'She gets three steps out of the store and drops the phone': 20+ Customers who got the instant karma they deserved

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 3, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

These are the moments that retail workers hold near and dear. No, we aren't just talking about fond memories with coworkers. These workers got to witness as their worst customers got instant karma for their terrible behavior. 

Meltdowns aren't just for babies and toddlers. Retail workers have to deal with grown adults having tantrums every day. There are lots of folks who are led to believe that the only way they'll get what they want is to be aggressive and demanding about it. Technically, this does work some of the time, but it's dehumanizing to the workers, who are just people too. Retail workers deserve so much respect, and receive so little from the very people they're helping to pick out a shirt or ring up groceries. 

Moments where the meltdowns end in instantaneous karma must be so satisfying though. Those are the kinds of thoughts that make you warm and cozy on a day where the customers are being truly terrible. Some of them will get exactly what's coming for them. 

Speaking of customer service, the only people who may have it worse than retail workers are the call center employees of the world. This person also had a great day at work---they were allowed to hang up on the same irate customer over and over and over. 

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  • 01
    Font - Retail/service workers of reddit, what's the best instant karma you've seen happen to ar de customer?
    via u/[deleted]
  • 02
    Font - gocubs44 I work at an auto parts store. This one guy stole some $60 headlights and literally sprinted out the door. We went to look outside to try and get his license plate, just in time to see him speed off, hit a curb, and blow out his tire. Called the cops and the dumba got arrested and had to have his car towed.
    via u/gocubs44
  • 03
    Font - RedditWhileWorking23. Working the window at Mcdonalds late night. Guy orders whatever and pulls up to the window. I'm cooking and handling the window, so I wasn't there when the customer pulled up. When I walked up to the window, I didn't see the er with trash in his lap. I open the window to take his card/cash and he throws a bag of trash at me. I take a step back, bothered that I just got trash thrown at me, and I watch his car speed off.
    via u/RedditWhileWorking23
  • 04
    Font - I'm ped, but there's nothing I can do. A couple seconds later I hear a small bang of metal on metal. I walk to the lobby and look out the windows. The bag slammed into a police cruiser who was about to loop around and use the drive thru himself. Of course I also went to tell the officer what just happened inside.
    via u/RedditWhileWorking23
  • 05
    Font - necrohonkey Standing at the counter of the pizza place I work at. Lady storms in and slams a pizza down on the counter. "This isn't the fu ing pizza I ordered, what the hare you going to do about?" She asked. I look at the pizza then at my buddy Nick and turn back to her and say, "Nothing".
    via u/necrohonkey
  • 06
    Font - She then goes on a long rant telling how we are going to be fired, how stupid and incompetent we were, she actually told me I must be then asked r why the h going to do anything? we weren't I said "Because that pizza came from the pizza shop across the street." I think she actually managed to shrink in size and slink out looking so pathetic and beaten I almost felt bad for laughing till tears dripped down my face as she slunk off.
    via u/necrohonkey
  • 07
    Font - thelostcanuck Worked at a telecom in Canada (I am no longer an employee thank god) Lady comes in with a broken iPhone is demanding to get a new one for free. If you don't know, in Canada the iPhone 6s is going for about $400 upfront on a two year contract at a minimum $80 plan. She had a good plan, but wanted it for free. She called up our loyalty team in store and spent the next two hours screaming at them. Finally, they agree to a deal, and she is getting it for zero. She looks at me an
    via u/thelostcanuck
  • 08
    Font - commission, so this essentially meant I was getting nothing and ruining my numbers). She keeps telling me to hurry up through the setup and I was trying to get them out of the store with everything transferred over and set up. She grabs the phone and starts marching off saying I was a terrible employee. She gets three steps out of the store and drops the phone. Shattered screen, and white screen of death. She ran back in asking what I can do. I shrug and went 'Sorry, but AppleCare sure wo
    via u/thelostcanuck
  • 09
    Font - mayonays Worked at Best Buy 10 or so years ago, this happened on Black Friday. Most of the customers were in bad moods since they'd been waiting hours to come in and stand in more lines. But this one lady was a raging b After yelling at everyone in my department about how she NEEDED the laptop that was on sale despite it being sold out, she proceeds to tell us she'll have the store closed down because she "works with the city and knows the fire marshall and we have too many people in the
    via u/mayonays
  • 10
    Font - she calls him, we tell her to leave, and nothing happens to the store. However we called them as well to report what she'd said, and she got fired from her job for abuse of power.
    via u/mayonays
  • 11
    Font - [deleted] I worked at a restaurant that was very popular for brunch and Mother's Day was probably our busiest day of the year. I had a customer call the evening before and asked for a table for six and he was incredibly r de when I informed him that this would simply be an impossibility. He kept getting more and more worked up, asking me to speak to my manager. At first I didn't want to pass the phone over (my manager wasn't the nicest guy and we were in the middle of a busy dinner shift)
    via u/deleted
  • 12
    Font - manager came up behind me and demanded to know why I had been on the phone for so long. I was like "f it, this customer isn't going to listen to me anyways" and gave the phone to Mac. Mac asked how he could help, listened for about 15 seconds before telling this dude something like, "so you're tying up my hostess in the middle of dinner even though she's already told you nicely that we can't fit you and your godda family in the night before our busiest day of the year? F your buddy!" And
    via u/deleted
  • 13
    Font - [deleted] More than a few decades ago I worked at Denny's. I had two male customers that decided to dine and dash. Got their license plate number and reported it to the cops and jokingly mentioned that they didn't even tip! Later that night they got pulled over for DUI, cops recognized license plate number from the report, brought them both back to the restaurant and forced them to pay the bill. After he was done paying, the cop just stood there and looked at them and said well? The guy s
    via u/deleted
  • 14
    Font - quasiix I used to return customer credit cards by setting them on the Square podium used to swipe them so they ended up right by them when I swung the screen around from them to sign and such. One lunch rush (take out restaurant) one lady decided this was an offense of the highest order and yelled at me for not placing it directly in her hand.
    via u/quasiix
  • 15
    Font - I stupidly engaged her and tried to explain that I did that for everybody which got me a continued lecture about how she is the customer and good service is doing what she wants and so on. There were about of dozen people eating at our tables and five people in the line behind her so she was straight hamming it up, making sure everyone saw her putting me in my place.
    via u/quasiix
  • 16
    Font - Unfortunately for her, the dramatic performance proved to be a bit too distracting and she stormed out without her infant. This was of course noticed by pretty much everyone in the building since she had just made herself the center of attention. One of the customers even had to run after her and stop her from driving away. For the record there is no real subtle way to pick up a full size child carrier. TL;DR: Woman shows full restaurant that she values her credit card over her child, per
    via u/quasiix
  • 17
    Font - [deleted] Lady lays into me for the amount of the bill, called me every bad word in the english language. Says we overbilled her, she requested I go through her order. Come to find out we underbilled her by a 1000 dollars due to a misplaced zero. The silence on the other line was so beautiful.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    Font - [deleted] Worked at a gas station some odd years ago and the week before it had been snowing a lot so the gas tankers got delayed due to safety reasons. A customer came in a pretty new Mercedes-Benz, something like SLS 400 or something and wanted the premium gas. I explained to him that the takers are delayed and we currently don't have any premium gasoline and that he could try the next station down the
    via u/[deleted]
  • 19
    Font - block. He started swearing at me personally like I has control over the gas delivery. He sped off tires screeching only to have his rear tire hit the curb. His rim got fu up really bad and couldn't drive it. I laughed at him.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20
    Font - 21 IN EmberDione It wasn't the customer, it was the manager. She was AWFUL. She was r de, intentionally picked out favorites and gave them presents in front of everyone (even when they didn't like her and tried to avoid it), messed up schedules on purpose for people she didn't like, etc etc. Worst manager ever. So there was a huge storm coming in, and people were really worried about it. Like the news telling people to stay home, other businesses closing, etc. So it was up to her to eithe
    via u/EmberDione
  • 21
    Font - course, she kept it open. Because schools closed only half our scheduled employees showed up, the rest called in - and she called her favorites and told them they didn't have to come in. Well as the like 5 of us who showed up were standing there, watching out the front windows (there were ZERO customers) she starts yelling at us, threatening to write us all up etc, and we are like - no one is here, all the work is done, we are watching the wind BEND TREES OVER and worried about if we are
    via u/EmberDione
  • 22
    Font - Right about this time we hear a SUPER LOUD crashing noise. CAHCHUNK- CAHCHUNK- CAHCHUNK- CAHCHUNK - WHAM! As the industrial air conditioner on top of the building got BLOWN OFF. Like it rolled along the roof, then went flying into the parking lot. - Right onto her car. It was so perfect it was surreal. Dead center, smashed her car flat. Like if she had been in it, she would have died.
    via u/EmberDione
  • 23
    Font - And it only happened because she parked right up by the building, where we had SPECIFICALLY been told not to park. All our cars were out in the farthest corner of the lot. We later found out it her car wasn't paid off, it was some stupidly expensive BMW or something, and her insurance didn't cover the damage because it was an "act of god".
    via u/EmberDione
  • 24
    Font - sanch3z90 I work at hotel's front desk. One day we had an armenian guest who was claiming his the room was not up to his standards and decided to make a big deal about it the next morning. He was so r de to the point of almost making a co- worker cry of desperation because she refused to compensate the night as his arguments seemed really fake and invalid.
    via u/sanch3z90
  • 25
    Font - Once he saw he was not going to get nothing back he threw his receipt on the floor and powered walked his way out into a very clean glass door that was recently cleaned. His sunglasses broke causing him a small cut on the upper part of his nose. My co-worker and I couldn't stop laughing the second he walked out even more mad.
    via u/sanch3z90
  • 26
    Font - In the auto repair business, we must deal with a lot of passive- aggressiveness from people displeased with having to shell out money for their cars. Once, a couple arrived to pick up a car which was parked in the first spot nearest the street. The husband was great, and had approved the needed repairs in stride; the wife was a raging b debating every line item of the estimate, asking pointless questions, demanding a cheaper price, threatening to take the car elsewhere or "just get a NEW
    via r/AskReddit
  • 27
    Font - Anyway, the man made his way toward the office, but the woman made a beeline for the car, found the keys stashed inside, threw the plastic seatcover to the wind, then started it up and drove off (before the bill had been paid), cutting the turn too sharp and scraping the ENTIRE passenger side of the car badly on the low concrete planter. I saw this happen; the husband didn't. Never saw them again.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 28
    Font - [deleted] I was a cashier at a grocery store. This guy with a full cart bed and bullied employees until he was allowed to use my express checkout because he didn't want to wait in the regular lines, and my line only had two people in it. As soon as my floor manager allowed him and he had his cart unloaded, a tiny old lady with a walker who could barely stand got in line behind him. Everyone gave him dirty looks. He realized he f up and tried to make a joke about it. Dead silence. I hope h
    via u/deleted
  • 29
    Font - Offduty Engineer I was a server during college at an upper scale restaurant. I rarely had problems with customers and am overall genuinely friendly. I had a table for 4 with only 3 patrons there, an older couple with their adult daughter. I served them beverages and was told we were to wait for patron #4 the son. about 40 minutes and 2 refills go by. I say "I bet you guys are starving by now, would you like me to bring you our lettuce wraps they are small enough to not ruin your appetite,
    via u/Offduty Engineer
  • 30
    Font - father said "we are going to wait, and he isn't you buddy. frankly you dont know him, hes a hard working man and will be respected" "You're right sir, forgive me." "He actually has a real job." "I understand sir, it wont happen again."
    via u/Offduty Engineer
  • 31
    Font - when i come back for refill number 3 the son was arriving. the son happened to be an old high school friend, before taking a seat he gave me a hug right in front of his dad. I looked at the father and said "small world huh, I can't believe your my old buddy [name]'s family im suprized we've never met before with [name] and I spending so much time together in high school " It's too bad our restaurant didn't serve crow.
    via u/Offduty Engineer
  • 32
    Font - A Reesesbuttercups I worked in this fancy clothing store in this posh town at the seaside. It was a busy saturday when suddenly a very pretentious girl walked in with her boyfriend, ignoring us as we greated her and even giving my collegue a demeaning look. She went on to browse around in the store and eventually took some clothes with her in the changingbooth.
    via u/Reesesbuttercups
  • 33
    Font - After a while I notice a heated conversation arising from the booth between her and her boyfriend. I see the boyfriend running back and forth between the booth and some clothing racks, in the mean while me and my collegue where being chased away by her (she refused any help and didn't leave the booth) as if we were a couple of ebola patients.
    via u/Reesesbuttercups
  • 34
    Font - So me and my collegue continue working and helping other costumers. I was working the register when suddenly the girls turns up next to me, completely ped off, and she starts ranting about "how our store/brand really should work on the fitting of our clothes and how we were complete ups". I was completely caught of guard and right when I wanted to ask her what the exact problem was, I see my collegue looking at the girl while bursting out this horribly loud laugh, tears and all.
    via u/Reesesbuttercups
  • 35
    Font - What had happened was that the girl had taken with her a clothingpiece she thought was a strapless dress. Well, it wasn't a dress. It was a skirt. The girl had tried on all sizes and got completely fed up, yelling at us and her boyfriend because the "DRESS" WON'T FIT. So she walked out in a crowded store, making a scene, with a skirt pulled up to her t s. I have to admit, after she left I laughed till crying.
    via u/Reesesbuttercups

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customer service ask reddit karens funny stories retail shopping retail worker coworkers customers working cashier karens in the wild workplace funny shoppers
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