Most annoying customers you have had in your job?

[meaty]

Had a guy shout "pick it up" when I was litter picking

 

[MickeySP]

Well we don't actually call them customers I would have to say annoying would be the guy who tried to pee on me when I brought him his cheese sandwich. What he didn't realize in his drunken state is their is plexi glass between him & the bars. How'd that work for you buddy?

 

[tvguy]

Had one lady call this week wanting to know when they were going to show the 'The Bachelorette' that was WOULD have been on on Monday night. It was pre-empted by the NBA Finals. Me: "Next Monday Ma'am". Her: "no no no, the one next week will be NEXT weeks" Me:"No Ma'am, this week's will fair next week" Her:" It certainly ran on the East Coast" Me:" No ma'am" ABC did not run it anywhere, they're saving it for next week"

Mind you she started calling at 3:30 am, and called every 30 minutes or so through 830 am.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

I had a mom tell me one time her middle school son was my problem while he was in school not hers and she shouldn't punish him for things he does in school. My reply, ok so next time your son grabs another girls breast in my class I'm gonna break his hand so he can't touch them and then he might understand what expected and appropriate behavior around the opposite sex is because you surely aren't teaching him.

 

[Rhie]

Working at a bookstore it was more types of customers rather than specific ones. There were two that was just so bad they are funny. The first one was the one who was told a hundred thousand times to pre-order Harry Potter because that was the only way they'd get the book the day it came out. They just said uh-huh...and then day of the release would shriek about how there weren't any and how come they couldn't have one from one of the special order stacks. There were of few of that type that flat out wouldn't believe they were all special orders and actually tried to grab them from us.

The second one were the parents who passed on their idiocy to their kids by asking for the shortest summer reading book. Joke was on them, as the shortest one was Billy Bud, by Melville.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

You get all kinds in a library. Someone (I have no idea who, but I have my suspicions) peed on the floor of the mystery section about once a week. That was fun to clean.

Then there were the parents that would complain about the quality of the food at programs, or that the craft was "cheap". Um...this is the FREE public library. You get what you pay for. I would like to point out here that the library was located in an affluent, country club community. We got a mixed bag, about half the patrons were wealthy and half were the people that were employed by the wealthy people. It was only the wealthy people that complained about the "value" of things at the library though.

There was an older man who came in nearly every day and he loved to argue. He was a crotchety get-off-my-lawn type and could complain endlessly about everything and anything and would monopolize my time for hours if I let him. I kinda loved him, but on the really busy days i wished I could make myself invisible.

Public libraries seem to attract a large proportion of mentally ill people. It's a low stress environment so mostly we got along great, but there was one man who was a regular, he had schizophrenia. He went on and off his meds, but he really only spent time in the library when he was off his meds and homeless. He had incidents with a couple of us; he once went off on me, lunging at me, yelling and swearing in my face because I had no idea that there was a baseball game that evening--the smallest things would set him off. That incident ended when he pushed me and (bless his heart!) another male patron grabbed him and hauled him away from me. We had to ban him not long after that because he went off on a patron and threatened to shoot them.

I left the worst for last, and this goes beyond "annoying". I had one patron who couldn't keep his hands to himself. He started out making lewd comments, then he got brave and groped me in the stacks a few times. It was particularly scary because it was a small library and I was often closing up with only one of the part-time teenage library pages, and we didn't have security. He had an infatuation with me and would lurk in the parking lot at closing time, or sometimes he would be waiting at the door for me when I opened the library, which I did alone. It escalated quickly and my boss had to get the police involved. The whole thing was shameful and embarrassing and scary and even as I'm typing this I'm shrinking into my seat. I quit not long after. The official story was that i quit because I was pregnant and wanted to stay home while the kids were young, and that is true, but my encounters with this man factored into my decision too. I loved my job but I didn't feel safe at work, and there wasn't any feasible way for me to feel safe again. We couldn't afford to hire security or more staff.

 

[King Schultz]

Wow! I never realized working at a library could be that. . . uh. .. eventful!

Sounds like you should gotten combat pay.


So sorry to hear you had to deal with a stalker like that- you had every reason to be freaked out.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Um, let's see. Well first one that comes to mind was when I was in college I worked in a deli. There was an older lady that came in every week and wanted to smell the whitefish. She would get up close and personal, wanting to touch them, stick her nose in them, squeeze them, etc. So there I'd be doing a tug of war over the whitefish with this lady, week after week. The deli faced the front door and when I saw her coming up the aisle I'd sometimes hastily decide it was break time.

Who knew a library could be so volatile! Wow!

 

[TheDisneyNurse]

Right before I quit my movie theater job, I had a customer call me a waste of life and that I had no future (for the record: he was angry that his movie was sold out and that I couldn't provide him with tickets) Hurt my feelings then, when I was a poor college kid struggling to stay afloat. But now I just laugh People are so volatile sometimes!

 

[superme80]

I have to say the angry woman who attempted to run me over in the amusement parking lot I worked at was my most annoying customer.

 

[King Schultz]

Right before I quit my movie theater job, I had a customer call me a waste of life and that I had no future (for the record: he was angry that his movie was sold out and that I couldn't provide him with tickets) Hurt my feelings then, when I was a poor college kid struggling to stay afloat. But now I just laugh People are so volatile sometimes!

If it was a Toby Tyler movie, then I could see why he'd be so upset. . .

But he had no reason to say that to you. . what a jerk!

 

[King Schultz]

I have to say the angry woman who attempted to run me over in the amusement parking lot I worked at was my most annoying customer.

Yeah, I think that would qualify.

What the heck is wrong with some people!

 

[usnuzuloose]

Right before I quit my movie theater job, I had a customer call me a waste of life and that I had no future (for the record: he was angry that his movie was sold out and that I couldn't provide him with tickets) Hurt my feelings then, when I was a poor college kid struggling to stay afloat. But now I just laugh People are so volatile sometimes!

Words cut like a knife, I had people tell me I was a nothing at my job. I wish they had my job.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Where I worked there was so many things I could say. But I think the worst was when I was in the back doing my paper work and I heard a loud bang. I came running out , and the cashier said the person went through the car wash and it broke their mirror, so he threw it at her. I was angry and upset.

 

[superme80]

Yeah, I think that would qualify.

What the heck is wrong with some people!

She found out she read a letter wrong. It said the park was closed during the day until 4 pm for a private party. She incorrectly assumed it was for season pass holders. When I explained what was going on she got mad, flipped a U turn, floored it and attempted to hit me. And since she didn't hit me, my boss figured it was in my best interest to keep working!

 

[usnuzuloose]

She found out she read a letter wrong. It said the park was closed during the day until 4 pm for a private party. She incorrectly assumed it was for season pass holders. When I explained what was going on she got mad, flipped a U turn, floored it and attempted to hit me. And since she didn't hit me, my boss figured it was in my best interest to keep working!

What the heck? It is making me ill that companies won't stand behind the employee's. That is why I no longer work for a corporation. I am sorry your boss did not care what happened to you.

 

[superme80]

What the heck? It is making me ill that companies won't stand behind the employee's. That is why I no longer work for a corporation. I am sorry your boss did not care what happened to you.

Thankfully someone had one of those "contraband cell phones" so I called my mom to at least come give me a hug. I was just 18 and it terrified me.

 

[cornflkgrl]

Customers? They were delightful. It was always the supervisors or bosses that were awful.
Worst ever: I had a supervisor that was like 8 years younger than me at the ski resort who would come to work, clock in, give me his work list and my work list (which of course included cleaning the mens rooms),and then walk over to the bar and drink all evening. If his boss came looking for him he'd radio in and say he was cleaning the bathrooms on the mountain or some bs. He would intentionally keep me late so the sun would be down and I'd be walking through moose and bear infested pitch black woods to my apartment by myself at night. Total....uh ...swoosh. ugh.

 

[scrhsa]

The librarian at my small Catholic school used to have a "pickle and popcorn" Tuesday. All kinds of snacks. She would use the funds for the annual AR reading trip. Every Tuesday some kids would come in with at least $ 20. EVERY TUESDAY. These are the same kids that couldn't pay for the library books they never returned and were on tuition assistance. These same kids would be the ones to bring at least $ 10 every day of the Scholastic Book Fair to buy gobs of erasers, posters, pencil sharpeners etc. Always had a wad of cash for the field trip gift shop too.Just to clarify ...I know it's not the kids, its the parents.

Also substituting for a teacher who will only leave her own copy of her coded lesson plan...not leaving ANY clue to where books, keys, worksheets etc are. And on this same note...asking the kids" do ya'll go over the answers when you are done?" and getting at least 10 different answers

 

[Lilacs4Me]

We don't call them customers either, but I was yelled at for about 20 minutes yesterday afternoon on a conference call by a buyer from a major drug-store chain that we are a deplorable company who promises but doesn't deliver and we better get our act together before they drop us completely. Yet every time we ask them for collaboration, we get silence on their end.

Totally annoying, especially because they are not our biggest "customer", by far. They strut and puff like they are the Wally-world of distrubuted goods, when in reality they are not even close and their "issues" are a minor blip on the radar of our total picture.

Ugh.