'The customer is always right—I am the customer!': Entitled customer demands manager drop everything and rearrange store to her liking

Author image for Sienna Varady
Sienna Varady
Jan 18, 2024 7:00 PM EST

Two basic rules are taught to us when we work in customer service. First of all, we should never presume that consumers will read the small print at the bottom of our signage. The second universal guideline is to never, ever concede that you are correct and the client is mistaken.

In the story below, the manager of an arts and crafts store expresses her frustrations. It seems like OP has been dealing with a constant flow of difficult clients ever since taking over the store some time ago. But nothing could have prepared OP for what happened the other day when the client—who we'll refer to as Karen for the purposes of this argument—walked through the door. Karen was strolling around the store, looking at the cards. There are countless variations of cards to choose from. Some are large, some are small, and some are or are not on sale. But chaos ensued when Karen got to the register and saw that her specific card wasn't discounted.  

Check out the story below to learn what Karen asked of OP, how OP handled the matter, and who won in the pricing fight! and when you're done, read the story about the client who locks the alarm company installer outside of the building to ensure they stop showing up unexpectedly!

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  • 01
    "You risk losing a loyal client!"
    via Canva
  • 02
    How dare you not rearrange the store for a sale!
    via u/craftstoremonster
  • 03
    I had a customer come into the craft store In which I work at she demanded a manager come speak to her because the beautiful cardstock she took "a very long considerate time" to decide was not ringing up as on sale. We have an entire aisle of
    via u/craftstoremonster
  • 04
    card stock 100s of choices the right side of the aisle is basic cardstock, on the left is premium, and enhanced cardstock. The sale includes basic and enhanced cardstock (25cents a sheet) the sale sign literally says excludes
    via u/craftstoremonster
  • 05
    premium cardstock, includes cardstock between 73cents and 2.19. She had picked premiums and was mad that the GIANT WORDS ABOVE THE CARDSTOCK said premium but they had varying prices and how was she
    via u/craftstoremonster
  • 06
    suppose to know it was premium because it was 2.29 a sheet but it was in the same aisle as all the other cardstock(also all premium is celofán rapped). She demanded I (a key holder) remove everything from the aisle
    via u/craftstoremonster
  • 07
    that wasn't on sale and put it somewhere else in the store as to not be so confusing for customers. I told her I don't have that authority to rearrange the store like that. She called my store manager the next day to
    via u/craftstoremonster
  • 08
    complain that I refused to assist her and that I'm a useless manager since I wouldn't remove items from the sales floor. And it put her in a bad mood all day because she couldn't b ly a teenager at the register to give her the sales price on over 80 pieces of cardstock.
    via u/craftstoremonster
  • 09
    whoooootfcares · 3 days ago I had a guy ask my associates to call me down from a meeting so that he could complain about how long it takes for a live person to be contacted when you call our store.
    via u/whoooootfcares
  • 10
    He said he called and waited at least three minutes before a love person answered, and he hates how we use computers for everything and he doesn't want to listen to since message machine. He wants a live person right now.
    via u/whoooootfcares
  • 11
    The message was 29 seconds. I know. It was my voice. I ignored that part for the moment, and told him that the phone systems were interconnected between all 90 of our locations nationwide.
    via u/whoooootfcares
  • 12
    He asked me how long it would take me to get rid of the message. I asked him if he was seriously asking me to to tell our board if directors that he wanted us to disconnect our nationwide converged systems that ran the phones, and computer
    via u/whoooootfcares
  • 13
    network for the entire company. He said yes. I actually laughed a little and said "Yeah. There's no chance of that happening." He replied by telling me I was losing his business.
    via u/whoooootfcares
  • 14
    I thanked him for his time, and told him that I would share his concern, but unfortunately this was how things were going to stay. He made angry noises and left.
    via u/whoooootfcares
  • 15
    Mistress_Kittens. 3 days ago What a sad life she must lead, not being the main character in everyone else's stories. Tsk tsk tsk
    via u/Mistress_Kittens
  • 16
    sydmanly. 3 days ago I think the store should be demolished and rebuilt to her specifications at once.
    via u/sydmanly
  • 17
    0. shaodyn 3 days ago If I could read your mind, ... At times like that, I want to say "If I had the authority to do things like that, we wouldn't be having this conversation." But of course you can't actually do it.
    via u/shaodyn
  • 18
    Early_Vegetable3932. 2 days ago I got a call once over the walkie to go with a customer to see a sale sign. She was getting a pair of jeans she claimed had a sign saying they were $24.99 but they rang up as $34.99 or something like that. I
    via u/Early_Vegetable3932
  • 19
    walked with her to where she got the jeans and she smuggly pointed at the sign. It was a hanging rack that had shirts hanging in middle of the rack and jeans on the left and right, but the signs only
    via u/Early_Vegetable3932
  • 20
    had a spot on the ends, so they left and right sides not the middle. The sign said Lauren Conrad SHIRTS on sale for $24.99. She then proceeded to get mad at me because how dare we falsely advertise and
    via u/Early_Vegetable3932
  • 21
    she was going to call the BBB and corporate. I tried explaining that the signs only fit in the ends so we have to put them there but she wasn't having it. Still accused of us false advertisement. I
    via u/Early_Vegetable3932
  • 22
    ended up just telling her it's not my fault she didn't read the whole sign and just assumed.
    via u/Early_Vegetable3932
  • 23
    Commercial-Chip-5238 · 2 days ago It doesn't matter how big the sign is. No one will read it anyway.
    via u/Commercial-Chip-5238
  • 24
    JBluHevn 2 days ago OMG, I feel this in my core. I used to work in a similar craft shop, and we got Karens before they were called Karens, at least once a month. Some of them were repeat customers that
    via u/JBluHevn
  • 25
    we couldn't turn away because back then, in this region, we were a niche market with a small client pool. It exhausted my diplomacy and patience to bargain with them or
    via u/JBluHevn
  • 26
    stand firm, as the situation warranted, until they either left in a huff or gave up their drama and paid what they were supposed to.
    via u/JBluHevn

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