I worked at the BIG movie rental store. Before they got rid of late fines, it was my job to call customers and tell them about late movies. I had an account with one of the big, really popular older Disney movies (think like Cinderella) checked out.

I called the customer, and he claimed:

Customer: “I don’t have any kids, so why would I rent that?”

I called every few days and kept getting the same thing. Then the guy started threatening to have me and my boss [Store Manager] fired for harassment and even arrested. So we stopped calling for a bit.

I called him back a few weeks later to remind him that the movie was still on the account. He said, and I quote:

Customer: “My daughter checked the movie out. She took it to school, but she’s on spring break. I’ll return it on Monday when she goes back to school.”

Me: “Thanks.”

Come Monday, he returned the movie. Of course, his fine was HUGE.

Customer: “Can you do anything about the fine?”

Me: “That decision is up to the manager.”

Our store manager was awesome. His usual response was to cut the fine in half. Don’t want to lose a customer, but don’t want them to think they can keep stuff forever with no consequences. We just wanted the movie back. Also, the Disney movies back then couldn’t be easily replaced because they were only available at certain times (they got put in a vault for years at a time).

He happened to be in the store at that time, and I went to get him. He came out and said:

Store Manager: “Usually, I would help you, but since you tried to get me and my best employee fired and arrested because you were LYING, I’m not going to do anything.”

And he walked away. The customer paid the fine. When the store manager went back to the office, he called his boss, the District Manager, and let him know what had happened.

The customer called the District Manager the next day to complain. The District Manager’s response was:

District Manager: “Not sure what you want from me. I wouldn’t have been that nice.”

The customer ended up being one of our regular customers. His family of five (yes, he had three kids) was in the store all the time.

I had a terribly uptight, power-hungry manager who refused to listen and hated me for standing up to her. She wrote me up because she didn’t realize you could reverse an order in the system, she wrote me up for a mistake another manager made, and she wrote me up for not coming to a 9 AM meeting after closing until 2 AM the night before, meaning that attendance was illegal for kids my age in my state at that time.

In the final year of high school, I put in my two-week notice that my last day of work would be December 15^th. I didn’t want to handle the Christmas rush; I wanted to see my friends on New Year’s Eve, and it was a terrible job.

On December 15^th, I go to drop off my uniform shirt and pick up my last paycheck. On my way out of the office area, I notice the schedule: my name is scheduled to work eight to ten hours a day for most of the Christmas break. The whole week preceding Christmas. Christmas Eve until 2 AM. Christmas Day. The intervening week. New Year’s Eve until 2 AM, and New Year’s Day.

The following conversation ensued:

Me: “Hey, [Manager], you know I’m not working here anymore, right?”

Manager: “If your name is on the schedule, you have to work, you know that.”

Me: “I don’t work here anymore.”

Manager: “Your name wasn’t in the holiday time off folder, so you got put on the schedule. Next time, request off earlier.”

Me: “I don’t work here anymore.”

Manager: “If you’re going to walk out on your shift, you’re REQUIRED to find someone to cover for you.”

At this point, a customer is eavesdropping while pretending to browse the “recently returned but not yet shelved” cart of movies. I address him.

Me: “Excuse me! Sir? Are you available to cover my shift on Christmas Eve?”

Manager: “He doesn’t work here!”

Me: “NEITHER DO I!”

I wish I could say I threw my uniform shirt at her, and everyone clapped, but she followed me to my car, berating me.

She then called my parents on Christmas Eve and told my mother she failed to raise a worthwhile child, and I had to file formal complaints. 

After that, she was put on leave, and the assistant manager had to cover New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, with all the drama about the general manager being too stupid to know that I had already quit, there was nobody else scheduled to work on New Year’s Eve.

Former Blockbuster employee here (yeah, that just aged me!). I worked in a pretty dangerous neighborhood, but even then, nothing like this had ever happened before, or ever did again…

There was a woman who not only absolutely refused to pay her late fees (which were legitimate), but she became so enraged that she threw her stack of tapes at me, hitting me in the face. She then marched around the store and knocked every cassette, DVD, and coverbox that she could reach off of the shelves (some with her hands, some by swinging her purse), while shouting obscenities.

My manager got on the phone and called the police. When Angry Lady finished trashing the store, she demanded to know of us both:

Angry Lady: “Which cars out there are yours?!”

When we refused to say, she spit at us and knocked all of the candy/shelf talkers/etc. off the counters, and began stomping on them.

I don’t know if it was divine intervention, or luck, or what, but as Ms. Angry Lady was spitting and stomping on the candy, another woman walked into the store. This woman just happened to be my next-door neighbor… and a police officer.

Officer Neighbor approached Ms. Angry Lady and identified herself as a police officer.

Officer Neighbor: “I’m a police officer. What’s the problem here?”

Angry Lady: “OH YEAH?! WHERE’S YOUR F****** BADGE, B****?!”

She swung her purse at Officer Neighbor, then attempted to flee. Officer Neighbor grabbed Angry Lady before she could reach the door, and a scuffle ensued. In a blink, Officer Neighbor kicked Angry Lady’s legs out from under her, and she went down like a sack of bricks. While she held Angry Lady down:

Officer Neighbor Lady: “Go grab my purse!”

I did so, and out of which she pulled a pair of handcuffs. As the cuffs locked around her wrists, it was then that Angry Lady finally realized what trouble she was in. She began to sob and wail loudly.

Angry Lady: “I’ll make nice! I’ll pay the fee! Please let me go!”

Two uniformed officers eventually arrived and hauled Angry Lady away, screaming and crying like a lunatic.

Oh, and the late fee she owed? $12.

I step up to the counter with a DVD in hand, back when renting movies was common. It’s October 1st, and I’m returning the movie I rented a few days ago. This place charges a late fee of a dollar a day.

Clerk: “That’ll be a $2 late fee.”

Me: “It was due back on September 30th. Today is October 1st. That’s one day later, not two.”

Clerk: “Nope. It’s two days late.”

Me: “How do you figure that?”

Clerk: *Pointing at the screen.* “See? Due September 30. You brought it back on October 1. That’s October first, September thirty-first. Two days late.”

I just stare at her.

Me: “…There is no September thirty-first.”

She ponders this a moment.

Clerk: “Maybe it was a leap September.”

Near the end of the video rental era, I worked at a game shop that was sometimes attached to a major video rental chain in the United States. Essentially, they would partition some of the stores and sell video games out of the other side.

One night, I was closing by myself, and a guy came in with his wife to complain about a defective game. He had purchased Wii Play — a collection of minigames for the Wii, which at that time came bundled with a controller.

The customer hadn’t brought the game disc, which worked fine, but complained that the controller was defective and that he wanted a replacement. If we had a used copy on hand, it wouldn’t have been a problem to swap out the bundle or just the controller, but we actually didn’t have any used or new Wii controllers in stock.

I explained to the guy that I could get one from the closest store on my way in the next day morning but couldn’t replace it right then.

He saw that we had a new copy of Wii Play on display and demanded I exchange it from that one. This led to two problems: he had bought a used copy, which was cheaper, so he’d have to pay the difference, and he hadn’t brought in the disc, so I wasn’t even getting the old copy back.

I explained this to the guy, and he started to lose it, calling me names, threatening to report me, and eventually telling me I’d better do it or he’d “reach over the counter and beat my a**.”

At that point, some of the staff and customers in the video store were taking notice, but I calmly offered again to get the copy the following morning from our other location.

Then, it occurred to me that I hadn’t asked if I could try out the defective controller to see what the issue might be. So, I asked him if I might take a look and maybe see if I could fix it.

The manager at the video store decided to intervene at that point and told the guy to leave. The guy’s wife asked him to go, too, and we got the obligatory, “I’m never shopping here again, I spend so much money in this store… blah, blah, blah.”

Since he’d put the controller down, while he was distracted, I decided to sync the remote to the demo Wii behind the counter and start playing whatever game we had on demo that night.

I looked over to him and said, “You didn’t know how to sync this to your system, did you?”

The dude froze in his embarrassment and, without collecting the controller, the couple walked out. I put the controller in the back and finished up, delighted to have made that guy look like an idiot in front of the whole store.

I waited a few weeks to see if they returned, and when they didn’t, my manager eventually decided that I deserved to keep the controller for the trouble.

I did see them in the video store one more time a few months later, and neither would make eye contact. I think the manager must have closed their rental accounts that night because I don’t think they ever came back again.