‘Why are people this miserable and pathetic?’: Entitled customer yells at a customer service agent for something he couldn’t possibly have influence over

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Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Jul 22, 2026 1:45 PM EDT

Customer's rage deposits

I used to work at a coffee shop, and I found this attitude truly intriguing. Many times I reflected on the times I had pulled it off myself. It goes something like this: something irritates you as a customer, like the fact that the store is out of the specific muffins you like, and you take it out on the employee who's selling them. The psychological operation is very simple, really, but it's surprising how often this happens to fully functioning adults in relation to very silly demands like a special kind of milk or a yogurt flavour.

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  • a worker talking to a customer
    via Vitaly Gariev

    The emplpyee about to be yelled at

    Image is representative

  • Customer calls me an idiot for something I don’t even have control over

    Bit of a vent here. I'm 22 and I have a summer job working at a boat rental place in a park in my city. Near the end of my shift I
    via Paulhockey77
  • was helping a family who wanted to rent a boat, but none of them had their government issued ID on them
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  • At our place, our policy requires that at least one person in a party have a government issued ID for the sakes of signing our rental agreement
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  • So with this family, none of them had their IDs on them so they had to walk back to their cars to get them. One of the family
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  • members (I think the grandma) proceeded to get ped about having to walk back and get their ID. She proceeded to tell me
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  • that we need to tell our boss to update the websites and signs and blah blah blah. She proceeds to say "you
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  • better promise me that you're going to tell your boss!". At this point she's just yapping
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  • a woman holding her fists up
    via engin akyurt

    The angry customer

    Image shown for illustrative purposes; person depicted is a model

  • For the record my coworkers have told our bosses several times to update the website to include relevant info. But
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  • our website literally says the photo ID is required Either way, the lady then comes back and this time my supervisor is helping
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  • her, and then this Karen proceeded to call me an idiot behind my back because of this. Why are people this miserable and pathetic?
    via Paulhockey77
  • TAM_IS_MINE I also work in customer service and encounter the same types of people. I just think about how miserable and boring their day-to-day lives must be for them to get worked up over such silly things and it makes me feel better lol!
    via Paulhockey77
  • Excellent_Coconut_81 People are blaming others for being to dumb not to forget documents when leaving home...
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  • Guidance-Still Well the customer is just reacting
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  • a man sitting at a desk with his head in his hands
    via Vitaly Gariev

    The employee tired of receiving complaints

    Image shown for illustrative purposes; does not depict actual events

  • Tolerating frustration is an art form, I get it. Your first impulse when somebody tells you you walked all the way to the store and you can’t make the purchase because you didn’t bring your I.D. might be to lash out because you don’t want to go back and get it, but let’s be real, you just have to breathe deeply once or twice, and you snap out of it. You can even express your anger in the moment, but to go as far as to demand the boss changes something that’s in itself absolutely reasonable is pure and simple entitlement. I think that people who have never worked as a customer service representative in any shape or form haven’t had an opportunity to see this from the other side, and that’s why they’re so shortsighted. Of course, it doesn’t take experiencing the same things to understand another person’s perspective; it’s the definition of empathy, but well, we all need a little help sometimes, lol.

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workplace-stories toxic-workplace work workplace toxic-work-environment
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