People Reveal Which Brands and Stores They've Vowed To 'Never Again' Return To
Most businesses are, well... In the business of making their customers happy. People are much more likely to come back if they have a good experience, after all.
Not all businesses seem to understand this key concept, though, and many put customer satisfaction at a much lower priority level.
Wherher by having horrible customer service, policies designed to cheat people out of money, or terribly unsanitary premises, there are plenty of businesses that seem to do everything they can to drive customers away.
Reddit user u/radbrad7 asked:
"What is your 'never again' brand, store, restaurant, or company?"
*Content warning: mention of human trafficking, death of an animal*
20.
Cox cable/internet.
Called to cancel my account after I got legally separated from my ex-wife. She was able to cancel the cancellation (her name was on the account as well -- EDIT: I was the primary account holder. She was added for billing only when I was on deployments.) and use that account for like 8 years. I moved to England for a while, then to New Mexico, and eventually back to Oklahoma (where she still lived).
When I tried to activate new service, they told me I had a previous account with an unpaid balance of like $700. Granted, it was the ex-wife that really f***ed me over on that one, but the fact that they allowed her to "un-cancel" a service I asked to have canceled blew my mind.
19.
A hospital in my area. My brother and his wife just recently had a baby there. My first nephew and their first child. He was born two weeks premature by scheduled c-section, but you couldn't tell since he was more than 9 pounds when he came out. If he went full term he could have been more than 11 pounds.
Anyways, he arrives and everything is going well, his blood sugar was a little low, but the doctors claimed it got better. A day later and he begins twitching every once in a while. My sister in law asks the pediatrician and the nurse why and they said that it was fine. The day after that and the twitching increased and he began doing it every other minute. My brother and his wife panic and ask the doctor but the doctor checks his blood quickly and says nothing is wrong but if they're still worried about it they should wait to go to the pediatrician on Monday (3 days later).
As soon as they leave the hospital despite the baby still twitching they turn around and ask for the doctor to please look one more time. He refuses and tells them that they can't look anymore because they are discharged from the hospital.
Refusing to believe that their baby was okay, my brother and his wife took him to a different hospital's emergency room. The doctor there took one look at the baby's blood and immediately prepared a bottle of formula for him. His blood sugar was 36. If you aren't familiar with blood sugar then just know that sugar that low can be deadly. My sister in law's milk hasn't come in yet, she didn't know that, and the pediatrician at the first hospital only gave the baby 2 ounces of formula in 2 days. He baby was very close to going into shock. If they took the doctors advice and waited until Monday that baby would have been dead before reaching home.
18.
There is a "burger" joint here, relatively new (less than 5 years) that some people swear by. It's a weird kind of burger though, a kind of spicy gravy style burger. But not like your gran's gravy, it's rather...tangy? Vinegary? Whatever. It was odd.
So I tried it on my lunch break (recommended by a coworker), and thought...meh, I don't get the hype, but it's not terrible.
Then I went back to work, and shortly thereafter all hell broke loose.
I had the most volatile, violent, unsolicited and certainly nonconsensual colon cleanse of my life. I was so obviously tore up that not even my manager made a stink about me essentially doing zero work for the next 4 hours of the work day.
To this day when I pass by that place I say "Never again." My wife thinks I'm making a stupid Dad joke I won't give up on (she's aware of what it did to me), but for me it's more of a solemn prayer.
17.
Neiman Marcus. I went there to buy a Prada bag for my mother. She had a knock off she loved, so I figured she'd appreciate the real thing.
I wear t-shirts to work, but this day it was at least a fancy one. It didn't matter. The sales lady told me "It's very expensive," rolled her eyes and walked away.
So, I went next door to the actual Prada store and bought one.
I don't need to be judged by an angry middle aged woman working retail, thank you very much.
16.
Turbo Tax. Did my return, got a notice that my e-file needed to be corrected, logged back in to fix it and my return wasn't there anymore. 6 hours on the phone with 3 tiers of tech support, each one trying exactly the same thing. Finally they were just trying random things, so I tried random things in parallel, managed to get to my return with the invoice number from paying for the service WITHOUT logging in. Tried to get them to understand that this was a Very Bad Thing that they should report to someone... and they told me they had no access to anyone technical and no way to submit bugs.
This from the company that lobbied to make it illegal for the government to offer tax filing service.
15.
Lularoe. I only bought stuff to help out a friend that was trying to make ends meet. Luckily she quit after about a year. Bought 3 pairs of leggings over the course of the year and none of them made it the year without holes. $25 each. Never again.
Also, I felt gross buying from an MLM, but like I said, just supporting a friend.
14.
Frontier internet. They're one of the crappiest ISP's I've ever had, I will never go back, no matter how cheap it is.
I stopped paying them like 3 years ago, and they continue to give me service.
They are so disorganized that they have no idea.
13.
I bought an engine from AutoZone for a vehicle I owned. They had a vendor build the engine, and it was supposed to ship to my house. I waited three weeks for it to arrive, but it never did. I contacted their store, was told that it hadn't shipped yet and was coming via FedEx freight. I kept up with the tracking # but couldn't get anywhere with it. I kept calling back every couple of days to see what was going on, and no one could figure it out. I finally managed to find out that it had shipped via another company (RL freight), and had been delivered to somewhere else. It was like pulling teeth to get a refund on an engine I never received. It took another two weeks to get the refund.
I won't buy a soda from AutoZone now.
12.
Lyft. They recently charged me a damage fee for damages I could not have plausibly caused. I sent statements explaining how it couldn't have been me. They sent back a standardized statement and didn't give me any additional information. There is no phone line to talk to a representative. I sent them multiple follow up emails, which they never responded to.
Now I have to write a statement for my credit card company to dispute the charge.
11.
Comcast. A door-to-door salesman straight up lied to my dad, saying they had a four-DVR setup that would cost less than what we were paying AT&T. When the installation guy got there, he said that no, they didn't have a four-DVR setup, he was told to give us the standard two-DVR setup. Which was absolutely not something that would work in a house with six people with wildly different tastes in TV shows.
So my dad tells him never mind, we're sticking with AT&T then, but because the Comcast guy had already installed our new cable box, he couldn't take it back with him, so we had to mail it back to Comcast ourselves.
The kicker is, five years later Comcast tried to bill my parents for the cable box, saying we never sent it back. My parents insisted they did, and Comcast wanted the UPS receipt, which obviously we no longer had because it was five years ago and we hadn't heard anything from them before this. So my parents refused to pay, Comcast sent a collections company after us, and when my parents explained the situation to the collection company, they were like "those f***ers, we'll take care of this." That was, thankfully, the end of it.
10.
I run the front desk at a hotel and Expedia are an absolute nightmare. They also straight up lie to the guests and to the hotels constantly. Truly one of the most shady companies I've ever dealt with.
They purposely try and deceive people who don't know any better into thinking that they are dealing with the hotel directly. They create adds in such a way that when people google the hotel's phone number, a number to Expedia comes up, and if the customer asks if the are speaking directly with the hotel front desk they will say yes.
There have been countless times where guests have called to cancel their reservation that was booked through Expedia. I inform them that they will have to contact Expedia directly, since they pre-paid through them, but that it will be no issue because the hotel does not charge a penalty fee for cancellation. An expedia representative will call the hotel with the guest on hold and ask about getting it cancelled. I tell them it's no problem. They ask if we will be charging a penalty fee, and I tell them no. All is right and good, right? NOPE.
I then get a call back from the guest who is upset, saying that the Expedia representative told them they could not be refunded because of the fee charged by the hotels cancellation policy. Taking the guests money and blaming it on the hotel, and keeping all of the profit. This has happened countless times.
I once had a guest while at the front desk call about cancelling 3 days out of a multiple day reservation, as she had to leave earlier than expected. They pulled the same bullsh*t with her, not knowing that she was at the front desk.
After me telling the representative that the cancellation is fine and we will not be charging any penalties, they get back on the phone with her and blatantly lie.
I asked her to hand her phone to me and that was quite a surprise for the representative. Who said that "there must have been a misunderstanding".
9.
We bought a flea medicine to use on our cat and she became lethargic and didn't eat anything. We took her to the vet and they told us that they have been trying to get that medicine off the shelves because of how it affects animals. I was in a theater watching Despicable Me when my cat finally passed away. It sucked knowing that my cat is dead because of some money-hungry brand who doesn't care about the safety of the animals it gives its products to.
Pyrethrins are toxic to cats. I nearly killed my cat with Hartz ear mite solution fifteen years ago, and it's still on the market. Why Hartz hasn't been sued out of existence I will never understand.
8.
If I see something is being shipped by OnTrac, I'll cancel. The three times they were the delivery company from Amazon, they lost one package completely and tried to say it wasn't their fault. The second package was also deemed lost but then showed up on my door step something like six weeks later. The third time it sat on "shipping label created" for a week and I just contacted Amazon and canceled the package. You don't find a lot of positive reviews out there and any positive ones you do find seem like they were written by the company via a fake account.
Every package I've ever had stolen was shipped via OnTrac. They claimed it was delivered and I never find it. One time I looked with MINUTES of it's supposed delivery. Yeah, sure maybe the residents of my apartment complex are shady but UPS, FEDEX, and USPS never seem to have this issue
OnTrac regularly marks my packages as delivered without coming anywhere near my house. I always have to call and complain, and they have to come back the next day. I've had them pretend to find the package in my front yard, after I watched them leave the car with it.
7.
Jiffy Lube.
Those idiots told me my car has no filter! I'm pretty sure they just didn't want to take it out. They also said my car takes a "special European oil" and charged a lot extra for it. It's not a special oil at all. It's an uncommon oil but a gallon of it costs the same as typical oil. I'm going to stick with the dealership to get oil changed because it's cheaper and they know what they're doing.
EDIT : I forgot to add the ending to this story! Not long after I got my oil changed, Jiffy Lube sent me a text message with a link asking to leave a review of their service on Google. So I obliged and left the most brutally honest one star review you'd ever read! The next day, the manager called me and left a voicemail. She was VERY adamant that Jiffy Lube had to charge a high price for my oil because it "only can run on special European oil". In regards to the air filter, she offered an investigation to look at video footage to see if the technicians looked for the air filter. I know they didn't, because I would've seen them take it out! It's inside the engine cover, which they never took off.
I seriously don't know how Jiffy Lube is still in business. I hear nothing but bad things about them. In my own experience, you never get the advertised special; there's always something about your car that makes it need more oil or more expensive oil or whatever. I guess we're both just lucky that they remembered to put the drain plug back in.
6.
FTD. For Mother's Day one year, I ordered flowers through them for both of my grandmothers and my mom. I ordered cards, a teddy bear, all of it, right? So my mom sends me a thank you and a picture of what she got. I notice there's no cards, no bear, and it's not the bouquet I ordered for her. I called the company, they gave me a refund, whatever. My mom got flowers and I got a refund--it worked out.
I call grandma #1 to wish her a happy mother's day--she got her flowers, but no card or bear. I contact FTD AGAIN. Refund, again. I call grandma #2. I thought "there's no way in hell they'll screw this up again."Yeah, they screwed it up again. At least grandma 2 got her teddy bear, but no card. She didn't even know the flowers were from me. I was so angry with FTD by that point that I didn't even both calling them again. They've lost my business for life.
Companies like FTD or 1800 flowers are just intermediaries. They will feed your order to the cheapest shop near you. Cut out the middle man and go find a decent local florist instead. Costs less and you'll get better flowers.
5.
Wayfair. Purchased a $1000 sectional couch that was delivered with damaged upholstery. They refused to let me return it and instead offered me 10% off my next purchase. Yeah..... Never using that discount code.
Refused to let you return it? F**k that, dispute the charge
This is my job, disputing these charges. Had a customer call me a few weeks back, had gotten damaged merchandise from Wayfair, company offered her a store credit. Said if she wanted a refund shed have to disassemble it and ship it back. She was disabled, and that's why she paid them to deliver and set up in the first place! I called Wayfair with her, and got them to agree to come out and take the damn thing back. So many businesses will jerk the customer around until the bank calls and suddenly then its "oh of course we can fix that right away!".
Left the claim open just in case they didnt follow through, but yeah. Point being, if you dont get it, if it arrives damaged, if it's not what you ordered, if its branded stuff that turns out counterfeit, etc - these are all things we can fight. The biggest thing we ask is that you've at least tried to fix it with the business first. If you've done that, and gotten nowhere, we can fight it.
4.
JDMRacingMotors... Gave me a damaged motor and claimed a compression test was the only way to test the engine and said it passed. Barely held on in one cylinder. To make matters worse, if you put coolant in where it ought to go, it would come out of the oil pan. Made a few calls and had email exchanges with their "mechanics" and was informed coolant and oil touch regularly and that is how it cools the oil. Wrong on so many levels. Never got my money back either so I ended up using the good parts from the exterior to rebuild my old engine.
3.
Macy's. Got a credit card through them to buy a suit. My parents offered to pay the card off as a birthday present. Cue months of them calling me 5+ times a day, asking where the payment, that had already been made, was. Harassing me to make more and larger payments. When it was finally payed off, they then tacked on a "completed payment fee" and never sent a bill, so the whole damn thing started all over. I was genuinely about to file a lawsuit over harassment or something.
It was unbelievable, because I would tell one person the payment was made, and then get 4 more calls the same day asking the same thing. Then rinse and repeat tomorrow.
2.
Spirit airlines. Never again. F**k them. Flight from Vegas got canceled. They don't even bother trying to put you on another flight, not only that you have to pay extra for the next flight available. I told them they can go f--- themselves and I want a refund, the customer service person told me he can refund me spirit credit, that's when I lost it. After enough bitching, he gave me my money back to my credit card and I bought a flight on delta.
After my experience I made it a point to go on several review sites and made a PSA to never fly spirit again. This was one of many incidents I have had to deal with them, this one just broke me because I was flying back from Vegas, I can only handle Vegas for 2 nights, after that I want the f**k outta there, having to stay there another night was not something I wanted to do. Also it was not weather related as they told me, No other flights into detroit that day were cancelled, I checked, I even told that to the customer service agent, he shrugged it off.
1.
When I canceled my AT&T internet (Hooray for local fiber-to-the-premises!) I prepared myself due to all the horror stories I read on reddit. When I sent my equipment back, I video'd myself packing it up, took pictures of everything, even documented the post office transaction. When I canceled my service, I did it through online chat, so I could have transcripts. (The online service people were wonderful, and I have no beef with them at all. In fact, I always gave them the highest ratings in the surveys afterward.)
Well, of course they said they never got the equipment back.
It took me SIX months of constant back-and-forth, going to collections, and just every manner of bad service imaginable. One day, I spent what felt like hours on the phone and finally got transferred to a woman in Nashville named Deborah, to whom I poured out my story. Well, Deborah wasn't going to let bad sh!T go down on her watch, so she went through every computer system she could access until she figured out what went wrong, and then she fixed it for me.
tl;dr I hate AT&T, but I love Deborah.
What business will you never patronize again because they are just that bad?
People Break Down The Most Bizarre Beauty Standards
Reddit user Quintowne asked: 'what is a beauty standard you cant believe people actually like?'
We've all been held to some unexpected beauty standard at some point, like how to properly and less comfortably wear that shirt, or how we should cut our hair, or that our teeth should be whiter.
In addition to being inundated with these messages that we are not good enough or beautiful enough naturally, we're also confronted by advertisement after advertisement of the latest tool, makeup, primer, machine, or supplement that will make us that much more attractive.
And some of the beauty hacks that are suggested to us are, quite frankly, really weird.
Wondering what others had heard of, Redditor Quintowne asked:
"What is a beauty standard you can't believe people actually like?"
One Word: Photoshop
"Clearly photoshopped pictures and weird posing angles."
- chemistryofacarcrash
Suspicious Teeth
"Overly perfect veneers."
- doublexxchrome
"One of my Facebook friends already has good teeth but then she went and got veneers. Now her teeth are just...too big and too BRIGHT."
- HeathenHumanist
The Nose You've Seen Somewhere Before
"Every nose looking exactly the same."
- Blitzkriek
"Thank you from all the non-standard nose people."
- hyperfat
"And ski slope or button nose. They are cute but not everyone’s face is meant to have that type of nose and it doesn’t look good on everyone. It sucks seeing so many young girls on TikTok get nose jobs and all have the exact same nose."
- DepressionBarbie_
The Over-Inflation... Of Lips
"What people do to their lips is wild to me."
- Purples_A_Fruit
"I came here to say the over-inflated lips with the ostrich lashes combo. It’s so much."
- GamerMomm
Gaunt Chic
"Buccal fat removal."
- Groundbreaking-Duck
"Yes! The buccal fat is there for a reason. It instantly ages them. They look gaunt."
- Icy_Attempt_300
"Yes. There's a difference between a chiseled face and a gaunt face."
"Peak Angelina Jolie, Taylor Hill, Monica Bellucci, etc. have chiseled faces."
"Anya Taylor-Joy, Bella Hadid, and others who underwent unnecessary buccal fat removal surgeries just look gaunt."
- RainyDayReader_999
Questionable Eyebrows
"Stupid eyebrows that look like perfectly angled stencils are a shade way too dark for their complexion. Like blonde girls with two black geometric boomerangs on her forehead."
- montanagrizfan
Dislike Big Butts
"Butt implants. Just looks nasty as h**l."
- PureDeidBrilliant
"I just saw one in the wild without all the filters that normally accompany it. It was so weird. Like a flesh diaper that should have been changed hours ago."
- yellowmew
Too Dramatic Eyelashes
"Giant eyelashes that will make you take flight if you flutter them fast enough."
- T*tsMcGhee99
"My husband hates the long fake eyelash look, and he asked me why women wear them when men don't particularly like them."
"I thought it would be funny, so I told him it's not about impressing men but about asserting one's dominance on another woman."
"He believed me and now tells all his friends that it's an 'alpha-female' thing, hahaha."
- Striving_Hermit
A Little Too Perfect
"The overly sculpted beard trend. You know when the beard is trimmed and looks like it was outlined in concealer? Neatening up is nice but a sudden pale line as a border around your stubble... looks like it was airbrushed on and not touched up."
- hecatemoonshadow
"Thank you for putting into words what I could never put my finger on. It's that weird barbershop ad look. Too weirdly 'perfect' looking to be attractive."
- dzzi
Dozens of Miss Piggys
"I’m from Stockholm. A lot of girls, particularly from rich areas, like to use so much fake tan that they are orange, and bleach their hair from what was usually dark blonde to platinum blonde."
"Then they style it to make it voluminous (which is easy to do because their hair is dead from all the dyeing) and apply lots of make-up, which typically includes black mascara or fake lashes."
"So, a lot of girls here bear a striking resemblance to Miss Piggy. There’s nothing wrong with looking like this, I just don’t understand it."
- WhereMyEelAt
"No One's Neck's as Incredibly Thick as Gaston!"
"Those grossly buff guys on all dating shows. They all look like Gaston from 'Beauty and the Beast,' and I hate it so much. I don’t even watch those shows, but the lack of variety is appalling."
- toedplatypus
Flat... Teeth?
"Grinding canine teeth flat. A dentist once took me aside and told me that he could grind mine down, flat, and make it a really good smile."
"I said, 'No, thanks,' but was thinking, 'Why in the f**k would I do that?!'"
- Bardez
Laminated Eyebrows
"Laminated, combed-up, thick a** eyebrows. Why."
- comoshnyee
"Yes! This is the one I was going to say. It is such a strange beauty trend to me that I've noticed in the past couple of years. Granted, I do come from a time when eyebrows were plucked into a high arch."
"I think people should just leave their eyebrows be for the most part. I can understand plucking, waxing, or trimming very bushy eyebrows or a uni-brow, but combing the hairs straight up and plastering them to your forehead just doesn't look good."
- KrustyKohn
Follow the Leader
"The fact that a huge portion of the world's population has successfully brainwashed itself into thinking that the Kardashians/Jenners are the epitome of beauty to the point that many are willing to imitate whatever moronic thing they do to their bodies is just wild to me."
- Tough_Stretch
Standing Out from the Crowd
"Any plastic surgery that makes random women look like they're all related. At one point, we'll all start to think thin lips and big noses are hot solely because they'll stand out in a sea of copy/paste people."
- Intelligent-Guide-48
"It’s called the 'Instagram face' and it’s a legit phenomenon that is being studied by psychologists. It’s doing so much harm to people’s self-esteem and self-concept. We aren’t all supposed to look the same."
- InsomniacYogi
These certainly were some surprising trends, and some of them seem to refuse to go away, as much as many people dislike them.
But beauty standards have a way of coming and going, so by the end of next year, who knows what will be considered beautiful and trending then?
Americans Explain Which Things Europeans Do That Make No Sense To Them
Those who have traveled to Europe or interacted with Europeans may very well know they do things very differently and vice versa.
The differences between our different cultures can include idiosyncratic behavior, preferences, or attitudes.
And while we can very much appreciate these differences, there are certain customs that can be major head-scratchers.
Curious to hear examples of what those can be, Redditor a_m42_ asked:
"Americans, what is something that Europeans have/do that makes no sense to you?"
Getting from point A to B can vastly different.
It's A Driving Thing
"I'm Canadian, but it's always baffled me that some Europeans consider a half hour's worth of driving a long time. That wouldn't even get me out of the area I'd consider local."
– TwoFingersWhiskey
The Size Of A Country Matters
"Lol, I moved from Germany to the Netherlands. The Netherlads are so small that the longest you could actually drive from one point to another is 4 hours, otherwise you would cross a border."
"When I was a child I used to go to my grandparents' house every weekend. They only lived an hour away so the way was short to me."
"My boyfriend is Dutch and he told me be barely ever saw his grandma growing up because she lived so far away and they never visited her because of the long way. She lived 1 1/2 hours away."
– finilain
Concerned Swiss
"My coworkers from Switzerland came out to Denver and I took them over to Glenwood Springs, which is about a 3.5 hour drive and after about half an hour they’re like 'are you okay to drive? Do you want one of us to drive for a bit so you can rest?' I drive two to ten hours to go camping with my husband and two dogs at least two or three weeks a month, so this was just a normal weekend to me, but they were acting like I was some kind of crazy person lol."
– Beautiful_Jacket6358
Things at home aren't always what they seem as they are in the US.
Magic Windows
"It's not that it doesn't 'make sense,' but the first time I saw those windows that can be moved a bunch of different ways, you would have thought I was seeing a rabbit being pulled out of a hat, that's how amazed I looked."
"Tilt and Turn Windows."
https://youtu.be/LT8eBjlcT8s?si=AiDUT2KXLvkD3l8L
– Weird-Traditional
Temperature Control
"I don't know if you know this, but many European windows also have a winter mode. When the handle is 45 degrees up, they open up just a tiny bit (1-2mm), to provide some small amount of air circulation, but not too much to not lose warm air inside."
– Plukh1
Breathing Space
"us Germans are obsessed with ventilation. even in the middle of winter, we'll periodically slam our fancy tilt windows open. problem with the tilting or slight opening is it can lead to condensation with low temps and thus lead to mold. and we are obsessed with preventing mold."
"anyways, make sure the air in your room stays good, it makes all the difference."
– dispo030
Just A Place To Sleep
"In Germany, apartments don't normally come with a kitchen. It's purchased/installed by the Tennant. Sometimes you luck out but not usually."
"Edit.. Because this comment blew up, here is an article talking about it."
https://alisajordanwrites.com/2018/08/06/apartments-dont-come-with-kitchens-in-germany/
– Widegina
The Kitchen Stays
"When we sold our house recently, a german woman viewed it and said "this is lovely kitchen. Will be shame to see it go" i was like go where?"
"She was so excited when i said we werent taking the kitchen anywhere. Me and my husband were so confused.. she thought the house was a real catch because of it and was really shocked when the estate agent said that nobody takes their kitchens with them! Odd."
– Big_Strength7344
We all act a certain way, but these types of behavior can be jarring to Americans.
Now, See Here
"Idk if its all Europeans but Germans have a real big problem with staring like I owe them money. Also paying to use the bathroom in public spaces."
– Neat_Serve730
You Got That Look
"Lol we do stare a lot. When I went to study in the uk one of my professors asked me during a tutorial whether he was saying wrong things because apparently I kept staring at him, I didn’t even notice it haha"
"Edit since apparently it’s causing a bit of confusion: a tutorial is not the same as a lecture, in a tutorial you’re around 15 people in a small room, it’s much more intimate and easier to notice if somebody’s staring at you (which evidently was not just looking at him to show you’re paying attention but much more unnerving)"
– BatmanButDepressed
We Can't Handle The Truth
"I’m from the Midwest and my family is from the Netherlands. So the society that wouldn’t dare offend you in any way and the society that has no problem dropping truth bombs on you. It’s rough."
– philophilo
"The (in)famous Dutch straightforwardness or directness. We have been taught to tell it like it is. We will be polite and civil about it, but we have no time for beating around the bush when a problem has to be resolved. That being said, some of my countrymen use it as an excuse to be rude a**hats."
"Just say 'Ken jij het beter dan, pannekoek?' and be done with it."
– SmilingDutchman
I'm not sure if this is a thing but the first time I went to Paris, I found it very odd that my soft drink was served without ice.
This happened at three different establishments where I asked for a Coke and was presented with the soda can and an empty drinking glass.
When I asked for ice from the server, he scoffed, returned with one ice cube on a spoon and proceeded to pour the drink from the can onto the ice and into the glass.
Are you kidding me??
And he left with the spoon and the partially-melted ice cube. I didn't even get to keep that, so I was talking about leaving a lousy tip, to which my friend who was with me said the French don't tip.
It was definitely a culture shock day for me as a very young traveler.
People Describe The Dumbest Thing They've Seen A Coworker Do On The Job
When I was in college, I worked at a restaurant as a hostess. Since I previously only babysat and tutored, a restaurant was a whole knew world to me.
Two of the girls who worked the same days as me were the ones to train me. They were a couple of years older than I was and had been working there for a year already, so they had a lot of experience. They not only taught me how to do the job, but gave me a lot of tips to make some of the more tedious tasks easier.
They both seemed like responsible girls, so when I came in the week after my training was over, I was shocked to hear they were both fired. According to a server I'd become friends with, the girls had snuck in some alcohol on what was supposed to be a slow day (it was a Tuesday, which was always our slowest day) and decided to have a "party at the host stand."
They got completely wasted and basically kept tripping as they led guests to their seats, even as they told the guests to watch their step. When one of the girls accidentally poured a milkshake over one guest and had to call a manager to smooth things over, they were caught and fired on the spot. I was cringing at their stupidity!
Apparently, I'm not the only one who has had to deal with co-workers doing something utterly stupid while they were on the job. Redditors have borne witness to this and are eager to share their stories.
It all started when Redditor Adrian0091 asked:
"What‘s the dumbest thing you‘ve seen a coworker do on the job?"
Such A Pretty Display
"I asked one of the new kids to stack the shoe department."
"Easy if but a bit boring. I showed her, stack by brand then size, big at the bottom, small top yeah?"
"She decided to organise it by the color of the boxes instead because it looked prettier."
"Took me hours to fix that mess."
– Lizzy_Of_Galtar
Oooh, Burn! (Quite Literally)
"In high school, working at a Chinese restaurant, was there basically to take orders and bus tables. Another dude I vaguely knew from high school got hired there. Nice, popular dude, but not much common sense. Within his first two weeks, he went to make himself some food (we were allowed to do that to a certain extent), and he dropped some wontons into the deep fryer. When he decided they were done, and as we were having a conversation, he just REACHED HIS HAND into the oil to retrieve it. I don’t think I even reacted for a moment or two, and then rushed forward. He somehow ALSO didn’t react for a moment or two before pulling his hand out and yelling out a cartoon-style “YEEOUCH!”"
"He went to the hospital, and quit the job."
– CwAbandon
Umm...Huh?
"One dude once photocopied a slice of pizza. We found cheese and stuff inside the machine for weeks. Was pretty funny though."
– LinusMeindl
"Inside? Did the idiot put the pizza into the document feeder or something?"
– MechanicalHorse
"How else would you feed the machine pizza."
– andtheIToldYouSos
Spelling
"I saw a tattooist I worked with tattoo "Laugh now cry Ladder" across a guy's chest..."
"He was let go, and a few years later, a guy came in with "Warior" across his upper back in bold letters, wanting it fixed. Same tattooist lol."
– hurrythisup
"Cry me a ladder."
– Deleted User
"Cry me a liver."
– iqtrm
"Crimea river."
– MagicSPA
Yikes!
"Telling the manager on duty, “I’m not the one eating it, so why should I care?” when the manager was trying to explain to her how to correctly prepare a customer’s food."
– 2gecko1983
"Watched a coworker of mine at a Pizza Hut (1976) clean off the food prep counter with a gross floor broom. The kitchen was open, so people at the tables could see the food being made, and someone saw him and yelled out to the other customers, and people started walking out."
"Cleared it out."
"Once the manager figured out what happened, he fired the guy on the spot."
– big_d_usernametaken
Misstep After Misstep
"Admitted to not having spoken to any of the business stakeholders, but instead "made up their own story.""
"This was at the end of what was supposed to have been a four-week information-gathering phase of the project."
"That afternoon, when one of the managers went to escort her from the premises, they found her by the printer with a stack of confidential documents."
– WitShortage
No Cell Phones At Work
"Worked with a lot of hazardous chemicals. Had a coworker who was notorious for being on his phone. We had to use a pump to put a hazardous chemical into a tank. Problem was you couldn’t look at the destination and pump the pump at the same time. Someone had to pump and someone had to watch. So I specifically asked said coworker to not look at his phone this one time. Tank overflowed and spilt the chemical everywhere because he was staring at his phone. Took hours to clean up."
– BigTiddyOstrogothGF
"A coworker of mine was fired for using his cellphone in an electrically classified area, cell phone wasn't explosion proof, not to mention the fact no cell phones on the floor, they gave him a warning, second time they walked him out."
"Bad part for him was that his wife found out he was talking to his girlfriend."
"Twenty years down the tubes."
"As we liked to say, "He fired himself.""
– big_d_usernametaken
Ewww!
"A guy I worked with sent a spreadsheet round with all the women in the office ranked in a spreadsheet and graded overall based on 1-5."
"He was somehow shocked he didn’t pass his probation."
– downfallndirtydeeds
Thank God He Was Fired
"My best friend, he took his mop bucket and poured it down a water fountain instead of using the closet with a sink that was literally right next to the water fountain. He got fired the next day."
"He told me he was in “f**k it” mode with the job and he didn’t care. We worked at a hospital."
– MrFavorable
""Who cares if sick people get exposed to a little bit of antibiotic-resistant flesh-eating bacteria.""
– Brett42
Get Right Back Up
"There were 2 of us installing an air conditioner. He had a bit of work outside that required him going up a ladder about 3 or 4 feet, not high. I was inside doing wiring."
"I heard a loud thud and scream, so I ran out to see what happened. He fell off the ladder. I've seen gruesome injuries from stupid thing like this before, so I ran outside to help him out. No injuries, he picked himself up and got back at it, I went back inside."
"Five minutes later, same thing. I walked out to check on him again after a small fall. He was ok again, but I told him to chill out and watch what he's doing. I went back inside."
"Heard another thud from outside. He fell again. I just looked out the window the third time and went about my business."
– DrVanNostrand6
*Cringing*
"He opened a Skype window (yes, this was ~10 years ago) and started messaging me to sh*t-talk a person who was in the same call as us."
"Except, he forgot he was sharing his screen."
– zyygh
R.I.P. Press
"After checking the correct lock-out tag-out procedure was followed, I assured an employee that it was safe to change dies on a horizontal press. But he was skeptical so unbeknownst to anyone he put a piece of tooling steel about the size of a coffee can under the die base. Some of you know where this is going. He made the tooling change, forgot his “safety measure”, and cycled the press. We all heard a $400k press eat itself in a fantastic swan-song of a noise that would take Stephen King four pages to describe."
– Idontfeelold-much
The Stupidity Of The Human Race
"Late 90’s, I was a custodian in a NYC public school to pay for college. One of my coworkers accidentally spilled about 15 gallons of gasoline in the school parking lot. He didn’t want to get in trouble for spilling that much gas so he thought the best course of action was to burn off the gasoline. Of course gasoline burns with huge billows of black smoke so he panics and tries to put out the fire BY DRIVING HIS CAR OVER THE GIANT PUDDLE OF BURNING GASOLINE. Fire department shows up within minutes and sees him doing donuts in the giant fire and they spend a whole hour screaming at my coworker about how f**king stupid he was."
"Edit: and in 1997 when this happened, gas was 97¢ a gallon. He could have replaced all the gas for less than $15."
– -Words-Words-Words-
"I'm a veteran of the Internet, and enjoy reading accounts like this. I must have read thousands."
"This is, hats off, quite literally one of the most stupid decisions I ever heard anyone make."
– MagicSPA
I really don't want to believe that last one really happened!
Do you have any great stories? Let us know in the comments below.
There are certain theories most deem to be "crackpot."
But, there are some conspiracy theories that have a surprising amount of evidence behind them.
Enough that those conspiracies almost seem to hold water as it were.
If only we could all get a little truth from the higher-ups.
A little truth goes a long way, but they insist on holding onto secrets and lies.
I have a laundry list of questions.
And I'm not the only one.
Redditor CommonBeginning3132 wanted to hear about everyone's theories on what we're NOT being told by our elected officials, so they asked:
"What is something that you’re for sure the US government is hiding from us?"
I want to know about the money they "burn."
I refuse to believe it's all trashed.
The Harvest
artificial intelligence no GIF by ADWEEKGiphy"That comment sections are just one large data harvest of random human thoughts and that data is used to fine-tune AI."
SLObro152
"Well, time to break out the REAL gibberish then."
nogtank
Past Due Date
"How many members of Congress are taking medications that would early retire anyone in the private sector."
TheBubbaDave"
There are likely several members of Congress taking Aricept or Namenda for dementia. Typically once someone needs to start taking those kinds of meds, they're no longer capable of working in an office job (or any job, to be honest)."
BananaPants430
"I wonder at what moment aging politicians realize they're no longer considered a leader in their party and from now on they'll just be occupying a seat for that party for the rest of their lives."
Stumpfinger1
Live Missiles
"I'm convinced that our ICBM protection system is far more accurate than the Pentagon is willing to admit."
KCalifornia19
"The problem with a system protecting the US from nuclear attack is that such a system, no matter how well designed, would be hugely complex, can never be fully tested, and must be close to 100% effective on its first use to have any value."
Renaissance_Slacker
"I was in the navy and my ship was the designated ICBM test ship for the new AEGIS system, we shot down decoy missiles all the time and were 100% effective."
"The missiles are live, there are just no active warheads on them."
iSniffMyPooper
Locations
"The location of nuclear submarines."
Pennsyltuckey54
"The only people who know exactly where the subs are are the navigational and commanding officers on the sub. Even the intelligence and commanding officers that assign the zones for the subs don’t know exactly where they are at any given point. Only the general area they are designated."
TheEveryEmpireFalls
Look Up
Hover Area 51 GIF by GashhudsGiphy"UFOs and not the alien kind. I'm talking about super high-end secret stuff the military has and is still testing out."
DiamondOrBust
Are they out there?
Will we ever truly know?
They keep a tight lid on that one.
Follow the Money
Bugs Bunny Money GIF by Looney TunesGiphy"How many politicians have secret offshore bank accounts full of embezzled taxpayer dollars."
Firetaymer70
Money Talks
"The impact wealthy individuals with personal interests have in politics, inside and abroad."
contessamiau
"Just remember when they talk about American interests abroad they aren't talking about the normal citizen's interests. Realistically what happens in some far away land is going to have little impact on my daily life. What they are really talking about is corporate interests every single time. Smedley Butler tried to warn us almost 100 years ago but we just brushed him off."
Slumminwhitey
Budgets
"Good Lord. Clearly, no one commenting here has ever known anyone working for the federal government. The biggest secret they’re keeping from you is that every government agency spends money like a coke addict in the month of September so that their budgets won’t get slashed in the next fiscal year."
tonovay
"Every single bureaucratic organization in the world does this. It’s not a secret at all."
sdreal
What Did They Find?
"I have a very personal reason for wanting to know what they found at Roswell. My grandfather was in the Air Force and was present at the site. All he ever said about it was, 'It wasn’t a damn weather balloon,' then shut down. He was low-ranking, basically just there to drive the higher-ranking personnel, but he saw something, and I wanted to know what it was! He also firmly believed in aliens, so that just adds to my curiosity, especially given how Southern Baptist he was."
GloInTheDarkUnicorn
Happenstance
Always Sunny Reaction GIFGiphy"Used to believe in this stuff until I started working in government. I’m now convinced that most conspiracy theories can be explained by pure incompetence."
Puzzleheaded_Ice_233
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.