Customer service agents have a difficult job. Could you imagine dealing with terrible people and their complaints all day? This isn't to say that there aren't some lovely people out there, but the job can be emotionally taxing... especially when people call in to complain about ridiculous things.
After Redditor Jing_Yuam asked the online community, Customer service people of reddit, what's the dumbest thing a customer has gone out of their way to complain about?" customer service workers weighed in. We feel for them.
"Many years back..."
Many years back, worked for a store chain which sells all products related and connected to Nature. Among them, the Himalayan salt stone lamp. It's a stone made of salt that encases an electrical bulb. It is supposed to help for regulating ions in your home/office.
A customer called us to complain that their stone disappeared at home, and asked for a refund. As open mind as I can be, I however tried to understand what she meant exactly by "disappeared".
Story is, customer removed the stone from the bulb and put it in her dish-washer to clean it...
I had to be super nice with her to make her realizing that salt dissolves in water.. Specially in hot water.. Without her getting upset and getting offended... It was a lonely moment.
"A guy asked..."
A guy asked if I was the manager.
"Can I help you with something?"
Angrily: "Yeah, three Saturdays in row now I come down here at 4:30, and every f******' Saturday you close at 4."
"Uh...yeah. We close at 4."
"F*** you."
At least he left then. The worst ones don't leave. They just keep going.
"I work for..."
I work for a popular roadside assistance company and had a guy call in wanting to get roadside assistance for his daughter who was stranded. His daughter was not on his membership and there was no room to add her because he already had his wife added. So I suggested he remove his wife for now and add his daughter so she can get roadside assistance and then switch them back afterwards. Apparently this was the most outrageous suggestion. He went and told my supervisor that I was "making him choose his daughter over his wife and no father should have to make that kind of decision."
"She actually got an attitude with me..."
I was working at OfficeMax during back to school season. This woman comes up to my register with a few things and I start scanning it in. She notices the one item rang up less than she was expecting. She actually got an attitude with me because we hadn't had a chance to print new shelf tags for that aisle yet. I told her I would wait if she wanted to get more. She declined and continued complaining to me about it. I said "well I can override the price to what the shelf label said." I realize now that I was being a bit of a b!tch by saying that. She politely declined that as well, paid with her card, and rushed out the door with her things.
"Had a woman..."
Had a woman call me racist because I asked her if she needed utensils for her take-out.
"Had a lady..."
Had a lady call me racist because she came in to buy glasses, and I asked if she has been to our store before or if she has her prescription with her. She even told her young daughter to watch out for people like me... Uhhh...
"I could tell they were together..."
I guess this wasn't really an official complaint but it was pretty dumb. I was running register at the grocery store and this couple got in my line. I could tell they were together because they were talking and interacting with one another. However they had two different baskets and left a small gap between their respective items without placing down the divider. So I wasn't sure if they were paying for everything all together or separately. I say the generic things, hi, how are you, did you find everything okay, etc and then politely asked, "together or separate?" The lady gave me a death glare and said "why on earth does it matter?" I gave her a blank stare and slowly said "so.... that I know whether to keep ringing you up...or cash out the order...." All I can think is they must have been having some relationship problems because she jumped right to that, haha.
"Go there then."
It's always "x has it cheaper"
Go there then. You are hurting literally nobody's feelings.
"So I paged..."
Worked in an electronics store to put myself through college. I worked in the computer department, but was sitting at the loss prevention desk up front to cover while the LP supervisor took a quick lunch break. An old lady comes in, asks where the dairy section is, and help finding the milk. I told her, kindly, that we weren't in a grocery store. She looks confused and leaves. A couple of minutes later her (presumably) son walks in, and starts chewing my @ss because I wouldn't help her find the milk. When he was done bItching, I slowly waved my arm across the store and asked him which one of those aisles looks like they might have groceries in them. He stares for a good few seconds, and then starts b!tching me out saying that I'm an @sshole, and he wants to see a manager.
So I paged the loss prevention supervisor up to the front. The LP supervisor invited the guy to never come back to the store.
"A woman came into the lingerie store..."
A woman came into the lingerie store I was working at asking if we sold white waffle robes. We didn't, but I had seen some in passing at another store in the mall, and suggested she check there. Shortly after, she returned to my store and yelled in my face that the other store didn't have the kind of waffle robe she wanted. Sorry a store I don't work at doesn't have the right type of robe, yeesh!
"Many of our bookings..."
Travel agent here. Many of our bookings are for the cruise lines. Customer complained about how whales did not jump out of the water for them at sunset.
"They literally complained..."
I worked at a mid-high end furniture store, and had a customer complain that their glass top outdoor table had small puddles of water on it after it rained. They literally complained that their outdoor table got wet in the rain. Honorary mention: the customer who was incensed that we would not honor a warranty claim for the hole in his umbrella fabric, while fully understanding and repeatedly explaining that the hole was caused by a mouse making a nest while it was stored in the garage over the winter, but this umbrella was brand new, and his old umbrella he had for 20 years never had a mouse nest.
"We would often get young kids..."
I worked at a Starbucks that had a middle school nearby. We would often get young kids buying Frappuccinos on their way home from school. We had one kid's Mom call us up one evening saying there was a live spider midway through his drink. Ummmm, what? The drink goes from rapid speed blender straight to a previously inverted cup from a stack of cups... I'm not sure where a spider would come in during that process.
"This was at a restaurant..."
"The Steak was dry"
This was at a restaurant where you could order your steak on a hot stone to cook it yourself.
"I work at a call center..."
I work at a call center for health insurance. Had an elderly woman call about a claim that she had. The total charge from the provider was maybe $200 or so. The patient responsibility (the amount she actually owed) was $0.
She got REALLY mad at me that it was $200 in the first place even after I explained that she didn't have to pay anything. That WE paid for it.
"She came back a couple hours later..."
Was a cashier at the zoo for a bit after high school. My second day there a woman, easily identified as a Karen, came in and asked me where the lost and found was so she could find her phone.
Me and my fellow cashier did not know the answer and were busy trying to sort out the long line, so we just kind of looked at her and said sorry we can't help you.
She got pissed at us and stormed off before we could explain we were new and that we could find someone else to help her.
She came back a couple hours later in a huff saying "Just so you know, the lost in found is right there!" before pointing in the wrong direction of where it was located.
You'd think she could have asked the thousands of easily identified employees or talk to the information desk that was 10 feet from us but I guess that's too much to ask.
"He goes on to berate me..."
Just got off a call where the person calling works for the company I work for, different departments, and was attempting to help a customer. He goes on to berate me in front of the customer about how we are useless and our service isn't built for the elderly. Like my dude we work for the same company. I can't do anything about it any more than you can do anything about it.
"On the side of the property..."
Many years ago I worked at a beach resort. On the side of the property was a naturally-occuring stream that emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. It was typically a small stream with dark colored water but it would get maybe four feet wide and a couple of feet deep when it rained really hard. Anyway, the point is that this stream was there long before people, resorts, and condos were there. All us humans did was put a culvert around it.
I cant tell you how many people would come to the front desk to complain about the nasty sewage that is dumping into the Gulf. We would explain it's just a natural stream but they didnt listen. They wanted us to "do something" about it like we could just re-route or put a cork in it. The most hilarious thing was occasionally somebody would be out there with a shovel trying to direct the flow away from the beach in front of the resort. They were probably pretty surprised to find all their hard work erased by the next tide.
"I work at a hotel..."
I work at a hotel and we once received a complaint from a guest that the water levels in our toilet were too high because his balls were getting wet.
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