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[Jubenhimer]

I work at Arby's. I was hired at a nearby store in early April and so far, I've mainly worked as Drive-Thru cashier. Being in a direct, consumer facing position, I of course came across some... Colorful individuals. Most are decent enough people, some were weird and bizarre, and others were either fat, stupid, or angry, or any combination of those three. For any of those un-fortunate enough to have worked in retail or food service before, what were some of the worst customers you ever encountered, (without giving out real names obviously)?

So far, the worst customer me and my co-workers had to deal with happened rather recently. Early in the day, a lady came by and ordered 5 Greek Gyros. It's not uncommon for for people to start ordering this much food at our Arby's (which is annoying because our store is always understaffed). But that wasn't the bad part. Our manager at that time was in the back making the sandwiches, and we gave them out like nothing unusual. A few hours later, that same lady calls us back, and she complained that her gyros were "Too spicy". While Arby's does have Spicy Greek Gyros, this lady didn't order any spicy ones, and the manager was the one making the sandwiches, so she knows what she put on them.

The manager then said she could come by again and would sort this whole issue out. About an hour later, Somebody comes through drive-thru, I say the usual line "Thank you for choosing Arby's, you can order when ready". I then hear a lady asking to speak to the manager that made her "dog food". I knew exactly who that was. So I called the manager in and she tried to reason with the lady, saying she could pull forward and she'll fix everything up.

This lady however, spent nearly 10 minutes ranting about how her food was spicy and that the manager shouldn't be making her sandwiches anymore. Around this time our other manager just came in, and we unfortunately had to drag him into this whole mess. The angry Gyro lady eventually pulls up, again ranting about her food, and the second manager was kind enough to offer a full refund for all five Gyros. That should've been the end of it, but as the lady was leaving, she called our female manager a Bitch and yelled "Go back to Africa!" which was bad enough, but was also dumb, because that manager wasn't even from Africa, she was Hattian. And the biggest irony, was that the lady who yelled this, was black herself.

So, yeah, now I know what it was like to meet a real life Karren.

 

[kretos]

just yelling no fighting? lame

 

[teezzy]

I worked at Little Caesars growing up and some dude cussed me out because one slice of his Supreme Pizza (PEPPERONI, ITALIAN SAUSAGE, GREEN PEPPERS, MUSHROOMS AND ONIONS) didn't have any peppers on it.

Managed a Wing Stop for a while, some dude tried to jump over the counter and attack me because I charged him for ranch

Had one of my employees assaulted by a dude who literally chucked all his food at him because it wasn't "fried hard" enough... despite being the standard well-done timing we usually used

Fun stuff

 

[DOW]

I managed a smoothie/nutrition shop many years ago. As two customers walked in (they happened to be black) I was coming out of the back. As I’m coming through the back room door I have a little nose hair itch so I reach up and kind of rub my nose with my thumb. It was more of a downward swipe

The lady flips out and starts yelling calling me a racist because I saw her and started “picking my nose to put boogers in her smoothie”.

 

[INC]

I feel for anyone working in this industry, I really do, I've seen people snap their fingers at waiters, and speak to them like utter shit

I'd never shout or kick off at the help in a restaurant, plus next time you go back, you know ya food is gonna be contaminated with god knows what! They're doing a shit job, for little pay, im not gonna make their day any shitter, by being a cunt for no reason

 

[Pol Pot]

Still a mystery as to why there is currently a labor shortage in this industry, however.
Very mysterious, indeed.

 

[p_xavier]

Fat loud Americans

 

[teezzy]

Still a mystery as to why there is currently a labor shortage in this industry, however.
Very mysterious, indeed.

I'm shocked we dont have robots who can poop out McChickens yet

 

[Pol Pot]

You fucking know that the first store that is entirely automated ends up a pile of broken robots in about 12 hours.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

Usually the worst customers are fat.

 

[teezzy]

You fucking know that the first store that is entirely automated ends up a pile of broken robots in about 12 hours.

hahaha

"Sorry our McFlurry robot is broken"

 

[Woggleman]

I worked customer service at a grocery store back in the day and if I stayed there another week I think I would have assaulted somebody. I had people coming in with coupons that expired five years ago throwing a fit because he couldn't accept them.

 

[synchronicity]

Some people are sad. Eating Arby's (or any other junk food) doesn't help.

The best you can do is be kind and smile at the miserable. No need to add to their suffering. They already know how unhappy they are and often just want to drag others into their pit of despair.

 

[EverythingsOverrated]

Middle aged white women. Hands down, not even close.

 

[dr_octagon]

customer: can i get a discount on item?
me: no

customer at till: i have been told you would provide a discount.

manager to me: did you offer discount?
me: no

 

[haxan7]

I feel sorry for the Gyro woman for being such a sack of shit. Imagine that being your life.

 

[nush]

The regular customers, the shouty ones make a one and done performance. The regulars build up a sense of entitlement.

 

[KiNeMz]

What kind of food is in Arby's? I like gyros.

 

[dr_octagon]

me: if people would please like to come over to till 3, we're opening this til now

customers: nobody moves

(me inside: move you fucking cunts, you always complain about waiting and slow service, the fuck you doing?)

me: for those waiting to be served, if you would like to come over to till 3, thanks

customers: moving like a snail on valium through molasses

 

[Deleted member 820760]

You fucking know that the first store that is entirely automated ends up a pile of broken robots in about 12 hours.

TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE!!! BITCH.

 

[AzullAbaddon]

My first job was at a Christian bookstore. We had a shoplifting problem. One specific family would steal cd's from the blockbuster music nearby and try to return them to us. They'd also steal from the demo listening stations and try to return only the disc with no case..

 

[dr_octagon]

customer call: this pizza had bugs
supervisor: apologies, we'll make a fresh one
customer: yeah it was uh like black marks
supervisor: we use fresh ingredients and no other complaints, the oven would kill anything. we can make you a new pizza now
customers: yeah we want refund pls
supervisor: did you bring the pizza back?
customer: nahh

 

[godhandiscen]

Mentally disabled people were the most challenging customers I ever dealt with during my short stint as a fast food employee.

When I was in college, I had to work at a Jack In The Box for 3 months because my ex-wife went for a cosmetic dental procedure, signed papers without reading and got us a bill worth $4.5k.
My ex-wife, the queen, was failing her women studies classes at the private party school she was attending, and she couldn’t afford to take on extra work hours to help me pay for the bill. I was very poor at the time so taking a second job was the only way we were paying for that bill which kept accruing interest that was already weighting over me on top of the school loans.

Working at a fast food place was one of the most humbling experiences in my life. I met tons of people with very different backgrounds and life aspirations that truly gave me a perspective of how lucky I was to be able to attend college.

Anyway, on difficult customers. One day, two ladies entered the restaurant with a group of mentally disabled people. They were difficult to other customers, and made a complete mess half of the tables. That day I thought I was lucky to not have to clean the tables but I was in bathroom duty. When I went to inspect the bathroom, I legitimately considered quitting and falling behind on the bill payments. One of the kids had puked and pissed all over the floor. It took me an hour or longer to clean the mess while dying inside praying this wasn’t going to be my life forever.

I quit a month or so after once I was able to pay the bill. I even made extra money which I stupidly used to buy an HDTV instead of investing it; I guess I was retarded too.

 

[nush]

Customer: Places order in barely intelligible English
Me: Gets order wrong
Customer: That's wrong, I think you need more training.
Me: *Thinks* I think you need more English language lessons

 

[dr_octagon]

some of the staff were more difficult than customers. i have an appreciation for the work, i will always be patient, knowing what happens behind the scenes. I've never seen someone mess up or deliberately been difficult with customers.

basic respect and manners should be the standard for all workers. the idea that it's low wage or seen as simple work should make zero difference. act like a human and understand other humans are working there, not servants.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I never worked in a fast food joint, but doing a 180 and the pizza delivery guy being weird here's my story. This was like 1993 at my parents house.

1. Ordered pizza

2. Pizza had totally wrong toppings. So it was obvious he dropped off someone else's order.

3. We call them and they say they'll bring a new pizza

4. We open the door (forget if it was the same driver or not) and instead of giving us the pizza, he just walks in, makes a b-line to the kitchen which is in plain view straight ahead from the front door, looks at the wrong pizza we still had on the dining room table, gives us the new pizza and walks right out without a word.

My parents have a giant house (still there), we've ordered from them a ton of times, the pizza shop is a 3 min drive away, first time we ever called with an order issue. We arent trying to rip the store off on a $12 pizza.

Assholes.

I'm surprised he didnt take back the wrong pizza. He could had taken it back if he wanted to. I remember it being gross with ton of green peppers.

 

[Quasicat]

I used to work a summer job for Kona Ice. I loved working it, but the terrible parents that would haul off and smack their kids for no reason. We are out in public, the kid asks for a Kona Ice, Dad hits the kid and promises much worse when they get home.

Then you get the punks who say, “You’re charging $4 for a cup of ice and sugar water?” My response, “well, you could just go someplace else.” They would usually laugh because I gave them an unexpected response, and buy one anyway.

 

[Pol Pot]

TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE!!! BITCH.

 

[Kev Kev]

Old people are usually the worst customers in any of those situations

 

[EverydayBeast]

Sadly those events take place in the food business, I criticize people who tip only a dollar or don’t tip at all.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

I work in logistics. One of my clients is a petulant child. I'm working on building a harassment complaint to submit to his company.

-Disputes charges on every order.
- CCs my vice president, manager and director in every email when he doesn't get his way
- Gets pissy when he has unrealistic expectations on shipping hazmat

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

Old people are usually the worst

 

[Quasicat]

In high school/early college I worked at an Alco (which was like a small Kmart in rural communities) and this guy bought a couple of items and decided to write a check. The checks had My Little Pony characters on it; after a few minutes, he starts getting mad at me because of my reaction to his checks. He kept saying that they were his wife’s checks, but his name was clearly the only one on there.

Frankly, I didn’t care whose they were, since I was just trying not to watch the clock during the last hour of my shift.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

He kept saying that they were his wife’s checks, but his name was clearly the only one on there.

lmao this lyin ass

 

[420bits]

25 years or so in IT-support / Sales / Operations, I've seen some shit.
I'm 41 years old, I grew up in the sweetspot of learning new tech, been curious since day 1.
When I was 16-17 and worked at an LAN-Café I thought "hey, in like, 5-10 years most people would know what a startmenu is, or a powerbutton or the very basics or right or leftclick.
It's safe to say I know better today, I expect nothing from humans unless its shitty behavior, that one never fails.


The most annoying ones
All the ones who lie when you ask if they did X or Y. If you don't know the answer, fucking say you don't know, its not big deal.
For some reason everyone is afraid of being bad at handling a computer and I think its tied to shame.
The shame of knowing that you should've learned the basics about computers the past 30 or so years but you haven't.

I have zero interest in cars, I don't know anything about how to fix a car, I wouldn't dream of trying to do so myself. I would bring it to someone who could and when they asks me what's wrong with it I would explain it best I could. If I got a question I wouldn't understand I would say I didn't know.
Zero shame it not knowing everything but I know that there is an engine in a car, it has doors, pedals, chassi and so on. After 30 years or so there is very few excuses left for NOT being able to operate the very basics of a computer.
Turning it on, off, knowing the difference between windows and a program or the computer and a monitor, left and rightclick. Menus. Simple stuff! But i learned a long time ago that we will never see that day.

There is no "oh, that must have been the computer then who didn't register reboot, ofc you're not at fault stuff like this happens aaaaaaall the time", that's me being a professional and not calling you out for being a lying piece of shit and because it would just take more time and i rather spend it on someone else

Worst ones.
Everyone who is entitled to something in their own fucked up head or by proxy.
Worked in IT-support both retail and inhouse and the amount of people who decide they either want something or deserve something is mindblowing.
So, they either yell or behave in some other way, but they are still the same - They have been so wronged or been such a good customer that they want something out of it. Most of the times it doesn't matter what "it" is, but they still want it.

Oh, a meteorite crashed into the postaloffice and wrecked your PC? Well, we will build another one and ship it tomorrow!
Oh, not good enough? You want a better PC than you bought for your trouble? no, can't do that.
No, i can't give you a monitor for 1500 dollars either.
I can't really give you anything, it sucks that it happens, but it's not like we launched the meteor is it?
Yes, you can talk to the manager about how bad customer service is.
-

Yes, we can see when your account was created, 10 years ago.
yeah you could say that's loyal (or not, doesn't really mean anything)
give you something extra on your next order? not sure what that would be
An xbox 360? Yeah no, you have spent like 500 dollars per year and about 5 grand in total. You do know that when we sell a tv for 1000 dollars, the company doesn't actually make 1000 dollars right? Your total amount of sales is total is probably around 2-300 dollars to the company if we are lucky.
Yeah, you could call that cheap but I can't give you one and my manager wouldn't either. This is like you buying a house and after living there a few years you expect the same company that built it to give you a 2door garage or a bigass pool for free.
Still, would be nice with something...

Oh and the proxy-entitelers? The ones who start with "hi, my son / husband / cousin / other is a IT / computer /network + wizard / guru / architect / engineer / other fancy title."
Ok, do you have them there? No? And you don't know what they did either? Because if you're the one calling I don't see how this is relevant...


Best ones.
The short answer is the ones who say thanks and actually mean it at the end.
The obvious ones are the ones who just got their shit in order, they got all the numbers and answers ready to go but they let you do your stuff in your way.
Also, the ones who don't got their shit together but they are also open about it.


Some of my most memorable ones.

My first call ever - was a lady with obvious network and mental problems. She had native americans in her computer and "they" were listening to her, not sure if it was the natives or some other they but she was NUTS.

The annoying one - Random guy with a blackbelt with golddragons in Excel. This is the kind of guy who had terabytes of data in exceldocs and even looking at one of his formulas was like staring into a black hole.
This fucking guy had a spreadsheet (DUUH!) with all the agents in the helpdesk, what and when he called, how satisfied he was with the answer and so on. But it was worse, for no reason at all he had taken it upon himself to grade the entire servicedesk by coming up with problems to call and see if person X could solve it and how.
Found this out by accident, i was remoting his PC and since he was a frequent caller you memorize things. The second you heard it was him you started to punch in the ID to remote. he accepted but didn't clear his screen and there it was, the rating document.
So I did what any good boy with adminrights would do. I went straight to the fileshare and made a copy of the document from his homefolder and continued to help him out with his problem.
When I was done I sent the file to his boss with my thoughts on it and that was the last time he called in with a fake problem. Fuck that guy!

The Ex-pilots - Old ex-pilots who are not allowed to fly anymore buy FAT ASS computers to run flightsims, I've probably built like 50 "pilot-pcs" during my years in retail and these guys are the best.
Tech-savvy and curious and really REALLY like their hobby. I helped one random guy out over the phone looking for a gaming-PC some 15-years ago. He was willing to spend like 5k dollars on a PC, i got him 99% of what he wanted for 3k. I stayed with that company for another 5 years after that and his entire flight-crew called me up when they needed to replace their pcs.

The old ladies
When the n64 came out I was working in a videostore, rentals and such. We also sold games and when the preorders for Zelda started two 80-some-years-old-ladies came in and preordered a copy each.
Fastforward to launch and the same 2 ladies come in, asked if it had arrived and it had, they were clearly excited about it!
I asked if I should giftwrap it because I obviously assumed it was for their grandchildren. The thought of my grandma playing videogames was
Oh no, this is for us, we are going straight home and has been looking forward for this since the snes one!
They came in from time to time and asked about certain things in the game they couldn't figure out and it was always a blast talking to them.


2 different kinds of pornguys (same videostore)

The sneaker was the guy who came in, spent so much time in the store that you forgot he was there til he came down and lurked around top 10 til the coast was clear.
"i'll take these three movies (often tucked inside the jacket or a case / bag)" and pretty much put them in your hands so you could fetch the VHS's.
Any question regarding customer ID or how many days etc. was always responded in a way that screamed "yes yes, whatever, here have some money just let me go before someone comes in!"

The not so sneaky one
Guy comes in on a Friday afternoon and the store is packed. He walks straight past everyone and right up to the pornsection, grabs 3 movies and walks back down again and stands in line within minutes from he came in.
-Sorry, this one is a buy, can't rent it
"doesn't matter, I'll take it anyway! "
-normally its 3 movies for 3 days and since one was a buy I'm just gonna give you the same deal so you can keep the 2 movies for 3 days.
"nah, it's ok. I'll return them tomorrow.
-Ok sure, but if you want to you can still keep them, it's up to you! Want a bag?
"nah, i got nothing to hide"
Then he just picks up all 3 movies with that massive hand of his and walks out of the store. I see him walk past the store window and then he turns on a dime, comes back in, cuts in line and buys a pornomag said have a nice weekend and walked out again.
When i opened the store the next morning he had already returned the 2 pornorentals. 8 hours + another what i assume was 4 on the one he bought

 

[nush]

I have zero interest in cars, I don't know anything about how to fix a car, I wouldn't dream of trying to do so myself. I would bring it to someone who could and when they asks me what's wrong with it I would explain it best I could. If I got a question I wouldn't understand I would say I didn't know.
Zero shame

Same here. I could not change the headlight bulb on my car (I tried, had the right bulb). So I drove to my regular garage and asked if they could do it for me as I couldn't. He stopped what he was doing, took him a minute to change it out no charge and he didn't look down on me for asking for help. Gave him beer money anyway.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I guess customers expecting first class service in Economy Class. I mean the actual service is great, but you want a cappuccino or Henesey XO, move up another class. So they they bitch about it which I never understood as me as a traveler Im almost embarrassed to ask for a second can of beer, let alone a specialty drink that they know is only for the First Class pax.

 

[nush]

I guess customers expecting first class service in Economy Class. I mean the actual service is great, but you want a cappuccino or Henesey XO, move up another class. So they they bitch about it which I never understood as me as a traveler Im almost embarrassed to ask for a second can of beer, let alone a specialty drink that they know is only for the First Class pax.

Pay vegetable price, want diamond quality.

 

[dr_octagon]

Pay vegetable price, want diamond quality.

the good old cubic zucchini

 

[Nobody_Important]

I worked at a mall while I was in high school and the worst customers that I had on the regular were the people who had no idea what online exclusive meant. People would return shirts and jeans that they had bought online and demand that we give them the correct size despite the item being only available online. So I would have to spend about 10 to 15 minutes trying to explain to someone why I couldn't give them the size only for them to turn around and insult me or just accuse me of being lazy. Even had a few call me scammer and demanding a full refund. All the while the people behind them in line are having to wait longer getting more frustrated so that they can complain to me and be frustrated at me when I finally get done with the chucklehead in front of them.


Honestly now that I think back on it the fact that I worked retail is probably why I have so little faith in humanity.

 

[Susurrus]

Don't really have any stories. Worked as a gas station attendant long time ago and of course there was the occasional asshole, but nothing that really stuck with me. I did work at a Taco Bell in an airport briefly but nothing stuck out there.

That being said, I find it amazing that people are assholes to food handlers. Like, that's the last person I want to piss off.

 

[NahaNago]

Honestly now that I think back on it the fact that I worked retail is probably why I have so little faith in humanity.

Retail will definitely do this to you. Worked as an overnight cashier for awhile. It became kinda sad that I could tell who would steal right when they entered the store.

 

[Nester99]

I just wanted a liter of soda!

 

[TheUsual]

In high school/early college I worked at an Alco (which was like a small Kmart in rural communities) and this guy bought a couple of items and decided to write a check. The checks had My Little Pony characters on it; after a few minutes, he starts getting mad at me because of my reaction to his checks. He kept saying that they were his wife’s checks, but his name was clearly the only one on there.

Frankly, I didn’t care whose they were, since I was just trying not to watch the clock during the last hour of my shift.

Man, I hated people writing checks at one of my cashier positions as I had to call this phone number to verify if it was legit or not. Only one time did the verification come back as saying this will be a bounced check if we accepted. Guy wasn't mad, just left his stuff at the register and walked out.

 

[Deleted member 820760]

Sorry. I meant to quote someone else.

 

[GodofWhimsy]

We used to have this one blonde lady who would come daily to our McDonald's branch just so she could complain about her order in a really condescending kind of way. She was blatantly telling bullshit about what we got wrong and everyone knew it, but the shitty manager would pander to her anyway.

 

[Quasicat]

Man, I hated people writing checks at one of my cashier positions as I had to call this phone number to verify if it was legit or not. Only one time did the verification come back as saying this will be a bounced check if we accepted. Guy wasn't mad, just left his stuff at the register and walked out.

Our system was a lot nicer. You had to put the account and routing number into the register. If it bounced in any of the other Duckwall/Alco stores in the country, it would come back as not accepted. The only real hassle was when we got a new county prosecutor and he required their license ID number on the check; apparently, a lot of people did not bring their licenses in when they shopped.

 

[BadBurger]

I worked in the food service industry throughout high school and college. So about eight years. Mostly as a cook but I waited on tables for a time because, not to brag, I was a good looking young guy in a tourist town. So the 30 or 40 something mom parties would tip out like $50 a time if I let them slap my ass or whatever.

Parties of women are far, far more gross than men. Even the worst behaving gay men I came across as a waiter were nowhere near as bad as a drunk wine mom and her friends. They'd straight up proposition me for sex. I must have had a dozen older women do that, and never once a gay guy.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Parties of women are far, far more gross than men. Even the worst behaving gay men I came across as a waiter were nowhere near as bad as a drunk wine mom and her friends. They'd straight up proposition me for sex. I must have had a dozen older women do that, and never once a gay guy.

I've always heard the same.

Guys have an image like they are all total slobs and pervs. Women are worse.

Guys have to play it cool at strip joints or they'll get their asses kicked in by the bouncer. Yet, every story I've heard about male strip joints, the women go nuts and nobidy cares or does anything about it.

Also, every office building I've worked at the facilities manager says the women's bathrooms are 10x gross. There's trash everywhere and gross adult women acting like jackasses with menstrual products on the ground or trying to flush it down the toilet clogging the bowl. Thats why if you ever work in an office, the women's bathroom is always being cleaned more and has a sign on the door saying a cleaner is in it.

Some reason grown ass adult women cant even responsibly take care of monthly maxi pads or tampons. By the sounds of the janitors and facilities manager, you'd think it was a high school girls bathroom.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

I worked in the food service industry throughout high school and college. So about eight years. Mostly as a cook but I waited on tables for a time because, not to brag, I was a good looking young guy in a tourist town. So the 30 or 40 something mom parties would tip out like $50 a time if I let them slap my ass or whatever.

Parties of women are far, far more gross than men. Even the worst behaving gay men I came across as a waiter were nowhere near as bad as a drunk wine mom and her friends. They'd straight up proposition me for sex. I must have had a dozen older women do that, and never once a gay guy.

Fuckin ChadBurger over here

Did you ever take them up on that proposition? One time a couple fat chicks walked into the gas station I was working at(overnight job so it was like 2 in the morning). One asks if I want to go into the bathroom with her now or visit her after my shift ends. I politely declined, saying I had a girlfriend(I did).

She straight up says "Oh c'mon, all guys say that!".

Like first how many times you asking dudes to fuck you in a bathroom, and second if they all saying that there's probably a reason. Hit the gym Bertha.