I work in a hotel. I have a guest come in at about 4:30 one morning wanting to check in. I inform her of our policy: in order to check in early, you have to pay an additional fee. She begins to whine.

Guest: “I want to stay until Sunday, but I don’t want to pay the extra money!”

Me: “That is our policy, and I cannot change it.”

Guest: “I’ll just book it online.”

Me: “Without the early check-in fee, you would have to wait until 3:00 pm to check in.”

She goes out to her car for a few minutes, comes back in, and announces:

Guest: “I have a reservation through [Third-Party Booking Site].”

Me: “I’m sorry, but you still either have to wait until 3:00 pm to check in or pay the $45 early check-in fee.”

Guest: “No, I have a reservation for today.”

Me: “Okay, well, check-in will be at 3:00 pm this afternoon.”

Guest: “I have a reservation. See?”

She shoves her phone into the plexiglass barrier between us, nearly knocking it down.

Me: “I see that. If you will read the line printed in bold on your confirmation, you will see that it states that check-in time is at 3:00 pm.”

Guest: “But I have a reservation and I want to check in now!”

Me: “That will add an early check in fee of $45 to your bill.”

She grunts, groans, and argues a bit more, and then calls [Third-Party Booking Site] to whine to them. She makes sure it’s on speaker so I can hear them take her side. But, alas, fate has smiled down on me and the wonderful representative tells her in no uncertain terms that if she wants to check in now, she has to pay an early check-in fee or she can wait until 3:00 pm to check in.

She demands they cancel the reservation. I swear I can hear the evil grin come across the rep’s face.

Representative: “I’m so sorry. You booked a super-low, no-cancel, no-refund rate. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

She walked outside, got in her car, and drove away. She never came back.

I’m out shopping for running shoes with my mom at the local mall because I have had the same shoes for about a year and they are starting to get small.

We look around at shoes and find a pair that looks the best on me, and we ask for my size. The employee comes back with only one shoe and the box, and we try on the one shoe.

Mom: “Can we try the other shoe, please?”

Employee: “Sorry, store protocol is that you can only try on one shoe.”

My mom looks at me with the most confused face I’ve seen, and we go and pay for the shoes.

Once we pay for the shoes, we turn around the corner to the couch and try on the other shoe. The other shoe is somewhat loose, so we take the shoes back to return them. It’s been about three minutes since we left the store.

The employee glared at us while returning the shoes. We then asked for the same shoes but in half a size down. He realized exactly what we had done, so he gave us the entire box instead of the one shoe. Those fit, so we paid and left.

I work in a tech shop that does repairs, gives support, and sells various products, such as printer ink. I’m fairly new to customer support, as I usually work in the workshop, repairing computers.

A customer comes in.

Me: “Hi, how can I help?”

Customer: “Hi. I bought some printer inks from you a few days ago and they don’t work!”

Me: “Okay, sorry about that. Can I just have a look at the inks?”

The customer puts the inks on the counter. I look at the inks, which are clearly not sold by us and don’t match the box.

Me: “Sorry, sir, but they don’t seem to be the inks that were originally in the box. We also wouldn’t have sold these to you, as we don’t open our stock before selling it.”

Customer: *Very annoyed* “Fine, then. If you won’t replace them, can I buy some more?”

Me: “Certainly, that will be [total].”

Customer: “Okay. I don’t have my wallet. What should I do?”

Me: “Sorry, sir, but I can’t sell you any inks if you don’t have your wallet.”

Customer: “SERIOUSLY?! YOU HAVE REALLY BAD SERVICE HERE!”

After that, he left and hasn’t come back.

I work in a retail chain. A mother and her kid come in today to buy about $50 worth of toys for the kid and some clothes for the mom. The mom is paying with gift cards… plural. Of course, these gift cards have either no money on them or only a dollar or two.

Mother: “There should be money on these cards! [Kid] just got these for his birthday, so clearly, you’re doing something wrong.”

Me: “We can print out the history of these gift cards, showing when and where they have been used previously and for how much.”

I print these out for her cards and walk her through them. All of these cards were purchased a month ago and then spent earlier today at a completely different store. It takes about forty-five minutes to explain as she’s absolutely obstinate the entire time.

Mother: “You rang it up wrong! His nana gave him these!”

Eventually, she decided to relent. She removed the toys from her order and kept the clothes. I don’t need to tell you how upset that poor kid was.

We just tossed her cards. She’s not welcome back. And a woman with face tattoos is quickly recognizable.

Related:
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 17
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 16
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 15
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 14
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 13

I work at a sandwich shop. It’s usually quiet in the mornings, but this morning, I have a few, shall we say… interesting customers.

The first few customers come in. We have a policy that no more than two people are allowed in the store at one time, but we make exceptions for people from the same household, families, etc. These customers are nice but clearly unaware of how the shop works.

Group: “Can we please have extra meat and bacon in our wraps?”

And then they are baffled by the price.

Group: “Do you serve pizza?”

We very obviously do not.

Group: “Can we eat in the store?”

This is during England’s Lockdown, Part Two (Electric Boogaloo).

It’s somewhat annoying, but excusable, and otherwise not really something to write home about.

But then… Oh, boy, but then.

Two guys come in, neither of them wearing masks. [Guy #1] says they’re exempt, with no proof of that statement, but I let him off. It’s the law to wear masks in shops and takeaways in my country, exemptions aside; however, store policy is that we are not allowed to enforce that law because we’re often alone in the store and there’s the risk of people getting aggressive. It’s very annoying, but oh, well. [Guy #2] is apologetic and puts his sweater in front of his face, at least making an effort.

They order weird sandwiches, but I figure hey, you like what you like.

They go toward the till to pay. There is a plastic screen in front of the till creating a barrier between me and the customers. [Guy #2] goes to pay. [Guy #1] comes round the barrier to open his sandwich on the surface, now less than two metres from me. First of all, the store is takeaway only, and people cannot under any circumstances eat in store. Second, obviously, he is not socially distancing himself from me.

Me: *Politely* Please step behind the screen, sir.”

Guy #1: “You really believe in that?”

I think to myself, “OH, BOY, this is about to go way downhill.”

Me: “Yes, I know someone who died from it.”

Guy #1: “Oh, yeah? Were they tested?”

Me: “They tested positive and died in the hospital.”

I realise that this isn’t really his business, but I am getting angry.

The guy spouts some more bulls*** that I can’t remember, and I tell him that I believe in the many, many deaths from it.

He gives the classic line:

Guy #1: “People die from things every day.”

Me: “At least the flu has a vaccine.”

He kind of repeats his crap, but to be honest, it’s a bit of a blur because I am shaking with anger, and I tend to block out confrontation.

After his friend pays, I turn to him as he’s still talking.

Me: “Buy a mask. Goodbye.”

And I turned and walked to the back room. He continued to rant as he left.

I then made a “Back open in ten minutes” sign, locked the door, and went out back to have a cigarette and a cry. I don’t remember the last time I was this furious.

Related:
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 7
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 6
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 5
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 4
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 3