35 Times Service Industry Workers Celebrated Moments Of 'Instant Karma' After Dealing With Extremely Rude Customers

I was waiting at a hotel reception while a young staff member checked me in. A really obnoxious woman flounced over, interrupted what the girl was doing and proceeded to b***h about the standard of the kettle in her room. She ranted on and on about only having a "normal kettle" until I told her to wise up and get in bloody line behind me. She shouted that she had been travelling all day and that the room was not a suitable standard. I pointed out it was a f*****g airport hotel, we'd all been travelling all day and that she should just get lost. By now the girl at the desk was blood red and tearful. The woman banged her fist on the desk, demanded to see a manager, and then had a fit of coughing. She promptly shat herself all through her beige trousers. She didn't hang around after that.

This tale takes place roughly 22 years ago at a community college bookstore.

As with any college bookstore, the start of the semesters were incredibly busy. In order to help ease the insanity in our small store, we set up a table outside the front door for doing returns. And that's where I was stationed for the day.

People got in line. The got to me. I processed the paperwork for their return and sent them inside for the cashiers. This is an important point. I had no cash, no ability to process cards. Just me, a table, a stack of paper, and some pens. That's it.

Well, a middle aged lady gets to me. She is obviously not lacking in funds. Her son has dropped all his classes and she is returning his books. Ok. Cool. I do all the paperwork, hand her back the document and direct her inside.

And she goes BALLISTIC that she has to wait in line again. I mean starting nuclear wars ballistic. The customers in line behind her actually went to my manager to file formal statements about her behavior. Not mine. Hers. Because they knew.....

I take a break and shake it off. Everyone has bad days. And I know that I have the customers's statements to back me up. A few days pass and the manager gets a call.

It's the president of the college. With a complaint. THE WOMAN CALLED THE PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT ME. So my manager and I head off to a meeting with the president and the woman. We walked in calm and polite.

The woman tells her tirade, still screaming and cursing. My manager pulls out the statements and without a word, hands them to the president. The president calmly read them. I don't remember exactly what he said, but I do remember watching the woman turn more and more red. I do remember the word "entitled" used a whole lot. And I do remember him saying "Don't waste my time ever again." before he showed her the door.

Once I saw a woman being really terrible to her kids. They were maybe 6 and 9 but she was swearing at them (things I have never heard said to an adult) and calling them names they were both crying hysterically just trying to eat their pizza.

The only other table in the place was a trio of construction workers sitting behind them. I had asked the woman several times to calm down but she would just say she wasn't hurting anyone and basically to butt out. She would swear at me and threw a piece of chicken at me as I walked away. I called my manager up but he didn't like to remove customers so he wanted to wait and see if this continued.

Then she smacked one of the little girls on the back of the head. Before my manager of I could react one of the construction workers walked over and He asked the mom to join him at the bar.
I think she thought he was hitting on her cause she was all smiles and flirty. As soon as she was away from the kids he told her:

"If I see you lay a finger on those kids again I will do the same thing to you but 10 times worse. Have a nice evening."

She immediately left and they followed her to the door. I can only hope she learned something.

I was a cashier at a grocery store. This guy with a full cart bitched and bullied employees until he was allowed to use my express checkout because he didn't want to wait in the regular lines, and my line only had two people in it. As soon as my floor manager allowed him and he had his cart unloaded, a tiny old lady with a walker who could barely stand got in line behind him. Everyone gave him dirty looks. He realized he f****d up and tried to make a joke about it. Dead silence. I hope his saved time was worth being an a*****e.

was working at a restaurant and there was this family who were extremely trashy and didnt look like they had a lot of money despite ordering a bunch of expensive steaks and drinking a bunch of drinks. They were rude the whole time treating me like i was their butler or slave. Then asked for a manager to tell the manager that their steaks tasted rotten (after they finished) and their drinks didnt taste like they had any alcohol in them (again, finished).. just trying to get free food. My manager noticed the way they were treating me and knew they were full of s**t and refused to comp their meal like they were demanding. The began yelling and cussing and him and me and ended up trying to leave without paying. Only to have their car not start in the parking lot and my manager called the police and one of them got arrested for disorderly conduct and drug possession and the rest ended up walking after having their car towed.

I used to return customer credit cards by setting them on the Square podium used to swipe them so they ended up right by them when I swung the screen around from them to sign and such. One lunch rush (take out restaurant) one lady decided this was an offense of the highest order and yelled at me for not placing it directly in her hand.

I stupidly engaged her and tried to explain that I did that for everybody which got me a continued lecture about how she is the customer and good service is doing what she wants and so on. There were about of dozen people eating at our tables and five people in the line behind her so she was straight hamming it up, making sure everyone saw her putting me in my place.

Unfortunately for her, the dramatic performance proved to be a bit too distracting and she stormed out without her infant. This was of course noticed by pretty much everyone in the building since she had just made herself the center of attention. One of the customers even had to run after her and stop her from driving away. For the record there is no real subtle way to pick up a full size child carrier.

TL;DR : Woman shows full restaurant that she values her credit card over her child, performs walk of shame.

I was 18 and worked at a local grocery store in the produce department. Beyond regular duties, we made fruit trays on weekends - nothing fancy, just a variety of cut up fruit in large red bowls.

Dude comes in after 10:00pm (we close at 11) and asks for a tray with specific fruits. I tell him we unfortunately don't make custom trays. The 16 year old dude who is also on shift with me overhears and tells him it's slower tonight so he can do it for him. He says "Ok good", no gratefulness displayed at all. This co-worker of mine is legit always extra kind to customers, it's legitimately admirable.

20 minutes later my coworker comes out of the back room and presents it to this customer. He immediately starts screaming at him about how bad it looks. He yells things like "That looks like absolute shit! Fuck, are you an idiot!?" I run over to see what the problem is. The fruit tray looks absolutely standard but this guy isn't having it. He smashes it on the ground and keeps screaming about how we are "retarded" and how we have wasted his time. I snap. I tell him to "Get the fuck out".

He postures up (keep in mind this guy is like in his 40s, ready to fight some teenagers over a fruit tray). Numerous other employees run over and yell for him to get out. He says "I'll be back for all of you retards" and runs toward and out the sliding doors.

All this on camera luckily so management calls the cops regarding his actions and that last threat. They ended up arresting him later on because apparently he also had some warrants. Hope the fruit was worth it, asshole.

Not exactly retail, but food service. At a college football game, my coworker was chewed out by an alumni because the hot chocolate wasn't "chocolaty" enough. All she and I could really do were sit there and apologize because there was nothing we could really do, until the bartender chimed in. This bartender is a former High School teacher, currently a substitute school teacher for all grades K-12, and the look she shot this man could have immediately shut up the cockiest of teenagers. Anyway, she put on her scolding face, and warned him "If you continue yelling at these girls over something they can't control, I'm going to have to ask you and all your friends to leave. I will not tolerate anyone abusing my coworkers." The guy immediately clammed up and hurriedly walked away with his tail tucked between his legs.

I used to be a night time manager at a pizza place downtown. We were literally around the corner from a direct competitor. They had a carry-out window and offered that service all night. We did not and closed our doors at 10:00 and only offered delivery service after that. It's worth mentioning we were quite friendly with the local PD and they frequently sat in our parking lot at night to catch up on paperwork, watch for drunk drivers, etc... One night at about 11:30 I had a woman and a man start banging on our door. I politely(but loudly) told them through the door we close carry out at 10. The woman goes ballistic and starts screaming and hitting the door while the man just stands there watching trying to look hard. I ask another employee to keep an eye on me in case the situation escalates, and step out another side door, in order to be able to actually converse with them. This woman is absolutely nuclear at this point, screaming, cussing... I let her finish and I inform her that if she called and ordered it was probably our friendly neighbors with the carry-out window. I get accused of calling her stupid, and ask her to check her phone and tell me which number she called. She says "I don't have to, I know I call y'all and YOU took my order!" At this point I informed her that there is absolutely no way I took a carry-out order after we closed carry-out. At this point the man joins in and starts taking a very aggressive posture and tone with me and informs me I "better let them in and get their food." I flat out said no. At this point the man shoves me and I stumble back about three feet, he goes to swing at me, and misses, and I kindly repay the favor and connect knocking him on the ground. At about the same time the woman attempts to rush me there is a sound of "WOOOP WOOOP!" and flashing blue lights behind them. This doesn't stop them from continuing to try to assault me, however the two uniformed police officers that happened to have just pulled in take care of that very quickly. Another squad car shows up, the two have been cuffed and placed in the cars, the officers have been given a copy of the security footage, and I ask the officer I'm talking to if, for the sake of curiosity, he could possibly try to convince her to tell him the phone number she called. He walks me back out to the car she's in and somehow convinces her to do this. She recites the number while glaring at me, with so much vitriol and hatred in her voice. "XXX-XXX-7272 you stupid f*****g honkey." I smile at her and inform her "Our number is XXX-XXX-3030. We are Domino's. That's the number for Papa John's. That's why 7272 spells out Papa."

I worked in this fancy clothing store in this posh town at the seaside. It was a busy saturday when suddenly a very pretentious girl walked in with her boyfriend, ignoring us as we greated her and even giving my collegue a demeaning look. She went on to browse around in the store and eventually took some clothes with her in the changingbooth.

After a while I notice a heated conversation arising from the booth between her and her boyfriend. I see the boyfriend running back and forth between the booth and some clothing racks, in the mean while me and my collegue where being chased away by her (she refused any help and didn't leave the booth) as if we were a couple of ebola patients.

So me and my collegue continue working and helping other costumers. I was working the register when suddenly the girls turns up next to me, completely pissed off, and she starts ranting about "how our store/brand really should work on the fitting of our clothes and how we were complete f**k ups". I was completely caught of guard and right when I wanted to ask her what the exact problem was, I see my collegue looking at the girl while bursting out this horribly loud laugh, tears and all. What had happened was that the girl had taken with her a clothingpiece she thought was a strapless dress. Well, it wasn't a dress. It was a skirt. The girl had tried on all sizes and got completely fed up, yelling at us and her boyfriend because the FREAKIN "DRESS" WON'T FIT. So she walked out in a crowded store, making a scene, with a skirt pulled up to her tits.

I have to admit, after she left I laughed till crying.

I had a woman come into my bank one day years ago in Mid-August and try to cash a check. Said check looked like it had been written by a four year old. We went through the protocol as mandated by our organization, calling the issuer and verifying all data. While we were going through this procedure the woman goes off on a tantrum. She's ripping the little pens with chains from the little desks, throwing deposit slips around, demanding she speak to the president of the bank and verbally abusing all the employees. Likewise, she looks to have done enough speed to stay up for a week straight.
We are finally able to get ahold of the issuer of the check, lo and behold, it's a good check. We cash it. Thank her for her patience. As she's storming out cursing, two officers walk in and identify her as the owner of a car in the parking lot. Said car had a small child, no more that two, locked inside the entire time. 20 minutes, in August. Some good people called the cops, broke out the window and rescued the kid and had that b***h arrested. I hope to god that that little kid has found a new home or that its' mom has cleaned up her act.

Former cell phone industry worker.

We *HAVE* to pitch insurance and a case every time you get a new phone. we have to. You can actually be fired from some carriers for refusing to partake in making these suggestions.

During a normal new-line set-up, this insanely rude woman is hostile about every part of the every part of the exchange. Her credit is absolute dog s**t so she has to pay a gnarly deposit and more of the phone up front and that's somehow my fault. Finalizing everything before shes completely rung up, I casually offer the same thing I do to literally everyone getting a new phone: Which insurace plan were you interested, and what kinds of cases have you looked at?

Apparently that was the most offensive thing she'd ever heard in her life. She immediately raises her voice and makes it really uncomfortable for me because apparently I'm only accusing her of being clumsy since shes black, and I didnt charge her white friend near as much and Im just a racist blah blah super fun. I kept my composure and tried calmly explaining everything, even try to let her know that I **HAVE** to offer that to everyone and I couldnt get anything across. Eventually my coworker lets me know he's got this, we swap places and finish each other's sales. As she steps out of the store looking down at the Galaxy Note 3 she had just spent a total of 500 something dollars to get, she trips, eats s**t, and smashes the screen.

Comes back in asking for help after raising hell and we got to be all ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I was a server during college at an upper scale restaurant. I rarely had problems with customers and am overall genuinely friendly. I had a table for 4 with only 3 patrons there, an older couple with their adult daughter. I served them beverages and was told we were to wait for patron #4 the son.

about 40 minutes and 2 refills go by. I say "I bet you guys are starving by now, would you like me to bring you our lettuce wraps they are small enough to not ruin your appetite, Or are we still waiting for **my buddy**?"

father said "we are going to wait, and he isn't you buddy. frankly you dont know him, hes a hard working man and will be respected"

"You're right sir, forgive me."

"He actually has a real job."

"I understand sir, it wont happen again."

when i come back for refill number 3 the son was arriving. the son happened to be an old high school friend, before taking a seat he gave me a hug right in front of his dad.

I looked at the father and said "small world huh, I can't believe your **my old buddy [name]'s** family im suprized we've never met before with [name] and I spending so much time together in high school "

It's too bad our restaurant didn't serve crow.

Working drive thru at a Tim Hortons and some a*****e in a massive black truck parked too far away from the window and expected me to lean super far out to give him his change. He was real impatient and just really rude. I just shook my head and so he gets all pissed off and finally gets out of the truck and the door shut behind him. It was locked and he sat there for like 15 minutes and we had to call a tow truck. Sure it pissed off everyone behind him but at least they were all pissed off at him and not us! He acted like it was the biggest embarrassment of his life.

This didn't happen with a rude customer but with a rude *coworker*.

I work in a store with ten different check-out lines (two are express, two self-checkout) but only one of which has all the cigarette/tobacco products in lockable glass cases behind it meaning that if you want to buy that stuff you either go through that line or you go through another line with a cashier (not self-checkout) and ask the cashier to go get you your cigs for you at which point they go to the cigarette line, ask the cashier on it to get the smokes, or use their key to get them their self in case the line isn't open. I have more than a few co-workers who smoke and they have to buy their cigs the same way as customers do. Employees are *not* allowed to get out their own cigarettes and check them out their self, they have to have another cashier ring them up for them.

So one day, early morning, I'm working the check-out with the tobacco behind it and I notice this woman who works as janitor/stocker hovering around behind me near the cigarettes. I know she isn't supposed to be near there so I ask her, "can I help you with something?". She tells me that she just wants to get some smokes and I'm like okay, no, if you want cigarettes you have to get in line and buy some that way like everyone does. She gets pissed and asks me why I won't just let her get her own cigarettes and I tell her again that I can sell her whatever she wants if she'll just get in line and pay for them. She huffs, rolls her eyes at me, and storms off.

For the rest of the day she totally has it out for me. Throughout the day, I have other cashiers telling me that she's talking s**t about me in the break room left and right. My manager comes up to me and says that the woman made a complaint that I refused to sell her cigarettes because she's black, I go WTF and explain what actually happened and go on with my job. Then at one point there's a big lull in business and I take a quick break, putting on my 'away' light at the register and making sure to lock up the cigarette cases when I go as is policy, so I can go to the bathroom and this woman comes out of nowhere and blocks the door, refuses to let me in and shoves the handle end of her mop into my chest and tells me I'm not allowed to use the bathroom and some s**t about how I think I'm "so much better than her" because I'm a cashier and she's a janitor. I'm like, "you realize there are security cameras right in this hallway, right?" and she jumps and takes off again and I go pee. And this s**t just carries on ALL DAY and she gives me these nasty looks every time she comes by, which is often enough and more than usual that I think she's walking by my register just so she can glare at me.

But the day ends and I give my register to someone else and go home.

Next day, first thing in the morning, as soon as I get in to work another cashier informs me that the woman was fired late last night because apparently she'd been caught on camera stealing a few packs of cigarettes out of the tobacco case when the cashier who relieved me at the register eventually took a break herself but didn't lock the cases up. The cashier who didn't lock up got a warning but didn't lose her job.