Retail Employees Reveal Their Best 'Get The Hell Out' Moments With A Customer

Be civilized! 

Two women came into the store screaming at each other. As I'm coming out from the back, I gather from the yelling that one had nearly hit the other's car. Nearly, but no actually incident had occurred. It was a busy Saturday, people are starting to stare. I'm trying to gather my wits, thinking how best to handle it, when my manager came flying in from nowhere. She just yells, "Either come in here and shop like people or go outside with the rest of the animals!" One left, one stayed. Triangle_Graph

9-1-1.... 

I worked in a T-Mobile store. A lady comes in screaming about how she bought a phone the previous day, didn't buy insurance and dropped it in a pool. She was demanding I give her a new phone for free. But, she wasn't even our customer. She was a Verizon customer. She screamed at me for about ten minutes demanding I call our manager. She then started yelling at other customers about how awful we were. Called the cops. Lucasaurusawesome

God Bless Radioshack workers....

Worked at Radioshack for 6 months while in college. Pretty much had at least one terrible experience per shift.

The one that stands out the most was a guy who wanted us to honor the warranty on his iPhone cable. The thing was a mutilated mess. It had clearly stopped working and he had tried to fix it himself by cutting the cable apart and attempting to solder two wires together.

We calmly explained that we couldn't process a claim for an item that was willfully destroyed, and he starts screaming in our faces about how "Radioshack is a scam!" and "I'm going to sue all of you!" And then he tries to WHIP my coworker (a 5 ft tall non-threatening woman) with the cable! She managed to turn her head and catch the wire with her hand before it caught her in the face. Myself and another employee chased him out of the store and called the police but nothing came of it.

DarekLowbrow

Read my eyes....

When I worked in the tool department at Sears, a guy wanted to get a replacement on his tape measure. I couldn't replace it because it was the tape that was screwed up due to the guy mistreating it and not caring cause "Sears will replace it for free."

Dude threatened to go out to his truck and get his gun, come back in and "shoot you points at me, you points at my manager who had taken over already, and you points at my coworker who was standing nearby."

I gave him the "why haven't you done it yet?" look and he left. When I worked at sears, I was ready to die. AnalLeaseHolder

Dude really?! 

Had a toy collector bully a child for the last popular children's toy we had in stock. Like dude, we aren't the only toy store here and yelling at a 7 year old for a toy makes you look bad in any accounts.

Banned him from our store and he keeps coming back but we got one guy to deal with him, he's not easy miss at all, nearing 400 pounds and looking like that Warcraft player from South Park. illogicalfuturity

HUSH!! 

When the old guy I was serving kept looking at my chest and making creepy facial expressions, I asked him if he wanted a drink or he was just going to keep staring. He excitedly put his hands out and went 'oh, I can do more than stare!' and tried to walk behind the bar to grab my chest. I told him to get the hell out, to which he seemed very shocked and outraged so I just started to loudly shout back to him 'sir, please do not try to grope my chest. You need to leave' over and over until the rest of the bar was staring and he was panicked, whispering for me to please be quiet. So the wife I didn't know he came with wouldn't hear him. Can only imagine the argument that unfolded while she was dragging him out. orangelego

You've lost more than a receipt! 

It couldn't have been more obvious that a guy was trying to return stolen merchandise. He "lost" the receipt, didn't know when it was purchased, paid with cash so we couldn't just easily look up the transaction on a credit card.

He said he would call his friend to ask if they knew when it was purchased, and then he took out his iPhone and without pressing a button started to talk on it. I was like... I can clearly see the home screen with no call happening.

When he "got off the phone" I got a little bold and in my best retail manager voice said something to the effect of, "oh that's cool! Is that a new update where you can talk to someone without actually calling them?" He left after that. gsg4n1

Not here Satan! 

I had a customer who used a racial slur to describe one of my employees for no other reason beyond the fact that he saw them and was offended that "one of them" was doing their job by doing the oil change that he came to us to do. I told him to apologize to my employee or we will push his car right out of the bay without oil. He refused, and we did just that. Told him he's more than welcome to buy his own oil and finish his oil change himself, and that he will be charged double for all services here on out if he comes into my store.

I had no problem telling this racist jack@ss to go f**k himself. LuciditySam

I WILL BE 'TATTOOED!'

I used to work the reception desk at a tattoo shop. I had MANY gtfo moments but the one that stands out was a dude coming in with his girlfriend to get his name tattooed on her. She looked terrified, wouldn't make eye contact with me, didn't talk directly to me, and barely spoke. The whole conversation was the dude giving me her license and saying "SHE wants MY name tattooed on to her." I took way more info from both of them than I needed and tried to get the woman to come in back alone so I could talk to her, but boyfriend wouldn't have it. I eventually went back and got the shop manager (big dude) and told him what was up. I came back to the counter and lied saying we didn't have walk-ins that day and dude got pissed. I started yelling, shop manager came out and physically removed them from the shop. I called the cops and provided all the info I had. Was basically told they couldn't do anything unless it was self-reported. I still think about the woman all the time.

Was basically told they couldn't do anything unless it was self-reported. I still think about the woman all the time. killersim

No McDonalds for you!

I worked at McDonalds in 1997 and we had Beanie Babies as happy meal toys at one point. It was insane.

They literally had to buy a security cage to keep the toys locked down in the back. They were delivered with a security escort. People were ordering "100 happy meals with no food" because we couldn't sell the toys by themselves.

One day I heard a commotion up front and found my high school counselor reaching across the counter grabbing one of the owners by the shirt because we were out of the pink flamingo. I'll never forget the look in her eyes. She had to be dragged out. It's scary how easy it can be to work people up into a frenzy. fernyer

No drinking and Shopping! 

I work in a Dutch 24/7 gas station. This German kid (20-25 yo) came in the shop drunk (while driving). Looked for beer (which we are not allowed to sell), and got all mad that I hid the beers. He wanted to start a fight and he wanted to drive off in his car.

That was impossible since I locked the door and alerted the cops. He lost his drives license and got a huge fine, which he had to pay instantly. What an a**hole. Cantinabandsong

Just Plain Cruel....

The one that jumps out to me was when a customer was trying to return a wall mount that was six months out of policy. He was being snide and verbally abusive to the customer service rep, saying things like "I know you can do this, I return stuff out of policy all the time." Or "well, if you weren't so stupid this would be done by now."

He ended up making her start to cry when he said "Jesus, are you retarded??" Well, she worked with special needs kids as a volunteer and this pushed her over the edge. I walked over to him and told her to go into the back and asked him why he thinks it's okay to talk like that. I'm guessing since I'm a male and a manager he decided to be respectful. I was pissed off beyond belief at how he'd made her cry though so I cut off his explanations and told him to get out. He said "now hold on, let's all calm down-" and I grabbed my radio piece and told my security to go ahead and get the police on the way down there for someone trespassing. He left so fast at that comment that he forgot his wall mount. Fool. Reddit

Hang Up!

This was over the phone, the customer was unhappy with their purchase so I sent another one out to them in case it was defective. He calls me later that week saying the new one had the same problem and he would get violent if it wasn't solved. He was in his 80's but I said you know what we will come pick it up, and you can buy from somewhere else. Not worth the hassle for a little commission. mastad0420

Gotcha!

When they try a quick change scam. Here's how it works There are many variations on it.

It happened to me once. After the transaction, something didn't feel right about it so I called my supervisor. We reviewed the security footage and I was in fact taken for $20. The guy came back two weeks later and tried it again with another employee and she was tricked as well. He came by a third time and his trick didn't work since we were all wise to it now. The owners and my supervisor immediately rushed downstairs and chased the guy for a couple of blocks. Tumbling-Dice

This Buck is for you! 

I used to work for Qwik Lube in Alaska for a boss named John who was a decent manager and enjoyed handling customers. He was professional and kind and knowledgeable but LOVED to tell the couple stories of customers he told off.

The coldest move was a customer who was berating him. Customer reached out and stuffed a business card into John's shirt pocket, demanding to SEE THE BOSS RIGHT NOW. John said he took the card back out, shoved it THAT guy's pocket, and said "the buck stops here get the hell out of my shop."

I've carried that as a reminder that professionals take crap as part of their job, but nobody should take too much. any_means_necessary

No More Potato Salad!

I worked at a BBQ restaurant for my first job. We had a take out area where the customer can watch you cut the meat and pack the side dishes. The girl at the register rang up a quart of potato salad when the customer asked for pasta salad, so I pack potato salad. When the customer received his order he look through it and flipped when he saw potato salad and started screaming at me go figure. Unbeknownst to all of us the owner of the store heard the commotion and was on the other side of the swing door behind me which had a small window. The angry customer decided to throw a quart of potato salad at me which I ducked to avoid. It splattered against the window on the swing door as the owner was looking out of it. He burst through the door (he is 6'4 and very built), grabbed this scrawny dude by his shirt collar and he had straight fear in his eyes. My boss literally threw him out the door. Went back to the register to ask the girl what his totally was, grabbed the cash, and tossed it out the door at the angry customer as he was collecting himself off the ground. It was an awesome scene.

The angry customer decided to throw a quart of potato salad at me which I ducked to avoid. It splattered against the window on the swing door as the owner was looking out of it. He burst through the door (he is 6'4 and very built), grabbed this scrawny dude by his shirt collar and he had straight fear in his eyes. My boss literally threw him out the door. Went back to the register to ask the girl what his totally was, grabbed the cash, and tossed it out the door at the angry customer as he was collecting himself off the ground. It was an awesome scene. thisisinput

You're the 1!

A guy I knew who worked at Dunkin' Donuts would use the line: "my manager says I only get to tell one customer to f**k off a year, and I'm not gonna waste it on you." Not quite the the right type of answer, but relevant. Bootstrings

You're Ugly on the Inside....

He got in my face, physically, to intimidate me. When I didn't back down, he resorted to telling me I'm fat and unpleasant. All because he wanted a free replacement of a 15 year old item that he'd used to hell and back. Things is, if he'd be a normal human and not put his weasly face kissing distance from mine while yelling and spraying his spittle everywhere— I'd have worked something out for him. Instead he has a life long ban from my whole company.

Like, what made him think he could run up on me? Like that would work out for him in some way. I don't know how I had the strength not to Hit him. msblackwine

Too Fishy....

Colleague was cleaning the front of the fish tanks (pet shop) and one of them had this weird stuff on it that smeared as she wiped it. Asked me what the hell is this. It wasn't there when I was catching fish about 10 minutes ago... I have this awful realization... I go check check the cctv and sure enough I see what I knew I would see, even though I was really hoping not to. A guy masturbating on it. Onto the fish tank.

W. T. F.

I recognized him as he was hanging around earlier. Worse, I had to clean this up myself as no way did my young minimum wage colleague deserve to deal with that!!Needless to say next time he showed his face, I banned him from the store right there and then. My voice was a little loud.

...shudder... :(

TLDR: guy liked our fish a bit too much. Cleanup was required. Banning was also required. Wolfsabre

Faith Restored!

I had a customer threaten to call the cops because I wouldn't give them 50% off of a CHARITY bear on boxing day. 100% of the proceeds from these teddy bears went to the Make A Wish foundation and they were only $15. The store had a 50% off everything sale for boxing day, but it didn't include the CHARITY bears. I add capitals because it's a charity bear... it's purpose is right in the name!

I basically just kept saying "ma'am...it's a charity bear..." because I didn't know how else to explain that the point of the bear was to raise money... that seemed... obvious. People in line were starting to get really upset with her and she just started to freak right out and was starting to dial 911. My boss, so upset (she lost a son early in life to cancer so make a wish was important to her) just gave her a bear and told her to never come back. A bunch of familiar customers of ours were so upset they pitched in the $15 without us even saying anything which was super kind of them. It was a restoration of faith in humanity, but what a nightmare for no reason. Especially on boxing day! Lady_Of_The_Shadows

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