Memorable Customers You’ve Had

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

I know some people work in customer service or as clerks here. Or at least some like me have in the past. So who are some of your memorable customers?

Currently I have a side hustle in selling stuff online. I have this one regular customer who always sends me offers that are low, but not quite low enough to say no to. We usually haggle a little before I sell to him. The thing is he has a handle of a certain Star Trek character. It makes me imagine William Shatner going around to thrift stores and low balling owners until he gets a good deal.

As for customers I’ve had in person my first ever job was as a clerk. One that sticks out is this guy who would always come in drunk/possibly high and have the clerks do his shopping for him. He was a pretty mean drunk. Not violent or anything more just rude.

Also, not one I remember seeing more than once but I distinctly remember some guy coming in with his friend and asking if we had fresh whole carrots. I worked at a Brooks Pharmacy (pretty much the exact same thing as CVS) so needless to say we didn’t have any fresh produce. Even his friend goofed on him and said something like, “What are you on drugs?”

[Deleted]

The one that said “Bet you wish you were outside enjoying the sun instead of being stuck behind this till all day haha”

(That happens to me every time it’s sunny outside. )

[arrogantmodel]

Here, I'll throw out a nice one:

Working as a host/server in a casino, there was an older couple who came in maybe once every week or two weeks. We would bullshit if there was a wait or something, just general chit chat.

While working there, my grandpap passed away, so I was out for a few days. I guess they had come in and asked where I was, since they joked that I must never go home since they always saw me. And I guess one of my friends told them my grandpap died.

So I come back to work, and they come in a few days later. They're in a booth, and they see me and flag me down. They tell me how sorry they are for my loss, and they give me a card. They had lit a candle and had their church pray for my family and grandpap.

Just a really super nice gesture. I was treated like shit and verbally abused by 98.5% of those drunk degenerate gambling assholes, but the nice ones were really awesome, and they really touched my heart with that.

[Natural Born Farmer]

The guy who wanted to return two garbage bags full of ruined Abercrombie clothes without tags or a receipt because they “didn’t hold up like I think they should have”, then spent several minutes telling me how he was going to have me fired because I would not give him new merchandise in exchange for the destroyed clothes I had no method of entering into the system. A couple days before Christmas.

Man retail was just a blast. Really gave me a lot of faith in people.

[edgestar]

One Memorial Day, the sun was glaring on my register. I had to look a few times, to make sure I was giving the right change, when she blurted out that I was slow and stupid. I was choked up, because I was embarrassed. The guys behind her, looked like he wanted to die, right there, and the lady after him, was trying to calm me down.

I told the manager, that I was never going to take that kind of behavior, again. In that time, I've only had to tell one person not to talk to me, the way they were.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

So, I work as a deli clerk in a supermarket, and we serve a small spread for breakfast in the morning. It's basically biscuits, grits, eggs, bacon and sausage. One day, a couple walks in with their baby on the woman's arm in a carrier. The woman orders something, I forget what, and seems pleasant enough. As she starts to walk away, the man orders a bacon biscuit. This, apparently, was a mistake, because she immediately f***ing FLIPS her shit, shouting at him in the middle of the store. I don't know whether or not to make the dude his order because I'm worried she might swing at ME. Eventually she stomps away and I give the guy his biscuit. A couple of coworkers talk about how odd it was and I go out to our cafe area where you can see the couple getting into their car through the window. And after they both get in, the car starts shaking, and the man walks back in a minute or so later. Apparently, after he got into the car, his wife(or whatever) had slapped the biscuit out of his hand and stomped it into the floorboard of the car, and they almost got the cops called on them for a domestic incident. Weirdest damn 10 minutes or so of my entire time in that job.

[DiBiase is Good]

These are from when I worked in a Cinema (mostly as a Manager).

One woman who complained that to me she had to queue for a long time when she came up to see a Harry Potter film. I explained that it was one of the biggest films ever, surely it’s obvious that the cinema would be busy. As it was around Christmas time, I asked if she expected to queue if she went to a shop somewhere this time of year, she replied “of course, it’s their busiest time of the year”, so when I said “it’s the same thing then when a Cinema has a massive film on release”. She replied “that’s completely different and you know it”. I just laughed at her and walked away.

Or another woman who complained that I had refused her 13 year old son entry to a 15 rated film. She started saying that the whole ratings system was flawed and wanted to take her complaint further, so she asked “who do I complain to about children not being allowed to see these films?” I replied “The Prime Minister, 10. Downing Street, London”. She called me a smug bastard and she wouldn’t have it that it was the law, not a Cinema policy.

A bit of a cheat this as it should really be in one of those “famous people you’ve served” threads but a really memorable customer for me was Michelle Pfeiffer. You try looking into the eyes of a famous person you did rude things over when you were a teenager.

[Johnny B. Decent]

Had some crackheads before. Very not subtle about trying to get drugs.

[FinalGwen]

When working at the Harry Potter tour, a woman came to my till with a Hufflepuff t-shirt, and asked "Do you think this is a masculine enough shade of yellow for my husband? The other ones are all lemon yellow, and that's too feminine. Is this masculine enough?"
I stand there for a moment, completely befuddled by the idea that yellow is now a gendered colour, and also that of all the people she could have asked this question to, she'd picked me, with my very obvious winged eyeliner and gold/purple eyeshadow. I end up by simply saying "I'm really not the person to ask, but all our shirts are designed to be unisex", and tried to keep it together until she was out of sight.

On the other end of the spectrum, once spent about 15 minutes on a quiet morning guiding a family through all the different wands from the series. The father was blind, and so the chance to hold the wands was his first chance to find out what each character carried. I told them the trivia for each one, found out they were visiting from the States and had a nice chat about their time in England, and it was quite a lovely visit. They ended up sending some positive feedback to the tour too, which was nice.

[Porky's Butthole]

I've worked at two different inbound call centers. One for Dish and one for a mail order pharmacy. And lemme tell ya..

-I've been chewed out because DirecTV's prices went up. You heard me.

-I had a conversation with someone who was telling me "Well, (x television provider) told me they'll give me 200 channels and internet for $59.99." to which I replied ".....then why are you calling me?"

-At the pharmacy, I had a sweet older lady call to refill a Rx which, after looking into it, had already been shipped. So, as a courtesy, I checked the tracking info for her and said to her "Ma'am...go check your mailbox. The USPS tracking shows that it was delivered at 4:32pm today." (it was 4:45pm) She went to her mailbox and it was there. Then she said the funniest damned thing I've heard since working there "Boy, I feel like a fart in a mitten."

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Sept 4, 2019 21:32:42 GMT -5 DiBiase is Good said:

These are from when I worked in a Cinema (mostly as a Manager).

One woman who complained that to me she had to queue for a long time when she came up to see a Harry Potter film. I explained that it was one of the biggest films ever, surely it’s obvious that the cinema would be busy. As it was around Christmas time, I asked if she expected to queue if she went to a shop somewhere this time of year, she replied “of course, it’s their busiest time of the year”, so when I said “it’s the same thing then when a Cinema has a massive film on release”. She replied “that’s completely different and you know it”. I just laughed at her and walked away.

Or another woman who complained that I had refused her 13 year old son entry to a 15 rated film. She started saying that the whole ratings system was flawed and wanted to take her complaint further, so she asked “who do I complain to about children not being allowed to see these films?” I replied “The Prime Minister, 10. Downing Street, London”. She called me a smug bastard and she wouldn’t have it that it was the law, not a Cinema policy.

A bit of a cheat this as it should really be in one of those “famous people you’ve served” threads but a really memorable customer for me was Michelle Pfeiffer. You try looking into the eyes of a famous person you did rude things over when you were a teenager.

I didn’t realize it was so strict over in the UK. Can young teens really not see a movie rated 15 even when they are accompanied by a parent?

In the US it seems to be all about being accompanied by an adult. My dad took me to all kinds of movies I was not age appropriate for starting with Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992. I was 5. Worst that ever happened was he got disapproving looks from the staff.

[Deleted]

Ricki Raxxx when I worked at Target 11 years ago.

In case you didn't put it together, she's a pornstar with huge fake titties. She has a tattoo of two demon ladies being intimate with each other that I recognized from research for some of my school projects.

[DiBiase is Good]

Sept 4, 2019 23:09:38 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

Sept 4, 2019 21:32:42 GMT -5 DiBiase is Good said:

These are from when I worked in a Cinema (mostly as a Manager).

One woman who complained that to me she had to queue for a long time when she came up to see a Harry Potter film. I explained that it was one of the biggest films ever, surely it’s obvious that the cinema would be busy. As it was around Christmas time, I asked if she expected to queue if she went to a shop somewhere this time of year, she replied “of course, it’s their busiest time of the year”, so when I said “it’s the same thing then when a Cinema has a massive film on release”. She replied “that’s completely different and you know it”. I just laughed at her and walked away.

Or another woman who complained that I had refused her 13 year old son entry to a 15 rated film. She started saying that the whole ratings system was flawed and wanted to take her complaint further, so she asked “who do I complain to about children not being allowed to see these films?” I replied “The Prime Minister, 10. Downing Street, London”. She called me a smug bastard and she wouldn’t have it that it was the law, not a Cinema policy.

A bit of a cheat this as it should really be in one of those “famous people you’ve served” threads but a really memorable customer for me was Michelle Pfeiffer. You try looking into the eyes of a famous person you did rude things over when you were a teenager.

I didn’t realize it was so strict over in the UK. Can young teens really not see a movie rated 15 even when they are accompanied by a parent?

In the US it seems to be all about being accompanied by an adult. My dad took me to all kinds of movies I was not age appropriate for starting with Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992. I was 5. Worst that ever happened was he got disapproving looks from the staff.

Nope. 15 means no one under the age of 15, regardless of who they’re with.
There used to be a 12 rating in cinemas which meant no one under the age of 12 at all. But it was changed to a 12A, which basically means that you can take kids of any age in as long as they’re with an adult. But it’s the choice of the adult to take their kid into a film that might have a few moments that aren’t suitable for younger kids. So for example, they see a schlong on the screen, they can’t complain, they chose to take their kid in even though it was clearly warned that it contained nudity.

[SmashTV]

Working in a Government call centre I’ve had my fair share. I always knew I’d remember my first call, but not for the reasons I expected. She was a slightly elderly lady complaining about some dental treatment she’d had, but then got a tad theatrical...

‘And my teeth are ruined. RUINED, I tell you! Oh, (my name), I was young once like you (I was 37 at the time)! Long blonde hair, a dazzling smile and now I’m destroyed. I can’t leave the house looking like this. Why? WHHHYYY? Life can be so cruel!’

Even my more experienced colleague sitting with me - who I knew from a previous job - gave me a ‘What the hell?’ look. She’s never called back, and I’ve had many ‘interesting’ calls since, but I’ve never forgotten that first call...

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

I once had two girls French kiss me when I worked at a winery...🍷

[Alexander The So-so]

Not a customer, per se, but there was a deeply memorable encounter I had when I worked in retail.

Four years ago, I was working as the HR Coordinator for a retail company which was opening a new store in my city (it’s the same Japanese clothing retail company I’ve mentioned in other threads, a.k.a the worst job of my life).

One day, they send me out to man the booth at a nearby jobs fair, to help recruit mostly young people looking for a part-time job onto the sales associate team. Describing the company, answering questions, telling how to apply, etc. Pretty basic.

It was here where I met the most cartoonishly douchey, mean-spirited, bitter man I have ever had the displeasure of seeing face-to-face. He was a middle-aged Woody Allen-looking guy with dark hair, olive skin, glasses, and an expensive-looking business suit. He walks up to our job fair booth and asks about our company. He’s clearly not our target demographic, but I decided to just go ahead and explain what we were: a retail company looking for sales associates.

And from there, he just went off, cutting a mean-spirited promo completely shitting on the jobs we were offering. “Oh, so you’re basically hiring high school dropouts, paying the same as working for McDonald’s!? I’ll bet you don’t even offer benefits!!” And he further goes on to say he can’t live off of what we would be paying, because he has a million-dollar condo that he has to pay the mortgage for, and bragged about how when he was a lawyer, he was making hundreds of dollars an hour and was way above what we were offering. I’m just doing my best to nod and stay quiet throughout all of this, but nothing would’ve made me happier than to shout at him right there in public “well gee, hot shot, if you’re such high-powered rich hot shit, what the hell are you doing at this job fair handing out your resume!?”

And this wasn’t just a one time thing; he kept coming back to us throughout the fair to lay more verbal abuse on us after walking around looking at other booths. And there’d be times when I was talking to another person, namely the type of young part-time job looker we were there to recruit, and he’d come up, butt into the conversation, and talk about how low-class and beneath him our jobs were. It’s like this dude couldn’t let it the hell go.

The icing on the cake: at the end of the fair before we leave, and after all the hateful, arrogant venom he had spewed against me, he STILL came up to me toward the end to give me his resume, telling me that we should call him if any jobs in our company’s C-suite opened up.

The cherry on top: near the top of his resume were his skills lists. Among the things he had listed were “great people skills.”

I can only remember the guy’s first name, part of his last name, and general appearance, but sometimes I wish I could find this guy on LinkedIn so I could troll him or something (don’t worry, I’m not actually going to). I was looking on LinkedIn recently and found a guy who may be him, but I’m not 100% positive; if it is him, he’s a managing director at a hot-shot mergers and acquisitions firm now. Under his pretentious resume, I wish I could also announce to the world “this is the petty, miserable, hateful douchebag who wasted time on a job search trashing the company he went on to apply for and making fun of working-class service jobs.”

[The Ichi]

Sept 4, 2019 18:20:12 GMT -5 @negan said:

The one that said “Bet you wish you were outside enjoying the sun instead of being stuck behind this till all day haha”

(That happens to me every time it’s sunny outside. )

DO YOU WANT TO SEE MY I.D

[A Platypus Rave]

answer the phone then they just yelled "f*** YOU!" at me and hung up.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I worked in a home insurance call centre, which meant I wasn't allowed to hang up on any customers. Someone rang in on behalf of her sister. This woman was old as shit, and was calling in on behalf of her sister, who was apparently born 15 years before 'old as shit.'

Anyway it was a really simple call to sort out, but when we were done I had to just let her keep talking to me until she decided to hang up.

And of course, she is old as shit, and has nobody to talk to. So I get to hear about how she has to help her aged sister use the toilet and she misses the seat quite regularly. Thanks grandma!

These days I'd be much more likely to find that less shocking to hear (my life has been... difficult since then) but at the time this was a bit of a bolt from nowhere for some university graduate just trying to keep the damn lights on...

[government mule]

I run a Bookies, and could write a novel about my experiences in the betting shops over the past 14 years.

Just this past week I've had my bandit screen shattered by an angry homeless man under the influence because I wouldn't let him into the toilet so that he could, in his own words, 'fix up', and also had to assist police with inquiries about an 80+ year old man who keeps shitting into a takeaway box and leaving it on my shop doorstep with words cut out of newspapers telling me that I am the spawn of Satan.