Super Complainers!!!

[Parasondox]

Afternoon,

Okay, we have all complained about something before. Whether its the weather, babies crying on planes, those talking in the cinemas etc. However there are cases where it gets just a bit ridiculous. Or if you are in the US, you are most likely to be sued if someone complains.

"You put a piece of lettuce in my burger. I want to speak to your manager or I will sue"

I've worked in customer service before and boy oh boy, do people complain about the littliest thing and want a big result from it. Even some cases where you have those who suffer from Obessive Compulsive Complaining that just aren't satisfied with anything and generally ruin the fun for others and many. I think Channel 4 covered it last month if someone knows what the problem was called.

So what are some cases in your work place, or at home, or with your nosey neighbours, or anywhere, where you see the super complainers. Heck, add anything from Twitter, 4chan, Tumblr, YouTube comment section and you will have many examples.

Fun times and sunshine people.

 

[lee1287]

The show on C4 was called 'The Complainers' They all annoyed me, what i don't get is why are you berating a minimum wage worker of a billion dollar company? Idiots.

I had a customer shout at me for a good 10 minutes because i didn't make up business cards for him, jerk.

Not always right is a good read for service industry complaints.

 

[Parasondox]

The show on C4 was called 'The Complainers' They all annoyed me, what i don't get is why are you berating a minimum wage worker of a billion dollar company? Idiots.

I had a customer shout at me for a good 10 minutes because i didn't make up business cards for him, jerk.

Not always right is a good read for service industry complaints.

Then they will want your ID number, then complain to the manager just to either get you fired or suspended. All because they can't take a few seconds or minute to read the terms and conditions or any set rule in place.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Pokemon Genwunners. Will complain about anything that isn't part of their precious 'Original 151', it drives me nuts

 

[Foolery]

Can't think of any particular example right now, but I used to work at a hotel. Threatening a front desk agent gets you nowhere. Well, that?s not true. It gets you into a worse room. I was a master of near-instant karma.

 

[Barbas]

D'you ever get that feeling like...I dunno...a dam's about to burst?

I get frustrated with people who try their best to see the worst in others and to convince themselves that people - most of whom they've never met or never will - are inherently dishonest, untrustworthy and bad. Basically, it wears me out when people complain at length about all the people in the world they've never even seen or spoken to.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

People who don't like my reviews More often than not it's when I review something that's adapting pre-existing material that carries fans who can't separate one thing from the other. For example I thought Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a 7/10. I immediately got answers from people complaining the rating was too low, followed by another person saying that the rating was too high.

Something review-complainers should understand is that by appealing to a critic you're empowering him beyond reason. His opinion is no better than yours, yet by challenging it you're acknowledging him, drawing attention to him and fattening those tasty search hits. And the thing is most of the time they're not even disagreeing on your argument, but on the verdict (aka score) of that argument.

 

[Clearwaters]

I work in a deli inside of a supermarket. I've had a woman go to my manager because I didn't know when the produce section brings out new stock. Nothing the customers complain about is too bad, but people complain about everything and it wears you down after a while.

Working here I've concluded that some people are just looking for problems to complain about.

 

[Verlander]

Well, I'm a consultant now, I cost clients too much money for them to waste time complaining about. However, I used to run a bar, and you'd get complaints about everything - "I didn't want ice in my drink!", "This pint glass doesn't feel like a pint to me", "Why did you serve those guys who've been waiting at the bar for ages first?" etc.

The one thing I'll say about bar work though is that legally the customer isn't always right, because the customer is usually inebriated. The barman's decision is final.

 

[DefunctTheory]

I used to work in a NOC for a satellite internet provide (Business provider, not personal). One of our responsibilities was managing the internet filters installed at our sites.

Here are some of the things that I, personally, was accused of, due to the filter set up.

-Being a Republican
-Being a Democrat
-Being Liberal
-Being Racist
-Being Anti-Christian
-Being Anti-Semitic
-Being Anti-Catholic
-Hating Gays
-Loving Gays
-Being an Anarchist
-Hating America
-Being Fascist
-Being Sexist
-Being a Prude
-Being A Terrorist

Once, we had a person request we unblock a website, saying it was a Christian website. It was labeled as a 'Hate Site.' When I checked it, I found that it was a blog that had no Christian content, unless you count bigotry against Muslims and Arabs, and calls to eradicate both Christian. When I told the individual that I couldn't not change the rating because it was correct, I received a massive, multi-page email declaring that I was a liberal, fascist, racist asshole. When I suggested that if he submitted a request to the country supervisor of his own company (A supervisor that could fire him), I could possibly exempt it, he shut the hell up (Because while I couldn't affect his job, people in his own company may look poorly at this whole thing).

That individual complained about other sites of similar content frequently, until our office started CCing all our responses to his direct supervisor and the country supervisor. Never heard from him again.

I had a woman call me a sexist asshole because we filtered lingerie sites like Victoria Secret.

I was called a terrorist because we filtered Fox news videos (We filtered ALL new videos, because it was business internet with limited bandwidth).

Hilariously, we didn't provide the standards used in our filters, the companies these people worked for did.

 

[Zukabazuka]

Well retail is one of those jobs that get the horrible people all the time. Problem is I worked 3 years now in retail super market store and the amount of bad people I had could be counted on one hand. Something was sold out? No problem they come back later. We didn't have the stuff? They accepted the answer and moved on. First day as cashier? No problem they just smile about it.

There really is one customer who we gave a special name since she always ask odd questions and almost always ask for help. Sometimes on what does this product taste like. Or why is this more expensive than the other.

I expected to have something fun to talk about working there but almost every single day for me has been ordinary work. Nothing bothersome is happening at all. Just people who behave and ask nicely where to find things. I live in Sweden if you wanted to know. Now I might be crazy but I want these stuff to happen to me, so I see how well I deal with them. I want to be able to talk about crazy thing happening at my work but no, will never happen.

 

[Twinrehz]

Well retail is one of those jobs that get the horrible people all the time. Problem is I worked 3 years now in retail super market store and the amount of bad people I had could be counted on one hand. Something was sold out? No problem they come back later. We didn't have the stuff? They accepted the answer and moved on. First day as cashier? No problem they just smile about it.

There really is one customer who we gave a special name since she always ask odd questions and almost always ask for help. Sometimes on what does this product taste like. Or why is this more expensive than the other.

I expected to have something fun to talk about working there but almost every single day for me has been ordinary work. Nothing bothersome is happening at all. Just people who behave and ask nicely where to find things. I live in Sweden if you wanted to know. Now I might be crazy but I want these stuff to happen to me, so I see how well I deal with them. I want to be able to talk about crazy thing happening at my work but no, will never happen.

Would this happen to be more rural Sweden? Because I live in a quite rural part of Norway, and work is very often the same as you describe it. Few troublesome customers, we have some regulars who require special help, and they are a bit of a pain, but nothing to get worked up about.

 

[RoonMian]

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http://notalwaysright.com/

Have a look at what you to guys are missing out on. I don't work in retail but I have never seen stuff like this in my lifetime either. Maybe there are geographic reasons?

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I worked in Customer Service for a long time. In that time I've met every stereotype of asshole complaining customer, and I've found the only way to make it out with sanity intact is to play the nice game. Every time the customer escalates in rage, one must match the level of intensity with equivalent niceness. It may not calm the customer down every time, but it can work. The ones it doesn't work on get so hilariously pissed, you'd think they'd have an aneurysm, stroke or heart attack... but usually they don't. A lot of times, in my experience, it has always been customers who don't like to read fine print on warranty contracts, receipts, etc. who get the most pissed off because they know they are wrong and are deathly afraid of admitting it.
I had one customer threaten to have me fired because he knew a guy who knew a guy who owned the company or some such bullshit, and I asked him to hold on one moment while I got my supervisor. When I returned with the supervisor who, outside of work, was a good friend of mine (and a regular player at my D&D game) and the customer began to spew loads of bullshit on how I had been rude to him, refused to give a refund on an item we didn't even sell, blah blah blah, then spouted off how he'd have the supervisor fired if he didn't give the refund (using the same I know the owner by proxy line) when my supervisor cut him off with 4 simple words: "I am the owner." And it was absolutely true. We laughed for hours after that, especially the 30 shades of red the guy's face turned after that comment. Also you have no idea how hard it was to keep a straight face when he first spouted off the bullshit "I know the owner" line. Did I also mention I have an awesome poker-face?
I've always seen good customer service as a roleplaying aid, or a great tool for aspiring actors. If you can throw yourself into a role that completely where you're the nicest person on the planet, no matter how asshole a customer can be, then you can pretty much do anything regarding acting. Trust me, as soon as I would leave the floor and go "backstage" or into a break room, stock room, etc, the mask would drop and I'd decompress sometimes letting out a primal scream (if there was enough room and no one around) or laugh my ass off depending on the situation.
Complaining sometimes equates with whining to me, and outside of a job I've no use for complainers or whiners. I don't want to say I'm diminishing people who have a legit issue, but when I say "complain" I'm usually talking about folks who're over-the-top angry and have nothing useful to say, just spouting negativity. I feel if you can't be civil about something its best to find a way to decompress and get the aggression out, then deal with the problem. Anger is so useless to deal with anything, and I feel people who get angry to deal with a situation are mostly bullies who don't know any other way of resolving an issue.
"The customer is always right" is a phrase only asshole customers think is an actual law or something. It isn't, and they aren't. Not saying all complaints are invalid, just that not all complaints are correct.

Edit: I have been accosted at stores by customers before that I didn't work at as well, showing how stupid people are... One time I was accosted by a customer at K-MART (for those who don't know, K-MART had, at the time, bright red smocks as part of the uniform) while I was wearing a SLAYER t-shirt... He began to swear at me, saying he'd have me fired because of some bullshit I really don't remember and grabbed me by the shirt when I looked him in the eye and said: "You're a fucking idiot, I don't work here, have never worked here. Everyone here wears the same uniform, a bright red smock, which you would know if you had an ounce of brain in that thick head of yours. And you've also just put your hands on me which is assault and battery and I could have you arrested. Also if you look up behind you, there's a camera that just picked up your assault so if you want to avoid jail I recommend you get the fuck out of my face. Now."

 

[Twinrehz]

-snip-

-snip-

http://notalwaysright.com/

Have a look at what you to guys are missing out on. I don't work in retail but I have never seen stuff like this in my lifetime either. Maybe there are geographic reasons?

Oh man, I love those websites! Don't always take time to read them, but there's some pretty hilarious stuff on there. I can mention Clients from Hell myself, a lot of great stories about insanely dumb people there as well.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well one time at work (I worked in a cheap retail store that either sell branded at a cheap price or cheap knockoff) two customers was complaining how we don't do the whole "buy a product in huge quantity therefore a 10% discount is apply regardless if it suppose to be on a discount or not since they buying alot of it".

All they were buying were 10 plates and they were already cheap. Maybe they should had lower their expectation considering they had entered a cheap shop in the first place!!! Even when they did yield, they still demand a discount on a few plates cos they had pernament black spots on them (need I remind you I worked in a cheap branded retail store) which this time I can't do anything about other than to comply (company rules say that we do got to discount a product it was damaged in some way on the shop floor).

What worse is that they got me to inspect each plates for the spots as if I had nothing better to do (I was suppose to vacuum the shop floor at that time) which took me 20 minutes!!

Funny thing is that a day later, they came back to buy the rest of the plates since their friends liked it and wanted it aswell!

 

[Guffe]

I worked in grocery stores during summers when I was younger.
Most people in my town are very understanding, only a handful are actually whining, most just ask quesstions politely and are very understanding if a product, for example, is sold out.

In my current line of work I get A LOT of shit for about everything I do, not from superiors/bosses but from customers.
Not gonna say what that line of work is, a few on this site knows, but I wrote it into a thread once and decided not to do that anymore do to the reaction

 

[Super Cyborg]

I lifeguarded at a water park for 5 summers, which 1000's of people visited everyday, and holidays such a the 4th and memorial day, we would have over 10000 people. The one that always got me was guests complaining about me not letting their kid go on a ride when they were obviously to short. Part of the problem was only a few of us actually did our job and enforced all the rules, so when they come and I tell them no, I can understand the frustration a little. I would lose respect for the guests that started cussing me out, in front of their children and others as well. Once that happened, I lost any empathy I had for them.

When they started getting angry, I had to explain the height restriction was there for guests safety, that if someone was to small, the chances of them getting injured was high. Not only that, if the kid got hurt and they found out I let a kid who was obviously to small to ride, I would be liable, and that's something I was not risking. I told them that I don't make the rules, but I had to enforce it, or else I could get in lots of trouble. Those who got angry never understood, and there was one time a guy twice the size of me tried to show off his size to scare me, but I said no and before he could do anything else, three of my supervisors were behind him asking what the problem was.

The one that really took the cake was when I got to the top of a ride, and there was a situation at the bottom. There was a possibility that someone has a spinal injury, and in those case it can take a while before they move a person from the premises. Nobody was allowed to go down the ride while it was happening, so I had to stand around for 30 minutes keeping people at the top entertained, and telling people who came to the top what was going on. About 15 minutes after getting there, two guys came up to me complaining about not being able to go down. I told them about the situation, and that they would be able to go down once the situation was cleared. They kept complaining, saying they came only to go down that one ride, and that they wanted a refund. This cycle lasted for ten minutes. All of the supervisors were at the bottom, and since there was a phone to contact people at the bottom, I made a call and got a supervisor to come up. After he got up, he was able to calm them down in a minute. I believe they weren't listening to me, because I was a lowly lifeguard, and I was also young (I was 16). A few minutes later, I got replaced to go to a different area.

When I left to go home, I saw them in the parking lot and they apologized for what happened, so that was nice. Lifeguarding was tough, especially in Texas heat with little to no shade most of the time. I got lots of complaints, but all of them were because I was doing my job.

 

[Tyrant_Valvatorez]

Pokemon Genwunners. Will complain about anything that isn't part of their precious 'Original 151', it drives me nuts

I only agree to a certain extent, if not for the fact that Genwunners can be pretty much ignored once they start going "oh noez its not Pokemon". The truly annoying ones in the Pokemon fanbase is the "Hoenn Babbies" which are the 3rd generation equivalent, simply due to how obnoxious they are... screaming at the top of their lungs about "those annoying genwunners" yet wetting their pants at the Hoenn remake. The most hypocritical they got was once X and Y launched with a few nods to all the gens yet "OMG GAMEFREAK STOP PANDERING TO GENWUNNERRRRRRRS!" while simultaneously yelling "Hoenn CONFUUUUUUUUURMED!".

I did grow up with Generation one and like all the gens but honestly the whole gen war thing is super complainers in a nutshell, I will admit I was slightly pissed off at being called a genwunner for liking the gen1 soundtrack over gen3.

 

[Super Cyborg]

Pokemon Genwunners. Will complain about anything that isn't part of their precious 'Original 151', it drives me nuts

I only agree to a certain extent, if not for the fact that Genwunners can be pretty much ignored once they start going "oh noez its not Pokemon". The truly annoying ones in the Pokemon fanbase is the "Hoenn Babbies" which are the 3rd generation equivalent, simply due to how obnoxious they are... screaming at the top of their lungs about "those annoying genwunners" yet wetting their pants at the Hoenn remake. The most hypocritical they got was once X and Y launched with a few nods to all the gens yet "OMG GAMEFREAK STOP PANDERING TO GENWUNNERRRRRRRS!" while simultaneously yelling "Hoenn CONFUUUUUUUUURMED!".

I did grow up with Generation one and like all the gens but honestly the whole gen war thing is super complainers in a nutshell, I will admit I was slightly pissed off at being called a genwunner for liking the gen1 soundtrack over gen3.

Maybe it's because I don't browse many sites, but I haven't met, or seen genwunners. The only reason. I know about it was from Pokememes, and there was a time before X and Y where people were doing Genwunners gonna hate, but I saw few doing anything like that. I guess I'm just lucky.

I grew up with the first generation, and the last new one I really cared about was gen 3. I skipped the black and white games and got X, but I just don't really care for it any more. I think it's because how end game is either competitive battling, or nothing, and that I prefer a game with a semblance of a good story. To me, All gens have the same basic story, and it just doesn't cut it anymore.