Sometimes, Working in Customer Service Sucks: Annoying Things Customers Do

I've been working since I was 15 and I've had a slew of part-time jobs. Everything from Wendy's, to call centers, to hotels and everything in between.

After working in the customer service industry for so long, I began to disdain, well, customers. People are just plain rude.

To be fair, this does not apply to everyone. I've come across some really nice customers in the past and those that don't bother me at all. But then there's the ones that I just couldn't give a damn about. The ones that walk into the store/hotel in a bad fucking mood and are on a mission to take it out on the person standing behind the counter, making minimum wage and who has no authority to give them a discount on anything, just because they demand one.

I worked at Blockbuster as a supervisor for almost three years. I was there until the bitter end. When our store closed, I was offered a position at another location, but obviously I turned it down. Did I really want to put up with more stupid questions and complaints from customers? Not really.

Today, I am sharing with you the most common (and annoying) questions and complaints I experienced:

Customer: Where I can find [states the name of a new release]?
Employee: It's on the wall in alphabetical order.
Customer: Okay.. So, where would it be?

Customer: I returned my movie on time. Can I get my next one for free?

Customer walks into the store: Are you guys open?

Customer: I want to speak to the manager!

Me: I'm the manager on duty.

Customer: How? You're like 12!

For the record, I was 22.

 

Customer: Where's your porn section?

Me: Sir, this is a family store. We don't rent out porn here.
Customer: Would you like to star in a porn movie?

Customer: Have you seen this movie?
Me: No, I haven't had a chance to yet.
Customer: Why do you still work here when you clearly aren't doing your job??

How dare I have a life outside of Blockbuster.

Employee: There's a charge of $10.31 on your account for your last rental.
Customer: FOR WHAT?! I RETURNED IT!

Employee: You returned it more than 60 days after the due date.
Customer: But you have no late fees!

Come on people. Use some common sense. 

The best one:

Woman comes in with her DVD player, screaming.

Woman: Your movies are SHIT! Your DVD got stuck in my DVD player and wont come out! YOU have to BUY me a NEW DVD PLAYER!

After much deliberation and conversation, an employee decides to carefully open the DVD player for the customer.

Employee: Miss, you put the DVD in upside down. And off the ridges.

(I don't know why her DVD player wasn't working. But it definitely wasn't the fault of any of us. When the employee put the DVD player back together - and the DVD in properly - it worked.)

Oh, and let's not forget the time a customer threatened to kill me because I told him he hadn't returned a movie yet. He was convinced he had and proceeded to call me a bitch and tell me he planned to kill me. He then stood outside the store and yelled at any customers who wanted to come in, saying, "Don't go in there!" and "Watch out for the bitch!"

He had returned his movie and we found it that night when we did inventory. Just like I told him we would. 

(Side note: I was actually pretty scared and I ended up calling the cops on him.)

There are so many others, but I think I've made my point. Thinking back to all of this makes me even more grateful for the job I have now. I work in an office with a much more mature clientele. Having weekends off is pretty sweet too.  

Have you worked in customer service? Or just had a really crappy job? What have your experiences been?