Kids of karens, what's your most embarrassing retail story? r/AskReddit | Reddit Jar

children if I want to talk to your manager parents what has been your most embarrassing experience the number of cashiers my father demanded the manager fire because they were too slow rang us up wrong et Cie including one they actually did I'll never forget at girl taking her home depot apron off and walking away sobbing to his credit I guess , my dad seemed surprised that it actually worked must have felt at least some level of guilt and never did it again I bet the reason he never did it again is because he suddenly empathized with the cashier up until that moment he saw himself as the little guy being pushed around by forces outside his control so he is pushing back as a kind of valiant hopeless defense but when he saw the cashier take off her apron and cry he realized that he's being pushed around by forces outside her control too and that he's the one doing the pushing it was probably a profound life-changing realization for him my mom has been this person regularly throughout my life but I do have one positive story with it she and I went to eat at Portillo's when I was a teenager and we sat in the back of the restaurant where it was more private so we can eat in peace about 10 minutes into our meal two people come into the empty area and sit down two tables away from us turns out it was a manager and an employee that was getting written up the manager was being a complete a shat towards the employee criticizing and belittling them my mom put down a food and walked over and started yelling at the manager for being such an [ __ ] she went on a rant about how rude and wrong it was of him to do this in front of the public two tables away from customers and really let him at it she demanded the phone number of the manager above him and we left off does she receive it I was pretty embarrassed at the time but as I got older I realized that she was standing up for that employee and how long that manager really was I'm not a hundred percent sure what she did with that phone number because I lived with my dad and I had to go home after that meal we traveled a lot when we were younger and would skid lines at the air course since we were kids but now we were all in our early teens and my mom faked having a heart condition to skip the long line to get on the airplane flight attendant would have none of it and told us to go back to the end of the line I still remember the smiles and looks of everyone there I never understood the strange addiction to getting on the plane first I liked to spend as little time as possible in a cramped aluminum tube surrounded by Lao strangers bumping into you trying to put their luggage in overhead bins I wait at the [ __ ] gate until the end it's not like you're going to get a better seat and then the same people are the ones rushing to get off first I don't get it he didn't ask to talk to the manager because I didn't let him get that far I was around 19 stroke 20 when my dad and his GF came to visit my brother and I we went to Best Buy and they had a new season of his favorite show out on DVD he grabbed it and took it to the counter where the cashier tried to ring it up it wouldn't work and suddenly the cashier got this nervous look on his face and says this isn't supposed to be on the shelf yet I can't sell it to you well you would have thought someone told my father they were taking all he had he lashed out at this poor cashier yelling at him how it wasn't his my dad's full day they messed up and put it out early and they have to sell it to him bla bla bla I get super embarrassed his GF does nothing so I am stuck trying to yell my dad to calm down and then physically push him out of the store while he is still yelling all I could do is look at the cashier and say I am so sorry I then lashed out at my dad in the vehicle we didn't have a good relationship to begin with anyways his GF tries to defend him saying he is just stressed and he is upset he has to go home and won't be able to see my brother and I for a long time bla bla bla in the end I told him to take me home and didn't talk to him again for a while as the manager in a lot of these stories I just want to say that the amount of time I have to encourage people to tell me when things are wrong greatly outnumbers the times people demand to see me without warrant yes of course I have had people make a beeline to me and start a conversation with are you the manager well unleash torrent of vs anger but I also bartend periodically and usually have to encourage my patrons to send something back if they don't like it it's alarming how often someone will get an undercooked burger or a drink they don't like and would rather sit quietly in fear of being that person and to commit to letting me fix the problem so those of you reading and saying oh I never complained please understand my job is to make you happy with your service and to ensure you want to come back if something is wrong we are not mind reader's tell us I'd rather you mention it to me a surfer or a bartender than to feel bad and never come back correcting a mistake is not the same as bitching me out because your mid-rare burger has some pink or your empty vodka tonic was too weak I was 14 and my mom did this [ __ ] at BK on my birthday because she didn't think the girl had the right attitude I remember being like please don't do this even though I agreed the girl had a nasty attitude mom's partially deaf and the girl refused to speak louder or more clearly even after being told that plus rolling her eyes and twice getting the order wrong because I didn't want to see my mom was determined to speak with the manager though and wouldn't take our food until she did instead of getting the manager the girl decided she wanted to come around the counter and scream in my mom's face for being a deaf old [ __ ] she swung on my mom and I jumped on the girl with my brother to keep her off my mom she bit me twice police got called we were banned from BK after the manager came out and took the employees side cops did nothing because the girl was 16 never been more embarrassed or angry ruined my whole birthday I should have said I wanted McDonald's instead oh well my dad is kind of a drunk a rich drunk we were out at an extremely nice restaurant in our small town a very footy and cheap place that had only been open for a couple of years and had since become my favorite restaurant I was sitting at a table with my siblings and cousins all of us college-age while my dad was sitting with my aunt and uncle and mom at a table nearby by the time we get our food the parents are still sitting there chugging their wine with no food my dad starts getting upset I hear him call the waitress over she brings them some bread and leaves them alone we finish our meals and our parents are still sitting there without food and several empty bottles of wine my mom is essentially fall asleep at this point my father furious starts banging his fists on the table shaking all of the silverware the waitress goes into the kitchen to find the chef but she is apparently taking too long my dad storms into the kitchen I hear him screaming at the top of his lungs like a [ __ ] toddler the chef calmly politely walks him back to his table he sits him down and in the comest voice possible says [ __ ] you sir now get the [ __ ] out of my restaurant we have not been back since I was sitting in the library in middle school with my mom and my adviser getting my assessment done to transition to high school a bunch of other kids were at other tables with their parents and advisors we were having a decent conversation but as soon as my adviser went over my test for results for math my mother blew up I scored in the 99th percentile ahead of kids in the honors classes my mom was screaming and ranting in front of everyone else there all the students were looking at us she wanted to know why they had held me back why they never put me in one of the high school math classes and when the advisor recommended not sending me to summer school to complete algebra it just made her furious I remember seeing my crushes face and when he locked eyes with me I died a little in that chair thing was I wasn't some math genius she just forced me to learn algebra in my free time that year so they couldn't have figured it out because it didn't happen until a few months prior and she knew it I haven't spoken to my mom in years but she is 100% one of these people one of the most cringy things I can think of right around nine stroke eleven I guess there was the whole anthrax and the mail thing going on my mom ordered stands through the mail the stamps were delivered along with the little note that says something about them having a powder coating on them to absorb moisture and ensure they don't lose their adhesive my mom who probably didn't even notice the powder calls the USPS and complains about how someone mailed her anthrax with her stamps and when that went nowhere she contacted all the local news outlets and had a press conference in our front yard where she went on about why the USPS would try and poison her mom bought a pair of boots at a large fancy department store wore them every day for approximately six months wore them in the rain a few times and the soles were eventually starting to come loose due to wear while wearing the boots she marches into the store takes them off at the counter clunks them down on the counter and demands are a fund or a new pair because the quality of the shoes were not up to par arguing that if it were the soles wouldn't have started coming loose note she no longer has the receipt at this point but argues the boots have the store logo on the bottom so she doesn't need one she proceeds to argue for almost 20 minutes refuses to budge demands to see the manager a queue has formed at this point and everyone is staring the manager caves he walks to the back gets a new pair of boots and brings them to my mom she puts them on right Clara at the counter and marches back out of the store as if nothing happened once my mum and I were at an awesome Chinese place they had the best pork buns so I was sitting there eating my pork bun and then the restaurant owner comes up to ask if we would like anything else me being about seven pointed to the kid soft drink menu a tad wrinkleds fare firetrucks that sounded like an absolutely amazing drink we ordered that and I kept eating my pork bun when the drink arrived it was a bright orange Fanta with lemonade and ice cream drink my mum was shocked she asked for the manager of course she did and complained that it looks nowhere near a fire truck deep sigh please and me my dad was always running late and very frantic and upset when I was growing up one evening on our way somewhere he ordered a bunch of food at a fast-food drive-through window asking that his burger not have mayonnaise on it as he began to roll forward he quickly checked and realized they had protects from their nays on it this prompted my dad to speed devilishly around the fast food joint pulled back through the drive-through and hurled the burger splat at the close drive-through while cursing their incompetence as an eight-year-old this sort of behavior left a lasting impression with me and to this day it's sauce very hard to rile me up because I never want to be like the man he was a day spent two hours in the lobby of the MGM Grand in Vegas circa January 1999 we had arrived with family friends to attend a hair stylist convention friend's mom owned a salon and mine managed it and we discovered our family suites had a window view of their dumpster area about a minute after walking into the room cue my mother storming back down to the lobby and demanded the head manager at the front desk switch our rooms immediately watching her make a scene and get even angrier once security was threatened on her was mortifying I was 10 tired and embarrassed and just wanted us all to have fun luckily the head manager offered a vacant presidential suite for all of the trouble after getting my mother to calm down looking back I realized he did it just to shut her up and restore calm back to the lobby for other guests to this day I am overly nice to retail and food service workers to compensate for her behavior even though she's not even around anymore I never want to be that person oh god I had so many my personal favorite is the Dairy Queen drive-thru incident my mom thought she was being overcharged 12 cents and freaked out at the poor Dairy Queen drive-through dude he was probably in high school and hair saw smites Adele's mom screaming at him for overcharging her like 12 cents some of her exact words were sell you on crack what the [ __ ] is wrong with you I cannot believe this is happening right now yes all wasting my time CTC etc' the usual flip-out also she mentioned her work she loves bringing up that she works at a certain big business as if that gives her more authority to be a [ __ ] to people but the Dairy Queen incident was special because just before going to get ice cream my best friend and I had spent some quarters of giant fuzzy mustache stickers so that we are in the backseat rubbing our giant fake mustaches and staring at this kid getting screamed at by my mom Dairy Queen dude was holding in loft of the entire time I hope our mustache has made the raging mom incident less terrifying for him hi day oh and she did demand the manager who just shrugged her off and didn't sort care I wonder how much spit and food we have ate because of her my mother and I had to get new military dependent IDs when my dad retired we made an appointment at the ID office and we were stopped at the gate because our current IDs were no longer valid mother tries to yell at the poor marine just doing his job expecting to get an exception and be let through no dice this is a super strict base so we are sent to get temporary passes they have to confirm our identity and it takes almost an hour my mother is fuming by this point because no one in the office is giving her a special exception either manager available and no one is willing to hurry the process we arrived 25 minutes late for our appointments to a full waiting area the only lady there who is running the front desk and all the stations lets her know that being more than 15 minutes late for fits the appointment slot and the next available time is about an hour and a half my mother starts to have a meltdown in front of a roomful of people and I just stand there mortified a waiting room full of military men is watching her scream and almost cry she gives the lady an earful and the woman decides to let us get our ids next because my mom is making such a scene my mother is smiling at this point thinking that she has finally won lady starts processing us and come to find out my father had not done all of the paperwork mother starts demanding an exception and that the lady give us a break she explains that she can't into my mother storms off I give the lady a quick sari and scurry on after we returned the next day and the same lady is running the office the tension was palpable and I was so embarrassed and uncomfortable I could tell the woman was taking her time to make my mother squirm but mother couldn't have another meltdown and risk having to come back another day so she was just fuming my mother still doesn't know that my father called you in apologized to the woman after I wish she would figure out that people are more likely to help if you're nice I remember when I was like 6 my whole family all six of us went to the dollar store I Don soft remember much but I remember when we were in the car about to go home my mom was looking at the receipt and she noticed that the cashier gave them $1 less and changed than they were supposed to my mom was furious and made us all go back inside she started yelling at the teenage girl cashier about how theis all bad people and this is wrong et Cie etc then the girl said something like suck geez and then rolled her eyes while giving back the correct change this made my mom flip she started screaming at the top of her lungs about how theis or evil and how she needs to fix her attitude and stuff like that another one was when we recently had a fire in our house a bunch of ash and fire extinguisher stuff got all over the house and we got a cleaning company to clean the house it was like two dudes and two girls idk what exactly triggered my mom but apparently she didn't suck like the way they were cleaning she started yelling at them and lecturing them that they should know how to clean especially the girls because they saw a female she then showed them how to do it whole continuing to yell at them a lot of the bad outbursts were the same way she treated us when she got mad she sauce got a lot calmer since than though it was at a TGI Fridays and Katy TX this waiter was amazing he was working eight tables that I could count and was managing all of them flawlessly drinks never got below 1 stroke 3 Rd full at any table he was always attentive and prompt friendly just a textbook example of the perfect waiter he impressed my dad so much that my dad asked if he could speak to a manager of course the waiter immediately asks if anything is wrong since that's the only time someone asks my dad tells him no it's to make sure that management knows what excellent service he's providing the waiter thanks us and says you'll get a manager over as quickly as he can we wait for about 10 minutes before this middle-aged [ __ ] of a manager saunters over and starts asking my dad how the waiter screwed up my dad is not the most patient of people and we were kinda in a hurry to get home so the 10-minute wait was rubbing him wrong but when the manager immediately acted like the guy was a screw-up my dad lost it he told the manager that the waiter had done everything perfectly and that's why he tipped the guy $15 on a $35 ticket he also went on to say that the manager needed to be more respectful of his staff and gave the guy on a stewing for presuming that the employee had screwed up before that moment I thought that my sister and I were the only ones he would scream at when he was upset it was somewhat embarrassing to see my dad yell at this guy but he did it for a good reason my mom came to my school because she thought I was lying about what I got on my SATs she didn't think I was that smart no one in my school would give her that information because they didn't have to she got to my principal and said I want to speak to your manager in front of me he refused and they argued for a while the principal knew I was an okay guy in the score I told my mother was legit it was really embarrassing though sounds like you did better than she didn't share sauce mad about it I a I wrote an essay once and my mom read it while my dad was driving I was actually really proud of it it was my first three L's essay that I wrote in grade seven and I had spent so much time making sure it was perfectly formatted and there were no spelling errors when she got to the end she was just like so weird so do copy and paste this off of I think she meant it jokingly but I got super upset about the only thing my dad and I have in common as we like to go thrifting garage sales estate sales antique stores and charity thrift shops thing is we do it for different reasons I do it for the fun of finding something unusual and offbeat that does it because he likes to find bargains to be one up on the suckers who didn't know what they had so I was mortified when dad went to the charity shop checkout and bitched for ten minutes about being overcharged fifty cents left him in the store alone when he finally came out I went in on dropped five books in the donation jar and apologized for my [ __ ] father this is my favorite example of my mom being an absolute whacko we are from NY and I met her in LA where she was vacationing for a few days there is a restaurant we had been to before and really wanted to visit again I guess you could say it's a hot spot this is lunch time no reservation we arrive at the restaurant and there are a bunch of open tables it's early probably before noon my mom asks for a table and they say we're so sorry but if you don't have a reservation we unfortunately do have any tables for you if you'd like you can leave your phone number and we can call you if we have any cancellations my mom starts huffing and puffing pointing at all the tables which other of course reserved for 1200 and 12:30 reservations but are currently empty she's making a whole scene and just storms out of a restaurant I try to explain to her the way restaurants work that there are empty tables because other people are going to be coming in later with reservations she is storming down the block just ranting now you don't get it I've worked in restaurants my whole life this is what they do it's LA it's like a nightclub they don't like the way we look this is ridiculous while she's ranting the hostess comes running down the block they had a cancellation and they could seat us immediately I was humiliated I didn't even want to eat there anymore long story short I never take my mom to any restaurant I like I was out to breakfast with my mom and our waitress straight up disappeared we sat for a good 30 minutes after having ordered nothing but eggs it was enough time so the diner was pretty quiet It was as if our waitress had just evaporated naturally my mom asked someone if we could speak with the manager she stops by my mom lets her know what's happened and asks if she can check on our waitress our food etc ten minutes later the manager shows up with our food and the waitress in tow she put our food down then proceeded to rip into the waitress this poor woman broke down in tears apologizing profusely we felt awful didn't even bother finishing our food once the manager was out of sight my mom found the waitress gave her a hug and a larger tipper than usual it was rough leaving us both sufficiently embarrassed not exactly the question but my dad was great with those customers we had a small family business selling and installing fireplaces for context he on more than one occasion when getting the customer call or coming after the installers had finished up and left the jobsite to [ __ ] about one of the men being rude or something he could get this look of grave concern on his face he would then go into a backstory saying things like oh no not again or do the open mouth closed teeth inhale thing and just tsk-tsk-tsk and then start on with some nonsense about having told the guy before that it was his last warning and go on about how he was going to have to let him go the blood draining from people's faces all the dead silence on the other end of the phone line was magical followed by the customer frantically explaining that maybe it wasn't that bad or blaming themselves he was never going to fire anyone but he'd find out real quick who was just complaining for fun many of those customers have no qualms about getting the employee in trouble but in general folks don't want to jeopardize people's livelihoods not long ago my mom asked to treat my wife and I to lunch at Outback Steakhouse we get there and order my mom orders iced tea with extra lemon tea shows up with one lemon usually no big deal right just ask for more well instead of doing that my mom turns to the waiter and says what no extra lemon you fail as a waiter no brownie points for you The Dude's it's there for moments and then says rather flatly I'll be right back with more lemon I turn to my mom and I'm like that's how you get your food spittin you've just sent the message that this will be a shitty tipping table and he's going to totally focus elsewhere she argues that well it should have inspired him to work harder to impress us dot I think from that point I just mentioned that from his end his odds of making money are now higher of some other table it's just how people work well she goes to the bathroom and cry she comes back and makes some super complicated order I texted my wife who was sitting right next to me and say this dude is going to butcher that order on purpose food comes out ours is correct in perfect hers is all [ __ ] up basically a totally wrong order she asks for it to be fixed a bit more subdued this time it comes out technically correct but obviously carelessly prepared cooked I chuckle inside here's the insane part after all of this she turns to us and says I was right about that waiter he sucks at his job double quote it's like no dude your behavior made him not give a [ __ ] about you after being a total [ __ ] and paying the price she walked away feeling validated and haughty I slipped in a nice tip with a sorry for my mom note I grew up in a smaller town right on the cusps of its big growth boom we knew our town had finally made it when we got an Olive Garden we used to eat there 2-3 times a month my mom and I would always split in entree and my dad would get his own we knew the rule if your sauce splitting and entree and you get more than one of the family-style bowls of salad than house all get charged an extra four dollars for the extra person which is fair two entrees come with two unlimited salads well one day my dad decides he wanted more salad only he wants the additional salad but the waitress said if she refills a bowl that we will be charged the extra four dollars well low and behold my parents threw the biggest tantrum because only he wanted the additional salad the demanded to speak to a manager and the manager explained the rule which we knew but offered to comp the extra salad just to get my parents to stop yelling and they did when our bill came the manager can't my dad's entree and the additional salad fee well my mom got up interrupted the manager while he was talking to other guests and threw the check in his face and asked swartz office she was furious that he comped my dad's meal he ate the meal therefore we would like to pay for it she won't and sought stop raising her voice until she was allowed to of a meal but not the salad the manager was confused but obliged when they brought the change the manager slipped a few free appetizer coupons my mom ripped them up and threw them on the ground if she left safe to say I didn't sort eat out with them for at least a month and I still refused to go to Olive Garden with them hug my dad he can be such a prick if you get his order wrong it could be fast food or a nice sit-down restaurant he often yells at waitstaff if they'd sunder Cox's steak it has to be well-done or he claims to have lost his appetite one time we went to Burger King when I was younger and we sat down to eat he took one bite of his burger spit it out and immediately started bitching about it being undercooked he cut in front of everyone and lined to yell at the cashier then he asked who was the cook when the crook appeared he launched his burger hitting the poor kid directly in the face with a lid les Berger has us now banned for life from Burger King my mill is truly a carom going out to eat with her as always a nightmare her orders have 14 special requests but she's not at all kind about it she is defensive from the get-go like you're an idiot who's already screwed the order up no dressing not on the side nothing completely dry do you understand I will send it back double quote the one I will never forget though was dinner at Joe's Crab Shack in case you've never been it's one of those places that every so often plays a song that the entire staff is required to drop everything and do a little synchronized dance to it's quick everyone gets a little kick out of it it's part of the fun now my milk Erin knew this it's not like she never been here but apparently she was not willing to wait two extra minutes for her dry salad so she starts going off as soon as the dancing starts she gets a manager who clearly knows Karen well and offers a quick apology for doing their job a discount and her drier salad but Karen's not completely satisfied she tells us that even though dinner for our party of eight is on her she's not tipping the waitress one penny she proceeds to [ __ ] loudly the rest of the meal and antagonize our waitress over petty [ __ ] I worked too many years in customer service and ya know I'm a decent human being I made sure to get my bill separate so I could sit for the entire table I wrote a quick note on the receipts something along the lines of way to stay positive even when the customers are jerk I was a little afraid of the wrath of Karen it was one of my first interactions with her too but when the waitress came and hugged me Karen and I locked eyes she knew I didn't care don't be a [ __ ] Karen my mom needed to return some shirts at the mall because they didn't fit right it was past the allotted time that she had to return them so the employee said that there wasn't anything she could do my mom started screaming at this girl who was probably about 16 or 17 calling her names and demanding to speak to the manager when the manager told my mom that they couldn't do anything about the return policy was on the receipt my mom threw a fit and knocked over a display that was next to the register and stormed out of the store I was probably six or seven at the time and I was mortified I apologized for her behavior and picked up what I could before she started calling for me to follow her the manager was super sweet to me though and told me that I was a good kid and to stick up to my mom when I could get away with it I don't like going to restaurants with her she thinks that because she worked as a waitress for a year 35 years ago it gives her the right to act like a complete [ __ ] to them she also thinks not tipping them will encourage them to get their act together joke's on you mom I always find our server after City give them a $20 zero zero and apologize in advanced for your poor behavior edit yes she knows what I think of it she doesn't care she believes she's sticking to her principles and that tipping poor service Reed never had good service something will always be wrong will encourage thigh laziness it's not going to stop if you wait on her I am very sorry edit - she waited tables at a pizza hut when she was 20 she looks back at her time through rose-colored glasses I worked hard went above and beyond to get my tips then she yells at the waitress for trying to refills rinks excuse me did I ask for a refill dot obviously logic and empathy are not her strong points my mother is a nightmare with customer service even with the fact that I her daughter works in customer service and deals with people like her on the daily so many incidents stick out in my mind but one that really embarrassed me was we were at Walmart the stocker was struggling and dropped their price scanner thing on the ground I was going to go help her gather her things she was struggling with when my mom came out like a bat out of hell and yelled siano you should pick that up people could trips and then she darted off with a cart I was so embarrassed I just walked away in shame and when I pointed it out for my mom the girl dropped it on accident she said swell she should be more careful k about once a month my dad gets drunk and calls various customer service centers demanding stuff once he finally gets off the phone frequently 45 plus minutes later he spends the next few days telling us all about how he slew the customer service dragon and boy people sure don't appreciate their customers nowadays bla bla bla no duh dad you being an [ __ ] no one appreciates that close bracket if you've worked for DIRECTV customer service any time since 1996 I apologize on behalf of my dad edit another story for y'all I also remembered one time McD's was having some kind of two-for-one breakfast sandwich deal going on where the total was about $3 he gets his breakfast drives 25 minutes to work realises he is missing one of the sandwiches and proceeds to call NC DS customer support every evening after work for a week to complain about his wasted $1 50 they gave them apologies they gave in coupons but he just wanted to yell [Music]

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Id: 6uKAX7D5HFE

Length: 34min 59sec (2099 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 03 2020