20+ Petty customers who weren't happy with a store's customer service: 'People would complain that their pizza was too hot to eat'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Feb 6, 2025 11:00 AM EST

There should be awards for cashiers who patiently deal with customers day in and day out. Some shoppers have the most inane things to complain about, and they're happy to take their frustrations out on any random cashier. 

There's just no pleasing some people. You can do everything right, but at the end of your interaction, they'll still be cranky. Plus, as a cashier, there are many aspects of daily store operations that are out of your control. Oh, this store is too cold for this customer? Well, that's just too bad, ma'am. You'll have to bring a sweater next time you shop here. And this customer over here is unhappy that the store closes at 4 PM, because he wants to shop at 4:30? Well, sorry to tell you this, but you can't shop at a closed store, buddy. The employees can't let you in, no matter how many times you demand it. 

The cognitive dissonance is really something to behold. Customers will argue with a cashier while being completely wrong, yet all the while, that customer is sure they're the smartest person in the room. That customer who wanted to shop at 4:30 even though the store closed at 4 is a great example of this. He continually showed up at 4:30 just to whine about it. Then, when he was gently told by the store's employee that they close at 4, he had some unpleasant words to hurl at them. Ugh. Some things in retail never change. 

Up next, this woman was inspired by TikToks to quit her job and live the "soft life," but her spouse has other ideas: "She is being incredibly self-centered." 

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  • 01
    GOOD 'A customer complained that their sandwich wrap was wrapped like a burrito and not a wrap'
    via Rudy Dong on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    "Customer service people, what's the dumbest thing a customer has gone out of their way to complain about?"

    woodenman22 A guy asked if I was the manager. "Can I help you with something?" Angrily: "Yeah, three Saturdays in row now I come down here at 4:30, and every ' Saturday you close at 4."
    via u/woodenman22
  • 03
    "Uh...yeah. We close at 4." "F you." At least he left then. The worst ones don't leave. They just keep going.
    via u/woodenman22
  • 04

    What does this even mean?

    dwight44 I don't know if it's the dumbest one but a customer complained that their sandwich wrap was wrapped like a burrito and not a wrap
    via u/Jing_Yuan_Lu
  • 05
    [deleted] I work for a popular roadside assistance company and had a guy call in wanting to get roadside assistance for his daughter who was stranded. His daughter was not on his membership and there was no room to add her because he already had his wife added. So I suggested he remove his wife for now and add his
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    daughter so she can get roadside assistance and then switch them back afterwards. Apparently this was the most outrageous suggestion. He went and told my supervisor that I was "making him choose his daughter over his wife and no father should have to make that kind of decision" lol.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    AwkwardSara I was working at OfficeMax during back to school season. This woman comes up to my register with a few things and I start scanning it in. She notices the one item rang up less than she was expecting. She actually got an attitude with me because we hadn't had a chance to print new shelf tags for that aisle yet. I told her I would wait if she wanted to get
    via u/AwkwardSara
  • 08
    more. She declined and continued complaining to me about it. I said "well I can override the price to what the shelf label said." I realize now that I was being a bit of ab I by saying that. She politely declined that as well, paid with her card, and rushed out the door with her things.
    via u/AwkwardSara
  • 09
    Cheezburger Image 10463871488
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 10
    mermaid744 I guess this wasn't really an official complaint but it was pretty dumb. I was running register at the grocery store and this couple got in my line. I could tell they were together because they were talking and interacting with one another. However they had two different baskets and left a small gap between their respective items without placing down the
    via u/mermaid744
  • 11
    divider. So I wasn't sure if they were paying for everything all together or separately. I say the generic things, hi, how are you, did you find everything okay, etc and then politely asked, "together or separate?" The lady gave me a death glare and said "why on earth does it matter?" I gave her a blank stare and slowly said "so....
    via u/mermaid744
  • 12
    that I know whether to keep ringing you up...or cash out the order...." All I can think is they must have been having some relationship problems because she jumped right to that, haha.
    via u/mermaid744
  • 13
    2buckbill Worked in an electronics store to put myself through college. I worked in the computer department, but was sitting at the loss prevention desk up front to cover while the LP supervisor took a quick lunch break. An old lady comes in, asks where the dairy section is, and help finding the milk. I told her, kindly, that we weren't in a
    via u/2buckbill
  • 14
    grocery store. She looks confused and leaves. A couple of minutes later her (presumably) son walks in, and starts chewing my a because I wouldn't help her find the milk. When he was done I slowly waved my arm across the store and asked him which one of those aisles looks like they might have groceries in them. He stares for a good
    via u/2buckbill
  • 15
    few seconds, and then starts me out saying that I'm an a h le, and he wants to see a manager. So I paged the loss prevention supervisor up to the front. The LP supervisor invited the guy to never come back to the store.
    via u/2buckbill
  • 16
    BOOMkittykitty I used to work at a pizza place with a small dining room. So many people would complain that their pizza was too hot to eat. Of course it is. It just came out of the oven. This is why you chose to drive your dumbass here to eat instead of having it delivered. Because it's fresh. Fresh pizza is hot, ffs.
    via u/BOOMkittykitty
  • 17

    What a terrible day to be literate

    [d... I work at a bakery and we sell pigs in a blanket for breakfast. A few years ago one of the kinds was a spicy blueberry sausage (it had blueberries inside the sausage link). One day some lady got one (knowing it was a blueberry sausage link), bit into it and noticed some dark looking things inside the sausage link (surprise, it was a blueberry) but for
    via u/[deleted]

    I didn't know that blueberry-filled sausages were a thing. Maybe they're good with breakfast foods? It's no wonder that some customers got the ick from it, though. 

  • 18
    whatever reason she thought that a flake of black gunk from inside our oven somehow managed to get inside the sausage link (even after said link was rolled in a croissant). She called the health department on us and tried to get $50+ of free food.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 19
    My boss asked her what she ordered, he brought out a link of the sausage to show her and she immediately shut up and left the store. Unfortunately we stopped selling that kind because "if one idiot is gonna think that then others will", which is sad because they were pretty good.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20
    shartnado3 Working pizza delivery. One time a guy called in, threatened to kick all our and more because we put sticks in his pizza. I told him I would be happy to come pick it up and examine it (we got a LOT of fraud calls, people trying to get free sh every day). When I got there his tone changed
    via u/shartnado3
  • 21
    (I am 6 foot, 270 pounds) and he showed me the "sticks" in his pizza. You know what they were? He ordered thin crust, and some of the crust broke off onto the pizza. He was nice as can be after I pointed that out.
    via u/shartnado3
  • 22
    [deleted] I once had a customer come in and the following ensued: Customer: "Hi I am here to return this power washer" Me: "Sure you have your receipt?" C: "Well I bought it "As Is" two years ago. I used it for the first time last year and it didn't work. I saw it this
    via u/[deleted]
  • 23
    weekend cleaning the garage. I'd like my money back" M: "Ah yeah we can't do that. This product is 3 years old and was sold as is". C: angry tone "Oh yeah buddy? What kind of store is this then? Let me talk to a manager."
    via u/[deleted]
  • 24
    Manger proceeds to give them store credit for the amount of a brand new one. I put my two weeks in shortly after.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 25
    Go... That I was using a cash register instead of "using my brain" to calculate money
    via u/Godieinatoilet
  • 26
    kthle A few years ago I was cashier at a retail store. A pregnant woman came up and said that she was trying to leave but couldn't get into her car because a truck was parked very close to her. I paged the driver of the truck up to the cash desk. The truck driver, a middle aged woman, came up, and she and the pregnant
    via u/kthle
  • 27
    woman got into an argument because truck lady didn't want to leave her shopping to go move her truck. I didn't get involved and continued to cash out customers, and eventually truck lady moved her car so the pregnant lady could go home.
    via u/kthle
  • 28
    Later as I was cashing out the truck lady, she asked to speak to my manager. Afterwards my manager told me that she was complaining about me because at some point she said it looked like I nodded, so I was clearly siding with the pregnant lady. My manager said "I told her I'd talk to you about it, so here I am talking to you about it" and just left it at that.
    via u/kthle
  • 29
    alp... Ah I got a great one. So I have a small retail business with my mom that's strictly brick and mortar. Normally our return policy is within 21 days for store credit. During the holidays we extend it so that anything purchased between black Friday and December 24th can be returned up until the end of January.
    via u/alphalegend91
  • 30
    A few years ago this guy came in around the end of April trying to return Christmas gifts on DRY CLEANING HANGERS. When I told him I wouldn't take it back, even for a store credit, he blew up on me and cussed me out in front of other customers in the
    via u/alphalegend91
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    store. He then proceeded to leave a 1 star review and bash the store saying how he's "never been treated like that before at a store". How tf do people like that exist?
    via u/alphalegend91
  • 32
    ashlie_ren A lady ordered a sandwich and then cancelled her order because she thought it took too long. Someone else from the party she was having called and made an order. We made it and delivered it without issue. Same lady calls back APPALLED that we would allow one of her guests to order from us after she made it very clear she wanted to cancel her own
    via u/ashlie_ren
  • 33
    order. It's not my business if other people at her party want to order food and I had no idea it was her party anyway. I told her it was very common for multiple deliveries to go to the same house party, why wouldn't we make them sandwiches?
    via u/ashlie_ren
  • 34
    She then told me I would obviously never amount to anything in life and she was going to make a formal complaint against me. It was such a weird complaint. It was probably 10 years ago but it still bugs me sometimes.
    via u/ashlie_ren
  • 35
    slapthefatcat Restaurant with open kitchen, so customers and us cooks can converse freely. Customer wanted crispy fish. Made it really crispy. Not done enough. I cooked a new one, literally like 15 minutes on the fryers; I cooked three or four other orders around it. She then complained that it was too hot and she didn't want it.
    via u/slapthefatcat
  • 36
    functionalsock Worked at a coffee shop that wasn't Starbucks. Frappuccino is a trademarked word for Starbucks blended coffee drinks. When customers would ask for frappuccinos. we would just put in the order as what we called it and let them know the name for it at our store so they would recognize it when the barista called it out. Had a
    via u/functionalsock
  • 37
    women get so upset she was screaming, all over the word frappuccino. According to her it was the traditional Italian word for a blended coffee drink (it's not) and we obviously thought she was stupid to tell her otherwise and how dare we insult her like that. Tried to calm her down and just say we called them something else but it would be a similar drink...didn't even correct her about the
    via u/functionalsock
  • 38
    rest. She continued to flip out and literally looked up and called our corporate customer service line in front of us, holding up the rest of the line, to have them tell her the same thing. She then started screeching to demand to talk to the president of our company, and started knocking stuff off our counter top. That's when we called security to her the f out of our store.
    via u/functionalsock
  • 39

    This mentality is so odd

    [deleted] It's always "x has it cheaper" Go there then. You are hurting literally nobody's feelings.
    via u/[deleted]

    When I worked in fast food, one of my managers would often tell problematic customers to go across the street to our competitor! It was very funny to watch the customer's face turn red as they realized we did not care at all about their promises to "take their business elsewhere." We encouraged it! My manager would even give them street directions to the place just to add insult to injury. It must not have bothered the customers that much though, because they always came back. 

  • 40
    Unique_User_nam... The store manager was walking by my register as a customer was walking up to check out. My manager said I had to take my break in 15 minutes to which I said, "Okay" The customer complained that it was unprofessional for the
    via u/Unique_User_name_42
  • 41
    manager to speak to me and that I was unprofessional to respond when a customer was approaching the register because I needed to be focused on her and greet her appropriately.
    via u/Unique_User_name_42
  • 42
    maxdps_ Not sure if this is really a complaint but more sheer stupidity... At my first IT job, someone was returning a computer monitor and insisted on speaking with someone from the IT department rather than just leaving it in the cage as they were asked.
    via u/maxdps_
  • 43
    So I came down to talk with them to see what was going on and she was very adamant that I "double- check" the monitor to make sure all of her information was off of it.... This lady literally thought all of her icons, files, and folders were saved directly to the monitor itself and wouldn't leave unless I powered it on to show her.
    via u/maxdps_
  • 44
    I didn't even bother trying to explain it to her, she seemed extremely ride and it wouldn't even be worth my time. So I literally plugged it into the wall, didn't connect it to anything, and powered it on. "See, it's completely blank. Your good to go" She smiled, said thank you, and left.
    via u/maxdps_
  • 45
    mywifiisbadtho I worked at Subway in high- school and a customer demanded to speak to a manger because her $5 footlong was not exactly $5. I tried explaining to her that sales tax is normal and $5.35 is the price of anything after tax that is $5
    via u/mywifiisbadtho
  • 46
    she continued to yell and cuss at me. She even specifically stated she does not have to pay a tax. It was at that moment I accepted that there was no being rational with some people...
    via u/mywifiisbadtho
  • 47
    Just-1-More-Try Customer was sent a bill in an envelope with a plastic window part for the address and called to complain that our company was single handedly (her words) destroying the planet by sending so much plastic through her door.
    via u/Just-1-More-Try
  • 48
    Turns out she'd had several letters as she was significantly behind in payments and there was a previous complaint on her records where she had insisted all correspondence must be by post. Smh. Literally could not win with the woman.
    via u/Just-1-More-Try
  • 49
    queen_in_the_no... I was a lifeguard for 2-3 years in high school. Everyday I would get people complaining about the pool temperature as if I could do something about it. "Ma'am, the pool does not have a heating system, I'm sorry. Larger bodies of water hold their temperature longer, which is why it's so cold".
    via u/queen_in_the_north17
  • 50
    And they would complain ALL. THE. TIME. "This is your job, you need to fix it!" I'm sorry lady. This isn't the 4 Seasons Hotel, this is a community pool. It was never young people, always the old ladies who would come in at 5 am to do water aerobics.
    via u/queen_in_the_north17
  • 51
    CORPO DE GUARDA-VIDAS C
    via Cassiano Psomas on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 52

    $5 off is $5 off, take it or leave it!

    chub_chub_lagazi We couldn't get a 5$ coupon to scan so we just took it off in another way and she ranted and raved because she didn't like how it was going to look on the receipt. Legit yelled at one of my cashiers for this. I'll never understand
    via u/chub_chub_lagazi
  • 53
    nightmareanddre... The best is always people who aren't using your services or paying you for anything but demanding your time and attention. Work at a vets office part time and every shift someone calls in asking about some random medication or another vet clinic when we insanely busy (we see roughly 40-50 pets
    via u/nightmareanddreams
  • 54
    a day) and demand that I look up phone numbers and pricing for other clinics, people act like smart phones and the internet aren't at their disposal. The best was one time this lady called because she found a wild rabbit and wanted us to give it an exam. Explain to her to put the rabbit back outside as it could have a number of
    via u/nightmareanddreams
  • 55
    diseases and it's not safe to keep a wild animal in your house, also we don't see anything other than cats and dogs. She then demanded I look up a vets office that did take wild animals, told her "ma'am, we are very busy.
    via u/nightmareanddreams
  • 56
    and this is a personal issue and you aren't a client. I will not do research for you. Have a great day." She then. left us a one star yelp review and tried to write a complain to the better business bureau.
    via u/nightmareanddreams
  • 57
    PersonMcNugget Somebody called head office to complain that they heard a Michael Jackson song in our store.
    via u/PersonMcNugget
  • 58
    [deleted] She tried to file a complaint because the cashier gave her a 5 cents coin back instead of 4 cents.
    via u/[deleted]

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karens cash register retail shopping retail worker coworkers demanding working cashier karens in the wild workplace entitled karen story karen entitled people shoppers
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