'You took a week from me? I'll take a month from you': Small business gets back at client who very Karen-ly wasted their time and money

Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor

Jul 1, 2023 8:00 PM EDT

It's not easy to run a small business and nobody ever said it was. However, when you find what you're passionate about, a few workplace horror stories aren't going to stop you. Well, we're here to trade in a positive workplace story from a small business who very successful got the justice they were seeking.

The small business was for knives, OP says on Reddit. He makes custom knives with top notch steel and forging methods. He's very passionate about his work and thus is very knowledgable on it. However, as small businesses tend to do, it was a struggle at the moment to keep it afloat. So any order was an important order. Luckily, OP got an inquiry for a large order from another business who wanted to get custom knives made for all of their employees as a holiday gift. It was over seas, so the time difference was difficult to manage for any further discussions, but OP was willing to make the extra effort. For a week, every morning OP would wake up at 5am his time so he could chat with this potential buyer. The customer talked a lot about steel and smithing, but danced around discussing the order. After a week, OP finally made it clear that he needed more information to go forth with the sale, and that's when the client dropped the bomb that they actually were no longer interested.

OP was furious and asked why he had strung him along for a week then? The Karen customer said he just wanted to chat with him and that he should learn to appreciate customers like him. Furious, OP hung up on him and blocked him. Down the road, however, he decided to get some revenge. He asked another business that is friend runs to call up this Karen guy's work and discuss a large order you want to put in. This ride-or-die friend strung this Karen along for an entire month before telling him "actually, we're not interested." BOOM. The Karen's reaction was priceless. Read the entire satisfying petty revenge story below!