I was working at a store with only a couple of registers. As the only cashier, everyone had to go through my line. A woman came with two full carts of items, chatting happily the entire time I scanned.

Me: “Okay, your total is [around $400].”

Woman: “Okay.” *Looking through her purse* “Oh. Oh, my. I think my wallet is in my car. I’ll be right back.”

She leaves before I can say a word. The two people in line behind her are staring at me. 

Me: “Sorry about the wait. Hopefully, she won’t be long.”

Person #1: “Can’t you void it or something?”

Me: *Looking at the carts* “No, I’d rather not. That’s —”

Person #1: *Louder* “Hello! We need a manager here!”

Manager: “How can I help you?”

Person #1: “Can you void this, please?”

Me: “They’re not—”

Manager: “Sure.”

He reaches over and hits a few keys. The entire order is erased.

Me: “Why did you do that?!”

Manager: “The customer asked to void his order.”

Me: “He asked you to void her order.” *Points to the woman coming back in* “That was her stuff, not his.”

Person #1: “Well, maybe she should have been prepared.”

Woman: “What’s happening?”

Manager: “Ma’am, I’m so sorry. I’m going to take you on register two, and I’ll explain what happened.”

The woman is justifiably annoyed, and the manager is very sorry. I scan [Person #1]’s items — some candy and a soda. I am not even trying to hide how annoyed I am. 

Person #1: “See how easy that was?”

Me: “Uh-huh.”

Person #1: “I’m going to pay with a check.”

Me: “Okay.”

Person #1: *Snapping his fingers at me* “I need a pen.”

Me: “I don’t have one.”

Person #1: “Why don’t you have a pen?”

Me: *Shrugging* “I don’t have to be prepared to write a check.”

Person #1: “Fine!”

He pays with a card and leaves. [Person #2] is a regular and often cracks lighthearted jokes with us. 

Person #2: “Should I go back and shop for more or…?” *Grins*

Me: “Yeah, okay, funny man.”

The woman paid for her order with [Manager] and then stopped to apologize to me for the wait. I apologized for the confusion and wished her well. [Manager] also apologized to me for not listening before deleting everything. Moving forward, he now verifies that the person making the request is the one associated with the purchase.

I used to work at a restaurant that had a central bar with the restaurant surrounding it, and it had wings on both sides and in the front. To get to the wings required a step up, and there was a set of stairs on both ends of each wing. On the night in question, I was working the wing that had tables 11 through 19. Next to me, down a couple of stairs, were the 20s.

This couple came in and was seated at table 15, right in the middle of my section. They had an attitude and a chip on their shoulder the size of Texas. From their very first words to me, they were talking to me like they thought that they had seen fish with higher IQs. As they placed their order, they described in painful detail what other servers had messed up when they had placed this order on previous visits to this restaurant. The order concluded with the following words:

Couple: “I hope you paid good attention. You do want a tip, don’t you?”

My jaw hit the floor. I told them I was going to go grab their drinks and ring their order in. Grab their drinks I did. Ring their order in, I did not. But I had something else to do with the computer, probably printing off someone else’s check, so I did that. I had to take care of other tables, refilling drinks, grabbing sauces, running food out, the usual. But every time I had to get from tables 11-14 to tables 16-19, I took a detour through the kitchen and came back by way of the 20s. I made sure to never pass table 15.

I would never do anything disgusting to anyone’s food. But you can bet that it was a good twelve minutes between the time that they gave me their order and the time that I finally saw fit to think about ringing it in. And when it came up in the heated expo window, the expo on duty told me that the order for table 15 was up, and I said I’d get it as soon as I brought drinks out to another table. I went and checked on the rest of my section, but table 15’s glasses contained nothing but ice. As I finished up with table 16 and turned to take my detour, I briefly saw table 15 try and wave and grab my attention. But I pretended not to see them. I had to turn really fast so that the illusion was believable — and so that they couldn’t see me smirking.

When I went back into the kitchen the next time, well… if you’re a server, you can just look at food and tell if it’s been sitting in the expo window for a minute. Table 15’s order had definitely acquired that look. Someone shouted, “Hands to 87!” so I grabbed the food for table 87 and followed its server out to their section, and then I went back into the kitchen to refill dressings.

As I was walking back from the cooler where I had just put the ranch dressing away, I saw the order for table 15 going out the door after only about seven minutes in the expo window. I honestly don’t know how long I was going to let it sit, but the expo valued her space and made someone else get that food out of her sight.

I stopped by table 15 to check on them.

Me: *Pleasantly* “Did everything come out okay?”

Couple: “We need some honey mustard dressing, and we need a refill on our drinks.”

Me: “Sure, no problem!”

As I delivered the only refill of the night, I said:

Me: “Oh, you asked for honey mustard. So sorry. I’ll go get that right away!”

By the time they actually got honey mustard, there wasn’t much chicken left to put it on.

I spent most of the rest of their meal studiously avoiding passing by their table. I delivered their check with a smile, picked up the card quickly, and delivered it back with a pen for a signature.

They had definitely spent more time than they had planned on spending in that restaurant that night, so as soon as they were able to sign the credit slip, they hurried out to wherever they were headed next.

The tip written on the credit slip was zero, and boy, did I ever earn it!

This happened years ago. It was Christmas time, and the entitled attitude is always oh, so divine that time of year. I had clocked out from my shift. I had my purse, my coat was on, and I was calling someone on my cell phone.

A lady approached me to ask about plugging in some electronic decorations to see how they worked. I asked the person I was on the phone with to hold on for a moment.

Me: *Nicely* “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m done with my shift, and I’m actually on my phone at the moment. But my coworker just a few feet behind you can help you!”

This was NOT reasonable to her in ANY sense.

Customer: “Oh, no! You’re here in the store, and you will be helping me!”

Me: “Ma’am, I am off shift. My coworker over there on the clock can help as they will be paid for their work. I don’t work for free.”

She immediately called me names and wanted me FIRED NOW. She stormed off and I walked away.

At this job, you had to have a bag check before leaving, so since the employee room was at the back of the shop, by the time I was up front, the managers had heard about it.

Manager: “Why would you act that way to a customer? They pay your wages, after all. You should be nicer.”

Me: “How is it fair that I had to tell her twice that I wasn’t working, but the other employee less than three feet away was available, and she got to call me names?”

It was my first round of corporate trying to get me to give in to a customer when I wouldn’t be paid as well as the entitled attitude of that depth.

I work for a manufacturer in Germany. Recently, we started selling refurbished items on an online marketplace that exclusively sells refurbished items. The description of the equipment always states the condition they are in. Most of the items we sell here are returns from our regular online shop.

If a customer makes a complaint at the marketplace, we can answer the complaint, but it can also be answered by the marketplace customer support.

Yesterday, we got a customer complaint that the item was used because it had a few scratches, which had been clearly stated in the description. It’s quite audacious but unfortunately nothing uncommon.

What really got me was what happened next.

Customer support for the marketplace decided to step in. They told the customer that they were sorry that they had received a used item when they ordered a new one!

I’m wondering if they are aware of what company they are working for? It’s even literally in their name!

I used to work at a fast food chain, and because I had decent customer service skills, I would usually be placed in the drive-thru taking orders.

It was the day before Thanksgiving, and the ordering manager had deliberately shorted the store on orders for the week to account for the fact that we would be closed on Thanksgiving. We would get a truck on Friday to restock.

However, the manager hadn’t accounted for Thanksgiving gluttony starting early. We ran out of fries a few hours into my shift. Cue repeats of this exchange for the next several hours.

Customer: “I’d like a large [combo] with a large fry….”

Me: “I’m so sorry, we’re out of fries for the day.”

This was usually followed by many choice swearwords from the customers followed by screeching tires.

I had never been so glad to close the store as I was that day.