When the customer is just... wrong. The thread that sums up working in hospitality or retail.

There’s a special brand of contempt retail and hospitality workers harbour for humanity, and as any service staffer will know, this is 100 per cent… warranted.

Whether it’s being yelled at by a patron or customer many years your senior, trying to maintain your patience while explaining why you can’t return underwear or having a first-year law student explain to you the complexities of consumer law (a personal favourite), these are the character-building lessons you won’t learn anywhere else.

So when Twitter user @WelshDalaiLama asked the internet to share their stories of when a customer has gotten things “spectacularly wrong,” hundreds of people came forward with their battle wounds.

Because the phrase “the customer is always right,” was most definitely invented by an… idiot.

They say “the customer is always right”.

Tell me a story of a customer you’ve encountered that proves this motto spectacularly wrong.

— Dai Lama (@WelshDalaiLama) April 5, 2019

Here’s what they said.

Got called out because the owner said he could smell carbon monoxide coming from his boiler. Tried to explain. He’s was having none of it.

— Huw Barrett (@Huwbut) April 5, 2019

I worked at a well known computer store (where in the world?). Had a chap almost throw his new computer at me, demanding his money back because it didn’t switch on. I unboxed it, set it up & plugged it in. Worked straight away. He screamed “Why did you plug it in, it’s wireless!”

— Neil (@_nea102_) April 5, 2019

Customer: I’d like a cappuccino – no chocolate on top, no foam and no milk.
Me: … so you’d like a black coffee?
Customer: No, I only like cappuccino. I WANT a cappuccino!
Me: *makes a black coffee*
Customer: Perfect! I don’t understand why you had to be so difficult about it ????

— Lisa Taylor (@lisa_anne9999) April 5, 2019

This meal was sent back as inedible and customer wanted a refund ???????????? pic.twitter.com/oPTtjy70VY

— Commercial Inn (@Commercial_Inn) April 5, 2019

The woman who asked for a globe of Europe and then stormed off to Waterstone’s where “they know what they’re talking about”, when I very gently and politely attempted to explain how globes worked.

— Barcodezebra (@barcodezebrrr) April 5, 2019

Worked in Pizza Hut call centre dealing with complaints. Had a customer scream at me for ten minutes that her local Pizza Hut store didn’t have her order which she placed by phone. The order which, it turns out, she placed with Dominos.

— The Prenna (@The_Prenna) April 5, 2019

Customer stormed up after standing by the doors to the garden centre, “I’ve been pressing the service button for 15 minutes and you’ve been ignoring me!”
“Service button?”
“Yes, there!”
“Ah, that’s the button to open the doors you were standing next to; how can I help?”

— T (@t8ne) April 5, 2019

I was a butcher and someome rang asking me to break down a whole pig for her. I said ‘Yeah, sure its £30″ then she asked if she could film me doing it on her phone so she wouldnt have to pay in the future. Phone went down pretty quickly

— Mei (@MeirionRoberts2) April 5, 2019

Too many to recall but probably my favourite is when I brought someone a calzone and when I put it down in front of them seeing their shocked face at the folded dough in front of them as they said “what’s this I ordered a calzone pizza”

— Anthony C. Beale (@Bealeionaire) April 5, 2019

I was in the Dior shop when a woman brought in an obvious market rip off handbag, wanting a “refund”.
The glorious assistant said “Of COURSE you can get a refund, Darling. Shepherds Bush Market is just down the road.”

— ChickenWitch (@MQenna) April 5, 2019

I had to help someone with an it based issue once. They asked me “can you see what button i’m pushing?” I had to reply with : “no because we are talking on the phone.”

— Russ Brookes (@RussBrookes1981) April 5, 2019

Can you relate? Group therapy is open in the comments.

This article was originally published in April 2019 and has since been updated.