It's not easy working in the service sector. Dealing with entitled customer demands can break even the strongest of spirits. In fact, 75% of frontline employees reported feeling stressed and overworked in 2024. After you've seen some of the entries on this list, you might get the idea why.
Today, we're shining the light on some of the most insufferable and annoying behaviors from customers that workers had to deal with. From wreaking havoc in supermarket isles to expecting to get stuff for free, some people just deserve shaming. So, join us in calling out inappropriate customer etiquette and have a chuckle in the process!
#1 Found A Total Of 6 “Gift Baskets” Today On The Shelves. Please Stop Doing This
The only reason I know why this even happened is because my coworker said there’s a trend on Tiktok to make gift baskets in retail stores and leave them on the shelves for people to buy and get for their partners, friends, etc.
Idiotic, nobody is going to actually pick these up and buy them. You just made me and my coworkers day so much worse in the middle of our busiest day of the week. These take so long to put away and its utterly pointless.
Image credits: allrightsimp
#2 I'll Just Leave This Here
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#3 The Customer Is Always Right
Image credits: iBleeedorange
Nobody likes to be treated poorly in the workplace, but the younger generation seems to be doing worse than their older colleagues when it comes to difficult interactions with customers. 72% of Gen Z workers say that interactions with people at work have worsened their mental health.
Almost the same number of retail employees say they might quit their job because of negative interactions with managers, co-workers, and, of course, customers. When it comes to employees of all ages, 59% say they're looking for a new job because customer and co-worker interactions are just too much.
#4 My Dad's A Photographer, This Is His Most Recent Client
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#5 Member Wanted One From The Middle And Decided They Didn't Need Help
Cause the middle ones are freshest ya know.
Image credits: VixxenFoxx
#6 Retail Reality
Image credits: reddit.com
One reason why younger people might be complaining more about entitled customers is because Gen Z has come into the job market with different expectations. Dr Zoë Port, management lecturer at Massey University, explains that young workers don't sacrifice their values for a job.
"The overwhelming theme is they want to be treated like human beings, not like worker drones that are only there to fulfil tasks," she told Stuff. That's why young workers nowadays get branded as entitled or 'difficult to work with'. However, some experts ask: is it really too much to expect to be treated like a person?
#7 People Who Constantly Block The Isles Of Stores To Stand Around And Chat
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#8 A Very Annoying Customer Left An Annoying Review At My Store And This Was The Response From My Owner
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#9 Two Kinds Of Regular Customers
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A recent survey by Perceptyx revealed just how bad dealing with entitled customers can be. 53% of the respondents claimed that they've recently encountered customers who were verbally abusive, threatening, or just plain unruly. In some cases, the situation gets so bad that two in three employees have had to bring in their manager to deal with the customer.
#10 Going To NYC For The First Time So I’m Looking At Restaurants On Yelp, Only To Come Across This Gem
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#11 Someone Doesn't Understand What "Client" Means
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#12 The Cashier Touched My Bottle
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Retail workers aren't the only profession affected by infuriating customers. Other frontline workers like servers, hospital staff, and those who work in information, finance, and insurance face abusive behavior from customers, too.
"From being cursed at on the phone or at the customer service counter to threats of violence in a hospital ER, frontline workers in all fields deal with difficult customer interactions," Senior Director and Head of the Center for Workforce Transformation at Perceptyx Emily Killham explained.
#13 This Lady Using Bread As Kneepads So That She Can Look At Other Bread
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#14 Leave Your Kids At Home
Parents are financially responsible for every hole your kids poke in our ground beef.
Image credits: SouthernDietsausage
#15 Client Tries Getting Out Of Paying By Offering Free Cupcakes To Their Diabetic Marketer
Image credits: Desuka15
Frontline workers also have other work-related stresses to deal with. Whether they're working in retail or hospitality, many employees receive inadequate pay, long work hours, and staff shortages. And it isn't just an American problem; hospitality workers in New Zealand are experiencing more and more verbal abuse and threats from customers, too.
Experts attribute it to the tough financial situation both the workers and the customers are in. They say the cost of living crisis has made people stressed, and, sometimes, people lash out at frontline workers.
#16 This Grouch Thought It Was Ok To Pop A Squat On The Buns! She Then Proceeded To Yell At Me For Stealing Her Spot In Line At The Deli Courter
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#17 This Lady Resting On The Apples At Walmart
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#18 The Things You See At Walmart
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"Months of Covid restrictions, the cost of living crisis, and the terrible mauling that hospitality businesses took over the pandemic means customers are more stressed, money is tighter, and hospitality managers are struggling to make ends meet. The pressure of it all causes resentment," personal transformation strategist Simone-Ellen Keller offers one possible explanation. "Everybody is running around with shortened fuses and frontline staff are the meat in the sandwich."
#19 This Extremely Sticky Dollar Bill A Customer Gave Me That Left Residue On My Hands That Won't Wash Off
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#20 When Clients Think This Is How Commissions Work
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#21 The Parents Walked Away
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Interestingly, some polite consumer habits might also aggravate employees. What to some might seem like polite banter, to others can be annoying. Like when customers try making small talk and ask workers if they like their jobs. One Old Navy employee, Ethan S., told Reader's Digest that he simply lies. "Then they leave happy, but it makes me depressed because I feel like I have to put on a fake front for people. I'd rather they just didn't ask that question."
#22 Karen Leaves 1 Star Review After Trying To Use Voucher For A Different Restaurant
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#23 Come On, Really?
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#24 Customers Wanted To Inspect Cupcakes By Flipping Them Upside-Down
Happens to cakes as well. At least a few times a week someone will flip the package over (to inspect the bottom of the cake I guess?) and they typically put it right back on the table after ruining the icing and decorations. Not the end of the world, but mildly infuriating for me.
Image credits: Notsonorm_
Sometimes, customers may also try to be helpful by folding the clothes they looked at but didn't like. This might seem like a basic polite thing to do, but retail workers actually hate it. "We have to fold things a certain way, and most customers don't know how to do that," another Gap and Old Navy employee in Texas, Olivia S., explains.
#25 You Just Can't Make This Up
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#26 What A Waste
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#27 Why Would You Post That?
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Other customers think that the way stores organize clothes doesn't make sense. The Old Navy employee Ethan S. witnessed such a case when a lady put the 10 and 12 sizes on the racks in the front.
In her mind, it made sense: the average woman in America is either of those two sizes, and the way the store organizes the clothes just isn't representative of that. However, employees didn't appreciate her efforts: corporate rules dictate that clothes have to be hung from smallest to largest.
#28 Just A Mother Teaching Her Son How To Spray Paint On The Store's Floor
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#29 And People Ask Why I Hate People
Image credits: TheBloodyLady
#30 Parents Who Just Let Their Kids Run To The Toy Dept And Tear It To Shreds While They Shop Are So Annoying
Image credits: Local-Butterfly-8120
Which of these moments do you think are the most infuriating, Pandas? How many similar behaviors have you witnessed, even if you're not a retail or hospitality employee? Share your experiences with us in the comments! And if you want to see more customers acting dumb, check out our previous articles here, and here!
#31 This Lady Got Mad Walmart Didn't Have Any Great Value Vanilla Cookies So She Made This Mess At The Kokomo Walmart
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#32 Male Karen Believes It's His Right To Drive Off With The Walmart Electric Cart, Berates Employee For Trying To Stop Him
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#33 I Work Closing At Target, Every Single Night I Have To Push 3-5 Carts Full Of Shopping Trips Abandoned By Customers
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#34 When Clients Try To Dictate Your Prices
Grinds my gears when clients do this. We priced his property at $240+tax per month - and this is our pricing for him since 2021.
Last winter, he decided that he wasn't gonna hire us. This year, he called to book the service for the season. I told him on the phone that it will still be the same price as before to which he just said "okay". This is our conversation the following morning after our phone conversation.
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#35 It's Always Like This Around Christmas Time
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#36 I Have No Words
This was an hour before closing by the way.
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#37 Creepy Guy Thrown Out
Context: was closing at my job with a 18 year old still in high school coworker. We have a regular guy who comes in all the time, and he’s clearly a little not right in the head. It’s about 9 at night so it’s dark too.
I’m checking the guy out, and he sees my coworker mopping nearby. He shouts out “oh there’s my tiny girl! Where are you going prey? I’m gonna stalk you, I like scaring people!” For a couple minutes and is actively looking for her, and I can see by the way she’s shuffling away that she’s uncomfortable.
I page for my manager to come up and wait for the gentleman to leave the store, and then tell her that I was uncomfortable about that guy and didn’t like the way he was talking to a teenager. My manager has always told me she had my back, and she literally chased the guy out and told him not to return or we’ll call the cops.
All is well ends well, right? Nope. Corporate called the owner mad over the review he left - where he literally admits he was saying weird stuff. I don’t know the history with this customer, but a couple other coworkers have come up about being uncomfortable around him.
Image credits: JustARandomer-
#38 A Lady Tried To Play Me With A $300 Worth Of Counterfeit Bills
So a lady tried to load her Cashapp for $300 and when she gave me the money, I immediately knew that the bill felt off so I grabbed my pen and boom, it turned black. I delayed her by telling her my computer was moving slow and I called the manager up front and she tells her “Ma’am this money fake.” She tells my manager and I that her baby daddy gave her the money and she quickly left the store.
Image credits: Dry_Lavishness_353
#39 This Grown Man Left A Review On The Facebook Page Of The Mcdonalds I Work At And Put A Picture Of Me In It
I have special needs due to having asperger's syndrome and anxiety. This person doesn't know anything about me and had no right to post this.
Image credits: GhostlyGamer124
#40 I Work In A Small Natural Foods Grocery Store. We Have A Regular Customer Who Steals Dates Then Leaves The Pit In Random Places Throughout The Store
We've found pits on shelves, in cold cases, sitting next to fresh baked goods. It's so gross. It's been going on for years and no one seems to know who it is.
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#41 I Don't Understand Members Sometimes
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#42 When You Need Help Finding Something But Can’t Find An Employee
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#43 How A Customer Left My Local Target
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#44 The Way Customers Leave The Fitting Rooms At My Job
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#45 A Customer At Work Asked Me If This Register Was Open
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#46 I’m Building Custom PCs For People On Facebook Marketplace And I Get This Tool
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#47 I Got This Google Review Left About Me
This is a small local shop, often with only one employee closing so we’re instructed to close up shop if no one is in the store at about 9:55pm, so that we’re out the door at 10pm.
This dude called at 9:30pm asked if we’re open until 10pm and then says his GPS was giving an ETA of 10pm on the dot, I said well we normally lock up around 9:55 to start closing down if no one’s in the store but as long as they’re in the door before 10pm and they knew what they wanted to buy I’d check them out. He said well can’t you just wait to close until I get there? And I said I’m sorry sir but we do close at 10pm, and he hung up on me.
Thankfully the owner is a nice dude and I didn’t get in trouble for this but are you serious dude, you could cost someone your job for that.
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#48 To The Customer That Did This, I Hate You
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#49 To Be Fair, Every Customer At This Theatre Is Either 6 Years Old, Brain Damaged, Or Both
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#50 Karen Is Angry That The Store Didn’t Serve Her. When They Were Closed
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#51 Is It Really That Hard To Stack Baskets Properly
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#52 Karens Will No Long Buy Coffee
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#53 Got This Bad Review Because I Went On Break. How Are People So Stupid?
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#54 There’s A Special Place In Retail Hell For People Who Sit On The Clothing Tables
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#55 Even With Good Service They Still Complain
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#56 What Do You Mean I Don’t Get The Sale Price After The Sale Has Ended
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#57 Someone Let Their Kid Bedazzle A Floor Tile In This Mall, Then Just Left It And The Packaging
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#58 Banana Peel Left In A Basket In Walmart
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#59 I Worked About 6 Hours On A Very Detailed Custom Logo That The Client Really Liked. I Put A $100 Price Tag On The Final Piece. Here’s What I Got Back
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#60 I’ve Started Taking Pictures At Work Of Messes Customers Leave Behind
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#61 You Can't Make This Up
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#62 When Someone Says They Were Only 2 Minutes Late, They Meant At Least 20
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#63 Karen Accusing A Local Business Of Scamming Customers By Taking Out Good Cards
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#64 My Neighbour Stealing Shopping Carts To Take Groceries Home
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#65 Customer Playing With Her Large Dog In Front Of The Hot Deli Counter At The Grocery Store
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#66 The Way Customers Have Taken Bricks From This Pallet
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#67 Amazing Park Job From A Customer With 3 Kids At My Job
Right by the front, too.
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#68 Someone Wants Airbnb Host To Cancel Existing Reservations Because Their Plans Changed
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#69 Total Badass Leaves $300 Worth Of Groceries At The Checkout
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#70 Swapping Your Nasty Shoes With New Ones At The Store
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#71 They Really Tried It
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#72 Someone's Been Shopping
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#73 I Sincerely Hate Our Customers
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#74 Customer Just Left This Review Of The Place Where My Girlfriend Works. The "Main Dude" Says He's Never Seen Him Before
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#75 People Just Turning The Store Into A Trashcan - From When I Worked In Retail
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#76 Maybe Don’t Come In 5 Minutes Before Closing To Buy Cat Food
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#77 I'd Love To Ask The Lazies Who Do This If This Is The Same Way They Store Milk At Home
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#78 This Is Ridiculous
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#79 “The Nerve Of This Restaurant!” - Karen
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#80 Open The Schools
Today, our busiest day of the week, we were understaffed in the rotisserie so naturally we were a little behind. Instead of answering 100 different peoples questions of when the chickens would be done I wrote this sign, propped it up out front and went into the back to skew.
At about 2pm, after that batch had been out and was long gone, a manager came back and asked me why I was "selling chickens for a buck" (I doubt he got the pun) but I guess people were telling the cashiers that I had a hand written sign advertising chickens as 1 dollar? Are people illiterate?
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#81 Three Flat Carts Full Of Furniture, Returned By A Customer Who Joked With Me “We Didn’t Need Any Of It After The Holidays” As We Waited In The Returns Line. I Didn’t Laugh
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#82 Customer Didn't Want To Purchase Three Separate 6 Packs So He Just Cut Two Plants Off Each
We sell a pack of 6 plants for $2.99. A customer decided he only wanted 2 broccoli, 2 cauliflower, and 2 brussel sprouts, so he cut them off their packs and tried to hand me $3.
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#83 This Customer Struggling With The Concept That Employees Have Lives
This is an account note of a conversation I just had with a customer. The regular manager is off today on PTO but I guess he forgot to get his time-off approved by this customer.
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#84 First Time For Me! I Edit And Customize Videos For Clients. Keep In Perspective A 30 Second Clip Can Take 4-6 Hours
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#85 Buy A $5,3m Brownstone? Done. Start A $700k Remodel? Sure Thing. Having To Pay $11000 For An Architectural Upgrade? Too Expensive, Let's Get A Discount For The Whole Project
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#86 Despite Eggs Being As Expensive As They Currently Are, Lazies Are Still Gonna Lazy
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#87 A Customer Did This And Left It
For some unknown reason she was backing out of the aisle and crashed into the Colgate display, looked at it on the ground and left it, I cleaned up her mess and then told someone about it.
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#88 My Friend Is A Student Artist, Saving Up For A PC. This Was An Interaction She Had With A “Client”
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#89 Oh They Big Mad
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#90 Why? Seriously Why Are Some People So Lazy And Unethical?
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#91 I Work At A Lab. This Client Has To Be Messing With Us
Yes, it is frozen in a block of ice. This must be some knew shipping method I haven't heard of. It's still wrapped in bubble wrap, after all.
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#92 The Sweet Taste Of Getting Minimum Wage Workers In Trouble
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#93 A Customer Called The Cops The Other Day Cause The Receipt Printer Wasn’t Working
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#94 Apparently Working Here Means I Know Big And Little
So these are our registers for self checkout. I’ve had people stare confused at the smaller screen (pin pad) and try to figure out how to proceed, when they need to look at the big screen.
I’ve told customers this in a polite and friendly way, even showing them the screen when I say “hey, gotta hit the button on the big screen.” A good number of them look between the two screens as if they cannot decide which is bigger, and I’m trying to logically deduce how they can be confused. But then a few of them have gotten angry: “You work here so it is easy for you!”
Easy for me… to know the difference between BIG and LITTLE…Because I work at a retailer?
Image credits: LemonFlavoredMelon
#95 Customer Karen
Image credits: bipolarbeardick
