What is the one mistake customers always make, that you know they made, but can't just call them out on it?

People who find something on the clearance shelf but it doesn't have a clearance sticker on it. They don't seem to understand that anyone can put anything anywhere they feel like it, but without a clearance sticker it is not clearance. And it's not false advertising either.

When there are signs every where stating that you can only have two of said items per customer. The Customer always says, "I didn't see sign!" It's an 8x11 in Black and White right in front of you. Especially when I point at with them right there.

At Build-A-Bear, customers always walked around lost as hell even though the store has every station VERY OBVIOUSLY labeled with a sign above numbered and named (1 Choose Me, 2 Stuff Me, 3 Dress Me, and so on). There are also obvious places to line up/stand at those stations--some even have huge blue paw prints that BEG to be stood on!! Or signs saying "LINE STARTS HERE"!

Does anyone ever stand where they should or follow the most natural flow of store traffic? No. And when you politely point this out as they yell helplessly, "WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO/WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GO???", customers always give you the nastiest looks and remarks.

Or they shove an empty stuffed animal in my face while I'm working with another guest and shout, "HOW MUCH IS THIS???" I don't know, why don't you read the price label from the drawer you JUST grabbed that toy out of??? Jesus.

The animals with stuffing for brains weren't the Bears, it was always the customers.

Work in a shoe store; when people come in to return shoes, they're clearly dirty, and they tell me "I just walked around in the house!!!"

Either I end up unintentionally insulting their house's cleanliness or I accuse them of being a liar, it's not good either way 💀

I managed a small toy store and at least once a month had this conversation: “Hi, do you sell balloons?”

“No, I’m sorry. We don’t sell party supplies, but if you’ve got a birthday kiddo we can help you find a present!”

“So you don’t sell balloons? What about like a banner or something?”

“No, I’m sorry. This is a toy store, not a party supply store. So we have toys, if you need a gift!”

Sometimes I’d have to run through it a few times. Honestly got to the point of humorous because eventually they realize they’re being DENSE 🤣

Back during Covid, milk was being rationed because, well, Covid and the signs read only 2 per person. ONLY 2. Well people were coming up to the registers with 2 of every kind.

I work self checkout at a grocery store. Our machines have a prompt after you scan the first item saying that the transaction will be cashless. It pops up in bright red and has a little okay button. I cannot tell you how many people just keep trying to scan without even picking their head up to look at why it will not scan. I have to walk over to people dozens of times an hour to say "it won't let you scan another item until you clear this prompt, it's just explaining that this transaction will be cashless, which is what I just asked you" very nicely depending on how the person handled everything

This isn’t quite the same, but still pretty funny to me:

I work at a certain sub shop as a delivery driver. Because we have our own drivers, when people order doordash from our shop I don’t have a way to send them the photo of their food like a dasher would. I literally don’t have access to the doordash app because I work for the restaurant. Not. Doordash.

When people put in their doordash order instructions, “leave at door, don’t ring bell or knock, i’ll wait for the notification” …you can see the problem, right? Well, I follow their instructions anyways. We regularly get calls from angry customers, sometimes hours after their order has been delivered, demanding to know where their food is and why it hasn’t been delivered. We physically don’t have a way to miss a delivery like that. It’s just not how it works. So we politely say, “Did you check your porch?” while internally screaming. The customer gets embarrassed, they say, “Oh hold on let me look” and 99.9% of the time it is sitting right there and likely has been for quite some time. They apologize and we say our awkward farewells. The logic is…bewildering

This was long-winded. Thanks for reading lol.

Customer: “Your machine is broken, it won’t take my cash”

What I want to say: “That’s bc it doesn’t take cash, which is why it says CARD ONLY in 6” letters across the screen before you even start scanning”

My self-preservation response: “I’m so sorry, that one isn’t taking cash right now. Let me take you to the next open register”

or

Customer: “Your machine is broken, it won’t take my cash”

What I want to say: “That’s bc you hit the “pay with credit card option, so it doesn’t have a clue you want to pay in cash. That’s also why ‘insert card now’ keeps blinking on both screens (monitor & card reader)”

My self-preservation response: “I’m so sorry, let me fix that for you”

The whole “they did it for me last time” shtick. I know for a fact they didn’t, because they would’ve been written up or fired for it, but I can’t call them a liar directly. So I have to ask who did it and when, they’ll call out either some random coworker who knows better or someone who doesn’t work there, and then I have to tell them that didn’t happen without sounding like I’m calling them a liar.

That yes, if there’s a big $30 price sign stuck in the plant pot you’re shoving in my face, said plant is in fact, $30. Makes me wonder just how many shops have price tags on things that bear no relation to the price of the item (we have no sales tax added after)

I am so tired of having to pretned to be nice to customers. f that

When an item is on sale.... for rewards members. On a lot of our sale tags, it has the discount in BIG BOLD LETTERS and in teeny tiny writing in the corner, "with [rewards program]". People will watch me ring them up, look at the card reader, see the total, and yell, "THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!!!"

I have to smile and say, "Oh, certain discounts are only available for rewards members. Do you want to try your phone number on the pin pad? If you're not, I can sign you up."

A lot of the time, they're already a member and just needed to enter their phone number on the machine they were checking the price. Sigh

The amount of people who bring clothes into a dressing room that very clearly doesn’t and wouldn’t fit and they swear “I wear this size and have for (enter years)” but you can hear a seam rip or hear them groaning/jumping to either put it on or because it’s very stuck!

Why do people not realize that everything is actually made differently and with vanity sizing and stretchy fabric makes it fit differently.

Pressing yes for cash back even though they don't want cash back, then getting all confused about it.

I work at a smoke shop and the biggest one for me is (usually older people) will come in to buy a vape and the next day or a couple days later come in angry claiming that it doesn't work. Nine times out of 10 it's because they just didn't turn the fucking thing on, and the other time it's because they burnt their coil by not letting the juice soak in like I always make sure to tell everybody to do. I wish I could be like "When I sold this to you, I told you five times on the button turns it on, and the instructions say it too. Do you have donkey brains?" But I can't. It would be a lot less frustrating if they weren't some jerks about it. They come in acting like I purposely sold them a non-working device or something or like I'm the dumbass. It's gotten to the point where if I sell a vape to anyone over 50, I'm already instantly annoyed because I know they're just going to come back with it the next day raging because they don't know how to use it.

I work at Home Depot. We make returns every single hour for people who bought the wrong size or the wrong color or the wrong item entirely. At this point, I don't think there's anything in the store that the customers do understand

I used to work in a pet store. The amount of people who insisted they knew what they were doing (especially with fish), when they were actually making life miserable for/killing their pets was mind boggling. Also, we didn't sell saltwater, but our main competition did. The number of people insisting they bought (insert various saltwater animal here) from us and wanted us to return it or tell them how to care for it or something.

i work in a bakery where all 10 different loaves we make are sourdough. people will constantly walk up and ask me for ‘a sourdough’. i used to be like ‘they’re all sourdough! which one would you like?’ until some dude held his hand up in my face and said ‘i know my bread’. now i just get them their sliced white loaf without question 

I go through this exact process almost to a "T" whenever I ring up an item and the customer says the price sticker for it says something else. I ask the customer to snap a photo of it for me, and when they do so either I explain that it's not for the item in question or they figure it out themselves and come back and tell me I'm right.

I worked on a garden centre. And about a week or two after purchasing a plant the complain it died. But the didn't water it.

We ask "how often did you water it" some would answer "as much as you need to" we you usually reply "how much is that", then they would ask you "you don't know? What chance do we have if you don't know"

When we close down our self-checkouts early we place a bag over the screen (because apparently the big LANE CLOSED on the screen isn’t obvious enough). Customers ALWAYS try to scan their items while staring directly at the bag covering the screen

I used to be the apparel manager and a Toys R Us. Our sales rack towards the back of the store had a sign above the fixture that said "Up to 70% off. Prices as marked." The 70% was in very large print, but the other words were much smaller.

A customer was very upset when they brought items to be checked out and saw that the prices did not get reduced by an additional 70%. I was called up to the front to discuss it with them. As I arrived, I could hear them saying, "You can see from here the sign says 70% off. It should be 70% off of what's on this price tag."

I introduced myself and apologized and pointed out to the customer that while yes from here you can read the 70% off, once you got to the fixture itself you could see the entirety of the sign informing you that the prices had already been reduced. They were not happy with that and kept insisting that "From here I can see the sign and it says 70% off. I want 70% off!"

We kept going around in circles until I finally asked, "When you picked out these items, did you pick them up while standing here when you could only see that the sign said 70% off, or were you standing in front of the fixture?"

They responded, "Of course I was standing at the fixture. My arms cannot reach the entire length of your store!"

I replied, "When you were standing at the fixture, you had the opportunity to read the sign in its entirety. Just because you chose not to does not mean that we will be extending additional discounts."

Well, they huffed and they puffed and chose not to buy the items. No skin off my nose!

When they have an attitude and they slam shit on the counter, and then they get Grabby like u fill a bag, and they don't want more stuff in it and instead of saying do u mind not putting more in the bag they will reach down and grab it. Or when they try to turn the screen so they can see what's on it when they can already view it from the credit card screen

i work at an independent bakery, all our items are made fresh daily EXCEPT for the selection of day-old loaves which are clearly labeled and set on a different rack for cheap. you can just tell by the way they shop/the general vibe/the way i've personally had this conversation with these people in particular a dozen times before that at least 50% of the people who pick up these loaves think they're the fresh ones. every single time i read back their order they get SO disgusted by the idea of day-old bread. like damn lady it's a standard white loaf at less than half the regular price, they have a shelf life of 5 days at least, i don't care if you don't want it but you don't have to act like i personally tried to poison you.

If I were the owner, I would include a sheet of paper in the order stating "this is a right hand bow" along with a diagram and/or whatever description would explain it.

Of course, everyone wouldn't read it or wouldn't comprehend it, but it would cut down on the number of these calls you have to deal with. Plus, like you said, no matter how nice you are about it, it ends up with the customer being told they are wrong which people generally don't like, thus it's a "negative" in their experience, rather than a note/diagram explaining.

I repair antique clocks. Every time a wall clock comes back because it's not running, it's not running because they didn't level the dang thing! And when we ask if they tried leveling it? "We hung it in the same place its always been" uuuurg

Worked in a paint department we had paint for interior and exterior I can't tell you how many times people will come back annoyed that they got the wrong paint it's literally the first thing I asked them, on top of asking them exactly what the project was.

I work at a buyout store. We have ad sheets above certain products that reads “priced 50%-70% off of competitors prices “. There will be price stickers on saiid products that state competitors price and then our price underneath. Customers constantly ask for price checks. I’ll point to the sticker and read the price out loud while pointing at the price. They immediately say” but the sign says 50% - 70% off! I then tell them that the sign does not say that and the correct price is on the sticker. They will still argue that I’m wrong or that the sign is deceitful. No ma’am, you just didn’t read the sign and just focused on the 50%-70% part.

I work at a convenience store/gas station, people never pay attention to the pump they're on, and will come up telling me they want to prepay for such and such pump, most of the time they're correct, but every so often it's clearly the wrong pump. Either there is already someone at that pump getting their gas, or there's nobody at the pump in general. When this happens we usually just put their prepay on one of the pumps we have bagged off so nobody else can accidentally get their gas, then move it to whatever pump they are really at. It's real fun when it's busy and you can't completely focus on where they go to get their gas 🙄

I see posts from hardware stores with the floors near the spray paint can covered in paint. I worked at a store selling pens and no matter how much paper we put out for testing people would draw on fixtures, signs, and products. We had to write off $50 leather journals because someone would scribble on the first page and put it back on the shelf and leave. Infuriating, but there was an element of that Norman Door theory that if so many people were doing it it was a design flaw not them being stupid. Who knows

Whenever returning items at Kohl’s, it clearly states what the price would be on the receipt if you returned the item because people typically applied discounts or use Kohl’s cash on them, which they often lose when they return. It’s very clearly stated on the receipts everywhere it even itemizes it, and shows you exactly how much you get for specific items yet I’ve had so many arguments with customers trying to explain this till blue in the face.

I always typically argued with male customers who say that they’re “pretty good at math” and they understand how much they should be getting back, even though they clearly applied a 20% discount on the item so they didn’t even buy it at full price!

It’s not false advertising the sale, it’s you being unable/unwilling to look at the item number on the sign and bringing the wrong item and expecting me to honor it.

If you’re nice about it maybe I’ll give you the sale price. But if you act all entitled, I won’t do anything for you and the manager won’t either.

People who get mad their pre order never showed up in our system and when I ask “Could it be under a different name?” They angrily trying to show me “proof” they pre ordered as if that’ll magically make it appear in our system and it turns out the order either has not been submitted or is for a different location / sometimes even business.

I work in pet retail. 900,000 times out of 10 when a customer comes in asking for a water test because all their fish died, they didn’t cycle their tank properly and I then have to spend the next ten minutes explaining how to actually do it to them because they did no research and have no attention span.

At a party store, we sometimes got customers trying to return party poppers, the tube things that shoot confetti, because they didn't read the instructions. They claimed it didn't work and they needed a replacement. Well, you have to punch a hole at the top before you pop it, or it won't shoot anything out!

" But it says your pharmacy open at 7 online. "Um, do it doesn't dumbass. You're looking at the other drug store:P

Reading the numbers but not the text. “No Karen, it is not 50 percent off. The sign says up to 50 percent off, priced as marked.”

I work in a grocery store and a ton of times people in self check out will click the big green select payment method at the bottom which stops anything else from being rung up. They’ll deny they click it but that’s the only way to get to that screen. I physically watched a man click it after he did it 5 times prior and then he proceeded to say something is wrong with the machine. Part of me wanted to call him out on it but he seemed like the type to be waiting for you after the store closes so I kept it to myself.

“While Supplies Last” means just that. If you call to confirm an on hand at 10: AM and don’t show up until 3: PM, chances are really high that it won’t be there!

Couple things. I work in a home building supply store, we have a store credit card that give an extra discount for using it. People always scan their items at SCO or watch me like a hawk scanning their items at a register, then get mad their discount is not showing. You have to insert your store card and pay for your items first! The register and myself don’t know you’re getting a discount until you actually pay for the purchase with the store card. Another is bulk pricing, it’s only offered to the professionals that are our pro business card holders and only on certain construction materials. It says just this on the sign along with both prices. People always see the smaller print explaining bulk price with the smaller price and say that’s the price of their single item or buy a bunch of one item and say it should qualify for bulk pricing. Ugh but they don’t see the larger price somehow.

I work at a returns desk and I regularly have people try and make returns over the phone or without the item with them. Like I have to have the item to process the return.

I sell auto parts. Parts are "wrong" on a pretty regular basis. Regular retail people (not commercial accounts) will bring stuff back and without fail say "You sold me the wrong ______ (name of part). " Ive been doing this for almost 30 years. I do occasionally screw up, but its rare. We have some newer people that get stuff wrong more often just from inexperience. Selling parts may seem like a simple proposition but there are countless pitfall's waiting to swallow up unsuspecting parts people. So anyway, when a customer utters those fine words "You sold me the wrong xxxx." I always come back with "Did we sell you the wrong one, or did you ask for the wrong one?" I've worked here going on 25 years, short of stealing from the company, the owner will not fire me. I'm too valuable and I sometimes use this to my advantage. I realize most people in this position couldn't question a customer like that. But I do. And most of the time, its the customers fault. They got the part they asked for, but it isn't what they need. They say the wrong year, wrong model, wrong engine, etc.

I am standing at a station to conduct business from. Customer walks in and proceeds to head to the two slightly closer stations with nobody standing at or near them.

"I can help you over here"

"Oh, I have to come over there?"

Looking over the vast majority of these responses leads to one commonality: People don't read signs

I work at a makeup store and people don’t understand that a closed container in a closed box should not be opened/examined/touched until after purchasing the product. The store can’t make testers out of everything, and now that your nasty ass fingers have been all up in the once-good makeup, it now has to be destroyed as per our policy

Automotive parts retail. Customers accuse us of selling them the wrong part, when they have incomplete information on their vehicles. Had a guy with a commercial account that said he wouldn’t be back because he was loosing money having to drive back and get the correct parts after getting the wrong part. He constantly gave incomplete information or would say something doesn’t matter when it did, so we did the best we could with the info he gave. We now won’t help him now without a VIN so we can have the most complete info.

I work loss prevention.

It's AMAZING how many people "accidently" put product in their pants or purses.

Is there a sort of sweet spot? People who know enough about archery to know that there is a difference between bow handedness but not enough to recognize which type of bow is which?

Does it usually turn out that they got what they ordered but ordered the wrong thing? Do you hold a "right-hand" bow with your right hand, or is a right-hand bow for shooting with your right hand? Because you're in the business, the first thing that pops into your mind might be, "Isn't it obvious?". However, even if very few of your customers experience that kind of confusion, it might be better for business, and maybe even less irritating than fielding all those calls, if you were to always be more specific: in advertising, on your website, and in all written and verbal communication with customers. Consider always specifying the shooting hand and/or the holding hand.

The amount of times I have delt with this with multiple companies is crazy but customers trying to return shoes after years of having it and yes completely worn, dirty, and falling apart. Just had one a few days ago and it's always the same excuse " we'll it's defected!" Or " isn't there a warranty ". Bitch!! Since when does shoes have warranty especially any that last from one to 10 years smh

In the queue line right where the registers start, we have a sign that says Please Wait Here. Most customers will ignore the sign or not see it and walk past to wait behind the current customer. (very closely too like wtf?) And I've found it's not worth correcting. People get pissy over being told to wait and walk back a few feet.

I work at a lumber yard, and I regularly want to strangle people.

The big home improvement stores call their crappy framing lumber "whitewood", whereas that's what we call our exterior trim (which is primed tan). People will order a few sticks of 2x4 whitewood, and then call me a moron when I give them exterior trim. Don't worry, it gets better.

Whitewood comes in three thicknesses: 1x, 5/4, and 2x. 1x is 3/4 inch thick, 5/4 is 1 1/8 inch, 2x is 1 1/2 inch thick. My manager is Hispanic and I speak a tiny bit of Spanish, but there are too many customers to funnel all the non-English speakers to us. We regularly get guys accusing us of stealing their money when they ordered "1x" and we give them 3/4 inch. I told a guy (in Spanish) that 1x is 3/4 inch and 5/4 is one inch, and he asked (in English) if there was a Mexican he could talk to. No, my dude, there's not, please just trust that I know what I'm selling and you need to go exchange it.

Not the same thing, but Every day when I ring up a sale item. It’s priced $49. I discount it at 50%. I tell the customer the total. $24.99, and every single time, I hear, “was that on sale? That’s supposed to be on sale today.” Can you actually do math? Omfg

Don’t know if it’s the exact same, but i’m an ASM at gas station (wayne pumps if anyone cares). Every pump has 3 handles; green, blue, and black. The grade buttons are labeled (in order), DIESEL, 87, 87, 89, 93, with colored backgrounds correlated to which handle. The first 87 button says “ETHANOL FREE” on the button, background of the button, and on the flat part of the handle along with the safety guidelines. Each grade button has a flashing light under it when you pick up the corresponding handle (when you pick up the black handle, the 3 plain gasoline grades light up, blue lights up ethanol free, green lights up diesel)

All the time, all day every day, people burst into the store shouting about “YOUR PUMPS NEVER WORK FOR SHIT!!” And every single time when we go out to help, they’ve picked up the wrong handle or been slamming the wrong button. Squeezing the handle repeatedly and rapidly with no grade selected (not good for the handle) and borderline breaking the buttons. And these are the idiots that get FURIOUS about us always having pump issues, because they want to treat the pumps as if they’re indestructible when they’re the sole reason they break as frequently as they do.

Idk if people notice because folks around here hate paying attention, but… that shit is made of plastic. It will break. You should not be throwing it around carelessly and beating on it. And the kick is only supposed to be engaged for the majority of the fill up. Just because it can stop on its own doesn’t mean it should, and it’s never foolproof and never has been. That’s why it’s illegal to leave a fueling pump unattended. If your tank overflows, it’s the fault of the vehicle, not the pump (unless the fuel flow doesn’t stop when you disengage the handle; that is a broken pump & you should be compensated for lost fuel… but it likely broke in the first place from customers misusing it!)

I don’t mind this , I comes up all the time everywhere and feel like I get to practice my execution of tact, it’s such a great skill as I can see you have, also you get the after satisfaction of thinking about the persons “aha” moment they have 2 hours later that you knew all along but were protecting their feelings.

I coach archery myself, I feel your pain

Pulling out

We used to have an "OPEN 24/7 @ xyz .com" sign in the window of our store. It never failed that someone would call and complain that our physical store wasn't actually open 24/7. 😒

Walking into the establishment.

Is there an easy way to tell which handedness the equipment is meant for? If it happens all the time, it is objectively confusing rather than that customer is an idiot. I have to re-explain the same stuff all the time. I usually say "I know that is confusing for a lot of people...." then go on to explain.
As a side-note, I am a little terrified that people are ordering deadly equipment to be sent to them and don't even know how to hold it properly.

"my month old electric bass guitar suddenly stopped working"

Your bass uses a 9 volt battery. It died. Put in a new battery and unplug it when not playing. (Probably my fault, I should have assumed their ignorance even though they acted like they knew their shit)

We sell ink for printers at my store and they come back saying they have the wrong ink but in reality they just don’t know how to put the ink in their printer correctly. Usually the right one.

Unfortunately it would depend on the season, but at my location it was almost always gun safes. Try to open them (we locked them because people locked themselves or someone else inside), would argue the pricing (it was an 8x11 sign posted on the safe with a magnet), try switching the prices on the safes, purchase a safe then try to load it into a small car for some reason then complain that they had no way to get it home and could we deliver it to them.

That them not being able to get into their Gmail on their new phone isn't the phone but their settings with Gmail. Or just because they're getting a new phone their phone number/bill is going to suddenly change too.

Out of curiosity and assuming you're a bowyer, what's the highest pound long bow or recurve bow you've made using just natural materials like wood or horn?