The city I live in has extremely inflated vehicle values compared to the surrounding areas. If you buy the same car from a neighboring state, you can often save $3–4k without really trying. When I buy a new vehicle (which happens every three to four years), I always look in the surrounding states to compare pricing.

I was shopping for a new car (brand new) and found one that matched my specs about twelve hours away in a neighboring state. It was priced about $5,000 below comps.

After looking up flights, there was a one-way direct flight that took me to their local airport for around $175. Plus, the gas to drive back, I was looking at a total of maybe $275 to save $5,000. Absolutely worth it in this situation. 

I reached out to the dealership, negotiated a bit, and agreed on a price. I let them know that I would be flying in to pick up the car and offered to pay in full in advance of the flight. They told me that all they needed was a $1k deposit and that the car was considered mine.

We signed a contract, and I paid the deposit.

And then I booked the flight for three days later.

First sign of things gone awry:

When I showed up at the airport, the dealership was supposed to pick me up. This had been arranged in advance. A quick phone call later, I grabbed an Uber to take me the twenty miles to the dealership, with the promise of them covering that cost. No big deal either way.

Second sign of things gone awry: 

When I showed up at the dealership, the salesman I had been speaking with asked me if I wanted to walk the lot with him to look at a few cars. 

Yes. Cars. Plural.

Questioning what he meant by that, we walked into the lot to see these “cars” he was talking about.

Were these some special type of gold-inlaid, full self-driving, full self-flying amaze-mobiles? No. They were not.

When I asked point-blank to see the car I was buying, the one with VIN XYZ listed in the signed contract with a deposit on it, I was told it was no longer available. 

The salesman offered to show me similar cars, which would have been fine if we could have come to similar pricing terms. But all of these cars were outrageously priced (think $2k over MSRP instead of $5k under MSRP).

There was never any mention, paperwork, signage, or otherwise, of incentives for giving five-star reviews.) 

Fast forward two to three hours. 

I was now convinced the dealership never had this specific car on the lot and that this was a 100% bait-and-switch gone wrong. The dealership was unwilling to sell me a similar vehicle at a similar price (we were over $5k apart) and unwilling to pay my flight costs for this scenario.

A heated discussion ensued between the general manager and me, who told me:

General Manager: “Go ahead and leave a bad review.”

He also made it clear I wasn’t getting any “free” money from him. I took an Uber to a nearby hotel and booked a flight home for the next day.

Total cost: Around $750.

This dealership had an average Google rating of around 4.5 stars with about four-hundred total reviews. Pretty solid for a dealership. 

That night, sitting in the hotel room with time to burn, I spent a couple of hours creating new email accounts so I could leave multiple reviews. By the end of the night, I had left around twenty one-star reviews. Then I stopped caring about the reviews and shifted my focus to recovering my travel expenses.

A few days after getting home, I sent the dealership a demand letter for $750, which they ignored. Since the original contract was executed in both states, I was allowed to file small claims in my home state, which I did.

The dealership never showed up. I received a default judgment for $750. I got my $1k deposit back. I paid with a credit card, and it was refunded without issue. I couldn’t sue for time spent or force the contract to be honored because I filed in small claims court (the case was winnable, but legal fees and time made it not worth pursuing).

It took certified letters, phone calls, and about a year, but yes, I collected.

I was still not a happy camper. What they did was wrong on so many levels. All my friends knew the story. Many left a bad review or two, but nothing out of the ordinary.

At some point later, I left one bad review. Just one. I noticed all the original reviews I had left earlier were gone, likely flagged as fake. The one I just posted stayed. So, the next day, I created another account and left another one-star review.

Fast forward two to three years. This became a habit. Any time I had a few minutes, I created a new account and left a one-star review.

Their current rating: 1.9 stars. Total reviews: Nearly 3,500. I am personally responsible for at least half of them.

When you open the dealer’s website, one of the rotating banners advertises:

Website Banner: “$50 for a five-star review.”

It explains that if you show the review to your salesman, you get a $50 Visa gift card. This policy appeared around a year after the bait-and-switch, right when the one-star reviews began piling up.

Assuming I’m responsible for half the reviews, and they’ve paid for at least a thousand five-star reviews, they’ve spent $50,000 buying reviews.

And their rating still keeps dropping. All after telling me to “go ahead and leave a bad review.”

We have to enter birth dates for anybody purchasing any sort of alcoholic beverage, including any zero-alcohol version as per store policy. It’s been that way for at least four years (maybe longer). We also have to ID everyone, no matter how old/young they appear to be (another coworker f***ed up, now Illinois is up on our a**).

I had a closing shift on Wednesday, stuck on the same register the whole shift, when a guy in his 40s or 50s walks up with two cases of a non-alcoholic beer and milk. Obviously, the register asks me to enter a birthdate when I scan the beer cases, to which I ask for his ID.

Customer: “There’s no alcohol in it.”

Me: “I know, but in order for me to check them out, I need to know what your date of birth is.”

Customer: *Pointing at the box.* “Non… Alc… o… hol… ic… Brew.”

Me: “But I still need to see your ID.”

Customer: “That’s only for stuff WITH alcohol! This doesn’t have any!”

Technically, there’s still alcohol in non-alcoholic beer.

Customer: “There ain’t any alcohol in water, is there?”

Me: “No, bu—”

Customer: “THEN I DON’T NEED TO IDENTIFY MYSELF! SO, RING UP MY STUFF SO I CAN LEAVE!”

At this point, my manager comes over to see what’s going on. I explain my side, and the customer is just screaming about why he has to show his ID. Manager agreed with the customer and entered a random date of birth (I’m assuming it’s her own) without actually ID-ing the customer. He paid, left the store, along with the classic “I’m reporting this to corporate!” line. I just shut down the register (the manager told me to) and took my break a little early.

I have a client who is way too familiar for my liking. I am always polite, but cold.

He came in, remarking:

Client: *Offended.* “I saw you last weekend! You didn’t say hi back when I called out to you!”

Now, I definitely tend to avoid people when I’m on my personal time, but I’ll be polite if they approach me. I definitely did not see him.

Me: “Where did you see me?”

Client: “The dog park, walking your dog.”

I don’t advertise it, but my dog died in November. I still have his photos in my office because I love him, but he’s dead-dead.

Me: *Politely.* “It couldn’t have been me, so sorry.”

Client: *Insistent.* “It was you! You were walking your dog! Why didn’t you say hello?!”

Me: “It wasn’t me. I know it wasn’t me.”

Client: “Why are you being rude and lying? You should just apologize. Why aren’t you admitting it was you when I know it was you?”

I finally got fed up with him sniping at me. So, I just made the most uncomfortable eye contact I possibly could and said, full deadpan:

Me: “I’m telling you it couldn’t have been me because my dog is f****** dead.”

I got a little bit of a cursory meeting for cursing at a client, but my boss was laughing most of the time.

This happened to a coworker, not to me, but I was watching and listening as this unfolded. A lady brings back a large item she purchased using a Visa gift card and a regular credit card.

My coworker goes to put the balance from the credit card back on that card, and tells the customer:

Coworker: “I’ll have to give you a store gift card for the gift card balance, as you no longer have the prepaid card.”

Customer: “No. I want that in cash. It was bought with a prepaid Visa! That’s like cash!”

Coworker: “The system is not set up to allow that.”

She keeps telling the customer this, but the customer (of course) won’t listen. The manager comes up, explains the same thing, and tells the customer she can’t override the system to allow a cash payout.

Customer: “But it’s like cash! I want cash back!”

The manager keeps explaining patiently why that can’t be done. The system won’t allow the manager to override it.

Finally, the customer gets a store gift card for the balance.

Customer: *To the manager and my coworker.* “I’ll never shop here again!”

She stormed off in a huff after her tantrum didn’t help her get her way.

A little bit later, the customer comes back up to the register. I guess she figures she’d better use the gift card before she never shops here again. The original employee had gone for the day, as it was her scheduled time to leave.

The customer says nothing; she’s very quiet. She just makes her purchase and leaves. Hopefully, she was embarrassed about the scene she made, but probably not.

I used to be a server/bartender at a golf course. I was pretty much the only one who paid attention to little details and got the little details taken care of.

I didn’t recall any of the coffee pots being cleaned in the last three years, so I peeped inside one and holy Hell, it was beyond disgusting. Like, I was about to barf, disgusting. 

On a slow day when I had no tables, I spent time cleaning and sanitizing every coffee pot we had (there had to be at least thirty of them).

The next day, we’re having a lunch rush, and a regular customer asked me:

Regular: “Did you change coffee brands? The coffee is so much more tasty than it was last week.”

This regular was one of the ones who insisted on sitting in my section because I wasn’t afraid of all her food “requirements,” and she thought I was awesome for some strange reason.

Regular: “Did you switch to a better brand of coffee? It’s so much better! The coffee has been a bit s*** as of late!”

Me: “I gave the coffee pots and the machines a serious cleaning.”

Regular: “…”

Then she bursts out laughing and says:

Regular: “Good on you!”

The general manager overheard.

General Manager: “Nobody has ever cleaned those since I’ve been here!”

Me: “🤢🤮”

I got promoted to shift supervisor after that. Wheee!