two people in the aisle, and there is a ladder in the middle of the aisle where an employee had been changing signs before getting called away to another task.

After carefully looking around — and apparently, somehow, not noticing me — the woman slowly lies down at the base of the ladder and then starts screaming and thrashing around as if she fell off the ladder and injured herself. Several employees and other customers rush to the scene, and the woman starts screaming about how she’s going to sue the store for her injuries.

The store manager immediately apologizes, and the woman gets a smug look, believing her plan to be working. I manage to quietly shuffle through the crowd — somehow, nobody in the store has realized that I have been standing there in the aisle the entire time — and am able to find another manager who happens to be a personal friend of mine. I suggest to my friend that the store manager should look at the store’s security camera footage before agreeing to any settlement with the woman. Then, I quietly head to the register to check out and get out of there.

Unfortunately, the woman still won her lawsuit against the store. Even with the video proof of her faking the entire incident, the judge ruled that the employee should have put the ladder away properly when they were called to another task instead of leaving it set up in the aisle. As a result, the store manager decided to close the store completely while they finished their renovations to avoid any similar incidents in the future.

Fortunately, everyone in town realized that the store only closed because of her. She was also permanently banned from the store, so she’ll always have that extra hour of driving time, round trip, to the next closest grocery store to remember her victory.

We once had a scammy waiter that tried to put another table’s stuff on our bill. We were a party of ten, and I always double-check and make sure there aren’t extra things on the bill when we have large parties because no one is going to want to pay the extra. I’ve gotten stuck before so I always double-check.

I wrote next to each item the person who ordered whatever and saw drinks, food, and desserts that were not ours on there that brought our bill up about $70. I called the waiter over and said the bill was wrong and pointed out the items that weren’t ours. He came back with an amended bill that only removed a few of the cheaper things.

When I pointed it out again, the manager, who happened to have been bussing a table nearby, came over and asked what was going on. I explained and he glared at the waiter but adjusted the bill correctly and also said dessert was on him.

The scammy waiter tried to put the dessert on our bill and not comp it. The manager had to fix that, too. 

The food and stuff that was on our bill? That belonged to the table the manager had been bussing. Apparently, they were friends of the scammy waiter and he figured we wouldn’t notice the extra charges since we were such a large group. Of course, his friends had already booked out, so I’m guessing the scammy waiter had to pay the bill. I didn’t see him the next time I was there, so he probably got sacked, too. It just makes me wonder how many times he pulled that stunt before I caught him and called him out.

I’m working one of the garden center registers, and I am the only cashier out there. A young man comes to my register with three gift cards he wants to fill.

Customer: “And I’ll be paying with this.”

He pulls out a type of card I’ve never seen before, but I figure it must just be for a local bank.

Me: “Okay, how much would you like on the first card?”

Customer: “Two hundred, please.”

I enter two hundred dollars onto the gift card.

Customer: “You need to enter two hundred dollars cash, and then I’ll use my card to actually pay.”

Me: “Um… I’m sorry, but I can’t enter a cash payment unless you’re actually paying cash.”

Customer: “No, it’s fine. It’ll work. Just enter two hundred dollars and I’ll pay with my card once it gets accepted.”

Me: *Confused, but firm* “I can’t hit the cash button unless you give me cash. If you want to use your card, you can swipe or insert it now.”

This goes on a few more times until a manager comes out to check on me.

Customer: “You know what, never mind. It’s not that important.”

He walks off.

Me: “What was that?”

Manager: “That was a scam. Good for you for not falling for it.”

Me: “Oh.”

I work at a retail store for a major wireless carrier in a mall. It was a slow weekday afternoon with just me and another representative on the floor and no other customers present. The other representative was training me.

Three younger women walked in.

Woman #1: “Can I have my credit checked to get a phone?”

[Woman #2] stayed with the first while the [Woman #3] made a beeline for the Apple Watch display. [Woman #3] immediately triggered a pressure alarm on a watch, which I quickly deactivated before returning to my trainer. Then, [Woman #3] approached me.

Woman #3: “Can you throw something away for me?”

It appeared to be packaging, but I paid no attention to it.

[Woman #1] finished getting credit checked and left abruptly with the other two.

Then, an employee from another nearby wireless store walked in.

Employee: “Three women were just in our store and they stole some earbuds.”

We quickly realized that an Apple Watch was missing and that the packaging I had thrown away was from the stolen earbuds from the other store.

The information from [Woman #1]’s driver’s license that was required to process her credit check was forwarded to law enforcement. I felt like a dope because not only did I deactivate the alarm to the watch she stole, but I then helped her dispose of evidence. That was pretty bold.

I work in a Chinese restaurant. I sometimes deliver and sometimes do the front desk. Today, I am delivering.

I knock on a lady’s door who has a $64 order. The entire time, I have my nice customer service voice.

Me: “Hello, your total is [total].”

The customer reaches her hand out for the bag but doesn’t motion to grab any money or anything.

Me: “I’m sorry, I need the money before I can hand the bag over.”

Customer: “I’ve ordered from you guys before. Just give me the bag.”

She holds her hand out aggressively.

Me: “I’m sorry, I just need the money first.”

Customer: “Just give me the bag so I can go get you the money.”

Me: “I’m sorry, I need the money before I can give you the bag.”

Customer: “Do you want me to call your office? Just give me the bag!”

Me: “You can, ma’am. I just need the money first before I give you the bag.”

She huffs and walks away to grab the money. When she comes back, she gives me $70.

Me: “Would you like any change back?”

Customer: *In an angry tone* “No.”

Me: “Have a good day!”

She said something incoherent as I got to the bottom of her steps. I don’t think this woman had any intention of stealing; however, I don’t deliver to her often and I don’t want to take any sort of risk of someone stealing the food from me like people have from some of my other drivers.