Customer: “I want to return this candle.”

Me: “I can’t return that.”

Customer: “Why not?”

Me: “That candle is burnt all the way. There’s nothing left to it!”

Yes, you CAN return a mostly-burned candle, but there has to be something, even a little bit left to it in order to do that. Her “candle” is literally just the wick at the bottom.

Customer: “B****, I return it like this every month. You’ll do what I said you’ll do.”

As I am seventeen and this is my first week working retail, I am a bit sensitive. I burst into tears, right there at the cash register. Instead of apologizing or feeling embarrassed since now everyone is watching us, she says:

Customer: “Wow, now you’re the victim. I love this acting for you.”

Thankfully, a manager has been nearby and is now bearing down on the customer.

Manager: “So, not only did you make an associate cry, but you’re openly admitting to returning this candle multiple times to get a free one?”

Customer: *Unfazed* “You always do it for me.”

Manager: “Not anymore. I think it best if you leave and never come back.”

Customer: *Less unfazed* “Bulls***! You always do this s*** for me!”

Manager: “Not anymore. You’re out that door in the next ten seconds or you’ll be arrested for trespassing.”

Customer: *Furious but walking out* “It’s just a f****** candle!”

Manager: “Exactly!”

Thankfully, I was fine after a few minutes, thanks to my awesome, no-nonsense manager!

I am working on the sales floor of a furniture store on a busy and understaffed Christmas afternoon. The store is PACKED with people to the point where you almost can’t move without bumping into a customer, and everyone is fighting over me for help.

This one lady, instead of asking for help, takes it upon herself to unlock and DRAG a full-sized Ballymore ladder across the store and into our glass tabletop section to try to get something from our top stock.

I have to stop while with three other customers to stop her.

Me: “Ma’am! The sign on the ladder says, ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’!”

Customer: *Getting mad* “WELL, WHO’S GOING TO GET MY CAKE DOME FOR ME?!”

Me: “You mean the cake dome that’s on the shelf next to you?”

The customer stops and notices it for the first time!

Customer: “That wasn’t clearly displayed!”

Me: “Like an ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’ sign?”

Customer: “Your customers shouldn’t be expected to read signs!” *Storms off*

CONTENT WARNING: Gross (Just… really, really, unbelievably gross)

I am working the customer service desk, and an elderly woman comes in with a Tupperware container of what looks at first glance like very dirty prawns.

Customer: “There’s clearly something wrong with these prawns! You can tell because this is how they came out.”

Me: “These are just prawn heads, ma’am. Is this how they came out after you cooked them?”

Customer: “No, after I ate them!”

Yes. When she said that’s how they had “come out”, she meant how they came out… OF HER.

Yes… she’d brought in the partially-digested poo-prawns that she’d fished out of the toilet… looking for a refund. Just when I thought I’d seen it all.

Our convenience store is located in a part of the country where we legally have to ask for ID for every alcohol purchase, with no exceptions.

Most customers are fine with this, but a few don’t seem to understand that the minimum-wage checkout clerk isn’t the one making the rules here.

Me: “Can I see your ID real quick for those beers?”

Customer: “Are you kidding? I’m almost sixty!”

Me: “I know, it’s silly, isn’t it?”

Customer: “Silly? It’s d*** inhumane is what it is! I should not need to show you my ID at my age to buy some g**d*** beer!”

Me: “Sadly, our government thinks otherwise.”

Customer: “And you just go along with it, huh? Like a nice little sheep?”

It is at this point of the conversation — and sadly, there are many “at this points” with these kinds of people — that I point to a sign that our manager has recently put up.

Sign #1: “Don’t be a d**k to the cashiers when they ask you for ID. They have to ask you for ID.”

Customer: “But I’m old enough to—”

Me: *Points to the next sign*

Sign #2: “We don’t care if you were around to see Adam and Eve show up. Everyone gets ID’d — no exceptions.”

Customer: “But why are you being such a b—”

Sign #3: “It’s not the cashier’s fault, so don’t take it out on them. Anyone that does so will get kicked out at said cashier’s discretion.”

Me: “Want to finish that sentence and let me use my ‘discretion’?”

He showed me his ID and scowled out with his beer.

I work at a popular retail chain. I find a sweater left somewhere, and I hand it to my manager.

Me: “Someone left a sweater.”

Manager: “Okay, leave it with the go-backs.”

Me: “I think it was a customer’s; I don’t think it’s inventory.”

Manager: “Just leave it there anyway, and when I get to it, I’ll check.”

I just shrug and do as I’m told.

At the end of the day, I notice that the sweater has ended up in the go-backs. I inform my manager.

Me: “This sweater is dirty and has stains; it’s clearly used. It should go in the lost and found.”

Manager: *Walking past me* “I am literally not paid enough to care.”

I just sighed and put the sweater into the lost and found drawer.