Strange Complaints You Have Received
- Thread starter Lord Garnaat
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Hmmm. Strange compliments. Okay.Redlin5 said:
A random cashier at a supermarket one day - by way of conversation - correctly identified that I was Irish despite living in Pittsburgh all of my life and expressing a definitely recognizable Pittsburgh accent. I hadn't given him my name or any indicator I know of to lead him to realize that. I understand that people who are not your own self can pick up what you take for granted, but I'm impressed, since anywhere I go that's NOT Pittsburgh, people will know that I'm from there. This was not a complaint, mind you. He was curiously interested.
I worked at Wal-Mart for a few months. I was a retail associate in the Electronics section.
Grand Theft Auto V was released less than a week ago.
I was helping a teenage girl figure out which version to get - she didn't know if her boyfriend played XBox or Playstation.
Some old harpy came stomping up to me and shoved her cart between me and the girl.
"Excuse me!" she stammered loudly. "My fish is too wet!"
I was dumbstruck. I don't think I've ever been paralyzed by utter confusion like that before.
She ordered a truckload of salmon from the food department, and decided that was the first thing she'd gather from her grocery list. Now, she was angry that the frost on the packaging was beginning to melt.
When I asked her what she wanted me to do about it, she demanded more fish.
Grand Theft Auto V was released less than a week ago.
I was helping a teenage girl figure out which version to get - she didn't know if her boyfriend played XBox or Playstation.
Some old harpy came stomping up to me and shoved her cart between me and the girl.
"Excuse me!" she stammered loudly. "My fish is too wet!"
I was dumbstruck. I don't think I've ever been paralyzed by utter confusion like that before.
She ordered a truckload of salmon from the food department, and decided that was the first thing she'd gather from her grocery list. Now, she was angry that the frost on the packaging was beginning to melt.
When I asked her what she wanted me to do about it, she demanded more fish.
Just earlier today while playing World of Tanks I get into a match where some guy is immediately complaining about teammates charging out and dying instead of thinking. Now while it wasn't directed right to me and it does happen to be true a good percentage of the time, what irked me was that his solution to this, instead of even trying to be a useful teammate, was to instead sit in the back of the map, wait for all his teammates to die, and then charge strait into the remaining enemy force. It takes a special kind of stupid to ***** about something and then do the exact thing you're bitching about while still bitching about it.
I witness people of this player's ilk in every multiplayer game I've played. I always laugh out loud when someone complains and offers no solution. When someone takes issue with how I approach a video game, I straight up ask them how I could do it better, because if they have advice I'll follow it. Sometimes I actually DO get good advice, but most of the time, the whiner will simply scoff and tell me that if I have to ask, I shouldn't be playing the game. More often than not their advice is that I should kill myself.Fijiman said:
OT: I have fielded a lot of complaints in my life time, we all have, but here's an odd one; parents apparently get really mad when you hang out at a public park to play Pokemon Go. There's a lovely spot far from the play ground that sits near four Pokestops and is a great place to set up a lure and relax. But this one woman came over to complain about me and the other adults that had gathered to enjoy the lure and the weather.
"I'm sick and tired of seeing you people out here staring at your phones like morons! I bring my son here to play, not watch grown adults play a children's game!"
I live right outside this park - it's literally across the street, and the children make more noise than any of us ever have. There are loud teenagers at night that kick up a bigger fuss than we ever have. No one was even swearing and again, the gazebo that we hang out at is on the other end of the park. And blocked by tall bushes. And a garden. She literally would never see us if she wasn't looking. No one even approached from that end of the park that day. She walked away, looking triumphant, as though she'd just told us that if she ever saw us dealing crack again she'd phone the police, and we're all just sitting there with WTF expressions. Then a Lapras appeared and we went right back to it.
I once got a complaint from a woman because we refused to fix her air conditioner. In the middle of winter. With knee deep snow. We could be spending that time fixing the heat for any of the dozens of other people who had none and were freezing their secondary sexual characteristics off. Yet this woman was telling us we had to fix her air conditioning right the hell now because it would "inconvenience" her if she had to wait until spring and it started getting hot.
Seeing as the woman was batshit crazy, I question the accuracy of what she told me. All I can go by is what she said on the phone. If I had to guess, and I do, she was probably diagnosed with schizophrenia or something, or extreme OCD with a religious focus. I have no clue. But I found her circular logic utterly fascinating. "The VA is paying me tons of money because they say I'm so focused on god that I do things in his name that are harmful to my well being! So to protest that statement that I disagree with, I'm going to refuse to accept their money so that god won't be mad with me! That'll show them how wrong their diagnosis is!"FalloutJack said:
We get some choice gems in my line of work, let me tell you.
Just remembered another one.
In my first job I got an e-mail from my supervisor to stop washing my face at the kitchen sink at lunch. I was confused by this as I didn't actually wash my face at work. I was so confused I went and asked my supervisor to clarify so she took me to one side, apparently she had been getting complaints from other staff about me, saying me washing was disgusting and unhygienic. As a bit of a clean freak I tried to persuade her that all I was doing was washing my hands before and after eating and that was the complete opposite of unhygienic, I would occasionally wipe a wet hand across my lips if I had eaten something juicy like an apple but that was after I was done at the sink and was getting paper towels to dry my hands. She just repeated that it was disgusting and that if I was going to keep doing it I would have to do it in the privacy of the toilets.
There was only 1 male toilet in the whole building where I worked and since everyone went for lunch at the same time it was usually engaged, I would usually use the toilet and wash my hands at the start of lunch then eat and then wash my hands in the kitchen but by forcing me to use the toilet sink to wash my hands after eating it meant I had to queue up twice and I always felt I was hogging the bathroom when I was just washing my hands and others were still waiting to use the toilet.
All because people complained me washing my hands was unhygienic?
In my first job I got an e-mail from my supervisor to stop washing my face at the kitchen sink at lunch. I was confused by this as I didn't actually wash my face at work. I was so confused I went and asked my supervisor to clarify so she took me to one side, apparently she had been getting complaints from other staff about me, saying me washing was disgusting and unhygienic. As a bit of a clean freak I tried to persuade her that all I was doing was washing my hands before and after eating and that was the complete opposite of unhygienic, I would occasionally wipe a wet hand across my lips if I had eaten something juicy like an apple but that was after I was done at the sink and was getting paper towels to dry my hands. She just repeated that it was disgusting and that if I was going to keep doing it I would have to do it in the privacy of the toilets.
There was only 1 male toilet in the whole building where I worked and since everyone went for lunch at the same time it was usually engaged, I would usually use the toilet and wash my hands at the start of lunch then eat and then wash my hands in the kitchen but by forcing me to use the toilet sink to wash my hands after eating it meant I had to queue up twice and I always felt I was hogging the bathroom when I was just washing my hands and others were still waiting to use the toilet.
All because people complained me washing my hands was unhygienic?
I have two, both when I worked in this bar. The first was when it was pretty quiet, there was no one else in the place and I was stood watching TV. This bloke walks in with his family and I immediately go to serve them. This bloke has been coming in all week and we've been talking and I think he understands my sense of humour. He says to me "Are you here to work or watch TV?" I say to him with a smile on my face "Watch TV." To which he goes "Ok then" and gets his family and walks out. I have no idea why he didn't think I was joking.
The second time was during the summer and we were busy. During that time, definitely during the last 2 years I worked there I hardly interacted with customers, I would be busy changing barrels, hauling stock up to the bar and putting it in the fridge and getting change for the tills. The only time I really dealt with the customers was when I was dealing with complaints. So its a typical night and I'm running around doing what I do and I go to the manager to get some change for the tills. He is there talking to a customer who has put in a complaint, in writing about me. About what, I have no idea as I haven't actually spoken to anyone, I've been running around doing stuff. He turns to me and says something like "Your attitude is really bad." To be fair, I hated the job a lot of the time and he may have had a point. But I had had absolutely no interaction with this person at all so what I could have done to upset him is beyond me. Nothing ever came of it despite the fact that my manager was a massive arsehole.
The second time was during the summer and we were busy. During that time, definitely during the last 2 years I worked there I hardly interacted with customers, I would be busy changing barrels, hauling stock up to the bar and putting it in the fridge and getting change for the tills. The only time I really dealt with the customers was when I was dealing with complaints. So its a typical night and I'm running around doing what I do and I go to the manager to get some change for the tills. He is there talking to a customer who has put in a complaint, in writing about me. About what, I have no idea as I haven't actually spoken to anyone, I've been running around doing stuff. He turns to me and says something like "Your attitude is really bad." To be fair, I hated the job a lot of the time and he may have had a point. But I had had absolutely no interaction with this person at all so what I could have done to upset him is beyond me. Nothing ever came of it despite the fact that my manager was a massive arsehole.
A guy wanted a pack of first class stamps (12 to be precise) so I got a pack and he paid; no problem. However five minutes he came back and handed me them back and said "These are Christmas stamps. I can't use Christmas stamps in May; what would my friends think if I used these? They'd make me look cheap!"
I stood there for a moment before replying with the 'Customer is always right' nonsense you get taught and offered to give him two packs of six standard stamps but he outright refused and wanted a refund. But here's the thing.
1 - Stamps prices don't fluctuate due to seasonal themes; so you can't be 'cheap' using them.
2 - Christmas themed stamps are just as valid as standard stamps.
3 - If your friends really cared that much about you using Christmas stamps in May I would get better friends.
4 - this guy was like forty odd and was acting like a pre-teen over stamps.
I stood there for a moment before replying with the 'Customer is always right' nonsense you get taught and offered to give him two packs of six standard stamps but he outright refused and wanted a refund. But here's the thing.
1 - Stamps prices don't fluctuate due to seasonal themes; so you can't be 'cheap' using them.
2 - Christmas themed stamps are just as valid as standard stamps.
3 - If your friends really cared that much about you using Christmas stamps in May I would get better friends.
4 - this guy was like forty odd and was acting like a pre-teen over stamps.
When I was assisting with a freshman-level physics course last year a student complained to the dean that I was spending too much time on the laws of thermodynamics during recitation, which was a problem because he "didn't believe in the laws of thermodynamics", and in a separate incident argued, very emphatically, that he wished for us to skip the section on inelastic collisions because conservation of energy proves the existence of god (for the uninitiated, inelastic collisions preserve linear momentum, not kinetic energy). This was in the version of the course meant for life sciences and chemistry majors where chemical kinetics and thermodynamics made up nearly half the content.
This was his third attempt at passing the course.
This was his third attempt at passing the course.
Some teachers thought I was abnormal for not chatting with my neighbours during class.
Granted, I wasn't exactly average, but couldn't they just enjoy my silence? The whole 'we'll judge you if you do and we'll judge you if you don't' attitude was confusing as hell for a kid with already severely low self-esteem.
Something work related: I once got an e-mail from a reader complaining about an article about the anime Free! For anyone who isn't aware, it's about hot young men in tight swimsuits being very friendly/rival-y with eachother. She reader didn't like that the writer mentioned something along the lines of the series being sure to inspire a lot of slashfiction, because the show did not have those undertones (or overtones) according to her. I really wonder if we actually watched the same show...
Granted, I wasn't exactly average, but couldn't they just enjoy my silence? The whole 'we'll judge you if you do and we'll judge you if you don't' attitude was confusing as hell for a kid with already severely low self-esteem.
Something work related: I once got an e-mail from a reader complaining about an article about the anime Free! For anyone who isn't aware, it's about hot young men in tight swimsuits being very friendly/rival-y with eachother. She reader didn't like that the writer mentioned something along the lines of the series being sure to inspire a lot of slashfiction, because the show did not have those undertones (or overtones) according to her. I really wonder if we actually watched the same show...
Oh, I hear ya. It's kinda' the reason I avoid positions like that. I'm not patient enough to deal with people like that without putting the snark on.Happyninja42 said:
Doesnt' surprise me, my brother is schizophrenic with a MAJOR religious flavor to his insanity, so I'm familiar with the concept. I just wasn't sure if that specific name for the condition, hyper-religious, was an actual medical term. Apparently it is, and she definitely has it. xDryan_cs said:
Well, thankfully they are the rarity in the job. The majority of your clients are reasonable people, regardless of what their disability is. And dealing with them is perfectly fine. But every once in a while, you get that special someone who just drags crazy with them like a sail, and you are caught up in the gale force winds of their wackiness. All you can do is lash yourself down and try and weather the storm. The talk to your friends about how wild the ride was. xDFalloutJack said:
My first actual job was in a video store back when that was a thing and that's when I learned that I have the right combination of politeness and patients that makes it easy for me to work in customer service. I only had one really angry customer, a guy that saw it as a personal offense that we had rented him a DVD with a scratch on it because of course we could watch them all when they came back in and make sure that they played still. Other than that guy the customers tended to be great and we had a lot of wonderful regulars though I did almost get fired once over a harmless comment by one of those regulars.
I had a throat infection and had just been given antibiotics but wasn't feeling that well but there was no one to cover my shift and it was during the day in the middle of the week and I had the next two days off so i figured that it wouldn't be that busy and I could manage. because my throat hurt so bad i couldn't be as chatty as i normally was with one of the regulars and I think she could tell I wasn't feeling good. The next day when I was off and she brought back the movie she'd rented she asked the other girl that was working then how I was doing because I hadn't been my usual cheerful self the day before. that got mentioned to the manager and when i got back a few days later feeling much better but still a little run down I got called into the manager's office saying that I had been given a customer complaint for being rude. I was flabbergasted because even sick I thought I'd have to try to be rude. it was made very clear to me that the only reason I wasn't getting fired on the spot was because I had been sick and this was my first complaint so I was going to get off with a warning. (though I have suspect that replacing me would have been too much work for the manager and that's why I wasn't fired)
I talked to the other workers about it afterwards and they were just as confused until the one girl remembered the comment by the one regular which she was pretty sure had been out of concern not compliant.
though the funniest complaint i ever got was much later when i was working at a call center doing customer support for a cell phone company. When I had finished with the reason that the customer called in I asked if there was anything else I could help her with and she asked if i knew a good place to get her nails done. my mind kind of blue screened at this as i lived no where near this woman and even if I did that was not in my job description so I just stammered out that I didn't know to which she responded "What kind of woman don't even know a good place to get her nails done." and her southern accent got real heavy as she said this. then she asked if I knew a good place to get her hair done. by now my brain has rebooted and I'm able to tell her how to look something like that up on her phone and am able to get off the call with her before bursting into laugher.
I had a throat infection and had just been given antibiotics but wasn't feeling that well but there was no one to cover my shift and it was during the day in the middle of the week and I had the next two days off so i figured that it wouldn't be that busy and I could manage. because my throat hurt so bad i couldn't be as chatty as i normally was with one of the regulars and I think she could tell I wasn't feeling good. The next day when I was off and she brought back the movie she'd rented she asked the other girl that was working then how I was doing because I hadn't been my usual cheerful self the day before. that got mentioned to the manager and when i got back a few days later feeling much better but still a little run down I got called into the manager's office saying that I had been given a customer complaint for being rude. I was flabbergasted because even sick I thought I'd have to try to be rude. it was made very clear to me that the only reason I wasn't getting fired on the spot was because I had been sick and this was my first complaint so I was going to get off with a warning. (though I have suspect that replacing me would have been too much work for the manager and that's why I wasn't fired)
I talked to the other workers about it afterwards and they were just as confused until the one girl remembered the comment by the one regular which she was pretty sure had been out of concern not compliant.
though the funniest complaint i ever got was much later when i was working at a call center doing customer support for a cell phone company. When I had finished with the reason that the customer called in I asked if there was anything else I could help her with and she asked if i knew a good place to get her nails done. my mind kind of blue screened at this as i lived no where near this woman and even if I did that was not in my job description so I just stammered out that I didn't know to which she responded "What kind of woman don't even know a good place to get her nails done." and her southern accent got real heavy as she said this. then she asked if I knew a good place to get her hair done. by now my brain has rebooted and I'm able to tell her how to look something like that up on her phone and am able to get off the call with her before bursting into laugher.