Customer: I need a pen refill!

Me: Ok, they’re in aisle 5 and I’ll send someone over to meet you down there.

Customer: oh! Which one’s aisle 5?

Me: Um, that one over there…. with the… 5 over it…

I have a small cut in the middle of my forearm. It isn’t too big, but still noticeable.
Me: (scans items and places them in the bag)
Customer: That cut (gesturing to my arm) is that from shooting up heroine?
Me: (super shocked, but don’t show the customer that) No, its from my dog.
I told my manager who laughed. I am the most innocent looking 19 year old girl who hasn’t even had alcohol, let alone heroine.

(A MAJOR thunderstorm is moving through the area: torrential downpours and even some hail. Lightning has recently struck a transformer near our store, knocking out the power. Shortly after, our emergency generator kicks in to keep the lights running, but since the Internet is down our registers are offline and essentially useless. It is still storming when a customer starts banging on the closed doors.)

Customer: We have a heavy photocopier in our car we want to return. Can someone come help us bring it in?

Me: Unfortunately we’ve just lost power and all of our registers are down right now. We don’t know when they’ll come back on, so we can’t process a return right now.

Customer: But the lights are on, you must have power.

Me: We’re running off a generator to keep the lights on, but it doesn’t power the network our registers run on.

(At this point my manager comes up behind me.)

Customer: So I dragged this heavy box all the way here in the pouring rain and you won’t return it?

Manager: It’s not that I WON’T return it, it’s that I CAN’T. It’s out of my hands.

Customer: Well I am VERY unimpressed with your customer service. I can’t believe you made me drag it ALL the way here from (town about 30 minutes away). This is ridiculous!

(The customer continued to stand and argue with us for another half hour before we finally closed for good. They left with the photocopier, still telling us all about how “horrendous” our customer service was.)

Normal Thursday at Office Max, till we get two grandparents with a baby. They wanted to buy three heavy desk piece for home. As we checked them out we noticed the three desk pieces would not fit into their van with the baby on board. The grandparents decided to take the baby out of the car and put all three desk piece in the car. When we asked ,”Where will the baby sit?” The grandmother said,” the Trunk will do.” The sit the baby in between the desk desk and a wall. It was visible that the desk piece could tip and hurt the baby. Two coworkers and I were fighting to say that they can hold the desk pieces here and get the baby home safely. They slammed the car trunk on us and drove away. We immediately called 9-1-1 reporting their license plate, car, and how the child is in danger.

I am working in the copy center when an older lady approaches me, asking if I can help her with business cards. We keep regular customers’ files in the computer, so I look up her folder and pull up the business card file. Keep in mind that this is the ONLY business card file in her folder.

Me: “Is this the business card you were looking to print?”

Customer: “Yes, but it’s supposed to have [Name] on it. These don’t.”

Me: “I can change it to put that person’s name on it.”

Customer: “No! These aren’t the right ones. It’s supposed to have [Name] on it.”

Me: “Okay. Let me show you the files in your folder. Maybe I didn’t see it.”

I show her the files in her folder, knowing this was the ONLY business card file. Midway through me showing her, she changes her attitude completely and becomes extremely rude.

Customer: “Never mind! I’m just going to wait until [Other Employee] gets back. She’ll find it! You don’t know what you are doing!”

She then shops around the store for a few more minutes with her husband. I am the only person watching the front of the store, so I have to ring up her purchase, as well. Even though she has already made me mad, I stay calm and treat her like I would treat any other customer.

Me: “You total will be [total], ma’am.”

Customer: “Don’t speak to me in that tone. You need a serious attitude adjustment, missy! Where is your manager?!”

She then runs over to my manager and speaks to him about how unhappy she is.

Customer: “That little girl is nasty! She has the worst attitude I’ve ever seen. I will never work with her again! She needs to learn how to respect her elders! She should be fired! What a snotty little girl! FIRE HER NOW!”

My manager loves me and knows what a nice person I am, so I did not get fired. Since this incident, the old lady has come in the store a few times and each time, she looks surprised to see me and gives me death stares. I laugh every time!