Handling Brutal Customers

Customer service professionals share anecdotes about the most challenging customers they’ve encountered during their careers and have had the misfortune to assist. These stories range from shocking tales to the most annoying ones, yet they do not fail to entertain us. Their experiences count as a warning sign for someone in this particular industry. Read on: 

1. Baby, Calm Down Calm Down!

Once I worked at a bus coffee shop downtown and we had a hard-to-please corporate man. Once, he ordered a coffee and a cranberry scone. We said we were fresh out of the cranberry scones and when I told him about it, he began abusing me by swearing and I would not let him talk to me like that.

I looked down staring back at him and said, 'Dude, you are an adult who lost it over a scone. Get your act straight.' and went on to help other customers as if nothing really happened. Guess what happened the next day? He apologized to us the next day and never troubled us after that incident.

2. Take A Glance, Lady! 

When I was at a pawn shop, a woman assumed she had given me a $100 bill, but I only gave her change for $20. She went on swearing and calling me names and was convinced or sure that she had given me the $100 because she remembered putting it in her wallet earlier.

I told her like a gazillion times to check her wallet just in case but she was stubborn and rigid in believing that she gave it to me. Lastly, she gave up and looked in, and what do you think happened?

Yes, there was a $100 bill right there and she immediately calmed down and felt very embarrassed.

What Is A Dish That Is Best When Served Cold? Dessert, Ice-cream? Nah, REVENGE!

When I was in high school, I used to work at a car wash and once a dude opened his car door straight into my head while I was cleaning his rims which knocked me out. Ideally instead of apologizing, he criticized me for removing soap  residue from his panels, which I couldn't see since I was on the other side.

Although still stunned by what happened, I passed on the towels to my manager asking him to, 'Deal with him, will you?' and left through the garage back door. Now 6 years later, I worked as a bartender in a local restaurant and a customer came in and I could not believe it was the same jerk, but this time with his wife.

From the beginning, he was unhappy about everything and he was unhappy about each and everything. I kept my cool and short. When they decided to eat at the bar and asked for the menus, I obliged after attending with other customers to take their order.

The guy asked, 'You are taking our order? Thought we would have a blonde waitress.' His wife was pretty uncomfortable with the response so I said, 'Your wife requested a young, handsome bartender.' She handed me five bucks under her plate when he was whining about the food.

After one month, he  blows up at one of our waitresses, unprovoked. I seize my chance for payback. Even though I'm a bartender, I step up and kick him out. He flips, ranting about how he's known the owner his whole life, suggesting that I would lose my job.

Despite that I gave him the owners' card and said, 'Bob is in at 9, give him a ring.' The very next day, Bob called me at 11 and mentioned , 'Heard you booted Tyson out.' I confirmed the same and explained to him what happened.

Bob heard, paused and said, 'You did well, that dude is a jerk anyway. You will be in charge when you are behind my bar. Keep doing what you are doing.'

3. The Imperfect Image 

When I worked for a photo lab we would often have customers who would usually blame us if his pictures did not come well. Once we were asked to print 800 holiday snaps by a woman. Most of them were bad shots—too dark and blurry.

When she came to pick it up, she threw a tantrum saying we'd messed up her perfect shots. She also held her ground that her pricey camera could not produce dark and blurry images. We refunded her to avoid more drama and chaos even though we had already  wasted time and materials on it.

After 30 minutes, she called us to say a photo lab across the town reprinted her beautiful photos—all clear and bright.

I broke it to her that we know about the guy who owned that place and there's no way it could have duplicated 800 photos in such a short time. Plus, their printer was out of order that day.

She did not take it nicely and immediately hung up!

4. The Ultimate Climax

When I was working at the camera counter of Best Buy, there was a thick-accented Chinese speaking family—mom, dad, a guy and a girl—showed up. I tried to help them but they said,' We are just browsing.' They spoke among themselves in Cantonese, clueless I'm fluent in it—I'm completely Chinese, plus a first-gen Canadian with barely any accent.

They had the following conversation assuming I would not understand which happened right in front of me:

Guy: 'What is your take on this camera?'

Girl: 'I know squat about cameras, ask the guy working here.'

Guy: 'That guy, nah, he will just feed us lies.'

They were talking about all this within arms' reach staring at me while talking about 'the employee'. I am not sure what they thought—maybe because I spoke English without an accent or maybe they mistook me for some other Asian. They went on.

Guy: 'This one's slick. I wonder how swift it is. Do you know?'

Girl: 'No idea, ask the guy working here.'

Guy: 'I told you to forget that weird dude. He will probably lie.'

I was surprised to think that, 'Wow, they have no idea that I am understanding each and every word.' and they went on like this -

Guy: 'How many megapixels does this camera have?'

Girl: 'I am clueless about cameras, dude. Ask the guy.'

Hearing them speak, I was surprised with disbelief and thought that was enough and I went on to reply in flawless Cantonese, 'That camera is  5-megapixels. It's mentioned right on the tag.'

The entire family went blank and silent. They thanked me and left right after, they felt super-embarrassed.

5. A Toilet Emergency

A dude wanted to return a toilet seat but our store policy did not allow return for plastic seat covers. He told our customer care representative that he only took it out to check but she stuck to the rules as there wasn't any manager to over rule. He started getting made about it and yelled because the customer care rep was afraid and did not respond well.

Another cashier intervened and accused him of lying about the seat being dirty and it really pissed him. So I butted in and asked her to cool down and took over the situation. The dude asked what she said but I just dismissed it and told him we wouldn't be doing the return.

He contended but I shut it down immediately. I also asked him to either take his seat and try again tomorrow with the manager or go home with it. Either way, he was taking it with him.

That resolved it and he left. Since then, our store ensured that there is always a manager on duty, always.

6. Engaging In A Dangerous Game

My first performance was at a mall's Chick-Fil-A. The X-mas rush was extreme with a lot of grumpy, unreasonable people but one incident is an icing on the cake. 

A mother with 5 rowdy kids makes it to the top order. The place was pretty packed, queues were at each register and the entire time they were waiting, this particular family was howling, 'Where is our food?' and 'Hello?' It was a total scene.

He gave a huge order and left but came back 10 minutes later with a receipt in hand, screaming that her order wasn't correct. She claims she's missing everything apart from 3 bags of fries and few 'pre-chewed' chicken nuggets. She dropped  a nugget box on the counter with chewed-up nuggets inside. Also we did not serve her chewed nuggets. We'd all just rallied to fulfill her huge order, and handed her two crammed bags of food. She was fussy about it and accused us of conning her and demanding the food we already gave.

She also threatened that she would call the authorities and the place was filled with people who were irritated behind her. A passerby tapped her shoulder and said something that was priceless, he said, 'Miss, you left your bag of food under the table,' and handed her an enormous bag of food. Yep, the food she's accusing us of withholding. Coincidentally, one of her kids cries out. 'The chicken nuggets were quite funny, I hate them!' She snapped back, 'Shut up' and raised her hand to hit him.

Now that her scheme was busted, we all just stared at her and wondered what she would do next. She complained, 'I don't have to take this,' and snatched a customers' drink from the counter, and pitched it behind the register.

She also tried to storm off her kids tailing her to no avail. But here's the best part. A cop also was waiting in the line behind her on his lunch date witnessing everything and took in the details swearing to report her for child endangerment and attempted theft.

7. Free For Everyone 

Few years back when I worked as a waiter, we had a woman who was pleasant as a regular and we once messed up her salmon and to make up for it, our boss provided her a free meal voucher which was good for a single meal.

After a few days, she showed up with her crew of 15 people. It was less than an hour before closing time and they would usually order seafood, steak, and drinks. They were quite horrible to us and were downright trashy with me and my friend who was also on shift.

One guy even tossed his plate for an overcooked steak, smashing it and causing a mess. When the time arrived to hand over the bill to her she looked at several hundred-dollar total and whips out her free chow card!

My friend later removed a meal from the bill and gave her back the edited total. She also went completely ballistic. 'I have a free meal card! This was one meal for all of us! It should be free!'

My friend then explained calmly to her that it is not how the card works, and gently called her out. He hints that she must've known she can't expect a free feast for fifteen just because of one meal card. The lady throws a fit, pours her drinks all over my friend who then rushed to call the boss.

My friend remained calm but my boss lost it and told the lady to go for a hike and never come back. It was a wild night, indeed!

8. You Cannot Argue With A Jerk 

I work as a tech dude for a cable company. Once one of the customer care calls up saying his TV's broken and I clocked out because there was 'no power.'

He spent the next hour yapping at me telling me it should not matter and he remembers that because he already paid, we should ensure that it works, be it with power or no power.

He was convinced of the fact that we were the only ones who would need TVs and had the power to work. He wouldn't stop talking about how it is mostly 'cause we're not digital like our rivals.'

9. The Game Changer 

I was born in the US, but I work at a Chinese place which was owned and run by a couple who aren't from here so of course, their English isn't the best so they struggled when things speed up. Mostly, I took care of talking with the customers because of this.

This lady walked in and I took her order and she went like, 'Can you even speak English!?' I replied to her, without a hint of an accent, 'Yeah, I do.' She was puzzled, claiming she cannot get a word of what I was saying and demanded to meet my boss. I knew exactly what I had to do. I smirked while bringing my boss to her and explained about the situation from where my boss took over and spoke in broken English. 

She immediately lost her cool while I was standing there and laughing from within. Another customer who witnessed all this, handed me a fiver and was impressed by how I kept it together dealing with such an idiot.

10. Reached My Limit

When I was in high school, I worked at a Subway where an awful man and his wife came in every day. The man was in his 30s and was never in a bad mood but he enjoyed being an idiot to us fast-food kids, thinking it was hysterical. 

Once I took this man's half-made sandwich and dunked it into the trash asking him to hit the road and he went like, 'You cannot talk to customers this way,' and went like, 'Well, I just did.'

Next thing I knew, he was on the phone talking to the boss while naming, shaming me. I went in ready to be sacked but guess what? The owner backed me up because he knew who this man was and also knew that I wasn't someone who'd snap unless really provoked. So, she told him he was no longer welcome and I got to keep my job. Phew!

11. Entirely Gasy 

I worked in a posh neighborhood at a gas station and a classic rich idiot  rocks up in his super pricey Lambo. He got pretty bossy, demanding top-tier gas be pumped into his ride.

Mr. Moneybags pulled up the nozzle and screamed, 'You are too dumb to do this right.' Just for context, in Oregon, we pump the gas—it's a state rule. So, unsurprisingly, this guy made a mess, spraying gas all over his shiny show-off car.

He went mad and stormed in to make a scene at the store where I was on my cashier duty and playing manager. He's blowing his top, demanding the boss and insisting we pay for a repaint and his gas.

I tried to keep things down but he is on a rampage and isn't interested. Then I see a cop about to walk in for some refreshments. I went on to tell the angry man, 'Look, you pumped the gas, spilled it, so you gotta pay.'

He lost it and shouted, 'What are you gonna do if I just get in my car and leave?' Perfect timing —the cop walks in just as he says it. I calmly reply, 'Well, I can't do much, but that cop over there might charge you with theft.'

At this moment, Mr. Angry turned out to see the cop, grinning wickedly, nodding non-stop at him. Yes, he pipes down, pays up, and thankfully we never saw him again.

12. Do Not Carry A Knife For A Gun Fight 

Back in the 70s, my old man  worked as a doorman at a chill college bar. He wasn't super buff, just fit, and the bar had a no T-shirt rule. Once a guy walked in wearing a T-shirt and my father told him about the rule and handed him a spare shirt he had. The man popped it on and headed to the bar like it wasn't a big deal.

After 30 minutes, my old man spotted his shirt on the dance floor, under beer-soaked boots. Finds the guy, back in his T-shirt, and he's like 'Dude, what the heck?' The man went ahead to give an excuse while my dad asked him to leave and things went wild.

Just to put it out of context, the dude was a tiny shrimp who was 5'6" tall and he pulled out a knife and swore at my dad who went like, 'Whoa there, chill, let us not do something stupid.' Fortunately he wasn't alone.

There was another doorman, a linebacker from the local football team. Super tall and built like a truck. According to dad, he was scared and as he was trying to calm down, this huge bouncer buddy did a sneak-up.

Next thing I know, a linebacker-guy swoops in, shoves Dad aside. He was elevated over this guy with thighs that were as big as the guy's chest, and went to say, 'Listen here, if you don't want that thing where the light doesn't shine, start walking.'

The dude murmured under his breath and ran.

13. This Is My Final Course Of Action

At one point, I fixed computers and did house calls. Simple things, changing a part, testing it, entering the details on my Blackberry, and finishing the job. Was on a call and arrived at a not-so-great building.

The man at the door was on  crutches, had bad teeth, and didn't look super clean. What was funny was he was nice but his house, gosh! It was a mess.

His girlfriend was chilling among towers of newspapers and trash bags. And there were roaches.. like, crazy amount of roaches. On the walls, sink, chair, keyboard... you name it.

I had work to do and while working, we had small takes. He said he was hit by a car, that is why the crutches. He was so nice that he also offered me a drink. He asked what I saw roaches in the cat's water bowl, like it's their own jacuzzi. The thing I needed to install wasn't ready, so I had to wait while the computer loaded.

I felt bad for him, he said I was the nicest person he met and others ran away. I finished my work, wrote notes on my Blackberry and bolted. A roach fell out of my pocket at the next job. Gross!

After a few weeks, I received a call and recognized the address and it gave me chills. I asked the dispatcher if I was there before and began laughing while saying, 'Your final notes were: 'Oh God Roaches Everywhere.' I had to convince my boss not to send me back there... not even the pocket roach saga worked. Great!

14. The Greasy Sandwich

When I worked at a sandwich shop for almost a year. Once, I prepared a guy hot sandwich and handed it over to the guy and he gave me a look before initiating and accused me of spitting in his food. I kept telling him that it was not true and it was really hearing me.

After I was shouted at, I kept my calm and offered him a new sandwich made by someone else, even gave him a refund. But he decided to be difficult and was stuck around our store and asked everyone I was going to hork a loogie in their food, swearing loads. I was waiting for my boss to step in and boot him out, but they were acting like nothing was happening.

The latest issue was when I was serving a family with young kids and they were obviously uncomfortable, and I just snapped. I had been super patient with this dude but had enough. I shouted at him, saying that we're a family-friendly place and he needs to stop acting up and leave.

For whatever reason, my outburst did the magic and he left while still swearing and being rude. I apologized to the family—for him, and for my shouting. Almost got fired over the whole thing, but thanks to my manager standing up for me, I kept my job. Still got a lecture about the 'customer is always right' spiel and being respectful, though.

15. Where Is The Manager??

I used to run a CVS store and once when it was a busy day, I jumped on a Photo Lab checkout to lend my hand. I invited the closest customer over, but then this other lady kicked up a fuss, claiming it was her turn. I told her she'd be next after I served the current customer.

When it was her turn, she came to me complaining that I was rude... blah blah blah and it let it slide. She kept it until I told her, 'Look, I opened this extra register just to keep things moving. But hey, if you'd rather join the regular queues, be my guest.' That stopped her in her tracks.

After an hour of being late, I knocked off for the day and it turned out that a woman had sent her husband back to the store to find me, but I'd already left. They ended up making a complaint to the head office. My boss's advice? Don't take the job so personally—that was all.

16. No One Beats The Hut

Once a man came into Pizza Hut beefing about his delivered pizzas. He yelled a lot at the cashier that I was asked to step in and I was the only boss around who was down to me and sorted it out.

He demands that I give him the merchant copy of his credit card receipt. He's like 'I don't want you to have a paper with my signature on it!' I told him several times not to do that legally. He also showed him the cash register screen that his purchase was voided.

He was stubborn about handing him over and it was limited and I snapped, 'Listen, I am not giving it to you, no matter how loud you shout. Leave now, or I'm calling the authorities. Remember, I have your info and CCTV footage of all this drama.'

All of a sudden, he leaped at me and grabbed the receipt. He also ripped it off and topped the bit while marching out. He had a part showing what he ordered, leaving behind his signature and the tip. The whole show was 'cause he didn't want the driver getting the $3 tip he had signed up for.

17. Dinner And An Exhibit 

This story is from around the time of my grad school days. While balancing studies with endless shifts at KFC wasn't a cakewalk. Once there was a customer who was a pain for all our female staff because he was a regular, our manager turned blind eye to his nonsense. He would usually order a bucket of chicken.

Once a guy, 'Romeo', shows up at the counter while I'm working. Dressed in some loose flowy outfit, the creepy grin on his face was giving me chills. I was equally surprised and scared when he mentioned his order and asked if I had anything else to 'show' him.

Despite my disgust, I had his order put through and gave it over and he still complained about wanting 'something more.' I had my patience put through and told him that there wasn't any offer and he had to leave before I called the authorities. He gave a puzzled look and turned purple with rage.

After sometime, he let out a deafening roar, ripped off his garment, and there he was—in all his unclothed glory. His attempt to grab me was unsuccessful, and then he started howling threats at me and suddenly, slumped over the counter and started crying. That is when I decided to bolt.

That day I texted my boss and told him I was done and was paid for four more weeks though and handy considering the whole mess.

18. More, More, and More 

Earlier I used to toss sandwiches at a deli and there was a time when a rude woman stormed in asking for a sandwich. I made sure everything would come out right which included double-checking her order. She requested her sandwich to be drowning in honey mustard, so I made sure to note 'extra honey mustard' on her order slip.

Her order came out looking good with a lot of honey mustard and she still grumbled about a mustard deficit when I delivered the sandwich and demanded I fetch more. So, I hustled to the back, snagged a fresh gallon jug of honey mustard, and slammed it down on her table.

Her friends laughed out loud while she was red with anger. He complained to the manager about it and found the whole situation sidesplitting and could only respond with laughter. 

19. How Dare You!!

My first job was at Walgreens photo lab where and once there was a lady who swung by to develop her pictures sometimes. Whenever the photos were ready, we would chat about it because I loved her photos. Once when we were all talking, a customer came in.

When I asked this new lady how I could be of help, she blew her top because she hated how her photos looked. She was an uptight lady who went along with threats to complain and I was quite dumbstruck so I called up my boss who helped to calm things and I apologized not knowing what went wrong.

Later, I explained to her to follow the right procedure and the machine did the job and she immediately shot back, 'So what are you good are you then?'

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the cool picture came and spoke in anger, 'Who do you think you are? Blaming him and risking his job over your pictures? He even apologized. You should be ashamed of yourself.'

That calmed the angry lady who realized she was out of her line and beat it. I thanked the nice lady. I have to admit, I got a bit choked up afterwards.

20. The Squeaky Wheel Needs The Grease

Once I worked at this local auto-service place and once a regular couple rolled up wanting to grease the fittings on their car. I told them we had it and the guy working under the car knew what was up. After a few minutes, my coworker tells me there's no fittings to grease on this car.

I share my side of the story, and he reveals his brother visited another garage, who also told him there was nothing to grease. His response blew my mind. I ask him why he's here then and he says to make sure I wasn't messing with the disabled.

I asked him how he thinks I am doing, he just tells me to stop, and walks out. Worst part? Despite all this drama, this couple keeps coming in. And not once have they apologized for accusing me of scamming them.

21. Exit Strategy

Back in time, my job was to fix the TVs at people's homes. Once I showed up at this woman's house and her ancient set was busted and needed a new tube. Fixing it just wasn't worth it, and I told her so.

She did not take it well, 'Fix it now!' she demanded. She also tried to tell her it wasn't possible and buying a new TV was a smarter move. I made a move to head back to my shop but she barred my exit, screaming "NO"!

I kindly nudged her aside, yanked the door, and bolted to my van outside. Driving off, she yelled some not-so-nice things while her husband was still wandering in the yard. That sight, it never left me.

22. Tremendous Problem 

During my high school days, I worked at Burger King and a woman would usually come by 

the drive-thru every afternoon for a Whopper Jr....but with a twist. She liked it, crazy onion-loaded. No jokes, no matter how generous we were with those onions, she was never satisfied, and would storm into the restaurant to complain. It was her routine, mostly during the afternoon, but we didn't take it seriously after a point.

We had these four buses filled with fresh US Army recruits parked at our store. We often got these chartered bus convoys because their drivers were pals with my boss. They also loved to order big—king-sized meals, double and triple Whoppers, you name it. Since my boss knew them, he had me dish out their meals with a senior discount (15% off). 

Despite the chaos, guess who came up on the drive-thru screen?  Yep, our dear onion lady. The boss simply gestured to me to dump a double handful of onions on her burger, basically to avoid another drama when we were already swamped. It was a struggle to even close that burger with the onion overload, but we played it cool and served it to her.

The recruits could barely hold back their laughter. A nearby officer awaiting his food couldn’t resist and began laughing uncontrollably and he was hysterical. It was like a floodgate for the rest. Close to 250 recruits were laughing their heads off at her. I tell you, that was easily one of the best moments of my high school years. After that day, we didn't see her for a month, and when she returned she never again complained about a lack of onions.

23. I Am Pretty Important 

Once I lost my cool with a customer, at the office supply store I used to work at. He was very arrogant and thinks he's all-that type. He walked in during the busiest time, lunch hour, when we lacked enough hands on deck. He was looking for a phone and I could help him but was tied up at the counter. However, I still tried my best to help.

I had one chance to give my entire attention to him, he started blabbering about how he was the VIP of the store. It is when I snapped and I don't remember what I told him but I remember trying to step away first, but he persisted. Eventually, I told him off so bad that he practically sprinted out of the store. My deputy manager was too shocked to react to the whole ordeal. 

24. The Cookie Demon 

During the late 80s, I worked as a tech-guy who was at a cut-price brokerage. A receptionist once asked me to come down front where there was this older couple. The woman was having a go at the girl at the desk. Wondering what the fuss was about, I asked her. The reason was very funny.

She was pissed off about our website tracking cookies and flipped, 'How dare you track my finances' threatening to take all her money to our rival firm. Apparently, a guy from the competitor said they didn't track cookies.

Ironically, my wife worked for the competing company and I had an account with them. So at the front desk desktop, the old pair, I tweaked the cookie settings to ask for permission before processing any cookie. I then logged into the rival account. Guess what? It asked for a cookie.

That lady was very nasty to our receptionist, so I filled her in, 'They track cookies. Seems like he was lying. Still wanna move all your money?'

Handing over the transfer papers, I asked. The old man rolled his eyes at his wife, who was visibly mad but said nothing. She grabbed the papers and stormed away.

25. The Maniacs Are Running The Asylum

Few years back, I worked for an Old Navy, just your standard retail gig. One day a man came into the fitting room to try on the pants. After he changes, he does the usual pocket pat-down, but then he freezes. He turns to me, accusing, 'You took my keys!' But the thing is, I never had access to his belongings. I calmly suggest he look in the changing room.

He checked and came back without anything and asked for the manager. The manager tried his best to keep things low and assured him that I would not take his things but he went on to abuse and called 911 and I was surprised. When the authorities showed up 5-10 minutes late, my boss asked me to chill at the back while they would resolve the issue.

I could still hear the guy from the back as he went nuts since the keys belonged to his mental institution and I was certain that I might, 'help the patients escape!' After sometime, my manager would come back with news saying the dude had not checked his back pocket where his keys were all along. She made him apologize to me, then sent him packing. At the time, I was dumbfounded...but it's a pretty funny story to remember now.

26. Changing The Toppings

Earlier, I worked in a sandwich shop where there was a gig and I was showing the ropes to this rookie. This big lady walks in with a couple of guys and demands a croissant sandwich, holds the tomatoes, and adds avocado. I told her that's not how it works, avocado is not equivalent to tomatoes.

Before I would finish, she cut me off and made fun of how I spoke and said we would have swapped out tomatoes before. Despite this, I stuck to my guns and said, no dice, even if it had been done, I wasn't about to mess with the rules.

She blew her top, spoke something and tried to poison my rookie by telling them to learn from me. Icing on the cake was when she had a hard time playing cards because she was flat broke.

Once she was out, the guy with her came to say sorry and we were exhausted from it all and I shrugged and said, 'Sucks for you, you got to put up with her every day, not me.'

27. A Dramatic Day

I quit my job at the gas station but had one last meeting when a woman drove up wanting to fill her van with the engine still running. I asked her to turn it off for safety, but she was pissed so I turned off the intercom to avoid more trouble.

Eventually, she barged in and caused a scene so I tried to keep my calm, explaining that the rules are there for everyone's safety, suggesting she try her luck somewhere else if she really wants to gas up with the engine on. But she goes off on me, accusing me of ruining her day.

I couldn't take it anymore and snapped, asking her how she'd feel if I disrupted her at work. Other customers laughed and despite her yelling, I told her she could fill up if she wanted. As soon as she went outside, I locked the doors.

I told the other customers they could leave, but they stayed until the angry lady drove off.

28. Prevention Is The Best Cure

Back in high school, I worked at a general store with a hardware section selling affordable tools. One evening, just before closing, a sketchy guy and his friends came in. I was a bit cautious, and my boss was keeping an eye on them while I was at my post.

They had come over to put down some cheap box cutters, while his friends hovered near the exit. Feeling uneasy, I asked for their IDs. The guy claimed he was older than me and refused and that's when things got tense. 

Then he slammed a paper on the counter—it was a court summons for assault. It was unsettling dealing with a group trying to buy knives at closing time and showing a court notice that seemed threatening.

29. A Frustrating Sunday

I worked at a restaurant where a lady lost it on me when her breakfast order wasn't ready in 10 minutes. She warned her and it would take a good 45 with how large it was. She was 

30. annoyed about possibly missing church.

She left in a bad mood while slinging all sorts of insults at me, not even bothering with the food. The plot twist was when she came back later, gave me a hug, and apologized and spoke about a sick kid. 

Her irony of her reactions sometimes still amazes me.