Recently, some very patient employees shared some stories about the most clueless customers they've had to deal with on their shifts. Here are a few more examples:
1."When I worked at Blockbuster, we would always have customers get us mixed up with Hollywood Video. So many of them tried to give me their Hollywood Video card to check out, or we would receive Hollywood Video movies in our return bin. Customers would argue that they returned that overdue DVD only to find out they returned it to Hollywood Video instead. We eventually worked out an exchange system with the closest Hollywood Video location as they would get our movies all the time too."
2."I worked at a Michaels about 10 years ago, and they have a wedding decor/DIY section. A man came in late one Friday night asking if he could get a marriage license, as his wedding was the next day. '...Sir, this is a craft store, not a courthouse.' I've always wondered how that worked out for him."
3."I work in an office building, and unfortunately our particular office is right next to the main entrance, so people often come to our door asking directions (even though there's a directory in the lobby). One time a man was banging on our glass doors before work demanding to be let into the offices across the lobby. I explained to him that they were a different company and that I couldn't let him in, even if I wanted to. He screamed at me that he was going to tell the owner (of the other company) how rude I was to him. OK."
4."I work in IT at a university. Years ago when I was answering the main phone line, I get a call from this woman asking about the status of her ticket. I can't pull her up in the system. After a bit of back and forth (including me asking if she's faculty or staff), I find out she's in another state trying to reach her company's IT. Apparently, the different area code didn't tip her off. Bonus: She called again a few months later."
5."I used to work customer service at Peddler’s Village, a tourist attraction in Pennsylvania. I got a call from a guy asking about our yurt rentals. It took about 10 minutes of confused conversation before we realized that he was trying to call Paddler’s Village, which is a campground in Michigan."
6."When I worked at my local Red Cross, a woman called and said her purse had been stolen. I asked if she had filed a police report, and she said, 'No, and I don't want to.' I asked what she wanted the Red Cross to help with, and she told me that the Red Cross should give her the amount of money that was in her stolen purse."
7."I used to work in a busy medical complex. People came in constantly complaining about the size of the parking spots. While I wore many hats throughout my seven years of employment there, painting the lines in the parking lot were not something I was responsible for! It was fun telling people that too!"
8."Mostly it's been working in coffee, so not a huge stretch, but we got many Starbucks-minded people. We had iced-blended, and they would ask for a Frap. They wanted a medium and would ask for a grande. One of my coworkers hated this so much that he would put a sign at the register that said, 'This is not Starbucks. We have small, medium, and large, not Venti-Trenti-Crappucinos.' People took it in stride and laughed, but it was a huge pet peeve of his, LOL."
9."I worked as a cashier in a drug store for a few years as a teenager. I had so many 'WTF' moments at that job, but the one that stuck with me the most was an older man who kept asking me questions about his prescription. He had questions about the side effects, what symptoms he had, and what these pills would do for it, etc. I calmly told him several times that I was just a cashier and that if he had questions about his medication, he needed to go back to the pharmacist at the other end of the store. He started screaming in my face and slamming his hands on my counter telling me I was useless at my job and how dare I take a job like this without knowing 'a goddamn thing' about his medication. I calmly grabbed my phone, called the pharmacist (also the store owner), and asked him to come to grab this guy, when the pharmacist came over he looked at the guy and goes, 'Joe, we talked about this. Come with me.'"
10."I worked in the office of a pest control company, and we would get calls from people that had computer issues because their computer had a 'bug.'"
12."On my slower day shift, the phone rang at the restaurant I work at. I answered with '(name of the place) Saloon.' The guy in an obvious panic started talking a mile a minute about trying to figure out what time his dog's grooming appointment was. It was so funny because clearly the wife put him in charge and he was freaking out he was going to blow it. I tried so hard not to laugh and make him feel worse. After his minutes of rambling and getting more and more panicked, I explained that we were a bar in a tourist town and while I personally loved dogs, we didn’t do any sort of dog grooming. He just said the most defeated, 'Oh, I’m sorry,' and hung up. I burst out laughing after I hung up the phone and looked it up online. Turns out, in another area, there IS in fact a dog Salon with the same name as us. I guess he just typed one too many 'O's'."
13."I once had a lady ask how she could make reservations for our yacht, who then got upset when we said we didn’t have a yacht. You know, because it was a hotel in the middle of the Arizona desert."
14."Years ago when I was a Disney cast member, I picked up a shift just walking up and down Main Street USA and helping out/talking to customers/clearing streets for the parade. I had only been employed with the company for about five months. An irate customer walked up to me holding her map wide open and practically shouted at me, 'Where is the Harry Potter land?' Now, not being allowed to say, 'It's at Universal Studios, a competition theme park,' I had to find a more creative way to tell her that those rides are not located in this or any Disney World park. She got even madder and insisted that because she saw it on her (non-Disney) hotel TV that meant it was at this park and both me and the map must be wrong. After a few more minutes of trying to convince her, she stormed off...to the next cast member about 15 minutes away to literally have the same exact conversation."
15."I work at a veterinary hospital, and we’ve had people ask for medications or medical advice for themselves. This one guy asked if he could have some antibiotic ointment for his skin rash (yes, he showed the vet his rash unprompted). I understand people don’t want to go to a human doctor, and we do have some of the same medications that human pharmacies do. However, the doctors at my job are VETS. They do not and cannot treat humans. Yes, people complain about that sometimes. The guy with the rash had to have this explained to him multiple times. No sir, please put your rash away. Go to a human doctor."
16."Once I had a person call and ask what time the next flight to Sydney departed and was upset that I couldn’t tell them, even after I explained that this was a small local railway station, not, in fact, Melbourne international airport."
17."Twice I worked at art galleries that had women's names as part of the business name. At both locations, we got multiple phone calls over the years from men trying to schedule nighttime appointments. This is odd because we had regular business hours but did sell high-end artwork, so it was possible that someone might want to come after hours if they were very rich or famous. One man was annoyed that we wouldn't come to him, which, I mean, how would we transport an entire business to someone's house? Finally, my boss asked him, 'Sir, are you trying to schedule an appointment to look at artwork?' No, he thought we were an escort service. So you know, if you have a woman's name in your business name, just be aware that some people just assume that means you offer certain services."
18."Dumbest customer ever was the woman that was writing a check (this was the late '90s), and I had to correct her because she was writing the wrong store name on it. She got super nasty and insisted what she wrote was the name of the store. Like, ma’am, I think I know the name of my workplace better than you. There was literally a large wall sign with the correct name directly behind my register. The manager ended up taking her check to make her go away."
19."I had a customer come to the drive-thru where I worked and asked if he could have 10 tacos… I worked at Starbucks. Also had customers order Diet Cokes every once in a while."
