'This cappuccino feels like it's half foam': 20+ Customers who brought their dumbest questions to baffled employees

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 31, 2023 11:00 AM EST

The only people more confused than these customers were the befuddled employees trying to help them. 

If you've ever worked in customer service for any amount of time, you already know that some customers just need to rant and vent and get all their anger out. You can offer them solutions to their problems, and that's not good enough for them. Sometimes they'll just reject your ideas outright and demand a manager. As you can read about in one story about a block of cheese, some customers have no idea what they want. They just want to be heard. You could go to therapy and do that too… but hollering at the 16-year-old cashier for something they can't control is cheaper, I suppose. 

Stories of dummy customers aren't unique to retail or food service, either. One person who worked at a national park shared the story of what happened when the Yellowstone geyser didn't spray water at the time it usually does. 

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  • Yellowstone's geysers and hot springs are a naturally occurring phenomenon. But some people who were visiting the park were upset that the geyser wasn't going off on time. Instead of telling off Mother Nature, they headed to the employees to let their complaints be known. Facepalm. 

    Check out all of these very funny stories below. Next up, this teacher was fed up with an HOA trying to remove his pecan tree, so he hired a lawyer to shush their complaints once and for all. 

  • 01
    SOM 'I worked at an Italian Restaurant and received a complaint that we didn't have a burger and fries option on the menu'
    via Jorge Zapata on Unsplash
  • 02
    What is the dumbest customer complaint you've ever heard?
    via u/dwar0
  • 03
    drummerakajordan Brought out chicken parmesan to a lady at the restaurant I work at. The lady takes a bite and asks if it's really chicken in the chicken parmesan, I say of course it is. She immediately breaks down crying because she's a vegetarian and asks to see a manager.
    via u/drummerakajordan
  • 04
    ZarquonsFlat Tire At a garden center. "Some of your plants are wet."
    via u/ZarquonsFlat
  • 05
    ✪ [deleted] Lady: "Why wont you let my child swim in the deep end" Me: "Because she cant swim"
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    A guy accused me of harassing him because I kicked him out of the store after the third time he stole from us. He then called the cops...
    via r/AskReddit
  • 07
    Jesterfest I'm working at Taco Bell during the Sunday after church rush, and we have a line so long people are waiting outside the store. A family of three make it to the counter. Despite the fact that they had plenty of time to look at the menu board, the parents didn't know what kids meal to get their three year old. Their options were a hard shell, soft shell or bean burrito. They kept changing their mind, after I rang it up.
    via u/Jesterfest
  • 08
    I can tell my manager is getting annoyed as she is working the hot table and knows we have a mass of people waiting. I tell the family, "if you don't know what to order please step to the side and let me know when you have decided. I can't have you holding up the line." That set off a Istorm. Father, dressed in his Sunday best started tearing me a new one in front of the entire crowd. He started calling me a low life degenerate, a college drop out who probably can't make change etc. etc. etc. An
    via u/Jesterfest
  • 09
    he wasn't saying this quietly. I proceeded to wipe his order and start helping the next customer, because screw him. Once his order was wiped, he knocked over our cup display and shouted "now listen here you My manager walked from the line at that point and told him to get out of the store or she was calling the cops. He said "Oh yeah, what are the cops going to do?" The best moment of working fast food was my manager turning to the coral and saying
    via u/Jesterfest
  • 10
    "Show of hands, who here just witnessed this guy verbally assaulting my employee." Every single customer raised their hand. My manager then told him to get out and not to come back. He tried to come through the drive through about thirty minutes later. He ordered the same combos and a kids meal. He got to the window and there stood my manager. "Not going to happen, keep driving My manager was awesome.
    via u/Jesterfest
  • 11
    markko79 "This food is too hot. I'd like it replaced with cooler food."
    via u/markko79
  • 12
    mrszoso Worked in a sandwich/wing place several years ago. Had a woman order hot wings for delivery. After they were delivered, she called raging that "those hot wings made her baby cry!" The manager politely offered to send her mild instead...
    via u/mrszoso
  • 13
    derdeutschbag I work at a bank inside of a grocery store. The customer was very upset that they couldn't buy their toilet paper and doritos at the teller window.
    via u/derdeutschbag
  • 14
    Kowzorz A woman managed to spill gasoline all over herself at the gas station I worked at and demanded we pay for new clothing.
    via u/Kowzorz
  • 15
    erzatzkwisatz "This cappuccino feels like it's half foam!"
    via u/erzatzkwisatz
  • 16
    nofutureinyofrontin I was working in a restaurant a few years ago. It was pretty late after closing, and I was waiting for the last table to finish eating so I could clean up (not my table). In the meantime I was doing some other closing work on the other side of the restaurant, talking to a co-worker, and glancing occasionally over my shoulder to see if they had left yet.
    via u/nofutureinyofrontin
  • 17
    The lady at the table comes up to me, demanding to see the manager. I say OK, not really grasping how angry she is, and go get him. She begins to rant about how my co-worker and I were laughing about how she and her friends were 'dogs'. In actual fact my co- worker and I were talking about how he was looking after another co-worker's pets while they were out of town.
    via u/nofutureinyofrontin
  • 18
    In the empty restaurant, they had overheard a few random words, and pieced together their own little puzzle that my co-worker and I had nothing better to do than talk about them (says volumes about their self image I suppose). She unloads on our manager, who doesn't believe for a second that my co- worker and I would even think, much less say anything like that about these women.
    via u/nofutureinyofrontin
  • 19
    Knowing there has obviously been some misunderstanding, he calls us over, and I proceed to explain how we were having a conversation about a co-worker's pets. I swear I saw a look of embarrassment flash over her eyes, but she just continued flipping out. My co-worker and I left the scene so the manager could cool her down, but after calling us names for the better part of 5 minutes she eventually just walked out without paying.
    via u/nofutureinyofrontin
  • 20
    Her friends followed her out a minute or two later, saying they aren't paying for her meal, but that we'll "probably just force it through" on one of their credit cards anyways. More embarrassing for her than out and out dumb I suppose, but as far as unnecessary customer complaints go that one was pretty over the top.
    via u/nofutureinyofrontin
  • 21
    JLSaun I once had a shareholder complain that they only got their quarterly statement every three months. *edit for typo
    via u/JLSaun
  • 22
    duckface08 I once worked at a grocery store, and oftentimes at the customer service counter, which typically handles refunds, exchanges, complaints, and other odds and ends (like cigarettes and lottery). This man comes up with a block of cheese still in its package. I ask how can I help him. Then, our conversation goes something like this: Customer: This is the wrong cheese.
    via u/duckface08
  • 23
    Me: All right. Would you like to exchange it for another kind of cheese or would you prefer a refund? Customer: I don't want it. Me: Ok, I'll put through the refund for you. [I proceed to take the cheese, enter the refund into the computer, and hold out the money we owe him] Customer: What? Where's my cheese? I don't want a refund. Me: So, you want your cheese back? Customer: Yes.
    via u/duckface08
  • 24
    [I proceed to ring the cheese back into the computer, put the money back in the till, and give him his cheese back] Customer: Where's my money? Me: You said you wanted your cheese instead of a refund, so I rang it through again. Customer: But it's the wrong kind of cheese.
    via u/duckface08
  • 25
    Me: So, you want to exchange it? Customer: No. I don't want to bother with it. I'm just telling you it's the wrong kind. Me: So...what do you want me to do? This still perplexes me, but he ended up throwing a little hissy fit and took his wrong cheese home again.
    via u/duckface08
  • 26
    dradam168 I was in Yellowstone on a family vacation. For those that don't know, there is a gyser there called "Old Faithful" whose big claim to fame is the fact that it rather regularly goes off about every 90 minutes. As such, the Parks Service has a sign with an estimate of when it will be going off next.
    via u/dradam168
  • 27
    On this particular day, the gyser was about 15 minutes late and there were NUMEROUS people at the information desk to complain about it, as if they have some sort of button that they simply forgot to press.
    via u/dradam168
  • 28
    FreeSoloing I worked at an Italian Restaurant and received a complaint that we didn't have a burger and fries option on the menu
    via u/FreeSoloing
  • 29
    might_be_a_bird We ran out of medium sized fountain drink cups at the place I work at, so we were giving out large ones instead for the price of a medium. A lady flipped out and demanded that she get the drink for free since it wasn't the size that she wanted.
    via u/might_be_a_bird
  • 30
    604GT I used to work security at a casino and a man and woman came up to me and told me there was a man following them. I asked if they knew him and they replied, "Yeah he's the loan shark we borrowed $2500 from 2 weeks ago" Needless to say they were escorted safely to thier car then barred for a year.
    via u/604GT
  • 31
    LLCRad This woman calls really angry that we didn't call her to let her know we didn't receive her fax. I had to try and explain that there was no way we would know if she was attempting to send us a fax unless...we actually got the fax...
    via u/LLCRad
  • 32
    Cthulie A woman wanted me fired from my job because she thought I photoshoped extra freckles onto the model in her picture. Why the would I do that? She said I did it to deliberately she was going through a her off when family crisis. met her before! So my manager told her that he was sorry she was having a bad day but to get the out of his store. ! I had never
    via u/Cthulie
  • 33
    Ddres0605 I work at a library Patron comes in and knocks books off their shelves Turn to me and says "PICK THEM UP! I PAY YOUR SALARY!"
    via u/Ddres0605
  • 34
    dewhashish I used to work at Staples, customer called and complained the disc drive in their new laptop wasn't reading any discs. I asked a few questions over the phone like "Is the disc upside down?" and "Does the disc work in other computers" She yells back at me "I think I know what I'm doing! I'm not an idiot! I want this fixed!!" So I tell her to come in, we can replace it since it's under the 14 day return policy.
    via u/dewhashish
  • 35
    Mind you I'm I off since I tried to be helpful over the phone, and she yells at me. So she comes into the store and puts the laptop on the counter saying it doesn't work. I asked "Can you just show me what you're doing so I can make sure?" She turns on the laptop, opens the disc tray, puts the CD on top. She doesn't even snap it into the _tray! Just lays it flat on top and says "See! It doesn't work! I want a new one!" I snap it into the tray, close it and tell her "Your laptop is fine" and walk
    via u/dewhashish
  • 36
    away. My coworker standing next to me had to finish it up I was so dumbstruck. tl;dr Don't yell at me because you don't know how to operate a computer
    via u/dewhashish
  • 37
    Bringbacktheblackout I used to be a mechanic Lady calls in one day saying that she needs a new radiator. She has it in her car and is on the way to get it replaced. Apparently the shop she trust's diagnosed it, but we were closer and she really needed to get it done. She emphasized several times that she was in a rush. As in: "I'M IN A RUSH! I NEED YOU GUYS TO GET THIS DONE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! I HAVE SO MANY IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO! BLAH BLAH BLAH ETC! HOW MUCH IS THE LABOR GOING TO COST ME?"
    via u/Bringbacktheblackout
  • 38
    My boss the quick thinking guy that he is, pulled up her info and told her that the radiator paid two and a half hours so it was going to be around $250 in labor. She said that was OK and that she'd be at there in around 20 minutes. Now usually we were a pretty busy shop, but that day we were deader than a nun's Friday night. So the two head techs flipped a coin to see who was going to get paid, and they and I all were going to pitch in anyways because we wanted to get this lady in and out and w
    via u/Bringbacktheblackout
  • 39
    So the lady pulls in, my manager and head tech go out to greet her, and she tosses the keys at them and says "Get it done, ASAP!" So the head tech pulls it in. In an awesome display of teamwork and skill we take a still steaming radiator and replace it with the brand new one she had, within an hour. So the head tech pulls the car around and we go in with smiling faces to talk to her and thank her for our business and generally be proud of ourselves. Alas this was not to be.
    via u/Bringbacktheblackout
  • 40
    The lady was 1. Super . As in she was screaming at our manager about how we cheated her, we screwed her over, and we were gonna get sued by her lawyer husband, etc, etc. So he of course relayed to her, that we were very slow and she expressed a need for urgency. We did our best and had 3 techs working on her car to get it out as fast as possible. He showed her the old radiator and reminded her that she watched us pull the old radiator out and put the new one in.
    via u/Bringbacktheblackout
  • 41
    She screamed that she wasn't paying any money because we had obviously cheated her on money because we did the job too fast. My manager, who is normally a very kind and understanding guy, had experienced quite enough of this lady's attitude. He told her that she had to choices: 1-He could call the cops and tell them that she refused to pay for services rendered. 2- (With a devilish smile on his face) Or we could replace the radiator with the old one free of charge.
    via u/Bringbacktheblackout
  • 42
    She decided to take the 2nd option. (We were sitting just outside the waiting area listening to her wail like a banshee) Our manager comes back out and says "Hey, you guys want lunch? You know that Chinese place you guys like so much, but it takes forever for them to get you your food? Why don't you guys go there and eat in. My treat." He hands us a and tells us to go. I of money
    via u/Bringbacktheblackout
  • 43
    After we left (this is according to him, but I believe him due to her evil glare whenever we came back), he went back in and informed her that all the techs went on their mandatory lunch break and wouldn't be back for an hour. After we came back, funny enough, it took us two hours to put that old leaky radiator back in.
    via u/Bringbacktheblackout
  • 44
    robtheverb13 I used to work for Sears and a co-worker told me this story. He sold a top loading washer to gentleman and a 5 year service agreement. The service agreement covered most things except customer negligence. He came back into the store about a week later, absolutely livid. He was complaining that the washer wasn't working correctly, it was all off- balanced, and the drum was ruined. So a service call was scheduled for the technicians
    via u/robtheverb13
  • 45
    to figure out what the problem was. A few days later when the technicians went out to his house, they were shocked at what they found. Now this is according to the technicians as none of us were there, but the drum was cracked, and the machine itself barely ran. Apparently it in no way resembled a brand new washer. The technicians refused to do any type of repairs or order new parts for free(which is part of the service agreement), citing evidence of customer abuse.
    via u/robtheverb13
  • 46
    So the next day the man returns to the store even more mad than he was before. During a long argument between the man, my co- worker, and department manager, the man revealed that the first thing he did with the washer was wash a bowling ball. Apparently he did not realize that would be bad for the machine.
    via u/robtheverb13
  • 47
    His service agreement, of course, was void after such a blatant display of negligence. And of course he did the customary vow to never shop at our store again. tl;dr: Man buys a very expensive, one-time use, automatic bowling ball washer and is not satisfied.
    via u/robtheverb13

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