Managers Break Down Their Most Difficult Karen-esque Customer Experience

Huff Away....

I loved Karens when I was managing. Being able to say "I am the manager" followed soon by "Sorry, that's company policy" always results in a flustered Karen leaving in a huff and a much relieved crew. netrunui

Gimme the Cheese! 

Happened before I became a manager, but once while I was serving at Steak 'n Shake, customer had a coupon for a burger, fries and a shake for $x.xx, can't remember the price anymore. Anyway, on the coupon it specifically stated that cheese on the burger was $0.39 up charge, although it did have a picture of a burger with cheese on it. Lady THREW A FIT in the dining room that I was treating her unfairly, it was false advertising, etc. etc. I told her I agree it's false advertising with the picture, but the text specifically states the up charge and unfortunately I can't do anything about it.

The lady at the next table over heard everything and literally got up and put $0.50 on the table to cover it and said something to the effect of "I'll pay for your damn cheese if you just shut up." This pissed the cheese lady off even more. My manager obviously sensed the issue and came out. Took the cheese up charge of the bill. Like WTH Karen.woahhhmom8

In the Vacuum.

Work at a vacuum repair shop. People don't pay attention to their vacuum cleaners as much as you'd think lol

I cant tell you how many times someone comes to pick up their vacuum and says "oh this one isn't mine" or "mine didn't have scratches down the side."

I can tell you it is, and it came in with all those scratches on the side.

After the first 2 times it happened to me we started taking pictures of the unit with serial numbers and customer info, send them home with the serial number and require them to bring it back for pick up. Despite the evidence, I've had a lady close to tears because we didn't have her vacuum. Even with the pictures we had of it at drop off, her information, the matching serial numbers.

Sure it's a big conspiracy we just love taking in vacuums and switching all the information around because its fun. People need to pay more attention. myacheivement

Bye Bye Birdie. 

I was the only person on shift, which made me the de facto manager.

Five minutes before closing, a woman comes in and is sooo angry that we don't have any decaf. She demands to speak to the manager. I tell her that's me because I'm the only one here, and the coffee pots are cleaned for the night because it's five minutes to close. No, I'm sorry, I can't make another pot just for her. There's another place around the corner.

She screams at me, tells me she's going to "find a real manager and get my fool butt fired," throws half a cup of cappuccino machine sludge at me, and starts to look like she's gonna jump the counter. I'm holding a hammer under the counter thinking "don't do it, don't do it."

I pick up the phone like I'm going to call the cops. She leaves. I lock the door.

She COMES BACK AND RUNS FACE FIRST INTO THE GLASS DOOR. LIKE A BIRD. wrrrdgrrrl

Price Quote.

Bestest of the best interactions I ever had.

Karen griped about not wanting to pay the price for the services performed on her computer, which was exactly the price quoted when she dropped it off and which she had signed for. She demanded to speak to the service manager. I called him from the back.

Service manager listened to her spiel as to how she should get a lower price because [irrelevant, pea-brained reason]. Service manager made eye contact with me over her shoulder; I did not react, he said no, price quoted was the price that would be charged.

She said that was unacceptable, and she would be complaining to the owner, who was a good friend.

Service manager observed that he was evidently not that good a friend, since that he (me) was the person she was originally speaking with when she asked for the service manager.

Her face was glorious, and made the whole thing worthwhile! garycarroll

That's Just Policy.

I'm not in retail anymore, but I was managing a popular mid range handbag store. Think "typical Karen bag," about $200-400. Anyway, most customers were fantastic. This one woman was this Shrek-looking large redheaded lady who stomped in and demanded that we repair her 20 year old bag for FREE... and if we couldn't do that, she demanded that we exchange this old ratty smelly 20 year old bag for a brand new one for her. Recently policy changes had resulted in new prices for this service, but free repairs had about a 1 year warranty on a new bag... not a 20 year old one.

I tell her as such. I was pretty young to have had the role I did so she, dissatisfied with my answer, asked to speak to a manager. I told her I'm the manager and she began turning as red as her hair. She screamed and yelled about how she'll call corporate and never shop here again!! Well, that sounds like a real loss, losing a customer that is too cheap to repair a 20 year old bag and hasn't bought new from us in just as long.

I give her my best poop eating grin and say "Im so sorry, thats just the policy." She demands corporates number. I give her the customer service line that you can find on Google, unbeknownst to her. She huffs away, forgetting her keys on the counter. She's halfway out and she remembers, turns around, red as a beet, huffs in my smiling face and snatches the keys off the counter. It was hilarious. She came back months later, worked with a different person on the team, and didn't even look my way. arinyblack

Karen -vs- The Marine. 

Wasn't the manager but worked at an REI for a while. One incident comes to mind though, involving an ex marine who worked at our store fixing bikes. He had to run to the back to grab a part and as he was going back to the bike shop on the other side of the store a customer who was already being pretty loud and aggressive with everyone decided to grab my coworker by the arm very aggressively and try spin him around to face him. Marine training kicked in and the next thing I know angry customer man is laying in the remains of a display about 8 feet away.

Of course he jumps up screaming and yelling that he's going sue us and get my coworker fired, and we're all going to jail yada yada yada. Manager comes out, heard the story, looks at the security footage, and tells the customer he is never allowed to grab employees like that, he's welcome to call the cops if he would like because she's willing to press charges against him for assault, and he was banned from our store.

No one at the store was upset about losing that customer, he was kind of notorious for being a jerk and constantly trying to abuse our return policy. Zoomwafflez

Extra Ain't Free! 

I love the ones who seem to think extra food is free. Your not going to go anywhere and get extra meat/queso/ guacamole etc for free.

I had a couple come in got a salad. They asked for extra meat, then queso then even more queso. I told them they would be charged for each scoop. She flipped out, she started cussing at me about how it's wrong she shouldn't have to pay for more then one, why must we be so expensive the other location does not do this. I gave her a big smile and let her know I am the general manager of that said store and help here when needed.

So no you do not get that treatment there sorry extra food is not free. She then started screaming for corporate number and the store owner. I told her I couldn't give out people's private numbers and told her to leave and she is now banned from both stores. She did put in a compliant and guess who sees them and makes return calls? Me, she hung up on me when I called. AnxiousMom4

Starbucks Karen!

I was working at a public pool in my town, and the rules are that you can't bring outside food or drinks into the pool. This rule didn't please Karen, who was very eager to let me know that she had just spent 12 DOLLARS on this coffee from STARBUCKS. She argues with me by saying that the public pool in the next town over allows it. I keep saying the same rehearsed response, that its our policy that outside food and drinks can't come in the pool. Anyways she dumped the coffee onto our computer and I called the police. PmMeFemdomHentai

No YOU'RE Unprofessional!

After going back and forth on an issue we couldn't help with the customer on the phone said something to the effect of, "Well that's not good enough."

And after being fed-up I simply said, "Well you not liking the answer doesn't mean the answer changes."

And she said, "That's really unprofessional. "And I said, "You thinking it's unprofessional also doesn't change the answer."

And then she said, "Let me talk with your manager."

To which I got to say, "I am the manager, we're going in circles, if you'd like you can email me at "manager@companyemail" in which case I'll review your complaint to determine if it needs to be escalated."

She was not happy when she hung up, my manager was laughing though. TacoMagic

The Call Center. 

Not a manager, but I used to work in a call center and had plenty of Karens who wanted to talk to someone above me because they thought the world existed to cater to them.

I always went back into their account to review the notes to see what was done. 9 out of 10 times they were given whatever they wanted even if it wasn't justified.

Which is so stupid—enabling these people's behavior is what's got them feeling so entitled in the first place.

I once told a woman if she didn't pay for her services, after 60 days they'd be interrupted. She responded with "Excuse me? I'm a valued customer and that is not how I will be treated." or something to that effect.

Ridiculous. midnight_rebirth

You're all Fired!

I think the one standout I remember was a few years ago when my company (cell phone provider) gave everyone unlimited data for like 3 months for no charge. It was essentially a stress test on our network, but everyone was getting free data so it wasn't like anyone could complain.

Or so I thought.

I talked to one lady who had demanded a manager because unlimited phone data wasn't enough, they wanted unlimited data on their hotspot as well. She then threatened to "get us all fired" because we wouldn't give her unlimited data through her hotspot, which was actually a feature we didn't even offer paying customers at the time.

She ranted and raved for a while and we ended up passing her between like 5 levels of supervisors before she gave up. SayNoToStim

Poor Karen. 

One time a Karen tried to return an expensive handbag that had obviously been used. She proceeded to say I was calling her a liar and her anger escalated as she paced back and forth at the till point.

The Karen then proceeded to tell me that she was going to call in some guys to come after me after I finish work. Throughout this I am politely repeating my request that Karen leave but in hindsight I think this must have been rather annoying... as Karen proceeded to grab the bag and launch herself over the till at me in an attempt to hit me with it.

At this point in time, a colleague who was yet to start their shift (therefore appeared as a customer) was on the shop floor and had witnessed it all. They tackled Karen into the wall, knocking down glass shelves which had been displaying around 30 bags. Karen is a crumpled mess on the floor, appears shocked, stumbles upright and runs away. yayaya21212

The Male Karen. 

Former fast food worker reporting about a male Karen.

He came through the drive through and handed me what I knew to be a fake $100 bill. I knew it was fake, but the process was to make sure the deposit box bill feeder didn't accept it. Well of course it didn't because that crap was fake.

So he pulls around and comes inside yelling and calling me racist (dude was black) because I wouldn't take his fake 100.

He called for the manager and I bailed to the back because I wanted to leave the twilight zone. TheMortarGuy

Not my Dog!

This was 30 years ago and there was literally no way I could help this woman. She left while yelling that she hoped my dog died. gutterpeach

Not too Doughy!

Not a manager, but a kitchen chef in a pizzeria. We occasionally get this lady that orders a pizza then tries to complain about it in order to get it for free. We always deny her and she always with threatens to give us a bad review on Yelp or to whoever is unfortunate enough to be on the phone with her. One time, she ordered a pizza with gluten free crust and complained that the crust was "too doughy," so she demanded it to be free.

Gluten free crusts are as crispy as a cracker when they come out of the oven and are almost the same while we make it. Even if someone didn't bake it in the oven beforehand for whatever reason, it's virtually impossible for it to be doughy.

For about a week, all of us would tell each other, "Make sure that it isn't too doughy" as a joke when we had to make gluten free pizzas. MetaGigaZ

The Lineage.

I managed a restaurant a few years back that was vegan and gluten free. Do you know whose children are more entitled than any to cause destruction in your restaurant? Karen's vegan kids that have a gluten allergy. MurrayVonCurry

Terminated.... PERMANENTLY!!

I saw an account terminated and their address PERMANENTLY banned from service by a senior VP. The lady called in to try to restart her service, then proceeded to complain and ask for management when she was told she couldn't. I can't even imagine the amount of complaining she had to have done to get to the senior VP level, since even major escalations only get to a level that's like 3 levels below that.

I read the notes and looked at the account, and she had 6+ service calls every month for 3+ years. This lady apparently called in almost every day to complain and ask for credits due to her service not working.

The address was blocked, and the notes basically said, "This address will never get service again. If this lady somehow gets service from this company again, everybody involved will be fired." Meta2048

Karen in Charge!

I had an actual Karen as a manager. Two faced, played favorites and had this annoying nervous laugh she would use at the end of everything she said. As if to punctuate the idiocy of her statement. I think, ha ha, that we should try it this way, ha ha. Because it, ha ha, might, ha ha, work better.

YES!!! She talked just like that. OhioTARDIS

Karen and the Law. 

Try dealing with Karen when you're a cop. "Do you know who my husband is?" "You better not touch me. My husband is so and so" Yea ok well tell me who your husband is on your way to jail. Karen is always racist too. "Don't you have some black people to arrest? I actually obey the law" Well Karen assaulting your husband is illegal, so my black partner is going to take you jail now.

Or Karen the military officer's wife "My husband is a captain. Where's my salute?" Kimbersdad26

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