People in customer service: what is the most ridiculous customer that you've ever had to deal with?

Question

And what are your pet peeves that customers do?

Answer 1

I work at a Panera Bread in the Woodlands (North Houston), and there is pretty much nothing but upperclass that come in there, so we get alot of nit pickers.
But as for the single most ridiculous customer? We call her 'throw-up lady'. She's thrown up at least 5 times in our store, including in the booth, in the sink, and in the hallway. The other day, she came in (this is just one example of her insanity) and asked for a bread bowl of broccoli cheddar soup. That is a bowl made out of sourdough bread that we pour soup into, where you can eat the soup and the bowl.
After recieving her meal, she sat down for ten minutes, came back up to the counter and complained that her bowl had not been filled up to the top, that she only ate 4 bites (even though she had been sitting there for ten minutes eating). I filled it back up (even though we're not suppose to, customer is always right), and gave it back to her. She ate that, and part of the bread bowl, came back up and said that she wasn't pleased with her meal and that she wanted a different soup in a different bread bowl. (she comes to the store almost everyday, so it's not like she's never had our food before).
I told her I was going to get the manager to deal with the situation properly. She threw down her spoon and said that everytime she comes into Panera we are rude, and idiotic people. That we never get her meal right, it never tastes good or anything, and left.
She came back the next day and ordered the Brocooli Chedder soup in the bread bowl and didn't have one complaint.

Answer 2

Whilst working in an opticians a few years ago, we were told to look out for one particular customer.

An assistant was fitting his new pair of classes and he kept telling her how he was expecting 20:20 results as he was a military marksman. After this, he returned many times, each time escalating his 'marksman' experience.

His visits continued for many months, always insisting how substandard the glasses were. His glasses were repeatedly remade, and various optometrists checked the quality of the outcome. In reality, the customers expectations of what glasses can achieve were totally over-inflated.

In the end, he was given his money back, and politely asked by a manager never to return. He has begun focusing his 'marksman' comments on one female assistant with suggestions that he would be watching her.

We did confirm that he worked for the army, but he was a paramedic. What a creep.

Answer 3

People being cheap. If you want to pay 3 dollars for a meal, then go to freaking McDonald's. We're a cafe sort of like Panera, so we're more upscale than a true fast food restaurant. Luckily most people seem to understand this, but there always are people who will complain and whine about the prices, or get upset/act surprised when I tell them their total. I especially love it when they added something to their order that was expensive and still have the nerve to complain. Like this guy who wanted to add both grilled chicken and steak to his salad and thought it was outrageous that he was being charged extra. It's like these people don't understand the concept of a restaurant being a BUSINESS that needs to make money to keep operating. No, it's just a place that's here for their conveinence and can just give away all this meat for free!

We used to have this lady who would always call, ask to speak to a manager, and then claim that there was something wrong with the food she ordered. The manager would always ask if she had a receipt, and of course she didn't. So thankfully they basically told her "tough luck", lol.

People who can't put their cell phones down for thirty seconds while they order. For one, it's just rude. But also, most of them suck at multitasking and may even order the wrong thing. I had this one lady who ordered a sandwich while she blabbed away on her phone. Then when she got it she brought it back to the counter, saying that she had just wanted it plain with no sauce on it. The whole reason she didn't tell me this when she ordered was because she was so distracted. Then she said "I promise I haven't touched it!" as if we could just serve it to someone else. Nope, she caused us to have to waste food and toss it in the trash just like plenty of other idiots who either just don't pay attention to what they're ordering, or don't bother to read the menu and see what all comes on their food before they order it.

And don't get me started on the Sunday afternoon "after church" crowd. Ugh. SOME of them are okay. But some are rude and demanding. The ones we hate the most are the ones that come in these huge groups, push together so many tables that we can hardly even walk through when we're running food, and bring a bunch of children with them, and proceed to sit in the restaurant for 2+ hours, not caring that their babies are starting to scream and their kids are getting restless and running around like it's a jungle gym. Then they finally leave and the kids have thrown food, crackers, and breadsticks all over the place, which no one even attempted to clean up. I'm sure they don't let their kids do that at home because THEY are the ones who would have to clean it up!

Answer 4

Oh, my god, the "customer service" concept is the most retarded thing in the world. It basically rewards people for being a complete douchbag about everything. The man who invented it (I think it was also the guy who started McDonalds...Ray something) should be sent to hell for making the rest of the world suffer while the fat-cats get richer. It does, however, bring a perspective into how stupid the human race really is and how we're destroying ourselves.

Sorry if I went off on a tangent from your question there, but the list of incidents is too long for me to give to you in details. lol

By the way, I forgot to mention, go into private security. Sometimes, you get to talk back to people and make them feel really stupid about themselves.

Answer 5

I'm not in customer service but a friend of mine who was once had to deal with a customer over the phone, who threatened to come down to the company with a bomb because his bill wasn't correct.

Answer 6

A fool who thought the number 1 and the letter L on the keyboard were the same because they look alike. They also thought the letter O and number 0 were the same. I kept telling them to type something in and it never worked. After a while I finally figured out how out of it they were.

Answer 7

While working for a major emergency road service company in there call center during bike week and biker could not start his bike and could not understand why it would take a while for service to get there when all roads were jam packed and impossible to get to him. He toatally cussed me out but I took it an apologized for any inconvience. I will never work in a call center again you are treated like cattle. Well maybe cattle are treated better.

Answer 8

I'm never going into customer service again. The customer is not always right. ugh

Answer 9

The most ridiculous are the ones that threaten "I'll have your job!" I always encouraged them to apply at our company. My pet peeve is the ones who call me "you people".

Answer 10

I used to work in customer service for loans. I loved when people said "I pay your paychecks." Uhh yeah no.