I work for a fast food chain restaurant. All of our chairs are bolted to the floor. All of them.

One woman got upset with something about her order. Honestly, we did mess it up. We tried to offer to make it right, but she kept shouting over us.

Then, she left.

She returned carrying a plastic lawn chair, which she threw over the counter and into the kitchen area. The chair basically exploded on impact. It broke the glass on the hotbox, and some of it landed in the fryer and promptly started melting into the fry oil.

Then, she left again.

We managed to get a cell phone picture of her, and we have put her on the Do Not Serve list. We also informed the police, but they said it was unlikely they could do much with just a name, a description of a car without a license plate number, and a grainy cell phone picture.

We have no idea where she got the chair from.

Related:
On The Need For (Bio)Hazard Pay
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 34
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 33
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 32
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 31

I work for a major shipping supply company. I work in the receiving department, which means I tell the drivers delivering to my warehouse where to dock their trailers.

There are two types of deliveries: a “live” unload and a “drop” unload. A live unload means the driver stays hooked up to the trailer while we unload it, and they take the trailer with them when they leave. A drop is when the driver leaves the trailer in the dock and goes on to their next assignment.

I have a driver come in as a live unload.

Driver: “Can I leave my trailer overnight and pick it up in the morning?”

Me: “No, you have to stay hooked to your trailer. We will unload you as quickly and as safely as we can.”

He isn’t happy with my answer, so he keeps asking, “Why not?”, “How come?”, etc., basically trying to make me cave. He gets so fed up with my consistently saying no that he asks for my manager.

Luckily, my manager is near us and has heard everything, and he says the magic words:

Manager: “Hey, bud, what she says goes. Sorry.”

The driver wasn’t happy with that answer. He stormed out, and we thought that was the end of it. But no, it wasn’t.

When the unloader went to give the driver his copy of the delivery paperwork, he found that the driver had left.

We emailed the proper people and told them what happened, and we asked for that driver to be banned from delivering to us again.

He was banned.

Once, my four-year-old was having a series of restless nights, complete with nightmares, and had called out for me several times. Our house has the master bedroom on the first floor and two bedrooms upstairs. (We have an audio/video monitor in his room.)

After going to check on him three times in one night, I casually said to him:

Me: “You know, I’m too old to be running up and down these stairs all night long.”

He yawned, looked at me, and said:

Son: “Well, you could walk!”

Our utility company has a policy where we can only add someone’s name to an existing account if they happen to be the customer’s spouse; otherwise, they need to set up a new account.

A customer with us calls (and sent an email to us a few days back) asking what needs to be done to put his son’s name on the account so that he can obtain proof of residency. When I relay our policy (and have to do so several times over so he’ll get the hint), I get this.

Caller: “What if I’m his spouse?”

Me: “…Excuse me?”

Caller: “What if I’m his spouse? Can you put his name on now?”

Me: “Uh… didn’t you tell me he was your son?”

Caller: “What if I lied? Can you put him in now?”

For obvious reasons, I did not put in his request; I instead told him to have his son call us to set up service and we could take it from there.

I work for a home installation company. Like a lot of businesses, we belong to the Better Business Bureau, and we have an A+!

We have a couple who wants a bay window and some new siding. Great! That is just what we do, and we do it well. The job is slated to take two weeks. During installation, the customer calls and wants to have us look at their patio door; we do that, too!

Well, the boss arrives at the appointed time to discuss the new door, only to find that the customer is drunk at 3:00 pm and raring to fight with anyone.

My boss is not to be messed with. He will be professional and courteous, but the minute someone gets abusive, he will shut it down hard. So, drunk hubby starts by putting down the boss, stating we’re overcharging them, telling us that he could have done the job by himself, etc. My boss tries to reason with the customer’s wife while she is trying to get her husband to shut up but to no avail.

Finally, the boss tells the man to sober the h*** up and excuses himself, stating that he can come back at a better time.

The next day is when the bay window is set for installation. The bay window comes with an unfinished (not stained or painted) seat; the entire area of the seat is maybe three square feet.

The customer instantly pitches a major fit when they see it. We hear everything in the book: we promised we would do it, we never mentioned it, we offered to have the factory do it, etc.

None of this is true; in fact, on the customer’s contract, directly above where they sign, it states that we do not do any staining or painting. On this particular contract, the salesman even starred it when they were signing.

This is our inter-office signal that they did in fact review the paint/stain clause with the customer. This type of situation is exactly why we started doing this, and it has saved our butts before.

The customer will not be mollified! We must stain it and stain it now or she is not paying!

Again, the boss really hates to be pushed and he counters with, “If you don’t pay, we’ll exercise our lien rights.” We simply file a single piece of paper with the courthouse and then the lien is on file. Then, both sides have thirty days to come to an agreement.

Well, the customer stains the seat, and the installer collects the balance when he is done. The project is complete, and the customer never has to deal with the boss again. Or so I think.

Then, we receive the Better Business Bureau complaint this morning. No dispute on the price, no dispute on the product, no real dispute at all. The wife is just unhappy with the boss and wants an apology.

IT’S BEEN THREE MONTHS since the incident! Three months and they are still stewing? I treated them extremely well, and the installer treated them above and beyond, as well. But because my boss stood up for himself and told your husband to knock it off, we owe you an apology?

My answer to the BBB is to give them the entire scenario. I state that this job has been complete for three whole months now, and there is no dispute over the product. The account has been paid, and I also attach the original contract with the customer’s signature next to the starred No-Stain clause. I detail the abuse, and the boss’s response, backed by me and a fellow installer as witnesses.

Now, this lady claims she is going to go all over the Internet to tarnish our name. So now we’re building a case of libel against them. All this over a boss refusing to take abuse.