From  u/FozzyOfH2 Tales From Retail:

Last year I got a job in a book/stationary shop in the UK, my first retail job. I'd heard stories of bad customers before and always thought if I had to deal with someone like that I'd be able to laugh about it and deal with it no problem. I underestimated how dumb people can really be.
I serve a lot of older customers in my shop, and a few of them do misread offers and promotions but it's always a minor issue. It was a major issue for this one guy though, who I will call CM (Confused Man). Our books in the book chart were on a buy one get one half price offer at the time. He brought a single book from the chart to the till.

Me: "Okay just the one book that's £7.99 please."

CM: "...£7.99 is half price?"

Me: "That's full price, however if you buy another book off the chart one of them will be half price."

CM: "But the sticker says buy one get one half price."

Me: "Yes, if you get two books, you get one of them half price."

CM: "No. No it says buy one get one half price. I am buying ONE, I get this ONE half price."

Me: "...Uh, no see if you purchase two books, the offer makes it so you're buying one book and getting the other half price. Buy one, get one half price."

CM: "That doesn't make any sense. I am BUYING ONE. I get this one HALF. PRICE. This is the one I am buying this is the one I get half price."

Me: "Okay let me put it this way, if the sticker said buy one get one free, you wouldn't get this one book for free right? You'd have to have two, buying one to get the other free. It's the same thing here but half price instead of free."

CM: "If it was buy one get one free this one would be free..."

Me: "..."

CM: "..."

Me: "It's £7.99 for the book."

CM: "Well I don't have that much money on me I only have enough for a half price book."

At that point he walked away from the till and out the door muttering something about "pathetic unhelpful staff". To this day I still wonder if that was the first time he'd ever encountered a BOGOHP offer before.

--u/FozzyOfH2

From u/obsidiantron Tales From Retail:

So I just started working at a large grocery store, it’s my first job and I’ve only been there for about a month so I’m still new to everything.

A woman (around 45yo) comes through my till today with about a weeks worth of shopping. I put it all through, help her with her bags and ask if she has a store card (the ones to collect points for store coupons), she says no. Okay cool. I give her the total, she hands me the money and I put it away, close the cash drawer and hand her the change.

Suddenly she pulls out her colleague card (like a store card but you get a discount instead of points if you work in the company) and says “oh actually I do have my card!”. I say “oh great! Unfortunately the payments already gone through but I’m sure if you take it to customer service they can reimburse you.”

I wait, expecting her to leave and go to CS like I suggested, as she stares me down for a minute. She finally spits“well what are you going to do about it? I get money off”. After I calmly tell her again why I can’t do anything and that customer service would be able to help her, she snatched the receipt from my hand (actually catching the skin on one of my fingers fairly badly) and stalked off.

I’m sure I’ll experience worse the longer I work but I’m still trying to learn to not take this stuff personally, writing it out here so I can stop thinking about it and get some sleep.

--u/obsidiantron

From u/munchkin123456 Tales From Retail:

So this was about 12 years ago when I was still fairly fresh faced and happy to help every customer with a smile... this may not be as bad as some of the other ones I've seen on here, but 12 years later and I still remember it like it was yesterday. I used to work for a brand that sells everything from Clothes to food to home ware.

One day I was serving a customer who was buying a variety of home wares- pots/ cushions etc. probably amounting to around £200 total, not the biggest sale but by no means minuscule. Transaction is going well, I offered our company CC just in case she was a mystery shopper and hit all the points on my mental checklist of serving on the tills.

We get to the payment part and her card declines, once, twice, three times... it cited auth code on the till - this was before the days of Chip & PIN so she needed to call her bank.... apparently that wasn't satisfactory

Me: Me

CW: Crazy Woman

M: Manager

Me: I'm afraid it's saying you need to call your bank, unfortunately the card has declined.

CW: try it again.

Me: I've tried it three times, unfortunately it's giving me the same message, how about this, I can either hold the items for 24hrs here with your name on and you can get everything sorted with the bank, or alternatively if you have another form of payment I can get that through for you now.

CW: Well it must be your machines.

Me: The machines have been working fine all day, the error message is specifying the card.

CW: Get me your manager.

Manager is within earshot and had been keeping an eye on it so wanders over.

M: Is everything OK here? How can I help?

CW: Your card machines aren't working and SHE is saying it's my fault.

M: Well let's see what we can do *opens up next till and runs everything through* unfortunately the card is not going through I'm afraid, do you have another form of payment with you? Otherwise we'll happily hold your items for 24hrs if you want to call your bank?

CW: WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT GOING THROUGH? HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT? YOU'RE RUINING LIVES WITH THOSE CRAPPY MACHINES.

M: Well madam, I sleep very well at night, I'm not sure how that is relevant though in this case.

CW: *stomping off without the items* You'll be hearing from my Lawyer!!

M: Okay, thank for visiting, enjoy the rest of your day.

I had never seen my manager react to a customer ever... she was actually shaking! We never did hear from her lawyers, Head Office never told us if she complained (we'd have had a meeting about a customer complaint - those were taken seriously) but we did find out from another employee who had seen the whole thing happen that she came in a day later when me and my manager were off to buy the items - apparently her bank had sent out a new card ahead of that one expiring and deactivated the card without telling her.... Ah the joys of being screamed at for something you didn't have any control at.

--u/munchkin123456

From u/Real_Reddit_Question Tales From Retail:

I'm 19, and I'm a cashier in Canada. The city I live in is mostly filled with really nice people. This was my first job, and I had my first ever rude customer, who caught me off guard. My story isn't as wowing as the stories here, but anyway.

Me: Hi.

Old lady: (silence)

Some people don't say hi back, which I don't mind at all.

Me: How are you?

I say that in case maybe she didn't hear me, and I'm just being polite.

OL: (silence)

At this point, I know she isn't much of a talker. I'm completely fine with this, many people are like this.

Me: So your total comes to [..]. Go ahead.

She then put in her card the wrong way, and had to readjust her card. No problems so far.

The receipt is printed. And as I'm about to hand it to her she says.

OL: something something (couldn't hear her) thank you? (She had this death stare)

Me: Pardon?

OL: Won't you say thank you?

Usually, as soon as I give the customer their receipt, I say have a good day or good night. So I was REALLY confused.

Me: (Super confused look) Uhh... Okay... Thank youuuu (sarcasm) have a good day! (obvious sarcasm)

OL: Unbelievable.

The two other customers in line behind her laughed at the whole thing after she left.

I don't think she was extremely rude compared to what I've seen here. But it was the first experience that truly caught me off guard lol.

--u/Real_Reddit_Question

From u/kahleesky Tales From Retail:

Have you ever witnessed an adult have a temper tantrum before? Its been a while since I’ve worked retail and I’ve since forgotten how miserable and downright childish some customers can be.

Today was my first day starting my new job at a local hot food deli. Its crazy busy and and I’m doing my best to grab what people want and ring them up while still learning the basics. The rush is finally dying down when an older man storms up to the counter and grabs my attention. He glares at me and demands to know why there isn’t any ranch by the salad bar.

I tell him I’ll double check our stock and see if there’s any hiding around. As it turns out, we are completely out of ranch dressing. I tell him as such, and much to my horror he stomps his foot and hurls his bag of chicken over the counter at me. It happens so fast that I simply don’t react.

I exchange glances with a nearby customer to see that she is mirroring my wtf just happened face. What's worse is when I mention it to my coworker he says that he’s done that before the last time we ran out of ranch.

--u/kahleesky

From HeroNeverDie: A barista at the starbucks I work at decided to prank the new guy.