Customer service is a tough industry. You have to be polite, friendly, and eager to please. It's not for everybody, which becomes only too clear as soon as things start to go wrong. We asked people from around the world to share their worst customer service experiences. Bad waiters, rude managers, seedy retail workers, and grumpy hotel owners - these establishments are getting zero stars out of five.
1. Expectations versus reality
Server here. My favorite was when a man sent back his salad two milliseconds after I set it in front of him because he "wasn't expecting it to look like that."
2. Wrong store
I was a manager at a retail pharmacy. I had a customer complain and file a report that we didn't carry Walmart brand items.
I thought they were maybe confused, pointed out they were in a CVS (which looks NOTHING like a Walmart, but whatever). But he kept arguing that the customer is always right and we should carry Great Value items.
Marques Thomas @querysprout.com
3. Little-known fact about ice cream: it melts
I worked at a local ice cream store in high school and we always had some pretentious customers. One summer afternoon, a lady came up to me and showed me that her ice cream had melted and wanted another one free of charge.
I gave her another one, but this time I made it sugar free. She had it coming.
4. Diabetic except for donuts
I used to work at a cafe when I was in college. We had a guy come in once very angry because we messed up his coffee when he came through the drive-thru. Instead of sweetener, we added sugar. This wouldn't have been a huge issue to fix and generally people are level-headed and realize that mistakes do happen. However, he was throwing a hissy fit claiming he's a diabetic and that spoonful of sugar would have surely finished him had he ingested more than one gulp of the coffee.
Because he was freaking out like a rabid dog, my manager stepped in and offered him any other item on the menu for free because he wouldn't accept just a redo of the coffee. Buddy decides he wants a dozen donuts. No problem. I pack up the dozen, hand it to him. He then proceeds to eat not one, not two, but THREE lard-sugar-fat glazed donuts in front of my eyeballs even though he just claimed he was severely diabetic. Smacking my head.
5. Foot in mouth
I used to work as a bank teller. People who poorly managed their money were always coming into the branch to have fees reversed. You know the type of person -- someone who never takes responsibility for anything. Everything that happens to them is someone else's fault.
Anyway, one guy in particular was always overdrafting his account. He always had some story of how he was wronged and that the overdraft wasn't his fault. One day he came in wanting to have 10+ overdraft fees reversed. All the transactions were for online poker websites.
He said: "None of those transactions are mine. This is fraud! I don't even gamble online!!!"
I said: "Sir, you are wearing a PokerStars t-shirt."
6. All atheists should be fired
I worked a 9.5-hour shift on a very very busy overnight at the convenience store. Morning finally arrives, I clock out, grab my keys and head to my car (across the parking lot). I still have my name tag on. An older woman comes up to me and asks me if I'd like to go to church with her. I politely decline, and tell her my wife was waiting for me at home.
She then asks what church I go to (which is not an altogether uncommon question in the South). I tell her that I prefer not to give out information about my life outside of work (even to my coworkers). I then said goodbye and thanked her for her offer (it takes me a bit to get out of customer service mode, which is a bit irritating) and went home.
Three weeks later, at my one-on-one meeting with my manager, he tells me that someone complained to corporate about me, asked if I remembered a customer inviting me to church, and handed me the complaint (which I still have hanging on my fridge);
"Dear [Company],
"I want to express my concern regarding one of your employees. He works Saturday overnight at [Location], and his name tag said [Name]. On August 26, as he was leaving, I met him in the parking lot, and invited him to come with me to church. While he was polite enough, he declined, and then refused to answer me when I asked him which church he attended. It is clear to me that he is an atheist, and I must ask that he be fired. It is a terrible thing to be giving non-believers jobs, when there are plenty of good Christian-folk who do not have them.
"Thank you for your time."
I looked up from reading it, and even my manager was shaking his head at it. The response from my company was something along the lines of offering her a gift card, apologizing for the inconvenience, and dancing around the issue that they could not fire me for not going to church with a customer. My manager's response, "Good job at being called polite in a complaint, and remember not to do that thing again."
"What thing?"
"I have no idea."
Still the most ludicrous complaint I've ever received.
7. 50 + 50 = free?
I manage a women's clothing store. We had a big sale one day, offering 50% off everything, which was very unusual. Throughout the store, we placed black signs that said: "50% off your entire purchase." To signify the clearance section, we used red signs that said 50% off. I had a woman come up the register with arm-loads of clothes. I proceeded to ring her up and give her total, which was ridiculously low for the amount of clothing she was getting (think $50 top reduced to $14.99, plus another 50%). So I finished ringing everything up and gave the woman her total, and she's looking at me dumbfounded. "No, you made a mistake. The clearance items are free." At first I thought she was joking with me, but no... she wanted two discounts of 50% each on all the marked-down stuff. Her logic? The signs are different colors... I should get both colors.
8. A library card is not a form of payment
I own a bookstore. A guy came up to the counter with books and gave me his library card. I said, "We're a bookstore, not a library." He yelled, "What am I paying taxes for?"
Clearly, not the schools.
9. When in Canada
I live in Canada. I had a lady pay me in U.S. currency, which was no problem because the exchange rate was pretty much even. But when I gave her Canadian change back, she absolutely lost it. After I told her I only had Canadian currency in the till, she literally started jumping up and down and screamed, "I hate Canada" like a 5-year-old girl. I was so stunned all I could reply was, "I really like Canada?"
10. Humor over prejudice
I was standing in line at the gas station and I overheard a woman yelling "I'm an American, I demand to be rung up by an American." The guy ringing her up took off his Kufi and tried his best to sound like a redneck. She threw her things down and stormed off. I have made it a point to give that gas station repeat business because that was one of the funniest things I've seen go down in a while.
11. Stay wholesome
I was at an awesome bbq place in Fort Worth with a bunch of friends. Our server was a bit goofy. He was funny, really nice, but kind of distant. He just seemed like he didn't seem suited to waiting tables. He got our drinks and orders wrong, but it was hard to be upset. As a customer service experience, it was more weird than bad. He had a huge red beard, and I said, "Dude, your beard is awesome!" He then said, "Thanks! My neighbor has one just like it. Some people think he's my dad, but he's not my dad. I've met my dad." Then he just walked away without saying anything.
12. Pay it forward
I used to be a hostess in a Pizzeria chain that based out of Chicago. I came to work in one in NY and I'll never forget this family of 8 gave me - THE HOSTESS - a $25 tip on a $50 bill all because they hated their waitress and I was the one that kept refilling their drinks. Waitress was beyond mad, but manager said to her "Should have been paying more attention. The tips is hers."
Best day ever.
13. It's called the hospitality industry
Last weekend I went to the beach with my friend. We had booked a hotel room with TWO queen beds. For whatever reason, there was an administrative error and the hotel had forgotten to reserve our room. We get there are and there are no rooms with 2 beds left. The front desk agent was very apologetic and offered us an extra room at no charge (because duh, they messed up) until the owner of the place moseyed on in and instead said "NO, if you want 2 rooms, you're going to pay for 2 rooms" and asked us why we couldn't just sleep together in a king bed, which is not really his business and if we WANTED TO SHARE A BED we would've booked a room with one bed instead of specifically booking a room with two. If we had known they were out of rooms, we would've gone somewhere else. At that point he insisted on us staying in one room with a cot, which I said was no good because one of us is sleeping on a cot, and it's not something we agreed to pay for. Eventually, after 2 hours of arguing, he left and his son (who is the part owner and the one who suggested giving us 2 rooms for the cost of one in the first place) let us have 2 rooms.
His dad is clearly in the wrong business.
14. Knows how to push buttons
Last year I was going through the self checkout at Kroger late one night. There were a few other people at said self checkout, but it was far from busy. I attempted to scan an item that was on clearance, and it brings up the "wait for attendant" message. I see the kid working the section talking to another coworker about 20 feet away. The hand modules they use have an ignore function, so they don't have to come over every time someone doesn't know how to use the machines (95% of the time). Dude hits the ignore button. I know it wasn't gonna scan without his approval, so I hit the "call attendant" button. He presses ignore again. This happens 8 times. When I finally went over to ask him for help, he bolted to the back before I could catch him. I wasn't mad, just annoyed. So I left the self check to go get in a regular line. Just so happened that a manager was walking by and asked if I was having issues, since I was leaving self checkout. I told her what had happened and she was furious.
Never saw that kid at Kroger again.
15. On a wing and a prayer
At a Buffalo Wild Wings, I had a waitress forget my order twice. I was with a party of 8 people, everyone finished before I got my food. When the manager came back for a third time, asking what I ordered I stood up and said 'Nothing and nothing ever again' and my wife and I left. They ended up comping the entire table, but the waitress said 'way to be a jerk' as my friends were leaving.
16. So presumptuous
I was out to dinner with my family. We sit down, order our drinks, and so far everything is going nicely. The waitress comes, and we order. When it gets to my mom, she orders what she wants, and the waitress responds with "If you're on a diet, you don't want that." My mom had said nothing whatsoever about being on a diet. She is slightly overweight, and I mean very slightly. She is self conscious and it's difficult to even get her to come out to eat with us. My mom simply said "I'm not on a diet" with a cold stare. The waitress turned red in the face and walked off to place our orders.
17. Last bus to the station
On a return trip on a greyhound from Vegas to SoCal. The bus missed my connecting bus, which happened to be the last bus headed out that night. I called customer service and they basically told me "herp derp, too bad, next bus out of there leaves at 9 tomorrow morning."
So greyhound leaves me stranded in the middle of the night, in a terrible part of town. I had to walk a few miles away until I finally got ahold of a friend who drove out 40 miles to come get me.
18. Bottle Service
Had a waiter spill a $100 bottle of wine (first and last time in my life I ever paid that much for a bottle of wine) all over my dinner. He refused to replace either. After I didn't tip him he literally chased me out of the restaraunt and physically threatened me for his tip. He had to be restrained by the manager.
19. Just gross
I was at a department store, buying some jeans. I asked the store attendent if I could try on a pair. He said sure and led me to the changing rooms. I went into the cubicle and dropped my pants. The store attendant knocked on the door. I unlocked it and opened it a crack. He asked if he could come in, I said "No, why would you want to?"
He replied "because I think you are cute." He then proceeded to forcefully open the door and about 30 seconds of me and him pulling and pushing on the door ensued. I was starting to get a bit frantic, so I yelled out for assistance. He stopped pushing on the door and disappeared. I put my pants on and got outta there, I was shaking.
I got home and called the department store and told them what had happened. I found out later that they fired him on the spot.
20. Vegetarians optional
I was at a relatively nice Italian restaurant and ordered a dish without bacon in it cause I don't eat meat (yes I know how dare I not eat bacon). The dish came out everything seemed fine but when I tasted it, I was sure that it had bacon in it. No problem mistake happens all the time. I politely informed the waiter when he returned to check in. He looks at the plate takes out a fork, tastes it and then has the audacity to say;
"Nope, there is definitely no bacon in there."
I have never been more upset with a server in my life. Don't know what happened to him but that meal was free in the end.
Michelle @New Layer Photography
21. Did she think that would work?
My family and I went to a sushi restaurant for my cousin's birthday. The service wasn't really that good, they gave us the wrong drinks and they forgot stuff that we asked for as soon as they walked away, so we gave the waitress like a $2 tip instead of the usual $5. As we're walking in the parking lot back to our car, the waitress runs after us and tells us that we didn't tip 15%! She's literally chasing after us. My uncle gives us this look and pretends that he is going to follow her back into the restaurant to pay. Then as soon as she goes through the door, my uncle starts sprinting to the car and we all run and jump inside and drive away. When I looked through the back window, I could see the waitress and her manager running after us but they couldn't catch up. Yeah, never went back there again.
22. No news in the customer service center
My husband was in one of the Marine units sent to Haiti to help with the earthquake relief. We had just gotten new phones through Sprint, and after hearing from other wives that they were able to get international calling on their husband's phones, I thought I'd call customer service and see if I do the same for my husband. I must have gotten the most clueless rep ever. After explaining where my husband was and why, she told me that unfortunately his phone couldn't do that, but if he could find a Sprint store in Haiti he could buy an international phone. I stuttered out a "What?" and asked her if she really expected my husband to find a Sprint store in a country that had just been hit by 7.0 earthquake and be able to buy a phone. She didn't see a problem with that and I just hung up on her, speechless. Definitely the worst customer service experience I've ever had.
23. No mercy for minors
I used to be in a youth organization in the US, called Civil Air Patrol. We're a volunteer auxiliary of the Air Force and we do search and rescue, leadership training, and aerospace education stuff.
A group of several hundred Canadian Air Cadets was visiting my <20 person, northern WI, squadron (for giggles, I guess) and we showed them around Madison, WI (state capitol, malls, cheese stores...). For lunch we went to Ruby Tuesdays (like Applebees, TGI Friday's, Chili's, etc).
I ordered, and the waiter tried to convince me to buy a drink. At the time I was 16, looked 12, and he insisted that I should buy a drink because I was in uniform. I kindly told him that I prefer a coke and had no interest in breaking the drinking laws at a public establishment. From then on out he REFUSED to refill my soda.
We're done eating, the waiter brings our bills. Most of us, excluding family members, were on separate tabs. The waiter does not return my bill for a half-hour. We were sitting there chatting, and the adult chaperons inform us that it's time to leave. I informed my squadron commander that the waiter hasn't brought my change yet.
My squadron commander gave him a "talking-to." I got my change - left no tip. You try to steal from me, you get screwed.
24. So bad it's illegal
I had a cashier at Target ask if I wanted to sign up for their credit card, to which I declined. She then asked to see my ID, which made sense as I was buying beer, and she used it to sign me up for a Target credit card. I was furious, because I don't see how that isn't identity theft, and told her I wanted to talk to the manager (only time in my life I've uttered that phrase). She got really angry and defensive, started insulting me, and refused to call her manager.
I got another cashier to do it and then the woman flat out lied to her manager about what had happened. It was at that moment I discovered I had no telekinetic abilities because if I had, she surely would have exploded. The manager assured me the woman would be fired and gave me a lot of gift cards to make up for it since I now had to go through the whole process of canceling a credit card.
I went back about a month later to use some of the gift card value, and I saw that same woman still working there. I said something about it to the manager, left, and sold the cards on craigslist.
I'll never shop at Target again.
25. Bad service kills
I went out to dinner a few months back with some friends at a pretty typical chain restaurant.
Me: "I'll have a diet coke please." Waitress: "Oh, we only have pepsi, is that ok?" Me: "Sure. A diet pepsi would be fine."
I have my soda and a few refills over the course of dinner and start feeling really, really bad.
Right about here is where I should mention that I'm a type 1 diabetic and (since I always just drink diet coke) don't know the difference in taste between diet and regular pepsi.
I checked my blood sugar, which had been perfectly on target before the meal, and my meter just read HIGH, meaning that the value was so high that the meter actually couldn't process it. What I had eaten for dinner couldn't possibly have put me there (and I'd dosed with an appropriate amount of insulin to cover for it) so we flagged down the waitress and I asked "This isn't diet pepsi, is it?" She responded by telling me that it wasn't, that the diet pepsi fountain was out of syrup and she didn't think I'd mind, and besides, I'm plenty skinny and don't need to drink the diet stuff.
I started cursing, pulled out my insulin syringes to dose for the 4 full sugar sodas that I drank, and told her exactly what I was doing. I then told the manager what had happened, and that I wasn't planning on paying for the meal but would instead put the money toward the ER bill that I was about to incur. Went to the hospital where the lab determined that my blood sugar was still in the 700s even after I dosed, and I ended up staying overnight because my glucose level stubbornly refused to come back into range.
26. The meal was as wilted as the spinach
Was in St. Pete Beach, FL with my parents, sister, wife, grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin. So 10 people in all. We sit down at a mostly empty restaurant and order a couple drinks around the table. Waiter comes to take our order, but doesn't have anything to write with. Okay, some fancy restaurants do that, didn't expect it here, but whatever.
Dude has to come back three times over the next half hour to ask people what they ordered because he forgot. 45 minutes in, he comes back to say that he forgot to say that they were out of tuna, so four of the orders can't be made and they need to order something else.
Something like an hour and a half after we order, the food comes out. Almost half of the orders are wrong or have the wrong sides. Mine is supposed to be salmon on a bed of spinach and risotto. I got a piece of salmon that was about 4 normal bites big, an ice cream scoop of risotto, and no spinach in site. When I asked him about the spinach, he said "it's under the salmon" which I found hard to believe since it only occupied about 5 square inches. Lifted the salmon, and found about 3 wilted spinach leaves stuck to the bottom of it.
My dad (who was paying) complained to the owner, who simply said "oh, I'm sorry....we'll try to do better next time". To which my dad said "You're going to comp me half the bill or more, and MAYBE there will be a next time." Dude shrugged and gave my dad the drinks for free, which was only about 15 bucks worth.
Needless to say, we never went back.
27. Death of a salesman
My wife and I needed some furniture for our new house so we went couch shopping a couple of months ago. Now that we are in our 30s, we are looking for pieces that are a little better quality and will last longer so we went to a “nicer” store. Before our visit she had gone in with her folks to scout the place out and had been helped by a very nice salesman. This time when we walked in, that salesperson was not around and we were approached by someone very pushy and quite unfriendly. We politely told him we did not need any help as we were just looking.
As we made our way around the store it was clear that this new rep was keeping a close eye out. He came over to offer his assistance once again at which point I told him that we would not be needing his help today and continued shopping. After about 30 minutes the wife and I had narrowed our search to a particular couch. As I was testing it out, my wife happened to see the salesman who had helped her and her folks. She walked across the store where he was just finishing with a customer and asked if he could help us. He recognized my wife and told her he would be over there in 1 minute to give us a hand.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the second salesperson comes up to my wife and says “What do you think you are doing?” My wife was surprised so she asked him what he meant. He said “You are supposed to be my customers. I haven’t taken any others since you walked in, so how dare you talk to another rep?” Well at this point I got up from the couch and walked over asking who he thinks he’s talking to. He began arguing and telling me that I was supposed to be his commission and that I was cheating him out of money. At this point I just about lost it and thankfully the nice salesperson came, took me by the arm and defused the situation. Needless to say that the manager and I had a nice long chat. The rest of the staff could not believe what he said to us and we could see them arguing with him at the other end of the store. I think he was just a bad salesperson who saw everyone else get sales, and that was the day he snapped.
28. Thanks for the life lesson
Once I went to a place known for its Cuban sandwiches with my family. We were all really excited, because we like food in my family. So we get our drinks and everything seems fine. We were seated immediately and everyone was really nice. Our waitress brings us our drinks and says she'll be back in a bit to take our food orders. We're conversing and such so we don't notice immediately how long it is taking for our waitress to come back.
We wait another twenty minutes just in case. The place is pretty empty, so eventually we ask another server if they know what happened to our server. He says he'll go check, but that he'll take our food orders if we're ready to speed up the process. Things seem on the up and up, so we stop worrying. About 45 minutes later my dad is about to explode. It doesn't take that long to make 4 sandwiches. He's about to go complain when, as if on cue, our waitress comes running and screaming out of the kitchen and goes right on out the front door. Everyone goes completely silent and just watches the front door for a couple seconds.
It turns out she had a nervous breakdown right about when we ordered her food. She had been just pacing around in the kitchen slowly becoming unhinged. The manager apologized and we got free sandwiches.
The moral of the story though, is that you never know what is going on with your server. Maybe they're going a bad job, but they might be on the edge of snapping entirely.
29. Every day is a bad day at the impound lot
A while back, my ex got arrested after taking my car without permission. My car was impounded, and it was $250 to get it back. Needless to say, the entire situation made me fairly irritated. I arrived at the place to get my car, and as I walked into the building, my ex's mom called to try and find out more about what was going on, and see if I needed help. I was inside, but I had not addressed any staff whatsoever, and it was obvious that the conversation I was having was with the person on the phone, not anyone in the building.
On the phone I was explaining that I had just gotten there, and I wasn't sure if they had my keys or if I needed to go to the jail and have them released to me if the ex hadn't given them up upon arrest. I'm sure I sounded irritated, because I was. Queue the receptionist jumping all over me, telling me that they know how to do their jobs, and that I'm being rude. I look over at her and explain that I'm sure they do, I'm on the phone, and I'm sorry if she thought I was talking to her. She's having none of it, and gets up and starts screaming in my face. I'm a pretty shy person until you bring my spit into my personal bubble.
I tell her she's being inappropriate and absurd, and I want to speak to her supervisor. So she screams for him to "Get out here and handle this stupid [bleep]" and he comes out, and starts screaming at me to get out if I'm going to treat his staff like that. I tried to explain that I hadn't even addressed her until she started screaming at me, and that I needed to get my car out of their impound lot. He wouldn't listen.
Long story short, I was 25 at the time and had to have my mother come help me get my car out of impound because the people who worked there were insane. I'd never experienced anything like that. They did have my keys though, my ex was smart enough to give those up at least.
30. You aren't what you eat
I had a weird experience a few years ago. My wife and I, and a couple of her brothers went out for coffee one evening. I had just gotten off work and hadn't eaten, so I took a look at the menu and order beef frajolaki (seasoned steak with onions and tomatoes on a torpedo bun), and my wife ordered a turtle cheesecake with her coffee.
About 5-10 minutes after the waitress had taken our orders, another group of people sat down in the booth behind us. The same waitress came up, chatted with them and grabbed their orders.
After about 20 minutes, out comes the cheesecake that my wife ordered. No, wait, it's a cappuccino cheesecake. My wife called the waitress back and told her about it, and the waitress apologized and offered to bring her the proper one out, but my wife liked it well enough so she said she'd just have the one that was brought to her.
Another 15-20 minutes go by, and I'm still waiting for my meal, getting a little ticked off by this point, when I spot the waitress coming our way, plates in hand. Wait, plates? I was the only one who ordered! She walks by us and to the booth behind us and distributes the food. Now I'm getting really ticked. I hear the table behind me discussing their meals, and one of them asks another what he's eating, to which he replies "I don't know, but it's really good!" Well, I thought, how do you not know what you ordered?
Another 10 minutes go by, and I'm about ready to leave, when out comes the waitress, plate in hand. She sets it in front of me and asks if there's anything else I need. I look at the plate and back to her and say "Uh, this isn't what I ordered. I ordered a beef frajolaki. This is a beef dip." She looks at the plate, then quickly looks at the booth behind us. Yup, mystery guy who couldn't remember what he had ordered? He was chowing down on my frajolaki. Mistakes happen, and I'm pretty mellow, but when she said "Well, can't you just eat this instead?" I asked for the cheque and got up and went outside to wait for my wife before I totally lost it.
To top it off, she tried to charge me for the beef dip.
31. You never know who your customers are
This happened a few years ago to me and my fiancée and our friends. I worked at an Indian restaurant, with one of my lady's best friends. The owners of the restaurant had just opened a new Mexican place, so we all decided to go. It had been open about a week, so it would have been understandable if the food and service weren't out of this world, but what we got was amazing. In our group there's 7 or 8 of us. Next to us is a group of clearly well to do people, maybe 6 or so. Our server has only the two tables. This is what follows next:
Our server gets our drink order, doesn't bring them for 20 minutes, takes our food order, that doesn't come for nearly two hours. Meanwhile, the rich people next to us get the best service I've ever seen. She was clearly just ignoring us and pegging us as cheap college kids (All of us worked in restaurants). Finally our food comes, and all the orders are wrong. No one got correct food (One girl didn't even get her meal until we were about to walk out the door) Oh, also our drinks never got refilled once.
So after a while of this we get a manager, who looks blankly at me and walks away without saying a word. Finally we get someone else to come talk to us. We explain everything to her. Lastly, we drop the owners names, saying we work for him and will be telling him everything that happens. The General Manager's face goes slate white. After all of this, we just wanna leave. They gave us half off the entire meal, than the server comes up to us and says, "My bad guys." That's all we got in a form of an apology. We left her a tip of about 3 cents. On our way out the hostesses are all smiles and asking us how the meal was. I turned to this girl, who was clearly unaware of what happened, and just go "It was terrible," and I grabbed a giant handful of peppermints and walked out.
32. Shining a light on bad service
My parents and I decided to try a new, trendy pizza place right around the corner from my apartment one night last month. We decide to sit outside because the weather was nice and they had a big patio and a side deck. Everyone working at this place had an attitude, from the hostess who seated us to the waitress taking our orders. They made us feel like a huge inconvenience, but we were hungry and had heard the pizza was good so we tried to look past that.
As soon as we are seated on the patio the girl offers to lower the shades because the sun was setting and was directly in our line of sight. We say that would be great and a guy comes out and lowers the blinds for us. We order our drinks and look over the menu.
Not even five minutes later a young guy comes to our table incredibly ticked off that the blinds were lowered. In a very condescending manner, he tells us that he's going to have to raise the blinds because they trap heat in the patio ultimately raising the patio temperature about 20 degrees. My dad politely tells him that the sun is in our eyes and that they really shouldn't offer to lower the shades if it's going to cause a problem. The guy snaps. He is incredibly disrespectful toward my father and goes on a tangent assuring us that the sun would set and even going as far as to take his sunglasses off of his head and offering them to my dad. He's young, maybe 25, and treating us like we're imbeciles saying that our request to lower the shades would make the other customers less comfortable. Whatever, they raise the blinds and we question whether or not we'll stay to order food.
We stay. Our drinks arrive and we take a few more minutes to look over the menu. The waitress is nowhere to be found. We sit they in awkward silence trying to get past what had just happened. Other tables are seated and the hostess offers to lower the shades for each table. We finish our drinks and the waitress still hasn't returned to take our order. We contemplate leaving but she finally shows and we order. The food came out cold, but one of the managers was walking around asking how everything was. We told him about the sunglasses prick and he was furious. I haven't seen the guy working there since.
33. Take your sandwich and run
There's a Subway that recently opened right across the street from my house. I started eating $5 footlongs every day. It was glorious. Not only was it extremely convenient, but the service was better than any subway I had ever been to, by far. Fast, the sandwiches were made great, the girls were talkative and flirty.
There was one downside. The guy who worked most nights was a short, surly dude who was always being a jerk or trying to intimidate you, which was pretty easy due to his bulk and full sleeve tattoos, also those tear drop tattoos, which if I'm not mistaken are prison tats.
Every time I'd go in there, I'd say "hey hows it goin?" he would answer with a grunt or just ask "what sandwich you want." I'd get through my order has he threw meat and veggies around all willy nilly creating the most dishelved, sad looking sandwiches I've ever seen.
After going there a few times with this experience, me and a girlfriend of mine go in one night. I go through the same routine. My friend asks a question about the gluten free sandwiches and dude drops his mop to the ground (he had started mopping right after my sandwich was made without asking girl if she wanted anything) and says "Are you serious? CANT YOU SEE THE PICTURE?!" and gestures toward a picture of a gluten free sandwich.
My friend his shocked and says something like "you know what man, you're a jerk" and storms out. I say "wow great customer service man." He answers "What?! You asked a question and I answered it!" He was doing the "come at me bro" stance and had a fury in his eyes as if I had just insulted his entire immediate and extended family.
34. Them's the rules
In America there is a place called "Denny's" and it is always open. The food is so-so, the service is usually good. The breakfasts and treats are pretty good.
My wife was very sick, and in the hospital. One of those things where you spend days in the hospital just waiting to get better. I would stay with her after work until the hospital shooed me out a couple of hours after the end of visiting hours. Then I'd realize I'm tired and famished, stop to grab a bite at the local burger place then go home.
Tonight was going to be different though, it was 9:30, and I wanted dinner. Denny's it was! I ordered the chicken fried steak with side veggies from the menu, and got a soda, and started reading a book as I waited for my order.
The book was really good. 40 minutes later, I realized I didn't have my food! I called the waitress and asked how long it takes the chef to cook dinner, and she went to check. She returned with some food, a very cold Chicken Sandwich with fries. Okay, apparently it's someone else's dinner. So I complained.
She went back to the kitchen. A few minutes later I see her walking out the door, and saying "Goodnight" to the other servers. Another waitress comes to my table and asks me if I'm ready to give my order now.
I've rarely been this mad in a restaurant. I was quietly furious, and asked what happened to my chicken fried steak? The new waitress didn't know so we got the manager over.
Apparently there had been a shift change. New waitress, new cook. Me left between the cracks. So I told them, "Fine, I'll take my chicken fried steak dinner, on the house."
"I'm sorry sir," said the manager. "It's after 10pm, and we don't serve some dinner items after 10."
"It was on the menu!"
"Yes, it is on our regular dinner menu, after 10PM we use the 'late night' menu."
"I ordered my chicken fried steak BEFORE 10, so I expect that for dinner!"
"I'm sorry sir, but our day chef is gone. Our night chef isn't familiar with that item."
That was it. I made a scene. I blew up and yelled at the manager. Then I left.
35. Don't tip off your server
So the past weekend we went to a restaurant for dinner with my girlfriend and her friends for her birthday. We had about 10 people and had about 5 different tabs which all included an 18% minimum tip.
The service was terrible, the server was incredibly rude and would always response with some kind of sarcasm when we asked questions about the menu. He took the wrong drink orders twice and blamed us for getting them wrong. Brought all the apps and entrees at the same time and got upset when we said we didn't want the apps anymore. My friend payed in cash and when he brought back change, there was no receipt. She was expecting to see 5 bucks and some change back. When the server came back there was no receipt and only 4 bucks and change there. She asked him to see the receipt to see if she had miscalculated cause she expected 5 dollars and then some back. Instead of saying something along the lines of I'll go check or something accommodating like that, the dude got irritated and said that he threw away the receipt and reached for his wallet and said "How about I just give you a dollar if you want it that bad."
That ticked us all off so we didn't leave any extra tip. I wrote down "NOPE!" on my receipt in the additional tip line. when I went to use the men's room before leaving, he tapped my shoulder as I was washing my hands and goes, "You think you're pretty funny with that tip don't you? Why don't we step outside so I can show you how funny I can be?"
I'm like "What?" and called the manager over and told him her server wanted to fight me cause I didn't tip him. I explained the whole situation to her while the dude was just eyeing me the whole time. Other servers had to calm him down cause he kept trying to interrupt me when I was talking to the manager. I declined all their gift cards because I don't wanna come back to a place where the staff is gonna shank me.
36. Who you like revenge with that?
I went to McDonalds a few years ago in Alberta. I went with a friend of mine, and we just both happened to be gay. In a laughing sort of situation he said that we should pretend to be dating. I asked if he was suicidal and he said "Well It'll be funny to see the reactions."
He held my hand and put his head on my shoulder. We shuffled up and I ordered my food and I also said "And my fiance here will have a (insert insanely fattening meal here)". My friend, Jake, put this massive dopey grin on his face and reached up and kissed me. Me, being fairly good at improv, kissed back.
The server, who before this had already seemed ill at ease, refused to serve us. He stood there with a defiant look on his face, refusing to fill our order. When I asked what was wrong he looked at me and said "I'm not letting some filth like you eat here."
I, taken aback, immediately responded with telling him to go get his manager. He refused. I asked again. He refused. We stood there for a few minutes, trying to argue sense into this moron and we saw a flash of a managers shirt outside. I told Jake to go get him. Jake runs out, gets the manager, and hauls him back in. The manager is standing there on the floor with me and Jake and I'm trying to explain to the manager how server is being a massive moron. By now we've gathered a small group of people watching, including a couple of other servers.
The manager looks at me and says "I don't see what the problem is here. You don't deserve rights" and walked away. One of the people in the 'audience' comes over. He's dressed in a suit and he says he's going to sue the place on behalf of us if he doesn't serve us. The manager still refuses. The guy in the suit, who turns out to be a lawyer named Andrew, says that he needs to provide the owners information anyway.
We get the phone number of the guy who owns the place. He says he'll be right there and he arrives. He then proceeds to fire the server and the manager in front of us as well as giving us free coupons and a free meal.
37. Bait and switch
So I started out in the real estate industry, doing deals here and there until I had enough savings to buy my first restaurant. The restaurant was well-established in the Seattle area and I do still own it along with a couple others now. I try to treat my employees with as much respect as I can and I do try to keep the pay high enough so that employees can actually afford to eat in my restaurants as they are somewhat expensive and higher end. Now keep in mind that I am a relatively absentee owner now because the restaurants are owned by a corporation that I head, so I have no idea who a lot of the employees are. I know most of the managers but the turnover rate for the servers is relatively high as most are college students. Needless to say, I don't get to know them very well.
One day, I decided to do some undercover management where I go through and judge the service and the quality of how the servers help the customers and the clientele. I took my wife in to one of the restaurants so we could grab some dinner and observe the employees and management. Well the service was awful and I was sorely disappointed. Toward the end of the dinner, I got the bill and paid it but didn't tip very much (roughly about 5%) thinking that would get the message across. Instead of the server getting the message, he followed me out to the parking lot. He confronted me, telling me I was trash and that the "idiot" owner of the restaurant doesn't pay him much. Laughing internally, I apologized and asked "How much does he pay you? It must be pretty bad." Wages for a server at this restaurant are roughly 15 dollars an hour plus tips. Again, I try to pay enough so that the servers can actually afford to eat in my restaurants. He told me he was only getting paid minimum wage (which I did check on to make sure the management wasn't stiffing him.) His entire story was lies but I entertained it. The next day, I called the manager to setup a meeting with the server in question. The manager knew who I was, but wasn't working the night prior when I had dinner there. I showed up to the meeting and walked into the room where he and the manager were assembled. Keep in mind, I told the manager to not tell the server who I was. I walked into the room and saw the servers face fill with contempt and anger. The server immediately said "This guy again?" He looked at me and said "What do you want, to rip me off again? I already know you can't tip worth crap" I laughed and the manager asked the server if he knew who I was. The server said "yeah, one of my customers from last night that treated me like crap and tipped like crap." Now, I was a little hard on him the night prior because I wanted to see how he would handle different situations.
I laughed at his last response and told him he was fired. He asked me "who do you think you are, you can't fire me." I calmly explained that I was actually the owner and what he did was in terrible form and he is not fit to be a server in the restaurant because not only did he not treat a customer with respect, he tried to guilt a customer out of money. I saw the blood drain out of his face after it sank in that I was the owner, he started tearing up and apologizing explaining that he was under a lot of stress with his wife and daughter and he is suffering from PTSD from his time in Iraq. Come to find out, he didn't actually have a daughter nor was he in the military.
38. Not the way to get a tip
At a mexican food restaurant with a girl I'm getting to know. It wasn't a date, really, it was just like hanging out and getting to know each other and we decided to go grab a quick bite. Anyways, I've kind of gotten into this horrible habit of only paying with my debit card and never having cash on me. As you probably know, a lot of times when you pay using debit/credit over a certain amount (I believe it's 5 or 10 dollars) places have you sign a receipt that they keep. The receipt the guy at this place handed me had a place to leave a tip.
Since I've been to this place a couple of times before, I know how the service works here (you order at the register, go and sit down, they call your number, and then you go up and receive your food) so I didn't leave a tip. I'll tip at this place/places like this if I order something specially made or something with extra toppings on it and they don't charge me but, other than that, I really do not see the need to tip. They aren't bringing your food to you, they aren't doing anything out of their way, they aren't bussing tables, there's simply no need to tip.
Anyways, I don't leave a tip and the guy just says "Wow, big spender here." I look up at him and am like "What?" because at this point, I honestly have no idea what he's talking about. It didn't even register in my mind that he could possibly be upset that I didn't tip, because he's doing nothing to warrant a tip. He just stands there and takes orders and calls them out; a job that he is paid an appropriate wage to do with no extra effort needed to be put in. It'd be the same as tipping someone working a register in a grocery store or at a McDonalds. Well, back on topic, the guy ignores me and says to the girl I'm with "Glad you're dating such a big spender. He can't even afford to tip. How do you think that's going to go further down the line in your relationship?" She's just kind of baffled, I'm just kind of baffled, and at that point I just decided it was best to ignore the dude and go sit down, so I shrug it off with a "Whatever."
After a bit of an awkward sit, our food comes up, so I go up to get it and decide to just get it to go. We grab our drinks and our burritos and walk out of there while the guy gives me dirty looks and keeps calling me "Big spender", only to sit down on a bench near the restaurant and find our orders are completely wrong and nothing near what we ordered at all, as well as our drinks only being filled halfway. I'm normally not that picky, and would have just said forget it and eaten it and wrote it off as more trouble than it was worth to fix the order, but I'm here with a girl and didn't want to look like a pushover.
We take our food into the restaurant, where I explain to the guy that our order is messed up and our drinks are only half full. He says "Oh, complaining about your order and couldn't even be bothered to tip? Now you're putting me through all this trouble and can't be bothered to tip." and just keeps rambling on with crap like that while a line forms behind us and he finally goes to fill up our drinks. He comes back and says "Woops" before he pretends to trip and sends our drinks flying all over me and the girl I'm with. I demand to speak to his manager and he immediately stops playing his little game. Basically saying anything to beg us not to talk to his manager and even offers us our money back on the order, but I refuse and keep demanding to talk to his manager until the cook in the back finally hears what's going on and goes to get him. The manager comes out, the girl I'm with and I both explain what happened, and the kid keeps babbling that it was an accident. The manager takes me and the girl I'm with in back to get us cleaned up and, after that's done, invites us to watch the CCTV footage of what happened along with the kid who spilled stuff all over us.
The kid clearly trips on nothing and deliberately sends the drinks flying on to us. The manager fires the kid on the spot, explains to us he had only hired him on for the summer since he was a long time friends son and that the kid had been acting like a total jerk the entire time he was employed, but the manager regrettably turned the other cheek since it was his friends son. The manager was a really nice guy and paid for our meal as well as gave us a card each that gave us 10 free meals at his restaurant. He even went in the kitchen and cooked our orders himself, gave us them in to go bags, and paid for a cab (we had walked) to take us back to my place so we wouldn't have to walk home in sticky clothes.
39. Little Italy
Had a customer come in and start rattling off something angrily in a language I didn't understand for a good few minutes. When my only response was a dumbfounded stare, she exclaimed, furiously: "UGH! You don't speak Italian!!" And then stormed out of the store.
I live in Florida.
40. Hot food is hot!
Working at fast food, this guy comes up to the counter and slams down his hamburger. "This food is too hot!!!"
Wait one minute you idiot. I'm guessing this is his inner monologue:
"I am very important. Way more important than the likes of you. While you are making minimum wage because you're too stupid to do anything with your life, I am literally paid over $60 an hour. Well over $120k a year. You with me so far? Good. This pay literally means a minute of my time wasted is a dollar wasted. And here you are, expecting me to essentially spend an extra dollar, because your incapable self isn't able to understand the temperature I want my food, and ESPECIALLY after the fact that I already gave you MY MONEY to get this garbage you probably eat every day."
42. Can we keep this concert quiet?
I worked at a concert venue. I was always careful that our venue isn't loud enough to cause hearing damage for either the performers or the audience, having a few decibel readers throughout the venue. Sure, you can have it loud, but at some point you're just hurting people and the sound isn't any better.
I had this one lady come in, saying that she just had ear surgery, and that she wanted me to keep it WAY down. She said that she could experience permanent damage if I didn't keep the volume down. There was a thousand people in the venue, and she wanted me to keep the noise at a conversational level. I told her to leave, and when she wouldn't, I had her escorted out. There's no way I'm getting sued by someone that stupid.
43. Do you have a time machine?
I work at a movie theatre. Last week a woman complained that she was disappointed in her last visit. I asked how long ago the visit occurred. She wasn't certain, but she remembered it was when she came and watched "I am Legend."
I stifled a laugh.
44. Turn the page
Worked at a call centre many moons ago. Customer called in and couldn't find the second page of his credit card bill. Before I could say anything, he went on a rant about how he hadn't gotten the second page for months. When he stopped to take a breath I told him to turn the statement over. He hung up.
Two Paddles Axe and Leatherwork
45. You get a new bite
If you've ever worked in food service, you'll be familiar with the customer who eats almost their whole meal before deciding they hate it and demanding another serving on the house.
One time, when I was working at an unnamed fast food chain, this dude left literally one bite of their burger and complained to my manager. My manager remade it for him and then cut off a piece the same size and only gave the customer that piece. The kind of stuff I dream about doing.
46. Grow a pear
I used to work in the produce department.
Guy comes in and picks a pear off the shelf. Takes a huge bite in front of me.
I tell him he can't do that. He says he'll ask the cashier to ring up the core. I say it's by the pound so you seriously can't do that. He gets angry and proclaims, "In my country this food is all free!"
I tell him he can go back there if he wants that but still can't eat the pear for free in this country. So he just storms off.
He was busted for shoplifting.
47. Literally grow up
Some of our clients get sent a survey after a meeting with us in order to gauge our customer service skills. I had a guy give me 10s in everything including "was your request completed to the level you expected?" Guy gives me a 7 in his overall rating (which significantly dragged my overall percentage down) because "this request should have been handled by someone older."
Screw me for being in my 20s and being good at what I do.
48. I shouldn't have to pay for electricity
I worked in a call centre for an electricity company and once got this incredible call.
"Can you see the debt on my account?"
"Yes, it's currently at $2500"
"I know that, I've had a payment plan for over a year now; it was originally $5k."
"OK, so how may I help you?"
"Can you just wipe the rest of it off?"
"You want me to write off $2500 that you owe us? I'm sorry but I can't do that."
"This is ridiculous! You can clearly see that I've been paying it off!"
"Do you mean that you want to pay off the remainder in one lump sum?"
"NO! I don't see why I should have to pay the remainder at all!!"
"Umm... because you used $5000 of electricity and we gave you the option of a payment plan or a card meter to pay off you debt."
"You don't get it do you?! I can clearly afford to pay you back as I've been doing it for the past year."
"I'm sorry but I don't see the problem here?"
"Look, I can afford to make the payments but I don't see why I should, can't you just accept the fact that I can afford to pay and we'll forget the whole thing?"
"OK, let me get this right. You used $5000 of electricity, have paid back half of it, and now think that you don't have to pay the other half because we are trying to make some kind of point?"
"Exactly!"
"Let me get my manager for you..."
My manager ended up passing it to her manager after another hour of this. I never did find out what happened in the end!
49. Maybe a biiiiiit of an overreaction
I work at a restaurant that is known for selling all local products (protein, dairy, produce, etc.) and we even get our plates and such from local flea markets.
Well I was waiting on a table about a month ago and they ordered a few appetizers. I brought them some plates and about 10 minutes later they got up and said they needed to leave (without any of their food). It was weird, but sometimes people have emergencies and need to leave... whatever.
The next day my manager gets a call and they complained that the plates I gave them didn't match. NONE of our plates match, that's kind of our gimmick. But instead of asking me for new plates or asking why they didn't match, they were literally so weirded out by the unmatching plates that they got up, left, and called to complain the next day.
50. The cursed toaster
Worked for a dollar store back in the day. A older woman would call at least once a week for a month to complain to my manager that I was a witch who put a curse on the toaster she bought and she wanted me fired.
51. The butterfly effect
When I worked at a super fancy/expensive steak restaurant, this customer wanted his steak med-rare butterflied which means that it'll take a shorter time to cook on the grill and faster to your table. Anyways, once his steak got to his table he was genuinely confused because his steak didn't "look anything like an actual butterfly". He wasn't mad but more confused and he did complain.
52. The locker room seems like the best place for that
I worked at a public pool. One time, a woman came up to me and complained: “There’s a naked man in the locker room.”
I asked, “Is he in women’s locker room?”
The mother of two teenage boys said, “No! He’s in the men’s locker room!”
I replied, “Is he doing anything or talking to anyone?”
She replied, “No he’s just walking around.”
So I said, “I’m sorry, but I’m failing to see the problem here, the men’s locker room is where naked men are supposed to be.”
She huffed, “So you’re not going to do anything?”
I ended it with, “If you want to make a complaint to my manager, please see the front desk.”
53. No deals wanted
At a large shoe store the other day, I overheard an old lady asking an associate if they had a particular slipper in the "non-clearance" area. The old lady had found slippers she liked on clearance, but couldn't find anything like them that weren't discounted. The associate was genuinely confused, and asked if she was trying to use a coupon or something. The old lady got indignant and proclaimed "I don't use coupons and I DON'T buy things on clearance!"
54. The opposite of a golden ticket
I was working security at a beach-side complex with a mix of vacationers and year-round residents. The year-round residents were supposed to have tags on their cars marking them as year-round so they didn't need a parking pass. During a routine patrol of the garage, I spotted a car without a pass or a sticker and ticketed it.
Thirty minutes later, one of the year-round residents comes storming up to me, waving the ticket. I explained that she needed to display her tag and she went off on me about how much she paid for the condo, how she paid my salary, etc. etc.
The kicker at the end? "Instead of harassing the people who sign your paychecks, you need to do the job you're being paid to do."
You mean, like, ticketing vehicles without a proper parking pass?
55. Can't teach if they don't want to learn
I used to be a tutor at an after school program. We would go over the homework from the previous week. Then we'd take a short quiz on those topics. Then move onto the next topic. This was all in preparation for a citywide exam in NYC (I taught math). These exams are pretty important, they determine what class the kid would be in next year. If a child does extremely poorly on both the math and reading exams, they could even be left back. So of course, the parents want their kids to do well.
One of the kids was super lazy. He would never have his homework completed, half the time not even bringing in the sheet I gave him. He would also score really poorly on the exams. He would misbehave during tutoring, complain the entire quiz about how unfair and hard it was (it was the homework questions with different numbers).
I warned the mother that he was not doing his work and not really grasping the topics. I was just met with excuses. "Oh he left the sheet in school." "It was too hard." "He was very busy this week." I'm pretty sure she was just using us as a babysitter service.
Then came exam time and of course he scored in the lower 10 percentile. The mother comes to my workplace, complaining to my manager about how I didn't do my job and she wanted a refund of all the sessions; twice a week at $25 a session from September to May.
My manager was already aware of the kids' poor performance. But the real satisfaction came when I pulled out his exams, homework and logs of his scores and performance. I told her she was aware of the issues, the contract we had signed did not guarantee scores of any kind and that she would not be getting any refund. Man was she man. She said that he son would not be coming back next year.
Of course, next school year rolls around and she shows up trying to sign her son up for after school tutoring again. I let her know that she said she would not be coming back so we booked other students and had no more room for additional students.
56. You're on not-so-candid camera
Current retail worker here. I’ve gone through so many but this one happened months ago and it still ticks me off. I was a supervisor and I was playing manager on duty while the store manager was taking care of a few things before we closed. I was called to the front about a customer getting mad at another associate.
M: Hello. Is there anything that I can help you with today sir?
C: Yes! This cashier overcharged me! All you guys are trying to do is scam us customers!
M: I’m sorry about that sir, may I see your receipt and the item that was scanned wrong?
He hands over the receipt and I look at the item. There was a markdown label that didn’t fully cover the regular priced barcode. Before I even looked at the item, the cashier who rang him up even acknowledged the mistake that she made and she started to be apologetic. I told her to not worry as mistakes do happen.
M: I’m sorry about the mistake, sir. I’ll have the cashier just return the item and charge you the correct price.
C: Good! You better! I don’t know why this company hires incompetent workers who make simple mistakes!
M: Well sir, we are humans and we do tend to make mistakes. Like I said, this is an easy fix and my cashier is already fixing the problem.
C: Well...I want her fired! She shouldn’t be up here if she can’t do her job properly! Oh and she tried to take off a price tag and switch it for another!
Associate: That’s not true! Let me show you what I was trying to take off.
My associate comes back with a sensor sticker that’s supposed to deactivate when ran through a checker but apparently, it wasn’t deactivating.
M: Okay, sir. She was just trying to take off a sensor and she didn’t want it to go off as you leave the store. I’m sorry if this was a misunderstanding.
C: takes out his iphone
M: Sir, are you taking a picture of me?
C: Yes I am! I know my rights and I know all California laws!
M: Okay, well I don’t appreciate you taking my picture and I never consented to have my picture taken. I’m gonna have to ask you to leave the store or I’ll call my store manager.
C: You have no rights! You can’t tell me what to do! I’m a paying customer and if I wanna take your picture I can’t do whatever the [bleep] I want! I’m going to file a complaint to corporate about you! And I’m going to write reviews on Yelp and Google about how you give poor customer service!
I called the manager over. Told her what was going on. The customer began to yell at her and she wasn’t having any of it. She just told him to leave, which he did.
I reaaaaally hate rude people.
57. Any brakes will do
While working at advance auto, I had a customer come in demanding a set of brake pads. I asked what he drove, he replied, "Doesn't matter, brake pads are brake pads". I said they are vehicle specific. I was than asked if I was stupid and told to stop trying to rip him off. Being the helpful human I am, I obliged his request. Walked down the isle containing hundreds of different brake pads, particular to your vehicle. Selected a random box, sold random pads to customer.
Two hours later, he attempts to return them stating they don't fit. I refuse the return stating " I cannot return used items". They we're covered in oil and what have you.
58 . Out of date
We had a customer try to get me fired because I wouldn't provide him an installer and a software key for a software version we no longer supported (all he had was an old box), because I knew for a fact it wouldn't work in his situation anyway. It wouldn't work with either his OS or his hardware. It was so old that the whole software line had been discontinued for years, and this wasn't even the version we had discontinued then, it was one we discontinued and replaced with a major update years before that.
I explained repeatedly that we didn't even have a way to generate keys for that anymore and it simply would not do what he was wanting. It wasn't a policy, we could do whatever to make customers happy, but it was completely pointless - it wouldn't work with what he had, and there was no way to make it work. I knew the software had essentially no utility in any modern scenario. We had ended support because the software basically had no modern use at all.
Keep in mind this product was less than $30 new, and that was a long time ago, before dollar apps and tons of inexpensive software anywhere. He also said that he had bought the product second-hand and never even had a key to begin with. He just had an old box. Not even a disc.
He screamed at me, called back and got someone else, and lied about what I'd said, said I'd sworn at him and abused him, called me every bad name in the book, and basically demanded that I be fired, he gets the software, etc. or he'd sue us and defame us online. It finally got to the company owner (whose office is in earshot of mine, so he knows damn well I don't abuse customers). The company owner is also head developer so he agreed to go back and generate a serial number for the guy and send him an old installer. As he was doing this, he repeatedly explained that it wouldn't work on his system, but we were doing this to appease him. The whole time, the guy is going, "It's about the principle, I paid for it, I want it! I demand I have it!" et cetera.
The guy held him on the line without explanation, then started to freak out because -- as we had promised -- it didn't work. The owner said, "That's what I told you would happen." The guy demanded to know how the company compensate him for this huge injustice and waste of his personal time, et cetera, demanded that we MAKE it work no matter the cost, just for him, and the owner said "You got exactly what you asked for, a product that we told you from the first time you spoke to <my name> wouldn't work for you anymore. It is too old to work on your new system, but we spent our time getting it to you anyway, because you insisted you have it. Now you do. That's all we are doing. Goodbye."
59. Take a tumble
At McDonalds I had a customer who ordered a meal for his family (like a £30 order) to eat in. I began gathering the food and soon I had completed the order. I asked if he wanted help carrying the food over to the table and, offended, he scowled at me and said that he was perfectly capable of carrying a couple of trays. Upon picking up two trays of food and drink, one in each hand, he stumbled and dropped his entire order to the floor. The man demanded that I re-complete his order or refund him on the grounds that the trays were over-crowded and too heavy. I refused. The fool then pointed his finger at my face and said, "You give me my food or I'll knock your freaking head off". When I apologetically refused him again he called his family to follow him and kicked the door open (of which hit another employee entering the building having taken a park out) and stormed out, loudly saying "What a joke".
60. Cook your chicken before eating it
One time an older woman returned chicken wings to my store because she said they were "undercooked." I asked to see the package she bought them in and she handed me a package from our meat department. I said, "Ma'am, these are from the meat department, they're raw!" To which she replied, "Oh my, I tried eating a few of them hoping that it was just that part of the wing." I felt really bad and gave her extra money back. Hope she's doing alright.
61. It's all in her head
I used to work at a coffee shop. A lady ordered a mocha and I forgot to add the mocha syrup. It was a dumb mistake so I fixed it, of course. She put it back on the bar a couple minutes later and said, "It doesn't taste right. I want a new one." Okay, I thought, don't know what else I can do, but sure, I'll make a new one. I get started on it and she goes to the restroom. She gets back from the restroom before I'm done making it but sees her old drink on the bar that I hadn't taken back yet and thinks it's her new one. She looks at and says, "Ah, it looks better already!" takes a big drink and says, "Now see, that's perfect," then leaves before I can tell her I didn't do a thing.
62. Please just take my money
I bought a tablet not long after they came out. The cables looked like micro USB cables, but contained 2 extra wires that made it so that regular micro usb cables couldn't charge the tablet.
The company sold these cables for $20 each, but they were so poorly made that they quickly fell apart. I went through 20 in the first year alone; granted, most of them were given to me free while my warranty was valid.
After my warranty ran out, I went to buy another cord, as mine had once again torn up. None of the nearby stores had any. The website didn't have any. I contacted customer service to see about purchasing one from them.
They get my account info, then tell me they can't send me one because my warranty ran out. I explain that I'm not trying to get a free one, I want to purchase one. The agent kept repeating that he couldn't send me a free one. No matter how many times I said I didn't want a free one, I wanted to buy one, he would repeat himself. I asked if they had any for sale, thinking they might be out and he just wasn't explaining properly. Yes, they had them for sale, but he couldn't send me a free one.
In 30 minutes of arguing back and forth like this, I never did get it through his head that I wanted to buy one.
63. More pay than pal
Paypal was terrible after I got a box of roof tiles shipped to me instead of a guitar amplifier I ordered on eBay. I called them and let them know what happened. This was the convo:
Me: "So I got scammed. Instead of an amp, I received a box of roof tiles. I refused the shipment and sent it back. I can supply pictures."
Paypal Rep: "Well, technically the item was delivered."
Me: "It was a box of roof tiles, not an amp."
Paypal Rep: "The ball is in your court. We showed something shipped out."
Then he hung up.
I was furious. I called Citibank, which was the credit card company I used through Paypal. When I told them the situation, they instantly refunded me my money. They told me that even if they had shipped out the amp but it was the wrong color, they would still refund me and try to get their money back from the seller. AWESOME customer service.
64. Like a letter to your teacher
Health insurance. Having to explain to the "first line" of personnel who appear to be there simply to wear you down, what a procedure is, what the codes mean, and why something is, in fact, covered by my insurance. My doctor's office actually provided me all the information knowing that my insurance was denying the claim assuming that I would probably just pay it. It took several phone calls but they did pay the claim. It was extremely frustrating, though, especially when you are sick and having to fight for your insurance to do their job.
65. Hatefilm
Lovefilm. I tried cancelling, and all they would do is put my account on "holiday". They simply refused to cancel my subscription. I eventually gave up and accepted the "holiday".
As that was ending, I tried again, they repeated the "holiday" thing, even though I couldn't have any more "holiday" time on my account. Then they said that I can reduce my subscription (I was on an expensive one as it was for games), but I wanted to completely cancel.
In the end, I sent them an email threatening legal action, as well as mentioning the Data Protection Act and telling them to remove all my details from their site as I didn't trust them.
They finally cancelled, buy my account was still there, including my payment details. So I sent them another email threatening legal action again before they finally removed my details.
I'm glad Amazon bought them then gutted them.
66. Pie in the sky
Last year myself, my wife, brother and fiancé, and sister and boyfriend went out to pizza in Salem, MA. We all ordered and then they deliver them to your table. Everyone's pizzas came except my wife and I. We're waiting for like 10 minutes until we notice people after us were getting food. Finally I go up there and they get all defensive and say they delivered it.
"No, you didn't"
Finally they fess up that another customer had raised his hand and taken our pizza. They then just sat there looking at me like "OH WELL?"
Had to argue with the manager to actually get the pizza I ordered. She tried to make us take other pizzas instead that were already made (and not what we ordered).
Place lost my business for life.
67. It's a dying company
Bought a washer dryer combo from Sears. Opened a Sears credit card to buy it. They both broke in less than a week. After a month of no repairs, I had them returned. Sears refused to acknowledge my return, and I had to fight with them for 6 months to take the charges off the credit card.
Point3D Commercial Imaging Ltd.
68. The farmer in the dell
Totally a first world problem but the surrealism of the situation threw me off.
I had an ol' clunker of a Dell computer that I was trying to inject a few more years of life into. It was still good and I couldn't afford a brand new box at the time. Wanting to install an extra hard disk, I cracked the case open only to find out the thing's skeleton wasn't the traditional "screw it into place" sort. Instead you have to put a pair of clips on your device and then slide/snap it into place.
There was a pair of spare clips on the machine's front end!... for an extra floppy drive.
So, I called Dell in the hope to maybe order and get a pair of hard disk clips shipped. I figured it'd be just a handful of bucks. Totally worth it.
- First person had no clue what I was talking about and transferred me to level 2.
- Level 2 had no clue what I was talking about and transferred me to his supervisor.
- Supervisor admitted that his office wasn't made to handle these sorts of calls and thus gave me the phone number for another call center more specialized in spare parts.
- Called the new number. Explain my situation only to get told by the girl that I had ended up in the billing department. She transferred me to their technical support.
- Tech support guy had no clue what I was talking about and transferred me to another guy. (At this point I realized I had been given the number for a call center in India, and I could barely understand what they were saying.)
- Other guy had no clue what I was talking about and transferred to yet another guy.
- Yet another guy had me describe in excruciating detail the part I wanted, the computer's model number, the computer's serial number. Then proceeded to tell me he didn't believe the computer could support a second hard disk. (BS, dude. The computer had two full-sized IDE plugs, the original HD and the optical drive used one of them.) I hand-waved his concern and stated it wasn't his problem to deal with: I'd assume the consequences.
- This guy put me on hold for 10 minutes only to hand me off to a lady who pretty much made me go through the entire story all over again.
- And so, after an hour of this insane foray since my first call, the lady proceeded to tell me that the pair of floppy disk clips I was holding in my hand at this very moment did not exist. I froze, thanked her for the help, hung up, turned away, and went to get myself hammered.
69. Not the hedgehog
I went to Sonic for lunch one day, and my boss asked me to get her a route 44 Blue Coconut Slush. The girl that brought the stuff to my car was on roller skates. She hit a rock, and the giant cup of blue came flying into my open window. She laughed her butt off and apologized while I got out to let it drip off of me instead of even more getting onto the tan interior of my new car.
The girl left, came back with a wad of napkins and a handful of "10 cents off" cardboard circles and tossed them in my car. As I was trying to wrap my brain around what was happening, my friend called me and said her baby had just been born prematurely and she wanted me to go straight to the hospital. I got there and stopped in a bathroom to try to scrub blue dye off of my arms, face, and neck. I wasn't very successful, but my friend and her husband had a good laugh after a stressful day, so that was a plus.
When I got home, my husband saw that the inside of my car had been dyed blue and had a layer of sugary crust. He strongly suggested that I call the manager and ask if they would have my car cleaned. I called, and the manager told me to go see him the next day. When I showed up, he said he could have one of his employees vacuum out my car, and handed me a card with "half off drinks for life" scribbled on it. I chalked it all up to "Sonic sucks", and planned to let everyone I knew use that card for the rest of my life.
First trip there, my husband handed the drive-thru guy the card, and he confiscated it saying it was only good for that one time. At that point, I was pretty mad. I emailed corporate; the owner of that Sonic called me pretty quickly and claimed that it was his "idiot son" who gave me the card and that there is no such thing as a lifetime discount. I told him I didn't care about a discount and that I just wanted them to clean my car.
I ended up with 10 free combo meals and a car interior that still attracts more dirt in certain spots no matter how much I clean it.
70. This is how they wear you down
AT&T wireless back in the mid-2000's. I moved states and changed my phone number with AT&T to a local number. However, they kept trying to send me bills from the previous number saying that I broke contract and needed to pay an early termination fee since I 'discontinued service' with one number to set-up new service with another number.
I refused to pay it, spent about 20 hours on the phone with customer service, went to my local store 6-8 times to discuss this with various representatives, and even had a collection agency call me.
After about 4 months of this and having my service cut off and cut back on multiple times, they finally decided to stop pursuing me after I wrote numerous letters explaining what happened to a number of people. Every time I would start telling them my story after they pulled up my account information they would go: "Oh yeah, looks like you have some history with us."
After it finally got settled, I was at the end of my contract with AT&T and they tried getting me to sign another contract with a discounted new phone. I told them that the only way I would sign back up with AT&T would be to have a written offer of 6 months of free service plus a free phone for putting up with the BS of the previous 4 months. The manager told me they can't offer free service and I told them as politely as I could to have a nice day and that AT&T should remove my name from any future correspondence or I would consider the communication harassment.
I haven't heard from them in almost 10 years now.
71. Caught in the internets
I will tell my story of Time Warner Cable.
Here is the start of the story. I moved from 1 block, to another in the same town (1.5 miles apart), and had 10mbs internet which worked fine. My roommate could watch Netflix, and so could I, also while playing online games.
I moved to a new apartment, and got better internet with it. I now had 25mbs -- awesome. However, when pinging, I only ever got about 4mbs.
Watching Netflix was impossible, let alone Netflix and an online game.
I originally called them, letting them know. Their first line of defence was, "You need to upgrade to better internet." No, no I don't. Then, plugging directly into the modem, and all the troubleshooting steps. Many times the call would drop, and I would have to start all over again from troubleshooting step 1. Telling them I just went through this did not help. They ended up swapping out the modem twice saying, "Oh you have the wrong one." I had 4 onsite technician visits.
First tech tested everything, and his exact words were "I don't know." Second tech visit said I was never home and "left a note on the door." I called out of work to be home, and they never showed, never knocked, and no note on my door. Third visit, was from a tech who, when I called him, started going through my troubleshooting steps over the phone instead of coming out. I told him it still happens when directly plugged into the modem, then he asked me, "Do you use it while on wireless? That's your problem." I prompty told him to [bleep] himself, and he hung up on me.
I got the 4th tech to come out, and he FINALLY checked the outside pole to realize there was something wrong the line outside on the pole.
All done, right? Wrong.
So he schedules a maintenance crew to come out and check the poles. A month rolls by, and still nothing and no one. This is when I start the whole thing over. I call and speak directly to a supervisor who states, "We cannot send out a maintenance crew unless a tech visits you first." When I told him they had, he repeated that sentence 10 times.
72. The usual suspects
Wells Fargo. I had closed a savings account years ago. Somehow, Wells Fargo claimed that I had incurred a withdraw from the savings account. It turned out to have been an error on their part. However, they tacked on an "overdraft fee" of $15. I noticed it in my checking account.
When I inquired, they said that it was because there were no funds in the savings account. But the account had been closed for years! I spent an entire week calling and e-mailing different departments (referred to me by different reps). I felt that I was at the mercy of whatever erroneous charge they wanted to throw at me. Ultimately, I believe nothing would have been corrected had I not e-mailed every Wells Fargo director that I could find on the internet.
Eventually I was advised that they had recalled the bogus late fee, but made sure to get it in writing. I stopped banking with them at that time.
73. Forever and ever, ramen
This was actually very recently. There was this little ramen shop in Chinatown that I loved. Finally decided to take my boyfriend there. Started out fine. I order curry udon. The guy repeats it back to me, I confirm. Done deal.
I get my food. It's curry ramen. Having worked in the food service industry, I don't get all upset, I just flag down the waiter and let him know politely that I got the wrong order. He was fine with it. A few minutes later he brings out my curry udon. I was happy. Until...
5 minutes later the manager (the guy I ordered from originally) comes out yelling at me, waving a receipt in my face saying how I ordered ramen and I got ramen, blah blah. I tell him no, I ordered udon. He argued with me.
Thing is, I don't understand why he was so angry. They cost the same thing, so it's not like I was trying to scam them. He had zero reason to treat me that way and yell at me in front of the whole dining room.
I used to speak very highly of that place and recommend it to my friends all the time. Nope. They just lost a customer for life.
74. That's not what 'free' means
I bought my fiancée some Michael Kors boots she wanted from Macy's last Christmas. They ended up being about a half size too small. I kept the receipt, so we went back to the mall to just try and swap them for a larger size.
I explained the situation to one of the people at the customer service desk, and she immediately got hostile with me saying "So you just want a free pair of boots..?" and "It's just a half size too small.. if she can't fit in boots that are a half size too small, are you sure you even know what size she needs?"
What I thought would take 10 minutes ended up taking almost an hour. It was beyond ridiculous.
75. Got sauced
A restaurant dumped about two cups of soya sauce in my new leather purse. Completely destroyed it, never offered me anything to compensate, they didn't even cover my bill for the evening.
It was an accident. The jar was knocked off the table when they went to grab something else, but then they proceed to clean everything around the area and never mentioned the purse at all. I can understand not wanting to touch someone else's purse, but absolutely no reaction from them whatsoever?
"I'm pretty sure you just ruined my purse," I said, as she scurried off.
I was young, and a little shy, so I didn't raise a stink. I should have. They should have paid to replace the purse.
76. Do I have to chase you?
I drove down to Lousiana to request a duplicate car title. You have to be physically present to do this.
I also needed to have a letter from Chase releasing me from a lien on my car. I went to the local branch. They wouldn't just type something up on the computer. That sort of power is apparently not granted to a mere bank manager... you know, he's only in charge of a huge vault full of cash. No, the letter had to come from an office in Texas.
I explained to Chase that they were forcing me to have to come back to the state a second time (7 hour drive). They offered to overnight the letter to the branch. That way, I'd merely have to stay an extra day.
Fine, but the letter never came. When I got home at about 3AM (having waited around all day for that letter), the letter was sitting on my door in a FedEx envelope. Morons.
77. Ghosted
I went to a "family dining place" with my ex. It was the "crappy" one, and we knew it, but we were really hungry and it was there. It's important to note the place is EMPTY except for us, nowhere near closing time.
We walk in and get seated almost immediately. Then nothing for about 10 minutes. We find a waitress and get our drinks put in... About 15 minutes passed and they finally show up. We were going to order then but she just walked away. About 5 minutes later she's back, and we order.
Again, this is a "family" dining place. Think a lot of cheap, quick to prepare food.
We wait. And wait. And wait. After about 30 minutes our food shows up. Mine is fine (chicken strips) but my ex's is completely wrong. He just said screw it, and ate it anyway.
We finish about 15 minutes after the food got there and waited to see the waitress walk by so we could grab the check. And waited. And waited. For about 30 minutes, because hey, we're honest and want to pay the bill. So my ex gets up to try to find ANYONE to get us the bill. We can't find a single employee. He yells out into the kitchen... Nothing.
So... We just left.
This is the only time I've walked out on a bill.
78. Maybe THEY know
A couple of years ago when you could still actually talk to a real person through Bank of America, I called with an odd question that couldn't be handled by the traditional number roulette menu. They had disabled the "press 0 for operator" which used to be so wonderful.
Anyways, so of course I had to go through each new menu with the woman speaking "conveniently" and "comfortingly" slow so I don't miss a single word. Next, new menu. Get with someone finally, I'm in the wrong place and need to be transferred. Whatever, fine. Get a new person, have to go through all my information before they'll hear my question. In the wrong place, transferred. Info, wrong place, transferred once more.
It had been around 20 minutes by this point. Then I hear, "Hi I'm Susie with Wells Fargo, how may I assist you?"
What the -- did you just transfer me to another bank?
79. Wallpaper tiger
I ordered some wallpaper through Home Depot's website, and paid for it via paypal. It arrived with one roll badly damaged so I went into the store to return it. The 80 year old woman inexplicably tasked with manning the computer simply could not figure out how to process the return. I stood there for 15 minutes while she made various attempts, and I was trying not to give off any sense of impatience or make her feel rushed or flustered.
And then she ultimately concluded that there was nothing she could do and that I should just go away and come back another day. I asked if there was anyone else in the store who might be able to try, and she just refused to call anyone. I told her to just take the wallpaper and my receipt, issue me a store credit for the amount, and then leave a note for someone who knows what they're doing which explains the situation.
It shouldn't be up to me to drive 30 minutes home, only to have to come back the next day and hope that she's not working and that something magical happened overnight to fix the computers. I was surprised that someone working customer service thought saying "go away and come back another day" was an adequate resolution.
80. You don't have to be a customer to be disgruntled
My brother lives next to some big factory. It wasn't a problem except for all the 18-wheelers that go in and out all day. My brother found out that his road was supposed to be restricted (no 18-wheelers). So he called the Department of Transportation and had the sign put back up. He then waited a few days to see if the trucks would change their route. They didn't.
So he called the plant manager and asked him why the trucks were still going down the road since the sign was up? He apologized, said it was all a big mistake, he'd take care of it, yada yada. A couple more days and still trucks were coming. My brother called the plant manager again and found his number had been blocked.
He then got the fax number to corporate and sent of a letter reporting the illegal trucks and oh by the way, your manager blocked my number so that's why I'm contacting you.
Well, they just about groveled at his feet. No more trucks came by and the plant manager called to apologize.
81. At least karma's rooting for you
I had some money and personal items stolen out of my hotel room while vacationing in Mexico. The day we had to catch our flight was the day I noticed it had all gone missing. Some of the memorabilia I had bought for friends, along with 80$ American and some expensive makeup. I was 18 at the time and I was absolutely devastated. The hotel refused to help in anyway, and I KNOW It had been there before breakfast and our room was cleaned.
So I headed to the airport sadly, completely bummed about an otherwise awesome trip. At the check in at the airport, the guy asked why I was so glum, and I told him what happened. Without saying a word, the guy upgraded my plane ticket to a first class ticket. Free of charge! I was riding coach before that. I didn't realize what he had done. I glumly accepted my ticket and made my way to the boarding gate.
While waiting for the plane, there was this incredibly rude woman who glared at the entire time for no apparent reason. I asked her for the time, and she scoffed at me and took another seat. I could hear her criticizing what I was wearing and how 'trashy' she thought I looked. Just mean.
Anyways, when they started calling up passengers by class, I looked down at my ticket, and noticed that my seats were being called for first class. Dumbfounded, I grabbed my bags and sat down in first class. I was ecstatic about the twist ending to my vacation.
And the witch that turned up her nose at me? I had the pleasure of staring her down as she walked by me in first class and sheepishly avoided eye contact as she shuffled back to her coach seat.
82. Pizza so bad it should be in jail
Maybe ten years back, a new Mountain Mike's Pizzeria opened in my town. Since it's a really small town, my family got excited for a new restaurant, so we went in just a few days after they opened.
The four of us sat down and were helped right away. Ordered a large pepperoni pizza and drinks, pretty simple. Our drinks come in a timely fashion. Our pizza did not.
We waited (we're generally all pretty patient and understanding) for an hour before we snagged a server to ask about our pizza. (There were very few people in the restaurant, and most of the servers were sort of milling around, sweeping and wiping clean tables and other busy work).
The guy apologized for the wait and said he'd go check on it for us. He came back out and said they were very sorry but it would be another 30 minutes on the pizza. No explanation, but we figured maybe they'd forgotten to put it in. We gave them the benefit of the doubt since they'd just opened.
We waited another 45 minutes and no pizza came. Called a server again. He told us he was very sorry and he would go check on that for us.
He came back out with a black disc that wasn't even recognizable as a pizza. It was a giant charcoal brick. Parts of it were actually smoking. He put it on the table and told us to enjoy our pizza, and that they were sorry again about the wait, but that they forgot it in the oven. The first time we ordered it.
So my dad finally had enough and very politely told the guy thanks but no thanks, we wouldn't be eating this pizza and we would probably not be returning unless we heard that their service had improved. We stood up to leave and the guy bolted for the back room.
Out came the manager. He asked us what the problem was. My dad told him that we waited nearly two hours to be served a pizza that had been in the oven for just as long. He showed it to the manager. It was literally inedible.
The manager shrugged and said "I don't see anything wrong here, Sir, except that you're trying to leave without paying for your meal." The manager ordered employees to stand at every exit to ensure that we couldn't leave. My dad still refused to pay and suggested that the manager let us leave or he would call the police.
So the manager called the cops, saying there was an indignant customer in the restaurant. The cops showed up and ask what the problem is. Manager said we won't pay for our pizza. My dad said the manager wouldn't let us leave, but the guy denied it. Cops scoffed at the manager, walked us out of the restaurant, and we've never eaten there since.
83. DD ID
I went to a bar after a college football game with some friends. I'm 21, but I don't drink too often, so I offered to be the designated driver for the night. So we show up to the bar, we get in, we are having a good time just hanging around and singing karaoke, and then I go up to the bar asking just for a Diet Coke. The bartender pours my drink and then turns around and asks for my ID.
I handed him the same ID I gave the bouncer and have previously given him when I have ordered drinks, and he immediately tells me to leave (with my ID in his hand). I told him I was the DD and he just yelled at me (so the whole bar could hear), "This is a fake ID and if you don't leave voluntarily, then I will make sure you leave." I've got terrible anxiety so I just left -- all of my friends were confused -- leaving my ID there because the bartender demanded $100 to get it back.
Of course, a cop was waiting right outside the bar where I parked and pulled me over since he saw me just walk out of a bar. I told the cop that the bartender took my real ID but I gave him my name, social and a government identification from my job. The cop could tell I was sober and my government ID is a lot more legit than a license, so he ran my name and it came back saying I was 21.
The cop marched into the bar and demanded my ID was relinquished immediately, much to the bartenders surprise. One of my friends caught him saying I needed to pay him for my "fake ID," and in his stupor told the police officer and showed him the video. The bartender was immediately arrested on the spot.
So having a crappy bartender led to his arrest... And now that he doesn't work there I don't get carded there anymore.
84. That's why I pay you
Jiffy Lube. I am male and live in a rural part of the South, so I am required by some statute from Jesus to know a lot about cars, but I don’t. I walk in to get my oil changed and they ask what kind. Naturally, I didn’t know off the top of my head so I said I needed to go look. They laughed in my face and it was a huge guffaw. “OH MY GOD. You don't know your engine oil number? Why are you even HERE?!” And the whole place just erupted in laughter. I felt like I was in a movie. I told the guy to shove his oil and went to Walmart where I got treated like a human being, ironically.
85. Big misteak
There's this restaurant in my neighborhood that has the worst service of any place I've ever been. I've gone half a dozen times because it's close and the food is really, really good. But the last time I went, I ordered the steak and eggs and my girlfriend ordered something really basic.
So we're sitting there for a long time -- long enough for the people next to us to sit, order, and get their food. So I'm about to flag down the waitress and see what's taking so long when she walks over and says, "I'm sorry, but the kitchen says you aren't allowed to have your steak."
"They say I can't have it?"
"Yeah, sorry but they say they can't make it for you."
"I don't understand, you mean you're out of the steak?"
"No, they keep making it wrong."
"They... huh?"
"They made three already but they keep making it wrong. Cooking it wrong. You can have something else."
So then I order something else, we wait over half an hour again, and the waitress says they lost our order ticket and we left.
86. Just the tip
Had dinner with my family at a restaurant near me when I was a teenager. I think this was the third location of a local place. First location was decent, second was trying to be a little fancier, and the third fancier still. The prices at each location were higher than the location before, but without too much improvement in quality.
The service was mediocre, and the food not much better -- especially for the price. We got the bill, and my mother tipped about 15% (which is low for her, but still a standard/typical amount in the US).
The manager of the place brought the bill back and told my mother she didn't leave enough of a tip. That's when my dear sweet mother zeroed out the tip line. I'd never seen her do that before, and I wouldn't be surprised if she never does it again.
We haven't been back in over 15 years, and I honestly don't understand how the place is still in business.
87. Goodnight and good luck
I went to a Ford dealership once to browse their preowned vehicles. The salesman greeted me in the lot, asked me to follow him to his desk, and told me that I have to fill out a credit application so he could help me. I said that I wasn't comfortable doing so. I literally just got there. His response was "Well, there's the door."
