(I work at a really big chain department store as a customer service representative. We deal mainly with returns and exchanges for merchandise. This exchange happens when a customer wants to return a 100-piece puzzle.)
Me: “Hi. Return?”
Customer: “Yes, thanks.”
Me: “Okay, what is the reason for the return?”
Customer: “Oh, I didn’t know I had to put it together myself.”
Me: “…”
(I work as a barista in a large corporate coffee chain. I help a man load two gift cards with $30 each, and give him the main receipt and two separate receipts — one for each card. He comes back a few minutes later.)
Customer: *places gift cards on the counter* “I loaded these with $30 earlier and called the number on the back. They said there is only $22.50 in each of them.”
Me: *genuinely confused* “Sorry, sir? You called the number on the back of the gift card?”
Customer: *grunts* “This number right here!” *shows me the phone number* “You didn’t load the $30 that I paid!”
Me: “I included the receipts for each card in the envelopes, but I can check the balance for you again and reprint the receipts if you’d like.”
Customer: “Yeah, do it!”
(I am extremely confused now, as this is the first customer I’ve ever had call in right after I have given him receipts. I scan the cards and print the receipts.)
Me: “Here you go, sir. Both of your cards have $30 according to the system, the same as when I activated them earlier. Perhaps they heard the wrong card numbers over the phone?”
Customer: *completely appalled by my response* “How can you mess up 16 numbers in a card?! I called the number, and they said there’s $22.50 on the cards! This has never happened with [Large Tech Retail Company]. The balance is always the same on the card and what they tell me is on it!”
Me: *checks the balances of the gift card again* “My system says $30… I really can’t say much else, sir.”
Customer: “NO! This has never happened before! What’s wrong with you?!”
Me: *growing slightly irritated by his increasing rudeness towards me* “Well, sir, [Coffee Chain] is based in the US and the number you called is actually US. If it’s $22.50, it may be in the US currency. If you’d like, try to call again and ask what currency it is in.”
Customer: “What are you talking about?! There’s $22.50 on the cards!”
(I tried to explain to him two more times, but I realised this customer wouldn’t listen to me any time soon. I spin around to the two supervisors standing behind me. I quickly explained this customer’s problem and backed away. We ended up refunding his gift cards. Sometimes the words go in one ear and straight out of the other.)
(I am a very inexperienced barista for a large corporate coffee chain. I do not quite know how to handle difficult customers yet. One day, a very blunt lady asks me for tea.)
Me: “Sure! Would you like green, black, or white tea?”
Customer: “Green tea.”
Me: “No problem! What size would you like?” *shows her the cups*
Customer: *slightly impatient* “The medium.”
Me: “That’ll be $2.36 today. I’ll grab you your tea!” *places tea bags in the cup and pours hot water* “Here you go, miss!” *processes the payment*
Customer: *stares at the tea* “What is that?”
Me: “That’s our standard green tea, miss.”
Customer: “That’s not tea. It looks like marijuana.”
Me: *as I have never seen marijuana in my life, I smile and respond with a very confused tone* “I’m sorry, marijuana? That is our green tea.”
Customer: “I’m not drinking that. It’s disgusting.”
Me: *brings out a sheet with all of our teas listed* “Oh, well, if you’d like, I can grab you a different tea. Here’s a list of all of our current teas.”
Customer: *quickly skims the sheet* “This one. White tea.” *recites the white tea’s description to me* “Give me that.”
Me: “No problem!” *grabs the white tea*
Customer: *stares at the white tea* “What is that? That’s not white tea. It’s pink. That’s strawberry. I hate strawberry!”
Me: *super confused* “Um… that is our white tea. It has a berry flavour to it, so it’s pink because it’s fruity.”
Customer: “How is that white tea?! Ugh!” *grabs the green tea off the counter and stomps away*
Me: *stares at the white tea* “Okay, then. Have a nice day?” *turns to stare at my supervisor who had been listening the entire time* “What just happened?”
Supervisor: *smiles* “Don’t worry about it.”
(To this day, I still don’t understand what really happened.)
(A customer comes to return a Wi-Fi range extender. The receipt says that it was purchased yesterday.)
Me: “Why are you returning it?”
Customer: “It doesn’t work.”
Me: “All right.”
(I open the package, and before taking the range extender out of the box, I can see that it’s extremely dirty. I have a hard time believing this was purchased less than 24 hours ago, but I continue to look it over anyway, and take it completely out of the box. Part of the plastic next to one of the plug-in prongs is burnt and melted.)
Me: “Um, this is melted.”
Customer: “Yeah, it did that.”
Me: “It just did that when you first plugged it in?”
Customer: “Yeah.”
Me: “Why didn’t you tell me that when I asked you why you’re returning it?”
Customer: “Because it came like that.”
Me: *pause* “It came burnt?”
Customer: “Yeah.”
Me: “Okay…”
(I turn the item over to check the serial number and sure enough, it doesn’t match the serial number on the box.)
Me: “Well, the serial numbers don’t match, so this isn’t the item that came in the box.”
Customer: “Yes, it is!”
Me: “There wouldn’t be a melted item in a brand-new box.”
(My manager comes over and starts looking at it.)
Manager: “Was the box opened when you bought it?”
Customer: “She just opened it!” *pointing at me* “I didn’t do it!”
Manager: “Well, the serial numbers don’t match, so this isn’t the item that came in the box.”
Customer: “Yes, it is! It’s the same model number!”
Manager: “Well, I can’t return this, because clearly you bought a new range extender yesterday to replace your damaged one, and you’re trying to swap them out so you don’t have to pay for your new one.”
Customer: “No, it was open when I bought it!”
Manager: “It wouldn’t have been opened when you bought it, because it would have had a sticker on it signed by a manager to say that everything was inside and working.”
Customer: “That’s how it came!”
Manager: “Well, I’m not returning it.”
(He didn’t argue anymore.)
Content Warning: Car Accident.
I work at an inbound call center that answers for roughly 400 different companies, one of those being an American car-sharing program. I got a call, and the woman on the other end casually informed me that she had just been in an accident.
I asked if she’d had a collision with an object or another person; she replied that it was involving another person. I asked if she’d gotten the other person’s info.
Her response was, “No, because he is not alive anymore.”
It took me a couple seconds to process that, and I continued with the accident report.
The kicker is, the entire time I was filling everything out, she was sitting there complaining about the cold, and kept asking how much longer it was going to take.
That’s what was the most unsettling part of the call: the fact that she had just killed a guy — accidentally, but still — and did not seem to care at all.
Not something I’m going to forget any time soon!
