'Hun, I'm trying to help you': Karen tries to get a retail employee fired for calling her 'hun', instead managers praise their all-star employee for maintaining excellent customer service

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Sep 13, 2024 9:00 AM EDT

If you've ever worked in retail, you've probably fantasized about telling off a customer. 

The daughter of a woman who worked in retail recently went to r/RantsFromRetail to vent, fantasizing about mincing words with a textbook Karen who harassed her mother at work all week. Any employee working the pickup register for online orders has spent their fair share of energy troubleshooting mistakes, but although u/confusedra2476's mom had endured retail's most entitled customer base, she was still shocked at the level of insanity that this particular Karen brought into the store.

Since they were northerners who'd moved down to the South, they were still growing accustomed to the southern traditions of addressing someone as 'ma'am' or 'sir', but as we all know, pet names can also be an excellent way to get feral beasts to calm down. So when the Karen in this story was busy complaining about the cashier's 'incompetence', the woman naturally resorted to soothing her the old-fashioned way–with a lovely, sweet-intentioned nickname. Except, this Karen was far from normal, and with her nostrils flaring, she lost her cool and went straight up the corporate ladder to file a vicious complaint. 

Read on for all of the details of the Karen-incident fallout and the amazing managers who backed up an employee, praising her for keeping her cool against a formidable adversary.

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  • 01
    CHRISTINE
    via DAPA Images via Canva
  • 02
    My mom called a customer "hun" and they spent the rest of the week trying to get her fired for it..... Employer/workplace rant
    via confusedra2476
  • 03
    So my family is originally from upstate NY and moved to Florida about 9 years ago..i feel this part is worth mentioning because up north, I never really heard people use "sir" or "ma'am"..it was often "hun" or "bud" (at least in my small little town)..and
    via confusedra2476
  • 04
    I myself was chewed out by a customer when I said "what can I get for you, hun?"...and she thought it was incredibly I of me and told me I should address her as "ma'am". Then, when i briefly moved back up north i had a
    via confusedra2476
  • 05
    different woman get mad at me for calling her "ma'am" because she felt it was the same as me calling her "old" (you just can't win) Normal, decent human beings don't get their all in a
    via confusedra2476
  • 06
    bunch over something so small (I suggest customers like this start wearing their own name tags so we can know what they want to be called) so this isn't a common occurance Anywhoozle, on to what happened to my mom.
    via confusedra2476
  • 07
    She works in OGP at Walmart, and for the most part, she likes her job. She's been doing it for 2 years and is now a team lead and she loves her staff and they love her. Unfortunately, with the higher position, she's now the one who has to deal with the terrible customers.
    via confusedra2476
  • 08
    Well one day, a man came to pick up the groceries his wife ordered..he was very nice but didn't understand the process, so he had his wife on the phone. She had placed two separate orders (one for her, and one for a friend of hers) but my mom could only find one order under the wife's name.
    via confusedra2476
  • 09
    My mother explained that she couldn't find the order, and asked if was under a different name..but the customer kept yelling at my mom and insisting that it wasn't under a different name, and kept implying that she was too incompetent to do her job. My
    via confusedra2476
  • 10
    mom asked for the order number, and again, the woman refused to give it to her..both my mom (and the woman's husband) were trying to explain that there wasn't anything they could do if she wouldn't give them any information...she kept yelling
    via confusedra2476
  • 11
    and when she finally paused, my mom said "hun, I'm trying to help you, but I can't do that if you won't help me" And the woman lost it all over again, and said "I can't believe you just called me hun! That is so unprofessional!" And
    via confusedra2476
  • 12
    continued tearing into my mom for another minute before she demanded to speak to a higher up. So she transfered the call to her boss, who got to hear this woman freak out even more..which escalated it to the store manager..
    via confusedra2476
  • 13
    She comes in the next day and is informed that the customer has brought it all the way to corporate and that they'll be doing an "investigation on the incident" and for the rest of the week, that woman called the store to see what was
    via confusedra2476
  • 14
    going on and to complain more. My mom came home from work at the end of the week and was fighting back tears and said "this woman ruined my whole week over this"..and I spent alot of years working in retail myself..but I've never hated a customer as much as I hated that woman.
    via confusedra2476
  • 15
    And the real kicker to all of it, that 2nd order was placed under the "friends" name..all that woman had to do was tell my mom the name..instead she spent a week of her time being miserable. I hope she steps in a wet spot everytime she puts on fresh socks
    via confusedra2476
  • 16
    DrummingOnAutopilot The harassing calls each business day should be reported to corporate and attached to that faux "investigation." Maybe it'll make those corporate smoothbrains think twice before sending that a coupon and apology. Instead, they should give her a referral to a local clinic so she can learn to function in public. And a ban due to harassing company employees.
    via DrummingOnAutopilot
  • 17
    I'll admit I don't always like being called names such as "hun," but I'm not going to be an to someone who is trying to be nice. I recognize the gesture, reciprocate the kindness, and move on with my life.
    via DrummingOnAutopilot
  • 18
    confusedra2476 OP The managers tried to deescalate the situation. The woman contacted corporate herself. (You can get the number online). The managers defended my mom and kept her updated on the situation.
    via confusedra2476
  • 19
    This situation actually happened several weeks ago, but I found this sub and decided to share it..and I haven't heard my mom mention anything about her coming back..but I know the customer had made comments about "never shopping with yall again"..so maybe she actually meant it. Lol
    via confusedra2476
  • 20
    DrummingOnAutopilot Oh, I thought it was the other way from your story, my bad.
    via DrummingOnAutopilot
  • 21
    confusedra2476 OP You're fine. I tend to ramble, and even I struggle to follow what the I'm talking about, haha. Plus, I would usually assume the managers would have taken the customers' side, too, because I worked for Walmart myself but a different store, and my managers were spineless and never defended their employees.
    via confusedra2476
  • 22
    I did just bring it up to my mom, though, and apparently, her store manager did contact corporate that night, but only to try and share my mom's side before the customer reached them. Because the customer made it very clear that she was going to call the Corp number. Shout out to managers and bosses that value their employees!
    via confusedra2476
  • 23
    Lonely Witness_1929 That was a Karen. People in the south, at least in Alabama, are ok with people calling them hun and buddy. I love to be called hun, it makes me feel happy and like that person actually likes their job. I hope you mama doesn't take it to heart too much.
    via Lonely_Witness_1929
  • 24
    TGIIR I used to hate being called hun until I moved to the South and adjusted to it. I no longer take it personally, and, like you, enjoy it now. It does make me feel happy.
    via TGIIR
  • 25
    StoriesandStones "Not professional?" It's Walmart (or as I like to call it, "The Walmarts"), not a Bloomingdale's. I've lived in the south most of my life, and if I'm not honey, hun, darlin, sweetheart, baby, to customer service at any store, I wonder why they're mad at me lol.
    via StoriesandStones
  • 26
    Now, I work in retail, and I can't bring myself to use pet names like that for customers. I guess my Yankee blood is just too strong. I also won't "ma'am" ya unless you're me off. I also don't use ma'am or sir because I just have a hate for gendered titles and always have. No idea why, lol. I think it's just my distaste for useless words, like saying "how are you?" To a stranger. Dislike. Anyhoo....
    via StoriesandStones
  • 27
    But geez, what a horrid and miserable person that woman is. I'm sorry your mom was put through this. At the retail company I work for, such silliness from a customer would have been passed up the chain with eye rolls and no apologies to the customer who caused the chaos and no punishment to the employee. Which is probably why I'll work here forever lol, I don't think I can't ever go back to kissing customer ass.
    via StoriesandStones

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karens boss worker employee manager job retail work coworkers customers working ceo customer employees supervisor workplace company coworker rants from retail business karen karen customer
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