Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

The Absolute Dumbest Things Customers Have Ever Gotten Mad About

man holding telephone screaming
Icons8 Team on Unsplash

Reddit user j-rock292 asked: 'What is the dumbest thing a customer has gotten mad at you about that was not your fault?'

Like many people, I spent my time in retail. Customers were by far the hardest part of the job.

In college, I worked as a "bookseller"—our official title—in a mall for a national chain of bookstores. Without fail, every shift one or more customers would ask for something like "that book, the red one, by the guy."

When we'd ask for more information—like genre or if it was new or where they saw it—they'd just repeat, "red book, guy, you know which one I mean."

We most definitely didn't know which one they meant, but customers thought if we worked in a bookstore we should know every book in print from even the vaguest of descriptions. And they'd get mad when we didn't.

Anyone who has worked with customers has war stories.


Reddit user j-rock292 asked:

"What is the dumbest thing a customer has gotten mad at you about that was not your fault?"

Were they blind?

"They asked me to cut a blind."

"When I asked for the dimension they wanted it cut to, it was larger than the original blind length."

"Said I can't make it longer, only shorter and she lost her sh*t."

~ LatishaASpray

Tag, you're it.

"Back when I worked at Target, some guy came in about 30 minutes before we closed, and wanted to buy a laptop."

"He wanted to run some obscure software on it for his laser ttagarena and got really nettled when I told him I was unfamiliar with the software and so I couldn't give a definitive answer."

"Then he started going on about how much he made in a week compared to my paycheck."

"So I told him something along the lines of, 'Well then buy this laptop and if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it won't hurt your wallet'."

"He really didn't like that and after some colorful language, was escorted out of the store."

"In an odd twist of fate a few months later the mother of one of my best friends bought his laser tag arena because he ran it into the ground."

~ gradualpotato

Credit where credit is due.

"Not me but a friend of mine worked customer service for a credit card company."

"She said a young guy called and asked why he couldn't use his card. She told him because he had exceeded his $15K limit."

"Dude was like 'yeah but that was for last month. Don't I get another $15K limit this month?'."

~ _eviehalboro

Can you hear me now?

"Customer got mad at me because I could barely hear her over a bad connection."

"I was on a landline, she was not."

"After disconnecting the call because it was going nowhere, she immediately called back and complained to me about the a**hole she'd just been talking to, saying, 'He said I was bad at making connections. Why the f**k was he talking about my love life?! You are much more helpful, though'."

~ Dapper_Interest_8914

No, I can't help you.

"I wasn't even working at this shop, I was just another customer. I didn't even wear a shirt similar to an employee's."

"A woman comes up to me and says, 'Excuse me, do you work here?' But before I can say no, she asks where something is."

"She sounded polite enough so I responded just as politely, 'Sorry, I don't work here. The people with the blue shirts do'."

"She got slightly upset and said someone else had pointed at me when she asked for a worker."

"I look to my side, and literally less than a couple feet away, there was an actual worker. I told her 'I think they meant that guy right there'."

"She then completely lost her cool, screaming various things at me and calling me all sorts of names."

"The employee tried to intervene but she just kept screaming. She eventually stops with, 'I want to see your manager!'."

I told her to f'k off. The employee laughed and she stomped off, then I just went back to shopping.

"Didn't see her again."

~ FearMeImmortals

Maybe if you hum a few bars?

"I worked at a Music Store in a mall around Christmas."

"A lady came in and wanted to get the album of whatever was playing at the store she was in earlier."

"She got mad when I didn’t know what music they played in other stores."

~ MelScarn

Full service doesn't include time travel.

"In the ‘60s I worked at a gas station that also did repairs."

"A customer drove in with a flat right rear tire and no spare. I pulled out the nail and plugged it."

"She was good to go and left happy."

"She drove in about 2 months later with a flat left front tire."

"I pulled out a screw and plugged it while she screamed that I should have checked it last time she was there."

~ VosTutZich

"She has every right to be mad."

"You’re obviously a terrible tech because you didn’t make a time machine to go into the future and prevent her from getting another flat."

"You must feel terrible that she takes her car somewhere else now."

~ 1questions

The call is coming from inside the house.

"A long time ago I serviced someone's Internet connection at their house."

"When I left, my supervisor called to let me know that I had been accused of theft at this house."

"This crazy lady thought I stole a handset for her landline phone, not even the base with it, just the handset."

"She called later to report she found it in between her couch cushions."

~Reddit

I control the weather, but work here for minimum wage.

"Got yelled at for ruining his family’s vacation at Disney world because the rides shut down due to the storm."

~ conker1264

"The summer right out of high school I worked at an amusement park."

"We had a massive severe thunderstorm ( heavy rain, lots of lightning, 50+mph winds, whole deal) one day, because giant metal structures and lightning dont mix we had to shut down all of our rides."

"Well this dipshit accused ME of starting this storm just to ruin his day."

~ j-rock292

Maybe she didn't want to wash it.

"I was refusing her a refund on a kids' duvet set."

"This woman threatened my colleague, so I (manager) stepped in."

"Protocol states we had to check and repack before giving a refund, so I took it to the stock room only to find that she had folded it back into the packaging, complete with the vomit chunks!"

~ Outrageous_Zombie945

Florida is hot in May

"So, I worked at a chocolate shop in Boston MA."

"Someone called to place an order, for shipment, to Florida."

"I said, 'okay, we do require next day shipping and an ice pack on shipments to Florida, so the chocolates don't melt. The shipping Will be $30 and the ice pack and insulated packaging will be an additional $8'."

"It's my standard spiel."

"The person's like 'the chocolate is only $22. No. I'll pay for the shipping but not the ice pack. It will be fine'."

"'Yadda Yadda warning. Yadda Yadda. When it shows up melted it won't be our fault I'm noting it in the system'."

"So, what phone call does my manager get 2 days later?"

"Oh? Person got melted chocolate? Oh it's our fault is it?"

"But look? There's a note in the system they refused to pay for an icepack."

"WOMP WOMP."

"Did I warn them the chocolate would melt? Yes I did."

"Do they now have nothing for mothers day? No they dooooon't."

"Poor them."

~ biddily

I also sold mattresses and appliances. Maybe because they were a major investment, I had far fewer bad experiences with those customers.

My worst experiences were working a customer service phone line for a Department of Defense agency.

People were almost always angry before they picked up the phone.

Have you had a customer go off on you? Share your experience in the comments.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Miriam Margolyes
David Levenson/Getty Images

'Harry Potter' Star Miriam Margolyes Offers Mic Drop Explanation For Why Respecting Pronouns Matters

Sometimes it is just that easy to make people happy. This is a lesson learned over and over in our lives, but that's because it's an important one.

Actor Miriam Margolyes shared how she learned to change her behavior to make others happier. Margolyes appeared on The Graham Norton Show recently and brought up a fairly polarizing subject in the United Kingdom: trans people.

Keep Reading Show less
Elon Musk looks on during a public appearance, as the billionaire once again turns a newsroom style decision into a culture-war grievance broadcast to millions on X.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk Cries Racism After Associated Press Explains Why They Capitalize 'Black' But Not 'White'

Elon Musk has spent the year picking fights, from health research funding to imagined productivity crises among federal workers and whether DOGE accomplished anything at all besides leaving chaos in its wake.

His latest grievance, however, is thinly disguised as grammatical. Specifically, he is once again furious that the Associated Press (AP) capitalizes “Black” while keeping “white” lowercase.

Keep Reading Show less
Elon Musk; Yale University School of Engineering and Applied Science
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images; Plexi Images/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Elon Musk Gets Brutal Wakeup Call After Claiming That Yale's Lack Of Republican Faculty Is 'Outrageous Bigotry'

Elon Musk—who has repeatedly whined about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—took to his social media platform to whine about a lack of conservative faculty at Yale University.

Musk shared data compiled by The Buckley Institute (TBI), a conservative-leaning organization founded at Yale in 2010. TBI found 82.3% of faculty self-identified as Democrats or primarily supporting Democratic candidates, 15% identified as independents, while only 2.3% identified as Republicans.

Keep Reading Show less
Barry Manilow
Mat Hayward/Getty Images

Barry Manilow Speaks Out After Postponing Farewell Tour Dates Due To Lung Cancer Scare

"Looks Like We Made It" singer Barry Manilow is in the process of saying goodbye to the stage and meeting his fans in-person, but he has to press pause for a few months after receiving a jarring diagnosis.

On December 22, 2025, the "Mandy" singer posted on Facebook, explaining that a "cancerous spot" had been discovered on his left lung.

Keep Reading Show less
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers in Avengers: Endgame, the last time audiences saw Captain America before his unexpected return was teased for Avengers: Doomsday.
Disney/Marvel Studios

Marvel Just Confirmed That Chris Evans Is Returning For 'Avengers: Doomsday'—And Fans Have Mixed Feelings

Folks, once again, continuity is more of a suggestion than a rule in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel has officially confirmed that Chris Evans is returning as Steve Rogers in Avengers: Doomsday, and the internet has responded exactly how you’d expect: screaming, celebrating, arguing, and a very justified side-eye toward how Sam Wilson keeps getting treated.

The confirmation comes via a teaser now playing exclusively in theaters ahead of Avatar: Fire and Ash. There is no official online release, despite leaks circulating. If you didn’t catch it on the big screen, Marvel’s response is essentially: sorry, guess you had to be there.

Keep Reading Show less